Leaders & Notable People Books - Page 14

Frost/Nixon: Behind the Scenes of the Nixon Interviews

David Frost

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Perennial Amazon Marketplace: 60 new & used starting at $3.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Presidents & Heads of State
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present
Subjects -> History -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Following the resounding success of the eponymous West End and Broadway hit play, Frost/Nixon tells the extraordinary story of how Sir David Frost pursued and landed the biggest fish of his career -- and how the series drew larger audiences than any news interview ever had in the United States, before being shown all over the world.This is Frost's absorbing story of his pursuit of Richard Nixon, and is no less revealing of his own toughness and pertinacity than of the ex-President's elusiveness. Frost's encounters with such figures as Swifty Lazar, Ron Ziegler, potential sponsors, and Nixon as negotiator are nothing short of hilarious, and his insight into the taping of the programs themselves is fascinating. Frost/Nixon provides the authoritative account of the only public trial that Nixon would ever have, and a revelation of the man's character as it appeared in the stress of eleven grueling sessions before the cameras. Including historical perspective and transcripts of the edited interviews, this is the story of Sir David Frost's quest to produce one of the most dramatic pieces of television ever broadcast, described by commentators at the time as "a catharsis" for the American people.

See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism

Robert Baer

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Three Rivers Press Amazon Marketplace: 127 new & used starting at $3.25

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Current Events -> Terrorism
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Current Events -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 209 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In his explosive New York Times bestseller, top CIA operative Robert Baer paints a chilling picture of how terrorism works on the inside and provides startling evidence of how Washington politics sabotaged the CIA’s efforts to root out the world’s deadliest terrorists, allowing for the rise of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda and the continued entrenchment of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

A veteran case officer in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations in the Middle East, Baer witnessed the rise of terrorism first hand and the CIA’s inadequate response to it, leading to the attacks of September 11, 2001. This riveting book is both an indictment of an agency that lost its way and an unprecedented look at the roots of modern terrorism, and includes a new afterword in which Baer speaks out about the American war on terrorism and its profound implications throughout the Middle East.

“Robert Baer was considered perhaps the best on-the-ground field
officer in the Middle East.”
–Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker

From The Preface
This book is a memoir of one foot soldier’s career in the other cold war, the one against terrorist networks. It’s a story about places most Americans will never travel to, about people many Americans would prefer to think we don’t need to do business with.

This memoir, I hope, will show the reader how spying is supposed to work, where the CIA lost its way, and how we can bring it back again. But I hope this book will accomplish one more purpose as well: I hope it will show why I am angry about what happened to the CIA. And I want to show why every American and everyone who cares about the preservation of this country should be angry and alarmed, too.

The CIA was systematically destroyed by political correctness, by petty Beltway wars, by careerism, and much more. At a time when terrorist threats were compounding globally, the agency that should have been monitoring them was being scrubbed clean instead. Americans were making too much money to bother. Life was good. The White House and the National Security Council became cathedrals of commerce where the interests of big business outweighed the interests of protecting American citizens at home and abroad. Defanged and dispirited, the CIA went along for the ride. And then on September 11, 2001, the reckoning for such vast carelessness was presented for all the world to see.

The Bush Tragedy

Jacob Weisberg

Amazon Price: $10.88 List Price: $16.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Random House Trade Paperbacks Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $9.14

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Presidents & Heads of State
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( B ) -> Bush, George
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 60 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This is the book that cracks the code of the Bush presidency. Unstintingly yet compassionately, and with no political ax to grind, Slate editor in chief Jacob Weisberg methodically and objectively examines the family and circle of advisers who played crucial parts in George W. Bush’s historic downfall.

In this revealing and defining portrait, Weisberg uncovers the “black box” from the crash of the Bush presidency. Using in-depth research, revealing analysis, and keen psychological acuity, Weisberg explores the whole Bush story. Distilling all that has been previously written about Bush into a defining portrait, he illuminates the fateful choices and key decisions that led George W., and thereby the country, into its current predicament. Weisberg gives the tragedy a historical and literary frame, comparing Bush not just to previous American leaders, but also to Shakespeare’s Prince Hal, who rises from ne’er-do-well youth to become the warrior king Henry V.

