5 comments about The Avengers.

1. The Avengers may be out of print, but it's story will live on through those who are fortunate to read it. It is the true story of a small group that was part of the Jewish underground. For any of you who are not aware of the sheer bravery, the strength, the commitment, and the endurance of this band of heroes, you are in for a riveting, well written book. Don't miss this one.



2. I have read many books about Jewish resistance during World War II and this one is among the best I have read. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down. The book covers the life of Abba Kovner, a Jewish resistance fighter from Vilna, through World War II and its aftermath. At the end of the war, Abba planned and executed acts of revenge against the Nazis. This is described in the book as well as Abba's participation in Israel's War of Independence. The book is well written and easy to read. It gives you two different pictures of Jewish suffering during the war. One picture is that of many of the Jews in the Vilna Ghetto.....one of fear and submission to the Nazi oppression. The other picture is that of Abba and his group of partisans.....one of resistance and hatred of the Nazi oppressors.



3. Rich Cohen has written an extraordinary tale of heroism and survival during the most horrendous and brutal moment in mankind's history. The tale of these three individuals, Abba Kovner, Ruzka Korczak and Vitka Kempner, shine through as living testimonies in the dark night of the Holocaust. You will not be able to put this book down as you race through the pages of "The Avengers." It is so well written and well documented that you wish you had 20 more books just like this one. It really is amazing how these individuals actually survived this horrible time, but they did in fact prevail and triumph against overwhelming odds. Perhaps the greatest challenge that these people faced in the end was not to end up like the monsters who had persecuted them. Rich Cohen has done an amazing and tremendous thing by writing this book, sharing with the world the incredible testimony of these three courageous individuals. After you finish reading this book, you will never think about the Holocaust in the same way.



4. The Avengers follows the life of Abba Kovner and his associates, through the horror of Nazism through attempts at revenge, and to a life in Palestine. Although I have read several books on the holocaust, I must admit, I could not bought this book down. Cohen's writing style is very engaging. Cohen makes no value judgements here; it is up to the reader to decide right and wrong. Although I think most people would have a tough time accepting what the avengers tried to do after the war, I cannot possibly judge them. I also cannot imagine living the horrors (which are spelled out in graphic detail) that these Jews went through. One is struck again and again by the brutality and sadism used by these Nazi animals.

   Although not a comforting book, I believe this book should be read by anyone with an interest in one of the most evil periods in history.




5. Cohen's story is brilliant and courageous in the way it forces the Reader to acknowledge their hypocracies with regard to terrorism. Specifically, he draws the reader to sympathize and care for Abba Kovner, but also notes that Kovner and his gang try (unsuccessfully) to poison the water supply of Germans, many innocent noncombatants, even children. In other words, these Avengers are also terrorists (if you use the current definitions).

   By exposing the grey are of terrorism/ resistance, Cohen subtly places the reader in the uncomfortable position of acknowledging a double standard between hero, terrorist and freedom fighter. While we all have to come to our own (hopefully consistent)conclusion in that regard, it takes someone like Cohen and his hero Kovener to make us realize that it is not a "cut and dry" issue.

5 comments about Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again.

1. Being especially interested in the study of masculinity, I was excited to read this book after hearing about Vincent's initial concept and consequent project. I held off buying the book for awhile, and only purchased it after it came out in paperback. After completing the book a few nights ago, I must say that I almost wish that I had forgotten to read it. In reading the book, I was expecting a courageous account of how difficult it was for a woman to navigate male culture in disguise, and further, how her ensuing journey would complicate simplistic understandings of gender roles in contemporary American society. Instead, I got gratuitous condescension heaped upon a wide variety of underdeveloped-male "characters" - the working-class man in particular, and the emotionally handicapped male in general. Vincent's work is by no means insightful, lacks any real tension, and was tedious to read. The only worthwhile part of the book was the author's discussion of her nervous break that resulted from her experiment. It was the only part of the book that seemed somewhat honest. Yet, while this final discussion elicited some emotional response from me, I could not help but feel a little manipulated - was this addendum a desperate move to add credibility to the banal observations that littered Vincent's work? I grant that Vincent's experiment was a courageous one, too bad the author could not break out of rigid stereotypes about both men and women to actually add something worthwhile to discussions of masculinity and gender in a world where such discussions are sorely needed.



