3 comments about Rasputin: A Concise Biography (Pocket Biography Series).

1. Grigori Efimovich Rasputin was one of the most mysterious men in Russian history. It was difficult to understand his ways in life. Was he a holy man who was simply misunderstood, or was he a scheming sinner who manipulated the suffering of others? Was he a miracle worker or just a crafty manipulator of the Imperial Family? All of these questions and more are answered in Rasputin by Harold Shukman.
   
   To this day, Rasputin is a shadowy and enigmatic character; a person of contradictory personality traits. He was a suitable scapegoat for those who wanted to attack the Tsar's actions and decisions, but who wouldn't confront Nicholas directly. Rasputin was thought to have powers related to God. In fact, most people believed he was God.
   
   One of the most dramatic experiences in Rasputin projected these powers of God thought to be held by Rasputin. Rasputin had a very close friend, Anna Vyrubova. Not too give too much of the story away, but Anna was caught in a terrible derailment of a train in which she was almost killed. Although she survived the accident, doctors despaired of saving her life because her condition was so bad. Rasputin came to Anna and stood over her as she lay on her deathbed. He reached out and held her hand. Intensely focused, Rasputin repeated a prayer. Anna suddenly awoke from her coma; it was a miracle.
   
   People believed Rasputin had an uncanny control over the Tsar and his wife. Rasputin enjoyed the celebrity status this reputation gave him. He was soon hated by all. The story of Rasputin's demise is well known. His assassinator, Prince Felix Felixovich Yussupov, always portrayed his murder of Rasputin as a political act to save Russia.
   
   Rasputin was a man of malign and destructive force in Russian history. His religious teachings were unorthodox, and his alluring charisma aroused an illustrious response in many ladies of the St. Petersburg aristocracy. Shady financial dealings added to the atmosphere of decadence and scandal as he was considered a political threat.
   
   This book fulfilled every one of my expectations. I was looking for a biography of a person whose life I knew close to nothing about. This way, I could learn something new. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. It features events formed in the novelization
   of a film, rather than in history context. The book is written so dramatically that I often was close to missing my stop while reading it on the train.
   
   Some points in the book I found to be rather biased. The author depicted Rasputin to be a man with an unhealthy influence. Very few times in the book did Shukman present Rasputin as an honorable holy man with ostensible beneficent purposes. One must view a person from two perspectives: the good side and the bad side. If we pay attention to what one person depicts another as, we cannot set our own opinions. Instead, we will follow society's norm.
   
   Rasputin offers a simple gist to Rasputin's life. If one would like to attain a detailed knowledge of Rasputin's life, then this book is not for them. This book can be read in a few hours. It has narrations and detailed events. Some pieces of his life are simply glimpsed. Nevertheless, it is a good read and I would recommend it to anyone.



2. I wanted to get a brief introduction to the life of
   Rasputin and this book delivered very well. It's well
   writen, at times I thought I was reading the novelisation
   of a film rather then history as it sort of plays out like
   a movie.

   Rasputin is an interesting character and this book made me want to read something more detailed and in depth on his life and
   relationship with the Ramonavs. But I would suggest this book
   for those who just want to get a glimps of who this man was. You
   can read it in a couple hours.




3. It is a profound investigation about the demoniac monk. This book can teach us a great deal about the dark side of the human soul. The contents tend to lean us to two extremes: painful feeling of great fear and strange enchant.

5 comments about DIANA; HER TRUE STORY: Her True Story.

