Grover Cleveland's wife's dairies, ledgers and letters were loaned to the author for the writing of this book which sheds new light on the more intimate side of the Clevelands as a couple.
The book provides a biography of Cleveland's life and political career along with quite a bit about his youngest son, Francis Grover Cleveland.
The main drawback to the book is that there are no footnotes or indexes, making it much less useful for historians.
Nonetheless, historians and history fans should enjoy the rare entries from PRIMARY SOURCES revealing the thoughts, and feelings of a 20 year old future First Lady being romanced by the President of the United States. I particularly enjoyed excerpts from Mrs. Cleveland's ledger during Spring Break, 1885 which she and her mother spent at the white House when she was 'unsure of Cleveland's intentions' before ultimately marrying in 1886.
The author's style which includes vivid descriptions of objects, settings and individuals makes reading about Cleveland brisk, enjoyable, light fare.

Everyone remembers the reaction when U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig took the podium at the White House the day John Hinckley shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981. "I'm in control here," Haig tried to reassure the public, contrary to the constitutional rules of succession. The response was neither outrage nor reassurance that someone was taking the helm. Why? Harlan Cleveland thoughtfully suggests good reasons that the primary reaction to Haig's statement was bemusement tinged with ridicule. He makes an articulate argument that the era when anyone could be in complete control anywhere has long since passed. The reason? Systems have simply grown too complex to be managed by one individual. Thus, the best leader for the "Nobody's-In-Charge" society is someone comfortable with decentralization, someone who can arrive at resourceful, unusual solutions. By way of imprimatur, management guru Warren Bennis wrote this volume's foreword. We from getAbstract recommend this treatise to those who are seriously curious about the ways that technological and societal changes are altering the leader's role.

Success in the music industry is about getting the most exposure for yourself or your artists (if you're the label). You need to know and be able to contact the people who need to know about you. Having this listing of music industry players is critical to your success. We recommend this highly in our Hip Hop Entrepreneur Niche Reading list on our site.

It is loaded with pictures, but the pictures and their descriptions do not tell all of the story. How did the US 74 bypasses at Shelby and KM changed Cleveland County? The answer: big time.

Lots of helpful hints and handy ideas that you wouldn't normally think of. Well worth the money. I say buy this book and watch all the ways it saves you money and time.

James Neff's book is a disturbing account of the crimes, trial, and conviction of serial rapist Ronnie Shelton. The chapters are divided into very short subheadings, and initially the episodic nature of the writing is somewhat distracting. However, the book gains momentum as the investigation draws to its climax and Shelton is captured. I was appalled to learn that during the years of Shelton's crime spree, he was arrested fifteen times for a variety of lesser offenses, yet every time he was released with no connection made between him and the highly-publicized rapes. There was little effective coordination among investigators in various precincts and divisions, who were slow to realize that they were all looking for the same man. The investigation was also hampered by the common misconception that voyeurs (like Shelton) don't engage in, or progress to, violence and rape

As a soon to be lawyer as Mr. Horrow, this is a very informative book as to the world of Sports Business. He really provides insight into all aspects of Sports, including the political battles. This book is very encouraging and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to get into the business aspect of sports.

I came upon this book by accident, but it turned out to be a little gem that was a joy to read. As I turned the pages and read what the author was feeling and reliving, I was taken back to my father, who loved the Browns and to the time I spent watching games with him and my twin brother, and to the 1970's when I was a season ticket holder. As I read ,I kept saying that I knew exactly what the author was feeling and what he meant. The author brought back so many memories of all the highs and lows that came from being a Browns fan, of memories at the hulking stadium on Lake Erie
( what the legendary voice of the Browns, Gib Shanley, called the "house of thrills" ), to the anger when Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore. It was true and is still true that it is Cleveland's Browns not the Cleveland Browns. Modell owned a football team, but he didn't own the Browns. This book is an absolute must read for Browns fans wherever they may live. While we all wait for the 2003 edition of the Browns and a season full of promise under head coach Butch Davis, fans should all pick this book up and read it.

Despite being continually disillusioned by the sport - by the drugs, the criminal element, the absurd salaries - pro football continues to hold a mysterious allure. After reading "On Being Brown," I think I now understand what that allure is. Huler does a wonderful job of explaining what it is about football that keeps our attention long after we should grow tired of it. He captures the special thrill of walking into an arena for the first time as a child, the sense of community, the sense of commitment and loyalty we develop - even the smells of an NFL game - and makes us realize why football remains special. This isn't a book aboaut the Cleveland Browns, it's a book about football that any true fan would enjoy.

I am not a Browns fan but learned a lot about a special time for a boy, his dad and their team. This is a moving book about a kid being introduced to sports and his memories of it as an adult.

