Amazon.com
Sven Lindqvist, a traveler and historian, paints a broad-brush history of European colonialism, especially in Africa. Drawing his title from Joseph Conrad's fable Heart of Darkness, he turns up 19th-century newspaper accounts of British massacres of wounded Sudanese rebels after the siege of Omdurman, of German concentration camps in what was once called Southwest Africa, of a Belgian captain who decorated his flower beds with the heads of recalcitrant plantation workers. These incidents were not unusual, Lindqvist writes. Neither were they thought especially brutal by their perpetrators, for, he argues, colonialism was guided by a doctrine that placed Europe at the top of the evolutionary ladder and regarded non-Europeans as a separate species bound for extinction--a doctrine that found its ultimate expression in the Holocaust. This is an occasionally gruesome and always provocative study.
Book Description
A brilliant and unsettling intellectual history of Europe's genocidal colonization of Africa.
"Exterminate All the Brutes" is a searching examination of Europe's dark history in Africa and the origins of genocide. Using Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as his point of departure, Sven Lindqvist takes us on a haunting tour through the colonial past, interwoven with a modern-day travelogue. Retracing the steps of European explorers, missionaries, politicians, and historians in Africa from the late eighteenth century onward, the author exposes the roots of genocide in Africa via his own journey through the Saharan desert. As Lindqvist shows, fantasies not merely of white superiority but of actual extermination—"cleansing" the earth of the so-called lesser races—deeply informed European colonialism and racist ideology that ultimately culminated in Europe's own Holocaust.
Chosen as one of the Best Books of 1998 by the New Internationalist, which called it "a beautifully written integration of criticism, cultural history, and travel writing, underpinned by a passion for social justice," "Exterminate All the Brutes" is a powerful reckoning with the past and an indispensable contribution to the literature of colonial Africa and European genocide.
Customer Reviews:
Explaining genocide: "They were going to die anyhow...".......2007-04-02
"At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races." - Charles Darwin
The words "civilized" and "savage" are relative, as continually reminded by recent history and current events. Sven Lindqvist, in his spare, lucid, imaginative prose demonstrates the moral hypocricy of the "champions of civilization". Yes, this is a book that will be read with an accelerated heartbeat, more than a bit of anger and some tears amongst the more sensitive. It should also be an edifying experience even for the well read. I don't believe this book is about providing any particular group(s) with an extra burden of guilt; we all have more than our share of skeletons in our closets. The real message is, we humans, we all wallow in the same gutter.
Incredibly powerful and relevant still.......2006-11-26
Exterminate All the Brutes is brief and disturbing; Sven Lindqvist unveils the realities and moral convictions we have almost completely repressed. Just as the author suggests, the book shatters the image we have of ourselves, but even more importantly, it is distressing how relevant his ideas and Conrad's `Heart of Darkness' are in the world today - again.
The title of the book is taken from Joseph Conrad's 1902 classic novel - Heart of Darkness. In it, the main character, Kurtz, goes to Africa to bring progress and culture to the uncivilized continent. He is dispatched to Africa as an ivory procurement agent, and as the story develops the reader is confronted with the unreal brutality of the colonial rule. Conrad's work intertwines the themes of `light of civilization' and `darkness of barbarism' and makes reader realize the hollowness of these phrases as Kurtz surrounds himself with chaos and mayhem. Sven Lindqvist develops this theme as he traces the imperial history of European colonialism and condenses it to a single sentence: "Exterminate all the brutes." European world expansion, he claims, and the employed tactics of extermination are the truths we like to forget. Preferring to externalize we look at the Holocaust as a historical aberration, a smear on the path of progress and enlightenment brought to the world by the Western societies. However, as the author points out, just as all of Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz, it would also be the European habits and political precedents that would lay the foundation for the atrocities of the Second World War. What was done in Africa, would be repeated in Europe - we know this, what we lack is the courage to face what we know and draw some conclusions.
The book culminates by pointing to the Holocaust, but one doesn't have to look far to see the same principles being applied in the world today; `Heart of Darkness' is applicable to every nation, culture and ideology. `Exterminate All the Brutes' is an incredibly powerful book.
