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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 656 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition ~1st Printing edition (October 24, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1451648537
  • ISBN-13: 978-1451648539
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds 
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,451 customer reviews)
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  • The Best Books of 2011
  • Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2011: It is difficult to read the opening pages of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs without feeling melancholic. Jobs retired at the end of August and died about six weeks later. Now, just weeks after his death, you can open the book that bears his name and read about his youth, his promise, and his relentless press to succeed. But the initial sadness in starting the book is soon replaced by something else, which is the intensity of the read--mirroring the intensity of Jobs’s focus and vision for his products. Few in history have transformed their time like Steve Jobs, and one could argue that he stands with the Fords, Edisons, and Gutenbergs of the world. This is a timely and complete portrait that pulls no punches and gives insight into a man whose contradictions were in many ways his greatest strength. --Chris Schluep
 Steve Jobs


Gripping but amazingly incomplete (October 27, 2011)
By David Dennis

This is a gripping journey into the life of an amazing individual. Despite its girth of nearly 600 pages, the book zips along at a torrid pace.

The interviews with Jobs are fascinating and revealing. We get a real sense for what it must have been like to be Steve, or to work with him. That earns the book five stars despite its flaws, in that it's definitely a must-read if you have any interest at all in the subject.

But there are places in the book where I have to say, "Huh?"

The book is written essentially as a series of stories about Steve. The book continuously held my interest, but some of the dramas of his life seem muted. For instance, he came close to going bust when both Next and Pixar were flailing. There was only the slightest hint that anything dramatic happened in those years. In one paragraph, Pixar is shown as nearly running him out of money. A few brief paragraphs later, Toy Story gets released and Jobs' finances are saved for good.

We hear a lot about Tony Fadell's role in the development of iPhone. Tony led the iPod group and was clearly a major source for the book. You may know from a recent Businessweek article that Tony was basically driven out of the company shortly after the final introduction of iPhone, due to personality conflicts between him and Scott Forestall, the person now in charge of iOS development. But the book doesn't say a word about it. Tony simply disappears from the rest of the book with no explanation, and Forestall is barely mentioned.

Another strange incident was the Jackling house, the house he spent a large part of his life in. A case could be made that the house is historic simply because Steve spent many of his formative years living in it. Preservationists were battling with him to save the house. 
 
Only a couple of months before his death, when he must have known he was not going to actually build a house to replace it, he had the house torn down. I would have loved to learn this story. Why did he buy it? Why did he destroy it through neglect? Why did he acquire such a blind loathing for it that he worked hard to get it torn down?

And why did Jobs keep almost all the Pixar options to himself? He doesn't seem to have needed the money, or even really wanted it that much. He could have cut his friends John Lasseter et al into their own huge fortunes. Lasseter only got about $25 million from Pixar, which seems like a shockingly low amount in view of his contributions. 
 
Now, it's not like they will starve or anything, and I think John can buy pretty much anything he wants, but it still seems surprising Jobs is so ungenerous.

There were a lot of things like this, incidents casually tossed away in a brief paragraph that should have merited an entire chapter.

I think this will always be the best account of the emotional aspects of Steve's life, which are fully covered. The chapters about his illness moved me to tears. But as an account of what really happened at Apple and how Steve fixed the company, it's insufficient. I guess that will have to await more distance from the subject.

Of course what's truly remarkable about Jobs is that he lived a life so full of incident that perhaps no biography has the space to cover the broad sweep of his life. He accomplished as much as 10 ordinarily famous men. Maybe the upshot is that you just can't fit a man like this in a book, even if that book's nearly 600 pages. 
 

Sunday, June 3, 2012

The Amateur

 The Amateur

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Think you know the real Barack Obama? You don’t—not until you’ve read The Amateur

In this stunning exposé, bestselling author Edward Klein—a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, former foreign editor of Newsweek, and former editor-in-chief of the New York Times Magazine—pulls back the curtain on one of the most secretive White Houses in history. He reveals a callow, thin-skinned, arrogant president with messianic dreams of grandeur supported by a cast of true-believers, all of them united by leftist politics and an amateurish understanding of executive leadership.

In The Amateur you’ll discover:
  • Why the so-called “centrist” Obama is actually in revolt against the values of the society he was elected to lead
  • Why Bill Clinton loathes Barack Obama and tried to get Hillary to run against him in 2012
  • The spiteful rivalry between Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey
  • How Obama split the Kennedy family
  • How Obama has taken more of a personal role in making foreign policy than any president since Richard Nixon—with disastrous results
  • How Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett are the real powers behind the White House throne

The Amateur is a reporter’s book, buttressed by nearly 200 interviews, many of them with the insiders who know Obama best. The result is the most important political book of the year. You will never look at Barack Obama the same way again.

