No comments about Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, Volume 2 [EasyRead Edition].

No comments about Thomas Alva Edison (American Cavalcade).

No comments about The Making of an American (Large Print Edition).

No comments about Five at Ten: Prime Ministers' Consorts Since 1957.

5 comments about The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition (G.K. Hall Large Print Perennial Bestseller Collection).

1. We complain about our lives so many times a day.. And most of the times it's not even something really serious. This book shows you a girl that even going through such hard times, she faces it all in a peculiar way.. Of course she has her outbreaks as everyone (specially in confinement) would have but it's so... Try it! It's a must-read for all ages, but particularly for the young people.



2. After I visited the building in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family had to hide during WWII, I finally decided to read her famous diary for myself. And I have to say: I was impressed. The book works very well on a variety of levels:
   
   As History
   This is an important historical witness of how the daily life of a teenager was restricted and finally squashed by the Nazi regime in Amsterdam. The humanity of Anne's daily thoughts - free-flowing and turbulent - make for a stark contrast to Hitler's cold machinery of might and control. Anne does not embody a perfect human but a real human. She becomes the face for all the faceless who were sucked into a totalitarian system.
   
   As Literature
   Considering that the diary is written by a thirteen to fifteen year-old, it is incredibly well written. The Nazis have deprived the world of a witty, pensive and creative writer.
   
   As Psychology
   Anne's diary is filled with insights into human nature. Her reflections on herself and her fellow humans are detailed and instructive, sometimes consciously so and sometimes unconsciously by eloquently voicing the feelings of someone her age.
   
   As Child Education
   This is an important book both for teenagers and parents. Anne's honesty about her feelings, development (physical and otherwise), problems and joys might help teenagers to deal better with their own development - and parents might be moved by Anne to more sympathy for that age group.
   
   In short, this is essential reading, and ideal when discussing the Holocaust and the Second World War with a young teenager.



3. This is truly one of the greatest books ever written. As a reader reads this book, he will see a young girl blossoming into a phenomenal young woman. All in the confines of her family's "Secret Annexe", while in hiding from the Gestapo, and to keep from being captured, and sent to a concentration camp.
   
   As I read this book, I felt Anne Frank was speaking to me. I felt her anger, her rebellion, and laughed when she would tell a joke, or say something harsh about another member of the "Secret Annexe". Her words, so eloquently written, will touch anybody who reads them, and this book will become one that they will never forget, as it has with me. As I read her diary, and connected with Anne, I felt a depressing feeling, because I knew that at one point her diary entries would suddenly stop, and there would be no fitting ending for this masterpiece.
   
   With that said, what Anne Frank has left for us is a memorable diary, which encompasses what she went through. The hunger, and horrible conditions that she, and many Jews were put through is a testament to how cruel, intolerant, and unjustifiably evil humanity can be.
   
   I recommend this book to anybody who likes to read, and even to those who don't.



4. Shipping took longer than expected but the book was in new condition as was stated



5. As a young adult I had read articles on the book. I knew the story. I saw the movie made from the book. However, I had never read the book itself.
   The experience of reading the words of Anne as she lived for two year in hiding with her family, and others in hiding, was entirely different than just knowing the story. Reading another persons personal words as they were living the life that inspired them to write is a most intimate experience.
   In my adult life I am glad to have had the experience of actually reading Anne Frank's words. I recommend the reading of this book to young and mature persons who wish to understand what transpired in our world history on an intimate level.

3 comments about Ruffles on My Longjohns (Ulverscroft Large Print Series).

1. Ruffles on my Longjohns is the best read I've had for a long time. I heartily recommend it.
   
   Isobel Edwards has a great story to tell about her life in the rugged northwest and she has the talent to write about it in a way you feel you're there with her. It's a shame she has apparently written only this one book.
   
   Buy it and enjoy it!
   
   Gordon Padwick



2. RUFFLES ON MY LONGJOHNS begins in 1932 as Isabel Edwards leaves Portland, Oregon with her husband Earle to homestead the valley of the Atnarko River flowing through the coastal mountains of west central British Columbia. Used to city life, young Isabel must adapt to a world without electricity, indoor plumbing, central heating, regular mail service, roads, female companionship, immediate medical care, and contemporary conveniences of any sort. She and her husband build cabins, barns, fences, boats, spinning wheels, stoves, heaters, saddles, wells, and animal pens. Food not grown or hunted locally must be brought in by packhorse over many miles of rough terrain. One endures mosquitoes, floods, bears, wolves, snow and freezing cold. And no, one just can't jump into the SUV and drive down to the local Wal-Mart.

   Recently, PBS television aired a series entitled "Frontier House" in which three American families volunteer to re-create life as homesteaders in Montana of the 1880s. For several months, they sampled exactly what the Edwards lived for real for years, but did it with much more whining. What's remarkable about Isabel's narrative is the matter-of-fact good humor in which she tells it. Perhaps it's because it was written many years after the fact (1980), and time mellowed memories of what must have been an incredibly exacting experience. One can only admire the stamina and fortitude it must have taken to build a life under such conditions. (Hey, I start complaining when the Sunday paper isn't delivered on time!)

