Lynne Olson

This was an absolutely absorbing account of one woman's struggle to rise to the top of her field and save some of the world's most precious heritage sites.

Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt was one of the first women to rise to the top in the field of Egyptology. Working for the French Resistance during WWII, she was also instrumental in saving many of the treasures housed at the Louvre in Paris. When the famed temple of Abu Simbel became threatened with destruction by the development of the Aswan Dam, Christiane leapt into action became the driving force to save this precious monument.

The book is fascinating. From page one, you find yourself absolutely immersed in the subject. It's never boring. Another major player in the story of saving Egyptian heritage sites was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and this is fully explored within the pages of the book. Christiane's story is one that deserves to be told. Thanks to the richness of this book, it has been.

Highly recommended.… (altro)

I can't say enough good things about this book, recommended to me by a customer of mine. The three central characters of the book, including Edward R. Murrow, John Gilbert Wynant, and Averil Harriman, were pretty much unknown to me. The stress and strain of the Anglo-American relationship in the years leading up to and including when the US entered WWII was also fairly new to me. I did not understand the weakness of the British and American intelligence in the years leading up to war and how important intelligence from Polish, Scandinavian, French, and other European nationals were to the Allied success. I also had little appreciation for the hole America dug for itself with the appointment of the Vichy French Admiral Darlan to run French North Africa, or the abandonment of Poland to the USSR, expeditious though they may seem to us today.… (altro)

For those of you who enjoy reading history, this is a terrific book. The book jacket says it's a "...behind the scenes story of how the US forged its wartime alliance with Britain, told from the perspective of three key American players in London: Edward R. Murrow, Averell Harriman, and John Gilbert Winant." But it's also about Eisenhower and Montogomery and other WWII military leaders, the Polish and French and Americans who came to London to help fight the war, Tommy Hitchcock and the effect of his relentless work to help the pilots, the people of London and their lives living through the blitz and rationing, and also the clash of huge, huge egos and the diplomats who tried to set them straight sometimes successfully, sometimes not. It was a fascinating read.

… (altro)

The life story of the cutting edge Egyptologist Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt and her fight to save temples and antiquities in Egypt. The book is much more than this. It is an education on how hard it was to save them. After a military coop in Egypt then new leader (Nasser) is driven to build a dam on the Nile to provide power to his people. The Aswan dam will flood dozens of ancient sites so the race in on to save them.- a costly and complicated endeavor. Christiane spends her life digging in Egypt and finding patrons to support her digs. You will learn much reading this book.… (altro)