Average customer rating:
- a message to A reader from Herzliya Israel
- where is this man's nobel?
- Just a quick note from a hebrew speaking reader of the book
- I loved the book!
- A very easy read
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The Zigzag Kid
David Grossman
Manufacturer: Farrar Straus & Giroux (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0374296928 |
Book Description
Nonny Feuerberg's father is the world's greatest detective, wholly dedicated to the war on crime. Nonny trains himself to follow in his father's footsteps, but to his father's dismay his wild side keeps breaking out. Then Nonny finds himself traveling on a train with the magnetic, elegant Felix Glick, international outlaw extraordinaire. Not until Felix has hijacked the locomotive and whisked Nonny off on a quest for the trademark purple scarf of the great actress Lola Ciperola does Nonny realize that he is in the hands of a kindly and fascinating kidnapper—and that although he himself knows almost nothing about his own mother, who died when he was a baby, both Felix and Lola seem to know a lot about her.
Customer Reviews:
a message to A reader from Herzliya Israel.......2003-02-17
you could get in touch with DG via the Guardian newspaper in London. I know it has an anti-Israel image in israel, but that's a crock. Anyone who knows DGs work knows he would never involve himself with an anti-Israel paper. (he writes for them regularly).
Incidentally, the myth of Israel being a target of the Guardian has been propogated by Conrad Blacks' Jerusalem Post. Black owns the Guardian's competition in the UK - coincidence?
Black also is one of those messianic christians who is busy befriending jews until the day he and his chums expect Jesus to rise again - when one third of all jews will convert and the other two thirds will be "forced into the see". Who is the real friend of the Israeli people I ask...
where is this man's nobel?.......2003-02-17
Grossman has changed my life totally. Because of him (particularly 'See under: love') I have even been learning Hebrew. There was something about this book though that made me leave it on the shelf - dunno what, maybe the cover, some inbuilt snobbiness about a book about children - and it stayed there for years. More fool me...
I started it and didn't stop until the last page. Absolute perfection. Possibly the most uplifting read I have ever read, and I always had a snidy pessimistic view towards sentimentality. Again, more fool me...
This cat's like a personal tutor to me, and I cannot imagine life without his (and Nabokov - my other fave's) books.
....
Just a quick note from a hebrew speaking reader of the book.......2002-12-29
Just thought I'd point out that the kid's name is actually Nono... (I read the book in hebrew..)
I loved the book!.......2002-06-28
The book is about changing, as you grow up. It seems focused on the 12 year old Nonny, finding out his dead mother's story and discovering new sides of his identity. Reading the book, however, you soon realize that there are many characters who grow with Nonny, althought they are already what we call "adults". Don't expect a realistic description of a search for identity: everything here is colourful and magic and life long changes occur in the space of two days. This is the limitation but at the same time the big charm of this book: if you like going to the point via an indirect, poetical way, put it to the test!
Email me, if you have read the book and you'd like to discuss about it!
A very easy read.......2001-04-10
Finally I've found an Israeli author I like. .... I like what I readto be a bit weird, a bit unorthodox, unusual, and this book has all ofthat. I would have given it 5 stars but I think that the author went abit overboard at the last 50 pages or so. The pace was too fast, notgiving the reader enough time to breath and think about what's justbeen revealed. Too many amazing discoveries are written one rightafter the other. But - on the other hand - it also makes the storyflow very easily. I seldom have the opportunity to say this - I justcouldn't put the book down.
Book Description
Through the lively verse and striking photographs of this large-format book, young readers learn the ABCs of architecture, including arches, gargoyles, hinges, I-beams, urns, and zigzags. Questions stimulate young readers to think about the structural world around them in a creative, thought-provoking way.
28 illustrations in full color, 91/4 x 103/4"
Customer Reviews:
Great introduction to architecture.......2003-07-29
My husband is an architect, so I bought this book for our (future) children. The photography is wonderful. We think it is an excellent introduction to architecture, and I love how it asks a question of the reader after each alphabet. For example, it asks if you think a keystone looks like a tooth.
Architecture for the young and young at heart.......2000-11-14
A delightful book of engaging interactive text and glorious photographic images which will appeal to both children and adults. Compared to other architecture alphabet books, "Archibet" and "An Architectural Alphabet" for instance, this book not only delights the eye but asks the reader to "read" the image and engage with the text. An appendix offers details regarding the specific location of the element in each photograph as well as the full definition of the term associated with each letter of the alphabet. Put it on your Christmas list.
