Book Description
What would you do to inherit a million dollars? Would you be willing to change your life? Jason Stevens is about to find out in Jim Stovall's The Ultimate Gift. Red Stevens has died, and the older members of his family receive their millions with greedy anticipation. But a different fate awaits young Jason, whom Stevens, his great-uncle, believes may be the last vestige of hope in the family. "Although to date your life seems to be a sorry excuse for anything I would call promising, there does seem to be a spark of something in you that I hope we can fan into a flame. For that reason, I am not making you an instant millionaire." What Stevens does give Jason leads to The Ultimate Gift. Young and old will take this timeless tale to heart.
Customer Reviews:
Read the book, watch the movie - both will inspire!.......2007-10-01
I received this book as a gift shortly after watching the movie by the same name - I was greatly impressed with the movie and anxious to read the book (since everyone knows that the book is always better than the movie). This book is no exception to that rule - an outstanding read and it was as easy to read as the movie was to watch. This is a novel, a work of fiction that drives home some real life points! The premise of the book is about what's really important in life - is it what we build with our hands or the money and worldly success we achieve, or is it something more than that, something that isn't tangible and can't be bought or sold for any amount of money? In his final will, a dying wealthy man tries to communicate from the grave the true meaning of life to a family member who up until this point hasn't got a clue!
I would think that this book could probably be read to children in upper elementary school and could be read by 7th or 8th graders on their own. The book should be read by parents first so that they can engage their children in conversation along the way. While the book isn't overtly Christian, you'll find that the lessons taught in this novel are very similar to the wisdom shared in the Book of Proverbs and throughout Scripture. Stovall isn't preaching, but he sure can drive a point home with this story; and these twelve "gifts" passed from one generation to the next are essential for each and every one of us to learn as well.
While some say that the movie isn't as good as the book, I say that they are a pretty good compliment of each other. The movie takes various liberties with the book to get this message on screen, but you won't be disappointed with either. The book is written to provoke thought and discussion and families should use them as tools to teach valuable life lessons to their children - Red Stevens would have wanted it that way!
The Ultimate Gift DVD.......2007-09-27
The Ultimate Gift you sent me was a total disaster. I ordered the movie edition and you sent me a book and a promotional DVD. I did not receive the movie edition of the Ultimate Gift. Unfortunately I had ordered it to take on a bus trip that I was directing and I had not taken the time to watch what you sent me, thinking it was the movie edition. When I put it in the DVD player with everyone on the bus eager to watch the movie there was only the promotional disc. Needless to say I was embarrassed and not too happy. Fortunately along the way I was able to purchase the DVD that I thought I was buying from Amazon at a much higher price. I have ordered from Amazon before and have been very pleased but not this time.
A Timely Gift.......2007-09-24
Several copies of The Ultimate Gift were placed on a table at my workplace. A handwritten note read, "Take one and pass it on." The title was intriguing and never one to pass up something free or an opportunity to read, I took one.
Having gained knowledge of most of these gifts through the ups and downs of life, I enjoyed the validations, while unfortunately identifying with Uncle Red's mistakes. I am grateful to the person who made it possible to have a copy of the book.
I titled this review 'a timely gift' because I received in time read it and mail it to my son as a gift for his 26th birthday. Like Uncle Red, wishing to provide, I robbed my children of many of the gifts. I am hoping the book will make a difference in my son's life as he is not a happy person even though he has many blessings. When and if I am in touch with my prodigal daughter, I will share The Ultimate Gift with her, also. It is my goal to share copies of The Ultimate Gift with many, many young persons.
Good , but not terrific.......2007-09-19
The reviews I read promised an inspiring book. It was not to be. It was an interesting premise and story. But the lack of detailed story left me disappointed. Reading the story from the lawyer's view did not give us an opportunity to really travel the road to enlightenment. I felt I was reading the summary, not the story.
A movie of the book is coming out soon. I dare say, I see an immense opprtunity for the movie to outshine the book.
Great book!.......2007-09-17
This is a great book and I would recommend buying used items from Amazon as I have always been satisified with my purchases and most of all, the money I save. This book has been made into a movie that is really great, but the book is always better.
Book Description
The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Timothy Egan's critically acclaimed account rescues this iconic chapter of American history from the shadows in a tour de force of historical reportage. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, Egan does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, "the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect" (New York Times). In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, "The Worst Hard Time" is "arguably the best nonfiction book yet" (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of trifling with nature.
Customer Reviews:
Unbelievable!.......2007-10-03
This book was fantastic. Although the majority of books I read are fiction, I'm not hesitant to read good non-fiction. This book was so well written that it reads like a taut novel. Along with Seabiscuit and The Devil in the White City, it is one of the best historical books I've read. Very well researched and thought out. You almost can't believe that this could have actually happened. You feel like you know the characters, and you certainly root for them even though you seemingly know how it will turn out. I would recommend this book to any avid reader - fiction or non-fiction.
Hopefully, we will learn from our past.......2007-10-02
This is an important event in US history that is so relevant today, supplying more fuel for both side of the ongoing debate on global warming.
I found it a bit difficult to stay connected to the characters. In spite of that, the story remained interesting, showing the plight and hardships endured by the generation before us, and bringing us an awareness of our fragile ecosystem.
Eye Opening and Hard to Put Down.......2007-09-25
A must read for history buffs and readers in general. Information places the midwest, its people, and past in an entirely different light of appreciation. (Absolutely Facinating)!
Fine story, good history, a little light on analysis.......2007-09-18
Egan's *Worst Hard Time* is intriguing and largely well done, if a bit relentless. Granted, he's writing about a phenomenon that dragged on for years, repeatedly raising and dashing ever-slimmer hopes; the people who lived the "Dust Bowl" years were literally worn out, but Egan needed to do something more with the material than recreate that sensation. Toward the last third of the book, in particular, a kind of sameness creeps into the narrative, as if Egan didn't really know what else to say -- which I suspect is connected to my sense that he relied too much on too few sources (including a diary that he overuses) -- and his slightly jerky style gets distracting (he's not a great one for writing transitions). For me, one failing is that Egan never explains, in any specific way, the origin and cause of the "black dusters" and other freakish weather phenomena of the "Dust Bowl" era. He tells us that the dust storms came because the topsoil had been carved off by overfarming (and then aggravated by the abandonment of unsuccessful farms), but a meteorological or ecological explanation - even a nontechnical one - wouldn't have been a bad idea. His description of the CCC efforts at re-grassing the plains left me with significant questions that he doesn't answer: Given that the dust storms continued unabated throughout the effort, what was the government's strategy for protecting the newly planted grass during the time it would have taken for it to mature enough to hold the soil? And how did they water it? In addition, I'd have appreciated a more substantive "bring us up to date" chapter at the end that explained more clearly what happened in the wake of the human and policy failures of the Dust Bowl. Nor would a little class analysis have hurt -- other than wagging a kind of general finger at get-rich schemes perpetrated both by private interests and by the government, he seems careful not to accuse anybody too directly of creating an ecological disaster, of maiming (psychologically and literally) and killing tens of thousands of people, or of engaging in a kind of class warfare that embodied the ferocious social Darwinism of Depression-era capitalism. Finally, I'd just point out that the book isn't really the story of "survivors" of the Dust Bowl; there are essentially no survivors, and this is no movie-of-the-week tale of grit, courage, and heroism that win out in the end. The people Egan follows are bleak and broken, and their desperation is palpable. *Worst Hard Time* begs the question: Is there any redemption? I think Egan knows there was none, but he seems loathe to say it in so many words.
A Good but flawed Bookend.......2007-09-03
Timothy Egan's _The Worst Hard Times: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl_ has been a nice bookend to other books I have read on the Depression. These include Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States, John T. Flynn's The Roosevelt Myth, Jim Powell's FDR's Folly, and Friedman & Schwartz' A Monetary History of the United States. Egan's book provides a human perspective on momentous times.
Although Egan alludes to the state's complicity in the conditions that produced those hard times, and at the end acknowledges the bad long term effects of FDR's intervention, he definitely sets FDR, Hugh Bennett, and farm policy as the heroes of his story.
