5 comments about Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy.

1. I have not yet been fortunate to physically travel to Italy but I can say with certainty that while reading Mr. Tucker's book, I made an intellectual journey to Italy. What a read! I felt as if I was seeing, smelling, touching, tasting every bit that Italy has to offer through the words of Mr. Tucker. Thank you, Mr. Tucker, for taking me along with you. I hope that in the near future my family and I will have the privilege of experiencing this wonderful country.



2. This is a fun escape into a new venture. The author takes the reader along to the new life he and his wife are experiencing as they share the beauty and excitement of living among the Italian olive groves and fig trees with a few sips of wine and great pasta! Learning the language as they live it is as delightful as it is challenging.



3. Michael Tucker is a great story teller and this story will make you want to pack your bag. As with most TV actors you feel you know Tucker and his wife Jill Eikenberry (LA Law). The story of finding and remodeling an italian farm house is every traveler's dream. Tucker's description of the house, the village, and becoming part of the community is engaging. The only problem is the story ends too soon!



4. Basically this book is a diary of Michael Tucker's time in Umbria and the things they ate while they were there. While it is midly entertaining - it's definately not the best travelogue I've ever read. Also I thought author came off as condesending which was a real turn off to read.



5. If you are at all a sensualist, particularly with regard to food, this is a must read. There are other enjoyable aspects to the book - the relationship between Mr. Tucker and his wife, reflections on friendship and celebrity, with a nod to learning to become "unfamous".
   
   But the core of the book is an epicurean approach to life. The story serves, really, as illustration of a way of seeing food, wine and even love.
   
   Nice work. I can't wait for the next book.

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

1. This is a mesmerizing and powerful book, certainly one of the best books I've read in quite a long time. This is the first book in recent memory that's prompted me to email all my friends saying, "Read this!"
   
   The Lost tells the true story of the author's search to discover what happened to his great-uncle's family in WWII. His relatives can say only that Schmiel, his wife Ester and their four daughters were killed by the Nazis in their small Polish town. Daniel Mendelsohn becomes obsessed with knowing more than that; he needs to have a deeper knowledge of how and when these family members died. This desire takes him from Poland to Israel, Australia and Sweden to interview Holocaust survivors who knew his family and can offer up clues as to how they lived their final years, days, moments.
   
   This a deeply personal and emotional book. I found it very moving and impossible to stop thinking about once I'd finished the book. The account of how Schmiel and his family struggled to survive in Bolechow won't soon leave you.
   
   Daniel Mendelsohn's book is a masterpiece, combining the most intimate family memories with a larger theoretical and theological conversation. Brilliant.



2. One of the best and most treasurable books on the subject of memory and the Holocaust, this is a book in particular of and for the second generation, the children and grand-children of Holocaust survivors who bear--like Mendelsohn who, spitting image of his murdered great-uncle Shmiel the subject of this book, could make his older relatives cry just by walking into the room--so much of the burden of memory and loss. I won't repeat the premise of the book which has been amply covered by the other reviewers, except to add that this book in many ways is designed as a kind of Citizen Kane of Holocaust literature, in which the author finds witnesses who tell their stories, each a slightly different refraction as though through a prism of an ultimately unknowable truth, and thereby pursues the many threads of a mystery buried in the recesses of the past in order to discover, reveal and clarify, to bring closure and permit one to live on. In doing so, the author gives a final, and enduring dignity to the lives of his great-uncle and family who would otherwise have disappeared into oblivion with the simple epitaph, "killed by the Nazis." The writing is very personal, but to see it as self-indulgent as some reviewers have suggested, is mistaken. This is a personal quest as much as it is an archeology, and the author's mental landscape is thus very much a part of the unraveling, and in light of his erudition and expert writing, highly enriching. Yes, the reading demands patience, but that is the nature of a quest, whose value lies as much, if not primarily, in the process--in the arduousness of the pilgrimage, as it were--as much as in the attainment of the destination. A survivor remarks, in one of the vignettes, "There were the Egyptians with their pyramids. There were the Incas of Peru. And there was the Jews of Bolechow." Every personal tragedy is all-encompassing for the one who endures it, every loss of an individual the loss of a world. It is a tribute to the powers of the author that he makes us care--very much--about the life, and the death, of the Jews in the town of Bolechow more than half a century ago, sitting astride modern history, leaving but faint traces in the memories and the lives of the survivors, of a great, vanished civilization.



3. There were parts of this book I liked a lot, but it had a lot of problems.
   
   The book is repetitive and dwells on many useless details that do not add to any aspect of the various stories being told.
   
   The author does not seem to be able to decide what he's doing. He says that he wants to know what happened to lost relatives but what he really wants to do is reminisce about his grandfather; visit and describe holocaust survivors without ever telling much detail of their stories; and comment upon biblical and classical texts in an effort to draw meaning from the holocaust. Although logically starting his search by visiting the town in which the relatives resided, the author apparently arrived without a plan. He randomly runs into an old woman who tells him a snippet about what she saw happen to some Jewish people. Then he leaves and spends years traveling all over the globe to talk to survivors who would have no way of knowing what happened because they left or were in hiding. In the last pages of the book he returns to the relatives' home town and again, randomly, runs into people on the street. This time he is lucky and finds someone who knows what happened. If he were really trying to find out what happened to his family, he didn't need to travel around the world to do that. He just needed to stay in town a little longer and do some investigative work.
   
   I found the story telling precious. There are a couple of instances in which the author tells you that characters about whom he's written at length told him stories that he can't tell us. I hate being told repetitively, "I know something you don't know." It's insulting to the reader and should just be left out.
   
   Summary: The effort to develop a greater context for the story of the author's relatives is legitimate but executed so heavy-handedly that the story of the lost relatives is diminished. A good editor with a hatchet could have cut a couple hundred pages out of this book and made it much better.



