This book gave the readers a glimpse what was like to live through these tumultuous years between the two world wars (1913 and 1933) both started by Germany. The story ended right at the onset of the World War II. There were several German governments during these times. The people seemed numbed from all the changes and went about their own business and life, without knowing what they were stepping into a “duel” between the “state” (Hitler’s Nazi government) and the individual people (their belief, righteousness and right). The writing was most excellent even after being translated from German. The author used great metaphors to draw the readers into the vivid picture of their lives and what are left.

My take-aways:
– Things can turn from bad (losing the WW I) to worse (hyper inflationary era, where money lost its value between paychecks) to disaster (Nazi’s take over) very quickly without the people’s even noticing the threat to rise against it.
– When Nazi (SA) soldiers ran around with guns, it’s very hard to argue against the “power.” People succumbed to the power and learned the phrase “hail to Hitler” very quickly, when the alternative was being beaten up and even facing death. Going against the power and risking death did not seem logical to the author and obviously the majority of the people.
– By the author’s account, the forced camaraderie (or peer pressure of sorts) among the youths in the concentration camps drove people to do things they normally wouldn’t do on their own including turning against the Jews and their own conscience/belief.
– The youthful innocence among the author’s friends who used to argue against one another in good faith suddenly changed when Nazi took over the power. The nationalist extreme friends became Nazis. And his friends of the other extreme emigrated outside of Germany. The polarization was clear cut.
– The hyper-inflationary era after Germans loss of WW I drove the economy into a tail spin. This created an fertile ground for Hitler and his party. Hitler was in the “right” place at the “right” time.
– The continued concession by the leader to Hitler without any principles may have seeded Hitler’s ruthlessness and his obsession with power. Of course, lack of alliance with other countries like France, UK after WW I certainly did not help to stem Hitler’s encroachment.
– Ironically, the author married a Jewish woman – illegal by Nazi’s law. As a result, he had to emigrate to UK to be united with his wife and two children, leaving a country he loved and yet hated the people in power. It’s a duel that the individual usually loses or walks away.
– The relation between the author and his father was very close. Perhaps that was normal in that era in Germany. At the age of 27+, he was still consulting his father about career decision whether to become a lawyer or writing for the newspaper or getting his PhD. The guy was talented for sure.

Unfortunately, the story ended abruptly in 1933 at the strengthening of the Nazi party. Would be nice to know what happened during and after the WW II.
I listened to the audio book version, which was narrated very well by a German-accented person, which makes the story seem very realistic.

Overall, I utterly enjoyed the book. The emotional impact is very real and lasting.

This is a good complement book to Colin Powell’s own memoir, I supposed, as it’s written by a third party – not Colin Powell himself. The audio book, downloaded from OverDrive, was very long – 23+ hrs. I had a hard time staying on track but the narration and story lines flowed very well, which helped when my mind wondered off and came back without missing the essence.

1. This book highlights how much power within George W. Bush’s administration has been hijacked by Dick Cheney. Who’s the real president? How much of Iraq war was attributed to Dick Cheney’s own agenda? How sad.
2. Colin Powell is a very lucky, patient and smooth guy. He survived the short stint in Vietnam and kept on being promoted from the ranks. He doesn’t make too many enemies and was able to turn all adversarial situation into his advantage. He’s also very patient in turning his reputation into a financial asset much later in life but going on the leadership speech circle.
3. Colin Powell is a good and loyal soldier to his superior (including lying for his boss – Bush, on the Irag’s nuclear buildup), to the country. As a result, he has lots of credibility.
4. He is a natural leader, partly because he thinks for the lowest rank – the solider. He was very hesitant to go to any war, attempting to resolve the issue diplomatically (like in the Haitian coup). But when it’s time for a fight (like the 1st and 2nd Iraq war), he prepares to win the war in the most decisive manner.
5. He was able to concentrate on his career and moved around so much because his supportive wife and understanding family members.
6. Having served 4 US Presidents, he saw four very different style of Presidential leadership. Ronald Reagan was very hands-off. He didn’t care much for the details and ended up with the Oliver North’s Contra Scandal. The 1st Bush had a very good leadership style; he stood by Colin Powell when needed. Powell didn’t exactly worked for Clinton but he helped out whenever he could and spoke very highly of Clinton. George W. is probably the President he held least respect for, because his tolerance for Cheney’s manipulation and his easily being influenced by the last person who spoke to him.
7. One must have principle in life and look at things at a much longer horizon. Doing all the right things most of the time is what leadership is all about.
8. I’m amazed how the Whitehouse administration make decisions. Managing the country seems to take a very different skill set than the political process of winning the election. Everyone seems to have their own agenda, even under the same Presidential leadership.

