Carmel Suttor

Incredibly well told

Revisado: 08-23-24

Jonathan Freedland has done a masterful job of researching and writing the story of the courageous escape from Auschwitz and its aftermath. We experience the horrors of the concentration camp through the fresh eyes of his protagonist, with details I have seen nowhere else. Equally horrifying are the reactions of world leaders as the news of the extermination camps begins to be known. Freedland brings lively prose, fast pacing and moral clarity to the story of the tragic life of a heroic man.

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Best Grant biography

Revisado: 01-13-23

This was the biography that changed my preconceptions about Grant and made me curious to learn more. Initially I wasn't sure that I'd want to listen to such a long book about a "butcher", I was soon drawn into a well written story about a complex and humane person. Ronald White treats his subject with respectful curiosity, never condescending or inserting any pet theories about him. I've read several other biographies since first listening to this, but White's book is the best of the lot.

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Beautifully written

Revisado: 01-13-23

These reflections on U.S. Grant are very well written : concise and thoughtful, as clear as Grant's legendary memoirs. Based on a thorough knowledge of the biographical details of Grant's life as well as much of the current scholarship about him, Samet dips into many sources to paint a sympathetic and complex picture of him. It's a great pleasure to listen to this wonderfully written and narrated series.

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Beautifully written

Revisado: 11-19-22

Mike Duncan tells a complex story in a compelling and page-turning way. His book is full of insights into human nature as he brings the revered figures of history into vivid life. He tells the story of the Marquis de Lafayette with great compassion for his subject, without ever straying into hero worship. His reading in the audio book highlights the humor and the clarity of the writing.

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Very engaging and informative

Revisado: 12-08-19

I picked this book wondering whether there was anything good to say about the 15th president. Strauss has written an entertaining book that explains Buchannan without apologizing for him. His personal asides enhanced the story.

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Excellent book about an important and complex man

Revisado: 12-08-19

This book gave me a great appreciation for JQ Adams, for whom the presidency was one interlude among many. The author captures the greatness and foibles of the man who started as a diplomat a teenager before America was a country and died in Congress as he protested entering the Mexican War. Especially moving is the long, lonely fight Adams conducted during the two decades after his presidency against the rules prohibiting even mentioning slavery in Congress, which became a fight against slavery itself. Highly interesting and well written.

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Propaganda for R.E. Lee and the Confederacy

Revisado: 12-08-19

I read this book a decade ago and believed every word of it because knew very little about the American Civil War.

After studying the war for several years I listened to this audio, remembering ithe book fondly. It came as a shock how completely biased it was. Robert E. Lee is deified whenever he is mentioned. When Ulysses S. Grant is mentioned Winik wields adjectives like a Confederate newspaper. Using highly selective facts Winik builds up Lee as an American hero and Grant as the villain. His interpretations of people are questionable at best. “Lee mastered his feelings while Grant repressed his,” is Winik’s opinion, based on Winik’s opinion.

His description of the surrender at Appomattox is not even historically accurate. I listened to Winik and compared it to two others. The other two descriptions agreed by and large. Winik’s was loosely based on the actual surrender.

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Riveting story of America's most dramatic family

Revisado: 03-07-19

Fantastic account of the talents and rivalries of a family of actors whose lives intersected many of the important events of the nineteenth century. Titone brings to life the famous, the infamous and the forgotten. Mary Ann, a Coventry flower girl seduced by promises and Byronic poems from the eratic and brilliant Junius Brutus Booth, sets out with him for America, where she will have ten children. Titone concentrates on quiet, intense Edwin, renowned in his lifetime as the greatest actor of his generation, and John Wilkes, beautiful and charismatic and destined to be remembered for much longer. Lesser lights in the family get a sympathetic account: long-suffering "June," the family mediator, Asia, a sister close to all the battling brothers. Well written and very hard to put down.

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