3 comments about Creative Capital: Georges Doriot and the Birth of Venture Capital.

1. Americans always talk of saving France during WWII, yet at the same time, here was an intriguing French immigrant who rose to be a top professor of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, a founder of the venture capital industry, founder of INSEAD the European business school and to top it all off- played a critical role in saving countless American lives in WWII by leading the innovation and production of quality military equipment and supplies.
   
   Ante's portrait is one of a driven maverick, visionary and Renaissance man who made an astonishing contribution to the war effort and modern business culture, and yet he seems very human and at times poignant. I was especially moved by Doriot's tireless passion in helping American soldiers as well has his 48-year marriage to his wife Edna and how they spent their last years together.
   
   I loved this book because it's such an unusual and valuable contribution to our understanding of the 20th century. Doriot has been an unsung hero in many ways, and by bringing his life into focus, Ante weaves people and international events in a way that makes us see our world as ever more fascinating, multi-faceted and interconnected.



2. I was General Doriot's student at Harvard in 1960. He and his views had a profound impact on my life, both in business and personally. His emphasis on ethics, patience, creativity and freedom led me, in my various roles in life, to pass on these same qualities to all my associates.
   The book is well written and provides a useful insight on the private man. It's too bad that this information was not available in 1960.



3. I was in the General's class at HBS in 1961. When he discovered that I was an active duty military officer, he took an obvious personal interest in me (although he did not call me "Bernie", as he called Samuel Bodman "Sammy"). Nevertheless, I will never forget the inspiring interactions with him and his varied guests from many walks in life, including Jackie Cochran, pioneer aviator. The author has done a first-rate job of pulling together details that shed light on a great man, as well as his wife. I finished the book in record time.

5 comments about Bill Bryson's African Diary.

1. As someone who has spent a considerable amount of time in the country of Kenya, I enjoyed reading Bryson's thoughts and comments about the sites and sounds of East Africa, many of which I have observed myself. I just would have like to have heard more. Great read for someone who has been there because the allusions and humor definitely hit home.



2. this book was short, but what can you expect when he only spends a week there? he brings the reality of africa and kenya and all of the proceeds go to CARE.



3. Loved the book, which is written with Bryson's characteristic humor. With a very detailed account of his short trip to Kenya, I could see what Bryson was seeing and feel what he was feeling all along the way. I would highly recommend the book for giving an eye-opening glimpse into the lives of people in Kenya. The proceeds from the book's sale go to CARE.



4. This book may disappoint you a bit if you are used to Bryson's other books. It contains the characteristic marks of Bryson's books, but it isn't as well done as the others. Something is missing. Maybe the brief format or more serious subject matter tempered things a bit? I don't know. Oh well, this book was done for a good cause. And I applaud that effort.



5. Bill Bryson is the funniest travel writer working today, I believe, and even when he takes on what is an unpleasant task - visiting one of the most depressed areas of the world in order to raise funds for CARE, he does it in a hilarious way.
   
   In this short little book, Bryson not only shares with us his (by turns) funny and heartbreaking journey, we also get to meet some amazing people. The lady who works twelve-hour days in order to get a profit of some $7 or $8 - the farmer who has made a fantastic farm and is very proud of it - the villagers who come out to welcome the visitors with open arms because of a well that was built, eliminating the need for the women of the village to make a seven-hour roundtrip journey to the nearest water source. This is what it's all about - this is the magical work that CARE does with the funds that are donated.
   
   Bryson is his usual, witty self, freely confessing that the homework he did in preparing for his trip was watching Out of Africa numerous times, and he thought that he was going to be on an estate being served coffee for most of the trip. The reality was somewhat different, but still far afield from what he expected. That I not only laughed out loud but insisted on reading choice bits aloud to my husband is a testament to the talent and humor that Bryson brings to everything he does.

5 comments about Wind, Sand and Stars.

1. This is a beautifully written book exuding a sense of mystery and adventure perhaps no longer possible to experience. Antoine de Saint-Exupery was an aristocrat and pilot who chose to fly lonely postal routes -- a romantic adventurer with incredible sensitivities who was filled with wonder and musings about what he encountered. No one should pass this by. It could be read to a child though it is not a children's story. A popular children's story also written by Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince, was published five years later.



