F Books


Books-Under-Review-->Reference-->Biography-->F-->3
Related Subjects: Fisher Ford Fox Franklin Frank Foster Fitzgerald Fletcher Fairbanks Falkner Fallon Farley Farmer Farrell Faulkner Fehr Ferguson Field Fielding Fields Fiennes Fillmore Flair Fleming Floyd Foley Fonda Foote Forbes Forrest Forster Forsyth Francis Franco Franz Fraser Freeman Frost Frye Fuller Funkhouser Furlong Fabian Felix Ferdinand Fergus Fintan
More Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250
F Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

F
The Narrated Bible
Published in Hardcover by Harvest House Publishers (1999-08-01)
Author: F. LaGard Smith
List price: $39.99
New price: $24.79
Used price: $19.99

Average review score:

Chronological Bible
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-04
I use this Bible for daily devotions and study. I have purchased and given a copy to ten others. Enough said.

You should have this among your Bibles
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-31
You haven't read your Bible until you've read it chronologically! When I began to do this, it began to give me a better understanding of the story line that we so easily miss...

The narrated Bible
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-05
I love reading this Bible, especially the gospels, it puts them into one story of Jesus.

Highly Recommended
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-05
The Narrated Bible puts the Bible in chronological order making it much easier to follow and understand. For example, the Gospels are intertwined to tell the story of Jesus' life. As you read the book of Acts, each epistle is included at the time it was written. This is wonderful to help anyone understand the Bible story.

Great new perspective on the Bible
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-20
I am really enjoying reading this Bible. It has helped me understand the Old Testament in a new way by fitting the books together in a logical fashion. I understand better the sequence of events.

I highly recommend this Bible as a supplement to your existing one.

F
God's smuggler
Published in Unknown Binding by F.H. Revell Co (1978)
Author: Andrew
List price:

Average review score:

Truly inspiring - a must read!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-11
This is the true story of Brother Andrew and his work in smuggling Bibles to those Christians oppressed by communism. There are many moments of miraculous interventions by God and Brother Andrew's touchingly transparent story will bring a tear to your eye and inspire you to appreaciate the freedoms we have and to help those who do not, even if only in prayer. This is one book that will not dissappoint!

EXCELLENT
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-04
I read this book atleast once a year. It is the most exciting and inspirational book in my library.

Wow, what a story. Many remarkable miraculous happenings
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-25
This book was hard to put down. I first learned of Brother Andrew by listening to a CD of the life of Corrie TenBoom. He was a friend of hers and introduced the CD.

The book God's Smuggler is, (and I hate to use this word loosely as it is overused) awesome in the respect that God answered him so many times directly. His answers were direct miracles from God. It is also amazing to read how he managed to get in and out of Russia so many times unscathed. Great reading.

Must read!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-12
This book is gripping. I started reading it one night and finished it the next afternoon. This is a great story and testimony.

Great Book
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-20
This book by Brother Andrew was Excellent. The story of a European Christian and his attempts to smuggle Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. Plenty of action and suspense, combined with a motivating personal story. Since its the story of a mans life its also a fairly easy read.

F
Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art
Published in Hardcover by Kodansha International (2007-02-16)
Authors: Shizuo Tsuji and Yoshiki Tsuji
List price: $45.00
New price: $26.53
Used price: $27.36

Average review score:

Interesting Read
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-07
I purchased this for my daughter for Christmas. I took some time to browse through the book and found it full of interesting information in addition to recipes and directions on how to prepare ingredients. I was very impressed, as was my daughter.

Perfect for anyone serious about cooking Japanese foods.
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-30
I wanted a book with a lot of information and recipes. Too many cook books are filled with pictures, and empty of information. This book is the opposite. Don't expect many photos, do expect lots of information. The author gives you information about the food, about the preparation, and about the ingredients. It even gives you a little Japanese history as related to the food.
This is a must buy for anyone serious about cooking Japanese food.

Best Japanese Cookbook
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-30
My wife and I bought this cookbook in Japan 25 years ago and have used it often since then. It is the best I've found on describing ingredients and how to do certain techniques especially making sushi rice.

Not Really so Simple
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-22
A beautiful book, clearly written, but the simple of the title is misleading. These are difficult, exacting recipes calling for both ingredients and kitchenware that require a search in specialty Japanese markets.