2. While this book had some moments where it contributed something, it read much more like one long rant about how tough it is to be male, and how tough it was for the author to go undercover and attempt to be a male. Her skewered prospective of the absolutely miserable lives of her blue collar teammates (she all but encourages they to smoke and drink themselves into an early grave because they have such hopeless lives anyway) is just one example of her strangely slanted view of the world.



3. Good read, but the conclusions she reaches are a bit questionable. Largely, this is a good book if you want to know what it is like for a woman to pretend to be a man. It is not so good if you want insight on what it is like to actually be a man. Let's look at each of her experiences:
   
   1. Dating. She engages in primarly in either trying to pick up strangers or dating people she meets on Interent match sites. Naturally, she encounters much rejection with the former, and bad experiences with the latter. Well, what did she expect? It is always best to try to meet people in friendlier social settings and spend some time with them before asking them out. Naturally, this is not an option for Vincent, as her own social circles are closed to her as far as this experiment goes.
   
   2. Sales jobs. She tries out being a man in the workplace, but the problem is that she ends up working the worst type of job out there - the door to door salesman. The firms she applies reject no one, and everyone works strictly on commission, so her co-workers are not exactly the cream of the crop of society. Vincent complains about off-color and masogynistic behavior at work, and, again, what did she expect? These are very seedy environments.
   
   3. Monastery. Vincent joins an all-male community, and therein lies the problem. These people are not normal. The brothers actively shun females and choose to live a life of chastity and largely solitude (even pets are not allowed in the monastery). Naturally, these men will have issues.
   
   4. All-male retreat. A bunch of guys with daddy issues go to a retreat and try to get in touch with themselves and so forth. Again, this is not normal, and most men do not do this and have no need for this. So naturally, she is going to encounter guys with emotional problems.
   
   Here is a quote toward the end of the book. "Being a guy was. . . a series of unrealistic, limiting, infuriating and depressing expectations constantly coming over the wire, and you just a dummy trying to act on the instructions." Seriously, I do not know a single guy who thinks this. Now, naturally, for a woman pretending to be a man and not knowing how to act in certain situations, yes, this must be how it feels. But this is not what "being a guy" feels like to an actual guy.



4. Critics of this book argue that Ms. Vincent began at the outset of her cross-dressing, gender-bending adventure with a biased, anti-male outlook. This may well be true, as Ms. Vincent, if not biased against men, certainly battles with an almost omnipresent cloud of arrogance. However, it is foolish of the critics to expect an unbiased accounting of an event that in itself eliminates any possibility to be unbiased. This is not a distant observation of animal packs, but an author putting herself within the experiment and attempting to gain knowledge and insight into herself from her deceptions.
   
   On that subject, Ms. Vincent's year-and-a-half dressing and acting as a man seems to yield relatively few strong insights for outside readers. The analysis Vincent gives: That men act differently around men than women, that men are held to a different standard and that oftentimes this different standard damages men's images of themselves, that men are often not the single-minded, sex-driven animals some (like Ms. Vincent) believe them to be, fails to break much new ground. If anything, Vincent's triumph is illuminating these ideas with biographies and interactions with real people. One comes away from a first reading sympathetic towards the many men Vincent meets, condescends upon and redeems while incognito. The male supporting characters - not Vincent's fictional man - ultimately become the most intriguing and thought-provoking characters in Self Made Man, a fact that ultimately supports Vincent's argument that the "modern man" could use a good second analysis, for what first appears in Vincent's varied characters rarely holds true beneath the surface.



5. I highly recommend this book to anyone!!! Very interesting and insightful, and a fast read!

5 comments about Love, Lucy.

1. I picked this book up on a recommendation from someone who used to work on the I Love Lucy Show (Dann Cahn). It was fantastic! Written by Lucy herself, it really focused on her feelings and thoughts early on. Once I started I couldn't put it down.



2. Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball was an autobiography she wrote but never published. Her daughter Lucie found the manuscript and decided to publish it almost a decade after her mother's death. Lucille Ball was a comic gem, she did everything so perfectly. This book is good but some of the parts seem empty so I can't give this book 5 stars. Ball talks about her modeling days, how she met and fell in love with Desi Arnaz, her hit t.v. show and becoming a businesswoman when she was highly criticized for being too tough. Check this good summer read out sometime, enjoy!



3. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a Lucy fan. Knowing that it is an autobiography makes it more interesting. You can almost hear her voice as you read through the lines. Her life wasn't all roses. Lots of pictures for us to enjoy. Get the book. You won't put it down.



