Book Description
A master spy's memoir of playing the game in the most strategically influential country in 1960s Africa.
Larry Devlin arrived as the new chief of station for the CIA in the Congo five days after the country had declared its independence, the army had mutinied, and governmental authority had collapsed. As he crossed the Congo River in an almost empty ferry boat, all he could see were lines of people trying to travel the other way--out of the Congo. Within his first two weeks he found himself on the wrong end of a revolver as militiamen played Russian-roulette, Congo style, with him.
During his first year, the charismatic and reckless political leader, Patrice Lumumba, was murdered and Devlin was widely thought to have been entrusted with (he was) and to have carried out (he didn't) the assassination. Then he saved the life of Joseph Desire Mobutu, who carried out the military coup that presaged his own rise to political power. Devlin found himself at the heart of Africa, fighting for the future of perhaps the most strategically influential country on the continent, its borders shared with eight other nations. He met every significant political figure, from presidents to mercenaries, as he took the Cold War to one of the world's hottest zones. This is a classic political memoir from a master spy who lived in wildly dramatic times.
Customer Reviews:
CoS Congo.......2007-08-09
An excellent biography, discusses what happened during the Cold War in the Congo from his point of view. I found it an enjoyable read.
Exciting times.......2007-07-05
A good book giving an overall flavor of the Congo in the early 60's. It would be nice if Devlin had filled in more details however perhaps this is proscribed in his publishing agreement (I presume that he had to run this through the CIA before publishing it). You do get an idea of just what a CIA COS does to try to guide events to follow US policy. He's rather blase about the physical risks of operating in an unstable environment although maybe this is because he survived to tell the tale. I don't think that I would have my family at my side in such an environment.
Charts his many encounters and is a top pick.......2007-06-17
Author Larry Devlin arrived as the new chief of station for the CIA in the Congo five days after the country declared its independence, the army mutinied, and the government had collapsed: as he entered the country, streams of residents were fleeing. During his first year he was accused of murdering a charismatic political leader, saved the life of the man who carried out the military coup, and found himself confronting unheard-of challenges in Africa. CHIEF OF STATION, CONGO charts his many encounters and is a top pick especially recommended for college-level and military holdings strong in African culture and history.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
-.......2007-06-12
A little too general, very maddening that he left out so many details. But a necessary read for those interested in the Congo in the 60's
History Lessons.......2007-06-07
This book rewards its readers with good deal of information on a variety of subjects. It undoubtedly provides a very accurate account of the struggle of the former Belgium Congo to become a variable nation state. In the course of doing this, its author provides a plausible description of the chaotic condition of an imploding nation state and its leading political players of the period, including the controversial Patrice Lumumba and the man who turned out to be his chief rival Sese Seko Mobutu. Finally the book opens a window on how the U.S -Soviet Union Clod War rivalry played out in an newly independent African state like the Congo.
On a rather different level, Larry Devlin provides a good explanation of what a pro-active CIA Station Chief (COS) of 1960 did to earn his keep. One can carry away a good deal of information about good `tradecraft', the use of non-official cover (NOC) agents, and the vital need for a close relationship between the COS and the U.S. Ambassador. For a long period Devlin was not only COS Kinshasa (Leopoldville), but also the only CIA representative in the Congo. As a result, he discloses quite a bit about the art and craft of recruiting and maintaining `agents' in the field. Although virtually all memoirs written by former intelligence folks tend to be somewhat self-serving, from this book it is clear that Devlin really was good at his job and did his best to protect the national security interests of U.S. and equally important to help the Congolese build a viable and independent nation state. That in the end the Congo continues to be a near failed state was due to factors well beyond Devlin's control.
The problem then as now of course is that a really good CIA operative like Devlin and a really poor operatives are treated pretty much the same way by CIA. The system is really designed to homogenize everyone into the same bland blend. Also it is clear that CIA of 2007 would never allow a COS the kind of freedom of action that Devlin had in 1960.
Anyone with an interest in Africa or the CIA or both ought to find this well written and informative book fascinating.
Average customer rating:
- An informative memoir on the Vietnam War
- The first step
- A Good Time To Revisit the Vietnam Experience
- Good, but not his best
- A good book
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If I Die in a Combat Zone : Box Me Up and Ship Me Home
Tim O'Brien
Manufacturer: Broadway
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ASIN: 0767904435
Release Date: 1999-09-01 |
Amazon.com
Over time, Tim O'Brien has used both art and artifice to shape his fictional accounts of Vietnam. Award-winning novels such as Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried offer up a surreal view of the war: a soldier who decides to walk to Paris, leaving only a trail of M&M's in his wake; a young man who imports his high-school girlfriend to his base camp high in the jungled mountains, only to lose her to a shadowy squad of Special Forces Green Berets and to "that mix of unnamed terror and unnamed pleasure" that was Vietnam. O'Brien's first account of the war, however, was written in the raw, unfiltered months following his return from Southeast Asia in 1969. If I Die in a Combat Zone has all of the eloquence and attention to language and detail that are a mark of the author's work; what is different about it is its straightforward, unembellished depiction of his personal experience of hell.
"When you are ordered to march through areas such as Pinkville--GI slang for Song My, parent village of My Lai ... you do some thinking. You hallucinate. You look ahead a few paces and wonder what your legs will resemble if there is more to the earth in that spot than silicates and nitrogen. Will the pain be unbearable? Will you scream or fall silent? Will you be afraid to look at your own body, afraid of the sight of your own red flesh and white bone? You wonder if the medic remembered his morphine."