2. What genre is represented by "Wind, Sand and Stars"? A memoir, a novel, a moral tale, an essay, a travelogue? It is difficult to put a label on this book, because it has a bit of each genre. Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a pilot and a poet, best known for his beautiful tale "The Little Prince", which enchanted generations of children and adults, wrote about his experience as a pilot. This is the surface of "Wind, Sand and Stars". There is much more to it, though.
   
   The book was published in 1939. It is hard to believe that on the brink of a great war in Europe, when it was already obvious that the war is inevitable, and many writers created the premonitory visions of doom, Saint-Exupery wrote with great tenderness and faith about the power of humanity.
   
   The job and life of the airplane pilot are for the author an occasion for metaphores. The flights require attention and precision in addition to the observations of nature, the rocks, sand or sea underneath, the stars, moon and sun in the sky above. There is a lot of joy in seeing the Earth from above, but the loneliness adds to the philosophical quality of long flights. Because in the 1930's the airplane technology was not very sophisticated, there were many sudden, unexpected accidents. The constant danger and many lurking traps are described with examples: the accidents of the author's colleagues, Guillaumet and Mermoz, as well as his own in Sahara, and their struggle to survive in the snow, mountains, and desert, without water, food, and rest, show humanity in a most beautiful way. As Saint-Exupery says, in the words of his fellow pilot Guillaumet, who survived in the glacier: "What I did, no animal would ever do".
   
   Saint-Exupery believed in the power of human mind and emotion, in the connection between all human beings - which is obvious when he writes about his experience with Beduins, so different and strange for the French pilot, who could not understand their culture, yet living according to equally valid moral principles and helpful in need. He criticized materialism, and although admired technology and civilization, warned against it becoming a goal in itself.
   
   Banal? Simple? Maybe, but all of us need such positive, however trivial, life philosophy, once in a while, to escape from our daily life, to reconnect and rethink our purpose.



3. A wonderful, wonderful autobiographical work by the French aviation pioneer. Antione de Saint-Exupery was among those first who flew the scheduled air mail runs over the Sahara in the 1920's and 30's. Engine failures, crahses, and falling into the hands of hostile Bedouins was not uncommon. Those stories alone would make for fascinating reading.
   
   Add to that the author's genuine talent as a poet philospher, and this is a unique and great piece of historical literature. Saint-Exupery finds magic and value in everything . . . the lights of his primitive dashbord at night, the world scrolling under him while in flight, the hallucinations while dying of thirst face down in the desert sand. And his observations of people! - the love-hate relationship with the Arabs of the desert, a pair of little princesses living in fantastical (because the author makes it so) house in a remote jungle village, the heroics of Spanish revolutionaries and patriots.
   
   The adventure aspects rival any fiction I have read . . . flying while held stationary in a tremendous offshore windstorm off the South American coast . . . the magic of nightfall while in flight . . . slamming into the Libyan desert floor while flying blind.
   
   As he is wont to do, Saint-Ex frequently treks off into the motivations and worth of mens' efforts, and the human situation in general. But always good stuff, some of it ingenious. Thoughtful, posing many truths and questions.
   
   A wonderful work. I had to read it in English, and doubtlessly something has been lost in the translation from French (transl by Lewis Galantiere). Still, not to be missed.



4. It is not exaggeration to say that the reading of four books--one of them "The Little Prince" by St. Exupery--changed my life. It would also not be an overstatement to say all my reading now is done to try to find another title or two to add to this list. (Maybe, though, the changing of my life is of little consequence. . .it slips away. . .it slips away. Maybe now I read to have another title to suggest to my children. They still, I hope, have much of life left. Let their changing begin.)
   
   So, I suggest the "Wind Sand, and Stars" to them.
   St. Exupery writes so convincingly of what the human spirit could achieve:
   "To be a (man) is precisely, to be responsible. . .It is to feel, when setting one's stone, that one is contributing to the building of the world."
   and so devastatingly about what is has achieved:
   ". . .war is won by him who rots last--but in the end both rot together."
   There is wisdom in this book; wisdom in all his books.
   
