Biography Books

The only folks this book maybe funny to are the type of Iranians who have little mastery of the English language. I found the writing skill to be too elementary for anyone with educations beyond the high school level. I have to say that I have not read the Farsi translation of it which incidentally I have heard is much better than its English version.

I truly enjoyed this collection of stories, all written with a keen, perceptive eye, a humorous take on life, and a facility with words. I look forward to reading Laughing without an Accent.

Kazem, I hope that you read this review and are even prouder of your daughter!

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This book started out funny and interesting and ended the same. At times I wished for more information, but overall the book was wonderful.

The author has a knack for finding and telling the funny part of every situation. It was delightful to read her take on her experiences. Her tales are so entertaining, I was sad when the book was finished.

Thankfully, she has a new book out and I am ordering it NOW!

This is one book I will keep so I can reread stories whenever I need a good laugh.

It was refreshing to see how similar(in all the positive ways)families from differnt cultures actually are.

It is revealing that thirty-five years after this book was first published, it is still in print and going strong. Bear in mind that this was originally a series of magazine articles, written under pressure of deadline for Rolling Stone. I could read it (and will read it) again and again. Just think of Theodore White's "Making of a President" series. Just give Teddy a couple of hits of blotter acid and you have "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72" by Hunter S. Thompson.

This could only be described as journalistic poetry. The passion rage and ultimate disillusionment expressed by Thompson throughout these pages are as moving today as they were when first written in 1972. Covering the doomed campaign between a crooked used car salesman like Dick Nixon and a statesman of George's McGovern's stature must have been a soul wrenching experience. Given the benefit of hindsight, especially what the months following its publication would reveal about the depths of the Nixon Gang's corruption, reading this book is all-the-more bittersweet. But it's also funny - screamingly so.

It really shouldn't surprise anyone familiar with his work that Hunter would eventually be consumed by his own rage. It can't be easy for a person with so clear a grasp of the hypocrisies of the so-called American dream to live amongst us as a functioning, mentally healthy human being. How could it have been easy being Hunter Thompson?

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

I have read a number of Hunter Thompson's books. Some were very good and some were just too "over the top". There are elements of both in "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972". This book focusses on the 1972 Democratic campaign for President beginning with the start of the primary campaign. Thompson has his favorites in the race and it is helpful that one of them, George McGorvern, wins the Democratic nomination. Along the way to the nomination, we are treated to Thompson's vile opinions of others in the race such as Edmund Muskie and, especially, Hubert Humphrey.

Thompson's book is essentially a compilation of articles that were written for "The Rolling Stone" throughout the campaign. The articles meld together well. Thompson appears to have been treated nearly the same as other "main stream" reporters although there are times that he seems to be off on his own. The book concludes with a helpful insight to the reasons behind the catastrophic loss suffered by McGovern.

I enjoyed this book for the insight and the recollections that it provided me. I was 20 year's old in 1972 and, thanks to President Nixon, able to vote in my first election. I was an avid supporter of McGovern back then. I understood his reasons for dropping his running mate, Thomas Eagleton, after disclosures of Eagleton's past mental health treatment became public. In the week that followed that revelation, the only news that the press seemed to write about the McGovern campaign was an on-going analysis of Eagleton's suitability for the office. With nothing coming out about McGovern or his issues, it seemed an unfortunate inevibility to have to cast aside Eagleton to be able to refocus on McGovern. Of course, that only made matters worse and McGovern's campaign never recovered from it. Thompson gives a fair amount of insight to that event that helped me to understand it better. There were other insights as well but that leads me to my objection of Hunter Thompson's book. There were enough scenes of the standard drug-crazed observations that made me realize that I couldn't be sure what was fact or what was a sort of morning after effort to recollect the foggy night before. Some things clearly seemed impossible to be true. Some things seemed clearly a representation of factual inside information. However, there were enough questionable accounts that I had to set aside because of Thompson's wasted pages spent building up his persona. Were these events real or imagined like the mescaline deal taking place outside his motel window? Were these quotaions accurrate or just as imagined as the various mind-altering drugs that Thompson was sure some of the various candidates were taking? The problem with Hunter Thompson is that you never know what to believe. He took on a worthy topic and had a lot to share. A lengthy transcript of one of his interviews betrays a fairly normal, intelligent journalist's questions of a candidate. If he had played it straight, this would have been a much more significant contribution to the Presidential Campaign of 1972. As it is, it's an interesting mixture of fact and fiction that a reader can take or leave.

This book's setting is eerily similar to the current state of affairs going on in with the 2008 Presidential Election, with the Democrats picking themselves apart while the Republicans sit back and enjoy the show. Richard Nixon is shown as the abomination that he was and HST's writing is as animated and humorous as I have ever seen it. This book surpassed my expectations and was a surprisingly fast read at 496 pages. I was left begging for more political insight and HST wit. A must read for any HST fan or anyone interested in the inner workings ( mostly the dark side) of politics. A great book that shows that HST was and is probably better than his already sizable legend permits.

I read this book as an appetizer for the current US presidential election campaign. And what an appetizer it is - akin to a halopenio shrimp cocktail with mescalin! It would have been an even better starter for the 2004 election, with which the 1972 election (featured here) shared many features: An incumbent hated by all the progressives at home and everybody in the rest of the world, an opponent who stands for nothing but not being that incumbent (defeated in the primaries in 72) and a murderous, immoral and expensive war on the other side of the world, which nevertheless didn't cost the US president his job.

