Editorial Review

The Red Hot Chili Peppers is the iconic band's audacious look back at their thirty-year odyssey—in their own words and accompanied by more than 300 spectacular photos and ephemera. Intimate, breathtaking, and outrageous, this is the essence of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

"I am struck with the moments of these photos, the feelings of the times they were taken, and where we were at on our beautiful and happy-sad journey. It's pretty fucking heavy, actually, like thinking how much we have changed over the years, and all the different dynamics of our lives that shaped us, and also realizing so clearly that nothing has changed at all—we're all still just trying to get it on, make something great.

"It is all here, nothing can hide: all the honesty, the pretense, the courage and one-of-a-kind-ness, the unbridled joy, the melancholy, and the shields we put up to shelter our scared, vulnerable little selves."

—Flea

Reviews

A Must for Chili Pepper Fans, November 21, 2010
It's great to see a book about a band written in their own words. It has been on heck of a ride for RCHP and even if you are a hardcore fan, you will have insight into this band that you never had before. The photographs are incredible, but the band member comments and stories really make them take a back seat. You absolutely cannot go wrong buying this book. You will be entertained and will learn a lot about a wonderful band who have seen and done it all....Bravo, Peppers :)

Worth the wait!!!, November 17, 2010
Fantastic book. Like a great dessert you savor by the mouthful, wishing it would never end. A must for fans. A must for anyone who wants to understand the evolution of genius. Try it, you'll like it!

Pages, Sugar, Sex, Peppers, December 3, 2010
Nowadays find a good band like RHCP is hard as hell. So a book like this, telling their story from their words is a great experience. I have to say: this book is more than a coffee-table gift, must go with all the records of the peppers. The pictures are amazing, specially the crazy-ones (ex. some members in drag - tasteful) for a fan who have their old LP's to the newest fans who download their music, this book should be in your home next to a guitar or a mic.

A lot of info and good photos, November 17, 2010
As a RHCP fan I just love this book. It had a lot of information about the band members, thousands of photos. Very well impressed on good, thick paper.

Awesome-ness, November 15, 2010
It took a while to arrive, but it was definitely worthy. The package was neat, the book was in an awesome state. Nothing to complain. ... Read more

Reviews

The Life of Theodore Roosevelt

Beginning with the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and followed by Theodore Rex and Colonel Roosevelt, this trilogy is Edmund Morris's epic biography of our 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt.

Whether you admire him or not, Roosevelt remains a thoroughly fascinating subject, a brilliant man with widely varied interests and talents who lived what can only be termed an extraordinary life. The fact that he lived during a time of rapid and dramatic change throughout much of the world only adds further texture to his story.

Morris' books are deeply interesting, meticulously researched and best of all, eminently readable - scholarly works made accessible to the non-scholar through the almost novel-like approach Morris has taken.

Briefly, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979) covers TR's life from his childhood through the death of President McKinley which launched TR into the presidency, (for a more complete understanding of these years, pair this one with David McCullough's wonderful Mornings on Horseback), Theodore Rex (2001) covers his presidency and Colonel Roosevelt (2010) his post-presidential years.

While I read them, I rarely review biographies - I'm usually more than content to leave that to scholars who can voice opinions on a book's overall worth with far more insight than I can. But TR is one of my my favorite biographical subjects and I couldn't resist chiming in with my own recommendation for Morris' stellar work. I consider it the definitive study of TR's life and could not recommend it more highly.



... Read more

Editorial Review

Evoking days gone by when coaches were expected as much for their off-court performance as for their success on the court, this unique and intimate work presents the timeless wisdom of legendary basketball coach John Wooden.

In honest and telling passages about virtually every aspect of life, Wooden shares the important personal philosophies that helped make him the winningest coach of all time. ... Read more

Reviews

A "Wizard", Yes, But Also Human
Having once coached varsity high school basketball for 13 years and having heard Coach Wooden speak at numerous clinics, I can personally attest to the authenticity of this book's contents. It correctly suggests both the man's wizardry and humanity. Jabbar and Walton have almost nothing in common except their talent to play basketball and their love and respect for Coach Wooden. He is proud of them but probably just as proud of hundreds of other players (most known only to him, their families, and friends) who are physicians, educators, artists, attorneys, public servants, corporate executives, entertainers, etc. He set very high standards, especially for himself. He prepared for each practice and each game with meticulous care. He hated losing for lack of a maximum effort but accepted defeat (after a maximum effort) with exceptional style and grace. Anyone who has any association with children, especially those privileged to coach at any level, should read this book. And may I add, anyone who feels adrift in her or his life should also read this book. The "lessons" provided helped to win so many NCAA national basketball champlionships; they also helped to develop the character of those who played on the U.C.L.A. teams which won them.

Wisdom from a master teacher
Listen to anyone who speaks about him, or read anything that anyone writes about him, and you will instantly know that John Wooden is truly a national treasure. This book of Wooden's wisdom and life philosophies is definitely on my short list of the best books of all time about character and leadership.

This book is a collection of the simple and direct beliefs and observations of John Wooden, arguably the best (college) basketball coach of all time. Interestingly, very little of what Wooden wants to teach is about basketball. His quick stories, short vignettes, and detailed memories focus on life and relationships with others.

Coach Wooden is a gentle man with the courage and discipline to live his life according to his deepest held ideals, values, and principles. Despite his teams' unbelievable success (10 NCAA national basketball championships in 12 years (including 7 in a row!), 88 consecutive victories, and 38 straight NCAA tournament victories), and his own fame (many coach-of-the-year honors, "Sports Illustrated's" sportsman of the year, a lifetime winning percentage of over 80%, and the first man to be elected to college basketball's hall of fame as both a player (3-time All-American at Purdue) and coach), he resisted the public pressures and temptations to stay true to himself and his beliefs.

Coach Wooden defines success as the "peace of mind that is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming." The book finishes with 30 pages devoted to Wooden's legendary "Pyramid of Success" and another 5 pages of his favorite sayings - 35 priceless pages in a priceless book.

At a time when America is re-defining and searching for true heroes to lead us forward from our darkest days, this book is a beacon of hope and guidance and should serve as a blueprint for making heroes of us all.

Wooden- The Wizard does it again!
I bought this book while visiting the UCLA campus to attend a mens' basketball game. I received "Practical Modern Basketball" from my high school coach as a gift when I began my teaching and coaching career in 1976. This became my coaching bible for years to come. When I saw this new book, Wooden, I bought it without hesitation, thinking that John Wooden's "Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court" was as much a mystery as it was curiosity relative to my appreciation and utilization of the words of wisdom provided in the book I received as a gift in 1976.

My career in public education has allowed me to seriously reflect on my life as it pertains to personal gratification of preparing for unknown opportunities and being able to rationalize with poise and confidence. I attribute many successes in my life to the Wooden philosophy that I followed in my early years of my career. Wooden's, reflections, is an outstanding assessment of what a man of Mr. Wooden's character achieved through hard work, dedication to his own philosophy, and the love for life and people. I have recommended this book to personnel within my organization,to coaches and friends. It is also a great asset for parents who need direction in how to raise their children, basing all dialoge and communication on respect. I truly respect the real value of this book as an asset to my future and my family and my responsibities as Assistant Superintendent of Schools!

Thanks, Eddie Booth, Winnemucca, NV

Not a book about basketball, but about life!
John Wooden had one of the most successful basketball careers as both a player in coach. He also had a strong family life with his parents, wife and kids. In this book, you'll read all his secrets to success that makes him a truly special person of strong moral values and organizational skills. He surely was a great influence on almost everyone he associated with.

There's nothing here about basketball strategy. The book is broken up into 1-4 paragraph anecdotes about subjects relating to family values, organization, and success.

His basic philosophy in winning was not which team scored the most, but whether or not his team played to their maximum ability. He also has some interesting stories about Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

The best part of the book, in my opinion, is where he outlines his pyramid of success. The pyramid is a step-by-step, building block of characteristics you must master which lead you to maximizing your potential and perform at the highest level possible, whether it's sports, business, or family. A must read.

"Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."
John Wooden, former UCLA Basketball coach, came together with Steve Jamison to compile a book based on John Wooden's philosophies. This book, "A Lifetime of Reflections and Observations On and Off the Court" appeals to everybody. If you're a fan of basketball, play basketball, or are a father or mother, son or daughter, John Wooden gives his advice to everybody. Most people will think that this book is only about basketball, not at all. If you're looking for answers for any kind of problem you are facing, I'm sure John Wooden will have some affect on you.

John Wooden is an 88 year old who was a former UCLA basketball coach, leading the Bruins to 10 championships in 12 years. He grew up in a small town and has lived a simple and basic life. In the book, he talks about success as a person, personal goals, acting towards others, behaviour, discipline, parenting, leadership, adversity, and numerous other topics - of course including basketball.

This book has made me a better person and a better basketball player. It has taught me that I can learn from experience, not things that I can learn before-hand. It has taught me how to constantly improve and how to always work harder. To be industrious and enthusiastic in everything I do! With that said, I'll leave you with a quote from John Wooden that has helped me improve in school, on the court, or whenever I'm working; "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."

An outstanding work of art.
Quite simply the most impressive book of this nature I have ever read. John Wooden provides all readers with inspiration and a challenge. I only wish I could have met the man. All the people who have been behind the creation of this masterpiece, should be congratulated. It will stand the test of time.

Basketball & More, Wooden's lessons on life
John Wooden is more content with his role in this world than any person I know. But that's easy when you have touched so many people positively. I hated the Bruins until they beat my beloved UofMemphis Tigers in 73 behind Walton's 21-22 shooting, still considered on of the greatest performances in basketball. After that I listened to Wooden as a television analyst and it was inspiring. No words were wasted. Not maximum entertainment. Just pure knowledge for those willing to listen and learn.

That's what Wooden was and wanted to be, a teacher. In this one book, he states his simple principles, where he learned them, and why they are important. Imagine a man growing up early in this century in Indiana in a hardworking Midwestern family. That's what Wooden was and that's what this book relays to the reader.

Don't read this book to get a basketball lesson. Read this book to learn life's lesson and relish in a man who has no ego because he knows that it is a detriment.

I cannot say enough good things about this man and the life he led. This book was given to me by a friend of John Wooden's, autographed and enclosed with his personal business card. The business card contains the Pyramid for success. John Wooden, always coaching, always teaching.

The Plain and Simple Truth
It's just a small little book, how can it be anything more than a collection of cliches? Hmmm, good question. This is all I can tell you: it works. Philosophy often has so little practical application in the real world. Not so with Wooden's message. Read it, absorb it, live it. You'll see.

Ten year's ago I wrote a letter to coach Wooden. He was so very kind to respond. His letter remains on my wall to this day, and the words of wisdom in that letter are within this book. I asked Coach Wooden how you can get players to "over-achieve." He corrected me. "Nobody can overachieve," he wrote, "you can only do the best that you're capable of doing. It's the leader's job to create an environment where the followers can rise to their own level of competence."

That is the key.

Create an evironment where you can become the best that you can be. Follow his words of advice and before you realize it you are within that "healthy environment." Next thing you know, good things just start happening more often than they did before.

Life is hard no matter what you do. Coach Wooden doesn't claim anything different, but his philosophy, which is really a country blend of Christianity, Zen, and a host of other philosophies simplified, creates that "healthy environment."

Short, simple, genius.

Took my game - and life - to another level.
This book has had perhaps the greatest influence on me as of late. I have drank from this book deeply, and read it several times. In fact, when I seek advice, I open up the little blue book and look for something that says about problems. Not only has this book took my basketball skills to a whole nother level, but it has made me a better person all around. I have changed many of my bad habits, and I'm pretty glad I have changed, as many of my friends like my new attitude, etc. For basketball players, this book will get you into it mentally. Before I read this book, I only had the physical talent to play the game, now I feel as if I have a stable mental view and I am in the game mentally. This book teaches you so much, I cannot say enough. Coach Wooden even guides you step by step, pillar by pillar, through the period of success. This book is a must for basketball fans, players, and for the average person. Even if you despise sports, this book contains information on life itself, it's a must for all.

Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and reflections On and ..
I have long been a John Wooden and UCLA fan. Growing up in N.C., everyone was expected to be a UNC or NC State fan. I was neither.

I have owned "They Call Me Coach" for many years, and recently purchased Coach's "Lifetime Observations". While most of the information is similar to "They Call Me Coach", this book reinforces the solid principles and values upon which Coach Wooden has built his life. It contains fewer stories about basketball, and more about life, values and worthwhile achievement. It is another opportunity to gain insight into how this man has accomplished such great success as a person, not just as a coach. For the reader, it is also an opportunity for for self-examination.

Thanks to Coach Wooden and Steve Jamison for offering to those of us who cherish the Coach's contributions to life another chance to absorb the teaching of a lifetime. ... Read more

Editorial Review

New York Times bestselling author Jenny McCarthy returns to her comic roots in this candid, wise, and witty look at women, men, sex, romance, heartbreak, love, and how (not) to fake it.

In Belly Laughs, Jenny McCarthy told you what you could really expect when you're expecting. In Baby Laughs and Life Laughs, she gave you the unfiltered ups and downs of motherhood and marriage. Now, in Love, Lust & Faking It, the inveterate truth teller turns the lights on for a funny, often poignant, and no-holds-barred look at the essence of relationships: love and sex.

Jenny explores the intensity of first love, introducing us to Tony, the boy of her teenage dreams, and Tubby, her dirty, sexy stuffed teddy bear. She takes us on a whirlwind tour of the world of aphrodisiacs and fetishes, explains the importance of playing doctor and other nice and naughty fantasies, and gives thanks for the pleasures of chocolate. And she sets the story straight on STDs, man junk and lady bits, why we really cheat, why women are master manipulators, the virtues of sex with the lights off, the power of a "loving no," the satisfaction of the perfect booty call, and so much more.

Filled with humorous stories about her own out-rageous exploits—from becoming a Playboy Miss October to the pain of getting a discount boob job to meeting Brad Pitt—as well as the lessons she's learned from family, friends, and fans, Love, Lust & Faking It takes on a subject the sex symbol, mother, television star, comedian, and divorcÉe can be trusted to examine with nothing but unvarnished honesty and earthy humor. Throughout, Jenny reminds us to aim higher, believe in true love, and, most of all, be kind to ourselves. And to have lots of fun and sex—without faking it.

