3 comments about Brooklyn Dodgers The Last Great Pennant Drive, 1957.

1. Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1EIEQOIOW3D1R Call Me Sonya Grey



2. John Nordell's tribute to one of baseball's most storied and inspirational teams, reaching its zenith in one of the sport's greatest
   eras, has lots to recommend it to the aficionado. Brooklyn Dodgers, The Last Great Pennant Drive, 1957, is a work of art on a couple of levels.
   Precisely and painstakingly researched - the sense of "play by play" is
   both engaging and eerie - it has at least as much charm, never losing sight of the fact that this book speaks to both history and American folklore. The Bums - that is the boys - from Brooklyn: Gil, Duke, Junior, Carl, and Johnny - well, all of them, are nothing if not folklore.
   His attention to statistics could cause a CPA to nod appreciatively, but Mr. Nordell's book is also personal narrative. He includes numerous photos of the team in action, on and off the diamond, many of which he
   took with his family at one big game. All this adds to the charm of a book that will stand alone as the quintessential telling of one magical year in the sport.



3. The Weekender, June 20, 2007
   by Alison Myers
   
   After first considering the idea of writing a book about his favorite baseball team in 1997, and beginning research in 2005, historian John Nordell's book about the Brooklyn Dodgers' last year in Brooklyn has finally come to life in "Brooklyn Dodgers: The Last Great Pennant Drive, 1957."
   
   Nordell, an Old Forge resident whose primary interest is on military and diplomatic history, had been thinking about writing his book for years and originally wanted to write it in 1997, the 40th anniversary of the last Brooklyn season. He first became interested in baseball back in 1956 while watching a game between the Dodgers and the New York Yankees. He began following Brooklyn in the beginning of the 1957 season.
   
   The center of the story surrounds a game Nordell saw at Ebbets Field on July 18, 1957 between the Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals. The game made such great history that, according to Nordell, the Sporting News later referred to the ninth inning as "the most fantastic inning of the season." Although the main highlight of the book is the Dodgers' memorable year, it also discusses the decision makers and factors involved in deciding to move the franchise to Los Angeles at the end of the season.
   
   "It was a truly amazing game, and seeing it was the most exciting thing I have ever experienced." Nordell wrote in an e-mail. "I was determined that I was not going to let the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers' last year in Brooklyn go by without telling this story."
   
   The season also featured some of the all-time best professional baseball players, including Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo, and Roy Campanella.
   
   In order to obtain further information for his writing, Nordell used books already written about the Dodgers and then began looking up primary sources in August 2005. He explored microfilms at the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre and the Albright Memorial Library in Scranton. He also traveled to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and the New York Public Library. There, he found a baseball website called Retro Sheet (http://www.retrosheet.org). The idea behind the website is to give box scores, narratives, transactions, and other data from as many Major League Baseball games prior to 1984 as possible.
   
   Nordell already had research materials of his own, including books, magazines and personal memories. The writing of the book was completed in spring 2006, but he worked on researching photographs well into the summer and fall. "Photos add greatly to a book and my book on the Dodgers has 37." Nordell said.
   
   He describes the process of writing a book as "tremendously satisfying." In order to put together such a project, he says one should have an eye for detail, an organized filing system, and a love for the project they are working on. Having a word processing system is a big help as well.
   
   For those interested in purchasing a copy, Nordell hopes to take them back to the excitement the Dodgers provided for their fans right up until they left Brooklyn.
   
   "Virtually lost to history was the Dodgers' mid-season surge in the standings during that last year. The memories that I have of Brooklyn's last pennant drive, along with the game that I saw, also gives the book a personal dimension that I think readers will enjoy."
   
   "Brooklyn Dodgers: The Last Great Pennant Drive, 1957" is available at local bookstores or online through http://tribute-books.com. Anyone wishing to find out more about the book can visit http://www.brooklyndodgersbaseball.com
   
   What: John Nordell Book Signings
   
   Where: Barnes and Noble stores and Borders near the Viewmont Mall
   
   When:
   June 28
   Barnes and Noble
   7 South Main St. in Wilkes-Barre (11:30 a.m.)
   August 11
   Barnes and Noble
   421 Arena Hub Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township (2-4 p.m.)
   September 1
   Borders
   100 Viewmont Mall, Scranton (2-4 p.m.)
   