This book in audio format is a good listen. Very funny and interesting on how human brain work to make us alive and happy.

1. Human brain tends to take snapshot of our memory – a bad “wizard.” We fill in the gaps to make things seem continuous. Our perception of happiness or unhappiness may depend on a lot of factors.
2. We have an emotional circuit breaker that allows to take on traumatic experience more readily than things that don’t trigger the circuit breakers. For example, a wife can forgive the spouse sexual transgression but cannot tolerate or forgive the husbands’ not taking out the garbage last week.
3. Happiness is rarely as good as we imagine it to be, and rarely lasts as long as we think it will. The same mistaken expectations apply to unhappiness.
4. People do a poor job of predicting how they will feel because they focus on a given theme without consideration for others. We may as well ask people’s experience than to predict it ourselves.
5. This book doesn’t give you some magic pill on becoming a happy person, but it may give you some insight into how your mind processes your self talk.
6. Happiness is a state of mind that are very subjective and dependent on what you’re comparing to. Our mind doesn’t work well in isolation. Experiencing shorting electrical shocks after some long ones are better than all long shocks.
7. Because of how our minds work, pleasing people or making people happy may be more of playing tricks on one’s mind than really doing good things for that person.
8. For a people manager, making an employee happy may take a very different strategy. This may sound like a deception but it’s no more guilty than our brains.
9. Writing personal journal has a way to capture one’s state of mind that’s not altered by the brain’s filling the gap. This is a good way to assess one’s happiness in retrospect.

This is a great book about how boys and girls are hardwired to be different and how to deal with their differences.

The main take-aways for me:
1. Girls listen better than boys. Put boys in the front of class helps.
2. Boys like to take risks and enjoy thrill while girls tend not to. This is why scaring boys about the negative effects of drug does not work well. “Victim-orient” discussion is best for girls but not for boys. And boys don’t really “feel” things.
3. What the recent phenomenon of hook-up means to boys and girls and how to prevent boys and girls from hooking-up.
4. Co-ed schools may be harmful for girls who tend to lack self-esteem and not take risks. And it’s harmful for boys who may be compelled not to take arts and literature and other seemingly feminine activities. Having been educated in an all-boy school, I felt I was deprived of the skills in dealing with girls. This has negative effects as well. I think there needs be balance.
5. The harmful effects of ignonymous male – being rejected by male and female friends.
6. The difference between gays and trans-sexual. Gays tend to be more masculine than non-gay. Not true for lesbian. And the physiological difference between male and female is bigger than male and gays. Bi-sexual is rare for men – more as a cover up for homosexuality. Bi-sexual for women is not unusual but not necessarily in the sexual sense.
7. Girls who play sports tend to do well due to high esteem and less likely to be teen mom or suicidal. Should encourage girls to take risk and sports activities and boost girls’ self esteem. On the other hand, boys who play sports has higher risk to get a girl pregnant.
8. Being strict with girls work by allowing them to have a way out of activities they may not want to do but forced to do by peer pressure.
9. The fact that being masculine and feminine are independent. The self tests at the end are interesting.

I’ve learned a lot from the book. Very useful for raising a child – boy or girl.