Editorial Review

For 30 years Frank McCourt taught high school English in New York City and for much of that time he considered himself a fraud. During these years he danced a delicate jig between engaging the students, satisfying often bewildered administrators and parents, and actually enjoying his job. He tried to present a consistent image of composure and self-confidence, yet he regularly felt insecure, inadequate, and unfocused. After much trial and error, he eventually discovered what was in front of him (or rather, behind him) all along--his own experience. "My life saved my life," he writes. "My students didn't know there was a man up there escaping a cocoon of Irish history and Catholicism, leaving bits of that cocoon everywhere." At the beginning of his career it had never occurred to him that his own dismal upbringing in the slums of Limerick could be turned into a valuable lesson plan. Indeed, his formal training emphasized the opposite. Principals and department heads lectured him to never share anything personal. He was instructed to arouse fear and awe, to be stern, to be impossible to please--but he couldn't do it. McCourt was too likable, too interested in the students' lives, and too willing to reveal himself for their benefit as well as his own. He was a kindred spirit with more questions than answers: "Look at me: wandering late bloomer, floundering old fart, discovering in my forties what my students knew in their teens."Read more

Reviews (172)

Teacher's Grade of Teacher Man:B+
Teaching is a performance art, and every teacher is on the stage every day in front of an audience that doesn't always want to be there, doesn't always understand the language the play is being performed in, and doesn't always understand what happened in the scene before.It's a tough crowd we teachers perform for, and the critics are usually less than kind administrators or Board of Education members that haven't taught in front of a class in years, or who have never taught in a classroom.
Teacher Man :-)
Frank McCourt starts off his third book, Teacher Man (a memoir of his thirty-year teaching career), with the following paragraph: "On the first day of my teaching career, I was almost fired for eating the sandwich of a high school boy.On the second day I was almost fired for mentioning the possibility of a friendship with a sheep.Otherwise, there was nothing remarkable about my thirty years in the high school classrooms of New York City.I often doubted if I should be there at all."
Teacher Man- Good and Bad
Teacher Man is a very good read, and gives us a broad and clear view into the life of not only Frank McCourt, but also teenagers attending the public schools of New York City.As a student, I found it interesting to hear about a teacher's perspective of a class, and how Frank McCourt drew from his experiences growing up to shape who he was in the classroom.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Elements In The U.S. Population    6. High school teachers    7. Irish Americans    8. Literary    9. New York    10. New York (State)    11. Teaching At The Secondary School Level    12. Biography & Autobiography / Literary   

Editorial Review

In 2005, two tragedies--the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina--turned CNN reporter Anderson Cooper into a media celebrity. Read more

Reviews (148)

Astonishing
I read this book, which is not very long, in one sitting, and half the time I had to read through the curtain of tears in my eyes.Like Anderson Cooper, I am a television journalist, and like Anderson Cooper I have learned to divorce myself from the stories that I am telling.And yet I understand, God, how I understand his feeling of shrieking despair underneath the veneer.I live in Latvia, which is the Old Country for my family, and the first year that I was here, I was asked by the Soviet Latvian Parliament to translate for foreign journalists when Parliament was voting on Latvia's declaration of independence.When the vote began and it became increasingly clear that the necessary majority would vote "yes", I was staring hard at the carpet, because I knew that if I met anyone's eyes, I would weep for the triumph of it all.Anderson juxtaposes the tragedies on which he reports (Somalia, Sarajevo, the Asian tsunami, Iraq, Hurricane Katrina) with the tragedy of his own life -- raised in a goldfish bowl as son of Gloria Vanderbilt, losing his father at the age of 10, losing his brother, who committed suicide by jumping off a penthouse balcony in front of his mother's eyes.This personalizes the stories which journalists tend to dehumanize -- one body, two bodies, three bodies ... you have to get the story on the air, and you remember what you were taught in journalism school -- "On television, if it bleeds, it leads".God bless Anderson Cooper, who lets the story into his heart.God bless a man who is not afraid to tell the entire world about his torments and his weaknesses.Men are taught not to do so.I so appreciate that this one did.I recommend this book with every fiber in my being, not just for journalists, but for anyone who still sees humanity in the technological world in which we live today.

