5 comments about If I Am Missing or Dead: A Sister's Story of Love, Murder, and Liberation.

1. I enjoyed the book and was interested, but it really wasn't what I thought it was going to be. The cover and the first page make you think that the story is about the author's sister and her disappearance...but really it is about the authors life and experiences. I really didn't learn anything from it, but do feel for the family's loss. I see why she wrote it the way she did...but thought it was going to be something else by the way it is advertised on the cover.



2. This book was an amazing insight to the relationships between husbands and wives, in the real world. What some women endure to stay in a marriage and how lack of self confidence can litterially kill you! Her writing just flowed, so easy to read. Couldnt put it down until my eyes hurt!



3. Even though this is a sad story, it's one that is all too real for me. The author is a domestic violence survivor which leaves readers that there is hope with ending abusive relationships.
   
   Like Confessions of a Catholic Schoolgirl the brutal images are disturbing, yet readers will also laugh instead of shedding tears all over the page.



4. This book was amazing and I could not put it down. She did an excellent job of showing the similarities between her and her sister's relationships



5. This book isn't really about a missing sister as the cover indicates. The story was excellent, but half way through I thought the publisher had put the wrong binding on the text. It is a well written story about the author's own struggles. Out of 31 chapters a total of 2 are about her missing sister. I don't think I would have purchased this book had the real story be placed on the cover. A disapointment.

5 comments about Brotherhood of Warriors: Behind Enemy Lines with a Commando in One of the World's Most Elite Counterterrorism Units.

1. I got this book about 20 days ago and I just finished. If I can use one word to describe this book it will be "introspection". The author spends about 50% of his narrative on his Jewishness and his desire to be in touch with it entirely. A lot of the introspection is about his childhood and upbringing; moving to Israel; life in Israel; and his feelings/reactions to special operations in the IDF special forces (Duvdevan). The other 50% is very unrevealing in the way of military operations. Very little is conveyed in the way of tradecraft and what is revealed is very basic. He does provide a glimpse into IDF special mission units, but just a glimpse. Of course, he is protecting operational security and methods, but it leaves a lot to be desired of a book with such a title. It seems like the story glosses over missions and operations and then he abruptly ends the book with his exit from the Israeli Defense Forces. It then becomes a little preachy on the lack of American resolve post-9/11. Otherwise, a good book with something to be desired. I came away feeling like he could have written more.



2. A good read and a fascinating story, Cohen becomes a man in the IDF and makes it to a special unit. The story brought me back to my days in the IDF. Some details are a bit exaggerated for effect or inaccurate but it doesn't take from the quality of the story.



3. I found this book to be very interesting. It takes you thru the life of an individual who leaves CA to return to Israel to become a special operator. It was interesting to read of the differences between American and Israeli training methods. Easy to read, well worth the money.



4. Aaron Cohen is the epitome of strength and courage. He's a man who wouldn't let anything stop him from achieving his goal; making aliyah to Israel and joining the toughest counterterrorism military units in the world. The reader gets an inside view of Israeli special forces training along with Israeli history, culture, and values. Cohen tells it like it is, very in-your-face. It was very hard to put down and an intense fast read. One of my favorite moments was when Cohen returned to the kibbutz and Gali greeted him in Hebrew and treated him like a fellow warrior. Very touching, inspirational, and fascinating story.



5. I bought this book hoping to see if Aaron received any Krav Maga training and what he thought about it, and I got what I wanted. His descriptions of the Krav training were terrific. It's pretty aggressive stuff, always testing your determination. But he also tells a compelling story. Growing up in LA, seeing his parents hang out with the stars, he needed some direction in life. He, of course, goes to Israel, joins the military and tries out for their special forces. Very gritty descriptions of the hell they put him through, the long-distance march, the heat, becoming delirious. He details some of the Israeli special forces missions, which are fascinating. I loved the story where he pretends to be a reporter "interviewing" a bad guy. Then he unleashes some pent-up aggression. I wanted more special forces stories. But I realize he can only tell what he is allowed to tell.

5 comments about Where is the Mango Princess?.

