5 comments about The Empty Picture Frame: An Inconceivable Journey Through Infertility.

1. What a wonderful book! Thank you Jenna and Mike for putting words to all of those feelings that are so difficult to express. Being an "infertile" myself, this book had me laughing, crying, and nodding along the whole way through. I feel like running out and buying this book for all those friends and family who are either struggling with infertility themselves or struggling to understand a loved one who is going through a difficult time.



2. Struggling with infertility is challenging all by itself without the added emotional struggles that must be faced. In my personal situation I've found that not many people, even family members, can relate to or understand what I've been going through. Even a relative whose gone through IVF doesn't understand. I found that Jenna wrote this book not just for me, but for those who love me. Both myself and my husband breezed through the book and feel as if the stories are about us. My mom has also read it and developed a greater understanding of what we're going through. Next we'll have the family members who can't understand why we don't attend children's birthday parties or baby showers read it. Jenna gives such wonderful advice on all of these situations that make us feel so irrational...and reminds us we're not! This should be a MUST read for anyone who is just beginning their infertility journey or has been on the journey much too long.



3. One in six couples will experience difficulty conceiving a child, yet the isolation of infertility can be overwhelming. Jenna and Mike's story is uniquely their own; however, any infertile reading this book will be struck with the similarities to their personal journey. Jenna does a fantastic job of bringing to the surface the raw emotions (hope, despair, anger, jealousy, and shame, to name a few) that an infertile struggles with every day. Mike's contributions to the story give a welcome male perspective and show just how important a team effort is to surviving this disease.
   
   For those on the sidelines, this is as real as it gets. Jenna's depiction of a "typical" IVF cycle was dead on - from the Day 2 ultrasound, through the pharmacy of medications and their side-effects, to the longest wait of your life after which you find out if all you've invested (physically, emotionally and financially) has finally paid off.
   
   The list of "dos and don'ts" written for those close to someone dealing with infertility is, perhaps, one of the most important parts of this book. If you read The Empty Picture Frame because you know someone living with infertility, pay close attention to this section and take Jenna's words to heart.
   
   Thank you, Jenna and Mike for having the courage to educate others by putting your story out there for all to see. Best of luck to you both!



4. I first saw Jenna on the Oprah Winfrey show. I immediately felt connected to her because of her struggle with infertility. I could totally understand her pain. She was the first person I had seen that I honestly felt I could relate to.
   
   So when I saw that she had written a book about her story, I just had to buy it. This book is an amazing resource for infertility! It gives the full picture of what it's like to go through all the stages of infertility, from before "trying to conceive" all the way through many IVF attempts. Jenna has given the reader an inside glimpse into the life of an infertile.
   
   The way she tells her story (along with her husband's two cents every so often) is so compelling. It really was hard to put down.
   
   This book is not only a great resource to someone personally struggling with infertility but also to those who who know of someone else who is struggling with it.
   
   After I finished the book I gave it to my mom so she could get a glimpse of what I was going through. And most importantly, so she could read the helpful hints Jenna talks about at the end of the book as to how to best support someone going through infertility. These suggestions are so dead on! I wish I would've given it to her years ago.
   
   Overall, I just can't recommend this book enough!



5. This book tells the truth, the raw, unadulterated truth about what it's like to walk the path of an infertile couple, trying again and again without success. If you're not infertile, you'll realize empathy and compassion in these pages, and learn what not to say. If you're infertile, you will see yourself here. Jenna holds nothing back. She doesn't make it pretty or cute or lighthearted. She invites you to experience the emotions along with her. This book is an invaluable emotional resource for infertiles and those who care about them.

5 comments about Another Place at the Table.

1. I wish this book was much longer--I wanted to know more. The story of a family with the resources to have a luxurious easy life, but chose to open their home and hearts to children who had less than nothing. The selflessness of this family is amazing. I just couldn't have done it. I couldn't have divided myself into so many pieces and have coped with the disorganization. But, I wholeheartedly admire the people who can. Such an inspiring story. Don't miss it!



2. What an amazing book this is. I was thinking about fostering children and this book was so helpful in my decision. Kathy writes with honesty and although I'm usually not one to cry, through the joy and pain in this book I cried three different times. I couldn't put it down.



3. This book is fantastic! It offers a realistic view of what raising fostor children is like. It shows the good and the bad, yet I have never wanted to be a fostor parent more!



4. This book is about Kathy Harrison's real life as a foster mother and the story about a couple of the children that came into her home. She talks about her true emotions and feelings as she tries to hold these "shattered" children together with, as she puts it, just love and "band aids."
   
   Augusten Burroughs (author of Running with Scissors) said about this book...."Shocking, brutal, heartbreaking and ultimately redemptive, This is the riveting and profoundly moving story of a hero, disguised as an ordinary woman. And like every hero, it's the children she is out to save."
   
   Unlike Augusten I did not find the book "shocking" but honest and realistic to what every foster mom goes through. I could not believe how close our stories were as I read this book. You could have taken out the names of her children and drop in some of mine, tweak their story a little, and it wouldn't ring any truer then what we have seen and gone through.
   
   I cried as she wrote about letting Lucy go to an adoptive home. She loved Lucy but not in the same way as the children she adopted. She wanted to keep her but also wanted Lucy to have that unconditional, total love she deserved. The pain of letting Lucy go tore open those feelings and what we went through with two little boys I had for three years.
   
   She writes about her desire to reach ever child that walked into her home and the heartbreak when she realized love, food, clothes, a home, and safety wont/cant heal all their wounds.
   
   She talks about the times caseworkers have such caviler attitudes to their lack of action that keeps a child in the system longer then need be, or keeps them off the adoption list longer. It reminded me of the unfelt and off the hand "sorry" and "oh, well" I have heard so often. But like her, I don't know how to change things, nor do I have the time to try because there is "another child coming through my front door that needs me."
   
   I understood as she talked about the times she stood tall and strong when she felt the weakest, because it was best for the children. Telling the emotions every foster parent feels behind closed doors. The love she has for the strength and unbelievable timing her husband had at being there when she needed him. I understood the times she wanted to yell at a parent for smoking around the baby in her care but struggles with what is good for the baby and the need to keep the communication open between them. The honest hate she felt for some of the parents that have abused the children in her care but at the same time struggle as she realizes that most likely the bio-parents were children in the same situation when they were young and haven't learned anything different. The hope that what she was doing would change things in some way screamed what every foster parent prays is true. It made me think she had a hidden camera in my home that could read my thoughts and feelings I never let others see.
   
