The Boxcar Children #2 Suprise Island is a great book for kids and others 15 and under. My favorite part was when the kids found Indian Point and all the artifacts hidden there. After they found all the artifacts they made there own museum. My other favorite part was when the dogs raced each other. When they had to leave they weren't very disspointed because they knew that they were going to come back.The author is such a realistic writer that when you read this book you think that you are there with them.

I still enjoy these books even though the real thrill of reading them only happens when you're still a child. I remember not liking this one much the first time through, actually, but then a year later or so re-reading it and liking it.

Basically it's a summer of re-living the survival skills of the first book, except they are in a barn on their grandfather's island. A captain and his so-called handyman live close by to help if anything should happen. But the handyman seems to know a lot, and the children find it hard to believe that he's only a handyman.

This book also marks the first appearance of Benny's friend Mike, who plays a pretty important role in some of the books to come. It also hints at the yellow house, which was what spurred the story of the third book (the first real mystery in the series).

Definitely should be read as part of the real Boxcar Children experience - not the foundationless fluff written by various authors of today.

If you like adventure this is the book for you! This book takes you on a quest to a new land. The Box Car Children always find a way to kepp that book in your hand!!I reccomend this to anybody who like discoveies

This book deals with the contrasts, interactions, and conflicts between the career-oriented, externally focused parts of our lives, and the rest of our lives. The author uses as case studies several men and a woman who, after having achieved relatively high status in their work, found themselves unhappy and unfulfilled. In some cases, these people found they had pursued their work at the expense of other things important to them. In other cases, they were in job situations inconsistent with their heart's desire. Of course, career achievement does not in itself lead to happiness. The author's theme is that to achieve happiness, we each need to understand and embrace our own internal world of fears and beliefs, and ultimately to acknowledge ourselves as being in the hands of our ultimate Source (whether that be God or the Universe or something else is a personal preference). Armed with this understanding, we can make better choices in our lives, choices that are more likely to lead to happiness. The author presents several frameworks to help us understand our internal universe, for example he invites us to think of ourselves as being ruled by strong and weak versions of the Sovereign, Warrior, Magician, and Lover archetypes. He also presents an apt bus analogy: our conscious mind is the driver, interrupted by riders in the back representing various characters that inhabit our unconscious.

I was eager to read this book. Its elements make it the sort of book I'd expect to enjoy a lot. It deals with the quest for inner awareness, which has been a transforming, personal quest for me, and it addresses the mid-career "what next" question, something definitely on my mind. The ideas, the truths the author addresses are undeniably important ones. He even uses frameworks I know and like, and some new clever ones. And the author can certainly turn a phrase. I often stepped back to admire his facility with words, his clear and competent sentences. I found many of his sentences stand-alone gems; material for quotes or poster captions. However, for some reason, this book didn't click with me. Maybe it's because the truths seemed more pronouncements than insights; the characters hard to relate to; the judgements too pat. My reaction to such an eloquently written book surprises me. Perhaps the eloquence was not enough for me. Maybe I wanted more heart from the author, more links from the truths he reveals to his own personal reality.

The expression "no punches pulled" comes to mind here. Warner's personal life experience and what he has learned from working intensively with hundreds of other executives lives on every page. Another reviewer said something like you could read a page or two .... or immerse yourself in it .... and get value either way. That is also my experience. This is a profound look at mid life issues for "successful" people -- how we got what we got, the very real deeper issues we face and the way out. Very impressive.

As a work/family expert and author of several books on the topic, I've read many books on the pyschological issues facing entrepreneurs today. Frankly, many of them seem to regurgitate the obvious and what has already been said. "Balance work and family", or "when you die, you won't wish you'd spent more time at the office." I was impressed with the breadth and debth of this book, exploring concepts not previously written about, and for the CEO or psychologist who wishes to understand this issue in greater debth, the author does not disappoint. You can skim this book for a new take on the issue, or devote an entire Sunday to it and sink yourself into the book , probably feeling like the author spent hours interviewing you before he wrote it. By the end you'll be convinced that the author knows you, at a level deeper than even your spouse or closest friend. This book is not for someone who wants a quick fix and a few easy ideas that will make all of the deeper issues go away. Rather, this book is for those courageous ones who are ready to examine this issue on a whole new level. Bravo to the author for leading the expedition. I hope this book opens up new conversations on the topic all over America!

