Television Books

I recently read John Passerella's first Buffy novel, Ghoul Trouble, and LOVED it. He captured the characters with such ease and approximately. And now, with Avatar, he does the same with the characters. Angel, Cordelia, Doyle, and even Kate are displayed respectfully and with the right characterization.

When a demon materializes in LA, needing to find 12 victims to complete a cycle in which the demon will be reunited with its true body, Angel and the crew are on top of it, along with the help of Detective Kate Lockley. The demon is using a man, who he promised the world to, to find his victims online in chatrooms. The demon appears to his victims as what they most desire. On a side note, Cordelia wants a website made for Angel Investigations, and that results in some humorous moments. Especially with the aide of a teenage computer geek.

Passarella really knows how to write a novel. It's absolutely expertise, and he knows exactly what he's writing about. He never makes the novel drag or become dull. There is one incident that makes the whole novel though. It plays out when Cordelia is chosen as bait to lure the demon in so Angel and Doyle can destroy it. We then see who each one of them desire. It's a very interesting and suspenseful moment in the novel.

John Passerella is now up there with Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder as one of the best Buffy and Angel novelists. I hope to see more coming from him in the future.

This was the fourth Angel book that I've read. So far, it's the first that really seemed to capture the characters and the spirit of the show. According to the blurb at the back, this is only Passarella's second novel (and his first solo attempt), but surprisingly it reads like it was written by a seasoned pro. The dialog is realistic (okay, Angel uses a few too many puns during the battle scenes for my taste, but a small flaw in an otherwise fantastic grasp of the character), the fight scenes intense and the plot well thought out. If you're an Angel fan who is unhappy with the quality of some of the tie-in books that you've read, here is one that is sure to please.

Loved it! Fans of the TV show will definitely enjoy this novel. At some points it kind of grossed me out, but I couldn't stop reading because I enjoyed at the same time. Highly recommend.

Elliot Grundy has made a deal with a demon. In return for everything he desires Elliot will help the demon to complete a ritual that will allow it to be reborn. Using Internet chatrooms, the pair are luring unsuspecting men and women into meeting with the demon, disguised as the victim’s ideal date. However, little does the demon know that an ancient cult seeks to posses and control it for their own purposes…

When Doyle’s visions lead Angel to the scene of a murder, he discovers that a man has been attacked by a demon that leaves behind nothing of the victim except for their skin. It soon emerges that this is not the first attack and that both men and women from all over L.A. are being targeted. The victims seem to have nothing in common, and the description of the attacker differs in every case. Angel has no idea who or what this demon may be.

“Avatar” was a fast-paced, enjoyable read. John Passarella manages to capture the characters exactly as they are in the TV show and ultimately produces an original, entertaining novel that maintains your interest throughout. There is no pause in the action and “Avatar” is one of the best of the Angel or Buffy books I have read so far. I recommend this book to all Angel fans.

There is a killer stalking the streets of Los Angeles, one sucks the essence from his victims leaving an empty husk. The only thing the victims have in common is the manner of their deaths and their link to the Internet. An Internet savvy demon is the last thing that Angel thought he would have to deal with - but you never say never in his line of work. As he tries to track the killer he is unaware that he is not the only one hunting the killer. A cult is on the trail too, but they plan to bind the demon. Now Angel is in the way - and they don't like that.

There are some authors for series like Angel and Buffy that make you feel like they are sitting inside their world. You get that feeling from John Passarella - it really feels like he has spent time with Buffy and Angel and really gotten inside their heads. The storyline of this novel is both gripping and seamless. It could have just as easily been an episode off the series. I agree with other reviewers here that Passarella compares really well to Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder and I can only hope that he writes more in the series.

I've never seen such a detailed description of the architecture of The Beatles' music and its performance. (Where else can one find charts on the guys' vocal ranges, for instance?) And all the discussion of their instruments. And all the songlists even from the very beginning of their partnership! I enjoyed this book thoroughly.

