Rating: 
Summary: My favorite novel ever
Review: A few basic facts about my experience with this book: First, I picked it up at 4 in the afternoon, and didn't put it down until 4 AM. I walked, ate and peed while reading this book. I'm not exagerating. When I finally closed it, I was on page 400. I've re-read it three or four times in the few years since then. Beyond simply being an extremely witty and sarcastic writer, Nelson Demille obviously did his homework for this book. I spent a week in the Soviet Union in 1986, and I can promise you that Mr. Demille spent more time than that over there, because he captures the essence of the Evil Empire, and the soul of the Russian people. The book is every bit as educational as it is entertaining and exciting. It's so good that Demille's other books, as good as they are, can't compare.
Rating:
Summary: Cold war classic
Review: There are books that don't age, even if the time circumstances of their stories is long past. "The charm school" is one of those books. This is clearly a product of the Cold War times (close to its end, in fact - circa 1988), but the plot is still compelling and thrilling, after 16 years.Major Sam Hollis and press atache Lisa Rhodes are two of the hundreds of people working on the US embassy in Moscow. Deceit, provocation, threatening, all this is part of their lives, since the KGB won't take it easy on american personnel working on russian soil. When a young tourist inadvertently walks on the biggest secret of Mother Russia, Hollis and Rhodes are swept in a turmoil that will certainly end in death - unless they outsmart thousands of Komitet employees, and one in special: the unusually violent Colonel Burov. Maybe DeMille's creation is the definite fictional work on russian-american relations during the final stages of the Cold War. His depiction of Moscow and russian citizens is very vivid. The main characters are memorable, especially the despicable villain, Burov. The final chapters of the book are astonishing, fast paced, chases, ruses - the usual DeMille stuff. I put "The charm school" along with "Plum island" and "The gols coast" as DeMille's best books. Grade 9.1/10
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Incredible
Review: Although it starts off slow, this book soon picks up the pace and kept me up late many nights, just unable to part with it. It is about the spy game in Russia, and how the Americans recently learned that US POWs from the Vietnam War were still being held captive here in Russia and have been used by the Commies to train their spies in every aspect of American life so they can blend in perfectly. However, it is little things like how they smoke a cigarrette that eventually lead to them being discovered. However, this book is not all about espianage and such, there is also a love story included in this book for all you romanticists out there. I am really bad at writing reviews, but after reading this book I felt compelled to tell y'all that this book is an absolute thriller that I would recommend to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: RIVETING!
Review: This book is outstanding! I couldn't put it down. The storyline is great, the writing fast-paced, the dialogue believable, and the narrative literally takes you to Moscow. You will feel the arctic chill of the 1980s Cold War when you read The Charm School! This was head and shoulders above the other Demille book I've read, The General's Daughter (no, I didn't see the movie). THIS is the book they should make into a movie! I have only two minor criticisms: the relationship between Lisa and Hollis seemed a bit stilted and non-convincing at times. Also, I think Lisa's character devolved a bit towards the end of the book -- she became a little too clingy and maudlin, not at all the strong, interesting type she started out as. (though this may have been deliberate on Demille's part to illustrate the psychological toll events had on her). In any case, these things in no way detract from the overall quality of the book. READ IT!
Rating:
Summary: My favorite Cold War novel of all time. Unforgettable.
Review: The Charm School is my favorite Cold War novel of all time and one of my favorite novels of any genre, ever. This is a powerful, well-written, and disturbing novel of Cold War intrigue. It takes place in the old Soviet Union circa 1988, and DeMille's research about, and visits to, the USSR around this time have given this novel an authenticity that resonates throughout the novel. DeMille captures the tension of the Cold War conflict, the sorrow of the Russian people and the contradictions in the old Soviet state ("with gravel roads, ICBMs, and a world-class Secret Police service..."). This is a superb novel. Without committing any spoilers, the plot is simple, powerful, and disturbing. Two US diplomats in the Soviet Union discover a terrible secret: that over 1000 US MIA pilots shot down over Vietnam have been spirited away to Russia. The purpose is to allow the Soviets to set up "Mrs. Ivanova's Charm School" which is a KGB academy in which the pilots are forced to teach aspiring Russian spies how to act, speak, and pass as Americans. The KGB will go to literally any lengths to keep the existence of "The Charm School" a secret. The rest would be telling. This is a great story. DeMille literally transports the reader to Soviet-era Russia. His prose dealing with the Russian people, the Soviet government, the vast country, and the long-suffering people to me seemed to capture at least some of the essence of that great and troubled country. The novel moves at a fast-pace without racing to the finish; the reader is allowed to "smell the flowers" along the way, but the storyline never drags. This novel manages to do what very few novels ever succeed in doing: it is a classic of its genre, as well as a ripping page turner. "The Charm School" ranks with DeMille's "Word of Honor" as a true masterpiece that belongs in every reader's library.