1. Crimmon's book was heart-wrenching to read. The story of her husband's TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and the after effects of it on her life, his life and their daughter have to be read to be understood. I can't do it justice. She keeps a good sense of humor throughout the book but there is certainly an underlying cynical and bitter tone throughout. Not that I can blame her. It's real. It's life and a it ain't pretty. Personally, after reading this I literally wanted to make all my loved ones wear helmets each day after reading about the hell that TBI can put a family through.



2. An honest telling of head injury and what family will experience.
   
   I was shocked at what her daughter, Kelly, was exposed to - I have since read that the author now regrets this. Rehab is NO PLACE for children - or an endless stream of friends. I am sad that her husband's privacy was taken away in order to project 'normalcy' or the authors belief in emotional honesty. She should have protected her husband and her daughter. THIS is the time when you close the door to the world outside and tend to your family - as best you can.
   
   I feel for the author. How quickly the nurses/non-doctors put forth a 'professional opinion' about brain injury. As I often say: Everybody wants to be a doctor, nobody want to go to medical school. You have to see brain injury over a long span of time, which is years and decades. A nurse who sees them admitted and discharged knows next to nothing, unless personally affected.
   
   The beginning of the story was confusing to me because the marriage had so little intimacy. The parents were 2 ships in the night and then they had a child. This little girl was utterly alone through a waking nightmare. I hope she finds the support that she will need as she grows up.
   
   Eventually, the author acknowledges her lack of connection to husband and child and explains herself in a way that is somewhat satisfying.
   
   I appreciate her honesty in the discussion on disinhibition. You can count on it happening and it's real hard to explain to people - especially when you have to.
   
   Worth reading, though disturbing in ways the author may not have intended.



3. We read this book for book club and we all loved it. Only now I understand what my cousin and his family have gone through after he had an bicycle accident and was in a coma for three days. The writer clearly describes the pain and anguish she and her daughter went through. I admire her absolute commitment to her husband and getting him back on his feet and back to a "regular" life. This is a great and informational book to read for everybody who comes into contact with a person with brain injury.



4. I read this book in four nights, right before bed. I tore through it like no other memoir before. This book, for me, was like reading my own parents' memoir. My father suffered a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) when I was four/five years old. Of course, so much of what was available to the author's husband was simply not around 45 years ago. I understand so much more why my father acted the way he did for the remaining 16 years of his life. This book is powerful. It is honest, raw, intense, lighthearted at times, funny, sad, well written and easy to read (though the subject matter is quite painful at times)... an all around excellent book. I am so glad that I read it, and plan to keep this one.



5. I found this account of a severe brain injury and the bumpy road to recovery very moving. I ask will there be more to Cathy and her husband's experiences
   written as a memoir at some later date? Maybe not this book was published in September 2000. Worth the read!

5 comments about ERIC LIDDELL: PURE GOLD.

1. 
   Outstanding book on the life of a young dedicated christian.
   Should be of great encouragement to young people who desperately need someone as an role model in this day of confusion.
   Book is well written and brings out his courage to do that which is right in the face of adversity.
   Book is written in a foremat that can be enjoyed by those of any age group.



2. Are you sure it can't be done??? well, think twice and then read this man's biography. Eric Liddell immortilized worldwide in the 1981 Hugh Hudson's motion picture Chariots of Fire in its purest form is presented in this book. A story on courage, capacity and determination. You should not miss it. You shall want to go out jogging and be a better person to say the least!
   
   From his birth on January 16, 1902 in Tientsin, China, to his unexpected death due to a brain tumor on February 21, 1945 in a japanese concentration camp in that same country, passing through his experiences at boarding school in the UK, his olympic victory, his religious commitments, his unbelievable determination, his beloved Florence ("Flo") and the beautiful love story that surrounded their relationship, the people who marked his life (his mother Mary, father James, brothers Rob and Ernest, sister Jenny, etc.). A book that brought out emotions from the beginning when I read about Florence (Eric's widow) watching Chariots of Fire and imagining her reactions, her feelings of pride... This book is a thoroughly rewarding experience!