A surreal examination of violence and its justification.......2003-07-14
I read this book in the winter of 2002-03, as the drive to war against Iraq was at a frenzied pitch. A few months later, on the day of the final ultimatum to Saddam, just before the bombing began, I was at my sister's house visiting. From the next room my nephew lets out a loud sigh, saying "I have to wait two more hours!" I thought he was referring to some show, but he was actually referring to the President's deadline to launch hostilities. So now, in America, war has become almost a staged form of entertainment which we can enjoy with our children from the comfort of our homes. I mention this because Exterminate All the Brutes has, for me at least, many moments which touch upon the surreal thought processes which help to justify the unjustifiable. It's easy to look back at dead empires and point out their evil deeds; less settling is the knowledge that, regardless of our many technological advancements and extreme wealth, we are of a civilization (one among many) that commits and condones extreme violence against the innocent, as long as it furthers the goals of those in power who profit from it. And we the people, like willing sheep, blindly accept the lies. This book makes us look deeper at the falsehoods, with the plea that when we next hear our leadership misguiding us, we can think for ourselves and reject the guilded call to war and slaughter.
Good, but not essential.......2003-06-10
I read this book as an undergrad, and was moved by it. I wasn't moved so much by the analysis of genocide, which I found pretty ordinary (but useful), but by his method of drawing on literary texts from the turn of the century, and his analysis of them. After reading this text, I went out and devoured Joseph Conrad's works, and I have never looked at H.G. Wells' work again in the same way. If you are interested in this literary period, or in linking these fiction works with the thought of European genocide, then get the book. If you are only interested in the roots of genocide, then check it out in the library before you buy it, to see if it will suit your purposes.
Horrifying But True.......2002-07-27
Here's a unique look at the Western world's impact on Africa during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Its told in a sort of travelogue as the author travels through the Sahara. On the way he muses over Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", in which a European issues orders to solve the African native problem by "exterminating the brutes" The details of atrocities committed against indigenous populations in the Congo and elsewhere are horrific. The format leaves something to be desired as at times you're not sure whether you're in the present or back in the past, but perhaps that's what the author intended. Keep "Exterminate All the Brutes" in mind the next time you hear someone talking about bringing civilization to the savages.
Customer Reviews:
a delightful surprise.......2006-02-22
I found this book as I was looking for a travelogue on Africa before I went there. What a delightful surprise it was. I loved it. I've gone on to read everything that Eddy Harris has written. His self-aware, honest reflections of what he is thinking as well as experiencing are a great read. And as a person academically trained in "cross-cultural sensitivity", I thoroughly enjoyed him saying very "unsensitive" things that any American has to really be thinking in some of his circumstances. I gave this book to my sister who has no interest in Africa and she liked it as much as me. It's just a fun (and educational!) read.
Amazing book..........2003-01-30
The first three fourth of the book was amazing. The author painted a clear picture of the places he visited and the people who lived in the places he visited. I was, however, at times a bit annoyed by his failure to go beyond poverty and corruption to find the many positive images of the land and the people. I am an African who was born and raised in the continent ...and although living in the west has improved my "economical situation" I would not change the memories of my childhood for anything.
I also felt that Mr. Harris rushed through the last couple of chapters of the book. They lack the detailed imagery as well as the enthusiasm that was exhibited for the first three fourth of the book.
Still, I thought this was the best travel book I read on Africa.
A Triumph.......1999-09-04
This book was greatly informative of what modern Africa is like. Many of us have misconceptions or just a vague knowledge of the so-called "Dark Continent". Harris opens it up for us. I found his courage and his adventurous spirit to be both touching and inspirational. My imaginings manifested themselves this year when I treked through Spain on the Camino de Santiago- where I met with and engaged the culture, the elements and my own will. The process of discovery and adventure outside commercial tourisim is the REAL way to travel. With travel we change the way we think of where we live ... this book encourages this philosophy and will hopefully provoke people to take some time and go off to discover something. I encourage all readers to discover this book. It will challenge you and the enrichment you recieve may surprise. Thank you, Harris.
Much more than a travel book.......1997-06-02
This is quite possibly THE best non-fiction book I have ever read. It is a triumph of superb, lyrical writing and devestatingly honest philosophical reflection. It is a travel book, certainly - Eddy L. Harris, the author of (to my knowledge) four stunning "exploration" books like this one, travels through Africa top to bottom - but so much more.