4. I gave this book only three stars , because it bills itself as a holocaust story when it is not. If this book were touted as a story of search and self discovery, it would have received five stars. The writing quality was five stars. This author is a gifted essayist. If you want to read a 500 page essay, then you will like this. Like many Jews, Mendelsohn grew up with grandparents from the old country speaking heavily accented Yiddish inflected English. They told colorful tales from their Shtetles. They told stories within stories in the Yiddish tradition. The author was most entranced with his grandfather and loved hearing his tales about growing up in Bolechow. Bolechow was a village at times part of the Ukraine and at others part of Poland not far from Lvov. All of Mendalsohns grandparents' siblings came to the states. However, one brother, Shmiel, returned to Bolechow to make his life there. He prospered, married , and had four daughters. His youngest was 13 when the nazis arrived. All six perished during WWII. With snippets of information, a few photographs, a few documents, the author goes on a mission to discover their exact fate. That is he wanted to know exactly how they lived and how and when they died. He learns that Shmiel had at least one and probably two trucks which the Nazi's coveted. He learns that the prettiest of his daughters, Frydka, was the most charismatic and lively of the girls. He learns that their Ukrainan and Polish neighbors felt a seething anti-semitism towards them. He learns that the Poles and Ukrainians often joined in the nazi brutality. So what else is new? In his search he forges a new and stronger relationship with his photographer brother, Matt, delves into biblical texts, rabbinical interpretations of those texts, and travels the globe seeking survivors from Australia, Scandinavia, Ukraine, and Israel. Along with snippets of information, mere wisps that only flesh out the characters of his search minimaly, we read his thoughts on a myriad of subjects. This author clearly wanted to enlarge the barest of historical data into a book long tome. The information he gleaned in his search could be written in no more than 20 pages. There are numerous repetitive references, descriptions of turns of phrases and meaningful glances. He digresses into comparisons between the story of Noah and Soddom and Gomorrah with the destruction and death of innocents in the Holocaust. I did not find the comparisons convincing justification for the evil perpetrated in the Holocaust. He further compared Rashi's and Friedman's interpretations of these parts of the Talmud as well as the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Issac. He delves into the Lech lecha portion of the Talmud which was his Bar Mitzvah Torah portion. He throws in the Homerian classics like the Iliad and the Oddysey as a comparison of his journey for the truth. Over and over we get the message that the story is in the journey and not what he discovers about these 6 relatives. He quotes and refers to Proust as an ideal to whom he aspires. I have to say that I really don't care for Proust. I think his writing is entirely too verbose and flowery. Sadly, each of the six family members who perished could have been saved had his grandfather been able to provide $5000 for each of them to guarantee that they would not have become a burden on the U.S. Unfortunately, he could not. Nevertheless, it is merely academic that any of the six would have been allowed to leave Poland and get a U.S. visa at that time even if he had been able to provide the financing. Mostly, the U.S. state department was then and probably still is anti-semetic. They threw up barriers at every turn to keep Jews out of our country. History will not look kindly on them including and especially Joe Kennedy who as the English ambassodor under Roosevelt refused to give the fleeing Jews visas to the states. Roosevelt refused to allow the St. Louis to dock with its fleeing desperate Jews many of whom paid dearly to board the ship. They were the rich and educated. Yet they were returned to the ovens in Germany. Germany planned the incident and used it to prove that no one in the world really cared what he did to the Jews. For the most part he was correct. One can read Constantine's Sword to see that the Catholic church turned a blind eye. Yet instead of being a Holocaust book of great depth and information, we are led on this journey of self discovery recounted in enough detail to fill a 500 page book. Mendelsohn is a talented author. He can turn a phrase. He can make the detailed descriptions of his journey interesting to the reader. I actually think that children of survivors might find this book interesting as a suggestion of what they too might do before all the surviviors are dead. If that is what you want then you will be satisfied. Otherwise, you will be disappointed. This is not a holocaust story.



5. I am so thankful to have read this story. I read many reviews here and some seem to have missed the point completely. They definitely saw a tree or two, but the forest is really where it's at! This book, in my opinion, takes patience, just as it took patience for Mendelsohn to travel and interview all of those people along the way.
   
   Early on I figured out that he intended to tell more than the story of those lost six. In telling their story, he was telling the story of the six million. In telling the story of these memories, he told the story of his own journey. In telling about his family he showed me things about my own family. His inclusion of scripture showed how the stories of our time are really the stories of all time. He was no great Jew - but he discovered his faith and heritage along the way. In our fast food society (no longer eating the same foods made by our grandparents and great-grandparents!) we just want the bottom line now. This story was more than just a period at the end of Uncle Schmiel's life.
   
   I do agree the book could have used a bit of editing (so do I so I should know!) and I would have enjoyed captions on Matt's photos, but I definitely liked having them woven throughout the story. I'm not Jewish and I'm not a writer, but after reading this book I would very much like to be the main character of a good story!
   
   "To be alive today is to have a story to tell. To be alive is precisely to be the hero, the center of a life story. When you can be nothing more than a minor character in somebody else's tale, it means that you are truly dead." This is where it's at. Mendelsohn wasn't bragging about what a great story teller he is! He just knew there was a story to tell and wanted to tell it in a different way that would teach us along the way. If you just want morbid Holocaust stories, try the evening news. This book is about life.

5 comments about Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic.

1. Expecting Adam is Martha Beck's engrossing memoir of her pregnancy with her second child, who has Down syndrome. She and her husband, John, both Ph.D. students at Harvard, decide to keep the baby, for reasons they can't at first articulate, and even though doing so goes against most of the values of their Ivy League community.
   
   During the pregnancy, Martha and John experience deep transformations of their worldviews, values, and ambitions. Each also has numerous spiritual and paranormal experiences which they understand to be connected to their unborn child. Most of these experiences are so strange that for many months Martha and John don't even confide in each other.
   
   The Harvard community Martha paints is bleak. Intellectual prestige and appearance are the supreme values. "Knowing a great deal is the norm and knowing everything is the goal, [but] appearing to know everything is considered an acceptable substitute." In order to survive in this culture, Martha consciously calls up a sort of alter ego, named Fang, before every visit to campus. Fang is fearless, aggressive, disdainful, and competitive.
   
