The Party's Over: Oil, War And The Fate Of Industrial Societies

Book Description

The world is about to run out of cheap oil and change dramatically. Within the next few years, global production will peak. Thereafter, even if industrial societies begin to switch to alternative energy sources, they will have less net energy each year to do all the work essential to the survival of complex societies. We are entering a new era, as different from the industrial era as the latter was from medieval times.

In The Party's Over, Richard Heinberg places this momentous transition in historical context, showing how industrialism arose from the harnessing of fossil fuels, how competition to control access to oil shaped the geopolitics of the 20th century, and how contention for dwindling energy resources in the 21st century will lead to resource wars in the Middle East, Central Asia, and South America. He describes the likely impacts of oil depletion, and all of the energy alternatives. Predicting chaos unless the U.S. -- the world's foremost oil consumer -- is willing to join with other countries to implement a global program of resource conservation and sharing, he also recommends a "managed collapse" that might make way for a slower-paced, low-energy, sustainable society in the future.

More readable than other accounts of this issue, with fuller discussion of the context, social implications, and recommendations for personal, community, national, and global action, Heinberg's updated book is a riveting wake-up call for humankind as the oil era winds down, and a critical tool for understanding and influencing current U.S. foreign policy.

Listen to an interview with Richard Heinberg from WRPI.

Customer Reviews:

A Thoughtful and Balanced Overview of Peak Oil.......2007-09-03

I discovered Peak Oil in August 2006 through James Kunstler's 'The Long Emergency,' and since then I have read almost every book available on this subject, including all of Heinberg's books. I have even written my own essay for friends and family - which can be downloaded from my website at http://www.dougcraftfineart.com. This book is a great overview of the Peak Oil and energy depletion crisis facing us, and I recommend it for anyone looking for a comprehensive and thoughtful overview of this difficult subject.

I have found all of Heinberg's books to be thoroughly researched, and well written, and he does offer positive suggestions for dealing with Peak Oil in this book. Other reviewers who complain of doom and gloom with Heinberg, have clearly not read some of what many other authors in this field have to offer.

Whether you are a pessimist or optimist, the facts surrounding this issue and the nature of resource depletion are simply unassailable from an honest scientific evaluation. Peak Oil and energy depletion - coupled with climate change and exponentially growing population - are deadly serious issues representing the most calamitous crisis we humans have ever faced. Ever. The problem simply cannot be sugar coated.

Nonetheless, I found 'The Party's Over' to offer a positive vision of our future where human communities have the opportunity to rediscover the traditional benefits of local economic interdependence and a much more sane pace of life. Until I had read Heinberg, I was truly in despair over our future. Now, I understand that we are adaptable and creative beyond what we think, we will survive, and we will all have the opportunity to help make positive contributions if we so choose.

Sometimes hard to find the good parts among the diatribes.......2007-07-24

This work truly does have good material in it to stretch the mind on an important topic. The problems happen when the author strays from science into politics, sociology, history, and especially economics. Even some of his technology - engineering stuff - can be unreliable. But when he's good, he's quite good.

The mind-stretch parts are particularly good in chapter 4 and some of chapter 3, where Mr. Heinberg discusses various energy technology technologies, and the concept of a "peak oil date," respectively. Simply laying out the range of energy uses, abuses, and possibilities is a quick and excellent way to make the reader aware of the state of the planet. Since the major theme of the book, after all, is what to do when the oil supplies dry up, his sober and stark assessment is to the point. Kudos for his wish to end subsidies for oil companies, but catcalls for his equal wish to subsidize other unknown technology (p165). How about no subsidy for anybody? "Corporate welfare" hasn't done much for the regular person anyway.

The major weakness in this book is one that unfortunately afflicts many on the Left. That is, comparing the theory of a system they like, with the worst actual results of the competing system they don't like. A good example on the smaller scale is Heinberg's glowing certainty about EXPECTED energy production from solar panels and windmills, vs. the listing of worst possible results and costs seen from nuclear energy reactors. On the larger scale, his clear preference for central government rule over free market forces is unsupported and irritating. The notable exception is his choice to discount our US Geological Survey findings on oil reserves, in favor of his (half dozen) gloomy retired oilmen's assessments. Things go smoother when one picks sources that agree with one's line of argument!

