This is a very interesting, fast-paced book that provides a good introduction to Winston Churchill. Indeed, after reading this I was compelled to read "The Unruly Giant", which is a very solid biography recently written by Norman Rose giving further insight into this fascinating historical charactor.

I agree with the other reviewer in saying that Churchill provides an amazing amount of detail about the early exploits of his life, leading one to wonder just how much of it really happpened and how much he chose to embellish when writing this book some years later. Also, Churchill's constant references to contemporary events are sometimes confusing and frustrating unless one knows a lot of the history of the British empire and its political scene during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

None the less, it is a good book to start with if one wishes to learn about one of the 20th century's truly great men.

For a book written by the author when in his 30s (I may be off by a few years), this is incredible. First, because Churchill himself wrote it, and not some professional writer. Second, because of the extreme detail, which suggests either an incredible memory, or a willingness to make up finely constructed overlays of fiction. Maybe this is a little of both. Churchill either covers his tracks well, or presents the facts very pleasantly.

His mom ignores him and his dad holds about 3 substantive conversations with him. In return, he idolizes and idealizes both, consoling himself by getting in trouble at school, and playing army at home. Like a latter-day Peter the Great, his childhood army games lay a foundation for adult army leadership, although Churchill stays more constrained than the despotic Russian. He maintains, however, a raw animal side to his spirit which stays intact his whole life, resulting, in one memorable event about 40 or 45 years after this book cuts off with Churchill's marriage, where Churchill pauses on an inspection of a European battlefield after the defeat of Germany to urinate on the famed "Siegfried Line" in front of a group of military dignitaries. Naughty boy to the end.

Churchill convincingly puts himself back into young boy mode and preserves for us portraits of his nurse, Mrs. Everest, the hatefulness of boarding school, and the release of achieving self-actualization in the form of military school at Sandhurst, and then a whirlwind of military adventures on several continents, arranged mostly by his influential and adulterous mother. Not much adultery here, but William Manchester goes through it in detail in his first of the two-volume set "The Last Lion." Churchill never criticizes his mother; he just takes maximum advantage of her contacts.

In a double inversion of himself as the subject, this is a great summary of how Churchill decided to become a great man by first getting noticed in the middle of adventures, and writing about them during and afterwards. Plus getting paid for the writing to support himself on a scale correlative to other British subjects who either inherited it, or made it big in business. But it was all substrate for his political ambitions.

Teddy Roosevelt thought Churchill was a "show off." Which is probably true, and which comes out clearly in the video-ization of this book, under the name of "Young Winston." But he seems to have been a lovable showoff, and if Kennedy had not intervened, American political aspirants may instead be more self-consiously modeling themselves on Young Winston.

One problem: John Churchill had no male offspring, according to the family tree Winston added to his biography of Marlborough. No problem, just call yourself a Churchill, not a "Spencer-Churchill" or even a "Spencer" and just go to market as a Churchill. Plus make yourself great. He definitely did, and this book records what it also produces.

This was a fantastic, albeit somewhat depressing, book. I agree with the other reviewers here. But I would add that the book is a moving exploration of man's ultimate and inherent isolation.

The editorial review here is pretty accurate, insofar as summations can ever do justice to a Handke novel, which rely little on plot or human characterization for their power. The novel really takes off when Handke puts his protagonist on the "steppes"--which turn out to be the plains of north-central Spain--and has him explore and experience himself in nature. Readers who liked "My Year in the No-Man's Bay" of "Weight of the World" will like this; here are long passages equally evocative and magical. Undoubtedly there are significances here that literati will find resonant, and perhaps metaphorical parallels that students of European politics will identify, but as an exploration into consciousness, into human interactions with nature and time and memory, this small novel delivers an experience that is very satisfying indeed.

There is nothing that compares with this book. It explains how the instrument works, teaches you how to play it, and introduces the reader to the culture of steel guitarists. Plenty of old pictures of the great players, and an appendix of their tunings (as of 1975!). I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Still one of the best books to get started with pedal steel guitar. EP attached, where you can hear all the songs. Includes good country songs, still popular and good to know.

Mr. Mee is a fantastic writer. As another reviewer remarked, Mr. Mee definitely brings history to life. The meetings described in this book make for great, enticing reading material for junior high school on up.

Mr. Mee is an excellent writer and truely brings history to life. I recommend this book to anybody that wants more than "light reading", has an interest in human-kind and is not a real history buff.

David Poole's Race with Destiny: The Year that Changed NASCAR envisions history from the present, submerging the reader in a multi-layered account of a dramatic year for the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. The action-filled Hooters 500 race on November 12, 1992 eventually led to the points championship being won by Alan Kulwicki over Davey Allison and Bill Elliott. Poole's crafty and enjoyable read takes his audience not only through a gripping season finale, but also interestingly places the year as a turning point for the sport of stock car racing.

