History Books

I think what strikes me most about this book is the author's honesty. I suspect that there is more to this story (and certainly the woman behind it) and only hope there may be a revised edition some day. Many "versions" of the truth have been circulated in years' past by many authors.

Fabulous job, Mr. Boyer, on telling the story the way Josie would like her life with Wyatt remembered. If it weren't for your years of research and sincere dedication to this effort, the world may never have known that the Earp's were real people too. Thank you for your years of service to help preserve western history.

I enjoyed this book, very interesting for people who love the old west. Great Quality

I recently went to Tombstone, AZ. for the 1st time in my life even though I'm an AZ native. I loved it so much I have been 2 times in a month. I learned there about Wyatt Earp and Josephine and their love romance. It had me wanting to know more. I got the book and started reading and couldn't put it down. I loved hearing of all the adventures Josephine and Wyatt went on together through out their whole life together. What an amazing couple they were. I highly recommend reading this book. Lots of history and how the old times were.

The so-called controversy around this book has been discussed to exhaustion in my opinion. For those who cant seem to understand the how and why of this book, I offer this suggestion: Move on and let it go. There's no need for me to defend a book that needs no defense. For those seeking to learn some truths about Wyatt Earp and to view his life from the angle of someone close to him, this is an excellent source. Not only is the book informative, it is a good read. A great chance for the historically interested mind to find out more about the Earp's life, before, during, and after Tombstone. If you read this, don't miss out on the interesting notes in the back of the book. You may wish to go back and look at them at the end of the chapter later to avoid disrupting the flow of the story, or you may read them as you go. Either way, some interesting footnotes and commentary by the author, Glenn Boyer. I am awaiting one of his other books, "Tombstone Vendetta" and am looking forward to reading it. Highly recommended, a must for any student of Earp history. D. Lindley

I found this book very interesting, due to the fact that I have always been interested about the life and times of the Wild West. Reading this book has helped my research for a story that I am working on. Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp was a women before her time. I found her as a strong spirit, intelligent, and fascinating. Her recollections of her life and time with Wyatt Earp as her true soul mate that one can share and find in a life time.I imagine her life with out him was a great loss. Wyatt Earp was a true man of his time, who dodge bullets and live to see the turn of the century. And also very handsome.

One should read this book only after the first volume covering the years 1933-41. The story of Victor & Eva's survival of detention in the Jews' house, the Dresden bombing and subsequent wanderings stunned me. But Victor's courage in continuing his secret diary for 12 years comes through - as does his humanity ad personal growth.

The diary jotting sryle means you pick it up and read a section at a time, but you will most likely be drawn into finishing it within a short time.

And I will get the other years of this author's diary. This is not a fast paced WWII battle book; this is the diary of a poor soul who had to live through every moment of a terrible regime, to endure even more when he thought he'd reached his limit. If you're interested in what it was like to live day to day in Hitler's Germany (as a Jew or a gentile)--to understand what it was like to watch it begin and grow and eventually implode--this is an excellent read. I would say it is for those deeply interested in the psychology of the times; not a passing interest. I'll get the other books and read them in order of the years they cover. I really want to understand how the Third Reich could ever BE.

This is actually the second volume of Klemperer's diaries, published in two volumes. I highly recommend that you buy both volumes as a set and read from the beginning how a bureaucratic mindset advanced towards ultimate evil.

In the end, Klemperer's diary doesn't fully answer the haunting question, "How could it have happened?" But you will find some definitive answers here to questions that Holocaust scholars have debated over the years.

For example, Klemperer's experience answers the charge that virtually all Aryan Germans knew from the beginning exactly what the Third Reich's intentions were towards the Jews. Klemperer's actual interactions stand as refutation of this blanket indictment. Often when he visited Aryan acquaintances to conduct business - he would then jovially be invited to come back that evening for schnapps. Klemperer had to explain that he couldn't come back later for schnapps - that as a Jew, he was prohibited from boarding any vehicle of public transportation after 6:00 PM, that he had a general curfew, and that of course, he had long since been banned from owning his own car.

Klemperer was always circumspect in recounting these laws he labored under to his "Semitophile" acquaintances. (That's an awkward translation of the German phrase Klemperer probably used to refer to Aryans who were sympathetic to Jews. But it is perhaps the only word that was available to Martin Chalmers, who otherwise has produced a generally fluid translation of Klemperer's journals.) At any rate, Klemperer was careful never to appear too whining or too critical of the restrictions placed on him. He didn't want to alienate these Aryan allies. Nevertheless, he repeatedly found himself in the position of having to enlighten them about the government's latest round of restrictions. And his listeners were almost always genuinely surprised to hear about these laws. Their ignorance in the face of all the anti-Semitic propaganda blared daily from radios, blazoned from the newspapers, seemed to be more a function of people's tendency towards plodding self-preoccupation than an indication of any active complicity with the advancing evil.

