5 comments about Still Waters.

1. This is a sequel to the Blackbird story by Jennifer Lauck. It depicts her struggles once she is freed from her terrible step mother and enters when she meets her grandparents. Lauck then lives with an aunt and uncle who treat her as second class. I cried and cheered for Lauck throughout the story and you will too.



2. I thought "Still Waters" was boring and self-indulgent. Maybe it would have helped to have first read "Blackbird", but I didn't and had a hard time finding sympathy for the main character. Reading this was a waste of time.



3. At the end of Blackbird, Jennifer Lauk's first memoir, 12 year old Jennifer's wicked stepmother (literally) finally relinquishes custody of her and her brother Bryan and we are left to believe she is finally safe. Unfortunately it was not to be.
   
   This book opens with the police report chronicling Bryan's suicide. We know then that maybe there is no happy ever after. Jennifer is first cared for by her grandparents, slowly settling in. She soon learns it is temporary and that her brother is living with one aunt and uncle, and she is going to live with another. Peggy and Dick Duemore eventually adopt Jennifer, but she is valued more for her Social Security check and housekeeping skills than anything else. She stumbles through her life unloved and barely cared for. Upon finally going to college and freeing herself from her `family' she begins to carve out a new life for herself, eventually finding the courage to face her past and her brother's death.
   Again a deeply sad story and although one can sense the anger in this memoir one is also rewarded with the knowledge that Jennifer Lauck has found some measure of peace and happiness in her life. She has a wonderful writing style and voice that makes you care deeply about her.



4. This book is a sequel to the author's first autobiography, 'Blackbird: A Childhood Lost And Found.'
   
   'Still Waters' affected me even more strongly than the first book, because it more closely mirrored my own childhood and young adulthood. There are millions of kids who are not foster children but what I call shuffled kids, sent from one relative to the next, from one family friend to the next, and back again.
   
   At one point in the book, Lauck writes about staying a few days at a relative's house, where there are no other children, and she is comfortable and happy, and there's more than enough room for her to live there without being in the way. Yet inexplicably that relative sends her off to live with someone else and no real explanation is given.
   
   Despite being shuffled around like a deck of cheap cards, Lauck found the inner strength to grow up intact, and this book affirms the incredible resiliency of children to thrive even under less than ideal circumstances.
   
   This is also a disgraceful and shameful retelling of what happens when relatives turn their back on children who are blood relatives and allow them to be raised by strangers. It is truly a gift and a miracle that Lauck made it to adulthood without becoming a criminal or a drug addict, because her family certainly didn't provide the guidance and nurturing that every child deserves.



5. All I can say is, Wow. I picked up Lauck's first book, "Blackbird" at the library and loved it. So right after I finished it I bought Still Waters. I read it in about 2 days.
   
   A lot happens in her life. A lot happens in many of our lives. But the way Lauck sees things that go on in her life and in the world, are special. Her books opened my mind and my heart.
   
   Saying this is a memoir about a dysfunctional family does not do this book justice. Yes, her family is dysfunctional, but her attitude and experiences and how she draws these into her world view, are all woven through her book in a way that I wanted it to never end.
   
   Another thing, many sequels re-hash much of what happened in the first book. And for those of us who have read the first book, it's a bore to read about all this re-hashing. "Still Waters" does not do this. I really appreciated the fluidity with which Jennifer Lauck wrote her sequel.
   
   I look forward to more from this gifted writer.

5 comments about Paul Harvey's America: The Life, Art, and Faith of a Man Who Transformed Radio and Inspired a Nation.

1. This book was a little American History and a little Paul Harvey history. I learned things about Paul Harvey I didn't know and also got some insight into world events in the 40's, 50's and 60's.
   Interesting to read how Mr. Harvey got into broadcasting and how his wife was such a big part of his career.
   Paul Harvey=R.I.P.!! I miss his daily broadcasts.