To be truthful, considering the amount of detailed musical analysis here, it's difficult for me to imagine the average fan who is not a professional musician being able to follow a great amount of Mr. Everett's discussion. For a musician, however, it's an invigorating exercise in thinking through song structures and harmonic patterns.

I've long been interested in some of the same questions Mr. Everett poses.

Many years ago, out of simple curiosity I put on A HARD DAY'S NIGHT and played through every number in turn, mapping out the various keys and structures; I found that the fourteen songs exhibited thirteen different song forms! This just five years after Buddy Holly!

Add to that that "the boys" experimented with unusual scales, modulations and meter changes and did about everything conceivable with the harmonic sequence, modifying it bit by bit in ever more adventurous ways until finally breaking free altogether. Given all this, it was obvious from the beginning that, whether or not the members of the group were capable of reading a score, they were consciously manipulating the materials of musical construction. Their work deserves this kind of scholarly attention.

Again, GREAT book and I especially appreciate all the attention the author gave to the very early repertoire.

Walter Everett subjects the music of The Beatles to the kind of theoretical examination usually reserved for classical music. This book, along with its companion volume, is serious-minded, intellectually rigorous, extremely well-conceived and yet, for the informed reader, not at all tedious. I know of no other instance where popular music has been subjected to this kind of analysis with such compelling results.

These volumes seem to implicitly ask whether The Beatles' music is actually good enough to withstand the rigor of intensive analytical scrutiny. As Professor Everett ably demonstrates, it truly is. His dissection of the famous medley on side two of "Abbey Road" (in the companion volume) is eye-poppingly brilliant. In all, both volumes are superb treatises, books that set a new and very high standard for scholarship in popular music. They are also a welcome addition to literature on the band that is still the standard by which all others are measured.

First, let me make it clear that I really like this book (and its companion volume.) It's pretty difficult to write anything about the Beatles anymore that hasn't been written about ad nauseum already, but both of these books contain a great deal of fresh and intelligent information and insight on the Beatles's music. That said, I have a feeling that a lot of folks looking for new Beatles literature just aren't going to particularly enjoy The Beatles As Musicians. I'm a musician, but at times as I was reading this material I felt as though I might as well have been reading Latin simply because Mr. Everett is often very technical and rather esoteric in his discussions. In some ways (and Mr. Everett admittedly touches on this issue) these books seem somehow to fly in the face of what makes rock music so great in the first place...emotion, borderline chaos, an underlying sense of danger and rebellion, limited musicianship that somehow leads to innovation, chance, improvisation, etc etc. Still, as I noted, I enjoyed these books a great deal even when I didn't have the slightest idea what the author was writing about. But if you're not a musician or you are one who is largely self-taught and as technically stupid as I am, I wonder how much you'll like The Beatles As Musicians. Regardless, in appreciation of the freshness and intelligence of his work, I have to give Mr. Everett's books both five stars.

Yes, this book is very dense and technical, I am not a musician and was a bit lost at times, however, the author structures the book in such a way that you can skim or skip what is over your head (a lot for me) and still get something out of this book.

For me, one of the most important and rare things about this book is the way the author does not fall into the John vs. Paul biases like so many others who have written on this topic. He gives both men the written ananlysis and technical break down of their work they deserve and does not short change Paul in favor of John. This is appreciated as I believe it gives the best description of how the songwriting evolved through the talents of both men.

He also gives the same critical analysis of George Harrison's songs, this is rare indeed.

For these reasons I highly recommend the book for serious Beatle fans.

I am already burning through the second book.

As I indiciated in my review of Everett's companion book, which traces the music of the Beatles from "Revolver" through "The Anthology," these books are the definitive works about the music of the Beatles. There are so many books about the Beatles' cultural iconic significance, their sociological and gender influence and a whole host of other irrelevant topics. What matters most is that the Beatles were timeless musicians who defined the music of the 20th century. Everett reviews their music as he would any great composer. If his perspective is too technical and professorial, you may want to consider Riley's "Tell Me Why," which is still my favorite book about the Beatles' music. It provides succinct and probing insights into their music. Everett's book is nevertheless excellent, and I highly recommend it.

