5 comments about The Glass Castle: A Memoir.

1. this stunning memoir released several years ago, and it was sitting on our bookshelf, as my wife had read it. i'd heard great things about it, and can only say they undersold it. rarely, if ever, have i read a true story that so defies the "good/bad" continuum on which we like to plot families of origin. really, jeannette walls' upbringing is ghastly, and one i would not want imposed on even the most annoying or horrible kid i've ever met. but, at the very same time (or, more accurately, intermittently) there are regular moments of love and insight and adventure that lift this off that continuum. i've met many kids from privileged surburban homes (the opposite of walls' experience) who's parents provide for physical needs, but spend their lives completely disengaged from their kids in every emotional and relational way. just when i was wanting to smack her parents, they did or said something breathtakingly wonderful. and just when i was thinking i might give them the benefit of the doubt (something the author seems at peace with doing, in the end), her parents become icons of off-the-charts selfishness and stupidity. it's an amazing story in-and-of-itself; but the implications are greater than the story. most parents (myself included) fall on both sides of the bell curve; only a few fall, consistently, to one side or the other; walls' parents are so outside the standard deviation in both directions that the bell is no longer meaningful.



2. This was a great memoir reminiscent of Mary Karr's Liar's Club. I loved every minute because her point of view was natural and real. My heart broke for these children who were so neglected and hungry. It's hard to understand how parents can rationalize their behavior other than that they were both sick. Good for Jeanette for rising above it all. Poor Maureen who was left with nothing. I'm about to start Half-broke Horses.
   Marcia Fine
   [...]



3. This is the best book I've read in a long time- Jeannette Walls has a moving story to tell, which she does with insight and humor. Her most recent book, "Half Broke Horses", the true story of her grandmother, is also a jewel. I saw Walls at the Miami Book Fair in November- she was quite inspiring, (and funny!), and she received a standing ovation after her presentation.



4. This book feeds pain bodies. The author gave me nothing but a string of negative incidents where her parents were neglectful and or feeding their addictions and being quirky and or mentally ill. It was boring. There is so much more to this story but Walls' holds back, most likely because it will be in another edition which her happy readers will buy into, and once again you will get only half a story. In my humble opinion it is half a book, and appeals to the voyeurs in us. If you are feeling sad in any way dont read this book.



5. If this were simply a novel, it would be a great read, but knowing that this is a true life memoir takes it over the top. A great read!!

5 comments about A Tale of Love and Darkness.

1. There are 54 reviewers who recorded their thoughts before mine. So, my review includes some comments on those reviews.
   
   I found the book to be very fascinating because I am very curious about Jews as people and Israel as a country. Amos Oz has gone through events that few people go through in their life ... the most difficult one is his mother's suicide. The story is told in a radiating style with his mother's suicide being the focus. Events either flow towards it or away from it. It is not easy to tell such a difficult, painful story. Amos Oz tells it very effectively and virtually takes you into his life. His prose is so beautiful. He is also very humorous.
   
   As many commented, this book is not completely autobiographical. A bulk of it is on his childhood years. He was in kibbutz for nearly 35 years starting from when he was nearly 15, but less than one third of the book is devoted to it. While so much detail is shared with readers about his reading habits, the people influenced him, etc., the life-changing decision he made with respect to joining kibbutz is told as if he woke up one day and decided to do it. There is no detail on how he found out about it, what he thought about it initially, and how he ultimately came up with the conviction.
   
   Someone has mentioned that there are nothing but street names in the first 70 pages and the book was so boring they could not continue. I feel sorry for the person because he missed the best parts of the book. Even in the first 70 pages, there are a number of events of interest. In fact the most poetical paragraph in the book is in the first 70 pages which describes how his mother acted in the presence of a famous writer (Agnon).



2. Amos Oz is one of Israel's best known novelists; some label him as Israel's "number one". Any new book by Oz gets the immediate attention of everyone, gets translated to several languages and hits the no. 1 spot in the bestsellers list almost immediately. Indeed, Oz has become an icon in Israel to whom many turn to, not only to discuss literary matters but also get his opinion on politics, society and life in general. As my wife says, he has become a "sacred cow", elevated to a status where it has become extremely difficult for any critic to harm sales of his books in any significant way.
   