When the great HST covers the 1972 campaign, the verb "cover" takes on a whole new meaning. He immerses himself in the broadcast of a pro football game in order to adopt the same mindset as pro football fanatic Richard Nixon. He almost drowns in the Atlantic ocean in Miami in sight of his friends at a democratic primary-night party. At the republican convention, he joins the young republicans and talks to them about acid (they think he is referring to proton donors, like hydrochloric acid). Not despite, but rather because of this famous "gonzo" style of journalism, HST's book is rich in insight about US politics and politics in general. He goes so much further than the horse-race type coverage commonly fed to the public. Thompson provides an intelligent assessment of the moods and trends in the US population and a really smart analysis of why people vote for whom. He has excellent insight into the dynamics of the individual campaigns and how they are molded by the characters and agendas of the candidates, the interactions with their campaign workers and their relations to the party apparatus. HST doesn't think of elections as some kind of stunt happening every couple of years, but he explains them as deeply interwoven with the social and demographic workings of the USA.

Some of my most favorite political quotes are from this book. Thompson really loves his country, he says "it could have been a testament to some of man's best instincts", but he is in despair over the crocks (Nixon and cronies) who have taken it hostage. This emotional state of his and the worry about the direction the US will take in '72 got him to write an intense and fiery book.

Do yourself a favor - stop following the electoral coverage on the corporate media for a week, use your time to read this book, and then go back to the current campaign and you will view it in a new light.

Another classic from HST, in fact maybe my favorite work of his. The setting for the book is the presidential campaign of 1972 pitting Gorge McGovern against Richard Millhouse Nixon. It begins with Thompson being sent by Rolling Stone to be the Washington D.C. correspondent for the magazine. From there the rollercoaster ride begins. HST chronicles the campaign from first, covering the Democratic primaries and running to the nomination of McGovern at the Democratic National Convention, and finally the Presidential election itself.
HST pioneered his own unique style of gonzo journalism and this book, along with the classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, defined him and his craft. Stark in its style and approach, the prospective provided by HST of what it is like to be out there on the campaign trail is unique to my knowledge. A dramatic inside story of the battles of the campaign trail emerges and fills in significant gaps in other press coverage of the time. HST's quest for truth, politics, and the eternal buzz paint a picture that the straight press never could because of restrictions like `objectivity' and the like. The result is perhaps the best account to date on what is really going on behind the scenes of a campaign for the highest office in the land.
The only drawback about reading HST is that it always gives me an incredible urge to drink and act in a semi-crazed style. It is says something about the infectious nature of his work and one often finds oneself wishing there were more gonzo journalists writing today.
This book is essential reading for anyone interested in politics and the machinery behind it. Even if politics aren't your cup up tea, HST brings a new dimension to any subject that he writes about, one that can be appreciated for its raw truth as well as its unconventional delivery. Although HST only provides one way of looking at politics out many possible, readers would be doing a disservice to themselves by passing over this book. Other views are widely espoused by many journalists and pundits, but to my knowledge no one else has tread where HST has dared to go.
This one gets 5 stars for being original, highly entertaining, and remaining relevant to this day.

With a number of hit movies under his belt, it's almost easy to forget that Steve Martin first earned fame doing stand-up comedy. In the late 1970's he was selling out large arenas, appearing regularly on Saturday Night Live and the Tonight Show, and spinning platinum comedy albums excerpted from his act. He made it look easy and was wildly successful until he walked away in the early 80's. In this book, he takes a look back at the path that led him toward all that fame. While he begins with childhood, he limits himself to events that were formative to his career. The narration is honest and concise. Whether he talks about failures in himself or others, he adopts a matter-of-fact tone that deftly avoids dips into self-pity or bitterness.

As the book continues, we learn all of his major stepping stones from Disneyland to the Bird Cage theater at Knotts Berry Farm, and so on. Martin traveled a winding road to stand-up success and is brutally honest about how much he had to learn for so long early in his career. Yet, with each step, you can see the progress as he figures out how to create his own unique comedy voice and make it work.

There are many things that could be said in favor of "Born Standing Up." From my perspective the most important are these two. First, I felt like I knew Steve Martin better when I finished reading than when I started. That may seem an obvious result of any biography but it can only be said if the author is genuinely candid. The second thing is that I both like and respect him more as a result. Not because he paints a perfect picture of himself, but because he is honest about his shortcomings and how he dealt with them. It was a true pleasure to spend this time in his company and I hope he writes a sequel someday covering the experiences of his movie career.

I never knew much about Steve Martin's life before besides the standup albums, the SNL, movies, etc... This book tells a lot about his life behind those scenes of comedy and if your a Steve Martin fan, it makes for a humorous yet touching read.

I assigned myself this book to read because I am working on a degree in history, with the aim of teaching high school history. Now that I have finished, I'll never inflict this reading on my students. This is easily the most tedious, boring book I have ever read. I think that is partly why Hitler was able to get away with basically spelling out his plans years before he came to power, and people were still surprised when he did exactly what he said he would do. Also no one took him seriously, and were horrified when they found he actually believed all this drivel he wrote.
Still, it is a very important book historically, because it announced his plans 15 years before he carried them out. World leaders who wondered what Hitler was about had only to pick up Mein Kampf. As I read this book, I noted the most glaring cases of anti-Jewish remarks, as well as Hitler's views on the rest of the world. Often, the two subjects are intertwined. The quotes you read below are just some of the worst examples; this book is packed with countless other lies against the Jews and other nations.

