Enjoyable read, questionable conclusions
596046
I certainly enjoyed reading the author's view on the Donitz/Hitler relationship and his geopolitcal and military view of its result in the Baltic.  I found the first parts of the book particularly worth reading.  I do not agree with all of the points he makes in his book however.

I think the primary rationale of holding the Courland Pocket (keeping the Baltic available for Type XXI U-boat training), which the author seems to support, is a tremendously flawed one.

Any rational person, which seems to have included everyone in Germany not named Donitz or Hitler, could see that holding of this bridgehead tied down the very troops that would have given Germany the men needed to hold onto the East Prussian and Pomeranian coastlines.  The Russians simply screened Courland with mostly second-line troops and let them slowly wither and die.  This strategy greatly contributed to a million or more Prussian civilians being slaughtered, and the loss of hundreds more miles of Baltic coastline further to the west, due to the fact that the excellent combat veterans of Army Group North who were needed to defend East Prusia were confined in Courland.  At its core, it was an insane and senseless strategy, in spite of the arguments made in this book.

The author's contention that Hitler did allow withdrawals was puzzling as well.  The mentioned retreat from Finland was only after they the Finns signed a peace treaty with Russia and declared war on Germany.  He also gives the example of the retreat from France, but Hitler did so only after keeping his armies in place in Normandy for far too long.  The result was the almost complete destruction of his army at Falaise.  Instead of a timely withdrawal to the Seine, he kept his troops in an unequal struggle within range of allied naval guns and airpower from England. He needlessly lost huge numbers of men in Normandy, and in all of the garrisons along the Channel Coast.  He then had no army left to defend France with and so he had no choice but to retreat.  The exact same points could be made in almost all his other retreats.

It seems that Hitler admired Donitz for two reasons.  He was an ardent Nazi who catered to him, and due to the fact that he didn't see things from the point of realistically what the German military had the ability to achieve. He wanted every square inch of territory that could possibly help the navy to be defended at all costs.  The unmitigated German disasters in Crimea and in North Africa, to say nothing of East Prussia and Pomerania, may possibly not have happened, or been much less costly if Donitz was not vigorously pressing Hitler to remain in these locations.  The same point could be made for leaving 350,000 troops in Norway while Germany had not enough troops to defend its native territory.

Donitz, like Hitler, didn't realize that it would have been a far better strategy to make an orderly withdrawal from territory that the overextended Germans did not have enough men to defend, rather than lose these men needlessly.  This strategy clearly (and in many cases needlessly) led to the destruction of the bulk of the German army in North Africa, France and in Eastern Europe.  Subsequently, they did not have the forces available to defend Germany in its final battles and Germany colasped rather quickly in 1945.  It is ironic that Hitler's and Donitz's insistence on clinging to indefensible territories to buy time for Germany's new secret weapons to be fielded in all probability was the reason Germany was destroyed before the XXI submarines and other wonder weapons could be introduced in the numbers needed to potentially turn the tide.

To me, the author did not emphasize this point sufficiently.
2027180
Not being an air traveler, I was interested to see how an expert views it all. My suspicions about the stupidity of people were confirmed from the beginning. It does get a little repetitive, but I still enjoyed the read.
789521
As with most of this author's work, there's a sincerity here but it's met with much sentiment--too much, maybe. On the plus side, I like this sort of question and I've read many a metaphysical work on N.D.E. phenomena. So it kept me engaged. Actually,there is some truth to the idea that spirits use bells and sounds to attract attention--or so I've read.

All in all, an enjoyable, light read.
4675502
I see that a lot of the people writing 1 and 2 star reviews of this book don't comment on if the book was or wasn't enjoyable ... instead they seem stuck on their opposition to the underlying theme of the book: that global warming is a hoax.  First of all, it is a work of fiction; second of all, Crichton does raise some good points ... one being that it is not only the skeptics that have something to gain in this highly political issue and who engage in misinformation.  That said, I thought it was an enjoyable read.
3363394
Interesting point of view, but still a good read.
2388789
It's funny what I can suspend disbelief about and what I can't. Supernatural forces? No problem. A woman in 21st century America entering a Catholic religious order in her early teens? Nope. Anything grounded in reality to should be realistic, and this story made some crazy stretches on the reality-based side. I did enjoy the plot, but there were questions raised which were never satisfactorily answered. I also missed closure regarding my favorite character. Overall, a fairly entertaining read.
3550722
I found this book to be a very enjoyable read. The author takes the reader back to the delightful days of the 1970s to a time in her life when some very unusual events presented themselves before her and her family and friends. One will see how different people reacted to these events in question, each person acting according to his or her own belief system and personality. Perhaps the reader may desire an explanation as to what it all means i.e. the how, why, and wherefore behind these unusual events. An explanation won't be had by the very nature of the phenomena itself...unexplained phenomena is just that...unexplained. However, I don't think that the reader will be disappointed in that regard since this is obviously something beyond the author's control. Instead, I think that the reader will enjoy as much as I did the opportunity to have a glimpse into another person's private life and how they dealt with such unusual events...events that undoubtedly still resonate to this day with those who had lived through it. As with anything in Life, the reader can choose to believe or not to believe. If the reader chooses to believe, then perhaps the reader's worldview or as the Germans would say using their much more precise word for it i.e. their "weltanschauung" may indeed have to change. PTD
3920567
This is a nice read, with a good blend of humor, research on the brain and hormones in our body, and the doctor's professional and personal experiences w/ others. Amen does a good job delivering his, and others', brain research, in a way anyone can understand. He is, however, a bit old-fashioned in his views on evolutionary thinking and gender stereotypes. There is also the occasional slip up on sex info., e.g., the claim that self-pleasuring can lead to excessive or addictive activity in vulnerable people. It's a pleasant read, however, if your main aim is to learn about the brain's role in passionate desire, attraction, and love.
2305872
Well written, but I questioned some of the details.  All in all, I enjoyed the book.
4264258
The evidence presented seems supported by good science.