1. I sort of liked this book more than some of the other biographies I've read before. To be honest before I read this book I have NEVER heard of Princess Diana. While I read this book I felt sympathetic toward her because she had a real hard life after she became involved with the Prince Charles. Most of the sympathy went into the fact that she received pretty much no help from any one except her mother and father but no help whatsoever from the royal family and was expected to know everything she was supposed to. She had bulimia and no experience at all at being royalty and the somewhat rude expectations from the royal position and the responsibilities that came with it. Not only that but the prince that proposed to Diana (the prince that became her husband) was cheating on her with another woman and everyone was trying to hide the fact that he was seeing the other woman. Along with that problem came the fact that her husband cared more about the other woman than Diane even though she was his wife. An example was that when Diana was still engaged to the prince and the paparazzi were following her and the other woman the prince was seeing, Diana was being followed by like 36 paparazzi the other woman was only being followed by 4 people the prince was sympathetic towards the other woman and didn't even care about the hardships Diana was going through.
   So overall I would give the book a good rating since it had a personal interview with Diana and used her own words rather than some facts that could very well be just rumors that were spread.
   S.Brock



2. Saint Therese of Lisieux, The Little Flower wrote that she had prayed to discover her true vocation - and that she had found it: "to be love in the heart of the Church"! A novel by Carson McCullers wears the title: "The Heart is A Lonely Hunter". "The heart" is the location of the reality of our life . . .it is where we really dwell . . . and where God dwells with us.
   
   Princess Diana Spencer was indeed a "lonely hunter" searching for herself and for meaning "in her heart" . . . and she found that meaning in the hearts of countless millions throughout the world -- many who encountered her personally and countless millions who never physically met her but DID meet her soul.
   
   Diana's external beauty simply was a radiation outward and visibly of her real true inner beauty - Melanie (Safka) the folk singer wrote a song titled, "Beautiful People", and while Melanie hadn't envisioned "Diana" who probably had just been born about the time she recorded that song, Diana WAS a "beatiful person".
   
   This book by Andrew Morton comes about as close as we might ever come to hearing the voice of Diana speaking for herself. She presents herself to us as she was: frailties included - but "the flaws" are what mark individuals as unique and as the amazing persons that they are - and the faults simply lend contrast to their perfections and more noble character.
   
   The world cried when Diana died . . . and she left us wondrous memories of a "Camelot" that did exist if but for a fleeting moment . . . and she left us an example of how "love" can exist in the heart of the worldfor any other person in need, whatever their need or hurt and wherever they may live. She was a friend of Mother Terese and Mother Terese was a friend to Diana (Diana was buried with rosaries Mother Teresa gave her) - they lived in two different atmospheres but shared that sense of "human pain".
   
   This volume lets Diana linger with us a while longer . . . and the photographs bring her back once again and remind us of why we all fell under her spell.
   
   And beneath the surface of her image . . . between the lines of her words, we can also find hints as to how we can live a more compassionate and understanding and caring life of "love" ourselves.
   
   Diana is missed . . . and she should be . . . but the world was blessed that she walked among us even for so brief a time. Her smile is now eternal.



3. I first read this book when it came out in 1992. Like everyone else, I was shocked and blamed Prince Charles for the marriage falling apart.
   
   Since she died, there's been a number of credible stories come out that shows Diana to be manipulative, emotionally immature, stubborn and just plain bizarre. While her devotion to her children is unquestionable, and her charity work obviously came right from her heart, there were too many other aspects of her character that were not so glossy.
   
   I mean come on, if your wife was pregnant and threw herself down the stairs to get your attention, would you not seriously question her mental stability? Anyone who can cut themselves with a lemon peeler or smash themselves against a glass cabinet is obviously a few bricks short of a load and in serious need of help. When she did the Panorama interview in 1995, she declared that she felt "betrayed" when her former lover James Hewitt did a tell-all book.............uh, well didn't she do the exact same thing to her husband when she told Andrew Morton all the dirty details of their marriage?
   
   While I despised Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles for their affair, I understand now (a decade later) why he would turn to her: for some NORMALCY in his life.
   
   Be that as it may, the one fasinating thing about Diana is her uncanny ability to predict things. In this book, it tells of her conversations when she was young that she was going to marry someone "in the public eye". She also apparently predicted her father's stroke in 1975. But what was fasinating to read in 1992 was Diana's belief that "while she knows that William will one day be King, she is firm in her belief that she will never become Queen" and "I am performing my duty as Princess of Wales, but I can't see it for much longer than 15 years." As we all know, she was Princess of Wales for 16 years. She made these statements 6 years before she died.....