3. I fell in love with the movie "Chariots of Fire" when I was in college over 20 years ago. I also enjoyed the paperback of the same name. Recently I became interested in this true story again and found "Pure Gold" on Amazon.
   This biography is slow-moving and tedious. I have never been to China nor do I have any interest in the Orient, so the setting of most of the book was not compelling. I was hoping that Eric's personality and dedication to Christian principles would pull me through when I was tempted to stop reading and give the book away.
   I was inspired enough to finish it but "ho hum" is my response to the writing.
   Maybe "Chariots of Fire" was a too "Hollywood-ized" version of the 1924 Olympics,(as Back Flash was to firefighting) but even if it was, I prefer it to this book.



4. Eric Liddell is an interesting & worthy subject for a biography but this one isn't it. The author did extensive research in primary documents, interviewed people who knew Liddell personally, & created an excellent bibliography. Unfortunately, the writing style is corny & some of the passages are fictionalized, particularly ones regarding Liddell's relationship with his wife Flo. The author puts thoughts in their minds that he couldn't possibly know. He so over-romanticizes his subject that he becomes almost unreal. Liddell was a great athlete & a great servant of the Lord, but the author so idolizes him that he becomes a kind of plaster saint. The main problem with this book is that it is explicitly written to be "inspirational," & so the reader is reminded over & over again what a great Christian role model Liddell was. This gets tiresome. Don't misunderstand me -- I am not knocking Liddell here at all, only the author's mode of presenting him. A less didactic book would serve Liddell better. His own words & actions speak for themselves.



5. Because of the surprise hit Chariots of Fire, the world knows the name Eric Liddell. Most people also know about the stand he made for his beliefs as he refused to run an Olympic race he was favored to win simply because the race was scheduled for Sunday. Those who have seen the movie know that it ends shortly after he wins an Olympic gold medal in an event in which he had barely trained. But in Pure Gold, a biography of Liddell weighing in at 333 pages, the race is complete by the ninety-eighth page. There is much more to Liddell than the movie portrays.
   
   Eric Liddell is a man who was sold out to God. He regarded his own desires and his own comforts as secondary to God's. Raised as the son of a missionary, he grew up away from his parents, for in those days children were left in their native country to receive their training, often seeing their parents only once every six or seven years. There was a period of over a decade in Liddell's life where he was with his parents for only 100 days. Despite the seperation, he received strong training, primarily in the Bible.
   
   While he grew both academically and spiritually, people also came to realize that Liddell had a gift for speed. He was fast. He was also uncouth, with a running style all his own. He would start like any other runner, but as he approached the finish line, he would throw his head back and his arms would begin to flail. Yet somehow, rather than slow him down, this gave him a burst of speed that often led him to victory.
   
   Some of his exploits from his early days are famous, such as the time he fell in a 400-meter race, but managed to climb to his feet and work his way back into first place, making up a deficit of over ten meters. And as we know from the movie, he earned a position on the British Olympic squad at the 1924 Olympic Games where he came away with two medals, a gold and a bronze. He returned to his native Scotland a hero - far and away the best-known athlete in the nation. It was this fame that provided the springboard for his mission work. Despite being a shy and quiet man, he criss-crossed the country, speaking before hundreds of thousands of people, telling them about the Lord and encouraging them to give their lives to Him.
   
   At the very pinnacle of his athletic success, Liddell laid it all aside to become a missionary to China, the country his father had served when Eric was a boy and the country he continued to serve to that day. Liddell counted his prestige as nothing and moved to the mission field. He served the rest of his life in China before his eventual death in a Japanese internment camp during the Second World War. It is this period of his life that so few know about, yet this is where we see Liddell at his finest. It is here that we see the power and effectiveness of a life that is sold out to God.
   
   This biography is well-written, inspiring and highly-recommended. It presents Liddell as he really was and helps the reader understand the foundation for his life. It portrays Liddell in his strength and in his weakness, through joy and sadness. It portrays the consistency of a man who lived in the same way when the eyes of the nation were upon him, or when he stood only before the eyes of the Lord.
   
   While Chariots of Fire has done much to bring Liddell to the public eye, and while it presented the man accurately, it tells less than half the story. However, the race which forms the climax to the movie can well be seen as a metaphor for Liddell's life. He finished the race of life the same way he had finished so many races long before - with his arms flailing and his head turned to the sky, enraptured purely with the joy of running.

5 comments about Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph.

