5 comments about The Funhouse Mirror: Reflections on Prison.

1. There have been books describing the subculture of prison life and those withiin it (Hot House, New Jack, etc) but this is the first one that is told through using a combination of narrative, and stores written by the prisoners themselves in a creative writing class. This book is informative, honest, and will do nothing to make you feel better about the system. However, it is an interesting read, the stories and backgrounds of the criminals makes you realize that most of them could not, and should not be released to society. But, after hearing their stories, you do think about the 'nurture vs nature' arguement. Well written book.



2. Since I know nothing of the prison system, wanting to broaden my education, I choose this. An exceptional book, not only for one wanting an education, yet to know the system. VERY well written. A MUST read for anyone wanting to know more that the basic of the gossip mill. Thank YOU for taking the time to write.



3. This book allows the reader to enter the worlds found in prisons in ways not encountered in other books on the topic. It is truly extraordinary to have the voices of this diverse group all somehow merge together to reflect aspects of our common humanity. I believe this quality in the writing by the prisoners could only happen with the wise guidance of an immensely skilled teacher and understanding person. Robert Gordon must be someone who sees and cares about the lives of others yet does not fall into the trap of becoming overly sentimental about the ironies and cruelties encountered in learning about and working with this group. Gordon manages
   to lead the readers on a compelling journey that will expand their knowledge and continue to influence their thinking.



4. I started reading The Funhouse Mirror up while I was waiting for a connection in an airport. I got so absorbed in it that I almost missed my plane. It is a collection of stories by prisoners in Washington State. Their pieces are remarkable, but what really makes the book are the interspersed commentaries and stories by the editor, Robert Ellis Gordon. Gordon spent several years working in the prison system as a writing teacher, and the prisoners who wrote these stories were his students. While the prisoners' stories are good, Gordon himself is a far more accomplished and vivid writer. Reading Gordon's own pieces really brought home to me the hell that is our prison system, and the difficult moral and emotional problems that it poses. This is a wonderful, gripping, depressing book that I recommend to anyone who wants to learn about what our prisons are really like.



5. As a correctional officer, I found this book very helpful in understanding the social structure within the walls of a prison. Having seen alot of the things that this book has, makes you look at their life in a slightly different light. I enjoyed the book very much, and have loaned it to many of my fellow officers.

5 comments about The Pimp's Bible: The Sweet Science of Sin.

1. A must to ad to the pimp collection. He lays out more of the rules than his life, but if know the game, its all about rules.



2. A great introduction into the many life styles and forms of pimping which go unnoticed by todays standards of the word pimp. I would recommend this over The Pimp Game: Instructional Guide by Mickey Royal. To me Alfred Bilbo Gholson has a better grip of what pimping means, he also represents a classier type of pimp, one who doesn't believe in drugs and violence as a means of pimping.



3. Grow up! It's not good to be a pimp, that's victimizing women you crazy...!



4. The cover is wack. The contents reveal just how much work the author put in to this lifestyle. This is still applicable today. If only people were willing to go through the correct process pimps might once again gain respect. Read between the lines in this book. Much game it has.



5. I live in a nursing home, and this book has taught me how to deal with all the old biddies that live here. I am getting more attention than ever in the love department. I have also learned how to place myself at the top of all the other old men here, without even having to resort to any weaponry like the fellows in this book. The concepts are really the same; instead of cruising around in a Cadillac, I cruise up and down the halls in my wheelchair. The book has made this managed care facility worth living in!

5 comments about Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story.

1. This is a sort of watered down story of a mafiosa. The author does not disclose or detail some of the slimy backhanded sneaky criminal things that he surely committed an the book borders on a made for LIFETIME movie vibe.



2. This is a well written, interesting read. If you are looking for the typical "mafia" book full of violence and the stereotypical, almost mythical, portrayal of mob leaders, this book is probably not for you. This book provides one man's insight (a man who writes from an insider perspective) into many important events in our recent history, including the JFK assassination.
   