Harris not only explores his terrain, he explores its people, its customs and the reaction he gets from Africans. At the same time, he explores his own inner being: what did he, as a Blackamerican, expect to get out of Africa? What did he really come to understand? And so on. As much as the book is about Africa the continent (and the reader is treated to descriptions of villages, recreation, transport, jungles, wildlife, etc.), it is about skin color, people, race, generosity, need, pride, and everything else that makes people human.
The description was beautiful and powerful: I would put the book down for the night, and when I started it again, would be transported instantly back to where Harris was and what he was experiencing, without any sense of a break.
This book deals with the generosity of a people who have nothing, thje patient endurance of a people who have been trampled on for centuries. This is not to say that the book was a typical liberal interpretation of the Third World; nor were Harris' experiences as a black man what one might expect. In fact, Harris' honesty was astounding. He described his neuroses about germs (and how he had to get over that in a hurry!), his anger at the condition of the African people, his sadness and pity at the tyranny of black officals. And in South Africa, he found not only a peace which he did not expect, he even felt so overwhelmed he retreated into a formerly white-only luxury hotel, an oasis amid the poverty of the black population. This, of course, was the source of further inner exploration about his guilt and his place as a black man, but an American - a true "Native Stranger."
All
Average customer rating:
- The best book about Africa I've ever read
- Excellent
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Nomad: One Woman's Journey Into the Heart of Africa
Mary Anne Fitzgerald
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0670848468 |
Customer Reviews:
The best book about Africa I've ever read.......2001-05-13
Mary Anne Fitzgerald, the author, is a journalist for the London Times and other British publications. Her skin might be white, but she's an African through and through. Jailed briefly and then exiled from her home in Kenya in 1988 because she wrote some uncomplimentary articles about the government, she fled with her two teenage daughters to the safety of London. She yearned for her homeland, though, and so she then took assignments to cover stories in some of the most dangerous places in Africa. Along the way, she made her own personal discoveries and wrote this book in 1992.
I've read a few books about Africa but I must say that this is the one that really made me "feel" it. Ms. Fitzgerald is a fine writer and her love for Africa glows from every page, and, in spite of its brutality, corruption, war and famine, I could also see its majestic beauty. She traveled light, with just the clothes on her back and a small knapsack. She lived among Samburu warriors, she dodged bullets with rebels in Ethiopia, she confronted murder and poaching in the bush of the Central African Republic, she lived through the war in Liberia and she consulted practitioners of magic in the Ivory Coast. Often, she feared for her life. But always she wrote a good story.
Her descriptions and interpretations of events are specific. She gets into the heart of the story, setting the scene with her knowledge of history, politics and the details of the infighting for power. I was not acquainted with most of these facts and I found them fascinating. There's only 288 pages in the book but it's a dense read, with something new to learn in every paragraph. I read it slowly, absorbing the information and getting into the skin of this slim middle-aged woman who wears metal bracelets about her elbows and feels more at home in the African bush than she does on a London Street. I give this book my highest recommendation. Read it if you can.
Excellent.......1998-11-26
One woman's experiences in Africa. The book covers alittle politics, alittle history alittle culture and alot of adventure. I thoroughly enjoyed it all.
Amazon.com
There are similarities between Redmond O'Hanlon's magnificent Into The Heart of Borneo and No Mercy. In both, O'Hanlon's keen naturalist eye notes the details (tiny scarlet flowers probed hummingbird-like by purple-red hawkmoths), his wit (usually at his own expense) remains funny, and his travel companions quite human and often endearing. He's off on another jungle trek, this time seeking Mokele-mbembe, the alleged Congo sauropod. But No Mercy goes deeper and darker; fear and anger intrude on the levity, rationalistic thought yields to palpable fetishistic fright the deeper in they go, and O'Hanlon emerges a changed, more compassionate man.
Book Description
Lit with humor, full of African birdsong and told with great narrative force, No Mercy is the magnum opus of "probably the finest writer of travel books in the English language," as Bill Bryson wrote in Outside, "and certainly the most daring."