   RUFFLES ON MY LONGJOHNS seems much longer than its 297 paperbacked pages. Perhaps it's the typeset. In any case, it's a darn good yarn. And if anybody still believes such a life is glamorous, consider the following passage in which the author describes rescuing a pig during a flood.

   "Racing back to the house, I found Earle sloshing around in the flooded pen, trying to catch her. Between us, we cornered her, and carrying her upside down by the legs, she wriggled and twisted and screamed as though she were being murdered. Halfway across the disintegrating bridge she had a spurting, fluid bowel movement all down the front of my dress."

   Try that next time you take the kids to the petting zoo.




3. It was an interesting story of how the simple ideas in life can so easily become the reality of your life. The idea of any one nowadays picking up everything and moving to a place where there is no real outside contact, and that contact that there is, is very reliant on the weather and if the single party phone line is working, just seems absurd to today, where if the power goes off we all feel helpless to do any thing

No comments about Dancing on the Waves (Reminiscence).

No comments about House of Tomorrow (Ulverscroft Large Print Series).

5 comments about An Affair to Remember: My Life With Cary Grant (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

1. Like an above reveiwer siad: I felt like I knew Mr. Grant after reading this. Ms. Donaldson has written a superb book revealing the real Cary Grant. We, the readers, see Mr. Grant for the real person he is. A gentleman, an overprotective loving father, an insecure, private man. and she writes of her relationship with Cary. Their many many good times together. The insecurities of Cary's that drove her nuts and finally ended their relationship, and her relationship with Cary's daughter Jennifer. Her and Jennifer became close friends. I felt like I knew Cary Grant inside and out after reading this. I recommend this book to all fellow Cary Grant fans!!!



2. I really enjoyed reading this book. Cary Grant might be very complex and
   difficult person to live with.Yet he is gentle and kind.That is enough.I
   simply feel sorry that Maureen Donaldson didn't marry him.She Couldn't
   realize how much she was loved!She will also regret not marrying him for the
   rest of her life!! (Sorry for my bad English)



3. I give this book 5 stars because there are not too many books that keep me awake at night. Usually even a good book puts me to sleep sooner or later. Not this one.
   
   Maureen Donaldson had a four year relationship with legendary Hollywood actor Cary Grant from 1973-1977 after he had retired from film making. Her descriptions of meeting and first getting to know Grant made me feel like I was almost experiencing it with her. I could definitely identify with her feelings of awe and being overwhelmed that Cary Grant was interested in her. I would have felt the same way. As she got to know him and spend more time with him, she saw that he was only human (aren't we all). In fact, he was very human, with many of the same fears, insecurities and childhood hurts that so many of us have to deal with ourselves.
   
   I agree with other reviewers who feel this book is not a trash Cary Grant book. I don't think that was her intention. I don't think less of Grant now than before I read the book. From everything I have read about Grant in this book and elsewhere, it seems he had a very rock-solid core to him. He comes across as a very loyal friend, surprisingly generous at times (when the mood struck him), tender-hearted and kind.
   
   Maureen tells in her book how Grant read a daily devotional each day of the year out of a Christian booklet he had a subscription to. After they broke up Maureen said she continued the practice of reading those daily selections herself.
   
   She took Grant to an Alice Cooper concert (with Grant in disguise). He hated it, but the fact that she talked him into going proves to me that he really cared about her. A man his age going to an Alice Cooper concert? That is love.
   
   I do wonder why she wrote this book. I guess I should not try to speculate. According to Maureen, Grant tried to get her to marry him and even enlisted Jennifer Jones and her last husband to offer their home as a wedding site.
   
   Even after reading the whole book I still can't help but think Maureen was nuts not to marry him.



4. I've just finished reading this and i'm a little shellshocked. Not because I feel Grant has been villified but perhaps merely because it shows such a debonair and enigmatic idol of mine as a true fallible human being.
   
   Like the other reviewer commented, I too thought it seemed to be written with a fair amount of objectivity. It did not come across to me as a bitter and delibrate attempt to trash or undermine Grant. It does come across, however, as a bit of a tacky and harrowing romance novel, even the presentation of the book conveys such an image.
   
   I think if you're a Cary Grant fan that wants to find out a little more about Archie Leach and is willing to accept the fact that their view of Cary may be tarnished in the process; then go ahead and read this, it is an interesting and (from what I can tell) balanced read.
   
   Let's all hope he was happy in the end.



5. I felt like I knew Cary Grant much better after reading this book. It seems to have been written with some objectivity. The book makes you feel as though you are right in the middle of their relationship. I really enjoyed reading about the details of the most dashing man of the classic movie era. There will never be another Cary Grant, unfortunately.

1 comments about Sinatra: The Man Behind the Myth (Part 1).

1. I have read a number of books regarding the life and times of Frank Sinatra and this is the most balanced of them all. Stories that can't be proved one way or the other are presented in the following way; "This is the most often told rumour regarding this incident, this is how much I have been able to verify, now make up your own mind regarding the rest." Excellent. Unlike other writers, I was unable to determine what the author felt about Frank, and that is as it should be. Other books are written by people who clearly love or hate him and are slanted to reflect whatever impression they want the reader to leave with. If you want to read the facts are far as they go and then make up your own mind regarding the rumours, this it the book for you.