Having rebuilt three of my own engines over the last year, I was looking for hints and tips to improve my results and to raise my skill level. From the very beginning of the book, Monroe's attention to detail and common sense approach has done just that for me. This book is worth reading by anyone who has an interest in engines and rereading before any engine rebuild. I highly recommend it.

THIS IS A BOOK THAT CAN BE REREAD MANY TIMES. THE AUTHOR KNOWS OF WHAT HE SPEAKS. THE MATERIAL IS VERY COMPLETE. I LEARN SOMETHING EVERY TIME I REFER TO THIS BOOK. HAVING ATTENDED NUMEROUS SEMINARS AND SCHOOLS ON ENGINE BUILDING I USE THIS BOOK CONSTANTLY.

I very much enjoy that book or, may I say, that fiction. In a way that it's hard to know, "Immortels" trace the "imagine story" involving Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. It was pleasant to read this! Refreshing in a way, happy, funny story! Just try it and you won't put it down until the very last page;" taking a look at thoses lips now cold and blue...Marilyn was rest in the autopsy room just like any human in this world; with a number identification". But maybe this fiction-story was in fact to recreate the life of those people we don't want to forget...

Korda did extensive research on the three historical characters, Monroe & the two Kennedy brothers. Throughout this book of "fiction" history is intertwined so well that it is hard to determine where it overlaps. This work will alter your present perception of Kennedy and Monroe and will inspire you to seek out for yourself the historical facts behind the fictional work.

This is a wonderful book to add to your collection, although filled w/ a majority of pictures that you may have already seen (a few you may have not seen), it is a wonderful collection and great to see them all together!

One of the first Marilyn books I got was a compilation of photographs from well-known photographers. It wasn't till later that I got the original primary sources, i.e. books by Eve Arnold, and collections by Bernard Bruno and Bert Stern. So once one gets this collection, one can decide which photographer captured Marilyn's beauty the best, be it Milton Greene, Bernard Bruno, Richard Avedon, Ed Feingersh, or my personal favourite, Andre de Dienes. The photos, both colour and B&W, accompanied by captions, take the reader on a chronological journey from 1945 to her death in 1962.

Well-known photographs include the Tom Kelley photo that led to the notorious nude calendar, her potato sack dress, the photo Andy Warhol used, her wearing the golden dress, and the Life magazine photo. The final picture is not of her but her obituary flashing across Times Square.

Other material include a 1960 interview done with Georges Belmont for the French magazine Marie Claire. She talks mostly about her early life as a child before going into her adult life. Jane Russell, who was her costar in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, does a brief but generous foreword on her recollections.

Other photos include scenes from movies, press conferences,and other occasions. There's an annotated biography and filmography in the rear of the book. Each film entry has the distributing company, year, starring cast, and the name of Marilyn's character. As for the bibliography, I was surprised to see I had nine of the books used.

This serves as a cross-section of photos taken by various photographers as well as a photographic history. Good for beginning MM students, as it was for me back then.

This fine and oversized book is a MUST for any Marilyn collector. Unfortunately there are very few copies of this book in existance. If you have been searching for this book and are not able to find it (as I did for two years) here is why: The book was published by Rizzoli in Italy and the publisher was sued for copyright infringement soon after it's release. The remaining copies were ordered off the shelves. There are NO plans to reprint the book at this time. It is an excellent book full of foreign magazine covers and news articles which most of us would otherwise never get to see. It also includes pictures I have not seen in other books before. If you are interested in this book try searching for it as used and rare. This book is well worth two or three hundred dollars, more for a serious collector. In a few years it may be worth as much as a first edition of the Complete Last Sitting in English rather than the more common German edition. If you find a copy, buy as many as you can and please pass them on to other true fans.

"Marilyn Monroe: The Life, The Myth" is the kind of book that fans of Ms. Monroe love. It is filled with wonderful photographs, some unique and rare. There are numerous pictures of foreign magazine covers, as well. The biography is divided and shared by various essayists. This is a wonderful technique, for it shows how deeply Marilyn Monroe touched many lives. This is one of my favorite books on Marilyn Monroe.