From Osaka With Love
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-17
This is the only Japanese cookbook you will ever need. As other reviewers have already mentioned, it is indeed "the Bible of Japanese cooking."
A little bit about me, I first feel in love with Japanese cooking at the age of 8, when for my birthday, my parents took me to Joto's Japanese restaurant and I tried Sukiyaki. The sauce was to die for. The sauce won me over more than the ingredients inside the pot.
I just had to know how to cook it so luckily for me there was a Japanese market nearby. I went inside a bought Japanese Cuisine for Everyone by Yukiko Moriyama. It was ok for the time. It does contain actual photographs of all the sauce bottles and packages of dried foods that you need to find. It can be hard to locate items at the market and the pictures helped in the beginning. Then, years later, I bought Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat by Naomi Moriyama. It does have some traditional recipes mixed in with fusion cooking. Recently I bought Japanese Homestyle Cooking by Tokiko Suzuki and Harumi's Japanese Cooking by Harumi Kurihaara. Someone let me borrow an old book from Time Life books in the Foods of the World series called The Cooking of Japan. I have looked through the Nobu cookbook and it is filled with wonderful pictures but the recipes are hard for the average cook. That said, Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art towers above all others in content, detailed descriptions, cutting techniques, meal planning, and how to put together lunches and dinners based on the seasons. Other books have the aboved mentioned information but not on the level of Tsuji. Its like comparing the novels of Jane Austen to those of Danielle Steel. Both are romantic writers but only one is a genuis whose works stand the test of time.
Now in its 25th Anniversary, not much revising was needed, according to the author's son, you can see real Japanese cooking without all the added fusion cooking of today.
I do agree with Tsuji in his introduction where he writes, "With a Japanese recipe, however, unless you have been to this country and eaten the food, you will probably have little idea of what you will be aiming at." Despite the fact that sushi bars are everywhere and numerous Japanese restaurants are popping up, I feel dissatisfied everytime I go to a Japanese restuarant in the Tampa Bay area. Ok the sushi is good for the most part, if you avoid the California and cucumber rolls, but the main dishes are usually sub par. Each time I look at the menu and see Teriyaki Chicken or Steak I cringe. Its just not what I'm looking for. I'm sure America does have real Japanese resturants like Rangetsu in Orlando that cater to Japanese tourists or in other places like LA or NYC. I'm baised because I'm spoiled. I lived in Osaka, Japan for three years and Osaka has to be one of the great food cities, along with Kyoto, in all of Japan. Tokyo does have excellent food and the giant crab in Hokkaido is great but there's something about the food in Kansai that is extraordinary.
I lived with a Japanese host family for 1-year. Often on Saturdays, if I had no other plans, we would go to the supermarket to pick out things for the whole family. I got first hand experience on how to pick what kind of fish and why and how to buy various ingredients.
Then she would cook and I would sneak around the corner and watch. Sometimes I didn't think she wanted me to see how to cook so I was always quiet. Then I would slip back to my room and write it all down.
Also, you could wander around Osaka and just happen to find little soba and udon stands, kaiten 100-yen sushi, ramen restaurants, sukiyaki shops, shabu-shabu, Yakiniku grills, and my own personal favorite, Okonomiyaki (seafood pancake) where your table is a grill and you make and cook Okonomiyaki yourself. Staying 3-years in Osaka, I never had bad food even at the occasional trips to Wendy's or MacDonalds. Ok with that in mind, Japanese Cooking shows most of the stuff I learned from my host mother, plus the Osaka-style of Sukiyaki that I ate at many different restaurants in Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe, and all the foods that I tried in the Kansai area. It goes far beyond all my experiences with my host mother, reading various cookbooks, and learning how to cook simple dishes from different Japanese girlfriends.(When I would visit a Japanese girl at her apartment, I would cook for the most part.) I wish I would have read this book before going to Osaka because all kinds of doors would have opened up that I didn't even see at the time.
Overall the single best Japanese cookbook out there.

