Killng Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General
Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, 2014
Henry Holt & Co.
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780805096682
Summary
Readers around the world have thrilled to Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, and Killing Jesus—riveting works of nonfiction that journey into the heart of the most famous murders in history. Now from Bill O’Reilly, anchor of The O’Reilly Factor, comes the most epic book of all in this multimillion-selling series: Killing Patton.
General George S. Patton, Jr. died under mysterious circumstances in the months following the end of World War II. For almost seventy years, there has been suspicion that his death was not an accident—and may very well have been an act of assassination. Killing Patton takes readers inside the final year of the war and recounts the events surrounding Patton’s tragic demise, naming names of the many powerful individuals who wanted him silenced. (From the publisher.)
Author Bios
Bill O'Reily
• Birth—September 10, 1949
• Raised—Levittown (Long Island), New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Marist College; M.A., Boston University;
M.A., Harvard University
• Awards—2 Emmy Awards (Investigative Journalism); National
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Governors' Award
• Currently—lives in Manhasset, New York
William James, Jr. is an American television host, author, syndicated columnist and political commentator. He is the host of the political commentary program The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, which is the most watched cable news television program on American television. During the late 1970s and 1980s, he worked as a news reporter for various local television stations in the United States and eventually for CBS News and ABC News. From 1989 to 1995, he was anchor of the entertainment news program Inside Edition.
O'Reilly is widely considered a conservative commentator though some of his positions diverge from conservative orthodoxy. He is a registered "Independent" (See: Political views of Bill O'Reilly) and characterizes himself as a "traditionalist." He is the author of ten books, and hosted The Radio Factor until early 2009.
Early life and education
O'Reilly was born in New York City to parents William James, Sr., (deceased) and Winifred Angela Drake O'Reilly from Brooklyn and Teaneck, New Jersey, respectively. His ancestors on his father's side lived in County Cavan, Ireland, since the early eighteenth century, and those on his mother's side were from Northern Ireland. The O'Reilly family lived in a small apartment in Fort Lee, New Jersey, when their son was born. In 1951 his family moved to Levittown, on Long Island. O'Reilly has a sister, Janet.
He attended St. Brigid parochial school in Westbury, and Chaminade High School, a private Catholic boys high school in Mineola. Bill O'Reilly played Little League baseball and was the goalie on the Chaminade varsity hockey team. During his high school years, O'Reilly met future pop-singer icon Billy Joel, whom O'Reilly described as a "hoodlum." O'Reilly recollected in an interview with Michael Kay on the YES Network show CenterStage that Joel...
was in the Hicksville section—the same age as me—and he was a hood. He used to slick it [his hair] back like this. And we knew him, because his guys would smoke and this and that, and we were more jocks.
After graduating from high school in 1967, O'Reilly attended Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, his father's choice. While at Marist, O'Reilly played punter in the National Club Football Association and was also a writer for the school's newspaper, The Circle. He played semi-professional baseball during this time as a pitcher for the New York Monarchs. An honors student, he majored in history and spent his junior year of college abroad, attending Queen Mary College at the University of London. Hey received his bachelor of arts degree in history in 1971.
After graduating from Marist College at age 21, O'Reilly moved to Miami, Florida, where he taught English and history at Monsignor Pace High School from 1970 to 1972. He returned to school in 1973 and earned a Master's of Arts degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University. While attending BU, he was a reporter and columnist for various local newspapers and alternative news weeklies, including The Boston Phoenix, and did an internship in the newsroom of WBZ-TV. During his time at BU, O'Reilly also was a classmate of future radio talk show host Howard Stern, whom O'Reilly noticed because Stern was the only student on campus taller than he was. In 1995, having already established himself as a national media personality, O'Reilly was accepted to Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government; he received a Master's Degree in public administration in 1996. At Harvard, he was a student of Marvin Kalb.
Broadcasting career
O'Reilly's early television news career included reporting and anchoring positions at WNEP-TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he also reported the weather. At WFAA-TV in Dallas, O'Reilly was awarded the Dallas Press Club Award for excellence in investigative reporting. He then moved to KMGH-TV in Denver, where he won a local Emmy Award for his coverage of a skyjacking. O'Reilly also worked for KATU in Portland, Oregon, WFSB in Hartford, Connecticut, and WNEV-TV (now WHDH-TV) in Boston.
In 1980 O'Reilly anchored the local news-feature program 7:30 Magazine at WCBS-TV in New York. Soon after, as a WCBS News anchor and correspondent, he won his second local Emmy, for an investigation of corrupt city marshals. In 1982 he was promoted to the network as a CBS News correspondent and covered the wars in El Salvador and the Falkland Islands from his base in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He later left CBS over a dispute concerning the uncredited use in a report by Bob Schieffer of riot footage shot by O'Reilly's crew in Buenos Aires during the Falklands conflict.
