|
My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir (Audio CD)
by Clarence Thomas
| Category:
Biography, Leadership, Life, Motivation |
| Market price: ¥ 388.00
MSL price:
¥ 358.00
[ Shop incentives ]
|
| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
|
|
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Written in such a personal and down to earth style that this book provides a much-needed glimpse at the life of Justice Thomas, a remarkable man by all means. |
| If you want us to help you with the right titles you're looking for, or to make reading recommendations based on your needs, please contact our consultants. |
|
| |
AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 12 items |
|
|
Gregory Adams (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-18 00:00>
Thomas' autobiography is as fascinating, inspiring and as well written as Booker T. Washington's "Up From Slavery." Like Washington, Thomas rose from poverty to a position of leadership via the dual virtues of hard work, and education.
As a child, Thomas moves from rural poverty, to urban poverty, then into the modest home of his very hardworking grandfather. His minimally literate grandparents pushed him to get a first rate education, and taught him the value of hard work.
After graduating from Yale Law School, which had begun an affirmative action program, he found that nobody wanted to hire him. Being a Yale Man meant something different when the man was black.
Fellow Yalie John Danforth finally hired Thomas, and became his lifelong friend. In one government job after another, Thomas took on enormous responsibilities, for mean pay. He was still paying off student loans when he chaired the EEOC.
The rigors of the confirmation battle are covered in wrenching detail, including the Anita Hill fiasco. Thomas complains that if a black man dares to think for himself, and come to conclusions other than those of the "liberal" Democrats, it isn't tolerated. For his independence, Shelby Steele called Thomas "the freest black man in America", in National Review. (Oct 5, 2007)
Throughout the book, Thomas describes not only his victories, but his personal failures and shortcomings in stark honesty. He describes himself as one more human being dealing with his problems step by uncertain step.
I wouldn't have been able to put the book down, except that I had work to do, and I could hear Thomas' grandfather urging me to get up and get to it. |
|
|
Jerry (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-18 00:00>
Justice Thomas talks openly and candidly about his life as a young boy and through the Anita Hill debacle.
If you like Clarence Thomas, you'll love the book.
If you don't like Clarence Thomas, there is even more reason to read the book. It is intimate and revealing as to why he is the person that he is today. The book lays bare the bad side of Mr. Thomas (such as his over indulgence in alcohol, etc.) as well as the good.You may still dislike him after reading the book but, at least, you'll know why.
Read the book, if for no other reason than to find out where the "high tech lynching" came from. |
|
|
Atul (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-18 00:00>
To the guy who posted Anita Hill's NY Times Op-Ed in whole - do you at least have the shame to read to book? You obviously haven't yet.
Self serving? You preceded that charge with the point that he practically cannot be removed from office. Self serving how?
Anita Hill cannot get professional accomplishment, even with you and the MSM trying to role out the red carpet for her. She managed to leave Oklahoma for a job at Brandeis, but who doubts she'd be a dean somewhere if she wasn't as much an empty suit as she's made herself out to be?
And for the record, Harry Reid... Clarence Thomas is smarter than you will ever be. And has more integrity. Land deals anyone? |
|
|
Alex (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-18 00:00>
Never before have I read such an emotional, inspiring and eye-opening account of not only the author's life, but the ugly interworkings of the dominant leftist politics and the elite media in America over the last half century, especially when race was involved. I came away with a new respect for this man, completely understanding and relating to his core ethics and beliefs, which were rooted in family, hard work and self-reliance, not partisan influences. I came away angered at the treatment he received for daring use these ethics and beliefs to speak the truth in the face of a left-wing and media establishment more interested in their own theories, routinely taking the black voice for granted, ruthlessly attacking with inherently racist methods when one spoke against their group-think with simple facts. I came away inspired by the successes he has acheived, despite all of the adversity he faced, both personal and political, and I appreciated his deep honesty and openess on issues of self-imposed adversity, such as his flirtations with black radicalism, alcoholism and the problems in his first marriage.
I'd highly recommend this book for anyone, whether you agree with his politics or not, just to see where he is coming from, and the hits he took along the way. The man is one of the most genuine public figures out there right now, and this book drives that home. |
|
|
Louise Cate (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-18 00:00>
Clarence Thomas wrote an amazing testimony of how his grandfather saved Clarence and his brother from living lives limited by ignorance, fear, poverty, hopelessness, poor work habits, etc. Clarence's grandfather taught the boys to work hard, study hard, and do their best in whatever they did. What a wonderful "only in America" success story!
My only criticism of the book is that the section on Anita Hill did not include enough information about all the people who worked for many years with Mr. Thomas without seeing him doing anything that could be called sexual harrassment.
Because Anita Hill followed Mr. Thomas from job to job and remained friends with him for 10 years after he supposedly sexually harassed her, it is difficult to believe her charges of sexual harassment. |
|
|
Readalots (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-18 00:00>
For Christmas, my mother gave me a copy of Clarence Thomas' 2007 289-page autobiography "My Grandfather's Son". It has proven to be a remarkable read!