The state's complicity lies in first running the natives out, then establishing incentives to farm the land rather than use it for grazing. The long term effect has been to establish detrimental farm subsidies. On the one hand, price supports promote overproduction of commodities like cotton, which the government then buys and dumps, depressing world markets and further impoverishing African farmers. On the other hand, convoluted policies such as sugar price supports, ethanol incentives, and ethanol import tariffs are intended to raise corn prices, further impoverishing Mexican peasants. Roosevelt also pursued wide-ranging efforts to dam rivers and pump the Ogallala aquifer dry, environmentally destructive programs that will come to be hung around the neck of "capitalism". It is a sad reflection on people who worship FDR's policies as the salvation of impoverished American farmers while ignoring the ill effect of those policies on the impoverished farmers in the rest of the world and on our own environment.
Egan's book highlights the real stories of real people. In the context of those times, when it seemed reasonable for the state to encourage homesteading and farming prior to the closing of the West, when the prospect of prolonged drought seemed dim prior to 1932, when the invoice for the social cost of their actions was not yet due, what might have happened to those people in the absence of the New Deal? We don't know, but Egan's stories are valuable details of what did happen to them.
Still, one cannot help but think that Egan has absorbed just a little too much of the high school version of those events. The high school version is that the farmers were too dumb to know what they were doing, so FDR hired some smart men who invented and taught contour plowing and the use of trees for windbreaks, and then they paid the farmers to let some fields go fallow. It is an unusually common myth.
The conservation measures discussed had been around long before FDR took office. Contour plowing in particular was practiced by the ancient Phoenicians. In the early 1800s, Thomas Jefferson had promoted it on his own farm. These techniques were not unknown to moderns: Pancho Villa promoted contour plowing.
Egan relies on an article, "Small Farms, Externalities and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s" by Zeynep K. Hansen and Gary D. Libecap, published by the NBER. Among other things, the article discusses erosion as an example of several kinds of externality. Suspension of fine particles was costly to farmers as lost soil, but they also caused health problems to humans and livestock. Saltation and creep are externalities in which the topsoil from one farm is deposited on another farm, not only killing the wheat but also burying the downwind farm's erosion control stubble. In the article, they note that prior to the creation of the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), "The two leading erosion control methods in the 1930s were strip cropping with strip fallow and windbreaks of trees or brush. Both provided barriers to lower surface wind velocity and carrying capacity, but the former was more prevalent because trees could not be grown in many parts of the plains. Strip fallow also had the advantage of building up soil moisture and roughness, which reduced erodibility, whereas tree windbreaks actually absorbed moisture from surrounding ground." This is interesting because it shows that (1) Dust Bowl farmers did practice conservation before FDR saved them, and (2) one of the fables from the high school version, FDR's commitment to using trees to block the wind, was not only a failure, but probably caused more damage. To his credit, even Egan describes the tree idea as a failure.
Further in the article, Hansen and Libecap explain, "To completely combat regional erosion, all of the cultivated acreage in a topographical area of similarly erodible soil would have to be included in a "wind erosion unit" of 50,000 to 500,000 acres or more. The optimal farm sizes for addressing wind erosion and production, however, were not the same. Most estimates by agricultural economists and extension agents in the 1930s of appropriate production sizes for the region suggested two sections of land, 1,280 acres, depending on location in the plains. Few scale economies could be realized beyond that size. Nevertheless, in the 1930s, most farms were smaller than the prescribed levels for optimal production. The Great Plains was covered by hundreds of thousands of small farms. This condition was largely a legacy of the Homestead Act that limited claims to 160 to 320 acres when the region was settled between 1880 and 1925." This is the same opinion reported by Egan of Hugh Bennett, the first director of the SCS. The area covered by Egan's story was formerly the domain of Plains Indians who thrived on grass-fed buffalo. The first whites to successfully live on the land ran the XIT cattle ranch. It was government policy to replace both with small claims farmers, and that -- aside from running off the natives -- is the key cause of the Dust Bowl. According to Bennett's report (quoted from Egan), "'Mistaken public choices have been largely responsible for the situation,' the report proclaimed. Specifically, 'a mistaken homesteading policy, the stimulation of war time demands [World War I] which led to over cropping and over grazing, and encouragement of a system of agriculture which could not be both permanent and prosperous ... The Federal homestead policy, which kept land allotments low and required that a portion of each should be plowed, is now seen to have caused immeasurable harm. The Homestead Act of 1862, limiting an individual to 160 acres, was on the western plains almost an obligatory act of poverty.'"
Egan repeatedly suggests that farmers were ready to try anything, and holds up the federal program as their savior, but fails to note that early federal programs were failures. It wasn't until the initiative fell to the states that the programs succeeded. Hansen and Libecap explain, "Given the mixed incentives to participate in erosion control, the response to calls for voluntary collective action was limited. Indeed, the SCS noted a lack of voluntary farmer participation in the erosion control programs outlined in the demonstration projects. ... More direct and coercive government intervention came in 1937 with inauguration of Soil Conservation Districts (SCDs) that had the authority to force farmer compliance and the resources (subsidies) to cover the costs of erosion control. The SCDs were local government units and required state legislation for establishment." According to Hansen and Libecap, "Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, at the center of the Dust Bowl, enacted wind erosion laws in 1935", but Egan fails to note those, favoring the pro-FDR narrative.
Federal policies created the conditions for this environmental and social disaster. That is not a theoretical, paper claim: even Hugh Bennett agreed that the federal Homestead policy was a mistake. The federal SCS was a failure while the state-led SCDs succeeded. The Nature Conservancy and not the federal government pioneered the use of prescribed fire to maintain the health of the grasslands. Grass-fed buffalo are being reintroduced to the grass-fire-buffalo ecosystem as a sustainable food source. It turns out that laissez-faire would have been the best policy and that federal programs have only made things worse. I wish Timothy Egan had paid more attention to that part of the narrative.
Book Description
Amazing Grace tells the story of the remarkable life of the British abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759-1833). This accessible biography chronicles Wilberforce's extraordinary role as a human rights activist, cultural reformer, and member of Parliament.
At the center of this heroic life was a passionate twenty-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, a battle Wilberforce won in 1807, as well as efforts to abolish slavery itself in the British colonies, a victory achieved just three days before his death in 1833.
Metaxas discovers in this unsung hero a man of whom it can truly be said: he changed the world. Before Wilberforce, few thought slavery was wrong. After Wilberforce, most societies in the world came to see it as a great moral wrong.
To mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade, HarperSanFrancisco and Bristol Bay Productions have joined together to commemorate the life of William Wilberforce with the feature-length film Amazing Grace and this companion biography, which provides a fuller account of the amazing life of this great man than can be captured on film.
This account of Wilberforce's life will help many become acquainted with an exceptional man who was a hero to Abraham Lincoln and an inspiration to the anti-slavery movement in America.
Customer Reviews:
An outstanding person that we desperately need more of..........2007-09-27
When I first started reading this book, the way the author wrote was so different from so many of the science and histories that I usually read, I was prepared to give the book four stars. It seemed like such a serious topic about the efforts made by English gentlemen to curtail the slavery trade, that Metaxas (author) seemed to be almost flippant. But as I read further in the book, and realized what a good, humorous, and loveable person that Wilberforce was, I could understand why the author chose to write in this vein.
I have yet to see the movie, but from reading the book it definitely aroused my interest in the movements of that time period and the people involved. Wilberforce could not have picked a harder social ill to try to bring to the right conclusion, that of stopping the slave trade with the eventual goal which he did not live to see, of freeing the slaves in the Americas. That he worked on this tirelessly for 40 years, through own personal trials and illness, and saw it to its conclusion is a testimony to the strength of his character. Where are those men and women today? Did they all come during that time period from 1750 through the early 1800s? Like our own American heroes from the Revolutionary War and men like LIncoln, who though fallible, did the very best they could to alleviate the sufferings of others? I wish we could clone a few of these people now to fix the many wrongs of our society, including the ongoing pestilence of slavery.