   I read A Tale of Love and Darkness (in Hebrew) during my trip in New Zealand and it accompanied me throughout the journey. It is an autobiography that Oz started writing shortly after he turned 60, at the end of the previous century. It tells mainly the story of his childhood in Jerusalem, growing up during the time Israel was being formed (Oz was 9 when Israel gained independence). Although the book covers many aspects of his life, the one overriding theme surfacing over and over again is the suicide of his mother when he was 12. This event shaped Oz's life and led to the abrupt change he embarked upon two years later: the move from the book-centric, scholarly life of his father in Jerusalem to the freedom and agricultural life of Kibbutz Hulda.
   
   Oz's writing is at times long-winded and pompous. Even daily, mundane events are recounted in excruciating detail that sometimes make the reader wonder whether they indeed made such an impact on his life to deserve such attention. Despite this, Oz manages to combine tragedy and comedy in his family's saga and his occasional self-effacing manner make the reader forgive him for his long-windedness. Throughout the book, the leading figures of Israel as a young nation pop up: Bialik, Tchernikhowsky, Agnon, Ben-Gurion and Yadin all came and went in Oz's childhood.
   
   The book is more of a memoir than an autobiography. The storyline is not linear and Oz repeats some events several times. If we ignore the fact that Oz wrote this book and thus remove the "sacred cow" factor, the book is an enjoyable read and contributes to the understanding of how Ashkenazi Jews coped with their new life in the Middle East.



3. This review was published in The Australian, August 16, 2008. Greg Sheridan is the Foreign Editor.
   [...]
   Memoirs are made of this
   
   OPINION: Greg Sheridan | August 16, 2008
   
   A FEW years ago I experienced a severe addiction to travel literature.
   
   With the contemporary serious novel in such a mess, travel writing, like biography, offers many of the traditional pleasures of the novel: story, character, good dialogue, development, resolution. But I can't say I discovered any great literature there, much as I enjoyed Bill Bryson's wit and Paul Theroux's misanthropy.
   
   Now I am immersed in a frenetic bout of memoir reading and here the story is different.
   
   When Tom Wolfe was promoting the new journalism, which has been with us several decades now, his essential insight was to bring the techniques of the novelist to bear on journalism: exploring the subjective elements of a story, the characters' inner lives and interior monologues, with the advantage that the events had actually happened.
   
   A novelist's memoir can achieve this supremely. A Tale of Love and Darkness is the childhood memoir of Amos Oz, Israel's greatest novelist and surely soon a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
   
   This is an incomparably good book. Perhaps it is the best book I have read. It tells of growing up in Jerusalem in the 1930s and '40s. Oz conceives life as one part comedy, one part tragedy, one part humdrum, quotidian concreteness, and if you are Jewish, the chance always of utter disaster.
   
   His life proceeds against the backdrop of the Holocaust and the birth of Israel. Oz is an only child and his life is also shaped by the suicide of his mother when he is 12. This colossal roadblock dominates and shapes the book and yet does not distort the loving portrait of his father, a frustrated academic, out of his depth and at his wits' end with his wife's melancholy.
   
   Oz's technical accomplishments in this book are dazzling. He writes of his grandfather:
   
   It was not easy for him to go out. Grandma had a highly developed, super-sensitive radar screen on which she kept track of us all: at any given moment she could check the inventory, to know precisely where each of us was, Lonia at his desk in the National Library on the fourth floor of the Terra Sancta Building, Zussya at Cafe Atara, Fania sitting in the B'nai B'rith Library, Amos playing with his best friend Eliyahu next door at Mr Friedmann the engineer's, in the first building on the right. Only at the edge of her screen, behind the extinguished galaxy, in the corner from which her son Zyuzya, Zyuzinka, with Malka and little Daniel, whom she had never seen or washed, were supposed to flicker back at her, all she could see by day or night was a terrifying black hole.
   
   This passage is instructive. First, there is a lovely metaphor for domestic life. How many grandmas have their perfect family radar screens? Then, everyone is mentioned by name. There is the accumulation of small details of location that give the passage life. But suddenly, at the end, the shocking reality of the Holocaust explodes this domestic tableau, as it does intermittently throughout these beautiful memories.
   