   For more information: Visit http://www.brooklyndodgersbaseball.com

5 comments about No Place Safe.

1. This beautifully written book by Kim Reid is both sensitive and timeless. It is about so much more than it appears: A daughter's conflictual and complicated relationship with the mother she loves and yearns for, a black child coming to terms with the white majority, a child faced with the unstoppable murders of children just like her, and a child becoming a woman, to name just a few. Ms. Reid's writing is sensitive and emotional yet not cloying or annoying. She takes us into her experiences with a subtle and skilled hand that allows us to go there right along with her. I came out of reading this book with a profound respect for the writer, as well as a new appreciation of growing up black in the days of the Atlanta child murders. I highly recommend this book and look forward to seeing what the author comes up with next.



2. The way Reid interweaves the story of tragic lost lives of children with her own sort of "lost chldhood" is brilliant, esp. from the point of view of her cop mother being so deeply involved in the cases. It's just really a fantastic read. It has stayed with me for days, especially being a mom. Heartbreaking, of course. And they never found the killer, which just tears me up. But there's much more to the book than that. She weaves that story beautifully with her own.



3. I could not put this book down. I ended up reading all of it in two settings. It is an endearing story of a girl growing up in the most challenging of situations during her tender and impressionable teen years. The "coming of age" story allows the reader to feel like they are there, reflecting back to their own childhoods, and see a very complex world with unfathomable situations through the eyes of a street smart and feisty 13 year old. There were several parts that I laughed out loud and others I was aghast at the very pointed racism that this young teen had to experience. Great book Kim, you are to be well commended for such a great first book.



4. NO PLACE SAFE details the consuming, high-pressure investigations of the 1979-1981 disappearances and murders of black boys and young men in Atlanta--investigations in which author Kim Reid's mother worked as a lead investigator. While this story alone propels this book to read like a compelling novel, Kim's powerful revelations about her schools, her community, her family, and herself make this a powerful document of life in a major Southern city during an especially tumultuous time.



5. Author Kim Reid beautifully captured the voice of an Atlanta 13-year-old who is mother to her younger sister while their single mom works as a police officer; is one of few black students who attend an all-white private school in a distant, affluent neighborhood; and who lives unnervingly close to where dozens of black boys and young men have been murdered (Atlanta Child Murders starting in 1979).
   
   Reid includes information that isn't common knowledge--at least not to me: "Until the early sixties, black officers could arrest only black citizens. In 1979, white and black patrolmen had been allowed to partner in only the last ten years, and black cops were still in a minority, which meant they stuck together outside of work. The only tie that bound black and white cops then was the fact that on the job, they were cops regardless of what they looked like. Fortunately, that was usually enough."
   
   In one instance she brilliantly summarizes her mother's character: A white police officer stopped by her house at 2:00 a.m., expecting to be accommodated. "At two in the morning?' Ma said. Cop or no cop, she sounded like she was ready to bless the man out. There weren't many things that pleased Ma as much as a good night's sleep, which I always believed was here escape from having to work extra jobs, being a cop, a single mother, and just being a black woman in general."
   
   If this book had been written as a young adult novel set in 1979-1982, I would give it five stars. Why? Because it focuses on issues that are still important to teens today. Reid's title is also good for a novel, although I'd suggest she come up with one that hasn't been used before, so it'll be more recognizable. But as a memoir, the book is thin; it should have included more information about the murders, and an more in-depth analysis of what her mother and sister also went through.

5 comments about Saffron Sky: A Life Between Iran and America.

1. I read this book in one weekend and found it difficult to put down. The author's wonderful use of description and reflection made me feel as if I were on a journey with her, traveling back and forth between America and Iran. It seems to me that the sense of disconnection the author describes can resonate on many different levels, even for those of us born and raised in the States.



2. To See and See Again: A Life in Iran and America
   Persian Girls: A Memoir
   Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America
   Saffron Sky: A Life Between Iran and America
   
   The books came in great condition. Funny in Farsi is the most hilarious book I've read in a while and really portrays the experience of growing up Iranian in America. I am now reading Saffron Sky and have not read the others yet.



3. This book is presented as a collection of reminiscences from girlhood and womanhood between Iran and America. Gelareh Asayesh shares the inward labors of carrying two great yet incompatible cultures in her soul. Every vignette is a gem to admire at length, to laugh, cry or sigh over before even moving on to the next page.
   
