5 comments about When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa.

1. The history and events surrounding the rise to power of Mugabe and Zimbabwe's race and economic troubles are reflected in this memoir which is entertaining, educational, compelling, and just a plain old good read.



2. When our book club agreed on this book for our next selection, I thought, 'Oh great, another heart-rendering sob story about all the tragedies that have been visited upon Africa'. Boy, was I wrong. As I progressed into the book more and more facts about what truely has happened - at least in Zimbabwe and the countries in Southern Africa - over the past two decades - began to make that history quite clear. One of the facts that came out was that if development had been left to the ordinary person - white farmer - black worker - that Zimbabwe probably would be developing into the great country it looked like it would years ago. But, somehow, black, greedy, utterly violent egomaniacs took over with the result being a total disaster for this country. If you really are interested in what is happening in Africa read this book. It will open your mind.



3. Devastating, haunting, beautiful.
   
   If you've ever had a parents, if you've ever seen something you love go to bits, or if you've ever seen your roots grow distant, this book will speak to you. Regardless of the specific settings and circumstances of this book.
   
   Having picked it up primarily to catch up on Zimbabwe (and it does a very good job of conveying that country's recent history, although it's obviously a memoir and not a detailed political study), I was soon hypnotized and drawn in by the human element - the memoir.
   
   Beautifully, soulfully written - a real classic.



4. This memoir, about the son of white British parents who grows up in Africa, is superbly written. While Mr. Godwin has written other memoirs of his earlier years, this one focuses on his adulthood. As a journalist now living in America, he takes as many writing assignments as possible that will allow him to travel back to Africa to see his now-aging parents. Zimbabwe is in terrible turmoil, and this is the thrust of the memoir--how this turmoil impacts his parents, who still live there, and everyone else in the country who is not on the side in power.
   
   There is so much ugliness in what he's writing about--civil war, ruthless leaders, corrupt government, rapes, beatings, and injustices that we in America can't even imagine but, somehow, what I came away with was not ugly at all--it was the tenacity of these people to survive it all, and to do so with dignity.
   
   It is a testament to Mr. Godwin's marvelous writing that, in a story of such unspeakable brutality and injustice, my takeaway was positive. It is also a testament to the author's parents, and his relationship with them, which was empowering enough to help balance the tragedy.
   
   Yes, there are times that his prose gets a bit too flowery, his analogies a bit too clichéd, and the story moves slowly (especially in the first half), but these are only minor criticisms and not ones that distracted me substantially from enjoying this marvelous memoir. Highly recommended.



5. Peter Godwin has consistently written accurate assessments of Zimbabwe's hopes and tragedies. His writing is always flavored with vivid descriptions of the land and its people. He offers numerous perspectives on how things have gone so horribly wrong in the country - despite many people's best intentions to address the injustices of the past. He doesn't pull any punches on how the country's Dictator, Robert Mugabe, has single-handedly brought this once-properous nation to its knees economically. The old blisters of greed, nepotism and the almost complete breakdown of an independent judiciary system - sanctioned by the country's leader - have reduced Zimbabwe to being one of the poorest countries in the world with the highest inflation rate. I find Godwin's writings on Zimbabwe particularly credible - because unlike so may writers who cover the region - he was raised there and has an intricate knowledge of where the country has been (the war of Independence in the 1970s); how it progressed - briefly, and where it is today. His vast pool of knowledge (gained from numerous visits back to the country) has resulted in this engaging and personal story of Godwin's relationship with his parents, and the tragedy of their demise in a country that they love dearly. The chapters on the illegal farm take-overs - from hard-working people who have kept the Zimbabwean population alive with the fruits of their labor - highlight the counter-productive route that Robert Mugabe has sanctioned. I found this book well worth a read and factually accurate.

5 comments about Cast Member Confidential: A Disneyfied Memoir.

1. Basically I enjoyed reading this book... Of course I have no idea what the writer may have "embellished" or not (as some former reviewers have suggested) ... and at times it did seem that Chris did paint "Disney Backstage" a bit like an episode of the "Twin Peaks" TV show... so strictly speaking from an entertainment aspect... I found I was interested enough to read in three evenings.
   
   BTW: All big time corporations have an inside culture, and Disney is probably one of the most mysterious... although I am a die-hard Disney fan at heart... Some of what Chris wrote does seem a tiny bit far fetched, but then again... I wasn't there to see it for myself.
   
