5 comments about Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lover's Story of Joy and Anguish.

1. I love dogs, I love a good cry, I was ready to enjoy this book. I downloaded it on my Kindle. The book was self indulgent, self serving, ridiculous and corny. The author seems to have been insulated from life to such a degree that he is absurd. Parts of the book are all about bragging that he knows Rush Limbaugh, who he presents as Mr. Sensitive and the rest is just such a weak presentation of what could have been a lovely story. It was a surprise to me that someone in the business of writing could do such a bad job.



2. I purchased the book after losing my favorite of three Labradors to a disease that took her in less than three days after my initial visit to our vet. I had just done an agility match with her less than a month earlier. I had no idea she was ill. Losing Tara so unexpectedly fast, had a very hard impact on me and I couldn't seem to come to terms with all that had happened. A friend recommended the book because he had listened to the radio broadcaster and had heard about the response by so many other grieving pet owners. He thought it might help me cope. I read and cried and read and cried my way through the book. As bad as my lose was, my neighbor across the street lost his dog seven days after mine. After I was through, with tears in my eyes I took the book to him and he thanked me because, even though he cried all through the book, it helped him with his grief. Thank you Mark Levin for writing a book that made me realize that, My grief was not so far out in left field that I was different from other people that lose their best "friend".
   
   Pamela Bishop



3. I'm not much of a book reader...........but after hearing favorable reviews on Shawn Hannity's radio talk show, I decided to purchase Mark Levin's "Rescuing Sprite" hoping that it would help my wife and I to deal with the recent loss of our beloved cat Cheyenne. The book was all that Shawn spoke of and more. Mark wrote this book from the heart and as any animal lover can attest to..........losing a beloved pet is one of the most difficult things in life to go thru. If you love your pet, or have recently have had to deal with the loss of one.........you must read this book.



4. A beautiful, moving story about an animal that is an important, very much loved part of the family.



5. Extremely touching tale of a dog and his family. Sprite was rescued as an older dog and taken in to a loving home. Through the words of Mark R. Levin we grow to know and love Sprite and his fur-brother Pepsi. Both dogs immediately make their way into our hearts and we travel along with Levin and his family (both furry and human) as they struggle with medical issues and the sadness of letting go.
   
   The book was hard to put down and yet so difficult to read at times. I found my heart breaking along with Levin's. Yet at the same time, my heart swelled with happiness in knowing that Sprite had such a loving home.
   
   It's a sad, yet beautiful tale of a dog and his affect on the lives of those around him. Having two dogs of my own, it doesn't surprise me how much joy an animal can bring into our lives. I'd recommend this book to all dog lovers, and especially those that have lost a loved pet in the past. But be sure to have a tissue or two handy as there are definite teary-eyed moments.

5 comments about The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.

1. I get highly frustrated at people who think their view of the Bible is the ONLY correct one, that EVERYTHING in the Bible is true and the literal "write this down" word from God's mouth. I think that's why I love this book so much -- because in addition to being hilarious, Jacobs points out all sorts of silly, absurd, and random selections from the Bible. And he does so without being offensive or crass or mean -- just presents a passage and then gets to "Huh. So what does this mean?" He consults a variety of spiritual advisors and reads MANY MANY books to help find answers. He presents all sorts of fun trivia tid-bits and potential explainations to try to make sense of the oddness.
   
   At its core, the process for this book was maybe a bit more excessive and random than, say, just writing an in-depth scholarly summarization of Biblical literalism would have been. But this is SO much more fun.
   
   I'm going to read this book again just as soon as I can steal it back from my best friend, who tried to take it before I was even done reading it! (She obviously needs to brush up on commandment #8.)



2. My mom's library book club was reading this book. One day while at her house, I opened it up and read the first 20 pages. I was hooked. The concept alone, of someone deciding to spend an entire year living according to the Bible, was interesting enough. However, the author's subtle sense of humor adds to the enjoyment of the book. It was a very quick and easy read. Unlike some, who would have used this same concept to create a book that slams you with heavy-handed religious lectures, he shares every day successes and failures in his quest. Reading his book actually made me want to be a better person; it made me want to do better at following some of the more mainstream Bible directives such as not lying about anything, doing more to honor your parents, trying to do more good deeds for strangers, etc. I highly recommend this book. I plan on looking up other books by this author.



3. The author has a very keen sense of humor and did a great job of portraying a complicated subject. I've been a moderate Christian my whole life and I really learned a lot from this book, both about variations of my own religion as well as Judaism. I also just flat out enjoyed reading it. I appreciated his candor in stating his biases and his attempts to overcome them. Most of all I enjoyed his dry wit, it made the book eminently readable. I look forward to going out and getting "Know it All".



4. I really loved this book, and I'm not just saying that so the author's dad won't flag my review as unhelpful. : ) I appreciate Jacob's efforts to challenge himself by actually living a different life rather than just writing about one. It takes a lot of courage to expand one's worldview and admit that previous viewpoints might have been faulty or at least, ill-considered. At the same time, the year of living biblically allows the author to explore his past - not just his own past, but his familial and ancestral past. This lets the reader feel that she's in on an introspective search that provided meaning and was worthwhile for the author, which I consider a gift.
   
   The book is very funny, and who doesn't love humor? But more than that, it challenged me to open my mind to the benefits of religion. While I won't be embarking on an effort quite like the author's, the book reminded me of the value of thinking about and rethinking my place in the world and how I want to proceed through it.



