Biography
Patricia Bosworth has definitely done her homework in this well-written and researched book about Jane Fonda. Bosworth has delved into the psychological aspects of Fonda's life and written not only about her acting and activist careers but her insecurities and foibles.
Jane Fonda's childhood was not the privileged one the public thinks a child of a famous actor (Henry Fonda) would have but one full of determination to please her cold, unemotional father and rejection of her mother. Her mother commits suicide and this combined with her father's seeming constant disapproval forms Jane into the woman she becomes.
Jane first married Roger Vadim, who molded her into the sex kitten and superstar actress she became. Her second marriage was to Tom Hayden who seems only to want her money. Ted Turner actively pursued Jane until she married him.
Career-wise, Jane has acted and no one who grew up in the sixties can forget Hanoi Jane. Jane visited North Vietnam while the US was at war with them and sat on anti-aircraft guns for a picture and talked to POWs. She was vilified at the time and received death threats. She has since helped many activist organizations.
Next was her career as workout guru. This has been a bonanza that continues to this day.
This book brought Jane to life and gave an insight into her which was very interesting. It is a very large book and at times I did find it a bit sluggish but this is probably due to the shear volume of Jane's achievements. I wonder if because Jane has not been in the limelight for a number of years whether this book will appeal to those who are younger.
Jane is a bundle of energy who never stops. She is constantly in motion and has more careers than anyone would have in several lifetimes. Unfortunately throughout her life she sometimes does things without thinking through the consequences and that gets her into a great deal of difficulty.
First Line: "Only Jane Fonda can upstage Oprah Winfrey"
Rating: 
(4.0/5)
When multi-millionaire Sam Westing dies, his will asks those people to move in to a new apartment complex and play in his game to win $20M from his estate. He pairs up the heirs and gives them each a clue, asking them to figure out who murdered him. The clues that each pair were given, however, make no sense by themselves. While the heirs try to figure out what these clues mean, there is a person stealing stuff and putting small bombs around the apartment. The two don't seem to have anything to do with each other though, which is part of the reason why I felt this book was disjointed.
Jasper Fforde has written a devilish clever novel. It is partly sci-fi, partly mystery and partly speculative fiction.
Ingrid is a nun that grew up at Greyleigh Abbey and took an interest in the infirmary at a young age. As she helps the elder nun that works there, she realizes that she can miraculously cure people. The Abbey declares her a saint and wants her to see visitors that have written in about their illnesses. Ingrid is less sure she is a saint. She couldn't feel God working through her when she performed the miracle and doesn't feel special at all.
Nina Revskaya is a former ballerina with the Bolshoi ballet. She is now living in Boston in a wheelchair and has decided to auction her precious jewelry. She believes this might ease her mind about the memories of her past life.
It seems like most people I know got a chance to read this book in high school. It wasn't required reading for me in high school so it took me a while to get around to reading it. I'm glad I did and I'm sure I'll read it again later in my life.
This novel/biography is from the point of view of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway's first wife. It depicts the time line of meeting in Chicago, travelling to Paris, having a child in Toronto and back to Paris.
This book is set in seventeenth century France in an out of the way monastery by the sea. When Juliette finds herself pregnant she escapes her life as a gypsy and tightrope walker to lead a peaceful and serene life at the monastery. She tends to her garden and her daughter and teaches the novices to read Latin.
Alice is a published Harvard professor in psychology, specializing in linguistics. When she starts to forget small items, she thinks maybe she is headed for early menopause. The items she forgets start to become bigger problems and eventually Alice forgets where she is for a moment in Harvard Square. Still hiding this from her family, Alice visits her family doctor and a neurologist and is given a positive diagnosis: Alzheimer's.
Nina Revskaya was one of the great stars of the Russian ballet during a perilous time for her country. Nina escapes Russia to Boston, where we meet her as an elderly lady who is selling off her jewelry collection. She is frustrated by her body starting to fail her and for other reasons that, at the start of the story, the reader is unsure of. The process of selling off her jewels brings back memories of Nina during her ballet days, when she met her husband Viktor, danced with her best friend, and watched a good friend taken by Stalin's government for crimes he did not commit. Nina's memories also come back when she is contacted by Grigori Solodin, a translator of Nina's husband's poetry who has a necklace that exactly matches some of the jewels that Nina has put up for auction. Some of her memories as painful as she remembers her life in Russia.