   I picked up this book after enduring a heartwrenching goodbye with a compassionate Iranian woman of this same generation who felt that we could never last as a couple with our different cultural backgrounds. As an American, I truly believe that it's impossible for me to understand Iran. This book won't change that; it won't change you into somebody who knows and will even reiterate the futility of trying. But you will be left with a very emotional and meaningful sense of a world you CANNOT know.



4. This is an absorbing account of the author's divided identity as a Muslim woman who grew up in Iran in the 1960s-1970s and then remained in the U.S. where she was a university student at the time of the revolution. Now married to an American and working as a journalist, she is torn by her desire to return to the beloved Iran of her youth, its 3,000-year-old culture, and the large, loving family who still live there.
   
   The strictures imposed on women in the Islamic Republic (the rigidly puritanical dress codes, the denial of social equality for women) are only a part of the difficulties she faces as she begins a series of return visits to Iran in 1990. The dominance of the West in the material values of educated and upper middle class Iranians has been replaced by the tyranny of the fundamentalist and hard-line religious leaders who dictate social policy. The dominance of the West in controlling Iran's oil-rich economy through the CIA-installed monarchy has been replaced by the social and economic upheaval brought on by years of war with Iraq and isolation in the world community.
   
   With all this in the background, Asayesh articulates the human toll resulting from the revolution by describing its impact on the lives of the members of her family. She reveals this most vividly by contrasting her idyllic childhood against the realities of the present. Everywhere there is division, right down to her own efforts to recover a personal identity. Her sense of self is continually frustrated by the lack of continuity between the memories of her life as a girl and her current life in the West. Asayesh has a journalist's eye for detail that takes the reader beneath the surface of her subject and any easy generalizations about the Islamic Republic. It's an excellent book to read after Nafisi's "Reading Lolita in Tehran."



5. Wonderful read. I couldn't put it down. I am marrying and Iranian born man after 10 years of dating (persians like to take their time, lol). I finally have confirmation into his world and family from long ago. He grew up in Mashed, felt the bombs rock Tehran and took vacations to the Caspian. When I read passages of the book to him, HE HAD TEARS IN HIS EYES AND A SMILE FROM EAR TO EAR!!! SO many of his stories of childhood were brought to light in such a descriptive and truthful manner by the author. Saffron Sky gives a brief yet complete history of Iran, family stories that anyone can relate to regardless of origin and a way to bridge the gap between East and West.
   WELL DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 comments about Bobby Fischer: Profile of a Prodigy (Revised Edition).

1. Nearly everyone who has some decent experiance with chess has heard about Bobby Fischer and his mysterious behavior. He is one of the best chess players in history and I bought the book recently to get more insight into his character and mind. The book has about 400 pages and a little more than a half consists of his biography from childhood up to 1972 Fischer-Spassky Championship and the other part is 80 selected Fischer games with very good annotations and turnament results.
   
   The biography in itself consists very little of Fischer's personal life, and majority of it are various turnament events and how well Fischer did at them. I think it's well worth reading for people who have interest in Bobby Fischer, and would like to immitate his career to some extent.
   
   The part that has put biggest imprint on my memory is when the author (Bobby's early chess advisor) and Bobby went to meet one of the NYC bussinesmen who offered to fund Bobby's travel to a turnament. 'Tis what happened: after a short conversation the bussinessman added:
   
   "[...] 'However there's just one thing I'd like you to do. If I put up the money and send you to this turnament, and when you win and are interviewed by the press, or anybody, I want you to say: 'I couldn't have won this turnament without the help of Sam Blanker."'
   Bobby was on his feet immediately, seeming to have grown years in a moment. 'I can do that', he said evenly. 'If I win a turnament, I win it by myself. I do the playing. Nobody helps me. I win the turnament myself, with my own talent.'" Bobby rejected the offer for one particular reason.
   
   This gives a lot of insight into Fischer's mind.
   
   The pluses and minuses:
   1. Pluses: The book was written in a very simplistic form without input of unnecessary words and information which makes it quick and pleasant to read. I read entire book in 3 days and I don't regret it. The attached annotated games and turnament results are a very good idea for people who are interested in Fischer's chess style (if it can be called a style) besides his biography.
   