GERMANY VS THE WORLD:
P.134, "Unused soil exists for people with force to take it."
P.138, "Don't let political boundaries obscure the boundaries of eternal justice." (Borders of other nations)
P.139, "What (land) is refused by amicable methods, it is up to the fist to take."
P.255, "No half-measures; gravest/most ruthless decisions to be made."
P.398, "Victory lies eternally and exclusively in attack."
P.455, "Terror is only broken by equal terror."
P.610, "The aim of a German foreign policy of today must be the preparation for the reconquest of freedom for tomorrow."
P.611, "For the oppressed territories are led back to the bosom of a common reich, not by flaming protests, but by a mighty sword."
P.651, "The boundaries of 1914 mean nothing at all for the German future."
P.651, "Only childish & naive minds think to correct Versailles by wheedling and begging."
P.652, "We National Socialists must hold unflinchingly to our aim in foreign policy, namely, to secure for the German people the land & soil to which they are entitled on this Earth."
P.654, "Germany will either be a world power or there will be no Germany."
P.654, "If we speak of soil in Europe today, we have in mind only Russia and her border states."
P.660, "Let no one argue that in concluding an alliance with Russia we need not immediately think of war; an alliance whose aim does not embrace a plan for war is senseless and useless."
P.688, (conclusion) "A state which in this age of racial poisoning dedicates itself to the care of its best racial elements must someday become Lord of the Earth."


HITLER'S VIEWS OF THE PEOPLE:
P.107, "Broad masses can only be moved by power of speech."
P.341, Calls voters "Bourgeois voting cattle."
P.375, Refers to "Unshakable stupidity of the voting citizenry."
P.465, "The NSDAP should not be the servant of the masses, but their master."
P.577, "National Socialism must lay claim to the right to force its principles on the whole German nation."
P.608, Calls people "Great stupid sheep's herd of patient lamb-like people."
P.654, Refers to African nations as "Little ni***r nations."
P.659, Openly says he appraises value of men on racial basis.

ANTI-JEWISH REMARKS
P.169, Refers to Jews as "Poisoners of people."
P.206, "There is no making pacts with the Jews."
P.232, Refers to Jews as "Great masters of the lie."
P.244, Says Jews control the press.
P.246, "A 30cm shell hisses louder than a thousand Jewish newspaper vipers, so let them hiss."
P.255, "Clear away filth of civilization, ignoring screams."
P.272, "Jews in the press promoted lies about Germany in WWI."
P.308, "Once this book (Mein Kampf) is common property of the people, the Jewish menace may be considered broken."
P.324, "The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew."
P.351, "The Jew is the great master in lying, and lies & deceit are his weapons in struggle."
P.453, "The first task is the elimination of the existing Jewish state."
P.556, Accuses Jews of manipulating Northern & Southern Germans against each other in WWI.
P.561, First uses the term "Jewish question."
P.638, Refers to "Jewish plot to rule the world."
P.651, "It is the inexorable Jew who struggles for domination over nations; no nation can remove this hand from its throat except by the sword, and such a process is and remains a bloody one."
P.661,"(The Jew) goes his way, sneaking in among the nations from within; he fights with lies and slander, intensifying the struggle to the point of bloodily exterminating his hated foes."
P.662, Says Jews are from Satan.
P.679, "If at the beginning of the war (WWI) or during the war 12,000 or 15,000 of these Hebrew corruptors of the people had been held under poison gas, the sacrifice of millions at the front would not have been in vain."

By now it should be crystal clear how evil this man was, and this book is. This book was dictated while Hitler was in prison in 1924, and published soon after. It would be nearly a decade before he gained power. You have to wonder why his opponents and other world leaders who read this book at the time did not take it more seriously, especially in the late 1930's leading up to war. It's all laid out here; his determination to dominate Europe, to ally with Russia and then betray her, his contempt for the common citizen, his lust to tear up the Versailles treaty, and his unending hatred of the Jews. He openly hints at his desire to destroy the Jewish people many times. These views are mixed in with endless, incomprehensible rambling that will put you to sleep faster than Nyquil. Still, we only have to read it; Hitler was notorious for putting his own generals to sleep with his hours-long tirades.
In any case, at the end of the book I was left with a feeling of disbelief that the rest of the world had not seen it coming, with this material available for anyone to read. I know that hindsight is 20/20, but hopefully the next time we are confronted with this kind of insanity, we'll be a little more quick to recognize it.

Well in the first part of Mein Kampf Hitler wrote mostly in prison so some things may be hard to put in perspective. His ideas were of very high standards for the white man and preserving heritage. This is not a book that some might have you think will lead to coercive action. The life story is interesting and does show how one man can actually make a huge impact when acting on beliefs. Good book to read for any one. Might be an eye opener for some, antithetical to what they were taught growing up. One thing he is dead on about is the media so that assertion goes along way from his time! So read up don't get mad cause you might be a liberal or Zionist pro Jew anti gentile! Be proud of what you are no matter who you are and remember it is alright to think out side the socialized illicit receptacle.

Mein Kampf from a history lovers point of view, is a great read. However, if your not a fan of the history subject you may find this book to be increadibly boring, a continuous flow of long words and sentences before our time. Understanding the complete facts about the second World War, is to understand both sides. If you only keep yourself to a one sided story, your no better than any of those critics or movie makers that produce films that slander our country. Such as Ferinhight 9/11. Excuse my spelling as I'm sure I mis-spelled quite a few words in this writing. If you plan on reading this book, understand what your getting yourself into. Yes, you may find some chapters to be increadibly obscene and stupid. Yes, I had to force myself through a couple of chapters. But, I promiss if you read this book, it may very well bring you to a better understanding of what was happening politicly and personaly to the people of Germany the few years before the second World War. All in All. I felt it was a good read. Do I believe everything and agree with him on everything he has to say???.......No.....