From the Back Cover

Praise for The Amateur

The Amateur is the best book I’ve read on how Barack Obama is wrecking our country. I urge everyone who cares about America to read Edward Klein’s eye-opening book.”
Donald J. Trump, world-famous businessman, owner and host of the hit NBC TV shows The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice, and bestselling author of many titles, including Time to Get Tough: Making America #1 Again

“This is a racy, entertaining, informative book that illuminates aspects of Obama and his team that have not been previously reported. A necessary antidote to the Obama worship that is sure to characterize the election debate.”
Dinesh D’Souza, president of The King’s College and bestselling author of The Roots of Obama’s Rage

“All the horrors I predicted in Welcome to Obamaland have now been definitively proven true by Edward Klein’s rip-roaringly readable new book The Amateur, which uses great stories and great reporting to illustrate just how ideological, arrogant, and hapless Obama and his administration really are. An outstanding demolition job on the most overrated president of our time.”
James Delingpole, columnist for the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator and author of Welcome to Obamaland

“A devastating indictment of the lethal combination of incompetence and radicalism that has made Obama into one of the worst presidents in American history.”

Norman Podhoretz, former editor of Commentary magazine and author of many books, including most recently, Why Are Jews Liberals?
 
About the Author

Edward Klein is a New York Times bestselling author of numerous books, including, All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy; The Kennedy Curse; and The Truth About Hillary. He is the former foreign editor of Newsweek, former editor-in-chief of the New York Times Magazine, and a contributing editor of Vanity Fair. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

A Can't Put Down Book that Will Withstand the Obama Attack Machine - May 21, 2012
 
By Kris Zane
 
I bought Edward Klein's The Amateur the day it came out; the day Klein revealed on Sean Hannity's radio show that he had audio tapes of the pastor that Obama threw under the bus, Jeremiah Wright, stating that in 2008 Obama crony Eric Whitaker had offered him $150K to keep his mouth shut until after the election. Contrary to the naysayers of Klein's previous exposé on Hillary Clinton, critics' ad hominem attacks on Klein regarding The Amateur this time are ringing false, as the Top Ten slot on Amazon's best seller list shows. 
 
Klein names names, interviewing over two hundred people for the book, including Obama's two-decades-long former doctor, who makes the claim that Obama is basically a hollow shell, with no real emotion, and no connection to people. 
 
Klein "has the goods," so to speak: in regard to the Eric Whitaker bribery, it is not merely a hidden microphone that caught Wright stating this. It is within an open, 3 1/2 hour interview, where Wright not only states he was bribed, but has the email to prove it. Wright makes other statements, such as Obama's Muslim background, his fickle belief in Christianity, and his two-decades-long allegiance to Trinity United Church of Christ for purely political reasons.

I downloaded the book to my Kindle within hours of its release, and read it over a day and a half period, only pausing to sleep. Probably the two most enjoyable-to-read revelations are that 1. Bill Clinton urged Hillary to challenge Obama in 2012. 2. The Kennedy clan despise Obama, despite deceased Ted Kennedy's tireless support of the Community Organizer-in-Chief.

An anecdote is described where Bill and Hillary Clinton are having an argument that took place over several days (a screaming match actually, with a dozen people present); that, because Obama had basically destroyed the economy, caused the downgrade of the U.S.'s credit rating for the first time in history, etc., etc.; that Obama was, according to Bill Clinton, an "Amateur" (this is the source of the title of the book); that Hillary needed to challenge Obama in 2012 in order to save the country from sliding off the cliff.

The Kennedy clan anecdote is jaw-dropping. All of the Kennedy clan (save Robert Kennedy, Jr.) had stood behind Obama in 2008. But after Obama's coronation and repeated miffs by the First Family: 
 
1. The Obamas ignored an invitation to the Kennedy Compound while vacation at Martha's Vineyard. 
 
2. Michelle Obama treated Caroline Kennedy (daughter of JFK) like hired help while at the White House, shaking her hand coldly, taking a quick photo, and making a quick exit--after these and other miffs the Kennedy royalty at a pow wow had had enough (at one point Robert Kennedy, Jr. shattered a glass in his hand) and got the message from the Obamas loud and clear: rich people are evil, and wanted no more to do with the former community organizers.