2. I've read most of Stephen Mansfield's stuff before. This did not disappoint.
   
   Filled with the more than the expected tidbits of trivia and biography, the book gives a glimpse into the personal life of Paul Harvey from childhood all the way through his career. I was surprised to learn the extent of involvement his wife and son had in his business.
   
   Even more fascinating were the parallels of Paul's values and experiences with modern American history. It seems he was a legend in his own time because he was a true barometer for the heartland and the people whose love, sweat, and prayers made this nation so great.



3. This is a very interesting book, easy to read. If you listened to Paul Harvey's radio program, you will appreciate the book even more. You will
   glean many wonderful sayings of Paul and will want to keep them in your memory.
   Learn from Paul how wonderful our America really is!!!
   
   I purchased my book from Amazon at a very reasonable price.
   
   This is a book you will want to keep!!
   
   Dottie P hayes



4. I saw this book and author originally on Fox News. Since I've admired Paul Harvey's work for many, many years, but knew little about him, I decided to purchase the book for my Kindle. It was a very good read and flowed very nicely. The author has done a great job in capturing Paul Harvey's life ... I became completely addicted to the book and to learning more about the voice that I had grown up with. He is a true American story and I wish his voice and news/comment to live on forever. God bless he and Angel (and Little Paul) for what they've given our world. You won't be sorry with this one.



5. I purchased the book after hearing Stephen Mansfield on Mike Huckabee's show 9-5-09. With everything going on in our nation right now, I have been aware of needing something to feed my soul, to tell my head and heart that things will be OK.......maybe. This book is absolutely food for the soul, remembering what the 50's and 60's were like; reading not only Paul Harvey's journey, but being able to read the relationship of his words to our world. Mansfield and Holland did a really unique job of sharing what was, and allowing a reader to see the parallels to today's world. We are living in the scarest times of my 64 years and it is giving me consolation to read and be aware that I'm not the only person that is afraid of what our America could be turned into, if we don't stand up and be counted. I recommend this for all ages. History does repeat itself.

5 comments about Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription: Notes and Asides from National ReviewPM.

1. Willam F. Buckley was a Genius, Hilarious and intellectual. A Conservative Pioneer and A Catholic hero for me.Although I am 27,I sense these modern times can use Someone Like Mr.Buckley,His wit and Wisdom along with Replies to readers of National Review are in this book.Nevermind Chomsky,Mailer and other washed out so-called intellectuals.



2. I miss William F. Buckley. This book is a wonderful collection of his best. It's so nice to hear an intelligent conservative speak on the issues, rather than the crackpot nutjobs that I occasionally listen to on the radio now.



3. Bought Mr. Buckley's latest offering and read it in one sitting. Of course, I was sitting in front of the computer the whole time so that I could look up terms and latin quotes.
   
   Love the way that most of his writings (can't stand his fiction) exercises my mind. I agree with none of his foreign policy positions but most of his economic stands. However, setting aside ideology, simply reading this collection of "Notes & Asides" from National Review made for great entertainment and an increase in my personal lexicon.
   
   Interestingly, just before receiving this book, I had written an essay and submitted it to a friend for review. The review comments included "Well, I did find it a bit dense, discursive and anti-climactic." One of the first Notes & Asides in Mr. Buckley's book pointed out similar failings in one of WFB's articles. "One way of putting the problem is that it's not discernibly heading anywhere; it ambles along, stuffing more and more odds & ends into its elastic bag, until it simply decides to sit down." Yet another quote that WFB includes is from Lee Barnes, the, then, editor of the Fort Pierce (FL) Tribune who explained his decision not to carry Buckley's column - "We have a policy here that we will only use columnists who write in English." WFB's response? "Qualis anus equi!"
   
   I told my still-current-friend-in-spite-of-his-review, "Although I'd love to be considered very like WFB in intellect and wit, my resemblance to him in sentence structure is less gratifying."
   