Nevertheless, there are enough good parts in this book to make it worth reading. Unless the reader wishes to use chapters 3 and 4 for reference, maybe it would be better to just check "The Party's Over" out from the library.

Wake-up Call.......2007-05-13

This book was very informational and I especially enjoyed the initial chapters that offered an historical build up to our current crisis. From that point on, however, the author inspired a sense of hopelessness rather than motivating activism.

How Marx should have critiqued capitilism.......2007-04-08

The Party's Over lays it right out there for us - we are beginning the process of running out of oil. Doubters like to say "That can't be true, because the all mighty market hasn't yet started creating the viable alternatives" (in anything like replacement level quantities). Why then, I ask, is our foreign and military policy all about putting as much of a lock down as possible, on known supplies (see e.g. Blood and Oil by Michael T. Klare)? As Heinberg well notes, the politics of democratic capitalism depend on ongoing economic growth - which is why, from the point of view of George Bush and Dick Cheney, it seems reasonable to keep our army engaged in the middle of the Iraqi Civil War, even with little hope of short term victory. Its the oil, stupid (with a bit of desperate ego mixed in). And why there is as yet no serious politics of conservation alive and well in this country.

Heinberg mightily strengthens his case by framing the story of oil within the context of ecological science and industrial history. Industrial capitalist culture is behaving in a predictable way. We have had a fabulously productive oil party. As a player in this eco-system we have been on a roll. Such rolls tend not to want to be slowed by the soft voices of alarm pointing out that the highway ends at the edge of the cliff up there not so far ahead. The literal fuel to power our engines will likely run out sooner than the ideological fuel that powers our belief in this way of doing business. You hear the "new age" argument that its not the oil supply that should be our concern - that its the infinite supply of human ingenuity that's critical. What's scary to me is how this market sucks up so much of that ingenuity for enterprises like convincing us we need more of this, that and the other; like creating, using and selling ever more sophisticated weaponry around the globe; like sustaining our belief in the magic nature of capitalist markets.

Heinberg mentions in his afterword to the revised edition that many readers have reported finding the book depressing. Small wonder. I was depressed at times as I read it too. But I also felt something bracing about it. If you're like me, standing on the "liberal - progressive" side of the political spectrum, but feeling that there's a missing center to our politics, I recommend you read this. There is a new politics that needs to be invented, and quickly. Ever since Stalin, et. al. gave communism a bad name, and the right wing in America made liberalism tantamount to communism, progressives have been floundering. We're trying to find a way to say that we really need to wake up, learn to take care of each other and the earth, get real about the climate and the oil -- all without saying that all this will involve serious sacrifice and some serious form of the unmentionable S word (socialism). The more information like that found in The Party's Over and other like works gets into the main stream, the more likely it is that all that human ingenuity will start driving invention in the social and political realm, where we need it every bit as much as we do in the technical.

Heinberg is a definitely a Cassandra, but remember what happened to those who ignored her.......2007-02-11

Richard Heinberg set out to answer the questions, "How much petroleum is left? How much coal, natural gas, and uranium? Will we ever run out? When? What will happen when we do? How can we best prepare? Will renewable substitutes--such as wind and solar power--enable industrialism to continue in a recognizable form indefinitely?" (p. 3) He sorted the various responses to these questions into four broad voices--those of free-market economists, environmental activists, petroleum geologists, and politicians--and of these four, he found the third, the petroleum geologists, to be the most useful, if only because "theirs is a long-range view based on physical reality" (p.5). (Throughout the book, Heinberg notes that the free-market economists are almost constitutionally opposed to talk of Peak Oil, because, as economist Robert Solow said, "the world can, in effect, get along without natural resources." Resources, in other words, are merely commodities created by the market to satisfy demands, and when the demand arises, the market will find a supply. Needless to say, Heinberg finds this laissez faire approach to Peak Oil--"perilous optimism"--quite dangerous because it ignores hard ecological realities.)