Live thru this--personal tragedy to personal accomplishment
Anderson Cooper writes in the style of describing his life in one sub-chapter and then switching to an experience in an international war zone during his press coverage. This is a well written book and the way Mr Cooper details his family's personal tragedy is compelling and vulnerable. It provides inspiration as you read thru all of the details. Then his need to find his place in life in poltical war coverage is brave and risk taking. This is a book which is both smart and sensitive. Recommended.

A New Appreciation for Anderson Cooper
I learned a lot about the CNN Anchor. He's the son of Gloria Vanderbuilt and Wyatt Emory Cooper.His father died when he was ten and his brother committed suicide when Anderson was in college at Yale.I learned that he went out on his own, with faked news credentials, and journeyed the globe freelancing stories in places of tragedy, hunger, and war - just him and a camera.I respect that.I respect following your dreams despite personal danger and discomfort.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Cooper, Anderson    6. Editors, Journalists, Publishers    7. Journalism    8. Personal Memoirs    9. Television - General    10. Television Journalism    11. Television journalists    12. United States   

Reviews (2)

for all fans of great non-fiction
I picked up this book because I have admired Jeffrey Goldberg's writing on a number of topics.This book is more a memoir than a political history (although I learned quite a bit of that in the course of reading this book -- the middle east is not a topic about which I know that much). If you are a fan of well-written non-fiction, then you will enjoy reading this book.Mr. Goldberg's writing is lively, largely cliche-free, often moving, and engrossing.As I write this, I realize that Prisoners is also a travel narrative of ancient and modern Israel...All in all, a lot of bang for one book.Highly recommended.

Highly Recommended
"Prisoners: A Jew and a Muslim Across the Middle East Divide" is a memoir as much as it is a commentary on the Jewish-Palestinian conflict in Israel. Goldberg, a long time journalist for the New Yorker and Middle East correspondent was also very much of his generation -- a Jewish-American growing up in New York City, who (having reading Leon Uris' Exodus) longed for strong Jewish heroes of the John Wayne sort. That longing took him to Israel where he served in the IDF as a guard at Ketziot, a bleak desert prison that houses thousands of Palestinians arrested during the first Intifada. His interviews and accounts of Jews and Palestinians ring true and I think that's partly due to his respect for journalism done well and because he is a Zionist with a hopeful heart who longs for peace. It's that hopeful heart of his that takes a beating, as did my own, as I read this book. He writes an entertaining and informative account and this is not a book that one will read and forget. Rather, it's one to be discussed and considered. If I could only recommend one book this year, I think it would have to be this one. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Arab-Israeli conflict    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography And Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Contemporary Politics - Middle East    8. Ethnic Cultures - General    9. Jewish journalists    10. Middle East - Israel    11. Palestinian Arabs    12. Political    13. United Arab Emirates    14. United States    15. Current Events / International   

Editorial Review

Dave Eggers is a terrifically talented writer; don't hold his cleverness against him. What to make of a book called Read more

Reviews (848)

Self-indulgent writing
I have to agree with the many who did not like this book. I got it from the library and tried to read it, but couldn't get past the self-indulgent writing style. It almost seems like someone was too lazy to edit this book or make it readable for the reader. Any writer can put down stream-of-consciousness thoughts, but it takes hard work and effort to edit and revise with the reader in mind. A writer should want the reader to enjoy the process of reading a book. A book is written to express oneself, but also for the reader. Without the reader, the book is nothing.
Wonderful
Ridiculously amazing read. Couldn't put it down. Snide, cynical, heart-wrenching, and joyous all at once. A raucous rollercoaster of insight and observation. It's been a while since a book made me laugh out loud and burst into tears all in the same reading... But that's just me... If you've gotten this far, give this book a shot. I highly doubt you'll regret it. And if you do, something may very well be wrong with you.
Get to the Point!!
Once I saw the numerous reviews coating the inside and outside of this book telling me how much I was going to like it, I was already dubious.Perhaps I like to be contrary, and that may be why I was irritated by this book.I understand that this is his way of dealing with the passing of his parents and the growing up he was "forced" to do, but his style of writing came off as abrasive, narcissistic, and smug.This is a memoirs of sorts, so it's hard for me to criticize his need to put this out, but if I was supposed to gain anything from it, I didn't. I didn't find his wordplay sparkling, I don't find him droll or charming, and I felt like he was trying too hard for me to do so.Plus he yammered on so much it was hard to understand the message(s) he was trying to convey to the reader, if any. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Brothers    6. Death    7. Editors, Journalists, Publishers    8. Eggers, Dave    9. Literary    10. Parents    11. Personal Memoirs    12. Psychological aspects    13. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs    14. Reading Group Guide   

