As a former Marine Sniper who served two tours in Nam and who is still trying to understand what I went through this is an okay read. Not as good as some and a bit over blown at times but worth understanding the other side. It does make you want to better understand the other side of our current crisis in terrorism and see what makes them tick. Our leaders in Nam were a little lazy and self serving when it came to history. That is the leaders in Washington. Makes you wonder what might have been?

As a North Vietnamese colonel and high ranking Party member, the author accepted the surrender of Saigon on April 1975. He continued to work for Hanoi until 1990, when disillusioned with the communists he moved to Paris and hoped to see a free and democratic Vietnam.

In his memoir, he talked about communism being elevated to the rank of a "blind faith", the purges within the Party, the errors, greed, and corruption of communist leaders, the "arrogance of the Party" and so on.

This book is recommended to those who are interested in the inner world of the Vietnamese communist Party and the causes of its failure. It is not the ideal world painted by the communists, not the people's rule but the rule of five or six men who imposed their dictatorship on the people.

The rarest of gifts -- a credible account from a Vietnamese communist cadre! Bui Tin has done a great service to all of his countrymen, regardless political faction or religion. His assessments of legendary Vietnamese cadres, including Ho Chi Minh, Le Duan and Le Duc Anh are stunningly frank. Those interested in Vietnam or Cambodia should place this title on the top of their reading lists. There is simply no other work of its kind, although we can always hope that another courageous figure will follow in the author's footsteps.

Are you already extremely knowledgeable about the French Revolution, with a detailed memory of all events and individuals involved? Are you uninterested in what has been said about the French Revolution in this century or the last? Did you find other 19th century accounts of the Revolution (e.g. those by Guizot, Michelet, Tocqueville, Mill) too easy to follow? Do you prefer a pretentious, self-important, and overly ornate literary style that calls attention to its own artfulness to one that is simple and direct? Do you like pretentious authors who assume that you're more interested in seeing them display their verbal wit than in learning anything about the subject they're purportedly writing about? Well then, Thomas Carlyle's history of the French Revolution may be the book for you!

I am, of course, being somewhat tongue-in-cheek here... Thomas Carlyle was one of Victorian Britain's great writers. He's an important historical figure and his prose style is unique, distinctive, and is in many ways, quite beautiful and poetic. Yet, the fact remains that those who are not already familiar with Carlyle should be wary-- very, very wary-- of picking this book up.

There are several reasons for this. First, the fact of the matter is that Carlyle's 'history' is not history as we might think of itThere is little/nothing in the way of exposition or explanation in the sense of laying out 'what happened' or 'who was involved'. Rather, this book is written from the premise that the readers are already familiar with all the facts and details of the Revolution and are more interested in reading an artful, witty, and clever 'retelling' of it. Individuals and events are alluded to vaguely, metaphorically, with the expectation that the reader knows all of this already like the back of his/her hand. When you read something like, "With Rumor unleashed, She flies from De Berry! That Scarlet Woman!", you're expected to already know who's being talked about and to know pretty much everything there is to know what it is that's being alluded to... Carlyle, you see, doesn't explain, or introduce, or contextualize... and you don't read Carlyle for explanation or introduction or contextualization. Rather, you're supposed to already be informed-- and then to read him for the sheer pleasure of his witty wordplay and to nod appreciatively at it. But if you're not already familiar with the persons and events of the Revolution-- you'll quickly find yourself unable to understand anything and will just be lost.

Nor can one consider Carlyle's _The French Revolution_ to be a scholarly study. The man *was* extremely learned of course-- he knew his stuff. But he's not really advancing an argument or thesis about the Revolution or why it happened... the sorts of things academic scholars dispute. He does wax abstractly on occasion, but not to make general claims about the Revolution (or even history in general), but rather to make vague interjections on obscure metaphysical matters (largely derived from German idealist philosophy... and again, these are unexplained... you're expected to already be familiar with thus stuff).

Finally, there the matter of Carlyle's style. As noted above, it's highly poetic and possesses a kind of ornate (if pretentious) beauty that can be appreciated in small doses. Yet, the fact remains that his peculiar mannerisms (including unnecessary capitalization, archaic and pompous turns of phrase, incomplete sentences followed by exclamation points, the constant use of the present tense even though he's writing about the past, apostrophic asides, etc.) become extremely annoying to read after more than a few pages. At best, it's an acquired taste... and personally, I'm not sure that there are many folks around today who will find the effort spent in acquiring the taste to be worthwhile.

In sum.... don't get this book hoping to learn anything about the French Revolution. Only get this book if you want to read Carlyle for the sake of reading Carlyle. Put otherwise, don't get this if you want to read a work of history about the French Revolution-- you'll be wholly disappointed. The only reason to get it, in fact, is for its value as an example of Carlyle's unique and self-indulgent literary style.