I think you'll find that Klemperer's account also carries a very relevant warning to us in our current pursuit of terrorists at all costs. Klemperer survived the early rounds of call-ups for the concentration camps because he was a decorated World War I hero, and because he was married to an Aryan. For these reasons, he was given some initial grudging dispensation from the worst Nazi reprisals. However as the War progressed, his past service to Germany and his Aryan affiliation came to count for less and less. Finally his number was up and he, along with the last handful of Jews remaining around Dresden, were scheduled for transport. The only thing that saved him was the Allied bombing of Dresden. Most local Nazi records were destroyed in this notorious bombardment. So Klemperer and his wife, having survived the bombing, were also able to survive those last most brutal months of the Nazi regime by assuming new identities and wandering through the German countryside from town to town, passing themselves off as a typical displaced Aryan couple. If the Nazis' meticulous records (documenting family lineages and confirming who was where) had remained intact, Klemperer would certainly have been deported to the gas chambers.

So if you don't already have doubts about the increasing surveillance measures being taken in the U.S., presumably to guard against terrorists and other "evildoers" - reading these journals will give you pause. One of the lessons of Klemperer's journal is how tyranny proceeds by little increments of paperwork. Its power is in keeping tabs.

Klemperer risked his life to write the entries in these journals, because it eventually became a capital crime for a Jew to possess paper or any pen/pencil. So it feels almost sacrilegious to make any criticism of this supremely brave and literate account. However I do have one small criticism. And that is Klemperer's common masculine tendency to put his wife in the background of his life. Eva Klemperer comes off in the diary as a shadowy adjunct to the importance of Victor's work producing these pages.

She is mentioned, more frequently in the first volume of the diaries, but this mention is usually limited to reports of the fact that she had another hysterical fit that day, or that she engaged Victor in another round of angry lamentation, or that she suffered some physical malady. He does acknowledge her collaborative bravery. She also risked her life every time she smuggled the pages of his work out of their small assigned apartment into the hands of friends for safekeeping. But we never directly hear Eva's voice in all this. The reader is only left to guess at the actual substance of her outbursts.

You will probably feel impelled to read between the lines to flesh her out. Perhaps Eva wasn't the prettiest girl in school, so she took the one marriage proposal that came her way. She married the intellectually accomplished Victor. Victor was available because Aryan prejudice, even in those early years, already limited him socially. We can imagine her outbursts of recrimination as the Nazi noose grew tighter around their yoked necks. Why did you have to be Jewish? Why have you dragged me down with you? I could have led such a happy life. And instead, look at me - scrounging for rotten potatoes, under constant threat of beatings and death - and all because of you!

If only Eva had written her own diary, we might have had some additional fascinating insights into why and how a couple stays together under such trying circumstances. We might have gained a greater understanding of the ties of love and the chains of having nowhere else to go. As it is, we have only Victor's side of the story. But that is a powerful, must-read insight into how tyranny grows, brick-by-brick, petty edict by petty edict.

Victor Klemperer's diary of the years of the Hitler dictatorship and his recording of the day-to-day lives of the Jews of Dresden, his thoughtful and insightful commentary on the methods (particularly the language of the propaganda) of the Third Reich, the heart-wrenching stories of those who were taken away never to be seen again, his experience in the firebombing of Dresden in 1945 and his miraculous journey home should be required reading for everyone about the horrors of tyranny and war. It is also a tribute to the true human spirit and the power of the intellect. Klemperer never lost his determination to live, despite all the blows of terror that were aimed at him, his family, and his friends. That he believed there was something to live for--in the midst of utter barbarity--should inspire all of us to work for a better world. It did me.

A remarkable record of a dark time. Reading it gives one the courage to carry on in the dark times that have come again.

Because my friends all know what a book-hound I am, people often ask me what my all-time favorite book is. Admittedly the answer to this would change over time, but, at present, "I Will Bear Witness" is the one that first pops into my mind.

I found this very personal account of the days and nights of a German Jewish man--an inoffensive and formerly rather conservative German nationalist academic married to a Gentile--during the Nazi terror regime to be absolutely breathtaking. Indeed, I was so caught up in his account that I took an unexpected day of vacation from work just to not interrupt my reading once I had started.

Further, I found myself sprawled on my bed, as is sometimes customary with me, surrounded by ancillary books, atlases, and maps --a behavior that signifies I'm reading a book that has utterly gripped me and a book that is expanding my horizons.

Klemperer was (just barely) saved from being sent to a concentration camp due to his marriage to a non-Jew. However, he lived every day under the threat of torture and deportation to a camp and his journal tells of the years of grinding anxiety over his fate and the fate of his wife, friends, and relatives-many of whom were taken. It also speaks to the minutiae of life under the Nazi's--such things as their penchant for legalisms to justify their treatment of the Jews embodied in his incessant embroilment in Nazi demands that he take part in the legalisms of their confiscation of his property. Moreover, as the war draws to a close, he draws a stunning portrait of life as a war refugee--a picture that applies to war refugees the world over throughout time.

Kudos to those who elevated this book to number one among the history choices-it deserves it and in my mind deserves even more.

