2 comments about Popcorn Poppin' on the Apricot Tree.

1. I loved this book. While it told Annie's tale it also brought back many of my own childhood memories when times were simplier. Annie and her family showed tremendous strength and love for one another throughout their mother's illness, their devotion is inspiring.
   A great book for adults and children.



2. This was a book I didn't want to put down until I had finished it. Faith has a way of "weaving a tale" and I was fascinated by her true stories and antics of Anne Peters and her siblings. A book to be enjoyed by both adults and children!
   Sincerely,
   Gloria

2 comments about Pocket Stones.

1. Written from a child's perspective with vivid detail that will also captivate adults, Barbara-Ann's stories of her childhood in the Phillipines during the WWII Japanese occupation is a fascinating read. Her stories are a personal glimpse into the struggles of a multiracial child growing up poor during wartime told with humor, emotion and acute observation. "Pooh" will steal your heart.



2. This is a charming story of the true life experiences of a girl (now a Grandmother) growing up in the Philipines during World War 2.

   I am sure that teen-agers would enjoy reading this book, as well as adults. It's a small book and can be read in a matter of hours. I found I could not "put this book down"!

   Very appealing!

5 comments about Hotel Kid: A Times Square Childhood.

1. I've stayed in the michealangelo several times and this is such a great description of the hotel and nyc.



2. If you've ever enjoyed old movies set in the glamourous world of New York in the 1940's, you'll love this book. The author's father was general manager of the legendary Taft Hotel in New York in the Big Band era of the 1930's & 1940's. The family lived in a suite in the hotel, were waited on by hotel staff & dined in its restaurants. The cover photo (of my hard-cover edition) shows them all dressed up in the hotel dining room - even the children are in suits - & his mother wearing a frilly collar & one of those Big Hats tilted rakishly over one eye.
   
   By the age of 12 Stephen had an encyclopaedic knowledge of food and wines but no idea of what normal home life or play was like for the rest of us.
   
   One example of the gaps of ignorance that would plague him through life occurs at age 40 when he marries and buys a house. The basement is full of extra windows, which his wife explains are "storm windows". "Are you crazy," he says, "there's no way I can get all this up in time before a storm". Ironically, with the ubiquitous thermal windows of today, the concept of "storm windows" will soon pass away from the ken of another generation. As he recalls some of the worldly advice given to him by his father, "take the swizzle stick out of your drink so that you don't poke yourself in the eye with it" was of little relevance to his own children -a problem that occurs, I suspect, with a great deal of inter-generational communication.
   
   "Hotel Kid" is an engaging account of a fascinating era that is gone forever.



3. I must say, "Hotel Kid" by Stephen Lewis, is the best book I have ever read, and his writing style is exquisite. I absolutely loved it and it has touched me deeply, in fact, moved me to tears. I miss the old Hotel Taft very much, as well as New York as it once was. So much has changed over the years and the things I held dear are now gone. Stephen Lewis makes old New York come vividly alive again.
   I first stayed at the Hotel Taft 33 years ago when I was 12 years old and it has held a special place in my heart ever since. I've stayed there many times since then, including a three week stay starting the day after I graduated from high school in 1978, after which I moved to New York. I loved the Taft back then, but I had no idea till now, after reading "Hotel Kid", how much more the Taft had to offer in it's hey day. I wish I could have experienced that time frame also, as it sounds even more spectacular than the era I was in. Thanks to Stephen Lewis, I can vividly picture and feel a sense of what it was like to be there.
   It breaks my heart to see the Taft butchered up into condos and the diminutive Michelangelo. Less than a year ago I was walking with a friend through Times Square and we stopped to rest. I was telling him about the Taft and I looked up at the street sign to see where we were in relation to where the Taft was and realized I had been leaning up against it the whole time. I hadn't even recognized it.
   Thank you Stephen Lewis for sharing so much and giving such an enlightening and fitting tribute to the much loved Taft.



