Backroads of Texas, 4th Edition: The sites, scenes, history, people, and places your map doesn't tell you about

Book Description

This fascinating travel companion covers more than 15,000 miles of Texas roads. You can experience 71 major tours and dozens of side trips through hundreds of towns all across the state. Each tour description comes complete with a map, directions, mileage, and the towns, history, and heritage you'll discover along the way.

Customer Reviews:

Nothing Backroads or Unique.......2006-08-11

A wate of money. This is list main highway routes. A lot less information than what one can find in a AAA Book. No restaurants and no places to stay even listed. Looks like the authoir never visited any of these places. He certainly brings nothning unique to this book.

Motorcycling.......2006-03-07

Bought this for information so we can do M/C traveling. Very informative and helpful.

Backroads & Byways of Texas: Drives, Day Trips & Weekend Excursions

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Backroads & Byways of Texas: Drives, Day Trips & Weekend Excursions
Amy K. Brown
Manufacturer: Countryman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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BACKROADS OF TEXAS

Manufacturer: Lone Star
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GQI0F0

Hill Country Backroads: Showing the Way in Comal County

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Life and Times of an Unusually Helpful Man

Hill Country Backroads: Showing the Way in Comal County
Laurie E. Jasinski
Manufacturer: Texas Christian University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Traffic & Safety | Automotive | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Automotive | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

Life and Times of an Unusually Helpful Man.......2001-04-07

---One of several possible ways to read Laurie Jasinski's HILL COUNTRY BACKROADS is as a straightforward biography of her maternal grandfather, Joe Sanders. And very good biography it is, of the "life and times variety." Joe Sanders was 14 in 1909 when a driver stopped the first car (a 1904 Oldsmobile) he had ever seen in front of his family's farm outside Ottoville in northwestern Ohio. That day began a lifelong romance with automobiling. A few years later, having had first typhoid fever and then pneumonia, young Joe followed his doctor's advice and went south for his health. After a few months in the seat of Comal County, Texas, New Braunfels, he enlisted in the army for World War I. Once mustered out, he returned to New Braunfels and went to work for decades as a chauffeur and mechanic for the wealthy German-American Hippolyt Dittlinger. He married the author's grandmother and began exploring by car and on foot the nearby limestone Hill Country above New Braunfels.

---The author sets her grandfather's life and achievements against times when the automobile was new, the Hill Country was still wild and woolly, tourism was just starting up and unwary travelers frequently got lost for lack of any signs on the back roads indicating where they were or how far from the next town. Joe Sanders made it a personal mission to help stranded tourists. He enlisted others to help him place sign posts throughout the back country. Between 1933 and 1960 he compiled data for a series of accurate, increasingly detailed and colorful maps of Comal County and the sights no visitor should miss. These included sweeping mountain vistas, caverns, rivers, streams, ranches, wildlife and on and on. He also took hundreds of photographs converted by himself and friends into postcards to attract more tourists to the Hill Country.

Book Description

From Luckenbach to Lubbock, Galveston to Greenville, Bob Phillips has spent nearly three decades traveling the backroads of Texas searching for and celebrating "the everyday men and women who make Texas such an incredible place." Here are fifty stories straight from the heart of Texas Country Reporter, the Emmy award-winning television program created, produced, and hosted by Bob Phillips.

Meet a cowboy with the heart of a poet and a woman whose "secret sauce" can sweeten a sour accordion. Visit a resurrected ghost town and a sanctuary for abandoned pigs. Stop by offbeat eateries where you can sip coffee as they wash your car or enjoy truly Texas-sized pancakes.

For fans of Texas Country Reporter, this companion book will recall some favorite stories. For non-Texans, it serves up a sampling of the unique people and places that make the Lone Star State larger than life.

Customer Reviews:

Tremendous Texas book.......2001-10-15

Bob Phillips is the Charles Kuralt of Texas and this book proves it. He has "it," the ability to connect with regular folks. Great, great book.

