5 comments about Man's Search for Meaning.

1. This book gives you a very powerful insight in the lives of millions that had the opportunity to be prisoners in the concentration camps. As strange as it sounds, that was an opportunity to develop their love for life, and that love for life was what kept them alive, Victor Frankl is a being full of light that not only thought about his own life but the value of other's lives, specially in such an ultimate experience where survival was critical. You will love it and is such a small book that gives you so much that is incredible that so much light could be put in to such a small book.



2. This is one of the most important books that I have ever read. It, along with certain books by Elie Wiesel, also a survivor, have helped me maintain a hold on life and have kept me from going under in times of despair. For me, its message is priceless. I don't know if my review can really do it justice, because it has struck such a personal chord with me that it would be difficult to objectively describe.
   Just read it, you may never see life quite the same again.



3. MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING is an incredibly deep and optimistic exploration of the best that man has to offer in the worst of times. This should especially be read by anyone under the age of 30. We live in a different world today, but today's generation can benefit from the philosophical gold of yesterday's generation. Some books transcend their time. This is one.



4. I've been meaning to read this book for years and finally got around to it. WOW WOW WOW! That just about sums it up. The amount of thought provoking passages increased with each page. I was in tears several times. I've gone back and reread many sections that touched me. I think I'll read the entire book again very soon. There are already so many great in depth reviews here, so it's not necessary to go into detail. Just read it if you haven't yet! It'll make you count your blessings and give thanks.



5. My daughter needed this book for a High School project. My review of this is neutral, but I see no reason to not buy it, if you need it for homework, ha ha

5 comments about Night (Oprah's Book Club).

1. Night by Elie Wiesel is a 120-page, first-hand account of a boy who lived through Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps during the Holocaust. Wiesel published his story in Yiddish in 1958 and in English in 1960. The genre is World War II and/or a Holocaust autobiography and the reading level is 8.7.
   
   Night begins in 1941, when Elie is twelve years old. He is a studious and devout boy from Sighet, Transylvania. Despite that they were warned of the approaching German Army, the townspeople of Sighet--including Elie's family--denied that they were in reach of the Germans and years of naivety passed by.
   
   By 1944, the Germans established ghettos for the Jews in Sighet and soon after began to deport the Jews to the concentration camp in Auschwitz. In his story, Wiesel depicts how the Germans forced the Jews into cattle wagons like animals.
   
   When the train arrives at Birkenau, Elie and his mother and sisters are separated. To stay together, Elie and his father lie about their age. They are shaved, showered, given work clothes, and branded with numbers. Quickly thereafter, Elie and his father are moved to Buna, a new camp at which they both are beaten severely by the management.
   
   As a result of their experiences, the overworked and malnourished prisoners lose their faith in God. Even Elie, who was once deeply religious, after witnessing the hanging of a young boy, questions God's existence. Fortunately, Elie and his father manage to survive through the German's selection process and avoid the crematorium, a destination for prisoners unfit to work.
   
   When the Germans decide to move the prisoners away from the advancing Russian army, they begin a march during winter that claims many lives but Elie and his father manage to survive. By the end of the winter march to Buchenwald, only a dozen prisoners survive of the original one hundred, including Elie and his father.
   
   Following the trip, Elie witnesses his father's failing health and eventual death. At Buchenweld, the Germans try to exterminate all the Jews but before they can carry out their plan there is an uprising in the camp by the resistance. On April 11, 1945, American tanks liberate Elie and the others--mere corpses of what they once were before their experiences in the concentration camps.
   
   Night is a candid portrayal of the horrors of the Holocaust, short but poignant. The narrator allows the reader to see his darkest thoughts and to understand the range of emotions he felt from losing his faith to losing his family. Elie even admits his feelings of resentment toward his father when his father's health began to fail. The drive for survival provoked many to behave without compassion and Elie recognized the similarity in his own feelings toward the end of his stay at the camps. Night is a must-read story for all students/adults/parents/etc. to understand the depths of the brutality of the Holocaust and how it robbed the narrator of his family and faith. One negative aspect of Wiesel's book is the abrupt ending that leaves the reader longing for a greater sense of closure. Wiesel later found out that his elder sisters also survived the concentration camps. However, he makes not mention of this in his book.



2. I loved this book! It made me feel so grateful for the freedoms we enjoy. But, it is sad to think that mankind can be capable of such horrors.



