Customer Reviews (2)

Mastermind or Moron?
This book covers the story of Charles Keating and his effort to run an S&L like a Kingdom to benefit his family and political views. This book offers the reader a very well documented, thought out telling of the Keating story. You can actually see when he starts to take for granted the public-trust he has and start to us it for his own purposes.Although to be fair to him, it was not all because he was conniving, he was also a truly bad businessman that seamed to make gold into lead.He was defiantly the poster boy for the whole S&L scandal.I would have liked to have more detail on his overall political dealings. Overall this is an interesting and well-written book.

Tour De Force
A riveting read that takes you inside the fascinating world of Charlie Keating. Could not put this book down, no matter how hard I tried. A must-have! ... Read more

Book Description
Theoretical and practical exploration of the causes and contexts of conflicts between people as well as solutions for handling them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Wading through sand
Hmm. Perhaps I was not in the correct mind set to read this. Perhaps I have read too many of this genre before and I am all maxed out - but the first half was a laborious read. Nothing snappy, notable, interesting or magnetic about the writing style, that's for sure. And instructive books DON'T have to be boring in writing style.

Some of the pscychology-based concepts were interesting, but there was nothing here that hooked me, drew me in, educated or inspired me. No "aha" moments - not a one.

And when I got to the part where Mr Keating ascribes difficult childhood behaviour to the parent, well, I'm sorry... this is when I had to put it down, and I'm afraid I haven't picked it up again. I was looking for enlightenment in a psychological sense, not subective opinion on parenting issues. Monsieur Spock, he is Not.

Overall, this was just average to me. I'll try it again in a year, but I do have a feeling that the spine of this book is going to remain pristine.

What A Gem!
This book was written over twenty years ago, and was quite popular for a time.I guess it "fell off the radar" for a while.

I was having some trouble working with people at my job, and a colleague recommended this book to me.It's still in print and available, thank goodness.

It offers straight, simple, down-to-earth advice about how people are as "difficult" as we might choose to define them.It is, knowingly or not, a great foundation and framework for an organization's diversity strategy.People are simply different.If we observe and respect these differences, and adjust our expectations accordingly, suddenly managing interpersonal conflict becomes easy.

Have a lot of fun using some of the practical suggestions in this great little book.Highly recommended...

Good Advice
I bought this book because I work with a really controlling, direspectful, condescending girl.The book gave examples of behavior types, good advice for dealing with difficult bosses, really does what all the other books do and has you take a look at yourself and your behavior too. It gives good end of section summaries, "what to do and what not to do"'s.I would write some of these things down, and I am trying to formulate a little list of things I can use in the hypnosis class I am taking.BUT, when it came right down to dealing with my toxic co-worker, I found that there are a few other books that hit the nail right on the head a little better then this one did.I guess I got the benefit of taking a look at my manager's behavior in the process, and helped me see a little bit of her stylings and ways to deal with them.She is the kind of boss who is very receptive to your wants, makes lots of promises, and never delivers.She is more focused on being everyone's friend then getting down to business.Hope this helps.

Dealing With Difficult People
This is a great book! I bought this book to deal with other people; I was in for a surprise with all of my own self-analysis. I am sure that I am a better person after learning so many new positive behavior tools for myself AND how to deal with other people's negative personalities! Read it for yourself and see. ... Read more

Book Description

The brutal, inexplicable death of Inspector Thomas Lynley's wife has left Scotland Yard shocked and searching for answers. Even more horrifying is that the trigger was apparently pulled by a twelve-year-old boy. What were the circumstances that led to his final act of desperation? That story begins on the other side of London in rough North Kensington, where the virtually orphaned Campbell children are bounced from home to home. Fifteen-year-old Ness is headed for trouble as fast as her high-heeled boots will take her. Middle child Joel cares for the youngest, Toby, but something clearly isn't right with Toby. Before long, a local gang starts harassing Joel and threatening his brother. To protect his family, Joel ends up making a pact with the devil—a move that leads straight to the front doorstep of Thomas Lynley. The anatomy of a murder, the story of a family in crisis, What Came Before He Shot Her is a powerful and emotional novel, full of deep psychological insights, that only the incomparable Elizabeth George could write.