The author's passion is however cause for some skepticism. The heavy use of anecdotes, though concrete and instructive, illustrates this point.

Even so I find my eating behavior has been affected.
621643
Enjoyable read -- if you suspend disbelief from the get-go and keep it suspended throughout.
3198275
I really enjoyed this book.  To be honest, the writing is probably worth three to four stars.  But the thoughts that fill your head when you're NOT reading rate five.  Jordan creates a future that is plausible given our current political struggles.  It isn't difficult to believe a society could go to the patriarchal measures shown if there were a global biological catastrophe affecting women.  I particularly enjoyed the painting of "good" Christians in a negative light once they're on their own.  I would have appreciated a few positive showings, as well (we're not *all* bad, after all).  However, I think she did an excellent job showing how some like to use their faith as a weapon for their pettiness and intolerance.

Again, there were a few highly implausible moments where I just couldn't suspend disbelief.  But, overall, I liked the characters and was sad to see them go.  The day I finished, I met a woman running a garage sale and we struck up a conversation that turned political.  Turns out, she was a protestor from the early 70s for women's lib.  I immediately drove home to fetch this book and give it to her.  She called me two days later and said she'd already finished it and was going to give it to her granddaughter..  It's that kind of book.
3537236
Gray's basic argument that modern political movements are based on or disguised as religions is not really new. But, if you think you've heard it all, don't let that stop you from reading this book. Even if the arguments are rather familiar, I found reading Grey's exposition of these ideas an enjoyable experience.

While some reviewers seemed to think that the author crowned his achievement in the final chapter, "Post-Apocalypse", I found he over-reached himself and fell into glibness too often. I wondered if one reason the hyperbole fell a bit flat was the evanescence of the movements he cited earlier, including Communists, Nazis, and now the neocons.

I noted that the New Yorker magazine reviewer observed that Gray tried "to fit too much into his model of utopianism with too little argument". To the contrary, I thought that Gray's argument was persuasive enough, and that there was much more that he should have fitted into his model; in other words, he failed to adequately discuss all of the available modern utopias. Gray seems unaware of any genuine research into the 9/11 events, therefore shapes his arguments to fit the received mythology about Islamofascism (which he calls Islamo-Jacobinism -- fair enough) and the phony war on terror, which is actually a war *of* terror. His analysis of the neocons is therefore unfortunately stunted, as he misses out on the true implications of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) and the New Pearl Harbor that was called for by PNAC. If these ideas are unfamiliar, I suggest searching both Amazon and the web using the terms "PNAC" and "New Pearl Harbor". In any event, his emphases on religio-political movements that have either been eclipsed (Nazism, Communism) or are in the process of being eclipsed (neocons and Islamofascism) will soon make the book seem unfortunately dated. The neocons are now being replaced by the Trilateralists in anticipation of an Obama presidency and the Islamofascists will eventually cease to be regarded as Enemy Number One, as happened with the Communists.

There is another perhaps less well-known but no less dangerous utopian project that Gray missed out on, and that is the Anglo-American elitist cabal that is behind the current food and fuel shortages. Utopia, according to the world's power elite, consists of a world with a greatly reduced population, a goal they have been working towards in a patient, methodical fashion for over a century. The belief system that drives them is no less dangerous and crackpot than Nazism or neoconservatism, and needs to be exposed and skewered by talented writers like John Gray. I refer readers to F. William Engdahl's latest book,&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Seeds-of-Destruction-The-Hidden-Agenda-of-Genetic-Manipulation/dp/0973714727/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation</a>&nbsp;for a gripping up-to-date analysis of this utopian dream that endangers the lives of all of us in its pursuit.

While I thought "Black Mass" was an excellent book as far as it went, I consider it a lost opportunity due to its failure to mention the most persistent and insidious utopian movement of the past one hundred years. This utopia had an early manifestation in the eugenics movement, which was very popular among elite Americans in the early to mid-20th century. Eugenics was soon adopted by the Nazis, who featured prominently in "Black Mass". This thread of discussion would have enhanced Gray's arguments against unachievable utopias, and given it even more relevance to our time. For, while Nazis, Communists and neocons may come and go, the elitist utopian dream of population reduction has outlasted all of them.
660892
This was an entertaining read.  I love the "what if" scenario...and it's a contemplative commentary on our dependence on everything that "works" in our world and the beauty we take for granted.

What bothered me the most were a couple of issues...such as, if all the vegetation on earth dies, how does life continue on for at least a decade with no mention of lack of oxygen?  Also, the author says at one point that centrifugal force had increased, which would not occur with deceleration of the earth's rotation...

Was fun anyway.
193644
The basic premise is we experience what we expect and those expectations are created by our beliefs.  I find the thought processes plausible.  But when the author talks about his own experiences where money appears out of nowhere into his bank account, i must admit it strains by belief and energizes my skepticism.  But since the authors point is our beliefs can limit (or empower) our experience of "reality" - perhaps I too have limiting beliefs.

It is short enough and for the most part concise enough that the read is worth the time.
4956865
The book is well written, engaging and draws fun parallels between the marvels of the printing press and the internet. At times the author stumbles into preaching, particularly at the end, and is less convincing with the message of protecting internet freedom than the idea that we haven't begun to see the breadth of the internet's impact. (And this.as someone who believes wholeheartedly in a free internet.) Overall a fun, quick read.
1099030
Good read , a little unrealistic when it came to certain parts , but I liked it overall