5 comments about Chance to Die, A: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael.

1. I love the story of Amy's life, especially as presented by Elisabeth Elliot. The biography is true to Amy, even admitting her faults (though few!) and is a lovely book for any young woman. Challenging without being forceful. A biography at it's finest!



2. This is the first book I read about Amy Carmichael's life. It is very interesting and since reading this, I have purchased many many books that Amy wrote herself. My top 3 recommendations are IF, Kohila, and Lotus Buds. However, any of her books are wonderful.
   
   This book by Elizabeth Elliott gives an overview of Amy's life and pictures. If you want to know about her, this is the book to read.



3. I have read this book twice over the last decade and each time it has given me life principles applicable to the time of life in which I read it. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who needs an example to live by. I couldn't help but think that if God could do such things in Amy Carmichael, He could certainly do the same in me. What a challenge!



4. Amy Carmichael has been a great model to follow. Her love for the Lord spilled out to those whom she saw as His children worth saving ... even though they were considered worthless in their culture. God uses Amy's ferver to encourage me to continue on in difficult places. Thank you Elisabeth Elliot for using your God-given writing talent to so articulate the life of this precious woman of God. Your labors go hand in hand with Amy's in bringing in more souls for the Kingdom of God. To God be all the glory!



5. Amy Carmichael is a hero of mine. I first read this book many, many years ago after God broke my heart for the nations. I admire this single woman's faith and "heart like flint" as she left family, comfort and friends to serve the Lord in India. She went out not knowing exactly where she was going (like Abraham) yet trusted in her Father to guide and direct her. Indeed, she lived out Isaiah 54 as she became a spiritual mother to many poor children who were sadly abandoned and/or neglected in India.
   
   With a simple, resolute and steadfast faith, Amy built orphanages to defend the orphan and preach the good news to the poor. Her life was soul satisfying, multiplied and poured out as a sacrifice that others could live and find Christ. Beautiful.
   
   Amy's like will inspire and encourage you to PURSUE the call on your heart and to trust in the Lord for provision, security and guidance.
   
   Regarding Elisabeth Elliot, the author, I had the gracious opportunity to meet her in person.. and she is a sweet aroma of Christ as well. She trusted and followed in her Savior, despite the pain of losing her first love, Jim Elliot, as a martyr in the jungle of Ecuador. Through the death of her husband and four other Christian missionaries, many, many were saved - and many Christians called to the mission field. You can read more about their journey by reading:
   
   Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot

No comments about The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It.

5 comments about Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King.

1. This book was a good factual read on Louis XIV. Anyone with an interest in Louis (or just the era) will enjoy this book. I found no factual errors.



2. Antonia Fraser crafts a masterful biography spanning the life of Louis XIV -- using the relationships with the various women in his life (mother, wife, mistresses, daughter in-law, granddaughter in-law) as the pattern that she weaves her tapestry around.
   
   Detailed but not overwhelming, she paints an enthralling picture of the Sun King and those in the court who orbited him. A great profile regardless of whether you know little about thi time period or you're seeking to enhance the depth of knowledge that you have.



3. I used to be fascinatged by these portraits of historical figures, but this one left me bored and skeptical. I have read a few of Ms Fraser's other books and enjoyed them. Particularly her Marie Antoinette. But this one I found dull by the second chapter and now after chapter 7 have set it aside to move on to something else. I will go back and finish, and if my review changes, I will be back to amend this review, but I just felt there is so much interesting history to touch with Louis XIV and this book ignores a lot of it. In addition, her recreations of events as if she is there left me skeptical of their veracity. Obviously this is well researched, but does she really know that court "rushed" to someones side". I guess I shoudl have deduced form the title that this woudl really focus on Louis love life. I just was hoping for something else. There is enough television and movies telling us about the love lives of famous individuals of the present and past. I was more interested in his intellectual persuits, and his accomplishments in architecture and development of France that earned him the nickname of the Sun King.



4. Excellent thorough book. Easy read full of great
   info on the kings personal life



5. this is a great book. the photos inside are great and its quality is amazing

5 comments about Paula: A Memoir (P.S.).

1. A writer who can make you laugh, smile, and cry in the same chapter is indeed a writer to be cherished. Such is the case with Allende's Paula. As a mother, I suffered with Allende's description of her struggle to keep her comatose daughter alive, yet amid the tragedy she could digress and recall earlier periods of laughter and funny irony. Even in the midst of the anguish of trying to find a way to communicate with her inert daughter, she found comic relief in the drama of the lives of other patients in the hospital. The author provides compelling stories of her early childhood, great loves, and introduces a parade of interesting characters. All these are gently interwoven with a description of historical events and political turmoil in Chile creating a provocative glimpse of an era which I suspect most US readers were probably unaware. A tender and sensitive description of loss, tragedy, and of finding peace, Paula is indeed one of my more revered reads for this year.



