5 comments about The Tracker.

1. All of Tom's books are required reading for anyone seeking to sustain our lives in honest practice of a set of propositions not predicated on left brain hegemony. Brown offers the story of his mentorship under the tutiledge of this Lipan Apache Holy Man, Elder, and Sage, showing us how to reaquaint ourselves with a wisdom tradition long lost to Eurocentric peoples. This journey takes place on multiple levels and within various contexts purporting to awaken spiritual awareness and an ancient way of knowing. For modern man or women this awakening may provide a jolt or be met with suspicion or even derision. But for those capable of going deeper into these mysteries, the rewards can be life changing.
   
   This is the first book in Tom Brown's series on a way-of-knowing that was practiced by First Peoples long before rationalism took hold as a religion of the mind. If you are seeking a way to go deeper into the core of your being recognizing that your culture no longer speaks to your soul, then these propositions may provide healing water. Enter at the risk of transforming your life and braking the chains that bind you to a cultural cage.
   
   Great book.



2. This is a "don't miss" book for anyone who wants to observe anything in nature. Tom Brown is a legend in the worlds of search and rescue, tracking, and survival. Brown is one with nature and he brings you along on his exhilerating journey from boy to man of nature. In this, his first of many outstanding books, you accompany him as he learns his skills from his Indian grandfather.
   FYI. Brown continues to share his skills with new through advanced students at workshops. A friend who has attended his classes, swears Brown is everthing you will see here and much more. It is a fascinating story.



3. I liked this book. It's about being invisible in nature--like the rest of nature, people can blend in to the point of being invisible enough to be able to reach out and touch a wild animal. It's also about special relationships with a grandfather. It would be a great book to read to kids.



4. Wildernes survival tales... super exciting. It does read like a movie but maybe it's all true. I've heard some people say Tom Brown is a tall tale teller, but his tales sure are fun and he has a school in NJ so....



5. Tom Brown, Jr. is the greatest nature writer, outdoorsman, environmentalist of all time, bar none!
   
   Move over Henry David and Ralph Waldo, Brown's insights into the Earth and our connection to it are destined to become classics of American literature (presuming, of course, that human society lasts long enough, a highly dubious proposition). What Emerson and Thoreau only dreamed of, Brown accomplished, and lucky for us all, Brown is willing to teach. Welcome to the incredible world of Tom Brown, Jr. where every day is an exicting journey of adventure, discovery and insight.
   
   By now, Brown's story is familiar: at the age of seven he met an Apache Elder named Stalking Wolf (a psuedonym used by Brown for legal and personal reasons), who spent sixty years wandering the entire Western Hemisphere. Along the way, Grandfather, as Brown affectionately refers to Stalking Wolf, gathered an incredible fount of physical and spiritual knowledge that remains unequaled in either Western, or Eastern writings (Yes, move over Yoga and Buddhism, for which I have great respect, but Grandfather blows them all away). To Brown, Stalking Wolf imparted this incredible knowledge.
   
   This book takes us through the years Tom spent learning from Grandfather. Tom illustrates and explains Grandfather's teaching method known as "Coyote Teaching" - something akin to the Socratic Method, but worse! He shows us how Grandfather used Coyote Teaching to inspire and prod Tom and his friend Rick, into seeking deeper and deeper insights into life, and also to impart the physical skills of tracking, stalking and survival for which the Apaches were unequaled. Concepts introduced include the "concentric rings", i.e. being able to read the actions and reactions people and animals generate as they travel through the forest, stalking, the ability to travel silently and unseen through the landscape, and a hint of the spirituality to come (no, there is no religion here, or anywhere else for that matter in Brown's books. Just practical techniques for going further in your beliefs whatever they may be). This book is chock full of stories of adventure, discovery and learning.
   
   The Tracker is mainly autobiographical and only forms an introduction to Brown and Grandtather's teachings. This is not my personal favorite, but don't get me wrong, it is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to everyone. However, it's only the beginning. To obtain a true sense of Grandfather's teachings one must go further and read Brown's other books. I hope The Tracker inspires you to do so.
   
   One final word: for lovers of mystery and detective novels this is the book for you! Brown introduces you to the arts that enable one to become a real life Sherlock Holmes, something even Conan Doyle couldn't do. Welcome to a lifetime of learning, discovery, and insight!

5 comments about Saddam's Secrets.

1. I enjoyed the information in the book. Poorly written but never the less informative



2. Finally, the inside scoop! Questions of WMD answered! Why isn't this information made more readily available to the American People? This is a story of one man's faith and honesty in the worst of situations! You want to know the truth? Read this book!!



3. This is an important book that every American should read. Gen Sada is an amazing man, an eye-witness in Saddam's regime who lived to tell about it and claims to have actually seen WMD with his own eyes. Fascinating!