   One of the other reviewers mentioned that a true "man of honor" is one "who goes to work everyday" and that Bonanno was not a man of honor. In response to that I would only say that there are many lawful jobs that are not honorable. Is it honorable to work for a big corporation that exploits men and women for cheap labor? The second point is that the Italians (along with other immigrants) suffered discrimination when they arrived to the U.S. and had to provide sustenance for their families in any way they could. Furthermore, they certainly did not have a monopoly on organized crime as other immigrant groups were also forced into that lifestyle in order to survive economically.
   
   Overall, I would say this is a very interesting read and is one of the more well written books on the subject of the mafia in general and the Bonanno family in particular.
   
   It would be naive to assume that Bonanno does not present events in a light that is favorable to his family, but everyone engages in this sort of thing. Moreover, anti-mafia books have also engaged in this sort of hyperbole, presenting mobsters as demons who are not even human and enjoy violence for its own sake. I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle. One thing is certain, the mafia cannot be understood outside of the historical and cultural context that spawned it.



3. I'll keep it simple. The Bonnanos are the worst liars I've ever seen. Bill and Joe are trying to rewrite history, and it's getting pretty pathetic.



4. I have read nearly every book written about the Mafia, both good and bad. Let me say this: Bill Bonanno's book goes beyond bad. It's absolutely awful.
   
   The title itself, "Bound by Honor", is soaked in irony. Where is the honor in breaking the law, going to prison, living a lifestyle that includes trampling on the rights and lifestyles of other people?
   
   My own father truly was a Man of Honor. He got up everyday and went to work and made an honest living. He may not have gotten rich, but he never served a day in prison or lied to save his own skin. But Bonanno has done both. Where is the honor in that?
   
   As I read one of the book's passages about a gunfight that Bonnano was in, it struck me that his vision of that shootout was rooted more in stupidity than in danger.
   
   While Mafia books do interest me, the lifestyle itself disgusts me and makes me glad that I live a clean life.
   
   My biggest regret concerning Bonanno's book is that I spent money on it- even if it was on sale. It was a waste of money written by a blowhard who wasted a college education and probably put a good wife through hell. Some Man of Honor, that Bill Bonanno.
   
   So the bottom line is this: don't waste your money. His story isn't worth reading, he isn't worth respecting, and there isn't one scintilla of honor to be found in the activities of his family.



5. The book as such is an easy read and has some amusing stories, it is, however, filled with appearent contradictions and self promoting spins on most of the events.
   The writer is clearly unable to put is own life into perspective and believes he has done no wrong........but that the government is at fault for hunting down organised crime, mostly himself and his father (who is depicted as the role model mobster).
   The book is worth reading if the subject itself is of interest to you. For most readers it will become clear that the writer is a complete and total loser.

2 comments about Loyal Soldiers in the Cocaine Kingdom: Tales of Drugs, Mules, and Gunmen.

1. In Loyal Soldiers in the Cocaine Kingdom: Tales of Drugs, Mules, and Gunmen, the exiled Colombian writer Alfredo Molano makes a similar point. Molano's book consists of a series of populist portraits of the little people in the cocaine business--people who for the most part have gambled and lost, the sort of folks whom, as he puts it, "our compatriots would be happy to bury so as not to cause embarrassment at embassy cocktail parties." (Molano interviewed many of his subjects in prison.) Most are motivated by a desperate desire to escape the poverty that afflicts the vast majority of ordinary Colombians. In each case, cocaine offers the prospect of financial relief--of freedom, really, to use a word that President Bush seems to be unable to complete a sentence without. A man Molano refers to as Scuzzball, the son of peasants from the southern state of Putumayo, leaves home at the age of 13 because, as he puts it, "there's no life where we were living and it was time to go looking for it." Endowed with natural intelligence, Scuzzball becomes an artist at cocaine extraction and sets himself up as a chemist, hiring out his knowledge so that his fellow peasants can coax a little more product out of their coca bushes. Eventually, however, Scuzzball's entrepreneurial instincts lead him into trafficking. He is betrayed, and by the time Molano meets Scuzzball, he is doing time in a Bolivian prison in Cochabamba. "In Colombia," Scuzzball ruefully tells Molano, "it's we nameless people who moved [into the cocaine trade] ... until those with nice last names started to ask us for help and little by little we gave it to them, and eventually we take them as partners in the business."
   