Reviews

I want my money back
As a fan of Jenny McCarthy, I'm sorry to say that this book is awful. I have read her other books and enjoyed them, but this one felt like she was just trying to get anything on paper to get a paycheck. It is completely random, from astrology to an entire chapter that ends "just kidding, that never happened". It was seriously bad and I wish I didn't buy it on my Kindle so that I could get my money back. Not funny, not entertaining, not worth 11.99 for sure!! I only finished the book (because I couldn't return it mainly, but also) in the hope that it was going to get better and I was left disappointed.

buy it now, what are you waiting for?!!
I bought this book after seeing Jenny on Oprah and within about 3 hours had read it cover to cover. It is so so funny, its kind of like reading a very long email from your funniest friend! I literally laughed out loud at many parts! Has some good facts and resources as well but the heart I think is Jenny's honesty and the humor. I want all my girlfriends to read it! You will not be disappointed. Oh it is on the racy side so keep that in mind :)

Flippin' Awesome!
Jenny didn't let me down! From first loves, to the love of pleasuring yourself, to heartbreak, and sex, this book tells it all! Not only is it extremely entertaining, but it's about something that's on our minds everyday: LOVE & SEX! And of course, the love of sex! Very funny and very "educational." I definitely recommend it to EVERYONE! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

Un Bijou for You
I read this book the way I read Ms. Karbo's book on Katharine Hepburn: greedily, with an eye to what was in it for me. I plundered every chapter heading: On Style, On Self-Invention, On Fearlessness... does this fit me? Could I/should I adopt this for my own? With some, like On Embracing the Moment, I thought, Oh sure, I've already got that; with others, like On Living Life on Your Own Terms, I was stopped short, and I thought Yeah! I've gotta cultivate that!

The other compelling thing about this book is that once you get past self-interest, you discover that Coco Chanel was an amazing woman. She invented modern fashion, and to do so had to rise above poverty and an actual orphanage. This was great material to draw on and reshape, which she did: Ms. Karbo says Chanel "lied about or embellished everything in her childhood...she had no respect for anything she didn't create, and that included her own history." Her trajectory included being a shopgirl, seamstress, cafe singer, and kept woman before she got to couturiere extraordinaire, and she owed nothing to anyone but herself. She was self-made and a revolutionary.

Karen Karbo tells Coco Chanel's story in a lively way and mines it for usable wisdom. I recommend this book for any fashionista, for sure, and for any francophile, and for any woman who loves the struggle. I especially like it for women who make things or strive to make things, like books or sculpture or businesses or anything else. The Gospel According to Coco Chanel is heartening and a lot of fun.

Mais oui...
I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this book... I loved Ms. Karbo's previous book about Katherine Hepburn, but as a longtime -- and unabashed -- fan of Chanel, I was really looking forward to this book when I read about it a few months ago in Bazaar.

Like Chanel herself, Ms. Karbo does not disappoint. Her writing style is tremendous -- witty and fun, moving and historically insightful, she is like a terrific dinner party guest you want to stay for the weekend (and tell nonstop Coco Chanel stories, of course).

I picked this book up as an impulse on one of the front tables of B+N, and read it over the course of two days.

As a modern woman who loves Chanel, I am suggesting it to all my stylish girlfriends, it would make a perfect hostess gift.

And by the way, I HOPE that Karbo gets that real Chanel jacket she is dreaming of.

a mini-biography, with great dish and helpful wisdom
Coco Chanel couldn't be making a star turn in media at a better time.

Start with Anne Fontaine's film "Coco Before Chanel", coming to American theaters this fall after dazzling audiences in Europe. It's the right film about Chanel: the early years. And though the facts are as murky about pre-Chanel Chanel as about the fashion icon, the theme --- a woman born without advantages, making her way in the world --- is more universal.

But the better reason for women --- and the men who love them --- to pay attention to Chanel is because she was a cheerleader for self-sufficiency, in good times and bad. So skip over the fashion. Consider only the politics. I mean: ours.

Is this a great time to be a woman in America? I'm not so sure. More American women may now be going to college than men, but when they graduate, they're still looking at salaries as much as 30% lower than men get for the same work. The anti-choice movement, always noisy, has upped the volume --- and the violence. And it seems that a sizable number of American men won't be happy until all women are homebound mothers, wearing the equivalent of the burqa.

No writer has a better understanding of what it means to be Chanel and what it means to be a woman who admires Chanel than Karen Karbo, author of the short (240 pages) and addictive The Gospel According to Coco Chanel. Karbo is the granddaughter of Emilia Karbowski, known as "Luma of California" for the clothes she designed for the wives of movie moguls in the 1950s. Which is to say: Karen Karbo is real and unashamed of it: "I am the average consumer." She looks for Chanel jackets on eBay. And she writes as if she's having a conversation with a close friend over double-shot lattes.

Who is Chanel to Karbo?

Chain-smoker. Workaholic, though she could stay in bed all morning with a newspaper. Leo, with a Pisces moon. Born nobody. Fell in love once, but not again. Her bigger love: money. "Money was more than her security blanket. It was her ongoing victory lap." And restrained: "Even though Chanel insisted on having the best of everything, she didn't insist on having everything."

Are you hearing "Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves" in the background? You should be.

Karbo delivers a mini-biography, with perceptive and amusing commentary:

"She looked like the girl at school who conned you into breaking the rules with her, then let you take all the blame."

"Her childhood was the Belle �poque version of a country-and-western song. The only thing she lacked was a dead dog and a wasting disease."

"She compulsively lied about her past, and then lied about having lied, and then disavowed the lie about the lie."

Along the way, great trivia abounds. Yes, French women wore hats adorned with feathers --- but did you know that, in 1911, in France, 300 million birds were killed to provide those feathers?

And, because Karbo really is your new best friend, she even labels the punch line: "Cut to the chase, don't waste time doing stuff that seems essential to your life and business, just because other people do it."

Just so. The fashion is merely fascinating, a means to an end. The life lessons? For a woman trying to find a safe haven in America, this book delivers more wisdom --- and wit --- per page than Dr. Phil will dispense in a lifetime.

Getting Centered with Coco
There is something intrinsically refreshing in reading about a woman who was completely herself. This wonderful book is such a reminder to me and to women in general to live life on their own terms, to get on with living and being and loving, forget what everyone else thinks you should be or become. Personally, it felt centering to me. Karbo gets it right. She extracts from Chanel's life the jewels of wisdom that might not be evident in the broader picture. Maybe it would be more accurate to say pearls of wisdom as Coco made pearls de rigeur for anyone with her sense of style. With wit, insight and clarity Karbo makes sense of how one woman changed so much about the world, not just about fashion, but also about love, sex, color, comfort, design and scent. Clearly, we have entered a time of a Coco resurgence and I hope we get to learn the lessons more fully and pass them on to more generations.

""The best color in the whole world, is the one that looks good, on you!" - Chanel
In 225 pages, Karen Karbo manages to give one a real sense of who Coco Chanel was as well as her acerbic sense of humor, her passionate sense of style, and a sense of what made this enigmatic woman tick!

Chanel permanently changed fashion through a driving vision of what she wanted. You'll find nuggets of her off beat wisdom scattered among the various chapters on style, self-invention, fearlessness, surviving passion, on success, money and more! Throughout the book Karbo interweaves her quest to acquire (fair means or foul) a genuine Chanel jacket!

There are other biographies of Chanel that are more indepth, but Karbo's wit and humor gives you a picture of Chanel that somehow makes you think of her as if she is sitting beside you advising you on life. As Chanel once said, "A style does not go out of style as long as it adapts itself to its period. When there is an incompatibility between the style and a certain state of mind, it is never the style that triumphs." Somehow, Chanel has managed to transcend decades and adapts to each generation as the yard stick for class, style, and relevance.

"Classy and Fabulous"
Fashionistas beware, once you crack the front cover of Karen Karbo's "The Gospel According to Coco Chanel" there's no turning back. Chronicling the rags-to-riches story of the woman who revolutionized how we think about clothing, Karbo's narrative is compelling, witty, humorous, and peppered with poignant advice on how to live life like Mademoiselle Chanel.

Built on a framework of Chanel's incredible history, "The Gospel" tackles everything from self-invention, to embracing the moment, to, most importantly, living life on your own terms. From style tips to speaking your mind and not giving a damn, Karbo effortlessly blends narrative and life lessons to create a book which is, in a word, fabulous.

I LOVED this book and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in fashion, Chanel, or simply becoming a stronger, more independent, and successful woman.

Read, Learn, Enjoy
I thoroughly enjoyed this book about Coco Chanel. It was fun, informative and did not gloss over Chanel's less than perfect life and personality. The author writes as a friend talking to you and is never overbearing or condescending. The line drawings added a great deal to my enjoyment of this book. The bibliography at the end is very helpful. I don't usually buy hardback books, but I highly recommend this book to those who love fashion, fashion history and quirky personalities. ... Read more

Editorial Review

This compelling and inspiring book, now in a deluxe paperback edition, shows how one person can work wonders. In Mountains Beyond Mountains, Pulitzer Prize—winning author Tracy Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who loves the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.

In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. Kidder’s magnificent account takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that “the only real nation is humanity.” At the heart of this book is the example of a life based on hope and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb “Beyond mountains there are mountains”–as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.

“Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with a force of gathering revelation,” says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr notes, “[Paul Farmer] wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it.” ... Read more

Reviews

A Contrast of What Should Be with What Is
"Mountains Beyond Mountains" is no exception to Tracy Kidder's excellent body of work. I have been a fan since he wrote "Soul of a New Machine." Kidder impressed me then, as he does now, with his upfront investment of time before putting pen to paper. Fortunately for us, his hard work translates to first class storytelling.

The title "Mountains Beyond Mountains" is a metaphor for life - once you have scaled one mountain (challenge), there are more to come. This is especially true for Paul Farmer, MD, who has devoted his life to what most people call "the impossible." He has faced mountain after mountain in his quest to help mankind.

Farmer starts out devoting his life to providing the most rudimentary medical care to impoverished Haitians (the shafted of the shafted). By age 27, he had treated more illnesses than most doctors would see in a lifetime. With time, he finds himself on the world stage trying to find a cure for drug resistant tuberculosis, undertaking the difficult role of a global fundraiser, and fighting big pharma for lower drug prices. He is a modern day medical hero.

For me, Farmer serves as a startling contrast to Robert K. Maloney, MD, the well known Los Angeles ophthalmologist who has been featured on TV's "Extreme Make-over." Maloney, who was profiled October 26, 2004 in the Wall Street Journal, said that after he completed his medical training, he came to a disquieting conclusion: "I really didn't like sick people." Maloney has since specialized in LASIK refractive surgery (considered cosmetic surgery) and pampers his patients with 25 person staff, and a suit-and-tie concierge who serves pastries and coffee in the waiting room. He then follows up after his patients return home with a gift box of gourmet chocolate chip cookies and a mug bearing the invitation, "Wake up and smell the coffee." He says he now earns more than the $1.2 million in salary and bonuses he made during his last year at UCLA (several years ago), but he won't say how much.

Farmer serves as reminder of what medicine aspired to be - the buck as only a means to an end....ending poverty, ending tuberculosis, ending the plight of many humans who cannot receive treatment from a qualified and trained doctor. Dr. Maloney serves as a reminder of what medicine has become - the buck and celebrity as ends. We should all get one of Maloney's mugs so we, too, can "Wake up and smell the coffee" ...before it is too late.

Read "Mountains Beyond Mountains," if only to regain hope of what medicine can be.

Mountains Beyond Mountains
In a world where it is easy to feel as though we are helpless in the face of everyday violence, war, greed, and inhumanity, the story of Dr. Paul Farmer and his colleagues is an important reminder of the power within all of us to contribute to a better, more just world. I suspect many people who read this book begin it with little or no knowledge of Haiti's history nor of its desperate situation today (not something we see in school curriculums!) and so the book also serves as a great "primer" for readers on Haiti and the impact of US policy there. Tracy Kidder does an excellent job of allowing us to "shadow" the steps of Paul Farmer as he moves in Haiti and around the world. I think Kidder's detailing of his own evolving relationship with Paul Farmer is particularly well done. He does an excellent job of chronicling the details of personalities, individuals, and events without ever letting the reader lose sight of the larger global context in which they are situated.

A Contrast Between What Should Be and What Is
"Mountains Beyond Mountains" is no exception to Tracy Kidder's excellent body of work. I have been a fan since he wrote "Soul of a New Machine." Kidder impressed me then, as he does now, with his upfront investment of time before putting pen to paper. Fortunately for us, his hard work translates to first class storytelling.

The title "Mountains Beyond Mountains" is a metaphor for life - once you have scaled one mountain (challenge), there are more to come. This is especially true for Paul Farmer, MD, who has devoted his life to what most people call "the impossible." He has faced mountain after mountain in his quest to help mankind.

Farmer starts out devoting his life to providing the most rudimentary medical care to impoverished Haitians (the shafted of the shafted). By age 27, he had treated more illnesses than most doctors would see in a lifetime. With time, he finds himself on the world stage trying to find a cure for drug resistant tuberculosis, undertaking the difficult role of a global fundraiser, and fighting big pharma for lower drug prices. He is a modern day medical hero.

For me, Farmer serves as a startling contrast to Robert K. Maloney, MD, the well known Los Angeles ophthalmologist who has been featured on TV's "Extreme Make-over." Maloney, who was profiled October 26, 2004 in the Wall Street Journal, said that after he completed his medical training, he came to a disquieting conclusion: "I really didn't like sick people." Maloney has since specialized in LASIK refractive surgery (considered cosmetic surgery) and pampers his patients with 25 person staff, and a suit-and-tie concierge who serves pastries and coffee in the waiting room. He then follows up after his patients return home with a gift box of gourmet chocolate chip cookies and a mug bearing the invitation, "Wake up and smell the coffee." He says he now earns more than the $1.2 million in salary and bonuses he made during his last year at UCLA (several years ago), but he won't say how much.

Farmer serves as reminder of what medicine aspired to be - the buck as only a means to an end....ending poverty, ending tuberculosis, ending the plight of many humans who cannot receive treatment from a qualified and trained doctor. Dr. Maloney serves as a reminder of what medicine has become - the buck and celebrity as ends. We should all get one of Maloney's mugs so we, too, can "Wake up and smell the coffee" ...before it is too late.

Read "Mountains Beyond Mountains," if only to regain hope of what medicine can be.

both thrilling and important
You might think the story of a caregiver in the poorest country in the western hemisphere would be depressing. You might think that learning about the "Global ATM"-- aids, tuberculosis, and malaria-- and that these three diseases kill six million poor people a year, would be depressing.

Yet, the story of Paul Farmer is energizing, and will leave you breathless as you see the human potential of one person to make an enormous difference. Tracy Kidder is at his best in this book, and does a magnificent job covering different shades of character and events.

And finally, this book is also a love story with the Haitian people, a people cursed by 200 years of bad government and western imperialism, for whom even the smallest effort and assistance will save many lives.

Please read this book, and buy it as a present for those you love. It can change your world.

ps, see www.paulenglish.com/travel/haiti/ for info about my first trip to Haiti, taken as a result of this book.

Aha! You have to listen to messages from angels!
Butler University in Indiana has required that all their incoming freshmen read MBM prior to orientation. Bravo! My high school French students sponsor a child in Haiti through Compassion International and we are reading it to gain insights into the culture there. But it has done more than that. It makes you THINK differently about how we view other people. Paul Farmer's aim is not just to educate, but to TRANSFORM. MBM is a "can't-put-it-down" incredible book. Tracey Kidder, the author, says, "The world is full of miserable places. One way of living comfortably is not to think about them, or when you do, to send money." Well, he sweated up and down the mountains trailing Paul Farmer to get this real and phenomenal story.

