No comments about Bulletproof Principles for Striking Gold.

No comments about Successfully Living With Diabetes.

2 comments about Second Sight.

1. This was a short book, for which I'm grateful. It would have been much more enjoyable if it was half as long. The aspects of going blind and than regaining sight many years later was intriguing, and those parts of the book I enjoyed. But the author spent (IMHO) much to much time talking like a philosopher, which made it an effort to read.



2. When Robert Hine was coming of age, he learned that, sooner or later, he would be blind. Instead of giving up, Hine went on to earn his maters degree and later his doctorate degree. He became a respected college professor, author, and researcher. Before age fifty, he was completely blind, yet he continued to work. Fifteen years later, circumstances necessitated a risky surgery that couldn't have gone better. Hine's sight was restored. He shares the miracle of his instant return to the sighted world, taking readers along as he reacquaints himself with the visual parts of his life. Hine demonstrates how truly relative "disability" is. WIth some sight, no sight, and restored sight, the author remains motivated and sucessful. This book is both a personal journey and a manual on living with loss and the rewards of not giving up. Hine is a true hero. Amazingly he carries it all off without an ounce of pretention.

No comments about State Kid.

4 comments about Love, Ruth: A Son's Memoir.

1. The host for the bookclub I'm in, choose this book as our 'read' for last month. We all enjoyed it, but for different reasons. I enjoyed reading about the information about his mother that Mr. Lovett was presented with & were it came from. My friend Pat has been inspired to search out information about her birth mother. Not to only find out what her birth mother was like, but to get health records & etc. We all were impressed that this very touching book was written by a man. How wonderful to read something this sensitive that is written by the gender whom usually prides themselves to be 'tough as nails'. We all agree that sensitive men are the best! We all live in a small town (Kernersville) that is located about 10 miles from Winston-Salem. We are planning to go see if we can find the house that he grew up in next time we are in W-S. Authors can have 'groupies' too!



2. This book deserves to be a real "sleeper" hit -- it's a remarkable read, both for its content and its honest presentation. The story of the author's quest to "know" the mother he never really knew starts off as a modern, suburban detective story of sorts, and along the way becomes something much more profound. The author's direct, no-nonsense narrative makes you feel like you're at his side for each new revelation. Some discoveries made me smile and nod with recognition of similarities to my own family, and some left me much more deeply moved; I think anyone who reads this book will have the same experience. This book would probably be a great gift for someone in your own family.



3. An engrossing account of a young man's quest to know the mother he lost to cancer at the age of two. He searchs for his mother through stories of friends and relatives, through official documents and medical records, through mementos and snippets of information gleaned from old correspondence. Charles Lovett's story of this journey will touch a place in all of us. It is a story of profound loss and the courage to face that loss and come out on the other side, whole and with a peaceful heart.



4. Love, Ruth was a great read! It not only touched me and made me re-examine my relationships with both my parents and my children, but it was well written and compelling-a real page turner. It tells the story of the author's clever search for information about his dead mother and how that search leads him to a closer relationship with his daughter. I would highy recommend it to other readers! - Elizabeth Blakeman, Greensboro,NC

No comments about It's Always Something: Twentieth Anniversary Edition.

5 comments about The Bear's Embrace: A Story of Survival.

1. This book was written very well, I could feel the authors pain and suffering. The book mentions a documentary TV program that is about this incident--but I haven't been able to track it down.



2. The knee-jerk reviews that call this an 'inspirational', 'you can overcome anything' memoir are unbelievably obtuse. The unexpurgated, NC-17 truth of the matter is that the author committed suicide shortly after the publication of this book, apparently overcome by the enormity of what had happened to her and what was taken away from her by this horrible encounter with a bear. I felt that the end of the book, with its strenuous and somewhat fake-seeming efforts to find a 'silver lining' in her misfortune were perhaps the result of pressure from the editor/publisher to end the story in an upbeat way. The bottom line in the publishing biz is that downers don't sell. Sorry, all you 'smile button' types: sometimes the unvarnished truth is that you cannot turn the page, because the page weights a ton.



3. This is a deeply moving story about surviving---not just a brutal bear attack, but the facial disfigurement, long-term pain and surgeries, and the deep depression caused by no one understanding Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, 20 years ago. As someone who lived in Canada for 20 years, I believe that Patricia's critique of her medical care is NOT a critique of the Canadian system of health care funding, but of how little was understood back then about trauma, and how to rebuild one's life after such horror. This is a deeply spiritual book, in spite of its graphic descriptions of her facial damage, and the clumsy surgical attepts to fix it. This book should be required reading for all people in the health care and mental health fields. It might teach compassion for "difficult" patients, who have much to teach us.



