Incredible achievement
938029
Back in the '70's and early '80's, I eagerly awaited each issue of Mountain Magazine.  It was my link to the climbing world.  Time after time, a small paragraph or two would appear about another 8,000 meter peak that Messner had summited - all without bottled oxygen, all in exemplary style.  The editor of Mountain was no fan of Messners, so the write-ups were overly brief.  Still, I knew I was witnessing the work of a master.
This book compiles Reinhold's views on his biggest alpine climbs and still, we are sandbagged.  What this man and his partners achieved is difficult to fathom two decades later because his impact has been absorbed into the whole.  Before Messner, oxygenless attempts on the big mountains had fallen out of style but now, few world class mountaineers would dare consider it's use.  Before Messner, huge seige expeditions were the norm but today, many emulate Reinhold's gutty, stripped down approach and the environment has benefitted.  Reinhold is the man !
1141718
I've been a fan of Mansons music for ages; but this is by far the most incredible album of his released to date.  Ben Gurecki made this possible and I praise him for it!  If you don't purchase this, you are absolutely missing out.  In fact, I purchased 2 copies, and will actually be getting one more.  It's a true piece of history; and I was absolutely moved by it.  You'd be silly to pass this up.
4021001
I find it curious that most of the bad reviews of this elaborate and well constructed history complain about nothing but the narration!  It is tragic that those who choose to get upset about this minor issue would rather condemn the work rather than accept the genius behind the organization of this epic work.  Yes, it ignores some truly great work by remarkable film makers, but then, it encapsulates a century and a quarter of remarkable history in fifteen hours, which is an amazing feat unto itself.  Although the organization claims to be chronological, it is much more remarkable in that it shows parallels of style and approach in a way that I have never encountered before.  It is truly an amazing testament to the magnificence of the history of world cinema as told from a unique perspective and anyone who cares about the art of cinema will almost certainly be introduced to some new treasures to enjoy.
4783698
It's a rare thing of beauty to come upon a book that holds you and transports you on a delightful and emotional roller-coaster of a journey.
This book does all of that - and more. I'm an avid sailor, so that enhances the yarn for me. But it's much more than the story of building a wooden sailboat downeast in Blue Hill, Maine. It is the story of three generations who have made it through World War I and II. It's rich in detail and humanity. This stands close to being a truly outstanding achievement.
2619782
An amazing story of triumph in the face of unbelievable hardship and neglect. While I found parts of the book tedious in the sheer volume of details about all the training and races leading up to the Olympic games in Berlin, it was well worth my perseverance, and once I was halfway through I could hardly put it down. I loved how philosophy and history were woven into the story; how the sharing of so much of their personal history bonded these young men for life. I recommend the book to anyone who is interested in reading about the making of top-notch athletes, in the healing of emotional deficits and the growth of positive relationships, and for enlightening details surrounding World War II.
1879252
Im not kidding. The audio book accompanying this novel is astoundingly incredible. There are a dozen actors and actresses who lend their performances, and it adds an amazing depth to the story. I will ordinarily switch between book and audio regularly. I mostly listen while I drive or exercise, and I read while in bed or bored somewhere. In this case I specifically forestalled reading the book, because the audio performance was so exceptional that I didn't want to miss it by reading.

I can not recommend this book enough. Truly exceptional.
1695986
It's all been said before, and it's all justified - this is an amazing accomplishment and a thoroughly enjoyable read. Some readers find the jumping back and forth between styles and stories distracting and show off - y, but once you get used to it it works very well, a coherent kaleidoscope of impressions, images and story lines that constitute a grand literary feast.
I absolutely loved it and am curious to see if and how the film works.

Please keep them coming Mr Mitchell - you're restoring this reader's faith in contemporary literature.
2592087
What an amazing accomplishment: a rich, densely-plotted film with topical subject matter, gorgeous cinematography, propulsive editing and fine performances all around. Moreover, a film that rewards the attention of its viewers with fine details that pay off with subtlety-- not by hammering the less attentive over the head. The director trusts the careful attention of the committed movie goer rather than lower the bar for the home video viewer juggling home tasks while paying only slight attention to the television.