Editorial Review

Since 1987, Starbucks's star has been on the rise, growing from 11 Seattle, WA-based stores to more than 1,000 worldwide. Its goals grew, too, from the more modest, albeit fundamental one of offering high-quality coffee beans roasted to perfection to, more recently, opening a new store Read more

Reviews (105)

Marketing Master, yes. Quality Coffee roaster.....Now he's full of ____!
Being a specialty roaster since 1975 and being part of a local specialty roaster group. I can tell you that starbuck's main accomplishment is their marketing ability. The coffee they distribute is garbage, and this doesn't have to come from my mouth, it comes from people who come to me after tasting their supposed "specialty coffee."Starbucks lost their specialty status the moment you could find them on every street corner and/or supermarket. Where they beat most is their non stop advertising and brainwashing of people. The reason starbucks got big was because there was noone around to fill that demand, or more importantly, due to the nature of the specialty market, noone who wanted to fill that position.The amount of coffee they are forced to produce lead to only one scenario, inferior quality.Concepts of mass production. Economics 101. The higher the demand, the less likely quality is to have influence.

How Starbucks changed the World
What a great read! This is a story of how Starbucks changed the world. Howard Schultz, the CEO, tells the history of Starbucks starting with its founding in 1971 up until 1999. Schultz tells how he came on board,later bought the company and its sky-roacketing growth.
One of the Greatest Models of Superior Business that Cares About People
This is a FANTASTIC book about passion behind business, dealing with major growth, serving the customer, helping people from the heart, actually caring about the consumer, and caring about humanity at the same time.
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Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Business    3. Business & Economics    4. Business/Economics    5. Corporate & Business History - General    6. Corporate & Business History - Strategies    7. History    8. Industries - Hospitality, Travel & Tourism    9. Restaurants    10. Restaurateurs    11. Schultz, Howard    12. Starbucks Coffee Company    13. United States    14. Business & Economics / Corporate History    15. Business & Management    16. Food manufacturing & related industries   

Subjects:  1. Australia    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Business    7. Golf    8. Golf - General    9. Golfers    10. International Business    11. Sports - General    12. Success in business    13. Biography & Autobiography / Business   

Editorial Review

Heralded as the "best book on the dope decade" by the Read more

Reviews (381)

This is one heck of a fun book!
Thompson's classic novel shows that quest literature (in this case the quest for the American Dream) is not at all dead. This is tale is wonderfully crafted and will entertain until the last page.
Sometimes you just have to give it another chance
I have read this book about a dozen times, and I won't lie, the first few times were hard. I wasn't sure if I even understood this book, let alone liked it. My husband was a big fan, and convinced me to give the book another shot one day- and am I happy he did. I got it. It is funny, sad, crazy and weird. It's a journey that I am happy I took, and will take again. It is one of those book that each and every time you read it you will take away something new and fresh. Great read. Try it, you will like it.

hilarious!
If you are looking for a good laugh and are not offended by drugs, lewd behavior, and hooliganism, then I would highly recommend this book.90% of the story takes place while the two main characters are doped up on various drugs or combinations of them, and the consequences are hilarious.I laughed most of the way through.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Journalism    5. Journalists    6. Literary    7. Pop Arts / Pop Culture    8. Popular Culture - General    9. Thompson, Hunter S    10. United States    11. United States - 20th Century/60s    12. American English    13. Biography & Autobiography / General    14. Modern fiction    15. True Stories   

Reviews (64)

Eternal truths (and lies)
This is the most candid and honest record of Trump's deals by the great master to date, or so it seems. This impression can be attributed, however, to the great job Tony Schwartz did on this book. Compare this to Trump's "How to get rich" and you know what I mean.
Written After The Early Years: Good Trump Entertainment
Let us give him his due. He has great style and tenacity and the nerve. This book was written in better days before his fall. I have visited a number of his buildings - which I understand that he was closely and personally involved in the design and construction - and they are beautiful.
For What Its Worth
You never know whether to ever really trust what Trump says or not. I actively avoided reading this book for some time. I just resisted it. I must have felt that it is a propoganda piece and I was right. It is just another win for Trump. Another chance to boast about himself and his competence. And the ironic thing is the lesson to be learned by the man on the street is exactly that. In real estate, it is simply connection and bravado after a certain level of core competencies have been achieved. This book does not go into the details of how to do what he has done.....as step by step approach beside being boring would have been ridiculous. First thing to do is go back in time and be born in a family where your father is a wealthy builder. And be born to a father who was historically in the right situation himself--building homes when the soldiers came home and started families. The second thing is go to the premier business school in the nation. After that, you do a few deals with your father and learn the business inside and out. After that make some connections through your father's friends. And the most important thing is to start your career and venture when the real estate market is absolutely deppressed. You can't help but make money.
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Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Business    5. Personal Memoirs    6. Real Estate Finance    7. Rich & Famous    8. Business & Economics / General   