Architecture is for kids too.......2000-11-11
By now you've probably plowed your way through lots of those children's books that are about impossible for grownups to enjoy. I won't mention any names, but I've tried lots of them and the kids don't seem to like them much either! Here's a book that children enjoy, and that also offers something to us parents. The photos are lively and pretty (and there's a handy list in the back that tells us where they were taken). The verse is clever and fresh and informative. And you walk away from the book understanding a bit more about architecture, a subject that's endlessly fascinating. I'll have to check my son's latest Lego structure to see if he's incorporated any arches, corbels, gargoyles, or other architectural features into his creations. Then I'll know for sure that this book has been as successful with him as it has been with me! Incidentally, this is a good gift book for the school. I'm giving one to my daughter's 2nd grade classroom.
Book Description
Zigzag through the Bitter-Orange Trees was first published in Greece, where it was acclaimed as "the best novel of the decade" and became the first novel to win both the Greek State Prize for Literature and the prestigious Book Critics' Award. Zigzag through the Bitter-Orange Trees weaves together the stories of four disparate young people in modern Greece: Lia, dying in the hospital from a mysterious virus; her brother Sid, the disaffected wanderer, her only remaining connection to the outside world; Lia's nurse Sotiris, an unstable blend of cowardice and desire; and the twelve-year-old rebel Nina, who dreams to break away from the humdrum life around her. Their four unforgettable voices mingle in a poignant black comedy of isolation and yearning, illusion and vengeance and the hunger for connection. With disarming power, Sotiropoulos portrays the conflicted world of the young--passionate and cynical, beautiful and grotesque.
Book Description
Drawings by Roxie Munro Architects make zigzags—and they also design brackets, columns, dormers, eaves, facades, gables, houses, ironwork, and all the other architectural delights to be found inside this book. Artist Roxie Munro has created a wonderful, whimsical tour through the architectural alphabet. Her drawings show 26 of the most common features of buildings and neighborhoods and give a tantalizing glimpse into 300 years of American architecture from coast to coast. Follow her eye up to locate unusual curlicues on a seaside balcony and gaze down to see the intricate plantings that welcomed George Washington to Mount Vernon. This look at architecture from A to Z explains some everyday terms and introduces some less familiar words—do you know what jigsaw work, newel posts, and quoins are? Munro makes architecture fun for building lovers of all ages and provides a starting point for endless architectural explorations close to home. "Munro's line drawings … are full of detail without being cluttered; they capture the activity of these places, and yet they remain serene." —Washington Post "Munro clearly is [able] to breathe life into the inanimate." —New York Times "Munro deserves thanks for this treasure that her fans will hope is the first of many singular achievements." —Publishers Weekly
Customer Reviews:
cute book to share with kids.......2007-03-29
This was a cute book that anyone talking about architecture or buildings with kids could use during their discussion. -
Book Description
Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters, and his lovers was to know where one persona ended and the other began.
In 1941, after training as a German spy in occupied France, Chapman was parachuted into Britain with a revolver, a wireless, and a cyanide pill, with orders from the Abwehr to blow up an airplane factory. Instead, he contacted MI5, the British Secret Service. For the next four years, Chapman worked as a double agent, a lone British spy at the heart of the German Secret Service who at one time volunteered to assassinate Hitler for his countrymen. Crisscrossing Europe under different names, all the while weaving plans, spreading disinformation, and, miraculously, keeping his stories straight under intense interrogation, he even managed to gain some profit and seduce beautiful women along the way.
The Nazis feted Chapman as a hero and awarded him the Iron Cross. In Britain, he was pardoned for his crimes, becoming the only wartime agent to be thus rewarded. Both countries provided for the mother of his child and his mistress. Sixty years after the end of the war, and ten years after Chapman’s death, MI5 has now declassified all of Chapman’s files, releasing more than 1,800 pages of top secret material and allowing the full story of Agent Zigzag to be told for the first time.
A gripping story of loyalty, love, and treachery, Agent Zigzag offers a unique glimpse into the psychology of espionage, with its thin and shifting line between fidelity and betrayal.
Customer Reviews:
Agent ZigZag.......2007-10-17
This is an absolutely fantastic book. There are many details about the war I had not read/heard about before. Lots of facts and details scattered throughout. Very worthwhile reading.
Review of Book not Audio CD.......2007-09-29
I see there are two books out on ZigZag (Eddie Chapman). the other by Nicholas Booth. According to the Booklist's review Booth's ZigZag book goes "into greater detail about Eddie's life BEFORE he became a spy and into the histories of some of the people he knew and worked with.
