Customer Reviews

Their Last Suppers

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I hate to be the "party pooper" in regard to rating this book, but having taught history for 25 years, evaluation instincts die hard!! While the book made for interesting reading, I could not swallow some of the information that was presented as facts. The number one glaring "red light" for me was there was NO list of resources/references. There was a VERY brief list of credits for pictures that was included in back of the book, but there was NO bibliography.

Much of the book relied on hearsay, folklore, and deductions for relating the stories and recipes. Why would anyone spend time researching and writing a book without including what resources were used, if any?

For me, I could not accept this book as a valid non-fiction book. The idea for the book was a great one, but it must be viewed as a book of fiction.

This author clearly spent more time developing recipes than doing any fact checking for this book. Here's some rather egregious mistakes just in the Marilyn Monroe chapter:

*'social workers took her to the orphanage when she was 9- no, social workers were never involved. She was brought to the orphanage when her guardian could no longer care for her
* 'worked as a cocktail waitress'- Marilyn Monroe never worked as a waitress, cocktail or otherwise
*'had an affair with Stavros, head of the studio'- there is no such person as the singly named 'Stavros'. Perhaps the author is thinking of Spyros Skouras, who was a head of Fox at the time, although Marilyn did not have an affair with him
* 'met JFK at a secret penthouse and called the White House frequently'- never happened. Marilyn and JFK were only in the same place at the same time on two occasions- one was at a private party at Bing Crosby's house in Palm Springs, the other was the night she sang Happy Birthday. Speaking of....
* the author states that she met with JFK that night. No, she did not, her whereabouts of the evening are extremely well documented. She escorted her date, her former father in law Isidore Miller home and then returned home directly to her apartment. Numerous sources confirm this.
* The author states that she was going to be fired for going to JFK's birthday. Actually, Marilyn had notified the studio well in advance that she would be attending, but by the time the date approached they were angry that she had missed so many production days on set due to a viral infection.
* The author states that Peter Lawford and Bobby Kennedy visited her on 8/4/62. There is nothing to substantiate this claim, and her activity on that day is well documented
* The author claims she was 'going to call a press conference' and tell all about the Kennedys. This is an absolute lie started by known fraud and derided liar Robert Slatzer. Marilyn was going to do no such thing.
* The author states more than once that the police were called at 5 am. It is very well documented that the police were called at 4 am and arrived on scene at 4:10 am.
* Marilyn did not have 'a buffet of Mexican food' delivered on August 4th. She had a small amount of food and liquor delivered from Briggs Deli on August 3rd. Existing receipts confirm this.
* Marilyn's last meal was not Mexican food. Her last meal was a half a grapefruit eaten for breakfast her last morning alive. This is confirmed by both her publicist and her housekeeper, who were there to witness it. Her autopsy revealed that she had eaten nothing else the day she died.

If this author is so egregiously sloppy and nonchalant about fact checking and printing lies, how can you possibly believe a single word of this book is true? Stavros, seriously?

I was unable to finish this book. As a historian I look for many things when it comes to a book that claims to be a study in history. First I want to at least see a bibliography of sources. Also, I look for the work to stay on target. This book claims to be about the "final meals" of historic figures. All I found was a cursive biography that seemed to have been taken straight from Wikipedia. By the way, Napoleon was not "short", any novice historian will tell you that he was around 5 feet six inches. This was the average height of a man during the early 19th century. Perhaps if the book had been title "Legends of History and what they Ate" I would have been more impressed. The author could not decide whether he was writing a book of historic recipes or a book of short biographies. According to his website there are two more volumes to follow. I cannot see myself reading them. I was very disappointed in this book. If you are looking for history pick up an actual history book and use this book only for its recipes.

I was very disappointed in this book. First of all there was a lot of misinformation in what was supposed to be a little bit of history on each of the subjects. After awhile I just didn't bother even reading the history part, since it really wasn't accurate anyway.

Then most of the Last Suppers were actually the author's imagination of what they would have been, and not what they really were. Instead of doing some research and including subjects that the author had accurate data on, the author simply decided to opine on what that subject's last supper would have been... and on what their favorite foods were.

If I didn't feel I could believe the author's history of the subject, and I knew the author had no real idea of what the real last supper was that the subject had, why in the world would I believe the author knew what the favorite food was that the subject ate? I wouldn't.

