Blue sky, green trees.
Full disclosure: I have the wonderful privilege of personally knowing the author.
This book is actually an oral history, which is a genre that I particularly enjoy, and the fact that it is an oral history involving someone I know personally makes it even more enjoyable and powerful. There are also many photos throughout, which I think makes an oral history pop since it enhances the personal connection inherent in the format.
This book isn't just about the Holocaust, it is about how events that were part of the Holocaust reverberated down through the years and into the following generations. I think that it is very interesting to put this huge, tragic event into the context of one man's life, to see what happens after it was over, to see what happens next. It is also reassuring to know that genocide can shape lives without defining them, that people can still go on to delight in their children and work hard at their jobs and feel happy.
I wish that I could officially give two separate star ratings, one for the pre-Luther chapters and one for the Luther-and-beyond chapters. If it was so, then I would give 4 stars to the former and 1 star to the latter. The discrepancy reflects a book that started off with a bang but fizzled early, and my persistence in reading it reflects a hope that the bang would return; it did not.
It was fascinating to learn about the prevalence of god-eating among the religions of the world, and how Christianity first came to embrace the idea and practice. It was also interesting to learn that this belief and practice caused a lot of controversy in the early Church, primarily between the Jews-turned-Christians and the Pagans-turned-Christians. Very good stuff.
Once the book got to the age of Luther, though, it became page after page of old white guys debating the same three points endlessly. And that's History - sometimes it is freaking boring.
This meticulously-researched book makes two things abundantly clear: first, that Fidel Castro may very well be a sociopath; and second, that the leaders of the Cuban exile community in Miami are all unquestionably sociopaths.
I think the author did a wonderful job of showing how Castro always operated from a love of his country and a desire to end America's exploitation of his land and people, while at the same time not sugar-coating the fact that he has done terrible things to lots of people in order to reach his goals. She points out how his actions over the past 50 years have catapulted a tiny and little-known country into one of the world's major players. She makes clear that the American government's policies and actions have played right into Castro's rhetoric of a David and Goliath relationship.
The parts about Castro and Cuba were wonderful, but the parts about the Miami exile community were jaw-dropping. The author provides ample evidence that shows the exile leadership has created its own little fiefdom in the city of Miami, where Cubans and non-Cubans alike must conform to the exile leadership's opinions and follow its orders, lest they be blacklisted or even killed. In the case of Elian Gonzalez, the author shows how the Miami exile community would gladly sacrifice the life of a six-year-old child in order to score points against Fidel Castro. Truly, they are disgusting.
I read this primarily for the chapter on communism; as a person who grew up largely in the post-communist world it has never made sense to me why people freaked out so much about the “communist threat.” Who cares if a country wants to have a communist economy/society? Let them do their thing, let us do ours. By reading about communism, and also the chapter on capitalism, I was hoping to get a greater sense of why each views the other side as evil.
The communism chapter focuses way too much on the history of Russia and China, and does not give enough information about the actual tenets of communism. After reading it I felt like there was so much implied but not actually presented regarding the beliefs of communist societies. I ended up going to Wikipedia for answers.
The big flaw in this book is that the story tells about the actions surrounding the making of a film with hardly any information about the film itself. Okay, so they went to a square and filmed, but filmed what? And why? Without knowing what they are filming it is hard to take the dangers of the filming seriously.
Overall I really liked this book. I thought that there was a good balance, usually, between anecdotes and factual information for each of the entries. The author tried to end each entry with an emotional tug - “We are reminded that just as a new live tree can sprout from seemingly dried out willow branches, so could the souls of the two lovers rise from the ashes and fly away, free as birds.” (p.342) - which I found contrived and rather annoying. The little sketches of each tree's leaves, flowers, or overall form were delightful. Basically a nice little reference book that reads better than a reference book.
Impressively effective teaching of the hiragana. I liked the author's memorization techniques, which involve creating mental pictures that reference both the shape and the sound of the hiragana. About half of his mental pictures didn't click for me so I ended up creating my own, and this worked out just fine because I was still using his technique.
One thing to note is the claim of teaching oneself the hiragana in 3 hours. I followed the time instructions, and I truly did learn the hiragana in about 3 hours, spread out over a couple days. However, I also practiced off the clock, and since completing the book I have practiced a lot to keep the information imprinted in my memory. I think that this is key: the book will teach you the hiragana in 3 hours, but to truly know it you will need to practice practice practice.
An especially delightful edition in the Bertie and Jeeves cannon. I especially loved the subplot of the moustache because that is a frequent subplot in my marriage (consider me Jeeves on this issue).
The description/summary of this book actually gave away a lot of what was going to happen, which is always disappointing. This book also required some pretty heavy suspension of disbelief, and I'm not talking about the whole eating eyeballs thing. For example, OF COURSE Dr. Kaine has his own hazmat suit, let's just gloss over why that would be true! I'd liken it to a big-budget action movie, like one of the Mission Impossible films where just every single possible obstacle occurs, and every single time the protagonist just happens to have the perfect gadget/perfect plan/unlimited money to overcome it.
