From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava (Thorndike Press Large Print Nonfiction Series)

From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava (Thorndike Press Large Print Nonfiction Series) Review

A heartwarming look at wartime humanity

"From Baghdad, With Love" is the story of U.S. Marine Jay Kopelman and his struggle to rescue a five-week-old stray puppy named "Lava" from the wartorn streets of Fallujah, Iraq. The story is nothing short of heartwarming, especially if you're a dog person like myself. Kopelman is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Hawaiin First Battalion, Third Marines who call themselves the "Lava Dogs.". In addition to the rescue of the young pup Kopelman does an excellent job of providing brief descriptions of the war and how it affects those in and around it. Even though he's still on active active duty, Kopelman provides an eeriely realistic and accurate view of the turmoils of war faced on a daily basis. Lava, who was most likely left behind when people fled the city upon the invasion/liberation is found in a compound used to house U.S. Marines. Even though General Order 1-A very strongly prohibits pets or mascots, Kopelman decides Lava's life is worth saving.

"General Order 1-A is taken pretty seriously by the military. No pets allowed. That's because they've invested a lot of time and money into trashing your moral clarity, and they don't want anything like compassion messing things up. Your job is to shoot the enemy, period, and if anything close to compassion rears its ugly head, you better shoot that down, too, or you're in some deep, scary s**t."

Here are my thoughts on this simple yet brilliantly touching story;


Pros

+ Deeply moving story. The author, a marine, presents his true feelings of love for the puppy Lava. It was very refreshing to see this human side of emotion during a war from a soldier trained to kill.

+ Depictions of war, while brief, pulled no punches in their presentation.

+ Book taught me several things regarding military protocol and the war in Iraq.

+ Beautiful cover art and photos within.


Cons

- Too short! I wanted to know more about Lava and his happy life today!

- Some choppy writing and editing. The author often used the word "like" which made him sound a bit more "valley girl" and less marine.


Having rescued a dog from an abusive home myself, I found this book impossible to put down. The story was engaging, Kopelman's love for Lava was beautifully portrayed and his drive to rescue him from the war was extremely touching. Some people have criticized the author for spending effort rescuing a dog when he should have been rescuing people. I completely disagree. His love for Lava and his securing his safety knew no bounds. I never felt at any point in the book that the author was neglecting his duties as a Marine and focusing too much on an animal. And in Kopelman's own words;

"Why wasn't my time spent helping people instead of a puppy?" asks Kopelman. "I don't know and I don't care, but at least I saved something."

I couldn't agree more. I would be proud to shake Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman's hand for what he did for his country and for lovable Lava.

From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava (Thorndike Press Large Print Nonfiction Series) Overview

A war memoir that will capture the hearts of its readers, just as one scruffy puppy sneaked his way into the hearts of hardened Marines just when they needed it most.

From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava (Thorndike Press Large Print Nonfiction Series) Specifications

In From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava, Jay Kopelman tells a story that is both tender and thought-provoking--candidly portraying the ugly conditions in wartime Iraq, while also describing his (and his fellow Marines') growing attachment to a scruffy stray puppy. Here Jay Kopelman answers a few questions about his aspirations as a writer, and the effect his book has had on readers.

Questions for Jay Kopelman

Amazon.com: Before you met Lava and had this experience smuggling him out of Iraq, did you ever have ambitions to write a book?

Jay Kopelman: Yes, I'd considered writing a book previously and have started--but not finished--a novel. Not surprisingly, it's a military murder mystery. And I'm still hoping to get it published. I've also been offered a deal by my publisher to write another book. So I guess I'm now officially an author.

Amazon.com: How has the military responded to it given that you broke a number of rules during your adventure with Lava?

Jay Kopelman: I've actually not had any real feedback from the military establishment. In fact, mostly I only get the good-natured ribbing from my contemporaries about how much money I'll make or about who will play me in the movie. When the story first broke a year and a half ago, one of the generals jokingly asked me for an autograph, and I've given the previous commanding general for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force a signed galley. So, thus far, there’s been nothing "official" to which I've had to respond. We'll see what happens now that the book is released and there's going to be a media blitz surrounding the book. What you have to remember, though, is that I really didn't use military assets to get Lava home. Nor did I ever endanger anyone in the military while doing so.

Amazon.com: In the book, you say that you would like it if it can bring hope to people who've lost loved ones in Iraq by showing them how something positive can come out of a brutal situation. Have you heard from people that your book has made them feel better?

Jay Kopelman: I've not yet heard from anyone who’s lost a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan, but I have heard from a counselor who works with the returning Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, who said she finds the story so very positive and helpful. She's planning to come to the book signing there. I also got an e-mail from a Marine who said that while her unit was in Iraq, they adopted a puppy and tried to bring it home, but he was ultimately put down. She says that the Marines "remember how Charlie the dog helped us. Charlie will always be loved. During a time when we were far from home that dog made us smile." So, I suppose Lava's story does help people remember and gives them hope. I’ve also heard from people who appreciate my candor describing the conditions in Iraq.

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Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season

Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season Review

The Booklist Review said that this book was more for mountaineering enthusiasts and I wholeheartedly disagree. I have never climbed a mountain, never thought about it, and never plan to. I don't even particularly care for hiking! However, I did watch the Discovery Channel show Beyond the Limit and was thoroughly captivated by it. Prior to that show, I had no concept of what it meant to climb Everest. I found myself completely intrigued by it, and have since had an entirely different view about it.

I picked this book up in part because I wanted to revisit some of the people I remembered from the show. I found the book extremely interesting. I was fascinated by the backstory and delving more deeply into the circumstances of that climbing year. I even enjoyed the background information and the history about climbing. If I have any criticism it is simply that it was at times frustrating trying to keep all the names and climbing teams straight. I'm not sure how that could have been handled differently, but that is my one and only criticism.

I liked that the author did not use this book to lay blame at anyone's feet. I thought it was a very objective work, which is a rare treat in a work of this nature. Heil tells the story with vigor, purpose, and beauty.

Highly enjoyable read, even if you aren't a climber!

Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season Overview

In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, Nick Heil recounts the harrowing story of the deadly and controversial 2006 climbing season on Everest.

In early May 2006, a young British climber named David Sharp lay dying near the top of Mount Everest while forty other climbers walked past him on their way to the summit. A week later, Lincoln Hall, a seasoned Australian climber, was left for dead near the same spot. Hall’s death was reported around the world, but the next day he was found alive after spending the night on the upper mountain with no food and no shelter.

If David Sharp’s death was shocking, it was not singular: despite unusually good weather, ten others died attempting to reach the summit that year. In this meticulous inquiry into what went wrong, Nick Heil tells the full story of the deadliest year on Everest since the infamous season of 1996. He introduces Russell Brice, the outfitter who has done more than anyone to provide access to the summit via the mountain’s north side–and who some believe was partially responsible for Sharp’s death. As more climbers attempt the summit each year, Heil shows how increasingly risky expeditions and unscrupulous outfitters threaten to turn Everest into a deadly circus.

Written by an experienced climber and outdoor writer, Dark Summit is both a riveting account of a notorious climbing season and a troubling investigation into whether the pursuit of the ultimate mountaineering prize has spiralled out of control.


From the Hardcover edition.

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They Call Me Baba Booey

They Call Me Baba Booey Review

They Call Me Baba Booey Overview

One of pop culture’s great enduring unsung heroes: Gary Dell’Abate, Howard Stern Show producer, miracle worker, professional good sport, and servant to the King of All Media, for the first time tells the story of his early years and reveals how his chaotic childhood and early obsessions prepared him for life at the center of the greatest show on earth.
 
Baba Booey! Baba Booey! It was a slip of the tongue—that unfortunately was heard by a few million listeners—but in that split second a nickname, a persona, a rallying cry, and a phenomenon was born. Some would say it was the moment Gary Dell’Abate, the long-suffering heroic producer of The Howard Stern Show, for better or worse, finally came into his own. In They Call Me Baba Booey, Dell’Abate explains how his early life was the perfect training ground for the day-to-day chaos that comes with producing the most popular radio show on earth.