   Almost every page of this book contains an observation or metaphor so striking you cannot let it go, or rather it will not let you go. Oz writes: "Both my parents had come to Jerusalem straight from the 19th century."
   
   The contrast, indeed conflict, of east European Jews trying to recreate an idealised Europe, one free of anti-Semitism, in the hot, dusty climate of Israel, surrounded by hostile Arabs, is mined by Oz as much for comedy as tragedy. And there is endless comic delight in the crazy clash of expectation with reality. For bookish, intellectual, urban Jews such as Oz and his family, the kibbutz pioneers were a new kind of Jew. Oz mocks his own earnest idealisation of kibbutz pioneers, yet somehow affirms it as well:
   
   Tough, warm-hearted, though of course silent and thoughtful, young men and strapping, straightforward young women ... I pictured these pioneers as strong, serious, self-contained people, capable of sitting around in a circle and singing songs of heart-rending longing, or songs of mockery, or songs of outrageous lust ... (people) who could ride wild horses or wide-tracked tractors, who spoke Arabic, who knew every cave and wadi, who had a way with pistols and hand grenades, yet read poetry and philosophy.
   
   Oz is free of self-pity. Instead there is a generous human solidarity and understanding for everyone. But there are passages of aching melancholy and pain. The night the UN votes to establish Israel is the happiest night imaginable. Though it too is tinged with fear, as the Jews of Jerusalem are always in dread of a second holocaust. But the recognition of the Zionist dream is a fulfilment of generations' desires.
   
   In all his life, Oz never sees his father weep, except that night. The father crawls into bed beside young Amos and tousles his hair:
   
   Then he told me in a whisper what some hooligans did to him and his brother David in Odessa and what some gentile boys did to him at his Polish school in Vilna, and the girls joined in too, and the next day, when his father, Grandpa Alexander, came to the school to register a complaint, the bullies refused to return the torn trousers but attacked his father, Grandpa, in front of his eyes, forced him down on to the paving stones and removed his trousers too in the middle of the playground, and the girls laughed and made dirty jokes, saying that the Jews were all so-and-sos, while the teachers watched and said nothing.
   
   Now, the father tells Amos, people may bully you, but not because you are a Jew: "Not that. Never again. From tonight that's finished here. For ever." Most of the book is not political in that sense. It's full of jokes, though its genius is to blend comedy and tragedy. Oz recounts how as a kid he talked all the time, but that was fine because everyone in Jerusalem talked all the time. A professor tells Oz that the odds of there being an afterlife, as there is no conclusive evidence either way, are 50-50. For a central European Jew in the generation of Hitler, those chances of survival are not at all bad.
   
   When a great novelist writes a memoir with all the technique of the novel at its best, you get a superior art form. If I could recommend just one book to tell you something about the human condition, this would be it.



4. Amos Oz's A Tale of Love and Darkness is a memoir of his life and the life of his family up until the time of his mother's suicide at the age of 38 in the early 1950s. Oz's mother's suicide, never treated fictionally in his other work (as far as I can recall) is treated here with great care and thoroughness: there is anger, guilt, shame, sadness, loss, a sense of regret, and penetrating understanding. Without a doubt the book is strongest when Oz discusses his mother and her family. His mother, brought up on a romantic, Hebrew education in Rovno, was not ready for the tawdriness of life in Palestine, "the rough terrain of everyday life, diapers, husbands, migraines, queues, smells of moth balls and kitchen sinks." The story of his mother's mental decline and suicide is also the story of the convergence and divergences of Jewish life in the 20th century; the outline of the gap between the real and the ideal of the Zionist dream. That said, A Tale of Love and Darkness is generally overwritten. There is much useless repetition here which drags down the trajectory of the memoir. I do not recommend this work as the first work of Amos Oz to be read, but the last. It makes for an instructive book end with Where the Jackal's Howl and Other Stories on the other side.



5. This is a beautiful and moving memoir from a sensitive and humanistic writer of great skill and style. The reader will feel that he or she is personally experiencing growing up with the author in the most modest and simple circumstances, in the young State of Israel, from before statehood and into its early years, getting to know as friends and neighbors some of its intellectual leaders who were the writer's family members and friends. The book is a sheer delight, and highly recommended.

