The wealth of fascinating detail makes this a compelling read. That and the fact it's excellently written.The wealth of fascinating detail makes this a compelling read. That and the fact it's excellently written....more
Lots of first hand accounts of the glider pilots, paratroops and other personnel who took part in the operations the night before D-Day. It's admirablLots of first hand accounts of the glider pilots, paratroops and other personnel who took part in the operations the night before D-Day. It's admirable that these accounts have been preserved for posterity. As a book though it tends to be very repetitive as the experience inside every glider is almost identical. It's more compelling after the landings when the missions are varied. ...more
The story of the sixty-year battle between Christians and Muslims for control of the Mediterranean culminating in the epic sea battle at Lepanto. ObjeThe story of the sixty-year battle between Christians and Muslims for control of the Mediterranean culminating in the epic sea battle at Lepanto. Objectively it's a five star book - well written and tremendously well researched. However, I never quite found it as engaging as it should have been. I'm reading the same author's book about Venice's rise and fall as a maritime power which I love a lot more. It's often in the detail that a book succeeds or fails in hooking you. The detail in the Venice book is somehow more intimately revealing of the unfolding stories....more
As a rule the more first-hand accounts a history book contains the more likely it is to draw me into its narrative. I want to hear the voice of peopleAs a rule the more first-hand accounts a history book contains the more likely it is to draw me into its narrative. I want to hear the voice of people who lived through the experiences documented. The overview perspective, the impersonal big picture can be interesting in and of itself but can also resemble the soulless chore of housekeeping in its quest for tidiness. The best parts of this book are when we hear the voices of the people of the time. For example a story of how five Christian slaves escaped captivity in Algiers by building a boat and carrying it to the shore in parts where they assembled it is narrated first hand by one of the protagonists. It was slaves the pirates mostly sought. Despite the majority of the pirates being Muslim there are though no Muslim voices in the book. One thing I learned was that Algeria was the first country to ever declare war on the USA....more
In 1925 the Ku Klux Klan was at the height of its power. Klansmen were being elected as governors and mayors and openly pledging to persecute Jews andIn 1925 the Ku Klux Klan was at the height of its power. Klansmen were being elected as governors and mayors and openly pledging to persecute Jews and Catholics as well as continuing to stoke their hatred of the black population. The author leads us to believe the Holocaust may have taken place in America before it happened in Europe. Except the leader of the Klan was no Adolf Hitler with his maniacal implacable hate-spewing convictions. Rather he was a self-serving con man and a violent sexual predator. The title of this book is a little misleading. It implies there was a woman who actively opposed the Klan. The woman in question however wasn't opposed to the Klan; in fact, she was willing to work for their leader and went out to dinner with him. Then he attacked her in the most grotesque manner. She was a sacrificial victim. Most of the book is about the aftermath of this attack and subsequent trial. It's a depressing book, highlighting as it does the wilful ignorance of large swathes of people who need to hatefully belittle others to feel better about themselves. ...more
I greatly enjoyed the Lakota folktale stories. These are somewhat padded out with reflections by the author which I enjoyed less. I recommend his biogI greatly enjoyed the Lakota folktale stories. These are somewhat padded out with reflections by the author which I enjoyed less. I recommend his biography of Crazy Horse which more effectively portrays the beauty and wisdom of Lakota culture. ...more
Because this is a collection of quotes from people who knew Bowie in some capacity, usually a professional one, this book is on the repetitive side. IBecause this is a collection of quotes from people who knew Bowie in some capacity, usually a professional one, this book is on the repetitive side. It's also very top heavy on the adulation. Bowie is very much of our time. There's no question he changed lives. But the suspicion is that history will see him more as a popular culture celebrity than the significant artist this book wants us to view him as. It was interesting to learn that while he was living in Switzerland for tax evasion purposes his only company was often Roger Moore who came to his house every evening and bored him with the same stories. At the time he was earning £24 million a year but still he didn't possess the freedom to choose his company. ...more
I found this book shameful in it dishonesty. And thus disrespectful to the memory of Dr Martin Luther King. There was never any sense the author was iI found this book shameful in it dishonesty. And thus disrespectful to the memory of Dr Martin Luther King. There was never any sense the author was interested in unravelling the truth of King's assassination. Rather the motivation seemed to be to use wholesale the simplistic official version and turn it into a page-turning best-seller thriller. For a non fiction book the author spends a lot of time, too much time, imagining what James Earl Ray was thinking.
Half way through this book I watched a documentary putting forward the conspiracy argument, that the assassination was carried out by government offices, the mafia and the Memphis police and orchestrated by Hoover. I can't say I believed this implausibly complex version of events either. There seemed a lot of wishful thinking involved. Its undoubtedly more worthy of his stature that King was killed by organised forces than by a solitary nutjob. Each side in the argument leaves out inconvenient details. Each side in the argument slanders the reliability of the witnesses of the other side. One thing both sides agree on was that Hoover and the FBI's treatment of King was disgusting. If Hoover didn't have King and the Kennedy's killed in deed he certainly sent a message that greenlighted any assassination attempt. It's interesting the King family came to believe in Ray's innocence. I don't believe he fired the shot - it would appear modern ballistics have proved the rifle with his prints on it was not the murder weapon - but I don't believe he was wholly innocent. It's hard otherwise to believe he could be so gullible. But reading accounts of America's 1960s assassinations can make you realise how gullible we can all be, our willingness to believe one witness and disbelieve another a question largely of our own political and existential position. ...more
Sarah Helm's brilliant book about Vera Atkinson and her SOE activities involved researching the Ravensbruck concentration camp where some of Vera's agSarah Helm's brilliant book about Vera Atkinson and her SOE activities involved researching the Ravensbruck concentration camp where some of Vera's agents were taken. No doubt this was the catalyst that inspired her to write this book about the camp itself. This is a remarkably researched and constructed book. So vividly does the author bring the camp alive that practically you are living alongside these women many of whom she has personally interviewed. She gives as many names to the tens of thousands of women incarcerated as she can. This proves impossible with the many German women considered by the Nazis as asocials or criminals. I didn't know women were gassed at Ravensbruck or that women were used as guinea pigs for unspeakably cruel medical experiments. Much about this book is eye-opening. As always with books like this there are poignant and obscene footnotes - the daughter of a German guard who gasses herself when she discovers what her mother did at the camp, the Russian women who survived the camp only to be imprisoned in gulags by Stalin after the war and the man who organised Red Cross buses and rescued 7000 women who was assassinated in 1947 by an extreme Zionist group because he worked for the UN as a mediator in the Arab-Israeli war. No nation comes out well in this story. There are good and bad of every nationality, every race. Rarely have I been made to feel just how deeply and grotesquely war brutalises some ordinary human beings while inspiring awesome depths of courage and generosity in others. I guess one reason we find war so fascinating is that it takes human beings to the outermost limits of their nature, both for good and evil. ...more
I think one of the most fascinating things of Brett Anderson's two books about his life in the music biz is the insights they provide into how insecurI think one of the most fascinating things of Brett Anderson's two books about his life in the music biz is the insights they provide into how insecurity is alchemised into confidence. And just as pop star glamour is often about excess so too is his prose style so it's weirdly fitting that he overwrites just about every sentence. All in all this is a compelling take on the nature of fame. ...more
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