   The situation is much the same for the poor of Colombia's slums. "The Mule Driver," another Molano character, describes the gamble taken by the "mules" who transport cocaine on airlines. The mules wrap the cocaine in condoms and swallow them. "If the rubber tears, you'll live a few hours; if it doesn't break but the police seize you, you'll spend eight years of your life behind bars; if you carry it off, you've laid the first layer of bricks that goes towards building a wall between you and poverty."
   
   Molano doesn't romanticize this impulse, which is both corrupting and fraught with moral ambiguity. Colombia's legal products have never sold well enough either internally or in the United States to generate significant numbers of stable jobs. The few jobs that Colombia's globalized neoliberal economy has kicked up are low-wage and nonglamorous--offering little more than what Kirk refers to as "the cheap seat at the world's parade." By contrast, the cocaine business offers fabulous riches and far sexier possibilities--what Kirk describes as "integration through crime." Although for a person of few prospects it's a tempting line of work, it has obvious drawbacks. The Mule Driver, for example, starts as a poor liquor-store delivery boy infatuated with a rich girl--the daughter of the owner of a whorehouse. After he loses his job as the result of this infatuation, his brother tells him that the job was beneath his dignity anyway and advises him to get into cocaine. "Why should I have a 'job' that has me stooping to work at the beck and call of a boss," the Mule Driver argues to himself, "killing myself for a lousy salary that would never compensate me." Although he makes good money for a while, he ultimately gets betrayed by the girlfriend and winds up doing twenty-two years in a Madrid prison.



2. "Loyal Soldiers in the Cocaine Kingdom; Tales of Drugs, Mules, and Gunmen," by Alfredo Molano is a collection of seven self-portraits of bad decisions. The introduction and translation by James Graham is outstanding. Graham displays a towering knowledge of Colombia and successfully argues that Plan Colombia will never succeed. His logic is simple, "no military campaign will ever extinguish the narcotics trade, because it would first be necessary to eliminate the disenfranchised members of society, individual by individual."
   
   The testimonial literature in this short (158 page) book reports how Colombians want a better life and roll the dice on getting caught trafficking. Unfortunately, the author employs weak transitions which leads to a choppy read and much confusion. The first (the mule driver) and last (puppet) chapters are good. However, much of what is inbetween contains nuggets of interesting information but it is wrapped in a maze of confusing language. The back of the book informs us that Alfredo Molano is a highly regarded sociologist and journalist who (in his native Colombia) is compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. That may be true...but he will hardly be confused with the legendary Gabo by critical readers in this country.
   
   Bert Ruiz

3 comments about Deadly Dozen: Twelve Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West.

1. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am pleased to add it to my bookshelves, along with Dearment's books on Bat Masterson and George Scarborough. Dearment's writing is scholarly, fully footnoted, and draws upon a variety of sources, some of which must have been astonishingly difficult to unearth. The focus on gunfighters keeps the story lively, and the action is put in a historical context that provides a vivid picture of life in the Old West.
   
   I am taken aback that the first reviewer of the book describes it as "tedious," while otherwise praising it. I consider it a good read and appreciate Dearment's meticulous scholarship.



2. Deadly Dozen provides 12 mini-biographies of "forgotten gunfighters of the old west." While the writing style is rather bland and the prose a bit tedious, it provides the reader insight into 12 rather interesting characters and insight into gunfighters in the old west.
   
   Several themes emerge through these biographies. First is the borderline morality of all these men. Some were clearly evil criminals, a few of which would be considered serial killers in modern times. Others, even those working as marshals or in law enforcement, often straddled or even cross the line into criminality. There are plenty of gray areas in the lives these men lived. A second theme is the extreme violence of these men. They were often considered gunfighters because of their proclivity to resort to extreme violence to settle disputes, disputes for which most rational people may have used other means to resolve. Third is alcoholism. Many of the most violent episodes in these men's lives were often fueled by copious amounts of booze, which of course makes one lose their inhibitions and fear. Fourth, these men did not seem to fear death. Whether one wants to consider it bravery or stupidity, these men had the nerve to face ultimate violence, where others would shirk. Finally, it didn't take being a great shooter or being the quickest on the draw to be considered a deadly gunfighter. It was more the willingness to resort to gunplay and lack of fear more so than proficiency with a gun that made these men so deadly.
   