5. This book is hilariously funny. That's the good news. The bad news...don't read it unless you are open to other viewpoints. Otherwise, it will make you mad. The author decided to take an entire year and attempt to live all of the Bible in the most literal way possible. As is the Bible, the first two-thirds are devoted to the Old Testament and the latter third to the New. The OT section is great. It's a laugh-a-thon as he tries to live and OT life in modern New York. The funniest sections involve how his wife works around his project. The NT section is not as great, partly because he mixes in too much OT, without concentrating wholly on the NT. The New Testament is about giving one's life to Jesus, but Jacobs never goes that far.
   Sadly, Jacobs goes into the project with his own mindsets intact, instead of opening himself up completely to new ideas. Two great examples are the issues of creation and homosexuality. His thinking is basically this, he believes in science and has gay friends, therefore skip that section on the literal interpretation. If he believes that way, fine. But the project was to immerse himself in a literal interpretation. He does cover himself in the end by preaching his view that a cafeteria-style religion is best for everyone. In other words, just take what you like from God's word and discard the rest, a New Age philosophy that denounces any belief in the sacred word. The main problem with his cafeteria belief is that if you take something from the buffet line that he doesn't approve of, then you've gone too far. Isn't that always the way it is- any person with more standards than you is a legalist, ultra-conservative, hyper-fundamentalist and anyone with fewer standards than you is a liberal wack-job.
   With all that said, buy the book for a few laughs, but expect some of it to make you mad.

5 comments about Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson.

1. Several people in my family recommended this book and I managed to avoid it until yesterday because the one asking was a young person. How could I say no to a kid telling me to read a book she liked? What kind of ogre would I have to be to say no? It turns out I'm the kind of ogre that realized I could have lived without reading this. There's not much that's new here or that someone other than a rich, spoiled sports reporter wouldn't have known about the importance of family and the necessity to find your own path to the waterfall. My guess is that there are millions of people with the money to buy this book but without the most basic idea of how to be human. This book is just some basic, simplistic rules about how to be a good person. Nothing drastic or thought-provoking here. Again, I wanted to like it, but I can think of dozens of other books that have really touched me in many more ways than this one. Morrie Schwarz sounds like he was a nice man, but I think I would have gotten more out of one of his sociology classes or from spending an afternoon with him just talking than from reading Albom's book.



2. This is a quick, easy read, all about dying but not a bit depressing, uplifting and cheerful. Give it to somebody who is having a hard year or having a hard time remembering their priorities.



3. this book reminds me a lot of Conversations with my dog by Ziglar.....if I had to choose one book out of the two.....it would definetely be Albom. Both books offer life lessons about many things in life....thought it would be better though....i am getting the DVD to see how the movie does.



4. After reading so many spectacular reviews, I decided to give this book a whirl myself, and I'm so thankful I did. First of all, I hate to read. Well, let me rephrase that. I USED to hate to read. Doing so much reading in college leaves me with little energy outside of schoolwork to read, but I quickly polished this book off in two sessions.
   
   This book grabs you almost immediately and reels you in, and once you reach the first Tuesday conversation with Morrie, there's no turning back - you're anxious to see what lies ahead. In the midst of this beautiful story between two friends - Morrie, the former professor, and Mitch, his former student - you are taught valuable life lessons between the pages as Morrie battles Lou Gehrig's disease.
   
   The best lesson I took away from this book is that love and relationships are the most important things in life. This book has really changed how I perceive life. I, at 25, was so convinced that life still seems so lengthy, so certain, when in reality, it could end at any moment. How do I want to be remembered? That's something that Morrie's words really make you think about. I tell my friends and family a lot more often now how much I love them, and I've let a lot of bitterness about petty things go because this book has reminded me how small those things really are in comparison with the big picture of life, and life is too short to be anything but happy.
   
   In summary, this book reads quickly (so quickly!) yet there are hugely valuable lessons to be learned in its short length. If you're looking simply for a heartwarming story, this is the book for you. If you are perhaps one of those folks who takes life and those around you for granted sometimes, then this book is for you as well. You might even learn a thing or two. :)



5. Tuesdays with Morrie is about a professor (Morrie), his former student (Mitch), and their final "class" with one another as the professor is in the final stages of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). Mitch taped their discussions together and transcribed them into the book while throwing in slices of college memories of Morrie and other seemingly inconsequential moments that add to the humanity of this life-altering work.
   
   Tuesdays with Morrie allows the reader to glimpse into someone's mind who knows he is dying. We all know we are going to die, but we don't necessarily act like it. Morrie addresses what is really important in life and says that if people lived like they were going to die, they'd live differently. They'd live better.
   
   "How do you detach from the agony of physical and mental pain when you know you're going to die?" "How can someone with ALS be so incapacitated and yet still be happy?" "What would you do on your last day?" Morrie addresses these questions and they are what taught me the most from this book. I'll be writing on them in the coming days.
   
   Mitch was able to learn lessons from a man he admired. I have been blessed with such relationships and of these I am eternally grateful. Dr. Bill Greenwalt was one of these men. We met every Tuesday so that I could earn my license as a professional counselor. He would encourage my good ideas and chuckle at those he knew wouldn't work. I didn't care because I valued his insight. He was patient and always thought deeply about everything I said. These two virtues (patience and thoughtfulness) are hard to find. Dr. Bill Greenwalt died suddenly of a heart attack in January of 2006. I envy Mitch in that I was unable to tell Dr. Greenwalt goodbye and how much he meant to me.
   
   So we don't have to plow through every mistake in life, the Lord blesses us with people who can light our ways as we realize our potential. The person may be a teacher who always knows your name, or a supervisor who takes time for you no matter how busy he is. We need more people like this. I hope you will notice them around you and work to become one yourself.

No comments about Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur.

5 comments about Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez.

1. Richard Rodriguez reflects on his journey from the barrios of California to a seat in the library of the British Museum. He recognizes that the distance has moved him closer to a world of privilege and freedom. At the same time, he acknowledges that he is removed from his family and his background.
   
   Rodriguez bristles at attempts to mainstream Hispanic students through bilingual education. He is not calling for an official language. Its not quite like that. He just feels that students need to have an ability to master the language that, for better or worse, is spoken in the pathways that lead to power in this country.
   