4. It's a shame that the public has to dig for the truth rather than rely on the press to be honest, but that's the situation. If you really want to know what was going on rather than buy into the juvenile theory that this was somehow all about W's oil buddies, this is a great start.



5. Have only read a small amount so far, but already would rate it very good and something all americans should read.

5 comments about Off the Deep End.

1. I am a masters swimmer with four kids so I can really relate to him trying to get out of the house on a daily basis to train for the Olympics. I was more interested in the types of training that he was doing to prepare for the trials and less interested in his family problems but it was very enjoyable. I had trouble putting it down.



2. Author Hodding Carter, sunk in the middle ages, takes up the quixotic quest to regain his old collegiate swimming form and qualify for the 2008 Olympics. To do so, he puts much of his life on hold to chase his dream and regain the speed he had as a collegiate at Kenyon College. This is either an act or audacious bravery or audacious selfishness. With four kids and a working wife, Carter's preoccupation is on none of them but rather on his long-shot quest. He pulls in very little money as a freelance writer but battles with age to regain his swimming form.
   
   In the end, you do not know whether he succeeded or not in qualifying for the Olympic team. (I doubt it...) Viewing his story is like rubbernecking after a car wreck. You don't want to look but you just can't help yourself.
   
   Is he swimming toward the Olympics or simply swimming away from the realization that we get older and certain physical limitations are imposed, limitations that can be minimized and managed but not totally transcended. Is he swimming against the notion of death and seeking some fountain of youth to regain lost youth through swimming? One wit once said, "The older I get, the better I was."
   
   Anyone who has set - or thought about setting - big hairy audacious goals will enjoy Carter's book and the self-revelatory candor that he packs inside. I'm rooting for his wife, his kids and his family. They don't give gold medals for devotion to family, but the achievement doesn't lose its luster.



3. The book was fun and interesting to read; by the end you feel like W. Hodding Carter is one of your friends or team mates. I would suggest it for any Masters swimmer or for anyone for that matter who is striving for athletic goals against the odds.



4. When I ordered this book, I was expecting sort of a literary reflection on swimming, discussing the experience of endless laps in ponderous prose. Of course, I forgot my experience of champion swimmers (driven, sometimes eccentric, sometimes manic, but not usually introspective). Actually, the book is more like a series of short stories about some interesting events in the course of the author's life over the last few years.
   
   In the course of reading, you get some nice introductions to modern thinking about swimming training and technique and some introductions to personalities in masters swimming and Olympians. Like the author, my only image of Mark Spitz growing up was the golden boy. Quite an eye-opener here!
   
   If you've enjoyed competitive swimming in your own past but have not kept up with the swimming world, I can say with certainty that you will like this book. If you haven't been a swimmer before, you can still enjoy it, as you don't need a lot of technical understanding to follow the stories.
   
   The fact that the book is written for and was released at just the right time to make a financial windfall in case the author qualifies for the 2008 Beijing Olympic trials is a little off-putting, but it doesn't really detract from the quality or the inherent interest of the vignettes.
   
   BTW, my sense is that the reviewer Geezerjock below just skimmed the book and missed the more important stories about the author beating his previous best times set when he was decades younger. In the future, when they have made more anti-aging technological breakthroughs, I think this book will be able to seen as a chronicle of someone living on the cusp of human transformation. The book does not make you cringe at every turn.



5. Terribly written, going no where book, no plot no nothing. Appears to me that he wrote this book because he was broke by foolishily following his dream to swim in the olympics.

5 comments about Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World.

1. About half-way through Chasing the Flame, Sergio Vieira de Mello advises a younger UNHCR official to "be very graphic because that is how you grab people's attention. And our success at UNHCR depends on our ability to get and hold people's attention."
   
   It's a piece of advice that the book's author, Samantha Power, brings to life throughout the book. From the Khmer Rouge shooting at a UN helicopter that was lowering a housing container into the jungle, "not aggressively...but trying to alert the strangers that they were on the verge of making house in a minefield," to convincing Serbian smugglers to sneak 80,000 blankets into Bosnian territory by handing them certificates saying "UN Consultant," to Laurent Kabila's high-heeled lizard-skin disco dancing shoes (worn together with his starched uniform), Power has an amazing ability to pull out complex details that both grab/hold the reader's attention and act as metaphors for the bigger picture.
   
   These are not the affect-oriented visuals that one associates with UNICEF commercials - the exceptions, like a scene of a Rwandan man committing suicide by drowning himself in a shallow puddle, are so powerful they could never fit into a cliché - rather, these moments are effortlessly telling precisely because they are complex and many sided. Power's writerly decisions turn the book into a page-turner as gripping as any novel, but their cumulative effect creates a picture of layers of our world that we don't normally see. The details accumulate and become more than themselves.
   