If I had to pick my favorite biography of all time, this would be it. It has of course as it's subject one of the most fasinating figures of all time. Although Winston is known primarally for his stand aganist Hitler, Manchester's book makes us realize that even if World War 2 had never occured he would still have expericenced one the most action filled and important lives of the twentith century. And Manchester has a real gift for making the past come alive. His masterful use of telling detals gives an almost tactial sense of what life must have been like in the Victorian and Edwarian ages. And there's another reason why the book is special. One of the themes is how often Churchill was mistunderstood and deried for his actions. He was widely blammed for the Gallilopi affare, for example, but the book makes clear that he had little to do with that misadventure. And there were many other episodes where he was villified and unfairly pillored. And I think that is someting we can all understand and identify with. Doesn't everyone at time feel thaat our actions,indeed our very selves are not understood by others? Winston suffered through this many times in his life, yet he remained true to him, his values, and his vision. Reading this book can give you courage.

The wonder of the Internet. I googled the New York Times Book Review of the Last Lion, Winston Spencer Churchill Visions of Glory written by William Manchester. What I read of this review dated May 25, 1983 rather stunned me. Ms. Michiko Kakutani wrote a very critical and to my way of thinking pedestrian review. I am currently a subscriber to this paper and read the New York Times Book Review faithfully every week. Good thing I was in Cleveland at this time and never read this review.
I read this book back in 2003 with only a cursory knowledge of Winston Churchill. I learned many things which included a rather hard childhood in a privileged family of aristocracy. Randolph Churchill married Jenny Jerome of America in 1874. Winston Spencer Leonard Churchill was born on November 30, 1874. God help us all!
William Manchester writes a splendid review of the life and times of Winston Churchill. His due diligence as to the historical narrative is indeed grand. The letters of Churchill to his parents when he matriculated at Harrow are priceless.
Manchester describes all from Churchill's years at Sandhurst to his excursions to the U.S.A. and Canada. From his service in the Calvary in Africa, India and onto the Boer War, Winston was indeed there on the ground.
His consistent promotion by his mother after his father's death is fully described. Also detailed is a life in upper class Victorian England. Ms. Kakutani thought that Manchester really had no concept of English life during this time frame. Oh really?!! Just what makes a 28 year old Japanese American journalist an expert on Victorian England? I found Manchester's descriptions and historical narrative of this time frame in Winston's life informative and entertaining. Martin Gilbert's narrative was informative and true but it lacked the style of Manchester's writing.
Manchester covers Winston's entry into the House of Commons and the offices he held in high government before during and after World I. This book represents Winston's first 58 years of life. Manchester has written a classic. Unfortunately he will not complete the full life of Mr. Churchill. His second book will cover his Wilderness Years through to the start of the Second World War. He never could finish the third book. I find Manchester's biography more interesting and informative than Martin Gilbert's "Churchill a Life". So Ms. Michiko Kakutani what do you think about them apples?

Manchester is one of those writers who appears unable to disappoint. This is a book to be read and savored. For years, it sat on my shelf - I saw as a large undertaking that I wanted to do right.

The book has a very interesting structure. First, it begins with a kind of interpretive introduction to the man, vividly characterizing him while also evaluating his strengths as a man of history and his glaring weaknesses. You see him, worts and all, and it is both funny and enlightening. The psychological depth is virtually unprecedented in any other bio I have read. Second, you get a view both into his milieu - as an aristocrat of talent and privilege in Victorian Britain - and a biography of both of his parents. This is crucially important, as we come to see Churchill as an anachronism, but also as a boy neglected by narcissistic parents. (Interestingly, the absence of one or both parents is a common trait in extraordinary achievers.) Third, you get his life story, more from the events he was involved in than as an intimate portrait, though much of his personal life is covered. Indeed, he used action as the most effective tonic against depression.

The man that emerges is flawed and complex, but evidently a political genius. In my view, the key to his character is that he remained a Victorian gentleman, who viewed martial valor as the greatest source of meaning and glory in life. This suited him to titanic struggles, such as the one he faced with Hitler that places him in the ranks of the greatest historical figures. As an egotist, he always wanted to place himself at the center of events and yet did so with courage and tenacity in spite of his physical weaknesses. When out of power, he exercised other gifts, such as writing, with equal talent and energy.

Nonetheless, Manchester proves that Churchill was not a politician deeply in touch with his constituency: he never developed a typical base of power and often his views did not synch with the mainstream. Without Hitler, his hour might never have arrived: this duality is a theme that runs through the entire book.

If there is any flaw here, it is that Manchester includes a plethora of detail, not only about world events but in Churchill's political maneuverings. Normally, I delight in these details, if I know there is a purpose to all of it, which I did not always sense in this book. (Here a comparison with Robert Caro is instructive: you always know where he is going and why.) Others may see it differently, of course. Also, many of the historical details I already knew, so did not need Manchester's wordy introductions, but they were useful in the many cases of which I was ignorant.

All in all, this is one of the most engrossing and fascinating bios I have ever read. Warmly recommended.

well this is the first book i read on winston churchill . bought it in 1983 . the foreword is unforgettable but historical mistakes in it makes this work not the very best on the luife of sir winston. great prose nevetheless.same can be said of book number two.