Rating: 
Summary: Borodino - undecided again !
Review: On September 7th 1812, 124 kilometers in the west of Moscow, at the village Borodino, Napoleon Bonaparte fights a terrible battle struck, about which he said, that the French deserved victory, but the Russians however acquired the right, to be unbeatable..... .... approximately 170 years later the American tourist Gregory Fisher travels with his Pontiac TransAm through the country, which is now heart of the Soviet Union. Without permission he deviates from the route Minsk to Moscow. He wants to visit the famous battleground. There he becomes become acquainted with a man, who introduced himself as US-Airforce Major Jack Dodson. Dodson reported that it was already capured as a "POW" by the Nothern Vietnamese and after the end of "Nam-war" to the Soviets, who keep im him imprisoned together with further 300 US Americans in a secret Camp at Borodino. Dodson could flee from the secret prisoners camp, where Russians are "transformed" into Americans, to give them the ability, that they could infiltrate the USA .... After Fisher succeeded to contact US- Embassy in Moscow, make a report about his discovery, he "suddenly" dies in consequence of a "car accident". The investigations are taken over to qualified members of the US-Embassy, which are owners of a diplomat passport, Attaché of the Airforce and Viet Nam veteran Sam Hollies and Seth Alevy, boss of the Moscow CIA-Department. Last not least, for the inevitably lovestory Lisa Rhodes, spokeswomen of the embassy, is the third participant....in a case that finally leads into a Command enterprise?. "Charm School" is a typical agenthriller, in front of the "cold war". Detachment and independent existence of secret services, as well as rivalries of different secret services of a country among themselves are apart from the description of suppression in a totalitarian state are substantial components of the novel. Obviously apart to thoughts of revenge there is black-and-white painting between "the good ones" and "the bad ones". Almost the permanent cynical reference works, that it's still not the same, if two are making the same. Beside plentifull action there is also the oppressive Soviet scenery with it's surrealistical panopticum. Frightening above all is, that for "ambitious goals" all times and everywhere members of the own side have to be sacrificed.... The novel, which was published first in 1988, ends like the battle of Borodino: Undecided. At this place, the end of Bonaparte begins and the first signs of the end of the "Sowjetunion" could be seen. This ideas together with tension are giving the novel a value of 3 Amazonstars.
Rating: 
Summary: I had dreams about this book
Review: I had just returned from Russia where I was visiting my cousin, who has lived there many years, when a friend lent me "The Charm School." I had asked my cousin, "Why is it that everyone knows we are Americans before we ever open our mouths?" (And I can tell you we were not dressed in sweatsuits, Reeboks, and fanny packs, which of course mark us out a mile away, but in styles very similar to what we saw other Muscovites wearing.) He said, "It's because you look happy." And that is the whole premise of this amazing, riveting story: Americans and Russians, despite a strong physical resemblance, have such a fundamentally different mindset and set of actions that we cannot "pass" for each other. I rarely read the mass market fiction - I am so glad I made an exception in this case. Characters and descriptions are so vivid, and I got so involved in the story, that I actually had a long, involved dream where I was in the middle of it. (I just WISH that would happen with Mr. Darcy. Oh well.)
Rating: 
Summary: Yawn
Review: Middle Age hero with ex-wife + young attractive intelligent woman + saving the world from the Soviets= boring book.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of Nelson DeMille
Review: Having grown up in the era of the cold war, I was able to relate to the fears and tensions between the United States and the USSR in this exciting novel of espionage and intrigue. This is the seventh Nelson DeMille book that I've read and consider it one of his best; one of those that you really get caught up in and find it hard to put down. I have four more DeMille books to read before I run out of them so all I can hope for is that he's busy right now writing another because I don't want to ever run out of books by Nelson DeMille.
Rating: 
Summary: Just another "bad Russians" book, not more
Review: Fast moving book, easy to read, but... Do you really think that Russians are so stupid? All of them? Only Americans can see the truth, only Americans can save the world... Nothing unusual, actually. That self-importance getting boring sometimes. Victory against equal costs much more...
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