O'Reilly delivered a eulogy for his friend Joe Spencer, an ABC News correspondent who died in a helicopter crash on January 22, 1986, en route to covering the Hormel meatpacker strike that day. ABC News president Roone Arledge, who attended Spencer's funeral, decided to hire O'Reilly after hearing his eulogy. At ABC, O'Reilly hosted daytime news briefs that previewed stories to be reported on the day's World News Tonight and worked as a general assignment reporter for ABC News programs, including Good Morning America, Nightline, and World News Tonight.
O'Reilly has stated that his interest and style in media came from several CBS and ABC personalities, including Mike Wallace, Howard Cosell, Dick Snyder and Peter Jennings.
Inside Edition
In 1989 O'Reilly joined the nationally syndicated Inside Edition, a tabloid/gossip television program in competition with A Current Affair. He became the program's anchor three weeks into its run, after the termination of original anchor David Frost. In addition to being one of the first American broadcasters to cover the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, O'Reilly also obtained the first exclusive interview with murderer Joel Steinberg and was the first television host from a national current affairs program on the scene of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
O'Reilly had expressed a desire to quit the show in July 1994, and in 1995 he enrolled at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he received a Master's Degree in public administration. His graduate thesis, which he researched in Singapore, was titled "Theory of Coerced Drug Rehabilitation." In his thesis, O'Reilly asserted that supervised mandatory drug rehabilitation would reduce crime, based on the rate of prison return for criminals in Alabama who enrolled in a such program.
The O'Reilly Factor
After Harvard, he was hired by Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of the then startup Fox News Channel, to anchor The O'Reilly Report in 1996. The show was renamed The O'Reilly Factor, after O'Reilly's friend and branding expert John Tantillo's remarks upon the "O'Reilly Factor" in any of the stories O'Reilly told. The program is routinely the highest-rated show of the three major U.S. 24-hour cable news television channels and began the trend toward more opinion-oriented prime-time cable news programming. The show is taped late in the afternoon at a studio in New York City and airs every weekday on the Fox News Channel at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time and is rebroadcast at 11:00 p.m.
O'Reilly's life and career have not been without controversy. Progressive media watchdog organizations such as Media Matters and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting have criticized O'Reilly's reporting on a variety of issues, accusing him of distorting facts and using misleading or erroneous statistics.
After the September 11 attacks, O'Reilly accused the United Way of America and American Red Cross of failing to deliver millions of dollars in donated money, raised by the organizations in the name of the disaster, to the families of those killed in the attacks. O'Reilly reported that the organizations misrepresented their intentions for the money being raised by not distributing all of the 9/11 relief fund to the victims. Actor George Clooney responded, accusing O'Reilly of misstating facts and harming the relief effort by inciting "panic" among potential donors.
Beginning in 2005, O'Reilly periodically denounced George Tiller, a Kansas-based physician who specialized in second- and third-trimester abortions, often referring to him as "Tiller the baby killer." Tiller was murdered on May 31, 2009, by Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion activist, and critics such as Salon.com's Gabriel Winant have asserted that O'Reilly's anti-Tiller rhetoric helped to create an atmosphere of violence around the doctor. Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote that O'Reilly "clearly went overboard in his condemnation and democratization of Tiller" but added that it was "irresponsible to link O'Reilly" to Tiller's murder. O'Reilly has responded to the criticism by saying "no backpedaling here...every single thing we said about Tiller was true."
In early 2007, researchers from the Indiana University School of Journalism published a report that analyzed O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" segment. Using analysis techniques developed in the 1930s by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis, the study concluded that O'Reilly used propaganda, frequently engaged in name calling, and consistently cast non-Americans as threats and never "in the role of victim or hero." O'Reilly responded, asserting that "the terms conservative, liberal, left, right, progressive, traditional and centrist were considered name-calling if they were associated with a problem or social ill." The study's authors claimed that those terms were only considered name-calling when linked to derogatory qualifiers. Fox News producer Ron Mitchell wrote an op-ed in which he accused the study's authors of seeking to manipulate their research to fit a predetermined outcome. Mitchell argued that by using tools developed for examining propaganda, the researchers presupposed that O'Reilly propagandized.
O'Reilly is the main inspiration for comedian Stephen Colbert's satirical character on the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, which features Colbert in a "full-dress parody" of The O'Reilly Factor. On the show, Colbert refers to O'Reilly as "Papa Bear." O'Reilly and Colbert exchanged appearances on each other's shows in January 2007.
Speaking on ABC's Good Morning America on March 18, 2003, O'Reilly promised that "[i]f the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean [of weapons of mass destruction] ... I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again." In another appearance on the same program on February 10, 2004, O'Reilly responded to repeated requests for him to honor his pledge: "My analysis was wrong and I'm sorry. I was wrong. I'm not pleased about it at all." With regard to never again trusting the current U.S. government, he said, "I am much more skeptical of the Bush administration now than I was at that time."
On May 10, 2008, O'Reilly was presented with the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Governors' Award at an Emmy awards show dinner.