   I worry, though, that my suggestion will go unheeded. St. Exupery was younger than both my grandfathers. Yet he writes of a world foreign, maybe unknowable, to me--a world, despite its ugliness and hatred, with nobility and honor. I can't imagine, as St. Exupery relates in one tale, a world where an enemy Arab army--forced into a very temporary, very awkward alliance with French soldiers--appeals to the French for a resupply of ammunition spent in that defense. And the French officer--in gratitude for that temporary support, yet knowing the ammunition would likely be used against his own men--complied!
   
   This past world seems so unreal to me, who reads. How will it seem to my children (and the rest of their generation who foolishly) don't?
   
   So, I suggest this to you this generation and, also, I warn.



5. Like many of his contemporaries, European aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900 - 1944) was seeking the meaning of life in the post World War I world. He looked for it and often found it outside the bounds of quotidian existence. His job as a pilot for Aeropostale, the French air mail service, offered him a unique perspective as he encountered the elements up close and personal in small planes he guided over vast deserts, oceans and mountains, and through fog, storms and, in a memorable account, a cyclone. His survival depended upon a heightened awareness of nature's elements. His was a life lived large and he knew it; he pities the poor bureaucrat's confined existence; he pities even more the child who with the right "gardener" could become a prince or another Mozart but who is groomed rather to lead a circumscribed life.
   
   His narrative never bogs as he connects the concrete elements of nature with abstract sentiments. He renders his adventures vividly, especially the climatic chapter in which he and his mechanic survive a crash in the Sahara with almost no provisions. A year after that, in 1936, he goes off to Spain and the Civil War to learn why it is that mankind reaches the flash point of war and willingly puts itself in harm's way. That experience and the lessons it divulges comprise the last chapter. Among his often surprising observations is the note on how wild geese flying overhead can stir domestic birds below.
   
   The author speaks in the idiom of a masculine age and a self-assured European culture. The idiom is noticeable but does not diminish the vision or lyricism of the book. I read the 1967 Harvest edition of the book that offered a translation that preserved the authentic voice of the book.

5 comments about See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism.

1. A rambling CIA agent's tale of working in the Middle East pre Bush Administration. Baer recently appeared on television after the 2008 car bomb death of Imad Mugniyah in Syria and clearly knows about which he speaks because, in this 2002 book, he describes his investigation of the 1983 bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut and the death of William Buckley, the CIA agent. He fingers the killer. Beyond the scattered nature of his writing, the crazy dangerous life of this CIA agent is detailed including the bureaucratic handcuffs and leg irons placed on the operational side agents from home base at Langley. Baer, no friend of Anthony Lake, describes how the operations division of the Agency was hamstrung during the Clinton years. The Crown Book publishers editing is very poor; e.g., Aldrich Ames is Rick, Robert Hanssen is spelled Robert Hannsen. Sentences, often conversational in format, run on and off the page. The CIA editors were more exacting than the Crown editors who appear out to lunch at the time of final editing.



2. Excellent story that provides an inside view of life on the ground for CIA operatives.
   
   Much of the book revolves around the Middle East and Mr. Baer's search for those responsible for bombings in Lebanon. One name that comes up frequently was a terrorist by the name of Imad Moughniyah. This person was involved in the Beirut embassy and Marine barracks bombings, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, kidnapping of Terry Anderson, hijacking of TWA flight 847, etc...By coincidence, Moughniyah was assassinated in Syria on the day that I finished reading this book. I must assume that was good news to Mr. Baer.
   
   Some of the stories he tells of bureaucratic ineptness do not engender a great deal of confidence in the CIA..."As the civil war in Afghanistan started to boil, I repeatedly asked for a speaker of Dari or Pashtun...to debrief the flood of refugees coming across the border...I was told there were no Dari or Pashtun speakers anywhere...Headquarters instead offered to send out a four-person sexual harassment briefing team."
   
   Near the end of his career, he seemed to descend into a self-destructive pattern of behavior that only got worse after he returned from the Middle East. In my opinion, he had spent so much time looking at the trees (and individual leaves) that he got lost in the forest.
   
   His closing comments, however, are right on the mark..."It all comes down to the point that we have to start listening to people again, no matter how unpleasant the message is."
   
   Overall a good book about very brave men who were willing to take significant risks for their country.