   The hardest part of the book, for me, was the roller coaster of emotions they went on as they tried to adopt Karen. She is elegant in relating the fear of loosing a child that, in your heart, is already yours. A feeling that can't be explained or even come close to being logical. She maps out the joys of moving forward, the pains of more hold ups, the relief that the children are in your care, but the lingering dread that things could change in an instant. She revels how everything is devastatingly out of our control and we have to stay on till the ride is done.
   
   She is most honest about not being a saint, or perfect, or even close to perfect. I laughed so hard when she wrote about the attachment case workers visit. She says she remembers her weakest moments (when she said something she shouldn't of or didn't handle a situation the right way) when people call her a saint; so do I. It only takes one or two human reactions to realize we are not saints or perfect; but she honors us with "a warrior" doing our best.
   
   However, she also shows why we keep doing what we do for these children. The ability to see more in these children then others do and the wonderful feeling we get when the children reach not their potential (because it is rare we get to see this) but better then when they came to our door and father then others thought they could. This might be a simple smile, or a giggle, a sentence everyone understood, going a week with out an out burst, a day with out harming themselves, or the ability to care about something other then themselves for a second or two.
   
   I could go on and on but if you want to see what it is like to be a foster parent....read this book! If you are a foster parent and want to know you are not alone....read this book!



5. I loved this book. As a therapist who has just written a book about a teen girl in foster care I think it's important to focus on the incredible work that foster parents do. They are our unsung heroes! Thank you Kathy!!!!! For a fictional, uplifting account of the journey of a teen in foster care (inspired by the foster children I've worked with in the past) check out my soon-to-be released young adult novel, RETURNABLE GIRL. Maybe it will inspire you to bring a child home.

5 comments about Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York (Vintage).

1. A selection of beautifully written essays on life in New York as a father, husband, and observer of the cultural scene. There is a particularly moving and enlightening description of the Bill Evans trio's storied sessions decades ago at the Village Vanguard.



2. I received this book as a Christmas present, and took it with me on holiday to Japan ... because I wished that I were going to New York but was not.
   
   I expected a book of stories about life in New York. While I got this in some ways I got it in such a way as to be at times rendered speechless. This book contains laugh out loud elements (stories of his children) and parts which brought me to tears (the ending of the Giant Metrozoids). It has also inspired me to do a whole lot more reading, all the books which Gopnik refers to are now on my reading list.
   
   I am not a New Yorker, but, after a week there in 2006 now miss this city so desperately from my home in Australia, that I am amazed. Gopnik captured my feelings in this book. The moments of clarity that I had to share with the people I was travelling with, and will become pearls of wisdom for staff meetings when I am required to talk.
   
   Would I recommend this book? Of this I am unsure. It is a highly observationalist book, looking at the society in which the author lives and grasping for the truth that is found within. It is also in the nature of critical literacy, so some deep thinking is required on the part of the reader. I usually read a book every day or two when travelling (particularly when in a country where English is not found readily) my addiction is to the pages, not the 'screens or cards'. But this book took me nearly two weeks, and I feel a need now to re-read it. To high light and mark the pearls I have discovered in the manner of a university text so that I can give these the true depth of consideration they deserve.
   
   All in all though, this was a book I can see myself reading again and again one which spoke to my soul so truly that I can hear the sirens of NYC echoing down the streets, smell the hotdog venders and feel the wind in my face. This book will tide me over until I get to go back again.



3. I have some sympathy with the caustic review of "Mr Picky" below, not because I have the same distaste for Adam Gopnik's work (quite the reverse), but because I agree that all of Gopnik's work is, essentially, about himself. Not only that, but where his subject veers away from himself, or those closest to him, he becomes far less interesting and insightful.
   
   Having said that, there is no doubt that Gopnik is a very, very good writer. It is his lucid and insightful writing that not only saves this (and his other) book from the pretentious and self-indugent exercise that it would have been from just about any other writer, but which provides genuine pleasures that make it a very entertaining and rewarding read.
   
   Gopnik's subjects are, as others have noted, New York and his children. The best sections by far are those dealing with his relations with his children. The further he moves from that subject, the less interesting his writing becomes, and the duller his prose style. There is a chapter on "switch hotels" and parakeets. I am still not sure what that chapter is about, or why switch hotels needed an essay written about them, or what the connection is with parakeets. There is also an article on the great Bill Evans and his Village Vanguard recordings. There is an enormous amount to say about these performances, but Gopnik struggles to say anything genuinely interesting. These pieces seem sincere but dutiful, and somewhat laboured. Even his 9/11 pieces suffer from a worthy but dull quality. It is only when Gopnik turns back to his children and his close friends that his writing again becomes enlivened and interesting.
   
   I agree with Mr Picky that there is a certain amount of literary pretentiousness which comes through many of Gopnik's essays. The names of literary heavyweights are dropped with a little more regularity than is strictly necessary. But in a way, these kinds of allusions have their own charm, in the same way that they do in many of Woody Allen's movies. In fact, Gopnik and his friends could well have walked straight out of Woody Allen's "Manhattan".
   
   I always enjoy reading Gopnik. Ever since I first encountered the essay "Man Goes to See a Doctor" in the New Yorker many years ago (the essay is also collected in this book), which I regularly re-read, I have always looked out for Gopnik's work and always read it with considerable pleasure. The only reservation I have is that, as noted above, Gopnik is only at his best with the subjects of himself, his children, his friends and his immediate vicinity; and those subjects have a certain banality which is evaded only by the quality of his writing. Every generation re-discovers the experience of raising children as if it is the first ever to do so. Almost every Sunday paper in every major city has a columnist describing the amusing antics of their young family. Only Gopnik's intelligence and insights save his essays from the usual Sunday column banality.
   
   Despite some reservations about the limitations of his subject matter, this is genuinely a very enjoyable book, and Gopnik is undoubtedly a talented writer. "Through the Children's Gate" is highly recommended.



4. I should preface this review with some background: I am a pediatrician, working and living in New York, and this book first caught my eye just from the title. When I read the jacket liner and discovered it was, at least in part, about raising children in New York, I felt I had to give it a whirl. I was not too familiar with Gopnik's essays in The New Yorker, though his name was familiar to me and his writing had been recommended to me many times. It was with this background sense of his work that I began to read.
   
   And read, I did. From the first moment I picked up this book I was engulfed and enthralled. This book is a collection of essays written from the author's perspective. He had lived in Paris for 5 years on assignment for The New Yorker Magazine, and returned to New York City in 2000 primarily out of homesickness and out of a desire to raise his family there. Gopnik knows New York, but a lot had changed since the last time he lived here, and this collection of essays is really about his rediscovery of the city, through his own eyes as well as those of others: his children, most notably, but also his wife and some of his close friends. His essays, which feel at times more like stories, are of course tempered by and work through the enormity of 9/11. And the New York he describes is as much the New York of and around 9/11 as it is the New York that it always has been and yet also a new city formed by nothing other than the march of progress.
   