Judge Thomas' life is an extraordinary from "poverty to pinnacle" story. Growing up in his grandparents impoverished home, with their southern moral temperament, young Thomas aspired to better himself and his peers' condition. Wracked with by lifetime of self-guilt, personal foreboding, other's prejudice, national racism, and other's hatred, he persevered to the highest levels of the American judiciary. His inspiring spiritual journey, away from religion later to return, to God is poignant and alone is worth the price of this book!
In this book Justice Thomas set the record straight about his years at the EEOC, the DC Circuit Court, and his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. He refutes Anita Hill's misguided attempt to besmirch him. He tells the truth about senatorial backsliding and backbiting. And he reminds that religious faith is always the cornerstone for powerful living.
Thomas' 13-year (1969 to 1982) walk from "angry black man" to "black conservative" is informative and convincing. His opposition to abortion, desegregation, big government, and government welfare are thoroughly reviewed. By the late 1970s his frustration with the Democrat Party caused his severance from social liberalism. He entered US Supreme Court life (a conservative, in 1991) as one dedicated to making America better for everyone.
This remarkable story is recommended to everyone wondering about Clarence Thomas, late 20th century Washington DC politics, or the power of personal religious faith. |
|
|
Lotti (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-18 00:00>
I was excited when I learned that Justice Thomas had penned his memoirs because I had always wanted to know what happened to him since leaving St. John Vianney and becoming a Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. I was a classmate at St. John's, one year behind Clarence. There were only 60 students in the seminary at the time; just nine in my class. I can remember those days, sometimes fondly, other times with melancholy. Mostly, I remember Clarence befriending a young freshman and including me when we were selected for intramural sports teams or work crews. I can remember his broad smile, big laugh and understanding character throughout those impressionable few years. I never knew of his personal pain and angst about racial sensitivity because he was always kind and understanding with me. Clarence's book, "My Grandfather's Son", gave me the rest of the story. Not unlike most of us, as well as other important figures in American history, Justice Thomas has a personal story to tell about how his principals and values were forged. I can personally testify about the young man I only knew for a few years as Clarence. He was smart, friendly, and kind. He had a mean slam dunk and a powerful over the net volleyball smash. Most of all he had a good heart. Congratulations on the book Clarence. You've done us all at St. John's proud! |
|
|
Vernon (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-18 00:00>
Cicero once said: "In nothing do men approach so nearly to the Gods, as in giving health to men."
Virgil said: "The greatest wealth is health."
So many of us take our health for granted. It's truly THE MOST IMPORTANT asset each of us have. I am posting this review to not only share my favorite, most important health books of 2007... but more important, to hopefully convince just one person to read a book that might strengthen their health and maybe help them live a little longer and a little healthier.
With that said... My Most Important Health Books of the Year:
You: Staying Young - Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen hit a home run with this book. The advice is sound and the nutritional recommendations are cutting edge, presenting the latest research on nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids and cayenne. This book may very well help rejuvenate your health and allow you to drop the extra pounds and possibly protect, and even reverse, certain ailments such as diabetes, high cholesterol, arthritis, and others.
The Natural Bird Flu Cure They Don't Want You to Know About - The deadly bird flu is spreading like wildfire across Asia, and it's only a matter of time before it hits the U.S. The CDC and government officials have said as much. Unfortunately, we don't hear a lot about the bird flu in the U.S. anymore because of the media's preoccupation with O.J. and Britney Spears. This book reveals a possible natural cure to the deadly bird flu supported by 2 Nobel Prize-winning chemists.
You: On A Diet - Another book by Drs. Oz and Roizen. While I do not like the word "diet" (it conjures up images of strict calorie cutting, sacrifice, and, well, torture), this book does share a wonderful plan for finally and forever dropping those extra pounds. Let's face it, the majority of illness and ill health in America today is food related. This really is an important, worthwhile book, despite its somewhat gimmicky title. |
|
|
Jack (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-18 00:00>
I sent a copy of Atlas Shrugged to my son. He says the writing is amazing, although he notices an overuse of the heavy sentence. He says it cured him of his bias against female writers. Well, I used to have that too. It took a while for me to get rid of all my faults. As Krauthammer said of Judge Thomas's new autobiography, I've read Atlas Shrugged, but not personally. I've read a lot about it. But Gawd, it's like a million pages long. And I'm getting presbyopia. In my case they should change the name of that condition, to something like hotstudopia. Cuz I'm so virile. I feel the need to point this out, because people just don't pay attention to the really important stuff. Also important is the reading of good books. Maybe it's out on tape? One of you ingrate slackers can send me one, as a minimal gesture toward how much I've done for you.
I am going to buy Thomas's autobiography. A birthday present. I don't really go in for birthday presents, but it's an excuse to give this book, which I think will be a, as it were, blessing. Kristol recounts how Thomas was abandoned by his father and raised by a very stern grandfather, who later was gentle and indulgent with Thomas's own son, Jamal. Per Kristol, Thomas eventually inquired about this of the old man, whom he called "Daddy": "'Tell me something, Daddy, you never make Jamal do anything he doesn't want to do. You let him do whatever he wants. You do whatever he asks you to do. But you never treated [my brother] and me that way. Why not?' His grandfather replied, 'Jamal is not my responsibility.'"