Drawing heavily on the memories of Eddie's widow, Betty Chapman, .."
Ben Macintyre's book on the other hand is more about the how and the aftermath of Eddies becoming a spy. The nuts and bolts. The missions etc. Sure Macintyre goes into Eddie's prior (and later) life as a career criminal but just enough to give you an idea of his character.
Eddie was a constant criminal like I'm a constant reader. He blew many safes, stealing tons of money and blowing it all on booze, women, clothes.
"He had affairs with a number of women on the fringe of London high society and then blackmailed them with photographs taken by an accomplice." He was a real nice guy. He was a rip thru and thru. A stone cold liar. BUT he came together, risked his life, and put his talents to work for his country.
It was interesting all the elaborate deceptions the British war machine concocted and successfully carried out. How the British steadfastly held / guarded their secrets and how they (rich, poor, media, businesses...) all came together to fight.
Something the US would never be able to do.
Eddie himself wrote about is life (The Eddie Chapman story, The real Eddie Chapman story, Free agent:) and even made a short film. But being the lier that he was, a lot of it was lies.
An Enveloping Tale Of Espionage---And It's All True.......2007-09-13
Over and over through the years as I've read books about real life spies ("Comrade" Kim Philby and Sidney Reilly among others) I've been struck by how much more amazing these non-fiction stories were than those concocted as would-be pulp fiction thrillers. I've also been struck at how all the best spies were anything but good people, and they shared traits of cruelty and self-love that bordered on sociopathic narcissism. Ben Macintyre's biography of Eddie Chapman gives us a man who continues that dubious tradition. This page-turner is fact-filled and well-written and the life it tells of outdoes anything fiction has cranked out in quite a while. It's a very enjoyable read that presented the history of someone I personally had never heard of before I was introduced to him in this book.
Eddie Chapman was no James Bond or even a Sidney Reilly, but he was one of the boldest, most brazen con men ever to serve a nation or a cause, and in so doing he found some redemption from the wrongs of his earlier life. From his days as a roguish charmer who infiltrated high society and first infatuated and later blackmailed rich women in the most callous and base ways imaginable, this safecracker, thief and extortionist found himself sprung by the Germans early in the war when he was then serving a fifteen-year sentence in an English prison in the Channel Islands.
The charismatic Chapman, as liked by his German liberators as by those who'd known him back home, was then recruited by the Nazis as a spy who agreed to do their bidding and sabotage a British aircraft factory in Hertfordshire. He parachuted back onto his native soil during the busy Christmas season of 1942, only to prove his ultimate loyalty by going to the British and offering to in turn spy on the Germans. Ultimately faking the attack in Hertfordshire and returning to Germany through neutral Portugal, Chapman concocted a plan in which he would assassinate Adolph Hitler at a political rally. Although this plan obviously never came to fruition, Chapman bravely continued his double agency thru to the war's conclusion, an astounding feat of skill, luck and sheer courage all the more amazing considering the short lifespan of most other double agents.
So skilled was he at his falsehoods that Chapman was befriended by a number of well-placed Nazi personnel, and was decorated for his service to the Third Reich. Eventually after a posting in German-held Norway, late in the war Chapman was again smuggled into the United Kingdom where in his most noble deed he saved countless lives by concocting false reports to the Germans on the accuracy of their V1 and V2 rockets. In his communiqués Chapman claimed these flying bombs were landing beyond their intended targets, causing the Luftwaffe to re-adjust them to locations the British deemed less populated and therefore safer.
Incredibly after this the gifted liar and actor Chapman returned yet again to Nazi-controlled Norway, where he continued to be of service to his government in London, this time by turning over misleading information to the by-then moribund German military.
Chapman's life was one of amazing luck, daring, and amorality, but his story is also one of a man who betrayed nearly every friend who ever trusted him, and who ruined many lives, even as his service record shows he saved many others. He went on to not only survive the Second World War but live to old age, profiting from an MI5 pension and from the proceeds of the book and film royalties to his remarkable story. Macintyre skillfully takes us into the deeds and era of this confidence man turned double agent, and in doing so has given his readers a fine work of non-fiction that is a pleasure to complete.
Customer Reviews:
Zigzag.......2007-10-02
Great book. Gripping. The reader gets a good understanding of war life for civilians, law enforcement, and spies in England, France, and Germany during World War II. I could not put this book down.