4. Andrew Morton's book, written in collusion with the late Diana, is a well-written, cleverly confected polemic designed to undo the very people who made her what she was (or, as some in the UK were wont to say, "After all, she's just a royal by injection"). Purportedly the daughter of a famous alcoholic (Lord Spencer), she exhibited all the classic symptoms of an adult child of an alcoholic; low self-esteem, poor boundaries, poor impulse control, chronic depression, a pattern of blaming others for her problems, etc. Of course, one can add on bulemia (from which she suffered before she married her poor husband), and other deep-seated psychiatric disorders. All this is clearly shown in the book to any critical reader. My daughter's godmother, the late Ouida Huxley, used to regale us with stories told her by one of the Queen's closest confidants, who herself witnessed how during the height of her omnipotence Diana would disparage her husband to his face, in front of the family, on his lack of charisma compared to her. She pulled cute pranks like screaming and rolling about on the floor when she didn't get what she wanted (in this particular case, to go to Majorca instead of Balmoral) in a fine impression of a grand mal epileptic seizure, in front of the Queen at a family meeting. For some reason (and it wasn't Camilla, who re-entered the scene only after all efforts at marital repair were exhausted), Diana felt as if the ungrateful royals needed to be paid back for her psychic pain, not realizing that the source of her suffering was in her own head. Andrew Morton's book is the result. It's as one-sided as an autobiography by a narcissist. Morton was either duped, or a willing collaborator in the tearing down of Britain's primary civic institution, the Monarchy. This work (if such it may be called) is about as accurate as Soviet propaganda. It is a fantasy woven from scraps of truth. If Diana had lived, and married the dreadful Dodie Fayed, she would have lost her titular "Princess" title, and reverted to merely the (alleged) daughter of an earl, and would have once again been "Lady Di". Dodie's dad was planning to lugubriously install the two love-birds in the Windsors' old place in the Bois de Boulogne. Eventually, no doubt, she would have tried out one of her famous emotionally wracking "turns" on Dodie (an Egyptian man, mind you) and would have infallibly been kicked out on her coutured posterior. During that time anyone who knew her, even from a distance, could see that Diana's life was on an inexorable and endless downward cycle (remember, even her brother, who so "courageously" dissed his own godmother, the Queen, on international television, refused to have Christmas dinner with D the last year of her life). Andrew Morton's book is a classic celebrity bio. Poor Diana. She was never happy, she would never be happy, and she was going to sow chaos and destruction wherever she went. Death, however, mercifully came for Diana before her life got even worse.



5. If you need to read just ONE book rehardsing Princess Diana... This is THE one you must pick!
   
   You will be delighted with all the details and will admire even more this wonderful person.
   
   A book you MUST have on your shelves!

4 comments about Jumping the Line:The Adventures and Misadventures of an American Radical.

1. A fascinating book written by a veteran of the Spanish civil war that strips it of both the idealism of the left and dismissal of the right.
   
   While only roughly half of the book covers the Spanish civil war and the authors participation it is as a previous reviewer points out the "American Orwell" Herrick writes with the bitterness of a man whose ideals had been betrayed and who had seen for himself the betrayal of many of the men who went to fight for what they felt was the freedom of the Spanish people against the tyranny of dictatorship and fascism.
   
   What many of them found was the growing Shadow of the 'dictatorship of the left' in the form of Stalin-ism ever encroaching upon them. Already men had began to be silenced by the Russian backed leaders of the Brigade and every day republican controlled land began to resemble tyrannical Stalinist Russia as its lackeys in Spain seemed to be far keener on dispatching left wing opponents in Spain than fighting fascists (It is well documented the destruction of the CNT and POUM by the Communist party)
   
   Herrick also details the rise of military leaders placed in positions of power for little more than cosmetic reasons, to create an image to the world. One a University professor the other an African American. Concerning the second man it is particularly moving in that far from as some more cynical historians have painted him he was a simple man who resigned himself to 'follow party orders' while knowing full well his own shortcomings as a less than competent leader (This was later to prove true with a disastrous attack let by him that lead to heavy casualties) It is also interesting how one of Herricks friends another African American attempted to lead a protest against his appointment and how Herrick commentated on that he could as if anyone else did it would be perceived as 'racist'
   