I've given "Mein Kampf" 5 stars based on its historical importance, not on its literary or organizational quality. As a literary effort, the book is a disaster. It is an absolute whirlwind of ideas, observations and prejudices. Hitler repeats himself time and again and rarely follows an idea to its conclusion. Hitler would have done well to have employed a first-class editor but, given his ego, this was not a possibility. Perhaps it is even more remarkable that this thing became the Bible of the Third Reich and was actually given as a wedding present to all newly married German couples. I have little doubt that some of Hitler's true believers must have recognized the book's defects but were afraid to make any real criticism. This, in fact, is one of the real problems with leadership--dictatorships in particular. The leader almost automatically is insulated by a thick layer of 'yes-men' afraid to speak the truth. A fairly recent and egregious example of this was Sadam Hussein's inability to recognize that he was staring down the twin barrels of an American shotgun about to blow his head off. His numerous syncophants were too terrified of Hussein's lethal anger to speak the truth.

Even so, the book is of value to the insightful historian. Hitler, in his own words, tells of the forces that shaped his belief system. To be certain, he frequently lies, perhaps to himself as well as the reader but even lies can lead to the truth. Antisemitism is not the main emphasis of this work but it's there. He claims, disingenuously I'm sure, that he never even heard the word 'Jew' while living at home i.e. that his anti-Jewish opinions were the product of personal observations of Vienna Jews. Then he turns around and cites the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' as proof of Jewish malignancy. He hints darkly that the 'Jews will get theirs' but doesn't elaborate.

Much of 'Mein Kamp' is a bitter diatribe against the extinct Austria-Hungary. His hatred--and Hitler has a lot of hatred--is partly because the A-H Empire sucked Germany into WWI but also because the Empire had become a polyglot of peoples [make that slavs] many of whom had positions in the Austro-Hungarian Parliament. Young Hitler, starving in Vienna and with time on his hands, seems to have spent a significant amount of time observing the parliamentary wrangling which he likens to something like the cacophony at the Tower of Babel. He describes how his observations pushed him towards anti-democratic beliefs.

He makes a fairly insightful statement. He writes that in parliamentary democracy there is no one to take real responsibility. If things go right, everyone takes the credit. If things go wrong everyone points to members of the opposite party. How much better, he writes portentuously, that one man take responsibility, a person who is big enough to take both the credit and blame. Of course, this is precisely what Hitler eventually did.

He pats himself on the back many times. He hates the Communists but not individual German Communists who he sees as men, much like himself, who are aimless, post war wanderers looking for solutions. He cites a number of cases in which Communist goons enter his beer hall meetings in order to heckle and break things up. He claims that these same goons walk away convinced Nazis.

Is it true? Maybe. Communists appealed to 'true believers' as did the Nazis. As Erich Hofer writes in his 'True Believer', it is not possible to convince a true believer but you can convert him. Hitler was a powerful and charasmatic speaker and no doubt appealed to true believers--even Communists--seeking for answers. I've even heard the testimonies of two Jewish men who were prevailed on to attend a Hitler speech. Both testify as to the power of the event and how, before the speech was over, they too felt a need to 'do something about the Jews.'

Hitler writes that one of Germany's greatest blunders in WWI was to fight a two front war. Of course, Germany had little alternative because Russia and the Western Entente declared war on Germany almost simultaneously. We, in reading Hitler's book have knowledge how he actually performed when he came into power. Early on, most of his moves were fairly reasoned and were, of course, extremely lucky. He was able to make a treaty with Soviet Russia and the West backed down time and again. It started to come apart when he invaded Poland but again--and against the advice of his generals--he proved incredibly successful against the Poles and then the French.

He was stymied by the English...but...if he had continued to exert full force against the English he might very well have proved successful in driving England out of the War. He did something both remarkable and inexplicable. He invaded his erstwhile partner, Soviet Russia--leaving the fighting English on his flank. In doing so he directly contravened his own military advisors and, more particularly, his own advice in 'Mein Kampf'. Why?

For what it's worth, I'll offer several possibilities. Following his own star, Hitler had proven ridiculously successful even in the face of detractors. He may have believed that he was fated to achieve victory...no matter what. Another explanation is that Hitler really didn't want to destroy England. He reckoned that they were fellow Aryans and would sooner-or-later partner with him. They were, in his opinion, neutralized by his occupation of Europe and U-boats. On the other hand, this would have been a truly stupid conclusion. The English had battled valiantly and showed every sign that they would fight on.

My own suspicion is that Hitler, who was probably bipolar, was starting to feel the effects of his physician's daily amphetamine injections. Hitler became, quite simulataneously, increasingly grandiose and paranoid. He thought he could fly over tall buildings. He couldn't miss. Proof? His subsequent personal and military behaviour. Time and again he made increasingly stupid military decisions. Some of the more remarkable were his orders to Rommel, defeated in North Africa, and von Paulus, surrounded at Stalingrad, not to retreat. Rommel disobeyed orders and his army lived to fight another day. Von Paulus followed orders and lost an army of 340,000 men. Another is at Kursk, the largest battle in world history. Hitler and his staff had evidence that the battle plan was compromised but went for it anyway and lost big.

Another is the D-Day invasion. Hitler's staffers, terrified of his towering anger, didn't wake him up to tell him the truth. The Battle of the Bulge is another. The war was all but over but he organized his scant reserves--forces that could have been better used to slow the advancing Russians--to try to force something like a major victory against the Western Allies. Again Hitler only managed to hasten his end.