O'Brien paints an unvarnished portrait of the infantry soldier's life that is at once mundane and terrifying--the endless days of patrolling punctuated by firefights that end as suddenly and inconclusively as they begin; the mind-numbing brutality of burned villages and trampled rice patties; the terror of tunnels, minefields, and the ever-present threat of death. Powerful as these scenes are, perhaps the most memorable chapter in the book concerns his decision to desert just a few weeks before he was sent to Vietnam. "The AWOL bag was ready to go, but I wasn't.... I burned the letters to my family. I read the others and burned them, too. It was over. I simply couldn't bring myself to flee. Family, the home town, friends, history, tradition, fear, confusion, exile: I could not run." Tim O'Brien went into the war opposing it and came out knowing exactly why. If I Die in a Combat Zone is more than just a memoir of a disastrous war; it is also a meditation on heroism and cowardice, on the mutability of truth and morality in a war zone and, most of all, on the simple, human capacity to endure the unendurable. --Alix Wilber
Book Description
Before writing his award-winning
Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brien gave us this intensely personal account of his year as a foot soldier in Vietnam. The author takes us with him to experience combat from behind an infantryman's rifle, to walk the minefields of My Lai, to crawl into the ghostly tunnels, and to explore the ambiguities of manhood and morality in a war gone terribly wrong. Beautifully written and searingly heartfelt,
If I Die in a Combat Zone is a masterwork of its genre.
Customer Reviews:
An informative memoir on the Vietnam War.......2007-08-30
This memoir brought me closer than I had been before to the Vietnam War..it was interesting. Another perspective on the Vietnam War.
The first step.......2007-08-09
If I Die...is Tim O'Brien's first book, and his first of many inspired by his tour of duty as an infantryman in Vietnam, 1969-70. Later, more successful books, like Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried, deliberately smudge the line between reportage and invented story (and, in GAC, he takes it all the way to outright fantasy) but this debut is intended as a soldier's field memoir, the facts as O'Brien saw and remembers them, although with much brooding personal commentary added.
More than 30 years after its publication, the book is still quite powerful, reviving the sights and sounds of a war that America decided a while ago not to forget, but rather to remember in a way it finds most convenient. There are still too many people who believe we could easily have "won" Vietnam if we hadn't been "stabbed in the back" by politicians and hippie protestors at home; that is nonsense, much of which O'Brien's book helps disprove. Indispensible works like The Best and the Brightest, and of course The Pentagon Papers, prove how various US administrations allowed themselves to be deluded about the progress the US military might make in solving the political problems of a small SE Asian country. By the time O'Brien arrived as a foot soldier in early 1969, the war had reached a high-level stalemate, was essentially over, and the Vietnamese simply had to wait us out. LBJ and Nixon knew this but they continued to send our soldiers over to be killed and mangled; too precipitous a withdrawal would have hurt their administrations politically.
What O'Brien does so well is dramatize this fatal stall at the personal level. His book is loaded with stories of ranking officers, brave men with Army careers, allowing their commands to ease off in the field, avoid pointless enemy engagements, even file fake patrol reports, especially at night. O'Brien's tour commenced a year after Tet and My Lai occurred, and in their aftermath, as O'Brien tells it, Army morale at even the officer level had sunk so low, and the failure of US goals was so evident, that few Americans wanted to get killed for a misadventure.
What lingers most in my mind is O'Brien's struggle with his own self-loathing: he believed even before being drafted that the war was wrong, and made serious plans to desert the Army, but found himself unable to make that great break, fearful of the reaction he would eventually encounter from parents and the small Minnesota town of his birth. He gave in to tradition, rather than do what he felt to be right, and it seems he has never forgiven himself.
A Good Time To Revisit the Vietnam Experience .......2007-08-02
Tim O'Brien is one of our more gifted, living writers in the genre of war literature, and although IF I DIE IN A COMBAT zone isn't his strongest book, it is certainly worthy reading, especially in the echoing din of George Bush's Iraqi adventure.
A straightforward account from a soldier's point of view, O'Brien's book includes the before, during, and after of his Vietnam experience -- especially the daily grind of soldiering (during) and the soul-searching and debate about fleeing (before) instead of answering the call of the draft. He had a rather quixotic escape plan to Sweden (of all places), but ultimately did his "duty," all along meditating on the nature of sanity, obligation, and patriotism. There are frequent excerpts from Plato, even, as O'Brien explores that ancient philosopher's take on "courage." As his fellow soldiers are killed, O'Brien details the nature of fate and chance, along with the more realistic details of the many ways "Charlie" (the VC) could arrange for you to die.
Here is a typical excerpt in which O'Brien compares Vietnam to the Trojan War:
"But losing [Captain Johansen] was like the Trojans losing Hector. He gave some amount of reason to fight. Certainly there were never any political reasons. The war, like Hector's own war, was silly and stupid. Troy was besieged for the sake of a pretty woman. And Helen, for God's sake, was a woman most of the grubby, warted Trojans could never have. Vietnam was under siege in pursuit of a pretty, tantalizing, promiscuous, particularly American brand of government and style. And most of Alpha Company would have preferred a likable whore to self-determination. So Captain Johansen helped to mitigate and melt the silliness, showing the grace and poise a man can have under the worst of circumstances, a wrong war. We clung to him." -- (p. 145)
Philosophical riffs like this are frequent -- as are accounts of the soldiers' lives (and deaths), their nicknames for killer devices, their fear and superstitions, and their ways of surviving in a strange land where even women and children could, and often did, mean death. The literary weave of abstractions on war and history with specifics on Vietnam itself make for a potent read. You will come out of it not only feeling better educated about what Vietnam was like, but sensing that many of the arguments of the American government and the officers in charge ring as familiarly hollow now (in Iraq) as they did then (in Vietnam). If I could, I'd buy a copy for the President. But I know he wouldn't read it or, if he did, seek meaning from it.