   Other reviewers call Sergio a "hero." I don't know about that. I'm not even sure I came out of the book liking the guy. What did come through to me was a well-rounded picture of a very interesting man who kept learning as he shuttled from one tragic focal point of the world to another. Through Sergio, Power paints a real-life picture of the ultimately unsolvable tensions between pragmatism and idealism, and, more generally, of the way power and people interact in some of the most difficult conditions on our planet. If each detail is an expert brush stroke, then the painting, in the end, is not merely a portrait of Sergio. It is a complex portrait of a complex world, with Sergio simultaneously a fully fleshed out, conflicted, real person, and an archetype - the human being that, in the end, is the fulcrum of all tensions and decisions. What makes this book so important, besides its art, is that these are the real life tensions and decisions that have defined the world we live in.
   
   To be honest, I only picked up Chasing the Flame out of respect for its Pulitzer-prize-winning author. A biography of a bureaucrat is not a subject that I would normally find interesting. But Power chose her subject well. For all his faults, Sergio was an extraordinary man whose willingness to keep learning from the awful historical moments in the centre of which he continually found himself -- which he, in fact, chased throughout his life -- makes him a powerful lens through which Power clears away layers of murk to show us a side of our world that is normally obscured. Chasing the Flame doesn't give easy answers, but it does give a graphic picture of the man who would have been the next UN Secretary General, and of the world behind the headlines in the international section. It's an extraordinary book.



2. Samantha Power reveals in this book why she is deserving of a Pulitzer Prize. A humanistic view of a man who was not only a human but also one of the world's greatest humanitarians. Changed my corrupted view of the UN into one of understanding and appreciation. Thank you to Sergio and his family & friends for your dedicated service to humanity.



3. The ingredients that make for a great biography are the same as those that make for a great work of fiction: A strong cast of well-developed characters, a rich setting of details and complexity that draws the reader in, a gripping narrative that keeps the reader turning the pages... Witness, for example, Walter Isaacson's biography of Kissinger, a tour-de-force recreation of the world of 1970's international diplomatic intrigues. Mr. Isaacson, of course, may have an easier task, as Henry Kissinger is not a martyred humanitarian hero and in many ways much easier to poke fun at. But Ms. Power's subject, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was also a fascinating character in his own right. Like Kissinger he was a man of striking contradictions - a prodigious workaholic who could live for months on end on a spartan diet of rice and chocolate bars in the field, yet at the same time a bon vivant of such vanity that he carried around packets of fabric wipes so his starched khakis would always remain spotless after a day through the mud.
   
   Vieira de Mello had led a fascinating life, and Ms Power's book did paint a well-rounded portrait of the man. However, the book could have benefited from much better developed supporting characters, not to mention more insightful expositions of the complex events that revolved around them. It was also too long, and plodding at times. Over all the book would have been a much better read if the author had focused on fewer episodes of VdM's life with more depth. This is the sort of book that the reader may wish to read selectively. Personally I found the chapters on the Balkans, Cambodia and Iraq to be the best reads.
   
   Nonetheless, the book gets 4 stars for the unique perspective it provides into the workings of the UN. Its many fly-on-the-wall accounts of high level UN decision-making provides not only insights into substantive policy debates but also the clash of personalities. Calling this a "fawning hagiography" is unfair, although the author does tend to be overly reverential and a bit too ready to take people's words at face value. The Vieira de Mello that emerges, for all his strengths and foibles, is an apt embodiment of the UN. High-minded and sometimes truly heroic, he was generally at his best working on projects of relative moral clarity, over which there was broad consensus, such as the successful return of over 350,000 Cambodian refugees to their homes. When he ventured into more murky political waters, the qualities that served him well at the UNHCR became liabilities. A knack for charming powerful people is useful when negotiating food shipments. The same eagerness to be liked turns into a tendency to side with power in tough political negotiations. In Bosnia he was so ready to cave in to the Serbs that people started calling him "Serbio". And it wasn't simply a matter of pragmatism - at the end of his tenure he was so determined to remain on good terms with all sides, that he spent an entire afternoon shopping for a going-away present for Milosevic, even as other branches of the UN were investigating Milosevic fo war crimes.
   
   De Mello never mastered the art of saying no. When it counted, such as during the debates leading up to the Coalition invasion of Iraq, his instinct was to stay on the fence rather than risk courting unpopularity. He did not speak out when the US began building pressure for war in the fall of 2002. He declined to take part when Rund Lubbers, the UNHCR commissioner, attempted to rally senior UN officials to jointly oppose the war on the eve of its outbreak. Even in the face of mounting evidence of Coalition mis-steps in Iraq, de Mello, then serving as the UN High Commissionerr on Human Rights, was so evasive that one British TV interviewer lost patience and asked outright, "Is the human rights commissioner too scared to speak out against the United States?"
   
   Cynics claimed that he was angling to succeed Annan as Secretary General down the line. He might or might not have been, but he was certainly loath to antagonize powerful people in the Bush administration. His reward was to become the administration's preferred choice to head the UN mission in Iraq. De Mello often insisted that even if he had spoken out, it would not have made one whit of difference in US policy. Perhaps. But his own life might have been saved.
   