   So many things about this book appealed to me (but I hate the title):
   
   1) A very young man started writing to WFB but, after receiving his help to enter and graduating from College (Yale, I think) and taking a position with the State Department with a letter of recommendation, never contacted WFB again. I am so curious about this. I even tried to find this young man (no longer so young) on the web and was unsuccessful. Wonder why the correspondence stopped?
   
   2) I don't care how many times WFB explained it, I still don't understand "Immanentize the eschaton". I don't care that I know what the words mean - the phrase makes no sense to me.
   
   3) Similarly, WFB states that his favorite saying and motto is "Quod licet Jovi, no licet bovi." Well hell, it seems intuitively obvious to me that Jupiter (God) has more license and power than an ox but what does WFB find so meaningful in this saying?
   
   4) LOVED the correspondence with Art Buchwald!
   
   5) Yes, I am very strange but I lifted my fist in a "YES!!" gesture when WFB instructed the NR editorial staff with (according to him) his only mandate during his term as Editor:
   
   "A ukase. Un-negotiable. The only one I have issued in seventeen years. It goes: "John went to the store and bought some apples, oranges, and bananas." NOT: "John went to the store and bought some apples, oranges and bananas." I am told National Review's Style Book stipulates the omission of the second comma. My comment: "National Review's Style Book, effective immediately, makes the omission of the second comma a capital offense!"
   
   I, too, come to a full halt when that second comma doesn't appear in such sentences and was just overjoyed to find WFB of the same mind - although I would have said "non-negotiable" rather than "un-negotiable."
   
   6) The give and take between WFB and John Kenneth Galbraith, the far ends of the ideological spectrum, demonstrates the pinnacle of Civil Discourse.
   
   7) WFB's eulogy and last words re colleague Bill Rickenbacker made me cry. Mr. Rickenbacker had come alive in this book to me as I knew of him only by name prior to this reading. What a fascinating person he must have been.
   
   8) Although Rickenbacker's final days brought tears to my eyes, my real sorrow was plumbed by why the Notes & Asides feature was eventually removed from regular appearances in NR:
   
   "I regretfully conclude that `Notes & Asides' can't continue as a regular feature of National Review. The reason is: We aren't getting enough letters that qualify as N&A material - inquisitive, zany, confused, annoyed, piquant."
   
   That is truly sad. The readership, both fans and foes, had grown stale and less erudite. I think that is true for our nation overall. That, IMO, is cause for real sorrow.
   
   If Mr. Buckley's book sells well, perhaps that means that this state of affairs is on the mend. His recent passing further reduced the nation's collective intellect.



4. "National Review" magazine began publishing November, 1955. After awhile, Buckley began to set aside unorthodox letters sent for publication, and this brings together material chosen from that collection. The material is presented chronologically, divided into four sections. Section I runs up to Nixon I, II goes through Watergate and the Carter malaise, III brings in the Reagan years, and IV goes through the end of the Cold War and on to the next set of challenges.
   
   Buckley's equanimty and good humor are astounding - funnier than any comic. Early on the fun begins when he founds the "National Committee to Horsewhip Drew Pearson" for besmirching Shirley Temple, establishing honorary members, selling buttons, etc. Some of his critics are pretty erudite and witty themselves - eg. an English professor tongue-in-cheek's critiquing Buckley's grammar and sentence structure.
   
   It's all pretty much apolitical, and at times even a bit irreligious, but almost all (except for a bit of spite back and forth with Arthur Schlesinger) light-hearted. If only I could write half as well!



5. I can highly recommend this book if you are a fan of William F. Buckley, Jr. It is just so typical of him. Read and enjoy.

2 comments about Road Work: Among Tyrants, Heroes, Rogues, and Beasts.

1. If you like Mark Bowden you'll enjoy this book. Maybe not love it but enjoy it. He started as a sport writer so many of the included subjects are naturally about sports. Since I lost interest in sports a long time ago those arent too interesting to me but still well written. I'd get his other books first and make this your last choice for a Bowden "fix".



