Biographies & Memoirs Books - Page 10

Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life

Tim Russert

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 142 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Big Russ and Me 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Big Russ and Me was in the condition described. The book came in a timely manner.

Cheryl

a fan 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

still have not read book but was a tim russet fan...this book was a must have

My wife's favorite book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Just great and so down to earth. What ALL kids need to learn about interacting with dads and moms and vice-versa. GOD is huge in the books.

evaluation of service and quality 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Book arrived in timely fashion and excellent condition. It was given as a gift to a friend who has commented favorably on its content

Great to remember the little things with a big effect 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

What a page turner! Not so much for the next chapter of events, but to bask, to saturate in the delight of the wholesome memories of which I had forgotten so many details. I will revisit Big Russ and Me to restore my belief in the goodness of folks or at least that there was a time when it was genuine. Russert captures it in an easy style that brings to mind a lazy afternoon over coffee at the kitchen table. So glad I didn't miss this one.Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life

Editorial Review:

Tim Russert's #1 New York Times bestseller -- now in paperback.

Now in paperback -- the #1 best-selling Father’s Day book of 2004, with over half a million copies sold in hardcover. Tim Russert, one of America’s most watched and trusted news anchors‚ connected with readers across the nation with his critically acclaimed memoir about growing up in the 1950s and the special bond between fathers and sons.

The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus

Lee Strobel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 641 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Failed to Address Any of My Questions 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

A good friend of mine, who is quite sincere in his belief, provided me with a copy of this book, believing it would quickly dispel my lifelong agnosticism. I read it in good faith, hoping that here at last might be a book that would address a lifetime's worth of questions. Unfortunately, I realized within the first few minutes of opening it that it would do no such thing. It glossed over the most fundamental objections I have within the first few pages and never looked back from there. Thus, to me, it was essentially worthless, though I labored on to finish the entire book out of respect for my friend. Thankfully, it was mercifully short, and the language made for an easy read. The content was of no value to me, but Strobel, at least, can write a coherent sentence and is a decent writer.

Christian believers should be aware of how weakly this book addresses genuine agnostic objections to the Jesus story, and how poorly it will prepare you to discuss and/or debate the matter with an informed unbeliever.

Quite simply, I have never believed the Jesus story, from the time I was a child. I don't believe in invisible things, be they ghosts, demons, leprechauns or the various and sundry gods of a thousand different religions. I have serious doubts that Jesus ever existed, though I can't rule out that the stories are not based on some bonafide rabbi who actually lived and breathed and preached for a time, even though he somehow missed the attention of Philo of Alexandria, a Jew who lived at exactly the same time and wrote extensively about the history of Palestine. I am puzzled by the existence of religion, which obviously has arisen in virtually every culture that has ever existed on this planet, but have accepted the reality that skeptics like myself are in the minority. Perhaps it is because I am a member of such a seemingly small minority that Strobel's book was not tailored to a mind like mine - but to me the fundamental flaw in his book is that he simply assumes from the very beginning that invisible and supernatural things do exist, that miracles happen, and that the stories told in the Gospels are true.

To me, it is obvious that all the biographical information we have about Jesus was first written by whoever developed the Gospel of Mark, and that little new or different regarding the actual life and biography of Jesus was added by the other three gospel writers. Thus we have what is essentially a point source regarding the life of Jesus, and I have yet to receive a compelling argument from anyone that counters my suspicion that maybe the entire story was a work of fiction invented by some literary genius now known to the world only as "Mark." Unfortunately, Strobel does not address this concern in the least. His only comment on this very serious objection is along the lines of: "these gospel writers seemed like good men, so why would they lie?"

Why indeed? The problem of course is that a devout Mormon will say the same thing about Joseph Smith, when to most outsiders it really does appear as if Smith made the entire Book of Mormon up virtually single handedly, and his motives for doing so: money, power, and even sex, are crystal clear to any outsider not caught up in the Mormon faith. The objection that no one person could have come up with the Jesus story is refuted not only by Joseph Smith, but by looking at the complex worlds created in fiction by people like Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, or J.K. Rowling. So of course one person could have come up with the Jesus story, especially since any simple course in comparative religion shows that most of the major premises of Christianity already were present in the Mediterranean basin at the time of St. Paul: whoever Mark was, living where he did, would have had access to the teachings and belief systems of Plato, Buddhism, Zoroaster/Mithras, Judaism, Heracles, and the ancient and well-developed Egyptian religion. From there, it would not be difficult to fuse and merge the best of each into a new amalgamation - the creation of such a hybrid religion would require creativity and ingenuity to be sure - but would not require the development of any new insights or philosophy - those were already there for the taking.