   Martha also paints a less than sympathetic view of the passionate feminists who apparently exist in large numbers at Harvard. After one public bout of morning sickness, Martha is approached by one such feminist, a stranger, who says, "I think it's time you stop kissing up to the enemy... This crap about -- what do they call it? -- morning sickness. You know it isn't real... All of those myths were made up to justify denying women access to decent jobs and positions in society... I don't care if you think you can help it or not... It makes us all look bad... Just stop it."
   
   With the exception of a few amazingly supportive friends, this is the context and community in which Martha and John learn that the baby they are expecting has Down syndrome. Their community is often intolerant of healthy pregnancies, not to mention unhealthy ones. The Beck's are pressured on every side to abort -- by fellow grad students, professors, advisors, colleagues and medical professionals. Not to do so is considered both foolish and irresponsible.
   
   These pressures are intensified by Martha's nearly constant "morning sickness" (actually an autoimmune disease not diagnosed until many years later), John's frequent absences due to consulting assignments in Asia, and the anxieties they both have about raising a mentally impaired child.
   
   Martha and John find reassurance and strength in strange places. This is where the spiritual and paranormal experiences come in. They have visions, sometimes even "seeing" each other across continents. And they frequently sense the presence of spiritual beings who they believe speak to them, give them peace, orchestrate events in their favor, and in at least two instances save Martha from grave physical danger.
   
   The ending of the story is never in doubt. Throughout her memoir Martha intersperses chapters about Adam after he is born. He is a beautiful child.
   
   This book was an easy and engrossing read. I particularly enjoyed Martha's and John's transformation from a thin existence characterized by mindless striving, excessive individualism, emotional hunger, and disbelief in all things spiritual, to a thicker existence that was more human and allowed for (in fact, could not deny) a spiritual dimension to life.
   
   I also appreciated Martha's instinctive sense of the vulnerability and humanity of her unborn child. At one point she describes an exchange between herself and her obstetrician, who pressures her to terminate her pregnancy:
   
   "'I would not make the choice that you have made,' he went on steadily. 'I have never known anyone who would.' ...
   
   'I don't know,' I mumbled. 'I guess I just... can't reject him.' It was a miserably inadequate statement. My real feeling, the one I couldn't articulate yet, was that my entire life hinged on knowing that there were people who would continue to love me unconditionally, even if I were damaged, even if I were sick. Such love was the only thing that had sustained me during the turmoil of the past months. If I eliminated my child because of his disability, if I put him out of my life, I would be violating the only thing that was keeping me alive. I'd be ripping the rug out from under my own feet."
   
   In addition, I was touched by Martha's descriptions of life with Adam and the insights she gained because of him. For example: "I was afraid Adam would slow me down, and he has. Not because he has required more care and time than a 'normal' boy (he is the most helpful and least demanding of my children) but because the immediacy and joy with which he lives his life make rapacious achievement, Harvard-style, look a lot like quiet desperation." Another example: "[Adam] has taught me to look at things in themselves, not at the value a brutal and often senseless world assigns to them. As Adam's mother I have been able to see quite clearly that he is no less beautiful for being called ugly, no less wise for appearing dull, no less precious for being seen as worthless. And neither am I. Neither are you. Neither is any of us."
   
   I had a few disappointments with the book. First, I grew tired of reading about Martha's sickness and her seeming neglect of her own medical needs. I began to wonder how, if she was so sick, she kept up with her doctoral studies, mothered her two-year-old daughter, and kept the voluminous journal that she said she relied on to write her memoir more than 10 years after the fact.
   
   I was also disappointed by Martha's misunderstanding of, and opposition to, the pro-life movement, notwithstanding her own profound experiences. She expresses puzzlement that religious people who possess "a devout belief in the life of the spirit" and a "belief that life exists outside of mortal bounds" are the same people who are "so obsessed with a fetus's 'right to life' on this messy little planet." What she doesn't understand is that such people (I include myself) are not devoted to some belief about the nature of spiritual life, but to God himself, the Author of life, who creates humans in his own image. Because he is the Author, that life is sacred and created for his purposes, not our own.
   
   I also found myself wanting to better understand Martha's and John's spiritual experiences. I hoped that these obviously significant experiences would lead somewhere coherent. But Martha and John seemed content not to question, categorize, or define their experiences. Martha simply called the visions the "Seeing Thing" and the spiritual beings the "Bunraku puppeteers" (after a Japanese puppet show). Perhaps their attitude is understandable in view of the Mormon faith in which they each were raised and each abandoned. Nevertheless, their spirituality seems to turn into a free floating, New Age-ish, therapeutic sort of thing. When they conceived Adam, it was as if a door cracked open providing a way out of a harsh philosophic reductionism, but the door never leads anywhere coherent.
   
   Lastly, as I hinted above, I had some doubts about the author's credibility. I wondered how a memoir like this, chock-full of details and verbatim dialogues, could be written so many years after the fact, even with the aid of a journal. I also began to wonder if Martha was prone to exaggeration and caricature. And I questioned the sheer number of strange voices, visions, presences, and events that she describes. After reading the book, I found some biographical information about Martha that, unfortunately, only added to my doubts about her credibility.
   
   Nevertheless, this story was engrossing, moving, and enjoyable.



2. This book was recommended by a writer-friend saying it was well written and an interesting read. I was sucked in by the writer for a few pages, but then decided to start listing all the inconsistencies and reality-defying events. By page 95, where I am now, I have 10 major ones listed. Then I remembered the lately discussion about Fake Memoirs and thought, hey lets see what the reviewers on Amazon say. I'm surprised at the large number of reviewers who believe this stuff actually happened as written. She might have gone to Harvard and might have a Down's syndrome kid, but after that, it pure fiction. Try imagine writing about what you had in the refrigerator on day 26 of vomiting 10 years later. But you have to give Ms. Beck credit for a vivid imagination; similar to a paranoid-compulsive nephew I know who can make up the most compelling fictitious event scenarios; way better than I can.