Agent Zigzag to the British, Agent Fritz to the Germans.......2007-09-29
During World War II, Eddie Chapman bore the codename "Zigzag", given to him by his British masters at MI5. Such names were supposed to be close to meaningless; the point was to keep Chapman and his work secret. But some spymaster allowed a shade of meaning into Chapman's designator; he had zigged through the British criminal underworld, zagged through the ranks of German espionage, and MI5 had trouble understanding where he was coming from or where he would show up next. "Without a doubt he was the most remarkable spy of the Second World War," writes Nicholas Booth in _Zigzag: The Incredible Wartime Exploits of Double Agent Eddie Chapman_ (Arcade Publishing). Chapman has had his biographies before, and even a couple of autobiographies which are not really to be trusted because, well, he was Eddie Chapman, and also because of censorship restrictions, still in place when Chapman brought out his "real" story in 1966. Now the official secrecy is lifted and archives opened, and with the help of Chapman's longsuffering but devoted widow, Booth has researched Chapman's story as much as it probably will ever be. It's one of those stories that if it were brought out as a novel, it would be dismissed as lacking any grounds for credibility. Chapman was a clever, devious fellow, and MI5 harnessed the deviousness without ever rewarding him or acknowledging how much the nation was in Chapman's debt.
Chapman was born in 1914 and drifted to London in the mid-1930s, where, in his own words, he "met and mixed with all types of tricky people, racecourse crooks, touts, thieves, prostitutes and the flotsam of the nightlife of a great city." He was a small-time crook and went on to a specialty of blowing up safes. He was languishing in prison on the island of Jersey when the Germans took it over in 1940. The Germans recruited him as an agent and he was sent to training in France courtesy of the Abwehr, the intelligence branch of the German armed forces. In December 1942, Chapman was parachuted to Britain with a radio set, and he contacted the British Secret Service, who helped him pretend to blow up an aircraft factory. It was enough to impress his German controllers when he radioed them of his results, and when he returned to Germany, they were overjoyed to have him back. They presented him with the Iron Cross medal (Booth says it may have been a less prestigious medal than the Iron Cross, but still, he was the only Briton to win one). In 1944 when the German V-weapons were being developed, Chapman was parachuted again into Britain (the only double agent to make the crossing twice), and was there for the rest of the war. He transmitted reports about the landing points of the V-1 buzzbombs, reports that falsely indicated the bombs were overreaching their targets. Thereafter, bombs sent to destroy London began falling short in the fields of Kent.
The money and medal from Germany would be more recognition than Chapman would get from Britain. MI5 did arrange to wipe his previous convictions clean, and though after the war Chapman was involved in some dodgy enterprises and had to go to court, he was never again in prison. He and his wife, the woman he was visiting Jersey with at the time of his arrest there, stayed married until his death in 1997. Booth's tender interviews with her show that she remains smitten with him though he had little notion of fidelity. Chapman, MI5 finally acknowledged, was devoted to himself, to adventure, and to his country, in that order, and it was handy that MI5 could harness the first two to the use of the third. Here is a complex picture of a strange man, a fellow who ingratiated himself to others easily, was helpful and polite, and had a sociopathic interest in getting his own way and didn't mind doing it dishonestly. His wife remembers his motto was, "Never resist temptation." Not at all an attractive character as revealed in this entertaining biography, but entered into the war, with his sociopathy at the call of his country, and despite himself, he became some sort of a hero.
Average customer rating:
- Mediocre
- A luminous novel set in Mexico
- (3.5) "Tell her, if she wants to be queen she should have chosen better subjects."
- ONE OF THOSE HARD-TO-FIND SMALL GEMS
- Brisk, entertaining, evocative
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The Zigzag Way
Anita Desai
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0618619801 |
Book Description
In The Zigzag Way, the critically acclaimed novelist Anita Desai offers a gorgeously nuanced story of expatriates and travelers adrift in an unfamiliar land. Eric, a young American historian, has come to Mexico on his first trip abroad. His search for his immigrant family's roots brings him to a town in the Sierrra Madre, where a hundred years earlier Cornish miners toiled without relief. Here the suspiciously enigmatic Doña Vera, the fierce Austrian widow of a mining baron, has become a local legend, but her reputation for philanthropy glosses over a darker history. A haunting, powerful novel that culminates on the Day of the Dead, The Zigzag Way examines the subtle interplay between past and present.
Anita Desai is the author of many acclaimed works of fiction, including Baumgartner's Bombay, Clear Light of Day, Diamond Dust, and Fasting, Feasting, among other works. Three of her novels have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. A professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she now lives in New York.