So why four stars? Because I could not put this book down. Completely engrossing.
While it's a generally nice read, the writing just doesn't flow. Here's an example paragraph:
“What makes penne streaked with a sauce of tomato and pork so satisfying? Could there be anything more straightforward? Well, yes, there probably could be, but you could never have said this was a fancy dish. Yet it was fabulously pleasing on so many levels.” (p. 101).
What dish is he talking about? You don't know reading this review, and I didn't know when I was reading the book. This is typical of his writing style throughout.
I was in the mood to be wooed by this book, to become obsessed with Sicily and envious of his adventures there. The wooing did not happen. There were moments of delight, and he is definitely at his best when describing a meal. Everything else was mush.
Almost all the essays were 25-50% too long for their content, which made boredom a constant companion while I read this book. The only exception was the essay on skateboarding, which was interesting from first word to last.
It's Jeeves and Bertie (mostly), so it's going to be pretty good no matter what. The plot and writing aren't as good as his later stuff, and the Reggie stories didn't do it for me at all.
I really liked how the author kept his personal story integrated with the informative aspects of the book. Too much factual data and it becomes textbook-like and boring, too much personal introspection and it becomes self-indulgent; the author kept the perfect balance. I also liked the final chapter, “A Snow Handbook”, which is simply a collection of interesting bits and pieces about snow that didn't fit anywhere. For example, there are lists of books and movies that are snow-related, quotes from poetry, random factoids about snow, and illustrated instructions on how to build an igloo. I highly recommend this book.
The content was fine, on par with every other Lonely Planet guide I've used. My only complaint is that the quality of the paper is very cheap, like newspaper, even for the photo pages. I always loved being enticed by the beautiful glossy photo pages, but the cheap paper for this edition is pretty sad. Also, I do not like feeling as if I need to wash the ink off my hands each time I open the book. Again, content was fine.
I didn't like the stories from when he was a kid, but the others more than made up for them.
There were only about 3 ways that a good-time girl's story went in the Alaska-Yukon mining camps, which is interesting at first but quickly turns predictable. I made it to page 230, and then felt like that was all I wanted to know about the subject.
I picked up this book in preparation for my trip to Montana this summer, expecting that it would feed my excitement. I hoped for stories about the glory and terror of the trees and rivers and animals, about how overwhelming and real and beautiful it felt to be in this unique space. By chapter four I had read exactly one story that conjured the beauty and specialness of the Yaak Valley. Everything else, including the Introduction and the Prologue, were depressing chronicles of how the government has no intention of protecting this area from the corporations who destroy it.
My conclusion is that this book is aimed at consciousness-raising, although frankly that seems like preaching to the choir since anyone who needs to be told to protect the wilderness will not pick up this book in the first place.
I have lived in San Francisco for 8 years (and counting), and I've developed a love/hate attitude toward my city. This book pushed me into the love zone for today.
Loved this book. I picked it up because it was in the 942 section, and I was looking to read a book from that section for my Dewey Decimal Challenge. Seemed pretty interesting, fulfilled my 942 need, so I went with it.
Reading this while actually in Wales made the whole experience - both reading and traveling - much more vibrant than would have otherwise been the case. When the author talked about the Welshness of slate floors, my feet were on slate floors. When I saw signs around town in Welsh, but heard only English spoken, I knew from this book why that would be. So for me the book felt very fresh and alive because I didn't need to imagine the environment described, I was in it.
Aside from all that, I loved the book because it described in wonderful detail the type of home that I love best, one that is crowded with the evidence of a well-enjoyed life.
My first sagas. I chose them because they are the two that mention Gudrid (the Far Traveler), and while I liked them a lot they didn't pull me in and hook me the way I hoped. The section at the beginning with a side-by-side comparison of The Saga of the Greenlanders and The Saga of Eirik the Red was especially helpful in seeing how these two tales overlapped and how certain elements could have gotten mixed up in the oral repetitions through the centuries.
I read this when I was 13, and it was the first time that I had encountered the idea that the future might not always mean forward progress, that there may be a limit to how far humanity can go before we regress. This really, really got inside my head, and to some extent it has changed how I view the future.
For the past 6 years I have been searching for this book, unable to recall the title or author. Now I've finally connected the story I remember with this book, and am the happy owner of a copy. It's like having a piece of my history back.
2.5 stars, but we round up in my family.
Very repetitive writing - the author tells us what she's going to tell us, then tells it to us, then recaps what she just told us, for each new bit of information. In fact, almost everything that's covered in the book is covered in the prologue, so if you are strapped for time you could just read that. Basically, the author took a topic that is fascinating and rather juicy and made it almost boring via lackluster writing.