   His subject matter is of two parts, both close to my own heart--New York city and children. He does them both such amazing justice in this book.
   Gopnik's prose is a joy to behold, both familiar and formal, intricately planned yet at times stream-of-consciousness in style. His skill as a writer is as much in this, his technical mastery of the genre, as it is in his easy ability to depict emotions ranging from humor to pathos succintly yet poignantly. His skills suit his subjects perfectly. The city crackles to life underneath his pen, as he captures in amazing clarity what it is like to sit awake and look out at the windows around the city at 3 AM, or what it felt like to watch the city burn 5 1/2 years ago, or what central park means to the city and those in it. He is the quintessential New Yorker, and yet, perhaps because he left the city, he is able now to see it so much more clearly without taking it for granted as the rest of us do.
   
   But the real heart of this book lies in his portrayal of his children. Through his writing we see his love for Olivia and Luke leap off of the page and, without being overly trite, right into our hearts. The way he describes himself already preparing for when they leave home...the way he opines on what the earth must feel like when zen masters leave it--his children are his life, and it shows brilliantly. As someone without children of my own, but who works with them on a daily basis, I can attest to the accuracy with which Gopnik captures their idiosyncracies while still making painfully clear how alike they truly are. By the end of this book, the reader feels he or she knows Gopnik, his family, his children, and the reader feels for him. Or at least I did.
   
   This is, once again, a wonderful read. Light, funny, and yet undeniably heavy and full of rich sadness and depth, and at times all at once. Gopnik has outdone himself. As we step through the Children's Gate, we enter his world, and when the book ends we just don't want to leave.



5. Readers of The New Yorker who relish each issue that contains an Adam Gopnik essay will be delighted that 20 of them have been collected in this rich offering of his work. Those unacquainted with Gopnik's graceful and allusive prose are likely to become instant fans.
   
   Taking its title from the name of the Central Park entrance at Seventy-sixth Street and Fifth Avenue, the collection is unified by Gopnik's captivating insights into the lives of his precocious children, Luke and Olivia, as they adapt to life in their new home. That focus is apt, for, he observes, about the Upper West Side world into which they settle, comfortably but not entirely without unease, "a constant obsessive-compulsive anxiety about children --- their health, their future, the holes in their socks, and the fraying of their psyches --- is taken entirely for granted here."
   
   In September 2000 Gopnik and his family returned to New York, after five years in Paris that provided the material for his acclaimed book PARIS TO THE MOON. In that time, he notes, "The map of the city we carried just five years ago hardly corresponds to the city we know today, while the New Yorks we knew before that are buried completely." That first autumn is portrayed as an idyllic time, its innocence made more poignant when viewed backwards through the lens of 9/11.
   
   Two of the pieces, "The City and the Pillars" and "Urban Renewal," deal explicitly with the events of that day and its aftermath, but the fear and anxiety it engendered shadow much of Gopnik's narrative. In a characteristically arresting metaphor that captures the profound and yet curious effect the terrorist attacks had on the city, he notes, "It's as though the sinking of the Titanic had taken place right beside a subway station and been watched by a frightened or curious crowd who saw something unbelievable, the great ship listing and rising up and breaking in two and the people falling from the funnel, and then walked home from the disaster and showed their families that their hands were still cold from touching the iceberg." Yet despite the disaster, Gopnik writes, New Yorkers "learned to live on one foot, hopping along spiritually in more or less normal times." Again, he returns to his theme of children and families: "The real question that pressed itself upon us as parents was how to let our children live in joy in a time of fear, how to give light enough to live in when what we saw were so many shadows."
   
   The New York life Gopnik sketches in these essays is anything but unremittingly anxious or bleak. There are numerous moments of sly humor that leaven the more serious essays. Readers will chuckle as Gopnik, at best a casually observant Jew, grapples with the task of crafting a presentation about the Jewish holiday of Purim. His description of the unintended consequences of a "no-screen" weekend, as he and another father try to wean their sons from computers and video games, is hilarious. And few readers will be able to stifle the urge to "LOL" as fortysomething Gopnik is initiated by his son into the world of instant messaging.
   
   Gopnik also proves himself an erudite companion as he discourses on such subjects as the decline of the New York department store, the revival of Times Square and the story behind the Bill Evans Trio jazz classic, "Sunday at the Village Vanguard." While the collection is decidedly Manhattan-centric, he does leave the island briefly to introduce readers to the bizarre phenomenon of the wild parrots of Flatbush.
   
   Not every essay in the book hits the mark. "The Cooking Game," a description of a contest in which several prominent chefs prepare a meal with ingredients selected by Gopnik, suffers from an uncharacteristically narrow focus. "Death of a Fish" treads perilously close to the line of undue sentimentality. Yet these minor stumbles are more than offset by "Last of the Metrozoids," the understated and moving account of the death of Kirk Varnedoe, Gopnik's close friend and a noted art historian, as he delivers his final lectures and coaches, painstakingly and lovingly, Luke and his eight-year-old teammates on the Giant Metrozoids football team.
   
   Like all accomplished essayists, Adam Gopnik excels in moving seamlessly from the particular to the universal and back again. New York is too multifaceted a place to be captured in any single work, but THROUGH THE CHILDREN'S GATE is a generous and warmhearted place to start.
   
   --- Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg

5 comments about Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume.

1. This book did something surprising to me---it made me feel very old! I am not really VERY old yet, although my teenager might think so, but I guess I am old enough so the Chick Lit style of writing doesn't really appeal to me. Most of the essays here are written in that style---they are very centered on the feelings and experiences of the writer, and most of the writers seem convinced that their own thoughts and feelings and childhood family are quite fascinating. Almost every essay follows the same path---telling about a childhood experience and then telling how they read a Judy Blume book and it made them realize they weren't alone in what they were feeling.
   
   My friends and I read plenty of Judy Blume growing up too, and I admire her as a writer. However, we didn't really read her because she mirrored our own lives. Her characters live in a pretty small world, really---suburban,fairly well-to-do families. It's the world she herself knows, and she writes about it very, very well. It didn't really interact much with the world we lived in, in rural Maine, mostly in families that struggled with money. Although of course some issues of childhood are universal, I think the book would have been more powerful if we heard from some authors who lived a life UNLIKE those of the characters in Blume's books. Maybe that is what I find I don't like about chick lit type books also. Although they probably don't think so, the writers and the characters usually share membership in a pretty exclusive club---suburban or urban professionals or the children of such!
   