Here is the bitter and fascinating truth of the early years of the Bush dynasty, with never-before-revealed information about the conflict between the two patriarchs on George W.’s father’s side of the family–the one an upright pillar of the community, the other a rowdy playboy–and how that schism would later shape and twist the younger George Bush; his father, a hero of war, business, and Republican politics whose accomplishments George W. would attempt to copy and whose absences he would resent; his mother, Barbara, who suffered from insecurity, depression, and deep dissatisfaction with her role as housewife; and his younger brother Jeb, seen by his parents as steadier, stronger, and the son most likely to succeed.

Weisberg also anatomizes the replacement family Bush surrounded himself with in Washington, a group he thought could help him correct the mistakes he felt had destroyed his father’s presidency: Karl Rove, who led Bush astray by pursuing his own historical ambitions and transforming the president into a deeply polarizing figure; Dick Cheney, whose obsessive quest to restore presidential power and protect the country after 9/11 caused Bush and America to lose the world’s respect; and, finally, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, who encouraged Bush’s foreign policy illusions and abetted his flight from reality.

Delving as no other biography has into Bush’s religious beliefs–which are presented as at once opportunistic and sincere–The Bush Tragedy is an essential work that is sure to become a standard reference for any future assessment. It is the most balanced and compelling account of a sitting president ever written.


From the Hardcover edition.

The Life of Elizabeth I

Alison Weir

Amazon Price: $11.56 List Price: $17.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 105 new & used starting at $2.91

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 130 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Perhaps the most influential sovereign England has ever known, Queen Elizabeth I remained an extremely private person throughout her reign, keeping her own counsel and sharing secrets with no one--not even her closest, most trusted advisers. Now, in this brilliantly researched, fascinating new book, acclaimed biographer Alison Weir shares provocative new interpretations and fresh insights on this enigmatic figure.

Against a lavish backdrop of pageantry and passion, intrigue and war, Weir dispels the myths surrounding Elizabeth I and examines the contradictions of her character. Elizabeth I loved the Earl of Leicester, but did she conspire to murder his wife? She called herself the Virgin Queen, but how chaste was she through dozens of liaisons? She never married--was her choice to remain single tied to the chilling fate of her mother, Anne Boleyn? An enthralling epic that is also an amazingly intimate portrait, The Life of Elizabeth I is a mesmerizing, stunning reading experience.

Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back

Frank Schaeffer

Amazon Price: $10.88 List Price: $16.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Da Capo Press Amazon Marketplace: 37 new & used starting at $9.55

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Religious
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 67 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

FRANKIE GOES TO SWITZERLAND 2 out of 5 stars.
13 of 19 people found this review helpful.

Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back-by Frank Schaeffer, like all of the authors books, is well written and an easy read. But, wait, RELAX, Don't Do IT! This quasi auto-biography is long on "look how wonderful and enlightened I am" and short on any real substance. It's MOMMY DEAREST for the born-again liberal crowd, except this mommy is no over the top Hollywood actress, just the woman behind the fundamentalist man, in this case the late, and I feel great, Francis Schaeffer. If you haven't figured out by the prologue Frank Schaeffer is the only son of theologian/cultural commentator Francis Schaeffer.

Just so readers of this review will know where I am coming from I am a practicing Catholic (whose gonna keep practicing until he gets it right) and one who enjoys Frank Schaeffer's writing, especially his novels. I have followed his career since the 1990s. I was there when he converted from Fundamentalist Christian to Orthodox attack dog polemicist, though in this book you find out that the fire has gone out. I subscribed to his now defunct, but always interesting (at least the articles written by his guest writers) Christian Activist periodical. If I remember I think in passing I also saw his movie, on late night TV, Baby on Board. So I am familiar with Mr. Schaeffer.