Personal life
O'Reilly was married to Maureen E. McPhilmy, a public relations executive. They met in 1992, and their wedding took place in St. Brigid Parish of Westbury on November 2, 1996. They have a daughter, Madeline (born 1998), and a son, Spencer (born 2003).
The O'Reilly couple currently reside in suburban Manhasset, New York, with each of them living in a different house. They separated in April 2, 2010, and were divorced on September 1, 2011.
Books
• The O'Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad, and the Completely Ridiculous in American Life (2000)
• The No Spin Zone (2001)
• Who's Looking Out For You? (2003)
• The O'Reilly Factor For Kids: A Survival Guide for America's Families (2004) with Charles Flowers
• Culture Warrior (2006)
• Kids Are Americans Too (2007)
• A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity: A Memoir (2008)
• Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama (2010)
• Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever (2011) with
Martin Dugard
• Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever (2012) with
Dwight Jon Zimmerman
• Kennedy's Last Days: The Assassination That Defined a Generation (2013)
• Keep It Pithy: Useful Observations in a Tough World (2013)
• Killing Jesus: A History (2013) with Martin Dugard
(Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/5/2013)
Michael Dugard
• Birth—June 1, 1961
• Where—state of Maine, USA
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in Orange County, California
Michael Dugard is the author of numerous nonfiction works: seven of which he authored alone and three with Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, including Killng Lincoln (2011), Killing Kennedy (2012), and Killing Jesus (2013). His magazine writing has appeared in Esquire, Outside, Sports Illustrated, and GQ, among others.
Dugard regularly immerses himself in his research to understand characters and their motivations better. To better understand Columbus he traveled through Spain, the Caribbean and Central America. He followed Henry Morton Stanley’s path across Tanzania while researching Into Africa (managing to get thrown into an African prison in the process) and swam in the tiger shark-infested waters of Hawaii’s Kealakekua Bay to recreate Captain James Cook’s death for Farther Than Any Man.
On the more personal side of adventure, Dugard competed in the Raid Gauloises endurance race three times, and flew around the world at twice the speed of sound aboard an Air France Concorde. The time of 31 hours and 28 minutes set a world record for global circumnavigation. In 2005, took a walk-on position as head cross-country and track coach at JSerra High School in San Juan Capistrano, a position that he still holds.
Books (sole author)
• Surviving the Toughest Race on Earth (1998)
• Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Capt. James Cook (2001)
• Into Africa: The dramatic retelling of the Stanley-Livingstone Story (2003)
• Chasing Lance (2005)
• The Last Voyage of Columbus (2005)
• The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846–1848 (2008)
• How to Be a Runner: How Racing Up Mountains, Running with the Bulls, or Just Taking on a
5-K Makes You a Better Person (and the World a Better Place) (2011).
(Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/5/2013.)
Book Reviews
Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard have written a lively, provocative account of the death of General George S. Patton and the important events in the final year of the Allied victory in Europe, which Patton’s brilliant generalship of the American Third Army did so much to secure.... [The book is] rich in fascinating details, and riveting battle scenes. The authors have written vivid descriptions of a compelling cast of characters, major historical figures such as Eisenhower, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler, and others, as well as more obscure players in the great drama of the Second World War and the life and death of Patton
Senator John McCain
Careful shoe-leather detective work buttressed by research, access to decades-old correspondence and never-before publicized interrogations of sources from around the world have combined to give readers Killing Patton.... Mr. O'Reilly and Mr. Dugard approach some of the most shocking conversations and revelations in a noninflammatory manner, as if simply dropped (a la “Oh, by the way”) into the midst of some routine report.... Killing Patton is rich in blow-by-blow accounts of some of the most significant battles of World War II, as well as of many off-battlefield lives of its primary movers whose personalities virtually come to life in this well-crafted narrative.
Wes Vernon - Washington Times
Patton [was] responsible for the so-called Displaced Persons camps in Bavaria and elsewhere. Many of these displaced persons were Holocaust survivors. Patton had contempt for them. He called them "animals" and, in letters to his wife and in diary entries, made his anti-Semitism as plain as could be. Here...is a sample diary entry: "Harrison and his ilk believe that the Displaced Person is a human being, which he is not, and this applies particularly to Jews who are lower than animals." When asked on his show how he could have left out these passages, O’Reilly summoned his inner Joe McCarthy: "The far left is desperate, desperate to disparage Killing Patton because they despise General Patton and they despise me. It pains them to see the overwhelming success of the book."
Richard Cohen - Washington Post
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
1. O'Reilly's subtitle to this book refers to Patton as "audacious." Talk about Patton, the kind of man he was and his style of leadership. What was he like? What other adjectives might be used to describe the man and the general?
2. What evidence does O'Reilly present that suggests Patton's death was more sinister than accidental? Is the evidence cited credible? Why, after all these years, does Reilly believe the controversy has never been brought out into the open and resolved?
