Living Among the Swiss :

Rating:
Summary: A jewel of a memoir that captures Swiss beauty and peace
Review: A gem of a memoir that captures the beauty and peacefulness of Switzerland as well as the glacial stolidity of many of its inhabitants. Discusses everything Swiss from age and sex discrimination to xenophobia. Combines a travel guide to the cantons of Zurich, the Bernese Alps, Central Switzerland, Wallis or Valais, and Graubunden or Grisons - with emphasis on skiing, hiking, and fine dining - with an analysis of questionable Swiss banking and investment practices, some of which could be construed as illegal in the U.S. Provides a primer for those seeking actually or vicariously to adapt to Swiss society and culture. Written in a spirit of satire with wit, humor, and a tincture of scholarship by a highly educated American, whose factual impressions of a foreign way of life are far more entertaining than many recently introduced works of fiction.

Rating:
Summary: dissappointingly ethnocentric
Review: If you are looking for a frustratingly ethnocentric book that considers everything non-American backwards while wrapping these observations into poor attempts to be funny - this book is for you!
If you are looking for insights into working and living in Switzerland, and expect an intelligent description, or at least a basic attempt to be objective - don't buy this book!
I was extremely dissappointed by the display of arrogant ignoranz towards Swiss ways of life by the author. In my opinion a waste of money.

Rating:
Summary: Written in the satiric spirit of Mark Twain
Review: It was Twain who observed that the Alpine flower called Edelweiss, which means 'noble white,' while possibly noble was neither white nor attractive. This author evinces a similarly acerbic wit, and his keen observations about the Swiss will delight all but those who lavish indiscriminate praise on all things foreign.

Rating:
Summary: Witty, informative, entertaining, and humorous
Review: The author is highly educated and remarkably articulate, which as a German who taught forestry at Arizona State University I find quite unusual for an American. He clearly has a strong background in Latin. I learned many new English words, and I also found a great deal of new information about places in Switzerland that I thought I had known. Finally, I found the book extremely witty and humorous.

Rating:
Summary: Discusses questionable Swiss banking practices
Review: This book discusses questionable Swiss banking and investment practices, including some which would be illegal in the U.S. It also provides a travel guide to the cantons of Zurich, the Bernese Alps, Central Switzerland, Graubunden or Grisons, and Wallis or Valais, with especial emphasis on skiing, hiking, and fine dining.

Rating:
Summary: Very Limitied, not very helpful to me
Review: This book isn't quite what I was looking for. It does offer some useful observations, it really revolves around banking. The author is humorous in a dry kind of way. He assumes that if you're moving there, you must be going to work for one of the banks. He shares his difficulties in finding employemnt due to age and lack of swiss origins. From reading this book my desire to move to Switzerland has waned significantly. I don't know how accurate the book is, but if it's even somewhat accurate, I'd rather just take a vacation, and keep my residency in the USA. He is a bit ethnocentric as noted in another review. He mentions being turned off by armpit hair. That's just the way things are in Europe, and the author just needs to get over it.

Rating:
Summary: Not Bad, some parts were interesting
Review: This book isn't quite what I was looking for. It does offer some useful observations, it really revolves around banking. The author is humorous in a dry kind of way. He assumes that if you're moving there, you must be going to work for one of the banks. He shares his difficulties in finding employemnt due to age and lack of swiss origins. From reading this book my desire to move to Switzerland has waned significantly. I don't know how accurate the book is, but if it's even somewhat accurate, I'd rather just take a vacation, and keep my residency in the USA. He is a bit ethnocentric as noted in another review. He mentions being turned off by armpit hair. That's just the way things are in Europe, and the author just needs to get over it.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected, very much about banking
Review: This book isn't quite what I was looking for. While the book does offer some useful observations, it really revolves around banking. The author is humorous in a dry kind of way, which makes the book more readable, but it is a bit boring at some points when the author rambles on and on about the banking industry. He assumes that if you're moving there, you must be going to work for one of the banks. He shares his difficulties in finding employemnt due to age and lack of swiss origins. From reading this book my desire to move to Switzerland has waned significantly. I don't know how accurate the book is, but if it's even somewhat accurate, I'd rather just take a vacation, and keep my residency in the USA. He is a bit ethnocentric as the first review notes. He mentions being turned off by armpit hair. That's just the way things are in Europe, and the author just needs to get over it. Don't buy it, borrow it from a library! I'm glad I did.

Rating:
Summary: Distills the experiences of eight years in Switzerland
Review: This book provides a primer for those seeking actually or vicariously to adjust to Swiss culture and society. It discusses everything Swiss from age and sex discrimination to xenophobia.

Rating:
Summary: Written in the satiric spirit of Mark Twain
Review: This is a weird book. If you happen to be a stock analyst specializing in American stocks for sale in the European market, and planning to move to Switzerland, this book probably has a lot to offer you. Otherwise, there are plenty of better books out there. It contains a rather small guide to hiking and skiing trails in certain areas of Switzerland, plus some extensive and cynical views of the Swiss banking and stockbrokering system. The author also displays a certain amount of homophobia, in case that matters to you. John McPhee's book gives a much better look at the Swiss character, and just about any travel guide gives you more travel information.