A nicely packaged bits and pieces of the man who made conventional medicine look like science fiction.

I like the comparisons in this book. Winston shared a few things with Hitler, like painting and being ignored by their fathers. In all other aspects, they were complete opposites.

Did Winston go through hell and ice just to impress his father? Most likely. Most people respect their parents but few are challenged by them with such offputting and unabridged negativity as to provoke this unyielding strive for achievement. Both Churchill and Hitler overachieved their father, driven by their utter and unabridged disinterest and hate.

So many other names in history share a similar timeline. Alexander the Great, for example. It is quite possible that every great achiever out there owes some of that success to that one beef they had with their old man.

In any case, we can safely assume that legends are never born to a family of helicopter parents. Mark that in your calendars.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I've been on a bit of a Britain kick since returning from London, and Rubin's bio of Churchill played right in. It reads quickly, but thoroughly, and often gives deliberately opposing views of what made the man tick (or didn't). As with all great leaders, he was often an enigmatic figure despite his plainspokenness, and Rubin highlights this, in both his successes and frailties.

An intruiging take at a biography of a very odd man. Aimed at, I would say, a freshman-in-college level audience, Rubin breaks up the story of Chruchill into 40 short chapters. In addition to hopping around Churchill's life, recounting his speeches and his oddities, she attempts to deconstruct the notion of a biography by writing parts of chapters from radically different points of view, some of them personal, some of them conflicting. Although occasionally repetative and not always 100% successful, the result is in some ways a more balanced biography than a much longer volume. In terms of content, though, it is rather thin, so think of this book as an appetizer rather than a main course.

This book gives an honest assessment and some times both sides of arguments of who Winston Churchill is. Part of my fascination with Churchill is his faults and Rubin displays them well. She doesn't analyze too much and gives a good layout of definitive actions by Churchill--who made him what he was. I know this isn't the first or the last book I will read about Churchill, but it did contain stuff I didn't know and I love random knowledge.

I came into this not knowing much about Churchill, and since I enjoy Gretchen Rubin as an author I thought this would be a great introduction. I liked how the chapters were broken down and looked at both sides of the stories that were told. By boiling it down to the highlights I felt like I got a well-rounded view of who Churchill was, not just in public but in private. Although some facts seemed to repeat very often I think the purpose was to hit the point home that he was a complicated man, but at his core he loved old England and even though he achieved a lot, he died feeling like he missed the mark.

I feel I've at least glanced upon the greatness and complexity of this most auspicious of characters.

This condensed summary of Churchill was just right for me. I appreciated the pro and con perspectives on certain topics (depression, alcoholism, family life etc.). He clearly made the difference for Britain as it faced Nazi Germany alone. His oratory strengthened the country's resolve to endure horrible sacrifices. And yet his unabashed imperialism and condescension toward almost everyone was not appealing (and not that different from Hitler). From birth to death, WC was his certainly his own person. My conclusion is that he was not a hero over the course of his life but he was definitely heroic during the war years. The author also explored the art of biography with candor that I appreciated and will remember.

IQ: "A biographer's choice to highlight or dissmiss certain episodes--controversial, offecnsive, poignant--can vividly color a portrait."