Customer Reviews:
Mediocre.......2006-12-06
"The Zigzag Way" is a short book, almost novella size, without a great deal of character development. It does have a shifting cast of characters unified by the willingness to change the familiar for something new, Em being the exception, and also the one character with no real connection to Mexico. At the end the protagonist, unlike his father, still has not found what that something new will be. For a slim book, there was an historical dimension which was valuable, but it almost seems like Desai was also seeking a spiritual experience in Mexico which turned out to be disappointing. The concluding scene has some emotional power, but just doesn't add up to anything really significant. While Desai can create fine metaphors, there were times I felt they were inserted when no metaphor was called for, so that they simply brought attention to themselves. On a personal note, I was better able to visualize Em because I had recently seen the movie "Kinky Boots", and pictured the fiancée.
A luminous novel set in Mexico.......2006-11-03
Eric O'Brien is an uncertain and awkward young man, a would-be writer and a traveller in spite of himself. Happy to follow his more confident girlfriend Em to Mexico, he is overwhelmed with sensory overload and gradually seduced by the strangeness, the colour, the mysteries of an older world and its celebrations of the Dia de los Muertos. He finds himself in a curious quest for his own family in a ghost mining town, now barely inhabited, where almost a hundred years earlier young Cornish miners worked the rich seams in the earth. Until Pancho Villa and revolution came to Mexico.
A recording of this novel is available from BBC Audiobooks and Eleanor Bron's reading is truly breathtaking. Highly recommended.
(3.5) "Tell her, if she wants to be queen she should have chosen better subjects.".......2006-02-20
Eric is drifting in his chosen career path, writing a book on immigration with the help of a grant, an extension of his thesis, daily losing focus, caught up in an aimless cycle of wasted days. His highly motivated girlfriend is another matter, focused and engaged in her own work, soon to travel to Yucatan for extensive research with her fellow scientists. Clinging to the relationship and his angst, an ambivalent Eric grabs the opportunity to travel to Mexico with Emily, certain that a change of scene will invigorate his sagging self-discipline and commitment to his project. When they arrive in Mexico, Eric is stunned by the color and beauty of the area, the unflinching brightness of the days a sharp contrast to his native Boston. With Emily soon to leave for the interior, Eric walks the streets of the city, drinking up local culture and attending lectures he cannot understand with his limited knowledge of Spanish.
Yet in one lecture the names of places stimulate his unconscious, releasing barely remembered stories told in his childhood in Cornwall, England, tales of mining in exotic places, of hardship, revolution and loss. With little to go on but the fragments of his grandfather's tales of life as a miner in Mexico, Eric learns, albeit tangentially, that his familial ties to the region have remained dormant all these years, waiting to be rediscovered in this time, in this place. Left to his own devices, Eric uncovers a legacy that changes his definition of himself and the direction of his life. As the annual celebration of the Day of the Day approaches, Eric struggles with what he has learned in the Sierra Madre and his connection to the enigmatic Dona Vera, the Australian wife of a mining baron, who holds the key to Eric's past.
Desai's prose is evocative, the shy and unobtrusive East Coast scholar contrasted with the brilliant local color and lore of the Sierra Madre, a subtle intimation of darker personal histories buried beneath the veneer of modern civilization, the past powerful in the words of the eccentric widow who speaks the mellifluous names of Eric's memory. Stories buried in stories, the layers of years mute the voices that would tell of brutality and injustice; with Eric as her unwitting vehicle, Desai uncovers a time of turmoil and violence where turn-of-the-century Cornwall meets the harsh world of mining under the impossibly blue skies of Mexico, where sacred peyote grows at the surface of the earth's rich ores, all made real on Dia de los Muertos. Luan Gaines/ 2006.
ONE OF THOSE HARD-TO-FIND SMALL GEMS.......2005-11-27
My reading has declined by 75% this past year for the lack of finding books like this one. I learned more about Mexico in 160 pages than in 4 visits there. The author has an incredible ability to focus with lightning pace on both the thrust of plot and smallest details, but never through use of excess words. We start in an East Coast college where a young guy follows his scientist girl friend to Mexico and as they separate for her to do her work, the young man goes deeper into the mountains of Mexico and almost loses himself in the history he trudges up in the pursuit of the story of his Mexican grandfather. Many readers will say, Oh Yuck! and ignore books like this, turning to another James Petterson re-hash. Too bad, but that's freedom.