   The arguing, the incompetence and pointless political debates are all examined in full here. A fascinating read, this may be in many ways similar to Orwell's biography but the book "In red and green" is one I would also draw comparisons to. Especially in that book the part where Irish republican troops discuss shooting their commanding officer because he had once served in the Irish republic during the black and tan wars! (This in spite of the fact that he was now a committed anti fascist and ironically Jewish! Well, Ryan did go on to support the Nazis)
   
   A fascinating insight into one mans history on the left during the first half of the last century. After reading the books of Orwell, In Red and Green and Jumping the line you will come to the conclusion that it was no surprise that Franco won, the only surprise in fact being that he took so long to do it.



2. "Jumping the Line" is a hobo phrase for "riding the rails," or hitching a ride on a freight car. It also brings to mind crossing boundaries, maybe even switching sides. Herrick has done both. Beginning life as a rail-riding hobo, Herrick developed an awareness of the plight of the downtrodden and eventually became not a member but employee of the American Communist Party. Herrick was hard-working element of the Party and an able union organizer and cell initiator. Willing to put his life on the line in backing his beliefs, Herrick traveled to Spain with the Abraham Lincoln brigade to fight the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Comintern, the International Communist Party, hoped this effort would lead to a home for Communism in Spain. While Herrick's soldiering was brief (he quickly took a bulled to the neck, nearly crippling him), the Communist atrocities and double-dealing there made him see the Party in an entirely different light. Returning to the States an anarchist at heart, Herrick had a wife to support and was tied to the Party for a paycheck. His outspokenness about the Stalin-Hitler pact led to his dismissal and his full emergence as an anarcho-social democrat. Appearing in these pages as Herrick formalizes his distrust of all power is such figures as Emma Goldman, Cole Porter and Herrick's former employer Orson Welles. This fascinating work is historically enlightening and a textbook in the formation of practical anarchism from an adventurer-author struck from the same mold as George Orwell.



3. "Jumping The Line" is a brutally honest and frank account of William Herrick's life on the American Left - as a young Communist who quickly became disillusioned with the excesses of Stalinism and of Soviet Anti-Semitism. An early volunteer in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion fighting Fascism in Spain, Herrick was badly wounded in the first major battle fought by the Lincolns at Jarama. Transferred to a hospital, Herrick witnessed firsthand the betrayals and backstabbing policies of the Soviet Secret Police and their minions. In one horrific episode, Herrick recounts how, as an "unreliable" he was forced to be involved in an GPU\International Brigade execution of accused "Trotskyist" civilians, an event that has haunted him to this day.
   
   Returning home, Herrick then suffered the emotional wound of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, and being Jewish, promptly broke with the Party - courageously demonstrating as "a veteran of the Spanish Civil War - victim of the Hitler-Stalin Pact. He went on to adventures serving as a majordomo of sorts for Orson Welles - and some of the tales told here about "Citizen Kane" are quite hilarious. Herrick once told Life Magazine that his reasons for going to fight Hitlerism in Spain were that "As A Jew I know what Hitler is doing to my people".While he later admitted that it was the Party who instructed this to say the aforementioned remark, his pride and emotional attachment to his people clearly stands out in "Jumping The Line" as well as his "no prisoners taken" attitude towards both Fascism and Communism. This is indeed a memoir that Jews and all interested in the Spanish Civil War worldwide should read and while Herrick is a man who will admit his faults with candor, he is nonetheless a brave man and excellent writer - "Hermanos" is also strongly recommended by this reviewer.