Pro or anti-war, Vietnam or Iraq, you, however, can glean something from this early effort of Tim O'Brien's. Check it out.
Good, but not his best.......2007-04-28
Having read O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" first, this book seemed a bit dry and journalistic in comparison. It started out slow, and never really pulled me in the way the other did. In this book there are flashes of O'Brien's lyrical, dream-like brilliance, but never as consistent or as seemingly tangible as in "The Things They Carried."
In this book, O'Brien brings the reader along with him from the moment he first learns that he is to be drafted until he is on a plane heading home from Viet Nam. He shares his fears, doubts and political views of the war. The book is mostly about O'Brien's experience in the war, and how it changed him and matured him.
Overall, a good book. Probably of particular interest to anyone interested in a personal, almost documentary-style account of O'Brien's experience in Viet Nam. In a purely literary sense, however, the stories in "The Things They Carried" are far better examples of Tim O'Brien's skill as a writer.
A good book.......2007-01-11
A little too in depth for me. But i do recommend that it be read. A good book.
Book Description
"The best damned book from the point of view of the infantrymen who fought there."—Army Times
Among the best books ever written about men in combat, The Killing Zone tells the story of the platoon of Delta One-six, capturing what it meant to face lethal danger, to follow orders, and to search for the conviction and then the hope that this war was worth the sacrifice. The book includes a new chapter on what happened to the platoon members when they came home.
Customer Reviews:
Written as Remembered. That's Important.......2007-08-26
Like most who have written books about their Vietnam experience, I believe Mr. Downs has told his story as he remembered it. There are several books out about the war where it's obvious that the authors are trying their best to paint a picture he or she thinks book buyers want to see and movie producers want to produce. Mr. Downs was very kind to the children when he described them giving the GIs the finger. Explaining that they were just greeting the soldiers as they had seen the GIs do to each other. That could be true in his case, but children are not dumb, they learn quickly. In aviation, we, too, had to learn quickly. Several air crews left this world after a child threw a grenade into the aircraft. This happened to me twice. I was lucky. Anyway, this is an interesting read and I'll describe it as "lucid and compelling". It's unlike my book, "Kill me If You Can, You SOB". It is by no means a rah-rah account of the war or the sociopaths who did their best to perpetuate it. Don't rush off to buy it. Most people hate it, especially Vietnam veterans. In my opinion, a Vietnam veteran who cursed Jane Fonda and then turned around and voted for George W. Bush is not fit to eat Jane Fonda's garbage. While these hypocrites were whining about this woman who was doing exactly what Jesus preached, two American heroes, Robert McNamara and Henry Kissinger were getting our troops killed by the thousands. I guess this little 110-pound woman made a much easier target for these damn hypocrites than McNamara and Kissinger. At least Kissinger didn't pretend he cared about these kids he was getting slaughtered. "Military Men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy." -Henry Kissinger
Really interesting book........2007-07-07
This book was really good, it started a little slow, and it climaxed really fast. It was like I started reading it and then all of a sudden it was over. It was definitly a good book though, all kinds of cool little stories.
Action.......2007-06-27
This is a great action book with ambushes, attacks, etc. The Killing Zone shows what it was like to live and fight in Vietnam. This was a very great read, it kept me reading it every night as much as I could.
vietnam.......2007-06-12
this book is such a waste of time, it tells you only the point of view of one's man ego and his denial of america's defeat by the north vietnamese. throughout the whole war,the u.s miltary only rely on body counts for there victory ,hoping the north vietnamese would fear the u.s army and surrender ,but in the end ,they were wrong ,the nva and viet cong were determine to fight to the death.
face it,even though the u.s military won many battles,the united states lost the war and retreated . the whole world is aware of this defeat but only some american citizen like this author denies this.
many of the vc casualty are infact innocent civilians ,that the u.s military has covered up by placing nva /vc uniforms and weapons on dead civilians ,then taking photographic pictures of it.
the united states gain nothing from the war ,with 60,000 + dead u.s soldiers ,thousands m.i.a (s) ,150,000 billion dollars down the drain ,over 100,000 seriously injured soldiers including amputees (missing legs,arms , body parts) ,and handicaps ,torn the country apart during the 60's and 70's ,fail to stop communism,fail to protect south vietnam,fail to stop an army that is 10 time smaller then u.s army,and fail to justified the war in rightious context,basically the united states gave up and retreated.
the north vietnamese suffered high casualty by fighting u.s army,australian army ,arvn army,south korean army,and new zealand all by them self ,but fighting to regain there country for a better vietnam in the future was a well justified reason to die just like anyother civil war (compared this to american civil war casualties).
so one's man ego and his obsession of denial will not change the world's view on why people should think who really won the war,everybody knows who won this war,and media wasnt wrong at all.
5 Stars........2007-03-12
This effort is one of the better accounts of the Vietnam War. It's interesting, well-written, and the accounts are plausible and intelligently reported.
Book Description
Jonathan Franzen arrived late, and last, in a family of boys in Webster Groves, Missouri. The Discomfort Zone is his intimate memoir of his growth from a "small and fundamentally ridiculous person," through an adolescence both excruciating and strangely happy, into an adult with embarrassing and unexpected passions. It’s also a portrait of a middle-class family weathering the turbulence of the 1970s, and a vivid personal history of the decades in which America turned away from its midcentury idealism and became a more polarized society.