A great book about all the things that make Michigan memorable. I got this book for my 3 year old and found the text a little too involved for a toddler, but great for my elementary age nephews. My sister lives in Florida and she loves to see all the Michigan things she misses while reading a book to her kids.

This book helped my little sister to learn how to count. She loved (and still loves!) this cute book that teaches you how to count. We also live in Michigan, beautiful Michigan, and that helped my sister, too. It is truly a classic, and of course, like most good, small books, was written by Kathy-Jo Wargin.

A MUST READ!!!

Living in North Carolina and going through hurricanes Fran and Floyd, along with several smaller hurricanes, I found this book fascinating. It tells the story of the development of a super killer hurricane through the eyes of a man who does the best he can with the scientific knowledge available. To see the change in weather forecasting from then until now is amazing. To understand the unpredictability of storms even in this day and age is frightening. The devastation wrought by this storm is so completely thorough,and the author does a superior job of rendering a picture that the reader can grasp. The actual historical perspective, blended with the memories of Isaac should cause everyone to understand that nature has uncontrollable power and deserves our respect. Anyone who lives in an area where there is possible hurricane activity should read this book and then learn to prepare and plan for an eventual hurricane. The devastation of Floyd went way beyond the immediate coastline where most people think the main damage occurs. Since then the National Hurricane Center has realized that new ratings for damage potential and water amounts need to be developed. As "weather smart" as the people of Isaac's time thought they were, are we not as smuggly self assured as they were. Storms can do unexpected things no matter how closely they are monitored. This was an excellent book about how mother nature doesn't have a trip itinerary, but moves as her spirit strikes.

If you always thought of history as being too dry, you have to try this book. It reads like a top-notch fictional thriller. It is gripping, suspenseful and difficult to put down. Larson tells the story of one of the worst hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. mainland. In 1900, it devastated the thriving community of Galveston, Texas, very nearly eliminating it from the map and permanently altering its history. Larson tracks the storm from its meteorological beginnings through its fateful, seemingly inevitable, collision with Galveston. At the same time, he describes how the National Weather Bureau, in its infancy and arrogance, grossly misjudged the nature and path of the storm. Through first-hand accounts, Larson also acquaints the reader with the citizens of Galveston and their experiences before, during and after the storm. Larson takes a few liberties with the thoughts and actions of certain individuals. This style probably gives fits to academic-minded historians. His suppositions, however, are grounded in the known facts. They flesh-out some details without effecting the authenticity of the fascinating story that he tells.

Once in a blue moon, a special book comes along. You know the kind I mean: You open the cover, read the first few sentences, and find yourself instantly transported into the heart of a bewitching story. And what a story this one is! Having lived on the Texas Gulf Coast for over 20 years and having survived several tropical storms and hurricanes, I thought I knew a little about what to expect from this tale of the massive hurricane that nearly destroyed Galveston in 1900. What I didn't anticipate was the consumate skill and amazing talent of writer Erik Larson. Although it is immediately apparent that a vast amount of research was necessary to tell this story in such a sure & compelling voice, I found myself surprised again & again by the level of Mr. Larson's craft. He is a natural storyteller with a clear and compelling voice. Using meticulous & painstaking detail that could be gained only through hundreds (thousands?) of hours of careful research, he spins out an incredible yarn that draws you inexorably into the heart of those very real days in early September of 1900 when over 6,000 people lost their lives in the worst hurricane ever to strike the United States. Although the tale of a single killer hurricane lies at the heart of this story, it casts a much wider net than that. Larson uses the truth like a wizard, weaving history, science, and fact together to bring us a story so remarkable that even after the book's finished it will live in your mind with such clarity that you may begin to wonder if it's something you read...or something you remember. This is "forensic writing" at it's very best. This book will forever change the way you perceive common weather reports and storm warnings. It will astonish, surprise, and enlighten you. And most of all, it will make you hope that Mr. Larson will write more...and soon.