Strobel fails to address the fact that not a single contemporary Roman source mentions Jesus, and that references to Jesus from later writers like Tacitus and Josephus are not only scant but controversial. The oft repeated claim that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are "one of the most documented events in history" becomes ridiculous to anyone who has ever actually investigated the matter - but again - Strobel fails to address this.

Having thus blithely, and as I said earlier, in one sentence, dispensed with the most serious objection to Christianity - that the entire thing might have been invented, just like every other religion known to man, Strobel barrels along, treating each story in the gospel now as though it was actually witnessed by a sober and honest person.

I do not make these comments in an effort to stir up a debate, but in the event a Christian apologist happens to make a good faith effort to refute any of the concerns I've just expressed in the last few paragraphs in a "comment" to this review, I would observe that his or her efforts would be far superior and far more useful to me than anything in Strobel's book.

And THAT, more than anything else, drives home the point that Strobel's book is useless. If a stray Christian passerby can spend five minutes responding to me and come up with more compelling and direct arguments than Strobel did in the year or so he spent writing this book, that ought to tell you something about how useful Strobel's book really is as a refutation to agnosticism.

Editorial Review:

In this audio cassette edition, abridged from the Gold Medallion Award-winning book, Lee Strobel uses the dramatic scenario of an investigative journalist pursuing his story and leads—and his experience as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune—to interview experts about the evidence for Christ from the fields of science, philosophy, and history. Read by the Lee Strobel. Two abridged audio cassettes.

Night (Oprah's Book Club)

Elie Wiesel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 631 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The banal becomes terrifying, the terrifying becomes everyday "normal" 5 out of 5 stars.
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The beauty of this book lies in Elie Wiesel's ability to turn everything we know inside-out. He succeeds in taking something so extraordinary large as the Holocaust, and transforming it into something intimate and extremely personal through his restrained voice.

Through his eyes, in equal turns subjective and dispassionate, the banal becomes terrifying, the terrifying becomes everyday"normal". In a heartbeat, hope gives way to despair, but despair just as quickly can give way to hope. Wiesel's world inside the concentration camps is a world gone mad, that he manages to contain in a strange sanity that helps us, the reader, grasp and understand a small bit of what he and others experienced in Nazi Germany.

Best of all, Wiesel's restrained voice makes this book suitable for a mature, young adult reader. The story is terrifying, but it is not told with the intent to terrify the reader. The ultimate message of the work is one of hope, survival and humanity.

I listened to Night unabridged on audio CD, performed by Jeffery Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt succeeds in the ultimate task of a performer for a work like this - not going over the top, staying true to the author's voice, and letting the words and story speak for themselves.

Editorial Review:

A New Translation From The French By Marion Wiesel

Night is Elie Wiesel’s masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie’s wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author’s original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man’s capacity for inhumanity to man.

Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.

Slash

Slash, Anthony Bozza

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 116 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Interesting read, but poor publishing by Harper Collins 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

For anyone who was into Guns N Roses, this book is a highly interesting read about their rise to fame and their downfall told from the point of view of Slash. The first 1/3 of the book is a bit of a tough slog to get through, as it covers a lot of Slash's childhood and growing up in Hollywood, which, while interesting, could've easily been left out and the book would've still been an interesting read, solely on the GNR era. The best part of the book is the last 1/4, when Slash explains the downfall of the band and the reasons why GNR imploded. It's a great lesson for any band, really - the pitfalls of success and how it can easily be screwed up by people, decisions and directions. Lots of drug-taking, lots of interesting characters and lots of times when you wonder how Slash is still alive.

My only criticism would be the dozen or more mistakes and printing errors. For a book of this caliber, being a notable biography and published by Harper Collins, I was very surprised to find it had not been proofread very well at all, with several simple mistakes and spelling/grammar errors. i.e. when referring to Australia, the book reads "Syndey and Melbourne". A simple spell-check before printing would've been great. The writer (obviously not Slash) seems to have rushed this book, as there are tell-tale signs of not being detailed enough. Again, things like "it's/its" errors, etc. Pretty poor for Harper Collins, but something that I overlooked as the content was enjoyable.

Editorial Review:

From one of the greatest rock guitarists of our era comes a memoir that redefines sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.