The Rex Warner writes the translation of The Persian Expedition in the odd passive voice of the classical styles making for an awkward read. Does this mean avoid the book? Resoundingly no! Even if not familiar w/classic styles, it's a tale worth the struggle. Regardless of which translation, it holds much in store for those who enjoy a ripping good story or are interested in the historical aspects of Greek politics, society, & military.

Beginning in Persia c404 BCE & ending in Greece c398 BCE, the story opens w/the Persian king on his deathbed calling for his sons. Once he dies, the eldest son is installed on the throne. Due to a duplicitous action on the part of a so-called friend, the younger brother is jailed on allegations he's planning usurpation & only their mother's intercession frees him. Deciding he'd rather not face the experience again, he plans to make good on the deed of which he was accused. Using the guise of ridding a troublesome tribe from his lands, he begins raising an army consisting of native forces & mercenaries from the Greeks city-states.

Marching to the heart of Persia, battle is joined & the usurper killed. The Greeks, w/o a benefactor, parlay a truce & commence withdrawal. During the retreat, more treachery ensues as the Persians, under the pretext of meeting to discuss allaying the distrust between the Greeks & the Persian escort, murder the five remaining generals in charge of the forces. Apathy quickly sets in & the Greeks sit apathetically waiting for death, slavery, or worse.

Among them, the Athenian Xenophon, disciple of Socrates & knight of a noble house, who oddly has no rank or title in the army. He's simply an observer of sorts, there only b/c a mutual friend offered him a personal introduction to the usurper. Until Xenophon speaks up he scarcely plays a role, however, from that moment forward the story is from his point-of-view. He then narrates how he actively leads the Greeks back to their homeland. Upon returning, Xenophon is embroiled in the political complexities of his homeland & must continue to do his best for the remaining troops. After facing trials on foreign soil where lesser men would have folded, then deal w/adversity on his home turf that would make weaker men crumble, he finally earns a well-deserved respite & settles down as landed aristocracy under the protection of Spartan.

Xenophon's recounting is rich w/the events of the Mediterranean & Asia Minor of the era & paints a vibrant map of the times, peoples, & places. As pointed out in the introduction, "The Greek was pre-eminently a 'political animal,' [...]" (p9). A fact demonstrated by Xenophon's documenting the intrigues created by a satrap in the Persian court @ the beginning of the book, and then recording the political currents in the lands the Ten Thousand travel through, finally concluding w/the start of a feud between Sparta & the same satrap whose scheming set the entire series of events in motion.

As a commentary on Greek society, Xenophon's writing includes colourful descriptions of the "barbarians" the Ten Thousand encounter. For instance, when Xenophon describes a tribe of Mossynoeci they come across on the trek from Cerasus to Cotyora along the Black Sea coast:

[...] These people wanted to have sexual intercourse in public w/the mistresses whom the Greeks brought w/them, this being actually the normal thing in their country. [...] Those who were on the expedition used to say that these people were the most barbarous & the furthest removed from Greek ways of all those w/whom they came in contact. When they were in a crowd, they acted as men would in private, & when they were by themselves, they used to behave as they might do if they were in company; they used to talk to themselves, & laugh to themselves, & stop & dance wherever they happened to be, just as if they were giving a display to others (p237).

The unity of Greek culture can't be defined by what it was, but what it wasn't when compared to other cultures. However, in-fighting among the various factions of the city-states was always a threat, yet, they were bonded by the sea & the principles of Greek democratic honour. A fact demonstrated by their cries of "The sea! The sea!" as the first of the Ten Thousand attained summit of Thekes & unite to build a memorial to the occasion on the spot (p211). Their united brotherhood is verified as Arcadian, Athenian, Spartan, & even Thracian, all work together and set aside their city-state loyalties as they celebrate a common bond-the sea.