   Rodriguez is very aware of the lessons that others would draw from his story. He points out that a group of people are attracted to having him as a speaker, because it confirms their own politics. Oddly, he doesn't feel that aligned with their perspective, because while they draw some similar conclusions about education, they have nothing else in common.
   
   Rodriguez laments that his book is catalogued and shelved in the wrong category. It is not a book about Hispanics, or within Latino studies. It is a book about class and privilege. That mistake is not likely to change, though, because class is a taboo topic and not something that is given its own space in our book stores.
   
   At one point, Rodriguez mentions that his editor would prefer less reflection and more stories. The editor wanted more anecdotes from Rodriguez' life -- more about his grandmother, for example. Rodriguez doesn't want to do that.
   
   I would argue that this is one privilege that he is not entitled to, even as a person holding a doctorate. He still has to show the reader, not just tell. If he thinks that he cannot tell the personal stories of his life without compromising his message, then he needs to write a few more drafts!



2. Looking beyond the criticisms of other reviewers, one can find in this little book many fundamental truths about education -- what it means to be an educated person, even how education might alienate people or divide families. Intensely intellectual and at the same time profoundly personal, Richard Rodriguez's Hunger of Memory eloquently charts the process of education in his own life, uncovering its magic, measuring its costs along the way, but in the end testifying to its great benefits. Students and teachers alike could gain greater understanding of the process of education and what it can mean through reading this book.



3. This book was a difficult read. I admit openly that it is a strain for me to understand the feeling of minority. I am a middle-middle class white person, privileged by virtue of the fact that my parents stayed together for 53 years until my father passed away, blessed by being an "Air Force brat", which entitled me to meet people of all different races, socioeconomic groups, and nationalities to the extent that I don't see those things anymore. It is hard for me to relate. Rodriguez begins the book by mocking upper-class people for being arrogant, and middle-class people for attempting "cheap imitations of lower-class life". Are there really people in America who divide individuals into classes like that? And if class is so important, to what class would he assign himself? My father taught me to respect all people and that every man's work is good if it is honest work, so I would not presume to judge a person's character by his socioeconomic class.
   
   Overlooking this obstacle, I see that Rodriguez, like all good writers, writes from his own experience of life. He was intensely impacted by the transition from Spanish to English in his life. His mother insisted on English being spoken in the home, according to the recommendations of well-meaning nuns, but as a result, the author lost an integral part of his home experience, the music of his native tongue. Additionally, he lost connection with his mother and father, because while his mother attained a rudimentary grasp of the English language, his father never quite caught on, so his relationship with his wife and children was radically changed. According to the author, his father lived voiceless in his own home, which was a sad state of affairs for the former head of the household.
   
   Rodriguez states that he is against affirmative action as it is legislated, where the only requirement to qualify is to belong to a minority group, such as African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Native Americans. When he realized that he had received an exceptional level of early schooling during his years in private Catholic school, it became clear that he was not really socially disadvantaged at all. At that point in time, it was evident that there were many other students out there who were far more needful of the benefits of the affirmative action program. Furthermore, Rodriguez equated the meaning of the word "minority" with "alienated from the public (majority) society", and found that by becoming a student, he did not consider the term "minority" to describe him. Neverthless, for reasons that are somewhat blurry, he accepted the benefits of the program, went on to denigrate the program publicly, only to have it thrown back in his face by minority leaders who did not appreciate him rocking the proverbial boat. Eventually he apologizes for taking the benefits that someone else was more deserving of receiving; however, he acknowledges that it is unlikely they will ever read his apology.
   
   The author's apparent love of his parents, his obedience to them and respect for their struggle in a strange country, was wonderful to see in the beginning of this book. Rodriguez's recognition of his parents is well deserved, for his father and mother made considerable sacrifices to give their children a better chance in the world than they had personally experienced. They left their Mexican town filled with memories, family, and friends, to take their children to a land of increased opportunity. They worked hard and managed to send their three children to private Catholic school. They attended an Irish-American church instead of the Mexican church they preferred in their homeland. He says that his parents coped well in America, with his father keeping steady work, and his mother managing the home, which was situated in what Rodriguez describes as "among gringos, and only a block from the biggest, whitest houses". Although they knew none of their neighbors and routinely struggled to manage daily concerns in a strange language, they had huge families of relatives visiting them from time to time, and a family life immersed in laughter and joy. This is evidence of the consistent efforts of loving parents to provide a lasting heritage that eclipses ethnic or socioeconomic constraints. Unfortunately, halfway through the book, Rodriguez tells us that as he became more and more proficient in English and enlarged his circle of English-speaking friends, he became ashamed of his parents and hated their foreign ways. In the final chapter of the book, we find his mother begging him not to air his disloyalty to and disappointment in his family openly in his writing, but he does not honor her request. This book is all about him, to the very end.
   
   The author continually reminds us of his socially disadvantaged upbringing, the fact that he is the son of "working-class parents". Forgive me if I don't buy into this thinking. He attended private school, for Pete's sake. That costs money. I grew up listening to my parents' stories of the depression, when people were lucky to even have a job, and of life in post-war Germany , where children rifled through garbage cans for food. To this day, my mother keeps her pantry filled with extra cans of food, extra bags of staples such as flour and sugar, all sorts of extra non-perishables, against that kind of want. I went to Florida 's horrendous public schools and my parents couldn't afford to send me to college, so I got Pell grants and Perkins loans and Stanford loans for which I am still paying. So I should feel sorry for him, because he was on scholarship based upon his ethnicity? It is appalling and demeaning the way he calls himself "the scholarship boy" throughout this text. If accepting the funds was so detestable to him, he should have passed the opportunity on to somebody who would appreciate it. In the interest of clearing his conscience, I think from now on, he ought to thank the taxpayers, pay his taxes and pass the help on to the next generation of needy students. Or if he feels that guilty about the financial aid he received, set up a scholarship fund for financially-strapped single parents who are women (the group I fell into as a student) with all the profits he's getting from this book.
   