Ron

[...]

What I read so far is fascinating so I guess I'll have to order another version of this book so I can finish reading it.

Updated 8/30/08
----------------
The [...] symbol above indicates where the editors removed part of my original review. They apparently didn't like exactly the way I said something (about the real source of the paper).

My point was that this book is printed on very thin paper and with low quality ink. Also the type is small. All of these factors combined made it basically impossible to read in all but ideal lighting conditions which is no good for me since I bring my books into restaurants and other places to read them.

At least the copy I purchased was. Maybe I got a bad copy I don't know.

I'm still reading Mein Kampf but from a different publisher where the print quality is better. I'm finding it fascinating for just the historical information alone.

Plus when it was written Hitler had not yet become the famous megalomaniac we all know about today. At the time of writing he was in prison with his buddy Hess after their failed attempt to overthrow the German government.

Jeff Marzano

The Mind of Adolf Hitler the Secret Wartime Report

The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956

First Circle

Clint Eastwood Collection: Where Eagles Dare

Very smoothly,seamlessly written. Although there are many excerpts from his speeches,the author has also given us a profound,insightful book.
Alda'a near death experience,and consequent revelations are a pleasure to read.
In highlighting his rocky road to achieving good mental & emotional health,the author must have had the average man/woman in mind.He writes
with passion and heart.

I just need to put this one on my list for a re read, as it really pumped me up and I am about ready for another dose. Very inspiring, reminds readers of what is really important in life.

Alda's down to earth brief sketch of his life and career was very enjoyable reading. After reading it I thought that Alda turned out to be a fascinating person in spite of being raised by a not with it mother and distant father. He gave some good ideas on how to live with his recalling of the graduation speaches he was asked to give along the way.

Yes, sure, like everyone else over the age of 30 I, too, subliminally believe that Alan Alda really *is* Hawkeye Pierce. And I love watching him get down on the asphalt to sniff the exhaust from an electric car on Scientific American Frontiers. But, really? He's not much more than a competent writer, and at least in this book, he doesn't really have anything to say.

Just in case you haven't picked it up from the other reviews, the bulk of this book is a lot of commencement speeches that Alda has given over the years, in which he tried to give crowds of 20-somethings the benefit of his insights into happiness and personal responsibility. These speeches may have been appropriate to the time and audience for which they were originally intended, but reproducing them in a book is pretty pretentious, particularly given that his advice isn't anything that we haven't already heard. Are platitudes about working hard, making time for our families, practicing some kind of social activism, and accepting happiness as it comes to us more valuable because they're uttered by Alan Alda?

Here's a quick rule of thumb for those contemplating a memoir: if you don't have something truly unique to say, stick to telling interesting stories about your life. This would have been a much better book if Alda had just told the anecdotes he uses as padding between the speeches, although even those are often self-serving (we were actors! protesting! in the 70s! you should be more like we were!). Sadly, I find that I like Alan Alda a lot less after having read this book.

I reserve a one star review for books I just can't force myself to finish. And this book is one of those. This is a collection of commencement speaches Mr. Alda has given over his career as well as some stories that give background to them. If you love to sit through commencement speaches, this is the book for you. I have better things to do with my time. Sorry Alan.

I absolutely could not put this book down! What an amazing individual Daniel is. I would love to meet him. I was amazed at how fluid the book was given it was written by an autistic person. I HIGHLY recommend this book!

Daniel Tammet has penned his account of his life, through his 27th year, as a British autistic savant who has navigated through his life with Asperger's syndrome and synesthesia. He captures with meticulous detail the rhythm and routine of his life and recounts his events and experiences though offers few thoughts about his inner thinking.

His prose (and one has to wonder how heavy or light a hand his editors wielded) is precise and measured--not surprisingly--but the overall story does not crackle with excitement or energy. Hence, Mr. Tammet's biopic no doubt seems oddly dry as he does not rely on embellishment or stray from his point, but tends to present the facts in a straightforward and thrifty manner.

Mr. Tammet admittedly leads an insular, interior life, and that perspective also infuses his writing here. Yet there are surprises along the way: his first experience with tears, his acceptance of Christianity, his falling in love. In some ways, his advanced abilities in math and language are secondary to the rituals of life that he relies on to keep him grounded and functioning.

Yet, I somehow wanted more from this book, perhaps more insights into the inner working of someone with Asperger's syndrome and a bit more detail of how Mr. Tammet's mind functions.

Though I work with autistic students, I was hoping after reading the reviews to find a book that was a bit more reader friendly. It skipped here and there with wild abandon.

Although autistic savants often amaze us with their feats of memory, typically they lack the communication and people skills to be able to share their stories with others. Daniel Tammet, a high-fuctioning autistic savant with Asperger's Syndrome, has lived an atypical life. He was featured in a documentary, "Brainman," and has appeared on numerous television shows around the world. The title of the book comes from David's synethesia. He identifies numbers and words as colors or shapes. Thus his Wednesday birthdate translates to "a blue day" because the word "Wednesday" is colored blue in his mind's eye. If you enjoyed the movie, "Rainman," you'll appreciate reading about this most unusual autistic man.

Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet is an autobiography that you will either find totally engrossing or terribly tedious. Fortunately, I was one who was enthralled by Tammet and his incredible story.

Tammet is unusual in many ways. First, he was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome (a high level form of Autism), but not until he was 24 years old. He describes in great detail his childhood experiences and how different he was from others. Second, he is a savant with extraordinary abilities in math and languages. In fact, he is so unique that he was featured in a documentary called "Brainman," a take-off on the movie about another savant, "Rainman." And last, what makes him truly incredible is that he is able to express and explain to others how he views his world--something very difficult for people with Autism.