3. Follow-up to Question 2: Who would have benefited most from Patton's death?
5. This book, as well as the other three in "The Killing" series (Jesus, Kennedy, Lincoln), use a popular, hyped-up narrative style, creating what some reviewers refer to as "you-are-there thrillers." O'Reilly says that he believes that "people who do not necessarily like history will enjoy" his books. And with regards to the titles, O'Reilly refers to himself as "a snappy guy." "I do things," he says," in a flamboyant way. I want to get your attention." Does the O'Reilly style add to, or detract from, the underlying history of this work. Does it engage people who otherwise would not read about Patton and World War II? Or does it's easy-going style leave out, or gloss over, more complex historical facts that may not be as interesting or easy to follw? What do you think?
6. Talk about the numerous world leaders and other less well-known characters, found in Killing Patton. Are there any you find particularly interesting...or admirable...or disagreeable? If so, in what way? Consider (among others) Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill, General Eisenhower, as well as lesser known individuals like PFC Robert Holmund or Horace Woodring, Patton's driver.
7. Talk about Patton's greatest military achievements, in particular his race to relieve the siege of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. What other military (or personal) accomplishments have led to his reputation as one of the great World War II heroes.
8. In your opinion, was Eisenhower wrong to have prevented Patton from reaching Berlin before the Soviet forces? Should Patton have been permitted to close the Falaise Gap in the Fall of 1944? Have you read other sources else on this controversial topic that might shed some light on the issue?
9. What new understanding have you gained—about World War II and General Patton—from reading this book? What did you find most surprising?...or most disturbing?
10. O'Reilly has been accused of inaccuracies and of cherry picking his facts in Killing Patton. Do these charges have any basis in fact that you're aware of? Do the charges make any difference to your reading of this book...or affect its validity as a work of history?
11. Consider watching, as a group, clips from the 1970 film Patton with George C. Scott. Talk about how the movie's portrayal of Patton dovetails with, or diverges from, your understanding of O'Reilly's book. (If you have time, why not watch the entire film!)
12. Have you read the other three books in "The Killing" series? If so, how does this one compare? If you haven't read the others, does Killing Patton inspire you to do so?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
When the Shoe Fits: Essays of Love, Life and Second Chances
Mary T. Wagner, 2014
Waterhorse Press
244 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780615991740
Summary
When a hard fall from a tall horse landed Mary T. Wagner—then a freelance writer and a soccer mom with four young children—in a body cast for three months with a broken back, she didn't take it as a sign to ease back on the throttle. Instead, she changed careers, went to law school, took a job as a criminal prosecutor, and bought her first pair of spike heels.
And THEN she started writing again. More than a dozen national and regional writing awards later, Wagner has compiled this "best of" collection of her inspiring and empowering essays from her first three books, and added a few more for good measure. Wagner's earlier books, Running with Stilettos, Heck on Heels, and Fabulous in Flats, earned recognition for humor, inspiration and memoir, and their kudos included both an Indie Excellence Award and a silver IPPY. Two were finalists in ForeWord Review's Book of the Year Awards. Her legal experience has been similarly eclectic, ranging from handling speeding tickets to arguing cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court...sometimes in the same week!
In essays ranging widely from "Turbo Dating-the Year in Review" to "Riding Pillion," "The Limoncello Diaries" and "Angels in the Snow," Wagner's signature writing style combines humor, insight, and grace under pressure. Whether reflecting on subjects as diverse as motherhood, the view from the back of a Harley, the impending loss of a parent or the therapeutic effects of a post-divorce bonfire, Wagner's inspiring and empowering essays resonate with universal experiences of love, life and reinvention. A must-read for any woman who's asked herself "is there at least one more dream I can reach for?"... and then answered "YES!!". (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—won't say; will admit to "north of fifty"
• Where—Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Education—B.A., J.D., Marquette University
• Currently—lives in southeastern Wisconsin
Mary T. Wagner is a former newspaper and magazine journalist who changed careers at forty by going to law school and becoming a criminal prosecutor. Her legal experience has ranged from handling speeding tickets to arguing and winning several cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
A mother of four and a recent grandmother, she lives in rural Wisconsin, where she draws much inspiration for writing from daily walks in the countryside with her dog, Lucky, and the cat who thinks he's a dog...The Meatball. While she was still a full-time "soccer mom," Wagner balanced diapers, dinners and driving duty with freelance writing about public broadcasting programming. Her PBS interviews ran the gamut from Fred Rogers and Captain Kangaroo to legendary conservative icon William F. Buckley, Jr.
Wagner's slice-of-life essays have appeared on her signature website, "Running with Stilettos," as well as at Flashionista, More.com, Shortbread Stories, RedRoom, Open Salon, The Front Porch Review, Growing Bolder, and The Write City.
Her third essay collection, Fabulous in Flats, was named "Published Book of the Year" in 2011 by the Florida Writers Association.