3. I was primed for this book. Our third grandson, Adam, had just been born (August 5), when I visited a bookstore just down the street from the hospital. So the title, Expecting Adam, quite naturally practically leapt off the shelf into my hands. I originally thought, what a great gift for my daughter (the new mother), but when I read it was a story about having a child with Down Syndrome, I reconsidered. Our particular Adam, although a few weeks premature, seemed pretty much perfect, and I didn't want to needlessly upset the new mom. I needn't have worried. This is an absolutely wonderful book, told with humor, compassion, wit, wisdom and a nearly other-worldy sense of wonder. And did I mention humor? Because this woman is a very funny writer. The numerous references to invisible beings, whether she calls them angels or Bunraku puppeteers, and intercontinental telepathy are the kind of thing that would normally put me off, as I am a natural skeptic. But somehow Beck pulls it off. Probably because she believes it, she makes me believe it too - all of it. My wife wants to read it now. (She'd seen Martha Beck on Oprah some time ago, she tells me.) We will then pass the book along to our daughter to read. We know she will relate, and probably cry a little, when she reads Beck's perfect descriptions of a tiny foot the size of a man's thumb and a head the size of an orange. Babies. Ain't they just the grandest things?! I'll say it again. This is a wonderful book. - Tim Bazzett, author of the ReedCityBoy trilogy



4. Read this book if: you are struggling with the belief that you must be perfect to be loved. I have read other Beck books. I especially liked Leaving the Saints. And like some of the other reviewers here, I occasionally pause, scratch my head, and say "can all of this stuff really happen to one person?"and "is it possible she is taking literary license with some of the details? And then I look at my own life, and I think, NO. If all of us told the truth of our own existence, the late night thoughts, the dreams, the spiritual experiences, we'd all sound like lunatics. These are the things we must share with each other and these are the things we don't share because we are afraid some "reviewer" will skewer us or smirk or otherwise besmirch our integrity and sanity. I loved this book. It brought me back to the power of my dreams and my connection with the divine. I thank Martha and Adam for the inspiration and love shared.



5. As many have mentioned, Beck's story has very little to do with Adam, her son, and everything to do with the many miracles that she feels surrounded his gestation.
   
   The assumption is that something very spiritual took place. I don't doubt that's true. But I found her position to be highly unbalanced.
   
   Being the scholar that she is, I have to wonder how she wrote this memoir as "truth" when the subject matter cannot be proven.
   
   The red flags are:
   
   1) From A to Z this story is presented with *high emotion.*
   2) While she was expecting Adam she was under tremendous stress.
   -she was physically hampered by a difficult pregnancy compounded by an autoimmune disfunction (which she doesn't name).
   -her academic requirements would have produced enough stress to put the Dali Lama on Prozac.
   -she had very little family support
   -she was caring for another child under the age of two.
   -after her appartment building caught fire, when she claimed she and her toddler nearly died, she kept right on pushing herself to the extreme. She sought no psychological help for what must surely have been a traumatizing event.
   -when her fears that "something was wrong" with her baby were confirmed, she kept pace with all her stress. She worked and studied and cared for her other child. It seems to me she took very little care for her physical and mental health.
   
   Another thing to consider is that her other books are also questionable. A quick background check into the controversies surrounding her life and experiences suggests there is no middle ground present in this woman, only extremes. Her pendulums swing all the way to the right or left. They don't appear to rest anywhere in between. This has landed her in more than one sticky situation. Beck and former husband John once co-authored a book on abstaining from homosexuality. Today they are divorced and both are openly gay. She also wrote about leaving the Mormon church, where she accuses her father of molesting her. Her seven other siblings all contest her reportings, some were said to have shared a room WITH her and have no idea how molestation could have taken place without thier knowledge. Even John felt the need to respond to her portrayal of events, feeling they were inadequate and unfair. To date she's at odds with her family, her husband John (so highly represented in the book, they are now divorced) and the Mormon church of her upbringing. Controversy is to Martha Beck as ink is to paper.
   
   By now this review sounds largely negative. Let me add that Martha's writing is stellar and extremely readable. Even believable. To the untrained eye, this is an amazing account.
   
   If you, like me, have that niggling suspicion her perception of supernatural abetting may indeed be larger than life there is one question to be considered: Is the niggling doubt of a spiritual manifestation? Or could it merely be common sense...
   
   I will close by mentioning that I too have kept journals of my experiences in life. Looking back I could easily assign spirituality as the sole benefactor of certain events. But it wouldn't be fair to present myself as though that were the ONLY cause of my life's outcomes. My choices and actions are part of the equation. One also has to wonder if Beck's perceptions were in any way altered by psychological (perhaps peri-partum depression? anxiety? Outright psychosis?) were in any way a factor in her view of what was happening inside (and outside) of her body at that time.

5 comments about Let Me Hear Your Voice: A Family's Triumph over Autism.

1. We are the parents of a severely autistic adult and the founder of a school for autistic children.Katherine Maurice's book accurately and sensitively portrays a search that mirrors our own.One of the virtues of the book is that,like many parents, she has tried alternative therapies for her autistic children and analyzes them dispassionately and objectively. Her children benefitted from Applied Behavior Analysis, as has ours and the children in the school we founded.However,the positive results are not universal or complete, and the final cures for autism await the progress of advanced neuroscience.



2. I chose to give a reaction to the book because I found myself having many while I read. Overall, I felt the book was like an infomercial for the Lovaas method.
   
   What I did enjoy about the book was watching Catherine outline her own journey. Her stages of grief were so clearly apparent and moving. I also enjoyed finding myself with a renewed energy around behavioral therapy. She also showed that parents have to work with and partner with professionals for their child's success. Often, parents want their child "fixed" by professionals. Lastly, the interventions broken down by developmental area at the back of the book was excellent. I have recommended many of those myself.
   