It's an amazing book!!!!!! I'm a big fan of ER for many years. I live in Argentina and I had the possibility that know Chicago last June and I can view the original places that I saw on the TV Show, and I can learned more with this book!!!!!!
Very recomendable, friends!! (sorry for my English)

"Behind the Scenes at ER" was a fantastic insight into the brilliant TV series. A wealth of pictures of the show and biographies of the actors make this book one not to be missed!

ER is the best, my friend(Corey) and I (Bree) love ER, and every thing about it. We really like George Clooney even though he's (Corey) is a boy he also likes him. We even said that we should be doctors on ER so that instead of watching it every Thursday we could just be in it. We also think that anyone who doesn't like ER is crazy. The book was very enjoyalbe we nothing wrong with it. It was one of the best adult books a teenager could ever read. It's the best.

This book has some good photos and an interesting account on how Americas #1 TV show is made. I found it an interesting read and worth buying if you are an ER fan!

I love the hit TV drama "E.R.". I love the mix of humor, drama, suspense, action, and real-life information and procedures. My dad is an er attending physician and I have "shadowed" him in the er and loved every bit of it. I think that "E.R." is a true-to-life portrayal of what goes on in a real er. This book is a great source of information about the show "E.R." and the behind the scenes information is great, too. I would recomend this book to anyone that is an "E.R." fan like me and for anyone that bothered to read this review of a great book!

This book is very well written and beautiful to flip through. I recommend this book for yourself or a gift as well as Tanner Colby's more recent CHRIS FARLEY biography!

For writing this beautiful book. I've been a fan of Johns work pretty much as far back as i can remember. i was only 9 when John passed on so i never got to see him perform live or really enjoy his work when he was here on this earth. I found this book to be a true showing of what John was like and what a good man he really was and not always this train wreck like the press (and another certain author who shall remain nameless) perceived him to be. you can tell that he was loved by many and that his death had a profound affect on many and that his work will be loved for many more years. If you are a fan of John you need to read this book!

John Belushi, a man of laughs, a man who lived for an audience's
approval and cheers, John Belushi was an entirely respectable man and deserved to be remembered as a man of great worth among friends and colleagues, this book harrowingly displayed him as both, they did not write from a biased point of view, but rather from many perspectives, of friends and family. Every comedian should allow the utmost respect for such a spectacular man, John, may you rest in peace, knowing that all of your fans will remember you forever, we love you.

I was in the library a week before surgery looking for light fiction to tide me over a week of recuperation, when I saw "Belushi" sitting on a new non-fiction shelf and picked it up on a whim. I never got to the fiction.

Well-collected and organized first-person interview quotes, personal photographs, behind-the-scenes stories...this is a wonderful, yet cautionary, tale of the 1970's in America. I laughed out loud; tears came to my eyes. Thank you, authors.

Disclaimer: John Belushi was born in the same hospital (a few years later) as I was; one of his father's restaurants was two blocks from where I did some of my growing up; I was in Second City audiences while John was there; I've watched SNL faithfully since its first year; I saw even John's bad movies. Prejudiced I am-this is still an admirable, accurate, caring biography.

Most if not all of the facts of this book will not be new to John's fans. Especially those who have read the eight-or-so books already written about or by him and his friends and family.

And, title aside, it is not really a biography; it is an oral and pictorial history. But that is its strength. The voices of those friends & family come through, showing their love for the man.

But the interesting thing is, as awesome as some of the stories may be (especially to those who haven't read them before); the pictures do an even more excellent job.

Some of the photos were previously seen in SAMURAI WIDOW and WIRED, but most are never before published. And in them, you can see the buildup from Belushi's boyhood through the first three years of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. Then the explosion when that show, ANIMAL HOUSE, and the Blues Brothers record all hit at the same time.