Growing up on Long Island in the 1970s, the youngest of three boys born to a clinically depressed mother, Gary learned how to fend for himself when under attack.  Obsessed with music, he listened with religious intensity to Casey Kasem's Top 40 every Sunday morning, compulsively bought 45s of his favorite songs, and nerdily copied the lyrics into a notebook. Music became an ordering principle to his life, even as the chaos at home got out of hand. Dell’Abate’s memoir sketches the trajectory from the obsessive pop-music trivia buff to the man in the beekeeper’s mask who handily defeats his opponents playing “Stump the Booey.” We learn about the memorable moments in his life that taught him to endure epic bouts of humiliation and get his unique perspective on some of his favorite Stern show episodes—such as the day he nearly killed the Mets mascot while throwing out the first pitch, or the time his mother called Howard’s mother and demanded an apology.

Hilarious, painful, and eye-opening, it’s Gary as you’ve never seen him before, telling a story that even Stern show insiders can’t begin to imagine.

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Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.

Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. Review

This book is on the ALA's list of 100 most frequently banned books of 1990 through 2000.

This is a memoir of gang life & of growing up poor and Chicano in East LA in the '60's & 70's. It's also about learning who you are and finding ways out - through writing, through painting, & through social activism.

Rodriguez is primarily a poet and writer of short stories & it shows in this collection of snap shots of moments from his past. For those wanting a standard tale with a classical throughline and neat conclusions, this book will disappoint.

I enjoyed the author's imagery and the ways he plays with the genre of memoir. What is memory? What do we remember? How do we remember it? For me so much of my memory is just what he provides - little snapshots of moments in time.

From a political/social perspective, this book does a good job of elucidating the reasons kids join gangs and the possible paths out. He talks about gangs as a kind of mass suicide & that's an idea that stuck with me - all these kids looking for family & hating themselves.

In one of those funny moments where influences collide that can happen while reading, I kept thinking of another gang memoir that I read when I was younger. I remembered that it was written by a Puerto Rican guy that grew up in Spanish Harlem & was also about all of the ways that books saved him, but I couldn't remember the name of the book. It was right there on the tip of my tongue. I could remember that the author was named Piri, but that was all. Then I turned a page & there it was - Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas - turns out Luis Rodriguez read that one, too.

This book is also full of shades of Sandra Cisneros - a Chicana writer & poet whose work I've read off & on since her first book - The House on Mango Street. Like Cisneros, Rodriguez' work is full of rhythm & bright color.

I liked this book a great deal, although I don't think it offers any long-term solutions to these problems. Like The Corner, David Simon's killer tome on life on a Baltimore drug corner, this book illustrates the condition. Perhaps education really is the only way out, but to get there we're going to have to spend some money & stop using our educational system to ghettoize people based on class, race, income level, & the phase of the moon on Fridays when the cat's too tired to sing.

The world is a complex & beautiful place & in the end maybe only words can save us.

Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. Feature

• ISBN13: 9780743276917
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. Overview

By age twelve, Luis Rodriguez was a veteran of East L.A. gang warfare. Lured by a seemingly invincible gang culture, he witnessed countless shootings, beatings, and arrests, then watched with increasing fear as drugs, murder, suicide, and senseless acts of street crime claimed friends and family members.

Before long, Rodriguez saw a way out of the barrio through education and the power of words and successfully broke free from years of violence and desperation. Achieving success as an award-winning Chicano poet, he was sure the streets would haunt him no more -- until his son joined a gang. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in Always Running, a vivid memoir that explores the motivations of gang life and cautions against the death and destruction that inevitably claim its participants. At times heartbreakingly sad and brutal, Always Running is ultimately an uplifting true story, filled with hope, insight, and a hard-learned lesson for the next generation.

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A Sand County Almanac

A Sand County Almanac Review

"A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold was first published in 1949. I have the Oxford University Press paperback edition (the one with the honkers at the cover). As far as I understand, this edition contains all of the original work. Other editions leave out parts of sections II and III. The OUP edition is beautifully illustrated by Charles W. Schwartz.

Although less known than Carson's "Silent Spring", Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac" is considered a classic by the conservationist and environmentalist movements. Leopold was a leading conservationist himself and a co-founder of the Wilderness Society, an organization devoted to the expansion and protection of wilderness areas. Deep ecologists consider "A Sound County Almanac" a precursor to their own philosophy, because of Leopold's attempt to formulate a "land ethic" which takes into consideration the entire "biotic community", not just humans. Said Leopold: "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."

Most of the almanac consist of short descriptions and reflections on wildlife, most of them based on observations around Leopold's backwoods farm in Wisconsin. He seems to have deliberately obtained a small and run down piece of property. Occasionally, the area was so flooded that Leopold couldn't make it to his job (he was professor at the university of Wisconsin-Madison).

Often, Leopold's sketches simply deal with the beauties of trees, flowering plants and animals (such as honkers). The author also writes about his hunting trips - in contrast to animal rights activists, Leopold was no vegan. However, he seems to have given up killing large mammal predators, preferring instead to hunt birds strictly for food. Still, this part of the book will definitely be objectionable to animal liberationists, as when Leopold glowingly retells a childhood memory of his first (and succesful) duck hunt.

At other times, Leopold's descriptions of nature and wildlife have a more political or philosophical tinge. A recurrent theme is the interdependence of living organisms, as when Leopold muses that his refusal to deal with various forms of tree sickness around his farm has made the environment more diverse. A nostalgic encounter with a Silphium plant becomes an opportunity to bemoan the disappearence of the original praire landscape. The author admits to like aspens, tamaracks and cottonwood, three species of trees heartily hated by his neighbours, not to mention foresters. The message is clear: the trees are good in themselves, they are aesthetically pleasing and make the environment more diverse and interesting. That they are economically unviable or a nuisance to humans should be irrelevant. Leopold's panegyric to the extinct passanger pigeon is my favourite piece. The fact that humans can mourn the loss of the pigeon, while the pigeon cannot mourn the loss of humans, is to Leopold what really makes us higher than the brutes.

In the third section of the book, called "The Upshot", Leopold presents his philosophical views. He wants to extend ethics to all of creation: animals, plants and the land itself. He attacks the massive tourism in wildnerness areas, and in general opposes human encroachments on wild nature. He doesn't idealize farmers as somehow being closer to the land. Quite the contrary: there are plenty of sharp attacks on farmers in this book, farmers who farm for profit only, and take conservationist measures only if given handouts from the public treasury. It seems that Leopold is calling for more government regulation. National parks should be made much larger by buying out farms or compensating the farmers for livestock lost to predation. Obviously, this can only be done by state or federal authorities.

"A Sand County Almanac" criticizes the utilitarian and economic ethos of modern civilization, where animals and plants are saved only to the extent they are believed to be useful to humans. The author believes that only about 5% of the species of "higher" animals and plants found in Wisconsin have economic value for humans. Yet, all species have the right to exist, since the stability of the environment or "biotic community" as a whole depends on it. (Presumably, this principle also applies to environments that aren't economically useful to humans.) I get the impression that Leopold was somewhat pessimistic about the prospects of saving nature from the encroachments of modern civilization. The siuation has hardly improved since his death in 1948.

Despite its descriptions of animals and plants, "A Sand County Almanac" isn't a natural history. Nor is it a stringent philosophical work. The chapter on the land ethic isn't argued at great length. "A Sand County Almanac" is rather a series of short meditations on nature, wildlife and the human predicament. If you like it or not probably depends on your mood or personal attitude.

People who feel nothing when walking in a park or visiting a duckpond won't like the "real" nature sketches in this book. Those who admire the steelworks of Hank Rearden or railways of Dagny Taggart will probably need some artificial substance to get through the almanac. As already noted, animal rights activists will (ironically) be horrified by the author shooting grouse, partridges and ducks. Even more ironically, the almanac might struck avid hunters and outdoorsmen as too boring. Most of the time, Leopold doesn't stray far from his small farmstead and the beloved tamaracks. He is no Bernd Heinrich, hot on the trail of wolves in Yellowstone and fascinated by their blood-curling hunts. Nor is he ready to throw geese to caged, hungry ravens just to see some action!

