Timothy

This is the third book I have read by Ms. Tuchman (The Proud Tower, Guns of August, and Distant Mirror) I have enjoyed all of them. The audio reader is excellent and makes the book quite easy to listen to.

In the earlier books I found a very palatable approach to the writing of history. The nuances and depth that Ms. Tuchman adds is quite fascinating. I have kept coming back for more. When this book was released I ordered it immediately.

The first two thirds of this particular book did not disappoint. However the last third covering the US involvement in the Indochina/Vietname seemed to me to have a different tone. I found myself hearing a more judgmental, condescending tone to her analysis. Is it possible that due to the historical proximity of the events portrayed that she was unable to write in a more neutral tone?

I will not abandon Ms. Tuchman for this effort, but I will stick to areas where she is less likely to have a temporal bias.

Somewhat well spent. I got the feel in the book that the author was a bit over zealous in his effort to try to be balanced in presenting the two combantants as morally equally corrupt. I often would hear additional negative adjectives tied to the armies of the west and less often with the turks. Almost as though he often over compensated.

The lead up to the battle of Vienna itself was a bit drier than the rest of the book. I considered stopping about 2 hours in. But I held out and enjoyed the rest of the book.

Fine even reading, was not a distraction or a highlight.

ultimately, it was not time wasted. Just not the overwhelming success I have had with other reads (Try Barbara Tuckman!).

Sure, time well spent for the content. But it will be much better when I get to listen to it while doing the actuall walking tour in DC. From my point of view, the fact that it is a walking tour book was not clear.

Having said that, I look forward to listening again in DC, following the map and walking the tour.

Sure, tons of content in a short burst.

It is a walking tour, I listened while driving in Europe and had regretted not knowing that it would help to actually see what he was describing.

Of all the books I have listened to, this is average. But I would like to think that I have listened to some rather good books over the years.

I loved the entwining of food into history. The book touched on many of my favorite reading topics, history, culture, politics, science and economics. It tied in many diciplines rather well.

Consistent and unobtrusive.

I found the narrative from Philbrick quite an wonderful book to read (listen). I felt that in this book I was able to very quickly delve into the history, life and lore of the Nantucket Whaling community. The story is quickly told and apparently well documented. So far I have read two books by Philbrick (this one and Mayflower), both have been very good reads and I will mostly likely get a 3rd soon. This was one of those books that I ended up sitting in the car, having arrived at my destination, just to listen to a few more minutes of this riveting tale.

My only complaint is with the recording. It is choppy at places, the pitch of the narrator changes from high to higher at many places in the recoring. May be the lowest quality of more than 100 books I have listened to. Note - it was sill listenable, just the worse I have ever heard.

Wow, I just finished the book and have to say it was one of the most enjoyable reads ("listens") I have had in a while. A thoroughly rewarding experience. The wonderful narrator did a wonderful job of leading me through a fine book that manages to balance history, theology, politics, love story and martydom into a fine nexus of a book.

At no point was I distracted or overwhelmed by the content. Each aspect of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer was well represented. Not overly deep in detail on any one topic, but enough to leave me wanting to investigate more at a later time. A wonderful way to present so many aspects of a single man who made such an impact.

The book will be on my list of books to give to others, as is Metaxes' other book on William Wilberforce.

Please read this book to ensure that the things that Bonhoeffer stood up for have meaning even today.

The book is a limited memoir focusing on key decisions that President Bush made while in the White House. It is not a full memoir or complete history of his presidency or how he got there. I had for more day to day, behind the scenes insight. While I did not fully get what I was looking for, the book has its merits.

For insight into specific decision points (middle east peace, 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, financial crisis, etc.) it is refreshing to get some insight from the central figure in those events. For this I found the book intriguing. A fine example of this is the handling of the Katrina aftermath. I learned some things from the book that were not readily made known by the media.

Ultimately, I believe that historians will be kinder to President's Bush's presidency than the popular media was in 2009. I believe he will have his renaissance, just as Truman, Nixon and Reagan did. This book is the first salvo to that end.

I loved the level of detail and readability of this book. As I am a big fan of the Barbara Tuchman approach to writing history I found the Oren's approach educational and enjoyable.

Of course there will be some that will say his writing is biased, but I found that he was very even handed in exposing errors and mistakes by all parties envolved. I did not come away thinking I was hoodwinked by a biased analysis.

I am sure one day I will relisten to this book. The narrator was excellent as usual.

This book was interesting to me as it was a part of Israel's history that admittedly I was unaware of. From an insight into the events of the Exodus it was an interesting book. However, it is not an unbiased history. It is almost a romatic legacy written from a tribute to a hero (the captain). There is little information on the Britsh side of the story.

An interesting saga, but palls as history.

Once again, Barbara Tuckman has done a fine job of bringing history to life. Her review of the 1900 years of English fascination with the Holy Lands/Palestine leading up to the Balfour Mandate was very interesting. The insight on how all of that history led to the recreation of Israel as a Nation in Palestine was very informative. There is much shared in this book that many miss when considering the current situation of Arab and Jew.

Having become addicted to great history writers Ambrose and Tuchman, I do not know what I was thinking when I ordered this book. The language, style and lack of depth on the content is so poor that I barely lasted 40 minutes. I even stopped and started a day later twice to see if it would catch and it didn't. I would have sent it to my 15 year old son to listen to, but the profanity is so great I couldn't do it to him. For me it reminded me of how we talked as freshmen in college. Skip it.