The story Franzen tells here draws on elements as varied as the explosive dynamics of a Christian youth fellowship in the 1970s, the effects of Kafka’s fiction on his protracted quest to lose his virginity, the elaborate pranks that he and his friends orchestrated from the roof of his high school, his self-inflicted travails in selling his mother’s house after her death, and the web of connections between his all-consuming marriage, the problem of global warming, and the life lessons to be learned in watching birds.
These chapters of a Midwestern youth and a New York adulthood are warmed by the same combination of comic scrutiny and unqualified affection that characterize Franzen’s fiction, but here the main character is the author himself. Sparkling, daring, arrestingly honest, The Discomfort Zone narrates the formation of a unique mind and heart in the crucible of an everyday American family.
Customer Reviews:
For Franzen fans only.......2007-09-30
The Discomfort Zone is honest, funny, insightful and nearly every sentence is a work of art; just what you would expect from a memoir written by Jonathan Franzen. However, despite his prodigious gifts as a writer, this personal history doesn't feel cohesive, is often aloof and it never feels like vital reading. It is an interesting if uneven glimpse into the mind and past of Franzen, but if you haven't read his work before, read The Corrections before this. For fans only.
Man in time.......2007-08-07
This essay collection reads very much like the memoir of a formerly troubled man who has achieved great success and subsequent balance in his life, which in turn allows him to smooth all his former troubled memories into a rather self satisfied tapestry where angst is clearly present, though the reader has the sense that it was all inevitably going to resolve itself and things would be okay.
The best pieces are 'House for Sale' in which Franzen has to choose between three realtors competing for the sale of his parent's St Louis house, which leads him to ponder just how much he has chosen to rip himself from his twee, Midwestern routes; and 'The Foreign Language' in which he travels to Germany as part of a college programme and discovers the frustrations of trying to develop relationships with women and, thanks to an enlightened professor, the universal genius of Kafka.
The rest is a jaunt through a range of emotions, scenes and characters from Franzen's past that are etched into his own life path and the history of his nation. Franzen seems to be the sort of post modern male who can't wash out a jar of peanut butter without contemplating the intertwined nexus of global warming, birdwatching and his childless marriage. I got the sense that Franzen managed to survive all of this in order to live the life he wanted and write the books he did, but I'm prepared to bet that a lot of the people (especially the women in his life) got burned along the way. The selfishness of the authorial ego I suppose. Saul Bellow was the same. Something about those Great American Novelists eh...
bird watching boredom.......2007-01-26
ugh, this book was painful to read. I enjoyed the passages on teenage life and living within a chaotic family but I was bored to death with his accounts of Munich and the bird watching. I have really enjoyed Franzen's other books but to actually peak into his life is just depressing. The guy has one shot at a memoir and I feel like he blew it. bird watching? jeesh.
a paler shade of white.......2007-01-18
What it's like to be white, adolescent and Midwestern and never get beyond your own stereotypes. The glimpses of his mother are very good. The time spent ruminating about Peanuts cartoons, a youth fellowship group, and an assortment of implausible schoolyard pranks never seem important enough for all the gravitas. Writing like this gives us WASPS a bad name.
The Discomforts Of Everyday Life.......2007-01-10
In this book, Franzen harnesses his powers of articulation around his own life experiences. His effort is to put into words the feelings of creeping discomfort that follow us through all phases of our life. In this "personal history" Franzen relates through 6 short stories these personal experiences in wonderfully descriptive and sensitive prose. His ability to capture these feelings and convey them to the reader is the true genius of the book.
His stories cover various life events that most people either live through or are at least touched by. He talks about the feelings associated with the sale of his childhood home and how that made him feel about his parents, particularly his mother. He writes another story about how the "Peanuts" cartoon related to his life growing up and how he read it with apt enthusiasm.
One of particular interest and intensity is his story about his Church "Fellowship" group as he was growing up. This one truly is a gem of a story. His story "The Foreign Language" talks about his college major in German and his experiences; especially as they relate to his quest to lose his virginity. And his final story, talks about his separation from his wife and the feelings that accompanied that decision.
Franzen uses his great talent to interleave his stories with his feelings. He chooses the difficult feeling of "discomfort" to describe and elucidate. In this book, he does an extraordinary job of giving the reader a handle on those feelings. The book is recommended to all serious readers who are interested in describing internal feelings.
Amazon.com
The "essence of the American desert," as the subtitle of Craig Childs's book has it, is water. A desert, by definition, lacks it, but when water does come, it comes in torrential, sometimes devastating abundance. Childs, a thirtysomething desert rat with a vast knowledge of the Southwest's remote corners, knows this fact well. "Most rain falling anywhere but the desert comes slow enough that it is swallowed by the soil without comment," he observes. "Desert rains, powerful and sporadic, tend to hit the ground, gather into floods, and are gone before the water can sink five inches into the ground."