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Backroads of Texas
Earl Thollander
Manufacturer: Northland Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H8EB7S

TEXAS COUNTRY REPORTER: STORIES FROM THE BACKROADS

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TEXAS COUNTRY REPORTER: STORIES FROM THE BACKROADS

Manufacturer: Phillips Productions USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IAYEI6

Book Description

Praise for Kofi Annan: A Man of Peace in a World of War

"Stanley Meisler, an old and steady hand at the U.N., has written a readable, wise, balanced, and most thoughtful biography of Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The focus is on his victories and defeats as secretary-general and on his problems and challenges and how he faced them. Stanley looks at the charges against him as well as his undoubted contributions and calls it as he sees it. This book is essential for anyone who wants to understand Kofi Annan's contribution to the 'house' as well as the genesis and exodus of the attacks against him."
--Thomas R. Pickering, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former undersecretary of state

"Stanley Meisler is a great reporter--this is a wonderfully observed and beautifully written book. It is the definitive portrait of Kofi Annan's calm and dedicated leadership of the United Nations at a time of huge international turmoil."
--William Shawcross, author of Deliver Us from Evil: Peacekeepers, Warlords, and a World of Endless Conflict

"Kofi Annan is one of the world's most compelling figures. This is both an absorbing biography of a remarkable man and a fast-paced history of the United Nations at the opening of a new century. Stanley Meisler has made the U.N. story come alive as a flesh-and-blood drama of outsized egos clashing over high-stakes issues."
--Doyle McManus, Washington Bureau Chief, Los Angeles Times

"[This is] a revealing and timely portrait of a remarkable man who has helped shape the first years of the twenty-first century. After finishing Stanley Meisler's book, my only regret is that Kofi Annan isn't running for president of the United States. He'd have my vote in a heartbeat."
--David Lamb, author of The Africans

"Stanley Meisler is one of America's most knowledgeable and entertaining writers about the United Nations and its history. Now, he gives us an authoritative, highly readable account of the career of Kofi Annan, from his days as a young Ghanian student at MIT to his tenure at the United Nations. The book covers Annan's successes and his notable failures, from Rwanda to, especially, Iraq. Through Annan's career, Meisler narrates the story of how both the Clinton administration and the George W. Bush administration have used the United Nations as a political scapegoat. This is, in a sense, a biography of a tragedy."
--James Mann, author of Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet and the author-in-residence at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews:

Kofi Annan - in the eye of the storm.......2007-06-18

The United Nations is becalmed. Kofi Annan, the courtly, quietly-spoken Ghanaian, a fixture on our television screens for a decade, has gone; his successor as secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, has yet to stamp his personality on the world body.

In the hiatus Stanley Meisler, journalist, author, UN insider, has led the inevitable rush to publish a summation of the Annan years. He is well qualified to do so.

The dustcover of this book is a pointer to the treatment Meisler gives his subject in a biography which Annan did not authorise, but did not try to block. The former secretary general is pictured half in shadow, looking worried, almost shifty in his dark, pin-striped business suit.

It is not the image we are used to, yet in many ways appropriate, because this was a secretary generalship of sunshine and shadow - the Nobel Peace Prize and the oil-for-food scandal; East Timorese independence and always and inevitably, the Iraq conflict.

It was a time of steadily worsening relations between the UN and the United States, although the antagonism began well before Annan took office and continued despite his best efforts to find a middle way. His relations with the Clinton White House, always testy after the bombing of Serbia during the Kosovo crisis, plunged to new depths when the neo-conservative-dominated Bush Administration took office in 2001.

He was powerless to influence a presidency determined to avenge the death and destruction of 9/11. The fact he even tried earned condemnation and while President George W. Bush may have talked about the "unique legitimacy" of the United Nations, in the minds of those at the White House the uniqueness and the legitimacy existed only when it was bestowed on the US to do what it wanted to do.

Key Bush adviser Richard Perle openly looked forward to the death of the UN in the wake of the initially successful invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and the ultimate insult was delivered with the appointment of the far right ideologue, John Bolton, as American Ambassador to the international body.

The fiction that Bolton was there to promote UN reform was paper thin. As Meisler writes, there were plenty of institutions that needed the reforming touch including, after the 2000 election, the American system of casting and counting votes. "But the clamour for UN reform was different. It was incessant, very loud and very suspicious"....coming too often from "American ideologues who wanted to paint a false image of the UN as corrupt, slovenly, wasteful, inefficient and anti-American".

Throughout these turbulent times, Annan struggled to enhance what little clout the UN possessed in whatever way he could. While his predecessor, Egyptian Boutros Boutros-Ghali, had been a remote figure, Annan took to the celebrity circuit, becoming a fixture in New York society, attending an endless round of parties giving and receiving advice whenever and wherever he could. While naturally a charming man, one has the feeling that this was not his ideal modus operandi, but circumstances forced him to play the public relations card

Meisler reveals the endless sniping from Washington took its toll on the secretary general. He suffered two bouts of depression to the point where a sympathetic French President, Jacques Chirac, pleaded with him: "You must pull yourself together". On the second occasion at the height of the row over oil-for-food with the American right baying for his blood, a number of colleague persuaded Annan to attend two secret meetings "to shake him out of his low feelings". It is a measure of the man that he responded and returned to task with renewed vigour.