   However, I can assure you that the next time I am at a Disney Park, and I see a character ('Face' or 'Fur') I will wonder to myself... Hummmmm?
   
   Denny Magic



2. I am not here to berate the author. This book is well written, well edited and flows nicely. That's what the 3 stars are for. As for the book, it is more an autobiography of an adult who hasn't grown up and is still dealing with his hatred of his brother and the dysfunctional relationship with his mother and father. Yes he does spend a year working at Disney World, so he was a Cast Member. If you are a Disney Fan thinking you are going to get a dose of Disneyana, you are wrong. Sure he puts in a little trivia at the beginning of each chapter and throws in a footnote or two. However, the Disney part consisted of devoted Cast Members who work for minimum wage, live in the Cast Member ghetto, look for every nook to have sex and spend all their remaining time (if they are not partying and getting drunk) trying to break the Disney rules without getting caught. Somehow the words "devoted" and "break the rules" just don't seem to go together. I still couldn't understand how people could live in poverty and still find plenty of booze and drugs. I guess you just need to know how to set your priorities. So if you are person who loves Chris Mitchell and wish to read his autobiography which includes his one-year experience at Disney World then this is the book for you. If you are a person who wishes to read a book about, in his own words, the "deviant characters and manipulative Cast Members" of Disney World, who by the way are all homosexuals, then this is the book for you. Otherwise avoid this book.



3. The book tells lewd stories about gay sex and heterosexual sex for dramatic effect. After the first tale, the rest is wasted words. The worst part about it is that it is not advertised on its covers as such and my 13 year old purchased it thinking he would get imagineering secrets or general malfeasance stuff. He was shocked and confused by the explicit graphic sexual anecdotes of encounters. Mediocre work, with deceptive advertising.



4. After reading this book, you can never look at another person wearing Disney gear the same way! Tons of laughs, greatly entertaining. I actually read this book on the way to Orlando, I thought they may not let me off the plane! I highly recommend Cast Memeber Confidential to anyone who would like a behind the scenes look at Disney world, the characters and the inside scoop. Warning, this book is not for children!



5. An entertaining read about a young man's journey as he experiences the true Disney magic behind the scenes. This book keeps you hooked as you follow Mitchell on his quest to find himself with the help if a little pixie dust only to find out you can't run and hide from your problems. I recommend this book to 18+ readers.

5 comments about All over but the Shoutin'.

1. rick bragg is a wonderful writer. I read Ava's Man first and it was one of my top favorites for leisure reading. Very delightful. So, I wanted to read All Over But the Shoutin to get more of his experieces. Some of the memories overlapped, but the book was just as pleasing. These are two books I would recommend to my friends. His view on life is inspiring, his memories of his mother and family are to be cherished.



2. This is by far one of the best books out there. I gave mine to a retired male and he said the same thing. Rick Bragg can write. The story could have unfolded in the midwest and been just as engaging. He writes of his growing up in poverty in Alabama and about his Mother and her family. I spent some time in that very area, having relatives there when I was young. But this book is just a real good read. I have since read his other books. He has not written a bad book yet, I read them straight through.



3. This is the first book of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Bragg's autobiographical trilogy (which includes Ava's Man and The Prince of Frogtown) about his family and growing up in the mill towns of northeast Alabama. Bragg also wrote I Am a Soldier Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, the authorized biography of American POW Jessica Lynch in 2003.
   Each of these books has the ability grab you on the very first page and draw you into his world. His life experiences of having a distant father (as the result of his father's Korean War post-tramatic stress syndrome) is uncannily similar to that of late Atlanta author Lewis Grizzard, whose father (and family) also suffered from PTSD. I am certain this also informed his approach to and understanding of Jessica Lynch.
   Rick Bragg's latest book, The Most They Ever Had, is series of essays about the people of the mill towns. It was published by MacAdam/Cage in October of 2009.



4. I grew up in Carolina and we didn't have much. I wouldn't say we were exactly poor, but let's just say I wore a whole lot of hand-me-downs, there were a lot of meat-less dinners, and our idea of fun was swinging on vines in the woods and exploring our mountainside. So, from the start, I liked Bragg. But even without this connection, I would still declare this one of my favorites. I don't think Bragg sat down and said, "Hey, I'm gonna write eloquently about myself and my family and win all sorts of praise." I think he just felt a compulsion to write about his roots, he happened to be an experienced writer, and everything came together to make a great book. You cannot read it without being moved, without being engrossed, without feeling something change in you, deep down. You need to read this book.