F
Vampire Chronicles: Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned (Anne Rice)
Published in Audio Cassette by Random House Audio (1992-11-17)
Author: Anne Rice
List price: $39.95
New price: $136.12
Used price: $10.55
Collectible price: $39.95

Average review score:

coffin box set
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-04
This coffin box Set Is a great addition to a collection of vampire Memorabilia . Open the lid (flap) to see who is inside. you can pick who is in the coffin, One is the child vampire and the other a dark haired male vampire.

The Best
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-25
Anne Rice is the best modern writer on vampires. I have read them all and she rocks. The coolest scenarios and she reads like an intelligent airport paperback book writer. Her writing goes down easy like a comic book. I have written a book on vampires too if you are interested. It's called Seamus and Emer. It's available on Amazon so take a look. Good Luck! Bye Bye!

Sink your teeth into this...
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2000-07-07
... a fine set of Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. What a refreshing point of view and burning light to see vampires in. Rice gives us vampires with feelings - why shouldn't a vampire feel joy, pain and regret? Yes, bottom line is they are merciless killers, but this is the all-too often typecast image of vampires that Hollywood likes to betray. These immortals don't just sweep in with a dramatic flare of their capes (most of the time they don't even wear one), kill then leave - we experience their agony, hunger, happiness and turmoil before and after each kill. Anne Rice gives us so much more - imagine YOUR fears, regrets and hopes from your lifetime spread over an eternity. Would you really want immortality? What is right and what is wrong? Good and evil? The devil and God? Leave your humdrum life behind for a while and bury yourself (literally) in a world of fascinating, real characters in sumtuous, historic or sordid surroundings. Enjoy, but remember to put the lid back across when you're finished...

Vampire Chronicles 1-3
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-10
I would have preferred to have been able to buy these audio books on cd; however, they were unavailable. Since I had read them all so long ago, it was time to delve back into them. Buying audio books to bring on vacation, was the perfect idea! (I didn't have to worry about getting any suntan lotion on the pages!)

Interview With The Vampire
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-10
I knew about Anne Rice, but I had never read any of her books before. I read Interview With The Vampire, and I couldn't put it down! It's one of the best books I've ever read. Now I'm reading the whole set. It was great!

F
You Are My Sister
Published in Mass Market Paperback by F.I.G. Publishing (1999-08-19)
Author: Anfra Boyd
List price: $12.95
New price: $12.95
Used price: $4.62

Average review score:

Thanks Anfra
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-06-27
Anfra,

This book has changed my life. As I read this book I was tremendously blessed. God definitely spoke to me through you as some of the information in your book helped me to understand myself more clearly. I've got alot of work to do!!

I loved how you ended each section with "Think about it, sisters"!! That phrase caused me to pause and think about what I had just read in depth.

Your writing style was easy to understand, funny, informative and inspirational. I'm thankful that my sister Andrea, gave me this book because it has changed my life.

Thank you for promoting sisterhood and helping me to grow more spiritually. I have been encouraged, enlightened and empowered.

To All Sisters
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-06-25
Anfra, express her views on life's many embers: AIDS, sex, politics, spiritual, how to raise your children, meditation and more.

I especially like "A Tribute To African-American Authors" where she uses the titles of various author books to get her point across.

A great reality check book.

WRITE ON SISTAH!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-01-24
I was searching through the bookstore looking for more books by Juanita Bynum. The store clerk recommended You Are My Sister by a new author that I never heard of. I must say I was skeptical at first. I liked the cover and the synopsis on the back and needlees to say I was drawn in. What? A book about why women date married men. Woow, I was intrigued and what I found on the inside pages made me call the book store up and ask if they had any more books by Anfra.

Write on my sista, write on! Please write on.

A new fan, Gwynn in Detroit, MI

A Sisterhood Creed for Women
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-01-17
I could not put this book down. A friend of mine was reading it at work and suggested that I get a copy and I did. I didn't know that I was in for a treat of refreshing and uplifting words from a powerful sister.

Words can't express how enlightening this book is. You Are My Sister should become an anthem for women. I loved the Sisterhood Creed in the front.

Thanks Anfra for those encouraging words of wisdom.

My Inspiration
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2001-12-16
You Are My Sister - An Inspirational Book That Promotes Sisterhood and Spiritual Growth by Anfra is a definite must read. I really enjoyed this book. This is indeed a winner.