The military historian absolutely must have this book in their collection. Xenophon is pure Sun-Tzu in motion, &, a copy of his Art of War should be @ hand while reading the tale. Whereas Sun-Tzu wrote the technical manual, Xenophon is the practical application. There are so many examples in the Persian Expedition to cite only one is an injustice. Suffice it; Xenophon displays a profound understanding of how to apply strategy, tactics, & negotiation, in a practical & honourable fashion to enemy, ally, & neutral native. It's worth noting that Sun-Tzu's work predated Xenophon by roughly 150 years & the sparsely worded treatise wasn't introduced to the West for another 1,700 years. Yet, here's an Athenian performing exactly as the master's work w/o benefit of reading or even knowing of Sun-Tzu! Indeed, the master would consider Xenophon "A heaven born general".

As an aside, readers who enjoy Science & Fantasy fiction will enjoy the account. From persona, experience I wonder if Xenophon inspired many Science & Fantasy fiction writers? Two immediately come to mind: Robert Heinlein & Chris Bunch, the former for Starship Troopers, & the latter for Seer King. The two authors mentioned above have emulated the way Xenophon gives what some might term "A Grunt commander's eye-view".

Simply put, the tale of The Persian Expedition is fantastic.

Between the fall of the Athenian Empire and the rise of Alexander, many Greeks sought adventure and fortune as mercenaries. Cyrus of Persia attempted to usurp the throne with an army stiffened by 10,000 Greek mercenaries. The author found himself among that number. Cyrus went down to defeat and death at the Battle of Cunaxa, but one contingent of his army emerged victorious--The Ten Thousand. Alone and unsponsored, surrounded by enemies, and deep in the heart of Persia, The Ten Thousand began their fighting retreat to the sea and freedom. Along the way they met with battle, treachery, hardship, and death. Xenophon became one of their leaders, and eventually lived to write this stirring account of their exploits. The successful retreat of the Ten Thousand served as proof to Phillip of Macedon that a Greek army could conquer Persia, and he made his preparations for the invasion. Phillip's death forestalled his plans, but Alexander took up his father's project and the rest, as they say, is history. If there had been no Westward march by the Ten Thousand, there may have been no Eastward march by Alexander.

The classic story of the march of the "ten thousand" from fatalism to freedom is exciting to read, but is it factual? Many scholars have believed that it was composed using diaries Xenophon kept with him on the campain, but certain inconsistences in the narrative leave this in doubt. However, whether it is a true to life account or not it remains a testament to the will for survival and the Greek spirit of brotherhood among men under pressure.

I expected a book with some inside dirt on the recording industry but this is a sleeper recounting the author's 40 years working in Warner management. Those 100 or so souls who actually care about the mundane history of Warner records will enjoy this book. The rest of us would be better off with a subscription to Rolling Stone.

Not only is this a wonderful and ambitious book by Cornyn & Scanlon, but it is also a great tool for young musicians because this book takes the mystery out of the record business. Cornyn has a wonderful appreciation for great stories, but he's also bright and is able to recount the stories behind the signings of artists and the whys in great detail. He also captures the energy and team effort of all of those Powers-That-Be (Were) at Warners because it was for the love of the music.
The turning point in the book is when after an exhaustive 8-10 hr meeting about sales units, how to change the corporate structure Cornyn got into this car to drive home and realized that during the whole 8 - 10 hr meeting, no one mentioned music. These guys were from the streets and got into the industry because of their passion for music.

The pace of the book is terrific, starts at the biginning of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Studio, builds up to the peak, then the reader is slowly let down when Cornyn starts talking numbers instead of artists.

It's a fun ride thru the "inside track"....enjoy!