   2. Minuses: There's one huge problem with the book which to some extant destroys the postive impressions with the book. I took a way 2 points for this. The author over and over again rationalizes Fischer's behavior in a positive manner which might not be true and tries to impose on the reader the idea of Fischer being the greatest and most rightous genius on the planet. This happens especially in conclusion, of which I read only 2 pages as I couldn't cope with its "Fischer worshipping tone". I advise anyone who reads the book to simply not care so much about those parts.



2. 3.5 stars
   
   It is just so hard to review this autobiography, completed at the height of Fischer's triumph, knowing what was to come. Though not meant to be ironic, the author's comments about Bobby having finally found his place atop the chess world cannot but seem ironic now.
   
   That aside, and it is not wholly the author's fault, the book is neither as much as a puff piece as the earlier version was, to my mind at least, nor was it as penetrating as it could have been. It comes across as a sterile recounting of Fischer's career with little mention of a personal life, or wondering about the lack of one.
   
   Though not penetrating and mentioning the seeds of behaviors that even then would have been known to Fischer's friends before they fully blossomed before the entire world the book is not full of praise for Bobby either. The recountings of his continued dropping out of tournaments, his altercation with Benko do not cast Fischer in the kindest light.
   
   The author does seem to be softening, and explaining and excusing, these events but he is enough of a scholar that he leaves them reasonably unvarnished for the reader to make their own decisions.
   
   Interesting, but now incomplete, reading to see the rocky and troubled rise of the solo chess prodigy Bobby Fischer.



3. Frank Brady's "Profile of a Prodigy" is a frustrating combination of good and bad. The good first: Brady gives fascinating behind-the-scenes information that I'd read nowhere else, giving you the sense that you are there. The bad: the book is riddled with mistakes, stuff you wouldn't find in a High School newspaper! Dates and misstatements of facts, too numerous to mention. And some chessic misjudgements too, like when Brady says, speaking of the 1972 Title Match, that Fischer varied his opening repertoire to an English Opening in Game 8 from the QGD of Game 6. But it wasn't Fischer who varied; he played 1.c4 in both games. It was Spassky's reply in game 8 that changed the opening. The book would've benefitted from a good editor, one who knows how to play chess. But despite all this, I'd still recommend the book. It's a fascinating read.
   Bob Hunt, Hillsborough, N.J.



4. I bought the first edition of this book by mail order when I was about 16, and devoured it eagerly. In those days world-class chess was relentlessly dominated by the USSR, challenged mainly by other Eastern Europeans and the occasional American like Reshevsky, Evans and the Byrne brothers. Boris Spassky was soon to play "iron Tigran" Petrosian for the world title, and the only wild card seemed to be a crazy teenage genius from New York who could beat anyone at all on his day. Frank Brady's writing captured the sheer excitement of it all. For instance, in a great tournament with most of the best players in the world, Mikhail Tal expected Petrosian to crush the upstart Fischer, "but when Bobby beat the USSR champion the crowd roared".
   
   Brady's style is journalistic, but it fits his subject quite well. This much expanded edition takes Fischer's story all the way to winning the world championship, which is probably a logical place to stop. (Fischer stopped playing chess at that point, so the rest of his life has been lived in a very different world). The book is full of interesting facts that you could not read about anywhere else, and until a professional biographer turns his attention to Fischer - which may never happen, because he is about the least cooperative subject imaginable - it will remain the last word.
   
   The games section is a different story. Only a narrow cross section are given, with notes by Brady that reveal his lack of expertise. They are only there for completeness' sake, and should be read as an extension of the biography. If you want to understand Fischer's chess, read his Collected Games, his own "My 60 Memorable Games" (which is itself very limited in scope, though superb in depth), or Elie Agur's brilliant "Bobby Fischer: His Approach to Chess".