For the first time ever, Slash tells the tale that has yet to be told from the inside: how the legendary band Guns N' Roses came together, how they wrote the music that defined an era, how they survived insane, never-ending tours, how they survived themselves, and, ultimately, how it all fell apart. Slash is a window into the world of the notoriously private guitarist and a front seat on the roller-coaster ride that was one of history's greatest rock 'n' roll machines, always on the edge of self-destruction, even at the pinnacle of its success. Slash is everything Slash is: funny, honest, ingenious, inspiring, jaw-dropping . . . and, in a word, excessive.

The Essential Barack Obama: The Grammy Award-Winning Recordings

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A CD collection featuring the best-selling audiobooks, The Audacity of Hope and Dreams from My Father from Grammy® award-winning author, Barack Obama.


The Audacity of Hope

In July 2004, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners’ minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Senator Obama called “the audacity of hope.”

Now, in The Audacity of Hope, Senator Obama calls for a different brand of politics–a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the “endless clash of armies” we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of “our improbable experiment in democracy.” He explores those forces–from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media–that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment.

At the heart of this book is Senator Obama’s vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats–from terrorism to pandemic–that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy–where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories about family, friends, members of the Senate, even the president, is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus.

A senator and a lawyer, a professor and a father, a Christian and a skeptic, and above all a student of history and human nature, Senator Obama has written a book of transforming power. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, he says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes–“waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.”

Dreams from My Father
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's

John Elder Robison

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 160 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Entertaining and positive 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

As many other reviewers have said, this is a good read and an entertaining picture of what it's like to see the world through the author's eyes. But he also makes some very important points about Asperger's, namely:

1. Aspies are socially inept because they lack innate abilities that we take for granted: how to pick up on behavioral cues, empathy, etc.

2. They're not sociopaths; they're interested in other people and want to join in social activities, but they don't instinctively know how to behave in those situations and often say or do exactly the wrong thing.

3. Because they're logical and intelligent, Aspies can be taught the appropriate social behavior. Robison figured it out for himself in late childhood, and from then on he was able to make friends, but having some guidance at an early age would have spared him years of frustration.

I read the book because I suspected that a young man of my acquaintance is an Aspie -- and, after reading it, I'm sure he is. Unfortunately, his family seems convinced that he's hopelessly "weird" and "antisocial" and doomed to a life on the margins of society. I plan to recommend the book to his relatives, because I'm sure that if he's diagnosed and trained, he'll be able to lead a full, productive life.

Editorial Review:

New York Times Bestseller


“As sweet and funny and sad and true and heartfelt a memoir as one could find.”
—from the foreword by Augusten Burroughs


Ever since he was young, John Robison longed to connect with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his odd habits—an inclination to blurt out non sequiturs, avoid eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot holes (and stick his younger brother, Augusten Burroughs, in them)—had earned him the label “social deviant.” It was not until he was forty that he was diagnosed with a form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome. That understanding transformed the way he saw himself—and the world. A born storyteller, Robison has written a moving, darkly funny memoir about a life that has taken him from developing exploding guitars for KISS to building a family of his own. It’s a strange, sly, indelible account—sometimes alien yet always deeply human.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

John Perkins

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 644 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the author of the phenomenal New York Times bestseller, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, comes an exposé of international corruption— and an inspired plan to turn the tide for future generations

With a presidential election around the corner, questions of America’s military buildup, environmental impact, and foreign policy are on everyone’s mind. Former “Economic Hit Man” John Perkins goes behind the scenes of the current geopolitical crisis and offers bold solutions to our most pressing problems. Drawing on interviews with other EHMs, jackals, CIA operatives, reporters, businessmen, and activists, Perkins reveals the secret history of events that have created the current American Empire, including:

• How the “defeats” in Vietnam and Iraq have benefited big business

• The role of Israel as “Fortress America” in the Middle East

• Tragic repercussions of the IMF’s “Asian Economic Collapse”

• The current Latin American revolution and its lessons for democracy

• U.S. blunders in Tibet, Congo, Lebanon, and Venezuela

From the U.S. military in Iraq to infrastructure development in Indonesia, from Peace Corps volunteers in Africa to jackals in Venezuela, Perkins exposes a conspiracy of corruption that has fueled instability and anti-Americanism around the globe, with consequences reflected in our daily headlines. Having raised the alarm, Perkins passionately addresses how Americans can work to create a more peaceful and stable world for future generations.