   In the last chapter of the book the author drew a number of lessons from de Mello's many achievements. All very worthy, but perhaps an additional lesson can be drawn from his failings: For a statesman, popularity is the least achievement of all.



4. I finished this book over a month ago. It it is unusual for me to take thirty days to review a book. However, this book continues to ricochet through my being.
   
   Admittedly, Samantha's last book, The Pulitzer Prize winning "A Problem From Hell - America in an Age of Genocide" occupies a prominent place in my personal library. Chasing The Flame - Sergio Vieira De Mello And The Fight To Save The World" has earned the space next to her former book.
   
   Once I began, I couldn't put Chasing The Flame down. Power has a literary and researcher's skill that that is unequivocally unique. The documentation and sheer magnitude of the effort are mind-boggling. Why? Why, one may ask would someone take the 4 years it took to write this story?
   
   For me, versus many other reviewers, the lessons of Vieira de Mello's life and the most poignant aspects of the book are NOT the failures and demise of the U.N.
   
   Contradictions - the human experience is one inhabited by contradictions. Some of those contradictions are self-initiated and self-imposed. Others are systemic and emanate from socio-economic, social structural inequities that evidence themselves throughout human history. Our response to these contradictions (as individuals, groups, organizations and government entities of all types) is particularly poignant. Vieira de Mello's life and career are evidence of that. This book is not an end to the discussion of issues it covers...it's a chronicle of a whole host of issues we can and must begin to discuss and act upon.
   
   The human capacity for evil - Once again, Power chronicles this truth. I remain distressed at the ongoing capacity we as a species have for ignoring human atrocity and our penchant for "standing by" and/or failing to respond immediately and adequately to these situations as they arise --- as well as our penchant to ignore the conditions that continue to spawn them.
   
   The United Nations - I am unequivocally convinced that the charter of the U.N. has been bastardized into a current state that has diluted the essential capabilities that the world currently requires from it. It's not the UN's fault. Frankly, it's ours and the member governments that comprise it. I am also hopeful that a restoration/re-engineering of the U.N. (long overdue) newly empowered and FULLY funded has the unrealized potential to prevent and address vastly more effectively the human suffering that is thriving all around our planet.(with prognostications of it's ever increasing frequency and depth of seriousness).
   
   The face and being of anger seems to have a myriad of revitalized and new expressions of both form and substance here on Earth today. As stated by Jean-Salim Kanaan, a French-Egyptian political officer stationed in Iraq: " And God knows how much harm angry people can do."(p.436). We seem to have a tendency that has evolved with NGO's where we avoid the angry people (particularly the one's who are armed and inflicting death and destruction on innocent people). Vieira de Mello's life is evidence of an approach to the contrary. He sought out these people and spoke directly to them --- unarmed. Power's work has substantive implications for the urgent genesis of a new approach by the U.S. and others to foreign policy and international diplomacy.
   
   Another incredibly poignant truth that we must revisit that emanated from the life of Vieria de Mello is captured in the following: "Although Vieira de Mello became an explicit advocate for human rights late in his career, he had lobbied on behalf of human beings for decades.After his death, the quality of his that was most often admired was his regard for individuals. His colleagues took note of how surprisingly rare it was, even in the world of humanitarianism, to find and official who actually looked out for human beings, one by one, as he or she encountered them." (p.530). This attribute of Vieira de Mello's life is pregnant with meaning for the individual citizen of planet Earth today. Imagine what might be possible if people began to act upon the quote above and actively begin to seek out the rescue of orphaned children, refugees etc. who require a new chance at life via removal from the hell of their current life conditions? --- 1@aTime. Perhaps we're being encouraged by Vieira de Mello's life to consider new ways of living --- I'm speaking to those who have a home, resources, seats at the kitchen table and a refrigerator with food in it. In a world where the delta between the haves and have-nots is becoming increasingly wider, the individual with resources continues to be ensconced comfortably with increasing social distance from the suffering that inhabits this planet. Vieira de Mello's life story begs the questions: "What can (must) I do? How can I help? Can I become a part of the solution?"
   
   Vieira de Mello's statement that, "We live in fearful times and fear is a bad advisor" (p. 364) is a clarion call to a reawakening from the darkness of the nightmare that has cast it's pall over all of us, particularly during the past eight years. Hope and dreaming of new possibilities always sheds the light that destroys fear. However, it must be accompanied by new, risky, courageous forms of action that Vieria de Mello's life demonstrates for us all.
   
   "Humanitarian crises are always political crises" (p. 219) is a truth revealed throughout the life of Vieira de Mello. Again, a wholesale readjustment in the thought processes and actions of governments and our approach to human rights atrocities (and their prevention) continues to be a tremendous challenge, yet an opportunity, during this, the 21st century.
   