The summary on the back of the book drew me to it, but it was a huge disappointment! I thought the author tried too hard with telling us about each character, instead of letting me interpret their dialogue and actions for myself. I was also annoyed how just about every chapter included a brief, general paragraph summarizing what each person had done over the past week or month. The books read by their book club are only briefly mentioned and I expected to interpret for myself the comparisons of the women to their book club selections. Instead, I felt the author didn't have enough confidence in her readers to figure out these relationships for ourselves; instead choosing to say things like, "Doris is like the main character in The Awakening because she's going through a mid-life crisis and has an unfaithful husband." I thought many of the "revelations" the women had over the course of the novel were excessively cheesy and very cliched, like a really poorly-acted soap opera. I guess I just prefer books with very well-developed, memorable characters that resonate with me long after I've finished the book. I'll probably forget all about these characters within the next day or two!

In this novel, five women are part of a book club that meets monthly to discuss their last read. The five women are all going through major life crises - Eve's husband just died suddenly, Doris is beginning to realize that her marriage is dead, Gabriella's husband has just lost his job, Annie is having difficulty becoming pregnant for the first time and Midge is realizing how lonely she is.

I enjoyed the novel, but felt that some of the characters were extraneous. Gabriella's character is not fleshed out at all and Midge's is just barely. The story focuses mainly on Eve with Doris and Annie's stories as the supporting plots. The author could have left out Gabriella and Midge completely and made the book a bit shorter (but not much).

The book club seems to read classics only, which makes sense because Ms. Monroe uses quotes from that month's book to introduce her chapters and the quote winds up applying to the chapter. I think this device wouldn't have been as striking if the books hadn't been ones that most people have at least heard of.

I read this for an online book club I'm in. Not a book that I would normally pick up on my own, but it was a great introduction to a good author. I have added more Mary Alice Monroe books to my wish list at Amazon!

The book introduces us to characters that are dealing with all kinds of relationships - husbands, lovers, mothers (eek!), children & friends. We watch the characters deal with a wide variety of problems, each in their unique way. A good read.

Donald Spoto bases this book on the facts...not speculations and unseen sources. This is a very detailed account of Marilyn's Life,from the early years spent as a starlet thru her marriages...relationships with famous photographers and acting coaches thru ordinary people...
Marilyn's last days are realistically brought back to Life with a plausible explanation of what really happened the night she died.
One of the best parts of the book is the last chapter "Aftermath: the great deception", where Donald Spoto adresses all the tabloid biographies that sensationalize marilyn's death...the theories and speculations about her involvement with the Kennedys and the mafia and so called "best friends"....
Such as Robert Slatzer and jeanne carmen, to name the worst offenders among them.
I have read all the mayor Biographies on Marilyn and this one for me comes closest to what the truth might be about what happened to marilyn.

Donald Spoto must have done a lot of hard work to uncover all this information about Marilyn. In this extensive biography (the best I've read) we learn things that maybe we'd never heard about before.

And, by interviewing people close to Marilyn such as Milton H. Greene and Inez Nelson (?), by reading papers from Marilyn to Lee/Paula Strasberg, Pat Newcomb, and others influential in her life, DS gives us further insight into the life of this beautiful but misunderstood immortal screen goddess.

We also learn the truth about her death. No, Marilyn was not killed by the Kennedys. (Both Bobby and John had alibis, and the information DS presents show no reason why they would want to assassinate her anyway.) And from what DS says, Marilyn was planning to remarry Joe DiMaggio and to her friends it didn't seem that she was planning to kill herself.

His hypothesis is that her suicide may have been accidental, after being fed all those barbituates by different people through all the years, and Dr. Ralph Greenson and her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, may have had a hand in it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned so much from it!