For me some of the most interesting parts of this book deal with Annan's early life. A long-serving UN bureaucrat, he worked mostly out of sight behind the scenes and it was only in the early 1990s that he emerged as a possible contender for the top job. The young Kofi was an athlete with an eye for the girls who briefly considered a career as a businessman running a flour mill in Ghana and served a short term as that country's tourism chief.

Even when he was settled at the UN, his ultimate ambition did not stretch beyond assistant secretary general rank, but fate decreed otherwise.

This is a thoroughly readable book which sheds light on a complicated, brilliant yet vulnerable individual who steered the UN safely though some of the worst years in its history. Whether this course can be maintained by his successor remains to be seen.

Impressive, intriguing and recommended.......2007-01-22

I liked this book very much because it covers the entire life of a remarkable man, who I admire so much. I am thankful to Meisler for this in-depth, objective and complete account of so many little-known facts and events from the life of Kofi Annan that I am sure will urge you to read it cover to cover. There is a lot you can and will learn from this book and that's why I highly recommend it.

Average customer rating:

Wonderful book!
Kente Cloth

Kente Colors
Debbi Chocolate
Manufacturer: Walker Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0802775284

Book Description

A joyful ode to kente celebrates the beauty and tradition of this West African fabric that is now so popular in America. Rhythmic verse shows the special meaning of colors and patterns while glorious paintings show kente as it is used and worn in Ghana, from babies' blankets to dancers' capes. An author's note further explains kente's rich symbolism. Readers young and old will delight in discovering the connections between African culture and the colorful cloth we love to wear.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful book!.......2001-12-28

It is easy to read with very beautiful colors. I have three Ewe students from Togo and am hard pressed to find books to reflect their culture. I'm sure that the Ewe in Ghana and Togo are related and my students will be able see some of their culture reflected in the book. Thanks Deborah!

Kente Cloth.......2000-07-29

A warm multicultural book, that gives an enlightining look at the traditional hand weaving of the Kente Cloth. The book is an exciting celebration of culture by the Ashante people of Ghana and the Ewe of Ghana and Togo. The steady rhythum of rhyming text along with its bright and colorful illustrations are sure to attract the attention of young readers. As an educator I would use this book to introduce colors and weaving activities to young children. The use of rhyme is a great springboard for strenghthening students phonemic awarness. I would give this book 5 stars.

Kwame Nkrumah: Father Of African Nationalism

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Humm...
Nkrumah Lives
Hopes, Dreams and Aspirations.

Kwame Nkrumah: Father Of African Nationalism
David Birmingham
Manufacturer: Ohio University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

Ghana | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

West Africa | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0821412426

Customer Reviews:

Humm..........2007-09-25

I was expecting a little bit more from this book. In fact I am kind of disappointed. It gives an overview of Kwame Nkrumah's life, but does not go in much detail.

Nkrumah Lives.......2006-04-20

This is a good book on one of Africa's greatest sons who had a clear vision of the direction that the continent should follow. Nkrumah led Ghana to its independence but as far as he was concerned, Ghana could not be fully independent until the whole continent was free. He also believed in economic emancipation of the African continent as well as African unity.

Nkrumah's pan-African credentials are second to none. His ideas were too far ahead of most other African leaders who were taking advantage of their newly found status to amass wealth for themselses and not to be interested on ideas about African unity or economic well being for their people. His ideas put him on collision course with the strong and developed Western powers. His doom was, therefore, sealed as he was ultimately overthrown in a military coup.

However, Nkrumah's ideas have lived on. The African continent is now completely decolonised. However, the dream of African unity is still to be realised as well as the need to see economic empowerment of the African people. Nkrumah's vision will continue to inspire people towards the realisation of unity and prosperity for the continent and its people.

Hopes, Dreams and Aspirations........2006-03-24

This book is excellent! It provided a wonderful insight into an icon's hopes, dreams and aspirations for his country.