1. I was so moved by C. Vivian Stringer's account of her rise to stardom in the competitive world of college athletics. The predjudice and personal tragedies she endured and her ability to keep balance in her life and focus through it all is truly inspiring. She is an amazing woman.



2. There are 2 things I absolutely HATED about this book...I hated having to put it down, and I hated when I finished it! Vivian Stringer's story is truly an example of courage in the midst of challenges. It's not just for sports fans. Anyone can be inspired by it.



3. I enjoyed the book. Not life changing but there are some life lessons to be learned through the reading



4. This book was absolutely fantastic. I'm not really into sports but have enjoyed basketball from time to time. Though, I've never really been into college basketball and didn't even know who C. Vivian Stringer was before the Imus incident, I was able to gain a tremendous insight into the life of a strong, confident, and resilient woman and the women she lends a hand in raising. To learn all that she has been through and how she mustered the courage to "Stand Tall" through every adversity was so inspiring, and not just for Black women but for every woman and human being. I certainly recommend that every person take the time to read this incredible story.



5. How important it is to have women, young and old, to know the power and authority that lies within and that you have the perfect example in
   "the Coach" of all times. Ms Stringer has given us this jewel at a time more important that any other that I can remember when so many young women are suffering from low self-esteem and rejection and so many older women are caught in the throws of life. Thanks to Ms. Stringer we have renewed HOPE!!!

5 comments about Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living.

1. It was an eye opener and such a great read! Thanks Doug!
   
   I usually read non-fiction or intense thrillers, so I wasn't too sure how this book would favor amongst the rest. It won me over.
   
   Doug's book really impacted the way I think. Just cutting back a little bit on certain things makes a HUGE difference. Not to mention that my fast paced life seems to have slowed down now that I am more conscience about what I use and how I use it. Things like gardening, planting trees and building economic structures (solar panel mounts) add to quality time with my boyfriend. Not only is it educational for me and my other half, but these are ideas that we can instill on our children...when the time comes for them of course. Dougs humor and honesty, and anti-Bush quirks add all the bit more to this book. Pick it up today!



2. The book is about the author's adventures when he moved to New Mexico to live green and reduce his carbon footprint. He raises goats and chickens, gets a diesel truck and has it converted to run on grease from restaurants, grows veggies in a garden, and puts in a solar water heater. I was smiling throughout the entire book. He also made a lot of great points about how everyone can do just a little to help save the environmen. He is a great story teller and I love the book.



3. I found Doug's book inspiring AND funny. It made me smile, laugh out loud and ponder ways in which I too can become more self sufficient. Would highly recommend!



4. I loved the book and admire Doug's efforts. I laughed out loud several times!



5. Most books I read may be intellectually interesting, but don't really impact my life to any degree. This humble little tome did instigate some changes for me. On the humblest level I've started making a monthly donation through my power company to a renewable energy trust fund so that more alternative sources can be funded. I've also started to jack up my home's insulation to ever higher levels, even though they were considered average before. And, I'm getting ever more mindful about how low or high I set the a/c & heat in my house, as well as the amount of driving I do, so that I'm cutting back my carbon footprint even more. I've hardly 'gone off the grid' as Mr. Fine has aspired to, but collectively such small changes could make a difference to our country, and to the planet.
   
   But I confess, I still own my Subaru.

5 comments about Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons from an Urban Classroom (Teaching for Social Justice) (Teaching for Social Justice).

1. School is for more than English, Math, and Science - it's for the intangibles too. "Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons From an Urban Classroom" follows Brian Schultz as he teaches an inner city class something far more valuable than academics - determination and a feeling of self worth. An inspired and inspiring tale sure to give hope in the next generation ensues. "Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons From an Urban Classroom" is highly recommended for community library education collections.



2. I read this book and I loved it. You have to read the book because it shows the power of children to make the World better.



3. One of the most important and challenging things we do in this country is educate our children. This becomes especially important when we think about how education can affect one's life. This book really highlighted for me the hope and possibilities for education in a time when all I hear about is that teachers are focused on standardized tests. Apparently, things can be different.
   