   Rodriguez also states that he was "victim to a disabling confusion". He hasn't suffered a traumatic brain injury or been diagnosed with early Alzheimer's disease. He is referring to his inability to speak Spanish easily once he became fluent in English. As a speech-language pathologist, I can definitively state that linguistic learning differences don't make a person a victim. To me, Rodriguez's alleged issues with language and intimacy seem disconnected with the issues of bilingual education or affirmative action. In fact, he is such a gifted speaker and writer, that he makes his living using these skills, and is evidently very successful, or I wouldn't be reading this book.



4. Esteemed a classic, this work has the merit, upon first reading, of making the reader feel he has been initiated into the long lost tribe of truth tellers, something akin to the book readers of Fahrenheit 451. We meet somebody for whom education is a real thing, something that is life changing, enlightening, and it estranges him from his family, and of course from all people, because the sophistication he gains from his education makes him an enemy to the ignorant. Much is lost, but what is gained far outweighs that loss. He knows it, and we get the message. Bravo, Richard Rodriguez.



5. I read this book as a part of a college class on marginalized/minority writers. Out of a class of eight, I and another girl both thought this fellow was an unmitigated whiner and the book was terrible. The rest of the class thought it was compelling and thought provoking (or else they just wanted a good grade that week.) It seems to me that it is almost forbidden to express dislike of a minority writer in a classroom environment these days for fear of being branded a racist. I did not like this book. I was in the minority--read it and decide for yourself.

5 comments about Girl, Interrupted.

1. This was...senseless jibberjaw..Truly that is the only word that comes to mind. The movie was wonderful, but I can see now that it was very loosely based on this book.. It took a few characters and added on to their personalities.. the book was mostly just rambling and opinions. Half of the interesting things that occured in the movie were not in this book. Those that love the movie will be greatly disapointed in this. I would also like to add, you will have in completely read in one or two sittings.



2. On the first page of her novel(?), Susanna Kaysen says she had to live for two years in a "parallel universe" when she became a patient in a psychiatric hospital. In the chapter "Elementary Topography," she poses a question, how did I get to be in here?
   The answer she gives, other than her being delusional, is that she was in a "state of contrariety." She goes on, "All of my integrity seemed to lie in saying No."
   Two other chapters bear witness to the adversarial character of her illness, "Velocity vs. Viscosity," which deals with her obsessive thought patterns, and "Mind vs. Brain:"
   "Whatever we call it--mind, character, soul--we like to think it possesses something that is greater than the sum of its neurons, and that 'animates' us."
   In yet another chapter, Kaysen derides her former therapist, who was named "Melvin," and who was to become her analyst. She acts like she tolerated him as someone imposed on her, and says that she "felt sorry for him" on account of his funny name. In an internal memo, however, a nurse reported that she experienced extreme anxiety over her therapist being absent.
   Part of Kaysen's "state of contrariety," then, must be seen in the light of an abject, back-against-the-wall helplessness caused by the mental illness. I pity Kaysen for her interrupted life. Her novel makes a compelling case for mental-illness research.
   In the Charleston County Library, >Girl, Interrupted< is located in the "Young Adult Fiction" section, which is inappropriate for such a rough, lurid story.



3. Susanna Kaysen shares an episodic account of her two-year stay in a mental institution during her late teens. She recounts the ailments and behavior which led her to the hospital, while also questioning her diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder, as well as the manner in which mental illnesses are treated. In order to portray her experience and the experiences of the other young women she encountered within the institution accurately, Kaysen recounts a variety of occurrences, ranging from the grim to the lighthearted. Among Kaysen's recollections are one girl's experience with shock therapy, her own attempt to bite into her hand to ensure that she is "real," and the girls' humorous outing to an ice cream shop.
   
   Copies of Kaysen's medical records are juxtaposed against her personal accounts, often making the tone of the former documents unsettlingly cold and detached. Her personal account is often moving, and even the logic Kaysen uses to explain some of her most unusual behavior can make sense. At the same time, she strives for a relatively objective account of her interaction with mental health professionals. Kaysen presents a strong case to support her belief that the line between "normalcy" and mental illness is often muddied,--a thought she summarizes beautifully at the beginning of the book, writing that "Every window in Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco"-- without becoming overly critical of those who diagnosed and treated her.



4. Having PTSD myself from Wars and other things, I thought this was a great movie! I didn't read the book first however and normally I do but from what I gather the movie in this instance was much better than the book...
   
   I have read One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and in many ways this reminded me of that, only in the setting of a female dominated one vice a male one....
   
   Maybe in the future if time permits I will read the book itself to see if the movie which I have already seen and truly thought was great stacks up...
   
   If not...
   
   It was that book which inspired the movie and it's a great movie...
   
   And mental illness isn't just something that people are born with, some times they receive it through traumatic experiences such as tragedies or war or the like...
   
   In my opinion it is something that really needs to be given far more attention than it is receiving and this movie sheds light on it like few have...
   
   Your Chance to Hear The Last Panther Speak



5. Usually books are much better than the movie . In this case its the other way round . The book while interesting- is flat . The movie actually has much more going for it .

5 comments about When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa.

1. This was one of the most powerful, absorbing, moving and enlightening memoirs I've read in a long time. The way the author weaves his personal narrative in with an expose of the tragedy of life in zimbabwe under mugabe is masterful. His memoir is rich in details that reveal the complexities of his life, but he never loses the thread of his story. I can't read about southern Africa any more without conjuring up images from this book. I couldn't stop reading, and I didn't want the book to end.



2. Peter Godwin has written a very good follow-up to MUKIWA. His personal account of his family's history in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe is honest and absorbing for a genre that can be self-serving. I hope others will learn from this book that politics are never black or white,just human.