3. Elie Wiesel's story will stay with you forever. Stark, powerful and written in simple prose, it will haunt you. How does one go on after surviving the Holocaust? 'Night' should be read in schools the world over.



4. I have been to Germany, toured Dachau and have been interested in reading about the holocaust ever since. Reading "Night", was nothing short of amazing. There wasn't one page where I lost interest and by the end, I felt conflicted. I was happy that such a sad story was over, but sad that such an amazing book was done. Elie Wiesel is hero, a survivor, an excellent son and a gifted author. It's so sad that all this greatness came at such a personal cost. Would I ever love to sit and talk with this man... amazing from cover to cover.



5. There are no words worthy to describe this epic and true tale of the Holocaust.
   
   Buy the book, but prepare yourself for this tragedy that is our world history.
   
   Never again.
   
   Wolfe

5 comments about Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

1. ACH, DU LIEBER!!!!
   
   That's the biting phrase that can best epitomize my personal feelings at the disconnect between the expectation of Anne Frank's diary and the actual reality of reading it. The Diary of Anne Frank is very, very, very disappointing and a humongous letdown!!!! To wit, I must implacably question and hold in contempt the judgment processes of the many, previous, sycophant reviewers who've been exaggerating the "beauty" or "grace" or whatever politically correct term of flattery they can invent for this diary. The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most caustic examples of herd mentality-syndrome and mass hysteria among the many positive-rating, Amazon reviewers. In truth, this diary of Anne's is just plain, bloody awful and doesn't deserve its classic status to say the least!!!! I suppose the hordes of five-star reviewers simply turned off their brains, refused to analyze Anne's diary critically, and just subserviently jumped on the bandwagon of conventional wisdom, where her diary is hailed a "classic." BS!!!!
   
   After having thoroughly read this, I can assure you that it's no classic and D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y not worth your time or money...unless, of course, you get your kicks and jollies from plumbing the trivial and superficial mind of a fourteen-year-old. This stellar, brutally-but-intellectually-honest review of mine will analytically break down precisely what the hell's wrong with Anne's diary (plenty!) and warn you against reading it. If you're not narrow-minded and can take an analysis which intrepidly contravenes the discreditable conventional wisdom of the masses, then you'll be grateful for this review. If you're a hypersensitive sheeple, then I expect you to be appalled and shocked at the alleged "audacity" of this review, but that's YOUR problem, not mine. All I concern myself with is an intellectually honest review of this diary.
   
   I went into The Diary of Anne Frank because it came to my attention that I hadn't read it in high school, whereas many of my peers had indeed had it mandated for reading in school. I attended a Catholic high school, and it's not like Catholics have something even remotely to be shameful about concerning their treatment of Jews in WWII. Why, in fact, educated people know that even N*zi Adolf Eichmann confessed in his diaries that the Catholic Church in occupied Italy was the only organization that loudly protested and opposed the mass deportation of Jews from their "ghetto" in Rome. So, I wanted to catch up on this apparent "classic" because it was missed reading at my old, Catholic high school.
   
   However, I absolutely regret and curse this misjudgment of mine due to the appalling quality and shortcoming of the content of the diary. See, as a new reader, I perceptively went into the Diary of Anne Frank with the reasonable expectation that it would, you know, perhaps talk about her feelings relating to--I don't know!--the genocidal, N*zi occupation, which had forced her family and some acquaintances into an attic, where they lived like imprisoned animals under extreme duress. That would make for an interesting read obviously because one would delve into the psychology of a person in such duress and try to relate. Conventional wisdom has it that that's what her diary mainly relates to, but in actuality...her diary's actually filled to the nauseating brim with her infatuation (nah, kids these days would call it her "crushing) on her attic-mate Peter; endlessly boring stories about preparing and storing vegetables in their attic; girl talk about her prior crush before she went into hiding; lurid tales about her discovering her budding sexuality; typical teen-girl angst about how she's never really had close girlfriends; grumbling about the adults in the attic always rebuking her due to her forthrightness; and how she hates her mother like a typical EMO teenager, just to name a few!!!!
   
   Anne disappointingly spends precious few entries (the vast minority) on the more interesting and valuable ruminations, such as those on human nature, persecution of Jews, and the terror felt inside the attic that came primarily from being discovered, or from the sounds and sights of war breaking loose outside her attic (on a couple of entries, she even recounts stories of downed fighter planes and their pilots' fate). That's the unpardonable fault of her diary because only these kinds of idiosyncratic entries actually material to WW2 are what would elevate her diary above that of any other, mundane, teen girl's. That so much of her diary is precisely so ordinary according to what one stereotypically expects from ANY teen girl's entries is the real pity in this exaggeratedly hyped work.
   