5 comments about The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family.

1. I have read this book several times and lost my original copy so ordered one on Amazon. I love the story and the book is well written. I applaud Dave once again.



2. The Lost Boy chronicles Dave Pelzer's journey after he is removed from his mother's home and placed in foster care. He is bounced around from home to home, and struggles to fit in with a loving family.
   
   A part of me feels the same about this book as I did about A Child Called "It": that it was a good story, though often punctuated by poor writing and inconsistencies. With this book, the story also constantly felt repetitive as well. I don't mean that it was repetitive because he went from one foster home to another or anything like that, but it was repetitive in the sense that I felt like I was reading the first book again.
   
   The story is told in a first-person narrative, and I occasionally found myself doubting the reality of the situation. Dave would describe how he felt, and I would find myself thinking There's no way a kid that age thinks like that! Too often the details of his young life felt influenced by his adult perspective.
   
   The timeline of the novel could have been made a clearer. It was rarely explained how much time he had spent at each home, and at times he would go on and on about his life there and it would be only a month, or he would suddenly have been somewhere for years.
   
   Despite all my complaints about this book, I will say I enjoyed the actual story much more than I did during A Child Called "It". Not because the first was all child abuse, but because this story actually held my interest. Still, I couldn't help constantly comparing the two. I would have enjoyed The Lost Boy much more if I had never read A Child Called "It".
   
   Two and a half stars.



3. Great follow up book for the first, A Child Called It. Heart-wrenching story, but worth every page!



4. This is a really good touching book! I dont think i have ever read a book that made me wanna cry more than 3 times. hahas



5. I aplaud the author for his great ability to overcome his abuse. His resiliency is puzzle to so many. We like to know all we can about it so somehow we can figure out why some people have that miraculous formula to survive and some don't. He has it. It was a good story because of his balitlity to overcome but I did not think the book was well written. It could have been told better. The characters lacked, not enough detail to envision, feel taste... I guess I would have liked more descriptiveness of his enviroment and the peolpe in the story. Perhaps this is all his momory would allow.

5 comments about Running with Scissors: A Memoir.

1. They say "Don't judge a book by its cover." I've also learned not to judge a book by its title. It's probably my fault that I didn't do a bit more research into what this book was about before I purchased it, but the title caught my eye and I tend to be an impulsive buyer when it comes to books. Unfortunately, I also feel compelled to finish what I start and so struggled through this book to its completion. I'm normally a thriller, mystery, horror kind of guy, but enjoy a good comedy when I can find one. I would not classify this book as a comedy. Some others have obviously enjoyed this story, but I found it disturbing and nothing more.



2. Hilarious if you enjoy descriptions of whiners whose hobbies include polishing their coins, and find homosexual pedophilia a suitable topic for humorous description. I don't. Recommended to me by someone who also suggested The Corrections (which I enjoyed immensely), this was a long, slow trek through pretentious, disgusting crap. Sorry I paid money for it. Should have borrowed it from the library or simply read something worthwhile instead. To be avoided.



3. Reading the book opens your eyes to Afghanistan, but the book's storyline shrouds the violence and anger which seems to be pervasive. It does not want to deal with them. There is a cowboy mentality to the problems which this book unearths.
   Pretty obvious the guy has lived in the States.
   
   Skip the book, stick with the movie!



4. There were part of this book that seemed unreal but other parts that I knew were true because similar things happened in my life. A very memorable book.



5. One of the worst books I've ever read. I'm sorry I ever bought and read it. It left me feeling sad and depressed. I feel sad if I even think about the ugly lives described in this memoir. When I see a review describing this as "funny" or "hilarious" I just don't get it. Did we read the same book? What is enjoyable about child rape, parental insanity, or slowly starving a cat to death?
   
   I would give this no stars if I could.

5 comments about Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood.

1. "Persepolis" is a widely acclaimed memoir/graphic novel, it was rated highly by several of my fellow readers and therefore I've had my eye on it for a while. Sadly, now, after reading this book, I am a little underwhelmed by it.
   
   As a graphic novel, it is a notable work. The cartoonish style of the drawing is superb, the subject matter is very current, the combination of tragedy and humor is clever.
   
