Sullenberger has provided a real service in presenting these courageous American leaders and their stories.
With the assistance of Century (co-author, with Ice-T: Ice, 2011, etc.), Sullenberger (Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters, 2009) presents “a contemporary version” of John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage.
Following his heroic landing of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, the author met with first officer Jeff Skiles to discuss how to move forward as private individuals faced with unsought public notoriety. They resolved to use their “new platform for the greater good” by serving as advocates and champions for aviation safety and the profession of airline pilots. But first they had to prepare themselves to deal with the new challenge. This book is an outgrowth of that process, as they rose to master new responsibilities and obligations. Sullenberger calls it “a kind of personal quest,” which brought him into contact with the 11 people whose stories form the core of his book. Among others, they include three-time World Series–winning baseball manager Tony La Russa; Admiral Thad Allen, who brought innovative methods and a “fresh eye” to dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; Gene Kranz, the NASA Flight Director who stood up for the astronauts' safety against NASA's bureaucracy, and who brought Apollo 13 and its crew safely home; and Michelle Rhee, who was brought in to overhaul the Washington, D.C., school system and produced remarkable results over three years. Sullenberger is also concerned with how people build loyalty and empower others, as well as how they respond to crises. He highlights the role of Jim Sinegal at Costco, who has defended his employees and customers against stockholders.
Sullenberger has provided a real service in presenting these courageous American leaders and their stories.Pub Date: May 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-192470-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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