   What I did not enjoy about the book was that it seemed outdated. While this is not a criticism of the book itself as it was appropriate at the time she wrote it, it is a concern because parents may read this book to find inspiration or guidance in this day and age when many things have changed. Therapists (at least in California) no longer believe in psychodynamic therapy to treat children with autism. As a matter of fact, Freudian therapy, which she mentioned several times, is considered antiquated even for typical people. Her book was packed with obvious bitterness toward the classically trained therapist and toward what seemed like the Psychology "establishment" in general. Then she spoke of the Lovaas techniques repeatedly under the framework that her children were recovered. Many parents looking for answers may interpret this as a cure. I don't believe autism can be "cured" so much as the symptoms can be managed through constant work and attention.
   
   Toward the end of the book, she advises fighting for what a parent wants and how to do it. I think the "how to" is important, such as gathering documentation and presenting facts, but the legalistic attitude I have issue with. Some parents may have to escalate their case into a battle, but I don't believe it has to start out that way. I have found in my practice parents, with whom I have never worked before, walk through the door with aggressive attitudes. While I appreciate their spirit, it sends up red flags. I work for a private agency and we are not "required" to choose to work with every family that calls on us. As a result, if we find parents "difficult" in the beginning, we try to be empathetic to their situation, but we may choose not work with them at all. What's even more frustrating is that these parents may not be difficult at all, but the guidance parents get to fight for everything all the time may send a different message.
   
   I felt the book may send false hopes of cures using the behavioral methods and a fight fight fight orientation that may cause professionals to get the wrong idea about families. I think there are more current books that can give stories of inspiration such as Temple Grandin's Thinking in Pictures.



3. A wonderful and very quick read! I recommend this book for anyone with a child, friend or family member with autism.



4. Maurice enlightens the mind to the real world. The struggles that her family endured to help their children and the future of autism on research development. She writes this from the time when blame was placed upon the mother. She tells how she dealt with her emotions of that blame. This is an excellent book for a parent of a child with autism or an educator alike.



5. the most honest look at her story and the trials and tribulations that came with it. EXCELLENT READ

5 comments about The Vixen Diaries.

1. When I read Karrine's first book, I felt that she was delusional to believe that she had evolved into something other than a wounded, promiscuous "vixen". In her second book, it cemented my first belief about her. She is probably the most delusional person I have ever had the misfortune to read about. She believes her stories about the various men she slept with for money has made her a "celebrity", instead of the joke she is. I have never seen someone refer to themselves as "best selling author" so many times in a book! She comes off bitter, childish, and still doesnt get why she is the girl a man calls for some fun, but marries someone else! Every chapter outlined her emotional merry go rounds that was usually tied to a man-if she wasnt at a party, she was in a man's bed or in a psych ward, and I felt sorry for her son every chapter. I cringe to think of the values he is learning from this person. Her happiness,self worth and beliefs directly coincides with her possessions and how much money she has in the bank. Andthen for her to out "Papa" at the end, the man she claims she loves and respects so much and who now has to face his wife, was deplorable(even though it was widely rumored it was this person, anyway). To wrap this up, I found myself rolling my eyes as I read chapter after chapter of her self proclaimed celebritydom, and was glad when it ended. I felt sorry for her son throughout, and my only hope for Karrine is that she gets some true help so that she can be the mother her son deserves.



2. Karrine Steffans has written another book about her personal life. This book was much different but yet quite the same as Confessions of a Video Vixen. She shares very intimate parts of her life and her love in the spotlight with her readers. In some ways you see a growth in her and in other ways you don't.
   
   This book goes into details of relationships and the effects that they have on her. She clearly displays how damaging and destructive they are for her and how addicted she is to them. Through the eyes of a reader I see the pain she is in, not for failed relationship but for the lack of them. She seems to equate love and sex as one of the same. As one reads they see the confusion that dwells inside and it makes you empathize with her and also makes you wonder why or what happened that has left her scared to the point that she has not opened her eyes to see.
   
   Karrine Steffans, leave much to be desired of her parenting practices. Even though she don't go into many details of her son's life it leads me to believe that she may not be parenting but simply allowing her child to live under her roof. Unfortunately, this happens in a lot of households of especially young parents. I also wonder who is with him during her nights out.
   
   After reading this book I felt a need to try and reach out to Ms. Steffans. I wanted to give her words of encouragement to keep pressing forward. I was particularly concerned in the first book about the drug usage and how was she going to clean that portion of her life up. However, reading Vixen Diaries I realize she was not addicted to the drugs but more addicted to a lifestyle. The drugs were just apart of it but never a real issue. Her underlying issues seem to still be ever so present in her life yet, she is learning new ways to deal with them.
   
   I would recommend this book only if you have read the first one. I would love to read more as this young lady continue to press forward in life. My prayers are definitely with her and more importantly Naiim her son.



3. This book is an excellent example of how a person can easily be distracted when trying to accomplish certain goals.
   While Karrine's story may be considered an extreme; she is a mirror of the many women that have a problem distinguishing the difference between love and sex.
   This book is also a great read for all the juicy celebrity gossip as well!



4. Well where do I start? This book was absolutely garbage. It was written in the form of Diary entries. Who really cares what Karrine does in her everyday life. This book gets a big fat yawn from me and is now proudly propped up underneath my air conditioner to help hold it in place.
   
   It is obvious this author did not write the first book and even more obvious she was locked in a two book deal and had to throw something together quick before she had to give all the money back she constantly talked about in the book.
   
   Borrow do not buy!