2. Mark Bowden has a knack of putting you in the middle of the action. At times it feels like you are actually there in that part of history experiencing everything that all the personnel are going through. He gives you all aspects of the experience from both the good and bad guys perspective.

5 comments about The Hidden War: A Russian Journalist's Account of the Soviet War in Afghanistan.

1. Provides the answer to the question, "What were they thinking, and why did this seem like a good idea?" I thought it was a worthwhile purchase and a good read, if not a little dry.



2. History always has lessons for today's policy makers. So it is that Artyom Borovik's gritty account of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, "The Hidden War" tells us what we can expect to see today in Afghanistan as we fight the Taliban, Al Queda, and other insurgents. Borovik's account reads like a Rolling Stone article - it is purely grassroots, from the author's limited perspective and first-person interviews with Russian soldiers and officers. No academic analysis of Russian strategic and operational moves here. Nonetheless, Borovik manages to touch on nearly every tactic that insurgents are using against coalition forces in Afghanistan today. Although not nearly as detailed as Bernard Fall's "Street of No Joy", "The Hidden War" has many lessons for anyone involved at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels in Afghanistan. Be sure to pick this one up for new insight into the conflict in Afghanistan today.



3. The author provides a unique insider's view of the (extreme) conditions the Soviet forces fighting the war Afghanistan were facing, and how they tried to deal with these conditions.
   Recommended to anyone who wants to learn and understand what counter insurgency warfare in Afghanistan (then and now) was/is about.



4. I read this book in Husaybah, Iraq on the bloodiest of my three combat tours with Third Battalion, Seventh Marines. The ending is absolutely brutal. It made me question why I was wasting seven months of my life losing the Soviet-Afghan War fifteen years after it'd already ended. Occupations cannot be won. Good book.



5. There are actually 2 books combined in "Hidden War". The first is a few years in to the war when the writer a journalist, who has been to the USA several time and knows a bit about the west, writes as a adventure, propaganda piece. He includes the feeling of the soldiers and commanders at the time. Several years pass and the writer has been back to the USA and interviewed several soldiers who have surrendered to the mujahadin and been expatriated to the west. Also Glasnost or Openness is in full force in the USSR. The army is pulling out after 8 years of a war that produced nothing. The change in tone of the second book is sharp when compared to the hope of doing their duty in the first book.
   
   Mistakes are made by people attempting to draw parallels between America's wars in Vietnam or Iraq. This would be a mistake and reading 'Hidden War' would prove this. The United States is not the Soviet Union, decayed and on the brink of collapse. No is the media as tightly controlled as in the first part of this book (the book was written after the Soviet Union imploded, it could not have been published before then). There are no conscripts in the American Army as there is in the Soviet or Russian armies.
   
   This is a good book about a war many in the west have forgotten due to the current war in Afghanistan.

5 comments about Skywriting: A Life Out of the Blue.

1. I don't know what the point of this book was. Although it does give the reader a sense of her midwestern background, the book is very lackluster. I kept reading, waiting for some drama, some insight, something interesting!!! ... but it never came. Can Jane be that boring?



2. Jane Pauley is conflicted in this book. Seems as if she tried to do several things. She attempts to explain & justify her career and her departure from it. She has a go at recreating her life and philosophy in a way that is both revealing and helpful to others. She tries to be unemotional and reassuring to fellow "travelers" on the journey of life. I connected with her efforts, but feel they lack something. She is still holding back and, therefore, did not accomplish as much as she attempted.