5. I picked this book up because my maiden name is Bragg. I took it on a road trip with my husband. After reading the 1st page, I started reading the book out loud to my husband. Rick Bragg has such a way with words. You can visualize, taste and smell everything he tells you. It is so incredibly vivid.
   
   You are able to identify with, and root for his family. This is one of the best books I have ever read. I am now buying the rest of his books. My girlfriends are fighting over who gets it next based on the snippets I read aloud. This is not "light" reading. It grabs you and takes you for a ride as if you were standing next to him while it happened.
   
   This is a keeper. I can not recommend this book highly enough. If you like Mitch Albom, you will like these stories. Even if you don't you should like these. They are true to life portraits that come alive with his words.

5 comments about Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas.

1. Why oh why did our generation waste so much ink lauding Hunter S Thompson when we have someone with true talent in our midst, with the gonzo ethic of Thompson and the talents of Gladwell? Not that Klosterman is truly overlooked (he makes a fine living I'm sure), but heavens you would think he would be mentioned in the same breath as the other coffeetable must-haves that are relentlessly rotated on the "'what white people like" lists (not that there's *anything* wrong with those writers, and, no, not only white people like them!)
   
   Chuck Klosterman IV is a must-read, as is nearly everything else he has ever written, whether on a stained cocktail napkin or on fine bond letterhead.



2. This is the first Chuck Klosterman book I have read and I loved it. I've since read Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs and Killing Yourself to Live and am just letting my eyes rest before getting my next fix. It's hilarious, thought-provoking and just a really great read.



3. This is the first book I've read by CK and I found it, for the most part, to be pretty funny. When I picked it up and thumbed through it I happened (apparently) among the more funny stories. After reading it, I will say that I enjoyed the book although the intellectualism gets a little heavy towards the middle. I remember thinking, "wasn't this book cracking me up the other day? Because right now, not so much." It was still interesting but more in a (begin finger quotes) lecture-y/think-y (end finger quotes) sort of way.
   
   I would recommend this book to most people. I think there are a few stories in here that most people will find pretty amusing. It's a nice book to read while you're waiting for stuff because each essay/article is reasonably short.
   
   I will admit, though, that I did not read the fiction piece at the end. I chose this book because I didn't want to read fiction! It wasn't bad but just not what I was up for plus I had read the previous 100 pages while I was stuck in the desert so I think maybe I overdid it.



4. This book collects about three dozen Chuck Klosterman essays, mostly reprints from SPIN and other US magazines, with new introductions from the author. The first and strongest half of the book "Things That Are True" centers on music and includes profiles of modern greats Radiohead and Jeff Tweedy as well as classic legends like Robert Plant and Billy Joel. He documents a week of eating nothing but McDonalds' McNuggets (eight years before the film "Supersize Me") and watching 24 hours of VH1 Classic (and learning it repeats every eight hours). The next 100 pages are "Things That Might Be True" and feature more subjective content. The final section is a 35 page novella. I enjoyed the majority of these segments but liked Klosterman's other books better than this collection.



5. It felt a little like my birthday when I found Klosterman's latest book on CD, read by him, in the Border's bargain bin. I picked it up with two lesser known Hemmingway's to justify my consumption of what has come to be known as intellectual guilty pleasure ( a topic he incidentally takes up with his usual skill and misdirection in one of the essays). It is better than Killing Yourself to Live and not as good as Cocoa Puffs.
   
   Audio is the medium for Klosterman for several reasons including: his irony voice, it is not exactly the kind of literature that requires you to take notes, and the strangely melodical way he pronounces the word f*!#ing. After listening to IV I acquired Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs on CD despite having read it, based solely on the notion that it would be more poignant and entertaining when performed by the author. It was a good bet.
   
   CK IV opens with a very good reflection on dread and high school basket ball. It includes several fascinating interviews with popular figures. Note: You could not intice me to read a story on Brittney Spears by another author, but CK had me transfixed. Finlly he ends with a bit of fiction that is not without merit, but is not his best work. On the whole, however, If you liked CDaCP, CK IV is worth the time...especially in the audio version.

5 comments about Somewhere Towards the End: A Memoir.