5. Fischer was a genius, no question about that. This book is a good buy for the price: you get a (weak) biography of a great player, 8 pages of pictures, and 90 (poorly) annotated games for less than US$15.00! Altogether not a bad deal. However, I take issue with the author. Because he was a friend of Fischer's he did not want to ruin his relationship with him by revealing Fischer's odd character traits, as many other reviewers have noticed. Worst, the author wants you to believe Fischer was a good boy, the American self made sportsman who increased the popularity of the game while fighting for better playing conditions and higher appearance fees, which would ultimately benefit chess professionals as a whole. This might be true. However, it is also true that Fischer left chess players as a whole with an undeletable image: that of nerds, eccentrics and the like. All in all I think his contribution to the image of chess was negative, not positive. Upon reading the book it struck me that Spassky allowed himself to play that fatidic match in Iceland. Fischer did not show up at the date and time they had originally agreed. Spassky gave in to Fischer's absurd demands, falling pray to Fischer's psychological warfare. He should have walked away and kept his title, period. Since he did not the rest is history. At the end of the day the character of a World Champion is seem not when he wins a world championship match but rather when he loses it. Fischer, unlike Spassky, Karpov, and Kasparov never showed up to defend his title. This will be his sad legacy.

1 comments about War and Innocence : A Young Girl's Life in Occupied Norway.

1. A nicely written autobiography of a young girl during the invasion and occupation of Norway by the Nazi's. Drama, horror of war, human interest, naval battle action. Relevant facts of the occupation (which could not have been known by the author at the time of occupation) are thrown in for context.
   Great for home if interested in subject area/time.
   Would recommend for middle school/high school libraries, especially if curriculum has 'man's inhumanity' or 'youth and WWII' type requirements.

5 comments about Faded Pictures from My Backyard: A Memoir.

1. From December 1947 until June 1951 while I was a student at SUNY - Albany, I worked and lived at the Albany Home for Children as one of several Assistant Activities Directors. A week ago while googling "Albany Home", I came across this book and started reading it to learn more about what has happened at the home since I left. It didn't take long for me to become absorbed in the major thrust of the book as described by previous reviewers - especially Virginia Mathers. "The heartfelt story she tells of her love for her mother is so poignant that at some points it is almost painful to read - her emotions are so raw and real. The other part of the story is Ms. Carswell's amazing candor as she describes her own problems and obsessions which haunted her throughout a majority of her life. The fact that she has perservered and become a major literary success is a tribute to her strength of character."
   
   I actually couldn't put the book down.
   
   Although it was a minor part of the book, Ms. Carswell's descriptions of life at the home, both from her own experiences and Bob Wygant's, was right on. In fact, I learned more about the purpose and mission of the home by reading the book than I did while I was there.
   
   I'm glad that she got to meet my boss, friend, protector, and straight shooter - Coach Huddleston.
   
   Read this book!



2. Sue's father is the Director of a home for disturbed children. It's interesting the expertise and wisdom that he can give to other troubled children, but when it comes to his own daughter, he's in denial. Very candid and extremely well written.



3. Sue Carswell's astonishing, spectacular book is, without a doubt, the most courageous book I have ever read. Carswell opens her heart, her psyche, and her soul to the reader and the world, and does so with monumental skill, humor, and candor. When you finish this book, you feel you know the author better than anyone, other than yourself, because she has revealed herself so generously. What a comfort her struggle with her demons will be to so many people.
   
   I laughed out loud at points and cried (something I haven't done in years while reading a book). Her voice evolves over the course of the narrative and will be in my head for a very long time, maybe forever. So sweet, so sad, so resilient. Ms. Carswell invites readers in to her wirting process in the beginning of this book, and at the end, she brings you back to her flickering computer screen. Even though much of the book is painful to experience, I didn't want it to end and so I read the Acknowledgments as if they were a part of the story and, in a way, they are.
   
   I tried to find one thing I didn't like about this book, but the only thing I was unsure about (the lack of quote marks), I ended up loving. Their absence is liberating.
   
   I recommend this book to absolutely everyone. Put it on the top of your list for 2006.



4. The tender love emanating from the pages of this book touch the depths of one's soul. Whether she knows it or not, Ms. Carswell has attained spiritual greatness, although the book does not seem to be written to that end. The love she has for her mother and the empathy she holds for the orphans are the true essence of its beauty.
   
   Reminiscent of the style in which Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, the author so poignantly captures the voice of a child trying to make sense of the sadness which is her backyard; while at the same time she interjects bouts of comic relief that can only come from pure childhood innocence. As she ages in the book her voice does also. It is brilliantly done.
   
   I highly recommend this book. You will cry. You will laugh out loud. And, because Ms. Carswell reveals her heart so openly, you will love.



