michael

A riveting tale well written and told

Revisado: 07-17-22

An immersive tale of pain, suffering perseverance and character prevailing against impossible odds. The author brings the people and story to life. Teddy Roosevelt has the depth of character and principles that are rare in modern politicians

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Compelling and lessons for today

Revisado: 12-11-20

A cautionary tale with the typical cult of personality dictatorship ending. Flames and total destruction

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

captivating story of survival, well delivered

Revisado: 12-14-19

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and it left me with more understanding about how the connection of care for each other or lack thereof, combined with a higher purpose, determined life or death. Even if you do not listen to be “left with anything”, the story is great and paced well with a solid narrator that knew how to express the content.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

An example of why I love literary non-fiction

Revisado: 08-06-17

This writer weaves his well researched facts into a an edge of your seat collision rarely seen outside of a great novel. I was sad it ended.

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too much royal infatuation, not enough reality to grip...

Revisado: 07-09-16

I was prepared to love this book. instead i found myself constantly annoyed with the seemingly endless obsession with everyone looking and feeling fabulous, and endless descriptions of how people looked, what they wore, and romantic platitudes about their disposition which didn't help me get to know the real people underneath the glorifying facade....it felt gossipy and all this royal watching detail seemed to bury what I imagine is a powerful and tragic story with real people underneath...i may have not gotten far enough into the book to give this a fair shot...but after 5 hrs I had to abandon it....

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

one of the top audible books I've listened to

Revisado: 12-12-13

this book left me with so many things to think about: the absurd danger of of ego, the evil effectiveness of repeating false(and bizzare) notions until no one questions whether they are true or not. I also found many similarities between the leaders of scientology and dictatorships like North Korea or Mao's China, and the soviet union. These guys seem to have the complete dictatorship package: fear, intimidation, ruthless execution of ideology and the Big Lie repetition.

Perhaps the hardest thing to understand was the clear pattern of pathological lying throughout Hubbard's life, most were easy to verify as false:
-he was a war hero(not)
-science fiction scenarios explaining the founding of the human race going back billions of years. These scenarios were very similar to his science fiction books...(did his followers take note of this before plunging in?)
-bigoted philosophical views on gays and jews which were eliminated later for PR reasons(yet the true feelings still seem to remain)

The most obvious evidence his religion might not be all he proposed was Hubbard himself: -Hubbard was clearly and admittedly very unhealthy, overweight, palsied, stained teeth from constant chain smoking, heavy drinking and was witnessed having violent unexplainable outburst of rage.

These are not the signs of someone who transcended disease and achieved "clear". He did not seem at all an example of what he proposed. He seemed by all accounts, a broken and sick man who never had a very good grasp of reality, and who progressively lost touch with it to the point of paranoia...

the book seemed balanced and well researched and Wright seemed to bend over backwards to show balance by inserting the churches reaction to each assertion(which was always to deny) and cited where he got his research repeatedly...it seemed transparent and I would have not finished it if I felt he had some kind of agenda...I don't like to read those kind of books

...this was a chilling and great read with greater implications than just scientology and its followers..but about how we as humans fill our voids with strange and dangerous notions without checking the source out enough, and paying the price.(virtually every top tier leader has "escaped" or been purged, then trashed by the church).

why do they still get recruits?

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My first experience with the man vs mythology

Revisado: 10-26-13

Jesus has become such an untouchable, unquestioned, lightning rod of a figure that any honest look at his life without the stench of agenda(for or against) seems almost an impossible task. The threat of Blasphemy, or the ax to grind from a bad religious experience, and the effect of our very cynical times all taint an honest look at a man who was different, who was enlightened, who may even be much of what is forced down our(christian) throats to believe. Aslan does a good job following his curiosity vs any pre-determined conclusion(jesus is god or Jesus is a myth) by turning stones and reporting what he finds...what he finds reaches no definitive conclusions and as you might expect, most of what he finds is contradictory and confusing, but it's rarely dull. Through common sense and due diligence to pull the best possible historical portrait of Jesus, Alsan adds missing human dimension that puts this man in his time and in his place in history....a human being struggling as all of us do, to struggle for what he believes in, a person who makes mistakes, who tries to do the right thing, but also does not always succeed.

Reading this book has made Jesus more interesting and real to me now, not a mythical, pasted over, untouchable revised version that seems so fairytale like. I have no doubt he was an inspiring, brave, enlightened figure that faced a brutal Nazi-like roman empire with courage and profound depth right up to his death...and possibly beyond.

Regardless of what image you believe; the mythical guy floating down from a cloud appearing like a roadside oil painting on black velvet or a buddha-like enlightened being with a transcendent message for all of humanity, this book will add dimension and depth to the man(or god)....your choice.

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A good model for creative business thinking

Revisado: 07-25-13

This book is valuable even if you are not starting a new company.The principals of developing minimally viable ideas and sending them out in a series of rolling experiments is a fantastic model for trying new things and avoiding analysis paralysis that keeps many of us on the fence dreaming and plotting but never seeing our best ideas happen

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gripping freezing penguin eating tale

Revisado: 07-25-13

fantastic story...and true. Maybe the best casting of voice and story I've listened after several hundred books..at the top of my list

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esto le resultó útil a 13 personas

The world unfolds

Revisado: 07-25-13

It hard not to have a fresh view of the world and culture around you after taking a 2 dozen hour ride from humanity as nomadic tribes to today's urbanized globalized world. You will know the meaning of "history repeats itself" as you will see the same struggles, fears, movements and behaviours today as you did 2000 years ago...the only difference now is we carry iphones and word travels a bit faster

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