Reading the book not only takes the reader on a season journey-it also compels the reader to think about the difficult project Poole faced as an author. Given the deaths of Allison and Kulwicki in 1992, Poole's primary sources are obviously not accounts from these racing legends, but other first-hand versions constructed through interviews with some of the sport's well-known staples, such as Larry McReynolds, Bill Davis, Ty Norris, Wayne Estes, Michael Kranefuss, Benny Parsons, Jim Hunter, Monte Dutton, and Deb Williams. Poole does an outstanding job recreating the past from the present by situating the reader as an inside spectator-the book allows readers to imaginatively glimpse the personal dramas facing the teams and drivers. By far, the most successful part of Poole's project is the writing itself, as he obviously gave thoughtful consideration to the process of reading-he allows the reader to comfortably envision and imagine what must have been going on in the minds of Kulwicki and Tom Roberts (Kulwicki's PR agent) as the season unfolded. Poole is a gifted storyteller, as he also provides remarkable accounts of several races over the year, and literally allows readers to imagine themselves "being there" listening to drivers' radios, conversations between crew chiefs and drivers, and press conferences throughout the year.

This book is an excellent read-not only for the seasoned NASCAR fan, but those who are just entering the sport in search of historical background. As an anthropologist currently on tour with the NASCAR circuit, I have found this book to be one of my favorite reads this year, and see myself using it not only as a historical reference point, but for understanding how narratives of NASCAR can be successfully inscribed between the covers.

Evidently lost in the shuffle with Joe Menzer's "Wildest Ride" and Ed Hinton's "Daytona," Poole's less-celebrated but fine effort centers on the last race of the 1992 season at Atlanta, where Bill Elliott, Davey Allison, and Alan Kulwicki all had an excellent shot at the Winston Cup Championship and three other drivers were mathematically in the running. The race also marked Jeff Gordon's first Winston Cup appearance and Richard Petty's last, a true changing of the guard, as it developed. Poole does an excellent job at profiling the three drivers fighting for the title, particularly Kulwicki, the eventual title winner, who emerges as a driven outsider, a Yankee in a southern sport and an owner/driver in a period where multicar teams began to take over. Poole shows the difficulties Kulwicki faced handling the pressures of running a small team, as well as the budget problems and sponsor demands arising in all teams, the personality conflicts that arise in top-level racing, and the cameraderie that develops both within and among the racing teams as the caravan heads from track to track through the season. This book does a superb job of showing what NASCAR was like before the explosion of its popularity in the mid-nineties, and while it seems a little silly to be nostalgic for an era only ten years past, it's what you wind up feeling as you close this book. Of course it doesn't help that two of the principal drivers profiled died in separate aircraft accidents in 1993, and Poole speculates briefly about what NASCAR would have been like in the nineties, and who may have been deprived of a top-flight ride, had Allison and Kulwicki lived. A must for NASCAR fans.

In a rather short book, the political and military aspects of the events surrounding the Middle East War of 1967 are well examined. Amazingly enough; enjoyable reading .

The most engaging nonfiction I have spent time with in more years than I care to remember.

Great read about the top leaders, their strengths and deficiencies.

The best overall view of World War II - learned more than I had in any other book.

A towering achievement. The first fifth of the book passes through a dream-like state while sweeping and surreptitious changes take place in the police forces, the national government, the propaganda movements, the press, the ministries, the military. This book presents things about Germany that are normally not considered. Most Americans probably think that Germany was an idealistic war machine in the 1940s: with one mind, one head, one purpose. Not so. The author begins in 1933 as a new attache in the newly-formed Gestapo. Immediately things begin to go awry. New changes come down, rumors abound, mistrust fosters mistrust. In his own building and everyday workplace, his own boss tells him to take the staircase at the wall-side rather than near the railing, as this would expose him to sniper fire from a vantage point higher in the stairwell. No one walks across the hall to clean his face without phoning a colleague on such a "dangerous enterprise." After these initial scenes, the author travels "outside" of government circles but remains in close contact with the major players plotting to overthrow the Fuehrer. He recounts across the years how the church was subdued, how the German people were "assisted" in imagining that things were working out, that propaganda helped to pave the way for even greater excesses, even how the generals were quailed (these last were long thought to be the last hope). The book is terrific in that it follows an agent in actual work, sifting through facts, talking clandestinely with associates, plotting an important life-or-death struggle to overthrow the Monster. Never knowing who to trust, never knowing what is coming next, never knowing when the bullet will come -- these are momentous and continuing features with which we have to deal. That the author survived as early as 1934 is remarkable. That he lived through the failed assassination attempt and the subsequent purges is incredible. A must read for WWII buffs, this highly readable text is a testament to those Germans working for sound government, healthy industry and a stable German society. An excellent book!

To get top of the heap, and to start a war, and to institute Death Camps for Jews and other undesirables, Hitler had to leave many corpses. Among this carnage are the dead bodies of some of Germany's Finest People. If there was any GOOD person more knowledgeable about where the corpses were buried, it was SS Agent H.B. Gisivius, who was also an insider in the tragically unsucessful attempts to get rid of Hitler. Agent Gisivius also distinguished himself as a witness at Nuremberg with his testimony that enraged Herman Goering, the same Goering that was able to frustrate Supreme Court Justice Jackson's prosecution efforts. Gisivius goes though several adventures, from the Nazi Regime's bloody beginnings, to his transfer to the Abwehr [German Military Intelligence] under Canaris, to the frustrating attempts to get rid of Hitler, often interrupted by the major events of the war, and the lawless antics of Nazi Functionaries (including the embarrassing trials that took place for the Reichstagg Fire). Gisivius was a Witness, and like Historian Procopius, who tried to do GOOD in the Midst of EVIL, and He lived to tell about it!