You Are My Sister by Anfra takes you on a wonderful spiritual journey of reflections and self-upliftment that humbly reminds us that we are somebody. I was very inspired and it really eased a lot of my inner stress that I had while reading the book. I feel not everyone can produce writings for inspiration and spiritual growth; it's something that has to come natural to the writer. Anfra not only captures and reflects that definition, but she naturally does "encourage, enlighten and empower" with her writings.

Although I had many favorites, a few elevated themselves to me as being my inspiration. "What's Blocking Your Blessings?" was a rude awakening to me and I humbly enjoyed her writing. It is a compelling reminder that we tend to overlook stress related issues that can impact the blocking of your blessings.

Another of my favorites was "Weight Problems." I realized from that passage that we have to stop, think, and come to terms of what is actually weighing us down. We have to realize that it's not always about the physical, that it's about the religious, mental, and spiritual growth and development that we must acquire within ourselves to survive the heavy burdens that we unconsciously put on ourselves.

I also enjoyed Anfra's poetry section. Three of my favorites were "Someone Else's Eyes" A Message From An Unborn Child" and "I Got It." All three including her other collections had me nodding my head up and down and side-to-side. They were definitely on time.

Finally, the last section was what I consider a serious grand finale because this section was about YOU doing a self-inventory. The title alone is self-explanatory - "To Thine Own Self Be True" You Are My Sister-Personal Inventory. Anfra provides you with an opportunity to now examine yourself with various questions, and exercises that can only do one thing and that is encourage you to take charge of your life.

Although I could go and on about my favorites, I think words would be well spent if you get the book yourself and enjoy a magnificent collection of her writings, poems, reflections, and inspirations, that I know will do more then "encourage, enlighten, and empower" but will bring a humble "amen" "wow" and "thank you" to Anfra for sharing her spirituality and inspiration with us. You will truly enjoy this book and will want to keep it nearby for those pick me up days. I give it a rating of 5.

Reviewed by Kalaani

F
The Boomer Bible
Published in Paperback by Workman Publishing Company (1991-01-10)
Author: R. F. Laird
List price: $14.95
New price: $3.47
Used price: $0.44

Average review score:

Understanding Boomers
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-15
This book is a must read for Boomers that lived in and through the '60s, and should be required reading for their children! Everything you'd want to know about a Boomer, from how he dresses, to how he talks and makes decisions is in this little known book.

brilliantly funny
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-05

Anyone aspiring to rule the world should be forced to read this book at the end of a "pointed stick".

It's also one the funniest books I have ever read. The first part of the book exploring world history through the lens that each great culture has had the absurd notion that they were (are) "the most chosen nation" is priceless.

I first read this book in the mid '90s. It's still funny and important. It's required reading for my teenage children.

SG

Second funniest book ever
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-09
The amount of work that went into this brilliant piece boggles my mind. Long, drawn out, stunningly comedic, the passages are cleverly cross-referenced to other verses, something akin to a thousand page inside joke. I have read exactly one book that I consider funnier than this one, that being Christopher Moore's "Lamb: The Gospel of Biff, Christ's childhood friend".

Boomers: Hate, Despise, Surpass?
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-06-17
The Boomer Bible begins with bad history: the kind of history that Boomers learned, but didn't pay attention to. It goes further into the invention of the Boomer culture: do what you want to, blame everyone else for what goes wrong. Finally, it ends with an invitation to surpass this most pathetic generation, knowing that while most of what they do is a mistake and misguided, they'll only blame someone else for it.

Read for enlightenment.

The Funniest Sad Book I've Ever Read
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2004-01-16
Laird has something to say about the human condition - and he says it with a striking amount of style and humor. Copying the format of an actual bible (books divided into chapters and verses, complete with cross-references) the Boomer Bible gives an irreverent and scorching account of every nation's history. The prose favors brevity and hilarity. Very quickly the reader gains the impression that we humans have botched it. From the very beginning we've been nothing but bad news, killing each other with pointed sticks and spending all our time inventing new ways of murdering one another. It's been the same all through the centuries; we're bad, bad, and worse. There's no reason to expect the future will be different, there's no point in changing, so why try? Or so says Harry, the Christ-like effigy that pops up in the "New Testament" portion. The Boomer Bible was poignant, touching, and so funny there were times I had to stop reading just to appreciate it. Praise is cheap, but this truly was an amazing book.