Brisk, entertaining, evocative.......2004-11-15
THE ZIGZAG WAY by Anita Desai is a success in several ways, most notably in delivering to the reader a Mexico of vivid sights, sounds and smells. The feel of the place -- its mountains, animals, flowers, foods -- is captured with a keen eye (and ear, and nose). Secondly, the structure, going back and forth in time and making connections along the way, is irresistible. Where she has not succeeded so well is in creating characters that achieve verisimilitude. The sometimes stilted dialogue doesn't help. And the story itself, for all its exoticism, doesn't rise much beyond the mundane. Still, THE ZIGZAG WAY is a quick, entertaining read worthly of a recommendation, though not an emphatic one.
Average customer rating:
- Outstanding Pacific War battle analysis
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Avenging Bataan: The Battle of Zigzag Pass
B. David Mann
Manufacturer: Pentland Press (NC)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1571973028 |
Book Description
When General MacArthur and the United States suffered a devastating defeat by surrendering the Bataan Peninsula to the Japanese in 1942, it was only worsened by learning of the brutal treatment of the American POWs. Outraged by this news, the entire country and particularly the Army vowed to avenge the defeat and the infamous Bataan Death March.
"Avenging Bataan: The Battle of Zigzag Pass" is a well-researched and detailed historical account of the struggle to liberate Bataan in 1945 by opening the highway through Zigzag Pass. Featuring coverage of both the American and Japanese forces, this account provides insight into the day by day life and death struggle of battle. The story is told through interviews, letters, and reports by men - from both sides - who fought the battle .
Complete with the historical background of events leading up to and surrounding the Battle of Zigzag Pass, the author's research includes strategic information along with personal accounts. A gripping portrayal of both the Americans and Japanesse at war, "Avenging Bataan" helps preserve the legacy of World War II for future generations.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding Pacific War battle analysis.......2006-01-05
Avenging Bataan does for the Pacific Theater in World War II what Hell in the Huertgen Forest did for the ETO. It fills a much needed gap between personal memoir and General Officer biography/campaign overview by focusing on a small but critical struggle on the island of Luzon during the Sixth Army's liberation of the Philippines in early 1945. This is a battle analysis, the dissection of tactical action at the battalion/regiment/division level to achieve the decisions that ultimately make a campaign successful. The book covers the effort of the U.S. Army's 38th Division (with the 34th RCT attached) to seal off the neck of the Bataan peninsula during the drive on Manila to remove it as a threat to the right flank of the Sixth Army and deny its use to any Japanese forces desiring to make a prolonged stand there.
Mr. Mann, who served as a platoon leader during the battle, is the ideal person to re-create the battle. He demonstrates considerable skill as a historian and battlefield detective, and brings a remarkable and admirable objectivity to the subject. His use of primary sources to describe the Japanese view, from translated records and journals to interviews with survivors, adds a tremendously valuable dimension to the account that is rarely found in other books about the Pacific War. The author has reconstructed the entire Japanese order of battle, from commanding officer to squad leaders, and provides a detailed description of their weapons, employment considerations, and dispositions. He also includes annexes on U.S. casualties by day and unit, and one that even lists the number of artillery rounds fired by day and type.
Mr. Mann has a very concise style that allows the narrative to move along at a good pace without sacrificing a bit of detail. He quickly demonstrates his credibility and mastery of his subject early on. There are points where you have to read a little between the lines to recognize where he is being critical, but I imagine this is because as a participant he understands all too well how decisions that look easy in hindsight are actually much more complicated when confronted with them on the ground.
There are two things I would add to this book. The first is to expand the maps, particularly to show the movements and locations of U.S. forces as they landed and fought their way across the neck of the peninsula. I should note that the author does provide a map of the initial Japanese defensive positions with a level of detail that is remarkable (down to machinegun level). It would be great to see this initial map modified with an overlay of U.S. units at various points later in the book to illustrate how the battle developed. The other thing I would add is to expand on the order of battle at Annex A with generic charts showing the organization of American vs. Japanese infantry formations down to squad level. These could easily be addressed in future editions of the book. For more information on organization and tactics in the Pacific theater, On Infantry and Touched By Fire are good references (Osprey also publishes several small books that are good references). For someone that is unfamiliar with operations in the Pacific, particularly those of the U.S. Army, the middle chapters of Eagle Against the Sun would serve as a good primer. Finally, a reader can get a could sense of how difficult the terrain was for an attacking force using on-line resources such as Google Earth and the West Point military atlas.
This book belongs on the shelf of every infantry leader. Although for the foreseeable future we will be engaged in urban ops against irregular forces, Mann's insights into training, cohesion, battle command, templating of enemy forces, tactics, and the fog of war are universal and timeless.