This seems to me to be a profound truth.
"And Thomas goes on to wonder 'how hard it had been for him to hide his affection from us. How often had he looked in on my brother and me as we slept, gazing at us with the same sweetness I saw each time he looked at Jamal? How often had he longed to hold us, hug us, grant our every wish, but held himself back for fear of letting us see his vulnerability, believing as he did that real love demanded not affection but discipline?'"
I bend the other way. Not indulgent, but affectionate. I had an unshakable conviction about discipline, but it was selective. Some things don't matter. Some things are best overlooked. Both views are probably right. Mine is easier, I think, or at least more human. It certainly requires more wisdom, and so invites more frequent failure. But I hope the failures would be smaller than that which comes from withholding tenderness. Thomas turned out alright. So has my son.
"At the most recent Democratic presidential debate," says Kristol, "Tim Russert asked the candidates to name their favorite Bible verse. The answers tended toward the unexceptionable..." His own favorite verse, he thinks, might be from the preparation for the reading of the Torah during the sabbath. When the scrolls are produced, "the congregation stands, as the Israelites stood at the base of Mt. Sinai, and chants the verse: 'When the ark was carried forward, Moses would say, "Arise, Lord! May Your enemies be scattered, may Your foes be put to flight."'" Numbers 10:35.
As I've said, once I read the Bible four times in six weeks. It sort of all comes together, when you do that. Sixty-six books, forty authors, but one book and one author. I saw it. And I don't have a favorite verse. There are a number that speak to me. But what leaped to my mind at the question are two verses, each, respectively, the shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. The shortest verse in the English Bible. Jesus, a man, grieves. But Rejoice, always. The shortest Greek verse. We cannot always rejoice. It is a commandment that God knows is impossible. Jesus, after all, wept. We have a God who weeps.
There's that wisdom thing again. We must do what is appropriate to the moment. We must be stern, and gentle. There is a way that we are God's responsibilities. We have a parent who abandoned us. Call him Adam, who handed us over to despair. No blame to him. We all would have done the same thing. But standing back behind Adam is God, a stern father. He wants us to rejoice. He weeps. He watches us as we sleep and feels unspeakable affection for us, but he shows it only in his discipline, or almost only. He can't indulge us now. The time of rejoicing is a promise of the future. This is a time for tears. We have responsibilities.
But we have a father, at least, who loves us as we sleep. I know this from a book I read. And from my own son, whom I loved as he slept. |
|
|
Loa Fan (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-18 00:00>
In this work, Justice Thomas bares his soul as to the man behind the robes, warts and all. Many critics have accused him of "whining" but I would disagree vehemently. By making it clear how much he personally felt the pain of the various incidents in his life, none so much as the vetting for the Supreme Court in the Senate, he becomes a "real person" and less a political persona.
Many in his place would likely have glossed over the "getting there" and simply waxed philosophical about how noble the system is that allowed him to achieve his current position. Rather, Justice Thomas points out the surprising personal vitrol that he experienced, from both black and white liberals, as a "conservative" black man. His condemnation of modern liberalism and its impact on the African-American family and community is enlightening. It had to be, and no doubt continues to be, a lonely life as a black, conservative living in the liberal bastion that is our nation's capital. His unwillingess to become a token in any sense, coupled with a deep-rooted intellectual development into a social conservative (in the true sense of the word) provides an interesting read. His long-time relationship with John Danforth, and the insight into this well known political figure, was heartwarming and offered some hope that there may still be "honest" men and women among our elected Congress.
All in all, Justice Thomas bares his soul as to the struggles of a young, southern, black man who was able to take advantage of his gifted intelligence, achieving a notable academic and professional career. The shadow of "quotas" that he acknowledges clouded his college and law school achievement are an unfortunate aspect of a society that mislabelled his successes. Justice Thomas was intellectually more than a match for both Holy Cross and Yale Law School. The personal doubts and societal stereotyping that he fought for years are illustrated graphically in his poignant illustrations of the financial, social, religious, marital, philosophical and emotional roller coaster ride of his life's story. This is a very real, non-politically correct memoir of a man fighting stereotype, personal doubt and slander for much of his adult life. He does not cry about it. He does not blame anyone for it. Rather, he points out how he has, with the help of a loving spouse and son as well as numerous close friends who have always believed in him and stuck by him, matured past these low points in his life. He simply seeks to identify himself as a man, a father, a husband, a Christian... and his grandfather's son. He has persevered.
Any person (but I would argue that men will be better able to understand it) who has struggled with obstacles and has come out the other end a better person, remaining committed to the values and important people of his life will find this a refreshing, emotionally charged story. It may also provide insight into the judicial mind of this good man and outstanding jurist. |
|
|
|
1 2 | Total 2 pages 12 items |
|
|
|
|
|
|