The travels that Childs recounts in this vivid narrative take him from places sometimes parched, sometimes swimming, from the depths of the Grand Canyon to the dry limestone tanks of the lava-strewn Sonoran Desert. As he travels, Childs gives a close reading of the desert landscape ("the moral," he writes at one point, "is that if you know the land and its maps, you might live"), observing the rocks, plants, animals, and people that call it home. Some of his adventures will remind readers of Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire--save that Childs writes without Abbey's bluster, and with a measured lyricism that well suits the achingly lovely back canyons and cactus forests of the Southwest. By turns travelogue, ecological treatise, and meditative essay, Childs's book will speak to anyone who has spent time under desert skies, wondering when the next drop of rain might fall. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
The "essence of the American desert," as the subtitle of Craig Childs's book has it, is water. A desert, by definition, lacks it, but when water does come, it comes in torrential, sometimes devastating abundance. Childs, a thirtysomething desert rat with a vast knowledge of the Southwest's remote corners, knows this fact well. "Most rain falling anywhere but the desert comes slow enough that it is swallowed by the soil without comment," he observes. "Desert rains, powerful and sporadic, tend to hit the ground, gather into floods, and are gone before the water can sink five inches into the ground." The travels that Childs recounts in this vivid narrative take him from places sometimes parched, sometimes swimming, from the depths of the Grand Canyon to the dry limestone tanks of the lava-strewn Sonoran Desert. As he travels, Childs gives a close reading of the desert landscape ("the moral," he writes at one point, "is that if you know the land and its maps, you might live"), observing the rocks, plants, animals, and people that call it home. Some of his adventures will remind readers of Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire--save that Childs writes without Abbey's bluster, and with a measured lyricism that well suits the achingly lovely back canyons and cactus forests of the Southwest. By turns travelogue, ecological treatise, and meditative essay, Childs's book will speak to anyone who has spent time under desert skies, wondering when the next drop of rain might fall. --Gregory McNamee
Customer Reviews:
A touch of Abbey.......2007-08-27
I would agree this has a touch of Ed Abbey in it. It is educational and hisorical intertwined with interesting stories and a touch of suspense. If you love and cherish the beauty and harshness of the desert, you will appreciate this book.
Desert solitaire . . ........2006-12-26
This book by naturalist Craig Childs belongs on any Edward Abbey bookshelf, where writers have fallen in love with the desert Southwest and portray it eloquently on the printed page. Childs is more scientist than environmentalist, but he has Abbey's fascination with wilderness adventure, which takes him in search of what he regards as the most elemental aspect of the desert - the water to be found there. These searches take him far into remote areas of the vast Colorado River watershed, mostly in Arizona, including the canyons that feed into the Grand Canyon.
The book is divided into three sections: still water, streams, and flood. We discover that if one knows how to search for it - and the first inhabitants of these areas did know - there is water to be found in plentiful supply. Likewise, there are spring-fed streams that flow during certain seasons, and in and along both kinds of water there is a host of different life forms, plants and animals, each place representing a specific and evolving ecosystem. Childs' eye and ear for detail and his scientific knowledge join to create vivid accounts of the discoveries he makes as he explores. We learn, for instance, how pools of rainwater in the desert wastes become populated with forms of aquatic life and how these survive, even through long periods of extreme drought.
For me, a particularly harrowing adventure was his exploration of a system of caves from which a stream of ice-cold water emerges high on a canyon wall near the Grand Canyon. Others include his pursuit of floods in the making in this same system of canyons following summer cloudbursts, and he underscores the perilousness of his curiosity by describing the deaths of other hikers and campers taken by surprise by flash floods. Often he travels alone for days and weeks at a time; sometimes he takes along a companion. What he writes of his experiences is consistently full of wonder, as well as a realization that human interference with the natural order (pumping from aquifers, as just one example) is rapidly and permanently altering ecosystems that have adapted to the desert environment over millennia.
One of the best books i've read, period........2006-08-02
gorgeous language and imagery. an amazing adventurer (but the adventures aren't really the point) and incredibly in tune with his foibles, strengths and desires. if i could follow in even 1/100th of his footsteps (literally and metaphorically)...
The Fundamental Life Source of the "Wasteland.".......2006-03-04
Although I had planned to do so, I had not gotten around to reading this wonderful book until I had some time while I was waiting in an airport recently. I immediately understood the author's reverence for the waters of the desert because I grew up in southwestern Arizona and intimately know some of the places he mentions, as well as others that he does not. The water tanks of the area near and on the Camino del Diablo and the life-giving stream called Sycamore Canyon are well known to me and I am very familiar with tadpole shrimp and some of the other smaller organisms of the tinajas, playa lakes and puddles. Indeed, Craig Childs has caught the not so easy to define wonder that one feels when seeing water in the desert. "The Secret Knowledge of Water: Discovering the Essence of the American Desert" voices what many desert rats (as I was when I was younger) would have difficulty saying- that water in the desert is almost a holy entity, a substance that defies definition (despite our knowledge of the chemical structure) because it is manifestly the material of life.
As a scientist I can find fascination with the multitude of creatures that live in the springs, creeks, rivers and tinajas, but the awe goes much deeper than just collecting facts, necessary and interesting as they are. It is, as Childs has so eloquently described, a visceral feeling that one gets- a deep satisfaction - when one sees the surface of deep and cool pools of water in hidden rocky tanks (such as Tinajas Altas, which I have not seen, but have been close to, or another group he does not mention, Cinco Tinajas in Big Bend Ranch State Park, Texas, which I have seen), or of a stream flowing in a thin sheet over the bedrock of a desert canyon, as in Sycamore Canyon.
I have only one very minor bone to pick. He says his mother was born in the Sonoran Desert, but no part of that desert reaches the Texas-Mexico border. I think he means Sonoran Life Zone. But this is a minor quibble in a book that is a gem of writing about the natural world of the North American deserts.
Read this book if you would understand the reverence for water that is engendered by a life in the desert.
very good.......2004-12-03
I was surprised that I liked this book as it started out so slow. But stick with it. It's fascinating.
Average customer rating:
- Luckily, Not Based Upon A True Story.....