The mortality rate for children in Haiti is abominable. I think only 50% of the children reach their 5th birthday. Oprah and Mel Gibson should turn this story into a movie and broadcast it to the world....how a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Comma.

Transformational
I don't really recommend many books, tastes being what they are.
But let me tell you, that each person to whom I have given this book has been grateful for having had the chance to read it, and to pass it on.
I have never read a book that so truthfully explains the complex roots of poverty, and our complicity in it. In writing about Paul Farmer, Mr. Kidder uses brushstrokes that are sometimes gentle, and then he gives us a Paul Farmer truth to jolt us out of our comfortable chairs. As one reads, one sees Mr. Kidder himself transformed. And one also sees that, complex as poverty is, there are solutions. In reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, one finally understand that vital to its cure are working personally and in community with those who live it every day. I regret having to say that I had not heard of Paul Farmer before reading this book. I received it as a gift, out of the blue and for no special occasion. I will always be grateful, to the gifter, to Tracy Kidder and most of all, to Paul Farmer and the community around him.

Farmer as saint, Haiti as Hell and Kidder as biographer
This book was a loan. It is a worthwhile and absorbing read, mostly because of Kidder's writing ability. The book exists on three distinct levels: the first is as a biography of an interesting man-Paul Farmer, the second is a story about Haiti, the abuse of both it's people and it's land over time and how that creates the modern morass, and lastly is the story of how Kidder became a Farmer fan or how i came to write this book. The book is tying these three levels, these distinct threads into an engrossing and fascinating story so that by the end you too are a Farmer fan.

Why do some, a pityfully few people, seem to do something with their lives, seem to matter in the long run, seem to get useful work out of their time here that others just seem to waster and squander? Is it technique, is it passion, is it ability and in their genes, is it just restless energy? The book offers a few insights into this complex and important topic. But mostly it is a straightforward biography of Paul Farmer, from an unusual childhood to travelling often from Haiti to Boston, from the bottom to the top of the social and material world, about a dichotomy expressed in the life of one man: love of these poor people and love of modern medicine and what it can do for patients as real people.

I appreciated the book, i can hope to read more like this, i can never hope to be like him and will remain a spectator of such people, who seem to exist on a plane of their own. I am glad they live among us and i would believe that their presence blesses the rest of us. But i will remain in the bleachers cheering them onward, perhaps i can write a few small checks to their works but i will always see them from afar. Kidder does all us avid readers a great service by writing down what he saw and heard, thanks.

This is a great book. Period.
It doesn't matter if you've never heard of Paul Farmer, if you have no interest in medicine or public health or third-world countries. I didn't. I only picked this book up (at the library---sorry Amazon, sorry Tracy Kidder) because I've read a few other things by Tracy Kidder and studied the genre of creative nonfiction. I'm very glad that I overlooked the topic to give the story a chance. What you get is a portrait of a man who rises from some interesting circumstances to become first a doctor, then a leader, then someone who changes the lives of thousands of people. It's moving, it's gripping, it's just really well written. And it gave me, at least, a glimpse of how it's possible---really, really possible---to make a difference in the world. I've been recommending it to my friends when we start devolving into that mid-30s life-going-nowhere-real-fast conversation. You know that conversation? Well, then, try this book and figure out which mountain is yours to climb. ... Read more

Editorial Review

“Over the past four decades no reporter has critiqued the American South with such evocative sensitivity and bedrock honesty as Curtis Wilkie.”
—Douglas Brinkley
 
The Fall of the House of Zeus tells the story of Dickie Scruggs, arguably the most successful plaintiff's lawyer in America. A brother-in-law of Trent Lott, the former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Scruggs made a fortune taking on mass tort lawsuits against “Big Tobacco” and the asbestos industries. He was hailed by Newsweek as a latter day Robin Hood, and portrayed in the movie, The Insider, as a dapper aviator-lawyer. Scruggs’ legal triumphs rewarded him lavishly, and his success emboldened both his career maneuvering and his influence in Southern politics--but at a terrible cost, culminating in his spectacular fall, when he was convicted for conspiring to bribe a Mississippi state judge. 
 
Here Mississippi is emblematic of the modern South, with its influx of new money and its rising professional class, including lawyers such as Scruggs, whose interests became inextricably entwined with state and national politics.
 
Based on extensive interviews, transcripts, and FBI recordings never made public, The Fall of the House of Zeus exposes the dark side of Southern and Washington legal games and power politics: the swirl of fixed cases, blocked investigations, judicial tampering, and a zealous prosecution that would eventually ensnare not only Scruggs but his own son, Zach, in the midst of their struggle with insurance companies over Hurricane Katrina damages. In gripping detail, Curtis Wilkie crafts an authentic legal thriller propelled by a “welter of betrayals and personal hatreds,” providing large supporting parts for Trent Lott and Jim Biden, brother of then-Senator Joe, and cameos by John McCain, Al Gore, and other DC insiders and influence peddlers.
 
Above all, we get to see how and why the mighty fail and fall, a story as gripping and timeless as a Greek tragedy. ... Read more

Reviews

The antithesis of Atticus Finch, October 25, 2010
Growing up in the 1960s, I remember my love of Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. The novel that recently celebrated its 50th anniversary of publication portrayed Atticus Finch as an attorney fighting injustice and bigotry in America's south. Played by Gregory Peck, Finch became a shining example for many of my generation who chose the law as a noble and honorable profession. One-half century later, the legal profession is no longer viewed with the same sense of inspiration. Lawyers, especially trial lawyers, are now considered to be greedy, evil and dishonest practitioners who will take any client for a fee, and are frequent targets of political and media scorn.

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF ZEUS by Curtis Wilkie tells the story of Dickie Scruggs, an attorney whose career represents the antithesis of the fictional Atticus Finch. Both were products of the Deep South, but Scruggs stood for everything that Finch abhorred. Wilkie, a reporter for more than 40 years and currently a professor at the University of Mississippi, was familiar with Scruggs and many of his contemporaries. After Scruggs was indicted by a federal grand jury, Wilkie began working on this book. He interviewed Scruggs, his son Zach, prosecutors, FBI agents and many attorneys. The result is a fast-paced drama that readers might well confuse with a John Grisham novel.

Wilkie's narrative is far more than the story of Dickie Scruggs, however. It is a tale of the modern South, its political past and present, new money, rising professional class and richly held traditions. All of these ingredients are vividly portrayed to weave a story that has substantial parts good and evil as well as success and failure.

Were it not for his eventual downfall, the life of Scruggs would be a modern-day Horatio Alger story. Scruggs, who grew up poor in Mississippi, once remarked, "We were so poor that if I hadn't been a boy, I wouldn't have had anything to play with." He served in the Navy and graduated from the University of Mississippi Law School. After a brief stint as an insurance defense lawyer, he opened his own office and won his first major case handling asbestos injury claims for workers in the Pascagoula, Mississippi shipyard. He also married the sister of powerful U.S. Senator Trent Lott. Although Scruggs was an active Democrat, the political connections of the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate were helpful.

Beyond asbestos, Scruggs represented Mississippi in its litigation against the tobacco industry. His legal fees were in the hundreds of millions. Suits against drug manufacturers and litigation surrounding Hurricane Katrina followed. Mississippi became a haven for plaintiff's lawyers who did their best to cultivate a plaintiff-friendly judiciary with enormous political contributions.

Like most successful trial lawyers, Scruggs was not shy about his success. He led a lavish life, built a multi-million-dollar home, and was a major contributor to his alma mater, Ole Miss. But his achievements brought him enemies. Ultimately he was indicted for attempting to bribe Mississippi state court judges. He eventually pled guilty and is presently incarcerated in federal prison, due to be released in 2015.

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF ZEUS is an honest and thorough portrayal of a man who had great success as an attorney at a steep price. Anyone interested in the law and its interplay with industry and politics will find this to be an important and compelling book. America's national pastime is the law, and fans of that pastime will enjoy this noteworthy work.

--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman

Curtis Wilkie at his best, November 22, 2010
Curtis Wilkie has had a remarkable career as a journalist, from his days as a cub reporter at the Clarksdale Press Register to his work for the Boston Globe and now as a professor at Ole Miss. He is a born story teller and the Fall of the House of Zeus is a wonderful work of contemporary history. Unlike some of the other reviewers on Amazon, I would not compare him to Grisham -- Wilkie is a far better story teller. In addition, he tells a remarkable story about Dick Scruggs, making Scruggs into a human being, not quite Atticus Finch but a sympathetic human being, with real virtues. Congratulations to Wilkie for telling a remarkable story about corruption in politics, about Mississippi, about humanity.

If it were not true, it would be hard to believe, November 21, 2010
As a Mississippian who now lives in Georgia, I was mesmerized by a story that included so many people who were so familiar to me. As I read I continually wondered how the writer could know so many intimate details about the nefarious dealings in the shadows of the legal community. Although his research was impressive, the amount of detail could be intimidating; but he tells the story in true "thriller" fashion in spite of the outcome being obvious from the very beginning.

Having sat on one of Ed Peters' juries, I thought he was a prosecutor above reproach, only to learn that he was just as sleazy and underhanded as the other players in the complicated money-swap that resulted from the lucrative class action cases. And yet, Wilkie gave a sympathetic slant to the Scruggs family that had me feeling very sorry for Zach and Diane. By the end, I was very sad that the Mississippi I love has been besmirched by people who could have been great leaders.

for fans of legal thrillers, November 29, 2010
"The Fall of the House of Zeus" by Curtis Wilkie tells the story of Dick Scruggs, a lawyer from Mississippi who comes frfom humble beginnings, achieves his wildest dreams, and nearly loses everything in a legal scandal that ends in his imprisonment.

First off, I was not familiar with Scruggs when I picked up this book, but enjoyed legal thrillers enough to be interested in a real story. And this story pretty much lived up to my expectations.
Scruggs grows up in Mississippi, an only child who lives with his mother. Early on, Scruggs yearns to succeed and is lucky enough to get accepted into the "right" college, where his social circles are greatly enhanced and he is exposed to kids from wealthier families. Shortly afterwards he spends a couple years as a navy pilot, until he decides to go to law school. After graduating, Scruggs uses a connection--a senator friend of his mother's--to get his first two law firm jobs, but both end badly. Scruggs is fired from his first job, because he stands up to a partner who mistreated him. Then Scruggs quits his second law firm job after it's clear that he will never be fairly compensated for his efforts. And that's when Scruggs decides to start his own law firm.

His first success comes when he links up the individual asbestos lawsuits--coming from former employees of a local shipyard company--into a class action, which transforms him into a millionaire. Then Scruggs uses his winning strategy to successfully bring a class action law suit against the big tobacco companies, suing on behalf of states whose government healthcare programs financed the medical expenses of ex-smokers. And just when Scruggs seems untouchable and on the brink of a third class action suit, this time against the insurance companies who denied coverage post Hurricane Katrina, disaster strikes.

If you're a fan of legal thrillers like I am, then you will probably enjoy this book, two thirds of which focuses on behind-the-scenes actions that ultimately lead to Scruggs' indictment. This is not the fairy tale story of Robin Hood, but rather a cautionary tale of too much greed, power, and betrayal.

Stranger than fiction, December 11, 2010
If this were a novel, the byzantine plot line would be hard to believe. Wilkie starts slowly, building a solid foundation for the quickening pace which by the end has the reader unable to put the book down. Other reviewers have compared the plot line to Grisham. I say, Grisham should eat his heart out and so should Scott Turow. Zeus is far more exciting than anything either has written. This former Mississippian thought New York politics was complicated and sharp-edged but not compared to the world so ably depicted by Wilkie. Anyone interested in politics, law, the South, and/or a good read should not miss this book.

Interesting Read For Those Interested, December 3, 2010
Fun read about the rise and, more so (obviously) the fall of incredibly successful class action lawyer Dickie Scruggs. The author writes impartially about the subject, which is actually not as clear cut as I had previously thought. It was fairly fast paced, especially when the book turns from his background to the crime, investigation, and ultimate outcome. A great book for lawyers interested in some light reading.

Better than Grisham!, December 23, 2010
Although this is nonfiction, it reads just like a Grisham novel ... indeed if you like legal nonfiction such as a Civil Action, or Erin Brockovich, you will enjoy this book!

Well written, November 29, 2010
Excellent capture of excess gone wrong. While some might simply attribute this novel to "just Mississippi" the real story is that scenarios like this serve as a remainder these stories are playing out throughout our country. Money does corrupt.

My thoughts on this book, November 12, 2010
I am from a small Mississippi town that is 30 minutes from Oxford. My daughter and son both graduated from Ole Miss. My son and his wife live there now. Many names and places I am very familiar with. As a matter of fact, I know some of the people mentioned in this book. Dickie Scruggs law firm should be renamed--"Dewey, Cheatem, and How!!! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

Amazing Book that Literally Made My Heart Beat Faster
WOW -- STRONGLY RECOMMEND!!!! I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advance copy of this memoir by Darin Strauss, and it is incredible. Almost TOO incredible -- while I was reading the first chapter, which describes the author's car accident, my heart started beating really quickly! I've never had that reaction to a book before -- and it seemed to give me a tiny glimpse into how overwhelming the whole experience that the book describes must have been for the author. Fortunately, I calmed down and finished the book in one sitting and it was riveting.

The book starts with the accident: The author, in high school, is driving his father's car when a classmate swerves in front of him on her bike. He knows there is nothing he could have done and the police confirm that. But it is hard for people in his hometown to cope with the idea that this was just a senseless, meaningless accident -- no one likes to think that our lives are out of our control; we are more comfortable with assigning fault or at least ascribing some kind of significance.

So the girl's mother tells Darin that he is living for two now, and that he has to do everything twice as well now. She seems to mean well -- to offer a way for Darin to be able to somehow make up for, or at least respond to, the accident -- but instead she places a heavy burden on him. Maybe she tried to forgive him and couldn't -- for later (no spoiler here, since the book cover discloses it) she and her husband sue Darin. But perhaps the lawsuit doesn't take the heaviest toll on him -- maybe the heaviest toll is taken by Darin's inability to get close to anyone he meets after the accident: "My accident was the deepest part of my life and the second deepest was hiding it.... By now the camouflage had become my skin." Confessing doesn't help either: "Even the truth had a lie's sourness."

The book is beautifully-written, impossible to put down, and significant for all of us hoping to figure out the meaning of our lives and to decide what -- and whom -- we are responsible for.

A Great Memoir
I had the privilege of having Darin as a writing professor, and after reading his new memoir, I am even more proud to say that I studied with him. This story reads like a memoir and a personal essay, and is not only heartfelt and brave, but delves deep into the author's mind. I read it in one sitting, and will read it again, for the beautiful language, the story, and the epiphanies.

Humbling and Enlightenng
If you've lived with remorse and grief, this book is like a healing balm. It's a reminder you're not alone.