   However, as a political memoir, "Persepolis" lacks. I don't know exactly why, but I never got a grip on what Satrapi's personal views on the politics within her country are. In fact, I am not even sure if she really knows what what was happening in her country. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this memoir ends when the author is 14 (although writing it as an adult, she should be able to present her views clearly). Or maybe it is because Satrapi herself never personally experiences any hardship in this book. I find it very interesting that in times of turmoil, during the civil war for democracy, during the rise of religious fundamentalism, during the war with Iraq, Satrapi's family never seems to experience any discomfort. Quite the opposite, when people die and suffer, the writer's most hardship is to hide the liquor at a party (which they are not supposed to have), or to wear a headscarf, or to get an "Iron Maiden" poster through customs. This narration from a perspective of a person in power is a little disheartening and has a bit of a fake tone to it, as if the author doesn't know what is really happening in her country and writes about from her million dollar mansion while being served by one of her maids.
   
   It's not a bad book, especially for younger readers who want to know a little bit about Iran and its current political events. It is presented in a very appealing, easy format. But for me personally this book appears to be too superficial to leave any kind of lasting impression. I will however read the second part of the memoir. Maybe it will have some more insight.



2. This quirky and intense autobiographical b/w graphic novel tells of the author's childhood in Iran beginning during the fall of the Shah in 1980. In the opening scene, Satrapi and her schoolmates romp in the playground, using the veils that the school has just issued them as toys.
   
   Her parents are active in the revolution against the Shah's government. Satrapi herself is a descendant of the last emperor of Iran. Her wealthy socialist parents attend demonstrations and educate their daughter in Marxism even as she daydreams of becoming a prophet.
   
   But as the revolution progresses, the Islamist forces turn sentiment against the wealthy and the intellectuals, and Satrapi's family becomes the target of repressive forces.
   
   Satrapi listens to smuggled tapes of Michael Jackson, Iron Maiden, and Kim Wilde while the war with Iraq devastates the country and her parents become increasingly desperate to find a way to protect her.
   
   The black and white art, in small simple panels, is stark and effective, conveying a world that has become a bizarre and unfamiliar cartoon to a girl whose childhood had been one of love, learning, and safety. Much of what Satrapi experiences is the same for teenagers everywhere, and the mix of the familiarity and the surreal is what gives this story much of its power.



3. perfect condition couldnt be happier. actually turned out to be a good book, though i had it done in a day :(



4. I have been wanting to try reading more graphic novels for awhile now. It can be a daunting task picking from a new genre of book to read, but thanks to twitter, I had a ton of great suggestions. Persepolis stuck out in my mind because I remember the film adaptation of it being nominated for an Oscar. I dove into this book, and had a hard time coming up for air.
   
   Once I started reading this book, the artwork stood out as interesting, unique, and not at all what I would have expected from a graphic novel. Many of the images need no words to express what the author is trying to get across.
   
   What stood out to me the most though, was the amazing story of growing up in revolutionary Iran. I would argue that one of the best ways to understand a period of history, is to hear the story from the people who lived it. Marjane describes so many aspects of her childhood during such unstable times. I love when she talks about getting cassette tapes on the sly, and how her parents sewed pop culture posters into her dad's coat to smuggle them into Iran for her. Moments like that in the story remind the reader that she wasn't just a child living through a war, she was a child just like any other child. She wanted posters on her wall, the latest music, and had crushes on boys.
   
   Interestingly enough, I was reading this on the bus to work one morning and a man asked me how I was liking the book. He then told me that he was a teenager in Iran during that time, he told me a bit about his experiences and how very frightening a time it was.
   
   An absolute must read for anyone and everyone! I loved this book and can't wait to start the second book Persepolis: The Story of a Return.



5. Wouldn't recommend. I like to read a story, not look at pictures. Author's unlikeable.

5 comments about The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir.

1. I read this book after receiving some devastating personal news. I grew up at a later time than Mr. Bryson, and in a different part of the country, but I found myself laughing hysterically and relating very well to his accounts of growing up in America. I loved his bits of factual information providing references of where he was and what was going on around him. I consider this book ingeniously funny, and I smile just looking at the cover. It was a life saver for me.