LET ME 'fess up. This is a book I would kill to have written.
It's a book I've been saying should be written for the last
ten years a book, a huge book, about possibly the hippest,
bravest, most nurturing record company rock'n'roll ever spawned. Now Stan Cornyn, a Warners "insider's insider" if ever there was one, has gone and done it with help from smart Rolling Stone vet Paul Scanlon.

"The really important factor was that we were a younger company than Columbia," Cornyn said when I interviewed him in 1993. "We weren't structured so tightly that we couldn't bend."

Bend Warner Brothers did or at least Warner Bros. and Reprise Records,under the inspiring helmsmanship of sometime Sinatra accountant Morris "Mo"Ostin and Boston disc-jock Joe Smith. For a golden half-decade, roughly 1967-1972, Warner-Reprise was the ultimate haven for the crème of the talent pouring out of (and into) the canyons of Southern California. Between 'em, Mo'n'Joe bagged the signatures of Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young,Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Ry Cooder, Fleetwood Mac, Van Morrison, James Taylor, Frank Zappa, Little Feat, Van Dyke Parks and on and on and on. Cornyn calls that "a spurt of prescience heretofore unknown in the record business". Frankly, it's hard to argue.

Warner-Reprise didn't do too badly either side of those halcyon five years, of course: from the Everlys to REM, Ostin and Smith green-lit signings that helped the WM Group shift gazillions of albums. But that heady turn-of-the-decade stretch, full of bold impulses and daring risks, is the guarantor of Warners' place in the history tomes.

It's also why Exploding is as much a lament a "They Don't Make 'Em Like That Anymore" about record execs as it is a racy, fact-packed narrative about company politicking. Like Cornyn, the Creative Services ace who conjured up mad as for the emerging underground press ("Win a Dream Date With the Fugs", "the Pigpen Lookalike Contest"), Mo'n'Joe 'n Lenny Waronker, and others like them cared deeply about talent. And the talent,generally, cared about them.

Don't get me wrong: Stan's yarn is first'n'foremost about players,workaholic Jews jockeying for position in worlds of fast deals and loaded stock options. Stan, a token Burbank goy, is as besotted by the greed and manoeuvring of the David Geffens and Bob Krasnows as he is by the talent-rich rosters of Warner-Reprise, Atlantic, Elektra and the other labels woven into the WM fold. Written in prose that's at once manic and
jovial and with both eyes on a Vanity Fair serialisation Exploding contains swathes of detail about money, sales, executive toilets and, above all, who reported to whom. If you want to read about Joni'n'James and all the other ladies'n'gents of the Canyon, you may be better off elsewhere.

If, on the other hand, you dig sweeping accounts of musical empires, and you loved Hit Men and The Mansion on the Hill, get your teeth into Cornyn, whose sardonically honest take on the vanity, megalomania and brilliance of the key dramatis personae from Ahmet Ertegun and Jac Holzman to Steve Ross and Seymour Stein is never less than entertaining and nearly always affectionate. ("There are the shrewd," he writes nicely, "and then there are the shrewder.")

Cornyn, retired for several years and living the sweet life in Santa Barbara, says he still talks to people at Warners. "Stan, it's just not like it was," they sigh to him. "Now it's just about money and covering your [rear]."

Once 'pon a time, it was about money, covering your [rear] and making astonishing music. Who's to say it couldn't still be?

It was great to have the band members themselves give their view of things, but there's little that couldn't be summed up in a couple of pages. Instead you get countless variations on a few themes: John Fogerty loves the blues, CCR worked hard with John in control, John is a vindictive jerk.

It would have been nice to have heard from a broader range of people: childhood friends, early fans, etc.

if you love Creedence you'll love this book ,do yourslf a favour and read this book about your most favourite band . however not enough photos and they should have been in color .

I've enjoyed reading this book many times. I've like the fact that they talk about some of the good times.

A Review of DEEP IN THE HEART by Sharon Oard Warner

What a great show for a first novel!