Editorial Review

How can you join the ranks of America's wealthy (defined as people whose net worth is over one million dollars)? It's easy, say doctors Stanley and Danko, who have spent the last 20 years interviewing members of this elite club: you just have to follow seven simple rules. The first rule is, always live well below your means. The last rule is, choose your occupation wisely. You'll have to buy the book to find out the other five. It's only fair. The authors' conclusions are commonsensical. But, as they point out, their prescription often flies in the face of what we think wealthy people should do. There are no pop stars or athletes in this book, but plenty of wall-board manufacturers--particularly ones who take cheap, infrequent vacations! Stanley and Danko mercilessly show how wealth takes sacrifice, discipline, and hard work, qualities that are positively discouraged by our high-consumption society. "You aren't what you drive," admonish the authors. Somewhere, Benjamin Franklin is smiling. ... Read more

Reviews (674)

Wow- I had no idea!
I guess that when you think of millionaires, you think of flashy people with nice cars and a lot of bling, but I had no Idea that there were so many BORING millionaires!I guess it's not really pboring to have over a million dollars, but I want to be able to enjoy my monye.THeat's the purpose of this book , though- to show that you have to be boring and then you can get to be a millionaire with all the money you didn't spend on fun stuff!I almost fell asleep a couple times reading this, but when I stayed awake it was really eye-opening.I won't scoff at those people who don't have "big hats" but have a lot of cattle anymore.

Common Sense
Nothing really groundbreaking here.Mostly common sense.You can visit a few websites and virtually get the same info presented in this book.

Unrealistic, repetitive, couldn't finish
This book was interesting at first.It shatters what most of us think the typical millionaire looks and acts like, but that only takes a chapter.After that, it just keeps repeating itself over and over."Who do you think bought the $1000 watch and who bought the lower priced watch?"Yeah, yeah, I get it; the millionaire has a lower priced watch than the overspending, no real wealth guy.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Consumer Finance    5. Finance    6. Millionaires    7. Personal Finance - General    8. Rich people    9. United States    10. Wealth    11. Advice on careers & achieving success    12. Biography & Autobiography / Business   

Reviews (6)

A great and sordid tale
This is a greeat and depressing book. I documents how America is a country of many laws and little enforcement. Believe it. That the book was trashed as anti-Semetic in The NY Times Sunday Book Review only makes it a more important read (The dolt Times reviewer reviewer had a tribal agenda and comes from self-admitted mob affiliated tax cheat family should be all you need to know about that review)
HOPING FOR AN UPDATE
This book tells how Sidney Korshak and other mob fronts moved from Chicago to Las Vegas and Southern California in the 1940's.Using such notorious hangouts as the Bistro and City National Bank in Beverly Hills, some of which are still as sinister as ever, they gained influence in unions, business, and politics at the local and even national and international level.
Worth the wait?
It's 490 years since Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia, a model for any society desiring to live rightly.The Utopians had little interest in money or the false pleasures of jewelry and high fashion.They disdained gambling and the pursuit of "empty and worthless honors," and anybody arrogant enough to run for public office could never gain it.The legal profession was absolutely banned, as was private property.Everybody worked for the greater good of all.There was no "conspiracy of the rich," in which a few preyed on the many and amassed wealth through crooked schemes.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. California    5. Chicago    6. Illinois    7. Lawyers    8. Lawyers & Judges    9. Organized Crime    10. True Crime / Espionage    11. United States    12. History / United States / 20th Century   

Reviews (1)

