5 comments about Color Me Butterfly: A True Story of Courage, Hope and Transformation.

1. THIS BOOK WAS MOST DEFINATELY 1 OF THE BEST BOOKS I HAVE EVER HAD THE CHANCE TO READ........



2. I am 11 years old and when I read color me butterfly it was very heartbreaking. Through all the beatings from Isaac, Roy, and Lloyd. It was sad how Eloise,and Angie had died. It had a message to it that life is to short to hold gruges because Mattie and the rest of her brothers and sisters waited to forgive Isaac accept for Rollie and then it turned on them by Isaac passing away.



3. I don't want to tell the story...this was a great read very emotional story about abuse from generation to generation..must read



4. I too have to agree with the other readers reviewing this book. The author grabs your attention from the first to the last page. Hopefully this book will inspire and give strength to other victims of domestic violence. I applaude the author for having the courage to share her story with the world. Kudos to you Ms. Marlow, I hope this is not your last book...



5. This story was wonderful...This is a great read for all ages who has been thorugh something. Even if you haven't- after reading this book you will know you will never have to go through anything. This book will incourage you to that.
   This author really went to work on this novel, and I stll cant believe this is her first novel And it's a true story is what got me. It was very well written, it took me everywhere the story leaded me to- with out going over board. L.Y. Marlow was very brave to share her family story with the world. The women in this family was so very strong and brave.
   This author gets thumbs up all day for her work in this book.... L.Y. Marlow keep doing what you do and I want to thank you; after reading this story I could say I no longer will be going through the physical and verbal abuse that I have suffer for so long.

5 comments about My Life.

1. When faced with impeachment after Monica rumor became The Story, President Clinton, to whom ambiguity was never part of his nature, took the worst situation to mean retreat from Office, which would not have relieved his soul.
   This autobiography is informative and tender in every corner. At times the ex-President aggravated his bitterness and despair; not a pleasing prospect for a vigorous man with an appetite for distinction. His excessive passions, one for his wife and the other for his daughter, at the end of the day had caused Miss Lewinski and partners to be removed from the White House. I believe the young lady was also a victim of irrational exuberance (Excuse me Mr. Greenspan)
   At times there is always some sort of melancholy demeanor than can grow daily more somber in high offices. President Clinton is telling us he could not possibly have been entirely impervious to the mounting evidence against him, such signs were motivated by political reasons from rival factions with nefarious ends - to hurt the Democrats from within.
   
   Clinton, once known for his vivacity, was now showing the strain of the shameful events.
   
   Clinton, the deep-rooted optimist who found it temperamentally difficult to resign from trouble, has had his face already sagging with worry as daily attacks compounded his sense of doom...
   
   At 55 he left office with a 65% approval rating. (One of the highest after WWII)
   However, the charismatic President looked a narrow-chest man with the face of a person much older in age. That did not at all resemble him nine years ago when he took that Office.



2. A long and interesting read, overly detailed on fairly mundane aspects of his life and unsurprisingly brief on more interesting times.
   
   Nevertheless, an engrossing read. Who knows where his road will end.



3. Clinton supporter or not, you will find this biography to be fascinating. Clinton gives you the works, from his childhood all the way through his Presidency. If you're looking for lurid details, he doesn't give them. What he does give you is a chance to see how he saw things. What I found especially interesting were the stories about the fight over controversial issues with Congress and the long Whitewater investigation. This book is VERY long and is anecdotal, so be prepared to read a thousand short stories, with little or no overarching theme other than "this is how it happened".



4. Undoubtly Bill Clinton will be remembered as one of the most influential presidents of the US. Politically he was a moderate as opposed to a liberal as seen in different policies he pushed forward. He was a savvy president too in terms of his political skills. The government shutdown, I believe, was one of his greatest moves in this sense. The 1996 victory was the corollary of the latter, besides the fact that Bob Dole was not a strong opponent. Clinton would have won anyways.
   A lot of lessons to be learned from Clinton's book. However, certain parts of it are too detailed.



5. I am not a fan of President Bill Clinton, but to read his life and how he started from nothing to be President in the Oval Office shows that every American can fulfill your dreams if you dream big. President Clinton shares valuable insight into his life from childhood to his political years. Every time I walked into a bookstore I would pick up and book and look through it. I finally decide to give it a read, and I found out that I could not lay it down.
   
   My biggest qualm with President Clinton is his wishy washy stand on life. You cannot believe to be pro-life, but believe to be pro-choice at the same time. It makes no sense. I am a Roman Catholic who is 100% PRO LIFE and I make no apologies. Life needs to be protected from conception to natural death. The respect for life has been lost since Roe vs. Wade.
   
