5 comments about Napoleon (Part 1 of 2).

1. This book is a real stinker. The first problem I noticed was that all the dates for the events were listed in an index at the front of the book. In the text of the book, dates are not noted, even in footnotes. THERE ARE NO FOOTNOTES!! It makes no sense to me to place the important dates outside of the narrative, so the reader has no perspective of how much time is passing. Why should I have to flip to the front of the book every time I want to know the date for the event? My copy is old, so maybe this was changed in later printings. I doubt it.

   The narrative itself is not bad. If it were a novel it would be adequate, though with little dialogue. Ludwig does a passable job of explaining Napoleon's personality and motivations. Unfortunately, this does not save the book from disaster. Although we get decent descriptions of Napoleon's motives, they are a little too interpretive, which makes the reader feel like he is reading about a fiction character, not a real person.

   I was very disappointed. Because I am such an admirer of Wellington, I was looking forward to reading about his nemisis. I picked the wrong book. If you want to really learn about Napoleon, read something else! Pass over this book and get one that includes the dates in the text, has useful footnotes, and perhaps has pictures and maps.




2. While this is an impressive work, it has many qualities that keep me from recommending it. Others have mentioned the dearth of dates for historical context. I will concentrate on the most aggravating quality of all.

   Ludwig's use of the present tense is an affectation that not only grates but casts doubt. Is this history or fiction? Combine this with his penchant for melodramatic exclamations and it frequently feels like you are on a "living history" bus tour with William Shatner as guide: "Look! There comes Napoleon down the street! Now he will exact his revenge on Paoli. Never again shall they laugh at Bonaparte. Insolent fools!"

   The information can be insightful but I can't tell where the facts end and the fanciful editorializing begins.




3. This book is written as a novel. That is how Emil Ludwig writes all his books. The book is very informative and very entertaining which differs from most other monotonous and boring biographies found out there. Ludwig did an extensive research before writing this book, and this is his well know masterpiece; other books by Ludwig are Beethoven, Jesus, Bolivar all written in the same maner. You mostly don't find footnotes in novels, so the complain written by the reader above...



4. Emil Ludwig's work remains classic despite its age. It is true that the book does not have the maps which would help the reader to locate the geographical dimension of Napoleon's carreer and actions, and the author does not include dates inside his text, but if someone wants a pure operational history of the French armies can look to the appropriate atlases like that of V. Esposito and J. Elting, or the magnificent "The Campaigns of Napoleon" by David Chandler. The main merit of Ludwig's book is its immediacy, the clarity of Napoleon's thoughts and decision making and of course the excellent writing which has an astonishing freshness no matter how many times one reads the book. By seting himself free from the grip of time and place Ludwig can build his story like a fairy tale, which I found truly remarkable and unusual. There are many studies regarding Napoleon as a man and a general, but this one is definitely one of the best.



5. This book has a strange history with me. Many years ago, perhaps as long as 30, my mother told me that when she was young she had read a long, detailed biography of Napoleon. I thought nothing of this, beyond noting that she was precocious. Apparently this was when she was in her early teens. Some years later (say 15 years ago, or so) a friend of mine saw this biography of Napoleon in a used bookstore and bought it for me. The edition he bought be was large, had a black cover, and had been published in the early 20s. I put the book away, intending to get to it, but never did. A few years later, my mother bought be a copy of this same biography out of a catalog, in a different edition from a few years later. The edition she bought me this time had a dust jacket, yellow in color, with a picture of Napoleon scowling off to one side, hand thrust in his jacket. A few years later, forgetting she'd already gotten me the book, she bought it for me again, and this time she got me the edition that my friend had bought me years before. This was when I discovered that I had three copies of the book. I decided I should probably read one of them, at least.
   
   I can find out nothing about the author. His name, and writing style, sound European, perhaps German, perhaps something similar like Swiss. He apparently wrote a slew of biographies in the 30s and 40s. This is, to judge by the responses to his various books, the one people have read the most.
   
   First thing to get out of the way when discussing the book is the usual qualification of what this book is, and what it isn't. Ludwig included a 4 page section at the end where he explains why he did what he did, and one of the things he says is that he finds the courses of the Emperor's various battles to be "irrelevant". He's fascinated by Napoleon's personal life, and even more interested in his view of the world and his vision for France and Europe. As a result, he spends almost no space in the book on the various campaigns of one of history's great captains: he tells you that any number of Napoleon's generals fought battles also, but what makes the Emperor unique was what he did between those battles: the Code Napoleon, the restructuring of Germany and Italy, that sort of thing.
   
