Average customer rating:
- Popcorn
- good book, although not Stone Barrington's best
- Reminds me of an old 1940's mystery writer with voluptous women and lots of sex!!
- What a stinker!
- not any more
|
Fresh Disasters (Stone Barrington Novels)
Stuart Woods
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Mystery
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Suspense
| Thrillers
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Woods, Stuart
| ( W )
| Authors, A-Z
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Fiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Deals
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
Literature & Fiction
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
Mystery & Thrillers
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Shoot Him If He Runs (Stone Barrington Novels)
-
Short Straw
-
Simple Genius
-
The 6th Target
-
The Overlook (Harry Bosch)
ASIN: 0399154108
Release Date: 2007-04-10 |
Book Description
With Dark Harbor, Stuart Woods proved yet again that he is the master of the popular crime novel. Now he outdoes himself with the newest addition to the series.
Stone Barrington embarks on his most dangerous adventure yet when he takes on a job as a lawyer for a sleazy and clueless con man-and ends up getting embroiled in the underworld of the New York mafia. It started out as just another late night at Elaine's, where Stone was eating a porterhouse steak and enjoying the company of his friends. But when Herbie Fisher, a notoriously not-so-sharp swindler, walked in, the pleasant atmosphere turned to ice.
Herbie convinces Bill Eggers, the managing partner of Woodman & Weld, to sign him on as a client-with the goal of taking down the infamous mafia boss Carmine Datilla. And even though Stone doesn't want to have anything to do with Herbie-or the mafia, for that matter-he is soon coerced into being Herbie's lawyer.
With the help of his ex-partner, Dino, Stone investigates "Datilla the Hun," and the rest of the mob family, encountering intrigue and danger at every turn. Will Stone finally take a stand, or will he end up at the bottom of Sheepshead Bay?
With the swift action, razor-sharp characters, and crackling dialogue that are Stuart Woods's hallmarks, Fresh Disasters is Woods at the very height of his storytelling powers.
Customer Reviews:
Popcorn.......2007-10-02
Like a big bowl of popcorn, this installment of the adventures of Stone Barrington delivers a lot of fun without much real substance. Since I don't read mysteries for substance it delivers exactly what I wanted. A fun fast paced read, with some of my favorite characters. All in all a good time.
good book, although not Stone Barrington's best.......2007-09-28
Good book, entertaining read. Maybe I've just read too many Stone Barrington stories, but this one made Stone into a superman, and everything was a little too coincidental and convenient. For this, I give the book 4 stars, not the usual 5.
Reminds me of an old 1940's mystery writer with voluptous women and lots of sex!!.......2007-09-22
Stuart Woods has gotten progressively redundant with Stone Barrington's sexual escapades in his books. Although I don't mind a little sex in them, too much is very distracting from the mystery. Maybe, he should start writing Harlequin romances!! I doubt that I will read any more of the Barrington books even though they used to be my favorites. It's just a little too trashy for my taste. Guess I will stick with Follett or DeMille for real excitement.
What a stinker!.......2007-09-16
Stuart Woods used to be a favorite author of mine, but his latest book, FRESH DISASTERS, is so poorly written I found myself skimming over most of it just to finish it. The dialogue is juvenile, characters goofy, and the events in the book defy belief. Mr. Woods must have churned it out in one day, if it even took that long to construct. How sad to see such a poor quality read delivered by an author of Mr. Woods reputation. Don't waste your time, or your money... this book is a "Fresh Disaster" of its own.
not any more.......2007-08-28
This once awesome author may want to RETIRE. He has completely lost his skills of storytelling and character developement. The last few books have been an effort to read even though I have been a serious fan from the first book. I will be buying no more and suggest if a tree has to give its gifts for books the public support a real author!
Book Description
The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Timothy Egan's critically acclaimed account rescues this iconic chapter of American history from the shadows in a tour de force of historical reportage. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, Egan does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, "the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect" (New York Times). In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, "The Worst Hard Time" is "arguably the best nonfiction book yet" (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of trifling with nature.
Customer Reviews:
It's Good --- but is it National-Book-Award good?.......2007-10-16
I liked this book. For the most part.
It's an exciting account of an amazing and horrific time in the nation's history, and its descriptions of the dust storms as they came in over the prairies are absolutely terrifying--but I think it's far from the great book that it could have been.
The story, of course, is one of the great stories of American history, and will no doubt enthrall any readers unfamiliar with the 1930s Dust Bowl. But the book fails, I think, in bringing across the full scope of it all, focusing so intently on handful of towns and counties (and always forgetting to remind us what states these towns are in) that it feels like more like a gathering of a number of isolated occurrences. It also fails to provide all the facts that the story begs to contain. And it kind of peters off toward the end, as if the author just grew tired of the subject.
Is this a good book? Sure. I enjoyed it. But would I have given it the National Book Award? No. And is it the best book on the subject? No, again. I prefer the book "Dust Bowl," by Donald Worster, which I found to be much more thorough and vivid in its treatment of the subject.
Outstanding.......2007-10-10
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
This is an outstanding book! I had no idea how bad the Dust Bowl was. I was so impressed with the book that I bought a copy for each of my 3 siblings.
Unbelievable!.......2007-10-03
This book was fantastic. Although the majority of books I read are fiction, I'm not hesitant to read good non-fiction. This book was so well written that it reads like a taut novel. Along with Seabiscuit and The Devil in the White City, it is one of the best historical books I've read. Very well researched and thought out. You almost can't believe that this could have actually happened. You feel like you know the characters, and you certainly root for them even though you seemingly know how it will turn out. I would recommend this book to any avid reader - fiction or non-fiction.
Hopefully, we will learn from our past.......2007-10-02
This is an important event in US history that is so relevant today, supplying more fuel for both side of the ongoing debate on global warming.
I found it a bit difficult to stay connected to the characters. In spite of that, the story remained interesting, showing the plight and hardships endured by the generation before us, and bringing us an awareness of our fragile ecosystem.
Eye Opening and Hard to Put Down.......2007-09-25
A must read for history buffs and readers in general. Information places the midwest, its people, and past in an entirely different light of appreciation. (Absolutely Facinating)!
Book Description
Most events that catch us by surprise are both predictable and preventable, but we consistently miss (or ignore) the warning signs
This book shows why such “predictable surprises” put us all at risk, and shows how we can understand, anticipate, and prevent them before disaster strikes.
There is a universal fear factor surrounding this subject: that society and the workplace are filled with disasters in the making that we could prevent if we only knew what to look for. This book plays on that fear and offers a positive, proactive resolution to it.
Customer Reviews:
Enlightening.......2007-08-27
The book jumps around but makes clear and valid points. A great eye opener! I would recommend this to students, leaders, informed citizens...just about anybody. I'm definitely getting more copies for friends and loved ones.
On Target - Bullseye - Should have seen it coming.......2005-10-07
Anyone who has worked for some sort of organization, government agency, business, university or whatever, will empathise with "Predictable Surprises" by Bazerman and Watkins. This book focuses on the early and late warning signs, the cover-ups, the denials, and the eventual consequences of failing to take action to avert disaster. I've been in far too many situations where I observed that the peple "in charge" (really??) were blindsided by their own limited vision to the realities of what was happening within their organizations.