5. What a waste. All she talked about was Bill (old), Bobby Brown (played out), and Ray J (lame-o). Then she talks about how she's a celebrity, all about class and culture, and doesn't need to depend on anybody to provide for her. Yet, she's still quick to jump in the sack with anyone who shows any kind of interest in her. The majority of the time these guys only want her for one thing: sex. Then they go back home to their wives and girlfriends. It's amazing that a so-called accomplished career woman who has it "all" would be so desperate enough to sleep with any guy who crosses her path. I see a pattern here, but obviously she doesn't. She talks about how how much she loves her son, yet she continues to have many strange men coming in and out of their loves, using her for a cheap thrill. What type of an example is she setting for her son? Despite her whorish reputation I'm surprised that a lot of guys want to be with her. Jamie Fox was smart not to touch that. From what I've heard she's now writing a book called "Vixen Manuals"- "a book about love, sex and relationships through the eyes of a woman". Is that a joke? Think twice before spending any money on her books.

5 comments about The Water is Wide.

1. This is my first Pat Conroy book. All of his books have great reviews on Amazon, so I wasn't sure which one to start with; I just picked this one. I think I made a very good choice by reading 'The Water Is Wide' first. It's an early book, and I got a lot of insight into who Pat Conroy is, his humor, his goodwill, the kinds of people he surrounds himself with, etc.
   
   I just started reading 'Beach Music' and I really feel an affinity for this author after reading 'The Water is Wide.' I appreciate his ability to write and articulate ideas.
   
   'The Water is Wide' is about the time period in the south in which many people grew up with racial prejudices as a way of life. As children, it's "just the way it is" and they don't know any better. As Mr. Conroy became a man, more educated and involved in the very things he had been taught to dislike as a child, he underwent a huge personal change and touched so many people along the way. I like his kick-*** attitude and how candidly he wrote about everything.
   
   This story moved me on many different levels. This is a book about a man helping others, inspiring others, and overcoming the false beliefs about race that stemmed from his upbringing and culture. It's also about someone who was courageous enough to stand up to authority. It's a wonderful story. If it were fiction, it would be a good story. But the fact that it is based on the author's experience just makes it even better. Can't wait to read the rest of his books!
   
   I looked up Daufuskie (aka Yamacraw) Island on Google and it seems to be a big resort island with golf courses and hotels now; probably nothing like the Yamacraw Mr. Conroy experienced many years ago. Must visit some day anyway.
   
   I searched for the movie 'Conrack' on Amazon, but they seem to only have VHS version sold by a different seller, but not available on DVD. Conrack wasn't on Netflix either. Let's hope it gets re-released on DVD.



2. This is an early example of the promise of Pat Conroy. Everything I have read of his has been extraordinarily beautifully written. There are pages I have to reread just for the joy of the wording, the descriptions, the expressions of thoughts.
   
   As a teacher he must have been a treasure. It is an indictment of the school system in which he worked that he was not fostered and encouraged. America's children are the losers in the situation. I know the people of "Yamacraw" felt the loss when he was not allowed to return to the school there.
   
   America's readers have reaped the benefits of Conroy's education and experience and his exemplary use of the language.
   
   Enjoy!



3. After having read the book, we had an opportunity to tour Daufuskie Island (Yamacraw Island in the book). After the tour we stopped at the General Store and noticed that The Water Is Wide was not offered for sale. We asked about this. We were told the Gullahs thought the book put them down and they did not want the book available on the island. ..... Interesting.



4. While reading The Water is Wide, I experienced exactly the kind of heart-warming, comical, enjoyable reaction Pat Conroy had in mind while writing the book. Several themes are apparent throughout, and it was easy for the reader to recognize the most important one. Pat Conroy taught his students and readers that no matter a person's race, literacy level, age, or gender, everyone matters, and everyone is equal.
   Pat Conroy moved many times as a child, since his father was in the military. His first job was teaching English in Beaufort, South Carolina. He then found himself teaching on the remote Daufuskie Island, which was referred to as Yamacraw Island in the novel. This teaching job provided the inspiration and plot for The Water is Wide.
   Pat Conroy, referred to as "Conrack" by some students, has an excellent way of teaching readers the importance of acceptance and equality. He does not preach or lecture his message, but his delivery of it through countless situations is just as effective. Sometimes his point is concealed by the amusement of the Yamacraw students, but by the end of each chapter, the reader will be reminded of the seriousness at hand.
   The Water is Wide never failed to entertain me. The book takes countless turns in the plot, and each turn results in comedy, sincerity, or amusement. The reader finds him or herself relating to each character, even though the lifestyle on Yamacraw Island is much different from most of the United States. Pat Conroy made me realize how lucky I am to live in a society where education is important and emphasized. This book opened my eyes to how people in other, less fortunate areas of the world live. I recognized that education is imperative, and how much the average student takes for granted.
   While Pat Conroy had no problems capturing my attention with plenty of interesting stories, he sometimes overwhelmed readers with his personality. Several parts of the book were filled with Conroy's strong opinion on characters and school rules. This sometimes interrupted the plot. Other than the occasional rant by Pat Conroy, the book flowed smoothly.
   The Water is Wide was an excellent read for teenagers and adults, especially those interested in teaching. I enjoyed reading this book from cover to cover, and it influenced me in ways only exceptional literature can.



5. The author has an excellent command of words in describing characters and action. Unfortunately, they are not used to good effect in this autobiographical novel.
   
   For me the book lacked interesting characters, a fascinating plotline, and impending danger and escalating conflict. Consequently it lacked ongoing suspense, failing to involve and absorb me in this so-called story.
   
   I say so-called because the book seems more like a a series of isolated incidents, hardly focused on a particular end or goal, and therefore take on a rambling, babbling, numbing quality, one which I, for one, found increasingly boring.
   
   There was no point in the book where I felt I couldn't put the book down and wonder or care about what was going to happen to the main, or even the subordinate, characters. It was all ho-hum. To me, a good book compels me to keep reading, even if I have to stay up all night doing so. Not this one--if anything, it threw me into an uncaring state of somnolence. And many of its points that are continually repeated contribute to this
   
   At page 115 I tossed the book into the trash can so that I could better use my time by reading something better, hopefully a book that is more involving and fascinating.

5 comments about Lost Boy: My Story.