The payoff is a story that begins as a sketch in the vaguest of terms and comes to life over the course of its running time. It can't have been an easy task for the actors to deliver the dawning awarenesses at so many levels but as I've already said these performances are simply as good as one finds in today's features.

Rarely does a feature film satisfy with the resounding force that a novel can deliver, but this one delivers the goods. Based on the universally positive reviews and awards I was expecting a good time at the movies but my expectations were exceeded. I suspect this is one of those films that will stay with me for a while. Truly a masterful achievement, and hopefully one that will inspire other filmmakers to continue to raise the bar rather than lower it for our ADD society.
3759978
What an extraordinary achievement. So authentic and passionate that I physically reacted to some of the worst scenes. Well worked out emotional interactions are skillfully driven by a straight ahead journalistic style that carries through years of each of the four characters' lives. But the brutal life of Jude St. Francis sits at the heart of this epic work, Jude the beautiful orphan, the boy thrown into a monastery with abusive perverted brothers, the boy who trusts one kind brother who ruins his entire life. This portrayal of child abuse and pedophilia is utterly devastating and yet, the grace of friendships and blessing of love mitigate the pain. Yes, Jude's endless denials about his condition and his endless lies become frustratingly tedious. Yes, there could have been some editing here. But this book is unique and its finely wrought emotions far exceed its faults. If you are a homophobic, can't stand blood, hate violence, and have little tolerance for pain, stay far far away. But if you embrace life with its triumphs and tragedies, loves and evils, randomness and art, don't miss this book.
4752622
What an amazing accomplishment for such a young trio. Glad to see that their careers have steadily moved forward. I hope they gift us with their work for a long time.
985681
Margalit Fox presents the remarkable story of the decipherment of the Linear B script found at Knossos in Crete. I visited Knossos in my teens, and have always been intrigued with the tale. Like most people, I knew that Sir Arthur Evans ("The Digger") excavated the site and discovered the clay tablets containing Linear A and Linear B scripts and, of course, I knew about Michael Ventris ("The Architect"), who completed the decipherment. However, I didn't know about the incredible achievements of Dr. Alice Kober ("The Detective"), the classics scholar and professor upon whose work Ventris built his decipherment.

The shocking truth is that Kober has been largely forgotten and the value of her work has been downplayed. There are several reasons for this. The first is that she was a woman in an era that was extremely hard on female academics. The second is that she died of cancer in 1950 at the age of 43 and dead women have an even harder time standing up for themselves than living women. Ventris, an amateur, completed the decipherment in 1952 and died under somewhat mysterious circumstances in 1956.

Margalit Fox builds her story upon previous works, but acknowledges their contributions, which is especially fitting and appropriate given her goal of having Kober's contributions acknowledged as the foundation of Ventris's successful decipherment. Of the three sections of the book - The Digger, The Detective, and The Architect - the section dealing with Kober, the detective, is the largest. After all, Fox is attempting to make up for the dearth of information about Kober and minimal recognition for her achievements over the last 60 years. I am happy to note that Fox does not put down Ventris or his brilliant achievement; rather, she just wants Kober to have her due.

Fox also attempts to show that Kober would almost certainly been able to decipher the tablets had she lived, that she had that spark to be able to make the final intuitive leap to unlock the secret of Linear B.

Fox, herself a scholar of linguistics, is able to convey the methodology behind the decipherment. The book is worth reading for that alone.

This book is an enjoyable and fascinating read and I highly recommend it.
3629287
"After Now" is a remarkable achievement. Because Stilger was already committed to Japan, having spent countless time there over many years and because he truly cares, he became a rare and ideal person to understand deeply what it was like for a swath of society to undergo such extraordinary trauma, to sit with many who had undergone enormous suffering and grief, and to meet those bodhisattvas, like himself, who were committed to healing and finding new ways forward.

"After Now" is both a text book and a source book for a new generation of community healers. Stilger's work transcends and includes old models, bringing forth what have we learned and are learning in these last decades about living with natural disasters, social change, and useful interventions. As the number and strength of these occurrences increase, we now have a bible for those asking themselves, How can I most effectively help?