"A Sand County Almanac" is a a book for those who like solitude, peace and quiet, and don't necessarily identify wilderness with Alaska or the Rockies. A bit of nostalgia about what has been lost will also help you grasp the deep ecology of Aldo Leopold.

A Sand County Almanac Overview

First published in 1949 and praised in The New York Times Book Review as "a trenchant book, full of vigor and bite," A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land.

As the forerunner to such important books as Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, and Robert Finch's The Primal Place, this classic work remains as relevant today as it was nearly sixty years ago.

A Sand County Almanac Specifications

Published in 1949, shortly after the author's death, A Sand County Almanac is a classic of nature writing, widely cited as one of the most influential nature books ever published. Writing from the vantage of his summer shack along the banks of the Wisconsin River, Leopold mixes essay, polemic, and memoir in his book's pages. In one famous episode, he writes of killing a female wolf early in his career as a forest ranger, coming upon his victim just as she was dying, "in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes.... I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view." Leopold's road-to-Damascus change of view would find its fruit some years later in his so-called land ethic, in which he held that nothing that disturbs the balance of nature is right. Much of Almanac elaborates on this basic premise, as well as on Leopold's view that it is something of a human duty to preserve as much wild land as possible, as a kind of bank for the biological future of all species. Beautifully written, quiet, and elegant, Leopold's book deserves continued study and discussion today. --Gregory McNamee

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3,096 Days

3,096 Days Review

3,096 Days Overview

On 2 March 1998 ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch was snatched off the street by a stranger and bundled into a white van. Hours later she found herself in a dark cellar, wrapped in a blanket. When she emerged eight years later, her childhood had gone. In "3,096 Days" Natascha tells her incredible story for the first time: her difficult childhood, what exactly happened on the day of her abduction, her imprisonment in a five-square-metre dungeon, and the mental and physical abuse she suffered from her abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil. "3,096 Days" is ultimately a story about the triumph of the human spirit. It describes how, in a situation of almost unbearable hopelessness, she slowly learned how to manipulate her captor. And how, against inconceivable odds, she managed to escape unbroken.

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Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series

Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series Review

Chekhov's Plays by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Chekhov's "The Three Sisters", "The Sea-Gull", "Uncle Vanya" are my favorite plays. The translations are brilliant. Great ebook overall.

Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series Overview

The last few years have seen a large and generally unsystematic
mass of translations from the Russian flung at the heads and hearts
of English readers. The ready acceptance of Chekhov has been one of
the few successful features of this irresponsible output. He has
been welcomed by British critics with something like affection.
Bernard Shaw has several times remarked: "Every time I see a play
by Chekhov, I want to chuck all my own stuff into the fire."
Others, having no such valuable property to sacrifice on the altar
of Chekhov, have not hesitated to place him side by side with
Ibsen, and the other established institutions of the new theatre.
For these reasons it is pleasant to be able to chronicle the fact
that, by way of contrast with the casual treatment normally handed
out to Russian authors, the publishers are issuing the complete
dramatic works of this author. In 1912 they brought out a volume
containing four Chekhov plays, translated by Marian Fell. All the
dramatic works not included in her volume are to be found in the
present one. With the exception of Chekhov's masterpiece

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Jack of No Trades

Jack of No Trades Review

A 'Novel' Guest Review By Leigh Wood

After one too many viewing's of the 1992 BBC production of Lady Chatterley, I finally broke down and read the book. I thought the 1928 unedited version of Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence would be a tough book to find. Expensive, rare, old leather, smelly, buried in an antiquarian store-that type of book. Indeed I was very pleased to find the 1928 Unexpurgated Oriali Edition in paperback at my local Borders. .95!

I wrapped Mists of Avalon as quickly as possible and avoided watching the film before I plunged into Lover. I read other writers' criticisms on D.H. Lawrence and his works before purchasing the book, and I knew the book and movie didn't have the same ending. Of course, I also knew the book's controversial reputation and supposedly salacious use of naughty words and torrid sex talk. My edition opened with forwards and introductions detailing the book's tough road to publication and the aftermath of censorship. Although this story is fairly well known in literary circles, this introduction is informative, with details and facts on the books printing, pirated editions, and trial information. Even if one was a toe towards prudish, you can't not be interested in reading Lady Chatterley's Lover after these words of praise.

Although the 1992 adaptation by Ken Russell is quite faithful, Lawrence's work is naturally bigger and more detailed than what can be translated to the screen. I noticed many cases where the film had taken word for word from the book, and also where scenes had been combined or moved and relocated for the film. Still, much was remaining to surprise me. After her Baronet husband's paralysis during World War I, young Constance Chatterley begins to question her mundane existence as Lady of Wragby Hall and nursemaid to her crippled husband. They are educated and literate, but as she listens to her husband and his friends chit chat about war, sex, society, and money, Connie becomes more and more disenchanted with her upper class standing. After a very dissatisfying affair with playwright Michaelis, Connie begins a saucy love affair with her husband's gamekeeper Olivier Mellors. Despite the fear of being caught and societal pressures upon them, Connie and Mellors continue to meet. When the scandal comes out, they take measures to secure a life together, despite the class divisions against them.

The great part of Lady Chatterley's Lover is the love discovered between the titular characters, so I was intrigued by the intitial Michaelis relationship. We learn much about Connie intellectually and sexually through this affair, internal thoughts and disappointing feelings that can't be show onscreen. I've read other fans commentaries online about Joely Richardson's performance as Lady Chatterley in the BBC version. Women sometimes find her portrayal conceded and flaky. Connie has nothing to loose, where Mellors has everything to loose. In the novel, this is certainly not the case. Connie is already nothing, an emotionless drone whose stature gives her nothing.

Likewise the Mellors in print has everything to gain. His backstory is greatly detailed by Lawrence, yet he maintains his strong silent and mysterious air. Once on officer during the war and a well educated pupil then tutor, Mellors could have the upper class at his fingertips, yet he chooses to be left alone. This book is not just about sex. Our couple is disenchanted with war, industry, money, and the people around them who think that those things give meaning to life. Some of Mellors' dialogue is written in dialect and for an American like me, it took a double take at first. However, Mellors can also speak perfect English, and does so when he chooses, not when people expect it of him. In fact, his speech is often broken when he thinks it will upset people, such as Connie's image conscious sister Hilda.

Lawrence spends a great many of the early chapters discussing artists and their self important selves, yet it is a great and subtle revelation when Connie discovers books in Mellor's house. Its often claimed not to be Lawrence's best work, but Lady Chatterley's Lover intricately weaves the love story between Connie and Mellors with multiple commentaries from Lawrence. Without being too obvious with his author views, Lawrence questions the English post war Jazz society and classes as well as the later artistic society Lawrence often found himself outcast from. This catch-22 is again mirrored in the novel. Where Connie and Mellors affair crosses class divides and angers their entire community, her husband Clifford's unusual relationship with his nurse Mrs. Bolton is entirely acceptable. I love Charles Dickens for his veiled or outright social commentaries, and I dare say Lawrence is on par here in asking those same society questions. Who decides these social barriers and imobilities? Why are some invisible to these restraints via power, position, and money? What is the right reason to circumvent these divides and do something about oneself?

Lady Chatterley's Lover has kept me thinking about itself long after I've finished the book. I'd like to read it again and find answers to these questions. Although it is a thorough British book in time and place, Lover also presents very modern thoughts and conjecture. After Lawrence's difficulty with self publishing and piracy, the book was banned until a 1960 obscenity trial. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't find the book all that shocking. Was it because I was familiar with the film version, or is it because the book perhaps caused our current liberal ideas and desensitizing? Four letter words and sex talk have always existed, but Lawrence's honest treatment of the subjects opened a Pandora's box on erotica, pornography, nudity, and bad words in art, literature, and film. I can't say the same for other works, but Lover is actually a very tasteful book, rather innocent in a way. The rebirth of the main characters through their love for one another. Lawrence was tempted to call the story `Tenderness' and the title would have fit.