   I found the purpose of Anne's diary much more useful in detailing how more wonderfully conservative society was in the 40s--rather than getting the reader to empathize with WW2-era, persecuted Jews--compared to today's liberal nightmare. In example, Anne's many entries where she's "crushing" on her attic-mate, Peter, involve feelings of sincere, simplistic affection and puppy love, maybe quaint but still adorable in hindsight. For instance, in many entries, Anne swoons over attic-mate Peter's confiding in her or the way he merely looks at her; to her as a girl in the 40s back then, that already qualified as a "fantasy." Contrast this to the inarguable fact that in today's world, many 14-year-olds in Anne's shoes would probably have infectious thoughts of desiring to sexually please their crushes (and then do so!) just so they could feel like "true women!" Another unmistakable motif in Anne's experiences that comes through as a confirmation of how more wonderfully conservative things were back then is the constant reference to schoolwork, and, by golly, actually doing well at it! In some entries, Anne actually *gulp* takes pride in getting good grades in school and measuring herself as a person based on her work ethic in class, again, wonderfully "old-fashioned." Again, contrast this with many 14-year-olds today who--especially if they're in the NEA's public schools--can't read, write or do any `rithmetic, yet can tell you all kinds of things about the b*tches and h*es in rap music!!!!
   
   This latest edition of her diary, The so-called Definitive Edition, includes inexcusably AWKWARD entries involving Anne's sexual awakening, which is also a discomforting sign of the incrementing liberalism that's occurring societally, whereas her dad, Otto, wisely omitted these lewd entries from the original publication. For instance, on page 162, she writes, "Once when I was spending the night at Jacque's, I could no longer restrain my curiosity about her body, which she'd always hidden from me and which I'd never seen. I asked her whether, as proof of our friendship, we could touch each other's br*asts. Jacque refused. I also had a terrible desire to kiss her, which I did. Every time I see a female nude...I go into ecstasy." Gross!!!! This egregiously has nothing to do with WW2, or a person's feelings of being imprisoned in an attic while hoping the N*zis don't discover her. The inclusion of this lewdness was utterly ill-advised.
   
   Surprisingly, though, some of Anne's entries include reflections which prove she possessed moral clarity and, unlike today's liberals (the arbiters of moral relativism), had the ability to judge between good and evil with regards to WW2. For instance, on page 334 (from July 21, 1944), she writes, "Now, at last, things are going well!...An *ss*ssination attempt has been made on H*tler's life, and for once not by Jewish Communists or English capitalists, but by a German general...This is the best proof we've had so far that many officers and generals are fed up with the war and would like to see H*tler sink into a bottomless pit..." Here, Anne clearly demonstrates that she confidently feels it's perfectly all right to be happy at the prospect of your enemy being killed in a war. Further, she also interprets the *ss*ssination attempt in a pro-Allies, anti-German way, suspecting that H*tler's generals are turning on him. Contrast that to today's dreadful, modern liberals who would have a hell of a hard time rejoicing about the prospect of Bin Laden's death or any terrorist's, for that matter, because they're too obsessed with getting them "legal rights" through habeas corpus and moving them onto the US mainland for detention purposes!!!!
   
   Still, Anne's diary is soooo disappointingly off-the-mark that I want anyone even flirting with the idea of reading a fourteen-year-old's musings to just boycott it. It's so dreadful because it mostly evades reflecting on WW2 and the hardships of attic life. Mainly, it reads like every other fourteen-year-old girl's diary from the beginning of time to infinity, and, so, is an absolutely superficial read!!!! To get an idea of how WW2 affected people, you can get a better read almost ANYWHERE ELSE. If you want to get inside a fourteen-year-old girl's trivial head--which Anne's diary is really mostly about: crushes, boys, resentment of parents, etc.--you should just steal your kid sister's. What's that? Don't have a kid sister?! Well, then steal the diary of your friend's or neighbor's kid sister because you'll get the same trivialities there as in Anne Frank's diary.



2. Great read, highly recommend for all jr. high and Sr. high kids. I read this book in high school (many many years ago) and wanted to read it again because of the movie "Freedom Writers" and it's integral part in the movie. I highly recommend it



3. A classic that we all should read when we are young, and again when we are older. It emphasizes the fact that evil does exist in our world, and that evil often comes from a government. It belongs in all of our libraries.