- GREAT FIRST SOLO
- A page turner, but a little over the top
- The Blue Zone
- Great solo novel for Andrew Gross!
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The Blue Zone: A Novel
Andrew Gross
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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The 6th Target
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The Overlook (Harry Bosch)
ASIN: 0061143405
Release Date: 2007-04-13 |
Book Description
From the number one New York Times bestselling coauthor of Judge & Jury and Lifeguard comes this electrifying solo debut, The Blue Zone.
Kate Raab's life seems almost perfect: her boyfriend, her job, her family . . . until her father runs into trouble with the law. His only recourse is to testify against his former accomplices in exchange for his family's placement in the Witness Protection Program. But one of them gets cold feet. In a flash, everything Kate can count on is gone.
Now, a year later, her worst fears have happened: Her father has disappeared—into what the WITSEC agency calls "the blue zone"—and someone close to him is found brutally murdered. With her family under surveillance, the FBI untrustworthy, and her father's menacing "friends" circling with increasing intensity, Kate sets off to find her father—and uncover the secrets someone will kill to keep buried.
Customer Reviews:
Luckily, Not Based Upon A True Story............2007-10-04
You will finish this book in one day!
I read this in a few hours a couple of months ago, and still get knots in my stomach, thinking about the chaos that would ensue were this book based on fact.
I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just tell you that if you're anything like me, you'll go on an emotional roller coaster for a few hours, and then have nightmares for a few months.
GREAT FIRST SOLO.......2007-08-14
Spellbinding. Totally unpredictable. So many surprises. A real page turner. I couldn't put it down. Can't wait for his next novel.
A page turner, but a little over the top.......2007-08-13
I came to read this book based on a couple of very high recommendations. And, now that I've read it, I can see how it would really appeal to a lot of readers who love books with tons of plot surprises. I tend to prefer books that have a more realistic feel than this one does, so this story wasn't really my cup of tea. But, it may be yours, so it's probably worth a look.
One feature I really liked about The Blue Zone was the way it's divided into many short chapters. And, the writing style was appealing, so it was very easy to read quickly - easy to decide to read one more and then another short chapter versus committing to start a long one. As a result, this book was a real page turner for me and I liked that. But, at the end, I just felt the storyline went for a few too many improbable plot twists. If that doesn't bother you, jump on this book.
The Blue Zone.......2007-08-11
This novel will make your hair stand on end. Buy it! Get inside it, and stop sleeping well at night.
Great solo novel for Andrew Gross!.......2007-08-09
Benjamin Raab has been buying gold for Argot Manufacturing. Suddenly, the FBI arrests him for money laundering, aiding and abetting a criminal enterprise, and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. Benjamin is aghast to learn that the law believes he works for the Mercado family of the Colombian drug cartel. Benjamin insists he is innocent, but the only way out is his testimony against his accomplices and for his family to immediately disappear within the Witness Protection Program. But just before it happens, one of them get cold feet.
Kate Raab is devastated at learning her father has gotten the family into such trouble. Kate marries Greg Herrera, they adopt a dog, and slowly life becomes bearable. But only fourteen months after the mess her father had caused Kate's life begins to fall apart again. Kate keeps seeing strange people watching her. Then her best friend is shot and rushed to the hospital. Someone begins following Kate. But her world totally shatters when she hears that her father has suddenly disappeared into what the WITSEC agency calls "the blue zone" and someone close to him (whom Kate knows as well) is murdered. Kate begins to dig into her father's life. She must find her missing father and, somehow, uncover the secrets someone will kill to keep buried.
**** This thriller is extremely fast paced. Readers must pay close attention or risk missing critical parts of the plot and story. This is the first time that author Andrew Gross has published a solo thriller. In my opinion, it is very well done. This author is one to keep your eye on. I feel that Gross is going to have a long and successful career! ****
Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.
Average customer rating:
- Ah...Not So Great
- It's a winner!
- Romance on the Basketball Court
- For Basketball Fans
- An Enjoyable Romance
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Romancing the Zone
Kenna White
Manufacturer: Bella Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Coyote Sky
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ASIN: 1594930600 |
Book Description
Liz Elliott is fast approaching forty as a successful business woman and single mother to nineteen-year-old daughter, Becca. Becca is a freshman at Ashton, Vermont's Chilton College. She is also a rising star for the Lady Stingers basketball team, just as her mother had been twenty-years-ago. But in those early days, a a dirty little secret had collapsed Liz's world - a secret she has kept hidden from everyone - especially her daughter.
When Liz accepts Becca's challenge to return to college and complete her degree as well as play her last year of basketball eligibility, she is met with resistance from the new head coach. Coach Sheridan Ross has no patience for babysitting an over-the-hill athlete - not as long as she has her own plans to move up the career coaching ladder as quickly as possible. Sparks soon begin to fly.
Then Liz's world begins to crumble when the secret from her past returns to Ashton...
Customer Reviews:
Ah...Not So Great.......2007-09-04
I enjoyed the story in Romancing the Zone, the relationship between Liz and Sheridan is wonderful and romantic. Their influence on the team is one most can relate to and enjoy reading about.
However, and this may have been just my book, I found the grammar and spelling mistakes took away from the story. My book had many spelling errors or entire words left out, to where I'd read a sentence and have to read it again to fill in the word so I knew what it was saying. Also, there were many places where somebody would be upset or in pain, and their facial expressions given to us through the terms were incorrect. I was like what?? Why would somebody smirk when given bad news? That is frequently what happens, or instead of glaring at the other in anger, the author would put the word leer, nothing related to a look of anger. I thought these did not help us learn the characters because it gives you the wrong impression of what was going on.