Why only 4 stars? The books meant to parallel the prophets of the Old Testament were just plain dry, and I suspect the author might have intended them to be skipped. I slogged my way through much of them hoping for something, but surrounded by the humor and significance of the rest of the book, they were a barren desert. I ended up skipping very many pages, though I hated doing so for fear of missing something.

I unconditionally recommend this book.

F
Christ the Healer
Published in Paperback by Whitaker House (2000-08-15)
Author: F. F. Bosworth
List price: $12.99
New price: $2.97
Used price: $0.91
Collectible price: $12.99

Average review score:

wonderful Biblical truths!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-22
This book has awesome revelations about healing. We bought a number of them so we can share them with people who are seeking truth about healing from the Lord. I'd recommend this highly!!

Everyone should read this book.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-08
Healing is still happening today. This book will explain what Jesus meant for us to have in our health.

One of the best
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-25
This book is all you need, beyond the bible, if you are seriously interested in divine healing. It should be noted that this book is written by someone who was very successful in the healing ministry,
as distinct from those who merely theorize. This is an excellent book!

Good reading!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-29
An old book with update from author's son. There is so much to enjoy in this book. I will reread it often.

Still a classic among Christian reading material
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-21
Definitely a book worth reading. For those who doubt that God still heals today, well that's sad for one thing, but this is a book that can help inspire you to get past those doubts, of course along with the Bible also.

F
Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years
Published in Paperback by St. Martin's Griffin (2006-01-24)
Author: Michael J. Collins
List price: $14.95
New price: $7.45
Used price: $3.95

Average review score:

Hot Lights, Cold Steel
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-14
The author describes in just the right amount of detail, what his residency in orthopedics was like at the prestigious Mayo Clinic. The struggle between the incredibly demanding hours of training and his responsibilities as a husband and dad are intense. Throw in some moonlighting on weekends in the ER and "you're good to go insane." A perfect summer read.

Very Inspirational Book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-08
I really enjoyed this book. The author was very down to earth and had a great sense of humor. He included a number of wonderful stories about his experiences during his residency as a surgeon. I found it very hard to put this book down.

Life is a Battleship!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-02
From the moment I started reading it, it was like the initial incision with the scalpel on my brain and I could not stop until I got to the end (close the incision--take the patient to the recovery)!! Dr Collins has done a great job in this fast paced easy to read manual of the 4 years of residency at the prestigious Mayo clinic revealing to us the incredibly long hours of residency while raising up a family, living from pay check to pay check(earned mostly by moonlighting), driving cheap cars(esp the Battleship, ha!),dealing with life and death decisions on a daily basis and eventually making it through it all. The doctor has a great sense of humor (I guess 'tis one of the survival tactics in the battle of life.) His scalpel sharp pen can touch the soul of the reader! You will laugh and weep through it all(as must have Patti(his wife) and the kids). It has given me a greater appreciation for doctors--they have a high endurance coefficient! A must read for all the doclings and doctors-to-be.

Amazing Ability to Relate
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-23
After making the decision to return to school after 7 years to become a cardio surgeon- I seriously doubted my own abilities. I read everything I could get my hands on concerning others and there first year experiences. Hot Lights, Cold Steel was amazing. I was able to relate with Dr. Collins and soon realize that I too may be ill prepared for like as a resident but along with anything, time, experience and studying will prove that I too can be just as amazing as he is. (Only difference- he has 12 children, whereas I only have 5). This book is a 5-star hands down.

HIGHLY ENTERTAINING
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-09
I can tell when I am reading a book that I really enjoy, it keeps pestering me until I finish it. Read it in 2-3 days!!! Very enjoyable. I even like the binding on this hardcover, large inside margins, etc. Hey Doc, how about writing another book??????

F
Vivir para contarla
Published in Hardcover by Knopf (2002-11-29)
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
List price: $25.00
New price: $8.74
Used price: $2.62
Collectible price: $33.00

Average review score:

Muy mala encuadernación por Knopf
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-29
El libro es buenísimo, particularmente el estilo de Gabo es genial y lo que lo hace aun mas meritorio es que se trata de un relato autobiográfico. Lamentablemente tengo que advertirles de un error de encuadernación en la edición de pasta dura (hardcover) las hojas vienen mal cortadas, he ya ordenado dos libros y los dos vienen con el mismo defecto. La editorial KNOPF ha hecho un muy mal trabajo. Mi recomendación... busquen otras editoriales.