4. Anne Frank's tale is a snapshot frozen in time.
   
   Neither faded recollections nor hindsight feature here. This was written with the clarity of the present tense through the eyes of a young girl living through a terrible chapter of world history. This immediacy serves to empower the story further and move the reader in ways that so few books can.
   
   Highly recommended.
   
   Owen Zupp
   Author: "Down to Earth"
   DOWN TO EARTH: A Fighter Pilot's Experiences of Surviving Dunkirk, The Battle of Britain, Dieppe and D-Day



5. The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know EverythingThe last time I really read the diary of Anne Frank, I was nine, in Sunday school in Connecticut and pretty miserable. I had my own issues-some of the girls made fun of me, I couldn't learn to read Hebrew (no one had recognized that I had a learning disability) and I wanted nothing more than to really belong. Anne's diary made me cry and feel even more miserable.
   
   This time, I'm a grown-up. In fact my kids are grown. I'm a psychologist in private practice, with an emphasis on positive psychology. That means I encourage hope and optimism in my clients. I help them look for their talents and even lost potential. And I just wrote a book in diary form, written by a 10-11 year old girl, to help girls and their moms get in touch with the best of themselves. Sooo, things are very different.
   
   My reaction to reading Anne Frank this time was as if I had blinders taken away from my eyes. Instead of just seeing a girl in hiding and feeling oppressed with the sadness of her unfulfilled life, I saw a profoundly real teen-age girl with unbelievable wisdom and hosesty. She seems to be the compliation of all the inner knowledge, wisdom, sexual and emotional development of all girls. She is almost like the western world's Shakespeare for girls. For example, as a psychologist and a woman who was once a teenager, I was enthralled with her intimate feelings and thoughts around her crush on Peter. Lots of girls fall in love or have a crush, but few know how to process their feelings. In fact that is why 'the girl' in my new book, The Truth, falls in love, to help kids learn how to share these sorts of feeling. Anne understood so much about the ego development of a person in transition from child to woman. What she is able to put into words about her crush should help any girl experiencing deep and complex feelings.
   
   I think every woman should take some time and re-read Anne Frank. You will certainly fall in love with her in a different way than the first time around. You may find yourself sobbing later, as I found myself, when her love of life and feelings and insights about growing-up, welled up inside of me with the realization that Anne never got a chance to do all the things that most of us women take for granted: the husband, the kids, the first apartment, friends over, pets, just getting out in the fresh air!
   
   Anne held on to her ideals and dreams and she hoped that there would be a time that she could carry them out. She didn't make it, but we have. And so if every woman who reads this book can just be a little more insightful, a little more caring, a little more loving, listen a little harder to kids and teens-then in a way, we have carried out, as best we can, her ideals. As a positive psychologist and woman, this is my opinion as to how to maintain hope, and fulfill not only her potential, but our own.

5 comments about Man's Search for Meaning.

1. From the perspective of a member in a culture consumed in the "existential vacuum", Frankl's experiences and logotheraphy discussion offers a call to action for those prepared to live a meaningful life. This book will change you.



2. What can a person expect of life in a concentration camp? Is there a chance you can find meaning in living that torture? This is a truly inspirational book that reminds you that not everything is lost, that you can find light in the most terrible conditions. It's not new age, it's a story of survival and hope.
   The second part of the book is about logotherapy. Victor Frankl was the creator of this discipline and it basically addresses the question of meaning in people's lives.



3. I read this book regularly for inspiration. Frankl found a way to confront the greatest evil of the last century, which for him was very personal, and survive. In the midst of it he discovered that we most long for meaning in our lives, and so he developed a therapy that helps people search for it.
   
   The beginning part of the book about life in the camps simply cannot be forgotten. And then, when he tries to make sense of it, ordinary readers realize that whatever they have suffered there is a way forward. Frankl used tragedy to help others. A person can't be more noble than that.
   
   Lawrence J. Epstein, author of "At the Edge of a Dream: The Story of Jewish Immigrants on New York's Lower East Side."



4. The following summarizes the true meanings the author wants us to absorb.
   There are three avenues to arrive at the meaning of life. 1) Creating a work or or doing a deed 2) Experiencing or encountering something added to your life i.e. finding love 3) facing a fate one cannot change. You then rise above oneself, rising above what is expected. One grows from the experience, and experiences positive change.
   Experiencing and surviving suffering is something to be proud of... not something to be ashamed of. We all learn and grow from our experiences.