1. I think what I liked best about this book is its absolute frankness. Athill has nothing to hide. She knows she has done certain things in her life that are perhaps less than admirable or honorable, and that she can be, and often is, quite selfish. So what? She cites the example of 103 year-old Alice Herz-Sommer, also a professed atheist, who said -
   
   "We are born half good and half bad - everybody, EVERY body. And there are situations where the good comes out and where the bad comes out. This is why people invented religion, I believe."
   
   Athill does admit to having some regrets, but refuses to dwell on them. She is simply grateful for the life she has had and amazed that she's lucky enough to still be here. Which makes sense to me.
   
   After more than fifty years as an editor in the publishing business, Athill became a successful memoirist in her seventies and eighties. And she makes no bones about her joy at this: "... easily the best part of my old age has been, and still is, a little less ordinary. It is entirely to do with having had the luck to discover that I can write."
   She goes on to tell how much enjoyment she has gotten from her late-found celebrity, however minor it might be. Having published my own first book at the age of sixty (and three more since then), I can relate. It's been a kick. This is a fascinating little book about growing old, and not at all sad or negative. I'm glad I found it, and plan to pass it along now to my mother, who at 93, is a year older than Diana Athill. I'm sure she'll like it too. Who knows, maybe it will nudge her into writing more about her own life. I hope so. Go for it, Mom. - author of the REED CITY BOY trilogy and LOVE, WAR & POLIO



2. Perhaps those Brits have a different idea of what a memoir is. This book, to me, is a collection of essays. It has no story, no narrative arc (or at least not one that appeared in the first half of the book, which is when I gave up on reading it). I wish the book had been billed as an essay collection, as it then wouldn't have set my expectations for a *story*.



3. When was the last time you encountered someone new and the word 'wisdom' popped into your head? Not very often lately? Me neither. Until last week. I read right through this book, "Somewhere Towards the End," as soon as I finished reading right through Diana Athill's earlier book, "Stet."
   
   I bought "Stet" because it was the memoir of a superb book editor, a job I had done once myself, though not superbly. She had been one of the founders of a small, elite British house and worked with Mailer, Vidal, and Updike to name but three of their stable.
   
   I bought "Somewhere Towards The End" because I was wondering what it is like to be old. I knew about arthritis, wrinkles and a sense of irrelevance. Who doesn't? I had been wondering if there was anything more appealing to be said for it. Diana Athill was close to 90 when she wrote this book, and the answer she personifies is 'Yes, there is.'
   
   You see from the first page that she herself is a wonderful writer, a very unusual writer, and she must have been hell on wheels as an editor. (Not in the way you may be thinking though; Gordon Liss she is not. Her insights are penetrating, but her touch is very light., just short of self- effacing.) She embodies more than a few paradoxes. She she did not bring the kind of clear, rational insights to her own personal and financial life that she invested in her authors' books. She is quite frank about it, but never self-pitying. Fortunately for the reader, she made interesting mistakes with interesting people. One of the things that charmed and fascinated me is how lucidly and candidly she writes about her misadventures.
   
   One minute she seems quite eccentric and the next you may realize that you've done the same thing for the same reason but never quite admitted the latter to yourself. She is extremely discrete about the affairs of others but not at all politically correct about her own sexual history. Nor does she romanticize the emotional history that went along with it. And outlives it.
   
   I hope I have done this book and this writer justice. She has had a real impact on the way I look at some things, and I hope many others will get the same opportunity.



4. Diana Athill's beautifully-written new book, Somewhere Towards the End (Norton, 2009) has the unique quality of being a memoir of being very old and happy about it without the maudlin set pieces or generic nostalgia one might expect in a fin de siecle.
   
   The 90-year-old Athill was during her 20th century career a notable British editor who worked with Andre Deutsch in setting up one of Europe's most-respected publishing houses. She worked with such authors as Jean Rhys, V.S. Naipaul, Philip Roth and John Updike to name a few. She has also been, occasionally, an author herself of several highly-respected volumes, mostly memoirs but also a book of short stories and one novel (the one, she says, she "squeezed" out).
   
   Somewhere Towards the End is composed to sixteen relatively short chapters, all of which center on Athill's experience of being, as she terms it, "very old." She has had a rich and varied life, not necessarily glamorous but well-lived. Although she has never had (nor wanted) children, it is clear she is a motherly figure in the way she has taken care of people in her life, including her mother and a past lover.
   