And then the fallout. Visually, I think you can mark the moment when the road turned hard for John; it's in a full-page picture, on page 172, of him in costume for 1941.

It's in his eyes. Look at most of the photos that precede this one, and there is a light in them, something that's growing, some kind of spark.

And though it's probably too simple to say that Hollywood stunted that growth and killed that spark, it's also, probably, accurate.

Because in most of the post-1941 photos, that spark is gone, with only a brief resurgence in the pictures taken during the filming of CONTINENTAL DIVIDE.

This was apparently a happy (if not always fun) time for John, and the pictures reflect that. Unfortunately, more so than the movie, which is enjoyable but instantly forgettable.

The key picture here for me is on page 222. It shows Belushi wrapped in a blanket, sitting on some cabin steps in his stocking feet. He's just sitting, and staring, and thinking of god knows what, but the image has an apparent vulnerability that the photogenic John rarely showed in pictures. He was a man who always seems to have known where the camera was and how to keep its eye on him. Not here.

But CONTINENTAL DIVIDE flopped, and in the photos that follow, he mostly looks wasted. I don't mean that with the drug connotation, I mean that spark was being denied again.

A note at the end proclaims, "This book is not objective," and it isn't, so bully for them for admitting it. It's an attempt to bring a loved one back to life by talking about him.

My daughter loved and continues to love this book. I think because it has stickers she picks this book up to read on her own many times.

I bought these books at party favors for my 2-year-old's birthday party and they are a total hit with all of his friends. My only complaint is that it took the "in-stock" book almost a month to get all of the copies that I ordered.

As an Aunt to alot of preschool age children I know that every child would love to have this book read to them.

This book is one of our favorites!The pictures are taken from the show so it is familiar to your child. This happens to be my sons favorite episode of anything ever. This book is eduational & FUN!

My three year old nephew just got this book and loves it. He examines each page carefully and shouts "a clue! a clue!" whenever he sees the trademark blue paw print. He also informed me that he likes "that guy" meaning Steve, the genial young TV host. A cute book with lots of colorful stickers.

Excellent! We bought this book to take a tour of the blues through Missippi. We followed many of the suggested spots and even met some of the people mentioned in the book. Use it as the definitive tour guide to the blues.

Some of the directions could have been better, like Robert Johnson's grave site. It wasn't really clear how to get to downtown Greenwood, MS, but we eventually got there!
Lots of good information. Stumbled upon MS John Hurt's grave while trying to find Robert Johnsons, so that was a plus.
All blues lovers and enthusiasts should get this book before your journey. Lots of good information about the area, and details about the musicians you want to know more about!

This book is all you need to plan a trip to the true Delta blues spots. book is set up perfectly for a road trip and very honest and detailed. Top Notch!

If you are going south on a blues trip, you need this book. It is full of great info and directions to many, many graet sites of the blues. Highly recommended.

I highly recommend this book for anybody considering a Blues trip into the Delta. It is the best available resource on the market. Looking at its competitors, they all miss the mark due to either outdated, incomplete, or just plain incorrect information.

I have just completed a Delta blues trip and read the book after I returned. Having actually done such a trip provides a very authoritative vantage point from which to judge any such work.

Our trip was preceded by 6 months of online research into every aspect of the Delta and surrounding areas. Over 100 pages of information were accumulated prior to departure. The trip itself covered nearly a 1400 mile loop by car that began and ended in New Orleans. So many of the stops we made along the way ~ Jackson, Ms.; Greenwood, Ms.; Clarksdale, Ms.; Helena, Ark.; Memphis, Tenn.; all the historic gravesites; the prisons and the plantations were all covered in Steve's book. He certainly did his homework. (For goodness sake, he moved there as part of the overall immersion process, LOL!)

We met Steve in Helena while he was lecturing and playing at the `Blues on Main Street' exhibit opening at the Delta Cultural Center on Cherry St. He is proficient at both. It was there we bought the book that got carried home and subsequently read after the fact.