I eventually learned to enjoy Metaxas writing. It's different to be sure, but a nice relief from the overly serious tomes that I usually read.
Karen SAdler
Amazing.......2007-09-21
A highly readable book about an amazing man who optimisitically believed he could make a difference, and did! Like Frank Capra's Mr. Smith, William Wilberforce was a politician who stuck to his ideals. He was very conscientious about living out his faith and seeking God's will. He believed in the humanity of others and the responsibility to better society and help the less fortunate. Highly recommended!
A small man with a great impact.......2007-09-06
Though the name "William Wilberforce" is hardly at the tips of our collective tongues anymore, author Eric Metaxas thinks it should be. In "Amazing Grace," Metaxas relates the story of Wilberforce -- a slight, stooped and sickly man -- whose physical frailty disguised a great strength of character and soul. Wilberforce, as a member of the British Parliament, was (at least according to Metaxas's telling) the driving force behind both the end of the slave trade in the British colonies in 1807 as well as the abolition of British slavery itself in 1833.
The book covers all of Wilberforce's life, from the controversies between Anglicanism and Methodism of his boyhood, through his indolent college days, to his conversion in 1785 at age 24, to his parliamentary career and his death in 1833. Metaxas tells a rousing story of a young man in search for meaning and relevance, in an age of barbarity toward animals, criminals and "lower" races that is shocking to the modern ear. Metaxas sets the stage by discussing animal cruelty -- bull, horse and bear-beating -- that were popular pastimes of the era. His catalog of the evil done to black slaves is chronicled by those who had first-hand familiarity with the infamous Middle Passage or the treatment of slaves on the sugar plantations of the West Indies. Wilberforce's voice is heard through excerpts from his personal diaries, bringing this now-obscure person to life.
I truly enjoyed the book, though with a few reservations. Metaxas's Wilberforce is a man whose worldview would be recognizable to moderns. As a man born of a racist and vicious era, he used his religious views in ways that ran counter to his society. He took seriously the scriptural dictum that humanity is created in God's image, resulting in the inevitable conclusion that people of color deserved the same treatment as whites. A sickly man, he showed great compassion for the poor and the weak, even extending this soft heartedness to animals. Among many other works, Wilberforce was a founding member of the then-named Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The reservations. Metaxas's style is usually staid, punctuated with the occassional tic -- he suddenly gets overly-cute or uses faux-Elizabethan anachronistic turns of phrase. He also tends to give Wilberforce solitary credit for opposing slavery, when this work started long before he appeared on the scene and ended after he left it. Metaxas's evidently sympathetic view of Wilberforce's spiritual life was another problem. In many passages, Metaxas presumes a conservative Christian worldview, lauding Wilberforce for making decisions that are in line with God's will, as though this was self-evident to the reader. Metaxas clearly roots for young Wilberforce to find God, and he speaks from with seeming familiarity with a convert's stages of maturation through during his conversion experience. There's nothing wrong with religious experience, but I found this overt tilt surprising and a bit troubling in a biography. Appallingly, Metaxas describes Anglicanism as a religion practiced in name only by bishops and clergy who no longer believed in its tenets. Metaxas even notes which bishops of the period are "orthodox," as though the reader understands and agrees to his meaning of the word. Metaxas may also be guilty of painting Wilberforce in too-bright colors. His subject's distrust of Roman Catholicism is minimized and his opposition to the right of labor to organize is left unmentioned. Wilberforce is sometimes portrayed as the most eloquent of speakers and other times as having a rather rambling and disconnected style. These inconsistencies and biases diminished the book's impact.
Nevertheless, I do recommend "Amazing Grace". In an age in which the wounds of racism and cruelty are still borne by too many, it is encouraging to read of a man who, though borne to wealth and privilege, put his faith into practice in a way that benefited so many and is still admirable today. "Amazing Grace" makes the strong case that William Wilberforce ought to merit at least a mention when the roll of the history's great humanitarians is read.
Yes he ended slavery.......2007-08-08
William Wilberforce did more than end slavery, he changed Western Civilization. He created the campaign button, used today to elect mere politicians, but he did it to end slavery and bring Christianity to India. He also helped recreate non-governmental organizations for schools, and widows and orphans of war and poverty. He helped change the penal code of Great Britain and bring back the use of morality to effect change for how small crimes corrupted society. (Note, this was the same tactics used by Giuliani to change the crime rate in New York.) Wilber ( his nickname among friends) was a short sickly man, gifted with a a superb speaking voice, great charisma, and the ability to be a great Christian leader without looking like a "stick in the mud" Puritan. He also had a strong backbone that allowed him to let insults, death threats, and 40 years of frustration slide by the way side. One day I hope to read his sons' 3 volume biography of his life, but in the mean time, you can't go wrong reading this well written and entertaining biography of his life.
Amazing book!.......2007-07-25
This book should have been called The Amazing Book. This is really an uplifting book and a must read. We all should have William Wilberforce as our role model.
William Wilberforce was the man to end slavery. More importantly, he is the man who made slavery unacceptable in our minds. Who today can honestly tell you that slavery is not evil or indeed needed for a country's economy? Merely two centuries ago, slavery was not only accepted but deemed necessary. William Wilberforce was the man who extinguished this belief forever! As a side note, I find it interesting that no prophet of any religion has ever succeeded or even tried to end slavery. A mere mortal by the name of Wilberforce not only succeeded in ending slavery, but succeeded into changing our minds into completely rejecting slavery as immoral. As the author says, Wilberforce truly changed the world! An amazing feat, and truly an amazing grace to befall upon us!
Wilberforce was a religious man, but at no time did he claim that he was chosen by God or claimed of ever receiving a vision or message from God. He was a simple good-hearted person who cared about the well-being of others, especially the less fortunate ones. He was kind and generous, and gave a lot of his wealth to the poor throughout his life. Even though at the start of his life he was indeed very rich, he died poor, and not even owning his own house. He lived the rest of his life living in the homes of his children. Yet he never felt cheated by life. He accomplished something that no one has ever achieved. He is indeed fortunate to be receiving prayers from so many till this day!
The book will expose the horrors of slavery, and how at the time the British (and the Europeans, but emphasize was on the British) viewed the African blacks as inferior beings, if beings at all. At the time, killing a black person, whether child or adult, was no different to the British as killing a rodent. Slaves were viewed as a material object to own and to discard of at any time as fit (usually by murdering and torturing the slave).
After reading this book, you will wonder how it was ever possible to accept the concept of owning slaves. What went through the minds of the Europeans at the time to accept such an abhorrent practice as the ownership and trade of slaves? And why do we think differently about this subject today than we did for the past thousands of years? What suddenly changed in our minds? Read the book, and find out how Wilberforce was able to change our minds on slavery. Don't be surprised if you shed a few too many tears.
However, Wilberforce, a member of the British parliament, had to endure many insults and opposition to finally pass the bill to end slavery. In fact, it was a twenty-year fight just to abolish the British slave trade, a battle Wilberforce won in 1807, and a fierce battle in parliament to abolish slavery itself in the British colonies, a victory achieved just three days before his death in 1833.
Wilberforce was hated by many and often called a hypocrite for caring more for the slaves and less for the poor working class. But as the author says, this accusation against Wilberforce was like saying that Christopher Columbus was a hypocrite for not discovering Australia as well. No one man or woman can ever end all the ills of man and woman, but together we can! If each man and woman today accomplishes just one great humane achievement, that's 5 billion humane achievements during our lifetime! If Wilberforce can do so much for so many millions, why can't we?
The author, Eric Mataxas, did an excellent job bringing to life a man who is truly immortal. Throughout the narrative of this book you will feel as if William Wilberforce is right there besides you. No other author could have written about Wilberforce as beautifully as Metaxas. This book is a real piece of art to be treasured in your library for the next generation, and makes an excellent bedtime story for our children.
Book Description
I am now a condemned traitor . . . I am to die when I have hardly begun to live.