5. Carswell's book is a tremendous, insightful read. There are so many beautiful images and her writing just flows off the pages. The story is captivating and the characters -- her family members -- are honestly drawn and with great humor.
   
   I literally could not put this book down. Not only is the writing fantastic, her changing voice as she matures and ages is something I don't think I've ever experienced as a reader before. The stories themselves are all intertwined and her observations of her mother and her own self-reflection are devastating, moving, hilarious, wrenching, and lovely. It's a wonderfully fascinating story and for anyone who grew up in a large family in the 60s, it is especially fun.

5 comments about Birth of a Tumbleweed: Memoirs of Growing Up in Post-Nazi Germany.

1. Dear Readers,
   
   This book brings back many memories about the times after WWWII. I was born in 1944 in East Germany and have experienced many of the situations mentioned in this book. But since I am not a writer, I would have never been able to put these experiences on paper. I find the stories worth reporting and preserving for future generations. All too easily do we forget and repeat the mistakes of the past. This book is a heartfelt memory worth reading. I am looking forward to more books from this author.



2. There is a disclaimer at the front of this book stating that it is self-edited owing to the fact that the material is too personal. I suspect the more truthful statement would be that the author didn't want to spend the money on an editor for this self-published book - and it shows. I can't remember ever actually throwing away a book before I finished it as I did with this one and I mean literally into the trash basket.
   
   There is no question that the subject matter, the recovery of Germany after the devastation of WWII, is of great interest and mostly ignored by US literature. What does one, civilian or soldier, do in the days immediately after a war when one's country is the loser? Where does one start, standing amidst the ruins of a city with no food nor shelter to be had, worthless money in one's pocket and the victorious enemy, righteously full of contempt, running the show? All remarkable questions.
   
   Evoking compassion from a reader comes with clear, simple statements about the facts of the situation, allowing the reader's own conscience to discover the emotional conection to the writer. It does not come from pathetic whining about the events of the time and complaining how others didn't understand their own insensitivity.
   
   This book seems like a therapy session for the author without the professional guidance of a therapist present. It's self-indulgent to the point of not even having a editor for the prose. I mean, come on, were all those explanation points really that personal!?



3. Much has been written about World War II from a historical
   point of view. However, what has not been adequately covered
   by historians is the devastating effect of the War on the German
   people who were also victims of Hitler. In Birth of a Tumbleweed, Inge Perreault chronicles her childhood, teenage years, and young adulthood in Cologne, Germany, in graphic detail that includes her family, torn apart by the two Germanys, the physical, psychological, social and community trauma she endured growing up. How would an average American endure life during war time in their homeland? Read Birth of a Tumbleweed and you will come away very grateful for life in the USA! A remarkable story of hope, struggle, and enduring strength not just to survive, but to succeed in life!



4. Inge Perrault has done an amazing job bringing us through the stages of a life none of us in this country could ever imagine. It made me laugh and cry, and brought me deep into the little girls heart and mind. Her descriptions of the country were so detailed I feel like I have been there myself. It's an amazing journey, one I think everyone growing up with all the priviledges of our society today should read. It wasn't that long ago, yet most of us have fogotten all to easily what war does to a society for years to come. The courage it must have taken to write and remember all this is astounding, and one knows where that courage comes from after reading Birth of a Tumbleweed. I know it will passed around in my family as a must read.



5. My mom was born in Southern Germany just before the war started. Her and her family went through years of existing on barely any food, never enough blankets and clothes to keep warm in those bitter cold winters. She still remembers the bombs falling near her home and to this day has nightmares about it. "Birth of a Tumbleweed" gives a glimpse into the world of a family who was just trying to survive. Somehow after the war, all Germans were blamed for the sick ideas of Hitler. Inge's generation had to grow up with a heavy load of guilt on their shoulders, guilt thrown upon them not just by the Allied, but by the German government itself.
   Inge's book took a lot of courage to write, since esp. her generation was expected to just shut up and take the blame. I understand why she moved away.
   Reading Inge's book gave me a better understanding of what my mom went through. It also encouraged me to stand my ground and to not take any blame for anything that happened back then. (Yes, there are still people out there pointing fingers...)

5 comments about My Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King.