2. In this book, Isabel Allende downplays her first two traumatic experiences. The central focus is her third trauma, her daughter's illness.
   
   The first trauma is a predator who's incomplete seduction is enough to scar a child; moreover, she sees the man's death. The second trauma is that of her uncle forced from office in an air bombardment and dies (perhaps at his own hand) along with many supporters, precipitating a military coup in which thousands die, flee and/or are tortured. She is not numbed by these, but she is by her third trauma, her daughter's coma.
   
   It took about 100 pages for me to get into it. I almost put it down. After about 100 pages, the breezy language and cryptic metaphors seemed to stop and Allende opened up. She became frank about about her married and extramarital life, but continued to restrain the prose relating the first two traumas. For instance, the childhood predator story is told like it was someone else's. Her uncle is like a stranger, and if how she is related to him is mentioned, I don't remember it. There is some discussion of family members who oppose the uncle, but nothing about their actually knowing him.
   
   There is some of the language of magical realism present in her novels. This book is worth reading for it's description of letting go. There are some vague descriptions (admittedly not the focus of the book) of life in Chile after the coup and life as an exile. I think there is a bigger memoir inside of Isabel Allende yet to be written.



3. When Isabel Allende's daughter suffered a calamatous illness, Allende did what came naturally. She wrote a story. On its most basic level, this book is about a mother who is losing her child. She goes through the stages of grieving, sometimes even arguing with herself on the pages about what might come next. It goes much deeper, though. There is a point in the book when it seems she has discovered she is no longer writing the book for her daughter. A seer told Allende that her daughter would be known throughout the world. At some point in the writing, Allende discovered it would be through her own efforts, not her daughter's.
   Allende has so many fascinating pieces in the story of her life, not the least of which is the fact that she is an extremely famous author. She is also a historical figure, being the niece of the Chilean president ousted by a military coup. She witnessed this and talks about it in the book. She was also raised by a man in the Foreign Service of Chile. She has traveled around the world and experienced what it is like to be accepted and what it is like to be rejected. She has been an exile as well. She wonders in the book whether her life has been very interesting. To her, it seemed normal and boring.
   This is really one of the best books I have read. The vulnerability with which Allende writes is devastatingly beautiful. In her sorrow, she chooses to share her story and the story of her daughter with us. I feel honored.



4. This story is so inspiring. It is so amazing how Isabel Allende shows the love to her daughter in this autobiographic story. We gave the graduating palliative care fellows this book as a gift. It demostrated very well all that there is to life that goes beyond death.



5. I like this book very much, but it is sad... The way Paula dies is just terrible, and Isabel Allende suffered so much!!

5 comments about You Learn by Living.

1. I purchased this book as a gift for an elderly woman whom is a fan of eleanor Roosevelt. She made a point to tell me how much she enjoyed it.



2. Honestly, I don't have much to add to what all the other reviewers are saying...this is a great little book (just a smudge over 200 pages) that is full of tidbits of advice, some that are very forward thinking, since the original book was published in 1960. My only minor complaint is that some of the advice does feel a bit "fluffy", without much meat behind it to really feel like something I can implement in my own life. Nonetheless, this easy reading book does remind us all of how to enjoy life and to strive to reach our full potential.



3. My mother told me she had the opportunity to go listen to Eleanor Roosevelt give a talk at her college during the 1930's. She said Mrs. Roosevelt was a powerful and inspriational speaker, while at the same time seem like a next door neighbor.
   
   After reading this book, I have to agree with my mother (don't tell her that!). This book is filled lots of very practical and useful ideas for everyday living. I would recommend this book for high school reading and then have them re-read it about tens after graduation.



4. I enjoyed the book very much. I am quite an Eleanor Roosevelt admirer and found much of what was in the book to be ageless in its presentation. It is a book I intend to give to my granddaughter.



5. This is a excellent book for any graduate, no matter what stage of life.
   Eleanor Roosevelt offers advice on how to be the best person one can be.
   Even at middle age I found this book to be very inspirational at this stage of my life. Live life to the fullest.

5 comments about Autobiography of a Fat Bride: True Tales of a Pretend Adulthood.

1. This was a good book. Not great...but good.
   
   Good because the first half of the book was raw, real and witty. You could tell she put alot of effort into the writing leading up to the wedding and the wedding itself. Her self deprecation and pointed observation of the lunacy that surrounds couples and weddings in general made me laugh out loud.
   
   Not great because after the wedding...the book sort of dies. Yes there are some laugh out loud funny moments...but not nearly as many as the first half. It's like she became tired and decided to "phone in" the last part of the book, from recycled columns or essays previously written. She could have juiced them up just a bit more and this would have been a "Great" book.
   