Life experience includes motherhood, and stints as a girl scout troop leader, truck stop waitress, office temp, judicial clerk, and radio talk show host. She counts both wearing spike heels and learning to use a cordless drill and chainsaw among her "late blooming" discoveries, and would be hard pressed to surrender either her favorite stilettos or her power tools." (From the author.)
Visit Mary on Facebook.
Book Reviews
Wagner shows us, with her signature charm and humor, how to find our inner shock absorbers.
Randy Richardson, author, "Lost in the Ivy"
Wagner captivated me from the first chapter with her wit, charm, and honesty.
Jaimie Engle, author "Clifton Chase and the Arrow of Light"
This memoir sparkles with the joy of life, Mary's style.
Catherine McCall, author, "Never Tell: The True Story of Overcoming a Terrifying Childhood"
Read it, devour it, digest it and live some of life's most precious moments...a gem of a read.
Laurie Scheer, author and Director of UW-Madison's Writers Institute
Mary knows how to crack the shell and get deep into the real stuff, the stuff that matters, the stuff of the heart.
David Berner, author, "Any Road Will Take You There"
Discussion Questions
1. In the essay "Of Shoes and Strategy," Mary describes her "turning point" in footwear, going from sneakers and sensible shoes to spike heels for the first time when midway through her forties. What do you think that first pair of stiletto heels really symbolized in her life?
2. Mary describes wrenching transitions in her life when she was a teenager in "Cookie Therapy." How do you think her past family relationships affect her relationships with her children? Do chocolate chip cookies really make everything better?
3. In the essay "Turbo Dating—A Year in Review," Mary describes jumping into the dating world with both feet after 25 years of marriage. What did you think of her kamikaze approach? In retrospect, do you think she should have waited longer before making that transition? Was she brave, dumb, headstrong, or some other combination?
4. In "Ripple Effect," Mary shares the story of how her life and career path was changed by someone else’s encouragement, and reminds her children that "kindness is never wasted." Has there been a time in your life when someone’s belief in you has pushed you farther than you thought you could go?
5. In "Love in Wood and Wax," Mary talks about how her definitions and understanding of "romance" and "romantic gestures" have changed over time. Have yours? Is that a good thing or not? If they have, do you still miss the old patterns?
6. After her divorce, Mary’s transition in tools went by necessity from cupcake pans and a hand-mixer to the chain saw and a tool kit. Can you see yourself in her shoes? Are you in them already? What was the last tool you used and what for?
7. In "Return to the Fatherland," Mary writes of taking her elderly father and her teenaged sons to Germany for a reunion with their relatives, only to find en route that his mind was far more fragile than she had known. The roles of parent and child immediately and sadly changed. Did the trip have the result that she had wanted? What good things came from the journey despite her father’s increasing frailty? Do you think that her sons learned more from it than they expected to as well?
8. In "The Island," Mary describes renting a cabin in a vacation spot she had only experienced before this with her husband and children, long before the divorce. Her stated intention was to spend the week writing in peace and quiet. Was that the most important thing she took away from it? Could it have gone badly instead? How would YOU step out of your"pressure cooker" life for a week?
9. Mary has often been described as "living in the moment," letting serendipity guide her choices and experiences. Do you enjoy that as well in your own life...or does that "make it up as you go" quality drive you bonkers? Why or why not? Would you trust her to pack your suitcase before a trip abroad?
10. In "The Volcano Diaries," Mary abandons her quest to reach the summit of a mountain because of her fear of heights...but eventually realizes that she has still gone farther than she thought she could. Is there a time you have "fallen short" in your own life’s journey that still feels like a success of sorts? Do you think that people learn more from success or failure?
11. Do you think that Mary’s introduction to gardening also made her grow as a person? What does her flower garden symbolize for her? Have you had a similar experience of taking a wasteland and bringing it to life? How did it make you feel? Were there any surprises along the way?
12. In "Pelican Lessons," Mary writes of ignoring her first instincts while standing in the marsh, watching a trio of enormous white birds descend, and the eventual discovery that "logic" had proved wrong and her gut feelings about what she saw were right the first time. Can you think back to something similar in your own life? Is there a single experience that has tipped the balance for you in terms of trusting your instincts in the future?
13. In "Tool Time," Mary pivots between celebrating her growing independence in handling household problems after her divorce, and mourning the fact that independence can sometimes feel a lot like loneliness. What would you have told her as she sat at the kitchen table and wept that day? Have you ever had to balance a wish or a need to change as a person with caution as to how it would affect the relationship that you are or were in? What did you ultimately do?
14. In "Angels in the Snow," Mary describes the accident that landed her and her daughter in the home of total strangers in the middle of a blizzard. She describes the married couple that took them in as "angels." Have you felt the presence of angels in your life? When and how?
15. Is there a lesson to be taken away from this author’s life? What do you think it is, and why do you think it’s important?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
American Queen: The Rise and Fall of Kate Chase Sprague—Civil War "Belle of the North" and Gilded Age Woman of Scandal
John Oller, 2014
Da Capo Press
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780306822803
Summary
Had Peoplee magazine been around during the Civil War and after, Kate Chase would have made its "Most Beautiful" and "Most Intriguing" lists every year.