Great character development. Ms. Warner seems to conger up individuals by a snap of the fingers. Most are unforgettable mainly because they are so ordinary yet so realistic. Warner is so insightful that one has a hard time distinguishing the "good" guys from the "bad". All are too, too human. Most of us are far from saints but at the same time, we are basically far from being absolute devils. So too are her characters. The author walks around each one giving the reader one prospective after another of each as they appear in the book.

True, the plot over abortion is a tad creaky. We have all been exposed to it day in and day out to the point that of us are now thinking that now the laws of protection have been put in place to protect those who opt for their choice, so now let us move on to other ills of our society.

Again, well worth the reading if for just seeing a real pro perform.

Monday, March 26, 2001

Ms. Warner has done a masterful job of crafting a great story. One that is engaging and interesting, however this is not the main reason I think this is a great work.

Most of the time these types of books are obviously an effort to put forth a personal view, and usually adopting one side of a controversial subject. This is a perfect example of an author really delving into the guts of the issue and presenting the question, rather than the answer. Congratulations Ms. Warner!

Aptly-titled, "Deep in the Heart" is a compelling, sensitive and provocative debut novel which thoroughly engages the reader in a powerful narrative driven by sensitive-rendered and completely believable characters. The author, Sharon Oard Warner, uses the vehicle of a contested abortion to treat, with skill and sensitivity, the themes of family secrets and fragility, the loss and possibility of love in and around marriage, and the enormous impact conscience has in driving our everyday actions. This large and fast-paced novel is the product of an author who genuinely cares about her readers; Ms. Warner always rises above cliche and takes great risks in emphasizing the humanity of her charcters, all of whom are deeply involved in one of the pivotal political struggles of our day, abortion.

Quite late in the book, Dr. Hannah Solace realizes that her husband, Carl, devloped his love for her not from her beauty, but from her sadness. This understanding symbolizes the wholeness of the novel and encapsulates the underlying emotion felt by the reader. For "Heart" is a profoundly sad novel, although by book's end, the enduring qualities of hope, love and faith genuinely resolve themselves with an opitimistic view of the future. Each character is washed in hues of loneliness, despair and abandonment. Hannah, who is an admirable, articulate modern woman, suffers terribly from the memory of the childhood death of her mother; the resulting pressures and fear create an adult removed from her feelings and ultimately, her husband. Carl, an artist whose adult life swims in unfulfilled dreams of art and a responsive partner, yearns for a child to give a sense of animation and purpose to his life. One of the book's central ironies is the dissolution of a marriage after an abortion rather than because of one. The virginal Penny, who at the age of 23 seems resigned to a life outside the perameters of love, discovers complexity and multi-dimensional perspectives in the midst of an attempted romance with an intolerant, charismatic evangelical minister, whose own life abounds with internal conflict.

Ms. Oard presents a simply brilliant collage of motherhood. Hannah's sister, Helen, initially seems to be the model of stay-at-home contentment. As the novel progresses, turmoil and betrayal erode her confidence (the author often comments about the terrible state of her fingernails). Penny's mother, Delia, is swathed in secrets and Penny, herself, is suffused with a sense of abandonment. Penny's grandmother, Mattie, who ignores her own past and her daughter's torment, tries to serve as a mother-figure for Penny but is limited by her own guilt and restricted by her adherence to a faith which promises life but deals with its own prejudices and death-obsessions.

Ms. Warner informs us that she spent seven years and went through seven drafts before completing her novel. I can assure you that it was well worth her time and worth our wait. "Deep in the Heart" resonates with truth.

I liked the book. I liked when Benny fond the treasure. I also liked when Mr. walker tried to pay them a iot of money.

It's about four children Henry, Benny, Violet, Jessie, who was in the breach and try to find something. Benny, who was the youngest one find a map. And it was belong to John Finney. Many people think if they got all four map and they find that place, they will be rich. Then there were a man, who got three already ask Benny to sell it to him. Benny said no, but the man keep try to do something to get that map. What will happen to Benny?
To find out what will happen to Benny, read it!