I found Tammet's entire story fascinating--how he sees numbers as colors and shapes, how his loving family supported this difficult but gifted child, his schooling, his journeys to other countries to teach English, the scientific studies that have been done on him and most of all, how he copes as an adult. I found it especially interesting as an educator to see how the Autistic mind works.

How very fortunate we are that Daniel Tammet was able to give us his story in Born on a Blue Day.

Laurence Solomon tells the sober side of the story of the global warming challenge confronting humanity. Solomon has brought together ten "eminent" scientists who put the case for truthful debate on the issue, debunking statistics that have created much distorted information...BGP

This book is excellent in shining the light of day onto the scam of claims that fossil fuel combustion is causing warming of the Earth. This scam was primarily perpetrated in this country by the Hollywood movie "An Inconvenient Truth", earning one of it's Producers, A. Gore, millions of dollars by his dealings in "carbon credits" through his brokerage firm. It reveals how if the US signs the Kyoto Treaty (setting worldwide allotments on carbon emissions) it could raise our taxes by 1000%. The many world reknown scientists (the "Deniers") interviewed for the book by its author, Lawrence Solomon, discuss their verified scientific data showing, among other things, that: carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion only accounts for less than 1% of Global Warming Greenhouse Gases . . . the oceans absorb and release most of the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere to maintain a ratio of 50 to 1 of carbon dioxide in the oceans to that in the atmosphere . . . the method used to determine the "movie" historical atmospheric carbon dioxide content was seriously flawed . . . historical records properly analyzed show rises in atmospheric carbon dioxide following rises in temperature . . . our present apparent warming cycle is quite natural and caused by an increased Sun energy output . . . and, warmer temperatures are much more beneficial to mankind than cooler temperatures, by decreasing mortality and increasing food production. These are only some of the conclusions presented in the book, which on the surface perhaps appears too complex and scientific for the non-technical reader, but through a clean narrative manner and a few simple, clear, tables and graphical presentations, it is quite a compelling book for most readers. For the technically oriented who are interested in exploring the facts and proofs of the books conclusions, Mr. Solomon presents an amazing 377 clarifying Endnotes, containing hundreds of sources for substansiating and explanatory data . . . as well as an Index of the Global Warming "Players".

L. Solomon's pleadings for a rational approach to global warming should really be a must for every citizen and, especially, for all teachers and their pupils. A well written, scientifically backed summary of the recent knowledge about climate change (if there is any...).

There are such a lot of strong opinions about global warming. It is refreshing to get an alternate viewpoint - the author is an involved environmental advocate who is at the same time concerned about the science and objectivity. He does a good job of presenting credible dissenting views from the now popular storyline - where man being the main cause of global warming - is presented as a certainty, in spite of substantial evidence questioning this certainty. The scientists whose views are presented are leaders in their respective fields and acknowledged experts in various aspects of the global warming debate. Their basic appeal is for honesty and forthrightness in looking at the facts and the whole question of global warming, so that we can properly address the issues. No one benefits from either stridency or twisting scientific analysis to support a personal or political agenda - the very nature of the scientific effort is to seek to understand the processes, and to help assess what impacts may be. When analysis is twisted to present a skewed picture of what is taking place, it helps no one. Instead we should be attempting to assemble an accurate picture of what environmental forces are at work, and to determine both what the risks actually are, and what options we may have to address them. Much of current activism seems to be driven by the fear (of the not so distant future effects) of man-caused global warming. The feeling is that if we will only take immediate and strong action, we can prevent the worst from happening (sea levels rising, increasing disruptions of weather patterns, and continued poisoning of our natural resources). But what if the global warming that we are currently experiencing is just a natural phenomenon, and the linkage of CO2 accumulation with global warming is not true? If we knew that to be the case, how would that affect our current actions? The fact that our energy supplies are limited, and that we face an incredible growth of demand is a real challenge that we must address with vision and courage. The need to responsibly manage our global resources, including reducing pollution and creating a sustainable approach to all that we do is needed and commendable. It is really just in the area of the global warming debate where it is important for us to figure out whether we really have a problem, so that we can muster public opinion and resources behind a clear plan of action (if one is needed).
The book is very readable and credible, and is well worth being read, no matter what side of the global warming debate you may be on. Highly recommended.

The Deniers: The World Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution, and Fraud**And those who are too to do so

This book is written by a Canadian Environmental Activist who wanted to know why leading scientists kept denying man-made global warming so he interview a number of them for his column. In every case, they have good solid reasons why the IPCC ignores the lack of science that they address in the fields in which they are the very top experts in the world. For example, the "Hockey Stick" graph showing dramatic warming recently is based upon statistical formulas that do not stand up to analysis by a real statistics expert. They produce the same result 99% of the time with random data. Good, easy read and well documented.

It is incredible that such human suffering went on, and in many ways is still going on, just a couple of hours (by pane) away from where I live. Rigoberta Menchu's book, written as dictated by her, is sad and tells of horrible situations.

Guatemala is a beautiful country, the indigenous sill dress in their local garb, each unique to a particular village. Guatemala has been referred to as the most exotic country in the Western hemisphere.

A good friend of mine, a Guatemala Indian, told me about the efforts of the Indians to get help from the United States. They sought out various Native American tribes in the U.S., that to them was seeking help from America. From what he told, it never occured to the elders of the Guatemalan groups to approach anyone other than Native Americans. And they did not receive help, because help was not available. But had they approached the U.S. government, they most likely wouldn't have been helped either.