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Colors of Ghana

Colors of Ghana (Colors of the World)
Holly Littlefield
Manufacturer: Carolrhoda Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

West Africa | Africa | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1575053543

Customer Reviews:

Colors of Ghana.......2000-04-08

More than the title reveals, Colors of Ghana is a delightfulintroduction to a plethora of facts about Ghana. The book starts witha solid introduction about the country: flora and fauna, borders,population, ancient and modern history, and languages. It then goes on to enlighten the reader using ten colors: gold, white, orange, gray, green, black, tan, blue, brown, and silver. Each color is used to introduce various cultural, geographical, historical, and other aspects of Ghana. Gold represents the Golden Stool, the symbol of prowess and freedom of the Asante people. White symbolizes various traditional ceremonies, such as babies' naming rites. Orange, the background of the Kyeretiwe kente cloth is presented in the most fascinating manner. The grim slave walls in Elmina are designated by the color gray, while land and wildlife are portrayed by green. Black stands for the black star in the middle of the Ghanaian flag. Tan is the color of traditional drums used for various ceremonies, as well as conveying messages before the advent of telecommunication devices. Blue represents the waters of the Volta Lake, the source of electricity, irrigation and fish life in Ghana. Brown denotes the color of cacao pods that have become roasted in the sun. Finally, silver exemplifies the web of Ananse the spider, the clever character that spans many tales in Ghana and the African Diaspora.

Each section of the books begins with a pronunciation guide that facilitates the utterance of the color in question. Crisply clean illustrations adorn each section, adding meaning and better understanding of the various ideas presented.

Customer Reviews:

I am not sure that the other reviewers are geniune.........2004-06-18

There are 10 reviews of this book here, they do not all seem genuine, just keep that in mind. they are all written in the same style, with many of the same comments.

My trip to the supermarket this morning was more interesting.......2004-06-08

I was very disapointed with this book. I'm recently teaching many Ghanains and hoped this book would give me a liottle bit of insight on their culture, but it was just a boring travel journal. I would not recommed this book, unless you're a good friend or family member of Mr. Gaines.

Experience Ghana!.......2003-05-20

It is remarkable to think that this is Mr. Gaines first book! He has hit a homerun the first time at bat! After completing the book I was struck with a desire to experince Ghana for myself!

12 Days in Ghana.......2003-04-07

12 Days in Ghana is a superb publication! Once I started reading the book, I couldn't put it down. I was amazed that this was Mr. Gaines first publication. 12 Days in Ghana made me laugh and cry - he did an excellent job on incorporating emotions and humor throughout the book. His writing style made me feel that I was with him on his journey to Ghana. This book has inspired me to continue my research on my family history. I highly recommend this book to anyone planning a voyage to their Ghana or anyone who is planning to search their own roots. I am hoping Mr. Gaines will write a sequel to the book!

Ghana's a great country.......2003-02-11

My co-worker's brother wrote this book so I decided to support him and read it. Since I'm preparing for a trip to Ghana also I thought this book was interesting and Mr. Gaines' adventures were hilarious.

Airliners No. 13 BOAC Nigeria British United British Caledonian East African MEA Ghana Airlines

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Airliners No. 13 BOAC Nigeria British United British Caledonian East African MEA Ghana Airlines
Jim Lucas
Manufacturer: Airline Publications & Sales LTD
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Ghana | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

Nigeria | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

General | Transportation | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000OYRGLS

Product Description

Photographs, illustrations, information and color schemes on various airliners.

Around the World Program: Burma, Central America, Ghana, Colombia, Bolivia

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Around the World Program: Burma, Central America, Ghana, Colombia, Bolivia
American Geographical Society
Manufacturer: Nelson Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KS604M

A Far Cry from Plymouth Rock: A Personal Narrative

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A Far Cry from Plymouth Rock: A Personal Narrative
Kwame Dawes
Manufacturer: Peepal Tree Press Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

Directly addressing the relationship with his father, a Marxist Caribbean nationalist, Kwame Dawes presents a memoir of intellectual rigor that is coupled with great tenderness. With the immediacy of a man thinking aloud and the careful structure of art that recalls the places that have molded his life—from Ghana and Jamaica to Canada and America—Dawes explores the nearly universal conditions of migrants. Ultimately about the joys of personal differences, this autobiography is a touching look into the life of a son, husband, and father.

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Ghana Bwana(Tandy Color Computer 64)
Tandy & SRB Software
Manufacturer: Radio Shack/Tandy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Software
ASIN: B000TFNB6G

Kofi Annan: The Peacekeeper (Book Report Biographies)

Average customer rating:

OK book about a very bad man.
Needs more depth

Kofi Annan: The Peacekeeper (Book Report Biographies)
John Tessitore
Manufacturer: Franklin Watts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

General | International Law | Law | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0531117065

Customer Reviews:

OK book about a very bad man........2004-12-20

Kofi Annan is a sick man and a dangerous one at that. Kofi Annan: The Peacekeeper is ironic in that Annan has been indirectly and directly responsible for the deaths of many people due his being asleep at the wheel at the UN, support for Arafar, etc.