The story is a great concept and read, I simply thought that many errors took away from the story and it's development of the characters.
It's a winner!.......2007-06-10
I very much enjoyed this book and I'm looking forward to reading more of Kendra White's work.
Having played college basketball I am a fan of the game, but I think even those who know little about sports can still relate to the characters and be captured by the story.
I was especially impressed with the clever plotline of an older woman being drawn back to college to finish her degree, return for her final year of eligibility and then falling for the coach...very original.
Romance on the Basketball Court.......2007-05-21
If you enjoy women's basketball, this romance on the court will entertain you. You'll be captivated by the development of this relationship.
For Basketball Fans.......2007-01-24
Enjoyable read. Good character developement and story line. Romantic and not overly heavy on the sex but of course there is some. If you are a women's basketball fan this will be right up your alley!
An Enjoyable Romance.......2006-12-02
Basketball is really just the back story in this unique and sensitive romance involving mature women. Both protagonists have spent years building comfortable and secure lives---one as a businesswoman and single mom, the other as a college basketball coach. While both are aware almost from the moment they meet of the magnetism between them, neither is prepared for the emotional maelstrom that follows.
Years ago, Liz Elliott left college before her senior year when she found herself pregnant. Subsequently she gave birth to her daughter Becca, now nineteen, and established a successful restaurant. While Becca has no problem with her mother's lesbianism, Liz has remained uninvolved, but presumably has indulged in a few flings over the years.
Women's basketball coach Sheridan Ross has dedicated her life to her career. Moving up the ladder in her profession requires frequent relocation from city to city and in Sheridan's mind precludes anything even close to a serious relationship. As a result, she has studiously avoided emotional entanglement. Yet she finds herself attracted to Liz in a way that is both unfamiliar and disturbing to her.
The tenuous bond between Liz and Sheridan is complicated by the reappearance of a very scary person from Liz's past. The resulting conflict is a cliff-hanger, and the resolution is not at all predictable.
The author does a masterful job of showing the evolution of the situation. I was captivated by the women's progression from casual interest to almost constant preoccupation with one another, and finally to the acknowledgment of love. I think I fell in love with both of them along the way.
Since the nature of both women's lives is complex, their story cannot end with them simply holding hands and walking together into the sunset. There are real-life obstacles to overcome. While fiction is supposed to let us escape into the land of warm fuzzy feelings, it is the tough issues, dealt with realistically, that bring this story to life.
Kenna White seems to improve with every book. "Beneath the Willow" was good. "Romancing the Zone" is even better. "Skin Deep" is her next one, and I can hardly wait.
Book Description
Seen On The Sidelines
What star quarterback has been spotted with a new flavor of arm candy? It's notorious bad boy Riley Nash, but his newest flame is the last person this reporter could imagine -- none other than Sophie Jordan, beautiful, buttoned-down co-owner of The Hot Zone, the industry's top sports management agency.
What's behind this unlikely team? Some say it has to do with the sudden disappearance of superagent Spencer Atkins. Could there be a connection between the red-hot quarterback and the missing dealmaker? Or has the famous groupie magnet simply met his perfect match in cool, collected Sophie? Watch this space, because the resulting news is bound to be one
Hot Item.
Customer Reviews:
Not an enjoyable read.........2006-10-27
If you want a great sports romance try See Jane Score. This was not enjoyable. The characters were not likeable. Riley was a self absorbed weanie, and Sophie anal and uptight. There was no courtship, just two people who have nothing in common arguing about how they have nothing in common.
Fun read - great read (more romance than chick lit).......2006-09-11
for a modern novel - this one was actually really fun! I enjoyed the "sporty" aspect to it - although the part with the "villain" seems a bit one-sided and bizarre but hey at least the plot line seemed unique (I don't want to spoil too much!) Just know that if you get this it will be an interesting/unique/fun/sporty/steamy read!!!!
Funny, Smart and Passionate - Read in One Day !.......2006-07-31
Hot Item is the third novel the Hot Zone Series. Sophie Jordan is the middle sister who always is in control and never takes risks especially with her heart. Riley Nash is the Football player who just found out his biological father is gay and Sophie is the key to the whole solution. Check out the whole series Hot Stuff (2004), Hot Number (2005) and Hot Item (2006).
Hot Item.......2006-07-05
I have read the first two of this three book series, and this final book was not what I expected. The plot was very contemporary, dealing with political machinations and gay men. Family values are upheld by the author. I recommend this book.
Save the best for last.......2006-07-01
This was the last and best book in the trilogy set of the sisters and it was great!! I am sad to know that there's not going to be another book in this set. A great book to read on the bunch!!!! You can't put it down until you know how it ends.
Book Description
For team owner Buck Buchanan every day at the Huntsville track is a rush. The noise. The dirt. The roar. The furor. NASCAR's golden boy has only one regret: Jenna Williams. Not that he blames her for ditching him twelve years ago, but now she's back and has thrown a red flag.
Jenna is downright frantic, clutching a ransom note demanding a cool million in exchange for her daughter's safety. Their daughter's, actually. Yes, she knows how it looks asking Buck for help. But it's true. The child is theirs and Buck's the only one who can wrench her out of danger.
Even if that means trading himself for a girl he's never known.
Customer Reviews:
Danger Zone.......2007-07-11
On NASCAR owner Buck Buchanan's fortieth birthday he blew out the candles on his cake thinking of Jenna Williams, his love from twelve years ago. Later that night, Buck gets the shock of his life when Jenna rings his doorbell. Jenna's daughter has been kidnapped and she needs Buck's help to get her back.