4. I quite enjoyed this one. It is Lucy's "lost" autobiography--that is, it was only discovered and published after her death in 1989. It was found tucked away in the files of her former attorney, discovered when her children were processing her estate. Apparently, Lucy had begun an "as told to" book by dictating for two years to a talented secretary who transcribed her tapes and even traveled to her hometown to interview her childhood friends for their memories. The resulting product is the history of Lucy from her birth in 1911 to Christmas of 1962. It is written in the present tense, and many of the readers who knew her commented that it was in her "own voice." When Lucie got to listen to the tapes, she even discovered that her mother had been accurately quoted for once! A warm picture emerges of an ambitious but essentially normal comedienne who was very family-oriented and hard-working. Her father died before she had a chance to know him, but she was raised lovingly by her mother and maternal grandparents. She goes through stints of modeling and starring in movies, about which time she meets Desi Arnaz. He played the Cuban firecracker to her more low-key character, and the sparks flew. They went on together to produce the most beloved television show of all time and to rule over the empire of Desilu Productions. But they found themselves not too compatible in the end--he was working too hard and given to explosive rages, and his drinking and many infidelities didn't help matters any. He humiliated her publically on many occasions, and that was why she eventually wanted a divorce. But she remained fond of him, and put this book away because she was afraid that its revelations would hurt him. She went on to meet and marry Gary Morton and found happiness with him for many years until her death. But Gary is only a small part of this book--you walk away struck by what Lucy and Desi achieved together that neither could have achieved alone.



5. Lucille Ball abandoned this book in 1964, out of concern that its contents would hurt Desi Arnaz. She then forgot about it (as did everyone else in her life, it seems), and it sat neglected in a box of papers until the mid-1990s. This is a phenomenal book, and easily the best I've read so far regarding Lucille Ball.
   
   Love, Lucy should be read along with other biographies in order to get a balanced perspective (Miss Ball tends to be a bit circumspect, though not as private as I expected her to be, regarding her own shortcomings and her private life), but on the whole it is a fascinating glimpse into a legendary life when it was far from over. She had only recently divorced Desi Arnaz and was in the heart of working on The Lucy Show at the time she abandoned the project, and was still terribly active in the running of Desilu.
   
   Lucille sometimes remembers things in a way that makes her seem a bit more moral than she really was. She doesn't discuss running wild and being naughty in her teen years, but since she had young children of her own at the time of the writing of Love, Lucy, I don't suppose I should have expected her to do so. Who wants to display their shortcomings to their kids and then say "don't do that!"
   
   What is most beautiful about this book is the discussion of her love of Desi Arnaz and their marriage. Even though the marriage didn't survive, they adored one another and continued to do so until the ends of their lives. The quote that made me laugh out loud, and I could HEAR Lucy saying it was "It was not love at first sight; it took five minutes."

5 comments about Gift from the Sea: 50th Anniversary Edition (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)).

1. Listed as a 'summer read' in a local magazine list - I hadn't heard of this book. I picked it up and finished it from one afternoon into the next morning. And -- there was nothing surprising or new to be found here in the book - the pace at which its written and the uncomplicated natural way Lindbergh examines her life and her impressions of life's stages will have me passing this book on to many people in my life.



2. What timeless wisdom there is in this little book. Although it was written many decades ago, the challenges and issues faced by Anne Morrow Lindbergh are the same ones faced by women in today's crazy, bustling world. In fact, although women in Siberia, Cameroon, or Ceylon might not have her specific set of circumstances, they can still identify with Lindbergh's ponderings about a woman's life, her obligations, her relationships, and her needs. She lived in an upscale suburb of Connecticut and was the mother of five children, and yet there's something in her writing that can touch the souls of women everywhere whether in a grass hut or trailer beside a busy highway
   
   The chapters in Gift from the Sea center on Lindbergh's musings during a two-week vacation at the shore. Leaving husband, children, and house behind, she lives in a bare beach cabin without heat, telephone, plumbing, hot water, rugs, or curtains. She finds simplicity beautiful and longs to take it home to Connecticut when her vacation ends.
   