Historical expertise marries page-turning fiction in Alison Weir’s enthralling debut novel, breathing new life into one of the most significant and tumultuous periods of the English monarchy. It is the story of Lady Jane Grey–“the Nine Days’ Queen”–a fifteen-year-old girl who unwittingly finds herself at the center of the religious and civil unrest that nearly toppled the fabled House of Tudor during the sixteenth century.
The child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she is merely a pawn in a dynastic game with the highest stakes, Jane Grey was born during the harrowingly turbulent period between Anne Boleyn’s beheading and the demise of Jane’s infamous great-uncle, King Henry VIII. With the premature passing of Jane’s adolescent cousin, and Henry’s successor, King Edward VI, comes a struggle for supremacy fueled by political machinations and lethal religious fervor.
Unabashedly honest and exceptionally intelligent, Jane possesses a sound strength of character beyond her years that equips her to weather the vicious storm. And though she has no ambitions to rule, preferring to immerse herself in books and religious studies, she is forced to accept the crown, and by so doing sets off a firestorm of intrigue, betrayal, and tragedy.
Alison Weir uses her unmatched skills as a historian to enliven the many dynamic characters of this majestic drama. Along with Lady Jane Grey, Weir vividly renders her devious parents; her much-loved nanny; the benevolent Queen Katherine Parr; Jane’s ambitious cousins; the Catholic “Bloody” Mary, who will stop at nothing to seize the throne; and the protestant and future queen Elizabeth. Readers venture inside royal drawing rooms and bedchambers to witness the power-grabbing that swirls around Lady Jane Grey from the day of her birth to her unbearably poignant death. Innocent Traitor paints a complete and compelling portrait of this captivating young woman, a faithful servant of God whose short reign and brief life would make her a legend.
“An impressive debut. Weir shows skill at plotting and maintaining tension, and she is clearly going to be a major player in the . . . historical fiction game.”
–The Independent
“Alison Weir is one of our greatest popular historians. In her first work of fiction . . . Weir manages her heroine’s voice brilliantly, respecting the past’s distance while conjuring a dignified and fiercely modern spirit.”
–London Daily Mail
Customer Reviews:
A Compelling Tale of Grandeur, Betrayal, and Innocence.......2007-10-04
The story of Lady Jane Grey, the tragic Nine Days Queen, is well known to most people familiar with the Tudor period. Nevertheless, she exerts a powerful attraction because she was kin to Henry VIII's children and became a pawn through no fault of her own, coming to the fore during a crisis in the Tudor succession following the death of Edward VI.
"Innocent Traitor" - acclaimed historian Alison Weir's entry into the historical fiction arena - brings Jane Grey to life in a unique and vibrant way. Through a medley of voices, including Jane's own, that of her mother Eleanor of Suffolk, her devoted nursemaid, and even Jane's royal cousin Mary Tudor, we experience the maneuverings and intrigues of life at court through various perspectives and opinions. We also come to know Jane as an emotionally abused child of gifted intelligence; as a young woman of staunch faith and honor; and as a reluctant queen whose pure reformist vision cannot overcome the depredations of her father-in-law and his ruthless associates. Helpless to stem the forces moving against her, Jane records her fate with stoic dignity and a keen eye.
It's to be expected that any book by Ms. Weir will be full of intimate details about life in the era; nevertheless, she does not overwhelm the narrative but rather expertly seasons it with facts that display her painstaking commitment to authenticity. In addition, she imbues even such unpleasant characters as Jane's parents with foibles and vulnerabilities of their own, giving them flesh-and-blood dimension. Jane's mother in particular dominates with her leonine pride in her royal blood, her rapacious ambition and her lusty marriage to a man who is her intellectual inferior. A true survivor of her time, she does not concede defeat, bending to obstacles when she cannot mold them to her will.
Readers of historical fiction should not miss this compelling debut by one of England's foremost authorities on the Tudors - a tale of grandeur, betrayal and innocence, framed by one woman's journey from throne to scaffold.
Queen Jane 'the Nine Days Queen': a pawn in the hands of others,.......2007-09-19
Alison Weir writes a wonderful novel about Lady Jane Grey.
While the novel is sympathetic to Jane Grey, it is not sentimental about her fate. As the pawn of ambitious parents and those who held power while Edward VI reigned, her uncrowned reign was both opportunistic and, I believe, unlawful.
This was not her doing, though, and it is hard to not to feel considerable sympathy for an intelligent young woman who was only 17 when she was beheaded.
Mary I really had no choice, but it is difficult to see that she took any great joy in executing her 'misguided' cousin. The 'real' villains are Lady Jane's parents and the Duke of Northumberland.
Highly recommended to those who would like some insight into the tragically short life of Lady Jane.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Unlucky Lady.......2007-09-19
"A beautiful daughter, my lady," announces the midwife uncertainly. "Healthy and vigorous." I should be joyful, thanking God for the safe arrival of a lusty child. Instead, my spirits plummet. All this-for nothing.
So begins the story of Lady Jane Grey. Historian and gifted author Alison Weir, in her first foray into the realm of fiction, has brought the world of Tudor England vividly alive in her version of the events that took place after the death of Henry VIII. Through first person narratives by Jane herself and a number of the other central characters, Jane's brief, tragic life unfolds. Known today as the Nine Days Queen, this maltreated girl was the innocent, unwilling pawn of her parents' political ambitions and victim of the vicious religious conflict that tore England apart during the 16th century. All the pageantry, plotting, and maneuvering of the royal court swirls around Jane as she grows, until the age of 15 when she is horrified to find that she has been declared Queen of England in place of the rightful heir, the Catholic (soon to be "Bloody") Mary. Vibrant characters, a plot that's hard to believe but true, and accurate period detail make this first novel an enthralling page-turner.
If Jane had been the hoped-for son , would her fate have been different? Would her brother's? Somehow, with the the Marquess and Marchioness of Dorset as parents, that's doubtful. The dearth of male heirs was a plague on the house of Tudor.
Weir should stick to nonfiction.......2007-09-13
Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Gray, is the story of Lady Jane Gray. Raised alternately by her overbearing and ambitious parents, who wanted her to marry King Edward VI, and by Katherine Parr and Thomas Seymour, she became Queen of England after her cousin's death, only to be executed nine days later. The narrative is told through the eyes of Jane, her mother, Katherine Parr (Henry VIII's sixth wife), John Dudley, and others.
I read her book on Mary, Queen of Scots and thought that that book was well done--great research and writing. But sadly, even though Innocent Traitor is well-researched, it felt as though I was reading nonfiction as told through a first-person narrator--it was simply a recitation of dry facts. I had a problem with the narrative being told in the present tense, and I also thought it was a good idea that the reader was reminded constantly of how old Jane was, otherwise I would have thought that the story was being told by an adult. For example, I found it hard to believe that a ten-year-old Jane would fully grasp the significance of the political and sexual intrigue of the time, her intelligence notwithstanding. Also, I was glad of the headings that told us who was talking, otherwise I would have thought that the story was all told by one and the same person.
I agree with the previous reviewer, who said that historical fiction of this caliber is best left to writers such as Philippa Gregory--at least Gregory brings her characters to life in ways that Weir wasn't able to in this novel.
Disappointed.......2007-09-07
Let me begin by saying that I love Alison Weir. I've read most of her non-fiction historial works and found them to be well-written, engrossing, and instructive. However, I think that in order to tell Lady Jane Grey's story, she should have stuck to her forte--dealing in facts.
It was a good idea to indicate which character was speaking at the beginning of their respective narratives, because there were no defining characteristics between each of the players. Each one had the same voice, the same level of self-awareness, and the same manner of speaking. Perhaps the novel would have been stronger if narrated by a third person.
Ms. Weir is a great historian, but the historical novels are best left to Philippa Gregory or Sharon Kay Penman.
Book Description
Evan Thomas takes us inside the naval war of 1941-1945 in the South Pacific in a way that blends the best of military and cultural history and riveting narrative drama. He follows four men throughout: Admiral William ("Bull") Halsey, the macho, gallant, racist American fleet commander; Admiral Takeo Kurita, the Japanese battleship commander charged with making what was, in essence, a suicidal fleet attack against the American invasion of the Philippines; Admiral Matome Ugaki, a self-styled samurai who was the commander of all kamikazes and himself the last kamikaze of the war; and Commander Ernest Evans, a Cherokee Indian and Annapolis graduate who led his destroyer on the last great charge in the last great naval battle in history.
