Triumph Reviews

first, i would like to acknowledge that anthony burns and the story of anthony burns are great. with that aside, i can now say that the book....WAS AWFUL. it was easy, yet confusing. plus, it was not very deep at all. i learned nothing new. nothing at all. not reccomended for anyone looking for something out of the ordinary. not reccomended period.

My overall view of this book, Anthony Burns, is that it is very slow. It was a good story about freedom and rights, but it could have been fifty-pages shorter. During the last four chapters it talked about Anthony and his court trial. Every chapter seemed the same which lost my interest quickly. I also think the book had to many characters. I could never keep track of which person the author was talking about. I think Anthony Burns' story is a good one, but I don't think it was written very well. For example, every chapter was a different season and it would skip years. Anthony Burns had a very inspiring life, fighting for freedom and being traded from master to master; however, the overall story was just not very interesting. My opinion of this book is that it is a good book about a man's fight for freedom, but it was too slow and slightly confusing. I think this book would appeal more to adults or history teachers.

I read this book with my 8th grade English students, and althouth the pace is not at lightening speed, they enjoy it in conjunction with supplemental activities on Black History, true stories of slaves, debates, art activities, and acting out various scenes from the book. We discuss the relationship of Anthony and his white father, the common occurence of slave masters fathering children with their slaves, the lose-lose situations of overseers, the value of freedom versus the unknown of being thrust into a society which does not at all embrace you, the definitions, dangers, and occasional irony of abolitionists, whether or not Anthony is guilty of that with which he is charged, and what he is REALLY on trial for. After we finish reading the book, I bring in 2 lawyers (these can be parents of the children) and get them to help the kids break up into the prosecution and the defense, prepare for a trial, and then we put on the trial the next day. This is a wonderful way to wrap up the book, and the kids take it very seriously.
The book itself is not too graphic in nature (as are many slave accounts because they are true), but it does tell an effective story on which one can easily elaborate in class.

As an academic who loves to shop, I was hoping this would provide a more balanced account of the rise and impact of mass consumerism. He is certainly right that academics and other relatively privileged strata have something of a knee-jerk animus to mass pleasure. But the book is a complete failure. It amounts to little more than a defense brief for mass consumerism--and like a good defense lawyer, he ignores evidence that doesn't fit his case, distorts the arguments of his foes, and offers a rosy, unreal view of his client. ... Skip.

First, it was quite obvious that the author has some sort of animus against non-materialism, since he seems to glory in taking gratuitous chops at environmentalists, the voluntary simplicity movement, and pretty much anyone who doesn't agree with him. I was thoroughly sick of it by the end of the first chapter.

Second, he does not back up many of his assertions, despite a plethora of footnotes. For instance, he asserts that kitchens have gotten smaller in the last few decades (seemingly as a way of proving that we eat more take out and less home cooked food), without stating whether he means suburban or urban kitchens, new construction or remodelling, apartment, condo or detached kitchens...you get the picture. There are similarly unsupported assertions about trash disposal, landfills, and teenage buying patterns.

Finally, it was *dull*. The only parts that were even vaguely entertaining were the last few chapters, when the polemics were replaced by personal reporting of his trip to a mall. I learned very little about American materialism, and far more than I wished about the author's political biases.

A huge disappointment.

An interesting read about the invasive consumerism of the 20th century. His basic take is we buy what we want, it isn't foisted on us by advertsing. All that you see on TV is an ad, including the "news", the sitcom set, ie house, clothes, pots, pans, lamps and has been since the beginning of TV. And that "Democracy" is the freedom to buy what you want when you want it.

He makes a good case that this has been what people "really" want since time imortal. And that no amount of whining about how it isn't good for you can compete with the almighty dollar. Simply put, if you really didn't want it, you wouldn't buy it.

I do agree that he can get long winded in his arguments.

Anyone looking to start up another .com company would do well to read this first.

This is a beautifully printed work with an eye-catching cover but from a historian's viewpoint, filled with information that just simply cannot be checked out. It is plainly evident that the author does not like his subject and this dislike is evident on every page. Churchill was a great, if often badly flawed, leader of wartime Britain and this book is not balanced in any sense at all. This is little more than a ... polemic. One ought, at the very least,to damn with faint praise.