This is a truly *massive* work, equal parts scholarship and artistry. Though volume one runs close to a thousand pages (counting notes, sources, etc.), I finished reading it this afternoon after an off-and-on reading of about two weeks, and it just flew by. Manchester crafted this with such precision care that I fell into the narrative from page one.

The greatest strength of the book itself-- aside from it's subject-- is Manchester's gift of narrative. WC was the quintessential Victorian, as Manchester points out time and again throughout both volumes. It is only appropriate, then, that the author should give some feel of what it was like to live in the British Empire at the time of Queen Victoria. Some of the very best passages, in my opinion, deal with life during the last quarter-century of Victoria's reign. These are not mere digressions. These fascinating glimpses into WC's era help the reader to better understand Churchill himself, who was born a Victorian and remained one to his dying day.

Manchester provides insight into British colonial administration, life in the British Raj at the end of the 19th century, and the upper class's attitudes toward sexuality and marriage. While this is fascinating in itself, Manchester goes even further and weaves a vivid tapestry of politics, history, and culture through his use of personal correspondence. It is his exhaustive use of personal correspondence-- between WC and his parents, WC and his wife and children, WC and Members of Parliament, and between all sorts of people talking about Churchill and the events in which he was caught up--- that this gives Manchester's work the feeling, not of history or even biography, but of a life too large to have been lived by one man.

i purchased two of these...one for my brother and one for myself. it is incredible to study the patterns inside to see what a real designer is made of. no need for embellishments and fluff...it's all in the cut and shows a true genius at work. probably claire mc cardell is one of the other masters of manipulating fabric this way and sadly she is also all but forgotten. wish there were other books that had patterns and sewing instructions like the vionnet...there would be no way to figure out the construction. i am an ex bra designer and realize the difficulty of these designs and will construct one of these in the future.

Es lo mejor que he tenido , el libro de un diseñador donde estan patrones, diseños y fotos...que mas se puede pedir!
Ojala se hicieran mas libros como este .
España,profesion: patronista

This is an outstanding book on a revolutionary designer. Wonderful photos, and "patterns" from the clothing. the only problem is Kirke never bothers to tell you what the scale is, so making these patterns is almost impossible. Her directions for making the patterns are laughable. The patterns are white lines on black. Why include patterns if you aren't going to put them in a usable form? There are people out there who can and have made clothing from this book. You will have to be very smart and well trained to do so. that said it is still one of the best books on a fashion designer I have seen.

Maybe Kirke will redesign the book with the pattern section properly done. Then the book would be worth more then $100.

This book is even better than I hoped. The photographs are stellar and for some designs - a bird's eye view of the pattern peices are included. Try to wrap your head around those non-conventional cutting techniques! I bought this for myself but this would be an excellent gift for someone interested in Fashion History, Fashion Design, Fine / Decorative Arts, etc. Super-Gorgeous book!

A great book on Vionnet's work and life. It has a lot of sewing patterns with instuctions from the WWI era to late 1930's; the patterns include day and evening dresses and frocks, capes and coats, slips and pajamas. Plus there a lot more pictures of Vionnet's clothing. The perfect gift for a fashion student. It is a pity that you do not hear so much about her.

I preordered this book with great expectations. No disappointment, it is one to savor over several days. Full of beautiful inspiration, it is the best of the art quilt books of 2008. I am an art quilter myself and don't take the time to write reviews often.

Masters: Art Quilts from Lark Books is a sumptuous visual feast for quilters and non-quilters alike. The gorgeous work featured is innovative and inspiring, and the profiles of each of the 40 featured quilters adds enormous depth to the entire presentation. This beautiful coffee-table release deserves a place of honor in your living room. Don't miss out! I'm also very excited about another release in Lark's groundbreaking Masters series: Masters: Beadweaving Masters: Beadweaving: Major Works by Leading Artists (The Masters), curated by eminent beadweaver Carol Wilcox Wells.

This book is full of inspiration for the adventurous quilter. The photographs are really great.

As reviewed in Melisse Laing's "Stitches & Stuff" column in The Daily News, Longview, WA on August 26, 2008:
"Masters: Art Quilts" by Martha Sielman is a collection of the works of 41 artists who are working today as art quilters. Many are well known - Jane Sassaman, Hollis Chatelain, Yvonne Porcella, Caryl Bryer Fallert, to name a few.
Others you will enjoy getting to know as you read brief biographies and comments from the artists and see color photographs of their works.

This book is one of the best I have seen on contemporary quilt making. Martha Sielman chose the creme de la creme of the quilting world to include in the book- an arduous and difficult task I think! This is a book that you will look at again & again and always find something new. Fabulous! Well done! A must have for any contemporary quilter's library. Also, I think, a "must have" for libraries....come to think of it !