The Day My Friend Died
It was a sunny day, not to be taken for granted in a place like Long Island, New York, in May 1988. My friend Celine was biking with a friend. She was training for a bike trip our youth group was planning, when she was struck by a car and killed. The driver was a classmate of hers, and since we went to different schools, I didn't know him. Celine always wore bowling shoes, and was outgoing, friendly and very religious. When, just days before the accident at a youth group meeting I didn't attend she announced "I'm not afraid to die. It could happen tomorrow and I'd be OK with that", her words seemed foreboding, and almost as if she'd beckoned death to her door.

When the accident was described in hushed whispers in the funeral home, she was said to have been biking in heavy traffic and there was just nowhere for the car to go but into her. I developed an irrational fear of biking, and of being fully satisfied with life, but I wasn't extremely close with Celine and life moved me forward from that day.

Last week I noticed an article about an author I'd read. He had a new book out, and I quickly clicked on the link, anticipating another historical fiction (a genre I love). As I read his interview I felt a falling sensation, like the world was shifting. Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng, a book I loved, wrote a memoir about killing Celine. Darin Strauss was the driver that day, and while I moved on from my friend's death Darin (and her family I'm sure) was left with the wreckage.

His book "Half a Life" begins with the accident, in which she inexplicably swerves into him and follows him through college and young adulthood where she haunts his conscience on a near daily basis. Learning more of her story (and his story) was a profound experience for me. As I read it I realized Celine did not beckon death to her door, she ran through that door on her own, and maybe bicycling is not as dangerous as I let myself believe.

Great book!
What I liked most about Half a Life: the author's not sentimental or self-aggrandizing. This is a guy who has looked squarely at himself. But the reason I couldn't stop reading Half a Life is because Darin Strauss is such a brilliant writer. I feel like I know more and feel more now than I did when I started. That's all I want from any book. I want to feel like I'm reading something true. This book delivers. It's honest and unsettling. Strauss takes a difficult story, his own, and makes it really gripping. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended!

Amazing.
This book is probably the most poignant, honest books I have ever read. Darin Stauss is one of the great writers of our time. "Half a Life" is a narrative- recalling a horrific accident and how one moment in our lives can shake up our perception of the world and our place in it. His writing style describes a perfect balance of inner turmoil -while never seeking out the sympathy of the reader and even some humor.

Touching book!
I wondered if her parents read the book.

I wondered what THEY thought.

Would I, in their shoes, resent its existence?

As a reader removed from the pain, I choose to believe the best of the author. That in using this public method of coping with his pain, he has helped others to do so as well. I thought of the young man I know only slightly who was blinded by sunlight and hit a man who was fixing a flat tire on the side of the road. The man died while his 11-year-old son stood by him on the isolated road. Every time sunlight blurs my view, I think of him.

Every time I see a bicyclist on the road, I think of the young woman, my colleague, who died on her ride home from directing a school play. I never think of the man who hit her. Now I will.

What a beautifully written, sensitive book.

The author's outstanding style of writing adds much to this experience. It is a book I will not forget. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The inimitably witty David Rakoff, New York Times bestselling author of Don’t Get Too Comfortable, defends the commonsensical notion that you should always assume the worst, because you’ll never be disappointed.

In this deeply funny (and, no kidding, wise and poignant) book, Rakoff examines the realities of our sunny,  gosh­ everyone-can-be-a-star contemporary culture and finds that, pretty much as a universal rule, the best is not yet to come, adversity will triumph, justice will not be served, and your dreams won’t come true.

The book ranges from the personal to the universal, combining stories from Rakoff’s reporting and accounts of his own experi­ences: the moment when being a tiny child no longer meant adults found him charming but instead meant other children found him a fun target; the perfect late evening in Manhattan when he was young and the city seemed to brim with such pos­sibility that the street shimmered in the moonlight—as he drew closer he realized the streets actually flickered with rats in a feeding frenzy. He also weaves in his usual brand Oscar Wilde–worthy cultural criticism (the tragedy of Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, for instance).

Whether he’s lacerating the musical Rent for its cutesy depic­tion of AIDS or dealing with personal tragedy, his sharp obser­vations and humorist’s flair for the absurd will have you positively reveling in the power of negativity. ... Read more

Reviews

He Makes Us Look at Truth

Thoughtful insights and beautiful prose

Editorial Review

From the moment he set foot on it, Karl Rove has rocked America’s political stage. He ran the national College Republicans at twenty-two, and turned a Texas dominated by Democrats into a bastion for Republicans. He launched George W. Bush to national renown by unseating a popular Democratic governor, and then orchestrated a GOP White House win at a time when voters had little reason to throw out the incumbent party. For engineering victory after unlikely victory, Rove became known as “the Architect.”

Because of his success, Rove has been attacked his entire career, accused of everything from campaign chicanery to ideological divisiveness. In this frank memoir, Rove responds to critics, passionately articulates his political philosophy, and defends the choices he made on the campaign trail and in the White House. He addresses controversies head-on— from his role in the contest between Bush and Senator John McCain in South Carolina to the charges that Bush misled the nation on Iraq. In the course of putting the record straight, Rove takes on Democratic leaders who acted cynically or deviously behind closed doors, and even Republicans who lacked backbone at crucial moments.

Courage and Consequence is also the first intimate account from the highest level at the White House of one of the most headline-making presidencies of the modern age. Rove takes readers behind the scenes of the bitterly contested 2000 presidential contest, of tense moments aboard Air Force One on 9/11, of the decision to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, of the hard-won 2004 reelection fight, and even of his painful three years fending off an indictment by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. In the process, he spells out what it takes to win elections and how to govern successfully once a candidate has won.

Rove is candid about his mistakes in the West Wing and in his campaigns, and talks frankly about the heartbreak of his early family years. But Courage and Consequence is ultimately about the joy of a life committed to the conservative cause, a life spent in political combat and service to country, no matter the costs. ... Read more

Reviews

The story of an honest shark
I'd recommend the book. It was not what I expected. It is clear that Mr. Rove carries a sharp blade in his robes and uses it without hesitation when he feels his interests are in danger but he does not hide it in the book which is fairly open and honest. His respect and criticism of President Bush seems soundly based, factual and to the point.

Mr. Rove really does not reveal much about his own values but does give us details about how he came to be who and what he is. He was present in the administration at its most critical points and does reveal the emotions of the moment.

If you thought he was the devil incarnate or if you thought he was Jesus returned, the book will not change that kind of rigid thinking. However, if you are a person who actually values knowing the facts, circumstances and personalities of the time in question and wish to begin forming an unbiased appraisal, it is well worth reading.

I had a hard time putting the book down!
A great read, very compelling. I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in politics or current events.

This obviously analytically driven man has the ability to translate with his own words the fascinating workings of his gift and his love for analyzing politics and political campaigns. His book provides a glimpse of a softer, kinder and very intelligent man doing what he loves and does well. Although very little detail is given about his family you get a sense of how costly it must have been for them living through those years and how much pain it caused him.

The myths circling this man makes you ask yourself again and again what has happened to journalism in this country.

The book was a page turner for me, enjoyed it thoroughly and was sorry when it ended.

Enjoy!

Surprisingly great read
I must admit, I fell hook, line and sinker for the media's version of Karl Rove as an evil man. Reading the book, he comes across as an intelligent, thoughtful and heartfelt person. I've been watching some of his media interviews this week as he launches his book, and he truly is a good man. I have to take another look at him and the Bush administration. I don't think I gave them a fair shake. I'm a Democrat and my party has really abandoned me over the last several months. Rove has me looking in another direction now. I highly recommend Courage and Consequence to anyone looking for the truth about Washington.

Oh Please ....
The dirty tactics on the left never cease to amaze me. I don't blame anyone for not liking Bush 43 or Karl Rove, but if you are going to submit a book review, please read the book first! Remember that freedom of speech is most important for views and opinions that you don't agree with - you might just learn something.

I am only about a quarter of the way through Mr. Rove's tome, but feel obligated to leave an early review in order to counter some of the one-star ratings. Although it is not the best book or biography I have ever read, I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. Mr. Rove spends just the right amount of time on his early years and definitely taught me things about himself that I was not aware of. By page 150 he is already relating stories about the 2000 presidential election.
I started reading Bill Clinton's memoirs a couple of weeks before starting this book. One thing that strikes me is the similarities between the two men in their formative years. I suppose this is understandable when you have two individuals who fell in love with politics at very early ages. Unfortunately President Clinton's book is a lot slower reading and contains far too much detail on his early years (I am on page 300 and he is just running for his second try at Governor of Arkansas).

The thing I like most about Mr. Rove's book at this point is how he confronts head-on every issue that has been raised about his personal life and about the way he runs political campaigns. It strikes me as sincere and honest, although perhaps I am na�ve. I hope to enjoy the rest of the book as much as I have the beginning. I'll update this review when I have completed it.

Karl Rove better person than his critics
Karl Rove was henpecked on the Today Show by Matt Lauer about whether his father was homosexual or not. I cannot imagine Matt Lauer asking any Democrat such an invasive question. This is because Democrats like Matt Lauer worship the Democratic Party. They fawn, they bow, they slaver over how much love and compassion pours out of the Democratic party. Yet for some reason, Karl Rove does not share their adoration for the DNC! For that perceived sin, every full-time Democrat (part-time journalists) will rake him over the coals.

Rove's book will be poorly received as it will not be a derogatory tell-all about the perceived evils of the Bush Administration. There were a number of Bush administration officials who were showered with praise and accolades for trashing their boss. Funny how it only seems to be tell-all books by Republicans that are praised in the news media. If someone writes a book trashing Ted Kennedy or Hillary Clinton, Matt Lauer and the rest of the sycophants on television and print have little to say about it.

Karl Rove has a lot of interesting things to say in his book, it is great reading for anyone wishing to see what modern politics is all about. For Matt Lauer and the rest of the full-time Democrats working at NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, MSNBC News, CNN News, the New York Times, The Washington Post, the LA Times, Newsweek and Time magazine, they will find nothing but disappointment in this tome. Maybe they should be disappointed in themselves for being any less political operatives than Mr. Rove. He is honest in his bias, while Matt Lauer and the rest are not.

Something For Everyone
There is something for everyone in Courage and Consequence. If you are someone who heard/read all the Bush bashing by the media and eventually joined in...you should read this book.

If you are someone who supported the Bush administration in spite of the Bush bashing...you should read this book.

If you are a Democrat, you should read this book to learn of the back stabbing that takes place by those you have placed into positions of power.

If you are part of the media, you should read this book and become ashamed enough to alter your tactics and clean up your profession.

In previewing this review it was noted that it will be listed as being reviewed by David Markgraf but it is really a review by his wife, Judy.

Karl Rove's view of the Bush Administration
For eight years I listened and read the mainstream media's daily account of the work of the Bush Administration. The Left rails against Fox News for its "conservative bias" but fails to acknowledge its passionate love affair with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. If one believes everything that has been spoken and written about GWB, Rove, etc., one would believe that GWB caused Katrina, the May, 1999 Oklahoma City tornado, the Indonesian tsunami, and retroactively the massacre in Tienamen Square and the sinking of the Titanic. His ancestors had to have a hand in those two tragedies. I have very little respect for the news media, tv and printed. I scan the Baltimore Sun every day and have seen very, very little criticism of anything President Obama says or does.
I have decided after observing the last 8 years that GWB can't possibly be all bad. Did the make mistakes? Certainly!! Did Karl Rove always serve his president well? No!! This book does give a positive view of GWB's administration. I like to think of it has a good presentation of the other side of the bitterness and hatred leveled at a good and decent man.
It all boils down to one thing. The Democrats have not and will never get over the 2000 election. It's in the past. It's time to move on.

I love all these fake negative reviews...
Is it too much to ask to actually read a book before you review it? I got my copy early, and I have, in fact, read it. It is an excellent behind-the-scenes account of the Bush Whitehouse. If you want to know the truth (not the Michael Moore/MSNBC version) then read this book! Highly recommended.

The Other Side
Free speech at its best. An honest look at life inside the political bubble. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis never wrote a memoir, but she told her life story and revealed herself in intimate ways through the nearly 100 books she brought into print during the last two decades of her life as an editor at Viking and Doubleday. Based on archives and interviews with Jackie's authors, colleagues, and friends, Reading Jackie mines this significant period of her life to reveal both the serious and the mischievous woman underneath the glamorous public image.  
 
Though Jackie had a reputation for avoiding publicity, she willingly courted controversy in her books. She was the first editor to commission a commercially-successful book telling the story of Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with his female slave.  Her publication of Gelsey Kirkland's attack on dance icon George Balanchine caused another storm. Jackie rarely spoke of her personal life, but many of her books ran parallel to, echoed, and emerged from her own experience. She was the editor behind bestsellers on the assassinations of Tsar Nicholas II and John Lennon, and in another book she paid tribute to the allure of Marilyn Monroe and Maria Callas. Her other projects take us into territory she knew well: journeys to Egypt and India, explorations of the mysteries of female beauty and media exploitation, into the minds of photographers, art historians, and the designers at Tiffany & Co. 
 
Many Americans regarded Jackie as the paragon of grace, but few knew her as the woman sitting on her office floor laying out illustrations, or flying to California to persuade Michael Jackson to write his autobiography. Reading Jackie provides a compelling behind-the-scenes look at Jackie at work: how she commissioned books and nurtured authors, as well as how she helped to shape stories that spoke to her strongly. Jackie is remembered today for her marriages to JFK and to Aristotle Onassis, but her real legacy is the books that reveal the tastes, recollections, and passions of an independent woman.

Reviews

A portrait Jackie would have appreciated
When William Kuhn, a biographer of prominent members of the Victorian Court, stumbled upon Jackie Onasis' list of publications, he was surprised and moved by the titles. Clearly he had found a kindred spirit, and his quest to try and unravel a piece of her story by analyzing her work as an editor is richly rewarding. The product is a biographical sketch of a professional life that even this very private woman would appreciate.

FABULOUS - It Just Blew Me Away - FIVE STARS GLADLY !!!!


The sensitivity, the magnetism, the very spirit of this book was extraordinary. Page by page you travel through the career of the most famous woman in the world for two generations. I have been told by people that knew them personally, that when Jackie walked into a function at the White House, she was absolutely radiant. Remember she was about 30 then, but a moment or two later when he would walk in, he was Hollywood handsome.


No casting studio could have selected a better couple to play themselves than themselves, that's how attractive they were as a couple, and the energy that flowed from them was something to behold. Then it was shattered in one ten second stretch of time. The young Prince was dead, and she had to carry on, pick up and make a life for herself and her children. When she was ready, a month later she came to New York to be physically independent of the Kennedy family, and begin life anew.


She had always loved books. The author makes the point in many ways that even at a very young age, books were a big part of her life. She had won a major internship based on an essay she had written while graduating college. It would have taken her to Paris to Vogue's Prix de Paris at the magazine's offices, but her mother fearing she would lose her, intervened, and it did not happen.