Redmond O'Hanlon has journeyed among headhunters in deepest Borneo with the poet James Fenton, and amid the most reticent, imperilled and violent tribe in the Amazon Basin with a night-club manager. This, however, is his boldest journey yet. Accompanied by Lary Shaffer--an American friend and animal behaviorist, a man of imperfect health and brave decency--he enters the unmapped swamp-forests of the People's Republic of the Congo, in search of a dinosaur rumored to have survived in a remote prehistoric lake.
The flora and fauna of the Congo are unrivalled, and with matchless passion O'Hanlon describes scores of rare and fascinating animals: eagles and parrots, gorillas and chimpanzees, swamp antelope and forest elephants. But as he was repeatedly warned, the night belongs to Africa, and threats both natural (cobras, crocodiles, lethal insects) and supernatural (from all-powerful sorcerers to Samalé, a beast whose three-clawed hands rip you across the back) make this a saga of much fear and trembling. Omnipresent too are ecological depredations, political and tribal brutality, terrible illness and unnecessary suffering among the forest pygmies, and an appalling waste of human life throughout this little-explored region.
An elegant, disturbing and deeply compassionate evocation of a vanishing world, extraordinary in its depth, scope and range of characters, No Mercy is destined to become a landmark work of travel, adventure and natural history. A quest for the meaning of magic and the purpose of religion, and a celebration of the comforts and mysteries of science, it is also--and above all--a powerful guide to the humanity that prevails even in the very heart of darkness.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Exciting, sometimes shocking, trip by an observant traveler.......2006-09-23
"No Mercy" is a very lively, very detailed, very sensitive description of what could have been the trip of a lifetime, though O'Hanlon has taken and written about many adventurous journeys. What I admire most about the book is that O'Hanlon doesn't flinch before any aspect of real life, be it positive or negative, admirable or deeply disturbing. He describes it all, without regard for what is politically correct or commonly assumed.
Great descriptions of flora and fauna. The text is accompanied by excellent photos.
The Only Way I'll Ever Get to The Congo.......2006-05-12
Another excellent book from Mr. O’Hanlon. I previously read Into the Heart of Borneo and In Trouble Again. This is just as good and just as important. I wondered at first –the start was so abrupt and desultory. But I was soon taken in by the exotic setting, the bizarre but engaging real-life characters, and the curious, almost dream-like parade of events. If this were fiction (and it does read like a novel), an accurate label for it might be magical realism. I am perplexed at O’Hanlon being touted on the cover as ‘By far our funniest travel writer’ and ‘As funny as ever’. Sure there are some very amusing incidents in the book, but why are yaws, malaria, sleeping sickness, abject poverty, and crippling intellectual superstition considered funny? Not to mention bedbugs (in Biblical numbers), Congo floor maggots, driver ants (again in Biblical numbers), HIV and Ebola fever. O’Hanlon certainly does not play up the humour angle. On one level this is a book of horror to me. Stephen King should read it to get fresh ideas. On another level this is a positive, inspiring work. O’Hanlon is good company –he is brilliant, talented, compassionate, and a genuinely good man. So is his American travel-mate, Lary Shaffer. Shaffer had been totally incapacitated with multiple sclerosis in the past and had fought his way back to health. He seems almost super-human at times in his endurance and unflappability. These are people you would be honoured to have as friends. It hurts them to see the suffering and waste in the human beings and animals they see along the journey. They do what they can to help, but two guys with backpacks, no matter how smart or how well prepared, can only do so much. And there is so much to be done. The Congo is such a messed up place.
The Congolese that O’Hanlon travels with are an interesting but mostly unsympathetic group. Marcellin Agnagna, the ‘educated’ representative of the government, is a bullying, arrogant and verbally abusive individual. He says his job is to protect the forest elephants, which are being slaughtered into extinction for their ivory, but his main focus seems to be to fleece O’Hanlon for as much as he can. His secondary focus, which he shares with the cock-eyed, syphilitic Nze, is to copulate with as many young women along the way as possible. O’Hanlon is constantly berated, ridiculed and insulted for being a representative of the white race which enslaved and transported the blacks in the past. No matter that the Bantus in the outback towns ‘own’ pygmies and treat them as slaves right now, in the 21st century.