"The message here is that we are about to enter a new era in which each year, less net energy will be available to humankind, regardless of our efforts or choices. The only significant choice we will have will be how to adjust to this new regime" (p.5). In short, an ecological perspective on humanity's consumption of petroleum and other nonrenewable resources reveals that the astronomical population growth and economic expansion of the last century are the biological bloom and population overshoot enabled by an energy subsidy from cheap, abundant oil, coal, and natural gas. As with other population overshoots in human (and evolutionary) history, the end probably won't be pretty, with massive die-offs and "structural readjustments" (to use free-market lingo) bringing the human population back into line with the Earth's carrying capacity. Heinberg's book challenges us to face this coming change NOW and to do what we can to mitigate against its worst effects through exploring and developing economical and social alternatives to the status quo.

The discovery of new oil resources peaked several decades ago, according to the majority of petroleum geologists, and as it seems that discovery and production follow similar curves, it will be but a matter of years until the production of oil peaks. (For the record, this doesn't mean that we will literally run out of oil, but only that it will seem like we've run out, because it will cost more--financially and energetically--to extract and refine the oil than it is worth.) The peak in oil production won't merely have a direct impact on the automobile industry, but will also undermine the production of plastics and pharmaceuticals, of which oil is the feed stock, and will yank the rug out from under petro-intensive, corporate, "Green Revolution" agriculture. Combine these consequences with growing population and energy consumption of developing nations like China and India, and you have a recipe for seriously ugly changes. Like James Howard Kunstler in The Long Emergency, Heinberg examines various other energy sources and technologies, from natural gas to zero-point energy, and finds them all wanting in one way or another. (Unlike Kunstler, Heinberg maintains a solid faith in our flexibility as a species and in our ability to adapt.) According to this perspective, oil (and other nonrenewables) were a one-time windfall in ecological terms, and once we've passed the peak in extracting them, we will have to recognize our ecological limitations as one species amongst many struggling for limited resources.

I recently read PowerDown, the follow-up to this book, and found it an excellently written, powerful and thought-provoking read. Perhaps it's because I read The Party's Over in conjunction with the contrarian book The Bottomless Well (Huber and Mills) or perhaps it's because I'm a bit burned out reading books on Peak Oil, but whatever the reason I did not find this book as compelling as its sequel. That said, it is still a better introduction to the subject of Peak Oil and to its ecological basis and implications than most others I have yet read.

Customer Reviews:

Planting Wetlands & Dams: The Way I See It!.......2000-02-23

The author specializes in Australian waters and plants. The book was way to small to include all that is need to cover this topic. Further, it is over priced for its size. With that said, the book does offer a good overview into the topic of the creation and enhancement; however little! Some of the diagrams are good (not great) but the color pictures in the center of the book adds greatly to its attractiveness and does provide examples. This is more of a discussion than a guide. It does cover good topics and it would add to supplement anyones library of other such books with more detailed information. A good plant list is included; however, wetland work in America requires using plants based on reference wetlands species. If you have money to spend, buy it. If you are on a budget, pass and get a different book.

Book Description

Neben der Elementarteilchen- und der Festkörperphysik ist die Plasmaphysik eines der zukunftsträchtigsten Gebiete der Physik. Die vielen praktischen Anwendungen reichen von der Fusionsenergie, der Weltraumforschung, der Werkstoffbearbeitung, neuartigen Raketen und Teilchenbeschleunigern, neuen Quellen für Licht, Teilchenstrahlung und Laserstrahlung, Plasmaschaltern, Plasmawellenleitern, Plasmakondensatoren u.a. bis hin zur Plasmaphysik des Festkörpers, zu plasmachemischen Methoden, etwa der Benzinerzeugung oder von Edelgasreaktionen, und zu Plasmakerzen zur Beseitigung von Sonderabfällen. Das vorliegende Lehrbuch gibt in einer für Studenten, Techniker und Physiker leicht verständlichen und anschaulichen Art einen kurzen Überblick über das Gesamtgebiet der Plasmaphysik und ihrer Anwendungen.

Customer Reviews:

An "interesting things to do" resource.......2004-02-07

Wonderwalks: The Trails Of New Jersey Audubon by Patricia Robinson is a straightforward guide to the trails, sanctuaries, and nature centers owned by the New Jersey Audubon Society and which are open to the public without toll or entry fees. Black-and-white photographs, along with an inset section of color photographs, wonderfully enhance the solid text of basic information concerning recommended paths, species of birds, butterflies, and more to be seen on various walks. Citing open hours, contact information of sites, and so much more, Wonderwalks is especially recommended "interesting things to do" resource for New Jersey natives and tourists.