4. Stephen Lewis, a teacher of memoir-writing, was raised during the 30s in a NY hotel where his father worked as general manager. In this gently amusing memoir, he recreates the experience for us, his readers, ushering us into a world in which everything was provided to the family by the hotel and its purveyors. Bathroom supplies were mysteriously restocked; meals arrived by room service; beds were made and floors swept; clothing was ordered by phone and appeared in drawers and closets.
   Hotel Kid is a gentle and affectionate portrayal of New York's Time Square area as it once was, and of a very unusual childhood lived amid the then-splendor of the theater district. Very nice; an easy read.



5. Hotel Kid is the story of the Lewis Family and the hotel Mr. Lewis managed back in the golden days of Times Square.

   Living in a two room apartment might not have been that uncommon for many New York children but few of them also ate only room service or signed for snacks in the resturaunt in the lobby. It is an interesting tale about life in a gilded age now gone.

   More than just the logistics of Steven Lewis' life were uniqe. He was more than just a kid hanging around the hotel. He was the Crown Prince of place as well. The most telling parts of the book reveal how he came to understand the borrowed athority he possesed or how even a child he could make the adults nervous. When a strike at the hotel pits managment and staff against each other you see the conflicting loyalites of the author. Scion of the boss he was still a friend to many on the picket line.

   This book was an enjoyable read about a time so far away and yet not really that long ago. It was a quick read and well worth the time it took.

5 comments about Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir.

1. I feel so many emotions when I think of this book, I mean talk about a onion with its dozens of layers and you start to understand my love of this book. If you can't get it, that this book to me is an emotional plea from deep within her soul, well then you might as well stick to the bestsellers list.



2. Let's be clear: this isn't some sob-story autobiography about some chick blaming her infertility on the power plant next door. Antonetta has written a gorgeous, unsettling book that pushes the boundaries of literary memoir.
   
   Written in muscular, skilled prose, the "environment" of Antonetta's memoir points to the sludge-filled and strangely seductive New Jersey Pine Barrens of her childhood; it refers equally to the toxic world created by her impenetrable, neurotic immigrant family. Antonetta tells hallucinatory, poetic stories that float between the two environments while never misstepping into the sentimental.
   
   Indeed, it is a rare pleasure for me to read a woman's story--especially one intimately engaged with problems of fertility and the body--that is so devoid of cliche and self-pity. Antonetta has plenty of honest anguish, but it is balanced with a damning dry humor, and a sharply raw perception of herself, her family, their history and the history of the land upon which the story unfolds.



3. Quite an accurate portrayal of the abysmal state of New Jersey. If America was a person then New Jersey would be its rectum, just slightly south of the tingling loins of New York. It is the wretched, malodorous, poison hole that is the repository for everything wrong with America. IROC's, unabashed italian stereotypes, gold medallions, the mafia, Aquanet and most abhorrent is the diaspora of foul mouthed New Jersey citizens out to destroy other states as they have destroyed their own. New Jersey "Go Home"!!!



4. I recall reading the New York Times' smug review of this book when it originally came out. How they must have loved another opportunity to slander the state of New Jersey through misinformation, distortions, and gross exaggerations. The perfect example of how well this propaganda works is the individual from Wisconsin who claims how sad it is that the Pine Barrens have been "ravaged." I wonder how someone from Wisconsin who has probably never been to New Jersey, let alone the Pine Barrens, would think they have the right to make such a comment. Just like other rural areas around the country, the Pine Barrens have been victimized by immigration-driven population growth, yet the region is still beautiful. I have no doubt the author of this book has the medical ailments she claims, yet perhaps they have more to do with her lifetime of drug abuse than with living in New Jersey. My father grew up in the industrial badlands of Bayonne, New Jersey; he is 61 and has no major medical problems. In fact, my family is entirely from Jersey City and Bayonne, two cities that are far more industrialized than Ocean County, yet nobody in my family has ever had cancer. This book is another example of junk science giddily peddled by leftist Manhattanite editors who probably haven't been outside of Manhattan in years.
   
   As usual, the masses gobble up such pablum.