   President Clinton did accomplish wonderful things during his presidency, and sad to say he did better things for the American people than some of our Republicans in Washington.
   I am glad I took the time to read this book. We hear a lot of jokes with his infidelity, and he admits his wrong and hurtful actions. But did Jesus not say, "He that is with out sin cast the first stone?"
   
   We are use to hearing the term, "Slick Willie." But I believe that Bill Clinton honestly opened his mind and heart to the American people and told his story, and I am glad to have a better insight into his life. Being the President of the greatest country of the world is no easy job.

5 comments about Chosen Forever: a memoir.

1. having so enjoyed Chosen By A Horse, Chosen Forever was even a braver and stronger memoir.
   I didn't want to put it down.



2. I read Chosen by a Horse several times and gave copies to many people, so when Richards came out with a second book, I was excited but a bit nervous. Would this be a sophomore effort, written quickly and thrown on the market? Imagine my relief, then, to actually read it. This book keeps the quiet, thoughtful, bare-bones-honest tone that I loved so much in her first book, but grants the reader a different--if equally powerful--look at the possibilities of transformation in life.
   
   Here is a woman who lived a relatively solitary existence of grief and healing and then, in her late fifties, becomes a New-York-Times-bestselling author in love with an internationally-renowned artist. I'm interested in that transformation and how someone of Richards' temperament handles it. It takes a talented writer like Richards to explore such an evolution without arrogance or artifice. I admire her ability to see the possibilities of change in such different situations--the rescue of a needy animal and the catapult to sudden fame and love--and to write of both so beautifully.



3. Maybe it's my fault for thinking this book would be a continuation of the Chosen by a Horse story. When I bought the book, I was looking forward to catching up what had become friends to me: Hotshot, Tempo, Georgia, Allie, and Dr. Grice.
   
   Well, all the horses are dead, Allie and the author barely speak, and Dr. Grice has moved on.
   
   So what is this book about? Book tours. A tedious account of each book tour the author goes on to promote her first published book. We get a weather report for each day of every reading, an audience count, and whether the author went directly to her hotel or out to dinner afterwards. If I had a fork, I would have stuck myself in the head with it, but I kept thinking: Maybe it gets better. It doesn't.
   
   The first book, Chosen by a Horse, was poetic and filled with love. This book, Chosen Forever, is filled with whining about a difficult childhood and has none of the magic of the first book.



4. Susan Richards' fluid writing style gracefully transitions between the present -- the book tour readings in which she speaks from her precious and towering debut memoir, Chosen By A Horse -- and the ever-threatening past which looms darkly in the form of a very real sense that she doesn't belong and is undeserving of this praise for her writing, and then fears, what if no one should come (to a book reading)? Never forgotten in this her second book is the shining effect of her fallen horse heroes who, constantly share mind space in the stiller water moments of her daily life. Where human caregivers often abandoned her as a child, the horses carried her in those dark days following a second failed marriage. Although not untrammeled by her life's many despairing moments, Richards unexpectedly finds romance at one of her readings in the form of a man captivated by her as so many readers were by the sheer heart and inspiration found in the expression of the author toward her horse, Lay Me Down, in her debut memoir. Richards overcomes her self doubts and unbridled fears and embraces this man with a sense of destiny, as she explains it. And the way she ultimately chooses to her heart -- to both of theirs -- is through the comforts and smells and swishing tails of horses in a show barn while out on a casual date.



5. If you loved Chosen by a Horse, and I did, then you'll want to read Chosen by Love, the story of what Susan Richards did after the death of Lay Me Down. Susan's childhood and youth were dreadful. She only pulled herself together for the sake of her beloved pets and it was only due to Lay Me Down that she was able to break free of her horrid past and actually live. Living let's her write the original memoir, promote the book, meet a decent man and have the courage to trust and love him. Reading Chosen by Love is like seeing a hard luck relative FINALLy cAtch the break you always knew they deserved. It's a triumphant end.

5 comments about Testament of Youth (Penguin Classics).

