harriet schwab

An extraordinary life of a profound diplomat

Revisado: 11-04-19

She came to this country as a child, smart, empathetic and athletic already then. She became a war correspondent, spending close to a year in Bosnia, she worked in Obama's White House before becoming his Ambassador to the UN (as she married the love of her life and bore two children). She cared about vulnerable people, whether victims of genocide, war, Ebola or gay bias.
She straddles extraordinary complex politics issues, particularly during the Syrian conflict and was, by no means, always satisfied with what she was able to accomplish -- even as she worked for a president she had huge respect for. My wish for her to be back, representing us at the United Nations, is absolute. However, under our circumstances, I will simply overwhelm myself with desire to be in her class at Harvard.

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STUNNING, BRILLIANT, A MUST READ PAGE TURNER

Revisado: 08-21-18

Brilliant in so many ways as it follows the extraordinary career of Kathryn Sullivan (from female astronaut to head of NOAA until she resigned when Trump was inaugurated) exploring questions as diverse of how people react to tornado warnings (and why they pay so little attention until their home has been destroyed), what we do with the monumental data collected by the Department of Commerce (under which the weather service is a part), and how Trump has essentially sold NOAA to Barry Myers (who owns Accuweather) by proposing that he lead NOAA.

Everything is now for sale.

So much is fascinating about this book as far as climate change is specifically concerned:

1. If people, when warned about a tornado, do nothing despite living in Oklahoma or Alabama or Mississippi, why would anyone act when warned about the consequences of climate change —which s ever so much more abstract.

2. Trump immediately moved to have climate change data concealed at NOAA.

3. The Senate is just this minute approving Barry Myers to run NOAA, putting him in charge of the National Weather Service. For as many years as he has owned and run AccuWeather, he has been using NOAA data and packaging and selling it to AccuWeather’s clients AND lobbying (with the help of Rick Santorum) to limit the dissemination of NOAA data directly to the citizenry.

Read this for more background on Myers: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-pick-to-lead-weather-agency-spent-30-years-fighting-it

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Maybe his best

Revisado: 05-01-18

Would you listen to Twisted Prey again? Why?

No. I sometimes listen to non-fiction more than once if the information is complicated but fiction, never. Even if I love the book.

What other book might you compare Twisted Prey to and why?

All of his other books, whether focused on Lucas Davenport or Flowers. Sanford is a writer of thrillers with politics increasingly playing a role. Connolly, Phillip Kerr, Balducci -- no-one is like him. And, justice is always done. That's what I need in a thriller.

What about Richard Ferrone’s performance did you like?

He is entirely on target with all of Sandford's characters.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Good cop, bad politicians, bad dark money.

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INSIDE GOV AND THE MIND OF A DEEPLY MORAL MAN

Revisado: 05-01-18

What did you love best about A Higher Loyalty?

James Comey who I did not expect to love. And, the rich and compelling writing. He is a stunning storyteller.

Who was your favorite character and why?

James Comey because it was such a revelation to follow the life of a deep and principled man make decisions that have had some profoundly regrettable consequences.

Which scene was your favorite?

His meetings with Obama all of which made me wish for and long for the return of him to the presidency. Comey's observation of Obama's capacity to listen and to think deeply in his consideration of events was a joy.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

He lost the battle but the war is not yet over.

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Stunning WW2 novel based on astonishing true story

Revisado: 02-02-18

Would you consider the audio edition of Beneath a Scarlet Sky to be better than the print version?

I don't know. I didn't read the print version.

What other book might you compare Beneath a Scarlet Sky to and why?

The Nightingale, All The Light You Cannot See, Boys in the Boat, The Elephant Company, A Higher Call, Midnight in Europe, Unbroken -- all based on true stories, all powerful WW2 stories. But this one takes you to Italy and I had never been a fly on that wall before. Sullivan doesn't have the elegance of Amor Towles but his ability to take you there, to make you feel. This book is a thriller, a page turner, and a profound mirror into 1943-45 and beyond as, through one young man, you experience the Nazi occupation in northern Italy, the resistance, the role of the Catholic priests and the Italians, both partisans and facists and the ultimate ramifications after the allies arrival.

What about Will Damron’s performance did you like?

Everything.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When the Americans made a hero out of the second worst Nazi in Italy, I was profoundly disappointed.

Any additional comments?

I loved that this author, like a great movie based upon a true story, followed up and gave you details of what happened to most of the key characters. His research was phenomenal.

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Stunning Political Thriller

Revisado: 01-19-18

Where does Fire and Fury rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It is a stunning political piece of journalism. The reader is a fly on the wall of a moment in time which threatens everything we believe America to be. It is as powerful an insider's look as I have ever experienced whose power is heightened by its timeliness. None of this occurred a century ago. None of it is written with the benefit of any significant hindsight. Wolfe has a stunning understanding or the players and the context and as occurrences rip by, you are a passenger and the speed is relentless. You end breathless. Here we are. How do we ever get out of this mess.

What other book might you compare Fire and Fury to and why?