Her letters in the White House when they can be found are a work of art. Worldly, sensitive, glowing with images, this lady could write, and so in New York she became an editor. This was not a decision based on a whim. Jackie had she chosen, could have been a major literary presence in her own right. Instead, and this is the key to understanding this book, and her life, she dedicated herself to EXPLORING the world through the authors that she met, and edited for, some 100 of them.


That's the key to her life after JFK, and Aristotle. She would engage in culture by being involved in the world of literature, asking Balanchine's friends to do a book of recollections. The autobiographies of Martha Graham and Judith Jamison would follow. The great dancer Nureyev would write an introduction for her. Bill Moyer's would write several books that she would have a strong hand in, including a World of Ideas, and Healing and the Mind.


Kuhn's Reading Jackie, also reveals the books that she would come to revere, and the ancient authors that she would take in and they would become old friends for her to rely on, in those moments of being alone. They would include Byron's poetry, yes Byron the bad boy of the Romantic Poets. There would also be Oscar Wilde that she would return to through the years. When she was in the White House, a ladies reading group in the Midwest would read Wilde because they had heard that Jackie loved him. When they found out Wilde had been gay, they were in a tizzy, but Jackie knew how bring things out in people.


She loved Out of Africa and Gone With The Wind which she had read cover to cover 3 times during her life. In doing over 100 books she should react the same with each one. She shunned publicity for herself, but was always willing to do whatever she had to do to promote her clients, and their books. She was even willing to promote books on Marilyn Monroe, and Maria Callas, two former lovers of her two former husbands. It must have been difficult, but she demonstrated that she was a professional.


Jackie covered the difficult topic of assassination by editing two books, one on Tsar Nicholas II, and the other on John Lennon. She nurtured her authors, and always maintained that sense of privacy and dignity, that we all knew her for.


It was her feeling that books allowed her to unlock the most intimate thoughts of those who possessed them. By walking into a person's library, one could tell immediately what this person was like, their goals, their concerns, and the type of life they were living. In her own possessions were Ivanhoe, and War & Peace, the classics.


We also learn about her lifestyle by reading this book. It's interesting to note that in her living room in her home on Fifth Avenue, there were no pictures of either JFK, or Aristotle Onassis. It's as though different people occupied different categories in her mind.



CONCLUSION:


I simply loved this book, the flow, the journey, the feeling of finally piercing the veil of this extraordinary woman who lived an extraordinary life. Although she had never written an autobiography herself, the 100 books that she edited in a 20 year span became her collective autobiography. We are all fortunate for having them. I thank the author William Kuhn for giving us this precious memory, and thank you for reading this review.


Richard C. Stoyeck

An amazing story--Jackie's life through the books she loved
I did not know what to expect when I opened this book, a gift from a close friend. All I knew about Jackie Kennedy Onassis was the clothes, the men, the tragedies that raised her life to the level of myth. Not a life that, honestly, I thought I wanted to read more about.

What a revelation William Kuhn's book is. By the end of the first chapter, describing in moving detail the last weeks of her life, I was hooked. This was a woman of imagination and courage, with a rich inner life that had nothing to do with paparazzi or parties. Like many intelligent people, Jackie was an artist manqu� who lived vicariously by reading about other artists: dancers, writers, designers, musicians. And when she found herself alone, having to remake her life after the deaths of two husbands, she created a career in editing those books. And, she was no ornamental editor at Doubleday; she worked at it.

Kuhn is one of those great popular historians who writes so well, you don't notice you are turning page after page, not wanting to put the book down. He has interviewed dozens of people who worked with Jackie personally and who provide a kind of cultural history of the second half of the 20th century. You read about Rolling Stone and the American Ballet Theater and Martha's Vineyard and the Metropolitan Museum. Michael Jackson, Carly Simon, Diana Vreeland, Stuart Udall and Bill Moyers, whose book on the Power of Myth was so influential. There was even a book Jackie edited in which she inadvertently got mixed up with a Russian spy.

Jackie knew she could not escape her celebrity, but what Kuhn reveals is that she really believed in the notion of aristocracy in its best forms: the love and appreciation of beauty, taste, and manners. These are documented in the wonderful books she edited about Versailles, Tiffany, Russian palaces, and many more.

The most delicious thing about this book is that it introduces you to so many other books you probably never heard of. I hope it gives these books a new lease on life, such as the unique works of Peter Sis and Eugene Kennedy, or Barbara Chase-Riboud's novel about Sally Heminges. I will never look at Jackie the same way again. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

Matt Long, Where do they grow people like him?
Let me start by saying that I had a whole different perspective of this story...My Brother, Dr. Dean Lorich, is one of the Trauma Surgeons who would not give up on Matt when lesser Surgeons with less skill may have been way out of their league. My Brother called me the day that the bus rolled over Matt and I had been an avid follower of Matt's successful ride back from Death's Door. The beauty of Matt is that he knew that a lesser man would have died. A man with less intestinal fortitude would have never made it. His courage is the kind that only few have, usually reserved only for Firemen, Police Officers and the Men and Women serving in the military but Matt should be an example for anyone suffering in one way or another. I've listened to Matt's story as told by my Brother and seen his awesome story on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and read it in Runner's World Magazine but "The Long Run" goes deeper into the Man, Matt Long...A true inspiration for any Runner, Doctor, Fireman....or just anyone who wants to a read a Rocky-like Comeback story....a good guy who actually does win...a triumph....Congratulations MATT....My Mother and I are thrilled that my Brother could be a part of your life!....God Bless.

A must read for anyone!!! Inspiration beyond belief.
This book is not only for athletes - it is for anyone. Matt takes us to a place inside each of us - that place where we reach deep and keep on keeping on!!!! Matt never gave up after being hit by a bus on his bicyle and being near death - he is truly an inspiration to anyone. You should share this book with your friends and family - it makes you forget about those little aches and pains you have when you realize all Matt when through and endured. If you know anyone going through depression or a major illness - please let them read this as it will help them through the tough times. I had the privilege of meeting Matt a month ago by accident(well I shouldn't use that word) and I just knew I wouldn't be disappointed with this book - he is just that special and it shows in his book.
Matt was kept alive for a reason and this book and his foundation I WILL are only the beginning!!!!

Totally inspirational and incredible to believe!
This story is amazing. From what life has brought to Matt Long and how he has handled the challenges, it is truly remarkable. I am not a runner due to knee injuries, but am inspired to give it more of a try than I ever have before. Thank you Matt for sharing the good, bad, and ugly details which truly encourages people to get motivated and improve their own lives. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The Wisdom of Wooden is John Wooden’s final book, completed just weeks before his passing in June 2010. In it he shares his most treasured memories and never-before-seen photographs as he looks back on an extraordinary life on and off the court.

Hailed by many as the greatest coach in the history of American sports, John Wooden is as famous for his personal philosophy as he is for his career achievements. He inspired, guided, and motivated generations of fans with his bestselling books on leadership, values, family, and the true meaning of success.

Coach Wooden wrote his final book, The Wisdom of Wooden: My Century On and Off the Court, in the last months before his death. Filled with his most treasured memories and more than 100 photographs, many never-before seen, it captures a life spent teaching, guiding, and serving others. Starting with his father’s now-famous 7 Point Creed—including “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece,” “Help Others,” and “Be True to Yourself,”—Coach Wooden affirms the principles to true success that helped him become an All American at Purdue University, a winning coach at Indiana State University, and an iconic sports figure at UCLA.

Yet anyone who knows John Wooden knows his record on the court was only part of the story. In The Wisdom of Wooden the legendary coach offers readers a rare glimpse not just behind the scenes but inside the man; not just on the court but in the huddles; not just his maxims but his poems, those he wrote and those he loved; not just the people he inspired, but the family, friends, and fans who inspired him; not just the lessons he taught but the lessons he learned; not just what was on his mind but what was in his heart.

Ultimately it was the life he lived that served as a model for his greatest lesson of all: a deep commitment to family, friends, and faith—the bedrock values of the man we all called, “Coach.”

Praise for John Wooden

“The Wisdom of Wooden has given me the life that I have . . . Thanks, Coach, for your faith and patience.”
—Bill Walton

“The Wisdom of Wooden is a lifetime of Coach Wooden’s ideas on how to live life without sacrificing your moral principles. His life is a prime example of how this can be done--one that we can all learn from.”
—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

“John Wooden sets an example for all of us by constantly striving to be the best in every aspect of his life. Throughout my life, I have found inspiration and direction in the Bible. Today, I also find inspiration and direction in the words of John Wooden.”
—Tom Coughlin, Head Coach, New York Giants

“One hundred years—what an amazing life. But here’s what's even more amazing about John Wooden and the timeless verities his life has embodied. One hundred years from now they will still be talking about his accomplishments and his approach.”
—Bob Costas

"There has never been a finer man in American sports than John Wooden, or a finer coach."
--Sports Illustrated ... Read more

Reviews

A how-to guide for living an extraordinary life, August 26, 2010
This charming book celebrates the extraordinary life of coach John Wooden and shares the principles that guided him throughout his career. Contents include the 7 point creed and the two sets of threes from Wooden's father, Wooden's own Pyramid of Success, the Pyramid of Success modified for children, and his Sportsmanship pledge for youngsters. You don't have to be a sports fan to benefit from the collected wisdom and quotes in here. His words are simple, powerful, and sane. Buy this book and read it together with your children, your parents, or your grandparents.

The Wisdom Of Wooden, August 22, 2010
I have become a real fan of John Wooden and his great wisdom!!I am very glad that we have his books through which he can share his wisdom with us. I am giving these books to my grandson and some young friends so that they, too, can learn to be a man like Coach John Wooden. He has put his ideas down so simply that anyone can learn from them. His life can continue to change and mold young people for years to come.

WOODEN, October 24, 2010
Can't just have one or some of Woodens's books. He is a teacher and there are life lessons in all Wooden did. This is a book that's style is easy to read but many visuals. Follow what he says and learn. A great summary/

A Legacy in quotes and photos., September 6, 2010
A great way to remember a great man. Open any page for
a memory or a memorable and inspiring quotation.

I thought it was great., July 29, 2010
I thought it was great. It encompasses all of Coach Wooden's thoughts and beliefs combined with his life story. I plan on putting it out for my students to read. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The Real Thomas Jefferson: The True Story of America's Philosopher of Freedom

Jefferson is the central figure in American history, and...he may yet prove to be the central figure in modern history. So stated noted historian Henry Steele Commager. And as the English novelist Samuel Butler once wrote, Though God cannot alter the past--historians can. His observation is especially applicable to our changing perceptions of great historical personalities, most of whom are relentlessly reinterpreted by each new generation of biographers.

There is no better example of this kind of metamorphosis than Thomas Jefferson, author of the American Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States. Since his death in 1826, he has been alternately vilified and deified by writers of varying motivations. In The Real Thomas Jefferson, by allowing Jefferson to explain his life and ideas in his own words, we have tried to ensure that his spirit, not ours, will breathe in these pages so that all who read them will become acquainted with Jefferson himself -- not another second-hand interpretation. His biography is set forth in Part I, and Part II brings together the most insightful passages from his writings, arranged by subject.

Highly acclaimed by many, including Glenn Beck of the Fox News Channel. Published by the National Center for Constitutional Studies, a nonprofit educational foundation dedicated to restoring Constitutional principles in the tradition of America's Founding Fathers. The National Center for Constitutional Studies...is doing a fine public service in educating Americans about the principles of the Constitution. -- Ronald Reagan, President of the United States

Reviews

THE BEST BIOGRAPHY I'VE SEEN ABOUT THOMAS JEFFERSON---
I purchased this book probably 18 years ago. After reading it, I looked to buy several more copies to give as gifts. But, I couldn't find anymore. So, I called The Center For Constitutional Studies for their help. I told the person who answered the phone what I was looking for and why. I told this guy that I loved the book and how well I thought it was written. He said, "Thank you". You see, the guy who answered the phone was Andrew Allison, the author of The Real Thomas Jefferson.
I think you will really enjoy this book.

The Real Thomas Jefferson
"The Real Thomas Jefferson" is a biography about the sad but inspiring life of Thomas Jefferson . In the back of the book it has quotes from Jefferson on different subjects.

" The Real Thomas Jefferson" tells a lot of what Jefferson thought government should be like and what kind of man he was . It also tells about all the invention like the copy press etc. etc. "The Real Thomas Jefferson" also tells about his life in France, and his influence on the

constitution . It also talks about the loss of his 5 children and his wife and also his love for his remaining family . It tells about his love for books, and the outdoors, and his home,. The Real Thomas Jefferson tells about his Presidency and all the trouble he had with the press . I recommend this book to people how want to learn about Jefferson and the government. It is very detailed and I think it made me way smarter. The Real Thomas Jefferson, by Andrew M. Allison published in 1987 ... Read more

Editorial Review

From a master historian, the story of Lincoln's—and the nation's—transformation through the crucible of slavery and emancipation.In this landmark work of deep scholarship and insight, Eric Foner gives us the definitive history of Lincoln and the end of slavery in America. Foner begins with Lincoln's youth in Indiana and Illinois and follows the trajectory of his career across an increasingly tense and shifting political terrain from Illinois to Washington, D.C. Although “naturally anti-slavery” for as long as he can remember, Lincoln scrupulously holds to the position that the Constitution protects the institution in the original slave states. But the political landscape is transformed in 1854 when the Kansas-Nebraska Act makes the expansion of slavery a national issue.

A man of considered words and deliberate actions, Lincoln navigates the dynamic politics deftly, taking measured steps, often along a path forged by abolitionists and radicals in his party. Lincoln rises to leadership in the new Republican Party by calibrating his politics to the broadest possible antislavery coalition. As president of a divided nation and commander in chief at war, displaying a similar compound of pragmatism and principle, Lincoln finally embraces what he calls the Civil War's “fundamental and astounding” result: the immediate, uncompensated abolition of slavery and recognition of blacks as American citizens.