I really enjoyed reading this book! It was so hard to put it down once you got going. You really find out a lot about Marilyn's life that no one has ever talked or written about before. I've liked Marilyn since I was about 13 or 14 and now I'm 26. I've always been interested in her life and now I feel like I finally know what it was like. This book really covers everything, from birth to death. To really find out what happened to Marilyn, READ THIS BOOK!

Monroe's done it again, all right. He's packaged pseudo-Celticdrivel into a hack novel and dubbed it Druidic Truth. Anyone who hasthe utter gall to quote DJ Conway as proof of his ridiculous claim that women were not Druids is no expert. He obviously has no idea that a dryad was a Greek tree spirit and not a priestess, else he wouldn't have used such an inaccurate source. His attempted defense of the Charm of Making, aka the plagiarized chant of Merlin in the film Excalibur, is equally weak. His "Druidic Magic" is stolen straight from Thelemic ritual, and poorly at that. I'd give it one star, but telling a good tall tale counts for something. This is one of the tallest I've read since the adventures of Paul Bunyan and Babe. Stay away from this book if you value the truth. Buy it if you want a laugh or are willing to use a mislabeled, misrepresented, mishandled system and call it Celtic.

While historically I believe that Mr. Monroe does not have much factual basis for his claims, I still applauded this book. His use of Jungian psychology is the saving grace of this book. It shows that even though 99.9% of druidic knowledge was destroyed it still lives on as part of the universal subconscious. As a student of history I was greatly pleased to not see fabricated BS that so often accompanies Llewellyn's books. Things like the great holocaust in the 6th century (he called it the destruction of Avalon.) As a magical system I feel that it works quite well. I have assimilated it into my own workings and am absolutely in love with it. For once, something that does not draw heavily from Gardner. This book is a shining light among the filth. I could not recommend this book or its predecessor any higher.

As a practitioner of the Arts for over a decade I give this work 2 thumbs up. For the uninitiated individual who claims Mr. Monroe "stole" the Charm of Making from the movie Excalibur I can only say one thing... Don't knock it till you try it! Hollywood very often uses historians to research details for the use in their films. This most definatly was the case here. I personally have used this "Charm" with suprising results! For anyone interested in authentc Druidsm, rather than the crap commonly passed off as Druidism, this book is for you. I would recommend reading AND sudying his first book before getting into this one.My only peeve is the fact that Llewellyn Publications failed to list Monroe's school address in the work. They did this in his first book as well.

Graveyard is an excellent collection of real account ghost stories and reportings centered around Union cemetary near the authors home in Conneticut. The book presents some historical lore how family curses followed some of the first settlers of the region. Then documented stories are presented. Most interesting ones are the ghost lady in white pestered by small black creatures, the cross country skier whose death was imminent after meeting the ghost pionneer, and the radio shock jock who changed his ways. There are some photo's in the book but it always seems more interesting pictures's could have been included to make this a 5 star book.

The Warrens are a devout couple who have made it their life long goal to assist clergymen in the rescue of people afflicted or possessed by demonic spirits. Another book, and I think their best book by far, is the Demonologist by Gerald Brittle which deals with demonic cases. Unfortunately the book is out of print. If you can find it, buy it because it is well written and exciting and at the same time sobering to read.

For anyone who has an interest in demonology or the occult, this is book is definitely a must read. The research of Ed and Lorraine Warren is shown along with stories of terror which will chill the bones of even the most stoic reader. Read of how a girl's guilt about her friend's death leads her to dark measures, or how a radio personality is shown that his cracks about the afterlife are not appreciated by some, living and dead. Those who are looking for a spine chilling read, I urge you to also remember...these stories are true!

Sometimes I like to read true ghost stories just to make my insomnia more interesting. The Strange Passenger chapter's opening really made me laugh. It probably shouldn't have, because I know I would have been more freaked out than the man it actually happened to, but the way they wrote it out - prolonging the suspense - was great. I like that they also stress the folly and danger of meddling with black magic and ouija boards. That can't be stressed enough. You could devour this interesting book in an evening.