I have been in Guatemala so many times, I started to call it my second home. There is still a lot of oppression, and the indigenous still feel fearful of the police and the military. I have not been there in a couple of years and am yearning to return.

The last time, the police/military made great efforts to change their image. Instead of stopping trucks and harrassing the passengers, they handed out white carnations!

Menchu does not deal with the greatest problem that is keeping the indigenous in danger, that of language barrier. The Guatemala Indians speak over 20 local languages. The languages are so totally different, that communication is impossible. Though some books are written in the local languages, they cannot be read by the indigenous because they are illiterate. Division is a "great" tool to keep populations from binding together to fight a common evil. Spanish is the country's political language, but over 80% of the indigenous do not speak Spanish.

I have traveled into the villages, into the hills and mountains where customs as ancient as the peoples themselves still reign. All of them have experienced evil. Their story did not end with Menchu's book. It continues, and who knows how much longer it will continue.

I read this book shortly before visiting Guatemala, and I have to say it made my travel experience alot richer. I felt more sensitized to the currents of racism and political struggle still present in the country, as well as to the pain of a people recovering from a horror in the not so distant past. Nearly every Guatemalan that I met had some powerful story of the genocide, and this book gave me a good background on the facts and politics behind the peasant struggle.

Though it has been criticized as being imbellished and realistically inaccurate, I think that it can still be used as a tool to learn about the native Quiche culture in past and present times. Their spiritual and political beliefs and their connections to the natural world are interwoven throughout the memoir. And most importantly, the horror of a major Latin American genocide that still scars the memories of peasants in the region today. Rigoberta was very matter of fact in sharing information about the torture and killing of her people in gruesome detail... so detailed that it was difficult to read at times, but nevertheless, essential in understanding the extent of the what happened to her people.

Whether you read this book as fact or historical fiction, I think it is a good read for anyone interested in Latin American history, politcal science, peasant cultures, or human rights. It is a story that will stick in your mind... and your heart.

We give I, Rigoberta Menchú four stars because it was a good book but at the same time it was complicated to understand. For instead, it was a good book because she explains her life very well with details. Rigoberta also never gave up she kept going no matter as hard situation she'll face in her life. This book is complicated because Rigoberta just keeps repeating her self, is like we want to know more, something different. What we learn from this book, if we really truly want something we should never give up and when you feel like falling down for a moment, pick your self up and accomplish your dream.

It is common knowledge that this book is really a pile of lies. It isn't much of an autobiography and leaves the reader wondering which, if any, parts of it to really consider seriously.

It is truly painful to read due to the unending redundant rambling nature of Menchu's storytelling.

I cannot believe that this garbage is still being assigned as required reading. Worthless.

I read this book years ago and re-read it again recently. It is still one of my favorite books. Rigoberta Menchu suffered unbelievable atrocities and incredible losses and still lived to tell her courageous story through an interpreter. I think the book is phenomenal and I recommend it to anyone with a heart. It helps explain a lot about the Guatamalen people and their strife. It also is a timely book since the illegal immigration debate rages on in this country on a daily basis. It paints a vivid picture of the suffering of indigenous peoples and helps us to relate to their need to escape their countries in search of a better life. I dont know what David Stoll had to gain by writing a book that contradicted Menchu's powerful account. She states at the beginning of her book that her perspective is hers alone and that her memories may have been clouded by the trauma. It makes me crazy when people pick apart one tiny aspect of a book and then, throw the entire thing out as a sham. The same thing happened with the James Frey book, A million little pieces. People tended to ignore the overall strengths of the book and his basic message of surviving drug addiction over a few little insignificant details. This book is the same situation. The overall message and story of rigoberta menchu is so powerful and moving, it must be read, even if there is a fact or two that someone wants to contradict.

A wonderful, exciting, and vivid look at what life may have been like for and in the time of Guglielmo Marconi, (often cited as the inventor of but, more accurately, the first to successfully commercialize wireless communication). The author painstakingly reconstructs many events in Marconi's life and juxtaposes them against the life of the notorious English murderer Dr. H. H. Crippen using public records and letters.

The genius Marconi struggles for years to perfect his invention to the point where it can bridge the Atlantic and successfully compete with the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, making communication with ships making the voyage between the continents possible for the first time in history. Meanwhile, the life of the Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen is presented in shockingly sympathetic detail as the plain-looking and love-starved peddler of patent medicines meets the love of his life and attempts to get away with the murder of his gold-digging and unfaithful wife, culminating in a manhunt like none ever before seen.

The two stories come together as, in a flight that seems a haunting prelude to O. J. Simpson's nationally televised car chase, the entire world hangs on the reprinted wireless updates from the captain of the ship transporting the unsuspecting doctor and his mistress to America as British authorities slowly close the distance in another ship over the weeks of the journey.

I was thunderstruck by Devil In The White City, so why not Thunderstruck. Using a format that was so effective in Devil, Larson interweaves a story of murder back in the early 1900's with that of Marconi and the introduction of wireless communication.

I found the story of Marconi much more riveting than that of Dr. Crippen and the murder of his wife. I was disappointed in the uneveniess of the two storylines. Unlike in Devil where each of the stories warranted equal analysis and narrative, here the story of Dr. Crippen is undeserving of equal billing with that of Marconi. It is at best an aside to the Marconi story and their nexus is minimal and almost anti-climatic.

