No comments about Vladimir Putin / Putin's Progress: Lider De La Nueva Rusia / Leader of the New Russia.

2 comments about Hoover The Fishing President: Portrait of the Private Man and His Life Outdoors.

1. Not much of a book. Could be a research paper from which a Hoover biographer might lift anecdotes and background material. Unless the reader is an avid fish chaser much of this chronicle cannot be appreciated.



2. Wert has uncovered the complex , intriguing life of Herbert Hoover. Hoover's energy, verve, and even joie de vivre is revealed in anecdote after anecdote. While the book is a great fishing adventure, following Hoover from youth to old age on nearly every fishing outing he undertook, in the background is subtle political history and commentary that tells an enormous amount about Hoover's character and political savvy . Most interesting is the way we are shown the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of powerful political figures.
   
   The book is superbly researched and well annotated and illustrated. A great read.

No comments about Gladstone and Women.

5 comments about George and Laura: Portrait of an American Marriage.

1. This book is wonderfully written, very insightful, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who was looking to learn more about the lives of the President and First Lady. I was so enthralled while reading it, I could hardly put it down.



2. A puzzling minor error: page 42 says "Blacks (in Midland, TX) went to their own schools, not to Sam Houston Elementary. There were separate waiting rooms for them at the courthouse..." However page 46 says "there were no blacks in town then -- I mean none."



3. The best part of this wonderful tribute to commercial marriage was the sound effects CD. I mean how often do you get to hear Laura and George grunt. I tell you, it gave me the shivers. Then, when I thought it couldn't get any better I found the scratch and sniff section. That was too much. I was beyond redemption at that point. Frankly, I don't know how they are able to sell this gem for so little. I suppose they stiffed the ghost writer. (Do you think it was Lynn Cheney?) Anyway, if you want a presidential grunt and sniff fest for you very own bedroom then this is the book for you. I've literally gotten minutes of pleasure from this book and so has my peeping Tom neighbor, Alonzo, downstairs.



4. A wonderfully written book, showing that old fashion marriage, love & respect are still alive In America.
   The love and respect they have for one another is so evident. Being in the spotlight doesn't stop this beautiful couple from showing the love and respect they have for one another. It shows a book will hold your interest without it having to be filled with sexual thoughts and actions. Loved the book and believe others will as well. Good old fashion love story.



5. I started reading this book on a Friday night and finished it on Saturday. It is such a welcoming look at a real marriage portrayole. It reminded me so much of my husband and myself, who also will be married 27 years this July. My Daughter read it first, brought it to me, now my son and husband are agruing who gets to read it next! Christopher Andersen did a great and explicit job of portraying these two intoxicating, loving, yet determined individuals in this book. Hats off to you. What a great read. I recomment this one at 5 stars!

2 comments about In The Footsteps of Churchill.

1. British military historian Richard Holmes' "In The Footsteps Of Churchill: A Study In Character", is a book that, inspite of its brevity, offers a most penetrating, thoughtful analysis of Winston Churchill as a politician and statesman. While he is obviously someone favorably disposed to Churchill for some intriguing personal reasons, Holmes does offer a surprisingly nuanced portrayal of Great Britain's greatest 20th Century prime minister, which veers from a self-indulgent narcissist to a deliberative, often profound, observer of his fellow British politicians and of foreign affairs, especially in the 1930s, with respect to Hitler's Nazi Germany. Understandably Holmes, as a military historian, emphasizes Churchill's military service, his celebrated exploits as a military journalist and finally, his service as First Sea Lord in both world wars, as a means of exploring Churchill's personal character, and demonstrating how his military experience played an important part in defining it. Holmes may be the first historian I know of who does consider simultaneously Churchill's service as First Sea Lord, ultimately portraying a less than flattering portrait of someone who was too "wedded" to the interests of charismatic, flamboyant leaders like Admirals Fisher and Beatty (For example, Churchill seriously underestimated the crucial need of smaller escort vessels for the Royal Navy in both world wars, relying more on the advice of his admirals interested in big gun warships like ballecruisers and battleships.). And yet, inspite of a detailed exploration of Churchill's personal and leadership flaws, Holmes does conclude that ultimately, his strong, decisive leadership during World War II was necessary for ensuring Great Britain's survival. Those who think they know well Winston Churchill's biography will ultimately be as surprised and intrigued as I was while reading Professor Holmes' superb study of Churchill's character. Without question, it is among the finest books on Churchill's life that I've come across.



2. Professor Holmes is a British military historian and it shows in this interesting attempt at describing Winston Churchill's character. He decidedly has an opinion, usually conservative, on most political and social issues of the last century and is happy to share them with the reader. He also spends more time on battle issues in the two world wars than would most authors of a character study of this type. This book is best for readers who have some prior knowledge of the life of Winston Churchill. The professor points out many of the faults and warts of his subject but the ultimate verdict is in recognition of his genius.