3. Peter Godwin was born in Rhodesia, and in 1996 he published 'Makiwa', a gripping account of how he grew up in that country. He was conscripted into the Rhodesian army to fight against the independence movement, by which time he felt that he was fighting in an unjust cause. He eventually got to England, became a journalist, and in 1981, now based in the United States, he returned to what in 1980 had become independent Zimbabwe, partly because his parents were still living there and partly because he loved the country and its people. But he now had to record that the new government of Robert Mugabe was more savage than the white government had been and was carrying out bloody suppression in Matabeleland - a sign of things to come. Godwin's reporting at that time made him persona non grata and he had to leave Zimbabwe again, though he was able to return after Mugabe had `stabilized' the country with the so-called Unity Accord in 1987.
   
   This second volume, first published in 2006, is an account of several later visits, beginning with one in 1996. In the chapters relating to 1996, 1997 and 1998, Mugabe's dictatorship is not central to his account, though of course he is aware of it; but he is more concerned with the quite non-political aspects of his family's life. At this time Mugabe had not yet whipped up anti-white agitation. Indeed he had for years encouraged white people to stay and help the Zimbabwean economy. In fact, in the year 2000, "78% of white farmers were on property they had purchased after independence, only when that land had first been offered to -and turned down by - the government, as was required by law" (p.56).
   
   Godwin's next visit was in 2000. That year Mugabe wanted to change the constitution to allow him another 12 years in power; and this change had to be ratified by a referendum. To get the new constitution accepted, he inserted in it a law allowing the seizure of white-owned farm land for redistribution to black peasants (though in fact most of it went to his cronies). His instrument for this were the so-called war veterans, and violence against whites now took off, under such thugs as those calling themselves `Hitler' Hunzvi and `Stalin Mau Mau'. When Mugabe lost the referendum, he unleashed violence also against Tsvangirai's newly created Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
   
   In 2001 there was a total eclipse of the sun over Zimbabwe, and, unusually, there was another one in 2002. The folklore expression for this is that `a crocodile eats the sun', and it is considered the worst of omens. Godwin now chronicles in the most graphic manner the increasing horror of Mugabe's appalling regime and the descent of Zimbabwe into chaos and lawlessness: the ruin of agriculture; the displacement of millions of black farm workers; famine; the government's deliberate withholding of food supplies from areas where the opposition is strong; hyper-inflation; casual murders and robberies, with the police either unwilling to intervene or actually participating in them. Among the many grotesque vignettes: cemeteries plundered, patches of maize planted between the graves, and befouled with excrement; the RSPCA being given permission to evacuate tortured animals from farms - when their white owners are not allowed to leave their besieged homes. Godwin is there during the General Strike of 2003 and its brutal suppression.
   
   But this is not only a journalist's book about Zimbabwe. It is also a touching story of a loving family. The scenes with his gallant and now impoverished, sick and aged parents - who, beleaguered as they are, refuse to leave Zimbabwe - are deeply moving. And there is an unexpected dimension. On a visit in 2001, when he is in his forties, Peter Godwin learns that his father, George, now 77, was not in fact the reserved Anglo-African he had always taken him to be, but was born a Polish Jew. Only now can George bring himself to talk and write about it. The revelation has an immense impact on his son, who inserts a couple of chapters to tell the story of George's Warsaw childhood, how, just before the war, he came to leave Poland as a teenager, without his family. George's mother and sister later perished in Treblinka. Peter Godwin had heard of Auschwitz and Belsen, but (somewhat surprisingly for a journalist) he had never heard of the other extermination camps, which he now researched and whose horrors he then describes.
   
   This beautifully written book is a lament for Zimbabwe, but it is also a tribute to his parents, and it is dedicated to his father's memory.



4. Peter Godwin's book, titled above, is a very worth while read. In plain dialogue he lets the rest of the world know what is really going on in Zimbabwe in the most sensitive way possible through his own families lives. The book is beautifully written, I couldn't put it down once I started reading it, more especially after following the last fiasco of an election in June 2008. Why the other African nations let Mugabwe get away with what he is doing to his own people, is beyond me. Farms that were productive have now grown wild and uncultivated, and a country that was the bread basket of Africa is now one of the worlds poorest countries, except of course for the government fat cats. Well worth buying and reading



5. A good description of what is happening to "the man/woman in the street" in Zimbabwe by using the experiences of his aging mother and father.
   However, the author fails to set important context as he did not live through the Rhodesia to Zimbabwe transitition. Also, by the time this book was published, Zimbabwe was already accelerating towards complete devastation for 99% of the population.
   Ended up a "lightweight" editorial with no recriminations or recommendations.

5 comments about Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia.

1. "Stalking Irish Madness" by Patrick Tracey is an intriguing book. From science to séance, he brings us full circle in his search for the origins of his family and the madness that runs through it. Underlying the romp from Boston to Dublin and beyond is a serious attempt to understand the nature of the schizophrenia that has dogged his family for generations. Schizophrenia, of which there is no known cure, is the persistent hearing of voices in ones head, and it wreaks a devastation that Mr. Tracey brings home to the reader, step by step, page by page.
   
   This is an intensely personal book, and yet Mr. Tracey avoids the maudlin effects such a personal journey might incur by an inventive and highly successful use of metaphor. There is a palpable drama in stalking the madness that has stalked his family and so many others.
   
   Beginning in a much changed and modern Dublin, we travel with Mr. Tracey through a series of small towns and villages, spending a summer in a camper van on a lonely tour of Ireland. We are witnesses to the contrast between Ireland's "faerie" folklore and the stark realities of the huge and ancient mental institutions built to house an increasing population of the mentally ill. Mr. Tracey's descriptions are vivid and entertaining, but he is never far from what brought him to Ireland in the first place. And, while continuing to track the facts with solid research and interviews, he none the less remains sensitive to the pain that memories of poverty, famine, or mental illness might cause the people he meets along the way.
   