   Overall this book really is rather a tedious read in some ways, but the fascinating subject matter and insights it gives into what it might have been like to live in the untamed American West saves the rather tedious prose and leaves the reader with a lot of think about.



3. Because of the movies and television shows, when it comes to gunslingers on either side of the law, we all know of the "headline stars" of the American frontier such as Wyatt Earp, Bill the Kid, and Doc Holliday. What western history expert Robert K. DeArment has done in Deadly Dozen: Twelve Forgotten Gunfighters Of The Old West is to present the lives and deeds of twelve gunman who were important in their day, but never had the enduring notoriety of their more famous colleagues, competitors, and contemporaries. Here are the stories of John Bull, Pat Desmond, Mart Duggan, Milt Yarberry, Dan Tucker, George Goodell, Bill Standifer, Charley Perry, Barney Riggs, Dan Bogan, Dave Kemp, and Jeff Kidder. DeArment's informed and informative text is enhanced with illustrations, and an "Afterword", along with notes, a bibliography, and an index. Deadly Dozen is a real treat for American frontier history buffs and a very highly recommended addition to personal, community, and academic library American Western History reference collections.

1 comments about Ripperology: A Study of the World's First Serial Killer And a Literary Phenomenon (True Crime Series).

1. Robin Odell is an expert on his subject and the book contains much useful and interesting detailed information. However I did find the narrative difficult to follow and would have preferred the text to have been broken down into short sections each devoted, say, to one Ripper book and how it contributes to the body of literature.

5 comments about Murder, Inc.: The Story of the Syndicate.

1. This book is not just a history of the mob but is part of that history, as Tukus was a prosecutor of the first big cases against the mob. As a prosecutor of the criminals Tukus is hardly objective in his views of them, their lives and so forth. Their horrific deeds speak for themselves but he feels the need to condemn them often, as if preaching to the jury. The stlye is overwhelmed by the 50s journalistic background of the co-author, and I like others find it annoying in its excess of adjectives.
   Nevertheless, if you want to know the subject, this is a must read. And with all its flaws, it is still really fun.



2. Turkus did a ton in uncovering this layer of the inner workings of the mob. The Syndicate was a real threat that, when organized, was dangerous for anyone involved, which was anyone they wanted to involve themselves with. Introducing the Brownsville gang was a great backdrop to laying the foundation to the National Syndicate.
   
   Interesting, though, is that Turkus uncovered so much, and yet when Valachi sang more than a decade later it turned out that Turkus had missed a completely different organized crime with much more secrecy involved around it. This makes sense, in a way, since most of the men testifying and being put away were unable to be "made" men and thus not privy to the inner workings of the real mafia that held the power.
   
   Otherwise a great telling of the Syndication and the 7 executions that resulted from the Canary that couldn't fly. Seeing Lepke go down was amazing, and you can truly see the power of an Anastasia at work when Reles mysteriously jumped/fell out a sixth story window.
   
   A little curious though. Turkus made a big deal about Anastasia's role in Marinzano's death, that he had an Ace of Diamonds in his hand, and yet the cover of the books has a dead man with an Ace of Spades. Is this Maranzano or another death? And if so why the striking similarities? I would have liked to have had these questions answered.
   
   All in all, I would recommend. Read before or in conjunction with The Valachi Papers.
   
   5 stars.



3. Burton Turkus (1903-1982) was assistant district attorney for Kings County, New York (Brooklyn) in the early 1940's, and successfully prosecuted a number of members of Murder,Inc., sending seven of them to the electric chair. This is the chronicle of his efforts to try to bring down this organization of professional killers. I would have liked this book even more if a section of photos of the main characters had been included, but there aren't any. This is an interesting story, well told and, as the expression goes, it has the added advantage of being true. Readers need to bear in mind that the book was written in 1951 and some of the figures, like Anastasia, were still alive at the time. Later scholarship has disproven some of Turkus' theories about the mob organizations, but that still doesn't detract from the entertainment value of this book.