This is a difficult book to read at times because of what it documents, but you learn so much from reading it. In addition to the wonderful exotic biology, there is much valuable knowledge casually shared between O’Hanlon and Shaffer in their conversations. O’Hanlon also goes off periodically on informative and poignant tangents, such as his last visits with his friend and fellow author Bruce Chatwin, who died in the late 1980s of AIDS. Chatwin’s last advice to his friend was ‘Never kill yourself. Not under any circumstances. Not even when you are told you have AIDS.’
This is a wonderful, honest, magical book. It will make you feel very uncomfortable at times, and glad you have what you have and live where you live. The author went through a lot to bring it to you.
Very aptly named book.......2006-05-02
Besides the dangers of sickness and loss of life so well reviewed by others, we come to the true brick wall of no mercy at the end of the book when Redmond takes his leave of his African traveling companions (as well as that moment when he is torn from his new gorilla "baby").
There truly is no mercy from poverty that enslaves its captives to hardship, disease and likely early death whereever it strikes in the world as Mr. OHanlon shows us so well. The book has an interesting type ending where the white guy must confront the guilt of being able to leave all this behind while most of those he has grown close with during the adventure cannot.
Heart of Darkness, Redux.......2005-09-15
O'Hanlon has written two other similar books ("In Trouble Again" about the Amazon, and "Into the Heart of Borneo") about his adventures in the jungle, but this book turns into something more than a quirky travelogue. His other two books are very entertaining, especially his first book on Borneo. But this journey to the Congo turns away from nature, bumbling white-man in the jungle, and admiring the survival skills and personalities of the natives sort stuff, and turns into a book about a journey through hell-on-earth caused by the local people.
The title "No Mercy" should give you a clue. The book starts with O'Hanlon and his companion-du-jour, an American academic named Lary, as they try to plan a trip in the jungles of the Congo. The usual 3rd world problems of bribing the corrupt government officials, avoiding getting killed and robbed, and finding local guides ensue. Entertaining and normal.
O'Hanlon hires the Congolese Minister of Nature or some such thing who brings along extended family members as workers. Marcellin (the government minister), Nze, and Manou then take over the book. The American provides needed sanity to the first part of the trip as they go up the river in a fetid, crowded steamboat and begin their travels. Dead bodies float by frequently. Murderous natives who mostly want to murder O'Hanlon's guides and night-time escapes from danger become more and more frequent. Then O'Hanlon's companion has to leave and O'Hanlon is left at the mercy of his guides and Congolese society as he journeys to an isolated lake where reports of a Lochness-like creature abound.
The book then gets deep into the psyche of the guides and their world of fetishes, witch-doctors, murder, jungle spirits, venereal diseases, slavery, promiscuous sex in every village, and constant attempts to wheedle money out of O'Hanlon.
By the time you get to the end of this absorbing descent into hell, you feel nothing but despair. Every aspect of this place is nasty. The government indoctrinates and corrupts, the tribal leaders rob and bully, and even the extended family becomes a tool used by the alpha-male to plunder and subjugate the rest of the family. Any resident at any time may irk the wrong people and end up being tortured and killed. Men use women as they wish, taking extra wives or abandoning them on a whim. Each group looks down on another group, and literal slavery is still very much alive in the Congo.
This is really a great book, but it is not a light and entertaining read. I recommend it highly but don't expect to leave "No Mercy" laughing and uplifted.
A grim look at modern Africa.......2003-09-04
The author travels to the Congo, down tributaries of the Ubangi, to Lake Télé in search of Mokélé-Mbebé, possibly a living sauropod atavism. Accompanied by pragmatic, homesick Lary, an American; educated Marcellin, a government employee, torn between his Western education and the supernatural spirit world of Africa whose power he fears; gentle Manou; and wild-eyed, hard-drinking Nzé, he chronicles all he sees. This allows for observations of much flora and fauna, especially birds and apes, as well as meditations on human behavior. The Africa O'Hanlon "discovers" is a world of sorcerers, fetishes and tribal rivalries, where slavery exists in fact, diseases ravage whole tribes, and pragmatic Western ideas like gutters and medicines are absurdities rather than possibilities. It's a great book, full of humor and learning, equal parts natural history and the kind of insight into the foreign mind that the best travel writing can offer. It's a bit grim to think how mired in ignorance and the supernatural Africa still is, but funny scenes like one with a clingy baby gorilla keep the reader enthralled with O'Hanlon's trek.