It is always a pleasant surprise to find new books relating to presidents that are rarely covered in modern day print. This biography of Grover Cleveland does an excellent job of covering the issues and events which dominated the late 1800s. In contrast, the details of Cleveland's personal and political life are treated in a cold and sterile manner. You never really get the sense that this book provides any real insight into the character and persona that the author perpetrates on the cover "An Honest President". The book starts out by describing a little of his family background and quickly jumps into his role as mayor of Buffalo New York. From there, he soon becomes the first democratic president elected after the civil war. During his presidencies, Grover Cleveland takes controversial stands. His position to lower tariffs on imported goods was particularly unpopular and the author cites this as one of the contributing factors that led to his defeat in the presidential election of 1888. During his second term he handles the Pullman's strike in a quick and decisive manner but leaves many to question the federal government's role in the intervention of affairs at the state level. If anything else, Jeffers successfully conveys the fact that Cleveland was a man of ideals and principals. His decisions were based on the greater good and not on party stance or public opinion. He favored the gold standard, opposed the anexation of Hawaii and fought for reform against the political machines of his day. A strong supporter of the Monroe Doctrine, Cleveland asserted his views against the sequestration of Venezuela by Great Britain. On a final note, I found the author's comparison of Cleveland to Bill Clinton in the last chapter to be somewhat inappropriate. These are two different men from two different eras and it is unfair to speculate how each would have performed in each others time. His closing comments only serve to detract from his scholarly efforts.

This work by H. Paul Jeffers is one of two recent accounts of Grover Cleveland's spectacular life. President Cleveland was the only elected Democrat between the Civil War and the first World War. He was a conservative in that he advocated fiscal responsibility, but was a liberal in that he advocated reform. He worked hand in hand with Republican reformers like Theodore Roosevelt who wanted clean government regardless of the political costs. He advocated a strong defense without the bullying aspects that McKinley and Roosevelt followed. He worked hard for consolidation between broken southern dreams and Unionist aspirations. He sought unity in all things especially in labor disputes which marred his presidency. He was not a puritan. He was responsible for a child out of wedlock, but he took responsibility for that and provided for the child's well-being. He enjoyed his cigars and his alcohol, but his sobor guidance made this country a better place to live in as he took on corruption wherever he faced it. His two divided terms never stopped his desire to accomplish building a newly growing America. This book is written for the common man who wants a slice of life in the gilded age. Cleveland's gold was however his personality and his dedication to honesty in government. He's a rare jewel in America's politics in this degraded age. We were lucky to have him and he made the country a better place. Can we say that about our current leaders? We need a Grover Cleveland now.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered this long-awaited biography of our 22nd and 24th president! As a release from the hundreds of redundant titles about Lincoln or Washington that are produced each year, this book provided me an opportunity to visit with a man too many ignore or misunderstand. The author provides a clean, concise account of his life (usually hitting only the high points rather than indulging in endless detail), and provides a fair, balanced description of his presidency. Still, it was most fascinating to read about Cleveland's rapid ascent from obscurity to the White House. Here was a man, who within three years (1881-1884), went from mayor of Buffalo to become a successful presidential candidate against powerful Republican James G. Blaine. As a politician, whether on the local or national level, Cleveland took controversial stands, challenged established members of his party, vetoed popular bills (risking always an override), and revealed private, potentially harmful information in the name of truth an openness. The author by no means paints a picture of perfection (his decisions as president are up for historical debate), but whatever position he took, Cleveland never betrayed his sense of duty and loyalty to the social good. That sense might have been wrong on several occasions (his handling of the 1894 Pullman strike, for example, which pushed the envelope of federal intervention in state matters), but he never compromised out of fear or a desire to cater to party officials. While there are many accounts of Cleveland's happy marriage to Frances (almost thirty years his junior) and their children (one of whom was, in a first, born in the White House), the book is an important contribution primarily because of its reassessment of his political life. Additionally, the author gives us a vivid representation of the late 19th century itself (as all presidential biographies must); a time rife with labor wars, economic crises (the Panic of 1893 was one of the nation's worst depressions), racial conflict, immigration debates (Cleveland signed the Chinese Exclusion Act yet vetoed a bill forbidding illiterate immigrants), imperialism abroad, and impending war with Spain. While the author resorts to a few cheap shots against President Clinton in the end (I suppose no contemporary book about politics would be complete without it), the book maintains a satisfactory level of detachment throughout. While books such as these will never light up the bestseller lists, I am thankful that they are written. Mr. Jeffers should be applauded for tackling a forgotten man while always keeping it accessible, appealing, and worthy of the subject.

THE BEST CAT EVER by Cleveland Amory is a bit of a sham, though certainly not one that is unattractive or was created out of malice. In the prologue, Amory writes about his deceased pet cat, Polar Bear:

"I shall dwell ... on the past and the fun we had for the fifteen years we had together."

As the reader discovers, this is just not so. As a matter of fact, most of the author's narrative is born of the time before Polar Bear came into his life. Amory remembers his first job. Amory ruefully recounts his brief stint as a Hollywood scriptwriter. Amory tells of his association with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor when he was commissioned to ghost-write the autobiography of the latter. Amory revisits his time as a reviewer for TV Guide. Or, if after, then THE BEST CAT EVER gets hardly more than honorable mention. Amory discusses arthritis and its cures. Amory revisits his alma mater, Harvard. Amory is hit by a truck.