Foner's Lincoln emerges as a leader, one whose greatness lies in his capacity for moral and political growth through real engagement with allies and critics alike. This powerful work will transform our understanding of the nation's greatest president and the issue that mattered most. 16 pages black-and-white illustrations and 3 maps ... Read more

Reviews

a classic book on Lincoln and required reading, October 14, 2010
We see Abraham Lincoln as "The Great Emancipator", who ended slavery in the United States of America. Lincoln's words describe and inspire us, remaining as current as the day they were spoke. We see Lincoln not as the man but as the larger than life occupant of the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln's 1860 nomination is not because he is or is thought to be "The Great Emancipator". Lincoln is a moderate on slavery and race, acceptable to both wings of the party.
Abraham Lincoln's and Americans journey to emancipation is the subject of this excellent book. America faces serious divisions over slavery but very few over race. The wish to end slavery often did not include what to do with the former slaves. Northern states, with few slaves, accepted gradual emancipation and managed to tolerate their Black population. In the majority of Northern states Blacks could not vote, could not serve on a jury nor could they testify against a White person. Some Northern states essentially ban Blacks. In many more states, they are under server restrictions and required to post bonds to insure good conduct. Garrison said that Illinois is essentially a "slave state" due to the restrictive laws on Blacks.
This is a book about race relations more than about slavery. The majority agreed that slavery is "bad" but cannot see a reasonable exit. Gradual Emancipation is an acceptable answer. Slaves born after a set date become free when they become n years old. The current slaves either remain slaves or become free after n years. This pushes the race problem away, leaving it for another generation to deal with. Immediate Emancipation ends slavery but has few answers to the race question. Colonization is a popular answer. Questions on transporting four million people to Africa or some other location is not answered. Nor is the question of how many Blacks voluntary will leave the United States.
Black rights are the major problem. To avoid full citizenship, "rights" are subdivided into acceptable and unacceptable units. Natural rights, not being enslaved, being allowed to seek work and being secure in your person are acceptable because they enshrined in The Declaration of Independence. Political rights, being able to vote, serve on a jury or testify in court are questionable. The majority of Northern States say no to these rights. A few liberals accept "more intelligent Negros" as possible candidates for political rights. Social rights, being able to mix with whites as equals are not considered. Lincoln spends a good deal of his time answering Democratic attacks in this area.
This is a history of Lincoln's journey from Whig to Republican, from gradual to immediate emancipation from colonization to political rights. America move along with Lincoln, one sometimes ahead of the other but both leading and encouraging the other. It is not an easy journey nor is it a quick one.
Eric Foner is an excellent author and historian. This well-written book is informative and easy read. Forner is careful to maintain a balanced approach and never descends into bashing, Lincoln, America or the South. This should be a classic book on Lincoln and required reading.

An in-depth examination of the great question facing a great man, November 21, 2010
Eric Foner's "The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery" is the finst study I have ever seen of Lincoln and the central question that America faced in the middle of the 19th century: what to do about slavery? Foner's book traces in great detail Lincoln's evolving public responses on what to do about slavery (and rce) from the 1830s until the eve of his death in 1865. And I do specify "public responses" because in private Lincoln played his cards very close to the vest, and it is extremely difficult to determine exactly how far his true inner feelings varied at any particular time from what he said or wrote for public knowledge. Obviously, his opinions modified with time; the Lincoln of April, 1865, was not wholly the same man as the Lincoln of mid-1861, just as that man differed from the Lincoln of 1860 or 1858 or 1854. The line between consciously forming and leading public opinion on the subject versus being led by external events is not readily discerned in every case, but Foner does as thorough a job of analysis as we are ever likely to see.

"The Fiery Trial" demands close attention, as the narrative thread winds and twists among the myriad complex issues presented by slavery and its attendent racism. In the end, the story does become one of change, how one extraordinary man traveled from the ordinary deep, casual racism of the time and place of his birth to a position that impelled him in the end to embrace a notion of equality that not only forbade slavery but demanded even-handed treatment before the law and even expanded to include that simple justice required extension of the right to vote. It was a long journey, and Lincoln was neither the perfect saint of later myth, nor the racist demon featured in so much recent revisionist history, but instead was a complex, real man who grew in stature to meet the greatest challenge of his era.

Worthy of a BOOK OF THE YEAR award!, November 19, 2010
This book is a 'must read' for anyone who has a true interest in Abraham Lincoln, American Slavery or the American Civil War. I borrowed this book from the public library, and 27 pages into it I was so impressed that I immediately purchased a hardcover copy of my own.

The Real Lincoln, December 28, 2010
In my humble opinion, Eric Foner is incapable of writing an unbiased book on Lincoln or the WBTS. He joins many others who praise Lincoln as the great emancipator and savior of the Union; neither of which are true. Lincoln did not free the first slave, the Thirteenth Amendment gets that credit. Neither did Lincoln preserve the Union. Instead Lincoln destroyed the Union of free and voluntarily joined states. In its place rest a Union of states bound by force of arms, murder and pillage.

Foner does make a stab at telling the truth about the real Lincoln, but falls way short of the complete truth. Foner comes on the scene after other more capable authors have covered the subject accurately and thoroughly.

For a better understanding of the real Lincoln, I recommend three books, "The Real Lincoln" (2002) and "Lincoln Unmasked," (2006) by Thomas DiLorenzo and the third by John Avery Emison entitled, "Lincoln Uber Alles" (2009). And to round off the truth about Lincoln, DiLorenzo explains the cause and effects of Abraham Lincoln's policies in "Hamilton's Curse." (2008)

The people deserve to know the whole truth about Lincoln from all sources. Foner's book, "The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery," is definitely NOT that source or book.

"Resolved: That this government was adopted the people of the several states of this union as common agent to carry into effect the which they had delegated by the constitution in fulfillment of this high and sacred trust this government is bound so to exercise its powers as not to interfere with the reserved rights of states over their own domestic institutions and is the duty of this government to refrain from attempt however remote to operate on the freedom of speech and the press as secured to the freedom of each state by the constitution and laws thereof That the United States are bound to secure to state a republican form of government and to protect each of them against invasion or domestic violence and for no other purpose can congress interfere with the internal police of a state." NILES NATIONAL REGISTER JAN 1838 MR FLETCHER'S ADDRESS

Abraham Lincoln betrayed the aforementioned trust not to interfere with the reserved rights of states over their own domestic institutions, and invaded a Sovereign state, by waging war against women and children. Lincoln is a murderer of women and children and for that we give him a national holiday.

One of the Best Books I have Ever Read On Lincoln, December 28, 2010
This book tells it like it really happened. It doesn't misquote or leave out very very important messages Lincoln conveyed. Like his impression of the Dred Scott case, and the Kansas-Nebraska act. I love these people that quote Thomas DiLorenzo as a great writer. DiLorenzo and Bennett neither one has one thing good to say about Lincoln. I admit all the Lincoln worship has gone way overboard, and it is good to get another perspective. However this book should not be bashed. At least I thought it was a good read and honest opinions. If you do decide to read someone like Thomas DiLorenzo, you need to buy the book that rejects his flaws - Lincoln Vindicated. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The outrageous exploits of one of this century's greatest scientific minds and a legendary American original. In this phenomenal national bestseller, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman recounts in his inimitable voice his adventures trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek, painting a naked female toreador, accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums and much else of an eyebrow-raising and hilarious nature. A New York Times bestseller; more than 500,000 copies sold. ... Read more

Reviews

Unique moments from the life of a unique man.
I wish someone had given me this book when I was 12-13 years old. I have always enjoyed math and science, but this book would have really made me more excited to learn as much as possible instead of "just enough to not look too dorky". Anyway at 24 years old I read the book and loved it. I have given away several copies since then. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The fall and rise of a heavy metal icon

Dave Mustaine is the first to admit that he's bottomed out a few times in his dark and twisted speed metal version of a Dickensian life.

Impoverished, transient childhood? Check.

Abusive, alcoholic parent? Check.

Mind-fucking religious weirdness (in his case the extremes of the Jehovah's Witnesses and Satanism)? Check.

Alcoholism, drug addiction, homelessness? Check, check, check.

Soul-crushing professional and artistic setbacks? Check.

Rehab? Check (seventeen times, give or take).

Near-death experience? Check that one, too.

James Hetfield, with whom many years ago Mustaine founded a band known as Metallica, once observed, with some incredulity, that Mustaine must have been born with a horseshoe up his ass. That's how lucky he's been, how fortunate he is to be pulling breath after so many close calls. And Hetfield is right. Mustaine has been lucky. He has been blessed. But here's the thing about having a horseshoe lodged in your rectum: It also hurts like hell. And you never forget it's there.

Mustaine has battled through it all to achieve dizzying heights. From the early, heady days of Metallica, being unceremoniously let go only to become a world-famous rock star—founder, front man, singer, songwriter, and guitarist (and de facto CEO) for Megadeth, one of the most popular bands in heavy metal—Mustaine's is a story that will inspire, stun, and terrify.

Reviews

Mustaine at his candid, honest best
I began to devour this book while waiting in line to meet Dave and have him sign my copy at a book signing in Toronto last week. Very quickly it was evident this memoir is written from a place of candor, humor, humility and honesty that I was both surprised at and appreciative of. After all, the Dave Mustaine of my youth was a balsy mouthpiece with a sneer that could send you running for the hills and melt your heart at once (if you were an impressionable teenaged girl who loved Metal that is).

This memoir is like having a conversation with a friend. The stories shared don't come across from a place of bragging or boasting, but from a place of experience, and sometimes veer into quite emotional and serious areas. Luckily though some tales told can also be both crude and funny at once, and it really feels like the words are falling from Dave's own lips. I found it a very deeply insightful look into both an amazing creature and a flawed man, he's human just like the rest of us. Huh, who knew? In the epic percieved battle of Megadeth vs. Metallica I think everyone will enjoy this look into both Dave's life and his thought process. I was a Metallica fan for many years, with only brief flirts of Megadeth in my musical landscape. Reading this memoir has absolutely made me a bigger fan of Mustaine and his life's work.....Megadeth.

Vidi well my fellow droogies........
If you're a Megadeth fan, than you know most of the stories that are in this book. It is how honest Dave come across that is the most surprising. He doesn't sugarcoat things or try to place the blame on others, he lets things fall where they lie. If you're interested in Dave as a person then this will be a good read, if you're wanting to get into detailed accounts of recording info, look elsewhere. As a guitarist I would have liked to have seen more about his unique style and show he writes songs but it is still a very good book and I highly recommend it. For a guy who is often demonized or portrayed as godly he comes across as rather human in this book.......

A compelling personal story that grips you for the entirety of the crazy ride, but leaves you satisfied!
If you are interested in first hand accounts of the rock and roll lifestyle, stories of personal growth and victory, humorous anecdotes, or all of the above, this book won't disappoint!

Dave Mustaine is someone I've admired for a long, time - about 20 years. And just like everything else changes in life, my reasons for admiring him changed and grew as he changed and grew. As a teenager, I latched on to the intensity and energy of Rust In Peace and I never let go of my admiration for Mustaine. Through changes in musical direction and band members, frequent drug relapses, an ongoing feud with another band I like (Metallica), etc., I continued to follow, and support (by purchasing CDs and concert tickets) Dave Mustaine and Megadeth. You could say I was a loyal fan. Dedicated in my support. Perhaps even tenacious. And tenacity is one big reason why I admire Dave Mustaine so much. He has accumulated a lifetime of reasons to give up, spiral into an empty, bitter life or simply be dead already. But he's not. He's still here and this is his personal story of second chances, third chances, strife, success and redemption.

Being a fan of Megadeth, I was at least generally familiar with Mustaine's history; so I guess not much of the book surprised me. If you want to paint with very broad brush strokes, you sum up his life story as not dissimilar from many other rock stars. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll - right? But throughout the book, you get this feeling that all the sensational and sometimes caricature-like anecdotes are being shared by someone who is in a better place now - someone who is wise only in the way that *he* can be, because he has learned from the experiences that only *he* has lived. Mustaine's story is a personal story that you can relate to. Even if you've never played a guitar or smoked heroin.

I had the opportunity to meet him briefly in 2001 and again for a little bit longer while in the studio in 2003. When he sat down next to me and asked me "so what's up?" All I could think to myself was "what's up is your Dave Frickin' Mustaine and I'm a nervous fan who's more starstruck than I thought I would be in this situation". But I wasn't just starstruck by my admiration for his musical ability, nor his music business savvy, nor the fact that he seemed to have a great, healthy family, nor even exclusively his tenacity. It was the fact that this guy was simultaneously a success and a failure - he knows what it is like to be truly human. He had often been a bad example as a person who wasn't the easiest to get along with, yet he has in him this inherent good side, a humble side - a vulnerable side, even, that is very refreshing. Considering I can't relate to probably 95% of Mustaine's life experiences, I feel that he is still a completely 100% relatable guy. To me, this autobiography reaffirms my conviction in our shared humanity and reaffirms my faith in God.

Metal God? Hardly. Just a man, albeit a most metal one. \m/
Dave is just a man. It comes through loud and clear in this book where he lays bare all his brokenness and mistakes over the years. It has all the drugs, sex, and rock n' roll that such a book should have but the tone is completely unexpected.

Dave tells his story from a place of deep humility, some regret, and a thankfulness that he's still alive. I thoroughly enjoyed it and appreciated the honesty throughout. Whether or not you are a metal fan, its worth the read.

A great read and a must for all megadeth fans!
I got my copy in the mail yesterday. I started reading it, and didn't stop reading for seven hours!
The book is written in a very conversational tone- as if Dave Mustaine himself was talking about his life. Very interesting and eventful. As you probably already know, Mustaine's life was not an easy one! I really admire the man for his honesty and putting himself out there for the rest of the world in this great book.
There is funny, sad and random in this tome. It is a great read. Not only that, there are also many photos in the book from when he was young and from the metallica years too.
Overall, I think this book will be loved by any fan of Mustaine or Megadeth or of metal. You can really understand the man's struggles over the years, his dedication to music and his determination to succeed.
Buy it, read it!

A thrash metal PAGE TURNER!!
The one prevailing thought I came away from... after reading this entire book over 2-3 days... is that I am GLAD that Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica. There is no way he would ever have let himself be dictated to ... and no way he would have ever subjected himself to downplaying his creative abilities to the wants and needs of Hetfield and Ulrich. The thing is... METALLICA= Hetfield & Ulrich the same as KISS= Stanley & Simmons. Good or bad, that's the way it is. The creative direction of those two bands has always been dictated by the authoritarian musicians listed. After all, it is their bands... they are the leaders. Mustaine is also a leader... so you can imagine what it was probably like to have so many chefs in the Metallica kitchen. It would have been an Iron Chef Bloodbath!!!!

Mustaine instead took this anger and frustration and put together one of the finest thrash/metal bands in the pantheon of that genre. As evidenced on the music... he has written great songs that sound fresh and that kick your ass year after year. Based on this book, I don't think he realizes quite what he has accomplished. If he did, he wouldn't always be living under the shadow of Metallica.

I felt the chapter that discussed Metallica's entry into the R&R Hall of Fame was pretty damn good. Mustaine takes the high road.

Overall, the book is a great memoir of the origins of Metallica, and the history of Megadeth in broad swatches. It doesn't go into any detail on recording, or songwriting... which I wish it had. I wanted to read about how Mustaine actually learned his six stringed skills in some detail... all he does is mention some of his influences from time to time. If you're looking for this type of stuff... (the nuts & bolts of the creation of Megadeth's music)... this book is not for you. Instead, it goes for the emotional stuff... the drugs/rehab/love stories... the stuff that you might see in a movie adaptation. But that stuff does make for some great reading, I have to say.

Maybe Mustaine has said all he wants to say about the details in his various GUITAR WORLD interviews... it would have been nice to see that stuff here. It would also have been nice to see a complete discography at the end (with the musicians listed). After all, didn't he realize that some readers might be new to the music of Megadeth? Yeah I know I can pull up that stuff in the Wikipedia... but it would have been a convenient addition.