3. For those that think the goverment (not CIA) is here for you. This book should show you otherwise. For those conspiracy theorists...this should be right up your ally. Where is the justice in this country when such fine individuals can suffer through so much to keep us all safe....all in vain and all only so the richer can get richer. The government doesnt run this country, the "big oil" does. This will never change. Great book, great read.



4. Robert Baer's account illustrates how American intelligence gathering capability was decapitated by bureaocrats and politicians. The author paints a vivid picture of work in the field as humint (human intelligence)was relegated to the back bench. Our enemies could not have done better than our own political establishment in neutralising the CIA. This book tells it all.
   
   Kingmaker



5. This is probably the best memoir I have come across by a former CIA case officer. Baer is spot on when it comes to how government operates. Who could ever imagine that those in the field are often times prevented from achieving superior results by risk averse management, or that those in Washington are too concerned about politics and/or "drinking and whoring" to comprehend what's truly unfolding beyond our borders? The truth can be ugly.

5 comments about All Things Bright and Beautiful.

1. I read his books as a teen and loved them. Bought the whole set for my grandsons, [teens]. They laughed until they cried. [so did I].



2. James Herriot (not his real name) has given us a series of wonderful stories about all creatures the big and the small. Even if you hate these kinds of book you are bound to find one of the stories that you like.
   
   My personal favorite is story of Mrs. Donovan the town busybody and amateur vet.
   Wonderful collection



3. We listened to this book on a trip and wanted to keep driving so it wouldn't end! It was a collection of Mr. Herriot's adventures as a country vet in England, and was so delightfully written. Having lived with the various ailments of large animals, the occasional realistic descriptions of ailments did not bother us. Someone not accustomed to large animals and their care, might find it too descriptive. We enjoyed the book immensely and hope to hear them all!



4. Is there anyone who read ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL and who didn't rush right out and buy this one next? I didn't think so. I gave the first one a rave review, and rightfully so, but somehow I don't recall enjoying it as much as I did this one. He's an amazing talent on so many levels. Read the real reviews by the real reviewers. They're all true. This man lived in the moment, and he enjoyed all in life that is enjoyable.



5. All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot is a true classic and I can see why it has been such a big seller through many decades. Sadly, I missed seeing his books when they were made into a television series. This autobiographical work is charming and delightful.
   
   Jim Herriot was a vet in Yorkshire, England. He was pretty much a country veterinarian, servicing farm animals for most of his years. He began his career when the practice of being a vet was pretty much in the dark ages. Antibiotics were not yet on the horizon and many of today's vaccines weren't invented. Each chapter is a story about a different experience--birthing a lamb, caring for injured animals, judging a favorite pet contest, tasting homemade wine, etc. Through them all, we get to sense Jim's love for his job, his patients, and the simple but grateful folk he came in contact with every day. Many times, being a vet was also to be a detective. He often had to come up with a diagnosis for a mystery ailment, and he had to deal with everything from copper deficiencies to hairballs. As in life, not all of his stories have happy endings.
   
   I am happy to have finally acquainted myself with James Herriot and will definitely read more of his books. I have already started James Herriot's Dog Stories.

5 comments about A Tale of Love and Darkness.

1. Pearls of wisdom, interspersed with lovingly told family stories, including the horrors of loss and ongoing pain, and the history of a nation and people. Regretfully, these trite phrases don't do justice to what Oz has created in this memoir. This book is multi-layered in a way that seems to replicate the very act of memory itself, as past events show and return to told memory, through the scrim of the story at hand. It's a book to read and live with and it is an honor to be able to spend some time with this book and writer.



2. This memoir by the Israeli novelist Amoz Oz is a fascinating depiction of both European and Israeli Jews. Although the author was born in Israel, his parents and relatives were all European Jews displaced by the events leading up to World War II.The graphic depiction of what anti-semitism does to an individual explains the need for a Jewish state more fully than any essay could, and the history of the first war against the Jews by the Arabs, aided openly by the British army which then controlled Palestine, and which started the very evening in November, 1947 of the U.N. vote to establish a Jewish homeland, not, as I previously thought, in May, 1948, when the state of Israel was officially declared, lends credence to the unfortunate belief that the Arabs will never accept the state of Israel. This makes the book sound incredibly sad, and of course it is in one sense. But in another, by creating the milieu of these early settlers in Jerusalem and their intellectual strengths and interests, and also the new Jew of the kibbutz, to which Oz went after the death of his mother and his father's remarriage, and where he lived and wrote for 30 years, the book turns out to be the best one I have read about this frantic period of Jewish history.