   Athill, who frankly discusses topics such as being post-sexual, not being around to see the full growth of a tree she has planted, and so on, relies very little on metaphor to make her points, instead filling the pages with concrete little treasures of experience, such as this passage when she discusses her pleasure in being around young people:
   
   "So if when you are old a beloved child happens to look at you as if he or she thinks (even if mistakenly!) that you are wise and kind: what a blessing!... [it] does make you feel like a better person while it's going on and for an hour or two afterwards... It does seem to me that the young nowadays are often more sophisticated than I used to be, and that many of them... relate to their elders more easily than we did; but I am convinced that one should never, never expect them to want one's company, or make the kind of claims on them that one makes on a friend of one's own age. Enjoy whatever they are generous enough to offer, and leave it at that."
   
   Her spirited championing of youth belies the stereotype of the rebellious youth we think many "old people" maintain, and so in her writing Athill breaks another stereotype that many of us have about old people, namely that they are narrow thinkers, static and unwilling to change and so very much "post life." Among many other points to ponder, the book made me think that it is somewhat ironic, of course, that old people should be so marginalized in Western societies given the universal inevitability of growing old (and dying). In one of the more moving passages of the book, Athill writes:
   
   "What dies is not a life's value, but the worn-out (or damaged) container of the self, together with the self's awareness of itself... That is what is so disconcerting to an onlooker, because unless someone slips away while unconscious, a person who is just about to die is still fully alive and fully her or himself... The difference between being and non-being is both so abrupt and so vast that it remains shocking even though it happens to every living thing that is, was, or ever will be."
   
   Far from being a depressing swan song, Somewhere Towards the End is a wonderfully uplifting and amazing exploration of what it is to be alive and human.



5. ...without the `support' of religion and having to face the prospect ahead in its bald reality."
   
   I really enjoyed this memoir by an elderly lady with a great attitude. We all should age and look at the twilight years in such a positive way! Although I disagree with her philosophically on some issues (e.g., marital infidelity - see Ch 2 and p 81), I still enjoyed reading her words of wisdom: (p 20) "a broken heart mends much faster from a concussive blow than it does from slow strangulation;" (p 75) "...once past eighty one has no right to complain about dying...;" (p 127) a wonderful plant metaphor about what keeps persons "going through the motions of care;" and the best of the best (p 148) "Do Not Think Yourself Important."
   
   It's interesting to learn what she has to say about the bible and death considering she is an atheist. She never had children or married, but she did have lovers, related details of which she shares quite unabashedly. She also shares experiences she's had with others in her life. Ms. Athill's memoir provides a thought provoking, intriguing view of life, especially the twilight years, by a well-versed, well-read woman Somewhere Towards the End. Also good: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, god is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens.

5 comments about Audition (Vintage).

1. I learned a lot about the TV news business. The information about her personal life was secondary, and presented very appropriately. Very well written. Good for a book club.



2. It seems as if Barbara Walters didn't want to leave out any details in writing this long book. But the main thing she doesn't say about her life that I wanted to know was how and what she was thinking as she interviewed the world's most famous people. She lays it out like a catalog, but it lacks true insight and feeling.



3. Well written book Arrived in perfect condition. Interesting history about t.v. networks,bruised egos and world events.



4. For the most part, I enjoyed reading this book, however, it goes on a bit too long. It was detailed and I realize Walters is a journalist and details are her game, but I could have edited it down at least one hundred pages. Her life was quite interesting and overall she gives good information but not enough on the personal side. I think that historically it is a valuable story because Walters was a pioneer for women in the media in many ways.



5. There are so much to say about this book, and I suspect many other reviewers have said much of it. I would only say that I came away from the book with a tremendous respect for Barbara Walters, her honesty her courage, her remarkable energy, her loyalty to her parents and sister, her devotion to her daughter, her wisdom in dealing with life's difficulties, her hanging in there in tough situations and knowing how to make the best of them. And much much else. I do have reservations about the book and about some of the things she does. I do not believe she tells the 'whole truth' about her marriages. I do not applaud her willingness to speak with each and every dictator and tyrant , if it will be a good interview. But overall it is impossible not to have great admiration for her great capacity to care about , and help a wide audience know about all kinds of interesting, and often remarkable people. This book tells a lot about the American media world, and American history in the time of her life.
   While the book is a good interesting and entertaining read throughout I found that the story of her early years was particularly moving for me. She brings back memories of many lost things, and illustrates again and again how things once cared for as important fall in time to being completely forgotten.
   An admirable book by an admirable person.