1. Vera Brittain (1893-1970) was raised as the daughter of a mill owner in the north of England. She was an intellectual who dreamed of majoring in English Literature at Oxford University's Somerville College for Women. In the post-World War I period Vera would return to Oxford taking a second in History and later winning a Master's degree.
   The first third of this book deals with Vera's autobiographical description of her raising in a conservative Edwardian home. She was close to her brother Edward; fell in love with poet Roland Leighton and enjoyed poetry. She and her generation were not ready for the horrific reality of the war which would kill over 10 million people.
   During the war Vera temporarily dropped out of Oxford to serve as a
   V.A.D. (a volunteer nurse). She would serve in London, Malta and France.
   She would minster to German Prisoners of War as well as serving with distinction. Vera's beloved Roland was killed in battle as was her brother Edward who fell in the last summer of the war. Vera was seared by these overwhelming tragedies. And yet she went on with her life serving with bravery.
   As the war ended she returned to Oxford becoming a feminist and pacifist. She lectured all over England on behalf of the League of Nations Union. Vera married a World War I veteran who became an academic.
   Vera would write over 25 books becoming a beloved and popular author in her native England.
   This is a long book over 600 densely printed pages. It is also one of the best books about non-combat, civilian life ever written about the war. Many of the scenes in which Vera is serving as a nurse are graphic and touch the human heart with the sadness and tragic loss of a bright generation of young Europeans. This book has become a modern classic which should be required reading in any course on World War I. Several years ago it was broadcast in a miniseries by BBC appearing on Masterpiece Theatre on PBS. This is a book which will remain lodged in your memory. Do your self a favor and purchase a copy soon!



2. I clearly am in a minority here but I did not like this book. A peer of other notable young British writers like Robert Graves and Wilfred Owen, Britton's book stands out among the male writers of the period as giving a woman's view of the war. The problem, at least for me, is that Britton is so over come with bitterness that she flogs the reader with it from the start.
   
   An early feminist Britton had strong views and supported her male friends and family going off to the First World War but as they fell to the german guns she, like many of her generation, became disillusioned. This is understandable but in writing her book, Britton cannot set aside her bitterness and it makes the reading ponderous and heavy. For example noting a fete in her early childhood and the bunting and flags put out she says "If only I knew then it was all meaningless." we are taken from a little girl's views to a bitter adult in the blink of an eye and it just gets too much.
   
   By comparrison the autobiography of Robert Graves, Goodby to All That, starts out with the childish illusions being enjoyed as a child and slowly the bitterness slips into the writer's world view as he matures and is exposed to the horrors of the war. this is far more subtle and easier to read, meaning you are guided to the ponit he wants you to reach, instead of trying to bludgeon you into the mindset as Britton does.



3. The word "classic" gets thrown around a lot these days. Many so-called "modern classics" are not that important, but "Testament of Youth" deserves this reprint as a Penguin Classic. Brittain tells of her early life in the north of England between 1893 and the start of World War I in 1914 in beautifully clear prose, and her clarity of thought and powers of observation make the bulk of the book, dealing with the war's impact on her, painfully vivid without ever lapsing into self-pity. Like too many others of her generation (and the next and the next) Vera Brittain learned almost unimaginable lessons about life and her own inner strength. To that extent, "Testament of Youth" can serve as both example and inspiration.
   
   Vera Brittain came from an upper-middle-class background shared by millions of young women in late Victorian England. One thing that made her different was her great intellectual curiosity and determination to escape a truly suffocating existence that few of today's Western women can easily imagine. What made her like most citizens of the time (and of later times)was her complete ignorance of the meaning of "war." Patriotism, her social conscience, and a desire to take part in the bigger world led her to volunteer as a nursing sister with the British Army. Her grueling hospital experiences were a revelation to her. Her personal losses are even more powerfully revealing of the human condition. Brittain was a "survivor" in every sense of the word.
   
   "Testament of Youth" is just as fresh and moving today as it was when it was written 75 years ago and Vera Brittain tells a story that must be told and retold to each generation. For every reader who finds the book "too long" by current standards (its almost 700 pages), there will be two who wish they could follow the author even further. But even if you find yourself skipping ahead, particularly in the early part, you will not be able to forget Vera Brittain or her story. "Testament of Youth" is one of the great autobiographies of the past 100 years.



4. This is a fascinating, insightful book that it would behoove many of us modern folk to read. Learn about the harder times of the past, while sipping latte in a comfy chair. You'll be thankful for today's comforts -- and today's modern attitudes towards the capabilities and intelligence of women -- after you read what it was like for one woman early in the 20th century. Simply a great book.



5. Vera Brittain enrolled in Summerville College, Oxford, in a time before degrees were granted to women. This was just before The First World War changed almost everything for almost everyone. When it was over, her best friends, her fiance and her brother had all been killed. She also personally witnessed the agony of thousands in the surgical wards where she worked as a volunteer nurse.
   
   In response, she became a suffragette, a feminist and a liberal writer and lecturer. She sought to prevent such tragedy from reoccurring.
   
   The answers to the political and social questions with which she struggled elude us still. But Vera Brittain's autobiographical account of her generation's trials, Testament of Youth, remains both a stunningly-honest portrait of a courageous young woman and a vivid chronicle of a time almost out of living memory. Through her words we see what we might have thought, felt and believed, had we been born into her era.

5 comments about Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram.