Excellent Firsthand Accounts by a Veteran Journalist
Anyone who loves to read first-person accounts of current events will find this book exceptionally interesting. From its intriguing title, "Uncivilized Beasts and Shameless Hellions," to the text itself and the photographs included, the reader is presented with a tour of eleven locations around the world where veteran NPR journalist John F. Burnett found stories to report and personal experiences to describe. This book is one of the few nonfiction "page-turners" I have read in recent times. Once I started reading, it was difficult to put down. His writing is fluid and crisp and as impressive as his height (6' 7").
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography And Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Burnett, John F    7. Editors, Journalists, Publishers    8. Essays & Travelogues    9. Personal Memoirs    10. Radio (Performing Arts)    11. Radio journalists    12. United States    13. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs   

Reviews (52)

For Those Fans of 'Band of Brothers' That Want More.
The book is Dick Winters Memoirs and as such is a rehash of Ambrose's "Band of Brothers" from his point of view.As such the reader gets another look at the events in the History of Easy Company from the Book and the Movie from the Normandy Campaign to the end of the War.
Medal of Honor for Major Winters
Best book ever.The hard thing is to remeber while reading this book is this is a true story.After reading this great book and you feel compelled as I you can go to the Major Winters wen site and sign a petition for him to receive the Medal of Honor.I should note that this is not being endorsed by Major Winters which is consistant with his character. [..]

Winters' Story...In His Own Modest Words
Like most other readers, I purchased this book on the strength of Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers and the popular HBO series of the same name. So when I saw that Winters was publishing his memoirs, I knew that I'd get around to reading it sooner or later.
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Subjects:  1. Aerial operations, American    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography And Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Campaigns    7. General    8. Military    9. Military - General    10. Military - United States    11. Military - World War II    12. Personal narratives, American    13. Western Front    14. World War II    15. World War, 1939-1945    16. History / Military / General   

Reviews (55)

My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance
One needs to consider what they want out the book before buying it.If your looking for a book with market trading tactics and think this book will provide that, then my score would be a "1"Its not about how to make YOU money and its title implies that.In fact, its title is a quite honest answer to what is inside, the reflections of this Quant on his life in physics and finance.While he does not give the reader any CLEAR suggestions on how to make money in the market, he does give a good view of life as a professional in the hard sciences most of them would find it boring, the book would be a goodfor some super high school achiever that is contemplatingor announced committment to a life as a PHd in hard science.He does do a good job of relating all the "posturing", the "idea stealing", and general BS that is the real world of both science and commerce.His descriptions of his finance modeling efforts and the difficulties does show why many big firms can go bust.But other than messing up your own trading, you have to know when a big firm had bad Quant.So, unless you can think beyond what your reading as to making money in the market and learning to make money is your goal, then pass on this book.I gave it a "3" as it is good at exposing BS. More BS exposure type books may some day help us all.But you won't find specific maket making money ideas in this book, thus no "5"
An interesting world line
It is very uncommon for scientists to be revealing of their personal lives, and even more rare for them to make written commentary on the people they have interacted with over the span of their careers or even a portion thereof. The author of this book, who began his career as a physicist and then chose to be a financial engineer, is thus a statistical outlier in this regard. His transparency has allowed the reader to gain insight not only into how it is to live, study, and work in academia, but also in the financial world. All personal life histories are subjected to random perturbations, to events and people that are unplanned and unexpected, but as this book clearly shows, with pertinacity, with determination, one can smooth out even the strongest of these perturbations, and trace out a world line that is personally satisfying and dignified.
intense modelling in finance
As a Physics PhD who left physics, I read Derman's book with especial interest. He too faced this career choice after getting his doctorate and doing a stint in academia. The book shows the sometimes [often?] intense nature of academia, with emphasis on getting a tenured position. Whereas some industries can offer much higher salaries.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Business    4. Business & Economics    5. Business/Economics    6. Derman, Emanuel    7. Futures And Options Trading    8. Investment advisors    9. Investments & Securities - General    10. Mathematical Physics    11. Options (Finance)    12. Personal Memoirs    13. Physicists    14. Scientists - General    15. Business & Economics / Finance    16. Finance & Accounting   

Reviews (1)

A great read!
An interesting and compelling read, providing great insight to the complications of Earl Warren. A must for anyone who enjoys American or California history, or the Law. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1891-1974    2. Biography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Judges    5. Law    6. Lawyers & Judges    7. Legal History    8. Political    9. Supreme Court    10. United States    11. United States - 20th Century    12. United States.    13. Warren, Earl,    14. Biography & Autobiography / Lawyers & Judges