There are two "Predictable Surprises" that weren't included. First, Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath in New Orleans. Anyone visiting that city and talking with one's professional compatriates could have seen coming what unfolded before our eyes. The warning signs and studies were out there and ignored. That's why those who had a reasonable level of education left town and paid attention to the evacuation notices.
The other predictable surprise that was missed was the sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church. I'm Protestant but know a lot of fine Roman Catholic people. I heard things as long ago as fifty years and knew then that this situation was going to explode in the public domain. "Predictable Surprises" provides the principals that explain why this particular surprise was kept under the radar so long.
An outstanding book that should be read by everyone working in the corporate world, a government agency, a university, the military, or a non-profit organization. Your life may depend on knowing what's in this book.
Predictably bad.......2005-06-14
A major shortcoming of Bazerman and Watkins' book is the failure to provide adequate evidence to support their arguments about what they call "predictable surprises", which they define as "an event or series of events that take an individual or group by surprise, despite prior awareness of all of the information necessary to anticipate the events and their consequences." Bazerman and Watkins build their case substantially on just two examples: aviation security failures leading to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and auditor independence concerns leading to the collapse of Enron and Arthur Anderson. Several other examples are discussed in less depth throughout the text, however many of these are not actually predictable surprises under the definition provided. For example, global warming is discussed a number of times; however global warming has been in public discussion since the 1930s, and today a substantial majority of people believe not only the concept of global warming but that current warming is man-made. By 2050, this subject will have been under study for 120 years and popular consensus will have been achieved for 50-60 years. This is certainly predictable, but hardly a surprise. The United States' looming crisis in entitlement spending also falls in this category.
Flaws exist in other anecdotal support as well. For example, Bazerman and Watkins cite aviation security failures as an occasion when overly discounting the future lead to a predictable surprise. Quick calculation based on figures provided in the book show that, using equal discount rates for the expected future cost of security and the future cost of disaster, even with a disaster probability as high as 10% for any given year, the airlines would be ahead on a cost basis. The total destruction of both World Trade Center towers and the massive ensuing death toll was not reasonably foreseeable by the airline industry; based on the typical passenger plan carrying 78 people, this was the equivalent of an absurd 41 simultaneous aircraft disasters! Given the cost of implementation and the low probability of such a large disaster, even at a full cost of nearly $50 billion, the airlines' decision to oppose security measures on a cost basis was reasonable. The full scope of this surprise was unlikely enough that it should not be termed "predictable."
Despite some good analysis of reasons predictable surprises occur and ways to avoid them, this book is critically weakened by its lack of evidence. Bazerman and Watkins try to make it stand largely on just the aviation security and auditor independence failures; however these are insufficient evidence for their broad analysis and conclusions, particularly given the weakness of those arguments provided. This book would be substantially more persuasive with more anecdotal support.
Predictably OK.......2005-05-11
In a world ruled by probability, all predictions eventually come true (no matter how impossible.) That said, ignoring the obvious can be disastrous, but the authors methods for prioritizing risk were disappointing.
Updating the March of Folly.......2005-02-23
The authors have found a memorable phrase to describe a depressingly common phenomenon - the occurrence of a disaster or failure that has been widely and often publicly predicted. The term `predictable surprise' will undoubtedly enter the managerial and political language.
They have provided a valuable analysis of why these predictable disasters occur and what can be done to prevent them (while recognizing that there are also such things as `unpredictable surprises' which can not be avoided through these processes).
The book is invaluable for the clear way in which it brings the elements together and for the vividness and immediacy of the examples chosen to illustrate the points. The result is a book that is very readable as well as being immediately useful, even if many of the points have also been made elsewhere by other authors. The book provides a template against which organizations can assess their defences against `predictable surprises', and I suspect that every organization will find gaps in its armour when it measures itself against the recommendations in the book.
The authors also use the book to mount a stinging attack on the failures of the American political system (and by extension those of other countries) and the need for fundamental reform. Their attack on the activities of the special interest groups and their direct responsibility for some of the worst disasters that the US has suffered is particularly pointed. One can only hope that the criticisms will be listened to and acted upon, and that politicians as well as business people will read and note them.
Throughout the book, the systemic, interconnected nature of the processes that lead to predictable surprises is very clear, but the authors do not, in my opinion, highlight the fact as strongly as they should. They do point out that depletion of international fisheries is a classic case of 'the tragedy of the commons', one of several archetypal forms of systems relationship, but virtually every example that the authors cite could well be illustrated with simple systems diagrams based on one or other of the classic 'systems archetypes'. Systemic issues require systemic solutions and the leverage for systemic change may be located well beyond the area of control of the immediate actors - another fact that shows up clearly in the course of the authors' examples.
It is probably no coincidence that I was strongly reminded of Barbara Tuchman's The March of Folly as I read the book. The perspective and coverage is different, but the themes of willful ignorance, willful inaction and willful pursuit of perceived short-term self interest as fundamental drivers of future disasters are common to both. If Tuchman were still alive, I would have confidently expected an analysis of Iraq to follow her masterful analysis of the Vietnam war, the American War of Independence and the drivers of the Reformation. In its own way, Predictable Surprises provides a contemporary update of the ways in which we continue the march of folly.
Book Description
A complete guide to emergency preparedness for our uncertain times. Virtually an encyclopedia of food storage and personal preparedness, it covers topics from exactly how to design a food storage program tailored for your particular family to growing and preserving food, storing fuel, alternate energy, emergency evacuation kits, medical and dental, surviving biological, chemical and nuclear terrorism, communications, selection of firearms and other survival tools, and preparing for earthquakes.
Dozens of detailed, expert checklists and tables with photographs and index. Extensive book and resource lists with regular and Internet addresses. An absolute must for those serious about preparing for and surviving during our dangerous times.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent resource for preparedness.......2007-10-01
I found this book to be extremeley helpful in its content and uses. It was the most informative book out there and was very detailed. There were many ideas presented that I hadn't even thought of, and I found that it was easily readable. I am so much more prepared in my home for any emergency and I am so much safer after reading this book. This book presents a step by step guide that saves you from hours of research and headache. I wish I had found this book sooner.
Interesting book, but unconvincing and poorly written.......2007-09-27
I hate to be too critical of this book, because I did enjoy reading it and I think it is well worth the money, but I hope Spigarelli reads the customer reviews and hires a good editor before turning out his second edition. There are many, many careless errors in the book that make me believe that some of the instructions may be just as careless. For instance, "approximate" and "proximate" are not interchangeable. The information regarding food storage, particularly the sources of information (e.g., researchers at BYU) reveal the Mormon origins of much of the information. The medical information seems to me (as a layman) to be just plain absurd. For instance, he recommends storing 200 Phenergan tablets (that's a lot of nausea), but only 100 tablets of "acetamine" (??), a couple vials of Pitocin (I suppose we'll be inducing labor at home) and 50 Valium tablets (including two vials of the stuff for injection). I could imagine going to my doctor and asking for a prescription for all those little goodies. My guess is that he'd prescribe something else for me (i.e., a good anti-psychotic). Of course, there's also a recommended arsenal of various types of guns and thousands of rounds of ammo (probably for guarding all the prescription drugs...). Nope, maybe I should be giving it two stars instead.