   I don't meant to knock this book. I think if I had lived that life or if I lived it now, and if a Judy Blume book had been a real guide to life for me, I would love reading about others like myself. And if you did, you probably will enjoy this book a great deal.



2. When I felt that wave of nostalgia that hit me when I spotted Judy Blume's name scripted in girly letters in on the front cover, I knew this book was a must read. And, reading the essays written by the 20-to-40-something female authors in this book, I remembered just how much Judy Blume's own books were must reads for navigating the perpetual perplexities of puberty.
   
   More than just a trip down memory lane, these essays depict how Judy's fictional stories comforted so many of us during the real-life struggles of adolescence. A common thread in these essays is that reading Judy's books as teens allowed the authors to feel less alone in their overwhelming confusion surrounding their changing bodies, friendships, family dynamics, identities, and overall place in their ever-changing worlds. Returning to these books decades later, these authors can appreciate Judy's wisdom, advice, and insight at a completely different level. It turns out that "Judy's Blume moments" are Forever...



3. I am a huge Judy Blume fan and came of age reading her books. This anthology is such a treat to read, I read it on a recent business trip and it made the hours at the airport fly by!



4. This book features a wide variety of young adult and chick lit authors paying tribute to Judy Blume in different ways. The authors range in age from late 20's to late 40's, and each of the 24 essays is unique. The idea was to write something along the theme of the book's title, but surprisingly, many different approaches were taken. Some of the contributers wrote about incidents in their lives and compared them to events in Judy Blume books. Others described how reading a particular JB book had made a difference in their lives, or helped them in some adolescent situation. Still others analyzed elements of JB books heavily and only briefly compared them to their own childhoods or lives.
   
   Among the essays, JB's novels "Are You There, God? It's Me Margaret", "Forever", and "Deenie" seem to be discussed more often than others. Some get only a few mentions, and others, such as "Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great" are virtually overlooked. JB fans of my generation will be pleased to know "Just as Long as We're Together" is featured in several essays.
   
   This collection of essays is sure to please fans of chick lit and/or fans of Judy Blume. I enjoyed some of the essays more than others, and have found myself wanting to read the published novels of several of these ladies, since I enjoyed their writing so much. Overall, it is almost like reading a JB book in and of itself. It'll take you right back to adolescence. You'll relate, you'll remember, you'll laugh, and best of all, you'll be immersed in some high-quality, honest writing.



5. Judy Blume is one of the most beloved and well-known authors of our time. She has written countless stories for pre-teens, teens, and adults alike, and millions of readers have been charmed by her lovable characters and easy-to-relate-to storylines.
   
   In EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT BEING A GIRL I LEARNED FROM JUDY BLUME, twenty-four of the most popular female authors today, including Megan McCafferty, Jennifer O'Connell, Megan Crane, Cara Lockwood, and Meg Cabot, contribute essays relating their own experiences with Judy Blume.
   
   Covering everything from their own "Judy Blume moments" to hiding under the covers with Forever . . ., these stories are intensely personal recollections that offer an insight into the influence that Judy Blume's works have had on everyone who reads them.
   
   As a Judy Blume fan myself, I really loved reading this book, and it brought to mind my own memories of reading her novels. Whether you just want to know more about some of your favorite authors today, or, like me, you grew up with Blume and her characters, this book is well worth reading and you definitely don't want to miss it.
   
   Reviewed by: Andie Z.

4 comments about Classmates, The: Privilege, Chaos, and the End of an Era.

1. An exceptional look at a prestigious American prep school where wealth, Christianity and high moral values co-existed with adolescent cruelties and life-altering snobbery. Filled with rich and candid autobiographical detail. Better than fiction!



2. Classmates, The: Privilege, Chaos, and the End of an Era
   
   Interesting & well written look at the lives of "privileged" boys starting in their private school days.



3. Interesting idea, but it has been done better. Lots of autobiography, not enough about classmates and faculty. Author (as he admits) never got more that a very formal 45-minute unenlightening interview with Kerry, which isn't much of a hook to hang his hat on - seems more like a publisher's publicity gimmick than a real theme of the book. I'm in this generation and was there (another Northeastern prep school, '61, Vietnam service, Harvard) so have a lot in common with these guys, but the book never took off for me. There are a few flashes of interesting anecdotes and some serviceable prose, but the book never coheres. Good on personal nostalgia, not so good on pulling together what it all means.



4. Douglas, Geoffrey. "Classmates", Hyperion, 2008.
   
   John and Arthur
   
   Amos Lassen
   
   It is the fall of 1957 and John and Arthur, two fifteen year old boys, are at an exclusive New England boarding school. This is the setting of Geoffrey Douglas' new book, "Classmates". John came from a wealthy family and his future was filled with promise. Arthur was a scholarship student from a Pennsylvania farming family whose future was shaky at best. The boys' class was made up of one hundred boys and it is the student population that Douglas uses as the source of his memoir. The boys were divided---their fathers expected success but the guys lived in a society that was in the middle of a disastrous war in Vietnam, a sexual revolution at home and an age when people were filled with questions and doubt.
   I remember those years all too well as this is my generation. We were interested politically, we experimented sexually, we were afraid of being drafted and we tuned in and dropped out. Here we stood at the door waiting to move from the 50's to the 60's and we hoped for a better world. We, as did the classmates of Douglas' book, were witness to both the political and social changes and upheavals of the late 60's and we watched the world change drastically. The decade of the 60's was to change the world forever and we still feel the results today.
   Douglas has written a compelling book that looks at the changes that America and the world went through and he uses the characters of John and Arthur as our guides. John is John Kerry who went on to college at Yale, became a war hero in Vietnam and was later elected to the Senate of the United States and then attempts a bid at the Presidency. Quite the opposite is Arthur (whose surname is not given, perhaps to emphasize that his life was as anonymous as he was) who went on to nothingness, a life of little meaning and ultimately a salesman who died alone a year after his classmate loss the election. Peppered through the book are other classmates which reflect the diversity of American life. There are two other war veterans, a federal judge, a gay artist and the author himself. Together these classmates watched as a new world was created and worked to find their place in it.
   "Classmates" is a short book but one that is powerful. It reopens those old wounds that many of us have carried and it explains a period of time that almost defies explanation. It reminded me so much of the time I spent trying to come to terms with who I was and where I fit. "Classmates" is a remarkable study and my generation should welcome it into their minds and libraries.

5 comments about Having Faith.

1. Sandra Steingraber is a scientist and writer whose early cancer has led her to explore the possible environmental causes of cancer and teratogens in our chemically laced environment. In this book, she talks about her own pregnancy and what happens to the developing life within in a very thorough, and beautiful, way.