1. The story behind this story is more germane to me.
   It shows the common thread of conscience and patriotism that cultures & mankind share.
   Neil Alexander a photographer/film maker is working on a documentary that adds a whole new dimension to this story.
   [...]



2. ...to use Blasé Pascal's phrase, relating to his rhetorical question concerning his right to kill another man, just because he lived on that opposite bank. Dang Thuy Tram's diaries are an important addition to that small group of Vietnamese books concerning the American War which have appeared in English, and include Bao Ninh's "The Sorrow of War," and Duong Thu Huong's "Novel Without a Name."
   
   Alain-Fournier was another great writer whose life was cut far too short by war during the very early months of World War I. Both he and Thuy died at the same age, 27. Alain-Fournier's literary reputation was established prior to his death, Thuy's has finally come, posthumously. The strength of her diary is the immediacy and authenticity of the comments. She was quite optimistic at the beginning, but with the mounting casualties in her unit, and the relentless bombardment from the Americans, she turns more pessimistic, and foreshadows her own death. For those portions I would have given her a 5-star rating, but the frequent interjection of that leaden communist rhetoric, and the vague treatment of the personnel struggles within her unit, and the party, I decided to give only a 4-star rating, preferring both of the books above. Also, there were the issues that were only briefly discussed, and were of essential interest - her medical work. There was never an adequate description of her clinic, and the availability of medical supplies. Malaria, and what the GI's called "jungle rot," (fungal infections) were unmentioned yet must have been a significant portion of her work. She mentions in passing the poison that was Agent Orange, but again gives no real description of the effect it had on her unit.
   
   Tim O'Brien, probably the greatest American novelist to come out of this tragic war, was in the infamous Americal Division, in Quang Ngai province, the unit that Thuy repeatedly called "the American bandits." He might have actually have been on one of the patrols that she had to face. The Americal's bases were on the lowlands, near the coast, and the mountains loomed to the West, where Thuy lived, and were a constant source of fascination and beauty - the light was never quite the same on those mountains. One of O'Brien's novels, "Going After Cacciato" explored the fantasy of one soldier finally having had enough, and deciding to walk away from the war, through those mountains, all the way to Europe. I shared that fascination with those mountains, during the same time Thuy was in them, and even had the same fantasy about walking away from the war. I was in a tank unit that spent four months, in late '68, in the next province south, Binh Dinh. One of our jobs was the road "security" of Highway 1, and on several days, we would sit, overlooking the South China Sea, at the boundary between Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh province, only 2 to 5 miles from Thuy's clinic in the hills.
   
   Thuy spoke many times of her desire for revenge against the invaders of her country. An honest and understandable emotion from those who suffered years of misery, and the loss of so many friends. This emotion was shared by her compatriots, and has now been dissipated as they welcome American tourists to their country. I would have loved to have discussed this transformation with her in a tea house in her beloved Hanoi.
   
   Finally, how many more diaries like this are currently being produced in Iraq?



3. Dang Thuy Tram's chronicle, in its English materialization, is perhaps the only Vietnam-related book to touch all sides of that tragedy. It was difficult to keep the incredible passage of her pages, the back story, in the background of this much-anticipated war diary.
   
   In March 2005, just prior to the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, two Vietnam veteran brothers gave a nondescript and scarcely attended talk at Texas Tech University's Vietnam Center. Their presentation was about a diary penned by a Viet Cong doctor that had been kept for 35 years by ex-Army intelligence officer Fred Whitehurst, one of the brothers. His Vietnamese interpreter had advised him to spare the war booty, "Fred, you can't burn this, it already has a fire in it."
   
   Thuy's first entries began in 1968, just after the Tet Offensive. "Operated on one case of appendicitis with inadequate anesthesia. I had only a few meager vials of Novocaine to give the soldier, but he never groaned once during the entire procedure. He even smiled to encourage me."
   
   Unless readers can lay out the original diary next to its English brethren and are fluent in both languages, it will be difficult to determine whether the latter resembles the writing of Thuy or of the publisher's dramatic editing. The narrative is thick but raw, and only spared by entries of exuberance and jubilation by Thuy amid her combat tour to treat and support wounded Communist soldiers. "Oh, Thuy! Overcome these pains in your heart. Be joyful...You cannot live with sentiments alone, you stubborn girl? Furthermore, unless one is a Vietnam veteran, the battlefield context of time and place will be hard to comprehend. Footnotes appear on nearly every other page.
   
   The English translation of Thuy's diary, ironically enough, was done by a former boat person who had fled Communist Vietnam in the late 1970s. He had to enlist the help of his father, a reeducated former South Vietnamese. Last but not least, there is a long introduction--a drawn-out overview of the war--by an antiwar Pulitzer-prize winning journalist.