Great Book.......2007-09-25
I thought the book gave a lot of excellent information. I am an old Boy Scout so there is a lot of information in there. I have supplimented the book with a Survival training book that talks about plants, shelters, general survival type of information.
I liked the book.
Disorganized and unrealistic.......2007-09-01
I bought this book on the strenght of other reviews, and that was a mistake. It is disorganized and unrealistic.
Realistically speaking, we should all aim to prepare for a Katrina-type disaster: one that affects a wide region, with the severe effects of total lack of services lasting 2-4 weeks. This book wants me to prepare a year's worth of stored food. To fulfill this plan, I'd have to move to a farm so I could grow food, raise animals, and have enough room to store the amount he reccomends. It sure isn't going to work in my one-bedroom aparment.
The overall organization of the book is awful - no planning involved in the order of chapters. The first 2/3 of the book are food storage and preparation. If you really want to learn how to grow crops, raise animals, grind your own flour, make your own leather, can/pickle/smoke/preserve your own food - you're better off buying books on those specific subjects. This one goes over them in enough detail (and bad writing) to be boring, but not enough to actually teach you how. Even more ridiculous, he details so many preparations that require electricity. If we have roads and electricity and whatnto, probably I'm not living off my stored foods anyway - and how many of us can set up our own solar power grid sufficient to run the freezer, household appliances, water heater, well pump, whatever?
And then the final 1/3 glosses over preparations for a 2-4 week disaster when it should be focusing on them. If we have a Katrina-type problem, I need to be able to take care of myself until services are reasonably restored enough to either live reasonably, or get out of the area. And if the disaster affects the whole country and there is nowhere to go.... Aside from buying your own farm/ranch in the wilds, living off solar power, etc, you're out of luck.
So, long story short, if you're like me - if you want to be prepared for an act of terrorism, a flood, a fire, a hurricane or tornado, that sort of thing, buy the books below instead.
Organize for Disaster: Prepare Your Family and Your Home for Any Natural Or Unnatural Disaster
PREPAREDNESS NOW!: An Emergency Survival Guide for Civilians and Their Families
Overall Good: Beware the Dietary Advise!.......2007-08-02
Spigarelli has put together a great how-to book and I recommend it highly. Where he falls short is supporting an out-dated food pyramid. A healthy diet becomes even more important after a catastrophe.
As a master's degree candidate in nutrition, I found glaringly inaccurate statements regarding animal proteins (meat and dairy) as they relate to a "proper diet". The book has been updated since its original date of publish, but the chapters on food choices seem to have been left untouched. I recommend tweaking his recommendations away from the large amounts of animal proteins and plus up the grains/legumes/vegetables and enhance the supplementation to boost B12 and D. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is leading us to death/disease/discomfort/ailments at very young ages so why continue that diet after a crisis when you may very well have no access to medical assistance? That simply does not compute.
I shared the dietary chapters with doctors, teachers and colleagues and they reacted just as I did. "What year was THAT written?" was said quite a bit. One of the many roads that have brought us to the precipice of crisis is the misuse of land and water toward keeping animals and the pollution derived therefrom, not to mention the negative effect of animal proteins to the human body. Even after a crisis, I cannot imagine the giving of precious land and water over to livestock when crops will sustain us.
Again, this is a very good book and Spigarelli should be commended on a job well done. I would just like to stress the fact that you should inspect the food recommendations more closely as the "conventional wisdom" regarding the food pyramid over the years is off base.
Book Description
Is it possible to rescue your career and restore your reputation after a major professional setback? In an age when we're bombarded with press accounts of disgraced CEOs, politicians, and celebrities, this question is more important than ever. In Firing Back, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Andrew Ward lay out a novel five-step recovery process: "Fight, not flight" (face the difficult situation), "Recruit others into battle" (enlist the right assistance), "Rebuild heroic stature" (spread the true nature of the adversity), "Prove your mettle" (regain trust and credibility), and "Rediscover the heroic mission" (clear the past and chart the future).
Anchored in original research and decades of scholarly studies across fields, this book is packed with engrossing stories and first-hand accounts from humbled CEOs and executives from firms as esteemed as GE, The Home Depot, Morgan Stanley, Apple, Staples, and Hewlett-Packard, Firing Back offers a clear plan for any businessperson who needs to recover from career setbacks and reclaim lost prestige and reputation. The authors also identify common barriers to recovery that even seasoned executives can fall prey to, and explain how to surmount them.
Customer Reviews:
Rx: give it to a young manager.......2007-09-21
A profound study of CEO career setbacks and comebacks. As we are all CEOs of our own lives, there is no one who wouldn't profit from a close read, and re-read, of this excellent volume, including the latest fallen, e.g Michael Vick, Alberto Gonzales, Don Imus, Dan Rather, etc.
Many great quotes, Eastern wisdom to Broadway, telling anecdotes and insightful studies contained herein, but more than just anecdotes, the authors lay out a five-step blueprint on making a comeback: 1) fight, don't flee, 2) recruit others to help, 3) rebuild heroic stature, 4) prove your mettle and 5) rediscover your heroic mission.
Highly recommended. Rx: give it to a young manager, may just save him/her tons of grief down the road. Review by John A. Sarkett, author, Extraordinary Comebacks.
Did An Editor Read This Book?.......2007-08-24
I'm about a third of the way through this book and have had to stop reading several times, in sheer amazement. Was an editor from Harvard Press involved in this publication at all? It's full of run-on sentences, missing words, typos, repetitions (sometimes within the same sentence) and just plain bad writing.
I've come to expect grammar and spelling mistakes in popular fiction, but these authors should know better -- they're university professors. This book is just astoundingly badly edited. The authors need to pull it off the market, have someone go through it who knows how to write, and issue a revised version. Their many good points are being lost in the debris of poor composition.
Adequate.......2007-04-15
I bought this from a magazine recommendation. The recommendation highlighted the telling of past business titans who had failed and how they rebounded. I assumed I would have chapters on each different story, a beginning, middle and end. Instead, this is more a business management book on the theoretical discussion of comebacks, why some work and some don't. The business biographies are there, but they are told in short staccato versions to prove a point and not fully explored. Nothing wrong with that, just not what I had hoped for. For others, this book will be perfect. But if you are looking for multiple business biographies as was I, this is not for you.
A deep understaning of CEOs as humans.......2007-03-08
Unfortunately, much of the literature on CEOs depicts them as either Gods , demons or idiots. I have worked with many CEOs and have found them to be human beings - just like the rest of us. Jeff Sonnenfeld is one of the few authors who has actually interacted with hundreds of CEOs. This book depicts the 'human drama' of success and failure at the top of the executive world. It also has lessons about defeat, courage and perserverence that we can all use. Lots of books talk about what we can learn from success stories - few talk about what we can learn when we fail. From my experince, most of of learning comes from our losses - not our victories. We will all face adversity. We will all fail. 'Firing Back' gives us some great ideas about how to make a comeback when that happens.