5. well i learn psycology at the university and my professor has recommended it so i bought it through amazon.
   this book will rock your world.and give you a different perspective of life and how man interacts in a hostile and unreal enviroment ...for more info of the book itself i recommend turning to a better source :) but as a reader i can say this book is worth the time and the money :)

5 comments about The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale.

1. Elegant and bittersweet. Humorous and horrifying. Astonishing original and intuitive. The author poured his soul and marrow into interpreting the nightmare his parents endured and survived, showing also that that the genocide of WWII continued its reach far past 1945.



2. Schools are beginning to assign this work as serious literature worthy of serious study, which it is. The "comic book" approach is highly accessible, yet retains a great deal of subtlety and nuance in illustrating (literally and figuratively) the far-reach psychological impacts wrought by the holocaust.
   
   The book has also advanced the state of comic books from the status of children's pap toward a medium with power and artistic merit for all ages.



3. Spiegelman offers an intensely personal and touching encounter of one man's perspective of the Holocaust. His unique portrayal of the characters might seem arbitrarily comical on the surface offer a distinct closeness and newness of perspective never before offered by a Holocaust survival story. The graphic novel is a perfect medium for expressing the troubled yet sincere relationship between father and son and the honestly-plaited story of survival. This work is simply outstanding and a must read for anyone remotely interested in graphic novels.



4. Boy, can I be a dope sometimes!
   
   I've resisted reading Art Spiegelman's Maus for years. There was something about the holocaust turned into a comic that set my teeth on edge. It wasn't that I didn't know that lots of people whom I respect thought Spiegelman's work a masterpiece, or that several of my fellow professors had actually used Maus as a text in various courses (much less that the book won a Pulitzer!). It was just that I couldn't bring myself to reconcile the theme (genocide) with the genre (comics).
   
   Well, I was a dope. I've learned a lot about the genre since then (although I wish we had more appropriate titles for it than "comics" or "graphic novel"), and I've discovered that the genre is perfectly capable of handling heavy themes (Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner's Our Cancer Year or Joe Sacco's books on Bosnia and Palestine are perfect examples). So I've spent the last week reading Spiegelman's Maus.
   
   Oh my. Who could've imagined that the unclassifiable tragedy of the holocaust could've been so poignantly, so thoughtfully, expressed? The story line and the drawings are incredible, succeeding in saying entire volumes in the abbreviated way characteristic of this genre. It astounds me that so much can be said in just a few words and "simple" drawings. No doubt years of thought and mountains of draft went into such craftsmanship. One is reminded of how much effort it takes to write good poetry.
   
   One of the best features of Maus is that Spiegelman, in telling the story of his parents' ordeal through the story of his troubled relationship with his survivor father, keeps the holocaust in the present instead of relegating it to a distant past. The father Vladek's memories of the horrific past bleed into the normalcy of the present. One of the most chilling examples of this temporal fluidity is found in Volume 2 (p. 79). Vladek, Art, and Art's wife Francoise are driving through some wooded areas on their way to a supermarket. Vladek is telling the story of four young girls who were hanged at Auschwitz. One of the panels comprising this segment is an overhead shot of the car containing Vladek, Art, and Francoise as they drive under a canopy of tree branches. From the branches we see four sets of legs and feet dangling. The legs have the characteristic striped pants of Auschwitz inmates. The power of Vladek's memory invades the present.
   
   And indeed this is one of the major themes of the book. Vladek, who infuriates Art with his stinginess, his continuous tension and nervousness, and his constant complaining about everything, is who he is because the horror of the past is always with him. He can't shake it, and neither can his son Art. Indeed, the theme of memory percolates throughout the book: unwanted present memories, yearned for lost memories (exemplified by Vladek's destruction of the diaries written by Art's mother, Anje).
   
   That's one of the reasons this book is the masterpiece it is. It isn't just a several-layered story. It's also an implicit archaeology of memory that, layer by layer, uncovers what it means to be a creature capable of both remembering and forgetting.



5. Despite the approachable medium of the grpahic novel, Maus is an intense experience that I think everyone should read. This novel is NOT for minors.

5 comments about Survival In Auschwitz.