Sea of Thunder climaxes with the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the biggest naval battle ever fought, over four bloody and harrowing days in October 1944. We see Halsey make an epic blunder just as he reaches for true glory; we see the Japanese navy literally sailing in circles, torn between the desire to die heroically and the exhausted, unacceptable realization that death is futile; we sail with Commander Evans and the men of the USS Johnston into the jaws of the Japanese fleet and exult and suffer with them as they torpedo a cruiser, bluff and confuse the enemy -- and then, their ship sunk, endure fifty horrific hours in shark-infested water.
Thomas, a journalist and historian, traveled to Japan, where he interviewed veterans of the Imperial Japanese Navy who survived the Battle of Leyte Gulf and friends and family of the two Japanese admirals. From new documents and interviews, he was able to piece together and answer mysteries about the Battle of Leyte Gulf that have puzzled historians for decades. He writes with a knowing feel for the clash of cultures.
Sea of Thunder is a taut, fast-paced, suspenseful narrative of the last great naval war, an important contribution to the history of the Second World War.
Customer Reviews:
No Bull..........2007-09-29
It's no wonder were in the mess we are, when myoptic vision clouds reason.
This was not a hit on Halsey..Duoh! This was a very good read. Maybe Ken burns took some info here?
I see a lot of whinners(on other forums) saying the Japanese never had a plan to sue for peace if they took Hawaii..(?)
Any way Good book.
Thanks, Mr Evans
Non-Fiction Thriller.......2007-09-12
A non-fiction historical work of serious scholarship that can compete with any thriller. An absolute page turner that's hard to put down. When Thomas finds the time to do this kind of research with his TV panelist and news magazine gigs is a mystery. He is an absolutely first rate writer and story teller, and Sea of Thunder is not to be missed.
Good Read, but............2007-08-06
I got this book on Friday and finished it Saturday night. A decent book over all but as other reviewers have stated I find the revisionist aspect a bit much. I think the 'slam' on Halsey tended to be over-kill. The author even goes as far as mentioning the two occasions where Halsey sailed into typhoons to further his knocks on Halsey. Interesting, but not in the scope of the book. The author does point out the reasons behind Halsey's choice to go after Ozawa but only in passing. I found the study of Japanese vs. American admirals a bit slanted in the Japanese admiral's favor. As far as the 'racist' aspect of Halsey's statements "Kill Japs, Kill Japs. Kill more Japs" & etc. We only need to look at quotes by other Admirals and Generals to understand the purpose behind these statements. I gave it three stars only because it was a page-turner, I think what kept me reading was to see if the author was going to go into a more in-depth study of the choices made by the admirals and why they made them. I was left with the impression that the Japanese admirals made the choices they made mostly because of the training received at Eta Jima and the choices made by American admirals were due to some personal flaw as in Halsey's 'need' to get the Japanese carriers at all costs. What I wasn't left with was the stunning victory by the Americans and how important it was in shortening the war. I am just starting to read 'The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors' by James D. Hornfischer so I can compare two different author's views on the Leyte Gulf naval battles.
CORRECTION to Thomas' text.......2007-07-27
Evan Thomas incorrectly states that Admrial Spruance's son married Admiral Halsey's daughter. In fact, Margaret Halsey married Preston Lea Spruance who was only distantly related to Admiral Spruance.
- Halsey Spruance, a decendant of Margaret Halsey and Preston Lea Spruance
A good story.......2007-07-11
I did not know as much about the battle before this book. Thomas gives an excellent perspective of all sides of the battle. I felt I was a bit oversold on the book and it did not live completely up to expectations which is why I only give it 4 out of 5.
Average customer rating:
- Let me try to say something nice about this book...
- Continuation lacks the luster of book one in the series
- enjoyable, but does not compare to TAGD
- Hijackers
- I never wanted it to end!
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Now Face to Face
Karleen Koen
Manufacturer: Random House
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Similar Items:
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ASIN: 0394569296
Release Date: 1996-01-13 |
Book Description
The beloved heroine from Koen's bestselling Through a Glass Darkly returns in a passionate, unforgettable, romantic tapestry. A widow at age 20, emotionally devastated and financially ruined by the death of her husband in scandalous circumstances, Barbara Devane leaves colonial Virginia for London to confront her enemies and to pursue a deeply satisfying yet dangerous clandestine love.
Customer Reviews:
Let me try to say something nice about this book..........2007-05-28
Karleen Koen's brief biography says that she was led to write Now, Face To Face and its prequel, Through a Glass Darkly through her interest in the period. I knew little about the Jacobite intrigues of the early 18th century. Ultimately, this is what drove me to finish the book, since even though these were historical events, I was ignorant of them, and I wanted to know how it all worked out. I am also drawn to big, meaty books, and at nearly 700 pages, this volume looked great for my week-long trip.
Koen's Protagonist, Barbara Montgeoffry, Countess Devane, is someone who I'm sure I couldn't stand if I met her. In the story, this would be written off as my jealousy of her physical perfection, mental superiority, high rank, excellent connections, and ability to charm any any man living. True enough, in real life such people are hard to take too. Barbara has suffered losses both personal and financial as the story opens, but luckily everything works out by the end of this lengthy story.
Karleen Koen is an author is more likely to tell rather than show, and this diminishes the effect of the events she portrays. For example, when Barbara finally gets together with Mr. Right, they have a little flirtation, he leaves her a flower, and then there's a fade until "three weeks later", when they are an established couple. What's the point of waiting 544 pages for this woman to find love after she's been wondering if it would ever come to her again and then not showing us the delightful early stages of love?
Readers who are knowledgeable about the 18th century and care about details might be frustrated by some of the anachronisms that creep in. I'm sure the historical facts are accurate, but the devil is in the details in a good historical novel (see Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series). Some of the daily details just don't ring true.
If you are a huge Barbara fan, you will probably love this book because it features the Georgian Barbie you loved in Through A Glass Darkly. Plot and character-wise, I didn't regret reading the first book, so don't let that put you off.
Continuation lacks the luster of book one in the series.......2007-05-23
In 'Through The Glass Darkly', Roger dies, leaving Barbara a widow and responsible for his enormous debt from the South Sea Bubble scandal. 'Now Face To Face' picks up where Barbara flees London and heads to her grandmother's plantation in Virginia. In the isolated wilds of the new world, Barbara learns to carve out a space for herself in spite of her nasty neighbor Bolling. She makes friends, winds out freeing her slaves, looses her personal slave Hyacinthe, and almost finds romance.
While Barbara is away, London bustles with activity. The Jacobites are the talk of the town, supporting the return of King James and the overthrowing of King George. Jane's husband Gussy finds himself knee deep in intrigues with newcomer and actor Laurence Slane, who's not who he really says he is. He's a gosling, one of James' most trusted informers. Barbara's grandmother, the Duchess of Tamworth, comes from the country to attend cousin Tony's wedding. Her mother Diana continues her liaison with Robert Walpole, the man responsible for Barbara's debt being unforgiven and a major force for King George.
The intrigue becomes, if this is possible, a little too thick, swarming over the storyline and drowning the characters in its overwhelming description. There's a lot of repetitiveness in the intrigues of James vs George and the who's who of the Jacobites. Tony went from simple to cunning, and it wasn't a good transition. No reason for it, nor any rhyme to it until later in the book when he'd already shown his feathers. It was as if a shade had drawn over his innocence in our absence and left a character that little resembled the Tony from the first book.
Also, if your expecting a little 'Gone With The Wind' action from Barbara in Virginia, you won't find it. Barbara went from a spirited, saucy personality to a rather droll and reflective one. Between books one and two, she lost much of the spunk that made her so charming. After the tightly woven 'Through A Glass Darkly', 'Now Face To Face' comes off as a thick (733 pages) "middle" book that basically goes nowhere. We're left hanging at the end waiting for the third book in the series.
