My Greek Drama: Life, Love, and One Woman's Olympic Effort to Bring Glory to Her Country (edition 2013)

by Gianna Angelopoulos

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Politics. Nonfiction. HTML:Standing alone in the VIP box of the Olympic Games in 2004, Gianna Angelopoulos began to dance. The world had doubted Greece's ability to successfully stage this global event. She danced to celebrate the efforts of all Greeks and her own to host a phenomenally successful games, an effort that showed the world a new Greece, a Greece worthy of its illustrious heritage. Little did she know that a few years later her country would abandon the lessons of the Olympics and become embroiled in a political and economic crisis that would devastate Greece, and threaten the economic security of Europe. In My Greek Drama, Gianna Angelopoulos�??known in her home country simply as Gianna �??has written a memoir that is as much about Greece's journey as her own. From her childhood in Crete, to law school in Thessaloniki, to Athens, where she overcame male-dominated legal and political cultures to help redefine public service in Greece, Gianna worked her way into becoming one of the most respected women in Greek public life. Balancing motherhood, business, and a place in the upper echelons of world society, Gianna never lost her passion for public service and brought the 2004 Olympic Games back from the brink of catastrophe to what was later called an unforgettable dream games. Her life, her Cinderella love story, and her intensity of will are equally unforgettable. From stories of handing out basil seeds on the streets of Athens to entertaining royalty and political leaders in London, Zurich, and Athens, My Greek Drama captures the burning ambition of the rebellious girl from the island of Crete who the Olympic torch. Her story should help rekindle the spirit of the Greek people, and of every person who has ever struggled to change the world… (more)

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Member:	fist
Title:	My Greek Drama: Life, Love, and One Woman's Olympic Effort to Bring Glory to Her Country
Authors:	Gianna Angelopoulos
Info:	Greenleaf Book Group Press (2013), Editie: 1, Hardcover, 368 pagina's
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
Tags:	greece, athens, olympics, biography

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My Greek Drama: Life, Love, and One Woman's Olympic Effort to Bring Glory to Her Country by Gianna Angelopoulos

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Showing 1-5 of 12 (next | show all)

This book is a memoir by Gianna Angelopoulos, who headed up the Athens Olympics in 2004. Parts were interesting, but she spends a lot of time name-dropping and talking about how wealthy she is. Towards the end, it almost seems like she is running for office. By that time, I was skimming, just to get through it. (

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chgstrom | Nov 18, 2014 |

Not a drama, but a farce. My feelings for the author as I went through this book went from irritation, anger, scorn to pity. The woman comes across as a delusional megalomaniac, a gold digger and possibly a psychopath. No doubt she made things happen, but you leave this book thinking it was only done through bullying, flirting and conniving. Her name-dropping is preposterous, her management style is atrocious ("never tell your employees the big picture; it will distract them from their tasks") and her memory - sporadic at best. Nowhere will you find a logical explanation for her seemingly fortuitous successes. Instead, the book reads like a personal exoneration for any negative fall-out from the Olympics that bankrupted her country, and especially like a settling of accounts with Greek politicians. Angelopoulos is bipartisan insofar that she will have something bad to say of politicians on both side of the divide. This book should be made into a sitcom, starring some over-the-top tranny. Maybe then I'll find it funny. (

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fist | Oct 26, 2014 |

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Just your run of the mill memoir, like many memoirs it is interesting to read for how do we deal with oral stories, one that change over time. With the facts getting blurry and memories hazy. Not the worst that I have ever read, but not the best; it is your standard story of one women's struggles to make it in a male dominated society. It is a inspiring story for some people, but others will find it repetitive. (

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Wabbit98 | Jan 13, 2014 |

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Gianna Angelopoulos has written a story of her accomplishments in bringing the 2004 Olympic Games to succesa. She is a person with terrific presence and drive. When she came into rescure the preparation for the Games, the world was skeptical that the Olympic would come off. She had to battle government bureaucracy and firms that were not on-board for performance. One can see quite a bit of self-congratulation in this book, but we need her story for the historical record.

Angelopoulos also presents the story of her family: her growing up in Crete, her marriage to Theodore, her three children, her involvement in Greek poitics and her strong connection with the Kennedy School of Government (connected with Harvard University). (

)

vpfluke | Oct 27, 2013 |

I found this book very interesting, well written and kept you interest all the way through. The story covers Gianna's life through organizing the Olympic games that were held in Greece and her struggle to get the cooperation of the politicians. With the way things are going in the USA today I could understand her anger with dealing with them. (

)

Grandy | Oct 17, 2013 |

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Politics. Nonfiction. HTML:Standing alone in the VIP box of the Olympic Games in 2004, Gianna Angelopoulos began to dance. The world had doubted Greece's ability to successfully stage this global event. She danced to celebrate the efforts of all Greeks and her own to host a phenomenally successful games, an effort that showed the world a new Greece, a Greece worthy of its illustrious heritage.

Little did she know that a few years later her country would abandon the lessons of the Olympics and become embroiled in a political and economic crisis that would devastate Greece, and threaten the economic security of Europe.

In My Greek Drama, Gianna Angelopoulos�??known in her home country simply as Gianna �??has written a memoir that is as much about Greece's journey as her own.

From her childhood in Crete, to law school in Thessaloniki, to Athens, where she overcame male-dominated legal and political cultures to help redefine public service in Greece, Gianna worked her way into becoming one of the most respected women in Greek public life.

Balancing motherhood, business, and a place in the upper echelons of world society, Gianna never lost her passion for public service and brought the 2004 Olympic Games back from the brink of catastrophe to what was later called an unforgettable dream games.

Her life, her Cinderella love story, and her intensity of will are equally unforgettable. From stories of handing out basil seeds on the streets of Athens to entertaining royalty and political leaders in London, Zurich, and Athens, My Greek Drama captures the burning ambition of the rebellious girl from the island of Crete who the Olympic torch. Her story should help rekindle the spirit of the Greek people, and of every person who has ever struggled to change the world

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