You get what is expected with minor detractors.......2007-02-21
Sonnefeld and Ward deliver a book who's title delivers exactly what you would expect; understanding failure, how to reconstruct, rebound and fire back. Though the first 2/3rd of the book great care is taken to acknowledge failure and the barriers faced in an organization on the path to recovery. These are the most poignant sections considering most people rarely see the true causes of mistakes and the barriers they face in correcting them. In the remaining 1/3rd the rebuilding of your heroic stature is approached.
This is a 4 star book on merit of its content though given a 3 star rating because of dueling writing styles among the two authors and overuse of underdeveloped examples making portions of the book an awkward read.
Amazon.com
Book Description
Comedian Ian Coburn re-lives his funniest dating failures in the best dating advice book geared toward both sexes. Ian shares lessons learned from his embarrassing escapades and tackles some of the biggest questions men and women have about each other: Do guys know they favor one breast over the other? Why do women like jerks? Why don't guys call? Why don't women call back? What's the best way to approach a woman at a bar? He admits it's harder to be a woman than a man and tells why.
Ian's funny, edgy style and fresh advice, have enabled him to do something no one has done effectively previously--write a book about dating and sex that appeals to both genders. Unlike other authors, Ian is not just comfortable with his "game;" he is comfortable with women. His book spawned his syndicated dating advice column "Lunch is Not a Date" and has garnered great reviews from the pua community. It also landed him a spot on Lifetime's site as a dating expert. His stories and advice truly appeal to everyone. The book has ranked #1 in humor on Amazon.ca and other sites repeatedly. Publishers are beginning to translate it into other languages.
Ian's advice is appealing because it is fresh, original, and works. He doesn't lump all men and women into one category; rather, he examines the different types of each and how to work with their personalities, like diffusing the bitter friend in order to pick up the woman you like or why women shouldn't date their guy friends. While other experts prattle on about tired techniques to get a phone number, Ian tells you how to make sure the woman will return your call, not just get a number. It's no wonder this book is a big hit.
From the Publisher
Comedian Ian Coburn wanted to share with the world the zany stories that happened to him with women. They were too long for a standup routine, so he offered to write that routine in a book. We happily obliged.
It just so happens that Ian also wanted to share dating and sex advice that he's learned from his various escapades. After each story, he reviews what he learned, gives a few examples of how he put that knowledge to successful use in the future, and provides quick pieces of dating or sex tips between chapters.
Unlike self-help books, Ian's book is actually categorized as "humor." It has to be; it's simply too funny to be categorized in another genre. If you like standup comedy, you'll love this book. If you want excellent dating and sex advice, you'll find that inside, too. That's the real beauty of God is a Woman: Dating Disasters ... guys can pick it up without the stigma of buying a self-help book. (Guys don't like to buy self-help books. We all know that.)
From the Author
Go to the bookstore and you'll see a bunch of books on sex, a few books filled with advice for men on how to score beautiful women, and oh... ten thousand books filled with advice for women on dating.
The problem? They're all separate. Why? Don't this things need to go together to work? What good is knowing everything about sex if you can't get a date? How can you get a date if the book telling you to do "this and that" is in direct conflict with the book telling your date to do something else?
I always wanted to tell my dating failures onstage because they are very funny and informative. They are too long, though, to work in a standup routine, so I'm glad I was able to put them in a book.
From the Back Cover
Ever feel like God is against you when it comes to dating, sex and one-night stands? She is.
Comedian Ian Coburn relives his funniest dating failures in the best dating advice book geared toward both sexes. While Ian shares the lessons he learned from his embarrassing escapades in his hilarious standup fashion, he tackles some of the biggest questions men and women have about each other: Do guys know they favor one breast over the other? Why do women like jerks? Why don't guys call? Why don't women call back? What's the best way to approach a woman at a bar? Why are men so bad at reading signals? He also admits that it's harder to be a woman than a man and tells why.
Whether the story is about the time he was fooling around in his mom's car while he was supposed to be bringing Drew Carey offstage or how he graduated college still a virgin; or the time Jenny Jones grabbed his butt and hit on him or his downward spiral to behaving like a jerk culminating in a night on the town with Damon Wayans, it's all here--openly honest and hilarious--including Larry the Cable Guy's real name and what Nikki Cox is like in person. So sit back, relax, get ready to laugh and find out why God is a Woman.
Celebrity comments about Ian's comedy and writing:
"Very funny." -- Drew Carey (The Drew Carey Show)
"Very talented." -- Damon Wayans (My Wife and Kids)
"Funny and edgy; love the sarcasm." -- Nikki Cox (Las Vegas)
"Fun-nee!" -- Larry the Cable Guy (Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector)
"Captivating . . . intriguing." -- Joan Cusack (Various films)
Publisher and agent comments about God is a Woman:
"Too big for us; funny." -- Capital Books
"Hilarious . . . can't wait for it to come out." -- Basic Books
"Funny . . . made me laugh pretty hard."-- The Waxman Agency
About the Author
Comedian-turned-screenwriter Ian Coburn was one of the most highly sought standup acts on the comedy circuit throughout the nineties. He still boasts the industry record 106-straight weeks on the road. Ian has written two feature length screenplays for hire along with nine of his own. He writes fast, knocking off some topnotch scripts in less than a week. His manager is currently negotiating the options of two of his scripts while he is developing a third with Davis Entertainment (Predator; Flight of the Phoenix; I, Robot.) Ian is also under consideration for a staff writing position on a newly pitched television series. His scripts have won screenwriting contests, including HSI's competition.
Standup comedy and the road shaped Ian's life and personality... it also gave him some crazy dating stories.
Excerpted from God Is a Woman: Dating Disasters by Ian Coburn. Copyright © 2006. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From the Introduction
When I first started to date, I was the same as everyone when they start to date--confused and scared. Like most guys, I looked to magazines and movies for advice. Both sucked. Magazines told me all I needed were some cool clothes, a hot car, and the right cologne, along with a few million dollars to pay for all that crap. The articles were nothing more than guys on ego trips bragging about their sexual conquests; I learned nothing. Movies skipped the most important scenes, where the guy says all the right things to the girl. Instead, movies showed the guy meeting the girl, then cut to them in bed together; big f[...] help. To make matters worse, my mom gave me a book about chickens laying eggs and lambs suckling. Someone shoot me, I thought.
What I needed was a book with honest, adult advice--which wasn't afraid to get graphic when necessary--that taught me what to say, what actions to take, and how to read women. My sisters seemed to need similar information about guys. It would help if the stories were funny so I didn't feel so alone and self-conscious. Better yet, if some of them included celebrities, they'd be even more entertaining and really put me at ease. (If I knew celebrities struggled with sex and dating, I'd feel better about my own problems with them.)