Customer Reviews (194)

Not Lynley But Stands On It's Own
It took me about a year to warm to reading this book. I was mad that George decided to write this novel. I wanted only to read about Havers and Lynley and how they were coping with the devastating death of Helen and her baby. But this book was a pleasant surprise. It was intriguing and well plotted. I enjoyed it very much and I found that I have a better knowledge of the city in which Havers and Lynley operate.

Masterfully Written
I'm glad I read this without having any preconceived notions. Sometimes I think we mystery fans are spoiled when we finish a new book in a series and think, "Yes, that was just what I was hoping for." This book was most certainly NOT what I was hoping for, and all the better because of it. I couldn't put it down, I had to see what happened even already knowing what happened. The further I got into the book, I wanted to scream at someone in authority to get a clue and help this family. Instead, I watched in dismay as one little boy's world is destroyed along with Lynley's. I was crying by the end, and that almost never happens.
This book is also a reminder of just how good a writer Elizabeth George is. She creates a whole new world in London, and none of it seemed implausible to me. I'm in the process of getting rid of most of my books. Only books that I expect to read again, indeed, have to read again, can stay. What Came Before He Shot Her made the cut.

This is novel for grown-ups
I can hardly believe the whining reviews I've read about this novel. Yes, it is sad. Yes, it does deal with the harsh realities of living an extremely underprivileged existence. But it is far more than just a dreary drama, and involves characters one really cares about. If you want murders about posh people meeting their demise read an Agatha Christie or watch a Midsomer Murder.

"What Came Before He Shot Her"
Having read the above readers' reviews of Elizabeth George's latest novel, "What Came Before He Shot Her," I was reluctant to purchase it, but curiosity got the best of me when I saw it in paperback.The critics apparently disagreed wholeheartedly with the readers (fans of Lynley et al), and I found myself eagerly looking forward to reading the book having read the critics' blurbs (truncated, of course, and totally positive).I have read all of the George books since the first and liked some more than others, and I am a real fan of hers.I remember feeling like I had been hit in the stomach with the ending of "Missing Joseph."It haunted me for a long time.This novel did the same.There simply was no other way to tell the story of these poor misbegotten souls.As bleak as Dickens?Yes, surely.And Dickens dealt with the same horrible living conditions then as George has now.Nothing has changed, sad to say, in spite of the best efforts of social workers and others trying to effect societal change.Frankly, I loved the book.I love the way George uses the language.I love her heart.Perhaps Amazon's reader critics missed the upper class prettiness of Lynley and his friends.None of that here in this novel, nor should there be.I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

New ground
Writers, after all, get to write the books they want to write. What Came Before He Shot Her is an ambitious and challenging literary novel. George is concerned to show us "race relations" as they are actually lived, and from the point of view of the ethnic underclass in contemporary England. Also the ways in which early trauma gets played out in the lives of its sufferers. It would be surprising if all this added up to a happy picture. This reader was kept afloat by the extremely fine characterization and George's acute psychological insight. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Interesting, but I think the author had more to say
This last work of Keating's is a combination of his work on spirituality with Myers-Briggs personality type theory. I had the feeling that if the author had lived longer, he might have been able to flesh it out more and give it a different organization. He does not presuppose a detailed understanding of Myers-Briggs terminology but gives his own, more or less workable, definitions of the terms. The bulk of the book is a set of capsule descriptions of different actual individuals falling into each of the sixteen types, and what they found useful as spiritual practice and what they did not, according to their personality. Each personality type is covered multiple times, focusing on the E-I, N-S, T-F, and J-P functions separately. There was also a table summarizing each of the sixteen types. I would have liked a companion table describing a reading list for each of the different spiritual teachers (Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, etc.) considered with a summary of which kinds of believers would find them helpful or non-helpful. I have not run across another book with this particular emphasis though, so if you are interested I think it could well be worth a look.