Average customer rating:

Best bang for your buck

Worst handicapping book ever

A very basic, excellent introduction to handicapping horse races

Quick Read with Some Reasonable Angles

Great Sections, Pleasant Home, Excellent Addition

Handicapping the Wall Street Way: Picking Xtra Winners at the Track
Mark Ripple
Manufacturer: Eclipse Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Track Betting | Gambling | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Racing | Horses | Individual Sports | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Sports | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1581501269

Book Description

This guide instructs horseplayers how to apply stock market theories to betting horse races. By studying the consistencies between the stock market and pari-mutuel market or betting pool, horseplayers can gain new insight on how to discover inefficiencies in the betting pool and aid their quest for Xtra winners at the track.

Customer Reviews:

Best bang for your buck.......2007-06-07

After reading about this handicapping book in an interview Mark E. Ripple did for CBS Marketwatch.com shortly before the Kentucky Derby, I bought it, and was able to coax my friends into making a few online racing bets. The results were fantastic! In that interview, Amy Hoak called Mark Ripple an expert, and I will agree that he certainly is an expert teacher.

Handicapping the Wall Street Way is a very well-written, easy to understand book for novice horseplayers like me. Another one of my friends, who I would consider an intermediate to advanced player herself, said that she could relate to the stock market, financial aspect of it, and it changed the way she thinks about certain types of bets. I have a financial background, and I'd wager that I will start to rethink some of my investment plays as well.

I wasted a lot of money on a lot of handicapping books, and I can honestly say that for $12.95, this is by far the Handicapping the Wall Street Way: Picking Xtra Winners at the Track.

Worst handicapping book ever.......2007-01-16

This is easily the worst handicapping book I've got, and I've got them all. Stay away.

A very basic, excellent introduction to handicapping horse races.......2006-02-07

If you play the horses regularly you'll want to keep the insights of Handicapping The Wall Street Way: Picking Extra Winners At The Track close at hand: it's a slim handbook but packed with insights analyzing the betting market, the psychology involved, strategies for successful horseplaying at the track, and developing an effective personal risk profile to hone risk and skills. A very basic, excellent introduction to handicapping horse races!

Quick Read with Some Reasonable Angles.......2005-12-30

I read the book in about 1-1/2 hours two nights ago. The author is not a skilled writer. Like a lot of horse racing books, he repeats certain information far too much. The book is also small and thin (starts on page 11 and ends on page 82 with blank and significantly less than full pages between. I will not agree with the author with respect to Martingale betting and in over simplifications regarding professional, rational and irrational bettors. The book appears to have been written over a two week period in November 2004.

I think there are some reasonable points raised with respect to ideas such as wagering on Belmont Stakes (bettors caught up in hype), types of races to look for (e.g. 3+ yo vs. 2 & 3 yo), and strategies for certain types of races (e.g. MCl and MSW races). Many books I have read advocate avoiding horses higher than 5:1, but the author has some ideas for higher odds horses (not tried). He also tries to tie the ideas together at the end.

Great Sections, Pleasant Home, Excellent Addition.......2005-11-03

This book is a beautiful blend of both stock market and handicapping theory. Mark Ripple has the double fortune of an advanced knowledge of both and it shows in "Handicapping the Wall Street Way." He takes the time to explain how to win certain races, and utilize strategies that he developed. I found that extremely helpful. He picked Pleasant Home at 30-1 to win the Distaff on Breeder's Cup day (not in the book; a Las Vegas radio show) and gosh, that was amazing in it of itself. There is a great section on exactas as well. This book pieces a lot of things together for me, and that is the point I am trying to make. Previous handicapping books were fine, but when you tie this one in, you will soon see that past, present, and future books (even this one) are not meant to stand alone, and that one really needs a library of them.

Book Description

This enlightening and browsable guide features more than 500 profiles of the lives, deaths, and final resting places of our most influential figures from sports, music, film, television, literature, and politics.