If you don't have 6 months to do your own research, just buy his book and read it in a week. He covers everything. Then take it with you and use it as a guide on the road.

(p.s. Plan your trip so it somehow involves the WC Handy awards in Memphis in late April, as well as the Beale Street Music Festival that follows that weekend).

This is a perfect training book. The way it is writen keeps my two year old interested. She even knows the song now. It doesn't recommend rewards or any odd words that you may not want to have your child use for pee and poo. It talks about wanting to be older and do what the big kids do...use the potty. Buy it, you will enjoy this book. Recommended for girls because of Miss Piggy...it's too bad that they didn't do one with Kermit.

this book is the best potty training book available to kids. i used this book 11 years ago when i was getting potty trained. and now the child next door that i help babysit is using the book. i loved this book. and so does Lauren (the child next door). every child should get the expierence of reading this book for potty training.

My child loves this book. I must read it to her six or seven times a day. She sings along to the song with a row row row your boat melody. When my girlfriend or myself are not reading this book to her she attempts to sing the song anyways. My daughter can relate to the troubles of not being able to have her diaper changed exactly when needed and the inconvenience of having it changed so frequently. We have a toilet for her and when the book says hello potty she goes over to it and waves. It is the cutest thing ever! Without this book I think we would be miles away from potty training my beautiful baby girl.

When my youngest sister turned 3, she wanted to learn how to use the potty. I got this book at our local library and it really helped her learn to use the potty and wear underpants. This is a great book to teach your child to go potty. Get this book at your local library or bookstore and teach your child what it feels like to use the potty.

my child is now proud of wearing diapers. the first line in the book is --Do you wear diapers?-- my kid laughs and says yes and pats his diaper. He doesn't relate to her dislike of diaper rash or having to sit in it when mommy doesn't have time to change it. Also this book talks about diaper pins and tape which is outdated even for cloth diaper users. So this book has had the opposite effect by no error of the writers; I didn't expect that reaction when i bought it! Really is probably a decent book for every other child in the world

This book is so unique, I would recommend it for anyone who loves the history of the stage or just unique perspectives and biographies.
Not only is the story engaging, but each page is tasty eye candy.
You will not be disappointed with Century Girl!

Loved everything about this book: the subject, the era, the layout, the photographs, the ephemera. This was an enjoyable read and I've purchased copies to give as gifts to friends that I know have an interest in this time period. My only caution is that the text is "handwritten" and sprawls across the pages. I found it charming, but others may find it difficult to read. All in all, a delightful glimpse into a life led in the glory of days long gone.

Wow, this book is fantastic! Lauren Redniss put a lot of highly detailed work into this charming publication about the last Ziegfeld girl alive. Doris Eaton is a spunky little lady who, at the age of 104 has graciously opened the pages of her life during the days she was a Ziegfeld girl. The book is beautifully illustrated and colorful with lots of photographs and clippings follwing Doris' career as well as her siblings. Ms. Redniss did a marvelous job. I can't rave about it enough.

You must buy this sweet book if you adore the Ziegfeld Folies, fashion illustration, collage, lush photos of flappers, and want to know more about the last of the living burlesque dancers Doris Eaton Travis. This wonderful book makes a fab gift for collectors of nostalgia and vintage frocks. Features pages and pages of handpainted/tinted photos and whimsical creative collage spreads of 1920's photos.

Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies is a new order of biography. Lauren Redniss uses hand-written text as an artistic element to guide the eye through the evocative images she has created using photo-collage and line drawings. The result is a visually stunning tour of the extraordinary life of Doris Eaton Travis

The book chronicles the life of Norman, Oklahoma, resident and University of Oklahoma graduate Doris Eaton Travis. The book follows Travis and her siblings, once known as the Eatons of Broadway, from their lives as child actors, to their success in theater and early films, and ultimately to their sad and often tragic fates.