1. This book from bnpublishing contains serious multiple errors, sometimes five per page, that disrespect the author and the Holocaust and force the reader to stop and try to figure out the author's real meaning. Book is full of incorrect or missing punctuation (such as periods), words and names spelled different ways from one sentence to the next, random capitalization, run-on sentences, grammatical and spelling errors in English, French, and German. "Figfit" is not a word. Neither are "infaticable," "aroupd," or "mochery." The phrase is "flash of intuition," not "flask." The sign over every concentration camp was "Arbeit Macht Frei," not "Fret." You say, "avec moi," which means "with me," not "avec mot" which means "with word." Phrases like "there were no dark cold air had the smell" (p. 107) stop the reader dead. Very disrespectful of the author and the subject. Levi was a brilliant man with astounding powers of observation and recall for his hellish experiences. His words deserve to be preserved better than this.



2. Excellant book, I felt like I was living Mr Levi's life in the camp with him. What a wonderful story of survival.



3. A monotone, sort of scientific voice. His story is sad...but is told with very little emotion. It was hard to get into - a little harder to read due to the "scientist' type voice that I'm not used to. I found Elie Weisel's "Night" to be a much more candid look inside a survivor's haunted soul. Primo Levi is good for someone who prefers reading something about the Holocaust that is a bit more textbook vs. memoir.



4. A touching, but not mawkish or dramatic, memoir. One realizes the randomness and happenstance by which he survived, and easily accepts the moral dualism of the life of thievery and connivance, within bounds of common decency and collective group self-interest, that kept any survivor alive. Some reviews seemed to fault the book for being unemotional, but one sees how Levi's essentially scientific and objective personality became a key to his survival, and necessarily informs his voice.



5. This account of the imprisonment, internment, survival of Primo Levi in Auschwitz is written as a straightforward chronological narrative. Levi recounts his initial capture , the horrendous suffering of the journey of Italian Jews to Auschwitz, the selection there in which all the woman and children were immediately sent to their deaths in the gas- chambers, and in which the able- bodied sent to the work- camp at Buna. Levi tells the story , detail by detail of his getting into the work- order of the Camp. He describes in clear precise language the horrible humiliations the prisoners were subject to. He also describes in one central chapter, four different kinds of survivors, and the strategies they use to escape death. His accounts of his own getting through to the liberation include his appreciations of his friend Albert, and a few other individuals who with no reward to expect for it, helped him on the way.
   The bestiality of the Nazis and their helpers is not sermonized about, but rather portrayed in specific incidents of unusual terrible cruelty.
   Levi is deeply concerned with the whole question of what it means to be human , and how it is possible to retain human dignity in the most extreme circumstances.
   His carefully written record of his own horrifying experience is to this day considered one of the most moving and effective of Holocaust memoirs.

5 comments about Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History.

1. One (two actually since there are two volumes) of the best submissions about the Holocaust which is designed to reach a broad audience. Maus and Maus II are written in the vernacular, personalizing the experiences of a camp survivor who is interviewed by his son. Excellent supplement to any Holocaust discussion.



2. When I included this and Perseplos & Maus 2 I was informed that they are not graphic novels and that I could not have one free. AMAZING! Of course after I asked for the distric manager's name/number there was a sudden change of heart BUT NOT a good instore experience from BORDERS at ALL. The GRAPHIC NOVEL is great. Borders are not.



3. This book is a survivors tale of being a Jew in Nazi Germany. The author tells his father's memories of the horrors of the holocaust. It is written in the form of a comic book. The author uses a metaphor for the people in WW2. The Jews are mice and the Germans are cats. The book talks about the author's father being a succesful person and then being captured by the Germans and finally freed from his POW camp, but forced to live in the Ghettos and hide from the Nazis who want to send them to Austwitch. The book leaves off as he is being shipped to Austwitch (a Nazi Concentation/death Camp).
   This is one of the best books I've read about the Jewish experience in Nazi Germany. It's easy to read and surprisingly informative. I would most defenintely recommend this book for someone else to read.



4. This graphic novel in no way cheapens the magnitude of it's subject. Metaphors are rich and overall a solid read.



5. In Maus, Art Spiegelman illustrates his father Vladek's story -- of growing up as a Jew in Poland, persecuted and eventually captured and sent to Auschwitz during WWII. While portraying tragedy, Maus manages to have a certain amount of beauty and humor, due partly to the various types of characters being rendered as different animals (e.g. Jews are drawn as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs, etc.). Whenever Vladek and his wife attempt to pass as Poles, they are charmingly drawn wearing pig masks. The scenes portraying Art's relationship with his father are touching and feel very authentic. I'm looking forward to reading Maus II.