Vivir para Contarla
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-10
El autor es un relator latinoamericano costumbrista. El realismo magico es lo comun y corriente en esos pagos. De ilusion tambien se vive. Quiza algun dia se inspire en escribir una novela sobre el realismo magico de la tragedia cubana, dada su intima afinidad con el Doctor Fidel Castro Ruz.

I prefer his fiction
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-07-26
This book is the first in a series. Frankly, I hope that in his next memoir there iwll be more about his literary writing b/c this doesn't cover his marvelous literary career at all.

The first sections of the book which deal with his childhood and schooling are comic and moving, with great turns of phrase and details about his grandfather and large family. What I found less interesting were the accounts of his journalism career. Apart from a very compelling section about a political asassination and its aftermath, I was a little bored. Even worse, I did not feel that some of his bohemian friends were distinguished from each other.

I am going to go back and reread The General in His Labyrinth and the novels that I so adore. I just prefer them.

It Stands Unique by Itself!!!
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-03
Although I can consider myself a GGM fiction fan, I encountered "Vivir Para Contarla" utterly more attention-grabbing than any of his other works. Perhaps It was just the fact that he related his real life, from the time before his birth until he was something like twenty eight years old, in such a magical way that I could just not put the book down for more than a few moments. I could come across in this volume with so much of the background that made the genius in Gabo, that I could not accept it as factual. Actually I was so beguiled by the story, by the idiosyncrasy of his large and astonishing family, by the actual brilliance and intelligence of the child, the adolescent and the young man in Gabo, that I unreservedly supposed I was immersed in one more of this author's accomplishments. He relates his non precedent childhood and early adolescent years as a conspicuous reader and writer of poems and stories- which he memorized and recited by hearth-, as a distinguished picture drawer, as a notable singer, as an extremely timid person, in sum: as another character out of its novellas and short stories. He, at the same time, enriches our reading with his detailed and exhaustive career as an anonymous young journalist in Colombia, who spends an awesome amount of his free time discussing literature with his fellow workers and friends, at a time period when literature was the coolest matter to be involved in. However, the social and political backgrounds of his whereabouts are so precise and stuck to Colombian and the World's historic and social events, that henceforth what he conveys us in this first volume of his autobiography must have a great deal of reality in it.
In spite of the fact that a myriad of the characters, locations and events that we find as basis for his novellas and short stories come out of his real life, I do not believe it imperative to be acquainted to any of his other masterpieces in order to devour and absolutely enjoy this volume. It stands unique by itself!
I am anxiously waiting for the subsequent volumes of this trilogy, however due to the actual author's sickness; I don't believe we will be receiving the complete trilogy at all.

Una magnífica crónica de los años que modelaron la imaginación de Garcia Marquez
Helpful Votes: 8 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2005-09-11
"Living to Tell the Tale," ("Vivir Para Contarla"), is the first book in a planned trilogy that will make up the memoirs of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the renown Colombian writer who initially won public acclaim in the mid-1960s for his novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude." At that time, Garcia Marquez, a journalist and writer, had never sold more than 700 copies of a book. While driving his family through Mexico, he had a veritable brainstorm. He remembered his grandmother's storytelling technique - to recall fantastic, improbable events as if they had actually happened - literally. That was the key to recounting the life of the imaginary village of Macondo and her inhabitants. He turned the car around and drove back home to begin "One Hundred Years of Solitude" anew. To my mind it is one of the 20th century's best works of fiction, and was highlighted in the citation awarding Garcia Marquez the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature.