We liked the book and thought the bad guy was mean! It was a fun book to read.

Joe Adamson does a fine job of bringing Bugs Bunny to "life" in this well-researched book. With a look at the evolution of the character, a breakdown of how the cartoons were received, and an admittedly subjective criticism of the author's 16 favorite Bugs Bunny shorts; the book has everything a Bugs' fan could hope for. Full of storyboards and clips from the cartoons this book is for any fan of animation and a must for the Bugs Bunny fanatic.

Bugs Bunny is the greatest cartoon character of all time. I really love that rabbit ever since I got a Bugs Bunny stuffed animal.

I think with _Bugs Bunny 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare_, people will understand everyone's favorite rabbit, who has entertained Americans and people around the world.

Bugs Bunny's wit and wisdom has made him an icon for all ages. Bugs, a clever beast with long ears who always makes the wrong turn at Alberquerque, has become a hero of many. This rabbit has become a hero for me, like it has been for many.

I think with the book, we will understand that Bugs' wit and wisdom has made him an icon for all ages, especially for all rabbit lovers.

Quick quiz--who is the only cartoon character with a service record in the United States Marine Corps?

If you said "Bugs Bunny", you're right on target. Such was The Rabbit's impact during the years of World War II, the Marines insisted that he "enlist," giving him dog tags and ID papers complete with paw prints. At the end of the war, he was honorably discharged as a master sergeant!

Such gestures are hardly surprising, according to Joe Adamson. Bugs' debut in 1940 marked the convergence of a rebellious spirit and a dire period in our history when just such an attitude was sorely needed. We needed to see Bugs nonchalantly thumb his nose at his adversaries when we were facing our most frightening adversaries of all--namely Germany and Japan.

He did not spring to life fully formed, however. Bugs, in seminal form, appeared in a number of cartoons in the late thirties, but was not the wabbit we know him to be. Crazy, out of control, and posessing a Goofy-like voice, he seemed more at home in Bob Clampett's Wackyland than facing the business end of Elmer Fudd's shotgun. Adamson takes us through these early incarnations of Bugs, and gives us a quick history of the Leon Schlesinger studio that spawned him. Schlesinger's outfit had been a decidedly low-rent operation producing second-rate imitations of Disney cartoons when the great "Tex" Avery arrived--and promptly stood the industry on its ear. To Avery, "cute" was out--and a manic, self-aware approach was in. Some two years after the first proto-Bugs cartoons, Avery restyled the embryonic rabbit to fit the new studio philosophy. When faced with a gun-toting hunter, Bugs did not scream or run away, but responded with a smart-alecky "What's up, Doc?"--and immediately shocked and delighted audiences.

Even at the height of his success, Adamson says, the rabbit continued to change and grow, most notably at the hands of his self-styled "analyist," Chuck Jones. Bugs under Jones became a thinking character, fighting only when provoked (and uttering the immortal words "Of course you realize this means war.") This Bugs was a winner, someone who seemed to know something his adversaries Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck did not. And audiences loved him all the more for it.

Inevitably, as with all stars, Bugs underwent a period of decline, and Adamson takes us through this era as well. The long run on television, the ill-conceived specials and compilation movies are discussed (Chuck Jones' "Carnival Of The Animals" musical feature was the low point). Significant in its absence is Bugs' big-screen re-emergence in "Space Jam"--understandable since this book was first published in 1990 (the best possible excuse for an updated edition, Mr. Adamson.) A detailed background of Bugs and his various opponents takes up the back section of the book, and is quite interesting. There aren't as many behind-the-scenes stories as in Jones' "Chuck Amuck", but it also spares us the endless self-congratulation of Chuck's tome.

This book is a must read for anyone wanting to know the right way to run an animation studio--namely, leave the animators alone (free from interference from networks and parents' groups) and let the magic happen. Leon Schlesinger, who rarely supervised the animators' work if he could help it, unwittingly had the right approach all along.