   For all those who are trumpeting their excitement over the possibility of a forthcoming movie about this book --- I remain reluctant. There is simply no substitute for reading this superbly crafted literary art form. Samantha Power has dedicated her life to bringing us Pulitzer Prize caliber insights into the plight of human rights atrocities that continue to decimate this planet....now chronicling the amazing life of one of the foremost participants in the amelioration of this devastating reality - Vieira de Mello's Chasing The Flame deserves the same serious Pulitzer consideration as well.
   
   I was changed by this book. You will be too. Buy it, Savor it. Ponder it. Get involved. Speak out. We can change this world. Together.
   
   Bill Dahl



5. The book is about Sergio Vieira de Mello, a servant of the United Nations, a zealot of human rights, and a man who fought to save the world. Sergio was one of the most brilliant diplomats of the time, and many were waiting for his appointment as the Secretary-General of the United Nations - a wish which would never realize because Vieira de Mello was killed by a bomb in his Iraqi mission in 2003. His noble path is described in the book.
   
   Sergio was a great diplomat; he could negotiate and compromise on an unprecedented level. Apart from being indispensable for his missions and loved by his colleagues, Sergio managed to charm dictators, war criminals, and influential leaders; he was the only man in the United Nations who charmed George W. Bush. Vieira de Mello did not judge, neither did he blame the past; he looked to solve the problem. Due to his remarkable diplomatic skills, he solved crises in Lebanon, Cambodia, Bosnia, East Timor, Iraq, among many others. He was appointed as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2002 and was nearing the appointment of the Sec-Gen in 2003, when his life was tragically lost.
   
   Sergio was a man of high moral principles, who respected the United Nations above all. Impartiality of the United Nations was another rule of his work; prestige and dignity of the UN were his highest priority. Sergio carried the UN charter in his pocket all his life and cited the Resolutions of the Security Council by heart. His last words were "Don't pull out," relating to the UN Iraqi mission. Those words were said when he was buried below the rubbish after the explosion in the UN Iraqi office.
   
   Ultimately, the book shows what the United Nations could be. I was as lucky as to read the draft chapters of the unpublished book in the class of Samantha Power two years ago; the class was called "Does the UN matter?" Vieira de Mello gave the answer to that question with his life and even more so with his death. The United Nations deserves respect and influence - especially due to leaders like Sergio Vieira de Mello.

1 comments about Ted DiBiase: The Million Dollar Man.

1. This book is an excellent one which provides the reader with much insightful information about professional wrestling during the 1970s through 2006. Ted DiBiase was a very talented wrestler who performed as one of the greatest heel characters of all times - the totally despicable Million Dollar Man. It was also quite interesting to note that the heel persona which Ted DiBiase was able to so successfully present was clearly not the real Ted who is known to his friends, fellow wrestlers, family and others. This book presents solid information about how the Million Dollar Man was created by the WWE honcho Vince McMahon and capably carried out by DiBiase. The book also provides much insight into what it takes to become a wrestler and the sacrifices which must be accepted in order to receive any measure of success in the mat world. I know that true wrestling aficionados will find reading this book to be a real pleasure with much that can be learned about the profession of wrestling. After ending his wrestling career, Ted went into the Christian ministry to serve people in a very different capacity, and very successfully too. All aspects of Ted's life were covered in this book and provided in a way which demonstrates his self awareness and his honesty in revealing himself to the reader.

No comments about Up For Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me About Love, Sex, and Starting Over.

1 comments about Disputed Truth: Memoirs II.

1. This is a truly fine book.
   
   The second volume of Dr. Hans Kung's memoirs is vintage Kung: encyclopedic, opinionated but fair, quite engaging in style, and fascinating in detail. Bowden's translation brilliantly conveys into English Kung's verve and intensity in German (I have to take this as the case based on opinions of friends who read German fluently) - translator and author are very well matched in talent. Highly recommended (indeed, required) reading for any student of modern religion, theology, Christianity, or the Roman Catholic Church. Kung's courage, honesty, and humanity come through clearly, as in his first volume, but here his style is even more relaxed. He is a towering figure in theology, a scholar of amazing intellect, and a great man, and there is much to take in and benefit from here.
   
   His dedication to the gospel message of Christianity is telling and present throughout the book, and his love for this church is readily apparent - he is an fine example of the value and tenacity of "the loyal opposition."
   
   This does come to the point: many readers will be curious about Kung's treatment of the controversy that has been central to his life, and this book is the one to read if you want his take on the events that made him a hero to those who love intellectual freedom and revere the true message of Christianity. Those people will also be angered by the decades of persecution Kung has suffered. It will also interest, but probably further enrage, those who hold very highly conservative views in the Roman Catholic church. I only hope that those in the latter camp will actually read the entire book and try to keep an open mind while doing so.
   