Red Notice is the only book I have read in the last few years which puts you into the drivers seat, buckles your seat belt and takes you on the kind of truthful, breathless ride. In that case, a memoir who focus is on finance and Russia, corruption and honor. There is more distance, of course, because it is not your country that is in the process of being decimated but the power of the writing, the story, the characters -- all there.

Have you listened to any of Michael Wolff and Holter Graham ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No. This is a first.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Both. So much is outrageous. How could this be real? The fact that it is -- borne out on a daily basis creates only extreme emotions. Nothing passive here.

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Human, complex, readable, brilliantly narrated

Revisado: 08-04-17

What did you love best about The Old Man?

I loved the old man, his cleverness, his integrity, his commitment to his own exacting set of ethics.I loved his love for the dogs and their love and commitment to him.

I also liked learning about Libya as I felt I did through the novel

What other book might you compare The Old Man to and why?

I don't believe I have read anything quite like The Old Man. Rarely does age play into a thriller. A Gentleman in Moscow has as its main character a man who grows old in the course of a brilliantly written book (much more literary than Perry) but the level of writing is so different, it is hard to compare.

What does Peter Berkrot bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I would never have felt him as I felt him through Peter Berkrot's reading. Berkrot was also utterly valuable for the other characters: for Justin, for Zoe (the character least interesting, by the way).

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I loved being surprised by his mind and his solutions to the relentless quantity of problems he faced. I rarely found myself laughing. I felt a bit like crying when he returned to his dogs.

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a financial and political brilliant blockbuster

Revisado: 03-09-15

Where does Red Notice rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is a great, profoundly readable memoir. I am not the first to say that life is stranger than fiction but how rare it is, particularly when a story is so complex--covering intimately so many almost incomprehensible disciplines over so many parts of the world—that a memoir written so brilliantly, so accessibly makes the unbelievable, believable and rivetingly readable. An ovation is what Bill Browder deserves.

Perhaps, if I were an insider – a financial trader, a Russian oligarch, a British spy, an American politician running the foreign relations committee, I wouldn’t be so surprised or stunned.

But, this rollercoaster of a memoir is a blockbuster beyond blockbusters because it is not only a page-turner, it actually matters. Bill Browder matures, over twenty-five years, from young capitalist to major human rights activist. He has every opportunity to take the money and run but he stands instead against corruption, torture and murder. Not only does he stand but goes wildly beyond the call of any version of duty in his response. He takes everyone on. He never steps back. Could this be a global, financially brilliant Jack Reacher? Reality is, this time, more exhilarating than a crime novel.
This book is a financial and political thriller taking you into the underbelly of Russian justice, UK justice and American justice where you absorb endless lessons about modern Russia and the brutality that governs it; the emerging financial markets of the early 1990’s well into the 21st century; American and British politics until finally, you are stopped dead in your tracks as the horrific personal consequences—not just fear and flight across borders in the darkness of night, not just the cost of body guards or even torture but the reality of murder– clarify the mission.

What did you like best about this story?

The stunning beauty of this book is that you are lucky enough to be in the passenger seat of this racecar, wishing to be him, to rise, as he does, to every battle, not always successfully but always with his own real intelligence, tenacity, morality and heart. He does not know and nor do you that his desire to be a successful trader (and he succeeds beyond his wildest dreams) will lead him to circumstances where life and decency come to matter more than anything.

Which character – as performed by Adam Grupper – was your favorite?

I think Adam Grupper did brilliantly as well. Bill Browder is the main character but Grupper did the Brits, the Russians, the Americans -- all beautifully.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

A true story of high finance, politics, murder and one man's fight for justice.

Any additional comments?

I have rarely read a memoir so informative, so riveting and so powerful. I want to go to work for this man. He is brave. He has morality and he's one hell of a storyteller.

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utterly without emotion

Revisado: 03-04-15

What would have made The Darling better?

A protagonist that you understood. Nothing about her life explained her utter lack of feeling for anything or anyone. Even the supposed commitment she had to her Dreamers -- the chimpanzees she cared for in Liberia -- were described and never felt. The only upside was learning a bit of 20th century Liberian history although nothing could undo the unexplainably pathological leading protagonist whose actions suited the novelist and the history he wanted to impart but whose actions never grew organically from the character he described.

Would you ever listen to anything by Russell Banks again?

No, his inability to get inside of this woman is a downfall. His endless distractions which keep you, as a reader, from moving forward are equally frustrating rather than enlightening.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

A warmer reader might have mitigated the coldness of Hannah Musgrave.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Darling?

I would have cut everything in America except what she fled from and then would have concentrated, from her earliest days in Liberia, on the chimps and what she endured, and they endured, during her time there.

Any additional comments?

He should never, never think for a moment that he understands a woman although no man comes alive in this book, either. Everyone is playing a role in servitude of his version (probably correct) of this period in Liberia.

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Long time to get started,then the history took ov

Revisado: 02-25-13

What did you like best about The Inventor and the Tycoon? What did you like least?

Best: the history of the building of the railroad, the history of photography and specifically the history as it related to California and Yosemite. The least: the entire beginning and set up. Contrived.

Do you think The Inventor and the Tycoon needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

It needs an illustrated version. Cries out for not only Muybridge's photographs but also the paintings mentioned and the other photographers

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