   Make no mistake about this sometimes-harrowing emotional trip: Mr. Tracey holds out some real hope for confronting the voices from within. He leaves us with a sense of optimism for the future mental health of the many individuals struck down by schizophrenia.
   
   I am confident that this book could be instrumental in giving us all a better understanding of the people we may meet throughout our lives who are struggling to live with schizophrenia. Perhaps it will help us to see the best in what might at first seem strange, or frightening, by allowing us to accept the fact that though people are different, that is not always a negative thing.
   
   I would recommend this book to anyone. It is fast paced, and hard to put down. Moving through the thumbnail sketches of Ireland's troubled history to the personal revelations of Mr. Tracey's own experience, this book is a testament to the indelible imprint that each of us bear from the past.



2. I really hope the APA asks Mr. Tracey to speak at the next convention as this book is one of the best I've read about how mental illness impacts a family--the range of emotions from survivor's guilt to denial, anger and fear. Who will be next to fall from the family tree and how can we save them?
   
   I prefer this memoir over the McCourt memoirs for its intellectual and introspective pursuit of knowledge via Irish history and science. I get the feeling that in another life, Mr. Tracey would be the scientist who unlocks the genetic code that solves the mystery.



3. I am so thoroughly enjoying this book, even though my heart breaks on each page. Tracey has researched farther back than I could even fathom tracing my own family tree. His tales about his family are interesting and so well told that I can see the houses. I feel as if I know the great-grandmother, I can almost feel her pain.
   
   He describes schizophrenia in words that I have never heard before. It has opened another level of understanding. The horror that is losing someone in the blink of an eye, having them replaced with a different person, is terrifying. I found myself checking my age versus the statistics, wondering if my own children are safe.
   
   My heart goes out to him for all of his tragedy. But I do so appreciate his ability to put it into words and on paper for everyone to experience.



4. This is the heartbreaking story of Patrick Tracey's family history of schizophrenia. So many times when an introduction to a book review starts out saying its "heartbreaking", the ending of that sentence normally will also say "uplifting". Unfortunately that is not the case here... but in the place of uplifting... the story is definitely the next best thing... EDUCATIONAL. The author's Irish family on his Mother's side has been cursed with this dreaded disease. From his Great- Great Grandmother Mary Egan, to his Grandmother May Sweeney, to his Uncle Robbie, and to his two sweet and loving sisters, Chell and Austine. The reader will be taken on an educational and scenic trip from Boston to Ireland and back. The reader will... if not shed tears... will definitely feel pangs of sadness and dread in the gut of their soul... as names of victims become real to you... and you can feel the actual utter helplessness... that healthy family members... are reduced to. Along the way you will learn about the tragic speed in which this mind controlling, life-changing, dreaded, curse of a disease attacks.
   
   "Schizophrenia is the hearing of voices, but the hallucinations can be seen, felt, and smelled as well as heard. It's fright night for life for many, an all-consuming terror that never ends." The author's healthy Grandmother, May Sweeney went out one day and came back late. Her husband was worried sick. When she came back to their house, he met her at the gate, "her slow grin says it all: every tooth has been wrenched from May's head - her gums a swollen and bloody mess." "What has become of your damn teeth?" "May it turns out, was nobody's victim. She had gladly paid for the dental surgery, she said, to stop the voices in her head. The voices had grown in power and strength until she could no longer bear them. The voices told her they would go, happily, if she would free them from her dental cavities. Whether extensions of her mind or enemies in her head, these strange voices lied, though; they were still chattering, her empty gums still bleeding, as May collapsed into my Grandfather's arms."
   
   After schizophrenia attacks his Uncle and his two sisters, Patrick decides to depart on a trip to his ancestral homeland in Ireland, to try to trace down his family tree and investigate possible causes of his family's medical and mental dilemma. Along the way many myths are refuted. The author delves deep into the effects of the many famines in Ireland... he investigates the effects of alcohol... explores the mysterious and magical "fairy-caves"... and he visits the sights of old and new mental institutions... which held patients that not too long ago were openly called "LUNATICS". His investigative journey brings him upon a Dr. Dermot Walsh an epidemiologist "whose work, with Dr. Kenneth Kendler, led to the discovery of the first-ever schizophrenia-gene-link. Walsh reveals that questions of causes and cures still tax him. Despite his press, and all the excitement about the abnormality in the dysbindin gene, he is nonplussed. "Yes", he says of the gene marker, that's our discovery. But it's quite clear that its effect, like some other genes that have been discovered, is quite small and you will only get this effect in a small proportion of individuals. How it works and how it operates is another day's work. We don't know much about it."
   
   "OF COURSE, IT'S NOT JUST GENES," HE SAYS. "THERE ARE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AS WELL - AGAIN, ABOUT WHICH WE KNOW VERY LITTLE - BUT WE HAVE SUSPICIONS ABOUT THIS OR THAT OR THE OTHER. BUT OVERALL, IT'S PROBABLY TRUE TO SAY THAT OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE ORIGINS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA IS STILL QUITE LIMITED."
   
   There are a few "main" types of delusional schizophrenic characteristics; one of which is "religious-delusions." Patrick asked Walsh: "ONE OF MY SISTERS HAD IT IN HER HEAD THAT SHE WAS MARRYING JESUS. WOULD YOU KNOW WHY?' "NO, WE DON'T. WE DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT WHY PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE THESE EXPERIENCES."
   
   The author sadly summarizes: `THE FUTURE IS UNIMPRESSIVE, WE NOW CAN SAY. SCIENCE CAN LOOK BACK THIRTEEN BILLION YEARS TO THE BIRTH OF THE UNIVERSE, BUT IT STILL CAN'T HEAR THE VOICES IN MY SISTERS' HEADS. SOME THINGS TAKE MORE THAN A LIFETIME TO KNOW, AND IT MAY BE THAT I'LL NEVER LEARN THE NATURE OF THIS DARK THING THAT MUGS US."
   