The charismatic daughter of Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln’s treasury secretary, Kate Chase enjoyed unprecedented political power for a woman. As her widowed father’s hostess, she set up a rival "court" against Mary Lincoln in hopes of making her father president and herself his First Lady.
To facilitate that goal, she married one of the richest men in the country, the handsome "boy governor" of Rhode Island, in the social event of the Civil War. She moved easily between the worlds of high fashion, adorning herself in the most regal Parisian gowns, and politics, managing her father's presidential campaigns. "No Queen has ever reigned under the Stars and Stripes," one newspaper would write, "but this remarkable woman came closer to being a Queen than any American woman has."
But when William Sprague turned out to be less of a prince as a husband, Kate found comfort in the arms of a powerful married senator. The ensuing sex scandal ended her virtual royalty; after the marriage crumbled and the money disappeared, she was left only with her children and her ever-proud bearing. She became a social outcast and died in poverty, yet in her final years she would find both greater authenticity and the inner peace that had always eluded her.
Kate Chase’s dramatic story is one of ambition and tragedy, set against the seductive allure of the Civil War and Gilded Age, involving some of the most famous personalities in American history. In this beautifully written and meticulously researched biography, drawing on much unpublished material, John Oller captures the extraordinary life of a woman who was a century ahead of her time. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Huron, Ohio, USA
• Education—B.A., Ohio State University; J.D., Georgetown University
• Currently—lives in both New York City and California
John Oller trained as a lawyer, becoming a litigator for a New York law firm and representing major league baseball figures, (most famously Pete Rose), as well as other corporate and commercial interests.
While practicing law, he wrote books in his off hours. His first, Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew, was published in 1977. In 2011, Oller made the decision to retire from law and devote himself to writing full-time.
Since then, he has published An All-American Murder (e-book), based on an actual murder in Columbus, Ohio, in 1975. In 2014 he published American Queen, the biography of Civil War era Kate Chase Sprague, the daughter of Salmon Chase (one of Lincoln's "team of rivals") and a famous Washington belle.
When not writing, John pursues his hobbies of golf, theater, film, and travel. He divides his time between New York City and a home in California wine country. (Adapted from the author's website.)
Book Reviews
In other hands such a story might have had more dimension; but although Oller has explored previous biographies (none recent) and a plethora of archives and family testimony, his account is too full of anachronistic cliches (Kate’s father wishes to "get her out of his hair," a cotton trader is "no dummy," Kate’s divorce petition is "a doozy"), too cumbered by undigested political minutiae, too hampered by explicatory backtracking to develop the kind of narrative sweep and psychological depth that make for fully satisfying biography.
Amanda Vaill - New York Times Book Review
[N]uanced and finely balanced.... The title for Oller's book echoes the one used in 2001 for a biography of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Sarah Bradford, America's Queen. Like the wife of John F. Kennedy, Chase was the epitome of elegance for Americans of her era, described as a "magnificent creature" and "the most splendid woman at the present time" and "the acknowledged queen of fashion and good taste."
Patrick T. Reardon - Chicago Times
Oller commands his sources in a riveting narrative that is all the more persuasive because he does not make large claims for his subject. It is enough, he realizes, for a biography to portray and assess a remarkable human being—one who struggled with and overcame many of the confining conventions of her age—in her own terms.
Carl Rollyson - Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Oller details [Kate Chase] Sprague’s fascinating life, introducing readers to an inspiring woman in spite of her faults.... The book’s analysis may not be well enough grounded in fact, verging on the speculative at times, but otherwise, Oller offers an accessible, attention-grabbing work.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) The author takes us through his subject's life as she moves from a high-class social butterfly...to a poverty-stricken divorcee.... Well written, fast paced, and with a compelling attention to detail, this work should be a fascinating read for Civil War buffs, fans of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals (in which Salmon Chase is a main character). —Laura Marcus, Odenton, MD
Library Journal
Oller's work is less the story of a woman's political rise and fall and more one that reveals how the social limitations of the past created tragic outcomes for talented females. A well-researched, thoughtful biography of a woman who "became entirely her own person, a rare feat for women of her day."
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild
Lawrence Anthony (with Graham Spence), 2009
St. Martin's Press
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250007810
Summary
When South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony was asked to accept a herd of "rogue" wild elephants on his Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand, his common sense told him to refuse. But he was the herd's last chance of survival: they would be killed if he wouldn't take them.
In order to save their lives, Anthony took them in. In the years that followed he became a part of their family. And as he battled to create a bond with the elephants, he came to realize that they had a great deal to teach him about life, loyalty, and freedom.