   This is true, and if that were the limit of this book I expect I would be giving it a higher rating. There are, however, two things which make the book strange to say the least. One is the author's use of the present tense for all of the events he recounts. I've run across this before (Jonathan D. Spence does it a lot), but it seemed strange and forced here. Perhaps it had something to do with the passage of more than 80 years since this book was written. The second strange thing is that the author feels the need to add what he calls soliloquies to the text, monologues that he imagines Napoleon might have given in a particular instance if he were so inclined. The afterword makes it clear that Ludwig invented these, and defends his decision by arguing that his flights of imagination are needed to fill in the gaps in Bonaparte's personality that aren't readily filled.
   
   The result is a strange mix of biography and novel, with a lot more dialog than in a typical biography. It's an interesting book, but the reader must be aware that if you're looking for a study of Napoleon the general, this isn't the place to go.

1 comments about The King of the Barbareens (Reminiscence).

1. I have been looking for this book for over 15 years. At most bookstores it is usually out of print or out of sotck. I searched on Amazon and was thrilled to find the book in stock and at such a good price. The fact that the book is in large print is a little inconvenient, but I love the book anyway.
   
   This book is a moving autobiography of a girl placed in the child care system after becoming a war orphan in the first world war. She was placed in a series of foster care and group homes at a time when there were few guidelines for appropriate placements and very little supervision of those placements. The author manages to tell her life story in a straightforward way even though her life was anything but conventional.

No comments about Only Son.

5 comments about Faithful Travelers.

1. 20th Century Literature is usually a term reserved for gaudy, existential, stream of consciousness drivel that lays down a subjective take on the sensuality of the day we live in without attempting to make any sense of it. I found this book to be a refreshing departure, a very human story told by I man I find easy to understand as he tries to make sense of situations that I find all too easy to relate to. Most importantly, there is an overriding sense of value, love, worth, interdependence, and genuine warm humanity. I don't feel an attempt to encapsulate a brief series of experiences to wring the emotion from it in a sensational or glamorous way, but rather a down to earth exposition of real life, told with a feeling of assurance that it does all tie together, life does have meaning, it does make sense, love is real, if a bit poignant, someone is watching over us, the past has validity, and there is definite reason to have hope and positive expectations for the future. A beautiful book. Don't miss it.



2. As a divorced flyfisherman with a 7-year old daughter named *Megan*, you'd think I would have loved this book. Indeed, I shelled out the cost of the hardcover based on the similarities between Dodson's book and my own life. Unfortunately, I felt that the book rambled as much as their journey - it reads more like a transcription of Dodson's journal than a coherent narrative. As with any long drive, it's always touch-and-go whether the highpoints outweigh the hours of monotonous driving. That having been said, Dodson has a keen eye for detail and some of his scenes, as well as the letter to his daughter, are excellent. Just don't get your hopes up too high.



3. Congratulations to Jim Dodson! -- someone who I knew, unfortunately not well enough, in high school. Have been promising myself for quite some time to begin writing. You, and the inspiration delivered daily from my (new) son Alex, just might be the catalyst.



4. This book represents the how we (fathers of daughters) feel about the fear of having our little girls grow up and away from us. I'm a new father and this book drives home my priority to spend every minute with my little angel.



5. If you are expecting to learn a lot about fishing, or about human relationships and all those difficult questions, this is not the book for you. But if you want a well written, charming story of a father and daughter trip out west, this is a great read. It manages to avoid being over sentimental, raises a few interesting questions, doesn't pretend to have the answers but ripples by as enjoyably as a relaxing day on a good stream.

1 comments about Disturber of the Peace: The Life of H.L. Mencken.

1. I highly recommend this book to anyone who admire's the genius of H.L. Mencken. Manchester has created an in-depth account of the "Lion of the Twenties," from his early childhood in Baltimore as the son of a German-American cigar company owner, to his acendence to the pinnacle of the American intellectual renaissance of the 1920's. Manchester sculpts a palpable and staunch profile of the self-described "conservative anarchist," who made his mark as the editor of the influencial American Mercury magazine, writer/editor for the Baltimore Sun, and author of The American Language, the penultimate chronicle of American English. Mencken was a prolific pundit, scholar, social critic, reader and writer, blessed with a caustic wit, a hair-trigger mind, and an impossibly contrarian nature. His voracity for reading was so deep that he was known to read a motor repair manual "just because it was another human being trying to communicate." No one escaped his crticism with socialists, Christian Fundamentalists, and politicians particularly targeted. Manchester's writing, as in all his excellent works (I also highly recommend "Goodbye Darkness," Manchester's memoir of his combat service in the South Pacific as a U.S. Marine in WWII, five stars)is wonderfully rich. Manchester's style also has a lot of Mencken in it, which is another reason I liked the book. I don't know if he was consciously attempting to pay homage through stylistic similarities, but the cadence, language and were reminiscent of Mencken's works, and gave me the feeling it was really Mencken telling his life story through the hand of Manchester. Not a bad guy to emulate, even when you're as good as Manchester.