I would be interested in a better analysis of the Crippen crime, and its' ultimate trigger, if one exists. While Larson does a great job and is very detailed as to Crippen before the murder, we are left here with too many questions as to his method. I found myself underwhelmed by Crippen's lack of "neatness" as to the crime, and how easily became the obvious suspect. Finally, Larson fails to capture the sensationalism of his trial. Larson raised the bar with Devil and may be unfairly destined to have efforts to duplicate its compelling formula fall short by comparison.

Thunderstruck
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

Eric Larson has an almost lyrical voice for historical non-fiction storytelling presenting historical fact in a style generally associated with works of fiction. After reading Larson's Devil In The White City, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America I was excited to get my hands on Thunderstruck. It was a disappointment. Larson chose Edwardian England and the dawning of the 20th century as the backdrop for his tale The period was ripe with growth and discovery. There was an innocence lost as, still reeling from the White Chapel murders, Londoners feared Jack the Ripper around every corner.

From this period of the dawning of the technical age, Eric Larson plucks two intriguing tales, each an enthralling bit of history in its own right. The first of these is Marconi's development of wireless communication. Larson skillfully lays out Marconi's life from childhood in Italy, his lack of formal education, his Irish mother's insistance that young Guglielmo learn English even at the expense of his native Italian, his eventual migration to England, his obsession with wireless communication, his lack of social savvy and the resultant failure of his romantic relationships.

And, while Larson unravels a tale of Marconi bouncing back and forth across the Atlantic in multiple failed attempts to transmit and receive timely wireless messages between Europe and North America he introduces a little known, but pivotal character in history ... Hawley Harvey Crippen.

Crippen, a mousey, bespectacled, little American, had the misfortune of marrying a young woman with loose social graces and high hopes. Their story follows the couple's circuitous and often tumultuous journey from America to England Where Mrs. Crippen, a failed actress in America believes she can find a better audience for her mediocre talents. She changes her name to Belle and, for a short time, becomes the belle of third class salons (theatres) about London. Although a failure as and actress, her exuberant personality makes her a darling among the theatre set nonetheless. But Belle's charm does not extend to her husband. She attempts to remake Hawley into her concept of what he should be, buying all of his clothes, orchestrating his life, and even renaming him Peter. Her own personal insecurities require him to be at her beckon call accounting for every moment he is not with her.

But, in the office of his patent medicine business, Hawley hires a secretary, Ethel La Neve, with whom he develops a romantic relationship. Bolstered by his romance with Ethel, Hawley stops worrying over Belle's threats to leave him. And, when one day she turns up missing, he explains her absence with a story of flight to America. But, before long he offers reports of Belle falling ill and, later, succumbing to her illness, and her friends start to question his story. When the theatre guild ladies go to the police, Hawley's cover begins to disintegrate and a global manhunt begins. Hawley and Ethel take flight, eventually boarding a ship in the Nederlands headed for America.

By this time, Marconi's wireless has found technical if not financial success as Marconi continues struggling to prove its worth and overcome competition from others working on similar radio wave advancements as well as the established cablegram. And the Marconigram proves to be the undoing of Hawley and Ethel when reports explode in the air with every snap of the telegrapher's signal on land and aboard ships crossing the Atlantic. When the lovers arrive in America, Assistant Commissioner McNaughton of Scotland Yard is there ahead of them.

Larson takes these two individually fascinating tales and, based on the one slender common link, attempts to intertwine them into one story. It seems almost as though he randomly interspersed chapters of two different short stories to make it big enough to call it a book. The result is a mish-mash of confusing chapters that flip-flop from one story to the other with no apparent connection, leaving the reader in a state of confusion with each new chapter.

I found myself being thrust out of the stories with every chapter, my mind doing a double-take at each new beginning, having to stop and review what I just read and trying to acclimate myself to the next chapter and the next. The ultimate effect is a sense of disequilibrium leading to a wholly unsatisfying reading experience and the most disconcerting fact is that Larson is far too forgiving of his own shortcomings in this book.

Despite the technical failure of Thunderstruck, however, I am sufficiently impressed with Larson's writing skills to want to read more of his non-fiction novels: Isaac's StormIsaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History; An Act of VengeanceAn Act of Vengeance; and even Lethal Passage Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun which is more a cry for social awareness than a simple historical tale.

Thunderstruck is well worth the read if only for the historical information it imparts. But, if you've not read any of Larson's work, Thunderstruck is not the place to begin. I would recommend,instead, Devil in the White City. And, when you do read Thunderstruck, be aware of its shortcomings.

This is not a quick, easy read. This one takes a lot of concentration, yet it was very interesting. History buffs will love it.

Larson seems to have devised a genre or writing style of his own making with this book and his earlier bestseller "Devil in the White City." The two works are similar in that they both tell the intersecting stories of a creator and a destroyer. In "White City," it was the architect Daniel Burnham and the serial killer H.H. Holmes whose stories were told in alternating chapters; in "Thunderstruck," it's the stories of Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of wireless telegraphy, and suspected killer H.H. Crippen which are alternated until they intersect. The similarity of style between the two books is so uncanny that it could not be chance; Larson has intentionally created a "genre" of sorts for himself.

This one is perhaps even better than "White City." Marconi is infinitely more interesting than Burnham, and his creation is more interesting than the latter's architecture. Crippen is more of a sympathetic character than H.H. Holmes, although the latter is perhaps more fascinating because of his much higher body count. It's almost a wash between the two books, and I daresay fans of the earlier book will be pleased with this one, too. Personally, I've really been enjoying these "turn-of-the-century true crime books" (as I classify them), whether by Larson or others.

One more thing: persevere. The first 100 expository pages may drag, but soon you learn to care for the principals and the book then begins to really move. Stick with it.