2. This book starts out as very scientific and a bit dull, but picks up and keeps you reading. I admire the author for doing so much detailed research and yet being very happy and optimistic towards her own childbearing. An inspirational and eye-opening book that I would recommend to all my friends, especially young women.



3. This book is FASCINATING. If you pick it up you won't put it down. Everyone should read this book, but especially those considering having children. (I do not recommend this book to pregnant women, it could be very upsetting)
   
   The book is beautifully written, personal, scientific, and life changing. I particularly appreciate the author's perspective that the onis to protect children from toxic chemicals that cause birth defects should be societal, not personal. It is insane that we have accepted that due to mercury pollution as a result of coal burning women and children should have to stop eating nutritious fish.



4. I loved this story, both as a scientific narrative and a touching personal story. I'm thinking about pregnancy, and this book awakened me to many of the dangers of toxins in the environment I hadn't even contemplated before. I'm so glad that Steingraber told the full story of fish in the diets of pregnant women, for example: that a food with such healthy fats and potential for fetal brain development has instead been rendered toxic by not just mercury pollution, but POPs like DDT as well. And anyone who wants to breastfeed should be aware of how toxins are magnified not just over the course of fetal development, but within the content of mother's milk as well. Steingraber seeks to educate us not to make us take action indiviually, but collectively: healthy food and a healthy environment should be the right of every pregnant woman, mother, father and child. It should be ours for the taking, because we adults deserve the right to have children, and those children deserve the healthiest world possible, starting in the microcosm of the womb. As an adopted child, a pregnant woman, a nursing mother and a biologist, Steingraber tells every woman's story of conception and birth to inspire all humans with a vision of taking action to create a healthier world. It's a lovely telling that everyone - not just mothers-to-be - should read.



5. This book is one of the most informative books you will read about pregnancy and the early months of your baby's life and not with the information that you will find in your other books. Instead this book begins to unravel the mysteries of the womb and the world while captivating all of the magic. The author guides you through information that is sometimes scary, sometimes ecstatic and in a lesser writer's hands might be overwhelming, but instead is inspirational. Beautifully written--you won't be able to put it down!

5 comments about Shanghai Diary: A Young Girl's Journey from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China.

1. Being impacted by Hitler's regime about the same age as Ursula Bacon, I can easily empathize with her tribulations. I had not been familiar with the events reflected in "The Shanghai Diaries." Ergo, I am grateful to the author for sharing her life story. She is a keen observant; her insight and hindsight are remarkable.
   
   Ursula Bacon's last sentence is "All in all, I have been one lucky girl-child." This conclusive statement is indicative of Ursula's soundness of judgment. Ursula and her parents managed to get out from Germany, In May 1939. As refugees, sheltered in Hongkew, a restricted area in Shanghai, China, Ursula and her parents were living under most primitive conditions. The family was very cognizant of their predicament, but was more concerned and was lamenting the fate of those who were left behind in Germany. Her father said: "This is not a paradise, but we don't have to worry about the Gestapo, the SS. Compared to Hitler's death camps, his butchers, his ovens, his gas chambers - we had merely been inconvenienced!" Ursula's mother believed that complaining: "Dig us deeper into the black hole of despair." Ursula deemed life to be a gift and meaningful, even in times of adversity. She manifested appreciation for the beauty of nature. She often reminisce the creative aura of her childhood. She values greatly any act of human kindness in her new surroundings, in a strange land. Plato (427-347) said "A grateful mind is a great mind; it eventually attracts to itself great things" As the only Holocaust survivor of my immediate family, Ursula's assertion that she is lucky is most appropriate. She and her beloved parents survived the war; they survived Hitler.
   
   I was profoundly impressed by Ursula's husband, Wolf, saying: "I shall never hate anybody ever! Not a group, not an individual!" To hear such a positive statement from a person who was compelled, by Hitler's racist policy, to leave the country of his birth - and had been subjected to unjustifiable hardship - is highly commendable. This is indicative of Wolf's character and prudence. Despite my being dehumanized and tortured under the Nazi yoke, I shall not hate either!
   
   The Shanghai Diaries widens my horizon' it fortifies my adherence to. the values my murdered dear father had instilled in me:"Hate Hatred and shun violence."
   
   Alter Wiener, author "From A Name to A Number"



2. I am not a reader of novels, mostly technical material. Recently I was engaged to direct a video interview with Ursula Bacon. Not familiar with her I went to Powell's Books in Portland and found a copy of her book Shanghai Diary. I had only planned to pick out a few facts to give me an idea of how to shoot the interview. Once I started reading I had to buy it. This is a book I read from cover to cover. But not a book for the weak of heart.
   
   On May 23, 2008 I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Ursula. She is as "sharp as a tack." During the videoing the moderator introduced her and from then on it was all Ursula. She related numerous stories that were almost word for work from the book. What a memory.
   
   After we finished with the video she talked with all the crew and signed a copy of Shanghai Diary for the studio library. Of course I had her sign my copy too. What a gracious lady. I'm looking forward to reading her other works and our next studio session.



3. Between 1938 and 1941, approximately 18,000 to 20,000 Jews found a safe haven from Hitler's havoc in the one city that did not require visas, police certificates, or proof of financial independence: Shanghai.
   
   In the past decade, a number of these refugees have decided to pen their memoirs. One highly readable account of the era between Jewish immigration and expulsion, is Ursula Bacon's Shanghai Diary. She offers an interesting account of her efforts to adjust to her challenging and strange new life and to make sense of the past, present, and future, while living in Shanghai between 1938 and 1946.
   
   At age 11, Bacon, the only child of a Jewish family, arrived from Germany in 1938 to start a new life. Mr. Bacon had been a successful businessman in Germany, but now he eeks out a living in his Shanghai wallpapering business. Mrs. Bacon finds odd jobs using her sewing skills. Despite earning a meager living, Bacon describes the many hardships her family still faces: suffering numerous indignities, food shortages, living in fear of the many rampant diseases and the lack of medicine, difficulties in finding living quarters and their inadequate size, and other daily struggles. Undeniably, young Miss Bacon was learning enough for a lifetime in only a short time. She attends a Catholic school, where most classes were taught in French. At home and on the streets, she learns to speak Mandarin Chinese and befriends a Buddhist monk. Ursula also learns English in school and on the streets. Eventually she too finds a job, as a governess and tutor to three concubines. While they learn from her, she also learns from them: Chinese views of sex, marriage, and women. It is a tender age to be learning why healthy baby girls are left in local trash bins!
   