Author Irving wrote a significant work on the Allied destruction of the undefended Saxon museum city of Dresden in 1945. It was well-researched and carefullly written. That was a long time ago and Irving, who has churned out many other books in the meantime, has never lived up to his initial promise. The Churchill books are thinly written and display the author's animosity towards his subject on every page. His works on Adolf Hitler and his people, on the other hand, glow with unfeigned appreciation and praise. A good historian, if he is worth the title, should write with objectivity and not to a preconceived idea. In all of Irving's books one can find signs of considerable research and this alone is their primary worth. Irving has been able, in years past, to locate and utilize many hitherto obscure diaries and letters. However, that having been said, what Irving does with this information is quite another matter. For a researcher and persons possessing in-depth knowledge of Irving's subject, these books, including the ones now under review, have considerable merit. For those newly arrived at the subject of 20th Century political history, the Irving books should be taken with much greater care. Irving initially denounced the notorious fake "Hitler Diaries" and then, seeing that they were being accepted by the British media, reversed himself and proclaimed them to be absolutely genuine. It has been said that Irving was the first person to call these documents fake and the last to authenticate them. The Churchill books have much of valuable technical interest in them but precious little objectivity.

This is the second part of Irving's Churchill 'biography'. It is fascinating reading, but tends not to be a easy a read as his first volume. The fact that Irving is not an admirer of his subject is clearly evident, but it seems that only people outside the UK have this uncritical mythic view of Churchill that certainly does not stand up to reality. Personally I find Irving's view of Churchill to be refreshng and probably the most truthful version of the man thats out there to be read. Churchill is painted as an intelligent, uncompromising and rather ruthless individual on one hand and sympathethic, understanding and somewhat noble gentleman on the other. This book is far more ballenced than the worthless and grovelling 'biography' that Martin Gilbert wrote.
Forget all the nonsense and hyperbole that surrounds Irving and his enforced labelling and read the book, in fact I would urge eveybody to read any Irving book and then make up your own mind and not be swayed by the biased opinions of other people.

This book is not recommended for those interested in accurate information on the subject. Whereas I counted countless errors, I think the most telling is that the authors did not know that Cesar Chavez was the eldest son in the Chavez family. At least three times they mention his brother Richard as being older. If biographers can not get this important fact correct, you can imagine how accurate the rest of the book is. I would say reading it is a waste of time.

Cesar was the second born in the chavez family that had 6 kids. After reading this incredible book (TWICE) I have found no errors. This book is true to the core. GOOD BOOK! The other reviewer was obviously a drunk monkey!

If you are looking for "Spook information, i.e. secret codes, secret drops, secret messages and meetings, forget it, this book is not for you. This is just a discription of the life of a person living in a difficult location.

My wife and I met Dr. Zoya in September 2001. She was a guest lecturer on the ship we were on in Russia. No one fell asleep in her lectures as she would inject some humor into them. If a reader wanted to read about a woman who was an interpeter for President Roosevelt, Winston Churchhill and Stalin during World War II, this is for them. Dr. Zoya led a very colorful life and a very interesting woman to talk with.

Yes, this is better than it's prequel, I'm Eve, in terms of writing style. However, it is terribly non-engaging. I couldn't even bring myself to suffer through it on an incredibly boring train ride when I had nothing else to read. Enough said.

Forget the writing style!!! It is readable for anyone interested in making changes and progress! But NOT a How-To book! A sincere, shared story of recovery and hope from someone who does understand what it's like!

This book details several journeys to, and attempts to climb, Sepu Kangri. The chapters are written alternately by Bonington and Clarke, both of whom write engagingly. The alternation of voices keeps the narrative moving. However, I found the book somewhat slow, because much of it concerns the problems of Third World travel, plumbing (or lack thereof) and medicine rather than actual climbing. Readers who are non-climbers, though, may well find this lack of focus on technical mountaineering to be a plus. One certainly does get a good picture of what Tibet and its people are like today. Perhaps one of the book's best features is the lovely photography of some very striking peaks.