Must I write it... this book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

The Pictures Are Worth A 1000 Words!
Photographer William (Bill) Hale has added the visual to this autobiography by contributing 22 of the photos (including 5 full page shots and 7 glossy prints) that bring this story to life. Many of the early Metallica pics appeared first in Metallica The Club Dayz 1982-1984 by Bill Hale, on a higher quality photo paper. 8 early Megadeth photos are from Bill Hale's upcoming photo book titled Megadeth Another Time A Different Place, which is currently in the process of shopping for a publisher. While his other photos appear only here in Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir!

This book is a great read, it is very well written from an honest and humble position. Dave Mustaine takes full responsibility for the choices and the mistakes he has previously made in this lifetime. He reveals very intimate details about the quality of his life and the long and winding road that he traveled to reach a place where the healing could begin. I laughed out loud at some of these stories and felt a deep compassion as I read about some of his experiences. I found myself rooting for his recovery and wanting to say "no don't do it!!" every time he fell back into the black abyss of depression and drug/alcohol addiction. I had no interest in judging any of his actions but could hear how hard he was fighting those natural urges to continue on with these self destructive behaviors. It's difficult for people who did not come from dysfunctional or broken homes to completely understand this struggle. Nurture can only make up for a small amount of the nature we inherit and if the nurture was not there then it is a long, sometimes seemingly impossible struggle to find a peace that you have never known but have read about or seen in someone else. I commend Dave for bearing his soul for all to see and thank him on behalf of the many other people who have deeply ingrained troubles to overcome.

We love you Dave, YOU ROCK!!

Megabiography
I read this book in a single sitdown and it was hard to stop reading. From the early days of Metallica to the trials and tribulations of being cut and starting out on his own, Dave Mustaine weaves a well told tale. Not afraid to point the finger at others when it was deserved and certainly able to point the finger at himself for his mistakes along the way. The journey ends with his conversion to Christianity and explains his reasoning for his change without being preachy and in your face. His point of view is to each his own and if you arrive to the same conclusion, then he respects you either way. I enjoyed this book and wait to see if anything will be denied by parties involved. It felt candid, honest and real and focused more on resolving broken relationships, poor life choices, drug addiction and freedom. I wish Dave the best in whatever he does with the remainder of his life and by the end of the book I think most readers would feel likewise.

If you are a fan of rock autobiographies, as I am, I can't imagine not enjoying this story. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page.It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.

Now this cult classic of gonzo journalism is a major motion picture from Universal, directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro.Opens everywhere on May 22, 1998. ... Read more

Reviews

And you thought YOUR trip to Vegas was rough and wild!
Written in 1971, `Fear and Loathing' still has a powerful impact on the mind even today. If you are easily offended by gratuitous drug usage and the craziness resulting from it, then put the book down and back away slowly. For those who may have perhaps saw the movie with Johnny Depp and did not know what to think of it, I highly recommend reading the book and then watching the movie again, its subtleties come out from the background provided in the book, and you will truly appreciate the performances afterwards.

`Fear' is absolutely hilarious, following the ramblings of a journalist and his attorney into Las Vegas in the early years. Through clouds of mescaline, acid, ether, amyl, tequila, rum, and pot, we see Las Vegas through the demented eyes of a person totally over the edge and bordering on drug induced psychosis.

The bar scene in Circus-Circus is worth the price of the book alone, and all of the vapid trippings of our dynamic duo are practically frightening in their intensity. Thompson has captured the mind of the delusional manic in `Fear', and while it is a journey not recommended for real life, in its book form it is highly entertaining and brutally funny.

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas may be dated in its use of drugs and money, and the picture painted of a Las Vegas strip long gone to the commercialism of today's Vegas, but the amusing underlying story of human nature of the edge of reason is timeless. Definitely a worthwhile muse to entertain yourself with. Enjoy!

More truer now than it was originally!
I personally live just outside of Las Vegas, and just about everything the good doctor wrote about is still true (especially Circus Circus). I can only imagine what he'd think of the quasi-Disneyland attractions that are there now.

The drug content was to be expected at that era. The world was still in a white picket fence mode and "creative chemistry" was seen as a tool to escape from it (or at least, take a different view).

The stream-of-consciousness writing style is a wonder to behold. You can practically feel your mind bob-sledding through the ether-induced haze, coming to a landing on both feet.

As for weither or not it was real, get over it. Just wallow in the genius of the work; how it dissects the "American Dream" and how we were so rudely woken from it.

And if you've seen the film, READ THE FREAKIN' BOOK AS WELL! You will discover a favorite quote or two that you'll find yourself using over and over again. I laughed so hard reading it the first time, my face hurt!

It's a classic document of the tail end of the "flower power" generation, and the beginning of the narcisism of the 1970's. Classic American literature with sheer outright BALLS that's so dearly lacking in today's pop culture.

I am certain that when Dr. Thompson reaches his final reward, he will have a never-ending orgy held in his honor, just for writing this book.

"only for those with true grit-and we are chock full of it"
I have read and re-read my copy of this book so many times the pages are all dog eared and the spine is on the verge of coming apart. In short this book is an absolute masterpiece. I don't think that there is any other book that will completely hold you in it's grip from the first to the last line in the way that this book will.

This book and it's author have became cultural icons ever since it went to print in the early seventies. Plenty of other reviewers have gone into great detail about many of the notable qualities of this book: the hilarious dark humor of the two's drug induced antics and the razor sharp wit it is written with, the clarity in descriptions of the drug state, the spot on observations of the 'American way of life' as well as the counterculture of the '60s, the brutal honesty in which the author deals with negative and reckless acts commited by him and especially his attorny (which some find disturbing) and of course the shear genius in every page of this by all means flawless novel.

After reading this book too many times to keep count, although I still find it totally laugh out loud funny, I generally must say that Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas is ultimately a sad novel. Sure it's a road trip to cover a story in Las Vegas on hallucinogens, but I feel that overall it is the cronicle of a 'failed seeker'. I mean the search for the American Dream is unsuccessfull and you get the feeling from this book that it will always be an unfruitfull search as the American dream doesn't exist. The passages on how the energy of the '60s dissappeared are particularly moving in this way.

I cannot recomend reading this book enough, it is funny, witty, paranoid, dreamy yet crystal clear and written impecably well.

"Buy the ticket, take the ride"

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream" by Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter Thompson practiced total immersion journalism. This form of reporting is called gonzo journalism.

Hunter Thompson drove to Las Vegas to report on a motorcycle race and ended up writing a story about himself writing a story about a motorcycle race. If he would have written a conventional report on motorcycle racing it would have been interesting to motorcycle enthusiasts for a few days. Since he wrote a gonzo story he had a very wide canvas and he used it well to create a classic.

The reader might be turned off by the obstreperous behavior, extreme self indulgence and offensive inconsiderate language. If you can look past this offensive conduct and you will see that Hunter Thompson gave us an insight into the American character of the 1970's.

See also: Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library)

I completely enjoyed this book and recommend it to others.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream" by Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter Thompson practiced total immersion journalism. This form of reporting is called gonzo journalism.

Hunter Thompson drove to Las Vegas to report on a motorcycle race and ended up writing a story about himself writing a story about a motorcycle race. If he would have written a conventional report on motorcycle racing it would have been interesting to motorcycle enthusiasts for a few days. Since he wrote a gonzo story he had a very wide canvas and he used it well to create a classic.

The reader might be turned off by the obstreperous behavior, extreme self indulgence and offensive inconsiderate language. If you can look past this offensive conduct and you will see that Hunter Thompson gave us an insight into the American character of the 1970's.

See also: Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library)

I completely enjoyed this book and recommend it to others.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
This novel is a classic of American Literature in the same right as Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, The Catcher in the Rye, and countless others. True, it's not appreciated by everyone (as can be seen in the reviews below) but neither was and is Moby Dick. This is definitely a baroque classic too, and it was groundbreaking in its own time (which it may not be anymore, logically, but that's not all the book is about, far from that).

As some have said before me, it's indeed a great window open on an era now dead: the sad end of all the dreams of the 60's; and that is important to our own time because I am not sure we ever recovered from all those dead dreams. Even in my generation, I know a lot of people who still look back with major nostalgia even though they didn't even exist exist in the 60's. That was a very significant moment in time during the 20th century and it certainly set the setting for as far as today.

Some say there is no real plot to this book; much the same can be and was said about Moby Dick. I won't deny that, but I will point out that not all books are about "plots" and that there is ALWAYS a plot, no matter how minimal or nonsensical it gets. A trip to nowhere without any clear direction in search of the American Dream, what do you expect? A clear plot with obvious twists and the likes? Of course not.

That book is fun, disturbing, daring, and much deeper and serious than it may appear to the shallow reader. Definitely worth it, and definitely classic. Wandering around the still smoking embers of the Fallen Dream with Hunter S. Thompson is an experience you don't want to miss.

The Best American Comedy of the 20th Century?
This hilarious satire is fast paced, very entertaining even after multiple readings, and a hysterically funny yet scathing portrayal of American society and the city of Las Vegas in the early 1970s.

Thomson admired the previous generation of American writers such as Hemingway and Fitzgerald and the polished craft of his writing style reflects this. In 200 pages there isn't a single bad sentence, or a miscued punchline. Vast amounts of hard (sober) work (and talent) must have gone into perfecting a deceptively conversational, light style.

For "serious" readers, this book can also be read as a coda to the late 1960s social revolution. By the early 1970s, its apparent to Thompson that the dream is dead, a pre-Watergate Richard Nixon is in the White House, and the silent majority are satisfied and complacent.

My title for this review is quite deliberate - this is the best American comedy of the 20th Century, and it will be read and enjoyed 100 years hence.

Hunter S. Thompson is more than just a junkie
A million times from a million Hunter S. Thompson fans I have heard nothing but 'wow that guy took more drugs than I ever seen 'afore.' And that is the extent of their study into this book. We look at writers from the 60's and we say: 'hey they were good writers.' When we think of William Burroughs, or Kerouac, or Ginsberg we think of their skills, they have been adopted into the pantheon of American hippie/writers and they are the greats in the field, but Thompson, sadly may not be remembered in this way. We have to first remember that Thompson wasn't a novelist by trade. He's a journalist. In between the lines containing the words 'lsd' and 'mescalin' there is a very deep and yes, subtle meaning hidden in this book. Through the drug frenzied nightmare that is his story is a sad and sentimental testament to the troubles that plague this country. On drugs, in the '70's but wasn't that prerequisite for being a writer in the 70's? Thompson has the macho tendency to play dumb, all the while keeping genius hidden from the people on the streets. You know, like how you catch Sistah Soldjah writing books, or Tupac poetry. This book is a festive celebration of memories, like all people have on introspective nghts, full of drudgery and melancholy, but only on the epidermis. Inside this book if you look really hard you will find that 1970's Las Vegas, on drugs, committing pedophilia, vandalism, fraud and a variety of other felonies, is a microcosm of the American Dream, and the sociological repurcussions of that dream. As well as a prophetic and all-to-accurate vision of things to come. Which from a man as obsessed with the prospect of Apocalypse as Thompson is quite a scary thing indeed.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream" by Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter Thompson practiced total immersion journalism. This form of reporting is called gonzo journalism.

Hunter Thompson drove to Las Vegas to report on a motorcycle race and ended up writing a story about himself writing a story about a motorcycle race. If he would have written a conventional report on motorcycle racing it would have been interesting to motorcycle enthusiasts for a few days. Since he wrote a gonzo story he had a very wide canvas and he used it well to create a classic.

The reader might be turned off by the obstreperous behavior, extreme self indulgence and offensive inconsiderate language. If you can look past this offensive conduct and you will see that Hunter Thompson gave us an insight into the American character of the 1970's.

See also: Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library)

I completely enjoyed this book and recommend it to others.


... Read more

Editorial Review

In this profoundly affecting memoir from the internationally renowned author of The Caged Virgin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.

One of today's most admired and controversial political figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali burst into international headlines following an Islamist's murder of her colleague, Theo van Gogh, with whom she made the movie Submission.

Infidel is the eagerly awaited story of the coming of age of this elegant, distinguished -- and sometimes reviled -- political superstar and champion of free speech. With a gimlet eye and measured, often ironic, voice, Hirsi Ali recounts the evolution of her beliefs, her ironclad will, and her extraordinary resolve to fight injustice done in the name of religion. Raised in a strict Muslim family and extended clan, Hirsi Ali survived civil war, female mutilation, brutal beatings, adolescence as a devout believer during the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, and life in four troubled, unstable countries largely ruled by despots. In her early twenties, she escaped from a forced marriage and sought asylum in the Netherlands, where she earned a college degree in political science, tried to help her tragically depressed sister adjust to the West, and fought for the rights of Muslim immigrant women and the reform of Islam as a member of Parliament. Even though she is under constant threat -- demonized by reactionary Islamists and politicians, disowned by her father, and expelled from her family and clan -- she refuses to be silenced.

Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright little girl evolved out of dutiful obedience to become an outspoken, pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no story could be timelier or more significant. ... Read more

Reviews

A vivid chronicle of a triumphant escape from cultural confinement
Autobiographies often suffer from late-life authorship--a time when the fires are damped and the events foreshortened by time. This one--by a woman still in her thirties--is an exception to nearly every rule of the genre. Not least for its electrifying readability: it consumed every free moment of the two days it took to finish it. Putting it down was simply not an option.

This book will grab your imagination like no other, transplant you into a world you have probably never known, and introduce you to the intimate world of a muslim family swept by circumstance all over Africa, Arabia, and Europe. The complex interaction of tribes, clans, cultures, extended families and nations (and their consequences) isn't dryly analyzed, it is woven into a personal drama with the momentum of a locomotive. The love of family rides perilously over the jarring railbed of refugee life, of ancient and modern Islamic conflicts, all of it recounted with real compassion in beautifully clear English. This multilingual immigrant needs no ghostwriter.

Unlike the collection of editorial essays which comprised "The Caged Virgin", "Infidel" is a consistently focused narrative of a spectacularly eventful life launched almost inadvertantly into an unparalleled adventure in moral courage. But there's far more here than a clash-of-cultures story well told. There is no targeted rush toward a predestined liberation. The revelatory discovery of western freedoms comes late in the book and gathers like a slow-motion sunrise. Only in the final chapters does she defect from Muslim culture, graduate from the University of Leiden, become a Dutch legislator, a target of Islamic terrorists, and an incendiary revolutionary for Muslim womens' rights.

More than simply discovering western libertarian values, she shows a deep and critical understanding of their history, how they've shaped the modern world, and shows their prognosis for dealing with the festering problem of Europe's Islamic subculture. Her extraordinary life seems more an ongoing work in progress than a settled iconographic career. She has recently moved to America--the adopted home of another famously eloquent and consequential revolutionary: Tom Paine.

A most remarkable book.
Every now and then, something truly remarkable is written. This book falls into that category. I have read very few books which hit me as hard as this book did.

This is a remarkable woman. She has crossed an impassable divide, and has been able to reach the other side--after considerable suffering, work, and tears. Her journey has not yet ended. I would imagine much more awaits her. She seems to be fated to say what many do not wish to hear.