Thomas Carlyle's unique poetic style of prose may be tough to take early on, but after a few pages, it does grow on you. It's all overly dramatic and sensational, but what subject could be more so than the French Revolution itself? Carlyle paints a grim description of the complete and utter chaos of the times, particulary the Great Terror of mid-1794. He does, however, remain somewhat non-judgemental regarding the Revolution's key figures, and lets the readers sort out for themselves who the real culprits are. He may over-simplify the obvious at certain junctures in the book, but his style is riveting and as this shocking and dismal tale of woe continues, the reader is further drawn into a daze and trance similar to the Terror's unfortunate victims.
Some have suggested that it's better to read a "normal" history of the French Revolution before one undertakes this famous volume. I disagree. This is as good a place to start as any concerning that most volatile of times. Simply put, Carlyle's "French Revolution" is both informative and exciting, and it has held up well since it was first published in 1837.

The authors of the previous review were too harsh on the text - it isn't a mere display of literary muscle turned lightly to the French Revolution, it's an interesting take on the subject from a penetrating mind.

The other reviews saying "Don't read this if you don't know everything about the revolution" seem a little bit silly to me having read it - if you know nothing about French history and the revolution, ok, you might have some difficulties. But if you have even a rough view of the revolution (from a textbook chapter, short article, almost anything) you won't be lost. Once or twice one might be forced to read back or do a tiny bit of side-reading to get a colourful 19th century reference, but it isn't nearly as oblique as the first reviewer made out.

The style is not difficult to read, considering the date, and the narration is often captivating or amusing. The individual, literary portraiture of historical figures is unique and valuable to me in building a kind of familiarity with events, however cautiously. And the claim that it isn't "historically" written by modern standards - perhaps the reviewer was too busy composing clever jabs to note the date of writing? If you want Francois Furet, read Francois Furet, but Thomas Carlyle unfortunately didn't have the benefit of 20th century developments in historical methods.

In the fifth of Linda Barnes' very enjoyable Carlotta Carlyle series, the main character comes into her own as a PI. Although she still has a wry sense of humor, a self-deprecating streak, and daily contact with a cast of outrageous characters, this story is a serious one.

Carlotta is approached by a distraught woman, Emily, who is accompanied on the visit by her young and handsome psychiatrist. It seems that Emily's young daughter, who was being treated for a curable form of leukemia, suddenly took a violent turn for the worse and died. Emily is certain that it was due to gross negligence on the part of the hospital, one of the most prestigious in Boston. Her psychiatrist does not agree, but wishes to soothe his patient by letting her hire Anna.

Anna finds the case daunting and more than a little confusing, especially when her first forays into information-gathering result in the death or disappearance of several key players, including Emily herself. Is Anna in over her head? What exactly DID happen to Emily's 6-year-old daughter? Is there a conspiracy of silence at the hospital, and if so, which of the pompous, well-known doctors is taking part? As Anna digs deeper, she finds herself involved in a dangerous web of intrigue that threatens not only the patients in the hospital, but her own life as well.

Although this story has much more meat than the previous books in the series, it is not without its own special brand of humor and quirky characters. Carlotta's insanely nutty roommate, Roz, is her usual outrageous self, as is Diane, the impossibly huge proprietess of the Green and White cab company. Carlotta is still involved with Sam, the offspring of a well-known mobster, and no-nonsense cop Mooney, her friend, mentor, and would-be lover, still disapproves. There are also some plot-thickening incidents with Carlotta's beloved "little sister" Paolina, and her immoveable mother Marta, who has become very ill.

All in all, this book promises a new twist in the series, and bodes well for the future of Carlotta's career as an offbeat, but successful, private eye.

If you're a fan of Linda Barnes and her Carlotta Carlyle protagonist you will enjoy Snapshot the fifth installment in this series. I listened to the audio of this book and have to admit that reading would have been much better. I feel the audio is to easy to get distracted from. However, I love C. J. Critt and feel she does a wonderful job. Snapshot takes you into the world of hospitals and medicine and secrets they may hold. Carlotta is taken into this world by her customer who later cannot be found. Snapshot has many twist and turns (which I enjoy in a novel). Several people who could be the bad guy, and our old favorites Mooney, Gloria and Sam make appearances. Although they are not involved as much as in the previous novels. Snapshot will not let you down if you are looking for a good whodunit with a great protagonist.

The book is well done and put together. The only issues I noted are that the author does not give photogrpahic credit to several contributors. Least of which is Carlyle Luer. The author has used several copied photos right from Dr. Luers "Native Orchids of Florida" without permission or proper credit.