Travis alone was able to leave show business behind. She had the strength to adapt herself when circumstances demanded; from dancer, to entrepreneur, to book-keeper on a horse ranch, to college graduate at 88 years old. She returned to the Broadway stage at the age of 94 and recieved an honorary doctorate at 100. Her's is a story of reinvention and ultimately of success.

Lauren Redniss teaches at the Parson's School in New York City. Her work is often seen on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times, which nominated her for the Pulitzer Prize. She is currently writing a biography of Marie Curie, due out in the fall.

This book is a work of art from cover to cover. Redniss knows her subject well and the story is told largely in Travis' own words. It is the author's unique, artistic approach that brings this fascinating story to life so vibrantly and with such immediacey.

In one section of the book, for example, Redniss discusses Travis' sister Mary Eaton's beauty, and the eagerness with which men gave her expensive gifts. The text takes the reader to photographs of Eaton in a seductive pose layered over images of Eaton's name in lights on the marquis of the New Amsterdam Theater. These images flow into a still photo from Eaton's starring role in Glorifying the American Girl. As we read of Eaton's beauty, we see coming off the page a Broadway star at the height of her fame and a woman who epitomizes beauty in the early twentieth century....and we understand why men were so easily parted from their money.

The artistic elements flow together seamlessly and carry the reader through this lovingly crafted biography. Redniss' incredible images allow the reader to experience the lives of Travis and her family in ways that text alone simply doesn't allow.

This book would appeal to anyone interested in dance or theater history. It has appeal to the general reader as well. Doris Eaton Travis is an extraordinary human being. Her ability to overcome tragedy, to reinvent herself, and to constantly strive to learn is an inspiration to all. Lauren Redniss' extaordinary book is the perfect vehicle to bring her inspiring story to life.

This was a lot of fun for getting down into the intricacies of some of the sketches. You catch things that make you laugh at the memory of watching them.

I've seen "Monty Python's Flying Circus" so many times that I can recite long stretches of it. But those guys are always using weird accents and manic deliveries ("My neeples explode with delight!"), and sometimes they're hard to understad.

Fortunately for those times, Python fans have "The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus: All the Words," a series from the second half of the classic comedy skit show. These are only trascripts (a bit lacking in details), but still enormous fun and full of delightfully quotable lines ("And now my lords, my ladies... your LUPINS!").

It opes with the weird "Conquistador Coffee" sketch, in which a boss berates his employee for changing the brand's name to Conquistador Instant Leprosy. ("The tingling fresh coffee that brings you exciting new cholera, mange, dropsy, the clap, hard pad, and athlete's foot." "It was a soft sell, sir.")

And then it contains plenty of others: the cheese shop with no cheese, films with giant teeth, spam spam spam, cannibal undertakers, Njorl's it's-not-that-terrible saga, the BBC's financial troubles, the Money Programme, the pantomime horse, hairdressers climbing Everest, the war against pornography, Gumbys, Dennis Moore, kamikaze highlanders, and the golden age of ballooning ("I am so excited I can hardly wash!").

The dialogue to each one is carefully outlined, with each character identified as being played by one of the guys (like "Interviewer (JOHN)"), although we usually don't get to hear much about Terry Gilliam's mad animations. Most of these episodes are one long continuing sketch that spills from one scenario to the next, but occasionally we'll have different ones patched together.

These guys had a rare, crazy talent -- these sketches are crammed with glorious dialogue ("Drop your panties, Sir William. I cannot wait till lunchtime") and bizarre insults ("you cloth-eared heap of anteater's catarrh"). Not much description of the action in places, although in a few we get plenty of detail when it's called for (such as the weirdness convention).

The problem is that this should only be read after you've seen the series. If you don't, it all seems like a befuddling string of of stream-of-consciousness comedy numbers, full of in-jokes and surreal twists. You have a better chance of finding Ilchester in a cheese shop than understanding this without seeing the skits first.