I read a lot about the Michael Jackson case and most of the time, everything written about it is superficial and redundant: reporters repeating the same lines over and over without thiking about it. I was pretty convinced about Michael's guilt. With the information broadcasted by the media, all pointed out to that conclusion. I was naive to think that we were well informed. This book, to my surprise, brings up new facts that were brought in the trial, facts that, you would think, everybody should know. As I read the lines, I just couldn't believe it! How come nobody mentionned it? To prevent from revealing interesting details from the book, I won't divulge it here, but I can say that now: Michael Jackson won that trial because facts proved his innocence.

I must say, that before I bought this book I was a little apprehensive. A media person commenting on the case. I figured it would just be another book bashing MJ. Much to my surprise the book gave a non-biased point of view of the actual occurances inside that courtroom. I have watched and read the cases in many criminal trials. NEVER have I seen the media, law enforcement, the D.A., and such an immoral, resprehensible group of people (the Arvizos), go to such lengths to destroy another person all for the sake of money.
What was done to Michael Jackson I would never wish on my worst enemy. I was so sad and so angry at the lies that were being told. At how this family tricked their way into his home, how they ransacked his home, and how they grifted money from several celebrities. What hurt me the most was that his mother had to sit through every vile detail that was made about his personal life and alleged relationship with the Arvizo boy. After reading this book, you will understand why the jury found MJ NOT GUILTY on all criminal and misdemeanor charges.
I must commend Aphrodite Jones for having the courage to write this book. Everyone in the media shunned her and refused to publish it. They only wanted to hear the negative. They didn't care about the real facts. Remember Ms. Jones is one of those media people who was "out to get Michael Jackson" also. But after sitting through the trial, and listening to the testimony she had a change of heart. What you saw on CourtTV was a biased, slanted point of view. After reading this book, I believe many people will change their negative opinions of Michael Jackson.

Wonderful. That's the only word I can use to describe this book. If you want to know why it's wonderful, BUY IT!!! It's definitely worth the money!!

And one last thing... MICHAEL JACKSON IS 100% INNOCENT!

I trust this author. She went into the court room a full fledged believer in the accusations and left dumb found. A few years later wrote this book.
Mr. Jackson is an easy target for indictments. He wears more make-up than the Avon lady and he dresses like Captain Crunch. He is not your average "Joe".
I don't know for sure that he didn't do these terrible things. Nobody does really except for him-- and of course the accusers.
What I do know, is he has been very loving to those who know him well and to those who don't, and enormously generous giving over 300 million dollars to charities around the world.
Lets face it your gonna believe what you wanna believe. But if you are really in search of the truth behind all the speculations and sensationalisms that have surrounded this famous case pick this up. My heart broke for him, and yours will too.

A book to own for an MJ fan, it is full of anecdotes and it tells the truth with reliable sources: the woman who attended the trial herself!! It's a mine of information, really worth your money.

This book is a real labor of love. Dr. Dusleag tells the story of his grandfather and the persecution he endured. Dr. Stroia overcame his horrible experiences and left a legacy behind in the journal that he kept, at great risk to his physical well being and that of his family. His grandson followed in his footsteps by visiting the sites mentioned in the journal, taking pictures and documenting his research. He used the journal as well as his memories of his grandfather to inspire his own life. This is a very good book indeed and I highly recommend it to anyone, but particularly to those with an interest in history.

Stanciu Stroia's memoirs are very important to all of us, because they help us understand what went on in Romania and throughout Eastern Europe before 1945, and what followed the fall of Communism in 1989. The book's web site [...] in itself is a valuable document.

I've read several books by political prisoners of the Romanian regime. This one does not discuss as much the details of the physical horrors of the prisons. The concept of a person being visited by the securitate late at night, put into prison for years, and familial contacts severed, is horrible enough. This story is told by a doctor, who by very nature is compassionate and sworn by oath to heal others. Dr. Stroia lived by that oath. In the book he mentions a prison doctor who "prescribed" that his patient throw himself onto the barbed wire as a cure for depression. The patient followed his doctor's orders and was shot. Dr. Stroia's humanity not only remained intact, but it grew. His "second university" tore a giant chasm in his life, but his inner strength carried him through.

This story is extremely important today, helping us to understand more about what happened in Eastern Europe and why there is still much of a struggle there since 1989. I think in the US we have tended to think "Oh good! Communism has toppled and everything will be just fine." The scars of a monstrous regime run deep and don't go away easily. We also must look at ourselves to make sure that we don't create a system that is not accountable to the people it governs. This exceptional story shows us that pride, integrity, and compassion are necessary to carry us through evil times and leave us intact on the other side. I highly recommend this very readable addition to the literature on Romania's modern history.

The book was exceptional in its treatment of how life in a Romanian communist prison must have felt on a personal level. It seemed as if Dr. Stroia was speaking directly to me (and all readers) personally through his grandson, telling me something about what that life was like for these prisoners. I cannot even imagine, however, what life must have been like for him as each of the things he did mention must have been repeated so many more times than he recalled, over and over again, day in and day out, for seven long years!

Without dwelling on the cruelty of the prison guards, he managed to give me enough of an idea to read between the lines of the events he chose to include in his journal (and in the book). I am not ashamed to admit that I cried at times while reading his story ... especially whenever he got his hopes up, only to be shattered by his oppressors ... or to hear how little they cared about his health. Imagine a doctor, knowing what was happening internally, and being unable to do anything to stop his slow deterioration through continued scurvy and hypertension.