4. This book is, very simply, the best memoir ever published by an American volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. It is a relentless autopsy on the murdered idealism of the young Communists who went to fight the fascists in Spain but ended up serving as hard guys for Russian dictator Josef Stalin and his secret police. It also shows clearly that the native supporters of the Spanish left were out for more than just a repudiation of fascist aggression: they were fighting for a social revolution, based on the labor movement, of a kind Stalin hated and feared much more than he did the fascists. This book also stands as a uniquely truthful and beautiful account of the lives of American and international Communist cadres; Bill Herrick speaks for every comrade who risked his or her life fighting for the world revolution in the 1930s, only to be brutally betrayed by Stalinism. It is extremely doubtful that a better book about the appeal of revolutionary Communism or the experience of its youthful militants will ever be written, at least in English.

5 comments about Colors of the Mountain.

1. This book really taught me about what cultural impacts Mao Ze Dong had on the Chinese population. It was an amazing book and I suggest everybody read it.



2. This review refers to the abridged audio version of this book --
   
   UGH. I am fascinated with books about China and life under Mao. However, I couldn't get through the first tape of this book, for two reasons.
   
   One was the reader, Daxing Zhang. His stilted, halting and monotone delivery made it unpleasant to listen to. He evidently is not a professional narrator and it shows. Even a great book can be ruined by a poor reader.
   
   And, believe me, this doesn't even come close to being a great book.
   The storytelling is dull and self-pitying and the language is, in turns, overblown and cliched.
   
   My biggest problem, however, was the author's attitude. Don't get me wrong: I abhor what Mao and his "cultural revolution" did in China. But it's more than a bit ironic when someone from the upper classes (the author's family were landlords and owned several buildings) complains when their property, power and status is taken away.
   
   The author's stated contempt for farm work, for instance, shows the type of elitist attitude that spurred the revolution in the first place.
   
   Never once (at least in the part of the book I managed to listen to) did Da Chen appear to have any empathy for the working classes that were oppressed under the pre-revolution days.
   
   Again, I must emphasize that I do NOT agree with the goals of or methods used by Mao's Communist regime, but nor can I generate a great deal of sympathy for once-rich whiners who feel, for the first time in their lives, the sting of poverty and disenfranchisement.



3. I read a lot of memoirs precisely for what I received from this book, inspiration. The sentence that galvanized me was this one, "I had been studying an average of fifteen hours a day for the last ten months."
   
   Other reviewers have explained Chen's story, so I won't reiterate it. But I will say that when I think about what this man accomplished in pursuit of his dream, I realize once again how easy it is to excuse our failures as a matter of fate or luck.
   
   Da Chen teaches us otherwise.



4. One wonders why the communist system was swept into the dustbin of history. Da Chen tells you why. Intellectuals were purged in Mao's society and people learned very little. In fact, school was not even required of everyone. Only after Mao joined Lenin in a masoleum did intelligence and ability matter much.
   Da Chen relates his early life story about his early Chinese childhood in the rural south of China. He was discriminated against because he was a son of a former landlord. Peasants lorded it over him and his family. Da Chen relates his experiences of the Cultural Revolution and how the school system was devastated by the purges and reeducation.
   Da Chen escaped this poverty by using his intelligence to shine in the reform education system after Mao's death. He received a state education in English and went on to emigrate to New York. A nice rages to riches story and the tyranny of the Communist system.



5. Chen Da's bestselling COLORS OF THE MOUNTAIN is one of the more entertaining memoirs I've run across in recent years.
   
   In this volume, Chen recounts his life, growing up amid the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, through his acceptance into college. In the writing of autobiography, certain liberties are par for the course (memory is never impeccable), but I was overall rather impressed with Chen's determination, and his detailed, direct way of attempting to illuminate the day-to-day texture of life in an out-of-the-way part of China.
   
   Chen's approach is gentle - both accessible to Western audiences, and attentive in its' detailed depiction of his family's life, accomplishments, and the troubles those accomplishments brought (during the Cultural Revolution years); the occasionally mentioned poems of his grandfather were one of Chen's major motivators, and their eloquence was the model this entire memoir was constructed upon.
   
   Perhaps not the most literary, or the most historically rigid autobiography, but definitely one of the warmest.
   
   -David Alston

2 comments about LA Vida Loca: El Testimonio De UN Pandillero En Los Angeles (Listen to Them).