This book was a great idea, but was written by someone who simply was too lazy to do some real research. JMO

This is an awful book, and you will get more truthful information from wikipedia. I wish I'd read the reviews before clicking "download" as even free, it is infuriatingly inaccurate, outright false lies and "information" and an absolute waste of my monthly data allocation.

Awful, awful, awful. The reviewer that pointed out the errors in the Marilyn Monroe article pretty much summed this book up. A child in fifth grade history would have a better and more factual grasp of the historical figures discussed.

I'd go back and point out all the inaccuracies with the Hitler chapter and give you references but I don't want to sully my device with this "book" again.

I was entertained by this book until I got to the section on Abraham Lincoln. Fort Sumter is in South Carolina not North Carolina. As soon as I saw that, I lost any faith I had in the research (if any) that went into the book. Out of curiosity, I did peek at the section on Elvis. Elvis's middle name is misspelled. Good grief. I am glad I didn't pay anything for this.

I was enjoying this book until I came to the Marilyn Monroe chapter. I did not appreciate the inaccuracies or the outright slander of JFK. those things 'could' have happened but anyone who knew the truth is dead.

I also did not appreciate the editorializing about the Kennedys or other political figures. He was our President and that in itself deserves respect. I want to read history, not someone's opinion's or fantasies.

I will admit it I got the book because it was free. I didn't even read the prodcut description, so I was like a child on Christmas Morning when I realized it was also a cookbook. There is something a little morbid about making someones last meal but I loved the concept.

I was just itching to write the review right then and there.

Then I started reading the book. The first chapter about Captain Edward was interesting, I love stories about the Titanic. I thought it was odd that I hadn't heard some of the information before and in reading the other reviews I now wonder how accurate it is.

After that it went down hill the only other chapter I enjoyed was about Princess Di and even that was dull. I was only able to get 1/2 way thru the book before I put it down and moved it to my cookbook collection.

My high school history books had more personality. And I'm not sure if I was zoning out because I was bored or if it was the actual writing but I found the book to be hard to follow. I am not a history buff, but I do enjoy a good story even if its based on history. I wasn't able to find a good story in this book.

The only reason I gave this book 3 stars is because of the receipes. There are quite a few I will not make (I am not found of ox tail, or lamb, or ostrich eggs) But there are quite a few I will be making. And then I can say, did you know so and so ate this as their last meal? Or did you know this was so and so's favorite meal.

If you are looking for an interesting cookbook this would be it (5 stars) If you are looking for an interesting historical read you will not find it here (1 star)

I was already struggling with this one because of severe typos in the forward that were difficult to decipher the intended word. By the time I got to Martin Luther King Jr and the author said garlic was part of traditional fried chicken I gave up. I should have listened to other reviews worrying about inaccuracies.

Ever wonder what a person's last meal was? We often hear of death row inmates requesting a special last meal. Many people never realize that their last meal is in fact the last, but it is still interesting to see what they had. Explore the final repast of many people throughout history, including Marylin Monroe, Abraham Lincoln, and Adolph Hitler.

The premise of this book is brilliant, being one part history book and one part cookbook. I think this idea is so clever, and particularly like that some of the more antiquated recipes are adapted for current preparation. Each chapter talks about a specific historical figure, gives a bit of backstory, then discusses the final meal before giving recipes from the menu. It sounds like a no fail book.

Unfortunately, I have some pretty serious problems with the book. Within the first two pages of the introduction, I found multiple typos and grammatical errors. Normally, I am not a stickler for these, and rarely do I mention them in reviews, but when you are talking recipes with precise measurements, typos in any section of the book make me very nervous. I would be livid if I bought pricey ingredients for a recipe, only to have it ruined by a typo. Finding them so early in the text make me have a critical eye, and as a result, I found a lot of flaw with both the historic and culinary aspects of the book.

Historically, the book seems to tout quite a few inaccuracies as truths, and contains no proof of research in the form of citations or footnotes. This is a huge error when writing any type of historical work. Even if the book is not attempting to be a strict, serious, scholarly historical work, if history is part of the selling point for the book, you should do historical research properly. Similarly, I found some of the recipes to be incomplete, instructionally, and generally poorly written/explained. I do not think I would feel comfortable attempting most of the recipes in this book.

The book is a bit of a let down. Wonderful idea, but poorly executed. With a bit better editing, and a considerable overhaul to the historical research, this book has the potential to be wonderful, appealing to historians and foodies alike.