Ted

An extraordinary talent for understanding what people were like

Revisado: 05-02-24

This biography prompted me to scamper back-and-forth to the volumes that Anthony Powell wrote over a very long riding career. It is moving in the last pages especially find you deeply touched.

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A forcefully told tale

Revisado: 12-02-23

This history covers a lot of territory in an energetic way. The details are well chosen, and the personality portraits are both spot on and funny when possible. my only small complaint is the absence of much commentary on how others see the events described in this book. It might be a failing of mine, but I’d like to know where the author stands in relation to other experts on the subject.

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Excellent but marred by narration

Revisado: 04-07-22

This book features an intriguing thesis, in-depth research, and an annoying narrator who for reasons I can’t fathom offers lame impressions of the historical figures quoted in the text. The JFK and Nixon mimicry is bad enough but the half-baked Willy Brandt about 1/3 in was too much for me. I switched to the print version.

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Fascinating and Insightful Look at Americans and their Political Lives

Revisado: 11-09-20

I liked this book because first of all it is a quick primer about modern political science. If nothing else, you’ll learn about where the cutting edge scholarship is heading. Second, the book addresses a current issue in a thoughtful way by describing how we got something we earlier seemed desperately to want: ideologically coherent political parties.

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A perceptive portrait of the Last Great Frenchman

Revisado: 05-08-19

This excellent book offers a full warts and all look at de Gaulle. The book’s power comes from the way Jackson offers just enough background for the non specialist to understand the basis for the judgments he renders regularly on his subject and on the people and situations with which he dealt. I was regularly surprised by the many 20th Century episodes where de Gaulle was present and by Jackson’s ability to show how de Gaulle had a good reason for being such a tremendous pain in the...neck. It’s a long listen but very much worth the effort required to complete.

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Splendid telling of a tale I thought I knew

Revisado: 02-24-19

This is a very good book. The writing is unobtrusive, yet clear and spirited, excellent qualities in a work devoted to Churchill. Put another way, the author has a point of view which he gently propounds while giving a fair hearing to alternate explanations for episodes like Tonypandy, the Dardanelles, the Coventry bombing, and the Bengal famine. Needless to say, the biographer is properly censorious about the way’s his subject demonstrated himself to be “a man of his time” on issues like racial attitudes.

Finally, I should note that Roberts makes splendid use of the mountain range of available sources. His exploitation of King George VI’s journal and the diary of the Soviet ambassador during much of the war is both judicious and insightful. These two men, each of whom had ample reason to dislike Churchill, came to appreciate him with open eyes and admiring hearts.

I heartily recommend this book. The narrator has a few quirks, like falling into Churchilian cadences when quoting the man and using a Welsh accent when quoting Lloyd George. I suppose this is a useful way to tell who’s being quoted!

BTW, the death scene at the end will leave you in tears.

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A very well told tale

Revisado: 04-22-18

I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful book. Harris not only declares that our country entered a new era during the mid sixties but shows how using the story of how five “major motion pictures” came into being. In addition to elucidating the complicated tale of how movies reach the screen, he also offers a brief history of the period’s approach to culture. Finally, this book made me recognize that the current #metoo movement bears a strong resemblance to previous times when morals and mores have altered suddenly.

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A delicately etched tragedy

Revisado: 02-19-18

Wheeler’s story concerns a young woman who gets herself into a mess through a series of disastrous choices, not one of which seemed likely to lead to tragedy when she made them. The story is achingly beautiful & the performance enhances that. I find myself skipping over stuff when I read, but having it read to me makes that pretty hard.

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An ugly tale told with grace & beauty

Revisado: 12-03-17

This book about the Battle of Hue in February 1968 is one of the best books about the Vietnam War ever written. It skillfully weaves together the story of combatants on both sides and, just as important, the experiences of civilians— Vietnamese, American and, bizarrely, French. In doing so, Bowden manages to convey the absolute horror of war and the magnificent bravery of many, many people. If pressed, the only real negatives in the book were for me the jarring insertion of regional accents when the narrator is reciting someone’s actual words. I do wish the publisher of these audio books could find a way to include a map or two!

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