Dan

This title is extremely entertaining. It covers and links historical figures and their achievements well but above all it’s delivered in an entertaining and often amusing way. Highly recommended to anyone even remotely interested in historical events and discoveries.

The review would not be complete however without mentioning the quality of narration. Alan Sklar has become an instant favourite with me and I’ll be searching out other titles he’s worked on based on this book alone.

This book was both more and less than I expected. More in that the views presented were combined from a plethora of sources of Hindustani origin, and less in that I expected it to cover the Sovereign Rule of India too. It takes you right up to that point and that's where this story ends. I can't complain though as the title makes it clear what it does and does not cover!

This book is very well balanced and tells the history of the Company from the point of view of it's merchants, Indian Traders and Kings. It's told more from the perspective of the effect the company had on India and Great Britain and makes it quite clear that there wasn't really a driving force or goals being the Company any different from any other company i.e. to make money. The fact that Hindustanis adopted british law as defined by Company contracts is a quirk of the relationship not a master plan by the UK to rule India.

I thoroughly enjoyed this broad and insightful book and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

I really enjoyed this autobiography. Arnold is candid about his experiences, goals and how he achieved what he set out to achieve. He narrates the first and last chapters, I just wish he could have done more because it's all the more real in his iconic accent.

This incredibly driven man shares his life from his starting out body building, doing time in the army as a tank driver, moving to America, getting into real estate, becoming an action movie actor and defining the genre, to becoming governor of California.

This was money well spent. I've complimented my reading by watching all of his movies in chronological order which is also quite a ride!

Poul Anderson has a wonderful imagination and doesn't hesitate to go into accurate detail of historical periods. The overall concept of the book is sound but the story does drag on at times.

Although I've enjoyed the narrators work before, this is not Tom Weiners' best work and unfortunately it does detract from the overall experience.

If you've liked Anderson's previous work I can still recommend this, but it'll be hard going for those not already a fan.

This book is part history part personal story collection. Very well read and compiled, I would call it enjoyable but for the horific contents and details of one of the most bloody conflicts of our time.

I'd recommend we all know more about this war before making further decisions on North Korean and China in modern times.

Dirt is both a facinating history of the stuff under our feet and a good education about how it's created, weathered away, drained or suplimented with nutrients and how human horticultural practices have effected it throughout time.

There are 3 clear sections to the book, the middle of which did seem to drag on repeating the same story over and over again. In fairness to the author though this is more an inditement of our farming practices over the centuries than to his writing style.

Well read and well researched this book is a great starting place for anyone interested in soil. You may even develop some enthusiasm on the subject and go and build yourself a Worm Farm and a compost heap!