My book group chose this book by the interesting description here and review. The idea of a spinster leaving her family to become a witch intrigued us all, but we were disappointed in the book. We found the character not very interesting, and the lack of action calmed us all into slumber while trying to read it. It wasn't a terrible book, it had some interesting things to say, but we could not understand all the immensely positive reviews here.

These new little NYRB editions are just honeys--I have yet to read one that wasn't absolutely spectacular (the editors have superb taste), and the editions themselves are little gems--they FEEL so nice in your hands because they're made of gorgeous high quality paper and set in a lovely font.

Warner's novel is fantastic--its rhythms are slow but musical, and it takes quite a while to determine what awaits Laura in Great Mop. A very, very funny book that also comments movingly on the condition of "odd women" in the generation before Suffrage... I couldn't put this down!

Lolly Willowes is the spirited story of a woman searching for herself. The themes in this book are as applicable now as they were when it was written. Thank you to Academy Chicago for bringing us this beautiful edition with an insightful introduction (they also use the original cover art).

Plutarch provides a superb history concerning the decline and collapse of the Roman Republic, following the lives of Sulla, Marius, Crassus, Pompey, Caesar and Cicero. The first five were very powerful soldiers aspiring to the position of dictator, and the final was perhaps the greatest Latin orator and a lawyer of unparalleled skill. The history is very thorough and definitely worth reading.
However, Plutarch's writing leaves much to be desired. It is slow and dull for the most part, and he provides few insights into what he is writing...he only recounts facts and does not even bother trying to analyze the situation. This can be good, but it makes for dull reading and you finish the book feeling as if you had just read a textbook.
Recommended for people very interested in this period, or amateur historians, but not for the lay reader.

Plutarch was a Greek historian who wrote in the 2nd Century AD. This work covers the lives of six key individuals in the twilight of the old Roman Republic from 105-43 BC. Marius and Sulla were soldier-dictators who first sought to gain one-man rule. They were followed by Crassus, Pompey and Caesar. These three lives are the best in the book. The final life is Cicero, the lawyer. There is good military detail on Marius' defeat of the Cimbri, Crassus' defeat at Carrhae and Caesar's triumph at Pharsalus. The Mithraditic Wars in Asia minor are important but difficult to follow due to the lack of any maps. There are no great lessons here, other than the eternal struggle for power. The editor was lazy in this book and should have provided a glossary of key individuals, since there are too many individuals with similar names. There are also no maps - a major flaw.

I feel a bit strange writting a review about any classic. Its a bit like writing a review of the Koran or the Bible. There is a reason why all these books are classics, and the reason is that they give some glimpse at the immutable nature of mankind.

Plutarch describes a nation wracked by personal divisions during the Roman Civil War with chapters on some of the major participants in this conflict: a true fall from grace for both the people of Rome and the institution of republicanism. There is a lot here that is exciting, such as the war against the Parthians, Jugurthia and the personal rivalries between Ceasar and Pompey.

The writing moves from what I would classify as mildly interesting, usually at the beginning of each chapter as he relates the youth, familiar, and power influences on the personal development of each live, to ripping tales of combat, honour lost and found, and principled peoples meeting usually, bloody fates. Lives of particular note are Pompey and Cicero in this book, but my personal favourite was Crassus, his fight against the slave revolt of Spartacus and his eventual annihilation with his entire army against the Parthians. The other real character that keeps popping up in each chapter is Cato, a political idealist who commited suicide for his repulican ideals when there was every indication that Ceasar respected him and would have spared his life despite Cato's defection to Pompey.

There is lots here that is of course raw speculation: I think that it is unlikely that Ceasar really had dictatorship on his mind since his early youth, but Plutarch would have us believe that it was almost forordained that Ceasar wanted personal control of the State.

Plutarch is much more interesting to read than Ceasar or Livy. So if you are looking for a good place to enter the classics, this is one good read.