4. The following is a review of the unabridged audio edition of "Last Night I Dreamed of Peace" offered for download at Audible.com, an Amazon.com trusted partner.
   
   "Last Night I dreamed of Peace" (translated by Andrew Pham)is the war time diary of Dang Thuy Tram, a young Vietnamese doctor in a battlefield hospital during the Vietnam War. Written between 1968 and 1970, her diary speaks of the horrors of war, her yearning for her high school sweetheart, and her struggle to prove her loyalty to her country. Above all though, Thuy's diary tells the story of hope under the most dire circumstances.
   
   The book includes a useful introduction by Frances Fitzgerald.
   
   The diary in and of itself is gripping and powerful, but the narration by Kim Mai Guest significantly adds to its power. Kim Mai Guest gives Thuy a voice, gives voice to Thuy's hopes, dreams, fears and disappointments. In many ways, the audio edition should be the preferred edition because Thuy's words lend themselves more to the spoken word than they do the written word.
   
   There is no denying the book's power. There is also no denying that in the hands of a gifted director/screenwriter, "Last Night I Dreamed of Peace" could be an incredible motion picture.



5. "Last night I dreamed that Peace was established," Dang Thuy Tram confided to her diary. "Oh, the dream of Peace and Independence has burned in the hearts of thirty million people for so long. For Peace and Independence, we have sacrificed everything. So many people have volunteered to sacrifice their whole lives for these two words: Independence and Liberty. I, too, have sacrificed my life for that grandiose fulfillment." Thuy never saw the fulfillment of her dream. She was only twenty-seven when on June 22, 1970 American soldiers put a bullet through her forehead.
   
   Dang Thuy Tram (b. November 26, 1942) was a surgeon fresh out of medical school who headed a field hospital in the remote, mountain jungles of Vietnam. She operated without anesthesia, rebuilt her clinic every time it was bombed, tended to the peasants whose villages had been burned and bull-dozed, hid in her underground shelter, and suffered the atrocities of war -- kids stepping on land mines, helicopter gunships in the middle of the night, forests stained yellow by toxic defoliants, napalm bombs, amputees, and patients like Khanh, a twenty-year old victim of a phosphorous bomb whose charred body, burned to a crisp, still smoldered with smoke an hour after it was admitted to her clinic.
   
   The sparse possessions found with Thuy's body included some medicines, a rice ledger, a Sony radio, and this diary. When the American soldier Fred Whitehurst found the diary during the mop-up, he violated military regulations, kept the diary, and took it home with him in 1972 after three tours of duty in Vietnam. In April 2005 he was able to deliver the diary to Thuy's eighty-one-year old mother and three sisters, who published it in Hanoi on July 18, 2005. In the following eighteen months Thuy's diary sold 430,000 copies -- in a country where two-thirds of the citizens were born after the war ended and where books rarely sell more than 5,000 copies.
   
   Much like Clint Eastwood's film Letters from Iwo Jima, Thuy's diary tells the story of Vietnam from the perspective of our "enemy." She's a fervent patriot devoted to Vietnam's revolutionary resistance. She longs for acceptance with the Communist Party which suspects her admitted bourgeois background and attitudes (her father was a surgeon and her mother a university lecturer). She rages with hatred against the American invaders, those "imperialist killers, vicious dogs, bloodthirsty devils, and terrible, cruel people who want to use our blood to water their tree of gold." More importantly, Thuy's diary reveals the longings of a fellow human being who misses her mom and dad and aches with loneliness for her boyfriend. FitzGerald's introduction, numerous footnotes that explain historical details, and two dozen family photographs complement Thuy's deeply human dream of peace.

3 comments about All Creatures Great and Small.

1. This compilation of many of the stories of this master storyteller is superb in every way. I've met the man and one of the subjects of his experiences (in the story of the man with cattle). James Alf Wight (real name of author)was famous in the vicinity of Thirsk for his stories. One of his customers told me that as a kid he couldn't wait for the annual visits as "Herriot regailed him and his family with stories the whole time." The book is a retelling of some of his stories - and entertaining in every way. Super book!



2. James Harriott's ability t create characters, that we all recognize, rivals shakespeare's famous gift,. His description is such that I went to England just to see that part of the world. It is exactly as he describes it. A very good read and one that makes us anxious for the follow on books.



3. If you ever wanted to be a vet... "All Creatures Great and Small" will either inspire, or send you running off to be a lawyer. Heartwarming, funny, sad and highly educational, James Herriot's debut biography (he wrote five in all) give readers the whole messy, glorious picture of being a 1940s country veterinarian.
   