How well does anyone in the west understand Islam, and all the things it does to people? Do we really understand female genital mutilation, beaten women, arranged marriages, the compuslive need to hide the feminine, and the complete loss of individual freedom? Americans still don't have a clue. This book makes a very real effort to explain a few things. It is painful, but important reading.

One can read the various books on Islam--with great value. This book makes it personal, and painful. It is time the west came to its senses, and faced reality. It is not "one world," all cultures are not equal in value, and the individual matters much more than the collective living in darkness.

On a more mundane level, the book is well-written, gripping, heart wrenching, powerful, painful, touching, and impossible to put down. Read it, and you, too, will feel its remarkable value--and message.

I wish this wonderful woman well . She has done so very much to open our eyes.

Must-Read By a Heroine of World Historical Importance
"Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a must-read book by a heroine of world historical importance.

Years from now, maybe even centuries from now, her depth and integrity, and the depth and integrity of others like her, will still be having a positive impact on the world.

Please don't misunderstand this book. "Infidel" is NOT a right-wing tract or a left-wing tract; it is not a feminist pamphlet or an apologia for the West. "Infidel" is NOT an attack on Muslims.

"Infidel" is a beautifully written work of art. If you were living on another planet, where there were no Muslims, no Westerners, no 9-11, you would still want to read this book for its profound human depth and its literary value.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali takes the particular -- her own extraordinary life lived in Africa, Saudia Arabia, Europe and North America, lived as a hyper- devout Muslim and lived as a new atheist -- and, with the clarity of an electron microscope, depicting every detail, she creates a work of universal resonance.

Have you ever been afraid to defy convention? Have you ever suffered to learn that your family's and people's traditions were not as benign as you had been taught to believe? Have you ever witnessed injustice and not known what to do? Have you ever wanted to be a hero or a heroine?

If so, then you will see yourself in this book, even given its exotic details.

Its exotic details include a heartbreaking scene that describes how madrassah -- Koran school -- pupils brutalized a girl they dubbed "kintirleey," that is, a girl whose private female anatomy had not yet been mutilated, as per Muslim-African custom.

This scene is written in the most simple of language. You could read it with the television on in the background. And yet it falls on your heart with the weight of lead.

What makes Ayaan Hirsi Ali a voice of world historical importance is partly her great art, exhibited here; it is also her shining courage. Simply, in an age where truth is penalized, banned, distorted, Ayaan Ali Hirsi simply speaks the truth.

Hirsi Ali refuses to participate in nonsense. I want to type a word other than "nonsense" -- B.S.

Hirsi Ali resists lies. That insistence on truth has made her life hard. She and her colleague, Theo van Gogh, made the film "Submission," about the fate of women in Islam. A Muslim assassin killed van Gogh on a public street, shooting him, stabbing him, slitting his throat, and, with a knife blade, affixing a note to his chest; the note threatened Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The words you read in "Infidel" have a high price. Hirsi Ali lives in constant danger for telling the truth.

This book is so good and so important, that one knows that Ayaan Hirsi Ali's great courage is worth any price.

Infidel
This is a fantastic description of life in Islam. Ayaan Hirsi Ali explains in very honestly what she has had to deal with in her life. As an ex muslim myself, she is a brave example for the rest of us women struggling with the threats and violence of Islam. This is a must read book for those who do not have the time or patience to study Islam and Islamic culture. It should be mandatory reading for High School Students in the west. Anyone who has to risk their lives to tell the truth is revolutionary. These days the truth is a revoluntionary act and Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a pioneer and my hero.

Couldn't put it down
I have seen Ayaan Hirsi-Ali interviewed and knew who she was when I got this book, which was riveting from the moment I started to read it. Her life story (to date) is an amazing road of transformation and realization. This woman has determination, intelligence, and courage beyond anyone I have ever met. As a woman born and raised in America and having opportunities available to me from the beginning, I am humbled tremendously by the incredible accomplishments of Hirsi-Ali. Born in Somalia, one of the poorest nations on earth, and having lived in Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia under strict Muslim faith, she managed to educate herself beyond the restrictions of the religion, escape the prison of such a male dominated culture and realize the hypocrisy of the world in which she existed. Against all odds, she survived female genitle mutilation at the age of six, learned to speak several languages, and ultimately disgraced her family by refusing to marry someone she barely knew by seeking asylum in Holland. Amid death threats, she further educated herself and ultimately became a member of the Parliament in Holland with a focus on women's rights and wrote a film about the submission of women in Islam which resulted in the horrific murder of it's director, Theo Van Gogh. The assasins composed a letter to Hirsi-Ali and stabbed it into VanGogh's chest. Her courage to share with us the tragic and horrifying events of her life, including severe beatings, a fractured skull, and her ultimate denouncement of Islam, demonstrates her determination to call to reality the backwards ideology of Islam, specifically the fundamental aspects, which threatens the Western World. She is grateful for all that she saw in the modern world, from friendly police men to social workers and democratic governmental agencies. She was fascinated by bus schedules that ran on time, garbage collection, and all the things we in the West take for granted, including welfare. As Hirsi-Ali was amazed by hot and cold running showers, I am in awe of Hirsi-Ali and wish more educated women of Islam could find such strength and courage to stop the ignorance and violence and hatred that is ingrained in the children in the name of Allah. Unfortunately, education and poverty is at the core of fundamental Islam and it is unlikely to change in those regions where Islam is the law, corruption abundant and women are enslaved. Her insight is invaluable, her honesty is applauded and her curiosity, which brought her to where she is today, is refreshing. Tragically, those values cost her a family who have disowned her and see her as an Infidel, but ironically, her choice to accept and embrace freedom has made her someone they should be very proud of because she is truly a woman of great honor, admiration and success.

Where have all the feminists gone?
If you value liberty, you will weep as you witness this brave woman's story.

Like Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, the viewpoint of this book will appeal across political lines. It's impossible to ascribe political tendencies of 'liberal' or 'conservative' to the author. How can that be, you might wonder, if the author is a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute? Do your daughter a favor and read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's story to find out. The author would seem to be as welcome on Oprah's show as Glen Beck's: Her story trancends political differences and will remind the reader of what it means to value humanity.

When you read this book, note that she refused to compromise while a politician and spoke her mind to the Dutch people, even when her views conflicted with her party. This is a woman who stands for what is right, and that will make her popular with those that value reason and unpopular with those that accept dogma, whether it be religious or political.

She writes "I also don't want my reasoning to be dismissed as the bizarre ranting of someone who has been somehow damaged by her experiences and who is lashing out." No one who reads this book could possibly think such a thing. I'm amazed with the evenhandedness she is able to exert in this memoir.

If, like my wife, you wonder "where are my feminists" in the face of islamic extremism, you will find a new hero.

What now for the 'non-political" woman?
Every now and then a book comes along to give my personal paradigms a good shake up. "Infidel" is one such title.

I have admired Ayaan Hirsi Ali for some time - ever since I saw the first reports of her in Dutch politics and the shocking images of her subsequent film on the abuse of Muslim women. I admired her in her role as activist against the wrongs of radical Islam. (After all, Christianity has had its own ideological purge.) But my admiration was even more for the woman herself.

As a white, middle-class female I am neither sociologist nor political animal, so why read this book, let alone comment on it? Because I believe it has a powerful message for Western women besides a political one. Certainly, the plight of Muslim women and the implications of burgeoning Islam concern me greatly. I cannot turn a blind eye, even in the isolation of New Zealand where I live. We have seen vandalism here against the mosques and been saddened by it. We have bristled at the intractability of a visiting Imam when he was interviewed on national television on the abuse of Muslim women. (As far as he was concerned, it didn't exist, and the Qu'ran did not sanction abuse.) But this book does more than enlighten me on such issues: it shakes me out of the complacency of my own, relatively safe world. And it leaves me with questions I had never thought of asking before.

Gary Zukav (The Dancing Wu Li Masters) says, "According to quantum mechanics, there is no such thing as objectivity. We cannot eliminate ourselves from the picture." So in what way do we put ourselves in this particular picture?

What can Western women do? Should we clean up our own backyard,first? After all, women in Christian countries are no strangers to abuse. Maybe if women's thinking internationally gets to "critical mass" on these issues, something will change radically. (I interpret part of Ali's message as saying this.) I admit I'm still looking for answers.

All I can say to other women who consider reading this book is: do! Ayaan Hirsi Ali shows that inner power is not dependent on outer circumstances. The book is worth reading for that alone.

Very interesting autobiography of a courageous woman
It is difficult nowadays to get an objective, nuanced opinion on Islam, neither flattering nor biased against it. If I were to recommend a way to try and achieve this, I would suggest reading several good books on the matter, including this one among them.

This is a wonderful autobiography. I knew that Ayaan Hirsi Ali was a controversial thinker, but I was afraid that her life would be boring. However, the author manages to narrate her own life and circumstances in such a way that I could not put it down, and read it in less than two week's time. I highly recommend it.

Other books that I would recommend reading (as Khaled M. Abou El Fadl -scholar trained in both Islamic and Western law- says, non-muslims "first and foremost [are to] learn and understand, because nothing helps the puritans' cause as much as Western ignorance, prejudice and hate") would be the following:

ASSESSMENTS OF ISLAM:

1) The best, impartial, wise: "Islam. History, present, future" by Hans K�ng (written in German, already available in Spanish, English translation coming in 2007).

2) Harsh but well argued: "Muslims in the West: Redefining the Separation of Church & State" by Sami Awad Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh.

3) Moderate Islam at its best: "The Great Theft : Wrestling Islam from the Extremists" by Khaled M. Abou El Fadl

HISTORY:

1) General: "The Venture of Islam", by Marshall G. S. Hodgson (nowadays a classic included in any bibliography on Islam).

2) Turks: "The Turks in World History" by Carter Vaughn Findley.

3) Political theory: "God's Rule : Government and Islam" by Patricia Crone.

4) Jihad: "Understanding Jihad" by David Cook (it also seems interesting although I have not read it yet: "Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice" by Michael Bonner).

The story of a courageous struggle for human freedom and dignity
Ayaan Hirst Ali is the Somali born human rights activist who came to the world's attention when the murderer of Theo van Gogh left a message accusing her of defiling Islam. She at the time was living in Holland where she had sought refuge after not taking the flight to Canada to an arranged marriage she did not want. In Holland she worked hard, graduated from Leiden University, tried to help Islamic women who were being persecuted by their husbands. She also became a parliamentarian. As the death threats to her mounted , she who as a young person had supported the fatwa on Salman Rushdie , she understood that she must move to safer territory. She now makes her home in the United States where she is a member of a conservative think- tank 'The American Enterprise Institute'.
Ali is fundamentally a human rights activist who believes in Enlightentment values. While she is deeply concerned about Islam's failure to provide women with basic human freedoms- she is concerned about all of mankind having freedom of speech and expression, the right to be educated, the ability to choose one's own path in life.
Her own courageous example in which she chose to go outside an oppressive framework and stand alone is perhaps too difficult and extreme for most to follow. But clearly her passionate conviction, her clarity of expression do speak to the very real need to provide each and every human being on earth basic freedoms and the opportunity to create their own life in dignity. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

Magic and Bird Together Again At Last

RICK SHAQ GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "YOU CAN HEAR FROM LARRY & MAGIC WHAT THEY FELT WHILE PLAYING IN NCAA & NBA CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES
For twenty-years basketball fans have heard and read from many sources what the true feelings of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were like as these two unbelievably competitive men changed the game of basketball. They were so totally different... and yet at the core... so totally alike. For the first time Larry and Magic collaborate to reveal what they "really" thought about each other through each and every step of their game-changing careers. It's like having a split screen with Magic on one side and Larry on the other as they share their childhoods... college... and NBA careers... and even their post playing lives. At the end of each historical milepost the split screen becomes one as both Hall of Famers summarize in real-time... adding comments that are more sage with the blessing of age and maturity.

When Magic and his Michigan State team met Larry's Indiana State team for the National Championship Game in 1979 it drew a 24.1 Nielsen rating, "THE HIGHEST IN COLLEGE BASKETBALL HISTORY, A NOTEWORTHY MILESTONE THAT REMAINED UNTOUCHED THREE DECADES LATER." From that time forward Larry and Magic were forever linked-compared-and-intertwined for the rest of their lives. A mutual hatred breeded mutual respect and in the end a lifetime friendship. Along the way they were universally credited with saving the NBA. "IN 1979 THE LEAGUES FOUR-YEAR DEAL WITH CBS WAS WORTH $74 MILLION. BY 2002 THE LEAGUE HAD INKED A SIX-YEAR DEAL WITH ABC, ESPN, AND TNT VALUED AT 4.6 BILLION." The author's pull no punches as they both admit that starting in the aftermath of their NCAA showdown that one hated the other. After Magic won the NBA championship in his rookie year Bird now admits extreme jealousy. Though neither one admitted it in those days they each followed the others stats and accomplishments like madmen possessed. As some individual awards went Bird's way... Johnson felt slighted. But through it all they both admit this feverish competition between the two made them both rise to athletic levels they would never have reached without the burning desire to outdo the other. And then in 1985 they both agreed to take part in the now infamous Converse commercial entitled "CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON"... and Magic came to Larry's home in Indiana... and the miraculous took place. These two fiery... hating... competitors... started to talk and found out they were very much alike... and their childhoods were extremely similar. And then in the unlikeliest of scenario's they became extremely good friends. They realized then... and now... that their lives were forever interlaced. Magic couldn't go anywhere without people asking how Larry was doing... and Larry couldn't go anywhere without being asked how Magic was doing.

Any true basketball fan will not only share the exhilaration of the glorious pinnacles of the author's careers... but you will also feel the grief as their careers come to an end. And of course Magic becoming HIV positive. The definitive epitome of the friendship that had been born through these competitive games... was when Magic demanded that Larry be contacted and made aware of his disease before it was made public. Along with the accepted fact that Bird and Magic saved the NBA... potential readers will also truly enjoy the coverage regarding Michael Jordan taking the baton and leading the NBA to reach even higher goals. The detailed story telling regarding the 1992 Olympic Basketball Dream Team is a must read for all basketball fans. A scene between the greatest players in the world at the Olympic Village during a game of pool with Jordan, Magic, Larry, Barkley, Ewing... and others... as they banter between themselves as to who "was" the greatest... "is" the greatest... and "would-have" been the greatest... if time had been shuffled differently... is one of the greatest behind the scenes look at these famous stars I've ever come across. It is akin to the stalking of lions in the jungle as they contemplate changing the pecking order.

The rabid rivalry that was Magic and Bird raised each of these legendary "team-first" ballplayers to levels... that in this retrospection... they publicly agree... they would have never reached without the other. It's left to the imagination how much higher Jordan may have gone if he had had his own Larry or Magic in their prime. Basketball is forever greater because of this rivalry... and no discussion of one... will ever take place without a discussion of the other... for all eternity!

The best book about basketball I've ever read

Poignant, Funny, and Real--A Slam Dunk!!!

It's all about RESPECT