"Living to Tell The Tale" relates the early years of the author's life, although some of the book's most important incidents predate Garcia Marquez's birth. The impact of these experiences, the people and their stories, were to have a powerful effect on him, as a man and as a writer. This is the tale of his parents' courtship, marriage and the birth of their children, Garcia Marquez, (Gabito), the oldest, and his ten siblings. It tells of his early years which were spent in Aracataca, in the home of his maternal grandparents. His grandfather, Colonel Nicolás Ricardo Márquez Mejía, was a Liberal veteran of the War of a Thousand Days. He was supposedly a storyteller of great repute. The Colonel told his young grandson that there was no greater burden than to have killed a man. Later García Márquez would put these words into the mouths of his characters. His grandmother, Tranquilina Iguarán Cotes, had a major influence on Gabriel's life also. Another great source of stories, her mind was filled with superstitions and folklore, and she gossiped away with her numerous sisters within hearing range of young "Gabito." No matter how fantastic her statements, she always delivered them as if they were the absolute, verifiable truth. This was the style which was to effect Garcia Marquez's fiction, sometimes called "magical realism." These women filled the house with stories of ghosts, premonitions and omens - all of which were studiously ignored by her husband. He had little interest in "women's beliefs."

Aracataca was a small village, a banana town on the Caribbean coast, where poverty was the norm and violence was an everyday occurrence. On December 6, 1928, in the Cienaga train station, near Aracataca, 3,000 striking banana workers were shot and killed by troops from Antioquia. Although still a baby, this event, recounted to him, was to have a profound effect on the author. The incident was officially forgotten and omitted from Colombian history textbooks.

In 1940, when he was twelve, Gabo was awarded a scholarship to a secondary school for gifted students, run by Jesuits. The school, the Liceo Nacional, was in Zipaquirá, a city 30 miles to the north of Bogotá. It was during his school years, 1940s and 50s, that he was first drawn to poetry - a national obsession in Colombia. Verse was revered as an art form, and also as an effective means of social and political commentary. He and his friends, fellow students, would read aloud and discuss poetry late into the night. The youths admired a group of poets called the piedra y cielo ("stone and sky") and they were strongly influenced by Juan Ramon Jimenez and Pablo Neruda. Too poor to buy his own books, Gabo would devour novels borrowed from friends.

While still a boy, he decided he wanted to be a writer. The people who surrounded him in his childhood later became instrumental when developing the characters and the storylines for his novels. "Love In The Time of Cholera" was inspired by the romance between his mother and father. And his grandfather, who had twelve children, (some say 16), by two different women, became Colonel Aureliano Buendia in "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

One of the most powerful episodes of the book tells of the period called "La Violencia." In 1948 the Liberal presidential candidate, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, was assassinated. The murder led to rioting, and left approximately 2500 dead on the streets of Bogota, during "el Bogotázo." Political violence and repression followed. One of the buildings that burned was the pension where Garcia Marquez lived, and his manuscripts were destroyed along with his living quarters. The National University was closed and he was forced to go to the university in Cartagena. Garcia Marquez began his career as a journalist, writing stories and commentary for a Liberal newspaper in Cartegana. Later he moved to the coastal city of Barranquilla where he began to associate with a group of young writers who admired modernists like Joyce, Woolf and Hemingway, and introduced Marquez to Faulkner. In 1954 he returned to Bogota, as a reporter for El Espectador.

Garcia Marquez begins his book, however, not with his real birth in 1928, but with his "birth as a writer," at age 22. He and his mother took a trip from Baranquilla, where he was working as a reporter, to his childhood home in Aracataca, now virtually a ghost town. They were going to sell the ancestral house. Vivid memories were stirred up here, memories which electrified his imagination. This trip was to change the course of his writing life. "With the first step I took onto the burning sands of the town, Aracataca instantly became Macondo, an earthly paradise of desolation and nostalgia." His one great subject became his family, "which was never the protagonist of anything, but only a witness to and victim of everything." His is not a chronological autobiography. Garcia Marquez cuts back and forth through time to show how memory colors experience. As he says in the book's epigraph, "Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it."

Humor, dry wit, a sense of the absurd, is a trademark throughout the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and this autobiography is full of his deadpan humor. His anecdotes of his many mistresses and cafe society are wonderful. "Living To Tell The Tale" is not a conventional literary memoir. It is a magical combination of memoir and national history written in the author's remarkable voice. It is his personal mythology, from the repertoire which birthed Macondo. The narrative is intimate and sincere, filled with bewitching details and descriptions. In spite of poverty, and the political turmoil so prevalent in Colombia during his lifetime, Gabo acknowledges his early years were filled with joy, a sense of well-being and encouragement from many people. Garcia Marquez leaves us, at the end of this volume, with a glimpse of his future love, his wife, ""wearing a green dress with golden lace in that year's style, her hair cut like swallows' wings, and with the intense stillness of someone waiting for a person who will not arrive."