After a slow start, where the history of the Sepu Kangri area in Tibet was discussed, the pace picked up as Clarke and Bonington described their intial reconnaissance looking for a way to the mountain and a possible climbing route. The joy of roaming across terrain, essentially unchanged for hundreds of years, comes across in the narrative. I enjoyed reading about their discoveries and meeting the local Tibetan people. The story of the climbs themselves in two different years are not as detailed as in other climbing books, but a feeling for what it was like comes across. It definitely is from a perspective of a sixty-plus year old, yet I can only hope that I am as adventurous and physically able to roam the earth's wild places as Bonington and Clarke still do. The book is similar to Bonington's other books in style. There is no fast-paced, heart stopping, climbing action; but it's a story that I could imagine myself being a part of.

It would be great to find a person who had triumphed over their failures, their sins, their fears. We need such a person to lead the way, to show us from Gods word the way to light. What Ms. Papillion has is a great sense of that need, but how can she help us when she has not and will not face her own past, failures, sins, and fears. Does anyone wonder about this womans past? She has raked in millions while she has left a victim in a vegetative coma. She did not do the deed herself, but she did give the perpetrator an alibi.

This is an inspired book, one to read over and over. This little book will quiet your heart and help you sleep in peace. In your darkest hour you will know there is light.

I was disappointed with Bill Yenne's history of the USMA Class of 1941. The many editorial oversights (including misspellings and grammatical errors) and obvious lack of fact-checking (what's a "Norton bombsight"--sounds like something from The Honeymooner's) leads me to wonder if this was a really thorough project. And I don't doubt the authenticity of the stories recounted herein or of the heroism it depicts, but I cannot help but wonder what has been left out. For example, Mr. Yenne outlines the history of West Point's Kelleher-Jobes Memorial but fails to mention that West Point's Honor Board meet in Nininger Hall, named for Black '41s Alexander Nininger, the only class member to receive the Medal of Honor. Is he aware of this, and if so, why isn't this included somewhere in his narrative?

The author is a lawyer who represented major industry in lawsuits against government agencies trying to keep salmon from going extinct. If you want industry's view of how ecosystems should be managed, read this book. It dismisses the best science available and promulgates the view that decent habitat is not necessary for salmon or other endangered species. For example, the author says that dams and reservoirs are good for fish because they don't have to work as hard to get upstream. He ignores the the scientifically proven fact that reservoirs increase water temperatures, and salmon cannot survive in warm water. He agrees with GWB's notion that all we need is "fish friendly turbines" in dams. This book might as well have been written by the aluminum and farming industries - not the sources I would turn to for unbiased, scientific information. It suggests that healthy ecosystems are unnecessary and that hatchery fish are the same as wild fish. If you want real facts about the salmon crisis, get "A Common Fate: Salmon and the people of the Pacific Northwest" by Joseph Cone. A MUCH better book.

A great read for anyone interested in issues related to andronomous fish in the Columbia and Snake river system. The author (who is up front about his participation in the conflict) makes a very persuasive case that hatchery management and, to a greater extent, the harvest of adult salmon are the largest manageble factors decreasing salmon returns in the system. The author does a good job of analyzing and explaining scientific data, but the graphs included in the book are of low quality and difficult to interpret.
I found Mr. Buchal's arguments persuasive. The whole story of how junk science was used to justify the agenda of an interest group at great expense to both the taxpayers and the salmon is not unlike the story of the great acid rain scare in the northeast. There, forest pathologists have consistently found that acid rain was not causing observed mortality and that other explinations were more persuasive. Among plant pathologists the issue is long dead, but the myth of a massive acid precipitation-caused dieoff of high elevation trees persists in the media and among many politicians as well as (predictably) environmental advocacy organizations.

This book is something every person concerned with the plight of salmon should read. Not only is it very correct in finding the fault with our political system but it backs up every quote, statement or fact with an extensive list of references. Its amazing to me how not one person has seemed to point the reason for salmon's decreasing population on overfishing. Even when salmon was placed on the endangered species list, the total fishing harvest of salmon went up. BY ALL MEANS, READ THIS BOOK!