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 Brotherhood of Warriors: Behind Enemy Lines with a Commando in One of the World's Most Elite Counterterrorism Units.

1. One of Israel's most highly respected Special Forces Unit is called "SAYERET DUVDEVAN". The name "DUVDEVAN" is something of an inside joke to Israelis; it literally means "cherry". As most native-born Israelis know, "there is a species of cherry in the Holy Land that looks no different from the edible variety, but which packs a strong and often lethal poison. As a Special Forces unit operating undercover disguised as Palestinian men and women, "DUVDEVAN" is the "cherry" that may look harmless but often proves deadly."
   
   The Jewish author Aaron Cohen was born in Canada and when his parents divorced moved with his Mother and sister to southern Florida. When Aaron was eight-years-old, as his mother was dropping him off at elementary school, she casually told him she was moving to Beverly Hills with his sister, but he couldn't come with them. He would have to stay in south Florida with his Aunt. Aaron felt abandoned, as of course any young child would in the same situation. His mother was pursuing a career in writing in the entertainment industry. She wound up meeting an older writer and producer Abby Mann, who had won the 1961 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the movie "JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG". A year or so later Aaron wound up moving to Beverly Hills where a normal week might include visits to the house by Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. His Little League team was coached by "Sonny Corleone" himself, James Caan. "Caan would show up on his Harley with some gorgeous young woman on the back, and there was always a different girl for every game. He obviously hadn't slept and was still bombed from the night before. Caan would show up at the ballpark blasted out of his mind, and start yelling and flipping out at the umpires for making a bad call. I was still pretty new to L.A. and seeing such over-the-top movie star antics was a little scary." The author's Mother and Step-Father were so caught up in their Hollywood lifestyle that he felt like a piece of furniture. When he was twelve-years-old he wanted to be Bar Mitzvah but his mother was tied up in one of her screen projects, so he asked if he could go back to Montreal to live with his Father, so his Father could fulfill his paternal obligation to help Aaron get Bar Mitzvah. During the year in Canada Aaron got into some trouble and was sent back to Beverly Hills where he got in more trouble and his Mother said: "Pack your bags, you're going to Canada to Military School!" Aaron kept a poker face, "but for me it was actually a relief. Deep down I knew I needed some structure, some priorities, and most important, some discipline in my life." It turned out to be "THE" positive turning point of his life.
   
   The Robert Land Academy is located in the Niagara Peninsula south of Toronto. The headmaster of the school was an officer in the Royal Canadian Army, Colonel Scott Bowman. "He was a Canadian intelligence officer who had done a yearlong stint in Israel, working with an international peacekeeping delegation around the time of the Yom Kippur War in the 1970's. During classes Colonel Bowman would talk about the Israeli Military. He told us that the Israelis were-bar-none-the most elite, cutting-edge military in the world." Aaron became mesmerized by Colonel Bowman espousing over and over that the Israelis were the toughest, smartest, soldiers, and it was the greatest privilege of his military life to work with them. He admired their capabilities as soldiers, their values, and the totality of the commitment to self-defense that the State Of Israel represented." Every waking hour Aaron spent in the library reading and studying everything available on the Israeli Military. When he was eighteen-years-old he decided to enlist in the Israeli Army, and when he went to Israel he set even higher goals. He wanted to be in the Israeli Special Forces, and he proceeds to lead the reader through the grueling, mind and body numbing training, that he had to "survive" in order to fulfill his dream. The unit he is selected for is the one that sends operatives disguised as Arabs into the Palestinian-controlled West Bank. The reader is "the-fly-on-the-wall" (up to the point of being limited by classified information) as Aaron and his team take down the number three guy in Hamas, a money guy, a fund raiser, with Aaron undercover as a reporter interviewing the target. On another occasion the reader is taken along as they go after "the father of the Holy War", the Hamas mastermind behind the Dizengoff Mall bombing that killed innocent Israeli civilians. Aaron was undercover as a Palestinian selling sweet-corn from a push cart, as the Israeli's infiltrated a wedding, and nabbed their man in sixty seconds. Throughout this fast-paced story Aaron points out the differences between Israel's counter-terrorism strategies as compared to the United States. One of the great quotes referred to throughout the book is from a defining speech by one of the greatest military hero's in Israel's history *MOSHE DAYAN* who said back in 1955:
   
   "WE CANNOT PROTECT EVERY WATER PIPE FROM BEING BLOWN UP, NOR EVERY TREE FROM BEING UPROOTED. NOR CAN WE PREVENT THE MURDER OF THE WORKERS IN THE ORCHARDS, NOR OF FAMILIES IN THEIR BEDS, BUT WE CAN EXACT A HIGH PRICE FOR OUR BLOOD, A PRICE TOO HIGH FOR THE ARAB COMMUNITY, THE ARAB ARMY, THE ARAB GOVERNMENTS TO PAY."
   