No such book was ever published. Much to my surprise, as I got older I found I could use such a book even more. Then one day I woke up and realized: I could write the needed book. I had the celebrity stories. I had learned about sex and dating the hard way. I could tell guys how to get women. And I could tell women what men were thinking, as well as how to identify the good guys from the creeps. And I could do it all through stories of my funny failures.
Streeter Seidell and Sarah Schneider, CollegeHumor.com
"We loved it! The best 269 page book about dating disasters we've read this year!"
Actress Tina Kraus
"Funny!"
Comedian Rocky LaPorte
"Loved it! Ian's book is very insightful and learned a lot from it, mostly that women are crazy and Ian's a perv."
Mystery Method Forum
"Nothing short of hilarious. (on the advice) AWESOME stuff!!"
Legal Pub Blog Review and Discussion (60 comments)
"The new bible for college students."
Book Description
Comedian Ian Coburn re-lives his funniest dating failures in the best dating advice book geared toward both sexes. Ian shares lessons learned from his embarrassing escapades and tackles some of the biggest questions men and women have about each other: Do guys know they favor one breast over the other? Why do women like jerks? Why don't guys call? Why don't women call back? What's the best way to approach a woman at a bar? He admits it's harder to be a woman than a man and tells why.
Ian's funny, edgy style and fresh advice, have enabled him to do something no one has done effectively previously--write a book about dating and sex that appeals to both genders. Unlike other authors, Ian is not just comfortable with his "game;" he is comfortable with women. His book spawned his syndicated dating advice column "Lunch is Not a Date" and has garnered great reviews from the pua community. It also landed him a spot on Lifetime's site as a dating expert. His stories and advice truly appeal to everyone. The book has ranked #1 in humor on Amazon.ca and other sites repeatedly. Publishers are beginning to translate it into other languages.
Ian's advice is appealing because it is fresh, original, and works. He doesn't lump all men and women into one category; rather, he examines the different types of each and how to work with their personalities, like diffusing the bitter friend in order to pick up the woman you like or why women shouldn't date their guy friends. While other experts prattle on about tired techniques to get a phone number, Ian tells you how to make sure the woman will return your call, not just get a number. It's no wonder this book is a big hit.
Customer Reviews:
Book is hilarious, Column better for advice.......2007-09-24
The stories in this book are flat out hilarious. I read it twice in a week it is so funny. I started by reading his column 'lunch is not a date' and then read the book. The column has more in-depth advice, often taking a concept from the book and expanding on it. While it was fascinating to read the column then read the stories from which his wisdom came from, it would have been better to read the book first I think. Great stuff - I cannot stress that enough.
Too Much Empty Sex Leads to Nothing but Empty Sex.......2007-09-09
I discovered this book in of all places half-drunk at a bar - it was advertised on a poster over a urinal at my favorite watering hole. It claimed to be a funny book about a comedian's "hilarious escapades with women." It is. But it is much more than that. Unlike pua manuals it has complete, excellent advice both for meeting and dating women. It also has lots of good advice for women, too and is also a terrific story of growth. (The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists is the only other book advising men about women which is also a story; all other books are just manuals for tawdry sex.)
Ian opens the book early on with an observation, and perhaps the most important lesson in the book, and one which pua's and other authors like Neil Strauss and Mystery would have benefited greatly by experiencing, as well, but didn't. After working early in his career with a comedian who sleeps with 3 different women in one day, Ian remarks, "And he was still on the prowl! I learned that sex can become a drug for a lot of these guys...I never wanted sex to be like eating a donut or sipping a beer...Too much empty sex - sex for the sake of simply having sex - leads to nothing but empty sex; highly undesirable." He decided early on not to become victim to his own sexual desires - which has clearly happened to the pua leaders (you have to sleep with 1000 women or something to become one, which I don't even believe any of them really have.) He goes on to state that there is a difference between adoring women and adoring sex and that some men who adore sex are actually very hostile toward women. I would say this description accurately depcits popular womanizers like Neil Strauss, Mystery and Tucker Max, who all seem destined to having empty, meaningless sex for the rest of their lives.
Unlike pua's, Ian does not preach about prescribed lines or dozens of defintions; he is about theory - like how to flirt or develop a sense of humor - and gives clear examples of how he developed these skills and how all guys can. For instance, he breaks down humor simply and tells dorks directly why women don't get their jokes. "The roots of humor are relativity and logic. People have to be able to relate to the topic to find the joke funny, which is why many women don't laugh at Star Trek or Three Stooges jokes. Women don't typically watch these shows, so how can they find references to them funny?" He goes on to describe how to develop timing, delivery and all the elements of humor. He does this with flirting, breaking the ice, making a move, yada yada yada; Ian covers it all.
Unlike pua manuals, the advice is not simply a bunch of lines (Neil Strauss promises on his web site to give you all kinds of new lines and jokes if you pay him lots of money); instead, it is the tools to develop everything you need. Once you understand how to flirt, how to be funny, how to be confident, yada yada yada, you can do it anyway you want. Most importantly, Ian explains how women see things; how everything appears from their perspective. Pua books and web sites don't do that because they don't really know; they rely on their lines and techniques; they don't have clue what is actually going thru the woman's mind and how she sees things or even why their techniques actually work. A simple perusal of reviews by women here and Ian's site, where advice is posted for free in his column Lunch is not a Date and for women on Lifetime, and you'll see that women recognize, often reluctantly, that he knows what they are thinking and more importantly, feeling - "Women act on emotion, often making decisions based on how they feel, not what they think. Oftentimes, their minds later second guess the decision, resulting in them experiencing confused emotions. It must be a dizzying experience; and one which guys need to be sensitive to in order to maintain a relationship or even get a date (sometimes women avoid even meeting a guy because they are tired of experiencing the forthcoming mixed bag of second-guessing emotions - "Should I have given him my number? Will he call? Do I really want to go out with him?")."
A great read with lots of advice. No pitches for expensive pua seminars. If you're a woman, it tells you exactly what a guy thinks but be warned - it isn't pretty all the time, though; Ian becomes a real jerk before he turns over a new leaf and he shares all of that. When something starts as new, something else often comes along as the next best thing. Pua's started the movement of books and advice for guys about women and charging money for seminars. Ian's advice is in the book and supplemented on his web site with a free column; Ian is the next best thing. Hopefully, enough guys will discover him before becoming bitter sex addicts.
Also read The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists; the similarity and contrast between the two books is nothing short of fascinating.
The Book and Column are Gold, Pure Gold!!!!.......2007-09-07
I must admit this book and author has me eating crow. So many articles and books out there by purported experts are about a bunch of meaningless jibbersh, like getting a girl's phone number in 5 minutes of meeting her at a bar. Yeah, but how many of those women call back? Probably close to zero but the authors don't talk about that. It's bs. That's what I used to think. Then this week I read an article by Ian Coburn on ezine (man, I wish I could link to it but Amazon won't let me; just search his name or for this book and it will come up.) The article made alot of sense and told guys how to get a woman to return their call, calling out guys who try to get a number in 5 minutes as their focus. "Forget getting her digits. When you meet a woman you like, you want to do 3 things - be memorable, suggest a date, and create a reason to call." Find this article, it is gold! Then Ian's article on "The Flaw of Game" which defends the pua society turned me on to them. (I loathed the pua society before Ian's article explained to me that they weren't jerks, just guys trying to get better with women. He goes on to explain that their created terminology is what gets them looked down upon and misunderstood. He is right, the terms don't really mean what they sound like they mean.)