   At the time of the publishing of this book there are 35-40,000 schizophrenics in Ireland and approximately 2.4 million American adults, or about 1.1 percent of the population age 18 and older in a given year, that have schizophrenia. After reading this book... I will never look at one of those poor tortured souls... talking to themselves on a street corner... in the same way again.



5. This is an engrossing book about a disease that strikes when least expected. A fantastic read--insightful, deeply felt, poetic in its imagery, colourful, and fully engaging as we travel with the author during this incredible journey.

5 comments about Books: A Memoir.

1. My favorite book by an American author is Lonesome Dove. The other books in that series are also wonderful.
   
   "Books" is not fiction but a look at the author's love of books and collecting books. This may be of more interest to the people with similar interests.



2. Larry McMurtry's "Books" is very focused on his career as a Bookman, and, as he intended, gives little insight into his life other than as related to this part of his profession. For lover's of books it is a delightful, fast read. I enjoyed finding out about this part of Larry McMurtry's thinking and the fascinating details of "Bookmanship."



3. It was fascinating to discover that an author of western novels, Larry McMurtry, is also a used book dealer! With a title like this and the McMurtry name, this book will be bought by every librarian looking for a book that encourages readership. Unfortunately, it is a little more specialized than the average reader would expect. If you enjoy collecting, it's a book to borrow from the library. A more accurate title would have been Reminisces of an Antiquarian Book Dealer. From that standpoint, this is a great book! And the format is one that any dealer in antiques and rarities could utilize in writing their memoirs.
   
   After selling over a million used books and still having an inventory approaching 400,000 books (including 28,000 in his personal residence), at age 72, Larry McMurtry must have realized he needed to move some more books or risk a haunting fear that the remaining stock could go for four cents a book! What better way to advertise his bookstore than this description of his book dealing days and his comment that lots of desirable books are still sitting on his shelves carrying prices that are a quarter century old.
   
   What makes this book worthwhile is learning why people collect books and what makes a great library. To Larry, the fun is coming across an important or exciting book he has never owned! This is probably how most dealers in antiquities feel. As he states, "First one has to find such a book; then one has to recognize it for what it is." Unfortunately, rare book investing may not be for everyone. McMurtry gives the example of a book by a Belgian surrealist that he bought as part of a collection of several thousand exhibition catalogues. He quickly resold it for $36. Today, an inscribed copy is estimated to bring at auction, $60,000 to $80,000! Unfortunately, the book may not be for everybody, it is about an exhibition of dolls wrapped in barbed wire!
   
   As often is the case, no dealer can know everything. Sometimes, a rare book is nothing more than a pamphlet. Other times, it's the dust wrapper that brings great value. An example given was a dust wrapper copy of The Great Gatsby that Larry bought forty years ago for $12; just as the most sought after modern books began their spectacular rise. With America now having 946 billionaires running around with money to spend on things of value, McMurtry feels there can be no ceiling and this pricey rarity recently hit $168,000!
   
   McMurtry describes buying real libraries containing thousands of books as alchemy, "One looks, one guesses...." Making a bid you can live with and the seller will accept. Case in point, when starting out, Larry had $1500 in the bank, offered $1500 for a library and when all was done realized $10,000 reselling the books. Another example was hastily appraising a library of 16,000 books at $200,000 for the IRS - a little more than $12 a book. What keeps the reader whipping through is his chapters are so short that you think, "Why not read one more?" After reading this book, the collector/investor realizes it is pretty difficult for the average book lover to put together a rare book library that will grow in value.



4. Larry McMurtry has had as great an influence on books and movies as any living writer over the last half-century. From THE LAST PICTURE SHOW to LONESOME DOVE, he has penned 30 novels and 41 books, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. As a Hollywood screenwriter he won an Academy Award for Brokeback Mountain and has written 70 scripts.
   
   Who would have guessed, as he tells us in BOOKS: A Memoir, that by the mid-1970s "Writing was my vocation, but I had written a lot, and it was no longer exactly a passion." And this was years before LONESOME DOVE and decades before Brokeback Mountain.
   
   BOOKS: A Memoir is the story of McMurtry's real passion in life: book buying and selling. Over the years he has handled at least a million volumes as a bookseller. He owned a bookstore in Washington, D.C. for 36 years and now has turned his hometown of Archer City, Texas, into a book town where he owns six buildings, five of them filled with books. Indeed, you have a choice of 300,000 volumes to purchase when you enter his store, the appropriately titled Booked Up.
   
   But you probably won't be able to find a latte or scone for sale in the joint. BOOKS: A Memoir is a beautifully written look into the still existing but little known world of antiquarian book dealers. And unfortunately, it soon might be a Lost World, grinded down beneath chain stores and a generation raised on Gameboys, not the Hardy Boys.
   
   This work also gives us insights into the making of a great American writer. Who but McMurtry could write such a perfect sentence: "I don't remember either of my parents ever reading me a story --- perhaps that's why I've made up so many."
   
   There were no books around his Texas ranch house in his earliest years, but then at the age of six, a cousin going off to World War II gave him a treasure --- a box containing 19 books. His life was forever changed. In his isolated rural setting, he tells us, "I came to reading before I came to American popular culture generally..."
   
   McMurtry devoured his cousin's books multiple times and soon, as a young man, was searching through musty old bookstores, looking for books to read. He describes coming across shelves of Modern Library classics in Lovelace's Bookshop in Archer City and being filled "with a mixture of awe and fear." I was reminded of Pete Hamill's description of the awe he felt as a young boy exploring the Brooklyn Public Library and discovering THE ARABIAN NIGHTS. I wonder how much kids lose today when they don't have a similar experience. Not to mention our cultural life.
   
   Soon McMurtry progresses from book scout to bookseller. As a young writer, Hollywood buys one of his early books and turns it into the movie Hud. And instead of purchasing a jazzy car and fancy house, like many of us writers would, his work in films will help him buy all or part of 30 bookstores over the years.
   