4. Glad that I did not live in that era!!A good account of men's cruelty.



5. Very interesting in that the style of writing reminds one of gangster movies of the period. Definitely a classic of the genre that has stood the test of time.

5 comments about The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor.

1. I was David's scoutmaster when he was preparing for his Eagle Scout Board of Review. I was to contact five registered adult Scout leaders, who would comprise the Board. One prospective adult told me he could not, because "something happened".
   
   I learned that David and some friends were stopped by the cavaliering Clinton Township (Michigan) Police, who were randomly stopping teens and searching their cars for stolen tires.
   
   David was not allowed to keep his experiments in his stepmother's home, so he kept everything in his car trunk. The cops found no tires, but saw his stuff and overreacted.
   
   Days later, David's father phoned and said that David would no longer pursue the Eagle Scout rank.
   
   A month or so later, a man claiming to be a reporter phoned my home, wanting to do a telephone interview about David. After a few moments, I refused. There was something negative about the line of questioning.
   
   As a Scout, David was always clean-cut, polite, and well-liked by the other boys. My take is that David had the scientific curiosity of a Tesla or Edison; not of an evil prankster.
   
   David's father, like so many divorced and re-married men, walked a tightrope between caring for his son and appeasing a new bride.
   
   For Mr. Silverstein should keep his story factual, and keep his opinions about Scouting to the editorial pages.



2. Did the author have this read by a nuclear engineer or physicist for accuracy? Obviously not!!!!! First thing, on page 39, the author states that electromagnetic separation is the same as a centrifuge. If he would have researched the separation techniques for more than 5 minutes would have seen that we used calutrons (electromagnetic separation) in WWII but that is not the same as centrifuges which is the primary form of separation today. Second, his discussion on radioactivity on page 54 shows that he doesn't understand the topic. Furthermore, he makes blanket statements that do not attempt to frame the situation or put things in context. If nuclear power didn't produce an ounce of energy like the author says then why are countries actively pursuing this power source (such as France as an earlier comment stated)? Lastly, this book could've been one page but he continues saying the same thing over and over again. It was the first book I debated quitting reading or at least going directly to the end. I want my money back, this was one of the worst books I've ever read.



3. The story of David Hahn is interesting enough that it would be difficult to write a bad book about it. Fortunately, Silverstein's prose is breezy and well-written, and the book is quite the page-turner. Hahn is a near-perfect antihero - you know that he's clearly endangering himself and others, but at the same time, you can't help but cheer him on.
   
   The story was initially an article in Harper's, which Silverstein then expanded on. This is pretty obvious, as lots of the book has little to do with David, but more to do with atomic energy and its history in the US. However, it's all pretty interesting stuff, and even though I already knew about most of it, I think that it would be quite educational for people who don't know as much about the US's history with the atom.
   
   Now for the bad parts- Silverstein does a lot of moralizing, and it gets on my nerves.
   
   He correctly judges David's parents as being neglectful - indeed, they do seem to treat David more as a burden then anything else. I also agree that his school should have done more to channel his energy in a positive direction. But what the hell - schools in America suck at this sort of thing, and everybody knows that. This is a problem that should be addressed, but you could hardly blame the school system for David's building a nuclear reactor.
   
   Silverstein portrays David in a mostly sympathetic light, but he does judge him a bit harshly at times. I think this is unjustified - David carried out his experiments when he was still an adolescent. At that age, you really don't know right from wrong, which is why there's a different set of laws for people under 18.
   
   Silverstein blames various adults for "not catching on" to what David was doing, and I think that's absurd. You can't expect that a teenager is going to build a nuclear reactor.
   
   Finally, Silverstein seems to have a serious hate-on for nuclear science, and that really got on my nerves. Yes, the US does have sort of a dark history with nuclear science. However, is this the fault of the atom, or the fault of the US government? Last I checked, France gets 76% of their power from atomic energy, and they seem to be doing pretty well with it. Point being, you can discuss our past mistakes in atom-splitting without dismissing an entire branch of science.
   