   The book opens (after a brief chapter taking place several months later) with James arriving in Yorkshire, to be the assistant to the eccentric but kindly Siegfried Farnon (yes, that is his name). He becomes accustomed to Siegfried, Siegfried's mischievous younger brother Tristan (yes, that is his name), and the gruff, kindly farmers who eke out a living in the Yorkshire Dales.
   
   Among the oddballs James encounters: Pampered pooches, savage pigs who chase Tristan around the farm, a nightmarishly strict secretary who drives Siegfried up the wall, James's brakeless car, cows running on three cylinders, a sadistic vet who makes James wear a rubber bodysuit, and an elderly, immensely wealthy widow who adopts a pig. And through this, James falls in love with the beautiful Helen Alderson and worms his way into the trust of the farmers.
   
   James Herriot (real name, James Wight) was truly a one-of-a-kind man. He let readers into his head throughout the book, where the cows kick him across the yard, farmers often treat him as an interloper or a nuisance, and his boss gives contradicting orders from one day to the next. But he never loses his drive or his love of animals. Okay, he hates some animals, but only as individuals.
   
   He even lets the readers see him at his worst, when he's humiliated by some recalcitrant livestock, and one horrible scene where he and his date show up drunk and mud-smeared in front of the girl he adores. (Not to mention when Tristan got him to use very feminine-smelling bath salts) But don't think that all of these stories are funny or romantic -- quite a few are aggravating or outright sad. James didn't soften the blows at all.
   
   There are a lot of details about surgery and animal care that will nauseate the squeamish, but at least you'll learn a lot of medical trivia. For example, what is a torsion? Herriot tells you early on, when he documents his nerve-wracking first case. But more than that, his love of animals is infectious -- it's easy to come out of this with a new appreciation for ordinary dogs, cows, cats, and so on.
   
   The people around James are just as fantastic: Siegfried, his weird but genial boss who can kick Tristan out of the house and forget about it overnight; Tristan, the mischievous anti-scholar who usually manages to keep out of trouble; and Helen, who seems a little too saintly at times (which isn't surprising, since James married her).
   
   It's sweet, sad, funny, romantic, dramatic, and full of the blood and sweat of vet work. "All Creatures Great And Small" is a truly unique and heartwarming biography.

5 comments about The Burn Journals.

1. Taylor Moody:
   In the autobiography "The Burn Journals" Brent Runyon describes his traumatizing suicide attempt and his difficult recovery over the next year. Brent shows us his experience at a Burn Unit in a children's hospital where he underwent burn care and skin grafts. After his stay at the Burn Unit and a few psychologist meetings he then went to a rehabilitation hospital for intensive physical and psychological therapy. And then he finally arrived home and began high school.
   In the beginning of the story Brent comes home one day after school with the thought of suicide on his mind. He was in trouble at school, his best friend was going out with the girl he liked, and he felt unwanted, unloved, and alone. He put on his black bathrobe stepped into his shower and poured gasoline on himself then he lit the match that would turn his life upside down. While engulfed in flames he made the decision to stop himself. He turned on the shower and the fire went out. He was rescued from his house and taken to the Burn Unit at Children's Hospital. At the hospital he discovers that he has burns over 85% of his body and undergoes intensive treatment. He makes friends with the nurses that take care of him and it makes his stay more enjoyable. Brent's burn scars have to be stretched or else he will lose almost all of his range of motion in his arms and legs.
   After about 6 months at Children's Hospital he then moves to a rehabilitation center called DuPont. Here Brent goes through intensive physical and psychological therapy. Brent figures out after a few meetings with psychologists that he doesn't know why he tried to kill himself. He feels that none of the reasons he thought he was doing it for meant any sense anymore. Also at DuPont Brent took some school courses to try and get caught up with his peers who he would meet up with in high school. After DuPont Brent went to another rehabilitation facility where he stayed with other teens that had problems of their own. Here Brent and his family talked about the event and how it affected the family. Brent was then released from here after a short period of time and could now stay full time at home.
   At home Brent caught up with some of his friends from eighth grade who were now in high school. He realized how much he'd missed and that he was going to have to struggle to find his way in high school. After a few weeks a t home Brent's psychologist decided he was ready to go back into the mainstream of life. Brent got on a bus, put his head on the window and rode the bus to this seemingly alien world which he knew nothing about anymore. Brent steps of the bus and starts a new beginning.
   I thought the author did an excellent job of bringing the reader right into his head. I could relate to the character and his humor. The Burn Journals showed me how fragile life is and the psychological affects suicide has. I thought this book was a masterpiece and I would absolutely recommend this book to all of my friends and even some of my older family members.