   When Aaron comes back to the United States after serving in Israel 1996-1998 he has a rough time gearing down from what he was trained to be for the last three years of his life. As a Viet Nam era Veteran, I can vouch for the absolute validity, of even the most minute detail of his descriptions of his personal battle to return to the everyday role of an American civilian. Aaron now owns his own security business and since 9/11 his company has been besieged by American law enforcement to teach them the Israeli way of security. I wholeheartedly agree with the author's warnings and suggestions for America in their fight against terrorism. This book may not describe the world the way you want it to be... but it describes it the way IT ACTUALLY IS!



2. As an American emigrating to Israel, Aaron Cohen captures the impressions of Israeli culture, traditions, values, societal strengths and flaws, and life in general in The Land as beautifully as a well-composed portrait. He communicates his impressions in an easy-to-read, comfortable, personable manner - compelling the audience to read just one more chapter, just one more chapter - because his story is so fascinating.
   
   Cohen accurately and succinctly describes the history of development of Israel's defense forces, while painting the image of modern day society there and the rapid change (within about a generation from the nation's birth) in mentality of its youth. In a sense, the reader can easily extend the same changes to US society from the last World War to American involvement in the Gulf and current engagements in the Middle East.
   
   Like Aaron, I was born in the US and lived in Israel, so I had to laugh out loud at several points throughout the book because his capturing Israeli in-your-face manner and chutzpah was absolutely dead on, and he did so with utmost respect and good humor. He has a real grasp of the Sabra - sweet on the inside, prickly on the outside - and he captures the flavor of the society and people from inside the fishbowl, while remaining something of a fish out of water, at least at the beginning.
   
   This is a most excellent read, right up there with Jonathan Netanyahu's Portrait of a Hero, Hannah Senesh's writings, or the story of Eli Cohen in Our Man in Damascus. Although they are all different from the respect of writing style and experience, Aaron Cohen is an author for our time - writing to a nation that has slept in for far too long - and more importantly, he's a warrior who can fight with both the pen and the sword.



3. Amazing book, great detail and as was said before, no punches pulled. From the uncertainty of growing up to gaining his confidence with the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), Mr. Cohen details his experiences growing up in the US to his making aliyah to Israel and going through his training to join one of if not the toughest counterterrorism military units in the entire world. I certainly believe that his experiences could go a long way in making sure that the next time you travel in an aiport you don't get questioned by some person who only has their GED and can't wait to get home. Instead you're questioned by a person who knows why they are there and are vigilant in their search for the next terror threat. It drives home the point of "Security with a Purpose". People in Israel deal with terror threats on a daily basis and taking what they've learned and have put into use could only help to make our country that much more secure. Are there points in the book that may offend people?? Yes, such as the profiling that happens on a daily basis in Israel, however with that in mind, understand that most of the bombings occurring there are perpetrated by Arabs. It's a simple fact of life.



4. A compelling read, very well-written and a good balance of very personal perspective and simply amazing descriptions of the brutal selection and training of Israel's top counter-terror commandos (as done in the 1990's).
   
   Cohen, like his instructors and fellows, pulls no punches discussing the positives and negatives of the process. His own experience of how this kind of preparation forever changes the men who survive it, and then how the work itself inevitably degrades social connectedness and relationships is as psychologically detailed and perceptive as anything I've ever read, and I commend his ruthless honesty.
   
   He also gives a fond but hard-eyed look at the changing Israeli society and the often unfortunate way it is absorbing some of our less positive qualities.
   
   VERY highly recommended. A great read.