His was a gentle, quiet condemnation of what some human beings are willing to force another human to endure ... and also a loud voice proclaiming the human spirit of this man to endure and overcome an adversity that was forced upon him without justification! He and others like him are the true heroes ... in every sense of the word! I can only wish I had known Dr. Stroia in real life ... he'd have so many things to teach me, I'm sure, about living.

A wonderful book and one that I'd recommend to anyone!

I have read My Second University, which told the story of a man with strength of character that all of us should strive to achieve. As a doctor he was taught "to do no harm". Whether he was born with that humane instinct or acquired it after medical training is not important. What is important is how noble a man can remain after a period of harsh confinement. His life is a testament to our best possible behavior that few of us live up to. Not only did he defeat his enemies in his life time, he also left a legacy for his grandson to emulate. What more could a grandfather do for his grandson? From a man whose life has been enriched by reading about a human being of regal character,
Joe Garcia, Lakewood, Ohio.

The reason I selected this title for my review is that is was VERY early in the morning before I put down this book. It is one of those rare books that you wish just went on and on because almost each page has a fresh revelation about the subject covered.

I do have a couple of problems with it though. One is that Mr. Dobbs seems to have a limited knowledge of aircraft and ships. For instance, airplanes don't have "steering columns" and ship speeds are not noted in "knots per hour."

Otherwise, this is a wonderful book, and a valuable resource for anyone wanting to know what happened during the Cuban missile crisis.

As I was reading this book, the chilling thought constantly occurred to me: what would W (or Cheney) have done. The answer to that question is what is so compelling about this book. Dobbs has some answers to this question in the afterword, which should not be skipped. Also, it turns out that Krushchev was a pragmatic man who was unwilling to risk nuclear war for the glory of the USSR (Russia). Looks like maybe Putin is no Krushchev either.

This book is an excellent piece of historical writing, well-documented and well-illustrated with pertinent maps and photographs. The author relies upon recently accessable material from Soviet and American archives, as well as interviews with personnel in America and Russia. Until Cuban archives are open, this work will be the last word on the topic. Most popular accounts seem to have been based on the "Excomm Tapes"; but these are replete with inaccuracies amd can be misleading. To be useful, they must be backed up with documentray sources. Without them, they can only be used to show the attitudes of the speakers. Alone they are not reliable for historical fact. Much of the earliest writing on the topic is from the "Canonical School of the Kennedys"; this analysis is well-balanced and gives JFK his fair due.

The title of this review is a quote from JFK that is somewhat similar to what Clausewitz described more eligently as "Operational Friction"; how in any compex military operation things start going awry. In the age of nuclear weapons it is even more dangerous. The chance for an accidental nuclear release were so numerous ("People you wouldn't trust with a loaded 22 rifle were flying around in single-seat aircraft with control over their nuclear weapons" as one speaker says) The "Afterwood" chapter is excellent with insights and is very useful to use as a classroom reading assignment.

Dobbs book succeeds in three important ways: First, it uncovers many previously unknown facts about the Cuban missile crisis. Some of these facts should change the way we view the crisis and the lessons we draw from it. Second, the book shows how chaotic the event were, how little the actors knew, and how the crisis took on a life of its own. This is quite sobering and not a little scary. Third, Dobbs tells the well-researched story as a journalist would, skipping between Washington DC, Havana, and Moscow, and half-a-dozen other places. This makes the book a very exciting and enjoyable page-turner. Two thumbs up!

Michael Dobbs gets you right into the Ex-Comm meetings with a dialog technique that makes you feel like a fly on the wall. He does this with Khruschev and Castro as well. As a naval aviator seving during the time frame of the crisis, some of the side stories made me feel like I was in the cockpit of one those RF-8's, U-2's or BUFF's. His descriptions were right on. I think I'll go back and read it again!

A great book to read especially if you are interested in building a great company.

I've done the leadership thing at Toastmasters. I've attended the 12-class Dale Carnegie Course. I've read a lot of books on leadership, and I've counseled clients at SCORE.org counseling sessions on leadership. What I've garnered from all of this on the subject of starting a business and doing it as a leader is described in this book.

If you are leading a company - are you interested in just creating short term profits, or are you looking to the long term? When you hire people are you promoting them because you have become their friend, or because they have earned it? Are you leading or just managing? Do you have passion, or are you just putting in your time? These and other topics are addressed in this book. Get it and read it. You'll be glad you did.

I was skeptical at first that this was a book by someone born with a silver spoon just looking to sell a book. But after reading through the thoughts and stories included, it's evident that Hutcheson has been on the front line throughout his career and the information included can be a benefit to any business owner and manager, particularly one looking to grow and transition ownership while facing the rough roads that will come with it.