   Kung's treatment of Dr. Joseph Ratzinger (the current Pope Benedict XVI) is detailed, very fair, and full of insight into this man as a person and a scholar. I can only say that you must read the whole book to appreciate the care Kung took in writing about his changing and complex relationship with Father Ratzinger.
   
   One note: the Amazon Editorial Review is incorrect when it states that "This second volume covers the period following the close of the Second Vatican Council right up to the present day." That was Kung's intent when he closed volume one. But in this book he was only able to describe his life up to about 1980. There are only a few remarks about events after that year, scattered about the book and present in his opening and closing sections. He clearly state that, Deo Volente, he will conclude with a third volume that brings his life up to the present. I am glad that Kung made this decision, since, for historical reasons alone, we need the sort of detail he gives in the present book.
   
   I am basically a Protestant in my orientation as a Christian, which influences my outlook as a person and as a professional scholar of religion; I hasten to add that I have always deeply respected the Roman Catholic Church, and Kung's many writings, including this book, have only increased my respect, admiration, and affection for this great denomination. Kung has fought nobly to return his church to it's true gospel roots and greatness, and for the reuniting of all Christendom, as well as for religious tolerance and religious freedom worldwide. I find this volume, and his life, very moving. May God grant this fine man the health and years to write the third installment of his autobiography, and perhaps other books as well.
   
   This book is in the line of great autobiography, an Apologia Pro Vita Sua for our day. Five stars plus, Father Kung!!!!

5 comments about The Forgotten Soldier.

1. Ive read this book twice. Once in HighSchool and then when I got out of the military. I must say after facing hardships my time in the service I felt it much easier to really begin to understand the hardships Sajer faces in this epic journey on the Eastern Front.
   
   Sajer describes the hardships of the German Soilder on the Eastern Front like no other. He takes great strides to explain to the reader how horrible every single moment was. He does not pretend to be a hero he only states his story like a man. I suggest to anyone interested in World War Two to ensure they have a copy of this book on their book shelf and if you are looking into reading into the subject there is no better book to get you hooked. I only warn that after you read this you will find it hard to find another book like it. Ive read countless books on the subject written by the men who were there and only a few have matched Sajers ability to hook the reader.
   
   Sajer has a way of listing characters so well that you feel has if you know them. Most books like this seem to stray in this department but this one will not let you down. You will feel has if Hals is your best friend and you will look up to the battle scared vetran in Weiner.
   
   A must have book for anyone who respects the subject.



2. I must say, I am very surprised by the number of positive reviews this book has received from Amazon readers. There are plenty of great WWII novels written from a foot soldier's perspective, but this is not one of them. The book reads practically as a day-by-day journal of everything Guy Sajer did during his three years of service. Consequently, the novel is full of trivial details and conversations that drag the book out to its 450+ pages, without contributing anything to the readers' experience of the war.
   
   One redeeming quality of the book is Sajer's account of the terrible conditions endured by German soldiers on the Eastern front. The reader is surely impressed by the shocking plight of thousands of soldiers left to freeze and starve while trying to repel Russian counteroffensives. But the misery of Sajer and his comrades becomes the total narrative of the book, practically unbroken across several hundred pages. The pulse of the story remains constant throughout; the book suffers from a lack of climactic moments.
   
   Sajer mostly fails to assimilate his experiences into a larger narrative of war. You won't find much in the way of growth or reflection. If you want a bare bones account of the Eastern front, this book might serve your purpose, but otherwise this story is rather tedious.



3. This book is very involved and a joy for WW2 history buffs. Unfortunately, after conducting a little side research, I discovered a great deal of skepticism leveled at Guy Sajer and his account of his "experiences" on the Eastern Front during WW2. His critics provide specific instances of discontinuity, fabrications, or deliberate gray-areas detailed in The Forgotten Solder, and one must take this into account when wieghing it's authenticity. I found these accusations downright troubling and didn't rate the book quite as high as a result. If you can overcome the skepiticism associated with it and consider the book a "partial" fabrication, you'll probably enjoy the storyline none the less.



4. I've quite a few excellent WWII histories but this one is one of the most visceral and savage accounts I've ever seen. Your feelings about the universality of the foot soldier will never be the same.



5. This is a good read. Most people don't know this, but this book is required reading at the US War college at West Point.
   
   Yes, he may get some of his facts mixed up a little, but hey.... it's WAR! Many people have trouble remembering the small stuff through the haze of war.

5 comments about The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home.

1. This book was recommmended to me by someone who had read it, so i knew what to expect, a very well researched history of a family and the intertwined relationship of the family as it grew over the generations to the big house that was their common home away from home. The writing was excelllent which made it very easy to relate to the characters that we met and got to know. The stories of the individuals was realistic and punches were not pulled in several of the histories, which made me at times believe that I was reading fiction. When the time came to part with the old home, I was as devastated as George Colt (author) was, I felt so part of the story. A good read.