1. Anyone growing up during the 60s will relate to this personal story, especially if they did "the scene" during this time. See how Greg Laurie was "experienced" and not only survived, but came to know and share His saving grace!



2. Years ago I reviewed another book Greg Laurie wrote called "The Great Compromise". I noted that Greg is an honest and engaging writer and speaker, one who does not water down the word of God, but delivers it straight. I am so glad to have had the opportunity to discover how God worked through Pastor Greg, from his early, sad life, through the transforming power of Jesus Christ and onto to what he is today; a man of God who reaches thousands for Christ. And how he came to be that honest, Godly teacher.
   
   The book has a picture of Pastor Greg at one of his Harvest Crusades and the caption reads, "many people experience, when Greg speaks, he is talking just to them." That is how this book read for me. I felt so badly for the child who was pulled to and fro, through a life of instability, and I was astonished at the complete transformation once Jesus gold ahold of this young man. I felt like he was sitting next to me telling me his story. A very personal experience.
   
   I read this book in 24 hours, I simply could not put it down. It's a heartfelt journey. So many times I found myself near tears in gratitude for the restoration of his life. You know, there is just no limit what God can do with a heart that gives itself over to His leading. And Pastor Greg is a living example.



3. I enjoyed this autobiographical sketch of Greg Laurie, a Christian Pastor, especially well-known for his stadium Harvest Crusades in Southern California. One thing I learned about him was his passion for drawing cartoons and how this talent served the first church he attended. Easy- heartwarming read describes his difficult childhood abusive background, yet culminated in a complete character change as he came to understand Biblical teaching. He could have been lost to addiction, etc. This story was especially meaningful to me because of a recent tragedy in Greg Laurie's life (not covered in this book). He lost his boy, his adult, married son in an automobile accident this summer of 2008. His response to this grief is an inspiration to all of us who have or will lose someone we love. I bought this book so I could know the background of this man, Greg Laurie, who is modeling courage along with his tears.



4. Great book. Probably liked it most because it mirrored a life I'm personally familiar with. It's an easy read, with humor and sadness.



5. Greg Laurie grabs your attention from page one. A wonderful book with lots of humor. A nice book to share with friends who are not believers. Anyone would find his story inspiring and fascinating. I highly recommend buying/reading this book.

5 comments about The Road to Nab End: A Lancashire Childhood.

1. One thing that poverty didn't diminish is Woodruff's powers of recall. Though, as soon as he becomes literate, one senses he'll inexorably transcend his meagre beginnings which ring most vividly in this tale. I loved the regional patois as much as the rising political conscience of the working class boy. The years roll by with the daily grind, humilities accompanying the unjust disenfranchisement of workers; Dickensian conditions that were worse in Lancanshire than other industrial zones. Woodruff's effortless prose is as tough as his father's persistent presence and as nuanced as his mum's mercurial mood shifts. Fortunately for readers,'Nab's End' is no end, but a beginning to further tales from post adolesence. Having just closed the covers on Roy McFadyen's, 'at A Cost', I opened Woodruff to discover a parallel story in times bedevilled by poverty and dire economic depression. If you want to visit the comparison and find, at a pinch, an even more extraordinary childhood,'At a Cost' is published and distributed by its author @ 15 Maryann Street, Golden Beach, Queensland, Australia 4551.



2. I came upon this book after hearing brief snippets of it serialised BBC Radio 4 and the World Service.
   It had added interest for me as I know Blackburn (at least modern Blackburn) very well, it was later a surprise to discover I knew virtually nothing of the town.
   The book is evocative and stirring as you follow the authors journey from early childhood to his 16th year, when he finally leaves a deprived, economically and spiritual broken town for London, in hope of work and a better life.
   The journey in between is a rich array of colourful and long forgotton characters and ways of life. Most striking by far is the harshness of past societies in which the poor were virtually ground into the dirt and totally at mercy of commerce. Yet still the love and joy of these kindly, caring and sweet natured people shines through, it took a great deal to make them lose all hope. One cannot help but to think that these poor and hardworking forbares made more than a little of the muscle in the British national psyche.
   The Authors journey is one of love, loss and curiousity, his intelligence is meant for better things than the dust and grime of cotton mills but so hard worked are his people and he that this realisation is a long time coming.
   Highlights characters are Grandma Bridget and the lovley Aunts he visits in Summer. Quite a journey and very much a joy to read.



3. This is a wonderful book which, as an Anglophile, I loved reading. Just a word to those who feel it some of the terms are American. Remember, please, that the author is now living in the US, and new terms become automatically one's own after a while. And yes, there is a sequel to this book!



4. You don't have to have been born in Blackburn (as I was) to appreciate this wonderful true story of a childhood in poverty with all the wit and humour and honesty of the working class. Their hopes for a better and fairer future are vivid and the story ends with an emotional desire from the reader to know how and if this young man succeeds as he takes his steps away from Lancashire. Inevitably the reader will read the sequel Beyond Nab End which is even better but read this first.



5. William Woodruff and I have something in common; we were both born and reared poor in Lancashire, doubly lucky as Mr Woodruff puts it. The book itself is a reader, you pick it up and you can't put it down. There is always something else you want to read in the next chapter. It is a shame the book had an ending to it as it leaves you wanting more.

   Like one of the other reviewers I was a bit disappointed when the text was dumbed down, probably for our American cousins, as little discrepancies showed through the text. For instance, stating ten pennies instead of ten pence (we would have said it 'tenpunce') and the absolute glaring mistake of calling a tanner 6p when it should have been 6d and a dodger is 3d not 3p. Little details like this tend to eat at me.

   The book was easy to read and if you know a little about Lancashire, specifically Blackburn, you will find it fascinating.

   Tim Brimelow 19 May 2003

5 comments about Il Divo: Our Music, Our Journey, Our Words.