Basically what's happened with this book is that a comedian with alot of knowledge about women wrote a book telling the hilarious stories where he got that knowledge. It somehow became a dating guide (I agree with other college students that it is the new college dating bible) and Ian got an advice column Lunch is Not a Date. Then Lifetime hired him because he has great advice for women, too. I've been reading all of his advice and stories. It is gold, man, pure gold! Much better than anything I've ever seen and far more insightful.
I read The Mystery Method: How to Get Beautiful Women Into Bed and am reading The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists. Check them out, too, but realize, as Ian says, your goal should be to change who you are, not rely on lines and openings forever. Use them to get comfortable then move past them. Pua's don't want you to do that because they want to sell you their courses, which is a rip. Read the books. Find Ian's ezine articles "Get Her to Return Your Call" and "What About Her - The Flaw with Game Exposed". They are gold! Also, the second one has a great opener which is guaranteed to get the converstion going easily by wowing her. He calls it "2 to 9" and of course doesn't use it anymore because he is past game (i.e. needing openers, negging, etc), so it's available to the rest of us! (Ian's past lines and openers, onto what he calls the common-denominator. I'm telling you, read the book!)
So Funny.......2007-08-12
This book was so funny. I am doing some research for a class and this was one of the easiest books to get through because it was so funny. It reminded me of a show I saw as part of my research. My First Time in NYC. Both were so funny! Give them a chance.
Fantastic book!.......2007-07-18
This book is brilliant. Buy it, you won't be dissapointed. The stories are hilarious and the advice to men and women is second to none.
Amazon.com
To prove their various points, most books on business leadership focus strictly on either a series of standard, contemporary corporate illustrations or a single nontraditional model (such as a specific historic personality or a classic manuscript such as the Tao Te Ching). But Michael Useem, director of the Center for Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, has long used poignant real-life examples of people facing their "moments of truth"--regardless of the setting--to teach students how best to perform under the pressures they will face in the business world. In The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All, Useem presents some of these surprisingly effective profiles to show how others have responded when push truly comes to shove. Among them are: the story of Roy Vagelos championing an unprofitable drug that ultimately wiped out a debilitating disease in Africa; how flight director Eugene Kranz worked calmly and efficiently to return the endangered Apollo 13 astronauts safely back to Earth; and a look at Arlene Blum's pioneering all-woman ascent of the 26,545-foot Himalayan peak Annapurna in 1978. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
Are you ready for the leadership moment?
Merck's Roy Vagelos commits millions of dollars to develop a drug needed only by people who can't afford it · Eugene Kranz struggles to bring the Apollo 13 astronauts home after an explosion rips through their spacecraft · Arlene Blum organizes the first women's ascent of one of the world's most dangerous mountains · Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain leads his tattered troops into a pivotal Civil War battle at Little Round Top · John Gutfreund loses Salomon Brothers when his inattention to a trading scandal almost topples the Wall Street giant · Clifton Wharton restructures a $50 billion pension system direly out of touch with its customers · Alfredo Cristiani transforms El Salvador's decade-long civil war into a negotiated settlement · Nancy Barry leads Women's World Banking in the fight against Third World poverty · Wagner Dodge faces the decision of a lifetime as a fast-moving forest fire overtakes his firefighting crew
Download Description
Eugene Kranz returning Apollo 13; Arlene Blum leading the first women's expedition climbing the Himalayan peak of Annapurna; Roy Vagelos committing Merck to spending hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a drug needed only by people who couldn't afford it; Alfredo Christian ending the civil war in El Salvador.
These are just some of the stories in this unusual and important book about leadership. Michael Useem believes that by examining what others have done when a business, a life, or even the fate of a nation is on the line, we all can learn what works and what fails, what hastens a cause or subverts a purpose, and what must be done when we must perform and lead under pressure.
Customer Reviews:
Warren Bennis is right: "It's one helluva read.".......2007-08-23
I read this book soon after it first appeared (in 1998) and recently re-read it, curious to know how well its core concepts and insights have held up. My conclusion? Very, very well. In his remarkably informative Foreword, Warren Bennis acknowledges having several reasons why he admires Michael Useem's book and cites three. First, Useem's selection of "cases" that focus on nine "real people, not stick figures"; the cases deal with what in theater would be called "turning points" (i.e. "life-challenging, morally consequential events fraught with risk and danger"); and third, the principles that Useem examines can be applied to any organization, regardless of size or nature, and the lessons learned from the nine cases are "eternal and universal. "
Useem suggests that leadership "is at its best when the vision is strategic, the voice persuasive, the results tangible." His focus is on exceptionally difficult leadership decisions, "those fateful moments when our goals are at stake and it is uncertain if we will achieve them, and when the outcome depends on mobilizing others to realize success." He examines nine quite different leaders who found themselves in "life-challenging, morally consequential events fraught with risk and danger" and prevailed. Those who have seen the film Apollo 13 are already familiar with Eugene Kranz (portrayed by Ed Harris). However, most of those who read this book were previously not familiar with several others, notably Wagner Dodge, Arlene Blum, and Clifton Wharton. Nonetheless, valuable leadership lessons can be learned from each of the nine.
Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is of special interest to me. Briefly, he had assumed command of the 20th Regiment of Infantry, Maine Volunteers, in May of 1863; within four days, they were marching through Virginia. Less than a year before, the 20th had mustered a thousand men at commissioning time; only 358 remained. The situation was soon complicated by the fact that 120 mutineers in the 2nd Regiment had been placed under Chamberlain's command. His orders from his superior, General George C. Meade: "make them do duty or shoot them down the moment they refused." What happened next is best revealed within Useem's compelling narrative but I can reveal that Chamberlain's combined forces played a major (if not the pivotal role) at Gettysburg, securing and then defending their position.
Useem observes that, in a crisis such as the one Chamberlain and his men faced on Little Round Top when under relentless attack, "everything is magnified, for better or for worse." Some rise to the leadership challenge and take effective action as Chamberlain did, others don't. Useem suggests several leadership lessons to be learned from that bloody, decisive day on the fields of Gettysburg. For example:
"Winning the confidence of your people now may well be invaluable in a yet-unforeseen time when you face the ultimate test...[However,] early investments in winning support among even your most stalwart opponents may make the difference between success and defeat when it counts most." This is precisely what President Abraham Lincoln did when forming his first cabinet, one that Doris Kearns Goodwin characterizes as a "team of rivals."
I commend Michael Useem on his brilliant correlation of historical information with an analysis of the leaders he has studied and the lessons to be learned from their encounters with "life-challenging, morally consequential events fraught with risk and danger."