Although the work speaks for itself when it comes to sex, society, and even religion, my edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover came with `A Propos on Lady Chatterley's Lover' by D. H. Lawrence himself. After finishing the book on a positive note, I was disappointed in this thirty page essay. One should always let his work speak for itself, and there's no need for this redundant and overlong speech from Lawrence. From World War I to Christianity, Lawrence's essays should be cut in half or is perhaps better for a college classroom discussion.

If you're looking for porn or sexual gratification, you won't find it in Lady Chatterley's Lover. Most certainly the book is not for everyone, and if frank sexual talk and situations is not your cup of tea, do skip this read. I'lm a fairly straight laced individual, and I only second guessed the book once. In Chapter 16 or 19, I thought the anal sex euphuisms were getting a bit redundant. I giggled a few times over the language, but was moved by other beautiful descriptions from Lawrence. At first I looked for Lover in Borders' small erotica section, but Lawrence's works are found in the general fiction section and in the classics section at my local library.
Lady Chatterley's Lover is by no means for children or prudes, but it is a fine novel that has transcended time and place. We may be too loose or vulgar in our society today-celebrities with wardrobe malfunctions and half naked women in music videos. Lover and the books in its wake may have caused this openness, but the book also reminds me of the good things about he past. Women wore gloves, men tips their hats to all, and writers wrote great books.

Jack of No Trades Overview

The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Authors, American; Literary Criticism / American / General; Biography

Jack of No Trades Specifications

Perhaps the most famous of Lawrence's novels, the 1928 Lady Chatterley's Lover is no longer distinguished for the once-shockingly explicit treatment of its subject matter--the adulterous affair between a sexually unfulfilled upper-class married woman and the game keeper who works for the estate owned by her wheelchaired husband. Now that we're used to reading about sex, and seeing it in the movies, it's apparent that the novel is memorable for better reasons: namely, that Lawrence was a masterful and lyrical writer, whose story takes us bodily into the world of its characters.

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Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors into a Family

Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors into a Family Review

I just finished read the book "Katie Up and Down the Hall" by Glenn Plaskin. I am an animal person and I couldn't wait to read this book. And also let me tell you after reading it I can honestly say, I LOVED IT!!!!!

Glenn had been contemplating getting a dog for many years when he finally took the plunge and got one. He found a breeder of cocker spaniels. In the building Glenn lived in he had a friend named Joe who owned a cocker spaniel himself. Joe gave him advice on how to raise a dog and introduced Glenn to an elderly couple (Arthur & Pearl) who lived just next door and who recently had lost their dog. The dog Glenn found was not what someone who liked to show dogs would want, skinny, not proportion well. They had named her Twiggy, but after Glenn got her he changed her name it Katie. Little did he know his life was changed forever.

Katie bonded Glenn with Arthur & Pearl deeply. In fact Katie created close bonds between Glenn and a few people he met in his life. These bonds he made is more then some of us could even dream of. For 15 years memories were created, they went though 9/11 together and even visited many celebrities together(Glenn is a writer and took Katie on many interviews). Then the memories they had together sitting at Pearls table, bonding with new friends and loving.

The book broke my heart at the end and I cried for a good 20 minutes trying to finish the book. And although my heart was sad my heart was also filled with joy. Joy for a group of people who found each other all because of a dog named Katie and the love that they shared.

If you are up for a fun loving, emotional book, this is the one for you. In fact I am planning on reading it again. I felt like Katie, Glenn, Pearl, Arthur and the gang where my family too. And I went on the roller-coaster with them. I was actually sad to see the book end.

Thank you Glenn Plaskin for sharing a deep part of your life with us. This book has made me look around my life and see who I fill it with and to spend as much time with them as I can. Each day with the ones you love is like gold, don't waste it.

Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors into a Family Overview

A personal memoir by bestselling author and celebrity journalist Glenn Plaskin, KATIEis a moving story about a man who discovers the true meaning of family after adopting a cocker spaniel puppy. Through the magnetic personality of his mischievous dog, the author soon makes powerful connections with several of his down-the-hall neighbors in a high-rise located in the unique Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. First, Katie trots into the lives of Pearl and Arthur, a warm-hearted elderly couple just a few doors down from Glenn. Later, John, a single Dad, and his rambunctious young son, Ryan, also move in and are seduced by Katie's charms.

All of their lives are profoundly changed as they are transformed from neighbors to friends to family, with Pearl as matriarch. The motherless boy finds a "Granny"; his Dad inherits a mother, Glenn discovers a confidante. Set in New York City, we witness nearly sixteen years of antics and family adventures spanning Hollywood high times, bad health, accidents, blustery winters, even the terrors of 9/11. Through it all, the family clings to each other, sharing a deep bond that give each comfort, support and security.

Based upon a widely-read article in Family Circle, here is an unforgettable story about the love that makes a family-one that transcends the hard realities of time, tragedy, and inevitable loss.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 27, 2010 22:12:05

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah Review

Thirty seven reviewers of 493 assign 3 stars or less to this book. Unlike those reviewers, I easily found this to be THE BEST and the most inspiring book I have ever read. If you classify a quote such as "What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly" cheesy, or comparable to 'ham and eggs', this book may not be for you. If you have the capability and/ or desire to think about how profound this statement is, you can't afford not to read this book. This pearl of wisdom, and many more like this, have helped me gain so much in my life while helping me through any tough times.

There have been days when I read one page, thought about it for many days before I could advance to next page. If you think this is a 'simple' book unlike what philosophical treatises should be, read it at leisure and be willing to pontificate-your views might change. I know I loved this book when I first read it when I was 18 years old. Nineteen years later, the book is still a masterpiece to me.

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah Overview

In the cloud-washed airspace between the cornfields of Illinois and blue infinity, a man puts his faith in the propeller of his biplane. For disillusioned writer and itinerant barnstormer Richard Bach, belief is as real as a full tank of gas and sparks firing in the cylinders...until he meets Donald Shimoda--former mechanic and self-described messiah who can make wrenches fly and Richard's imagination soar....

In Illusions, the unforgettable follow-up to his phenomenal bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach takes to the air to discover the ageless truths that give our souls wings: that people don't need airplanes to soar...that even the darkest clouds have meaning once we lift ourselves above them... and that messiahs can be found in the unlikeliest places--like hay fields, one-traffic-light midwestern towns, and most of all, deep within ourselves.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 27, 2010 13:44:06

Through the Brazilian Wilderness (Optimized for Kindle)

Through the Brazilian Wilderness (Optimized for Kindle) Review

Theodore Roosevelt was a man's man. A New York kid whose taste for adventure was sparked in his boyhood by a dead seal for sale on a Broadway sidewalk. Harvard student, soldier, Rough Rider, youngest President ever and one who survived the assassin's bullet, maverick politician, Nobel Prize winner, hunter and conservationist, and finally the man who, at 55 years old, explored an unknown region of the Amazon river basin. Imagine one of today's former-Presidents undertaking a similar adventure. For six weeks, in 1914, Roosevelt and his party paddled and carried their canoes down a previously unexplored 950-mile river now called the Rio Roosevelt. Men died, boats were lost, food became scarce, dangerous animals and natives were about, fever borne by insects sickened many in the party (and led to Roosevelt's own death five years later). This is the stuff of "Through the Brazilian Wilderness".

Roosevelt's other works, including "The Rough Riders", are better known, and this one is not great literature. Instead, it is a remarkable adventure story by an interesting man. The book is essentially Roosevelt's trip diary, colored by his great enthusiasm for adventure and the natural world. Even before reaching the Amazon, Roosevelt stops at a Brazilian snake research lab that so captures his attention that he writes seventeen pages about it. At all times, he makes careful note of the wildlife he encounters, not quite with the depth of a professional scientist, but with the trained eye of a dedicated and experienced hobbyist. He squeezes in some amusing stories about piranha fish that he heard --and apparently believed. Naturalists of the day killed animals in the name of science, which places in context Roosevelt's joy in hunting and his comments: first on alligators ("They are often dangerous and are always destructive to fish, and it is good to shoot them") and later on conservation ("There is every reason why the good people of South America should waken... to the duty of preserving from extinction the wildlife which is an asset of such interest."). The book is most poetic in its description of animal life, and particularly in registering surprise that the myriad insects are far more pernicious than any of the better-known dangers such as alligators, big cats, or piranhas.