5. I heard the author being interviewed on the Michael Savage radio show and immediately went out to buy the book. I was definitely not disappointed an excellent read from a person who had everything except that which he felt was missing from his life which he went out to discover and found. A great book 100 stars could not put the book down once I started reading it. Hopefully he goes on a book signing tour or this is made into a movie

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

1. While daydreaming in class, do you ever place yourself in the shoes of another of another thirteen year old? Perhaps another teenager in a different historical era? "The Diary of Anne Frank" would allow you to do just that. This diary tells the story of a thirteen year old Jewish girl, forced to go into hiding during the Holocaust with her family of four. Making entries every day, Anne writes of her life in hiding; documenting her feelings of love, the noises of gunshots outside her house and the changes her body and spirit continue to experience as she develops into a teenager. She writes of normal "becoming a teenager obstacles" such as her parents treating her unfairly, the other family always picking on her and a lonely existence in the confined space. This book does a splendid job of describing the drama that enfolds with eight people living in tight quarters. Just as many of you may have felt trapped in your teenage life, Anne's is magnified in the "Secret Annex" of a room.
   
   I believe that this book is more real than any other narrative or memoir can be due to Anne's innocence without worrying about the outside critics. It leaves itself for you to easily empathize with the hardships of Anne with her honest accounts of observations, memories, feelings and troubles any teenager experiences, in addition to the complexity of her tragic situation. I highly recommend this book to any teenager who hopes to understand life's hardest lessons. If there was one negative about the book, it would be the repetitive nature of some of the entries. Many of the entries seem quite monotonous, but isn't this true of most teenagers' lives? Although this book is 304 pages, it is a quick read with it unlikely you would want to put it down. Published in 1993 by Bantam, it still applies this day to any teenager.



2. "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" is the diary (a non-fiction work) of a Jewish teenager who lived during the Holocaust and World War II. The book is 304 pages, which includes an introduction written by Eleanor Roosevelt and an afterword, which contains information about what happened to the Frank family after Anne's diary ends. Bantam published this edition in 1993, although a press in Amsterdam first published the diary in 1947. It was her father, Otto Frank, who went back to the place where the family hid for over two years, found the diary, and decided to publish it. Originally, parts in which Anne discusses and expresses her romantic feelings were cut out of the book, as the publisher felt they were too risqué; but when the diary was published in the U.S., these parts were put back into the book. This edition also includes photographs of Anne Frank, as well as photocopies of the actual pages of the diary. By including these, the reader is really able to get a sense of Anne's personality through her handwriting. The Reading level of this book is about an 8.2, meaning it is perfect for 8th graders, or those who read at about an 8th grade reading level, although it is a book you will read over and over, even after you become an adult.
   
   The diary is fascinating to read--Anne begins the diary on her thirteenth birthday, weeks before her family goes into hiding. As the war rages in Europe, Anne is forced to wear a gold star, designating her as Jewish, but her life continues in a relatively normal way. This all changes when a note arrives, stating that the Nazi's want her older sister, Margot. The Frank family hides, spending their next two years in a secret annex in the building where Otto Frank worked. Anne and her family share their space with four other people--Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan (business associates of Mr. Frank), their son, Peter, and Mr. Dussel. Anne is faced with the challenge of living out her adolescence in such a confined space.
   
   As you read her diary, you will be able to relate to the range of emotions Anne displays. She gets excited about events, she feels scared and nervous about her life, she falls in love and receives her first kiss while in hiding, she feels jealousy towards her sister, and she often feels anger and resentment toward her mother. If you did not know the context of her life, Anne might seem like a normal teenager you might know. Yet, as she wonders about whether Peter likes her or not, she also has to worry about if someone will betray the family. She lives in constant fear of discovery, and everyday, the seven hidden members of their Annex follow the news, praying for the defeat of the Nazis, so that they can once again live their lives. Ultimately, tragedy strikes Anne and her family, but Anne's words have given generations of teenagers a glimpse into what it was really like living through the Holocaust. I found this book to be so wonderful that I can't say anything bad about it, and I encourage everyone to read this dairy so that you too can understand what it was like to be a teenager living through the Holocaust.



3. 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.



4. 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



5. 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.

5 comments about The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World.

