2 comments about Meyer Lansky: The Shadowy Exploits Of New York's Master Manipulator (Amazing Stories).

1. As a fan of this genre I found Mr. Montague's Meyer Lansky an interesting tale. While the story did not reveal anything new, it was a well done accounting of the Lanksy we have all come to know!



2. Meyer Lansky was a genius who happened to be a criminal. He is the inventor of the forerunner to today's lottery. He was declared a criminal and we use the same system today claiming that it helps pay for education. Personally, I find his greed refreshing.

2 comments about Family Names of the Island of Newfoundland.

1. Seary's in-depth study of nearly three thousand family names of Newfoundland, arose from his work on the study of place names of the island. As his study progressed, Seary became fascinated with tracking families as they migrated along the coast or changed their names to avoid detection by Britain and France. His pursuit of the rise of Newfoundland surnames illustrates that relationships, place of origin, occupation, and even nicknames played very important roles.

   The core of his research comes from the Official List of Electors 1955 chosen because it was the most comprehensive list of names and the communites to which they were linked before the massive resettlement programs of the 1960's. The sources of his information are vast as he quotes from scholarly works from England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, France and the Channel Islands as well as the many censuses taken in Newfoundland since 1675 in his attempt to get at the origin of the name.

   Family Names of the Island of Newfoundland attempts to trace each name to a geographical origin in England, France, Ireland, etc. as well as trace its linguistic origin. This will provide the reader of this text with answers to such questions as; What does the name mean? Where is the name found in Newfoundland? When was the first recorded incidence of it in a particular region? Of course, this information is invaluable to any researcher of family history.

   The real value to the student of genealogy, is that as Seary lists the early instances of each name in various places in Newfoundland, he provides us with all kinds of tidbits of information about the person - how they were killed, where they worked, their father, etc. And as expected from a scholar such as Seary, all of this information is referenced back to an original source document!




2. Excellent source of Genealogical information on family surnames, helps you find the places that you should be looking for your family. Doesn't do your genealogy for you but most certainly helps.
   Names are listed in Alphabetical order, no index necessary
   There are 4 editions available but the 1988 corrected Edition is the best

1 comments about The Life of Josiah Henson: Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada.

1. I received most of my order in good condition and a timely manner but i have still not received a book, "Little Black Sambo and the CD, Black Power. Parnell Herbert

1 comments about Benedict Arnold: A Traitor in Our Midst.

1. Mr. Wilson, a Canadian journalist, has done a remarkable job bringing the little-known aspects of Benedict Arnold to life.

   He skillfully describes the political, personal and social factors which made Arnold the man that he was (both good and bad). The focus is on Arnold as an adult, following him through his days as a Yankee trader, as a superb General and leader of men, as a "turncoat", and then as a trader, husband, father and litigant. His years in eastern Canada and England are dealt with in some detail.

   Like so many others, Benedict Arnold was, to me, more a symbol than a man. I knew the basic events surrounding the "incident", but virtually nothing else. Thanks to Barry Wilson, this is no longer the case.

5 comments about Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time.

1. really wondeful. the appendix chapter his mother is, in my opinion,
   even more interesting than the book. book, of course, is a fantastic read.



2. BOBBY FISHER GOES TO WAR is a well-researched book, using, among other sources, recently opened Soviet files on the match. The authors (Edmonds and Eidinow) fill in the background leading up to the match, including bios of the lives of Fisher and Spassky, the two combatants in "the chess match of all time". However, the story lacks for sustainable drama; things poke along, the authors obviously stretching out a long magazine piece into a book. This is fine for chess fans but the general reader may feel too bogged down. On the other hand, there is little analysis of the games played in the match, which might frustrate a chess buff who has not yet read any of the analytical books on the match. BOBBY FISHER GOES TO WAR is probably more a political book than a sports book as all the negotiations, psychology, and behind the scenes manuvering are spelled out as well as the actions of the Soviet Communist party machinery regarding the match and very little on the games itself. Fisher comes off as brilliant but insane and this reader had little sympathy for his pathological behavior or the chess authorities caving into his ridiculous and nuerotic demands. All of that is covered in detail in the book. Ultimately, this is not the story of an American hero but of a pathetic, spoiled, ungrateful boy in a man's suit.