2. The 1950s were a different time in America. TV was new on the scene, and so was the threat of nuclear annialation. All this is put in hilarious perspective by Mr. Bryson.
   
   One thing does concern me. Did Bryson get exposed to nuclear fallout from the testing in Nevada:
   
   "The Sedan shot resulted in a radioactive cloud that separated into two plumes, rising to 3 km (10,000 ft.) and 4.9 km (16,000 ft.) The two plumes headed northeast and then east in roughly parallel paths towards the Atlantic Ocean. A large amount of nuclear fallout was dropped along the way, narrowly dispersed in a relatively small number of United States counties. Detected radioactivity was especially high in eight counties in Iowa and one county each in Nebraska, South Dakota and Illinois. Most heavily affected counties were Howard, Mitchell and Worth counties in Iowa.." from Wikipedia, Sedan (nuclear test)



3. After reading his first bestselling books, I decided to read other Brysons' books as well. This was third book of Bryson, which I read. And once again Bryson has very interesting and funny story for readers. Interesting to read how world was seen with child's eyes in 50' and what happened in the world, when Bryson was small kid.



4. Love Bryson's stuff! I really got fits of belly-shaking laughter when I read this book -- not only because it is (entertainingly?) true and I can identify with it (the paper route, the anecdote with the little girl he wanted to be his girlfriend)-- but because it enlightens. It not only offers insightful nuggets of wisdom into the American psyche, but also reveals, via his personal anecdotes, our common foibles. Elucidation through laughter. I always laugh WITH Bill Bryson. Read it if you want to get a feel for living and growing up in America.



5. From a writer's point of view, Thunderbolt is a master's course in how to capture readers and keep them wanting more.
   
   [http://ritastories.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/bill-bryson-and-the-thunderbolt-kid-hit-the-mark/]
   
   While the story is not unique, the way it is told makes this a must read book.

5 comments about Everything Is Wrong with Me: A Memoir of an American Childhood Gone, Well, Wrong.

1. All I can say to support my rating of this book is the following: Jason, I know you have more stories so please begin writing the next book.
   
   I agree with the other reviews and only want more.



2. I love chicken nachos. Especially after visiting Christiania. However, I have to admit that I think I loved this book more than those delicious nachos. I agree with the BP that you will laugh out loud while reading this book. If you're a fan of his blog (or never heard of him) you will enjoy this light-hearted, hilarious book. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy.



3. As a loyal reader of Jason's blog, I wasn't sure what to expect from the book. Would it be the same, only in a conveniently bound volume? I was pleasantly surprised that the book has completely different subject matter, looking back on Jason's childhood and family relationships with the same self-deprecating humor and approachable writing style he has perfected over the past years on his blog. Fans will love it, and those who haven't heard of Jason before will be won over by this book. It's quick and a good time, much like Jason himself.



4. I agree with everything Michael Conneely indicated above so i'm not going to repeat all that. The real reason I bought this book is that I've been reading Jason's blog for years and felt that I owed him something for the 100,000+ words he has put up on his site that regularly entertain. Does buying a book make us even? I'm leaning towards yes. It's a great read on top of that. It's tighter than his blog, which was already fantastic. Just buy the book already.



5. It's convenient to pigeonhole bloggers according to content, tenor, and/or motive. It's an result of the medium - demand for content, publishing ease and desire to remain immediate all contribute. Any previous compartmentalization of Mulgrew's work has just been proven folly.
   
   With all of his trademark hilarity, Mulgrew takes you back in time and proves that the conditions which create the man are far more interesting than the end result alone. His trademark bombastic self-deprecation is (of course) present but mixed with a honest and hysterical appraisal of his roots. Two guarantees - one, you will laugh out loud & two, you'll be glad these stories exist and that they aren't about you.

5 comments about Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood.

1. We often think of colonialism of Africa is black and white, but this book disproved the myth and offered more insight on the subject. In no way I am endorsing colonialism, but I think the book made the point that everyone, including her obviously racist parents, are a victim of colonialism yet everyone picked up the pieces time and time again and tries to make the best of what life has to offer.