2. Taking his bathrobe into the bathroom and dousing it in gasoline, Brent Runyon, 14, lites a match and sets himself on fire. It all started because he lit a match in the boys' gym locker room, lit a locker on fire, and would have possibly gotten expelled. With the fear of his parents reactions in mind he plainly decides to kill himself. The pain of the fire was too much for him to handle and he douses the fire out in the shower and his brother Craig calls 911 immediatly. After he sets himself on fire he is sent to the Children's National Medical Center where they help replace his skin because he burnt over 88% of his body. After all his skin was replaced he was then transferred over to Alfred I. duPont Institute. While there he goes through a process of recovery and goes through physical challenges in order to get his body working properly again. I think that this book would be good for both adults and young teens to read. Not only does it show adults what goes through the mind of teenagers sometimes but it also opens up a whole new view for teens too. This book shows all differnt sorts of points from different points of view. During the process of his recovery the book could get a little slow but all in all this book was a good one for both teens and adults.



3. This book is a very touching story. When I read it I couldn't believe that someone would have the guts to do that sort of thing to themselves.I would definately recomend it to others especially to teenagers so that they see what commiting suicide does to your family. This was a awesome book!



4. I had finished a book that I had anticipated and was disappointed by so I need something to wash that "bad book" taste out of my mouth. I went to a local shop (Sorry Amazon!) and browsed the Biography section and settled on this.
   
   At home I cracked the cover around 6 and way after the sun went down I closed the book and put it on the shelf completed.
   
   I think this book hits home with me more than most memoirs because I can recall similar feelings as the author described having at that age.
   
   I think this could be "boring" or "dull" for a lot of people that pick up a memoir of personal tragedy expecting pages and pages of self loathing and reality show-esque emotional breakdowns and temper tantrums to the cries of "I hate myself and want to die!". Although that may be real life for some people this book is more than that........... this book is about a struggle that happens within a family that don't know a struggle is happening. It's about a young man that did something horrible and kicked himself afterwards and came out a little stronger in the end without dragging his family through his own inner turmoil (the debate over if that is good or bad is up for debate howeveR) over his past actions and thoughts.
   
   It's a book about dealing with a problem (depression), not ness. BEATING a problem. Which is the case for a lot of people that struggle with depression.
   
   I would suggest it as a good read, especially for the adult teen angst type. Like me.
   
   The way I described this book to a friend....
   
   "It's like having a really really long "I need to get some stuff on my chest" conversations with your best friend without having to say a word"



5. I was a little skeptical to pick up Burn Journals but once I picked it up, i oculdnt put it down. its a memoir about how brent runyun doused his bathrobe in gasoline and lit himself on fire. Brent takes you on his recovering journey from the surgerys to repair his skin to learning to walk and do normal activity all over again to being in rehab. it really opened my eyes to how lucky we are to not have to go through that much pain.
   
   just last week i got a bad sunburn and everytime i went to complain about it hurting, my mind would draw back to this book and id feel ashamed at complaining. as i said earlier, its a real eye opener. i recommend anyone over the age of 14-15 reading it.

No comments about The Warrior: A Mother's Story of a Son at War.

5 comments about The Seventeen Traditions.

1. This book is one of Nader's finest published works. It chronicles his life, and how he was raised. He takes the lessons learned as a kid growing up and puts them into seventeen specific traditions that are very easy to read.
   
   The rare and valuable part of this book is that it's one of the only times you can find Ralph Nader willing to talk about his life rather than about politics. There isn't much, if any, political discussion in this book other than a few instances of how his family used politics to bring home values.
   
   I highly recommend this book to all of my friends and family. He touches you with stories of how his parents immigrated from Lebanon and the lessons passed on to him and his siblings. The book will give you an appreciation for spending time with family, and does so in a way that is easy to read and enjoy.



2. This book offers greatly needed insight for a nation filled with antidotes, from fast-paced labeling of psychological disorders to quick fix prescription drugs and self-help book remedies. Ralph Nader takes the reader back to a slower paced society--a world enveloped by the wisdom of his parents. Chapter by chapter, Nader shares pithy, memorable maxims such as, "Jokes are to words as salt is to food" (81), along with other valuable scenarios which serve as life-enriching lessons. For a sampling of the earnest adult figure many of us may have missed while growing up, Nader's book is analogous in resource value (on a smaller scale) to The Discourses of Epictetus.



3. A short book that reflects on society, democracy, and the peace
   of a good life.



4. I've long admired Ralph Nader and have enjoyed some of his
   other books . . . so when a friend recommended that I read his
   latest, THE SEVENTEEN TRADITIONS, I made it a point to get a copy.
   
   My only problem came afterwards; I couldn't put it down . . . so
   some other projects had to be aside as I read about Nader's
   boyhood in a small town in Connecticut, and how that existence
   and the role of his parents affected the rest of his life.
   