1. This book was excellent! I read it in just a couple of days. Since I first started I couldn't take my eyes of what I was reading. The story is shocking and rude, yet interesting and mind-opening. It explicitly tells the struggles of growing up in a foreign country with everything against you and yet find the way to a new world full of possibilities. Excellent for tenagers, parents, and students.



2. THIS WAS ONE THAT COULD NOT BE PUT DOWN FOR LONG.I DO NOT READ ALOT BUT I TOOK A GLANCE AT THIS AND CONTINUED READING TILL THE END. IT WAS REALLY SOMETHING GREAT TO READ.MY EYES COULDNT GET ENOUGH.

1 comments about The Grimaldis of Monaco.

1. The author has previously published works on Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, and Countess Tolstoy -- but also on Judy Garland, Shirley Temple, Ronald Reagan, and P.T. Barnum, so the reader may be forgiven for unfounded suspicions of tabloidism. The second half of this workmanlike narrative does, in fact, concern itself mostly with the lively affairs of the current younger generation but the reader may ignore all that (or the reader may try).

   For the first half details in sweeping prose the adventurous history of the Grimaldis, "an ambitious, hot-blooded, unscrupulous race, keen to plunder, swift to revenge, and furious in battle." The harbor at Monte Carlo has been strategically important since the Carthaginian fleet anchored there. The Lombards, Arabs, Guelfs, and Genoese all had their strongholds and the Grimaldi family arrived in 1162 as Genoese consuls. One night in 1297, Francesco Grimaldi (known as "the Spiteful") climbed the cliffs with his followers, disguised as monks, and overpowered the small garrison, and the family has ruled the Rock ever since. Edwards makes clear the necessary nerve and tenacity and the willingness to fight, as well as the diplomatic balancing act the princes of Monaco have had to perform in order to survive as a more or less independent state.

2 comments about How to Supervise People: Techniques for Getting Results through Others.

1. Donald P. Ladew's book is exactly the sort of manual that all supervisors should have. While the ideas are not generally new, they are effective. The book concisely presents many tools for supervisors. You don't need to sort through jargon - just turn to the thorough, step-by-step lists and scan them for quick reference. The simple and easy-to-follow techniques provide all of a supervisor's essential tools. Experienced supervisors can use this book to refine their skills and improve any weak areas, while neophytes can use it to supplement their knowledge as they gain experience. We at getAbstract recommend this book to supervisors at all levels and to employees hoping to be promoted to supervisory roles. If you keep this straightforward guide in your top desk drawer and refer to it regularly, you can sound like an expert anytime.



2. The edition of this book that I read is part of the 'Sixty -Minute Training Series' published by the National Press Publications, a division of the Rockhurst College Continuing Education Center, Inc. It's the type of book that is handed out at two-day training seminars for new supervisors, i.e. heavy on bulleted lists and self-assessment quizzes, and somewhat light on content.

   What does it mean to be a supervisor at a large to medium-size corporation, trapped as we are between the rock of upper management and the hard place inhabited by the people we are supposed to supervise? For one thing, it means we don't get much respect. Here is a direct quotation from the feedback section of my company's March newsletter:

   "I see little contribution to our company's success when it comes to any employee in a supervisory/area leader role!"

   Supervisors also don't get very much training (my company is a refreshing exception to this rule-although I'm not sure it helped in my case). Many of us come up through the technical ranks without a clue as to how to manage people instead of computers or warehouse stock or company finances. Therefore books like "How to Supervise People" can play an important role. This particular book, written by Donald P. Ladew, has valuable (although terse) guidelines in areas such as demonstrating leadership, handling people, team-building, and communication. At the beginning of each chapter, the author tells us what we're going to learn. Then the bullets and summaries come flying at us. We are given a brief pause to write up a plan, or reflect on the qualities of a supervisor we admire, or take a self-assessment quiz. The chapter then ends with yet another summary of what we should have learned. Biff. Bam. Boom. The End---an example of what the back cover calls an 'interactive format'.