2. Book arrived very quickly and was as described by the sellar, a very simple straight forward deal.



3. The most enjoyable autobiographies are those written in a decent style by non-celebrities, and which illuminate realms of human experience strange to the reader. This is a very nice example. You will want to read it.



4. This morning I finished reading what is now one of my favorite books of all time. The book is: DON'T LET'S GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller. When I picked it up and read the back cover it dawned on me that I'd first heard of this book a few years ago when it was reviewed in Oprah's O magazine. At the time it resonated with me because Ms. Fuller now lives outside of Jackson, Wyoming, one of my favorite places on earth. However this tells the story of her remarkable, hard-scrabble childhood in Africa. The back copy reads in part:
   
   "From 1972 to 1990, Alexandra Fuller grew up on several farms in the remotest regions of Africa. Three of her siblings died in childhood-only she and her sister Vanessa survived. While their father was away for long stretches fighting on the side of the white government in the Rhodesian civil war, their mother managed the farming work with a fierceness and passion fueled by a love of life, and an almost illogical love for Africa....A worthy heir to Isak Dinesen and Beryl Markham, Alexandra Fuller writes with brilliance, humor, and overwhelming affection for her African childhood."



5. Probably one of the best books I've ever read. Beautiful, thought provoking, heartbreaking... Alexandra Fuller made me weep. Read it, you won't be sorry.

5 comments about The Privilege of Youth: A Teenager's Story.

1. You must have it if you own the collection. Heart touching and inspiring.



2. This book was a disappointment after David Pelzer's earlier books. It's poorly written and poorly edited. The pace is uneven, and the book alternates between showing the teenage David as an irresponsible troublemaker and a preachy know-it-all. No wonder his fellow students beat him up so often.



3. After reading "A Child Called It" in health class last year, I decided to check out what "A Privilege Of Youth" is about. The start of the book talks about what he was doing before he started the story. After getting past the first chapter of the book, it began to become less interesting and was beginning to get unappealing. It began to become boring after just five minutes of reading it. This book was unenjoyable and I would not recommend it.



4. You just cannot phantom what Mr. Pelzer went through as a child. The courage is unbelievable and I admire him so very much. There is too much child abuse in society and children are tormented not to speak out because they love their parents the ones who are abusing. Mr. Pelzer's books are about himself and his horrible life as a child, teenager and young man. You have to read these books to better understand how much abuse is in our world. Then maybe it will help you realize that something needs to be done and it's better to make the call and be wrong than to not make it at all and possibly have a child lose his life. Order the books now!!



5. It took a while for me to get my order but the seller was extreamly helpful and answered all my questions very fast. Product is in great shape!! Better then described!!

5 comments about Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression.

1. I read this book when it first came out, loaned by my library. A year later, I want to re-read it and knew it was a keeper, so I bought it through Amazon. Even if only
   for the recipes, one should own this book, but I have now re-read it three times for memories and prose as rich as fresh cream from Millie's Iowa farm. Millie is
   a great role model in another way: how old was she when she first published a book???? Thank you, Millie.



2. LITTLE HEATHENS gives the experience of a young girl growing up in Iowa during the Depression. Good portrayal.



3. Borrowed this book from a friend and thought my mother would enjoy it so I purchsed her a copy.



4. There was a time - not that long ago, really - within the memory of many of us, or right before our time - when people made a full life out of "making do." Mildred Kalish's book is a delicious celebration (complete with recipes) of that all-but-vanished part of the American character.
   
   People "made do" because there was no alternative, and Mrs. Kalish makes no attempt to gloss over the hard work involved. But the pride and satisfaction that comes with the achievement of self-sufficiency through individual and communal responsibility makes the whole book glow with a feeling of "this is as it should be. This is how people are supposed to live together."



5. Little Heathens was a page turner! Mildred Kalish's story of her childhood made me realize, as a teacher, how the simple things in life are crucial to a child's overall development. In an age of high tech devices, we are truly missing the mark on what children need as tools for life's hardships. Hard work, discipline and an overall appreciation for our environment. Mildred Kalish articulated so well what was expected of her, the learning that took place and the resulting closeness she and her family members had. How the togetherness in completing daily chores with her siblings added to her well being. Loved the recipes and household tips! I now yearn for a day in her past!