   Lindbergh takes a shell at a time and describes it in relation to other things in a woman's life. For instance, the moon shell reminds her that quiet time, solitude, contemplation, and "something of one's own" is needed. The double-sunrise represents the pure relationship found in early stages of friendship and marriage, and she reminds the reader that there is no permanent return to an old form of relationship since all are in the process of change. The oyster bed symbolizes the middle years of marriage and family, especially as the home itself grows and expands to accommodate the growing family.
   
   I first read this book when I was a young mother and could readily understand Lindbergh's comment that saints were so rarely married woman because of the distractions inherent in raising children and running a house. "Human relationships with their myriad pulls--woman's normal occupations in general run counter to creative life, or contemplative life, or saintly life." Now in midlife, I can better understand her affinity for all the shells as reminders that each cycle of the wave, the tide, and the relationship is valid.



3. This book came very highly recommended by two friends who are avid book readers. However I hate to admit that the book did not move me as much as my friends claimed that it moved them. I was more interested about the background references to the author's personal life and how the book came into being. That I would have read voraciously. The book is short but I don't intend to read it again to see what I missed. I believe a book either moves you or it doesn't. This particular book despite other rave reviews did not move me despite my great affinity for the sea and women writers. I wonder if perhaps if the book would have touched me differently if I read it in the beach rather than on a plane which I did.



4. I have never been a big fan of books on CD. This changed with Gift from the Sea with the forward by Reeve Lindbergh and beautifully read by Claudette Colbert. This is a beautifully written and recorded book. I keep it in my car and play it quite often. I have orderered additional copies to share with friends. It is indeed as relevant today as it was fifty years ago and probably even more pertinent in today's fast paced world where we fail to slow down give ourselves alone time to comtemplate our lives. Reeve Lindbergh's forward about her mother was a lovely bonus. Although I have not read any of her children's books, I have read everything else she has written that I can find and encourage anyone who has not read her books to check her out on [...].



5. This is a very touching book and it brings up many feelings that I needed to get in touch with. I would highly recommend it.

5 comments about War and Decision LP: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism.

1. I love how 60 minutes ripped this man apart on national television. He was a completely incompotent decision-maker of an invasion that has not only destroyed America's international credibility, but has destroyed the Iraqi people. The fact that this man agreed to disbanding the Iraqi army, effectively creating 400 thousand unemployed and armed civilians in an unstable, leaderless, and poverty-stricken nation proves that this man and the Bush administration never had Iraqi peace on the agenda. They have been doing nothing but feed the fire of ethnic hatred. This book is filled with indoctrinating propaganda. They went to war under the flag of pre-emptive self-defence, a concept that Hitler used to justify the invasion of Poland back at the start of WWII. It is becomming painfully obvious now that the collateral damage this idiodic war has caused will only augment America's national "defence" budget, further damaging its already exhausted economy and monstrous national debt.



2. A very deep, well-researched and informed book. An important work which should be read by anyone for or against the Iraq war



3. I found this book to be an interesting inside view of what was going on. I first saw the book on the daily show with John Stewart, and thought i'd pick it up. Wether or not you agree with Douglas Feith on the issue of deception, this book is filled with information you should probably know.
   Factual, mostly unbiased accounts of what was going on, and also what is in the official records too, is what this book is filled with. I personally liked that it has a map of that region of the world in the front, a good idea what with only 1 in 7 people in the U.S. able to find Iraq according to the latest statistics spread by news media. 4 stars.



4. I picked up this book after watching Jon Stewart do his best to bring the leftist attack to the author on his show. When checking the reviews on Amazon, I appeared that those who rated the book the lowest were drinking the code pink cool-aid while writing their review. After listening to the book, it is obvious that those who rated the book as one star never read the book. If you are on the right or the left and have an open and intelligent mind I recommend the book as an accurate recounting of history from the author's point of view. However, if you are not into politics, policy, or history you may find the book a little tedious.



5. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to get a firsthand view of the origins of the State/CIA war on Defense and eventually Bush 43. According to Feith, it began because Rumsfeld vehemently objected to Gen. Jay Garner hiring a staff composed nearly entirely of State Dept. officials.
   
   If you've only gotten your accounts of the war behind the war from the major media, you need to read this book. If you've followed it via the alternative media, you're probably familiar with many of the anecdotes and facts related herein (such as State wanting a long-term American presence in and dominion over Iraq, while Defense wanted something like the eventual Iraqi temporary administration years before it finally happened; or State's willingness to sacrifice American lives just so long as they could have any possibility of Chalabi not gaining power). Even so, you'll find it a good read.
   