Simply, he is bitter, he has always been bitter, and now he is more burnt out than bitter. So who does he blame, MOM and DAD. Not really very original. And, that is the problem with this book, there is no truth in advertising. You really never find out what it was like in the early days of the organized religious right, you just find out that the author thinks that the likes of the late Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, etc. are terrible, misguided, evil, or all of the above. And which thinking person on the right or left doesn't think the above three are misguided to some degree? In other words you only get a cursory idea of Frank Schaeffer's brushes with these folks, no details, and a lot of hand wringing from the author. To hear him (or in this case read him) tell it if it was not for Frank Schaeffer no one would have heard of any of the stars of the American Religious Right. So, you are not there in the beginning.

What you do get a lot of is if it wasn't for my parents I would have been the greatest artist, film director, writer and all about cultural icon that ever lived. And, you find out he masturbated a lot, and lusted after any and all females under the age of 30 who visited L'Abri, the cultural discussion hostel in Switzerland founded by his parents. And, oh yeah, now that dad is dead and mom is senile and blind his parents were (and still are, in the case of mom) great people and he loves them. But, and I did say he is a talented writer, dig deeper, beyond the literary pats on the back the author gives himself and you will find his parents had feet of clay, whose doesn't, they loved him and most of all they indulged him. While Mr. Schaeffer is loathe to admit it, until he knocked up his wife, and even after that, this guy led a charmed life, with no demands. He got to paint, make movies, meet Led Zeppelin, oh yeah, the writer drops names like a dying oak. This reminds me of the old Steve Martin routine "Sammy Davis Jr., personal friend of mine." So this now begs the question, after reading this tome, why is he mad and why should I care that he is mad? Hey Frankie, count your blessings you smuck. You never had to get a real job, oh yeah, I know you do tell us in the book how when you were a starving artist you stole pork chops. But, this is actually a literary device, much like "it was a dark and stormy night" that I know I read somewhere else. In the book you tell us that when you were a teenager you painted and a bit later sold your work to folks like the Rockefellers. Also, had showings at well known galleries in Europe and New York, all because of the connections you made because of your father. This, while the rest of us slobs, were flipping burgers at MacDonalds, and running the ditto machine in some college work study program. So, what the hell are you complaining about in this book?

In closing there is no real insight or history here. Just a lot of the usual Frank Schaeffer bitterness and regret. He's a still a sensitive lad you know, at least according to this book. I really expected him to quote the song My Way, by the end of the book. All this being said like all Frank Schaeffer books it is well written, easy to read, and entertaining. But only if you can push aside all the "my childhood was really messed up" stuff. You see, Frank Schaeffer, apparently, according to this book, was an angry young man who now is just tired.

Editorial Review:

By the time he was nineteen, Frank Schaeffer’s parents, Francis and Edith Schaeffer, had achieved global fame as bestselling evangelical authors and speakers, and Frank had joined his father on the evangelical circuit. He would go on to speak before thousands in arenas around America, publish his own evangelical bestseller, and work with such figures as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Dr. James Dobson. But all the while Schaeffer felt increasingly alienated, precipitating a crisis of faith that would ultimately lead to his departure—even if it meant losing everything.

With honesty, empathy, and humor, Schaeffer delivers “a brave and important book” (Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog)—both a fascinating insider’s look at the American evangelical movement and a deeply affecting personal odyssey of faith.

Lucky

Alice Sebold

List Price: $21.20 By: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $41.15

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Royalty -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 258 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Enormously visceral, emotionally gripping, and imbued with the belief that justice is possible even after the most horrific of crimes, Alice Sebold's compelling memoir of her rape at the age of eighteen is a story that takes hold of you and won't let go.Sebold fulfills a promise that she made to herself in the very tunnel where she was raped: someday she would write a book about her experience. With Lucky she delivers on that promise with mordant wit and an eye for life's absurdities, as she describes what she was like both as a young girl before the rape and how that rape changed but did not sink the woman she later became.It is Alice's indomitable spirit that we come to know in these pages. The same young woman who sets her sights on becoming an Ethel Merman-style diva one day (despite her braces, bad complexion, and extra weight) encounters what is still thought of today as the crime from which no woman can ever really recover. In an account that is at once heartrending and hilarious, we see Alice's spirit prevail as she struggles to have a normal college experience in the aftermath of this harrowing, life-changing event.No less gripping is the almost unbelievable role that coincidence plays in the unfolding of Sebold's narrative. Her case, placed in the inactive file, is miraculously opened again six months later when she sees her rapist on the street. This begins the long road to what dominates these pages: the struggle for triumph and understanding -- in the courtroom and outside in the world.Lucky is, quite simply, a real-life thriller. In its literary style and narrative tension we never lose sight of why this life story is worth reading. At the end we are left standing in the wake of devastating violence, and, like the writer, we have come to know what it means to survive.

