No comments about I Heard the Wild Birds Sing: A Kerry Childhood.

2 comments about From a World Apart: A Little Girl in the Concentration Camps.

1. Francine Christophe's account of her experiences at the French Concentration Camps at Poitiers, Drancy and Beaune-La-Rolande, it is a very interesting book. She tells the story in a very personal way. She leaves nothing out and tells an honest story about her experience in the camps. Her honest writing helped me understand the hardship that a whole group of children survived during War World 2. I would want people to read the book and see what those people went through at those camps.



2. It is horrible, very real and at the same time beautiful.

1 comments about Land of Childhood.

1. This book will bring back memories from your childhood. Readers will close each chapter and travel in time back to their own childhood; it will evoke those memories long gone. This is truly a return to the innocence of the early years.

   Claudia's heritage (Irish-Spanish-Native Central American) gave her the best of all worlds; the way she describes her motherland in this book is fantastic.

   Claudia's way of capturing the attention of the reader by describing simple day to day things through the chapters of these memories has magic.

   I invite you to take the journey as well, you will be glad upon your arrival.

No comments about My Mother Wore a Yellow Dress.

No comments about Miracle at Sea: The Sinking of the Zamzam and Our Family's Astounding Rescue.

1 comments about American Pie: A Memoir.

1. Ordinarily memoirs hold little interest for me, but this book turned out to be one of the best I have ever read. It is finely crafted--the author's background as an English professor is much in evidence--and reads more like a novel than an autobiography. As a resident of Traverse City and a student of its history, I enjoyed the book for its perspective on local things from the point of view of the Jewish community here. At the same time, it presents a story of a young man growing up and escaping the intellectual and social confines of a small northern Michigan city. The thread of a bittersweet love story presents itself, too, and the pathos of that story extends to the final chapter of the book. All people who grew up in Traverse City as well as those who like a narrative well-written will want this book.

5 comments about Beauty Before Comfort: The Story of an American Original.

1. I live across the river from Chester, WV; however, I did not grow up in this pottery area. This book helped me to understand what life was like in an area that was once part of the pottery center of the world. I do not feel that the author denigrates the citizens. The story is a memoir. It is her view of her grandmother's life circumstances. Poverty and joblessness are still part of this area's history; to deny this is also to deny the kind-heartedness and character of its people.



2. Well, I don't know what the negative reviewers were reading, but they clearly took some offense to components I did not see in this beautiful book. Having grown up in the mountains of North Carolina, I am always on the lookout for books about life in Appalachia, and "Beauty Before Comfort" has to be one of the best in recent years. The honesty, reality, humor--they recall Dorothy Allison's "Bastard Out of Carolina" and the poetry of Kathryn Stripling Byer. Glock deserves a place at the table of strong, stunning Southern women writers.



3. I found the the story excruciatingly boring, virtually pointless. After Jean marries Don, the next sixty years of their lives are dealt with in ten pages. Ms. Glock may be a gifted writer, but she is a poor storyteller.



4. Allison,

   You're a great little writer. That you evoked this much emotion from people reading your book says that you have the gift of telling a story passionately. You have stirred up some powerful emotions that goes to the heart of your ability to write. When people who can't spell or put a sentence together are moved to write a review of your book, you're doing something right. Either they love you or they hate you, but they are reading you.

   I went to school with your mother, until I was one of the ones who got out of Hancock County when I moved to California. Your mother must be very proud. I sure would be.

   Your book brings back many precious memories, even memories of some of the hardships grabbed something in my heart. You have written a very accurate description of the people and the area, and you have been able to tell it like it was while also conveying a loving image of your grandmother and the times.

   This is your first book. Incredible!!! I gave you four stars because I'm saving that fifth one for your next book.

   Sharin (Fletcher) Bowers




5. I came from an industrial town in Tennessee, and Allison Glock's wonderful story of her grandmother, who lived in that kind of environment, really resonated with me. Aneita Jean Blair's life is not the kind that usually gets the full biographical treatment, especially from a granddaughter.

   The second outstanding part about this book is the writing. Lines such as "Just walking through the house required lurching effort," written about the death of a family member, make the story more real.

   Having read some of the reviews here on Amazon, I cannot understand the hostility that some people convey about this book. My favorite line from an angry reader was this one: "I think if you right (sic) a book you should actually know what you are talking about."

   That line--complete with spelling that shouts ignorance--says it all. Allison Glock does know what she is talking about, and tells it very, very well.

1 comments about 47 Roses: A Story of Family Secrets and Enduring Love.

1. "44 Dublin Made Me", was the first book written Peter Sheridan. Mr. Sheridan is also a noted playwright, and director of such films as, "My Left Foot" and "The Boxer". When I commented on his first work I felt it settled itself between the sadness that often accompanies Irish Memoirs with the traditional healthy dose of humor. This second book, "47 Roses", is not devoid of humor, but the topic that is shared is almost incompatible with humor, and certainly overwhelms the few lighter moments that are described.