Kudos to Stilger for being a compassionate and fearless reporter about natural tragedies not only in Japan, but also around the world. This book is a labor of love and service. For the reader it is a rare multi-dimensional journey into the best of our humanity.
460859
What an extraordinary accomplishment this book represents.  The author weaves the quest to define, understand and treat cancer in its infinite guises with the serendipity, doggedness, imagination, frustrations, and human failings and triumphs of doctors, researches and patients.  In the end, perhaps the most vivid portrait to emerge from this "biography" [the author's title) is that the face of cancer cannot be rendered clearly.  Its manifestations are myriad and its cure elusive.  There is no magic bullet for a moving target.
4900953
There has been much heated debate to which album deserves to be labeled as the best album done by The Beatles. It is a very difficult decision, as much of The Beatles' catalog is spectacular. But in terms of musicianship, spirit, artistry, and polished finesse, "Abbey Road" towers above all the others.
The most magical aspect of "Abbey Road" is the fact that each member of the band contributed their greatest efforts to the final album. There is not a single weak track here, and the album flows with artistic cohesiveness that is more fluid, focused, and tangible than "Sgt. Pepper". Why people choose that album over "Abbey Road" is beyond me.
While some of the other Beatles albums may have throwaways or fillers, "Abbey Road" sounds complete. Song after song, it's one gigantic sing-along. Every track is melodic, and the variety of the music is spellbinding. You can tell all the Beatle members put their hearts and souls into making this product. And as the final musical statement, "Abbey Road" closes with a medley that finds The Beatles journeying through a series of one/two minute melodies until it culminates in the explosion of the "The End" track. The effect is unmatched in all of rock.
From "Please Please Me" all the way to "Abbey Road" was one long illustrious adventure, and The Beatles topped it off majestically.
2324936
I wrote this as a comment to another reviewer but felt the need to add my comments as a brief review as well: This book is SUCH a remarkable accomplishment, that by contrast certain flaws barely register by comparison. This is a serious book, the only one of its kind that covers the depth and breadth its subject's history. It's a scholarly work and not a casual read. If it's the previously unformulated story you're interested in, then you won't be able to put it down. It does have images providing illustrations of particular examples discussed in the book - one's well worth the ink as they are unfamiliar. Yes, in an ideal world there would colorful sequences or a DVD of actual work, but we're in the flawed litigious world where copyrights trump the historical record.
1176558
If I've learned one thing from my ongoing and mostly disappointing quest for good adventure documentaries and literature, it's that maps and distances and images usually tell stories better than we do.  In the face of incredible beauty and incredible hardship, our words fall flat and collapse into painful habits.  But Jill's don't.  They bring to life what alone stands as a fantastic journey.  It's hard to imagine pushing oneself to one's mental and physical limit every day for three or maybe even four weeks.  It's hard to imagine being able to do this if one were in a perfect state of mental and physical readiness leading up to the race.  But I can't imagine what it takes to pull this kind of effort out of shambles and devastation.  I loved this story for the exhausted, snowy night-time slogs, for the quiet moments of mountain exaltation, for the confusing relationships, and even more for the revelation that comes from it all: that this race was not something to finish before starting anew, but rather that the race itself was a new beginning - of something brave and strong.  So here's to hoping that a third one's on its way!
3499103
MR. and MRS. PRINCE is an extraordinary achievement. Meticulously researched and engagingly written, it uncovers a fascinating chapter in 18th-century African American literature. The story of the Princes, New England slaves whose trajectory takes them from bondage to farm ownership, is both the story of the struggles of all settlers in the north frontier during the Indian Wars and that of a brave African American couple establishing a life together and raising a large family against seemingly insurmountable odds. Told against the story of how, through painstaking research, the author and her husband were able to piece together the details of the Princes' lives (an adventure in itself), the book blends two fascinating narratives into one. As the narrative interweaves the moving story of the Princes with that of the two researchers indefatigable following every lead, the book lovingly evokes the past and present of a broad section of New England. The result is an extraordinary story of historical recovery and contemporary detective work that displays what couples working together can accomplish through hard work and determination. It is simply impossible to put the book down.