Who We Are Is How We Pray
Keating takes the Myers-Brigg personality test to a practical level in the field of spirituality.He relates the four major personality types to the four major spiritualities of western Christianity.Reading this book was a revelation of my own response to prayer styles and types.As a preacher ofthe Gospel, the book made me aware of others response to prayer styles alsoand the need to include each type of pray-er in my instructions.I havebegun using this book in spiritual direction and recommend it highly to allwho work in group ministry of any sort. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, published by The National Underwriter Company on May 6, 1991. The length of the article is 661 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Court rules for Charles Keating. (California & the Western States Supplement)
Author: Alfred G. Haggerty
Publication: National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 6, 1991
Publisher: The National Underwriter Company
Issue: n18Page: pC10(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
Examines theories of management and shows their practical application in areas of Church leadership. ... Read more

Amazon.com
You might say that Walter Lord provoked the whole Titanic mania by interviewing dozens of survivors and fashioning their reminiscences into the classic non-fiction novel A Night to Remember, which was made into a 1958 film that heavily influenced James Cameron's 1998 epic. Some of the dialogue is more vivid than the 1998 film--when a kid sees the deadly iceberg, he says excitedly, "Oh, Muddie, look at the beautiful North Pole with no Santa Claus on it."

But much has been discovered since Lord's original book made waves--such as the shipwreck itself, and a wealth of scientific inquiry. So he wrote this semisequel, which tackles each of the remaining mysteries about the unnecessary calamity in a methodical, but quite readable, fashion. How come the wireless operators blew it so fatally? Maybe they would have had better operators if they paid them more than $5 a week--as Lord notes, it would have taken a wireless operator 18 years to earn one transatlantic ticket.How come the Californian just sat there in nearby waters and neglected to save anyone on the frantically signaling and flare-firing Titanic? Lord quotes a man on the nonsinking ship admitting to "a certain amount of slackness," which he uses for a sardonic chapter title.

Some of the characters are more sympathetic, such as Renee Harris, who used the money she won suing the Titanic owners for her husband's death to bankroll neophyte playwright Moss Hart's first show. Lord says that Hart's memoir, Act One, depicts Harris reacting to an opening-night flop with optimism. After you've survived the Titanic, what's to worry?

Walter Lord has gotten better reviews, and he needn't fret about his reputation. The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Barbara Tuchman, author of A Distant Mirror, had this reaction to Night Lives On: "Stunning ... his detection and discoveries make a first-class historical reconstruction and a model in the research and writing of that difficult art." --Tim AppeloBook Description
The most awesome ocean-going vessel the world had ever seen, the mightly TITANIC struck an iceberg and sank on the night of April 14, 1912, carrying more than 1500 souls--and uncountable secrets--to the icy bottom of the mid-Atlantic. Why did the crew steam full speed ahead into dangerous waters despite six wireless warnings? How able was the doomed behemoth.s .superb seaman. Captain Smith? Why did the nearby ship Californian ignore Titanic.s distress signals? How could such a disaster ever have occurred?

Author Walter Lord.s acclaimed classic A Night to Remember is considered the definitive written work on the TITANIC tragedy. And now he returns to the scene of chaos and horror to explore--and answer--the untold mysteries behind the twentieth century.s greatest catastrophe at sea. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

Questions finally meet their answers
Being a fan of Walter Lord's impeccably researched book "A Night to Remember," I was instantly intrigued upon learning of "The Night Lives On." I had had several lingering questions for years: why was an order given to turn the ship starboard when the iceberg eventually hit starboard? How, specifically, was the matter of the Californian's involvement dealt with? Which theories about "the gash" don't pan out? All of my questions and more were painstakingly answered as if I had asked Mr. Lord for an explanation myself. His ingenius weaving of history, statistics, personal testimonies, and logic, blended into an easily understandable format, made my love of the Titanic's story grow even more. Anyone can buy one book and know the generalities of the ship. But this book goes above and beyond to educate those already acquainted with the story and wanting a much more in-depth look.

Mysteries explained about the Titanic.
Walter Lord follows up his best seller of the fifties-A Night to Remember--with this eighties version on some mysteries about the sunken liner.One learns about the musicians (two groups actually) and what they played that night while the life boats were being loaded.Another story details the negligence of the freighter Californian for not answering the eight rockets of distress from the Titanic.Another story details the shootings and suicide near the end of the launch of the last life boats.Still another story details why there were not enough life boats on the Titanic and most other ocean liners of the day.Walter Lord clears the air about these mysteries with his well informed writing.
If you want to know more about the Titanic, read both Lord's books on the subject (A Night to Remember, The Night Lives On).They will help the reader understand this tragedy.I have seen the movie and I know the producers consulted these books when they made the movie.