3. The only shortcoming was that, because we have a bipolar daughter, I expected a bit more insight into the condition.



4. I'll be honest. I had Jane confused with Katie Couric when I picked up this book, but I'm certainly glad I got it. I was never a watcher or fan of Jane Pauley during her NBC years, mostly I suppose because I was always at work when she aired on the morning show. I did see a few of her Dateline shows probably, but don't remember much about them. But I was hooked from the first page of the first chapter. "The room was nice." Nice is a word my folks always used, a very "midwestern" word, perhaps - bland and hard to argue with. Yes, Jane is so obviously a midwesterner. Her Indiana upbringing rang a lot of bells with me and my Michigan childhood. SKYWRITING surprised me with its insight and absolute honesty. I believed her when she told how her phenomenal success just happened to her, that she never really aimed for or aspired to that level - it just came "out of the blue," as her subtitle indicates. Of course, I don't think her apple-pie good looks or natural charm hurt her any either. She just happened to come along at a time when network TV news was just discovering the value of a gorgeous women - "eye candy" for the news consumer. Look at today's morning major network news shows, with babes like Ann Curry, Meredith Viera, Diane Sawyer, etc. And the same is true on cable networks - more beautiful girls/women than I can remember or name. But perhaps the most interesting and compelling aspect of Jane's story is her treatment of her struggle with bipolar disorder. I noticed some of the book's readers complain that she doesn't go into enough detail on that aspect of her life and career. I will chalk that up to modesty and a sincere wish not to hold her family up to microscopic examination. (There is bipolarism in my family and I know it can be very difficult to deal with and is a delicate subject to talk about.) Since I haven't followed Pauley's career that closely, I'm not sure if her daytime talk show is even on anymore, but I don't think it is, because my wife watches so many of those shows, and I don't think Jane's is one of them. So maybe that "new career move" she talks about toward the end of the book didn't pan out. So what. I'm confident that Jane handled it. She's got class, this woman. I read this book through in just two sittings, so it must be "compelling" reading. Good job, Jane, and I wish you all the best in your life. - Tim Bazzett, author of ReedCityBoy



5. The book is bland and one should borrow it from the library. Jane may
   have had good intentions to come out of the closet on mental health issues but the book seems like she is guarded and protective of her
   image, her husband's celebrity status and her future employment prospectives. I do not think she is insightful enough about her experience and how her celebrity and wealth affect the entire process.
   I believe a waning career (mid-life crisis) and the onset of menopause
   had something to do with her health crisis. Menopause hormonal imbalances
   can create as much havoc as post-partum depression--including bouts of
   mania and psychosis. Not enough details in the book to help anyone or
   feel that you know Jane.

5 comments about Sports Illustrated: Hate Mail from Cheerleaders and Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly.

1. If you liked the back page of SI, you will love this book and read it again and again. It is funny, heartwarming, and imformative. Great book, a must read for any sports fan.



2. A compliation of articles, if you're a fan of Rick Reilly or sports in general, you'll definitely appreciate this gift.



3. I feel a sports columnist's job is to evoke emotion in the reader. Make him/her laugh, cry, get angry, just don't bore them. Riley does that better than anyone. He's an amazingly gifted writer and I loved nearly every bit of this book. I'd already read most of these columns being a subscriber to Sports Illustrated, but they were definitely worth a re-read.
   
   He's great at tugging the heartstrings: The story on the cross country runner with cerebral palsey, the Middlebury fan who is confined to a wheelchair because of CP, the father who nominates his son -- killed in a motorcycle accident -- for Faces in the Crowd. All tear jerkers.
   
   He makes me laugh throughout the book, and get angry with all those arrogant/self-entitled athletes such as the steroid users.
   
   He's not just a sportswriter, he's a great writer. I can't recommend this book enough.
   
   * I wish Riley would've stayed with Sports Illustrated. I've heard he's dabbling in TV or ESPN, somewhere. Bad move. I've seen his TV commercials, he's not good on TV. He's a superstar in print, he should stay there. Nevertheless, this is one heckuva book.



4. As a recent Journalism grad this book was amazing. I would love to get into the sports writing field (although I have a feeling I'll never reach Reilly status). This was a great set of stories and life experiences. Very humorous and very touching.