3. This mixture of biography with the history of the birth and growth of Israel is a wonderful, warm , and poignant tale--well worth one's time.



4. This is a beautiful and moving memoir from a sensitive and humanistic writer of great skill and style. The reader will feel that he or she is personally experiencing growing up with the author in the most modest and simple circumstances, in the young State of Israel, from before statehood and into its early years, getting to know as friends and neighbors some of its intellectual leaders who were the writer's family members and friends. The book is a sheer delight, and highly recommended.



5. Amos Oz's A Tale of Love and Darkness is a memoir of his life and the life of his family up until the time of his mother's suicide at the age of 38 in the early 1950s. Oz's mother's suicide, never treated fictionally in his other work (as far as I can recall) is treated here with great care and thoroughness: there is anger, guilt, shame, sadness, loss, a sense of regret, and penetrating understanding. Without a doubt the book is strongest when Oz discusses his mother and her family. His mother, brought up on a romantic, Hebrew education in Rovno, was not ready for the tawdriness of life in Palestine, "the rough terrain of everyday life, diapers, husbands, migraines, queues, smells of moth balls and kitchen sinks." The story of his mother's mental decline and suicide is also the story of the convergence and divergences of Jewish life in the 20th century; the outline of the gap between the real and the ideal of the Zionist dream. That said, A Tale of Love and Darkness is generally overwritten. There is much useless repetition here which drags down the trajectory of the memoir. I do not recommend this work as the first work of Amos Oz to be read, but the last. It makes for an instructive book end with Where the Jackal's Howl and Other Stories on the other side.

5 comments about Down Came the Rain : My Journey Through Postpartum Depression.

1. This book is well written and very honest in its firsthand description of experiencing post partum depression. It also offers hope by telling how recovery happened and what life was like after the depression lifted.



2. My daughter is almost five now and this book finally allowed me the validation I didn't realize I needed!
   
   It may sound "out there" yet once I completed this book (in like two days and I am NOT a reader) I felt so much peace deep inside where I had stuffed my emotions so I could "get it together" for the sake of those around me who could not begin to understand.
   
   I am not a huge fan of medication (as Brooke also professed) yet while I did get a prescription for my ppd, it didn't work well. With being in the middle of a move and all the "Tom Cruise hype"; I didn't persue a different med. I believe if I had, I could have saved myself, family and friends many negative memories.
   
   This book is a must read for any new mom (not to mention anyone who even knows a new mom!). I now realize all mom's have symptoms of this in some degree and it's important to know it's ok. We're not unfit mothers, we just need a little help. And for those who know a new mom, it's so important to know how to help; by coming along side.
   
   Just loved it and am seeking other books Brooke has written; what a terrific author, who knew!? :))



3. The subject of post-partum depression is not discussed as much as it should be discussed. I bought this book for my daughter after she suffered from post-partum depression after the birth of my grandson. She thought that she was the only to have these feelings and was very ashamed of how she felt. I was clueless to her feelings. Along with reading all the pregnancy books, this book and others on this subject should be read before giving birth.



4. This book is so well written, that I would suggest it to anyone who is thinking of having children, or anyone who suspects that they may be suffering from postpartum depression. At first, Brooke just WANTS a child so much. When she finally gets the child, she starts to go through the depression. To add to her sadness, her father dies soon after she has her daughter. She then starts to have divided feelings about her child. She also starts to resent having her freedom greatly compromised. (Even to the point of having a death wish.) Sadly, her mother and others threw 'generic advice' at her, and this nearly drove her to suicide. We can sympathize when she says: "I was a healthy minded and capable woman who simply shouldn't have had a child." It is interesting that when she started to work again, and when she was able to express her honest feelings to objective friends, she really started to sound much better. She also places demands on our sympathy when she points out her flaw: "I had put so much time, effort, and emotion into getting pregnant that I had not really considered how my life might change once I actually had the baby." She also raises a really important issue: "I know families are never perfect, and I am learning to let go of wishing they were." She underlines that 1 in 10 women go through postpartum depression, and that if you suspect you have it, you must seek help. She also says that it is: 'NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF.' She also points out that: "Above all, IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU DON'T LOVE YOUR CHILD." Not only is this book beautifully written, but it is full of vital information. Also, Brooke shows that while we have weaknesses, it IS possible to rise above them.