5. Body Toxic, the memoir of a poet, is a great book. Instead
   of having us laying in her hospital bed taking her medications
   and reliving her miscarriages in detail on every page, Antonetta
   almost dances around her illnesses in order to bring awareness
   of the contamination to earth that is killing everyone.
   Michael Klein said "Poets write the best memoirs." Three years
   ago I questioned that statement; after reading Body Toxix, I agree.

4 comments about Odyssey of a Romanian Street Child.

1. I got involved working with older orphans in Romania back in 2000. I came across this wonderful book in 2004, and it helped me greatly. I agree with the other reviews. All of the described behavior in the book is dead-on. And I was very pleased that the author included a "warning section", if you will. I thought I was the only person who dealt with cunning, manipulating, and con-artist orphans. Well that "warning" part of the book wasn't only talking about orphans, but the orphan part is pretty much what I experienced. This book changed the way I interacted with adult orphans. Sometimes you don't want to believe the truth because it hurts. But this book opened my eyes to the point that I can look through the fog of emotion and see the truth.



2. I don't think I could ever be too thankful to Mr Dobrisan and Mr Kachelmyer. Sounds too good for a critic? I must start by saying that this book was given to me as a present by Mr Kachelmyer himself and sent by post to his expense. So yes I could be a little biased.
   
   
   A street child tells his life.
   
   This is the story of a Why? Why he became a street child, why he lived as a street child and why he could be rescued. This question haunts this book in two dimensions: a road of self discovery and a message for us. In both dimensions the book fails, but not utterly; the writer being sincere is humble enough to accept that our wisdom on human nature is limited yet it wonderfully succedes at giving us hints. Sometimes, on a first thought, I came to think that Catalin, our hero, sounded like a TV preacher but then I relized that there are many ways to do Theology. One is the theoretical approach done in a desk and the witnessing of the vital experience of a loving God who comes to meet us. Catalin lacks in the former, repeating coined words and expressions but, in the name of Jesus, how vibrant, how refreshed how resurrected they are in his lips. If only, or better, when, Catalin will be able to find out his own words, to develop his own theology and anthropology. I pray God will give him that grace.
   
   This is also the story of a How? To be honest, before reading this book I was much more interested in this aspect than in the "Why?". Here the book works quite well. Certainly it is not Shakespeare, just plain English yet if effectively shares his life with us. I only have a desiderata if a second edition were to be made: a "24 hours in the life of a street child" How a typical day, week and year of a street child is. Please keep the plain style, it adds to honesty.
   
   This is *not* all folks!
   
   What's God for a street child? It seems to me that very few has been written on this subject. Mr Kachelmyer's work is not based on the method of phenomenology (sorry for the periphrasis, my limited English is showing) but an experiential account of his findings and reflections. Is it good or bad? No idea, sorry. I have no experience to compare to his. Yet I can tell you this, everything Mr Kachelmyer says smells to Gospel and Psalms, to proverbs and wisdoms.
   
   And yet there is more.
   
   The last two chapter of this book are the condensed wisdom of a man who wants to share it with future workers with street children. That he gave them free to me, a mere wanna be, tells a lot about his character...
   
   Last but not least a short quote
   
   "I told Alex that he had not exactly handled the situation with his biological father as the Bible recommends, but that if he had any trouble with the Lord over it, I would stand with him on the Day of Judgment,"
   
   to which I add, count me in for the defendant party :)
   
   Context: When Alex (another child) asked his parent why he had abandoned him, his parent smacked him to which Alex replied in kind.
   
   Buy this book? Next Question! :)
   
   Warning
   
   This book is written by a Christian who is not ashamed of it in a little bit, if that's a problem for you, don't buy this book :)



3. I just got this book as a gift not three days ago. I read it in a single afternoon. I have to warn you that this is not an easy read. The writing is very simple and easy to understand, but the story is a difficult one to swallow. It is a frank account of the lifestyle of street children, and it is not pretty. I have seen these street kids in cities all over Romania. They are haunting images of neglect. Do not read this book of you are not prepared to have your heart broken.