3. Prior to the match Boris Spassky said that regardless of the results the events in Reykjavik would be a "celebration of chess". Bobby Fischer on the other hand, was going to war and wanted "to crush the Soviets". Two thoughts on Fischer come to mind after reading this book: What a jerk, and what a shame. He pretty much flushed his career down the toilet after this match by refusing to defend his title against Karpov in 1974, and for the most selfish of reasons - he couldn't handle losing - and he went out on top. How convenient. While his chess games are incredible to follow (and I highly recommend you take the time to do so) the fact is that he lost in life; while Spassky, whom he beat over the board, won (some observers even say that Spassky should've won the match based on pure chess skill and preparation; regardless of the results, his best games are as well worth studying as Fischer's). Fischer's absence throughout much of the 70s and all of the 1980s is lamentable, and like so many of his acquaintances, the more I find myself making excuses for his ridiculous behavior. "Bobby Fischer Goes to War" depicts this paradox and phenomenon pretty well and anyone interested in Cold War history might really enjoy the bizarre and intriguing events in this little corner of the wider, global show-down between communism and capitalism. Nevertheless, I have a few reservations about this book.
   
   Despite its being a well-researched, compelling and easy-to-read account of the off-board, behind the scenes battles between Fischer & the Russians, it has several short-comings, the foremost of which is a lack of chess. Sure, the authors make some token efforts to summarize certain highlights of a few games, but the focus is on Fischer's antics rather than his moves (or, if you're a Fischer apologist, his "off the board brinksmanship") and this seems unfortunate to me. By having the games interwoven into the main storyline the peripheral hoopla of the match would have its proper context. Not only this, but it would relieve the tedium of some 300 pages of some rather petty and exasperating behavior, and ultimately, would redeem the man himself. Reading about Bobby Fischer without his chess games is like, well, try imagining Mike Tyson without boxing. Additionally, I'm not sure how this book is any different from "The Russians vs. Fischer" (D. Plisetsky & S. Voronkov, Everyman, 1994, 2005 2nd ed.)? Not having been able to read it I can't say for sure, but from what I can tell it contains more interviews from the Russian side (the authors apparently utilized the same "unpublished U.S. & Soviet records" so prominently advertised on this book's jacket) and the games themselves. These two factors alone make me suspect that I bought the inferior product, and so I recommend you compare the two.
   
   Other criticisms:
   
   A complete absence of reference notes for any of the some 150+ sources for this book make it difficult, if not impossible to locate the sources for a large amount of curious material. Have these guys ever heard of plagiarism?
   
   The authors, who are journalists, write in the typical "play by play" style of their profession, which works well in pithy newspaper or magazine columns (or for John Krakauer & Mark Bowden), but wears thin in a full-length narrative about a chess match without any real chess.
   
   The coverage of the 1992 re-match is given short-shrift and conveniently written off a "a bad sequel".
   
   In the end I wanted to hear more from Spassky and Fischer themselves. There are a lot of secondary viewpoints and great sources of information here, but how much better could the text have been had the authors solicited or used more direct quotes from the participants themselves - especially Spassky since he seemed most willing to talk? Recently I discovered "B. Fischer: The Wandering King" by H. Bohm & K. Jongkind (Batsford, 2005) which looks to be fill this gap.
   
   The one thing that redeems the author's decision to focus on the non-chess related action in my mind is that it does illuminate something important that I don't believe they intended; namely that, despite their extreme differences, both chess masters managed not only to play some great chess, but refused to be manipulated by their respective political systems. That is, regardless of Fischer's obsession with control and the fiasco he made of this match - not to mention the ass he made of himself - it seems to me that the "celebration of chess" Spassky envisioned came about in-spite of all this, and in no small part due to his own tolerance, patience and ability to challenge Fischer on the chess board. For it was these two individual chess-artists who not only enriched and popularized the game worldwide through their immortal play, greatly benefiting their fellow players through larger purses future tournaments, but most importantly, their outmaneuvering of systemic powers that sought to constrain them for narrow-minded political propaganda.



4. As someone with a moderate curiosity in chess, and wanting to be drawn into its world through enlightening analysis, this book is simply atrocious. To my way of thinking, the purpose in reading about this game would be to illuminate the relationship between psychology and complex strategy on the board -- if you're going to write this book than you have to get a handle on making that angle interesting or forget about it. A tabloid study about a irrritating egoist is not what I want. I cannot finish this.



5. "Bobby Fischer Goes to War" revisits the Cold War showdown between Soviet World Chess Champion Boris Spassky and American enfant terrible Bobby Fischer in Reykjavik, Iceland in the summer of 1972. Billed by the press as an ideological duel between Western individualism and the Soviet chess machine, the match inspired an unprecedented interest in the game in the U.S. and ultimately rejuvenated the Soviet chess program as well. BBC journalists David Edmonds and John Eidinow propose that the greatest battle was not on the chessboard. This is a chronicle of the drama behind the scenes, among the American and Soviet teams and their Icelandic hosts, that makes the battle on the board look tame.
   