Book Description
This is a true account of Jerry Smith's trek diagonally across Africa on a motorcycle. It all begins at the northwestern point of Ceuta, through the Sahara Desert, Chad, The Congo, Rwanda and on out to Mombasa by the sea. Smith finds himself traveling across the most severe desert in the world, close to death in the wildest jungles, and making friends with the most intriguing tribal members.
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South Africa: The Cordoned Heart
Francis Wilson , and
South Africa) Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development in Southern Africa (2nd : 1984 : Cape Town
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0393023419 |
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Contested Representations: Revisiting "Into the Heart of Africa"
Shelly Ruth Butler
Manufacturer: Broadview Pr
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1551117770 |
Book Description
Contested Representations examines the controversy surrounding the "Into the Heart of Africa" exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto in 1989-90. The exhibit was meant to travel throughout the US and Canada but four major museums cancelled their contracts due to its controversial nature.
With this richly textured account of the ways in which the exhibit became the site of an expansive--and explosive--discussion of representation, racism, and power, Butler asks why the exhibit failed for so many people. In the process, she discusses issues of curatorial authority, institutional politics, legacies of colonialism, traditions of representing Africa, the politics of irony, and reflexive museology. "Into the Heart of Africa" is one of two landmark exhibits (the other being the 1988 "The Spirit Sings") that are paradigmatic for museum studies. The combination of race, postmodernism, colonialism, community activism, and heated debates in the ROM controversy, still leaves it in a class by itself. This exhibit continues to be cited, debated, and used as reference points by Africanists, art historians, museologists, cultural anthropologists, and historians.
Originally published in 1994, this case study is now available in an affordable paperback edition with a new preface by Anthony Shelton at the UBC Museum of Anthropology and an afterword by the author, outlining recent ROM practices in relation to the black community and representing Africa.
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Into the Heart of Darkness
Pauw
Manufacturer: Jonathan Ball Publishers
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Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 1868420582 |
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- Score Within
- Hut! Hut! Hike!
- A good quality choice in reading material.
- The Back Up Quaterback
- Exciting Football Action
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Second Stringer
Thomas J. Dygard
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
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Infield Hit
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Game Plan
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The Rookie Arrives
ASIN: 0688159818
Release Date: 1998-09-30 |
Book Description
When Warren High's star quarterback is injured during the season opener, Kevin Taylor takes over the position. There's only one problem: Kevin has been used to watching the plays from the sidelines, not leading them from the line of scrimmage. Page-turning sports action and compelling personal drama make this another winner from popular sports novelist Thomas Dygard.
Young Adults' Choices for 2000 (IRA)
Customer Reviews:
Score Within.......2002-10-27
Doing your best is often the only thing required to overcome the expectations of others. Kevin Taylor, a second string quarterback for the Warren High Lions, overcame the expectations of others when it was time for him to step in as the first string quarterback. Rob Montgomery, the strong accurate passing arm quarterback, got injured in the game and was no longer able to continue out the season. Nobody expected Kevin to be as good as Rob. However, when Rob pushed aside his feelings about Kevin taking his spot, he offered Kevin some tips to strengthen his plays. Kevin didn't understand why Rob was so helpful to someone who took his spot. Rob needed to be a part of the game, even if it was only to give some helpful plays. As Kevin proves to his teammates that he can lead them to a victory, Rob proves to himself, that there is life outside of playing football.
This was a very interesting story. This book describes the plays of each game in detail. When reading the plays of the game, we felt like we were actually there. This book teaches us that you can't judge a person if you don't really know that person. It also shows that making a team effort will lead you to a victory. This book would be gratifying for students in the 7th grade and above. If you are a lover of football, this is the book for you! Teachers and parents could use this book to explain the history of football, the importance of all team members, and teach an intergrated math lesson.