4. I have been to Romania and know something about the plight of the Romanian street children. This book's "been there, done that" account of living on the street was very interesting. It helped fill in the gaps in my understanding of the problem. It clearly explains why the street children exist, about their awful living conditions, about successes and failures working with street children, and more. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn more about Romanian street children.

3 comments about Born Jewish: A Childhood in Occupied Europe.

1. This is a spellbinding account of a Jewish teenager in Belgium, during the war. The second of four boys in a loving Jewish family in Brussels, Liebman gives density and texture to the anxieties, terrors, and perils of life under the Nazis. Always on the run, sometimes together, sometimes apart, Liebman is a superb observer of the venalities and kindnesses that accompany him through these tragic days. It is also a compelling coming of age story. All except the last chapter, which takes advantage of his survivor's status to mount a soap box against racism, with a special target being Zionism (hence Jacqueline Rose's breathless intro). Even aside from its polemics, the chapter feels like it is tacked on to what is otherwise a superb addition to Holocaust memoirs.



2. Born Jewish: A Childhood In Occupied Europe by graphically authored by Marcel Liebman and deftly translated by Liz Heron is a vivid memoir of one man's childhood tale of Nazi control, familial struggle, and the betrayal he faced from more powerful Jews in times already hard. As a revealing and historically important biographical account of international history during the second world war, Born Jewish is an invaluable documentation which is very highly recommended for historians and laymen alike, as each and all may take some interest and understanding in this book. Born Jewish is a compelling and valued addition to the growing library of Holocaust literature so fundamentally necessary if the world is never again to experience genocide on such a massive and methodical scale.



3. The holocaust is a "popular" topic. I don't mean that in the positive sense, but in the publishing sense. Much has been published on the holocaust, Nazi occupation and the party Hitler hosted. History demands that people write it and people demand to hear "the truth" about the past. "Born Jewish" offers something different, something that isn't necessarily in demand, but is neccessary for the canon of work on the war and aftermath of the holocaust.
   Marcel Liebman, for anyone unfamiliar with his other work, is a reknowned Marxist/Leninist/Soviet Union historian and historical analysist. This is clearly, his most personal work, but he does not leave his politics or his academic work at the door. "Born Jewish", as he says, "questions history", not in the sense of the accuracy of the event(Liebman writes how dismayed he is that the world did not fully accept Hannah Arendt's accounts of Jewish collaboration with the Nazi's as having actually happened.) but in the sense of the accuracy of historical accounts of it.
   The new perspective Liebman adds is one often obscured by accounts of Nazi occupation and anti-semitism: that class conflict did not dissolve the day the swastika was raised over Europe's cities. In fact, the Nazi's capitalized on the class difference amongst Jewish populations. For Liebman, the horror of his brother's execution at Auschwitz is intimantly connected with the horrors of exploitation and collaboration within the Jewish community.
   Liebman composes his memories carefully and beautifully, resisting sacrilization of experiences he realizes must answer to history as much as to his own heart, and criticizing the radical Zionism that he was to see flourish during his lifetime.
   The incredible forward by Jacqueline Rose is a great appetite whetter for the book. She sums up the book far better than I ever could: "Amongst other things, this memoir stands as an extraordinary rejoinder to those who insist that Israel is the only and definitive answer to the genocide of the Jews...It is one of the strenghts of [the memoir] that Liebman can be so unerring in this analysis while at the same time acknowledging the point where understanding trails off into uncomprehending terror, where the most painful part of mourning trumps all rational thought."
   I highly reccommend this book for anyone who was interested in the slough of memoirs on the subject. It should be read alongside Judith Butler's new book on mourning, violence, 9/11, anti-semitism and the Israel-Palestinian conflict, "Precarious Life".

5 comments about Box Of Mustaches: The darkly funny, true story of how twin brothers survived their mother's madness.