5. I read a few chapters each night.
   
   One night I had tears on my pillow from laughter.
   
   The next night I had tears on my pillow from the inspirational story.
   
   It's likely that many of my friends will get this book for Christmas or their birthday. Just a great book!

5 comments about Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number (The Americas).

1. Although Timerman gives the best description of torture possible, I found this book to be a lot like reading a really long newspaper article. As a journalist, Timerman often gets caught up in the socio-political environment rather than the experience of torture and prison. This is supposed to be a memoir, not a political commentary on the situation in Argentina. I appreciated what Timerman wrote, but in all, I found the writing to be rather dry.



2. This book blew me away. So much goes under the radar and this book exposes some real evil. A must read, but also pretty hard to take.



3. I read this book, here in Brazil, about 20 years ago.This book was writen by an argetinian and jew, about thirty years ago.This book is against Argetina's government, in late 1970 decade.This book isn't a communist's book, but a book against torture and other bad things.The main problem of this book is that we aren't in 1970 decade.Argentina's processo is over since 1983 and we must remember that in Argentina, there was less than 0.05% of murders that were did in "socialists paradises" such as China or former USSR.



4. I used this book in my introduction to Latin America course as a supplementary text. The writing is moving and heartfelt while being historically and politically relevant. Most students read this book in one sitting finding it impossible to put down.



5. One of the most harrowing books I've ever read. An amazing entreaty against violence of both the left and the right, and a heartbreaking analysis of contemporary anti-Semitism. Comparable at some points perhaps to Koestler's Darkness at Noon, except that it deals with torture in a more direct (and horrifying, since it's nonfiction) way. I wish this were required reading in schools.

5 comments about Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence.

1. I'm not a fan of memoirs. They are too weakly authenticated for autobiography and I often suspect memoirs of crossing the line into fiction - especially when the authors begin quoting long and complex conversations. Not so with John Hockenberry's MOVING VIOLATIONS. Every word rings true from the first page to the last. Dialog appears mostly when Hockenberry is describing his field work and stories with NPR so I suspect he is working from audio tapes or written notes.
   
   There is a lot of anger in this book when Hockenberry discusses the people who stare at other people confined to wheelchairs or at people who are somehow different. His final chapter, in Somalia, where he describes a group of starving children is especially moving. Trying to hand out wafers, Hockenberry's chair disappears from view. He leads us to understand that all these children can see a hand containing food. They don't care that he is in a wheelchair.
   
   There are three types of writing in this book. The first, and most affective, is Hockenberry's story chronicling his life and struggles since his automobile accident at age 19. Equally effective are his stories concerning his family [especially a long lost uncle, also confined to a wheelchair but for a different reason than the author's]. The third type of writing, which I found to not work at all, is when Hockenberry is being poetic in describing a scene or an event. I feel his story is best told in a direct manner.
   
   I highly recommend MOVING VIOLATIONS. We all have a lot to learn about how people with disabilities are treated in the USA and in other countries. And we all have a lot to learn about how these people want to be treated. Hockenberry helps us with this journey.



2. I'll be brief. My mom told me about this book years and years ago. I finally read it a few years ago.
   
   Style-wise, I thought it was a bit melodramatic and I thought the author was stretching for words for emotional impact. Thus, I deduct a star for that.
   
   What this guy's been through and what he's accomplished? Five stars isn't enough. I'd give him a million if I could on this site.
   
   His journalistic travels to the middle east, especially his ride up the mountain on the back of a donkey, leaving his wheelchair behind - intense and beautiful.
   
   I look up to John Hockenberry. I have a travel site, Wheel Adventure, and I am a paraplegic in a wheelchair. I think about this guy when I travel alone. If he can do it, I can travel solo as well. And I have and continue to do so.
   
   Glad mom suggested this. One of the best reads ever and I was an English major and have read a slew of books.