Bravo Gabriel Garcia Marquez!!
JANA

F
Make Gentle the Life of This World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy
Published in Hardcover by Harcourt (1998-05)
Author: Robert F. Kennedy
List price: $120.00

Average review score:

Great Insight Into His Thoughts
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-23
I liked this book. I give this book 5 stars. This book gave me the chance to read some of his thoughts that he had recorded in his personal journal(daybook). One quote that I really liked is " I know there is a God and that he hates injustice. I see the storm coming and I see His hand in it. If He has a place and part for me, I am ready". For me, it has renewed my sense that I as well as my country need to get up from the sleep or the spell we our under that has led us down the wrong path, and get active again in trying to get this country on the right path.

The best book out there for RFK fans
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-11
Robert Kennedy is one of my heroes. I believe his death did not take away the meaning of his life, which is excellently expressed in this book. I have about 20 books on RFK and this is my runaway favorite. If you own only it should be this; you will learn everything you need to know about how and why he lived his life.

Wisdom for Our Times
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-05
This is an excellent selection of Robert F. Kennedy's words. It's amazing how applicable RFK's ideas are to our own times.

A true desert island book....
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2006-09-18
Anyone who is ever at a point in their life where they are doing any type of soul-searching would find the thoughts and words expressed here invaluable. After experiencing the worst tragedy, Robert Kennedy makes an incredible change....inside and then outside. Those of us who were not alive or old enough to remember do have books and videos to try and tell us his story. But his son goes beyond that and really gives us something more by sharing all the ideas that made up the man.

If you are looking for info about RFK, well, you'll get something here....BUT...even more, this book will help you grow and become a better human being...and maybe even become that "tiny ripple of hope" in your world.

Weep, yes, but then be inspired
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2006-08-27
For those who missed the time in which those now called "Reagan Democrats" and those opposed to the ongoing war in Vietnam were inspired by the same voice, especially who cannot even begin to imagine how that could be, this small book is a must-read that will enable you to experience what is possible through inspiring [rather than angry divisive cynical] leadership.

Some quotes from the book, which seems as if it could have been written this morning:

"An understanding of what America really stands for is going to count far more than missiles, aircraft carriers, and supersonic bombers."

"Insurgency aims not at the conquest of territory but at the allegiance of man. ... Counterinsurgency might best be described as social reform under pressure...any effort that becomes pre-occupied with gadgets and techniques and force is doomed to failure."

"Thus does false principle destroy the credibility of our wisdom and purpose that is the true foundation of influence as a world power."

"America was a great force in the world, with immense prestige, long before we became a great military power. That power has come to us and we cannot renounce it, but neither can we afford to forget that the real constructive force in the world comes not from bombs but from imaginative ideas, warm sympathies, and a generous spirit.
These are qualities that cannot be manufactured by specialists in public relations.
They are the natural qualities of a people pursuing decency and human dignity in its own undertakings without arrogance or hostility or delusions of superiority toward others, a people whose ideals for others are firmly rooted in the realities of the society we have build for itself."

"Whatever the costs to us, let us think of the young men we have sent there: not just the killed, but those who have to kill; not just the maimed, but those who must look upon the results of what they do."

[AND, to remind us not to sink into frustrated despair at our current mean-spirited divisive administration, RFK's words spoken in courage during the dark days of Apartheid in South Africa:]
"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of those acts will be written the history of this generation."


Books-Under-Review-->Reference-->Biography-->F-->3
Related Subjects: Fisher Ford Fox Franklin Frank Foster Fitzgerald Fletcher Fairbanks Falkner Fallon Farley Farmer Farrell Faulkner Fehr Ferguson Field Fielding Fields Fiennes Fillmore Flair Fleming Floyd Foley Fonda Foote Forbes Forrest Forster Forsyth Francis Franco Franz Fraser Freeman Frost Frye Fuller Funkhouser Furlong Fabian Felix Ferdinand Fergus Fintan
More Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250