   Background information about the two competitors, their personalities, how they got to this point, and an attempt by the authors to explain how a chess player's mind works bring us up to the negotiations for the World Championship match. If it seemed that getting everyone there was a feat, matters only got worse once the match started. It was to be two months in constant crisis, due mostly to Fischer's unrelenting, bizarre demands. The authors provide a blow-by-blow account of the confrontations on and off the chessboard, as the organizers tried to deal with Fischer, Spassky dealt with the stress, the Soviets with the prospect of losing, and paranoia on both sides that the players were victims of espionage.
   
   "Bobby Fischer Goes to War" is a snapshot of a symbolic event in a particular political climate which, not surprisingly, does not seem to symbolize what it was made to at the time. Boris Spassky was hardly a Soviet loyalist, and Bobby Fischer was a poor representative of the Free World, hated by the U.S. State Department. Yet, these two men at this juncture in the Cold War fought "the most notorious chess duel in history". This is a very readable, engaging account of that event and its cast. I am puzzled, however, that no one suggests that Bobby Fischer suffered from some degree of autism, which, combined with a domineering and self-important personality, explains his behavior. He is demonized a bit too much considering that he clearly had a neurological disorder.

2 comments about Robert Service: A Great Canadian Poet's Romance with the North (Amazing Stories).

1. This is an well-written book that is great read for all ages. The author has produced a fascinating book that keeps you reading into the night. The book captures well the adventuresome, wanderlust side of Robert Service, weaving in stories about his family life and his career as a poet, author and novelist. Excellent book about an incredible man who has become a Canadian icon.



2. Never realized that the poet Robert Service was such an adventurer and rebel until I read this book. A tightly-written biography filled with interesting information about his early life in Scotland, his life in British Columbia, California and Yukon, and then later in Europe. Author does a great job of taking the reader along as Robert Service goes after his dreams and along the way, writes some of the world's greatest poetry.

2 comments about Moe Norman: The Canadian Golfing Legend with the Perfect Swing (Amazing Stories).

1. The reknowned author,Stan Sauerwein has written a great biography of a brilliant golfer,Moe Norman.He rules!!



2. This is the tale of Moe Norman, one of golf's greatest, but probably least well known heroes. Born into poverty, he used the extra time he had to turn himself into the greatest ball striker ever known. Overcoming financial problems, numerous brushes with the RCGA and other ruling bodies, he carved a place out for himself in golf history, and is now one of its immortal figures.
   
   This book is geared mostly towards adolescent readers with a general interest in sports greats, preferably with a rudamentary understanding of golf. It will not satisfy the golf fan, though, as so much that was unique about Norman's game is not discussed. Many of the tales that surround him, such as the exhibition with Snead in which Norman launched a drive and rolled it over a bridge rather than lay up in front of a creek, are noted, but some of his greatest feats are left out. Many of those, such as being told by his caddy that a hole was a driver and a wedge to the green and Norman playing a wedge from the tee and a driver from the fairway, probably will be lost on non-golfers.
   
   For a simple read into Moe Norman's life, this book more than fits the bill, but it treads too carefully. His problems with tournament organizers and golf's ruling bodies sets the plot, but that plot is very much a "disadvantage person carving his own way" sort of story, and not the tale of bravado golfers have come to expect regarding the greats. Good reading for a summer book report, but lacking for serious golf readers.

No comments about Frank Barr: Bush Pilot in Alaska and the Yukon (Caribou Classics).

No comments about Taste for Paprika: A Memoir.

2 comments about Outlaws of the Lakes: Bootlegging & Smuggling from Colonial Times to Prohibition.

1. Edward Butts book Outlaws of the Lakes is nothing less than brilliant! A must to read! This is an extemely well written account of both Canadian and American smuggler's, bootleggers and corrupt government official's at it's best! Also great detailed accounts on Al Capone and his rivals Dion O'Bannon and the Purple Gang. A must for crime readers and historian buffs! I give this book 5-stars with highest honors.



2. The Great Lakes have served as a smuggler's freeway since Canada's infancy. In "Outlaws of the Lakes: Bootlegging and Smuggling", Canadian author Ed Butts tackles the subject of the illegal trade in booze and just about everything else banned or excessively taxed by the government. He also highlights its more infamous practitioners, such as Rocco Perri, Canada's Al Capone.
   
   Butts has dicovered or deduced some eye-opening facts. He demonstrates that a French bootlegger was responsible for the founding of Detroit, and points out that smugglers made a valuable contribution to the British-Canadian victory during the War of 1812. Historic triumphs aside, Butts does not whitewash or glorify the degraded character of the smuggler or the vicious reality of his / her daily life. These lake pirates killed each other, turned the legal system into a farce by bribing government officials, and created a legacy of violence and corruption that taints Canada and the United States to this day.