Phil Grabsky

Our story first starts with Alexander the Great and his tactical prowess on the battlefield of his era. He is an ingenious commander easily outsmarting Darius III (King of Persia) on the fields and conquering much of the known world for his time (Persia, Parts of India,Greece, and other countries close to the Mediterranean Sea). The next brilliant tactician was Caesar who set the stones for the Roman Empire. He always was ambitious and conquered a good chunk of Gaul(Ancient France), Mediterranean countries, and also parts of the barbarians territories(Ancient Germany) being an amazing diplomat as well. We then have the ambitious Nelson and Napoleon who were an ultimate admiral plus general (Napoleon was a general and Nelson was a admiral). Nelson revolutionized the British naval power decimating any opposing fleets and Napoleon who conquered much of Europe twice with his ingenuity for tactics. Then finishing off with Grant and Zhukov which were the batch of new generals standing behind lines being very intelligent commanders. Grant helped orchestrate the fall of the Confederate states being one of the first ones to stand behind lines, and Zhukov helping the fall of the Nazi’s, taking over Berlin, and leading the biggest tank battle in history.

Overall, I thought this book was better than average but not a great read overall from the context. I thought it had very cool events inside of it but the rate the book was moving was kind of too slow for me. Though when they had the major battles it was completely epic telling about injuries, casualties, and the big numbers. Probably my favorite general was either Alexander the Great or Zhukov since the battles they designed were just awesome. Though my least favorite commander was Nelson since I’m more into armies then navies. Overall it was a pretty good read and I’d recommend it to you if your looking for a good book on spectacular commanders.… (more)

Amazon: To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth in January 2006 ‘In Search of Mozart’ is the first major feature-length documentary on Mozart’s life. His biography is told through interviews and performances with over 70 of the greatest exponents of Mozart’s music including Sir Charles Mackerras, Renée Fleming, Magdalena Kožená, Sandrine Piau, Ian Bostridge, Gerald Finley, Sir Thomas Allen, Imogen Cooper, Pierre Laurent Aimard, Leif ove Andsnes, Lang Lang, Ronald Brautigam and Škampa Quartet. In Search of Mozart’ traces the composer’s life through his music and extensive correspondence. From K1a to K626 (Requiem), over 80 works are featured in chronological order, revealing striking parallels between the music and Mozart’s own experiences. Throughout, it’s the music that takes centre stage, with the jigsaw of Mozart’s life fitting around it. His letters reveal an extraordinary personal voice, which rings out on an engaging, human level, full of joy, passion, pain, rage, jokes, bawdy humour and sensitivity. With rigorous analysis from musicologists and experts such as Jonathan Miller, Cliff Eisen, Nicholas Till, Bayan Northcott and the late Stanley Sadie, a new, vivid impression of the composer emerges. It dispels the many common myths about Mozart’s genius, health, relationships, death and character, to present a new image, very different from Milos Forman’s Amadeus. Narrated by Juliet Stevenson and with Mozart voiced by Sam West, this film has already been hailed as the definitive documentary for the composer’s 250th anniversary year.… (more)