5. No matter how many other women I speak with who have experienced PPD, I am still relieved to know that I wasn't the only one. I always want to hear their story. I was able to identify with so many aspects of Brooke's depression: guilt, confusion, exhaustion, delusions, but still her experience was uniquely hers. I appreciate the fact that although she is a celebrity, she appears approachable and normal and is a great spokesperson for this condition. I was happy to see that she came out her depression with promising results. This was a really good book.

5 comments about No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks.

1. Excellent. Well written and takes you to the summit of some of the world's nost inhospitable places.



2. In retrospect, I have no idea why I purchased the book No Shortcuts to the Top other than I thought I'd enjoy learning more about mountain climbing. In reality, this book is much more than just about mountain climbing. It shows the true nature of the man that is Ed Viesturs and his life's work on the mountain. I was thoroughly impressed about Ed's approach to climbing and his philosophy on climbing and life. I assumed, incorrectly, that all mountain climbers were over the top, macho men, with a desire to get famous before the end. Ed would be welcomed as a friend in almost any organization. What a complete view of many of the recent historical mountain events and climbers from all over the world from an expert in the field.



3. If you are interested in big mountain climbing (armchair or otherwise), this book will give you a peek into the life of one mountaineer. Ed talks about "acceptable risk", physical sacrifices, finanical sacrifieces, practicalities of climbing. This is not a "Into Thin Air" drama, but rather a solid account of one man's journey.



4. Ed Viesturs is a very inspiring man. An absolute legend in my book.
   I have watched the IMAX documentaries on Everest and am always inspired and moved to tears.
   It did surprise me that he was not a little more discreet when describing his adventures with a fellow female climber though.



5. I enjoy reading about mountaineering and eagerly await all new books on the subject. I am a long time fan of Ed Viesturs; he has amazing accomplishments. The most significant of which -- he is STILL ALIVE!!!The book was insightful and interesting in the many ways he has carefully accomplished his goals.

5 comments about Running in the Family.

1. This book was just so enjoyable and hilarious but yet so beautifully written. From the beginning till the end Ondaatje opens up to the reader (in a journal entry) this magical and beautiful world. Onddatje's adroitness to include the reader right there in the conversations he has with various family member will bring you to tears. His captivating sytle takes the reader back in time with him trhough such tear jerking and amusing experiences.

   This memoir will give you a deatiled verbalization of each city and place in Ceylon, so that the reader has a clear picture of what it was like to actually be there. His simple structure of setting things up, will make you feel the temperature and jungle like atmosphere by his entailed descriptions.

   Ondaatje reminds me of Stein in certain passages because of how he holds nothing back from the reader. It's as though he's sitting down and talking to you while showing photographs and stories of his exuberant and loud family.




2. Considering that this is in fact an autobiograpy, one can not judge it's contents. After all, you can not judge ones life, either you like it or not in a sense of discussing literature. But, what you can discuss is the manner in which that biography is written. Ondaatje present's life of his family trough generations who lived on Ceilon (Shri Lanka), in a series of random images, which are more like picture, than prose. Many times he stops to grasp certain individual and present his little history, his life, which than influenced the rest of the family in some perverse way. When reading this book, experienced reader will find such compositions that corresponds in that what crtics call 'modern', others will find interesting and compelling story, which never grows in boredom, with fluent narrative style that keeps ones eyes fixed on pages long after the lights went out.
   Comparing the Ondaatje with other authors of the modern world,
   Ondaatje lacks the one thing that he "must" have when presenting himself in a way he does. By focusing himself merely on a problems of his own, of a personal character in every (which, of course, includes this one)book, he voluntarily forgets that there is other life, other world going around him. When tending to write intelectual prose, one should, at least in one way, give some focus on that matter too.
   But, when all this comes to conclusion, if you like (auto)biograhies - buy this one, if you don't, skip it. It's simple as that...