Still, 'Now Face To Face' earns a solid 3.5 stars from me in spite of its obvious faults, because the characters are fleshed out, the times are interesting, and the prose is smoothly woven into a rich, though somewhat slow paced, tale. Faults and all, I still read it through in just a few sittings, finding myself absorbed in the tale. If you're a fan, purchase it, otherwise check it out from the library first. Enjoy!
enjoyable, but does not compare to TAGD.......2007-04-24
I read Now Face to Face after reading Through A Glass Darkly and Dark Angels. Of the three books, Now Face to Face is by far the weakest and least satisfying. The ending leaves room for another sequel, but as another reviewer noted, the material left by Koen may be too weak to continue. I was dissappointed at the author's portrayal of the "mature" Barbara. I loved her character in TAGD, but felt there was something missing here. Maybe it was the lack of Roger's spirit and passion, maybe it was the not entirely believable deep love for Slane that appeared out of nowhere, maybe it was the lack of spunk that Barbara showed in the other novel (and that the Duchess shows in Dark Angels) I was also deeply dissappointed in Tony's development. Why did he need to become an angry young man who, like the rest of Barbara's amours, ignored his wife and sense of self? The author should have chosen a different direction for his life to follow.
Hyacinth's story should have been fleshed out more, and I felt that many of the episodes and sub-stories could have had more drama in order to fill in some of the holes in the Jacobite/Hanoverian plot. And what happened with the smuggling issue, Diana, and Beth/Colonel Perry?
That being said, I did enjoy the book, and was overall pleased with the work Koen produced. However, I would recommend Dark Angels to a reader before Now Face to Face, and of course, I would recommend Through a Glass Darkly to ANYONE. So fantastic it should be in everyone's personal collection. (and for those who can't find a reasonably priced copy, I obtained mine right here through Amazon and it was under 20 bucks)
Hijackers .......2007-02-02
I liike Through the Glass Darkly and was looking forward to reading Now Face to Face, but obviously it is out of print. I am not so interested in reading it that I would pay the exhorbinant prices that are being charged for a used book. I understand the concept of supply and demand from my college economics class, but really, I would be ashamed and fear for my soul if I sold a used book at such prices and certainly can live without giving my hard earrned money to hijackers for a novel. Koen's Through the Glass Darkly was good, but irritating at some points, so I cannot fathom why people would actually purchase books at hijacked prices, which results in even more higher prices for everyone else. Retarded!
I never wanted it to end!.......2007-01-16
This was a wonderful follow up to Through a Glass Darkly. While it is not quite up the the perfection of TAGD, which I would have given 8 or 9 stars if I could, it's still pretty darn good. Although most of the story was wrapped up in the end, albeit too briefly there is more story to tell and I wish there was another sequel or two (PLEASE).
Most of the original characters return, Barbara, Hyacinthe, Theresa, Grandmama, Tony, Phillippe (ugh) and Diana -- plus some new ones. The first part takes Barbara to Virginia giving her time to work through her grief over Roger's death and the South Sea Bubble scandle.
The second part of the book brings a stronger Barbara back to London and to take it by storm once again, and she's caught up in the Jacobite rebellion. And throughout, we see Barbara mature and change, as we all do in real life. It was heartbreaking to see how Tony changed over his unrequited love for Barbara -- which can also happen in real life.
As in TAGD, you will laugh and cry, just as in real life, and gather a history lesson at the same time. Some reviewers complained because there was not a whole lot of romance, but this book should be classified as historical fiction, not historical romance.
Book Description
Ralph Nader is known for his lifetime of progressive activism and fearless critique of corruption in American politics and society. Yet in this fresh and inspiring new book, Nader takes a look backward–at a serene and enriching childhood spent in bucolic Winsted, Connecticut, and at the traditions he absorbed within his family. From listening to learning, from patriotism to argument, from work to simple enjoyment, Nader revisits seventeen traditions he learned from his parents, his siblings, and the people in his community, and draws from them inspiring lessons for today's society. Blending memoir and thoughtful inspiration, Nader offers readers a chance to look back on a time in American history when the family and the natural world were central in a child's understanding of how to be a conscientious adult.
Among the seventeen traditions he celebrates:
•The Tradition of Listening
•The Tradition of Charity
•The Tradition of Civics
•The Tradition of Work
•The Tradition of Patriotism
•The Tradition of Simple Enjoyment
In his warmest and most personal writing to date, Nader fondly describes his father's restaurant business and how it taught him about work, community and how to share in the spirits of others; the value of his mother's ethnic cooking and how it defined his relationship with his heritage, and the hours he spent as a child wondering through the undeveloped forests of Connecticut where he learned the value of solitude. In doing so, he reawakens our own memories of the blessings of a simpler time–and of the enduring values of family, community, and love that gave him the courage to lead a meaningful life.
Customer Reviews:
Nader's World.......2007-09-04
Before fast food, fast commuting, IM-ing and countless other electronic distractions, there was Nader's World. He grew up in a little town in northwest Connecticut, where traditions were passed down, people listened to each other, families not only ate dinner together but enjoyed one another's company afterward, the sidewalks were in greater use, hitchhiking was safe, and public service was honorable. This reflection by Ralph Nader explains the roots of his passions: independent thinking, involvement in civic affairs, and insistence on fairness and social justice. He was raised in a loving, nurturing family, where his parents taught by example and used proverbs and Socratic questioning to stimulate the intellectual curiosity of Nader and his siblings.
In contrast to his more cerebral writing, this book is quite readable. I read the whole thing in a couple of hours this Labor Day. Its format is inspirational - albeit with some Tuesday's-with-Morrie-like schmaltz along with Emersonian wisdom - touching emotional chords and revealing a side of Ralph Nader that political pundits often miss.
Ralph Nader's Bridge To A Past Not Dominated By Commerical Entertainment.......2007-08-24
The author of this book succeeds here on several levels. First, Ralph Nader explains himself well: who he is, and how he got to become who he is.
Second, the author explains how growing up in a low-media, high intensity household gave him lifelong advantages, insights, and commitments--things he might not have had he been enmeshed in movies, television shows, video games, rap music, etc.
Third, the author details the family traditions from Lebanese parents that were especially useful to him during his 45 years or so of national leadership of various causes.
Fourth, the author provides a warm evocation of a Christian Arabic family that can aid in improving understanding of Arab speaking people in and outside the United States.
The seventeen traditions that the author discovers in mining his family history are the traditions of listening, the family table, health, history, scarcity, sibling equality, education and argument, discipline, simple enjoyments, reciprocity, independent thinking, charity, work, business, patriotism, solitude and civics. These are traditions, he demonstrates, that his family lived, not just ideals that they mouthed.
Had this book been published the year before the 1992 Presidential election, when the author was toying with seeking the Democratic Presidential nomination, he could well have been a serious candidate for that nomination and changed both his political future and the direction of our country. Without pretentiousness, it shows him to be a man of depth, understanding and roots in small-town America.
The author sketches memorable portraits of his restaurant-owner and politically outspoken father; his wise, loving, and community active mother; his older brother, an attorney and community college founder; his sisters, Ph.Ds with enviable records of scholarship and academic leadership; his nephew, who has a doctorate and ecology, and two nieces, a lawyer and a Ph.D. in infectious diseases. The author certainly has a family committed to education and the welfare of us all.
Elements of the author's crusading zeal are submerged but very much present here. He refers to "these times of widespread conformity and self-censorship." Speaking of his hometwon of Winsted, Connecticut, he notes that "The air and the water became clearer after the factories closed, but the toxic soils and hollowed-out remained, economic tripwires to any new development in the area."
"Today," the author notes, "children everywhere are deprived of expsoure to nature in the same way (as only big city children used to be); they grow up with their eyes, ears, tastes and other senses trained on a corporate world of sensual visual reality--removed, as no generation in human history, from the daily flow and rhythm of history."
