Book Review Mondays

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Can you ever forgive me? Memoirs of a Literary Forger
by Lee Israel

Book Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

For this 129-page book, I begin by quoting from an Amazon.com review: “Barely repentant and witheringly funny, Israel recalls her short life of literary crime as, first, the forger of signed letters by such personages as Dorothy Parker, Noel Coward, and Louise Brooks, and then, more desperately, an out-and-out thief of such documents, all for resale to dealers and collectors. She has nearly as much fun telling her story as she did as a forger, and she proudly includes many examples of her handiwork.” David H. Lowenherz, the dealer who took her forgeries to the FBI and participated in the operation that caught her, writes this in his review of her book: “The book may be entertaining, but her betrayal, greed and immorality, are not so amusing to the scholars, collectors, dealers, and institutions she hurt. That her memoir should receive the imprimatur of Simon and Schuster says as much about the morality of publishers as her cashing in on her misdeeds. Have they no shame?” There is no doubt that Israel is a forger, and she admits it; however, she is also a delightful writer. If you are a person who enjoys books about books and writers, you will certainly enjoy this short memoir about a writer whose royalties dried up, and who then resorted to a life of crime to make ends meet.

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The Fist Billion is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America’s Energy Future
by T. Boone Pickens

Book Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

I love reading about people who have been successful, who have faced challenges and overcome them, earned a great deal of money and lost it, only to rise again, and if that is what you are looking for, this is a good read. It’s not just a good read, it is inspiring and entertaining as well. He is certainly a man of determination and boundless energy who surrounded himself with dedicated, driven partners. Of 12 chapters, it is autobiographical in all but the last one, “The Big Idea: An Energy Plan for America.”. I don’t think it can be considered a business book, nor is it any kind of blueprint for making money. The outline of his national energy plan (to free us from our oil addiction) is interesting but not particularly new. This is a simplistic book, written in the first person, conversational style, and a quick read. But it is a book, too, that needed editing, and can be considered, an introductory overview and little more.

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