This unparalleled compilation of profiles of the deceased--from Abbott & Costello to Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, from Arthur Ashe to Andy Warhol--offers all of the pertinent details on their lives, deaths, and grave sites, providing a pop-cultural road map for anyone fascinated by celebrity, history, and travel. Listings include Mark Twain, Sonny Bono, Dr. Seuss, Salvador Dali, Mickey Mantle, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Ingrid Bergman, William Shakespeare, Andy Kaufman, Bob Crane, Louis Armstrong, Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Al Capone, Ella Fitzgerald, Mae West, Gertude Stein, and hundreds more.

Fifty photos and a number of informative sidebars (on such topics as how to find the grave of anyone you choose) round out this entertaining look at the permanent addresses of our most significant late citizens. And each listing offers concise directions to both the cemetery and the grave itself, an added benefit for tombstone travelers.

Customer Reviews:

Just as the book's title said..............2007-06-28

Just as the title of this book said, this is a book about where famous persons are buried and also how they died.

I'm having so much fun reading this book because it gives a nice background about the famous person that died. Also, I did not know how 80% of the famous people in this book died, so those facts are a nice addition to the book (a sort of BONUS) .

There are other books out there that describe where famous people are buried, but I like this book the best because of the added BONUS of telling the reader how the persons died and some nice information about them,while they were still alive.

Very informative.

Every thing you needed to know..........2007-04-16

Short descriptions on the deaths of famous people. I would have liked a little more detail regarding the circumstances of the deaths, and less about the location of the graves. Still a great read and would recommend it to anyone!

Interesting facts I Never Knew..........2007-03-19

I love how I read about each person's career and accomplishments of their lives. And myths about their deaths and the real reason for their death exposed. Also where they are buried or perhaps they had their ashes scattered. Very interesting.

The title says it all........2007-01-10

A great book for those of us who are fascinated by the "permanent addresses" of famous people who have passed on.
The book was extensively researched and has many photos of famous grave sites.

"Graveyards are full of indispensible men." Charles de Gaulle.......2006-10-17

Tod Benoit has put together a wonderful little book that would be interesting to anyone.He tells us what happened to 450 well known people in their final years,how they died ,where they are buried and how to locate their graves.He covers people from all walks of life and no matter who picks up this book they are sure to find someone who they often wondered "what ever became of them"...and now they'll know.
I have been fascinated with Graveyards ever since I was a kid.Yes ,they can be macabre places,if you let them be;but if you are the curious type,they can be very interesting.
Tod tells us a bit about these people ,but the real interesting thing would be to visit these sites.Since they are scattered all over the country,that would be a monumental task.However; a visit to any graveyard can be an experience.
When I was a teen in the Army Cadets and on convoys,the popular place to set up the field kitchen was in the parking lot of small country churches. It was quiet,nobody aound and generally an old graveyard nearby.After eating, I would take a stroll,read some of the stones,and invariably find something of interest. You will find things like a whole family being wiped out by things like the Spanisk Flu in 1917. The grave of a soldier who sacrificed his life in some far off war or in the Civil War.Maybe a stone of some old fellow who reached the grand old age of 95 years,who had 5 wives along the way,and they are laying there by his side.
There is just no end to what you can stumble across;and whenever I get a chance and have a little time to spare ;I am never disappointed in what I come across.
I spend a lot of time Birdwatching all over the country and one often end up in a graveyard .It is those little ones way off on the back roads that hold the surprises.
For instance,when I was in Galway,Ireland,a few years ago,I had a morning to myself. I decided to check out an old graveyard in the center of town.I met up with a very popular sports figure who was on the cemetary restoration board of directors . He gave me a tour of the graveyard and showed me a plaque as a memorial to 300 sailors from the Spanish Armada who scrambled ashore after their ships had wrecked on the Irish coast.They were captured and all murdered by the British. The site was originally a monestary, but the British destroyed it and all the monk's graves had been covered up by a garbage dump,but now had been restored. He also pointed out a huge Celtic Cross that was made for the World's Fair in Chicago.After the fair it was shipped back to Ireland and erected as a family monument. I noticed that there was an iron bar,hasp and lock on one of those crypts a little larger than a coffin sitting on the ground. When I asked why the locked opening;he explained that there was not a body inside the crypt.Actually, there was a crypt for 6 below grade and this was an opening to the stairs.You learn something every day.
With the age of Internet,a search of many well known personalities will give their final demise and gravesites.Also many large cemetaries have books written by them covering gravesites and information of famous persons interred there.
Overall, a great book and shows how interesting graveyards and gravesites can be.

Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die?

Average customer rating:

Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die?

Manufacturer: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0739465589

Product Description

Fitting ends and final resting places of the famous, infamous, and the notheworthy.

Where Are They Buried? Where Did They Die? : A Guide for Tombstone Tourists of the South

Average customer rating:

Where Are They Buried? Where Did They Die? : A Guide for Tombstone Tourists of the South
Tod Benoit
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1579126332

Where They're Buried : A Directory Containing More Than Twenty Thousand Names of Notable Persons Buried in American Cemeteries, With Listings of Many Prominent People Who Were Cremated

Average customer rating:

Not the best that's out
Does Everyone Have 15 Minutes of Fame?

Where They're Buried : A Directory Containing More Than Twenty Thousand Names of Notable Persons Buried in American Cemeteries, With Listings of Many Prominent People Who Were Cremated
Thomas E. Spencer
Manufacturer: Clearfield
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Genealogy | Reference | Subjects | Books

Directories | Catalogs & Directories | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0806348232

Book Description

Have you ever wondered where some of our more famous personalities were laid to rest? Did you know, for instance, that Francis Scott Key, the composer of the Star Spangled Banner, is buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Frederick, Maryland, or that John T. Scopes, the Tennessee school teacher who figured in the notorious "Monkey Trial" of the 1920s, was interred at Oak Grove Cemetery, Padukah, Kentucky? Perhaps you have a special admiration for someone like composers George and Ira Gershwin, in which case you might want to visit their grave sites when you're in the vicinity of Mt. Hope Cemetery at Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Now, for the first time, there is a book that will help you to locate the final resting place of more than 20,000 notable persons who were either buried or cremated in the United States. Arranged by subject category and thereunder alphabetically, Where They're Buried is a goliath of a work that catalogues deceased celebrities from all walks of life: from business leaders, inventors and sculptors to federal office holders, governors and mayors; from artists, editors and attorneys to physicians, musicians and military officers; and from actors, ball players and cartoonists to chemists, choreographers and movie directors. There is even a Rogue's Gallery of assassins, desperados, racketeers, spies, and counterspies. While Mr. Spencer does not attest to having included every notable American of bygone days, he can certainly claim to have broken the ice by canvassing, as he has, notable figures in American history from the colonial period to 1997. Where elected officials are concerned he can certainly claim to have done even more than that, inasmuch as a full third of the book lists their resting places.

This is a great browser of a volume. Open it to any page and you'll turn up the burial place of someone you've heard of or have an interest in. Given the book's remarkable coverage, it's bound to keep you turning and turning.

Customer Reviews:

Not the best that's out.......2006-02-16

Yes, I spent a lot of $$$ on this book too and didn't really get anything useful out of it until I decided to check it out as a last resort for someone I've been searching for for years. Of ALL places he was listed in this book so it made the investment worthwhile, but I'll probably never need it for anything else. There are better books out there with the information most people will want.

Does Everyone Have 15 Minutes of Fame?.......2001-07-07

This is an interesting book, if only from the perspective that it lists almost anyone who achieved 15 minutes worth of fame (or notoriety). Some of the information is incorrect such as the address of a particular cemetery (a fairly standard inconsistency). Is it worth its hefty price tag? Probably not. I didn't find the kind of information I was looking for. After looking over this book, I realized I had just tossed a nice piece of change out the window and would probably not use this as a source of reference in the future. However, in all fairness, anyone interested in the grave locations of civil war or congressional grave locations, might find this book very useful and have a completely different take on this book.

Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? : Fittings Ends and Final Resting Places of the Famous, Infamous, and Noteworthy

Average customer rating:

Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? : Fittings Ends and Final Resting Places of the Famous, Infamous, and Noteworthy
Tod Benoit
Manufacturer: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KYK0JW

Average customer rating:

Interesting Topic, Yet Stretched Too Far

The Author's High Profile Job Got Me To Buy The Book....