   As he notes:
   * I am often asked what forces shaped me. Rather than trying
   to give a full answer to that question-which would take
   longer than a limited interview would allow-I often reply
   simply, "I had a lucky choice of parents." My brother, two
   sisters, and I had a remarkable father and mother, who
   cared for us in both direct and subtle ways. The examples
   of their lives set us on the solid paths we have explored
   ever since.
   
   As I was reading it, I kept thinking of how my parents were
   similar in so many ways . . . in particular, this passage
   could almost have been written about them as well:
   
   * Mother and Father each lived to be just short of a century
   old; we benefited from their seasoned perspectives and
   wisdom for many, many years. They were forever young,
   exemplifying my mother's strong belief in the importance
   of remaining "interested and interesting." And they succeeded
   in doing this throughout their lives, attracting ever-younger
   friends to visit, whether we children were home or not. They
   created the strong family base from which my siblings and
   I sallied forth into the wider world, full of new experiences
   and high expectations.
   
   In sharing the lessons he learned from his parents, Nader
   also gave this advice that should be heeded by anybody raising
   children today:
   
   * Perhaps it was my father who best captured their attitude. Once,
   when I told him that I'd done my best at something, he leaned
   over quietly and looked at me. "Son, never say you did your
   best, because then you'll never try to do better."
   
   As the holiday season approaches, methinks that THE SEVENTEEN
   TRADITIONS would make a perfect gift for anybody wanting to
   read about life back when his or her parents were younger . . . and
   how much of what took place then could still be put into effect now.



5. For the money, it was not much of a book. For the talent accepted for the author, it was not much of a book. Simple platitudes which are mostly captured in the first chapter, and the rest of the book just re-hashes that theme: My parents were great, I am great, why don't you do likewise! Of course it is too late to change parents, but it does give some good foundation thinking for people just starting out to raise a family, and who are looking for some parenting skills.

5 comments about Gringos in Paradise: An American Couple Builds Their Retirement Dream House in a Seaside Village in Mexico.

1. I just finished reading this book on my Kindle and thought I would write and express how much I enjoyed reading it. I read it back to back with "God's Middle Finger": Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre" which I thought perpetuated all the stereotypes of Mexicans possible.Everything happens in that author's head -and actually nothing happens to him that isnt a direct result of his own idiocy.
   This book on the other hand is a must read for anyone thinking of retiring to Mexico - let alone buying land and building their own home. The author offers a gentle, laconic view of the people who work with him on his dream home. He goes out of his way to understand their customs, culture, and history and is well rewarded for his trust. He offers great tips on where to shop for crafts, and furnishings, a little history, and a fine portrait of present day Mexico. You feel like a house guest.
   Highly Recommended even for the jaded traveller.



2. This book reads more like an adventure trip of Ricky Recardo and Lucy. Don't get me wrong, there's certainly some good information, and it's entertaining, but I wasn't quite expecting a day-to-day travel log. My research into Mexico is more focused on differences in areas, prices,costs of living, american enclaves, housing, land, cultural aspects, climate, etc. But, there's been a lot of effort put into this and it does provide one couples experience, which does provide value when evaluating such an experiance.



3. I really enjoyed reading this memoir a lot. It has good descriptions, honesty, and humor. It's written in such a friendly, personal way that I would love to go meet the authors! More photos would garner that last star!
   Dee Bratcher
   Arlington, TX



4. This book was a joy to read from the opening sentence to the last word.
   The author described the complex people of Mexico in such a way that the reader knew how much the author and his wife respected and admired most of the natives they came into daily contact with. Even though I am not of retirement age (yet) and most likely will never settle in a foreign country, I was enraptured by this book. Great relaxing read and very informative too!



5. Having just completed out first year living in a different small seaside town in Mexico, I can attest to the authenticity of Barry and Thia's experiences and appreciate their outlook on living in Mexico. I found myself following my husband around, reading passages out loud to him, i.e., "You've got to hear this!" Golson does an especially good job of describing the naivete with which they (and we) began the experience and the incremental ways they learned to love a side of Mexico you can only experience as a resident.
   
   The hopes and the frustrations involved in building a home here are accurately and humorously described. But for me, the real value of this book is the unpretentious way he describes the development of their deep affection for Mexico and Mexicans. My husband and I have reached the same conclusions, through a series of experiences that are very similar to theirs.
   
   If you are considering a move to Mexico, this is an instructive read - not so much for the information about homebuilding (although it IS helpful and accurate) but more for the story of acclimation to a culture that is SO much more different than you could ever imagine.
   
   Many authors have taken advantage of the growing trend to move south and we have read most of them. Along with Don Adam's book (Head for Mexico), this is the one I would recommend.