2. The Big House and The Hidden House are two summer homes on the Atkinson/Colt ancestral property at Buzzard's Bay on Cape Cod. Similarly, author George Colt Howe offers us two stories within one book: First, a magnificent tale of life at that big family summer retreat on Cape Cod and its evolvement over the last century. Second, a stupefying slog through five generations of Boston Brahmin lore. In a nutshell, great granddad was the nineteenth century patriarch who bankrolled the good life for four generations. Hitting tennis balls and winning sailing pennants preoccupied the lives of his progeny, no one else worked too hard. Fortunately, every other generation, an industrious grandson-in-law shows up to keep the home in the family.
   
   The story of the house, and the author's emotional attachment to it, is colorful and endearing. Howe writes with painstaking love for special nooks and crannies of the Big House, of magical childhood memories, and the traditions he wishes he could afford to pass on to his own children. Readers with a longtime family residence, summer home or other special place held dear in their hearts will connect with this author. His descriptions of 'old Cape Cod' chronicle a bygone pre-fastfood era when the Cape was truly an isolated getaway.
   
   You can't blame Howe for the dullness of reading about rich dead white guys who were his forebears. His editors failed him. Skim the genealogy, don't worry about who was who's granduncle or aunt. We could have had more specifics about the patriarch Ned Atkinson, and far less about his descendants. It's always the relatives who spoil a summer vacation.



3. Lots of padding in this book. Hard to read as it was only mildly interesting. It just scraped in for a 3 star rating.



4. I enjoyed reading "The Big House" and have recomended it to several friends. Anyone in the Boston and Cape Cod area or enjoyed summer vacations on the cape would enjoy the book, I highly recommend. I purchased this book from a review, and because it is a true story about real people and an area I have visited. It covered facets of my life. It told how the family used the house and each generation was interested in the previous generations, from the relative that build the house to the present time. It is a good read.



5. I'm on p. 199, reading this in Tel Aviv while keeping my ill sister-in-law company (I'm from California). I have lived every page, every lush detail, and now it's becoming so heartbreakingly sad. I'm in a foreign culture, reading about another very different foreign culture (Boston Brahmins), and reading this book helps me to understand BOTH better.

5 comments about Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World.

1. Interesting places and I really wanted to like this book. I love inspirational books about adventerous, unconventional females! But the author was so self-absorbed that I had to force myself to finish it, and I did so with increased annoyance and anger.
   
   Everything revolved around her and what she can take from people. Everywhere she went, she expected freebies, special treatment, and go-to-the-head-of-the class opportunities. And she always got them by men who rescued her and solved all her problems, offering her food, shelter, transportation, companionship, most of the time while insisting she go out with them to boot. One even said "maybe wife die and we marry"!! When she was not able to get onto a flight that had a very long waiting list, she said she was just trying to figure out "how to get around the system" (WHY does she feel special enough to feel she can get around the system???), when lo and behold - of course a man miraculously appeared and solved all her problems - even ahead of missionaries who were there to help hungry people.
   
   The author, who seemed to be in a full-blown mid-life crisis, seemed to create this new life and title (Nomad) for herself to flag a sagging ego and career. However it somehow seems wrong to go to these countries with only an agenda of her own. Her other foot is firmly planted in her independently wealthy safety zone with no real desire to offer any long-term assistance to these people she took so freely from. It would have seemed way more valid if she had been a Peace Corps volunteer, but then I suppose it would not have appealed to her had she been one of a group of many, and to not be able to be such a novelty and queen bee. It also would have been nice to hear that she chose to direct some of her royalties from her experiences to these countries as well, especially the starving children she speaks of but does nothing to help except offer English lessons.
   
   And what is with leaving her mother and kids? I feel that there is a time and a place for everything and when we have responsibilities on the home front, those must come first before our own whims. Her kids were only around 20 and certainly still needed some normalcy; and the treatment of her sickly mother is appalling!! OK so she hired a woman to live in and take care of her - and that woman had family and they all became one big happy multicultural multigenerational family..I'm sure the mother was just "thrilled" with that while battling sickness and old age. And one of the most egotisical things of all was when the author claimed that the mother actually timed her death to the author's advantage.
   
   When she moves to Canada and Seattle, again she places herself as the recipient of everyone's charity as all of her MANY friends (she painstakingly lists them all MANY times) scramble to furnish her living quarters since she only had a bag of clothes and she wanted to do LOTS and LOTS of entertaining with her many, many friends.
   
   This is a woman who likes to hold court, be the center of attention, and I suspect that is the motivation for all of her "nomadic" activities in a "Wow! Look at me!" kind of way. And that continual bragging makes for some pretty boring reading.



2. It is very likely that I will not be a world traveler till I am much older since I have two little ones still at home. But that doesn't mean that I cannot enjoy another's travel stories. This one is full of stories, but it is lacking in some respect. I was expecting a little bit more information on the cultures of the people that the author has talked with and perhaps a little bit more on the politics of the countries she has traveled.
   