1. They say a lot of the very best comedy comes out of tragedy, that people laugh so they don't cry. "Box of Moustaches" is a no holds barred revealing biography of a very funny and talented man I worked with on "Talk Soup". Whether he became funny in spite of the difficulties he dealt with growing up with his twin brother in a household with a crazy mother or whether these events shaped him and made him the amusing writer he is today as a way of dealing with trouble is a argument best made over a glass of cognac and cigars. The fact is this book is a very interesting read. Yes, there are many dark moments. But there are also some very funny moments that are exploited to their fullest comic extent. It's not your standard Bobsey Twins novel, that's for sure. No, this story is real. As in real good.



2. I hate whiny "woe is me" books written by people who want emotional handouts. Give me an emotionally powerful yet funny journey and that's what you get with "Box of Mustaches". Not only can read about his mom Nutty Nora but other characters like Eldy and the Gas-O-Mat and "Crisco Marie". Mr. Evans writes books like Ray Davies writes songs. Dickens would have given his last beer to write like this.



3. There is no question that the childhood of Stan Evans and his twin brother was by today's standards completely dysfunctional and often abusive. Life with a certifiable mother can never be easy, but the author manages to find humor in even the most heartbreaking situations. Told with mattter of fact candor and plenty of laughs this is one memoir on the dysfunctional childhood that looks for no pity.



4. There seems to be a fashion for memoirs from authors who had brutal and bizarre upbringings or early life experiences. The problem with many of these, however, is that they are cloying, pretentious, or both. One apt example is "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," which would more accurately be titled "A Mawkish Work of Staggering Pretentiousness." Evans avoids this trap by writing simply and straightforwardly, but with elegance, poignance, and wit. He doesn't wear his travails like a badge of honor or feel the need to inform readers that he is consciously shunning post-modern, self-referential prose and condescending to write a mere traditional memoir. He skips the self-aggrandizing nonsense and just writes a damn funny, touching book.



5. This is a brutally honest, sometimes sad, often absurdly comical account of growing up (or attempting to) amidst constant turmoil and outright insanity. Evans brings you into the harrowing world of his childhood and adolescence. And despite the emotional rawness of the book, it is a surprisingly easy read. His ability to find any morsel of humor even in the most bizarre and dire circumstances has clearly served him well, both in surviving his tumultuous youth and in his work as a comedy writer.

5 comments about Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited.

1. Elyse Schein always knew she was adoptive, but it wasn't until she was thirty-four that she decided to contact her adoption agency and ask for identifying information about her birth-mother. What she found out was stunning - she had an identical twin sister. The adoption agency had deliberately separated them as infants to study the question of nature vs. nurture. Elyse contacted her sister, Paula, and the two of them began a strange journey together of understanding who they were, and how much of that came from the nine months they spent together in their birth-mother's womb. This is a fascinating, surprising, and deeply honest story about two strangers who became sisters.



2. Growing up Stacie (Elyse) Schein felt she was always missing something. When, in her mid 30s she finds she has an identical twin sister she wants to meet her more than anything.
   
   At first it would appear that the two women couldn't be more different. Stacie (who goes by her middle name, Elyse by this time) lives a bohemian existence in a cramped Paris apartment. Paula is married and has a young daughter. But on closer inspection they are both film critics, both have an older brother (also adopted). It isn't long after they find out about each other that the two meet - and are stunned.
   
   Although this book says it is a memoir, it is much more than that. The two women discover soon after they meet that the reason they were split up was for an experiment being performed on twins and triplets who were intentionally separated for the study. Told in alternating points of view by both Paula and Elyse, they go into different twin studies, give statistics on twins, and much more.
   
   As they find out more answers, they have more questions, the final one being who was their mother and why were they given up?
   
   I couldn't put this book done (read on my Kindle). As a mother of twins (even though they are fraternal - boy/girl) I probably had a higher interest in the story than someone who didn't have twins but this is recommended to all. The rather shocking reasons for the study coupled with the story of their birth mother had me clicking through the book at a feverish pace, wondering how it was all going to turn out.
   
   This book is well-written, interesting, and unputdownable - the perfect read.