No comments about The Life of Christ in Scripture and Tradition.

5 comments about One Man's War.

1. One Man's War is the gripping and harrowing memoir of Tommy Lamore, who served in the Army Air Corps during WWII. The bright-eyed kid from Waco, Texas, who had always dreamed of being a flier, soon learned that war is not just guts and glory. As a B17 tailgunner flying bombing missions over Europe, Lamore experienced the nerve-shattering onslaught of noise and violent motion, the sustained panic of a man fighting for survival against skilful foes and just plain bad luck.

   The accounts of these battle scenes expertly evoke the sights and sounds of air battle. Flak barrages, numbing cold, hurtling fighter planes trying to shoot Lamore out of the sky; it really feels that personal. We feel the relief of the arrival of American air cover, we are heartened by the sight of safe haven, and we are awed by the courage it took to fight off the sheer exhaustion and fear, just to get back up in the air and do it all again.

   When Lamore's plane was downed by a freak accident over France, he was sheltered by local people, evaded Nazi search parties and was recruited by the French Resistance. His training in munitions made him valuable in sabotage operations, and for a while he lived an dangerous and exciting undercover life.

   His sudden betrayal to the Gestapo led him to the hell-on-earth of the Nazi prison camps. The physical and psychological tortures and a dipththeria epidemic took their toll, but Lamore survived with his spirit intact, finally escaping from a death-camp on the German-Polish border. Luckily, he encountered the advancing Russian Army, and joined them as they pushed the Germans back towards Berlin. He found he was traveling with a Mongolian Terror-Troop unit. It is not often that Americans can read of the Russians' contribution to winning the war, let alone the Mongolians', and these passages are memorable. I found myself wondering what it was that made Mongolian fighting methods seem even more barbaric than the Europeans'. Was it just the context of European soil? Or some holdover from the 'chivalry' of classic European-style warfare? Were they more likely to kill you than any other soldier? Whatever it was, they scared the hell out of the Germans.

   One Man's War contains another unique twist - a love story in the midst of horror. The Russian unit liberates a women's prison camp, where unspeakable crimes have been committed. Among the freed prisoners is a Polish woman, Rosa, who speaks English. She and Lamore fall in love, comforting and healing each other as they continue onwards with the Mongolian unit.

   Eventually, the cease-fire is announced and Lamore makes contact with British troops. He and his beloved Rosa make their way to Paris, where Lamore's dream of bringing her to the States is dashed. Rosa knows she must return to Poland to find her family. Lamore has to let her go, with just a ring to remember her by.

   The final episode in the book is also the final straw. Lamore is ordered to return to the death camp from which he escaped, to help the Red Cross document the slaughter that happened there shortly after Lamore's got away. The sight and smell of the place, the memories and nightmares it evokes, push Lamore over the edge into deep despair and fatigue, and he is shipped back to the States.

   The sad, but essential, message of this superb story is the horrific toll that war takes, even on the victors. Here, in this book, we witness the worst depravities of which we are capable, the despair and the clawing fear, the paralyzing exhaustion. But also, the hope that even in the midst of the hell we create for ourselves, there is redemption in love, even if only for a while. Lamore was deeply affected, as any sane person would be, by his experiences, but around his neck until he died in 1997 hung the ring that Rosa gave him in Paris.

   One Man's War is a finely-written book. Congratulations to Dan A. Baker for capturing Tommy Lamore's unique story so brilliantly, and bringing it so vividly to life.




2. Smack dab in the middle of a great, true, WWII story of yearning, fulfillment, capture and escape is a great love story worthy of a poet's description. This book will put you on a roller coaster ride that you will not soon forget; one of the best books I have read this year !



3. I listened to this book as an unabridged book on CD and it was just an excellent true story. It follows Tommy from his youth in Texas, through joining the army air force because patriotism and a love of flying when the war broke out, going to England, then being shot down over France in his B-17, joining the French resistance, being betrayed to the Germans by a French traitor on the eve of his return to England, being sentenced to death as a spy by the Germans, at the last minute being sent to a POW camp instead, then more camps as he was moved further ever more east, then his escape, then joining with a Russian army unit attacking from the East, seeing the Mongolian terror troops the Russians were using the scare the hell out of even the SS, meeting and falling in love with the beautiful Rosa when the Russians captured the concentration camp she was being held in, finally the end of the war, return to France with his beloved Rosa with the intent to take her back to Texas and then a surprise ending that just kicks the wind out of you because you think it's building up to a big happy ending. Reality is not like that.