The book's is not perfect, and Roosevelt is not a great author in a literary sense, rather making up in enthusiasm what he lacks in prose and penetrating insight. There is no attempt at political analysis, he simply praises Brazilians as good hosts who have started down the road to democracy. He sees the land he travels through as like the United States of perhaps a hundred years earlier, so there are frequent predictions that a promising location is ripe for development. The limited foray into politics is to praise Positivism, the ideology of the Brazilian military class that emphasized modernity and structure, and that not incidentally justified the many instances of military intervention in Brazilian politics over the years. Finally, the one annoyance is the recurring theme (perhaps a dozen times in all) of the true danger of the journey. Over and over we read that the river has never been charted, that it is truly dangerous, that the explorers are not your armchair-adventurer variety, and that such voyages will necessarily be easier for those who follow in the future. We get that.

Roosevelt was an interesting man, his enthusiasm and taste for adventure are infectious. The book is not a literary triumph, but it is a fun read and an excellent journey through the Amazon

Through the Brazilian Wilderness (Optimized for Kindle) Overview

On the occasion in question Father Zahm had just returned from a trip across the Andes and down the Amazon and came in to propose that after I left the presidency he and I should go up the Paraguay into the interior of South America.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 27, 2010 05:40:05

The Real Benjamin Franklin (American Classic Series)

The Real Benjamin Franklin (American Classic Series) Review

Excellent - Couldn't Put It Down. I was afraid it would be boring but it wasn't. My 14 yr. old son also read and enjoyed it. I finished this several months ago and have gone back and re-read various sections. The reference section and Writings section are a huge bonus as well. I would recommend this book for the casual reader as well as for advanced study. check out The Real Thomas Jefferson (American Classic Series) and The Real George Washington (American Classic Series) as well.

The Real Benjamin Franklin (American Classic Series) Feature

• ISBN13: 9780880800013
• Condition: New
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The Real Benjamin Franklin (American Classic Series) Overview

The Real Benjamin Franklin: The True Story of America's Greatest Diplomat. There are many Benjamin Franklins -- or at least he has taken on many different forms in the history books of the last two centuries. Some historians have shown us an aged statesman whose wise and steadying influence kept the Constitutional Convention together in 1787, while others have conjured up sensational tales of a lecherous old diplomat. Unfounded myths are now being repeated and embellished in school textbooks and educational television programs.

Which of all these Benjamin Franklins, if any, is real? This book is an attempt to answer that question. The Real Benjamin Franklin seats us across the table from the one person who really knew Benjamin Franklin -- that is, Franklin himself -- and gives him an opportunity to explain his life and ideas in his own words. Part I of this book details his exciting biography, and Part II includes his most important and insightful writings, all carefully documented from original sources.

Highly acclaimed by many, including Glenn Beck of the Fox News Channel. Published by the National Center for Constitutional Studies, a nonprofit educational foundation dedicated to restoring Constitutional principles in the tradition of America's Founding Fathers. The National Center for Constitutional Studies...is doing a fine public service in educating Americans about the principles of the Constitution. -- Ronald Reagan, President of the United States

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 26, 2010 20:35:06

My Bondage and My Freedom (Penguin Classics)

My Bondage and My Freedom (Penguin Classics) Review

Historians often call the Civil War the first modern war, a precursor to the great battlefield slaughterhouses of the twentieth century. Frederick Douglass shows that America was also first to invent the totalitarian police state. It's hard to believe Stalin didn't have MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM prominently positioned on his bookshelf for frequent consultation because the Soviet system of oppression had so much in common with the system of oppression in the American South. The only significant difference was that, in the Soviet system, absolute power was vested in Stalin; in the American system, absolute power was vested in each slavemaster. Each slavemaster was, in essence, a little Stalin, with life and death power over his slave property.

The slave system rigorously withheld news and information from slaves. A slave often would not know his father or even his own date of birth. He could not lawfully learn to read. He could not travel without written authorization. He could not associate freely with other slaves. He could not safely trust anyone or confide his private thoughts to anyone because planted informers were so numerous. Slaves had to avoid even certain thoughts for fear the slavemaster would see in their facial expressions what was in their minds.

Disguised slave catchers would sometimes help and encourage a slave to escape, only to capture him for the reward. The slavemaster demanded and enforced absolute, immediate, and unquestioned subservience through fear, a liberal use of the lash and the constant threat of transferring a recalcitrant slave to an even harsher labor camp in the deep South.

Yet MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM is by no means a depressing book, thanks to Douglass' irrepressible courage, wit, spirit and good luck when he most needed it. There are even a few intentionally hilarious moments, which I won't give away in this review.

To avoid capture after his escape to the North, Douglass used the fees from his speeches in Great Britain and royalties from his book sales to legally buy his own freedom from his Maryland owner.

The book covers a period of American history I knew little about, the period between the War of 1812 and the Civil War. I didn't know, for example, that the abolition movement early in that period favored secession from the United States on the belief that the Constitution favored the South and backed to the hilt the slave system. An excellent recent book that supports that view is SLAVERY'S CONSTITUTION by David Waldstreicher.

Even though Douglass was a religious, believing Christian, he leveled his most scathing criticism at the way Southerners used Christianity to justify and advance the slave system. He often noted that the cruelest slave masters were also credited as the most religious members of their communities. Some of the worst even had "Rev." attached to their names. The only slavemaster Douglass credited with relative decency and kindness also happened to be an atheist.

My Bondage and My Freedom (Penguin Classics) Feature

• ISBN13: 9780140439182
• Condition: New
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My Bondage and My Freedom (Penguin Classics) Overview

Ex-slave Frederick Douglass's second autobiography-written after ten years of reflection following his legal emancipation in 1846 and his break with his mentor William Lloyd Garrison-catapulted Douglass into the international spotlight as the foremost spokesman for American blacks, both freed and slave. Written during his celebrated career as a speaker and newspaper editor, My Bondage and My Freedom reveals the author of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) grown more mature, forceful, analytical, and complex with a deepened commitment to the fight for equal rights and liberties.

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by John David Smith

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 26, 2010 13:26:06

Shantaram

Shantaram Review

I read this book the first time when I was in Mumbai India and I was staying at the Taj hotel mentioned many times in the book. Much of the story takes place in that general vicinity so I was able to visit the bar that features heavily in the book and other places. I was in India on one of my many business trips there and I had a driver that I had take me around to all of the different places mentioned in the book. It was almost magical.

I loved this book. As someone said in an earlier review it is one of those books that you read and it makes you hunger and crave another book just like it. The book that has that much impact.

I went through the slums also featured heavily in the book and got great pictures of things he describes as being there. I visited the area where the lepers hang out and talked to them for awhile. I first read this book in 2004 or 2005ish and I absolutely feel in love with the book. It is always the first book I recommend to people who like the same kinds of books I like.

If you like James Michener, some of Leon Uris' books or Lawrence Sanders this book will have a certain type of feel that you will recognize especially Michener. But it also has a type of rawness that only a man who has truly lived this kind of life can get across. I loved the book and if you read the teasers for the book and it seems interesting I almost can guarantee that this book will not only be a good read but it will have an impact on you.

This book made India a magical place for me and while I admit that I don't always look forward to the 25+ hour travel time to get there I always look forward to discovering more of the kind of India that this book discusses. Enjoy it.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 26, 2010 08:38:05

Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light

Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light Review

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was famed for her lovely sweet smile and dogged persistence in her lonvg service to the poorest of the poor and advocacy for all the defenseless. Until the publications of these searing, most private letters to her spiritual director no one knew how deeply she shared -as she prayed at the outset of her great work- the utter abandonment of the poor, the sick, and the dying, abandoned even by the slightest perception of God's loving presence. This book shows her to be a MUCH GREATER saint than one ever imagined, not just an outstanding idealist and effective do-gooder, but a person to whom had been given a supreme gift... the gift of absolute Divine Absence. Writers and mystics describe and discuss the Apophatic way as if it is something which is beautiful, poetic, lovely. Mother Teresa in her letters to her spiritual director showed that it is a burning fire and a crucifixion which is beautiful only to the onlooker. Luckily, we have the opportunity to share in the deepest experience of a supreme mystic through the words of this book.

Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light Feature

• ISBN13: 9780307589231
• Condition: New
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Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light Overview

“If I ever become a Saint–I will surely be one of “darkness.” I will continually be absent from Heaven–to lit the light of those in darkness on earth .”
–Mother Teresa of Calcutta


During her lifelong service to the poorest of the poor, Mother Teresa became an icon of compassion to people of all religions; her extraordinary contributions to the care of the sick, the dying, and thousands of others nobody else was prepared to look after has been recognized and acclaimed throughout the world. Little is known, however, about her own spiritual heights or her struggles. This collection of letters she wrote to her spiritual advisors over decades, almost all of which have never been made public before, sheds light on Mother Teresa's interior life in a way that reveals the depth and intensity of her holiness for the first time. A moving chronicle of her spiritual journey–including moments, indeed years, of utter desolation–these letters reveal the secrets she shared only with her closest confidants. She emerges as a classic mystic whose inner life burned with the fire of charity and whose heart was tested and purified by an intense trial of faith, a true dark night of the soul.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 26, 2010 03:20:04

Between a Heart and a Rock Place: A Memoir

Between a Heart and a Rock Place: A Memoir Review

This is the type of Woman we want our children idolizing!

AND!!!!!
Just because nothing terrible, or "taboo" happened to Pat in her career, doesn't make this book boring, as some other ignorant reviewers will tell you.

Just because Pat wasn't a crack addict or a slut, or a heroin junkie like Belinda Carlisle, does not make her life boring. On the contrary!!! This book is a beautiful love story between Pat, her music, and her husband. Some major struggles between her and her "Record company from HELL" get explained in awesome detail in this book. You get a real idea of how much the record industry has changed, what it was like back then, and how it effected an up-and-coming star, playing in a "Men's" only game.

This book is THE BEST biography I have read by a musical artist. I actually heard Pat in an interview explaining how she actually did about 98% of this book herself. The ghost writer was only there for technical issues with the book. This makes the book even more special, because it's like Pat is just sitting in your livingroom with you as you're reading. That is how "PAT" this book is. It's like you can hear her talking in the same way that she would tell a story in person. The words just flow perfectly and take you on an adventure in the record industry. You can tell that every word was Pat's. It's an amazingly wonderful book that I didn't want to finish, because I didn't want it to end, and I did not expect it to be so GREAT!

As for sales of This book it's actually doing REALLY well!! It's made it to #11 on the L.A. times bestsellers list, and it also cracked the NY times best sellers list, so OBVIOUSLY a lot of people adore this little gem of a book!! Unlike the ONE person who hates this book, and wrote a terrible review.

To the HATERS who can't give a decent review... I hope your butt falls off!

Between a Heart and a Rock Place: A Memoir Feature

• ISBN13: 9780061953774
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Between a Heart and a Rock Place: A Memoir Overview

For more than thirty years, Pat Benatar has been one of the most iconic women in rock music, with songs like "Heartbreaker," "Hit Me with Your Best Shot," and "Love Is a Battlefield" becoming anthems for multiple generations of fans. Now, in this intimate and uncompromising memoir, one of the bestselling female rock artists of all time shares the story of her extraordinary career, telling the truth about her life, her struggles, and how she won things—her way.

From her early days in the New York club scene of the 1970s to headlining sold-out arena tours, Benatar offers a fascinating account of a life spent behind the microphone. As the first female artist ever to be played on MTV, she speaks candidly about the realities of breaking into the boys' club of rock and roll at a time when people everywhere still believed a woman's only place in popular music was as a girlfriend, a groupie, or a sex symbol. And though her fiery edge and aggressive swagger produced instant success, they also led to fights over her image that would linger for years to come.

Going backstage and into the studio, Benatar sets the record straight about how her music evolved, illustrating the visionary role that her guitarist, producer, and eventual husband, Neil "Spyder" Giraldo, played in combining her classically trained voice with razor-sharp guitar to create her unique hard-rock sound. Together they formed a musical and spiritual bond that would last a lifetime, helping her stay true to herself while avoiding the pitfalls and excesses of rock stardom.

Written with the attitude and defiance that embodies Pat Benatar's music, Between a Heart and a Rock Place is a rock-and-roll story unlike any other, a remarkable tale of playing by your own rules, even if that means breaking a few of theirs.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 25, 2010 22:18:05

General Jo Shelby's March

General Jo Shelby's March Review

If this was a modern film, it would be lauded as a five-star fantasy; instead, it's a history of a man and the troops he led who were unable to separate the fantasies of their lives from the reality of changing times.

Instead, it's the story of a man who was bound by tribal loyalties to his tribe, his honour and his fate. William Shakespeare would have written it as the hero who falls on his sword in a final fatal gesture of honour; instead, Arthur portrays the typical American story of a great man who learns and matures with his times.

General Jo Shelby is a true American; he fought brilliantly for a society that was based on the idea that some people were less than human. He lost to the inevitable values of a Constitution that declares all men are equal. Defeated, he was never crushed by defeat. Instead he rose to become a much better person and to set an example.

Gen. Shelby was a brilliant leader of men who fought for the best of motives in an evil cause. When the war ended, he led three hundred fellow true believers in one of the truly epic marches of survival in all history; only the ancient Greek march of the 10,000 comes close, and Gen. Shelby did it with one thirtieth of the men over a more hostile terrain.

They marched into Mexico, looking for a renewal of their old life -- the book jacket says they "fought their way into Mexico for a new life." Perhaps. In my view, the "new life" for Gen. Shelby came after his return to the US and his renouncing of slavery. The book jacket also says he became "a model of nineteenth-century progressivism."

In today's terms, he matured into the liberalism of civil rights for all while retaining his basic conservative values of personal responsibility. America has seldom done better, but it is continually blessed by others who follow his example of honour, commitment and courage to a bettert society.

America would do well with politicians of his courage today, instead of the mad scramble to be merely re-elected. Arthur eloquently describes the career of a great man, a true leader of men, one with the stature to rise above his own heritage.

This is truly a book for our times.

General Jo Shelby's March Overview

Acclaimed historian Anthony Arthur tells one of the most remarkable but surprisingly unknown stories of the post–Civil War era in full for the first time. Here is the unforgettable account of how a famous Confederate general forged a defiant new life out of crushing defeat, and how he finally achieved forgiveness and respect in his own reunited land.

General Jo Shelby had been a daring and ruthless cavalry commander, renowned and notorious for his slashing forays behind Union lines. After Appomattox, Shelby, declaring thathe would never surrender, headed for Mexico. With three hundred men, some from his fighting “Iron Brigade” regiment, others adventurers, fortune hunters, and deserters, the man Arthur refers to as “the last holdout of the Confederacy” made the treacherous twelve-hundred-mile trip.

In thrilling and vivid detail, General Jo Shelby’s March describesthe dusty and dangerous trek through a lawless Texas swarming with desperadoes, into a Mexico teeming with Juárez’s rebels and marauding Apaches. After near fratricide among his fraying band of brothers, Shelby arrived to present a quixotic proposal to Emperor Maximilian: He and his fellow Americans would take over the Mexican army and, after being reinforced by forty thousand more Confederate soldiers, the government itself. Though a dramatic, doomed, and brave endeavor, Shelby’s actions changed both himself and American history forever.

Anthony Arthur then reveals the astonishing end of Shelby’s career: his return to America and his renouncing of slavery, his nomination by President Grover Cleveland to become U.S. marshal for western Missouri, his eventual fame asa model of nineteenth-century progressivism.

General Jo Shelby’s Marchis a riveting book about a uniquely American man, both brave and brutal, a hero and a hothead, whose life’s startling last chapter is a microcosm of the aftermath of our most divisive war.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 25, 2010 03:30:11

Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities

Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities Review

This was a fantastic book and I have a total different outlook on Elizabeth Edwards now. She is a strong, smart, beautiful woman. John Edwards will be sorry someday..............