   I think books like "How to Supervise People" are particularly valuable for a quick review when I'm trying to solve a stressful, possibly long-term problem. It gives me a chance to organize my thoughts, come up with a plan to achieve a positive outcome (instead of giving in to my natural tendency to strangle the person who is causing the problem), and reflect on what I'm really trying to accomplish. Here is a list of the basic qualities that this book feels a supervisor should possess. I think it's a good one:

   "1. Be an advocate for the people who report to you. 2. Be fair without playing favorites or being a 'pal.' 3. Create an environment where work can be accomplished. 4. Provide stability during times of change. 5. You must have courage."

   Maybe I should post the above list on the wall of my cubicle, for those times when someone else claims that we supervisors make "little contribution"!

4 comments about Lawrence of Arabia (Pocket Biographies).

1. This 128 page paperback version may be a good read. I don't know, haven't read it. My copy is the 946 page hardcover edition. It is thorough, balanced and an excellent read. If you can find that version, get it!



2. Using extensive documentation, including documents unreleased by the British government when earlier, more speculative biographies were written, Jeremy Wilson produced a phenomenal work of great scope and power. The book may be too exhaustive for casual readers, who will find the reams of speculative nonsense written about Lawrence more to their liking. Wilson also carefully deconstructs many precious Lawrence myths: that Lawrence was homosexual, for instance, is unproven (there's no evidence that he was sexual at all); that he made up large portions of his adventures is also proven untrue -- though in his later writings he sometimes shaped a story to sound better and certainly he had to dance around descriptions of his intelligence work. But these are both side issues. Lawrence lived a life of tremendous accomplishment in the First World War, but in other fields, such as archaeology and literature. Wilson is fair, and corrects Lawrence's own accounts when necessary. This is not a work of hagiography. It is the most well-documented biography of Lawrence, and Wilson quotes primary documentation extensively -- perhaps too extensively. It's a must for the library of any Lawrence fan, and the only necessary secondary reference work for anyone who wants the truth about Lawrence. Those who require something more nonsensical and speculative in their diet may add Knights "Secret Lives of Lawrence of Arabia".



3. I read this because of my great love of the movie. Interesting enough, this is the first time that the real life was far more interesting than the myth. What happened in Arabia might have been his coup de grace of achievements, but hardly the only aspect that makes him a ledgend. He was an archeologist, thinker, writer, humanitarian, culturalist, adventurist, and only a military genious by circumstance. This book makes it all clear and vivid.

   I have read biographies before, but none that held on to my imagination so tightly while still using the historical records. I am only sorry that it has the unfortunate sub-title as authorized biography because many who think it will be a dry "whitewashed" examination of his life will miss a wonderful book. I can't heap praise on this book, and the life of T.E. Lawrence, enough. There might be books with far different and valid interpretations, but hardly as fun and interesting to read. The size of the book at nearly a thousand pages is worth every bit of paper printed on it. I guess I should congradulate the author for a fine presentation of a wonderful character.




4. I had previously read the Robert Graves book on Lawrence. This was far more superior. It was engrossing, detailed and made me want to know more about this incredible man. There didn't seem to be any bias for or against Lawrence by the author. It moved quickly. It's apparent that he did a very detailed job of researching Lawrence. I am know looking for other books that might uncover even more information. Enjoy!

5 comments about The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America.

1. Ruhlman tries very hard to be neither a culinary student nor a journalist, so he ends up being a sort of half-baked memoirist. On the one hand, this book is worth reading in order to get a behind-the-scenes of some of what it's like to train at the CIA, but on the other hand, Ruhlman's lack of writerly discipline makes the book exasperatingly low on information.
   
   There's far too much hero-worship on his part of dominant male figures at the school; it seems that Ruhlman is powerfully drawn to aggressive, angry, powerful, and/or graceful men, and his account of the CIA is overshadowed by his need to be accepted by and mythologize male chefs like Adam (a passionate, withdrawn student), the school's president, his Skills teacher, and other male teachers. Worst of all, the women at the school are given short-shrift by Ruhlman, presented as either needy figures of fun or neurotic screwups who get put in their place by a man. This read less like accurate reporting and more like the bias of a writer who isn't as interested in the women he meets.
   