NIGHT LIVES ON
WALTER LORD DOES IT AGAIN. HE BRINGS IT ALL TO LIFE. A MUST HAVE FOR ALL "TITANIC" FANS!

Updated information to supplement _A Night to Remember_
Calling this 'the sequel to _A Night to Remember_' is slightly misleading. Rather than the storytelling style employed to relate the story of the sinking of the Titanic, this is almost a collection of 17 1-chapter essays about various points of the disaster. Excellent stuff, but if you were expecting, say, the story of the Congressional and Parliamentary investigations of the disaster, you need to look elsewhere, e.g. Wyn Craig Wade's _The Titanic: End of a Dream_.

"Unsinkable Subject" - Overview of the popular fascination with Titanic.

"What's in a Name?" - The actual launching of Titanic from Harland & Wolff's shipyards.

"Legendary from the Start" - Titanic was indeed popularly supposed to be unsinkable, but the trend of sacrificing safety features for competitiveness had actually taken hold during her design.

"Had Ships Gotten Too Big for Captain Smith?" - Explores Smith's record, including a near-collision in harbor with Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic.

"Our Coterie" - The group of first class passengers, including Col. Gracie, mentioned in _A Night to Remember_.

"Everything Was Against Us" - Contrasts the ice warnings, lack of coordination between radio room & bridge, and lookouts, with the notion that the accident was a one-in-a-million chance.

"The Gash" - The collision itself.

"I Was Very Soft the Day I Signed That" - How and why ships the size of Titanic could legally sail while carrying so few lifeboats.

"What Happened to the Goodwins?" - Facts and figures about 1st class vs. 3rd, contrasting White Star's implication that those people down there couldn't understand English, with the Goodwin family (an electrical engineer and his family, emigrating from London to New York, all of whom were lost, including the 6-year-old).

"Shots in the Dark" - Explores the stories about Murdoch, one of the officers loading the lifeboats, and whether shots were fired.

"The Sound of Music" - An in-depth look at the "Nearer My God to Thee" myth, and the 2 bands on the Titanic. (I was aggravated to learn that that entire, touching sequence with the cornet in _Raise the Titanic!_, which I loved as a kid, was made up from whole cloth - the musicians were just as courageous as the movie made them out to be, but no cornet players.) And if you're a professional musician who thinks *your* agent is heartless, wait till you read this.

"She's Gone" - Compares the eyewitness accounts of Titanic's last moments with what we now know.

"The Electric Spark" Captain Rostron of the Carpathia, who picked up the survivors at great personal risk.

"A Certain Amount of Slackness" Discussion of Captain Lord (no relation to the author) of the Californian, in sharp contrast to the preceding chapter.

"Second-guessing" - The inquiries and subsequent litigation (Lord's treatment of Senator Smith should be contrasted with Wade's more detailed treatment, but then Wade has a whole book to play with).

"Why Was Craganour Disqualified?" What happened to some of the survivors. (Craganour, owned by a member of the Ismay family, was disqualified from winning a major British horse race.)

"Unlocking the Ocean's Secret" - The search for the Titanic, leading up to Robert Ballard's successful attempt in 1985 (written before others began plundering the ship for relics).

A Fascinating Listen for a Long Trip
I picked up this audiocasette due to curiosity.The information packed tape was interesting, and even made me angry because this tragedy did not have to happen.Like people say, most tragedies are a string ofunfortunate events coming together at the same time.I don't think thesinking of this liner is anything different.It gives a glimpse into thetechnological limitations of the day, the caste system of the gilded age,and the prevailing seaman's attitude of the time.After listening to this(and reading The Perfect Storm), my interest was certainly piqued.Iordered some books on the Titanic and the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, and can'twait until they get here. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

First-rate stories of espionage
"The Deceiver" consists of four first-rate stories dealing with Cold War era espionage.While the characters (other than historical figures) and the incidents are presumably fictional, these stories have the usual Forsyth air of authenticity.

These stories are uniformly excellent. Forsyth artfully uses the format of an administrative hearing for a superlative British Cold War intelligence officer to tell the four separate stories that make up this collection.It works.These stories involve the old Soviet Union, the IRA, the Libyans, international criminals, and the Cubans.All well-told.