1. i thinks.. This Book Is very Incredible book, Have Ever i Read Before.
   this Book Tall About, Many stories About Il Divo, And Them Personal Carier And Life,,
   And I Thinks... We Can Learn Many More.. From They..
   " Before His Succes...
   They Faight.. They Wise Word.. And They.. Life Experience..
   anyone Never, Succes.. Before.. Fail Happen To Theirs Life.. Firts..
   Thanks



2. The four hunks,known as Il Divo, are to be commended for the honesty in which their book is written. So many artists today will not release info on their private lives but Carlos, Seb, David & Urs spoke from their hearts. The thousands of fans know these guys are entitled to a private life off stage and hearing about their wives, girlfriends and their lives growing up make them all the more human. No wonder they are so popular. I highly recommend this book for reading and the pictures aren't bad either. Great book guys, you did a fantastic job.



3. The book is well written and the individual stories of each Il Divo singer brings the reader closer to a better appreciation of their music.



4. First, anything Il Divo is and excellent investment. Second, it is written by the group members themselves which makes the book an accurate telling of their lives rather than an edited second hand version. The pictures are great as well.



5. What a wonderful book. A GREAT READ!! I've enjoyed reading the individual comments. I have more respect for each of the guys and how they relate to each other and to their fans. The early childhood comments are most interesting. I recommend this to any fan to better understand the guys on a personal level. I've read it several times. I especially like the portraits and group pictures.
   
   The interaction among them is interesting as they come from completely different backgrounds. The different cultures must have been difficult to deal with, however, their maturity shows they all compromise. I especially like reading about their interests 'outside' Il Divo...

5 comments about Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I've Learned.

1. As a lover of M*A*S*H I jumped at this book and I'm glad I did.
   
   Alan Alda paints the portrait of his life with beautiful detail. I learned about the relationship he had with his parents. I didn't find the relationship he had with his dad to surprising. I sensed that a lot of who he is today comes from the foundational relationship he had with his dad.
   
   His mom on the other hand was very interesting to read about. I could sense his pain as he described what their relationship was like and at times how he wished it could have been.
   
   I wish he had spent more time on MASH memories and such, but I don't think he should have taken out anything that was in there.
   
   In short you sense the person he was that made him the person he is. I really enjoyed it. Anyone who loves MASH, or is just an Alan Alda fan should grab this book.



2. First of all, let me start out by saying that I have been in love with "Hawkeye Pierce" since girlhood. I grew up watching reruns of M*A*S*H and wishing I was a nurse, girlfriend, or anyone who could be close to this dynamic persona that was Alan Alda. I purchased the book, eager to know more of my childhood crush and was not disappointed. Alan Alda has a sincere writing style that makes you feel like you are in his living room as a trusted friend--rather than as a mere reader trying to find out more about his life. Many times, I laughed out loud at his wonderful stories and recollections. I am very eager to start his next book--which could not be disappointing if only half as good as his first. Thanks Alan Alda--but you will always be Hawkeye to me.



3. This tale contains much more about lessons of life than a famous TV star's autobiography. Alda discusses everything from his best moments on the road with his father's traveling stage-show to dealing with the mental illness of his mother. This is a must for any MASH fan who wants to know the unique journey of its star. You will not want to put this one down.



4. Alan Alda titled his new book Never Have Your Dog Stuffed -- and Other Things I've Learned. But rest assured he didn't write it as a guide for self-improvement. He doesn't aim to be your guru. "I tried to tell as good a story as I could," he sums up. The resulting narrative, at 224 pages, is as lean as its author, and as engaging, and as flush with ideas and observations. "There are things that were very, very difficult to put into words," says Alda, at 69 an entertainment veteran actor who had written numerous screenplays but never a book. "That was what I had the most fun with - the things that don't want to go into words. "But the hardest part was how to take a life and make it one simple story, not just a bunch of anecdotes. I didn't like the idea of writing a memoir or an autobiography. I only put in stuff that moved the story forward." The story: One man's advancement toward accepting the uncertainties of life. Letting go, notes Alda, is a drawn-out process, "so you don't just decide to do it. You have to creep up on it. Practice it. Get used to it. "I think the guy who winds up at the end of the book would say, 'Destiny is just what happens. " Alda should know. A lot has happened for that guy this year. He got an Oscar nomination for his role in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, a Tony nomination for his Broadway performance in David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, and an Emmy nomination for The West Wing, in which he plays flinty Republican presidential hopeful Arnold Vinick. He continues this season on the NBC political drama, and, for its Nov. 6 episode, Sen. Vinick will square off against the Democrat (Jimmy Smits) in a debate aired live. Which candidate will succeed President Bartlet (series star Martin Sheen) by season's end? " I wouldn't spoil the surprise even if I knew," Alda replies when pressed for details about his contractual commitment to the series. But then, flashing his incandescent grin, he pledges to remain "as long as necessary to turn this great country around." When he isn't shuttling to Los Angeles to shoot the series, Alda leaves his Long Island home to hit the campaign trail for Never Have Your Dog Stuffed. Its first sentence establishes the book's matter-of-fact, often darkly witty tone. "My mother didn't try to stab my father until I was six, but she must have shown signs of oddness before that," Alda writes. He was the son of a mentally ill mother and an actor father, Robert Alda, who was subject to the vagaries of show business during a career that ranged from the hardscrabble vaudeville circuit to Broadway in the original production of Guys and Dolls. All in all, it was a dizzying childhood for Alan. But by age nine, he had decided he would be an actor, too, setting the stage for his push-pull life of embracing make-believe while defiantly inquiring into how things really are. He is a man in love with facts and verifiable truth (his decade as the gung-ho host of Scientific American Frontiers makes that clear). But he has also studied what it means to yield control to forces beyond reason.



5. I've been a fan of Alda's work for a long time. The man is so talented it's unreal. Now to be able to see where he came from and how he got into the spotlight is amazing. He uses certain elements in his life where, had it happen to you or someone you know, it would be depressing, and turns them into amusing learning experiences. I am a constant reader, however 99% of what I read is fiction, nonfiction never grabs my attention. But I could not put this one down. Please read it. You wont regret it.