Contrary to Obama's 'Attack Watch' claim of the book being totally discredited (whereby they don't actually reference anything in the book, but simply go on an ad hominem attack), the book is meticulously researched and at the same time highly readable. 
 
It is at the time of this writing #9 on Amazon's bestseller list, and hopefully it will reach #1, whereby at that point the majority of Americans will have read about the current "Amateur" in office being completely unqualified for the job; and realize that when a person is unqualified for a job, are incompetent, that the only remedy is either resignation or being fired.

I vote for being fired. 
 

Fifty Shades Darker: Book Two of the Fifty Shades Trilogy

 Fifty Shades Darker: Book Two of the Fifty Shades Trilogy

Editorial Reviews

Review
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING FIFTY SHADES Trilogy

"In a class by itself." 
Entertainment Weekly
 
Review
THE "NEW YORK TIMES" BESTSELLING FIFTY SHADES Trilogy

"In a class by itself."
--"Entertainment Weekly"

About the Author
E L James is a former TV executive, wife and mother of two based in West London. Since early childhood she dreamed of writing stories that readers would fall in love with but put those dreams on hold to focus on her family and career. She finally plucked up the courage to put pen to paper with her first novel Fifty Shades of Grey.

Customer Reviews


272 of 283 people found the following review helpful.
4It's awful, but oh so addicting
By cupcake

After surviving 50 Shades of Grey, and after taking a break for a few days from Ana and Christian's tortured romance, I girded my loins and cracked open the second book of the trilogy, 50 Shades Darker.

For those of you intrigued by the words "butt plug" or "fisting," half of you will enjoy your lucky day, because one of those is kinda sorta featured in this book. As it is, the only fisting we ever see - ever come close to seeing - is that of Ana's or Christian's hands in the others' hair. And that happens a lot. Not as often as Ana or Christian gasping, or Christian setting his lips in a hard line, or Ana biting her lip, or Ana coming undone, or Christian frowning. In fact, Christian's frowning is such a "thing" that, when Ana frowns, another character observes that she's turning into Christian.

It's just ... WHERE THE HELL WAS THE EDITOR?

But I digress.

To dig too deeply into the spectacle that is 50 Shades of Grey is to approach Sisyphean frustration. Trust me, because I know of what I speak. I spent an inordinate amount of time wondering how it was that Christian Grey was 27 and a billionaire as I read the first book. I don't think we are meant to really ponder this stuff. I think we're supposed to strap on our dildos and have at it, as it were.

Okay, so. When we last left Christian and Ana, she had walked out on him, horrified at the depravity entailed in his life of BDSM. (Go ahead and Google THAT, people. I had to, so you might as well.) As with its muse, Twilight, we see our heroine descend into despair, but unlike Bella's months on end, Ana really only suffers for five days. Christian gets in touch with her, and it's game on, kids. Christian is prepared to let go of his need for dominance in his playroom, because all he really wants - all he really needs - is Ana. She has admitted that she loves him, but it takes Christian a little longer.

Now, before you start thinking that this is the end of the Red Room of Pain, let me tell you that it is not. Don't worry - Christian keeps the room, and Ana remains inexplicably drawn to it. So those butt plugs come in handy (no pun intended), although - SPOILER - Christian does point out that for the anally virgin, a finger is a better start. So Ana has something to look forward to, so to speak.

Back to the plot, such as it is. It turns out that one of Christian's former subs remains fixated on him, so she enters the story to muck up Christian and Ana's relationship. Also causing trouble is Ana's boss at the publishing house. He wants her, which pisses off Christian, who reacts as only Christian can. Meanwhile, Christian and Ana's romance progresses in fits and starts. She loves him, he really cares about her, can he say the "L" word, can they get past his need for control, why does he love her, why does she love him, can he overcome his tortured childhood, blah blah blah.

What you really want to know about are the sex scenes, right? RIGHT? I'm pretty sure you butt plug searching people aren't concerned about the dialogue.

In this book, they rock the headboard in an elevator, on a boat, in Christian's childhood room, in the shower (again - evidently they enjoy that spot), Ana's apartment bedroom, Christian's apartment bedroom, and - YESS! - the Red Room of Pain. Oh, and on top of a piano and a pool table. There may be more. Did the desk happen in this book, or the previous one? I think they wind up on Christian's desk in this one, too.

During one of the many times Ana challenges Christian, they are in the library, competing in a billiards game.