1. This is one of the best books I have ever read! There are too few stories about Sephardic Jews from the Middle East. I had no idea about Cairo being so cosmopolitan in the 1920s to 1940s. As an Ashkenazi Jew the Jewish stories I'm familiar with are mostly of Jews from Europe and Russia. This is extremely well-written and compelling. The characters are intimately portrayed, and the story moves along quickly. I couldn't put it down. This is a book that I'm recommending to all my friends and family.



2. This is a wonderful and tragic story of a Jewish family who lived in Egypt until the early 1960's when conditions made it very difficult for them to stay. The author tells the story of her grandparents and her parents in wonderful detail, and takes the reader with her on their exodus from Egypt to become refugees in France and then new immigrants to the United States. This book is a must for anyone who wants to learn about the story of Jewish life in Egypt in the 20th century, which came to a sad end as a result of the hostility of Egyptian government towards Israel. The author focuses on the personal story and avoids politics, and shows a graceful attitude without any bitterness towards the country which made her family leave.



3. I'd been meaning to read Lucette Lagnado's family memoir for awhile. Learning that the book had won the 2008 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature motivated me to actually pick it up. This past weekend, I finished reading the book. And it's an excellent read.
   
   Given what often seems an unending stream of memoir-related scandals, not to mention the primacy of what I'll charitably call the dysfunction narrative (and of course the interrelationship between the two), reading THE MAN IN THE WHITE SHARKSKIN SUIT is a gift. Not only does the author focus on a story that's truly fresh (in this case, the story of a Jewish family's history in Syria and Egypt and the massive dislocation it experienced in 1962 when emigrating from Egypt, first to France and then to the United States). Not only does she include authentic "evidence," including photographs, documents, and file citations from the social service agencies that worked with her immigrant family in Paris and New York. But she also presents rounded portraits of multiple "characters," especially her parents (her father, Leon, is the eponymous man in the white sharkskin suit) and grandparents (especially her two grandmothers). An exercise in navel-gazing, this is surely not. It's not until late in the book that the author's own life-threatening medical problems--which another writer, especially in this Age of the Misery Memoir, might have chosen to make the subject of an entire book, and which are artfully presaged in earlier chapters--take center stage. Even then, it's the effect of her illness on those around her rather than her own suffering that seems to matter more.
   
   What will you get from reading this book? You'll get a sense of the culture of a Levantine Jewish community, one that I, for one, previously knew only superficially (mostly through stories about the in-laws of one of my mother's close friends). You'll get some history, of World War II and the Suez crisis. You'll get stories of Jewish immigrants in France and Israel and the United States. You'll get the texture of Brooklyn in the 1960s and 1970s. You'll get the almost unimaginably shocking story of what happened to one of Lagnado's maternal uncles at the hands of Lagnado's own grandfather. You'll get the triumphs and the tragedies of her family, and you'll get, in particular, a sense of the deep bond between Lagnado and that extraordinary man in the white sharkskin suit. Don't miss it.



4. 
   Lucette Lagnado's moving memoir is subtitled My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World. It is a story of a remarkable father and his family movingly told with the feel of a novel as you share the experiences of this family who traveled half way around the world to settle in America. Lucette Lagnado, who is a senior special writer and investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal, demonstrates both her skill as a writer and an investigator.
   
   The story begins with the marriage of her parents, Leon and Edith, in wartime Cairo. As the family establishes itself after the war, the position of the Jewish community gradually deteriorates until, in the early sixties they flee to Paris en route to their eventual destination. The strength of both parents and the details of the family's difficult journey is a story that this reader found intensely moving. The thought of being "stateless", as they were once they left Egypt, is hard to imagine. That they overcame this and survived is a tribute to their courage. This is a memoir that I will not soon forget.



5. A very interesting book about a middle class family of six in Egypt who is forced to leave Egypt because they are Jewish and find a new home in a foreign country with $212 allotted to all six of them. It shows the stark contrast between Egypt pre-Nasser and post and the contrast between Egypt and the United States. It also shows the pschological impact of a change in cultures for one of the members at an advanced age with significant health problems.

5 comments about Man's Search for Meaning.

1. 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.



2. 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."



3. 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.