   Rita Golden Gelman finds herself at a crossroads in her life where her marriage fell apart and her children have left the nest. She takes a trip to Mexico to figure out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. She decided to be a world traveler and visit the places she has always wanted to see. She did not want to travel the normal touristy routes, so she chose to see the back regions of countries that she has only heard of or read of. Her first place was in a Zapotec village and thus the wanderlust was developed.
   
   The places that she visited seem to be so remote and so far away. It was so much fun to read about different places that I'd love to go someday. However, I am questioning one thing. If some of the places that she has revisited have taken a downturn in economic woes, why didn't she bring back food that might actually help the people that she claims to love? I understand that people give gifts better than accepting, but still, couldn't she have found a way to distribute powdered milk for kids who need it? It's just a thought.
   
   Also, I am not sure if I think she is blessed to have so many friends where she can borrow their houses temporarily or if she is a moocher. Maybe she is the combination of both. Another thing that does disturb me in this book is her lack of responsibility in taking care of her mother in her last days. There are quite a few things in this book that makes me question her decisions, but it is her life.
   
   This is an armchair travel book and while I didn't agree with everything in this book, it is well-written and the travels are fascinating, even if she is a bit self-absorbed. (I have yet to read a memoir where the author isn't self-absorbed, other than "Glass Castles by Jeannette Walls and "The Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas.) The author has whetted my appetite to see New Zealand and learn more about that country, more than any other country that she has mentioned in her book. The descriptions of food are beyond belief. I am not a fan of Thai food but sure wish I could eat some right now based on her descriptions. And she does provide some interesting insights to different people of different cultures, even though she admits at the end that she's always weaving something and loving it at the same time.
   
   So if you like to travel, this book is great for you. You won't be able to put this one down.
   
   6/22/08



3. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Not only is the author's unique path in life inspiring, but the experiences described are a much more intimate look at people from other cultures than what you typically find.
   
   Gelman forms relationships with the people she meets - mainly because she lives among them and isn't traveling as a tourist.
   
   Even if you don't end this book wanting to buy a backpack and a one-way ticket to anywhere, this book will remind you that people are the same everywhere, just the clothes, customs, and food are different.
   
   I had to edit my review after reading some of the surprising comments about Gelman's ego/arrogance, America-centric viewpoint, etc. The jaundiced tone of these reviews doesn't gel with my impression of the book - or of the author.
   
   I was fortunate to meet Rita recently and found her very down-to-earth. A group of us had a delightful lunch, talking, asking, listening. As for the criticism that the book is very America-centric in its assumptions about the rest of the world, I don't see it. Gelman is very respectful of other cultures, exactly what most Americans abroad are not.
   
   And my favorite section of the book was Bali...the section of the book that seems to have received the most negative comments. I was completely drawn in to the story of those years.



4. Other reviewers have summarized the book's premises, so I'll just add my perspective.
   
   I was blown away by Rita's ability to handle herself in all sorts of situations. Living with someone else's family is tough under the best of conditions. Rita lives in rooms, shacks and houses. I'm trying not to think about the bathrooms. She eats whatever she's served.
   
   Rita doesn't spare herself when she describes her mistakes and missteps as she makes her way from one place to the next. She doesn't just present a travelogue: she shares her own identity questions, especially in the chapter on Israel.
   
   What I got from this book is: You have to be a very special kind of person to go on this type of journey. Rita seems to have a low need for solitude and privacy.
   
   Eat dinner alone? No way. She looks for people. I felt a little embarrassed when I read about her first efforts to connect with others.
   
   Finding herself alone in Seattle, she heads to REI for shopping. Shopping? Seattle is filled with bookstores, libraries, museums and just beautiful places to walk. But I can see wanting to take part in the quintessential American shopping experience.
   And REI is a landmark.
   
   Bottom line: Rita is one of the most other-oriented people we'll meet in a book. She loves being with people and she has a gift for getting others to help her. I don't think she's manipulative - just naturally friendly and authentic. Life coaches would say she's a natural attractor.
   
   That's the kind of person you need to be if you're going to explore other cultures from the inside out. I read somewhere that he best Peace Corps volunteers are those who can enjoy the present moment.
   
   Besides a gift for people, Rita's got two amazing kids. She says they missed having her around while she was adventuring, especially in the early years. I say, "Too bad!" Who wouldn't want a mom like this one? What a role model and sometime travel partner.



5. I just finished reading Rita's book for the second time and loved it even more. I often give a copy as a gift to girlfriends with courage and determination to pursue their dreams, as Rita did (and continues to do). It takes true gumption to live as a nomad and the payback in magical. She's an inspiration! I'd love to meet her one day... hopefully in some far away local learning from the locals. If you've ever considered stepping out of the safety box, give this book a read and see where it takes you.