The book jacket notes that author was recently named by the Atlantic magazine as one of the 100 most influential figures in American history. This customer reviewer does not dispute that rating and hopes that the author will continue finding ways to speak out and positively influence the American social and political debate.
try not to finish it in one day.......2007-08-10
it is a brilliant book... book that "teaches you to think not to believe" Mr. Nader's life is full of wisdom so are his parents'. I usually don't write reviews but for this one, I could afford not to. you can't read this book and not relate it to something in your life... sometimes you feel that he is talking about you, your life and your family... it is great read...
Better days, renewed possibilities.......2007-07-21
Family and civic culture that is refreshing, basic, simple, important -- and largely disappeared. Family, community, and teaching by example and participation before greedy 'me' generation individualism when pleasure was being part of community and world beyond just yourself. It seems all too distant and foreign but should not be. This is a book to restore values, inspire young families, and shame an older generation that has lost its principles. You will get a chuckle or two such as the description of the author's mother and her confrontation with GW's grandfather. Get it, share it, circulate it widely. (It took ne less than a day to read.)
Above all, a Paean to Good Parenting.......2007-07-19
Love him or hate him, there's no denying Ralph Nader is a true believer, and is committed to realizing his version of how to make the world a better (mostly safer) place. 17 Traditions is the explanation why. Principles such as Patriotism, Independent Thinking, Charity, and Civics encapsulate the lessons that contributed to Nader's tremendous work-ethic and ability to think critically, instilled in him by a solid, civic-minded upbringing in a tightly knit family. 17 Traditions is an easy read, and Nader has a pleasant narrative voice, even when channeling Whitman or Thoreau (his descriptions of his childhood environment get a little too flowery in spots).
Nader was taught at an early age to respect his elders, to challenge authority when appropriate, and not to take tangible and intangible gifts for granted. In his words, he "had a lucky choice of parents," for whom his affection and love shines through on every page. Nader touts the virtues of a healthy family life, and recognizes that strong, dedicated parenting can solve an awful lot of society's ills, including overdependence on the government. I couldn't agree more. Some of the concepts are outdated, to be sure, and I wish Nader had suggested how to apply Happy Days-era mores and behaviors to today's society; nothing wrong with aspiring to traditional values, though. A brave stance from a progressive guy.
As convincing as he was while generally bemoaning the outsourcing of family services to the market, however, I was less sold on some of the specific lessons imparted to him by his parents. I found at times that Nader's reverence for his folks clouded his ability to critically parse their good advice from the bad.
Nader's mom came off as a killjoy for seizing every event in her kids' childhood as an opportunity for instruction; 17 Traditions is at its most preachy when recounting her tutoring. And while Nader's dad seemed like a smart man and model citizen, he had some cockamamie ideas that weren't necessarily worth recounting, like setting up a "retirement island" for former dictators, to force them out of power and into (an idyllic, cushy) exile; and advocating a national economy premised upon unlimited income but limited wealth (he favored levying exorbitant taxes on personal savings above one million, thinking that it would encourage charitable giving instead of massive accumulation). Lastly, Nader's father, a Lebanese immigrant, gently complains throughout the book about the United States, supposedly out of love (he claimed he spent his time trying to improve his country, and "worked hard to make it more lovable"). I found that odd, and thought that true love, for country or other, is evidenced by satisfaction with the status quo. Try telling your spouse the reason he should lose 20 pounds is because you love him so much.
I most agreed with Nader's traditions of Simple Enjoyment and Scarcity (i.e., frugality), and give the man credit for practicing what he preaches. He appears to be one of simple means who maintains a thrifty lifestyle and shuns wanton consumerism, enabling him to realize value in the simple things and to give charitably to others. Egregious consumerism and the corporations that contribute to the "gimme society" are the bases for a lot of the litigation Nader has engendered (especially in the field of product liability), which in my opinion was initially well-intentioned but has spiraled out of control. An overly litigious society is every bit as pernicious as a hyper-consumptive one.
Book Description
Foundations are a peculiarly American institution. They have been the dynamo of social change since their invention at the beginning of the last century. Yet they are cloaked in secrecy- their decision-making and operations are inscrutable to the point of obscurity-leaving them substantially unaccountable to anyone.
Joel Fleishman has been in and around foundations for almost half a century...running them, sitting on their boards, and seeking grants from them. And in this groundbreaking book he explains the history of foundations, tells the stories of the most successful foundation initiatives-and of those that have failed-and explains why it matters.
The baby boomer generation is going to participate in the largest transfer of wealth in history when it passes on its assets to its successor generation. The third sector is about to become more powerful than ever. This book shows how foundations can provide a vital spur to the engine of the American, and the world's, economy-if they are properly established and run.
Customer Reviews:
Examining a Big but Little Known Area.......2007-03-09
Foundations are a subset of Non-Profit organizations that have become surprisingly big busines in the United States. Somewhere around 1/7th of the business in the country is conducted by these organizations. Somewhere around 1/9th of the workforce is employed by one. They have become an integral part of the American economy.
In this book Mr. Fleishman looks at Foundations (a number of which he has been associated as employee, trustee or some other capacity). He examines what makes a foundation successful, and how some have failed. He offers insight and advice on how to make a foundation more successful, and at the same time how foundations should have an obligation to become more accountable since they received special tax considerations from the Government. He suggests that this accountability should be done by the foundations voluntarily. However, Mr. Fleishman is an attorney and believes that if voluntary response is not forthcoming then new legal requirements should be placed upon them to require more openness.
Deserves serious reading from people who want to make a difference........2007-02-06
Joel Fleishman's book lays an excellent bedrock of history underneath its discussion of philanthropy as a great element of American tradition. We live in days of some staggering examples - from Warren Buffet's living bequest of billions, to the fine work of Bill and Melinda Gates - and many others. But rather than see this as some product of the new millennium - Fleishman shows how the new avatars of corporate generosity are following a fine tradition. More than this, the author shows that certain gifting strategies have been leveraged for huge social benefit. For those who are thinking - at whatever scale - of giving to support a cause, this book sets out the strategies that have produced most benefit. This is an excellent, thoughtful piece of work on a topic that currently has wide currency. Well worth reading.
Book Description
Put imaginative, fresh ideas at your fingertips with this comprehensive collection of exceptional recipes from America's favorite brand name companies!
Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookbook: Collector's Edition makes serving magnificent meals a snap. Clipping recipes from food labels has become an American tradition and now you can collect all your favorites in this marvelous compilation¾without your scissors. Jam-packed with over 1600 kitchen-tested recipes, you'll discover innovative ways to prepare tempting appetizers, refreshing salads, savory soups, elegant entrees, homemade breads, decadent desserts and much more.
Special chapters feature ever-popular pasta, glorious brunch dished and family-pleasing pizza. With over 500 full-color photographs, you'll be inspired to create delectable dished for family and friends that are sure to win rave reviews!
Customer Reviews:
Easy, resturaunt quality food........2007-01-11
This book has a good variety of dishes to choose from. They are easy to prepare and most don't require a lot of preparation time. Every thing from the main dishes to the desserts are delicious. Even though every recipe has a name brand ingredient, store brands work just as well in their place.
great recipes........2006-12-14
I thought the above comment was absolutely ridiculous. What people want to know is if this is a good cookbook. I don't think anyone is interested in if brand names are going to be the future of culinary arts. Broken down: good recipes, use generic if you are opposed to "brand names." The recipes range from fast and tasty to complicated and savory. I love this cookbook.
Great recipes!!.......2006-09-22
I have owned this book for years now and have never made anything from it that was not yummy!! I usually ignore the actual brand names and just use the brand that I like or that I feel is the best quality. My mother and sister also own this book and they both love it, too.
Do you want your brands served up by the marketing department?.......2006-03-30
With all the new channels for distribution available and considering all of the innovations in communications (both message and medium) the stakes are not only increasing rapidly -they have been moved. My opinion, the future will very likely be populated by brands that are defined less by big marketing firms and more by real people. This book seems to be ignoring the future.
Average customer rating:
- The best of the best all in one volume
- Poorly Organized
- Great contents, but
- Finest compilation of the writings of the most brilliant minds over the centuries past ever
- Cost effective when you consider your options...