3. I bought this book immediately after a close relative was injured in a car accident. It seemed different than the others (Although some of the others have been a great help in other ways). I know NPR and I had seen Hockenberry on NBC. The book was over the top better than I could have hoped. It is unique because it is written with such a clear voice in language that really grips you and takes you for a ride, it is funny--even laugh out loud funny and I'm a cynical person, it is witty, it has a political edge (which is why he and I would have some loud arguments at the dinner table), and it is not sugar-coated so while you are interested and amused you do get an education about what it's like to be a "crip." The best part is that when it was done, and I read it pretty passionately, I knew for a fact that I probably would not like him as a person, but I do respect him. Interesting take on "crips" for a newbie to that world. Thank you so much for this and I do hope that my dear cousin will be up to reading it one day.



4. John Hockenberry has a declaration to make, and he does it in an incredibly moving and entertaining manner. I highly recommend this book. It is poignant, very funny, and educational--about Middle Eastern geography and politics and about life from the perspective of those in a wheelchair.



5. I want to keep my review short because, if you have not read this book, reading my review will take up some of the time in which you could be reading the real book. When "Moving Violations" was first published, I heard a review of it on NPR. John Hockenberry is an NPR alum so I expected the book to be almost as good as the review led me to believe. I ordered it from Amazon and devoured it in almost no time. It was actually better than the radio review had led me to expect. A month later, I got a call from Seattle that delivered horrific news. My 21-year-old son had been in a contest with gravity and gravity had won. Although he had just had 18 hours of surgery, there was no way to know if he would ever walk again. Through the years since that time, I have read "Moving Violations" many times. It initially gave me entrance to a new world and was much more helpful to both my son and I than all the rehab publications combined. I knew, from the moment I answered that phone call that both my son and I had crossed into the Twilight Zone and nothing would ever be the same again. The Twilight Zone, however, had at least one map. My son's journey was, and continues to be, unique (as all such journeys are). I did feel, from the very beginning, that we had a preview of some of the directional signposts and even some of the scenic overlooks. I cannot help but think that our family has been living and learning about this new life in a richer way than would never have been possible if we had not read this book. As soon as my son came home from rehab it became clear that he had lost his will to live. I had a captive audience and started reading "M V" aloud. It is well written and mirrors many of the dilemmas in the life of a young male with spinal cord damage. I think it only took two days for my son to get interested enough that he started reading it himself. This book was truly one of the first things that helped him recover his will to live. Living with a catastrophic spinal cord injury is not even at the bottom of the list of interesting travel sites, and while I cannot believe that anyone would take that path voluntarily, "M V" is proof that, along with the horror, there can be adventure and possibilities in life; possibilities that could be so easily missed. So...READ IT! While spinal cord injury may never be a part of your personal life, sooner or later something awful could be. As the Eagles remind us, "The wolf is always at the door." In whatever guise the wolf presents itself, you will have learned something useful about what to do when or if the wolf appears.

5 comments about In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran.

1. Two and a half decades after the Islamic Revolution (the book was published in 2004), Iran clings tightly to its past, yet feels the tremors of change. Christopher de Bellaigue, a Brit who lives in Tehran with his Iranian wife and son, writes vividly of his encounters with revolutionaries, veterans, mullahs, and reformers, delivering a multifaceted collection of snapshots of Iran and its people.
   
   Among the revolutionary generation, a wistfulness and disappointment seems to pervade. They reminisce about the sense of purity and purpose the revolution brought, and they speak reverently of the spirit of wartime sacrifice. Still, despite the debilitating war wounds many suffer (including the effects of poison gas), and despite omnipresent reminders of the great legions of martyrs, reality has failed to live up to revolutionary ideals. De Bellaigue captures both the idealism of the revolution's "true believers" and the hypocrisy of many of its leaders. He also conveys the tragedy of a devastating eight-year war that could have been much shorter if Iran--initially fighting a defensive war--had not become so caught up in a war mindset that peace became unthinkable. The book impresses upon the reader just how deeply the concept of martyrdom is embedded in Iranian society, from the passion plays on Ashura reliving the martyrdom of Imam Hossein to the torture suffered in the Shah's prisons to the gruesome human wave assaults that hopelessly pitted youths against Iraqi troops. That many Iranians yearn for change is evident in the book, which brings up the youth-driven movement toward increased freedoms and the brutal suppression of dissent.
   