5 comments about The Longest Trip Home: A Memoir.

1. I thought this book was excellent; extremely funny yet heartwarming. A book I would highly recommend to young people who will undoubtedly relate to it. ... "I thought I was the only one that did and thought querky things. This book t0ld me all kids do. It's part of growing up".... Adults, and especially parents will remember rearing their own and having the same experiences. I loved it!



2. A truly great book. A must read if you are a 50ish male who was raised a Catholic. I laughed so hard that I cried. The last few chapters certainly tug at your heart, but that is what makes this such an enjoyable book.



3. This wonderful memoir brought back many memories of being raised Catholic. It provides an honest look into normal family life.



4. This is an excellent memoir from the author of another memoir of a well loved dog. Marley and Me was a great book and John Grogan has done it again. It is the typical story of a boy growing up, his experiences with his parents, friends (boys and girls),his religion and his progression into journalism,meeting his wife and raising a falmily. Then there is the declining health of his parents and their need for care and the sad but responsible care for his father as he passed. Very enjoyable read.



5. This was a great purchase, was going to be a gift, it arrived well protected and in perfect condition, will definitely order another book from you when I need to. Thanks!

2 comments about Days of Fear: A Firsthand Account of Captivity Under the New Taliban.

1. "In the name of Allah Most High and All-Merciful, Sayed Agha, Ajmal Naqshbandi and Daniele Mastrogiacomo are sentenced to death for acts of espionage within Taliban territories."
   
   In 2007, Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, his interpreter Ajmal Naqshbandi and his driver Sayed Agha hope to interview a Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah. Instead, they are take prisoner by the Taliban, Agha is killed, and Mastrogiacomo is held for two weeks. (Ajmal Naqshbandi was later killed as well.)
   
   This book is an exceptional description of the psychological terror Mastrogiacomoa feels -- except for his chains and two blows from a rifle butt he was not physically mistreated -- his certainty that he will be killed, and then "Then, suddenly, I feel that they won't kill me. I'm certain of it. I don't know why. My instincts tell me so. I want to believe it. Maybe my death is too absurd an eventuality for me to imagine, or perhaps I'm too important for our captors. I know that they won't do it. Not yet, not now."
   
   Between his capture and his release, Mastrogiacomoa learns a great deal about himself and very little about the Taliban from his young guards. He is able to describe the execution of his driver on a river bank; his account is written in a flat, descriptive manner. The terror described in this book comes from Mastrogiacomoa himself, and he makes that terror come alive for the reader in an extraordinary manner.
   
   Mullah Dadullah eventually tells Mastrogiacomo: "In the end, you have obtained much more than an interview. You have seen how we live and how we think. Do you think yourself capable of telling the truth about us? You journalists never do. You owe your life to our Supreme Commander. It was Mullah Mohammed Omar himself who suspended your death sentence. He decided not to have your head cut off."
   
   This book describes a terrifying ordeal and Mastrogiacomo's human reactions to his captivity.
   
   
   Robert C. Ross 2010
   
   Note: Francis X. Rocca has published a superb review of this book in "The Wall Street Journal" which is free online at the link set forth in the first Comment. B.



2. Daniele Mastrogiacomo (b. 1954, Karachi, Pakistan) is an Italian correspondent for the "La Repubblica" newspaper in Italy. He has been an active reporter in the Middle East and in 2007 was kidnapped by Mullah Dadullah's henchmen inasmuch as the brutal Taliban thought that Mastrogiacomo worked for the British military. Once the Taliban found out that he was a reporter for an Italian newspaper, to release him they stipulated that Italy withdraw their military force in Afghanistan. As the Italian government stood firm, the Taliban made a recording of Mastrogiacomo, his driver and another colleague, kneeling and blindfolded before armed Taliban terrorists. The video also had a recording of one of his colleagues being beheaded by sawing off his head with a sword. This resulted in Mastrogiacomo pleading to help him....
   
   I will not provide the ending and ruin the captivating, yet disconcerting story, but I recommend this book as a moving and revealing work on the mindset and culture of the Taliban.
   
   Readable, interesting, powerful, fascinating, and unforgettable. Great book for a long flight or vacation read.
   There Are Moral Absolutes: How to Be Absolutely Sure That Christianity Alone Supplies

5 comments about Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America.