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out his Leading Up as well as Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas' Geeks & Geezers (recently updated and reissued as Leading for a Lifetime), Bill George's True North, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Andrew Ward's Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters, and Leading at the Edge: Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition co-authored by Dennis N. T. Perkins, Margaret P. Holtman, Paul R. Kessler, and Catherine McCarthy.
A Different Approach to Self-Help.......2007-03-01
Biography is often a more inspiring way to learn "soft skills" than are traditional self-help books that spell out, word for word, the traits they're purchased to teach. But it's also possible, with a biography, to miss the decision-making moments, even though the actions the subject took are clear.
The Leadership Moment combines both historical and didactic approaches, by pausing in the midst of its nine hair-raising stories to briefly examine the choices that caused the next turn of events. The winning characteristics and skills are repeated in the back of the book under the picture of their respective exemplar. If you enjoy quick reads that deliver in a can't-miss fashion principles you can use, you will enjoy The Leadership Moment. Read a chapter a day before sallying forth to slay your own dragons.
Entirely worthwhile reading, the volume nonetheless has its weaknesses. Only two of the nine accounts are about women, and both of those are set in an all-female environment. (The seven males are in all-male environments.) Seven stories are unequivocal triumphs, one a brazen failure (though another man steps in to save the company), and one ambiguous: did the hero fail to lead or did his team fail to follow? The lesson author Michael Useem highlights is not altogether clear the way he tells the story.
Good leadership examples.......2005-08-31
Many of the examples used in this book are excellent case studies for leadership workshops and classes. It was a nice variety of examples from different sectors and industries.
Great leadership stories!.......2004-12-01
As part of an assignment for a Leadership/Small Group Communication course, I was directed to select the book of my choice from an Amazon book search under the topic of leadership. After poring through the descriptions of just a few of the 116,000 books in this category, I quickly identified the type of book I was looking for. I wanted something less academic/theoretical and more real life. I figured any lessons on leadership would be easier to grasp if they accompanied the stories of real people. Michael Useem's The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All fit the bill.
The Leadership Moment is a book of nine stories of real individuals who were faced with leadership challenges or put into positions where their decisions as leaders would greatly affect the outcome or survival of companies, countries and often, many other lives. The stories cover attempts to cure disease, retreating from a fire, returning a malfunctioning spacecraft to earth, ascending a mountain, leading men to battle, restructuring large corporations, the downfall and rise of a large company, working towards development of women in the third world and ending a civil war. Each story identifies a leader put into a critical do or die situation where their decisions and leadership qualities either led to success and meeting objectives, or led to failure and the demise of the company or death of those they were leading.
What I really liked about the book was the real life examples and the vast range of examples that Useem used. While many of us in the corporate world identify leadership as the ability to bring in financial returns or climb the corporate ladder, this book shows how leadership comes up in vastly different situations.
Useem's writing style flows well and is easy to follow. The stories are interesting and descriptive. For each story, he points out several leadership objectives that are implicated in the story. I enjoyed the book, and was able to identify how some of his leadership objectives could apply to my own career. I recommend this book to anyone looking for an interesting read on leadership.
great service.......2003-07-11
The book arrived on time, and in great condition. And they also included another book for free with the order!
Book Description
This book follows all NIMS ICS (National Incident Management System--Incident Command System) processes and principles. Beyond Initial Response was written to fill a significant gap in ICS training. Critical ICS position-specific training is difficult to get, yet responders have the responsibility to effectively operate in an ICS organization. This book removes the gap, instills confidence, knowledge and assurance that is required to be successful in an ICS command. Major focus areas: 1) the ICS Planning Process discussed in extensive detail, 2) ICS positions (13 critical positions thoroughly covered in depth), and 3) Unified Command: what it takes to be successful. This book is an invaluable reference tool that contains numerous job aids, checklists, illustrations and sample documents enabling the user to seamlessly work within the Incident Command System. In addition, it is an excellent support source for ICS training, contingency planning and response operations. Beyond Initial Response should be within arms length whether you are training or deploying.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book for all responders!.......2006-11-29
This is a great review of the ICS process! It's easy to read, with exceptional examples of each situation, how to conduct meetings, and how to fill out the ICS forms. I have brought it to a few excercises with me and everyone who looks at it, wants one! The authors did an INCREDIBLE job of combining their particular areas of expertise into a very educational product!
Highly recommended - clear, concise and well crafted........2006-08-15
An exceptional reference and text. Clearly, the authors have many years experience in emergency response and have applied their expertise to the core incident management concepts. If you are looking for a way to understand the National Incident Management System from concept to `nuts and bolts, down in the field' processes, this is the best you will find.
Book Description
Long known for her insightful and thought-provoking political journalism, author Elizabeth Kolbert now tackles the controversial and increasingly urgent subject of global warming. In what began as groundbreaking three-part series in the New Yorker, for which she won a National Magazine Award in 2006, Kolbert cuts through the competing rhetoric and political agendas to elucidate for Americans what is really going on with the global environment and asks what, if anything, can be done to save our planet. Now updated and with a new afterword, Field Notes from a Catastrophe is the book to read on the defining issue and greatest challenge of our times.
Customer Reviews:
Eloquent But Only Notes.......2007-10-09
The title of this book is apt: Field Notes. Whether the word Catastrophe is equally apt, or merely good salesmanship, can be left undecided for the moment. Chapter by chapter, Ms Kolbert has written honestly and earnestly. Chapter 2, for instance, recounts the historical development of the concern over global warming, clearly and fairly, in a mere nine pages. Chapter 3 outlines the recent studies of glaciers, and the possible implications of those studies, with equal brevity and clarity. Chapter 1 sets a passionate tone for the whole book, confronting the fearful sense of global warming at the level of villagers whose lives are already impacted; I have kayaked many times in the Seward Peninsula region, over a span of 25 years, and I've personally felt the real urgency that Ms. Kolbert reports. Each chapter of the book is in fact an essay unto itself. Ms. Kolbert is a front-line journalist, not a climatologist. That is the source of her stylistic clarity, obviously, and of her daring in reporting on the crisis at multiple levels. It also makes her vulnerable to the dogmatic deniers of anthropogenic climate change, as is colorfully exhibited in the several ranting one-star reviews on this page.
This is the University of Washington common book for 2007-8.......2007-10-04
The University of Washington has selected this book as its "Common Book" for the 2007-2008 academic year. That means each of the UW's 10,000+ incoming freshman this year have received a copy of the book and are reading it.
An Extraordinary Work: Important and Readable.......2007-09-23
`Field Notes From a Catastrophe' is Elizabeth Kolbert's masterpiece of conciseness and clarity explaining current climate change science and the political obstacles (read the US, Republicans, and Bush Administration in ascending order) to getting serious about attacking the problem. Originally published in 2005, the paperback version has an afterword written in 2006.
Kolbert takes a journalist's approach to explaining the climate change phenomenon (the book began as a series in the New Yorker). She takes the reader to Shishmaref, Alaska an island village rapidly becoming an untenable place to live due to climate-induced sea ice changes, to the North Slope, to the great Greenland ice shield and she brings the story down to a human scale.