   I must admit that at first I was resistant to some of the ideas presented early on in the book in terms of allowing the students' to guide the learning. I thought the students would naturally pick something that did not challenge them. But, boy was I wrong! It is almost as if my inclinations were the exact opposite. That is where this book has a extremely powerful hook. The students clearly went well beyond that simplicity. They clearly found something that mattered to them. They clearly became transformed in their learning.
   
   While reading the book, I really want to know what happened next. The author does an excellent job of drawing the reader into the story. I felt like I was sitting in the dark classroom with my coat on as vividly described in the narrative. And, I found myself learning, questioning, and reflecting as I was reading. I especially learned what horrific conditions exist in some schools and better understood how that old mantra of picking oneself up by the bootstraps is not so easy when most things in some schools like the one in this book are stacked against you.
   
   I strongly recommend reading this book. It is a page-turner. It will give you much to think about. I promise! What is especially great is that the students are front and center rather than it being all about the teacher. And, I believe that as the author states throughout the book, you will learn from the students in this story, just as he did.



4. Brian D. Schultz's "Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons from an Urban Classroom" is a beautifully written, well-researched, and heartfelt account of one classroom's journey from stereotyped and ignored to empowered, challenged and brilliant. Schultz's narrative intelligently interweaves the students thoughts, hopes, disappointments, work, and words with his own reservations, thoughts, struggles, and triumphs. Furthermore, he manages to connect, explain, and reinforce their story with some of the greatest educational philosophy and research available (e.g. Dewey. Kozol, Freire, etc.).
   
   What is this read about?
   It's about Room 405. In 2004, Schultz was a 5th grade teacher at Chicago's Carr Community Academy. And in short, Schultz participates in a workshop called Project Citizen, which in turn inspires Schultz to do something new with Room 405. He asks the students to identify a problem that they care about/want to solve, and from there, a year-long curriculum was created by the students and for the students of Room 405.
   What do the students decide upon?
   Room 405 decides that they need a new school because their school is obviously falling apart, so they set-up an Action Plan that consists of the ways in which they are going to go about this undertaking (e.g. writing letters to legislators, interviewing the principal, emailing newspapers, etc.).
   What happens after they decide on their problem and what they are going to do?
   Are you serious? Just read the book!
   
   As an educator myself, I want to point out that Schultz's Social Justice teaching, as exemplified in this book, should have all of the skeptics and naysayers believing because the proof was and is in the students and the results of what they learned, shared, achieved, and experienced together.



5. "Impressive..." or "Extraordinary..." may be a more appropriate title for this book. Schultz traces the both the history of a non-functional inner-city public school classroom all the way through the children's education achievements, and his personal growth along the way. Developing a democratic classroom with both the students and teacher learning from each other is truly amazing!
   
   The book allows the reader to share, and understand, the successes and disappointments of both Schultz and his students. And throughout, the reader remains totally engaged.
   
   The interaction between the students and politicians, the news media, and national organizations has demonstrated that we all have much to learn. Truly inspirational and extremely motivational. A must read.

5 comments about Ball Four.

1. This was a provocative book when it was first published. Jim Bouton, who had been a star pitcher for the New York Yankees, was trying to mount a comeback by working on a knuckleball in the bullpen of the expansion team Seattle Pilots less than five years later. He was a world away from pitching in two World Series in two successive seasons with players like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris as team mates.
   
   His fastball could no longer shatter a pane of glass, but his astute observations about professional sports broke many barriers that had existed between the owners, players and the fans. Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn publicly condemned the book.
   
   Bouton was traded to Houston before the season ended. The last place Seattle Pilots faded and died. The team was sold and transferred to Milwaukee after only one year. As such, it is something of a historic artifact of the failed Pilots team as well as a humorous look at the National Pastime.



2. Jim Bouton is a very bright man who probably could have been a scientist if he didn't go into baseball. In the 1960s when he played nobody wrote colorful exposes of the behind the scenes and road trip life of major league ball players. Bouton was the first with this book. It ended many friendships with teammates and probably broke up his marriage. The book might seem tame by todays standard. Alcohol was the players drug in those days and no one was shooting up steroids back then. But the book was racy, groundbreaking and controversial in its time much like Canseco's books are today.
   