Average customer rating:
- Ah, Earls.
- Contemporary Comedy of Manners set in Brisbane
- Insipid Street
- meh!
- Americans like this book too
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Zigzag Street
Nick Earls
Manufacturer: Pan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0330355333 |
Customer Reviews:
Ah, Earls........2006-04-03
It appears that readers of this book have fallen into one of two categories, they either gushingly loved it or absolutely despised it. This should not really be a surprise, as Earls dry humor seems to always evoke this sort of response. It is useful to compare Nick Earls' writing to a painting by Picasso--for some it is perfection on a canvas, while for others a picture cannot be discerned from the distortion. The biggest mistake one can make in embarking on Zigzag Street, or indeed any book by Earls, is to expect something in the order of Dickens or Austen...I'm afraid we are working in an entirely different realm of writing.
I found Zigzag Street to be written well, with the distinctive phraseology that is ridiculously contageous, to the point that the reader's thoughts begin to take the shape of the characters. In regard to the plot, the book moves rather slowly. I must make it clear that this is not a criticism. The story is a reflection of realistic human angst, and angst is arguably not an emotion that can be dealt with in a day. The slowness, and in fact insignificance of most events in the story are what makes it humorous and believable. Again, it comes back to the fact that you shouldn't be reading Earls if you need constant action or mystery to keep the pages turning.
The problem I had with this novel was not in it's general form, but rather with the ending. It felt too easy to be credible. After two hundred pages of torment over 'thrashing', all was resolved and a happy ending was reached. For me, Rachel did not live up to expectations. I anticipated a lot more from the woman who actively pursued a man that knocked her unconscious with a shoe in a shopping centre. After idolising her for so long, she became to real and faliable, and undermined the position of the neurotic, now not-so-one-of-a-kind Richard. This, more than anything else disappointed me.
Overall, the book was good. It was a characteristically Earls, but failed to maintain his high standard at the end.
Contemporary Comedy of Manners set in Brisbane.......2005-10-17
Zigzag Street is a contemporary comedy of manners that is set in Brisbane, Australia. It explores the life of the male protagonist twenty-seven year old Richard Derrington. He has recently been dumped by Anna, his girlfriend from his university days. This throws him into a early mid-life crisis as he tries to reestablish his position in the world without her.
It is written in first person present tense as we experience Derrington's life since Anna's departure. As consistent with the conventions of this genre Zigzag Street takes a light and humourous approach to contemporary themes. Derrington somehow struggles through his work and social life using a mixture of alcohol and timtams (chocolate biscuits). His search for a partner to complete his life is reminiscent of works such as Bridget Jone's Diary.
There are some eccentic minor characters who interact with Derrington such as neighbour Kevin, his friend Jeff and boss Hillary. They help to establish Derrington as a decent person who through alcohol and bad fortune seems to end up in some embarrassing and hilarious situations.
Where Zigzag Street differs from other contemporary of manners is the location. Being set in Brisbane means that references to cricket, Timtams and The Triffids will be lost on many readers. However this is a minor problem. It is an engaging, genuinely funny book that would be a great holiday read, or for anyone that needs a laugh.
Insipid Street.......2005-05-19
I read Bachelor Kisses in full and was inspired by the favourable reviews of this novel. What a disappointment. I really did try and read the whole thing but found myself speed reading at about page 150 and finally decided to let it go. My main criticism is that nothing happens. Rick does have an affair and does dance naked in the office but the entire novel is deviod of any drama, insight or adventure. Each 'chapter' runs for 2-5 pages with very minor incidents eg: digging up a tree in the next door neighbors yard, getting drunk at a restaurant, playing tennis with his mates - does that sound very interesting? Its not. I really cant believe the acclaim this book has received. Bachelor Kisses was tolerable but I would be filing this for fans only. I have been reading a lot of Nick Hornby and Ben Elton who find a similar style but are a million miles from our Nick. Its a shame, as an australian, I would like to say this is a good book but frankly it is a very boring drive down insipid street.
meh!.......2003-08-20
this book is really clever. i never thought about brisane this way (the way that it is) and it amazed me that these events are likely and could happen to anyone! i've read the book many times and today i decided to stop reading for a little bit and do something else. i live in red hill, very close to zig zag street and didn't think it was very special. so i'll keep this short and say that i love rick's long, meaningless pursuits...