   Anyway, good book, you'll probably enjoy it, but you'll have to filter out some of Silverstein's gratuitous editorializing.



4. The Radioactive Boy Scout
   By: Ken Silverstein
   
   Non-fiction
   The book is about a boy who finds a golden book with science experiments in it and he becomes obsessed with it and basically he becomes a science expert. He then decided to have a lab in his potting shed. In the book it tells about how to perform experiments. Whenever he had the chance he would look over his nuclear research, in the library, in his potting shed, and at school. The kids at school think that he is a geek so he brings some of the rare elements on the periodic table of elements to school to show off. He got the elements from clocks, smoke detectors, and borrowing some of the things he needed. Then David made a great discovery and made a gun for it. His dad wants him to join boy scouts so he did but that didn't take science off his mind. He even won merit badge in atomic energy. His dream was to collect a sample of every element on the periodic table of elements. But later he gets in a lot of trouble using the things on the periodic table of elements. I like how the author describes the elements so well and where they are on the periodic table of elements. I also like how the author describes how the elements work in liquids and other things. I didn't enjoy reading the book because he took to long to describe things like the elements or what they did. I also dislike how the book only described how the elements work and where they are on the periodic table of elements. The author didn't talk about other things happening in his life like his girl friend. She only appears once in a while in the book. The author also didn't tell what happened to the boy at the end of the prolog.



5. The Radioactive Boy Scout
   By: Ken Silverstein
   
   Non-fiction
   The book is about a boy who finds a golden book with science experiments in it and he becomes obsessed with it and basically he becomes a science expert. He then desited to have a lab in his potting shed. In the book it tells about how to perform experiments. Whenever he had the chance he would look over his nuclear research, in the library, in his potting shed, and at school. The kids at school think that he is a geek so he brings some of the rare elements on the periodic table of elements to school to show off. He got the elements from clocks, smoke detectors, and borrowing some of the things he needed. Then David made a great discovery and made a gun for it. His dad wants him to join boy scouts so he did but that didn't take science off his mind. He even won merit badge in atomic energy. His dream was to collect a sample of every element on the periodic table of elements. But later he gets in a lot of trouble using the things on the periodic table of elements. I like how the author describes the elements so well and where they are on the periodic table of elements. I also like how the author describes how the elements work in liquids and other things. I didn't enjoy reading the book because he took to long to describe things like the elements or what they did. I also dislike how the book only described how the elements work and where they are on the periodic table of elements. The author didn't talk about other things happening in his life like his girl friend. She only appears once in a while in the book. The author also didn't tell what happened to the boy at the end of the prolog.

5 comments about The Spy Next Door: The Extraordinary Secret Life of Robert Philip Hanssen, the Most Damaging FBI Agent in U.S. History.

1. "The Spy Next Door" is an astonishing easy reading story about a common man with an uncommon ability to elude. Robert Hanssen's 25 year job at the FBI gave him access to carefully guarded national security secrets. Ann Blackman and Elaine Shannon are investigative reporters that give a biography of a man whose life is unbelievable, yet true and amazing.
   
   The "Spy Next Door" page turner includes his life from ostracized child to super spy for the Soviets. The only son of a Chicago Cop, he never received his father's approval, was a high school misfit, who developed deep resentments. On the surface, Bob never made a big deal about anything, but he didn't like surprises and he didn't like being forgotten. He was smart and knew by developing a facade of normalcy - he played the boring man next door. Beneath his shell of normalcy he built his dual lives - "lawful" FBI agent and Soviet Spy; "faithful" husband and playboy; and "loyal Catholic" and aesthetic. He kept an arms length from reality so he could chase an exciting game of cat and mouse. He dropped clues - almost daring people to catch him or pay better attention.
   
