Book Review - True Compass - Edward Kennedy, M - A Memoir

Apparently, Teddy Kennedy's book, published in his house was the day he died. It seems rather poignant memories that would chronicle the lives of seventy-seven had a interesting time. He started work in 2004 as an oral history project for the University of Virginia, but later with brain tumors with surgery and treatment was subsequently diagnosed on the book last year has inspired her life complete.

Kennedy begins offering reading26 chapters, the first of which was born the day begins. Four themes, which seems to weave through the pages of her love for the sea, the importance of family, devotion to God and the desire to serve the audience.

The tone and style of the book is not what I expected. In fact, the author combines a "popular" with his story of emotional reactions not mentioned above personal tragedy and family. As the youngest child of nine years, has experienced the death ofall but one sibling. Two brothers were victims of the killer balls. Another brother and sister were killed in warfare. Nephew of injuries and accidents, drug crime. Teddy on personal decisions, mourning for their lives and the lives of others lead.

son of twelve years Kennedy had fought a leg amputated and his only daughter to cancer. His marriage broke up and ended in divorce. Throughout the book on all the problems are asand improperly told that the author sometimes.

No matter how difficult things have been revealed, however, Teddy sea, his family, God and his work in the Senate is upright. He assumed the role of father as the children of his brothers are dead, after all. He taught them to sail and tied them together with the history and stories of their ancestors.

Kennedy attributes much of his fortune to sixteen years his second wife, Vickie, whowith great love, camaraderie and humor in their marriage. The credits with helping to make better decisions in the later part of his life.

I was amazed at how quickly I read over 500 pages of this Treaty surprised. Recounts in detail the stories I had heard before from a different perspective on news, current affairs always weave the personal with the activities of this very big family. This is a very wide range of actions and emotions that individualswhole clan in times of joy and moments of difficulty experienced. With regard to these factors appears to be a human connection or relationship between author and reader to forge.

Whatever your political beliefs, I think you will enjoy this book. It encourages us to continue in the face of adversity, the value of personal relationships and maintain the hope that it will be found only in a strong spiritual faith!

Fear Strikes Out: The Jim Piersall Story

Product Details

"The story of a man who became mentally `sick,' and how, through competent medical care, the help of a sympathetic and most understanding wife, the patience and encouragement of manager, teammates and fans, and above all his own splendid courage, he made a complete recovery and resumed his baseball career. . . . How he overcame his fears is a dramatic, heart-warming story. It is most refreshing to read how the Boston Red Sox, from manager down, backed up Jim in his fight for rehabilitation, and helped him regain the confidence that brought him back."-Library Journal (Library Journal )





Once again, the Bison Books imprint of the University of Nebraska Press has reached into baseball's past and returned with a Hall of Fame read. Fear Strikes Out is one of the game's most dramatic autobiographies. It is also one of the most important. When first published in 1955, it ventured into territory traditionally considered out of play for a sports story. "I must have been quite a card when I first broke into baseball's big league as a Boston Red Sox rookie in 1952," Piersall opens rather cheerily. He was a baseball clown, and the fans loved his offbeat shenanigans. One paragraph later, he tosses a huge, hanging curve. "Almost everybody...thought I was a riot. My wife knew I was sick, yet she was helpless to stop my mad rush toward a mental collapse."

In time, Piersall would become one of the silkiest centerfielders of the '50s--no mean feat given his contemporaries Mantle and Mays. A new afterword by Piersall catches us up to his later years (and stunts) in baseball and his post-career as a broadcaster. Fear is actually a prologue to that. It's a courageous story. Piersall's demons had him by the throat and nearly choked him. The breakdown he suffered early in his rookie years was so complete and so terrifying that his mind blanked out the next seven months before his own healing allowed for a painful reconstruction. Given that Fear was written in an era before biographic confessional and the public washing of an athlete's unclean flannels, Piersall's honesty and detail about mental illness, hospitalization, psychiatric therapy, and the struggle back to sanity are extraordinary. This is a truly marvelous book--better than the movie starring Anthony Perkins that was made from it--and, like the lead-off hitter Piersall was, it's earned its spot at the top of the order of any serious collection of baseball biographies. --Jeff Silverman

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