Americans like this book too.......2003-01-19
I would read this book on the bus to work and everyone would stare at me because I was laughing out loud. It's perfect for any one who appreciates Australians bizarre sense of humor.
Average customer rating:
- Good Book!
- Nice Read
- Zig Zag Straight to Your Heart
- Not Her Usual Style
- Something you can truly ENJOY!
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Zigzag
Ellen Wittlinger
Manufacturer: Simon Pulse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0689849982 |
Book Description
Robin can't believe it when her boyfriend, Chris, tells her that his parents have enrolled him in a summer program in Rome. It's their last summer together before he goes away to college, and now they won't even have that time together. It feels like the worst thing that's ever happened to her.
Since Chris is leaving, Robin agrees to join her aunt and cousins on a cross-country road trip, in spite of her reservations -- she and her younger cousins have never really gotten along, and since their father's death they've become even more problematic than before.
Soon the four of them are zigzagging through the West on an eye-opening journey. They explore parts of the country Robin never dreamed existed -- and she discovers inner resources she never imagined she had.
Customer Reviews:
Good Book!.......2005-10-27
This was an enjoyable book to read. At first I thought why was this book recomended to me? It didnt sound all that iteresting. Wow she's going on a trip across the US what fun.I ussally have trouble staying interested in a book, but I didn't find that a problem while reading this book. I couldn't Beleive Robin had to put up with the spoiled rich kids who just lost their father and seem to make things worse than they really are.The begining is kind of on the boring side, but the middle and the end is very interesting.(If you Are reading and find it boring I woundn't put it down you like the ending) I strongly recomend reading this book.
Nice Read.......2005-04-24
This book was a nice read. There was nothing phenomonal about it,just a relaxing and easy read. The book is full of adventure but not worth buying. I would have checked it out from the library. There are too many slow parts in the book. A lot of dead time and it's very predictable. Nothing jumps out at you that makes you want to read on.
Zig Zag Straight to Your Heart.......2004-11-20
I truly had trouble with the first part of this book because I don't want to read about some girl and her rich boyfriend, but this book is much more than that. As I finished the first thirty pages or so this book turned into something much better than a girl and her rich boyfriend.
This story about getting to know each other is best done in the film, Coup Deville starring Daniel Stern and Patrick Dempsey. Zig Zag easily rivals the aforementioned classic film with a very intriguing story about a girl who is left by her boyfriend to spend her last summer alone. That girl, Robin, decides to go on a trip with her Aunt and cousins whose dad just recently died. The whole family has post-traumatic issues and Robin ends up being like a therapist for her extended family's dysfunction.
Marshall, Iris and Dory all have their own individual issues that Robin helps them deal with and get their mind off of the best she can. The whole adventure is interesting and Ellen Wittlinger should be proud of her achievement. Getting me to read this kind of book and enjoy it takes talent. Wittlinger is very talented.
Great book.
Not Her Usual Style.......2003-11-13
If you were expecting Ellen's usual style you won't get it- but she is one of the only author's I know who could take such a heart warming plot and make it actually good. Great book!
Something you can truly ENJOY!.......2003-09-19
The premise of this book, a trip to get away from it all, is, as has been said, nothing new, but this book is extremely well-crafted in making all of the characters plausible and real - AND INTERESTING. Robin is dreading her boyfriend's first year at college while she is still in high school, when he gets a trip to Italy as a graduation present from his rich parents. Rather than falling apart entirely, Robin takes her mother's and her aunt's suggestion of accompanying her aunt and her cousins on a trip to California.
The best thing about this book is its lack of the melodramatic. All of Robin's relationships seem so real. She makes mistakes; she recovers. She gets mad at her cousin; she learns to sometimes hold her tongue. She doesn't pretend to like everything that comes her way, but she learns to tolerate it and with that, she not only begins to enjoy herself, she becomes able to help both herself and her family.
I have enjoyed other works by this author and this is another good one. The special quality about this one is that it feels GOOD to have read it - almost like you have learned a gentle lesson yourself.
Books:
- They Cage the Animals at Night (Signet)
- To Green Angel Tower, Part 2 (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 3)
- Twilight (Twilight, Book 1)
- Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public
- When the Light Goes: A Novel
- Where Did I Go Right? : You're No One In Hollywood Unless Someone Wants You Dead
- Whirligig
- You're Lucky You're Funny: How Life Becomes a Sitcom
- YOU: The Owner's Manual: An Insider's Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger
- Your Body's Many Cries for Water: You Are Not Sick, You Are Thirsty: Don't Treat Thirst with Medications
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