   Perhaps the most interesting correction to the record (one that was new to me) is the idea that Garner was not fired, but was always intended to be a stop-gap, and that the disastrous reign of Paul Bremer was at Rumsfeld's recommendation. Only after his appointment did Bremer apparently forget he reported to the SecDef and became infatuated with pursuing State's policies rather than those of the administration. Bringing an end to Bremer's megalomania only happened after a self-aggrandizing editorial in the Washington Post, run without any apparent clearance from anyone in his chain of command.
   
   Feith does a good job portraying most of those he was able to observe closely. Rumsfeld is brusque, brilliant, and difficult. Rice is always looking to trinagulate and please everyone. Powell consistently is reported as saying one thing in the media and then denying it to Feith and his colleagues. Armitage uses the media to wage a near-coup against the President. The lone cipher in all this is Wolfowitz; he's nearly a ghost in the book, and you'll learn nothing about the man from it.
   
   All in all, a solid read, and highly recommended.

5 comments about Life Is So Good.

1. I guess some of the most important things I feel I've learned from this book is: don't dwell, take pride in your work, and focus on the power of beauty. This man (as thousands and thousands of others) had to endure more mental abuse in his life so far, then a million men, but was able and lucky enough to swim to top of that putrid pond of a life he was given and see the good in it, as fleeting as that was. I was thinking of this book as a mirror and what message I saw in it, that would be "Have a Lion's Heart" .



2. This book enlightened me and really got to me, much more than I expected. I was delighted to read about the life of a 102-year old african american man from the south, as I am a 30-something white woman from MT. He has a lot to teach us, and a lot to remind us of and has a way of doing so that makes us thankful for what we have. George Dawson is a gem and I am pleased that someone took the time to put his story on paper. What a great book!



3. Even though this book was published six years ago, the message of "Life is so good" is timeless. It is a window into a world that we are all a part of, but some of us rarely see. Truly memorable! Dawson sees literacy as an incredible gift and he in turn gives the reader numerous ones in return.



4. Richard Glaubman's "Life Is So Good" is a real comeuppance for anyone whose outlook towards life runs along the lines of "I wish I had done X, but I'm too old to start now." Here's a man, George Dawson, who learned how to read at age 98. As a USA Today review aptly summarizes, "Dawson has become a literary hero, a testament to the power of perseverance." First-time author Glaubman expertly fleshes out Larry Bingham's award-winning 1998 Fort Worth Star-Telegram short story.
   
   Dawson's tales of life in the Jim Crow-era South, his unquenchable work ethic, and his travels throughout North America make for compelling reading. Here is a man who was never given a shot to read when he was younger - economic circumstances forced him into full-time manual labor at a very early age. Despite significant hardship, his optimism and sense of self-worth never waver. The title really sums it up well here. Glaubman's final words from Dawson are "Life is so good and it gets better every day."
   
   As other reviewers have noted, Chapter 1 of this book could stand alone as among the best short stories you'll ever read.



5. I like the memoir because George Dawson never gave up his dream to read and write. George was born in the late 1800's. His parents were not slaves, but his grandparents were once slaves. George was raised in Texas. His family was poor, and he never attended school. Georges started working at a very young age, drawing water from the well each morning for the house. George worked alongside his father in the fields. The work was hard, so was their life. They had to watch what they said and went in fear of the K.K.K. Twelve year old George went to work, and stayed with a white family to help out at home. His cousins came to live with his family because their parents died, so George was needed at home. George left home at twenty-one and worked in Tennessee building levees. It was two years before he returned back home.
   
   Life is So Good is a story about George Dawson's dreams of receiving mail, learning to read and write at the age of ninety-eight, and his work ethic. I can relate to George's hard work and his work ethic. I beleive in hard work and doing it right the first time.
   
   This book is sad and tells of struggles he had to go through. It is not easy reading at first because the chapters jumped around. But overall, it is a good book to read.

4 comments about The Good Times (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

1. ...I was surprised at how dated some of his 'contemporary style' writing has become. I used to read and enjoy his column in the NY Times every Sunday. I realize the man is from an older generation (most of the book takes place in the 50's, when he was in his late twenties); many of his phrases and patterns of speech reflect that 'gee-whiz-bang' time. Unfortunately, no one says 'Gee-whiz-bang' anymore. Baker also tends to repeat himself a bit, and his name-by-name tribute to every good (and bad) newspaperman he could think of won't mean much to the layman.
   Don't get me wrong--I couldn't put the book down, and some of his personality portraits of the leading politicians of the day were illuminating. Baker's own humility is overly self-conscious, but most definitely genuine.
   Remember that reviews you read of this book by other publications--especially newspapers--will really tend to gush over this.
   But buy it anyway--it's a good, solid read.