   A fantastic read (or listen) and it's all true.

   By the way, the beautiful girl Tommy fell in love with, Rosa, was a Polish girl, not a Russian like the Amazon book rview says. To call her a Russian in light of what happens at the end of the book is an outrageous error.




4. I am currently almost halfway through this audiobook and don't like it. I tried to like it during the first hour or two but cannot - I hate it. I would stop listening to the book but my nondiscriminating son is fascinated by it. I would love to introduce him to *good* WWII stories, such as We Die Alone, Currahee or Roll Me Over but they are not available in audiobooks or not appropriate for his age.
   
   My chief complaint about the book is the overly dramatic viewpoint. Instead of writing about action and doing more research to put perspective on the action, the author is too caught up with his emotions and thoughts. This makes it a very boring read (well, okay, "listen" in my case).
   
   I get bored and cynical during the author's soliloquies and just find them annoying. It is maddening when he writes about what he reads in peoples' eyes or deep in their "being." Please!
   
   I was hoping for a read similar to Currahee but it seemed like forever for the action to get started. Also, too much of the book is devoted to the author's early life in Texas. If you buy this book, I suggest you rip out the first two chapters. Boring, boring, boring. (Not the author's fault - I blame the editor.)
   
   I would have given it 1 star but for great respect I have for WWII veterans. If you are looking for a great WWII read try the books mentioned above.



5. I'm happy that this man had the courage to tell his story from his viewpoint of that awful war.

5 comments about I'm The One That I Want.

1. Margaret Cho does a great job in revealing her identity as one that is complex -- I love how she talked about her ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and race! She's not just a comedian. Or just a Korean American. Or just a woman. Or just an Asian American. Her book weaves together all those different aspects of her. I suppose I may be biased because I was already a fan of hers to begin with, but I really had a blast reading this book!



2. i literally couldn't put the thing down. there was just nowhere that i wanted to stop! it's margaret cho's life in a nutshell and it really teaches you some things about her life that you never knew happened, that she doesn't mention in her stand-up.
   an autobiography is an autobiography. but if you love margaret cho, get this book immediately. one of the only books i actually own.



3. Margaret Cho's autobiography, a deeply personal and revealing journey through her life and career, draws you in and fascinates you. The book, written in 2001, candidly chronicles some of the most painful events imaginable. Anyone who has ever been discriminated against can relate. Cho, who is (for the most part) straight but remarkly and sincerely supportive and part of the queer community, felt the sting of anti-woman and anti-Asian prejudice from pre-school on and endured astonding "body-type" discrimination as well. She openly presents her pain, and her drug and alcohol abuse reaction to it, in a remarkably direct and frequently funny way. It's one of the few autobiographies ever that doesn't insist at the end that all the problems have been solved (autobiographers usually write that whether it's true or not.) Yet, there is a strength in Maraget Cho's words that makes the reader feel hope.
   "I'm the One That I Want," By Margeret Cho, Ballantine Books $22.95



4. I've always really liked Margaret Cho when I've seen her do stand-up on television. She can be extremely funny and edgy. Imagine my disappointment, then, when I listened to (most of) this CD. I couldn't even finish it, it's so bad. It's just her reading her routines, and not even doing that very well. She sounds like she's sitting alone in a studio, bored, reading from a script - no energy, no life. Don't waste your money.



5. 
   The book begins with some very painful childhood experiences... she was not just bullied, she was reviled. Even at a church sponsored summer camp, she was traded off by girls who should have been her friends, but sought social acceptance by joining in Margaret's (Moran's) humiliation. There are no adults around to intercede. Her parents seem to agree with the world's negative opinion of her. It is no surprise that she drops (flunks) out of school and finds companionship among those in society's other outcast groups.
   
   There are many raw examples of what was wrong with her life. For this reason, the book is probably censored away from the many badgered and taunted teenage girls who could use these reality lessons to understand the dynamics that are working against them. Margaret figures it out finally--- after some real hard knocks lessons.
   
   I read this in succession with Steve Martin's memoir about his stand up career Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. In contrast, Margaret's book is much more intimate, informative and graphic. While Steve says it's lonely on the road-- Margaret describes it. The vignettes about finding a room around Fordham, driving on black ice, the booing in Monroe and the off duty bell hop, and more give the reader a real feel for what happens. Similarly, she describes how TV pilots are made from the business meeting with the humorless executives who decide what comedy shows will fly, to the high priority on the actress's weight, to the lack of interaction of the star and the writers. Martin reveals none of his experiences here.
   
   This book is raw and real. Fortunately it has an affirming ending for the reader, but especially for Margaret.

No comments about Florence Nightingale: Library Edition.

No comments about George Washington: A Biography Part 1 Of 2.