3. I read maybe 1-2 books a year (excluding parenting books). A book has to grab me right away. This one did.



4. Unless you're adopted, you cannot possibly truly understand the feelings all the secrets and lies generated by the archaic adoption system have fostered in the adoptee. This book offers invaluable insight, is well written, and most compelling. Ten years older than the twins, and involved in adoption searches for NYC adoptees, the Louise Wise process is a familiar one to me; interesting that when they closed, Spence-Chapin (Spence baby here) took over their mess. Agencies may have changed their tune over the years and through changing times, but only when all parties realize that truth is the best partner in adoption will any adoptee have a chance. Elyse and Paula have done well to shine a light on a terrible system that has harmed a multitude of victims.



5. The bare outline of the story is captivating: twin girls are separated at birth, neither knows that the other exists, nor do the adoptive parents know, and then they not only find each other, they also find out that they were separated as part of a failed psychology study, and that mental illness is behind some of the experiments that were done.
   
   But despite the intrinsic interest in such a tale, the resulting book is less well-done than one might expect, especially since both twins are writers. Each event in their journey to discover the truth about themselves is told twice, in the voice of each woman, and there is a great deal more repetition than even this somewhat awkward device would entail. Again and again they discuss with each other and with us whether they're glad they found each other or not, how it feels to see one's own mannerisms in another person, and whether or not they really want to find their birth mother. Their soul-searching doesn't seem to go very deep, it just seems repetitive.
   
   And one of the oddly annoying things about their story is that in their photos on the back cover, they don't look like identical twins. In fact, they look more like mother and daughter. It's not quite clear how they even know that they *are* identical.
   
   I read this in a couple of days, and once I got straight who was who and which voice belonged to which sister, I enjoyed the suspense of what they would learn. But this does seem like it would have made a better magazine article than book.

5 comments about Blessed by Thunder: Memoir of a Cuban Girlhood.

1. Thank you, Flor, for sharing your story. You came through your experiences as a child with such grace and strength. Your descriptions of people and events made each come alive for me as a reader; I felt as though I was there with you at times. I gave copies of your book to all of my closest friends and my husband in the hopes that they too might take the journey through all of the stories told and emotions felt and shared.



2. As I read on, I felt as though it was MY OWN story! I, too came from Cuba at 15 and being the author's age went through most of the same experiences. It's about time that we put it out there for non Cuban-Americans to know. There is NOTHING fun, romantic or exotic about Cuba. Castro's is a bloody dictatorship that destroys human beings! I admire the author for her courage. She has inspired me to some day tell my own story.
   Marina, Pembroke Pines, Florida



3. The stories in Cuba were amazing. I was transported to Cuba and was right there observing the island, the people, the food, the smells, the conversations, the textures, the pain, the joy, etc.
   
   There were so many times that I had to put the book down because I could not go any further in my emotional state. I even experienced my spirit stronger than I ever have while reading a certain passage. Thank you. It would be nice to know where you are now with your spirituality. Maybe that will be the follow-up book!



4. I thank God daily for the decision my parents made when sending me alone out of Cuba . Since my parents thought that they could say they were going on vacation, they had also packed to leave with me but the militia was too wise for that and held my mom's and dad's visa at the docks since they had not left everything to the government.At the precise moment they decided to send me alone (8-05-61)on the last cargo ferry that left Havana with sugar,under the care of Pedro Pan Operation. I was starting fourth grade that September of 1961 and I would have gone through the same ordeal Teresa went through. I admire Flor Teresa for the loyalty to her parents and family, for her courage of making the best of the moment and for her maturity at such young age. I believe that young as well as old will get teachings from this book. Teachingsof survival, of meeting with your goals, of distinguishing what is right from what is wrong and of giving a value to the simple things in life. As an adult Flor Teresa must be an extraordinary human being.



5. The book was a smooth read. Ms. Fernandez-Barrios made me feel apart of her. Her memoir was so vivid. She connected herself to all the ancestrial roots of Cuba. She is an excellent writer. I would love to see more literature by this author.

No comments about On Colfax Avenue: A Victorian Childhood (Colorado History).