   The antiquarian bookseller is like a deep sea fisherman, searching through garage sales, estate sales and auctions for the profitable find. And there is always the big fish that got away, such as when McMurtry sells a rare book, unknowingly for $45, and it ends up later being sold for $5,000.
   
   We meet some of the wonderfully eccentric characters in this world, characters who could easily fill a McMurtry novel. For example, there is the English bookseller Anthony Newnham. McMurtry writes:
   
   "Anthony Newnham tended to marry against type. His first wife, I am told, was a proper English housewife --- thus, in America, he usually went for wild, drug taking, motorcycle girls...Anthony's method...was to marry wild American girls and turn them into proper English housewives --- if they submitted to this change he rapidly lost interest. He was a very attractive man, even though, for a time, he had no front teeth, these having been knocked out by a cricket ball when he was nine. He lost his bridge and, for some years, didn't bother to replace it."
   
   There are gems of great writing like this throughout the book. And we learn that in all his decades of operating a major bookshop in the Georgetown district of the nation's capital, "we sold only one real book to a member of Congress." Now there is a shock!
   
   But for as much joy as there is in this book about books, there is also a subtle sadness. After all, the antiquarian book dealer makes his living when people die and their precious libraries are broken up and sold by relatives. McMurtry calls this "the silent migration of books." Then, there is the death of independent bookstores all over the country, driven out of business by the ubiquitous chains. Great old stores like Discover in San Francisco, the Heritage Book Shop in Los Angeles and the Phoenix Bookshop in New York City appear in these pages. All gone forever, part of the Lost World. Even McMurtry's own shop in DC eventually gave way to a Pottery Barn of all insults.
   
   McMurtry writes a simple yet beautiful sentence to describe when family members end up breaking up personal libraries that took years of hard labor to amass and gave endless satisfaction to their owners: "Something was over, and that was that."
   
   But for those of us who have made a living in the word business, McMurtry's wonderful little book comes at a time when we, unimaginably, find ourselves thinking not about retirement plans but whether books and their cousins in serving civilization, newspapers, may be the thing that is over. So far in 2008, 6,000 journalists have lost their jobs and some newspaper stocks have dropped by 84% over the past year. The San Francisco Chronicle is losing $1 million a week. The business is dying.
   
   And for those of us who must supplement our writing income not by selling books but by teaching college kids, we soon learn the depressing truth of America in 2008: young people are not reading either newspapers or books. McMurtry acknowledges this:
   
   "I nowadays have a feeling that not only are most bookmen eccentrics, but even the act they support --- reading --- is an eccentricity now, if a mild one." But he remains optimistic about the future. He writes, "Very quickly, once I had my 19 books, I realized that reading was the cheapest and most stable pleasure in life. Sometimes books excite me, sometimes they sustain me, but rarely do they disappoint me --- as books, that is, if not necessarily the poetry, history, or fiction that they contain."
   
   One can only hope that another young person will one day wander into one of the musty old bookstores remaining, pick up a book that has existed for centuries and be filled with awe and captivated by the magic that is books. Upon that child, the fate of this democracy and perhaps even our civilization may just depend.
   
   For anybody who loves books and reading, BOOKS: A Memoir will be a great read and a treasured addition to your personal library.
   
   --- Reviewed by Tom Callahan



5. The IDEA of a book about books by Larry McMurtry is utterly compelling. The moment I saw it, I "one-clicked" it. The editorial reviews which describe the book as being what the common McMurtry lover (me) expected, must have scanned the first 30 or so pages and written on reputation. This is a bewilderingly awful book, for all the negative reasons mentioned in other reviews.

5 comments about This Boy's Life: A Memoir.

1. I have seen the movie over and over and love it each time. It was great to read the actual events that happen and note what Hollywood produced. If you liked the movie the book is a must!



2. Generally the type of book you'd read as a school assignment. Very period - in 50's, I think. Sad story of life as the child of a single mom who marries someone she thinks would be adequate father, even though she knew he wouldn't be a good husband. Not so! Somewhat happy ending....recommend reading if you love to read well-written stories, but definately a downer!



3. i never read anything else by MR. WOLFF . this book was really a good read and very funny . i could really identify with the boys narrative and observations . i was quite knocked out when the film came out . it was not nearly as funny or fun as i recall the book being . it seems to me , a good deal less of the book was given over to his difficult and abusive stepfather . perhaps that's because i never had one . anyway , at least borrow the book from your local library if you're several dacades or less removed from your birth and are a guy . you'll be happy with this read i'm sure . you'll want to turn your brothers and friends onto it .



4. The memoir is intriguing. Any male who reads this can, at some point, relate to the follies, plunders, and disappointments Wolff encounters during his adolescence. It is explicit and candid making for an interesting read.



5. I'm about 2/3rds through this, and I find it entirely absorbing. Wolff's writing talent is not in using fancy words or complex forms...just one sentence after another of perfectly pitched prose that feels entirely true and believable. He gains the reader's trust and empathy early on and never loses them, even though, in my case, I wasn't much interested in the details of his somewhat sordid and pathetic early years. I keep asking myself this holds my attention, while most memoirs by people I have a lot more in common with don't. (Not to sound like a snob, but guns, dogs, smoking, drinking, etc. have never been my thing.) I think the reason is that his writing seems entirely transparent, plus you care about him. postscript: I've finished it now and towards the end I was increasingly pained by how f**ked up a person Wolff is--or was. It's troubling and yet the writing is still transparent. You might say he gives us a God's eye view: if there is a force that knows everything and can look at all our failings, faults and mistakes with simultaneous compassion and dispassion, then I think such a Being would write up Wolff's early life in the way he himself wrote it. You get a feeling that there is no self-judging or constrictions and nothing to hide: just the truth, the all too human truth.