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith

Anne Lamott

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Riverhead Trade Amazon Marketplace: 90 new & used starting at $2.80

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Authors
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Religious
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 65 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Should be titled "I Hate Bush and Other Thoughts" 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

For someone who seems to be very perceptive on human relations and seems to have a very close relationship with Jesus, this woman has a disproportionate and illogical hatred of Bush. Perhaps this comes from only having friends that think as she does. When she is writing about her son and her relatives, she is very good but the passages and one-liners about her Bush hatred are hard to get through. I suppose this sort of writing isi a hoot to her Salon readers but it will date the book quickly. When she writes about abortion she is doctrinaire and pedestrian.

Lessons from Sam, Lily, and Others 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

What's not to like about Anne Lamott's Grace Eventually? A collection of essays in which she describes moments of spiritual clarity and examples of the divine in daily life, the book is a treasure trove of writings about topics ranging from abortion to euthanasia and lots of good stuff in-between. Through Sam, Lily, her mother, her vast and motley crew of friends, and even those whom she casually encounters, Lamott teaches lots of lessons on grace and love.

Some of the writing made me feel sad (Gertrud's sickness), some mad (the carpet guy), some glad (chirren musings) and some scared (shadows scenario). Although she might irritate and even anger some people with her views on George W. Bush, abortion, and global warming, Lamott makes no claim to be a saint, but rather a person who's doing her best to see God in everything and to do her part in making the world a better place. After assisting with a special-ed dance class and learning that one of the dancers said, "I liked those old ladies! They were helpers, and they danced," Lamott decided on the words that she wanted on her gravestone: "that I was a helper, and that I danced."

Editorial Review:

"Lamott has chronicled her wacky and (sometimes) wild adventures in faith in...the wonderful Grace (Eventually)." (Chicago Sun- Times)

In Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith, the author of the bestsellers Traveling Mercies and Plan B delivers a poignant, funny, and bittersweet primer of faith, as we come to discover what it means to be fully alive.

Save Me from Myself: How I Found God, Quit Korn, Kicked Drugs, and Lived to Tell My Story

Brian Welch

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperOne Amazon Marketplace: 59 new & used starting at $7.19

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Composers & Musicians -> Rock
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Composers & Musicians -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Composers & Musicians -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 110 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Impacts Korn Fans & Those Suffering from Life Dominating Sins 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I rate this book a five, not on how "well" it was written or because the author's theology is so "great" but because of the honest message that comes straight from Brian's heart. It is a story of how God draws someone unto himself and how HE gives a person HIS power to overcome. This is why God says, "Confess your sins one to another." My son was a Korn fan but as I have been helping him to replace this dark music with the same genre of music with healthier messages, this book was recommended to us. My 13 y.o. son is not a reader but devoured this book in 3 days. It impacted him and allowed him to share some of the painful things in his life with me (unusual). He wrote to Brian and told him how he is now a believer that will not default or waiver. I have seen true evidence in my son's life the last couple of weeks. My son was attracted to this book because he likes the music. Others may be attracted because they suffer from a life dominating sin. I love how Brian shares the specifics of "how" God delivered him from drugs. Although I believe Brian is still young in his faith and trying to figure out what he believes and God's will for himself, I pray this book impacts others for the great name of Jesus Christ!

Editorial Review:

The incredible story of a controversial rock star, his secret addiction to methamphetamines, and his miraculous salvation through Jesus Christ. Candid and inspiring, Save Me from Myself is a rock 'n' roll journey unlike any other.