   De Bellaigue has a keen flair for writing and description, but the book's nonlinear quality makes it unfocused. The book takes the form of a series of vignettes, which sometimes jump around in a confusing way. It is an interesting read, however, and De Bellaigue portrays an Iran that is nuanced and dynamic, full of contradictions and conflict.



2. This is the story of experiences during and after the Islamic Revolution In Iran in the 1970s. De Bellaigue is a British journalist married to an Iranian woman. He relates his own experiences thorugh a period of turmoil in modern Iranian history, and the stories of many friends and acquaintances.
   
   He has an engaging and artful style that details his own experiences, his interviews and encounters with leaders and victims of the Islamic Revolution. He also provides an almost incidental wealth of cultural observations.
   
   His insights and stories brign to life the people of Iran and the struggles with the competing ideologies that have torn at the country's heart for the last several decades. He reveals these as people like us -- struggling with real life, and most caught up in a complex stream of events and religio-political mosaic where the many suffer because of the few and their ideologies.
   
   The reader will be able to rise above the political stereotypes and empathize with what some of these individuals go through. Likewise most readers will also grieve and seethe with anger at the insensitivity of political power-grabbers and ideologues who seem to give no thought to the ordinary citizen whose lives are destroyed by their demagoguery.
   
   A great value for westerners -- and especially Americans -- is a portrayal of how the United States looks to an Iranian, aside from any political ideologies. Iranian history and culture come alive in a practical way, beyond the ordinary academic study of culture or religion you might read about Iran.
   
   This author's skillful and expressive command of the English language will mesmerize the reader with his delightful, artistic turns of phrase.



3. This memoir reads like a compilation of thorough newspaper articles or short stories, I never quite knew where the book was going next. It contains snapshots of Iranian life, histories of people involved in the Revolution and people who oppose its growing hypocrisy, and the reflections of a foreigner trying to understand and be understood. I found it very enjoyable to read, an absorbing glimpse into the lives of people who are motivated in ways foreign to my experience and a testament to the difficulty of turning a revolution into a stable government worthy of its citizenry.



4. The book opens and closes with descriptions of scenes from an Iranian festival celebrating the martyrdom of the Imam Hossein, hero of Iran's Shia Islam. Sandwiched in between are snippets of the country's history, snatches of the personal experiences of the author's life as a Westerner in Iran and descriptions of the lives of ordinary Iranians and their experiences of the Revolution, the Iran-Iraq war and life in post-revolution Iran. The theme of martyrdom seeps through all of these encounters and experiences, and we are presented with an assortment of attitudes to the sometimes senseless, sometime noble aspects of martyrdom in Iranian history. The book has moments of thought-provoking brilliance as the author presents us with some of the dilemmas and paradoxes faced by ordinary Iranians. It also has moments where things become disjointed and it is easy to lose the thread. In the end, the idea of martyrdom is not enough to hold together a loosely structured narrative that jumps back and forth in history and alternates historical explanations with the anecdotal stories of a large number of diverse characters.
   
   De Bellaigue never claims to have no personal opinions on the issues he is writing about and in fact he presents his own biases plainly on occasion. This does not prevent him from offering up alternative points of view, however, and these are the moments that become thought-provoking. It is a struggle to give this book a star rating. At some points it deserves 5 and at others 2. The author's masterful command of language rates a 5 throughout. All in all though, I would say it is a worthwhile read.



5. This is a well-written and engaging book. It provides a close look at Iranian society and culture. When it comes to politics it is not as relevant and clear as it could have been.