   I wouldn't have minded if Ruhlman had acknowledged the effect these men had on him and his need to be accepted by them and had written honestly about that, but he hid behind his so-called account of training at the CIA and his creation of what he describes as the nature of people who are born to cook. In actuality, he skipped most of the school's curriculum and was given special treatment by the staff.
   
   Overall, a disappointing and frustrating read.



2. Michael Ruhlman has found his true calling. He's one of the best authors currently out there who writes culinaryeese ... not about recipes, but about [i]the journey/experience itself[/i]. And he does it with the intimacy and sensitivity of someone who's been through the process himself.
   
   In this book, the author takes the reader on a ride though what it's like to attend the Culinary Institute of America, from the perspective of an insider/student.
   
   Wonderful book. Well written. Deft, and knowledgeable.
   
   Highly recommended for self-taught cooking aficianados who love every aspect of their hobby, and also for people considering formalized culinary education and a career in the food industry.



3. I am an avid follower (hobbyist, not a professional) of all things culinary and my best friend is a CIA graduate, so I was very interested to get an objective view of what what goes on at CIA and to put some perspective around some of the stories he's told me thorugh the years. Ruhlman's story of his time at CIA was engaging and an overall good read, but two things left me a bit cold (hence the 4 vs. 5 stars).
   
   1) I was quite disappointed to find no culinary glossary, dictionary, or reference to define the formal and informal terms he used with great frequency throughout the book. Given my interest in food and my many discussions w/my chef friend, I knew what "family meal" was, what he meant by "in the weeds," and was able to identify most culinary terms such as "bruinoise," "gallantine," and "pate a choux," but I suspect the casual reader was lost in that aspect and I've never enjoyed reading a book where I needed a dictionary to know what the writer was talking about.
   
   2) I found the content of the story to be uneven throughout the book. What Ruhlman covered in depth, he REALLY covered in depth, i.e., the making of the mise en place or how to create a roux. In doing so, however, he glossed over or merely touched on many other potential areas of interest without further development, i.e., the culinary terminology (as mentioned above), the pain-staking planning and execution it must take to use the foods from one class in another, the inspiration and creation of class and restaurant menus, how CIA graduates (not just the famous ones) have influenced the world of food, cooking, restaurants, etc.
   
   Ultimately, I think this story would have been better suited to being published as a multi-issue series in a foodie magazine like Food and Wine or Gourmet vs. as a stand-alone book. Nonetheless, and my comments above notwithstanding, I did enjoy the book and felt I learned a lot about the basics of becoming a chef.



4. The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute is a revelation to food-lovers and aspiring cooks of what goes on in a professional kitchen. Immersed in the Culinary Institute for six months, Michael Ruhlman effectively translates the cook's jargon of technique and skill into a language that everyone can understand. Ruhlman also touches upon the essential qualities beyond the cook's passion for food: consistency, curiosity and the capacity to evolve.



5. I am almost 12 years old and am starting this book. I plan to become a chef when I'm an adult and I want to get a college education from the Culinary Instutute, being only 11, I want to see what the CIA will be like from a students perspective. I am almost at the chapter "Routine" and am enjoying this book so much. This book is for very serious chefs, who plan to be or are chefs. There are three books in the series so far and I have two. Michael Ruhlman talks about everything just right, like mirepoix (mero pwa), before reading this, I had no idea what mirepoix was, but learned that with the book. This book is a non-fiction book about Ruhlman's actual experience at the Institute. This book is so enjoyable. If you'd like to see more from the culinary, go to CIAchef.edu, for thier website. I plan to persue my career in Baking and Pastry Arts and own my own bakery. I will write a review for the whole book when I'm done. This is one of the best books to read for a chef.
   I so far give this book 5 stars out of 5. IT is an enjoyable book.
   You should get it if you are a serious chef, if not, I wouldn't, this book is all about the life of a chef.

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