4. I believe that this story was a great description of a persons will and determination to survive. The book is very well explained and tells a lot about the human spirit. It is something that you would read on a rainy Saturday afternoon with a cup of hot cocoa or a hot cup of coffee whatever you prefer. A great read indeed.



5. I read the book in one sitting. I simply could not put it down no matter how many pressing/important things I needed to do. It has stayed with me long after, as well. This book was not what I expected. After chapter two which was the attack and rescue I wondered how the author could fill the rest of the book with the recovery. In moving prose, with bare honesty, she takes us on her harrowing journey. Through it all is her Homeric husband(demanding work, chronically ill/incapacitated wife, growing needy children AND building his own home - whom we come to love and admire, too). Yes, this story is an unwitting condemnation of the Canadian socialized quality of medicine, but it is ultimately the strength and perseverance of the human spirit. Please continue to write, we readers have come to care for you and your family deeply.

5 comments about February Light: A Love Letter to the Seasons During a Year of Cancer and Recovery.

1. I read this wonderfully written and deeply felt book a few years ago, after my mother succumbed to biliary cancer and long before I triumphed over my own cancer (prostate). During my year of cancer and recovery, I often thought of Remoff's book -- a gem that created a resonance I still feel today -- of her resilience and love of life. Familiar with the setting, Eagle's Mere (a quaint, old Victorian village set atop a picturesque mountain, frequented by folks of means throughout much of the 20th century), I'd say she had ample opportunity to commune with the seasons. But the beauty of her love letter lies in its human light. We see an engaging, luminous spirit that will not yield to the dark, nefarious work of cancer, a woman deeply connected to family, friends and community. Her dog Chuckles, her running, her ruminations, her alternative healthcare approaches, her strong yet sensitive husband -- all give her reason to live. This book should be mandatory reading for anyone whose life has been affected by cancer. This book is life, fully lived, soulfully rendered, teeming with laughter and foolishness amid the fear and pain of facing one's inescapable mortality.



2. As a book about nature and going through a life threatening disease, this is a lovely portrayal.

   If one is looking for indepth personal perspective and insight into (ovarian) cancer and accompanying surgerys and treatments, it is rather weak.

   I wasn't moved, at a time when I am easily moved.




3. "I'm locked up for a crime I didn't commit," says Remoff, pacing hospital corridors after ovarian cancer surgery. This restless woman describes her greatest adventure, a dance with death in her 54th year. It's not surprising that she despises being cooped up. She lives on a crystal clear lake in small-town Pennsylvania. She adores the outdoors and describest it tenderly -- its changes through the months of that year. In September she pays attention to the Crows and their wisdom. "Crows break my heart in the same way September does," she discloses. In January we see her on the frozen lake to help townsfolk harvest 250-lb ice blocks to build a high and dangerous toboggan slide, a ritual since 1904. She's in chemotherapy, wearing mittens, scarves, boots. She gets too cold and must give up. Feeling guilty, she won't attend the bean feed afterward. Chemotherapy doesn't stop her from running, though, even on dark winter mornings. She's only dissappointed that she must cut her speed as she weakens. This is a strong woman, physically and mentally fit. She flirts with the mystical. A lost pendant is mysteriously found by strangers and delivered to her door. A white light surrounds her one morning in bed -- healing and supporting her immediately before her follow-up diagnosis, one that ultimately finds no trace of tumor. There's much to the body-mind connection that we have yet to learn. This is an educated woman, a researcher who questions issues of economic theories. I wondered, then, why she did not question, as I did, what allowed cancer to enter her strong and active body. Do we remember our grandmothers attending funerals of friends dying from breast or ovarian cancer in their fifties? Or forties? Or thirties? This lovely book is bereft of her probing heart in dealing with these issues with her doctors. Today, some health care professionals and their patients actually take time to track childhood exposure to DDT, toxic waste dumps, farm pesticides and polluted w! ater. I wish she had.



4. In this brief book, Heather Remoff shows herself to be a funny, gutsy, caring and sensitive woman. She also turns out to be one tough cookie. This memoir of her new life in a remote Pennsylvania village, and of the cancer that nearly ended that life, is well worth reading just for the skill of her writing. But even more, it is a fascinating self-portrait of a whole person, fully engaged in the serious and crazily unpredictable business of life.



5. While facing a deadly disease, Heather Remoff shows wonderful insight, honesty, and humor. Also, the book is the perfect length and is very readable.

4 comments about Accidental Warrior: The Forging Of An American Soldier.