Firstly, Hitler was a constitutional scholar, not in the sense that Thomas Jefferson was, but in the same sense that Houdini was a Locksmith. Hitler reasoned that the Law of the Land was what the Police enforced. His partners, Goering, Frick, Bormann, Hess, Rohm, and later Himmler, proceeded to build the Gestapo, which they eventually integrated into the Police. The SA acted independantly, starting their own private concentration camps. A power struggle broke out for control of the Police which Gisivius describes in detail with black humor. The result was the Night of the Long Knives, where SA Chief Rohm perished and Himmler gets control of the Gestapo. Meanwhile,Goering uses his special units to end the SA private concentration camps with his own special purge (Goering wanted no competition). In its first months, the Nazi Regime has already shot a Mountain of Corpses.

It was frustrating work to bring about the end of the Nazi Regime. Hitler, when he was in the deepest of doodoo (as in the Reichstagg Fire Trial) was able to pull off some magic trick to put himself back into a favorable light, be it the Annexation of Austria, the Occupation of the Rhineland (where he narrowly missed being declared insane), the annexation of Czechoslocakia, Poland, and the Russian Front. Hitler, had he passed from the scene during his pinicle after the Annexation of Czechoslavakia, would have been known as the Greatest german Statesman of All Time, and would have been the Supreme Proof that "Character DOES NOT Matter". Instead, Hitler stayed on and things turned sour by degrees, and it took till 1944 before things got bad enough for Assassination Atempts to become sufficiently daring to recieve notice. (Granted, the March 1943 attempt happened, but those in the know did not talk about it. It was so secret, even Hitler did not know!). Hitler was certainly protected by his own Guardian Devil!

The Big Day approaches! We must get rid of Hitler. The German Resistance meets for one last time before it happens. (The German Resistance were certainly a cut above the average Resistance Movement. In the French Resistance, you only had to worry about an interrogation [you did your duty if you lasted 24 hours] and a speedy execution, with some hope of release. The German Resistance, on the other hand, had secrets that had to be kept for months! No quick execution by pistol either! These guys died by long messy execution by piano wire at the end of a Meat Hook! Look up Fritz Nova's book for the biographys of the July 20th Martyrs to get into the details.) They argue and dissent! Stauffenberg delays and delays, with the hope of getting Hitler, Himmler, and Goering in one fell swoop. Leber has been arrested and is about to be shot, whom Stauffenberg wishes to save as a consequence of his tyrannicide. Staufenberg can delay no longer and the bomb goes off!

The Abwehr acts with Operation Valkyrie, or does it? When Gisivius sees that the dawdling that ensues will come to naught, he looks up his friend, Police President von Heldorf and attempts to abscound. Tragicommically, his attempts to leave the country are frustrated. The Good News is that Gisivius'es hous has been bombed, making it an excellent hiding place for the duration of the war. Finally, the Allies escort him out of Germany as Germany perishes in flames.

This is not a book for the weak of stomach! It is a study of Tyranny. Fritz von Hayek's Road to Serfdom had already been published in 1944, but doubtless, had Gisivius and Hayek had ever met, the von Hayek chapters on German and Austrian History would have been thicker. This book deserves to be a contender for the top 100 Great Books of All Times, and is Certainly worth the trouble to read.

My mom and I have been searching for a good book for beginners about water exercise and this is the best we've found. It has great pictures that show you how your suppose to perform each exercise. Detailed desciptions were also very helpful.We liked the outlined program.

This book is excellently organized! Instructions are clear. Drawings aid understanding. Verbal description is followed by benefits of each exercise as well as precautions. Students AND instructors will appreciate the manner of teaching. Exercises are divided into beginning, intermediate, and advanced categories. Author not only tells WHAT to do, she also tells WHY. Third part of book provides specific programs for common injuries, listed by body part: e.g. lower leg-ankle-foot, knee, thigh-pelvis-hip, trunk & spine, trunk & shoulder, elbow & wrist. In addition, there is a chapter for special populations: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Parkinson's Disease, Fibromyalgia, & Multiple Sclerosis. This is a book one could refer to time after time, for greater understanding and expertise!

It has been a few years since I read this book. I remember the cover notes saying that I would never look at the world in the same way again and I must say that it fundamentally changed my world view. It is a very intelligent book that is wide ranging in scope but uses time as a central theme. The author convinces us that nothing exists alone and that there are clocks and cycles everywhere. I recommend to any science reader.

A fascinating, and largely undiscovered masterpiece purportedly addressing the Nature of Time. If you've read Grammatical Man, don't let that turn you off. This one reads like a different author