   Although these difficult years in Shanghai far surpassed what they had imagined, the Bacon family had no idea much worse life in Germany had become in their absence. Ironically, the Bacons also had no way of knowing that life in Shanghai was about to take a turn for the worse and that they would end up in a ghetto even though they were 8,000 miles away from Hitler! The approximately 18,000 to 20,000 Shanghai Jews were forced in a Hong Kew slum in an area that totaled less then one square mile. As with many families, the Bacons lived in a single room, which they divided with a bed sheet and rented the "second room" to a young couple. There is no longer any such thing as privacy, which was difficult for a young lady Ursula's age.
   
   Ghettoization and its new "rules" made it difficult for many men to continue their work, further reducing family incomes. Many Jews died from malnutrition, the horrendous sanitation situation, lack of medicine, shootings, and bombings. The economic pressures and health concerns required people to live by their wits now, more than anything else.
   
   Through all these challenges, the Bacons try to remain optimistic and to view their time in Shanghai as temporary, until they receive their American visas. While her youth is an asset in that regard, the author also receives excellent advice from some wise adult friends. Some of my favorite quotes include: "If you let the past live your life, the present will have no meaning, and the future is impossible." And "after this time comes another." These words will serve expats -or anyone-- well.
   
   While some readers and critics have suggested that there are a number of inaccuracies in Bacon's story--for example, one Shanghai historican claims that Bacon never swam through the filthy Huang Pu river in the dark and actually rescued American airmen-- the book is still a highly readable memoir of an interesting time in a fascinating city. Bacon provides us with an insider's view of WWII-era Jewish Shanghai that makes enjoyable airplane, vacation, or rainy day reading.



4. I loved reading this memoir. It was an easy read that was character driven and suspenseful. The language was not unnecessarily pretentious, and getting into the story was easy. Further, I knew nothing before reading this book about the European Jews who found a haven of sorts in Shanghai during WWII. While they suffered many indignities, shortages of food, medicine, shelter, and clothing, they were much better off than the European Jews who went to their deaths in the camps. Ironically, they also fared better than non-Jewish citizens of countries allied against Hitler and Japan during the Japanese occupation. Non Jewish civilians of the allied countries or captured POWS participated in tragedies like the Bataan death march. They were interred in Japanese prison camps and subjected to grueling forced labor. There they starved, froze, and died of injury and disease probably in greater number than the Shanghai Jews. The Shanghai Jews were subjected to some but not a great deal of forced labor. They were required to police their own ghetto and dig the occassional ditch. Jews did die because of a lack of medicine, sanitation and adequate nutrition. However, many Chinese civilians suffered the same losses even before the war. Still this does not excuse the ghettoization of the Jews into terribly crowded conditions, rules that precluded most of them from earning a living even though they had skills or precluded them from owning property. Luckily aid from Jews in the U.S., Canada, Australia and South Africa could reach them. For some this was their only means of support and they lived wretched lives. However, the narrator and her family arrived a little better off than most, and her father was a well liked industrious and optimistic businessman. Her mother took in mending and used her excellent seamstress skills to earn money. She tolerated her reduced circumstances without complaint and focused on the sunnier future she was sure would follow the war's end. When the author's father could not work much after the Japanese occupation, their circumstances were reduced. Because the ghetto was seriously overcrowded most occupants could afford little more space than 100 sq. ft. for every three people. Sanitation was completely lacking, and the description of the "honeypots" was truly odoriferous. Imagine several people suffering from amebic dysyntary using the same water closet outfitted with a rustic chamber pot. The author could have let her story fall into the trap of excessive sentimentality, but she did not. For this and her family's optimism I give her Kudos. I gave this four stars instead of five, because I don't think it rises to the literary level of a five star book. Still I highly recommend it. It is a great novel to take on an airplane, a vacation, or to read on an inclement afternoon. It can be read in a few hours.



5. Several months ago I saw the author, Ursula Bacon, on BookTv (C-Span 2). I was very impressed with her; her lecture was excellent; and the true story of her life from the age of 10 to 18 was compelling. So, I immediately ordered her book. But the book sat on my desk for weeks making me feel guilty about not reading it. I too am a writer. So, finally after completing one book and revising another one, I took a break. And what a break that was--when I was transported to the CHINA of 1938-1946! Ms. Bacon, an only child of a Jewish family, left Germany with her parents as Hitler and his cohorts were rounding up Jews and transporting them to Death Camps.
   
   By the time Vati, Dad, and Mutti, Mom, were looking for countries to immigrate to, every country had closed its doors to German Jews except Shanghai, China. And Shanghai was a total mess, worse than anything most Americans would ever see. But Ursula's family lived in the filthy disease-ridden slums and survived by bartering their few possessions for food. Ursula, up until then a very sheltered child, attended a Catholic school where most classes were taught in French. And most of the time she remained optimistic, made many European and Chinese friends of all ages, learned to speak Mandarin Chinese, encouraged her Mutti, and helped Vati with his business endeavors.
   
   Ursula became an adult before becoming a teen! And she encountered many bizarre situations which she handled better than most adults. The worst was when she was 12 or 13 and killed a drunken Japanese soldier with her bare hands when he attacked her as she walked home from a friend's house late at night. She didn't tell her parents, though, because she didn't want to burden them with additional worries.
   
   This intriguing and inspiring survival tale is about Jewish refuges in China during WW II, though it depicts the color of Shanghai and the many nationalities struggling to survive their wartorn world. I didn't want SHANGHAI DIARY to end! However, I couldn't wait to finish it, so I could pass it on to an friend whose daughter adopted the most delightful Chinese girl who I predict will someday be an important leader in some capacity.
   
   The world has grown so small today that every American should go out of his or her way to become acquainted with other cultures and religions. And every American teenager should be given the opportunity to live in a foreign country to learn new languages and cultures. I give this wonderful book MORE than FIVE STARS! And I hope parents will share it with their teens and high school teachers will use it in their classes. Thanks, Ursula! K.J. McWilliams, book reviewer as well as author of Pirates, The Journal of Leroy Jeremiah Jones, a Fugitive Slave, The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo, and The Journal of Darien Dexter Duff, an Emancipated Slave, winner of the Young Adult Fiction 2003 Royal Palm Literary Award.

5 comments about Dancing Naked in the Mind Field.

1. My conclusion upon reading this book is that the author somehow, by some miracle, stumbled upon something at the right time and the right place that enabled him to win the Nobel Prize. Certainly, there's nothing in this book to suggest he has the wit, the discipline, or the creativity to be a successful garbageman, let alone a scientist. His contempt for ethics, in particular, is troublesome.
   
   I write this as a scientist (and a surfer) who grew up in the same part of the world that Mr. Mullis did. Lord, what an embarrassment.