   The number in the title not only describes the flowers that play a role in the book, but much more significantly the number of years a woman from England remained devoted to a man she could never marry. It was not only that the author's father was married that kept them apart, but also, and to a lesser extent, differences that unfortunately remain so prominent between Ireland and England. Intolerance was much stronger in the first half on the 20th Century, so the idea of an English Protestant and an Irish Catholic as husband and wife was dicey, especially for an Irishman whose family history was prominent in the more extreme groups of Ireland. To balance the difficulties, the English side of the family included a former member of The Black And Tans, who will remain notorious for much of Ireland no matter how many years may pass.

   Anna was the wife in Ireland and Doris was the woman in England. Both of these women had a claim on the affections of this man Peter, and he clearly had feelings that ran very deep for both of them. For 30 years Doris was a part of the author's family, through visits and even watching the children when Anna and Peter vacationed. The ultimatum that finally separated Peter and Doris was to last 17 years until his death, and then it would continue with the son trying to piece together the mystery of this extremely unusual relationship that spanned the Irish Sea.

   The feelings of both women and their actions are at times hard to fathom. Why would Doris wait for a man for 47 years, going so far as to convert to Catholicism so as to not be separated after they left their life on this world? This same woman who would come to lay flowers at Peter's grave without having seen him for the better part of 2 decades, and upon arriving in Dublin would walk 10 miles at the age of 75 to pay her respects. This same woman who had one child requested that Peter give her away at her wedding and at the same time invited Anna to attend. The questions and suspicions this request raised, the answers offered, presumptions confirmed or denied.

   This is an interesting story to read, it is also devoid of the clichés that would reasonably be expected. The author seems to be in the greatest pain, not because of what may or may not have happened, but due to his feelings about his conduct as he tries to piece together 47 years of family mystery.

   This is a remarkably personal story, and because it is, often is almost uncomfortable to read. I don't know whether the story could have been related in a different manner, and my perception may be different from others.

2 comments about Margrit's World War II.

1. Christa Hermann was a witness to the Germany of World War II. But unlike most novels, histories, poems or visual examinations of the rise and fall of Hitler's Germany, Hermann writes her memoirs as seen through the innocent unbiased eyes of a child, discovering the facts of life in a world of delicate balance with a focus on those things which matter most to a six-year-old: family, maternal protection, the phenomenon of death of a peer, the terror of wartime whether internal or external. The result is a fresh insight into a tragedy as perceived through nascent eyes.
   
   1943, Hamburg, Germany. Margrit, her 3 siblings, mother, father and grandmother live in the shadow of frequent bombings and firestorms. Hamburg is being decimated and Margrit's father sends his wife and children off to Bavaria where they might find protection in foster care. Margrit and her brother Werner, though frightened, find ways to avoid the terror of the world at large in games, making daisy chains, etc. Margrit is accepted into a farm home with Frau Hedwig where she finds the quiet joys of calf-birthing, new friends, the disbelief of funerals, the bonding with friends only to have one of them fall victim to the war machine. For two years Margrit absorbs her new life and new discoveries in Bavaria until the Americans defeat Hitler and occupy Germany and Margrit gathers her experience learned about life and death and priorities and is recognized as the village Angel.
   
   This short book is a tender memoir of innocence disturbed: 'Margrit' is in fact Christa Hermann and she writes this touching simple story as a means of closure of memories of the war. Her writing style is as uncomplicated as the tabula rasa mind of a 6-year-old and that is why it succeeds. Perhaps the book is not meant to be an anti-war document, but in its sincerity and non-judgmental way, it is as powerful as any of the angry novels related to the great tragedy of War. Margrit's view from within a country at odds with the world most likely is like that of the children of Vietnam, of Afghanistan, of Iraq, of Bosnia etc. The wisdom of children is shatteringly strong. Grady Harp, January 06



2. While "The Diary of Anne Frank" has had the most publicity, many stories about children caught up in the events of the Second World War have been published. However, this is the first I have seen written from the perspective of a German child. The author was born in 1938 and at the age of five was sent to a remote area of Bavaria, where the Allied planes did not bomb. Groups of children were loaded on trains and sent to the area, where they were taken in by and cared for by the local people. For the most part, the parents stayed behind to continue their work critical to the German war effort. Christa's parents stayed behind, so for the remainder of the war, three spinsters who owned a small farm cared for her. This book is an autobiography of those times.
   Compared to so many other German children, Margrit (who is really Christa) actually had a pretty good time during the last years of the war. Only one bomb was dropped in her area and the invading American soldiers acted with extreme restraint. Unlike the areas overrun by the Russian forces, there was little looting, raping and burning. Her primary trauma was from being sent away from her parents and not seeing them for so long. Those feelings of loss come through in the writing, although I was not as sympathetic as I could have been. Considering that her relocation spared her the threat of death from bombing and allowed her to avoid the other traumas of the war, she was very lucky. In my opinion, some more of that realization would have made the book a better one.
   Despite this criticism, it was refreshing to read this book about a German child. It was a good reminder that whatever evil deeds the leader of a country may execute, there will always be children inside that country who will pay a price. Whether they are the result of the actions of the leader or outside forces responding, the children will suffer.

No comments about Hamlin Avenue.