   You will also see that it led to several other books by Jim Bouton and even one by his ex wife (another analogy to Canseco whose ex wife also wrote a book). Bouton was a great pitcher but alas for only the period from 1961-1964. 1963 was his best season but even though he pitched well in that world series the Yankees got steamrolled by the Dodger staff with Drysdale and Koufax leading the way. After retirementhe came back to pitch for the Seattle Pilots expansion team in their first year. He had developed a knuckle ball and that allowed him some limited success. Bulldog Jim wrote a book about that experience too. He had a trick when he pitched for the Yankees. He wouldd deliberately wear a very loose fitting cap that would usually fall off his head as he delivered the pitch. This was distracting for the hitters. But in his day Bouton had a good fastball and a deceptive changeup and he was part of a great pitching rotation in 1963 that included Ford, Downing and Terry.



3. even now, the contents of "ball four" are as equally as contrary to what you think about the order of things as say the first time you hear that hawaiians aren't happy about being american. what this book has to say about institutions make it as valuable an american document as "on the road".
   the only real debate i think that could be made over this assertion is who took more speed; kerouac or bouton?
   the answer is kerouac.
   leaving only one other question:
   who took more speed; kerouac or doc ellis?
   i can't answer that question but i can say that beaning batters successively until you get thrown out of a major league baseball game is much cooler than anything kerouac ever did.



4. Ball Four is a journal of Jim Bouton's days in baseball. It is light hearted and pokes fun at himself and tells it like it was in the 1960's. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the behind the scenes and what happens in the locker room.



5. Hubby had knee surgery and was laid up for 3 months.. did alot of reading when he wasn't in physical therapy.... GREAT BOOK

5 comments about Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back (P.S.).

1. This book was recommended to me by a friend because I have a past similar to Mia's and it did more to help me understand and overcome it than ten years of therapy (though my friend had a really normal childhood and loved the book as well). The writing is absolutely beautiful, very honest and powerful. Definitly a story that will stay with you long after you finish reading it.



2. This is a strange memoir written by Claire and Mia Fontaine (not their real names) about bizarre WWASP schools (prison-like residential teen boot camps) and how they helped Mia conquer drug addiction. However, this book almost seems like a pro-WWASP book to counter all the negative press WWASP schools receive. A lot of this book was unbelievable, too. Weak writing. I'm not sure I believe that Clair Fontaine actually is a screenwriter, either. Could be the next literary hoax.....



3. Wow! I am one of those people that always has a book in her hand and I have to say, this is the BEST book I've read in years. It is all together brutally HONEST, FUNNY and HEART-WARMING. The writing was PHENOMENAL. And the people in the book were all so REAL and LOVABLE. Just like the person in the last review, I absolutely could not put this book down. I was actually upset when I got to my subway stop and would have to stop reading for 5 minutes. Now that I have finished Comeback, all I can do is hope that Claire and Mia Fontaine PUT OUT ANOTHER BOOK - Please! and soon! I can't wait to hear more. I really miss Claire and Mia.



4. In a world that obsesses over teen-age addiction and which paints the Britneys, Lindsays, Amys and Olsens as glamorous beauty queens with tragic yet excusable addictions, it is both heart breaking and heart warming to read about an honest-to-goodness real girl who overcomes both a difficult childhood and substance abuse and obtains love and stability on her own terms. Mia is relatable; her writing is accessable to youngsters who are tired of preachy "don't do what I did" stories. Instead, she inspires "problem teens" to go through their own transformative journey, no matter how many years or how many continents the journey may take. The reader is left knowing that Mia will obtain great things, because Mia will now allow herself to.



5. The first part of this book was very interesting and some of the facts I found so hard to believe can happen in America. Living in California and raising teens here it makes me ashamed to live in such a liberal state, where parents really have No Rights. For that and some of the things about the drug world I really got an education. The book went downhill for me when Mia went into treatment for years it seemed. The book really seemed to drag on and on with Mother and daughter analyzing every detail of their lives. I felt more compassion for Claire's Mother, than I did for Clair. I tended to skip a lot toward the end of the story. It is an o.k. read just not riveting

5 comments about The Crowd Sounds Happy: A Story of Love, Madness, and Baseball.