1 comments about The Abraham Lincoln Companion: A Companion, a Celebration of His Live And Times (Health Reference Series) (Health Reference Series).

1. Sooner or later most consumers will have foot problems, and to explain the latest research into podiatry health is Ivy L. Alexander, Editor's Podiatry Sourcebook, 2nd Edition, a revised sourcebook perfect for both health libraries and general-interest lending collections. The bones, joints, and muscles of the foot are surveyed in easily-accessed chapters which covering everything from conditions relating to growth to foot deformities, neuromuscular diseases, swelling of the joints, and more.

No comments about Big Daddy from the Pedernales: Lyndon B. Johnson (Twayne's Twentieth-Century American Biography Series).

No comments about Reminiscences Of Lenin.

3 comments about Milosevic: A Biography.

1. The author's admission to the press that "I never met Slobodan Milosevic, although I wrote a biography of him" sums up the credibility of this book.
   
   LeBor misleads readers throughout his book. When describing Milosevic's ascent to power (pg. 79-84) he says that a crowd of unruly Serbs attacked a predominantly Albanian police force in Kosovo Polje in 1987. LeBor claims that Milosevic took the crowd's side and said, "No one should dare to beat you again!" LeBor relies heavily on his version of events to advance his thesis that Milosevic incited Serbian nationalism in order to attain power.
   
   The only problem is that LeBor's version of events is totally wrong. As the events unfolded in 1987 The New York Times reported that THE POLICE ATTACKED THE CROWD in a botched attempt to clear the area of demonstrators -- and that the crowd RETALIATED by throwing rocks at the police. LeBor's assertion that the police were attacked by the crowd is made even more laughable by the fact that the federal Yugoslav Interior Ministry scolded the policemen involved in the incident for their conduct. On top of getting the fact that the police attacked the crowd wrong, LeBor misquoted Milosevic whose actual words were "you will not be beaten" given in response to complaints from the crowd that the police were beating people.
   
   This is all easy enough to verify because there's a videotape of the event. It was broadcast on TV when it happened in 1987, and it's a publicly accessible exhibit from Milosevic's trial at The Hague. I personally suspect that LeBor's 180 degree inversion of established fact and his misquotation of Milosevic's words was a deliberate attempt to mislead his readers, but even if it wasn't malicious it's still proof that LeBor's research was sloppy.
   
   I'm not going to write a refutation of the entire book here; suffice it to say that the example I gave above is one of many that I could have used.



2. I found the first few chapters of this book to be the most interesting. They were the only ones where you seem to dip into Slobo's personal life. Descriptions of his home life, his meeting with Mira [they met at 15 and stayed together until his death at 65] and his rise through to positions of power are all very interesting. It's odd how he seems to have been a fairly normal person in his pre-politician years.
   
   Comments from Mira are referenced throughout the book, and the rest of it seems to tell you more about her personal life than his. Some of these comments are quite amusing; she really is quite an oddball. The best was the one just after Slobo had been arrested, which went something like "No-one has betrayed him. He knows that no-one has betrayed him. The only one who has betrayed him is me." [not exact words]
   
   After reading up on the topics, it seems to me that the case against Slobo has been made too one-sided by our media. Lebrun admits this at times. Anyone who knows about Slobo's regime knows that he cannot be called a "dictator"; far from controlling everything that went on, he was often hardly in control of anything. This makes judicial proceedings very difficult when he could have been responsible for everything or for nothing. However, the evidence seems to suggest that he was much more moderate than other people in Serbia. The main domestic opposition to his regime in the 1990s were hardcore nationalists, and they tended to see Slobo as a man who was selling out Serbia. When Slobo met with the Bosnian Serb militia leaders, they refused to shake his hand. During the Dayton Peace Negotiations, the Bosnian Serbs seemed to hate the Belgrade government as much as they hated the Muslims and Croats. Mira has often written condemnations of the actions of Bosnian Serbs, and called them "not even men". Could it all have been a craftily-constructed public front? Perhaps, but that seems very unlikely considering how nothing is ever organised in Serbia. Lebrun also details Franjo Tudjman's crimes and his great ideas like renaming the memorial to the victims of the Croat W.W.2 genocide as "The Shrine of Croat Heroes" or something like that. Lebrum could do with subjecting the K.L.A. to the same expose that he gave to Tudjman.
   
