Picture of author.
13 Works 619 Membros 8 Reviews

About the Author

Image credit: Melissa Rossi

Obras de M. L. Rossi

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome padrão
Rossi, M. L.
Outros nomes
Rossi, Melissa L.
Data de nascimento
1965-01-28
Sexo
female
Nacionalidade
USA
Ocupação
journalist

Membros

Resenhas

The only "catch" with this book is that it is a bit dated by now (this is the only reason I only gave it 3 stars). Published in 2003, the world has changed a lot since then. Having said that, the book is still a very good primer for people needing to know what is going on around the world. Basically, this book is a nice and quick way to get background and "the bottom line" on various nations and world issues. For well-read people, this book may not be as essential, but it may be worth browsing. For people who are simply not informed at all, a book like this is essential. If nothing else, it may help people get a better grasp of the world around them.

By the way, I agree with a couple other reviewers on the site. Don't try to read this in one sitting. Rather, read a bit here and a bit there. If a particular topic grabs your attention, go there first. This book really lends itself to browsing.

I borrowed my copy via Interlibrary Loan.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
bloodravenlib | 1 outra resenha | Aug 17, 2020 |
There's a really great book to be written along the lines of this one: a catalog of the people, companies, and organizations that "run" the world, and about which most of us know too little. Sadly, Melissa Rossi did not write it. As noted by other reviewers, Rossi is strongly biased--the book is little more than an excuse to savage George W. Bush and anyone associated with him. Even so, Rossi could have written an interesting and useful book along those lines if she had carefully researched her topic. Instead, we get a mish-mash of half-truths and thinly-veiled conspiracy theories. I will never waste my money on another of her books.

I'm not aware of another book that tries to do what this one claims to do and succeeds. But Russ Kick's books Everything You Know Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies, 100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know, You Are STILL Being Lied To: The NEW Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths, and others are at least worth a look.
… (mais)
½
 
Marcado
szarka | outras 3 resenhas | Jun 10, 2010 |
It's embarrassing to admit, but it took me months to get through this book. Mostly because I didn't like it much in the beginning so I would set it down for weeks at a time. With situations in the Middle East changing daily, the book did a good job of reporting on events up to the time of its publication in 2008, but was a little dated by the time I finally finished it in February 2010.

The book starts with four general chapters: Misunderstanding the Middle East, Jogging Through the Millennia, Pulling the Pieces Together, and European Design: Hacking Up the Middle East. These give good background for the rest of the book, which contains chapters by individual countries.

There are multiple reasons that the book didn't initially appeal to me. First: Ms. Rossi quite openly showed her biases and political leanings. Whether or not I agreed with them was not the point; I wanted facts and not editorializing. Second: almost every page has a least one and often more inset boxes, and it was hard to read the text without a loss of continuity. Third: Perhaps the style of writing was an attempt to make the text more entertaining or lively, but it often came across as only flippant, snarky, or sarcastic.

I never gave up completely on the book, and I'm glad I did not because it does contain a huge amount of information. It helped me tie together some of the events that have happened in the different countries but that are so intermingled. It certainly helped with my understanding of why some of them happened. There are maps of the Middle East as well as of the individual countries. While helpful, I wish they had been more detailed because even in the case of the individual countries, the text mentioned places that were not on the maps. There are also numerous black and white photographs as well as three cheat sheets that do help. Some of the inset boxes include “Fast Facts,” “What Matters,” “Hot Shots,” and “Hot Spots.” Those were very helpful and more logically placed than some of the other insets. While notes and references are included, it seemed to me that quite a few of the statements needed sources which were not given.

It also seemed that the snarkiness was toned down as the book went on, or perhaps I just got used to it. I also got used to the constant breaks in the main text, and grudgingly concede that they might have actually made the book easier to read in the long run, simply because all the main text without breaks might have seemed a little daunting for the casual reader like I am.

I now know a good deal more about the Middle East than I did before I read the book and am glad I kept with it (despite frequent and long vacations) and finished it.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
TooBusyReading | Feb 6, 2010 |
Interesting read. I'm guessing that the author is paranoid and a liberal. I'm reasonable sure that a conservative author would find things to be paranoid about with liberal groups that really run the world as well.
 
Marcado
knipfty | outras 3 resenhas | Apr 1, 2009 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
13
Membros
619
Popularidade
#40,646
Avaliação
½ 3.3
Resenhas
8
ISBNs
19
Idiomas
1

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