2. This is a great book. I keep getting a copy and giving it away. You may not agree with his views, but he does make you think. Science has been compromised by dollar signs, and that includes "environmentalists", who make a lot of money studying "global warming."
   
   To bad our schools do not teach, what science truly is or people wouldn't have blind faith in "global warming." "Where has science gone?" is a good chapter in the book.Kary is not politically correct, which is why some people hate him.
   
   This book is so funny. I love the part where he gets bitten by a brown recluse spider. To avoid amputation he begs his doctor friend for help. The cure is in the book. Kary is gutsy and brave.
   
   The story about his chemical experiments that nearly blinded his grandma were hilarious. If you don't think this book is funny, you are definitely taking life too seriously.
   
   Dr. Kary has two qualities I love in a person: a sense of humor and intelligence. He is also creative and thinks for himself. Dr. Kary, write another book soon.



3. I can dig it. The world can use more people like Mr. Mullis.
   
   He will tick you off.
   
   The part that bugs me are the contradictions. Global warming is junk science...yet astrology, the astral plain and ESP are fields that warrant more serious research. Riiiiiight.
   
   In general, I think Mr. Mullis is a thoroughly honest, imperfect man that has done a lot of great work to help mankind. That's about the best anyone can do.



4. This is just a great read from cover to cover. Mullis can go on a rant now and then but they are fun to read. You do not have to be interested or educated in science to enjoy this book. I have given it repeatedly as a gift.



5. If it wasn't for a couple of hilarious anecdotes including the encounter with Swedish king and surfing episode after he got the Nobel prize, this would have been a very boring book with a title "Rambling of a rummie with a PhD". Mullis is eager to share his opinion on almost anythng and he should stick to surfing and molecular biology as he is not doing too good with almost anything else. He should have hired a decent ghostwriter as his writing is still "work in progress". And it was so easy to notice that his effort dwindled down in last couple of "chapters" that it became pathetic at times. Better luck with his next book, but I am definitely not going to read it.

5 comments about That Mean Old Yesterday.

1. Part I of this book contains entirely too much introductory material. In fact, you've read a considerable amount of the book before you realize that she actually experienced abuse. I did not think I was going to be able to read the entire book. However, once I got to part II the book really picked up and becomes an interesting read. At that point, I didn't want to put it down. The author parallels her abuse to the history of slavery which is a unique and interesting touch, but it goes overboard at times. Finally, the book opens with a very dramatic scene and by the book's end, you're not sure what happened that led to that scene or what happened after, a tad frustrating.



2. Stacey Patton is a remarkable and inspirational person who endured years of physical and verbal abuse by her adoptive mother, Myrtle. Ms. Patton was placed in the foster care system at the age of two by her biological mother as a way to escape her dysfunctional biological family. Only to be adopted by equally dysfunctional people. After seven or eight years of living with abuse, Ms. Patton demanded that her adoptive parents contact DYFS so she could leave their home.
   
   Ms. Patton sets her life on a path to rid herself of the stigma associated with being a ward of the State of New Jersey. With no encouragement from her house masters, she applies and is accepted into a prestigious prep school with a full scholarship. While at school, she is united with her biological family.
   
   Ms. Patton does an excellent job of displaying the similarities between slavery and her childhood. Slave children were beaten into submission. Ms. Patton was beaten for the most trivial mishaps. Slave children were taught to be emotionless. Ms. Patton did not know how to be angry.
   
   Thanks to Ms. Patton for sharing details of her childhood. This novel should be read by everyone as well as used as a training guide for social workers. Ms. Patton is a survivor, who did not let hurtful and mean spirited words and actions limit or shape her destiny.



3. In slavery times, the master would beat slaves into submission. Their whippings discouraged slaves from running, rebelling and slothful. In turn, slaves beat their own children so the master would not have to. Whippings and beatings are a learned behavior. One that should have ended with slavery, but someone became the punishment of choice for Africian Americans. When Stacey Patton penned her memoir, of her life as the adoptive child of Myrtle and G. Patton in That Mean Old Yesterday, she compared those turbulent eight years to the life of a slave. Stacey was the slave who endured beatings, displacement and abandonment and who eventually runs away from the abusive massa.
   
   At age five, Stacey's short life is changed with just a visit from the social worker. She is informed by the only mother she knows that she is a foster child and she is just a temporary visitor in the only home she knows. She is eventually placed in the adoptive home of Myrtle and G. Patton, a couple who by all appearances are loving people who cannot have their own biological child. With so much love to give they chose Stacey. And they were the perfect family until the adoption was complete. Then, the first slap, then beatings with a belt, extension cord, shoe, hands and fist began by this loving adoptive mother. In Myrtle eyes, this was done in love, after all, it would be better for her to beat Stacey than the police and the Bible says "The blueness of a wound cleans away evil" and "Spare the rod, spoil the child." So for eight years Stacey endured the beatings for simple infractions such as her shoes being crooked in the closet, saying "yep" instead of yes. Until at the age of 13, she could not take it anymore. Rather than sit passively and wait for Myrtle, her massa to beat her to death, Stacey ran.
   
   I sat with my mouth wide open in horror reading Ms Patton's story. Not because of the abuse she suffered, because as a former Child Protective Services worker I had seen it before, but because Ms Patton was so horribly wronged by those who were supposed to protect her. G and other family members knew what was happening and condoned Myrtle's behavior. School teachers and administrators saw the bruises and did not report it; doctors and nurses treated her injuries and did not report them, and the police placed the blame on her and sent her back to her abusers. Through all of this, Ms. Patton had an inner strength and a strong will that could not be broken. When she got tired of the abuse, she ran away and steadfastly refused to return to her adoptive parents' home. Where many would have thought that life ina group home or the system would have been her demise, she excelled in school and sports. She received a full scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, despite the naysayers. She was one of the kids who beat the system. She refused to let the title "Ward of the State of New Jersey" hold her back. She had dreams and she did not let her dreams be deferred.
   
   That Old Mean Yesterday is not an easy read and I would not recommend it to everybody. Those who read the Darkest Child by Delores Phillips, Neecy's Lullaby by Cris Burke, The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, Somebody's Someone by Regina Louise or A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown might be able to relate to this novel. It is hard to believe a child could overcome all the obstacles placed in front of them, but Ms. Patton did and is to be congratulated for her tenacity and accomplishments.
   