5 comments about The Hiding Place.

1. This is a wonderful story and it begs the question: Could I have been that brave and compassionate? A story of true Christians.



2. Great, great book. Inspiring, heart wrenching. Great message about God's faithfulness, but should in no way be boxed in as Christian literature. A great historical book no matter what your faith. Loved it.



3. The Hiding Place is the moving true-life account of Corrie ten Boom and her family who sheltered persecuted Jews in Nazi-oocupied Holland during World War Two. They did this at great personal risk, but they did it because of their unwavering faith in God, and because it was the right thing to do.
   
   Unfortunately, they are arrested and deported to the camps for their acts of resistance against the Nazis. It is a testament to their faith and nobility that they retain their belief in God despite all the travails that await them in the camps.
   
   "No pit is so deep that He is not deeper still" - as Corrie ten Boom believes despite all the horrors that she has endured. A testament to the power of belief in God, and to the courage of ordinary people in extraordinary and horrific times.



4. Let me start out by saying that this is a very powerful book. There is such an awesome message of hope, courage, and faith. If you love God, family, and believe that God can do powerful things then this is the book for you. Corrie Ten Boom is living with her family during the time when Nazi soldiers are taking Jews to concretion camps. Her family wants to help the Jews and keep them safe, by hiding them in their home. Corrie is working for a secret organization that helps protect the Jewish people. She and her family soon find that they are in the same situation as the Jews. Corrie stays strong in her faith and good things start to happen in the concretion camp that she and her family are put into. Like eventually she and her sister are finally put together, and other members of her family are let free. I strongly recommend this book for anyone sixth grade and up. The Hiding Place By: Corrie Ten Book is a very well written book and has two thumbs up.



5. Review by K. Inman
   "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom is a wonderful book. It is an empowering novel and a true story about the ten Boom family- a family of watchmakers that have solid Christian beliefs. The family becomes involved with a group known as the Dutch Underground, which is an organization in Holland that helped the Jews escape from Nazi persecution.
   The story is action-packed as the family goes from one situation to the next, narrowly avoiding capture. As the ten Boom sisters Corrie and Betsie are shuffled from prison camp to prison camp after finally being caught for helping the Jews, you come to realize that God can help you through anything if you let Him.
   This book is a slightly challenging read, and is heavily religious, but it is a very enriching experience to learn about a time when life was so hard for so many people- it really makes you thankful for the way life is today.
   If you want to experience a part of history while thoroughly enjoying it- and trust me- you won't be able to put this book down! - then this is definitely the book for you!

5 comments about Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began (Maus).

1. One (two actually since there are two volumes) of the best submissions about the Holocaust which is designed to reach a broad audience. Maus and Maus II are written in the vernacular, personalizing the experiences of a camp survivor who is interviewed by his son. Excellent supplement to any Holocaust discussion.



2. When I included this and Maus 1 & Persepolis I was informed that they are not graphic novels and that I could not have one free. AMAZING! Of course after I asked for the distric manager's name/number there was a sudden change of heart BUT NOT a good instore experience from BORDERS at ALL. The GRAPHIC NOVEL is great. Borders are not.



3. In Maus II, Art Spiegelman continues his father's horrific story of persecution and imprisonment in Auschwitz during WWII. Mr. Spiegelman has an enviable talent for simple drawings that convey complex ideas and feelings. Scenes with his father seem all too real - both amusing and a bit sad. Great series, I'd recommend it to anyone.



4. At first glance, Maus might seem like yet another attempt to spin the genocide of the Jewish people into something demeaning. I have seen people turn and walk away from the selection because of that, and when I suggested this as required reading in a class it was initially met with hostile responses. Looking into the reading changed the way people saw the thing being constructed here, however, and by the time the class had finished they felt like I did about the book because they were more than taken. They were moved and then some.
   