1. This is the story of a man that is so rightoeusly correct - and almost everybody else is wrong. Despite his sensitive nature and his traumatic childhood trying to live up to his father's expectations - he still gets through his father's rigorous alma mater. But he makes a go of it in the Army - despite experiencing searing pain through two combat tours in Vietnam. On top of all this the author is angry that the 'liberal media' were traitors to the country by reporting the war inaccurately. It seems the media were antagonistic to the war because LBJ lied to them - and so the media had to get back at the country by radicalizing itself.
   
   pray that the author will find peace and learn that when one thinks his country is making a terrible mistake that it is important that people make their concerns known. I thank the author for serving his country as he though it was right. He like so many of us were seduced by Kennedy's "Ask not...". I am sorry that the author saw so very few competent and honorable officers in the US Army in the 60's and the 70's.



2. This is the story of Andy O'Meara, who never intended to be a soldier. His plans were quashed by an overbearing father, who had his own notions of a career for his son. As a result of parental pressure, he went through West Point, but admits he didn't have his heart in it, and didn't do as well academically as he should have done.

   Once in the Army, he managed to get a bad reputation at the outset, one that dogged him (literally -- read the book) throughout the rest of his career. Nevertheless, he "soldiered on." The book describes his Vietnam tour up to his being evacuated as wounded, his tour of duty in Germany and then the U.S., both with an armored division and later the Army Staff.

   Much of his story deals with the way the Army was mismanaged throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and how this affected the troops. The reader gets to see the peronsal effects of the mismanagement on the troops themselves, through the author's eyes. In particular, he condemns Defense Secretary Robert McNamara for robbing forces elsewhere to fund the war in Vietnam. (I spent much of my 25-year military career as an operations analyst. I share his opinion of McNamara.)

   He doesn't spare himself either in the telling. He describes the breakup of his marriage, placing much of the blame on himself. No harsh words about his "ex," just straightforward description.

   Overall it's the story of a man who went through some trials that would have broken a lesser man. He's honest about how much of his problems were his own fault.

   For those who were in Vietnam or who served in a Cold War assignment, it will ring true. For those who want to understand what those years did to the men who lived through them, it will give the unvarnished story. I highly recommend it.

   One thing should be kept in mind. We read only Andy's side of the story. His father might have some different views.




3. Behind the posturing and political facades, ignored by media and entertainers, and neither praised nor appreciated are the men and women warriors who chose the harder course to wear the uniform of our country's military and serve honorably and successfully through the cold war and Vietnam. One of these, Andy O'Meara has courageously told his story in this moving, informative, and historically appropriate book. His story needs to be read so that our people can understand the brave men and women who did their duty faithfully and honorably, then were treated so badly. Here in stark detail is the other side of the story.



4. This is a look into the mind of a successful soldier and leader. It's plainly, forcefully and honestly told. This is the story silenced by the media. If you get your news from Dan Rather, it may shock you. But the truth is evident in every word of it.

5 comments about Love Knows No Distance.

1. Love Knows No Distance is a story from a time that will be forgotten in the near future. The story from depression-era Alabama during the 20th century should be told to all of our children. Family love and devotion and faith in God for survival is a tradition our society is loosing. The traditional values in this story make it uplifting. The author's humor is refreshing but the element of love expressed in her book heart wrenching. I laughed and cried as I read her powerful story and I could not lay this book down until I finished reading the story. To paraphrase from the book ...."the only kind of blindness that's a real handicap is the kind of blindness that keeps you away from God." If you know anyone who is suffering through an illness or disability I would highly recommend this book as a gift. Every church library needs a copy also.



2. "Smith Hawthorne: A lady of courage".....It really is a paraphrase from the late John F Kennedy, "A profile in courage..."



3. This inspiring story of lifes lesson on getting past a disability is a story to be cherished. Nora's family and school taught her to forget things that she could not see. Her faith in God taught her to see with a spiritual eye. All her physical stumbling blocks were transformed into personal testamonies of how God protected her. Every time she needed eyes for vision in the sighted world God sent someone to her. Her love of God and her love for her family members and their love for her is truly inspiring and heart-warming.



4. This is a gripping story of depression-era Alabama, followed by the entrance into a world of physical darkness and spiritual light. The love of her family and their love of God helped them to overcome double handicaps caused by a horrible accident. Nora's accident could have devastated the entire family but they worked together to make their daughter an independent self- sufficient individual. The families devotion molded a daughter who helped others regardless of her own disability. It is a proven fact that God's love is free..........I sincerly hope this book will receive the national prominence that it deserves.



5. I could not stop reading this book. Nora shares her strong faith in God...she gives pictures of a life remembered as a child ....she gives us traditional values. Most important, I feel everyone needs to know this story of love and faith that Nora has put into her book "LOVE KNOWS NO DISTANCE". It's a beautiful book written in a conversational style simple enough for children to enjoy. I highly recommend this book for readers of all ages.