1. I'll keep this short: My Bloody Life was not a very thoughtful book. I don't want to disparage the efforts of the author, who clearly had a fantastic story to tell. But I got the sense from reading the book that the story was told because he felt that someone needed to tell it, not because he felt he understood it in some greater sense. There are moments of clarity where he states or alludes to some grand narrative of life that the events fit into, but those moments clash with each other indicating that he's not really sure what that narrative is.
   
   I read this book along with classmates in a teacher education course, and we discussed whether we thought it was educationally valuable to read this book as opposed to some other one. We decided that it was probably beneficial for what I termed the "oh crap" factor of surprising folks that didn't know what gang life could be like. At the same time though, the class agreed that reading this book might give readers the impression that every gang is like this one and that every kid in a rough neighborhood is gang-affiliated. Please don't walk away with that understanding.



2. A great book! Once you start reading the book you can't stop. Open your eyes to reality and helps you not to judge people and see what they act like that and why is the reason behind the life style they had taken.



3. I was definitely interested in reading this book, but the fact that the "spanish" written in the book was more like spanglish, incorrect grammar, with spanish definitions completely inaccurate made me believe that this was not truly an autobiographical memoir. But when the author proceeds to state that Puerto Ricans were being deported back the island during this time of his life in the book. That is when I finally said ENOUGH!!! Puerto Ricans are AMERICAN CITIZENS BORN TO A COMMOM WEALTH NATION THAT BELONGS TO THE USA!! Before an author begins to write a "true autobiographical/memoir" get your facts straight! A proud Puerto Rican knows his/her facts! Interesting book to read, but please, take it with a grain of salt, and remember; all that you read is not always true!



4. This is one of the best books I've ever read. once you start reading, you just don't want to stop you want to find out what will happen in the next chapter. It's such a great real story.



5. For all of those people who ask -- Why gangs? This book exists. This boy who really didn't even want to be a gangster gets pulled into the undertow and becomes one of the most violent. If all teens could read this, gang activity might keep slowing down.

No comments about Auntie Anne's: My Story.

5 comments about On Hitler's Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood.

1. This book makes it clear under what pressures kids and teens grew up in the thirties and forties in Germany. The writer shows the big riff between the older and younger generations in Germany during the Hitler era. It is personal and detailed. It reaffirms many of the stories I heve heard from my parents and grandparents. A must read for every interested in keeping peace alive.



2. this is a very well-written book. The lifeline flows in order which makes it easy for the reader to keep track of events as they occurred. This provides a very different perspective because it is from that as a child growing up on 'Hilter's mountain', as well as that of a German citizen. This provides a very good inside look at what life was like in these most terrible of times.



3. I lived in Germany in the late 1970s with a family who would have been young people during the War. I was vastly curious about their experience as "average Germans" but they were evasive and would say very little. Irmgard Hunt, who grew up just 30 miles from my foreign exchange mother during roughly the same years, gives us a portrait of what it was like for the average German citizen. Relying on her mother's diary, and interviews with family and friends, it may be some fiction, as an earlier reviewer states, but it rings true to me. You'll enjoy this book more if you know some German.



4. Excellent story of WW2 from the perspective of an ordinary little girl. I loved this story because it was a whole new look at this era of world history, a view not often captured. A must read for any enthusiast of the era.



5. This proves to be an interesting and somewhat insightful look from the perception of child. Irmgard Hunt spent her first 11 years of her life living in Berchtesgaden, under the shadow of Hitler's mountain retreat. She even had a honor of being on Hitler's lap and her parents must have been die-hard Nazis themselves to be allowed to live in that Bavarian village so close to their Fuhrer's own mountain home.
   
   Hunt's recollection proves to be informative on how life was for people who lived in that village where Nazism was so strong. Many of her stories actually make great deal of sense to anyone familiar with the Third Reich and it made whole lot of sense to me especially since, the author was living in Berchtesgaden.
   
   However, I do wondered how much of the book reflects reality. After all, she was very young when all this took place, most normal people do have a hard time remembering what they did, felt or thought when they were eight, nine or ten years old. The author may remembered very few details but I doubt if she could remembered all of it without being compromised by passing years of faded memories.
   
   I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the story of an ordinary German girl growing up in one of the most nazified villages in Germany. But I would also caution these readers that you are relying on a memory of that child who is now a grown woman and asked yourself how much of your childhood you remembered with such details.