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine

Sue Monk Kidd

List Price: $21.95 By: HarperOne Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $1.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Religious
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 81 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A voice from the wilderness 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Sue Monk Kidd's journey resonates for me as I have long struggled with the way we tend to ignore or excuse the masculine priority that surrounds women's lives. Ms. Monk explores and ennunciates the "stacked deck" of everything from language and religion to the ingrained assumptions of women's secondary status in the world. True the balance has shifted somewhat, but as long as there are places where men have a "right" to beat their wives, where it is against the law for women to be educated, where it's a BIG DEAL to have a woman run for president, where we criticize a woman for being today's connotation of the word FEMINIST for speaking simple truths; we have a problem. Not one to be trivialized or ignored. Can you imagine the hue and cry that would erupt were we to refer to all humanity as "whitekind"? Ms. Monk is shining a light on the endemic prejudice women live with every day of their lives by sharing her journey, her questions, her fears, and confusion with us. I am grateful to her. I don't feel so alone.

Editorial Review:

Still, the initial idea of telling my story in this book gave me pause. The hardest thing about writing is telling the truth. Maybe it's the hardest thing about being a woman, too. I think of Nisa, the old African woman who was telling her story...She said, "I will tell my talk...but don't let the people I live with hear what I have to say...I know that feeling. But in the end, Nisa and I, we told our truth anyway.

The Hiding Place (Deluxe Christian Classics)

Corrie Ten Boom

Amazon Price: $9.99 List Price: $9.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Barbour Publishing, Incorporated Amazon Marketplace: 38 new & used starting at $5.52

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> Holocaust
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Religious
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 196 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Hiding Place 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is an absolutely fantastic book! This is a lesson in how not to give up. A lesson in how to pursue dreams. A lesson in how to be of help to the less fortunate. A lesson in how to live. A lesson in how to be close to the Father, and always believe in him. This is a must-read!

Re-read every so often for fresh insight, Timeless 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Readers know from the outset Corrie Ten Boom survived to help write the book but it's such an intriguing journey to get there. The authors include numerous jewels along the way, stories that stick with the reader long after the book is back on the shelf: the train ticket held by her father until the perfect time, the test of faith by not lying about family hiding under the kitchen table, the fleas having a purpose, the heartbreak of the love of her life marrying someone else, rebuilding the radio while in prison, the astounding respect and love for her father and sister while incarcerated.

Each chapter utilizes powerful imagery to flesh out an application of Eternal Truth ready for internalizing.

The lessons may be applied to every day life since these were not merely `characters' but most obviously real people, with extreme trials to maneuver in life and in death. Ordinary becomes extraordinary, utilizing compelling subject matter with a page turning writing style exhibiting firm faith in the Lord. It's one of those classics that affords readers immediate application to their own circumstances since they can identify with her and her family on so many levels.

Finally a work like this inspires and uplifts. I found myself continually discovering the answer (Grace) on almost every page to such questions as "Why did God let this happen?" and "How did she do it?". The Hiding Place is a classic I enjoy re-reading every few years. I'm amazed at the fresh perspective I have each time. It's timeless.

One of my favorite poetic verses from Corrie Ten Boom, who quoted it often (it was by Grant Colfax Tullar), is the following:

"My life is but a weaving betwixt my God and me;
I do not choose the colors He worketh steadily.
Oft times He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unfold the pattern and explain the reason why.
For the dark threads are as needful in the Weaver's skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned."

Editorial Review:

An amazing story of faith amidst the horrors of the Holocaust, The Hiding Place has a richly-deserved place among the Christian classics. In this autobiographical account, Corrie ten Boom tells of her familys attempt to save Dutch Jews from a Nazi roundup - until their efforts were discovered and the entire family sent to a concentration camp. Her father and sister would die in captivity, but Corrie would survive to write, preach, and personally share the story of Gods love and forgiveness - even to her former Nazi captors! Now in a deluxe collectors edition, this unabridged classic will thrill readers of all ages.