2. I was forced to read this book for one of my journalism classes and I had the 'typical' student attitude: 'I will skim through this book and guess my way through the paper'. I decided to read the first and last chapters of the book to get a basic understanding and then skim the rest. I started the book and realized that I could not put it down. This language in this book was very natural and the stories that were told were interesting. Being a journalism student, I was fasinated seeing all of the hardships that Baker went through to become the famed reporter that he is today. For once an assigned book that was actually interesting and worth reading.



3. While I was "forced" to read "Growing Up"--part one of Russell Baker's autobiography--by my high school English teacher, I anxiously sought out this sequel. Baker's descriptions of the everyday life of a reporter makes for an intriguing book. While he has a tendency to romanticize situations, Baker provides enough details to give a clear picture of the type of challenges that reporters constantly face, especially early on in their careers. Baker's writing style is clean and straightforward without being simple. (I would zip through 20-30 pages at one sitting without even realizing it.) This is one of the few books I've read more than once and boy, do I wish he'd write another "chapter" of his autobiography. If you like the so called "adventures" of a reporter, an effortless history lesson, and lots of behind-the-scenes stuff, buy this book.



4. A gently but lively autobiographical memoire. For me, reading this book was a rare case of pure enjoyment, and one which I expect to repeat about once a year until ... .

5 comments about Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant (Thorndike Press Large Print Biography Series).

1. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet is an autobiography that you will either find totally engrossing or terribly tedious. Fortunately, I was one who was enthralled by Tammet and his incredible story.
   
   Tammet is unusual in many ways. First, he was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome (a high level form of Autism), but not until he was 24 years old. He describes in great detail his childhood experiences and how different he was from others. Second, he is a savant with extraordinary abilities in math and languages. In fact, he is so unique that he was featured in a documentary called "Brainman," a take-off on the movie about another savant, "Rainman." And last, what makes him truly incredible is that he is able to express and explain to others how he views his world--something very difficult for people with Autism.
   
   I found Tammet's entire story fascinating--how he sees numbers as colors and shapes, how his loving family supported this difficult but gifted child, his schooling, his journeys to other countries to teach English, the scientific studies that have been done on him and most of all, how he copes as an adult. I found it especially interesting as an educator to see how the Autistic mind works.
   
   How very fortunate we are that Daniel Tammet was able to give us his story in Born on a Blue Day.



2. Having read a little on Synesthesia in Diane Ackerman's ' A Natural History of Senses'.. I did believe Daniel Timmet's visual experiences of numbers and words.. A little into his childhood.. I was scared as to what will happen to him as an autistic child.. But with his diverse experiences in another country.. he has gone way far where he can answer the question of Allie Cone's(a mountaineer character) students "Do you know what its like when the only direction is down?"



3. The information on the cd is great to hear. This author is fascinating to hear about. It helped me see why my son who is autistic does some of the things that he does. THough I was disappointed in the product. It would not play in my car cd player and that is why I bought it. I had to take the time to copy and burn it to 6 discs so that I could listen to it. It would not play in anyones car. Besides that, it was great.



4. After I saw the author on television, I had to get his book. As an analytical person with a background in mathematics, I had to see how someone could do calculations in their head that would take me hours to run.
   
   The book takes Daniel through his life in his own words. He explains what went on in his mind and what he felt that made him act or act out. An absolutely fascinating look into how an autistic savant (Asperger's Syndrome) experiences the world.
   
   He sees numbers as having shape, texture and color, fitting them together like a puzzle to solve complex math problems. He can even tell what day of the week a date will fall on in the past or future.
   
   Who's to say his mind isn't working correctly and mine isn't? Do the math.



5. This is an excellent, 1st person, account of Asperger's Syndrome. Anyone who knows a person, or has an ASD (autism spectrum disorder) should read this book. Any health care professional should read this book. I am a physician and know persons with this disorder.Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

No comments about Barbara Bush: A Biography.

No comments about How to Grow Old Disgracefully (Transaction Large Print Books).