4. 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. This is a small book with a big subject - life and meaning - written in 1946 and first published in 1959. Only recently it has been published in English. It still rings true, written by a Nazi concentration camp inmate, Dr. Viktor Frankl. He originally wanted to be an anonymous author; however, his friends persuaded him to publish under his own name to give the book credibility. Readers could therefore also understand this is a psychiatrist's objective view of suffering, which is part of life, and why life and hope prevail in the darkest moments.
   
   Part One, Experiences in a Concentration Camp is key to all he learned on the meaning of life. The horrible losses and inhumanity are seared into your mind, but when Dr. Frankl looks at the horror with educated eyes, he recognizes courage, objectivity and responsibility as vital for survival. This is a story of a man who was sent to the concentration camp with a belief that if he had to suffer and die, it would be significant: he would not suffer nor die for nothing.
   
   Dr. Frankl reviews the fight for survival and his decisions that somehow help him survive. He notes that prisoners go through three phases, 1)shock: the period following his admission 2)apathy: the period where they they become well entrenched in camp routine, and 3)the sense of loss, where they lose everything but hope. He digs down deep in his own soul to helps others to go on and have meaning in their life - not to give up and find the basic motivation to go on. He teaches despairing men "that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but what life expected from us." Dr. Frankl repeats, "if we have the "why" we will always find the "how" to go on."
   
   This book shows each individual he is important and every decision he makes is impactful. Therefore, make the right decisions and be triumphant. Right decisions cause the least pain and give the most love for fellow man. It is what gives us hope and value as part of humanity.
   
   Part Two, Logo-Therapy in a Nutshell, was not as interesting to me. It describes Frankl's philosophy of logo-therapy and reminded me of of mid-eastern religions as well as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It is a way (Frankl calls it "neo-dynamics") to have a goal in mind and achieve it no matter what obstacles and stress you are facing. The things that make life important and with meaning are different for each of us. All of us can have a meaning of life, but the "big picture meaning" is hard to understand. It takes us a lifetime of good and bad events and decisions to shape us.
   
   Part Three, is a postscript on "Tragic Optimism" and states that despite the "tragic triad" (as it is called in Logo-Therapy) 1)pain, 2)guilt, and 3)death - how is it possible to say yes to life in spite of all that? Logo-therapy teaches there are three main avenues on which one arrives at meaning in life. The first is creating a work or by doing a deed. The second is by experiencing something or encountering someone, and the third is turning a personal tragedy into a triumph. He mentions using bad situations as a growth experience.
   
   Overall a deep book but a good book on looking at life. It shows that each one of us can determine personal meaning and why it is important.

5 comments about I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust.

1. This book is so powerful. I have read many stories of Holocaust survivors, but few if any have presented such a vivid view of the horrors the Jews faced. Some parts were disturbing, but they describe true history, so they are definitely important to read. If you're interested in the Holocaust, this is a great read.



2. "I Have Lived A Thousand Years" is a personal and gut-wrenching story of how a 13-year old girl survived the German Holocaust in the death camp of Auschwitz. The book is fairly short with short chapters. It is obviously written for adolescent readers, but can certainly be appreciated by adults as well. This is a very good first book for teens to learn about the Holocaust. It is written in the first person, and we "see" the horrifying conditions through the author's sensitve eyes.
   
   The story is gripping from page one to the last page. It should be read and then discussed with the adolescent reader, as many questions will be raised as to the horrific nature of the Holocaust.
   
   There are many good Holocost books, but the stark reality presented in this book, along with the narrative style, makes this an excellent introductory first-person account to the atrocities of the Holocaust.
   
   Jim Koenig



3. Fantastic book, I recommend it to many of my students at work. I cried and cried at the end. We certainly have no idea in our cosy 2007 world. A brave, graphic and well written book.