If the kidnapper gets his way, Buck won't get a chance to get to know Jenna again or meet the girl he's just found out is his daughter.
Danger Zone is a very romantic love story filled with excitement. The long lost love between Buck and Jenna is touching and the suspense kept me guessing. I expected a tender romance and some mystery, but I was pleasantly surprised with the thrills and suspense in Danger Zone.
Nannette
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed
Danger Zone.......2007-03-26
I'm really enjoying the NASCAR reading and am planning on sharing them with my daughter-in-law. Thank you!
fast-paced second chance at love romantic suspense .......2007-02-14
Twelve years ago, emergency room nurse Jenna Williams and NASCAR driver Buck Buchanan met and shared a heated tryst before both moved on with their respective lives. However, that is not exactly true as Jenna gave birth to his child, Becca, but never informed the father that he sired a child.
Jenna is forced to stay late due to an emergency that has everyone at Jackson County Hospital in Scottsboro, Alabama working overtime. she receives a ransom note demanding a million dollars in exchange for her child. With no place to turn to as she lacks the money, Jenna turns to the father of her daughter as her only hope to save the life of their child.
Though hiding a child from the father has become a trite theme, DANGER ZONE is a fast-paced second chance at love romantic suspense thriller as the life of the offspring is at stake. Buck is an interesting protagonist who understands the goal is not accusing Jenna or even making up lost time with his daughter, but saving her life. Readers will appreciate his dedication as he forgives and moves on so that they can concentrate on the mission without distraction except for the attraction of love.
Harriet Klausner
Spectacular!.......2007-01-30
Jenna Williams doesn't know who to turn to when her daughter, Becca, is kidnapped. The kidnapper is demanding a million dollars which Jenna clearly doesn't have. She turns to a man from her past, Buck Buchanan, NASCAR team owner and former hotshot racer. Little does Buck know but he fathered Becca, now age 13. He's about to find out, however, as the kidnapper appears to want revenge on Buck....
Debra Webb is a master at building intrigue while crafting a superb love story. Buck and Jenna's story had this reviewer in tears on more than one occasion. The love between them was obvious and even heart-wrenching at times as they both struggled with the issues between them. The aspect of a racer's job and how it affects the family life is particularly touching as NASCAR is a sport in which the drivers and team members are constantly on the road during the season. The fans do play a huge part in the sport as well and it is easy to see how a young couple, such as Buck and Jenna were when they met and conceived Becca, could easily be torn apart by misunderstandings.
DANGER ZONE is a spectacular, heart pounding read! Debra Webb is at the top of her game with this one as she continues to produce her stunning blend of romance and suspense in exciting but poignant stories. You don't need to be a fan of NASCAR to enjoy DANGER ZONE, as Debra Webb makes the story come alive even for those who are completely unfamiliar with the racing experience. DANGER ZONE is easily recommended!
COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES
Customer Reviews:
special Washington State cozy.......2007-04-01
On her way to see her husband who is with the 52nd Air Refueling squadron, stay-at-home mom Ellie Avery meets her daughter's babysitter Penny Follette. Instead of fading into the woodwork, she is all aglow promising to tell Ellie her secret later. She gives Ellie a bag of chocolate covered coffees beans and she promptly sets it down in the area where the squadron has its drinks and food.
Later that day Ellie receives a phone call from a friend saying that Penny committed suicide. When a stunned Ellie listens to her phone messages, Penny's is full of vigor as she informs her that she is pregnant. Ellie is certain that her friend didn't kill herself as the enthusiasm is too great. A tox screen shows she was poisoned. Georgia, who is part of the squadron, drinks the coffee Ellie left behind and is rushed to the hospital because she was poisoned. Ellie soon becomes a suspect as she is the only link between the two women. Things get worse when she finds a third body, the general's wife who was also murdered. In between poisonings, Ellie is the victim of serious malicious pranks by someone who wants her to turn over "it" to him; since she doesn't know what it is, she begins sleuthing in earnest to prevent anyone else especially her and her family from becoming victim number four.
Anyone who is a stay at home mom with a husband in the service who goes TDY frequently will empathize with Ellie who has to deal with all the family problems by herself. Sara Rosett is a great storyteller as she creates a magnificent protagonist who is a bloodhound once she gets the scent. The author infuses her delightful cozy with humor as a tension relieving technique that works so well that readers will eagerly awaits the next installment in this special Washington State cozy.
Harriet Klausner
Plenty of action.......2007-03-28
Ellie Avery, military wife and the mother of a two-year-old daughter, has a habit of turning up in the thick of a murder and that gets the attention of the police. And Ellie would prefer to avoid police contact. Her history with the police has not been the best.
When Ellie's friend Penny Follette is found dead of an apparent suicide, Ellie knows it's murder because Penny left a message on Ellie's answering machine that proves it. Penny wasn't depressed, but she was pregnant and that alone would prevent her from taking her own life.
Following Penny's death a female pilot is poisoned and the young wife of a military 'big shot' is murdered. Ellie uncovers a myriad of suspects with plenty of secrets. And then there's the shady art dealer, Middle Eastern artifacts and an ancient manuscript that might be more valuable than anyone could ever imagine. Throw in a nosey neighbor, a husband on a military mission, a missing dog and threats to her personal safety. Ellie had better solve the mystery before she's the next victim.
If you like cozy mysteries that have plenty of action and lots of suspects and clues, Staying Home Is A Killer will be a fun romp through murder and mayhem.
Armchair Interviews says: This is a mystery with a "mommy lit" flavor. A fun read
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