The Elephant Whisperer is a heartwarming, exciting, funny, and sometimes sad account of Anthony's experiences with these huge yet sympathetic creatures. Set against the background of life on an African game reserve, with unforgettable characters and exotic wildlife, it is a delightful book that will appeal to animal lovers and adventurous souls everywhere. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—September 17, 1950
• Where—Johannesburg, South Africa
• Death—March 2, 2012
• Where—Johannesburg, South Africa
• Education—N/A
• Awards—French 28th Prix Litteraire 30 Millions d'Amis
Lawrence Anthony was an international conservationist, environmentalist, explorer, and bestselling author.
He was the long-standing head of conservation at the Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand South Africa and the founder of The Earth Organization, a private conservation and environmental group with a strong scientific orientation. He was also an international member of the esteemed Explorers Club of New York and a member of the National Council of the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science, South Africa’s oldest scientific association.
Anthony had a reputation for bold conservation initiatives, including the rescue of the Baghdad zoo at the height of the US lead Coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, and negotiations with the infamous Lord's Resistance Army rebel army in Southern Sudan, to raise awareness of the environment and to protect endangered species, including the last of the Northern White Rhinoceros.
Details of his conservation activities appeared regularly in regional and international media including CNN, CBS, BBC, Al Jazeera and Sky TV and featured in magazines and journals such as Readers Digest, Smithsonian, Explorers Journal, Africa Geographic, Men's Journal, Shape magazine, Elle, and others.
Anthony was married to Francoise Malby and lived on the Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand. He has two sons (Dylan and Jason) and two grandsons. A brother-in-law, Graham Spence, co-authored his three books.
He died at age 61 of a heart attack before his planned March 2012 conservation gala dinner in Durban to raise international awareness of the rhino-poaching crisis. He was also to have launched his new book, The Last Rhinos: My Battle to Save One of the World's Greatest Creatures (2012).
Following his death, there were reports that some of the elephants he worked to save came to his family's home in accordance with the way elephants usually mourn the death of one of their own. two grandsons.
In April, 2012, he was posthumously awarded honorary Doctor of Science degree by College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Background
Anthony was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. His grandfather, who was a miner in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England had migrated to the area in the 1920s to work in the gold mines. His father, who ran an insurance business, went about establishing new offices across Southern Africa; Anthony was raised in rural Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe), Zambia, and Malawi, before settling in Zululand, South Africa.
Following his father, Anthony also started his career in the insurance sector, though subsequently started working the real estate development business. Meanwhile, he started working with Zulu tribespeople, and by mid-1990s his passion for the African Bush inspired him to switch careers. He purchased the Thula Thula game reserve, over 5,000-acres, in KwaZulu-Natal.
Career in conservation
A turning point in career came when he was called by a conservation group to rescue a group of nine elephants who had escaped their enclosure and were wreaking havoc across KwaZulu-Natal, and were about to be shot. He tried to communicate with the matriarch of the herd through the tone of his voice and body language, eventually rescued them and brought to the reserve, and in time came to be known as "Elephant-whisperer."
His work with the elephants became the subject of his second book, The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild (2009).
In 2003 he established a conservation group, The Earth Organization, and his efforts led to the establishment of two new reserves, the Royal Zulu Biosphere in Zululand and the Mayibuye Game Reserve in Kwa Ximba, to provide local tribes income through wildlife tourism.
Baghdad Zoo
During the 2003 Iraqi invastion, Anthony launched a private rescue initiative for the Baghdad Zoo, then the largest zoo in the Mideast. However, safety, bureaucratic and transportation problems delayed Anthony's arrival for eight days. By the time he was able to reach the zoo, only 35 out of 650 animals had survived: bombing, looting for food, and starvation had taken their toll. Only the larger animals—bears, hyenas, and the big cats—tended to survive.
In the chaos of the war, Anthony used mercenaries to help protect the zoo, and he worked with the remaining zookeepers to buy donkeys off the Baghdad streets to feed the carnivores. Additional aid came from US Army soldiers, Iraqi civilians and various other volunteers (including former Republican Guard soldiers). Eventually L. Paul Bremer, then head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, lended his support, and with with the help of American engineers, Anthony was able to reopen the zoo.
In 2007 he published his book about the wartime rescue: Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo.
Africa
As an African wildlife expert, Anthony was long involved with programs to involve remote African tribes in conservation on their own traditional land, an activity he considered essential to the future well-being of conservation in Africa. He had created two new Game Reserves in South Africa. The Royal Zulu Biosphere in Zululand, which is expanding to join the world famous Umfolozi Hluhluwe reserve, and the Mayibuye Game Reserve in Kwa Ximba.
When he learned about the near extinction of the Northern White Rhino—only 15 were left—he journeyed into the Congo, an area controlled by the Lord's Resistance Army, to convince them to work with him in saving the animals. He gained their trust and saved the species...which, if lost, would have been largest land mammal to undergo extinction since the woolly mammoth.
Anthony's private focus was the rehabilitation of traumatized African elephant. He had developed a unique relationship with a wild herd of elephant on the Thula Thula Reserve in Zululand. Anthony's second book, The Elephant Whisperer (2009), tells the story of his working relationship with the African elephant.
(Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 1/4/2015.)
Book Reviews
In 1998, prize-winning conservationist Anthony...agreed to take in a herd of "troubled" wild elephants, the first seen in the area in more than a century.... An inspiring, multifaceted account, Anthony's book offers fascinating insights into the lives of wild elephants in the broader context of Zulu culture in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Publishers Weekly
Despite Anthony's awards and recognition for his conservation efforts, this book falls short in terms of holding reader interest. The writing doesn't do justice to Anthony's efforts to save these animals. It is drawn out and lacks the spark and engagement that descriptive writing creates in the reader. A disappointment even for those who like memoirs and African wildlife. —Edell M. Schaefer, Brookfield P.L., WI
Library Journal
The story of how Anthony saved his elephants by making friends with them...is both heartwarming and heartening. Life on a game reserve is never easy, particularly when elephants are added to the mix, but Anthony’s enthusiasm and obvious love for the bush shine through in hair-raising, sad, and funny tales. This life with elephants is a real winner. —Nancy Bent
Booklist
[An] uplifting story.... Though the prose occasionally becomes mawkish—as in his "born-free adolescence," remembered "as vividly as a lovelorn youth recalling his first heart-thudding kiss"—Anthony's bone-deep mission is bracing and his courage is inspiring. Energetic firsthand reportage from the heart of the African wild.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these general topics generously submitted to us by Jean Pirozzi, who led her book club's discussion of The Elephant Whisperer (thank you, Jean!):
1. All the work involved in buying, building, and maintaining a refuge like Thula Thula, including the financial and political considerations.
2. What would it take to work with an elephant herd:
- Setting up a refuge to receive so-called "bad elephants," working with and handling them;
- Social aspects of the elephant family, including acceptance of a new member and isolation of a single male;
- Elephant mother's attempt—and efforts by the author—to save the new baby elephant;
- Gaining the friendship and support of the tribes surrounding the refuge.
5. Importance of keeping in contact with the many agencies involved with animal refuges.
7. We also mentioned the author's other books, especially The Last Rhinos.
8. Anthony's death.
A Layman's Guide to Managing Fear: Using Psychology, Christianity and Non Resistant Methods
Stanley Popovich, October 2003
Treble Heart Books
65 pp.
ISBN-13: 1928602975
Summary
Do your anxieties, fears, and depression get the best of you and interfere with your daily life?
Do you know of a family member who struggles with fear, anxiety, depression or addiction and don’t know what to do?
If so, you don’t have to struggle any more. Help Is Here!!
Stan’s book presents a general overview of various techniques in both the psychological and religious fields to help a person deal with their fears and anxieties. This gives the reader many different ideas on how to overcome their fears along with concrete real life examples.
11 Reasons You Should Read This Popular Book:
- It gives you over 100 techniques for managing your fear.
- Very popular with over 300 book reviews and counting.
- Will save you time and money in finding the answers to your fears.
- It teaches you effective strategies that you can implement today.
- It is a quick, easy, and very effective read.
- All methods are proven and have been reviewed by counselors.Techniques are backed up with real life examples.
- Work through this book with your counselor to help you find peace.
- It gives you immediate relief which means less suffering.
- I have dealt with fear over the last 20 years; I can relate to you.
- It is very affordable.
A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear has received praise from many counselors and therapists:
A Layman's Guide to Managing Fear is a great self-help book. I have been a Counselor for many years now and I use some of the same suggestions and tactics in my practice and you didn't have to pay $55.00 or more an hour to hear them! —Counselor Mark Myers
A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear has helped change the lives of thousands of people and is used by many counselors and therapists to help their patients.
If you know of a friend who struggles with fear, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, stress, or addiction have them take a look at Stan’s important book.
Please visit Stan’s website for additional information on his book, sample articles, helpful reviews, media interviews, and where Stan’s articles have been published. You can also do an internet search of Stan’s name for even more information. (From the author.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 22, 1971
• Where—Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—Penn State, B.S.
• Currently—Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
Within this book are the answers that so many people so desperately need to hear. There is hope and freedom in the pages of this small life saver, and the power to be set free from the fear that holds so many captive. This is not your typical self help book that spouts out ideas and suggestions on coping with the struggles in one's life. Rather this book offers solid Biblical advice with psychological backing, strategies that are proven true, based on research done with actual professionals and trained counselors and psychologists. Popovich has obviously spent countless hours researching the subject and making certain that the book reflects not only his own experiences but also the experiences of others as well. Don't miss out on this book.
Trisha Bleau
Discussion Questions
1. How Can I find a qualified mental health counselor?
2. How can you help a friend who struggles with their mental health?
3. What is your Main Fear That You Struggle With?
4. What Do you do when Anxiety affects Your personal Life?
5. Do You know of anyone who struggles with fear and anxiety?
6. How can this book help you in managing your fears?
7. When is the last time your fears overwhelmed You?
8. What Is your biggest Fear?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)