4. She was one in thirty five that returned...Originally, five hundred left. Into the ghetto then into cattle cars, off to fend for their lives. Thirteen year old Elli (later, changing her name to Livia. Yes, this is a true story!) was one of many young, Jewish, innocent, Holocaust victims. Elli and her family lived a comfortable life. They owned a local gocerey store, they were successful and had many close friends and family...that is, until Germany took over. In March 1944, the Nazis invaded Hungary. Privledges were taken away slowly but surely, no more school, giving up prized possessions and their store, having to wear yellow stars. What was this? No one knew. SUddenly, Elli finds that all will be lost. Elli's family is moved into a crowded ghetto, and they lose all the privledges and possessions that they hadn't already lose. It took everything they had to survive, yet little did they know, this was only the beginning. Soon, they were put on cattle cars. Ellie's family was spilt up among concentration camps; although, Ellie and her mother managed to stay together and survive some of the harshest punishments the Nazis dished out. This is a remarkable memoir of a teenage girl who no doubt had, lived a thousand years, she had no chouce. Her hope and faith along with her suffering and fears, you won't beleive a thirteen year old would've realized and out smarted the Nazis in such ways. Not only is this a beautiful story of survival but an ugly piece of history. Having background on WOrld War II helped me understand a bit more but also this book taught me a great deal of history, another reason to read. This book, was definitely a fast read, I couldn't put it down. You're constantly wondering..."Will she survive?! How will she out smart them this time?! Will she escape?!" You would definitely need to enjoy survival and history to get through this novel and also know that some chapters are a bit graphic. This woman went through the unthinkable and she doesn't hold back on letting you know that. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an amazing story with some history behind it. Livia Bitton-Jackson is a part of our history and survived as one of thirty five returning of an original five hundred. This woman did the unthinkable.
   
   -Kaitlyn Toner



5. I read this book years ago, when I was about 10 years old and didn't even understand fully the depth of the Holocaust. But even then I enjoyed this tale of a girl surviving against the odds. Great book for everyone; helps even the young to understand the plight of millions during that dark era and got me interesting in the Holocaust.

5 comments about Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir.

1. Auslander grew up an ultra Orthodox Jew In Monsey, New York. This memoir is his rant against the strict rules of his religious faith. But most of all it is a rant against the vengeful, fear inducing God he is raised with. Auslander's rebellion includes the eating of 'traif', non-kosher food. The first time he eats a Slim Jim, purchased at a heignborhood community pool, he pukes into a garbage can. This doesn't stop his venture into the world of 'traif'. He indulges in Big Macs, with milk shakes, pizza with pepperoni, forbidden marshmellows made with gelatin (a pork by-product). Will his marshmellow feast result in the death of his sister? He looks at porno magazines and wonders if this is enough to kill his father by being hit by a car. In essence Auslander thinks he is a very powerful fellow in God's eyes, as his Heavenly Father is sure to punish he or his family every time he violates one of the 613 Commandments by which Orthodox Jews live their lives. It seems as if God has nothing better to do in this world of poverty, disease and war than to watch over the doings of Auslander. This is hubris on a cosmic scale.
   
   This rant can be hilarious at times. His description of his Yeshiva's Blessing Bee made me laugh out loud. But 300 plus pages of rant begins to wear thin. Leaving the Orthodox faith and his family, he finds himself a father obsessing over whether to circumcize his soon to be son. This is the Foreskin's Lament.
   
   One doesn't have to be a trained psychologist to figure out Auslander's hatres of his Heavenly Father is related to his hatred of his drunk and physically abusive father. But instead of coming to a resolution of this with his $350 per hour shrink, he rails against the 'theological' abuse of God. The destruction of his familial relationships deeply saddens me. Similiarly it is implied that Auslander's wife, Orli, is similiarly estranged from her family but this is glossed over in the book.
   
   There is much that is worthwhile here. Auslander is a Philip Roth on speed. I just hope he comes to terms with his rage. Otherwise every book this talented author will write will be poisoned by his continued rant.



2. His candor and wit are refreshing.
   I,too,used to want to get out from underneath the gnawing suspicion that my thoughts and actions had consequences. But one word proved the existance of God for me. Israel. So while I'm a Christian and my perspective differs from Mr.Auslander's, I can still relate to his predicament. The persistant pervasiveness of the Book and the people of Abraham just can't be seen in any other culture on earth. And this despite just a bit of "opposition" through the years, shall we say. God chose them to communicate His truth and His plan in written form to solve the mess we're in since sin entered our DNA. It's been available for all to hear/read, take or leave, believe or disbelieve.
   
   I may not like it sometimes. But, like Richard Gere cried in An Officer and a Gentleman, "I got nowhere else to go!"
   