1. Growing up in lower middle-class household led by a frugal and severe mother, haunted by his absent and mentally ill father, Nick Dawidoff turned to the Boston Red Sox as his beacon of hope and guiding light and baseball as his true love. Loathing the Yankees not only because they were the Sox's eternal enemies, but also because they represented everything horrible in his life--he had to visit a seedy part of New York monthly in his dreaded visits to his father--Nick managed to wend his way through a difficult and untutored childhood, ultimately attending and graduating from Harvard and becoming a fine writer.
   
   This is an inspirational book of childhood angst, love, torment, and baseball.



2. The Crowd Sounds Happy is an eloquent autobiography written with keen awareness and insight by someone that has survived and understood Severe Mental Disorders (SMD) in a parent. Laced with periods of happiness, the disturbing story describes the periodic psychoses of the author's father that required his family to flee when Nicky was a toddler. Resulting family anxieties haunted his obstacle-filled youth.
   
   Nicky's forced visitations with an explosive, dangerous parent throughout his youth are devastating to witness. More devastating is his frugal, frustrated mother, cursing him as an ingrate in the next room of their tiny flat, where he can hear every word.
   
   Mom forbade television and snacks, but made room for adventures: trips to the country, baseball games, and summer baseball camp. As a teacher, Mom instilled the love of reading in her children. That and radio led Nicky to develop a loyalty to baseball and the Boston Red Sox that had been his maternal grandfather's and aunt's favorites. Nicholas adopted the Sox as more his own more than many fans do their teams. They were his family.
   
   Nickolas spent the bulk of childhood in New Haven, Connecticut during the 1960-70s, witnessing the city's decline into ruined welfare projects, abandoned schools and factories, street prostitution, pedophiles, and widespread crime. This harsh backdrop hosts the neuroses of families of patients suffering SMDs and the book shows how long-lived these conditions all become.
   
   Nickolas describes how he dealt with the injustices placed into his life by others' mental illnesses and family-based anxieties that create magical thinking, the need to control, and the drive to please a world of others in order to avoid attack. While some teens turned to TV heroes, Nicholas turned to the Red Sox and sports writing, becoming a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
   
   Missouri-based brain research indicates the magnitude of damage done to children's neurology by parents with unsuccessfully untreated SMDs. Readers from middle school through adult can read The Crowd Sounds Happy to discover strong examples and solutions.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: Powerful and well-written memoir from a child's point of view.



3. Among my all time favorites in the personal memoir about growing up with baseball are those of Doris Kearns Goodwin and Wilfrid Sheed. Nicholas DaWidoff's recent entry in this category has topped them all. It's not the usual "fathers playing catch with sons" story, for Dawidoff's parents were divorced and his father, suffering from mental illness, was an unsettling and sometimes looming presence on the fringe. This is an elegantly written and deeply moving account of a boy growing to manhood in the shadow of a broken family, coming to grips with it and learning to understand the heroic efforts of his mother to make things work. His own passion for and participation in baseball is not incidental, but is a primary source of solace and strength.



4. A great book relating real-life to baseball fandom especially from the perspective of a teenaged youth! Nick Dawidoff has always had more than a way with words dating back before his college newspaper years and his descriptions actually transport you to his New Haven CT home and neighborhood with his single mom, sister, and classmates. An avid and long-suffering Red Sox fan, he describes the complexities of a simpler time, when one hung on the every syllable of the radio play-by-play announcer for the game details. Nonetheless, these diamond idols were a great preoccupation for a young man facing the severe mental illness of his father in the yet unrejuvenated New York City. In addition to his fantastic description, you may be occasionally running to your (unabridge) dictionary to enlighten your vocabulary, yet these words are used judiciously and knowledgeably, giving expanse to his autobiographical account. A truly enjoyable read! The Crowd Sounds Happy: A Story of Love, Madness, and Baseball



5. 
   For me, this book is a picture of financial poverty and intellectual richness. What this broken family of three couldn't afford was plain as day to all of them, but the riches of language, of books, of words were flowing like so many rivers through their little cramped apartment, as if that was so normal. I love this book. There is a beauty in the way this not so interesting place comes into full color. ND is great at capturing his boyhood self. It makes me appreciate the details and undefined moments of my own childhood and alerts me to the overflowing otherness that my own children are likely experiencing in the world beside me.
   
   Agent A