Some of the taxonomic changes and listing are not as accurate as they could be, but the overall work is complete and covers all known species to occur in Florida. One helpful note, future books should follow the Luer style for various stories and all photos should have dates taken and county listings.

I had been hoping for a Florida orchid book for a long time to help me understand and identify native orchids. This book goes beyond my expectations. It is wonderfully thorough, with each species covered on two full pages. One page describes the distribution, identifying characteristics, habitat, flowering period, and has a Florida range map and plant illustration. The facing page has several photographs of the plant, showing growing habit, flower close-up, and different color forms. I particularly appreciate the range maps identifying all the Florida counties where the plant has been found. I was able to easily go through the book and make a list of all the species found in my area. The photos are very good and the variety of scales really helps. Reading this guide, it seems like there are orchids all around just waiting for the trained eye to notice them. A must have for your field guide collection.

"Don't Tell Mrs. Harris" is the third book in the Mercy Hospital series. In it, three young high school freshmen (Bernadette "Bernie" O'Connor, Shelley Jansen, and Nichole Peters) share their problems at work and at home. To begin with, Nichole wants to play matchmaker for Shelley's recently divorced father. Shelley isn't too thrilled about Nichole's approach, but she helps out anyway, hoping she might have better luck with a stepmother than she did with her absent, alcoholic mother.

In the meantime, while working as Junior Volunteers at Mercy Hospital, the three girls learn to cope with depressed cancer patients (like Mrs. Olivia Harris, Bernie's new friend), picky world-class chefs (Thomas Forsythe, Shelley's idol), as well overcoming stage fright (Nichole's dilemma) when invited to star in a friend's recruitment video ("Meet Mercy") designed for future volunteers at the hospital. And to assist in the project is Franco Torelli, a famous director.

The one complaint I do have about this book is the title--"Don't Tell Mrs. Harris". I'm not sure why it concentrated on the situation with Mrs. Harris when the problem barely took up 20 of the 135 pages. Younger readers probably won't mind this as much though.

This book/series will most likely appeal to 8 to 12-year-old girls who enjoy stories about hospitals and social situations. Other books in this series: "Crisis!" (#1), "The Best Medicine" (#2), and "Dr. Cute" (#4). Also recommended: Cherie Bennett's Hope Hospital series.

This is it, it is very illustrous book with a lot of detais, facts, names, relations and so on. Highly recommended to anyone who likes Scandinavia, Norway, Sweden, Vikings and middle ages.

This book is a great guide for people who are going to make a trip to Utah to do family research. The perfect Tool for genealogoligists.

Thank God, they're all humans. I love humans. These are Christians that I can relate to - imperfect. A great read.

There is no more comprehensive study in English of the life of Frederick II of Prussia. Carlyle spent over 15 years researching and writing this work during the mid-19th Century, and it pays off for the reader in the form of an absolute bonanza of details about arguably the most influential European prince of the 18th Century.

The strength of the work lies in the fact that no detail is too small to be excluded. Whether it is the three pages Carlyle devotes to Frederick's initiation into the Freemasons or the volumes devoted to his conduct during the Seven Year's War, if Carlyle doesn't describe it, one is left with the feeling that it probably didn't happen. Carlyle doesn't even let you at the subject of the work for the first 250 pages or so while he sets the stage for Frederick's life.

The biggest weaknesses of the work are the labored, Dickensian prose, and its length. This is not a piece that many readers will get through in a matter of weeks-- this reader needed two years to make it through a casual reading. Frederick fans may like the favorable treatment of the subject in general, but some of the praise heaped on Frederick does seem a bit much at times. Carlyle also tends to see issues in black and white, and seems hard pressed to refrain from ridiculing some of Frederick's contemporaries.

Overall, this book is an invaluable resource to those interested in Frederick II, and practically eliminates the need for the armchair historian who wishes to know more about the man and his times to brush up on his or her French and German.

John Sterling (1806-44) led a short, but fascinating life in early 19th century Britain. John's father was a well-known editorialist for the Times, and he himself became a member of the Apostles at Cambridge during a time of great intellectual and religious ferment. He became a radical in the cause of freedom, while he later became an Anglican curate and then an author. Plagued by ill health, he traveled around the world of his era: to the Caribbean, Madeira, France, and Italy. And, along life's paths, he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Thomas Carlyle and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Overall, he was a man of varied abilities, and varied pursuits.

This book is quite interesting. Carlyle not only paints the portrait of a man in this book, he also paints the portrait of an era. If you are interested in that era, or perhaps in Coleridge, then I highly recommend this book to you. It is relatively short, and yet quite interesting.