1. A MUST READ for Americans and anyone who sincerely cares about the REAL threat of Radical Islam, and how it will be (and presently is) affecting the future of their country. POWERFUL - PERTINENT - SCARY!! It was a miracle the author survived her early life in the Middle East! She tells the TRUTH about Radical Islam. Read this book as well as "They Must Be Stopped" to see for yourself.



2. I found this book to be very enlightening, it makes you realize that our news organizations have been spinning the truth for years.
   
   This book should be read by everyone from middle school up.



3. If only we could get everyone to read this book it would go a long way toward solving many of America's problems. Gabriel speaks the truth that we had damn well better heed!



4. My wife and I felt very fortunate to have heard the story of Brigitte Gabriel. The author narrates the audio book and does a great job, you can hear her conviction and emotion that only she could give.Her story had some very sad and changing moments in it, yet it is from that experience that she is the person she is today. Because of her experience she is a very valuable asset to America and should be listened to at the highest levels in Washington DC.



5. Almost as bad as two jihadis
   
   Critique of Brigitte Gabriel (revised 30 Jan 10)
   
   
   Executive Summary: This Gabriel broad is a g.d.m. liar.
   
   
   The first thing I have to say about this Gabriel broad is that she's a g.d.m. liar. She belongs to that murky, ignominious syndicate of vipers who professionally propagate lies about history. Perhaps she was commissioned by the Pentagon to write this garbage. Her description of the Lebanese civil war is a masterpiece of insidious propaganda. Goebbels himself would be proud of Gabriel's daring redesign of history.
   
   Gabriel's role as a cog in the propaganda machine of the GOP appears to be to distract the attention of the populace from that sudden reversal in American foreign policy under Bush I, when Moscow surrendered unconditionally to capitalism.
   
   As soon as Communism collapsed, the Islamic fundamentalist movement that the USA had been nourishing and fostering for decades as a foil against Soviet imperialism and Arab nationalism, abruptly ceased to be useful for purposes of US strategy. That had immediate budgetary consequences and the Islamists were outraged. They still are.
   
   In German they call it gleitender Übergang, a smooth transition from one policy to a radically different one, when the priorities are rearranged as discreetly as possible so that it all appears to be one more phase of a single triumphant march toward victory.
   
   It was that delicate Orwellian moment when the good guys transmuted into the bad guys and vice versa (up to a point).
   
   You sneer? Before, the US supported Hamas against the PLO. But now, the US supports the PLO against Hamas, is it no so? A key milestone in the change of alliances was when in 1993 State Department diplomats ceased meeting regularly with the top brass of Hamas.
   
   Gabriel projects the US-jihadi rift into the past, anticipating it by 15 years.
   
   Gabriel's mission is apparently to have the old bad guys fade into the scenery to make way for the new bad guys -- without anyone noticing the switch!
   
   She makes every effort to conflate the old bad guys: Marxist-Arab nationalist guerrillas - with the new bad guys, the devout, unshaven but lethal jihadis (who, of course, used to be the good guys, as long as the dollars kept rolling in). She artfully juxtaposes words and images so that a completely smooth transition is accomplished.
   
   The curious thing is that I don't remember the title of the book, and I don't recall a single incident that occurred in it. The only memory I have of the book is the incessant drumbeat of the propaganda message. When I started reading it, the events she related seemed quite plausible I spent a few weeks in Lebanon once. I'm not necessarily disputing that the events she described really happened.
   
   
   I was immediately struck by the way the reader is firstly never told that there is a difference between the bad guys then, the Arab nationalist and socialist crowd that swore by Marx, and the relief team of bad guys that was waiting in the wings, the Mohammedan fundamentalist hordes, who swear by the Koran. And the hadeeth. And the Sunnah.
   
   For that matter I seem to recall she gives short shrift to Lebanon's notorious ethnic diversity, too. The phrasing and choice of vocabulary are chosen in such a way that the message is constantly reinforced that the enemy is a compact and homogenous Mohammedan mass. The reader is expected to draw the conclusion that the enemy of then is the same as the enemy now. Nothing has changed.
   
   Perhaps it's a way of saving America's honour.
   
   Actually, I chose to review one of her books at random, because the insistence of the propaganda message was so intense that I'm sure all her books repeat it ad nauseam. Therefore all her books are exactly the same. Accordingly the same criticism applies to all of them.
   
   As they say in French: Madame, chapeau!

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