   Jeanette
   APOOO BookClub



4. Stacey Patton writes with the power of a Claude Brown, and her story of her childhood as a ward of the New Jersey foster care system is just as wrenching, and ultimately hopeful, as Manchild in the Promised Land. Ms. Patton has a remarkable gift in being able to step aside of her own brutal treatment and place it in a much larger, historical context -- the legacy of slavery. It is quite brilliant the manner in which she moves the story from the beatings she suffered at the hands of an adoptive mother, who was not poor at all, but the wife of a Christian minister. Whippings, supposedly intended to raise a good child, physically and emotionally scarred Stacey, but they could not destroy her amazing resiliency,spunk and vision. Her escape from a cruel and violent housefold was accomplished despite the bumblings of agents of the State's foster care agency. It is fair to ask how far can the thesis of a link between slavery and the everyday violence of some families and communities be carried. And one can also fairly ask, how can we get this book into the hands of every public servant who has to serve as the last protector and intermediary for children who become wards of the state?



5. I found it hard to put the book down. Disturbing. Heartwrenching."Makes me want to holler" --- but inspiring!!
   I met Stacey when she was 14 and just starting out at The Lawrenceville School. She was our babysitter. My husband is part of her story. I knew her life was challenging but I didn't know the depth until reading her book.
   Stacey adds a historical perspective to her story which opens the possibility of great discussions and conversations.
   This is an important book. Pass it on..

5 comments about The Coalwood Way.

1. Another excellent book by Homer Hickam, If you don't read the trilogy you're missing a true West Virginia experience



2. Dr. Werner von Braun once said, "Matters of faith are not really accessible to our rational thinking. I find it best not to ask any questions, but to just believe..." These words are truly conveyed throughout the second of Homer Hickam Jr.'s memoirs, The Coalwood Way, originally published in 2000. Although following his acclaimed, Rocket Boys, this compelling story does not continue where the last left off. Portions of the memoir take place during the same time period as the last, however, this tome portrays the life of Homer "Sonny" Hickam in a different light. This particular memoir focuses on Sonny's senior year in high school and the hardships he must go through when growing up. In addition to working diligently on creating improved rockets, Sonny must focus on achieving A's in school. Most importantly, he must focus on his family. In 1959 Coalwood, West Virginia is a ticking bomb and as it becomes more and more difficult to keep the mines running, the bomb seems to always be the verge of exploding leaving the people out of jobs, homes and, even worse, their town. Sonny must now try to keep his family together while the town falls apart and yet keep alive the dream of leaving in order to join his role model, Dr. Werner von Braun, at Cape Canaveral.
   Sonny Hickam is on his way to fulfilling his dreams as the book begins. However there a few obstacles on the way. Troubles in his family prevent Sonny from leading an easy, carefree life. His mother, Elsie, is growing increasingly impatient with Sonny's father. Sonny's father, Homer, is the mine superintendent and with the opening of a dangerous new mine, 11 East; ultimately, he is home even less often than usual. The strain on the marriage becomes too much for Sonny's mother and she insists on leaving Coalwood to escape to Myrtle Beach in order to sell real estate. In addition to his domestic hardships, Sonny is having troubles with himself. Every so often, although only lasting a few minutes, Sonny will find himself engulfed in an unexplainable grief. This mystery baffles Sonny day after day. As he searches for the origin of this mystery grief, he learns more than he ever imagined. Sonny's emotions and adventures are vividly depicted through a truly sentimental story, splashed with humor in all the right places. The writing style of Homer Hickam in this memoir is once again captivating and absolutely unforgettable.
   Although one may think memoirs aren't written well due to the lack of an experienced writer, The Coalwood Way reads like an old time fable. It is written in such a way that you are taken from your own world and thrown into the small town in West Virginia. Hickam depicts Coalwood in such a way that the image of every part of the quaint town is etched into your mind. His method of writing will bring you to tears when tragedy strikes and laughter when Sonny finds himself in a humorous predicament.
   This memoir is all about finding yourself and realizing that whenever life trips you up, someone will always be there to catch you when you fall. Throughout this lucid story, Sonny tries to find himself, and while looking down on his beloved town, he finally realizes the answer to what he's being puzzling all along. He understands his feelings, thinking: "My parents, and all the people of Coalwood, had given me the only true gifts they could ever give, that of their wisdom, and of their dreams, and of their love. All fear, sadness, and anger inside me had vanished. I knew who I was and where I came from and who my people were. I was ready to leave because I could never leave." Once Sonny realizes he can let go of the past, he is able to finally leave his hometown with the closure he needs to succeed.



3. "The Coalwood Way" is the part 2 contiuation of the "Rocket Boys", AKA:"October Sky". I just really like the way Mr. Hickam tells his story in his books. I find them to be "Americana" like- a success story from a humble start. I think the series could be a must read for middle and high school students as a way to see their potential in their own future and not just the here and now. A great book (and series) to read!



4. I'm not sure where the below reviewers are coming from. The Coalwood Way, although including the Rocket Boys, is very much different from the first memoir. And it is not a bunch of disconnected stories, not at all! The Coalwood Way opens with Sonny Hickam in a strange depression a year after the death of his grandfather who had lost his legs in the coal mine. It is a depression he struggles with throughout the book and is the core thread. How he determines what is causing that depression really fills out a part of the original memoir that was left out and provides us with insight as to how he ultimately succeeds. Hickam reveals how that last winter in Coalwood so much is happening to him and his friends. His rockets are starting to work, but nothing else does. He even lets Chipper, his mom's beloved squirrel, escape into the winter cold and snow. He also meets Dreama, a young woman also struggling, and wanting Sonny to be her friend. Dreama is considered something like white trash, and is living with one of the most detestable men in town. Sonny also falls for Ginger who dreams of being a professional singer and provides an interesting counterpoint to the coal miners' sons of Coalwood with their dreams of spaceflight. "Dad," or Homer, Sr. is also struggling, trying to open a part of the mine that has defeated previous mine superintendents but upon which the future of Coalwood depends. "Mom," or Elsie, struggles with her failure to win the annual Veteran's Day parade (Coalwood's float has always won before), as well as her continuing attempts to get Homer, Sr. to quit the mine before black lung kills him. Elsie also identifies very much with Dreama and wants to help her but is held back by the "Coalwood way". The story is told with Hickam's tradmark humor and there are as many laugh out loud moments as tears. The dramatic arc of these threads to the story all join in a night of murder and mayhem when Coalwood is also buried in a huge snowstorm and cut off from the rest of the world. This is followed by another night of hope and amazing redemption on Christmas Eve that will cause even the hardest heart to melt. In many ways, this is Hickam's Coalwood Christmas story and it's a great one. You will love it.



5. A story told first time can be fasicnating. As Rocket Boys was. The same story told second time is just boring. The first one had a backbone: boys trying to achieve the goal despite the circumstances. The second one - ranomly selected stories about this or that - I simply don't care. Meaningless and boring