The book was in perfect condition and I will definitely purchase from this seller again!

Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities Feature

• ISBN13: 9780767931564
• Condition: New
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Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities Overview

The bestselling author of Saving Graces shares her inspirational message on the challenges and blessings of coping with adversity.

She’s one of the most beloved political figures in the country, and on the surface, seems to have led a charmed life. In many ways, she has. Beautiful family. Thriving career. Supportive friendship. Loving marriage. But she’s no stranger to adversity. Many know of the strength she had shown after her son, Wade, was killed in a freak car accident when he was only sixteen years old. She would exhibit this remarkable grace and courage again when the very private matter of her husband's infidelity became public fodder. And her own life has been on the line. Days before the 2004 presidential election—when her husband John was running for vice president—she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After rounds of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation the cancer went away—only to reoccur in 2007.

While on the campaign trail, Elizabeth met many others who have had to contend with serious adversity in their lives, and in Resilience, she draws on their experiences as well as her own, crafting an unsentimental and ultimately inspirational meditation on the gifts we can find among life’s biggest challenges. This short, powerful, pocket-sized inspirational book makes an ideal gift for anyone dealing with difficulties in their life, who can find peace in knowing they are not alone, and promise that things can get better.




From the Hardcover edition.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 24, 2010 21:29:08

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Review

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier was a beautifully written story of a young man's journey through the jungles of hell as a boy solidier. I cringed, and held back tears as I turned the pages of this book. The pain, the loss of innocence and family, the fire of hope, and the spirit of forgiveness. It is a memorable story told by a resilient, gifted man going from tragedy to triumph.

Outstanding work!

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Feature

• ISBN13: 9780374531263
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Overview

My new friends have begun to suspect I haven't told them the full story of my life.
"Why did you leave Sierra Leone?"
"Because there is a war."
"You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?"
"Yes, all the time."
"Cool."
I smile a little.
"You should tell us about it sometime."
"Yes, sometime."

This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.

What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.

In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.

 

This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 24, 2010 15:49:05

Nausea (New Directions Paperbook)

Nausea (New Directions Paperbook) Review

This is a seminal book on existentialism in particular and philosophy in general. Unfortunately, Sartre didn't make it as interesting as it could have been. He painstakingly describes every surrounding object or person in order to convey his sense of 'nausea'. But in doing so he bores the reader at times.

You don't have to be boring to write a good philosophical book. Some philosophers seem to be afraid of actions and events. Perhaps to them events represent something ephemeral, childish, something that would belittle them if they descend and discuss it. I think that no good philosopher should avoid dipping himself in the world with its events and details; this world is the only world we've got after all...

Nausea (New Directions Paperbook) Overview

Winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature. Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher, critic, novelist and dramatist, hold a position of singular eminence in the world of French letters. Among readers and critics familiar with the whole of Sartre's work, it is generally recognized that his earliest novel, Le Nausée (first published in 1938), is his finest and most significant. It is unquestionably a key novel of the Twentieth Century and a landmark in Existentialist fiction.

Nausea is the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence. In impressionistic, diary form he ruthlessly catalogues his every feeling and sensation about the world and people around him. His thoughts culminate in a pervasive, overpowering feeling of nausea which "spread at the bottom of the viscous puddle, at the bottom of our time—the time of purple suspenders and broken chair seats; it is made of wide, soft instants, spreading at the edge, like an oil stain." Roquentin's efforts to come to terms with his life, his philosophical and psychological struggles, give Sartre the opportunity to dramatize trhe tents of his Existentialist creed.

he introduction for this edition of Nausea by Hayden Carruth gives background on Sartre's life and major works, a summary of the principal themes of Existentialist philosophy, and a critical analysis of the novel itself.

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Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels Review

The undeniable strengths of this book have been described well by other reviewers. I would like to describe a few weaknesses I've perceived in this otherwise very useful book:

1) In his perceptive analysis of literary structures and cultural context, sometimes Bailey seems to under-analyze the wider literary context in which each parable/account is situated. This weakness appears twice, for example, in his commentary on the parables in Luke 16. First, in his consideration of the parable of the unjust steward, Bailey focuses on verses 1 to 8, emphasizing their connection with the previous chapter, but dismissing their connection with verses 9 to 13 by saying, "The verses that follow in Luke 16:9-13 display their own inner integrity and are best understood as a new paragraph" (pg. 334). This ignores the very clear connection between verses 4 and 9 (both speak of using money to win a welcome into future homes) which show that verses 9-13 are Jesus' commentary on the parable. This leads Bailey to underestimate the parable's concern with how we are to use money. Second, in his discussion of the story of the rich man and Lazarus, also in Luke 16, Bailey does a better job of allowing the context to shape his interpretation of the story, but still skips over the (admittedly difficult) verses 16-18 with this brief comment: "The reasons for the presence of Lk 16:16-18 between the poem on mammon and the parable have thus far escaped me" (pg. 380, footnote).

2) It also seems to me that sometimes Bailey is a little over-eager to draw interpretive conclusions from cultural considerations. For example, in his discussion of the parable of the pounds (Lk 19:11-27), Bailey suggests that the nobleman's final command to bring "those enemies of mine [who had rejected his kingship]... and slay them before me" is "an opening statement, no more" (pg. 407). He finds such a judgment to be "critically damaging" (pg. 407) to Luke's portrayal of Jesus and Jesus' commands to love our enemies. Bailey provides cultural support for this interpretation by saying, "If a Westerner is told by his employer, 'You're fired! Clear out your desk! I want you off the property by 5 p.m. today!' the employee will understand that he or she is fired and start packing at once.... A traditional Middle Easterner will listen to the same speech and conclude: 'The master is clearly very upset! Hmm--I see that I have a long negotiating process ahead of me...." (pgs. 406-407). This cultural context is fascinating and potentially useful, but appears to me to be misused in a way that underestimates the Bible's portrayal of Jesus as the final Judge and as the One who warned of a very real and final judgment to fall on Jerusalem for rejecting their Messiah. (See later in this very chapter, Luke 19:41-44; also Luke 13:1-9; 21:21-24.) At other times Bailey similarly offers fascinating cultural context that seems best taken as suggestive, not definitive, for interpretation.

3) A final (and less important) criticism of this book is that Bailey can at times feel slightly too repetitive when you read through the book from cover to cover. On the upside, this allows the reader to usefully dip into any chapter at random and still benefit from Baileys commentary on a single passage.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Bailey's keen insights into the stories and teachings of Jesus. I have been comparing Bailey's conclusions with those of Joel Green in his commentary on Luke The Gospel of Luke (The New International Commentary on the New Testament) and find the comparison very useful. (Much of Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes is based on Luke.) Bailey reveals much color and emotional impact in each account, and Green adds a more cautious eye with a greater consideration for how each account fits into Luke's larger literary and theological context. Sometimes I find myself agreeing with Bailey's interpretations and sometimes with Green's--and many times they reinforce each other's insights!

Enjoy Bailey's insights. Let them enrich your understanding of Jesus and add emotional impact to his teachings--and read this book alongside another (such as a good commentary).

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels Feature

• ISBN13: 9780830825684
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels Overview

Beginning with Jesus' birth, Ken Bailey leads you on a kaleidoscopic study of Jesus throughout the four Gospels. Bailey examines the life and ministry of Jesus with attention to the Lord's Prayer,

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The Color of Water 10th Anniversary Edition

The Color of Water 10th Anniversary Edition Review

This was a fascinating and well-written story about the identity of a "black" child growing up in Harlem with a white mother. It made me think about two issues:

1. The Recipe for Academic Achievement
All twelve children went to college and many went on to be doctors, lawyers, or professors. Clearly, the mother's emphasis on education and careful choice of magnet schools (with long bus rides outside of Harlem) were factors. The first 7 children achieved more than the last 5. Was this biological (the 1st father had a higher IQ than the 2nd father)? Birth order (older children received more parental attention)?