Kolbert also leads the reader through the science of global warming making understandable seemingly arcane topics like "dangerous anthropogenic interference" (DAI), which is basically the point where something truly major goes haywire. Kolbert brings the joy of learning to the reader, until one ponders the potential consequences of what she lays out for us. Perhaps most disturbing is the evidence she marshals that the climate has already changed. For example, the climate has warmed sufficiently to allow numerous butterfly species to migrate to new previously too cold locations and to cause the extinction of certain frog species.
Scientists do not, of course, understand everything about climate change (indeed, it is in the very nature of science that an endpoint of total knowledge is never achieved). Those political and economic forces (primarily in the United States) that benefit from the status quo latch on to the uncertainties to create doubt among the public and forestall action. Her interviews with Bush administration officials strike an odd note - they stonewall with robotic incantations. While Europe and most of industrialized world has acted, the US has dithered, delayed, and denied.
Kolbert explains why scientists conclude that it is virtually certain that under the current `business as usual' approach, greenhouse gas concentrations will reach a level that causes massive coastal flooding, large scale extinctions, and crop failures leading to starvation (DAI). These outcomes will not be evenly distributed and are likely to fall heaviest on the poorest countries. Scientists do not, however, know what level of greenhouse gas concentration will cause these impacts. The Bush administration uses that uncertainty as a reason to do essentially nothing and Congress too has failed to force any action.
Kolbert's book inspires the reader to search out even more current information (NOAA's Arctic Change web site is one good source). And the news is alarming. This stuff is not just a tree hugger's paranoid delusion: global heating is happening, it is happening now, and it is getting worse faster than anticipated.
Kolbert's book is a work of journalism (and given the rapidly changing reality, journalism is probably the best source of information) that informs on both the science and the politics of climate change without stridently hectoring the reader. Kolbert presents the facts. The reader would have to be a dim bulb indeed not to get the picture.
Absolutely the very highest recommendation. Kolbert's Field Notes From a Catastrophe deserves more than 5 stars.
Some very misleading reviews here.......2007-08-09
Reviewer T. Ferrell says "The author comes from an assumption that climate was once stable and has recently become unstable. She states this directly several times and it is the overall impression she intentionally leaves."
I'm not sure if the reviewer didn't actually read the book or is deliberately trying to smear it, but Kolbert states many times that the climate has changed in the past.
This is clearly written sober account of global warming and the effects it is having, and will have, on the environment. An excellent, concise read.
Climate has never been "stable".......2007-07-04
While the book was well written as prose, it was intellectually myopic. The author comes from an assumption that climate was once stable and has recently become unstable. She states this directly several times and it is the overall impression she intentionally leaves. Certainly climate change has an effect on people, flora and fauna, but that does not mean that you ignore the fact that there are winners with climate change as well as losers. Example, as the globe warms agriculture moves north expanding into areas previously too frigid to support farming. No mention of this?
But it is not that she just focuses just on the losers. She glosses over issues that might complicate her simple thesis that man is responsible for climate change as "not understood." This is the explanation she gives for example when discussing how atmospheric CO2 was historically low during the ice ages and was high during periods of warming. This is "unknown." She simply ignores the fact that the worlds oceans hold most of the planets CO2 both directly as an absorbed gas, its concentration being directly related temperature. She also ignores the carbon bank in phytoplankton. I believe she does this because it would bring into question her simple thesis. What warmed or cooled the worlds oceans before man was on the scene.
This is a problem for me because a wider view of climate change would reveal the true issues. At one point in time the earth was a snowball entirely covered with ice. At another point in our past the oceans were much higher and the poles were nearly devoid of ice. If global climate has always been in flux do we now propose that man should control the world's climate? If so, what is the best climate? Is it the best thing to have a sizeable portion of the worlds surface are covered in ice or too cold to support agriculture? Who decides? If man does control the weather is the only way to do it to cut back on fossil fuel useage? The author appears to believe so. Does the entity who controls climate take responsibilty for the weather and its effects? A freeze occurs in a temperate agricultural region. Is this now someone's fault?
It's very easy to look who loses with climate change. It is much more difficult to consider the bigger picture. I was not impressed by this book.
Amazon.com
On September 8, 1900, a massive hurricane slammed into Galveston, Texas. A tidal surge of some four feet in as many seconds inundated the city, while the wind destroyed thousands of buildings. By the time the water and winds subsided, entire streets had disappeared and as many as 10,000 were dead--making this the worst natural disaster in America's history.
In Isaac's Storm, Erik Larson blends science and history to tell the story of Galveston, its people, and the hurricane that devastated them. Drawing on hundreds of personal reminiscences of the storm, Larson follows individuals through the fateful day and the storm's aftermath. There's Louisa Rollfing, who begged her husband, August, not to go into town the morning of the storm; the Ursuline Sisters at St. Mary's orphanage who tied their charges to lengths of clothesline to keep them together; Judson Palmer, who huddled in his bathroom with his family and neighbors, hoping to ride out the storm. At the center of it all is Isaac Cline, employee of the nascent Weather Bureau, and his younger brother--and rival weatherman--Joseph. Larson does an excellent job of piecing together Isaac's life and reveals that Isaac was not the quick-thinking hero he claimed to be after the storm ended. The storm itself, however, is the book's true protagonist--and Larson describes its nuances in horrific detail.
At times the prose is a bit too purple, but Larson is engaging and keeps the book's tempo rising in pace with the wind and waves. Overall, Isaac's Storm recaptures at a time when, standing in the first year of the century, Americans felt like they ruled the world--and that even the weather was no real threat to their supremacy. Nature proved them wrong. --Sunny Delaney
Amazon.com Audiobook Review
Reading in his signature dispassionate style, narrator Edward Herrmann brings an eerie calm to this powerful chronicle of the deadliest storm ever to hit the United States--a huge and terribly destructive hurricane that struck land near Galveston, Texas in September of 1900. Author Erik Larson re-creates the events leading up to the disaster in astonishing detail, tracing the thoughts and actions of Isaac Cline, a scientist with America's burgeoning U.S. Weather Bureau. Cline's unwavering confidence--"In an age of scientific certainty one could not allow one's judgment to be clouded..."--blinds the meteorologist to the deadly onslaught about to be unleashed. Herrmann's calculated performance reflects the impending doom and dangers inherent to an unquestioned and absolute faith in science. (Running time: 5 hours, 3 cassettes) --George Laney
Book Description
September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged in a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over six thousand people in what remains the greatest natural disaster in American history--and Isaac Cline found himself the victim of a devestating personal tragedy.
Using Cline's own telegrams, letters, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the science of hurricanes, Erik Larson builds a chronicle of one man's heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude. Riveting, powerful, and unbearably suspenseful,
Isaac's Storm is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets the great uncontrollable force of nature.
Customer Reviews:
NO PICTURES.......2007-09-30
My first thoughts after finishing Isaac's storm was, that for such a big and devastating storm, it didn't seem do it justice. I wanted understanding (why didn't people leave?). I wanted som