In case you couldn't understand what Eric Idle was bibbling in one episode, or John Cleese was screaming in another, "The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus: All the Words Volume 2" will tell you what is going on. No time to lose!

This item was purchased for my daughter and she absolutely loved it. It was received in good order and in a timely manner

The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus: All the Words, Volume 2 is the second half of a set containing the scripts of the entire series (45 episodes). This book, volume 2, contains scripts for episode 24: "How not to be seen" through episode 45: "Party Political Broadcast". This book is more fun than an endless supply of "lupins". Both volumes make great companions to the MPFC video/dvd collection ("There you go, can't be bad.") and also unlike the DVDs, there are no edits, these are the original words. So that horrible "m" word that Graham said in episode 31: "The All England Summarize Proust Competition" is in this book. Enjoy!

Yours etc., Brigadier Mainwaring Smith Smith Smith etc., Deceased etc.

FYI-This is the same as the review of Volume 1. There was no real sense in distinguishing the two.

As a fan of MPFC since it first aired on PBS in 1973, these two volumes sort of put a cap on a 30 year fascination with the team. Maybe like me, you've watched every Python-Marathon or taped every show, but having these scripts really is the icing on the cake.

What's striking to me is the simplicity of the scripts. When you watch the episodes, the gags seem so complicated. Then to see The Dead Parrot sketch reduced to just a few pages, you realize how brilliant those guys were in terms of compression, and in terms of acting. An added plus, for me at least, was to finally see the words and phrases that I never quite "got" because they were unique to British English. From there, I logged on to a few websites on British slang and, boy, I realized what MPFC got away with...some of it was pretty raunchy. Anyway, this is two-volume set is priceless for any fan.

This book is simply one few books that actually captures the war from the free side of Beirut. Unlike Robert Fisk's book, that is completely biased depiction of the war spinning everything on the anti-palestinian movement of the time, and to be more specific the christians of the free areas. This book shows what the Lebanese had to go through to maintain their survival in Lebanon and not leave it to be annexed by the Palestinians who somehow fought a battle in the wrong direction. Instead of fighting Israel they ended up fighting the Lebanese. Western reporters including fisk were obviously fooled by everything was going on. Fisk's book was accurate in depicting the details of the war, but was not accurate at all in depicting the political and nationalistic side of the war.

Barbara Newman reveals a whole new side of the war fought by the Lebanese. How they chose to fight each other at times instead of the real enemy. How Bachir Gemayel was betrayed by his own men, his own rabid dogs to be more specific. It is a great book that gives one of the greatest political leaders Lebanon was to see , a humanist side, one of the sides that few people knew, and certainly not the evil savage picture depicted by Al-Jazeer's account of the war, by Fisk and many western reporters who barely mingled with the Free Lebanese politicians.

A superb piece of work. Only someone with "inside" information could have written a book with so much details, showing unfortunately dirty (local, regional and international) politics. Politics that killed, probably what was known to be as one of the best places to live in. It is sad and ironic to see world powers leave such a country to disintegrate and die leaving it at the mercy of its meddling and envious neighbours.

A superb piece of work. Only someone with "inside" information could have written a book with so much details, showing unfortunately dirty (local, regional and international) politics. Politics that killed, probably what was known to be as one of the best places to live in. It is sad and ironic to see world powers leave such a country to disintegrate and die leaving it at the mercy of its meddling and envious neighbours.

Imagine that a foreigner to Lebanon knows more about it than the Lebanese themselves. It's a great history book, and one would have to read it to really know what was happening in Lebanon.

When I started reading this book, I thought it was just another fairy tale written by a reporter who was seeking fame and fortune. I was wrong. the events in this book are acurate, and the story in all is very intense. I congradulate miss Neman for her honesty and courage. I would love to meet and share some stories with her one day since I grew up in the Covenant's home town... No matter what was said about Shiek Basshir, and no matter what he had done, HE WAS TRULY THE ONLY HOPE LEBANON HAD..