3. fans of michael ondaatje's poetry will no doubt like this book; however, do to the hit and miss nature of each chapter, i doubt that this book would win him many new fans. an impressionistic collage of place & family members, this book is closer to the ethic of poetry, forsaking narrative structure for short pieces that jump here and there to paint a family in an exotic place and time. plenty of good prose, but lots of the pieces are too random and are just not interesting. worthwhile, but not highly recommended.



4. I read this book for a Canadian fiction class and really liked it. The language was so interesting and different from anything I had read before. It is a wonderful story about a wacky family. There are good times, bad times, funny stories, tragic stories, and just plain wacky events. It really makes you want to take a look into your own family and find out all of the "juicy" details. I really liked the book and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting story.



5. Ondaatje seems to be trying too hard. The language is overly flowery and the plot is often lost beneath the mound of words. It does have a few good moments, some funny, some touching. But in general, I spent most of this book irritated by the grandois manner of the author, as if by writing in a vague and pretty-fied manner, his words will sound important and deep.
   Maybe it's just me, but I find that vague does NOT equal meaningful.

5 comments about The Princes in the Tower.

1. Historical accuracy aside, I was a bit disappointed in this book. I realize it's not a novel, and is written more like a history book. The first 90 pages jump around the bloodlines etc, and the information is repeated later in the book. Get past the first 90 pages and it becomes more readable.



2. This book has a bibliography but no footnotes or source citations. If you are a serious history student, don't waste your time on this book. It isn't worth the paper it's written on.



3. Alison Weir's thorough research is evident in every chapter. She first summarizes the events and the dispute between the Houses of York and Lancaster. Then using obscure documents and letters, she develops a detailed timeline of events following Edward IV's death. She adds to it her historian's sensibility. There is no doubt in her mind, that Richard III was directly responsible for the Princes' deaths. I must read other opinions as well, but her case is convincing.
   
   The only challenge to the book was that she assumes the reader knows the York and Lancaster followers well. I had to go back many times to figure out players' allegience.



4. Alison Weir has written countless popular histories about medieval and Tudor England. In this 1992 book she explores the murders of King Edward V who was 12 and his younger brother the Duke of York who was 10 years old. The saying from Sir Walter Scott goes, "What a tangled web we weave when first we plan to deceive!" How true this maxim is in the complicated spider's web of conspiracy, usurpations and dark plotting which occurred in fifteenth century England!
   When the Lancasterian King of England Edward IV died in 1483 his throne was assumed by Edward V his son by Elizabeth Wydville. She and her children would be forced to take sanctuary in Westminster after the seizure of the throne by the wily and intelligent plotter Gloucester. (Richard III).Richard III was one of the many brothers of the late King. Weir asserts that Richard had the boys in the tower murdered! He did so to sweep away any threats to his throne. Richard even wanted to marry the lads sister the fetchingly beautiful Elizabeth of York. This marriage did not occur due to the scandal over the foul deed done in the Tower of London. Many of his contemporaries believed that Richard was the man responsible for the murder. Later it was Sir Thomas More and Shakespeare who linked Richard to the foul deed. Despite historical revisionism the author believes that this is the correct view of what happened.
   It would be Henry VII who would wed Elizabeth of York. As a Lancasterian marrying a Yorkist he ended the rivalry between the families preventing a renewal of the War of the Roses. Henry was the first of the Tudor monarchs who continued to reign in Great Britain until the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603. Henry defeated and killed Richard at Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485 to become king. His strong mother Margaret of Beaufort was overjoyed. Henry was a strong leader who was a good king. Henry later defeated rebellions led against him by imposters who claimed to be the Duke of York. Such claims were bogus!
   Weir notes that the supposed bodies of Edward V and the Duke of York were discovered in the Tower of London during the reign of Charles II. This finding is disputed. Her assertion that Richard III is the man responsible for the murders is also a bone of contention.
   As a neophyte to the controversy I believe Alison Weir makes a plausible case for the culprit being Richard III. This book has convinced me to read more iin this fascinating topic.



5. It sure won't answer the centuries old question of the demise of Edward IV's boys, but surely will sway you in the direction of one culprit...Detailed, and well researched, albeit somewhat biased, it gives a perfect picture of the era, prevailing conditions, backrounds etc etc..If you like history, you'll enjoy this. Bottomline though, whoever the guilty party may be, two young kids were murdered horridly by some power hungry monster..My heart goes to the kids...Sad...