Hut! Hut! Hike!.......2002-03-05
This book was excellent. The author, Thomas J. Dygard, takes a real life high school situation and makes it an exciting book that you can't stop reading. This book is basically about a football team that has a star quarterback, Rob Montgomery, and a backup quarterback, Kevin Taylor. Kevin has had to live with this from eighth grade all the way through high school. Now Kevin is a senior, however Rob couldn't be playing any better, Kevin knows that Rob is quicker, stronger, and is an overall better football player. During a game, Rob was sacked and took a hard hit to his knee, everybody gathered around while the doctors were examining his leg. The final decision was made and Rob was taken off the field. The coach with no hesitation calls Kevin and tells him a play. Kevin snaps on his helmet and charges into the field. After a couple of games, Rob starts talking to Kevin and gives him some pointers which is really odd because Rob hasn't said a word to Kevin for the whole season. And they become really good friends, but the players don't have that trust in Kevin, like they had in Rob. Will Kevin win the season, and the hearts of the town and the players? If you want to know, then read it.
As I read this book I remembered that I saw a movie that had the same story, except the book was a lot better. It went into more detail on the game itself. And being born in India, where we see football as kicking a ball in a goal, it was extremely helpful. However the reason why I chose this book is because I have played football before and loving the sport. I think this book is for any sports fan, whether you play basketball or volleyball or any sport, you will love this book. Also whether you are young or old, you wont be able to put this book down.
A good quality choice in reading material........2002-01-19
Second Drtringer is an excellent book. One reason is its about football. Another reason is that it tells a good story and has good detail. The final reason is that Second Stringer is good is because it has good detail.
There is a lot of good parts in this book. The best part is towards the end of the book when Kevin and the Warren High Lions(his team) is in the championship.
Thomas J. Dygard did a good job of the ending and describing main events in the book. He made a really enjoyable book. This book was awesome.
The Back Up Quaterback.......2001-06-05
Kevin Taylor was the back up Qb on the warren high lions, all through out his life he backed up Ron Montgomery as Quaterback. Rob had more experiance an had more strenght an accuacy in his throw. Till one day on the first warren high football game rob was sacked an got hurt an they had to put Kevin in.For the first game kevin did well,but now that rob was hurt he had to play the rest of the season. While he was learning n everything all of a sudden it seemed that rob wanted to be his friend. Giving him pointers an helping him out.This book is good for any one who was a back up or just not good enough. This is a great book and i know young or old u would enjoy it to.
Exciting Football Action.......2001-03-27
Kevin Taylor is a football player for the Warren High Lions varsity team. He has been a backup to Rob Montgomery since eighth grade and he thinks he'll never get a chance. Now as a senior, Kevin watches the season opener from the sidelines. During the third quarter of this game Rob Montgomery goes down. Can Kevin finish the season with the Lions as the starting quarterback? This is a great book for any sports fans. It is a book you just can't put down. The thrilling events that happen to Kevin keep you on the edge of your seat. You should definitely read Second Stringer as soon as possible because it is an exciting book.
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Letters of Love and War: A World War II Correspondence
Helen Dann Stringer , and
Sydney Stringer
Manufacturer: Syracuse University Press
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The Second Stringers
Jack Helwig
Manufacturer: Authorhouse
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Books:
- Fifty Hikes in the Hudson Valley: From the Catskills to the Taconics, and from the Ramapos to the Helderbergs
- Fifty Places to Play Golf Before You Die: Golf Experts Share the World's Greatest Destinations
- Fodor's Cityguide Atlanta, 2nd Edition: The Sourcebook for Your Hometown (Fodor's Cityguides)
- Fodor's Ireland, 33rd Edition: The Guide for All Budgets, Completely Updated, with Color Photos and Many Maps (Fodor's Gold Guides)
- Fodor's Road Guide USA: Great American Drives of the East, 1st Edition: 37 Tours, 26 States, and More Than 1,800 Listings (Special-Interest Titles)
- Frommer's Portable San Francisco (Frommer's Portable Guides)
- Frommer's Suzy Gershman's Born to Shop London
- Ghana, 3rd: The Bradt Travel Guide
- Gone Fishin: The 100 Best Spots in New Jersey
- Great Hikes in the Poconos and Northeast Pennsylvania
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