Highly recommended.

Probably the greatest two espionage novellas ever written.
The first two stories in this compilation of episodes from the colorful career of one Sam Mcready a.k.a "The Deceiver" are worth their weight in gold. The first one deals with a thrilling infiltration into East Germany with a variety of twists and turns. The second story details the defection of a senior KGB officer who creates a rift between the British MI6 and the CIA. The final two stories are more run-of-the-mill, but Forsyth fans will not be disappointed.

Secrets of a spy.
The Deceiver by Frederick Forsyth is a collection of four novellas all featuring Sam McCready, a veteran agent for the British Secret Intelligence Service.It's the waning days of the cold war and the SIS has made the decision to scale down its field operations.Consequently, McCready is targeted for early retirement.As a colleague argues before the powers-that-be to allow Sam to stay on as an active operative, four of his most interesting cases are reviewed one by one.

Pride and Extreme Prejudice takes place in 1981.Sam is handed the task of obtaining a top secret volume of classified military information from a high ranking Soviet army officer who is cooperating with the CIA.The turnover is to be made in East Germany.There's just one problem.The West German agent Sam has hired to make the pick up is a desperate man who will surely bring the mission to a disasterous end.A smartly told, suspenseful and satisfying tale of cold war intrigue.

The Price of the Bride also unfolds against the backdrop of the cold war.A colonel in the KGB defects to the CIA choosing to do so on British soil.As the compelling narative unfolds, doubts are raised as to the Russian's veracity.Sam McCready is there to skillfully ferret out the truth while the plot twists and turns almost to the breaking point.An intricate chess game of a story.

Novella number three is entitled A Casualty of War and takes place mostly on Cyprus.It revolves around a sinister collaboration between Libya's Colonel Qaddafi and the IRA.A series of terrorist attacks are to be carried out in England and McCready must act swiftly to prevent them from happening.The detailed descriptions of how terrorists and counterterrorists ply their respective trades are quite fascinating.

And lastly, A Little Bit of Sunshine has McCready visiting a tiny British colonial outpost in the Carribean.This novella differs from the other three in that it unfolds more as a whodunit with comic undertones than as a conventional spy story.

All in all, The Deceiver rates 4 stars.Fans of international thrillers will doubtlessly derive considerable enjoyment from reading it.

Gorby's Early Retirement Plan
Frederick Forsyth has penned a most unusual collection of spy tales here. In fact four episodes from the colorful career of Sam McCready, British spy master, are provided and well-crafted. The four tales cover about 10 years and every terrorist and criminal hub in the world, including Libya, Cuba, USSR, the IRA, and East Germany.

McCready has been deemed expendable, due to his unorthodox and outrageous tactics, in a post Cold War era by very high level political and civil service leaders.

The typical story line for a prehistoric cold war operative runs like this: Operate a high level Russian spy for many years in an uneasy collaboration with the CIA. Send an overweight, aged, hard drinking West German spy into East Germany to collect a package. With the help of retired smugglers, go yourself into East Germany to retrieve the package when the West German suffers a complete break-down. Of course this needs to be done without any official sanction from the British or West German, while the KGB is also on the trail of the Russian general. Clearly these tactics have no place in the post cold war 1990's, a time of seeming safety and tranquility at least until Iraq invades Kuwait in August 1990.

The fundamental premise here is that McCready has a legal right to a deparmental hearing as a sort of protest of his forced retirement. In the hearing the four spy tales are told. This is a very unusual construct and may not appeal to all. The tales are all good, but not good enough to stand alone as Forsyth novels, and are strangely unrelated, other than that they are four cases successfully solved by our hero. This is also a book for those like me, who love the technical minutae and operational details of the covert trade.

great Cold War espionage
Frederick Forsyth delivers thrilling tales of Cold War espionage in The Deceiver. The book is a collection of novellas that revolve around the career of one of British intelligence's most effective operatives. Unfortunately for that operative, he is being sent by the new administration into quiet retirement on the eve of the end of the Cold War. Using a committee review of that operative's career to link the individual episodes, Forsyth provides another entertaining character in thrilling spy tales. ... Read more