Just for fun, if I had to guess what factors influence academic achievement, I would guess:

Academic Achievement = f (parent participation and expectations; parent education level; quality of school - class size, teacher salary, teacher training, teacher reward system; bio-IQ; emotional stability?)

Did I miss something?

2. Racial Identity

Growing up in the "white" majority, my race has never been part of my identity nor something my family ever talked about. But this was a BIG emotional deal in the life of this child growing up in Harlem with a white ex-Jewish Mom in the 1960s. It took him years to integrate his white Jewish and black Christian sides. Is a positive racial identity a good thing? Only for minorities? Or, is the "we're all Americans" way of thinking better?

Other options:

Evangelical Christians - "Us" (evangelical Christians who are forgiven sinners) v "Them" (everyone else in the world who is not a forgiven sinner)

Hindu Priest who taught at our church - we (humans and animals) are all sentient beings created and loved by God, in various stages of spiritual development (a spiritual pecking order)

The Color of Water 10th Anniversary Edition Feature

• ISBN13: 9781594481925
• Condition: New
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Gathering Blue

Gathering Blue Review

Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue is the next installment in The Giver series, the first having been wildly successful, though is dubbed a "companion", as it has no relevancy to the plot of The Giver. The question is: "is it worth reading?" Depends. Address the points below to find out if this next installment in the series is worth going to the bookstore to purchase.
The story revolves around a girl, presumably in her teen years, named Kira. Kira's mother passes away at the beginning of the book. Her father has said to have been killed by a beast during a hunt, so she must protect herself from a group of village women, who want her to leave the community and go to the Field (where she would die), due to her crippled leg, which keeps her from marrying, working, or raising children. She overcomes other challenges aided by her tyke* friend Matt and her talented friend Thomas the carver, and unlocks secrets within the alienating community. Her reputation as a masterfully talented artist grows as she develops new threading techniques throughout the book, which give her a significant importance in the village. I shall try not to dive further into the plot, in the case that you decide to read the book.
The style in Gathering Blue remains the only thing that links it to The Giver. The creepy atmosphere of the community in which the story takes place and the ominously emotionless tone of the author create a mysterious tint to the tale that actually motivates the reader to continue and discover what happens next. Relatively complex, though not to the point of being grandiloquent, vocabulary contributes to the tone, and is satisfying and understandable: "... and she could hear the high, haunting melody that the child had sung in her magical voice, solitary in her room,
before they had forced her from it and given her their own song to sing." If you are a fan of The Giver, the similar though still enthrallingly gripping style of the story will not disappoint, and those that have not read the previous book will find the style fresh and creative.
Assuming you read the introductory summary in paragraph two, you may have interpreted that Gathering Blue is predicable, and it is. Very predictable. This is where the story suffers a bit. Even though the story is so well delivered and makes you want to continue reading to find out what happens next, I found that I already knew what was going to happen, and was just hoping the next event in the book would be surprisingly unexpected. Though the story continued to keep me excited though unsurprised until a partially inspired (though honestly quite confusing) conclusion. How many times have you heard of the protagonist with half a family trinket (in this case a necklace) that is completed at the end of the tale by the other half belonging to a long-lost relative? That's right, it happens here too. Gathering Blue is a story with a creative idea, though is utterly predictable in continuing that idea.
Gathering Blue is by no means a bad book, though suffers due to its predictability. If you are a fan of the series, this story will not disappoint due to author Lois Lowry's still wonderfully creative style. The story may also amuse others not familiar with the series, though if you're looking for something completely new and unpredictable, I recommend you look elsewhere.

Gathering Blue Overview

Approx. 5 hours, 4 cassettes

In her strongest work to date, Lois Lowry once again creates a mysterious but plausible future world. It is a society ruled by savagery and deceit that shuns and discards the weak. Left orphaned and physically flawed, young Kira faces a frightening, uncertain future. Blessed with an almost magical talent that keeps her alive, she struggles with ever broadening responsibilities in her quest for truth, discovering things that will change her life forever.

As she did in The Giver, Lowry challenges readers to imagine what our world could become, how people could evolve, and what will be considered valuable. Every reader will be taken by Kira's plight and will long ponder her haunting world and the hope for the future.

Gathering Blue Specifications

Lois Lowry's magnificent novel of the distant future, The Giver, is set in a highly technical and emotionally repressed society. This eagerly awaited companion volume, by contrast, takes place in a village with only the most rudimentary technology, where anger, greed, envy, and casual cruelty make ordinary people's lives short and brutish. This society, like the one portrayed in The Giver, is controlled by merciless authorities with their own complex agendas and secrets. And at the center of both stories there is a young person who is given the responsibility of preserving the memory of the culture--and who finds the vision to transform it.

Kira, newly orphaned and lame from birth, is taken from the turmoil of the village to live in the grand Council Edifice because of her skill at embroidery. There she is given the task of restoring the historical pictures sewn on the robe worn at the annual Ruin Song Gathering, a solemn day-long performance of the story of their world's past. Down the hall lives Thomas the Carver, a young boy who works on the intricate symbols carved on the Singer's staff, and a tiny girl who is being trained as the next Singer. Over the three artists hovers the menace of authority, seemingly kind but suffocating to their creativity, and the dark secret at the heart of the Ruin Song.

With the help of a cheerful waif called Matt and his little dog, Kira at last finds the way to the plant that will allow her to create the missing color--blue--and, symbolically, to find the courage to shape the future by following her art wherever it may lead. With astonishing originality, Lowry has again created a vivid and unforgettable setting for this thrilling story that raises profound questions about the mystery of art, the importance of memory, and the centrality of love. (Ages 10 and older) --Patty Campbell

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The Writings of Samuel Adams Volume 4

The Writings of Samuel Adams Volume 4 Review

The Writings of Samuel Adams Volume 4 Overview

Writings from 1778 to 1782. Letters to John Adams, George Washington and Thomas Paine

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A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World Volume 2

A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World Volume 2 Review

A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World Volume 2 Overview

The inhabitants of Ulietea speak of an uninhabited island about this situation called by them Mopeha to which they go at certain seasons for turtle.

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The Writings of Abraham Lincoln - Volume 4 the Lincoln-Douglas Debates

The Writings of Abraham Lincoln - Volume 4 the Lincoln-Douglas Debates Review

The Writings of Abraham Lincoln - Volume 4 the Lincoln-Douglas Debates Overview

The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Presidents; United States; Biography

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In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving

In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving Review

I thought this story would be cloying and mawkishly sentimental. I found this book to be a down-to-earth story of a family who saw a need in front of them and filled it. The gap between the well to do and those struggling just to survive has always bothered me. A simple solution is to care for those people who pop up in front of you just as the Tuohy Family did. Leigh Anne and Sean write about their life experiences and backgrounds in an honest manner and win sympathy for their struggles to overcome hardship. Their humanity and care for those around them are heartwarming and made me feel I could do the same, especially in these very hard times.

In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving Feature

• ISBN13: 9780805093384
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving Overview

For the first time, the remarkable couple depicted in The Blind Side tells their own deeply inspiring story

First came the bestselling book, then the Oscar-nominated movie—the story of Michael Oher and the family who adopted him has become one of the most talked-about true stories of our time. But until now, Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy have never told this astonishing tale in their own way and with their own words.

For Leigh Anne and Sean, it all begins with family. Leigh Anne, the daughter of a tough-as-nails U.S. Marshal, decided early on that her mission was to raise children who would become "cheerful givers." Sean, who grew up poor, believed that one day he could provide a home that would be "a place of miracles." Together, they raised two remarkable children—Collins and Sean Jr.—who shared their deep Christian faith and their commitment to making a difference. And then one day Leigh Anne met a homeless African-American boy named Michael and decided that her family could be his. She and her husband taught Michael what this book teaches all of us: Everyone has a blind side, but a loving heart always sees a path toward true charity.

Michael Oher's improbable transformation could never have happened if Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy had not opened their hearts to him. In this compelling, funny, and profoundly inspiring book, the Tuohys take us on an extraordinary journey of faith and love—and teach us unforgettable lessons about the power of giving.

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