   (hey, of course Christians always get "preachy." Try and see it from our perspective, it'd be like being on the Titanic, seeing the iceberg and not yelling get in the boats. So if a Christian doesn't preach at you they just don't care whether you know God has a place in a lifeboat with your name on it. Indulge us. Or at least treat us as you would a crazy relation at a family gathering, with patience and understanding)



3. I loved this book, and found myself laughing out loud several times on crowded subway cars. Auslander manages to create humor and warmth out of painful childhood memories and an obsession with a vengeful God, and is clearly a talented writer. I had a hard time putting it down when it came time to go to work, or bed, and I really look forward to reading more from him.



4. This is one of the most disturbing books I have read in a long time. That is not a bad thing. I wonder if I would have the gumption to bare my life and my soul the way Mr. Auslander has in this story. He spares no detail. In fact, it is more of a personal exegesis than a story. Although it focuses on the idiosyncrasies of growing up in an orthodox Jewish environment, what he says is applicable to any similar theologically literal upbringing. I know Catholics who could tell similar stories, and some fringe evangelical Christians too. I recommend this book. It is unforgettable.



5. My book club selected this, and although I'd never heard of it, I went along, checked out the library's copy and dutifully started reading it. It turned out to be one of the funniest books I've ever read--and I'm not easily entertained. I literally couldn't put it down and read it in just a few days. I enjoyed it so much, I plan to buy my own copy so I can read it again. It probably helps to have been raised Jewish of some stripe, but even the non-Jews in the book club loved it. So did the woman who keeps kosher.
   
   I also gained some insight into the pervasive negativity I see in certain members of my own family. Although we were not raised Orthodox, I finally understand that their sense of doom and judgment isn't just cultural. It isn't just because my parents witnessed the Holocaust (albeit safely across the Atlantic as American citizens), or because they lived through the Depression. I'd never realized before reading this book that it actually has religious roots, even though my family isn't especially religious.
   
   Anyway, if you have a wry sense of humor, love irony and absurdity, then you're bound to love this book. Shalom Auslander, thanks!!!!

5 comments about The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million.

1. This is a good book but the effort to write this book and the passion, is greater. This is an indepth personal journey and you are in the experience, at times this is tedious but it is as well an enriching experience and engaging. There are appealing charachter stories but also descriptions of human torture and brutality so I say I think some sensitivity should be demonstrated in marketing books about the Holocaust, the material is true but it is brutal and should not be associated with words like "hilarious" on the back cover. I am referring to the review quote by Jonathan Safran Foer who describes the book as being "at times hilarious". I did not come across anything in the book that I would define as hilarious.



2. This book was excellent in expressing the thoughts of the author. It had so much factual information that made you want to search for your ancestors.
   This ws not a easy book to read but well worth reading



3. This book is painfully long and repetitive. I'm on page 35 and I doubt that I will be able to finish the entire book. Once you begin to get into the history of the family, the author veers completely off topic. Frustrating. Irritating.
   I want to love this book, and I'm sure that there is a wonderful story somewhere in the mass of pages, I'm just not sure I will have the patience to find it.



4. Reading this made me feel privileged to be invited into author's family. His writing style takes a little getting used to...a little repetative at times but his empathic approach to searching for his relatives in very touching. This story is so important as the survivors are scarce and their story needs to be documented. I'm not good at reviews..... The scattered black and white pictures seem oddly placed (untitled) but come to life throughout the book. One of the best Holacaust books I have read. And Daniel.....you are as good looking at Matt, Ha!



5. I found this book to be well researched and the story telling was certainly superb, albeit annoyingly interrupted by the author boasting about his story-telling abilities. He could use the number one lesson given in every introductory writing course: show, don't tell. It is true that it is very wordy at times, which slows down the reading, but upon rereading, it is possible to make out what the author is trying to convey. However, there is a horribly amateurish quality about this book that made me cringe every time. In the descriptions of the characters, every Jewish person is conveniently beautiful, handsome, brilliant, and talented. Every non-Jewish person, is piggish, fat, ignorant, jealous and stupid. It makes me question the author's judgment, and quite frankly, as a non-Jewish reader, I can't help but be insulted by his bigoted views.
   Overall, there is not too much new information here about the Holocaust, but a very-well researched family history written in an interesting way with some run-on sentences. I had to give it three stars because of the author's thinly veiled hate against non-Jews.

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.