   Far from words like "stereotyping," Maus tells a story that people see as disarming at first by casting the Nazis as cats and the Jewish people as mice. This makes it seem like it is approachable in ways that humanity isn't, and it also brings about a medium that people of all ages can understand. While it might be painful for someone really young to read it can still be read by kids, and the story doesn't look like a history book at first glance so the "what" and the "why" can be seen with fresh eyes. This leads to being able to take in the characters for what they are; individuals with individual lives and not vast amounts of statistics that lost the ability to live because of a word like "holocaust" or "Nazi." To me that is one of the most important things that the book does because, amidst it all, we can see reflections of people we know. The book takes the time to painstakingly make sure we never lose sight of that; unlike other books it neither glorifies the terrible nor does it make the miniscule mundane. Here, everything matters and the results hurt. The first book take a lot of tie exploring this and the second book, here, furthers that by picking up the pieces and showing you what happens when suffering continues to dig its claws into the fabric of lives.
   It works well at what it does and then some and makes me happy I could introduce both portions to people that would otherwise miss out on it.
   This collection of two actually found my face streaked with tears and the conversations we had about the read garnered much of the same response.
   
   Much can be said about Spiegelman's work and how the characterizations are explored but the reality of the book is that it takes a hard-to-approach subject and shows it to everyone willing to explore. This means that a society hardened to the plight of something that seems so far removed can feel the pulse of something too monstrous for description.
   I highly recommend and utterly respect both volumes of this work and cannot give it enough praise.



5. Spiegelman continues the story of his father's life, through Auschwitz and afterwards, and his feelings about what has happened to him.
   
   The story is told using animal forms for the people within, different classes of people are represented as different animals. Mice, obviously are used to represent the prisoners.

5 comments about Man's Search for Meaning.

1. This book is incredibly inspiring, both from a theoretical and practical perspective. I highly recommend it for anyone who is in an "existential vacuum" as Frankl says, or for anyone who just wants to get more ideas about what the "meaning of life" might be.
   
   The book is not only very well laid out and well written, but the content is rich. I highly recommend perusing it with a pen at hand to mark a response to a lot of his statements, then re-reading your own comments with his text... I think you'll learn a lot about yourself that way.



2. "Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible." ~ Viktor Frankl from "Man's Search for Meaning"
   
   Viktor Frankl. He's unquestionably one of my heroes and this book is a must read (or re-read as the case may be). If you don't have it yet, it's time to get it. It's impossible to be a serious student of life and not soak up as much Frankl as you can.
   
   The man survived the horrors of Nazi concentration camps and, from that pain, brought the world his "Logotherapy"--a philosophy based on the fundamental precept that we have ultimate responsibility for choosing our responses to any given challenge AND equally powerful responsibility to determine how we will give ourselves to the world and create a truly meaningful life.



3. Frankl wrote a brilliant book. The way of his writing is very clear and to the point. There are a lot of psychology terms, but not so many that it makes the book confusing. Frankl looks at the story from an unattached view, and thus he is able to give good, unbiased theories about why things happened. This book made many of the reasons of what happened during the holocaust clearer. It is an enjoyable and informative read.



4. If you've read the book - which I suggest you read the book so you can really digest its meaning - the audio provides a great avenue to hear it again. I spend 2 hours in the car everyday and having the audio text of Frankl's work is a nice distraction from the 'speed' of the day. I would add though, if you haven't read the text, listen to it. There is much meaning to draw from it and apply to your own life. Very insightful generally speaking, the audio doesn't detract. I'm a book guy to begin with and that is why I would suggest the book before the audio. Either way, one of the most influential works I've ever read.



5. Easy to read, full of good thought provoking content, this book has three parts to it: in part one Viktor Frankl discusses how everyday life in a concentration camp affected the mind of the average prisoner.
   Having been a concentration camp prisoner himself he speaks of his own experience and observations. He postulates that the search for meaning and the belief in meaning to one's life (and suffering) is what keeps us going or makes us give up. He explains how we can find meaning in our life. There's no meaning for everybody but our individual actions give meaning to our life.
   In part two he sketches out his own approach to psychotherapy which he called logotherapy. And in part three he explains the term tragic optimism.
   Part 3 seemed a cling-on to me. As if the publisher felt that the book wasn't long enough without some more material. Several statements from parts one and two are repeated and very little is added to the value of the book in my opinion.
   That notwithstanding I couldn't but be humble and thoughtful after reading parts one and two. How anybody can survive the horrors of a concentration camp and then live a life of compassion for others is in itself so noteworthy to me that I cannot but pay attention to what such a person has to say. Frankl's emphasis on action (creating a work or doing a deed and experiencing something or encountering someone) and attitude (especially towards suffering) to find fullfillment and give meaning to your life and his disdain of finding the same in introspection/meditation leaves me to contemplate my own beliefs in this regard. Maybe the next book I read will help me decide which way I tend to lean.