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Great Books of the Western World (Great books of the Western world)(60 Volumes)
Manufacturer: Encyclopedia Britannica, Incorporated
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0852295316 |
Book Description
Information... Knowledge... Understanding... Wisdom...
From the ancient classics to the masterpieces of the 20th century, the Great Books are all the introduction you`ll ever need to the ideas, stories and discoveries that have shaped modern civilization. This collection of 517 classics in 60 beautifully bound volumes is color-coded into four subject categories: literature, history, philosophy, and science. And since this edition includes works from 20th century authors, it`s the most up-to-date collection of the Great Books ever.
Product Details
Reading and understanding great works by history`s outstanding minds has always been considered the substance of a liberal education. The Great Books of the Western World has been acclaimed as the greatest publishing venture of the 20th Century. The set now consists of 60 volumes, with 517 works by 130 authors spanning 30 centuries, on a total of 37,000 pages containing 29 million words. Among the Great Books` 130 authors, 47 are writers of imaginative literature; 29 are masters of mathematics and/or the natural sciences; 28 are historians or social scientists, and 28 or more are philosophers and/or theologians. (This totals 132 because William James and Alfred North Whitehead have made contributions in both of the latter two subject categories).
Volume Details
Volumes 1 and 2 of this collection is the Syntopicon, a unique two-volume guide (not sold separately) that enables you to investigate a particular idea and compare what different authors have to say about it. The Syntopicon comprises a new kind of reference work -- accomplishing for ideas what the dictionary accomplishes for words and the encyclopaedia accomplishes for facts. Also included is the Great Conversation, featuring fascinating background information, extensive timelines, photos, and quotes from the classic works and their authors.
Special colors on the Great Books` spines guide you quickly to the four subject areas - GREEN: Novels, Short Stories, Plays, and Poetry
Volume 3 Homer
Volume 4 Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripedes, Aristophanes
Volume 12 Virgil
Volume 19 Dante, Chaucer
Volume 22 Rabelais
Volume 24 Shakespeare l
Volume 25 Shakespeare ll
Volume 27 Cervantes
Volume 29 Milton
Volume 31 Molière, Racine
Volume 34 Swift, Voltaire, Diderot
Volume 45 Goethe, Balzac
Volume 46 Austen, George Eliot
Volume 47 Dickens
Volume 48 Melville, Twain
Volume 51 Tolstoy
Volume 52 Dostoevsky, Ibsen
Volume 59 Henry James, Shaw, Conrad, Chekhov, Pirandello, Proust, Cather, Mann, Joyce
Volume 60 Woolf, Kafka, Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, O`Neill, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Brecht, Hemingway, Orwell, Beckett RED: Philosophy and Religion
Volume 6 Plato
Volume 7 Aristotle l
Volume 8 Aristotle ll
Volume 11 Lucretius, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Plotinus
Volume 16 Augustine
Volume 17 Aquinas l
Volume 18 Aquinas ll
Volume 20 Calvin
Volume 28 Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza
Volume 30 Pascal
Volume 33 Locke, Berkeley, Hume
Volume 39 Kant
Volume 43 Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche
Volume 55 William James, Bergson, Dewey, Whitehead, Russell, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Barth BLUE: History, Politics, Economics, and Ethics
Volume 5 Herodotus, Thucydides
Volume 13 Plutarch
Volume 14 Tacitus
Volume 21 Machiavelli, Hobbes
Volume 23 Erasmus, Montaigne
Volume 35 Montesquieu, Rousseau
Volume 36 Adam Smith
Volume 37 Gibbon l
Volume 38 Gibbon ll
Volume 40 J. S. Mill
Volume 41 Boswell
Volume 44 Tocqueville
Volume 50 Marx, Engels
Volume 57 Veblen, Tawney, Keyne
Customer Reviews:
The best of the best all in one volume.......2007-08-18
These books are worth their weight in Gold. You can find most, if not all, of these writings for free on the internet since there is no copyright anymore; however, if you are looking for physical books then this is the way to go. Very well made and if you go to the Britannica website you may a good deal or at least a payment plan for the hefty price.
Poorly Organized.......2007-08-15
I had heard of the Great Books Project some time ago but had never actually had a chance to see these translations until this past semester at my school library. They were located on the top floor right next to the bathroom so I sort stumbled into them by accident one night. After sifting through a few of these I can't say that I was anything other than supremely disapointed. It was a noble attempt on Adler's part but it just didn't pan out for a number of reasons.
I'm not one of these diversity crackpots and I personally think schools that use this collection (albeit losely) as a foundation for their curriculum (St. John's in Annapolis particularly) are vastly more rigorous, comprehensive, and rewarding than those of practically every other American University. Four years of science, three of mathematics, three of intensive Greek and French, weekly seminars in Western Literature and Philosophy. It's no wonder that this environment produces among the highest acceptance rates into top professional and graduate programs in the country.
However, as I mentioned before these schools use Adler's collection as more of a suggestion than anything else mostly because this hodgepodge of some 37,000 poorly translated and at times even obsolete pages of loseleaf paper couldn't possibly offer the coherence required of a college program.
To be fair though this was not Adler's intention with this collection. Still, one is left wondering what exactly Adler's intention was with all of this. One would assume that the intention was to get these books into as many homes and minds as possible. That's a great idea in principle but if folks aren't interest in reading these books individually what would lead you to believe that assembling them in one giant mass makes them more intriguing? Certainly he couldn't have done this to make the books more affordable ($1000+)...oh dear God, I believe he did.
I found the translations to be cumbersome, utterly oblivious to the language of the author's time and location, and unnecessarily small in size. Oh and the paper is of extremely low quality as well at least in the series I read out of.
These are all problems but what I find most unfortunate is the lack of coherence to the whole thing. First off, WHERE are the history books? Aside from the two big Greeks there are absolutely none to be found in the entire collection. Tens of thousands of pages with no history whatsoever to put any of into context for the young reader who I'll assume is the target audience of this collection.
Secondly, I support the attempt to expose the general public to the beauty of mathematics and especially science. But seriously, is there any point in adding something like Newton's Principia to this collection other than to show off? Really, what percentage of the population can make sense of a book like that? Cambridge prints short introductory texts to dozens of subjects in the sciences that are more relavent to that 99.99% of the population that doesn't have an advanced degree in Physics of Mathematics. Next.
Third, if you're selecting works based on influence then how do people like Kierkegaard, Marx and Nietzsche only get one of work apeice included whereas folks like Chaucer, Pascal and Ibsen get numerous selections? How can it be that Pascal has had more influence than a man whose philosophy spawned worldwide panic, violence and revolution for most of the 20th Century?
Finally, if you're going to try and produce a comprehensive collection of the Greatest the Western World has produced why not select each authors most notable contributions to that legacy. Nobody remembers Thomas Mann for "Death and Venice." Nobody remembers Joyce for "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man."
But then again I could be wrong. Regardless, I am still going to give this book 4 stars for fighting the good fight against relativism, multiculturalism and the general degeneration of the human race.
Great contents, but.......2006-09-01
Bid a new set from ebay and it arrived in two boxes. It has great contents, but:
1) The books are small in dimension, so print is small and not easy to read.
2) The paper is thin.
3) Need more pictures.
4) Some volumes are quite thin. It will be better either adding more contents, or combine volumes to make the whole set more manageable.
5) The set is listed at $1,195, which translates to about $20 per volume. Judging from the quality of the book, printing quality should be no more than $5 per volume. They should reduce price to make it more accessible.
Finest compilation of the writings of the most brilliant minds over the centuries past ever.......2006-08-17
These books were first published in 1952. Only 500 sets were published that year, a Private Library Collection it was called, and sold for $500.00 per set. My father was one of the original purchasers, and he passed them down to me when he died. (It's still even in its original custom made bookcase!)
This entire set contains the writings of the most brilliant minds over the centuries past, carefully compiled by the publishers, with a ten-year reading plan that will give the reader the most valuable of all gifts: knowledge. A must-read for any true scholar!
Cost effective
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