   What amazed me is that he could have gotten away with it. Why did he take the risk of reactivating? There was little chance of the FBI catching him as long as he stayed dormant. Hanssen's espionage has little to do with spying and much to do with emotional wants. He is an arrogant man harboring resentments and needed "respect" and friendships from an enemy that laughed at his naive requests for little money and yet giving them key intelligence - causing deaths of our agents - so they would pay attention and he could get retribution - telling everyone "I will show you!"
   
   By blending in, being "common" - no one paid attention to him. The betrayal to this country is enormous.



2. I found this book very informative i was able to read it super fast a must read



3. This book was a good read. It seemed to be more thoroughly researched(although there are still open questions) and was not simply rushed out by two greedy authors capitalizing on recent events.

   I understand that Bob and Bonnie Hansen's position was not represented in this book. I would've liked more concrete evidence rather than author speculation, but that is implausible in this case.

   With the amount of research and time that was invested in this book, I am reasonably satisfied with the result and give this book 4 stars




4. I have to rate this book at 3 stars. Why? At only 230+ pages, I have to wonder if the book wasn't a rush to judgement and was not as thoroughly researched as it could have been. Basically, the book is a good, quick read and gives the reader an overall view of Bob Hanssen and his exploits as a spy. However, there are a few things that make me believe the book could have been better.

   First of all, there was a lengthy dissertation about Opus Dei. Shannon never really adequately explained how the Opus Dei may have contributed to Hanssen's behavior as a spy. Secondly, she mentioned his interest in internet pornography. Well...so how did that affect Hanssen's behavior? She doesn't explain that, so one wonders what was the point of mentioning his interest in pornography in the first place. Third, as another reader mentioned, there are no bibliographies nor an index, nor are there any photos. I have to question Shannon's notes if she doesn't reference them.

   Nevertheless, the book is worth a read. I think the book would have benefitted from a better psychoanalysis of Hanssen. ...




5. I was intrigued by the information in this book.I wanted more detail and a clearer understanding. I remember searching for this book and waiting for it to arrive. I was a little disappointed that it was not better, having seen several interviews with the authors.
   I have found that "Spy" by David Wise is a more detailed and better written book. I believe Robert Hanssen and his family cooperated with Mr Wise.

5 comments about Mob Nemesis: How the FBI Crippled Organized Crime.

1. Satisfactorily written but unless you really need to know the day-to-day activities of the mafia and the FBI this will be a tough read. If you've read one chapter, you've read the entire book: bad guys sell drugs, gamble illegally, kill each other, then, when caught by the good guys, do whatever they can to cut deals to avoid jail time. Kudos for not romanticizing La Cosa Nostra, though. These people are crude, dull-witted, morally challenged, and, perhaps the worse crime of all, boring as heck.



2. The author describes his life in the FBI and how he fought against the mob. The first part of the book is about him trying to become an FBI agent and does not discuss many details about the Mafia. The author comes off very conceded but at the same time describes details of the mob that contradict numerous other books. The biggest example is when he describes Agent Joseph Pistone aka Donnie Brascoe. He describes Pistone as a good friend yet says he infiltrated the Colombo family for 8 years. Any mob enthusiast knows Pistone was involved with the Bonanno Family. It's hard to trust the other facts he lists when getting major facts like Donnie Brasco wrong.



3. Griffin did a great and long overdue job of shedding an honest look into the lives and character of real mobsters. His book was facsinating and gives the reader a glimpse of what went on behind the scenes, both for the mob, and the FBI. I am an avid reader of mob related books, and this book is by far one of the best I've read, I'm sure it's going to make a great movie someday.



4. I guess this book was kinda interesting. It just seemd to drag on and go deep into FBI procedures and not so much into the everyday life of a gangster. Compared to other Mafia books I've read this is by far the worst. But it is still a mafia book, so I found it to be at least somewhat interesting. I would not recommend this book unless you are more interested in how the FBI fought organized crime, and not the everday operations of a mafia family.



5. This book detailed the FBI's fight against the mob and was very informative with regard to the psychological makeup of the so-called "Godfathers". In contrast to the constant portrayal of these characters as "upfront" and "honorable", Griffin shows their true colors in vivid detail. It was a quick, interesting read and a must for Mafia "aficionados". This book would make a great movie someday.