"You know, Anastasia, I could stand here and watch you leaning and stretching across this billiard table all day," he says appreciatively.

I flush. [SHE FLUSHES A LOT. That's another thing that is repetitive, and so again, I ask, WHERE THE HELL IS THE EDITOR? Oh - those are "shouty caps," according to Ana. Back to the program.] Thank heavens I am wearing my jeans. He smirks. [HE SMIRKS A LOT. So does she. Sometimes they smirk, bite lips and eye roll, all at the same time.] He's trying to put me off my game, the bastard. He pulls his cream sweater over his head, tosses it onto the back of a chair, and grins at me, as he saunters over to take his first shot.

He bends low over the table. My mouth goes dry. Oh, I see what he means. Christian in tight jeans and white T-shirt, bending, like that ... is something to behold. I quite lose my train of thought. He sinks four solids rapidly, then fouls by sinking the white.

Foreplay, Christian styles.

And now, for the butt plug seekers:

"What's this?" I hold up the silver bullet thing.

"Always hungry for information, Miss Steele. That's a butt plug," he says gently.

"Oh ..."

"Bought for you."

What? For me?

He nods slowly, his face now serious and wary.

I frown. [AGAIN - she always frowns. Or he frowns. They frown a LOT.] "You buy new, er ... toys ... for each submissive?"

"Some things. Yes."

"Butt plugs?"

"Yes."

So there you go. They come up again, so buy a copy and knock yourself out.

Is 50 Shades Darker good? Hell to the no, it is not good. But is it entertaining? Yes. Is it hot? Yes. Is it worth reading? Yes. If you can get past all of the awful writing, it's very enjoyable. I admit that I read it cover to cover, and I look forward to 50 Shades Freed. Do not, however, mistake an enjoyable read for something well written, because this is NOT well written. It's like literary crack. You know it's bad for you, and you feel dirty and low for enjoying it, but you can't stop.

I gave this 4 stars. Don't judge me.
[...]

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Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy

Editorial Reviews

Review
A Good Reads Choice Awards Finalist for Best Romance

"In a class by itself." 
Entertainment Weekly
Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy
Review
A GoodReads Choice Awards Finalist for Best Romance

"In a class by itself." 
Entertainment Weekly
About the Author
E L James is a former television executive, wife and mother of two based in West London. Since early childhood she dreamed of writing stories that readers would fall in love with, but put those dreams on hold to focus on her family and her career. She finally plucked up the courage to put pen to paper with her first novel, Fifty Shades of Grey.

Review
Did a teenager write this???
By meymoon

I really don't like writing bad reviews. I admire people who have the courage to put pen to paper and expose themselves to the whole world, especially those writing erotica. Having just finished this book, however, I feel compelled to write a review.

About half way through the book, I looked up the author to see if she was a teenager. I really did because the characters are out of a 16 year old's fantasy. The main male character is a billionaire (not a millionaire but a billionaire) who speaks fluent French, is basically a concert level pianist, is a fully trained pilot, is athletic, drop dead gorgeous, tall, built perfectly with an enormous penis, and the best lover on the planet. In addition, he's not only self made but is using his money to combat world hunger.

Oh yeah, and all of this at the ripe old age of 26! And on top of that, he's never working. Every second is spent having sex or texting and emailing the female character. His billions seem to have just come about by magic. It seriously feels like 2 teenage girls got together and decided to create their "dream man" and came up with Christian Grey.

Then come the sex scenes. The first one is tolerable but as she goes on, they become so unbelievable that it becomes more laughable than erotic. She orgasms at the drop of a hat. He says her name and she orgasms. He simply touches her and she orgasms. It seems that she's climaxing on every page.

Then there's the writing. If you take out the parts where the female character is blushing or chewing her lips, the book will be down to about 50 pages. Almost on every single page, there is a whole section devoted to her blushing, chewing her lips or wondering "Jeez" about something or another.

Then there's the use of "shades of". He's "fifty shades of @#$%% up," "she turned 7 shades of crimson," "he's ten shades of x,y, and z." Seriously?

The writing is just not up to par, the characters are unbelievable, and the sex verges on the comical. I don't know what happens in the remaining books and I do not intend to read them to find out. But given the maturity level of the first book, I imagine that they get married, have 2 perfect children, cure world hunger, and live happily ever after while riding into the sunset, as the female character climaxes on her horse causing her to chew her bottom lip and blush fifty shades of crimson. Jeez!

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