As the world changes, a business must change or decline and die. Some do so even if their business climate has not changed at all. These businesses self-destruct due to internal incompetence or conflicts that blur their focus on what it is their business should do. James Olan Hutcheson is the grandson of the founder of Olan Mills, the world's largest photography company. After starting in the company as a telemarketer, he rose to a position of responsibility and then resigned to pursue a career as a business consultant. Therefore, while he draws heavily from the history of Olan Mills, he also uses examples from several other businesses.
His advice is sound, logical and yet not simple. Ideas such as having proteges (including relatives), work their way up through a company rather than having the reins of power simply handed to them without training is a sound yet often ignored management principle. Another bit of sound advice that is often ignored is the toleration of honest, well meaning and factually based dissent. An examination of business, political and religious history shows quite clearly that when dissent is crushed an organization loses its' health and eventually dies, sometimes rather abruptly. As greater details of the latest corporate fiasco's come to light, it is clear that those who dissented were hounded, and sometimes it continues even after they were proven correct. This is an absurd business practice, as denying the truth only makes it worse when the end finally comes.
The nine keys listed in this book will not make your business a success. Only the making of a valuable product and executing a sound business plan can do that. What it can do is increase the odds that you will do both by showing you how others have done it.

James Olan Hutcheson has written a book that should prove invaluable to owners of small businesses and other nonhierarchical organizations. Portraits of Success: 9 Keys to Sustaining Value in Any Business is a book that deserves--and will hopefully get--a large readership.

Drawing on what he has seen in his own family business' transition to second generation leadership, as well as what he has witnessed as a consultant on such transitions, Hutcheson gives the reader much to think about. As he makes each point in his "9 Keys" he illustrates it with a real-life example.

Many of the keys are basic but easy to overlook and (after having overlooked them) sometimes tricky to introduce in a static leadership environment. Yet Hutcheson is a faithful guide through the peaks and valleys.

Having suffered through encounters with ineffective organizations (my daughter's school) and reveled in being a part of an effective, on-purpose organization (my Church), I cannot stress enough how important it is for people in leadership positions to be intentional in what they do and have the ability to be life-long learners. Learning about leadership and listening to those who "have been there," like Mr. Hutcheson, is a big part of this. Nothing less is in the balance than the difference between a life of drudgery and one of joy and freedom.

My only critique of this book is one that springs from my Christianity. I feel that the missing tenth (and possibly most important key) is Spiritual giftedness. When people serve in an area they not only enjoy, but also are gifted by God to serve in, explosive results are to be had. Also, as part of the Kingdom, "Business Traditions, Myths, and Shared Beliefs" melt away in the face of the kind of common purpose given by the Great Commission and the whole history of salvation.

Bearing this in mind and also recognizing that Mr. Hutcheson's audience probably have not all partaken of the Kingdom as of yet, I have to say that this book does a darn good job as a whole. It is less of a compilation of other sources than are most other leadership books. I found it refreshing to be able to distinguish an actual authorial voice in a work such as this. Too many leadership books read like a cross between a presentation and an instruction manual.

Get this book. It is well worth the time spent reading.

"Portraits of Success: 9 Keys to Sustaining Value in Any Business" by James Olan Hutcheson is just another "how to succeed at business" book. I wish its value was more than that, but it isn't. It is neither passionate nor any more informative than its competitors.

In the business books I have read recently, I found this one lacks the authority and substance I found in others. William Pollard's "Soul of the Firm" has the authority, as he took ServiceMaster to a new level. "Values of the Game" by Bill Bradley was worth the read because of Bradley's unique metaphorical look at life. "Leadership" by Rudolph Giuliani has power because of what Giuliani has gone through. "Portraits," however, has a flaccid tone to it. I felt as if it was researched information regurgitated into book form. I felt like I was reading the kind of book which gets sold after a corporate sales seminar.

The book, as seen in the subtitle, can be boiled down to nine major points. In each, Hutcheson retells stories of business success and failures, from security company founder Richard Wackenhut to Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

Action items accompany each chapter, and herein lay the book's greatest value. Hutcheson provides a topic sentence to lead the mini-lesson, but weakly completes the thesis in the following paragraphs.

The redundancy of subject matter mixed with a bland presentation has me suggesting to you to look elsewhere. It was not edited tightly enough to build the necessary tension and excitement. Overall, "Portraits of Success: 9 Keys to Sustaining Value in Any Business" lacks the poignancy I have come to expect from professional advancement books.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

Otto Prohaska was a Czech serving in the Austrian navy at the outbreak of World War I. He is given command of a U-boat in the Adriatic at the beginning of the war, and we follow his ups and downs, some harrowing escapes, romantic interludes, and humorous incidents through four years of hard fighting. The story starts as an aged Prohaska, living in a retirement home in Wales, recounts the story of his life as an Austro-Hungarian naval officer. Prohaska briefly recounts his early life in a small Czech village and some of the silliness as to whether it should have a German, Czech, or Polish name. From there he briefly discusses his early training then his first U-boat command at the outbreak of WWI. Most of the novel examines Prohaska's voyages up and down the Adriatic in the small submarines, with a few excursions into the Mediterranean. He attacks (and is hunted by) Italian and French warships in the Adriatic, gets saddle with a camel from a Bedouin tribesman in Libya that is a gift for the Emperor, and is stranded in Haifa frantically trying to repair his U-boat before the approaching British take the city from the Turks.