I can't say that this short book isn't entertaining. If I had harbored, before picking it up, any interest in the author, and if the book and been entitled REMINISCENCES OF CLEVELAND (or something of the sort), then I should happily award 4, and perhaps 5, stars. Amory is indeed talented and astute, as when he states of Wallis Warfield's morganatic marriage to the abdicated King Edward VIII:

"If she settled for being a morganatic wife, not only would she not be a Queen, she would have settled for something which, to her at least, sounded all too much like being a peasant."

Amory's dry wit notwithstanding, I can only award 3 stars because Polar Bear, most of the time, just isn't there. The best chapter is certainly the last, in which Cleveland poignantly and sadly describes his beloved pet's last illness and the trauma of having him put to sleep. (I was, perhaps, reminded of the advancing age of my own cat, Trouble. While still healthy at 10 years, that heartbreaking time will certainly come for her also.)

There are better books to be savored on the relationship between a human and its feline owner. Offhand, I can name three: I & CLAUDIUS by Clare De Vries, THE CAT WHO COVERED THE WORLD by Christopher Wren, and MY CAT SPIT MCGEE by Willie Morris.

...this book says almost nothing about Cleveland Amory's cat, Polar Bear. It's a shame that it was titled in a way that would make you think it did.

Amory spends most of the book chatting about himself...I found that interesting. He was a Boston Brahmin through & through, & he did a nice job of showing the rest of us how that slice of society lives. (He also wrote the classic "Proper Bostonians.")

Especially interesting is the chapter "The Last Duchess," in which he writes of his brief career as the biographer of Wallis Warfield Simpson, the divorced woman for whom Edward the VIII abdicated the throne of England. Amory eventually gave up because she was just too awful and Edward was awful, apparently not bright, and an admirer of the Nazis. Even if you are not a fan of royalty (I usually find stories about royalty painfully dull), this chapter is fun! (It also includes a digression about how the Social Register got started.)

Mr. Amory also spun good yarns out of his refusal to donate to the Harvard alumni funds (a protest against their excessive use of laboratory animals), his very temporary role as a Hollywood scriptwriter, and public response to his reviews for the T.V. Guide.

Oh, yes, and he also had a cat!

Cleveland Amory's book 'The Best Cat Ever' is part of a series he wrote that involved his cat Polar Bear, who came into Amory's life one winter evening, and became an integral part thereafter. Amory and Polar Bear in fact are buried side by side, united once more. I can relate to this personally, as each of the cats that have come into my life have come in uninvited and unexpectedly, but very welcome and very quickly indispensable.

Now I, like many cat owners, wasn't pleased at the title of the book (as of course, my cats are the best cats ever), although I certainly understood the sentiment expressed. And Amory was prepared for this:

'First, an apology. It is presumptuous of me to title this last book about the cat who owned me what I have titled it. The reason it is presumptuous is that to people who have, or have ever been, owned by a cat, the only cat who can ever be the best cat ever is their cat.'

Amory uses the wonderful tales of his cat and their life together to also recount past glories and silly stories. One such is his time at Harvard, when he and a friend enrolled in a course entitled 'The Idea of Fate and the Gods' because they had heard it would not require much homework, and then were crestfallen to receive a poor grade. This grade was upgraded when the professor was reminded of their undergraduate status. He had a habit of declaring everything good by exclaiming 'Capital! -- a rather typically eccentric observation for Amory to make.

Under the chapter title 'My Last Duchess', he recounts the failed attempt to write the autobiography (I did not make a mistake here) of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor (making particular point to the way it rankled her to never be given the appellation of 'royal'). In very humourous and somewhat embarrassing detail, he recounts stilted conversations and dull-as-dirt dinner parties designed more for the stroking of ego and vanity of all participants than any real social purpose (although, yes, I realise that that, for some, is a, or even THE social purpose).

Amory also recounts his animal rights activist days, something that he worked hard for during much of his life, and which is carried on in his memory at the Black Beauty Ranch and through Amory's writings, which continue to touch the heart and soul of those who read them.

Amory has been privileged to lead an interesting life that connects to many other interesting people. He does not recount the stories as standard history, or as mere gossip-columnist fare, but rather looks for overall meanings and directions in what is often a difficult pattern of discernment in life. Regardless of social status, political motivation, or intellectual stature, people are people, and will do the most remarkable, selfish, selfless, silly, wonderful things. Amory's observations of this is a delight to read.

In a very moving essay Amory recounted his final days with Polar Bear, and his difficult decision to end Polar Bear's suffering. Amory talks about the grief of losing an animal (particularly hard on single people who become quite attached to their pets) in a moving way that I wish would be used as a pastoral care text.

Amory and Polar Bear are buried together at the Black Beauty Ranch, a home for thousands of abused and abandoned animals that have come to them over the years. Amory believed (as do I) that animals have souls, too, and therefore are deserving of humane treatment and (in an interesting argument) if they do not have souls, as living creatures they deserve even better treatment.

Read this book prepared to laugh and cry. Have your tissues ready for the final chapter, and read this book with a cat on your lap (which, in fact, is how wrote this review).