Paul

This book was very academic. Down to the siting of references every few minutes. I have a masters degree but found a lot of the content to be over my head.

A great book. Combines historical fact with fictional (and non-fictional) characters to tell the story.

This is a well written book about the details of a Marine's life in the jungle's of Vietnam. Basically told from the grunts perspective. With lots of raw language and violence, it's a guys-guy kind of book.

The narration deserves special mention. I have listen to over 150 books and this is trully one of the best narrated books I have heard. Great voice intonation. The same guy could be angry, whispering/scared, drunk,and have a recognizable tone. Add that to about 15 unique characters!! Really added drama to the story.

So many historical writings tend to be quite dry. This, on the other hand, was really entertaining as well as informative.

He looks at Abraham from the perspective of each of the big three religions, traveling to the region and interviewing scholars. So, the story is not just WHO Abraham is but WHAT he means to each of these religions.

Well done.

I am an avid reader of Civil War history, but this was way too much detail for me. 90% of the text involved little skirmishes between armies <10K strong. Problem I had with that, is that it gave these battles the same relevance as the major ones (described in no greater detail and given no higher importance).

Could not finish it.

What a great story this is! Take the very basics of humanity: food, shelter, security, love, and of course revenge, place it in the 1100's and you have "Pillars".

I read the book about 10 years ago and even with the slew of books I've been able to run though, thanks to Audible (>100 and counting!), I still feel it is one of the best I have ever read/heard.

My only criticism is that it is so long, toward the end you feel like "haven't we fought this battle already?" and you just want the bad guys to finally get what's coming to them. But in some ways, I think that it is deliberate. The author wants you to feel the anguish of evil continually challenging good. And in the end, this really is a book about good versus evil, love vs hate, forgiveness vs revenge, hope vs despair. Oh yea, and they build a church.

Happy reading,

Paul

This is probably the most detailed book on the white house's deception for starting the Iraq war. Aptly named.

It really shows you that it didn't matter what the REAL evidence was, the neo-cons that took power had decided on war and WMDs were just the most convenient excuse. If they had never existed, another excuse (Gulf-of-Tomkin like) would have been created (as the book will describe).

As stated in my title, this is not the easiest book to read. First time I picked it up (paper version), I found myself unable to read it prior to bedtime, because of the vivid horror deplicted.
But, if you want to get insight into to man's ability to survive the unsurvivable, endure the unendurable, listen to this book.
Also, it gives first hand insight into the horrors of Germany's concentration camps during the 2nd WW.

I found this to be very uniformative. I walked away with little understanding of the root causes and events that transpired.
The reader's tone (british accent) was a bit pompous.
This book might be more suited for a disseration student (in history or religion), but not for the average person with little pre-existing knowledge of the subject.

I tried being patient with the book because I am really interested in the story of Thermopylae. But, after painfully listening to this pompous author drone on and on about everything but, I surrendered and quit listening at about the mid point.