There is a lot to like about this novel. As in the best of historical fiction, this is a history lesson of first order. As you read through this book you'll learn a great deal about life in the Austro-Hungarian empire before its end. The conglomeration of languages and cultures, the complex political dynamics between the Austrian and Hungarian leaderships, and Prohaska's view as somewhat of an outsider (he's a Czech) make for an interesting backdrop. You'll also learn a great deal about naval operations in general, and U-boat operations in particular, in the Adriatic during the Great War. Every student of the Great War knows about Jutland and the Battle of the Dogger Bank, but there was certainly no lack of action to the south. You'll also learn a bit about the technical details of the early submarines. It took a brave man to get into one of those cans. Biggins' main character has a strong sense of duty that is applicable to military service today as it was in the Great War. One may think that a given war is stupid, but that doesn't change one's duty. The ending is particularly well done as it is clear that the Austro-Hungarian empire is doomed and Prohaska's world and the monarchy that he was sworn to defend are collapsing.

The reason that I give this novel only four stars is simply that in my opinion it isn't as interesting or as well developed as the best in this genre, the Flashman series, by George MacDonald Fraser. Prohaska isn't all that well developed as a character and is somewhat of a cliche of a naval officer. Additionally, Biggins attempts at humor pale in comparison to some of the ridiculous antics of Harry Paget. Finally, there is a level of historical detail in Fraser's books that is absent in this novel. Even though this falls short of the best of the genre, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this story to anyone with an interest in historical fiction, particularly with a military bent.

I wish to say "Thank You!" to reviewer Douglas Woods who brought this book to my attention. This is an absolutely delightful story about Austro-Hungarian Naval Officer Ottokar Prohaska who captained submarines for the Hapsburg Empire during the first World War. I really enjoyed this book and found it fascinating in many ways. I've always been interested in the Austro-Hungarian Empire but there is remarkably little fiction on the empire and I must say I learned a lot reading this book. Yes, the empire had a submarine service and our protagonist captains several submarines, but like most things in the Empire the service was a shambles and our friend Prohaska has many challenges ahead of him.

The novel was not as light-hearted as the title might give you reason to think, and it certainly had its sad parts too, but it was a delightful story told with heart, whimsy, and an engaging sense of self-deprecation at times. Told as a series of recollections by the 100 year old Prohaska while in a nursing home in Wales, the book is a wonderful story of how a rural, landlocked Czech boy rises to become a submariner in the first World War and about the trials the service, his ship, and his crew faced during that conflict.

The book also did a wonderful job of showing how the Empire worked, why it worked, and why it ultimately fell apart. The Empire had eleven different nationalities, all speaking different languages, and ethnicities that are still slaughtering each other today. The story of the Empire and how it bound those groups together cohesively for as long as it did was simply fascinating. I whole-heartedly recommend this book, and am eagerly waiting for the second book to arrive in the mail. The good news is that there are four books in this series, but that bad news is that it doesn't look like Mr. Biggins wrote anything else. He certainly deserves recognition for this series and a wider readership.

Biggins has done a fantastic job capturing the complexities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during its twilights years. Years ago, I read a memoir of a WWI Austrian officer who fought in the trenches and his memoir presented many challenges that strikingly paralleled the same challenges of leadership that Prohaska faces in this work. In addition, Biggins depiction of the Hungarian nobility in Transylvania was brilliant--though I found it to be a striking odds with the description of what Patrick Leigh Fermor encountered when passing through the region a decade later. Which makes me wonder if Fermor's memories are romanticized or Biggins was trying too hard to bring out their differences (Romanian and Hungarian)? But that aside, this book was fantastic. For any student of Eastern European history, I recommend this gem.

Both John Biggins and Ottokar Prohaska are to be treasured!! Biggins style is to educate the reader and keep him laughing at the same time - only George MacDonald Fraser and Flashman are rivals in this genre'. Biggins has made history memorable and taught me things that I did not think even existed. Good job, John....Good job!!

I've always been confused by the Sound of Music. Why would a land-locked country like Austria need a naval captain? This, and many other little-known aspects of the first world war are explored in this extraordinary novel.

Set primarily in the Adriatic sea during world war I, the story follows the career of naval officer Otto Prohaska. The Balkan coast at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Prohaska, a native of Czechoslovakia, also a part of the empire at that time, experiences a series of adventures which are in turn, poignantly tragic and laugh out loud hilarious. Biggins weaves a story full of pastiches and events which are fascinating if only because the setting is relatively unknown here in the west.

However, what makes this novel succeed is not simply a well-researched, skillfully written story about an interesting subject. That would simply be a Tom Clancy-style book. What elevates this to the Patrick O'Brian level is the depth of the protagonist's character. Dismayed by the decay of the Hapsburg dynasty, he clings to the structure provided by the military life. That contributes greatly to the richness that makes this book such a rewarding read.