   Lebrun also seems to be a bit unfair to Slobo at times. Perhaps, he thought that he needed to do this, or the biography would just be dismissed as unacceptable by everyone and the points mentioned above would have never been put into the circulation of ideas. Some parts seem to speculate on Slobo's motives and fill in the gaps in ways that are arbitrary. I say this because no sources are provided to back up the speculations. Examples of this include:
   
   1 Why Slobo supported independence for Slovenia. Lebrun thinks that he only did it for his long-term interests and not out of any principle. Sounds a bit of an obscure motive to me.
   2 Election fraud. A case when the Serb opposition claimed that elections had been fixed in some places saw the parliament call in international observers. These observers claimed that the results had been fixed, and parliament accepted their findings. Lebrun seems to think that Slobo himself fixed the elections and then decided to change his mind and let inspectors in. There needs to be some resource to back up this accusation of schizephenia.
   3 Apparently, Slobo deliberately gave a scarey speach to a meeting of Serb liberals so that they would all leave Serbia. Really? Sounds a bit of a risky strategy when they could have just as easily decided to vote against him.
   4 Lebrun suggests that the ousting of Stambolic was all a clever plot and the accusations were fabricated by Slobo's supporters. He then used his influence in the parliament to get the fake accusations upheld. This seems a bit strange when Stambolic was much more powerful than Slobo at the time.
   5 Every time that Slobo is seen to be nice, Lebrun dismisses it as just him being two-faced. He even met with the leader of a student anti-government demonstration once, had a good chat with him and made a few concessions. Not ever seen Tony Blair do that, I must say.
   
   Lebrun claims that Slobo had great loyalty within the party. He apparently had his men everywhere and had the republic of Montenegro firmly under the will of Serbia. Again, he never gives any evidence for this. If it is true, then I would be very interested to know how he built up this influence. People don't just become loyal to anyone. Slobo was not a particularly charismatic politician nor was he someone with very clear principles to always stick to. He seems a very unlikely candidate to inspire such loyalty in so many people. Is it so unreasonable to think that people just voted the same way Slobo did because they thought that he had a reasonable argument? Or that Montenegro just agreed with Serbia off its own free will? If you deny these, you have to explain it. Serbia was not a regime with a secret police that arrested anyone who dissented. There are also odd moments when Lebrun seems to paint the ultra-nationalist opposition to Slobo in a more favourable light than I am confortable with.
   
   What is clear is that he was guilty of some domestic crimes. He was certainly involved in corruption as regards public funds and allocation of public positions. He ran the economy very poorly. It also seems likely that, at some point, he sold weapons to Bosnian Serbs. This is not a good thing, but please show me a government anywhere in the world that has not, at some point, sold weapons to people who have gone on to use them in massacres. At the time of being published, it also appeared that Slobo had had a role in the assassination of Stambolic, but the court in Serbia has subsequently cleared him of such a role. Lebrun can't be blamed for not knowing the future though.
   
   All in all, it is worth reading. However, I'd advise that you read resources like http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org as well to get a balanced picture. To get the hardcore anti-Slobo case, just look through back copies of any Western newspaper. Also, it is a shame that Lebrun didn't go into more detail as to Slobo's private. For me, that is the most important part of a biography.



3. The disintegration of Yugoslavia into a horrible series of wars and battles that pitted formerly peaceful neighbors against each other is a very important part of modern European history. It tested the relationship between America and Europe on all levels. And it was where the strengths and weaknesses of the NATO alliance have been most clearly illustrated.

   Getting your head around this incredibly complex situation can only be done by examining the man who methodically tore a once-proud country and people to shreds: Slobodan Milosevic.

   How was this drab functionary able to completely destroy a prosperous nation? How was he able to create civil wars between villagers that had lived peacefully side by side for generations? Why was he supported and even admired by the Western politicians while simultaneously overseeing some of the worst atrocities against humans since WWII?

   Through interviews with all of the key figures that surrounded Milosevic - including his wife Mira Markovic! - Adam LeBor paints a vivid picture of the man at the center of this terrible tragedy.

   As a reporter in the Balkans during the wars, Mr. LeBor saw first hand the results of Milosevic's terrible reign. As a proven history writer, he has managed to take his first hand experiences and meld them with historical perspective, so we wind up with an incredibly sharp picture of the key events themselves, but framed within an understanding of the event in the overall historical narrative.

   This book is the only work I have seen that makes the Balkans understandable to the common Westerner, and is important for that very reason. However, it also resonates particularly clearly in the world we live in post 9/11, where we again are partnered with NATO and involved in wars in foreign lands with tribal people in a land and culture that are driven by a web of beliefs and interconnectedness that we do not understand.

   Read this book to understand what the world lost when Yugoslavia disintegrated, and how it happened. And read this book to gain an understanding and insight into our current conflicts. And finally, read this book for Mr. LeBor's skill at writing. You will not be disappointed.

No comments about A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White Hosue: Humor, Blunders, and Other Oddities from the Presidential Campaign Trail (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series).