A Great Read; A Great Gift

GOOD BOOK BUT

Fast Read

The Games Do Count: America's Best and Brightest on the Power of Sports
Brian Kilmeade
Manufacturer: HarperEntertainment
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies | Sports | Subjects | Books
Reference | Miscellaneous | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Sports | Subjects | Books
Motivational | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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When Washington Crossed the Delaware: A Wintertime Story for Young Patriots

ASIN: 0060736763
Release Date: 2005-10-04

Book Description

What do Henry Kissinger, Jack Welch, Condoleezza Rice, and Jon Bon Jovi have in common? They have all reached the top of their respective professions, and they all credit sports for teaching them the lessons that were fundamental to their success. In his years spent interviewing and profiling celebrities, politicians, and top businesspeople, popular sportscaster and Fox & Friends cohost Brian Kilmeade has discovered that nearly everyone shares a love of sports and has a story about how a game, a coach, or a single moment of competition changed his or her life.

These vignettes have entertained, surprised, and inspired readers nationwide with their insight into America's most respected and well-known personalities. Kilmeade presents more than seventy stories straight from the men and women themselves and those who were closest to them. From competition to camaraderie, individual achievement to teamwork, failure to success, the world of sports encompasses it all and enriches our lives. The Games Do Count reveals this simple and compelling truth: America's best and brightest haven't just worked hard -- they've played hard -- and the results have been staggering!

Customer Reviews:

Interesting Topic, Yet Stretched Too Far.......2007-08-22

Brian Kilmeade intrigues me on TV. He is witty, fast thinking, well informed, and personable.

In my judgment, his book covered a worthwhile topic--the impact of athletics on the lives of participants, even those who don't become star performers.

As an avid sports fan, I welcomed several wise observations like this statement from George Will, one of the celebrities profiled: "Baseball--it's a cliche, but like a lot of cliches, it's true--is a game of failure. The best hitter in baseball in a given year fails more than 60 percent of the time. If you bat .350, you've failed 65 percent of the time. Ted Williams batted .406 in 1941, which means he failed to get a hit roughly 60 percent of the time. In any given year, the best team in baseball walks off the field beaten about sixty times. It's a very difficult game and a game of failure. That doesn't mean that some people aren't a whole lot better than others. And everyone was a whole lot better than I was most of the time."

However, because so many of the people Brian Kilmeade featured say practically the same thing, I suggest that he would have produced a more appealing book if he had eliminated the duplications. Through careful editing, he could have given us half as much material that would have carried twice as much impact.

The Complete Communicator: Change Your Communication-change Your Life!

The Author's High Profile Job Got Me To Buy The Book...........2007-05-15

The author's high profile job got me to buy his book, as I watch his morning news program everyday. I was happy to find that the book stands alone as an inspiring weaving of interesting true stories from celebrities on how sports impacted their lives.

Kilmeade did a great job of getting the biggest names of our time to share their victories and defeats, and how those experiences shaped their paths toward success.

This is an upbeat book that will touch your soul. A great gift for teenagers.

A Great Read; A Great Gift.......2006-09-26

I originally purchased this book for my husband. After reading it myself, I decided that it would also make the perfect Christmas gift for every guy on my list. I gave 11 of these books that Christmas. I have never received such heartfelt and enthusiastic thank you's for my gifts as I did from gifting "The Games Do Count". My son and nephews in college especially appreciated this book, as it (1) consists of many great, individual short stories and (2) with their busy college schedules, this book was the perfect choice for some quick, enjoyable down-time reading.

GOOD BOOK BUT.......2006-06-21

THIS MAY A GOOD BOOK BUT THE AUTHOR IS STILL A POMPOUS ARROGANT JERK. AND HE IS NOT AT ALL FUNNY.

Fast Read.......2006-03-16

This was a fast read but the chapters get a bit repetitive. Most of the stories begin to sound the same.

The Games Do Count: America's Best And Brightest On The Power Of Sports

Average customer rating:

The Games Do Count: America's Best And Brightest On The Power Of Sports
Brian Kilmeade
Manufacturer: Regan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NY2RAY

Average customer rating:

The Games Do Count: America's Best And Brightest On The Power Of Sports
Brian Kilmeade
Manufacturer: Regan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF42GY

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