Jeff Jacoby recently wrote that he is basically a symptom of UN's sickness. Jacoby noted that just last week, Annan woke up to a Wall Street Journal column by Glenn Harlan Reynolds, publisher of the influential InstaPundit website, urging that he be replaced by Vaclav Havel, the much-admired former president of the Czech Republic.

In The New York Times, op-ed eminence William Safire reviewed the revelations that link the massive oil-for-food scandal to Annan's own family: Until this year, his son Kojo was getting monthly payments from a firm that had a major oil-for-food contract with the UN -- even though he'd left the company in 1998. The corruption enveloping the UN will not begin to dissipate, Safire wrote, until Annan resigns, "having, through initial ineptitude and final obstructionism, brought dishonor on the Secretariat of the United Nations."

Meanwhile, the latest National Review was out, with its cover photo of Annan and the headline, in large red letters: "You're Fired!" An editorial inside insisted that "Annan should either resign, if he is honorable, or be removed, if he is not," while an essay by Nile Gardiner, a former aide to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, explained why "Kofi's hour is up." With his record, Gardiner observed, "if Annan were the CEO of a Fortune 500 company . . . he would have been forced to resign months ago."

On Wednesday came another call for Annan's ouster, this one from the chairman of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has amassed evidence that Saddam Hussein used stolen oil-for-food dollars to underwrite terrorism and suborn at least one senior UN official. It is "abundantly clear" that Kofi Annan should resign, Senator Norm Coleman said. "As long as Mr. Annan remains in charge, the world will never be able to learn the full extent of the bribes, kickbacks, and under-the-table payments that took place under the UN's collective nose."

But odds are the world won't much care about getting to the bottom of the latest UN scandal. UN scandals rarely provoke lasting outrage. There was no global uproar when the brutal regime in Libya was chosen to chair the UN's Human Rights Commission. Nothing happened to the UN after its troops allowed Serbs to slaughter 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the "safe haven" of Srebrenica. Sex scandals seem to erupt wherever the UN goes -- the latest involves charges of rape, child abuse, and prostitution by UN personnel in the Congo -- but they never cause heads to roll in Turtle Bay. Annan himself became secretary general despite his failure, when he headed the UN's peacekeeping operations, to pay attention to warnings of genocide in Rwanda.

Why should anything be different this time? Oil-for-food may be the greatest international rip-off of modern times, it may have strengthened one of the world's bloodiest dictators, but if history is any guide, the scandal headlines will fade from view long before the secretary general does. By week's end, in fact, dozens of governments, including all the permanent members of the Security Council save the United States, had publicly rallied to Annan's support. Scandal or no scandal, he will almost certainly serve out the remaining two years of his term.

Which is just as well. Annan is merely a symptom of the UN's sickness, not the cause of it. His resignation would do nothing to reform the UN into the engine of peace and liberty its founders envisioned. Better that Annan remain in place as a symbol of UN fecklessness and failure, and a spur to those who can envision something better.

The UN is a corrupt institution, one that long ago squandered whatever moral legitimacy it had. The UN's founding documents venerate justice and human rights, but for the past 40 years, the organization has been dominated by a bloc of states -- essentially the Afro-Asian Third World -- most of whose governments routinely pervert justice and violate human rights.

Inside the United Nations, there is no difference between a dictatorship or a democracy: Each gets exactly one vote in the General Assembly. The reason the UN indulges vicious regimes like those in North Korea, Syria, and Cuba is that they are members in good standing, and most other governments lack the courage to cross them. The UN cannot be fixed unless that changes -- and that isn't going to change.

Kofi is a bad man.

Needs more depth.......2002-01-10

Tessitore's biography of Kofi Annan leaves the reader with only very vague insight into the life of the seventh Secretary-General to the United Nations. After only a few pages, it becomes evident that the author himself couldn't possibly have known too much about Mr. Annan. Thus, it was no surprise to learn later that Tessitore had never even had an opportunity to interview with the UN Secretary-General.

As a biography, Tessitore's account left me dissatisfied, since it gave me little detail about the life of Kofi Annan. It would be a perfect option for someone seeking only a very broad understanding of Mr. Annan's background. Considering he had access to scarce information himself, I guess Tessitore did a good job. But this begs the question: Why write a biography on a man you know very little about?

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