   Three Stars Out Of Five.



2. First time I had read anything by this author and found this group of short stories regarding marriage, new home and wayward pets to name just a few, fun and light. My preference in reading books, is for the chapters to link together in a more continuous storyline, which this book doesn't, but in saying that, I still enjoyed it very much. I loved the stories involving Laurie's mother; the comments attributed to her mother were the funniest I have read in a while!!



3. Laurie Notaro's books are chick lit for chubby girls with tattoos, and (according to my own) their Phyllis Diller-loving mothers. She had me chuckling aloud all day long at the beach. AOFB is one of her strongest collections of her perfectly witty tales of everyday things (like taking down the Christmas tree in March, taking her cat to the dentist, babysitting and shopping with her nephew, using her husband's toothbrush to scrape cat crap off her shoe, dealing with her crazed mother) told in a priceless and hilarious style. In this book, she concentrates on meeting, marrying, and living with her husband. A terrific, hysterical, can't-put-it-down, and all-too-realistic book. Grade: A+



4. I found Notaro hilarious in *Autobiography of a Fat Bride*. However, at times, I felt that Notaro was overly hilarious as if she had to be funny in every sentence.
   
   Nonetheless, I laughed while she recalled her younger days in regards to dating and men before finding the "one". And married life was not at all what she expected. Along with married life comes with duties, pets, home, housekeeping and a whole lot more. Notaro addresses just about every single thing. Notaro has a whacked sense of humor.
   
   I'd definitely pick up another book by Notaro.



5. This is my first Laurie Notaro book and it was by random fate that it got thrown into my carry-on bag while packing for a trip to the beach. I got some funny looks and even some comments about the interesting title. To be fair, most people probably overheard me laughing out loud, gasping, or shaking my head and saying "oh my gosh" because the book is so genuinely funny. I easily found myself engrossed with the whacky, loveable, relatable main character.
   
   The book reads almost like a set of fifty or so short stories, which is perfect for those with short attention spans or if you only have a few minutes to spare it is great to fit in a chapter or two. Although the book is made of short chapters, Notaro dos a good job of tying in bits and pieces from the whole book and keeps the reader engaged.
   
   This book absolutely exceeded my expectations. It's not another typical froofy girly book for and about brainless twenty-somethings. As a twenty something, I really could appreciate this book, but I think that a mature younger crowd or a youthful older crowd could easily enjoy this book just as much. Autobiography of a Fat Bride is a genuinely good read. Creative, engaging, funny... I look forward to checking out more of Laurie Notaro. If you're looking for a fun refreshingly good book, check this one out.

5 comments about The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath.

1. Having first read Plath a decade after her suicide, and in a period of my life in which I was very concerned about my own mother - a nurse, artist and writer who carried the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia - I scoured Plath's poems for clues as to what caused her to kill herself.
   
   Until this book, I had not read Plath since the 70s. I have since come to some of my own conclusions as to what caused or contributed to her death, and will continue my research.
   
   Plath and fellow Confessional poet, Anne Sexton, are worthy of intense scrutiny and examination into the poetry and into their lives.
   
   These women, like my mother, were born during an unenlightened time, and suffered in part because of the times in which they were born.
   
   A riveting read.



2. I am currently reading this book, so I haven't finished it. I am savoring it the way people savor fine wine. Also, I connect with this book and Sylvia Plath on a very personal level. What I believe we have in common are three elements, borderline personality disorder, creative aspirations and a hatred of our mothers. Borderline personality disorder is routed in warped maternity. In the last section of Sylvia's journals, December 58 -November 59, after being given her therapist's permission, she confesses, "I hate her doctor." She's talking about her mother.
   
   I am reading this book as a case study in borderline personality disorder, but that's not to reduce the excellent writing it offers. You get into Sylvia's psyche in a way only a journal can.
   
   The overwhelming tragedy of Sylvia Plath's story is that she never was able the reap the rewards of her singular artistry. Also, one is left wondering about the material that was deleted by her husband Ted Hughes. In protecting himself from public scrutiny, he robbed her reading public.



3. This is clearly some of the best writing ever. Sylvia's journal, like all journals, was an outlet for her emotions, but she was using her journal as an opportunity to practice her creative writing. Many of her entries are worthy of stand-alone essays. Having read many, many journals; compilations of selected letters; and, biographies and autobiographies; I would have to rank this as perhaps the best I have ever read. Comparing Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath is like comparing apples, oranges, and peaches. They are all wonderful in their own right, but today I prefer Plath and peaches.
   
   The reader will get much more out of this book by reading one or two biographies of Sylvia Plath first.
   
   The index is outstanding (26 pages of small font); the end notes are excellent (29 pages). It is a toss-up whether the journal would have been better served had the end notes been footnotes. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.
   
   This book is one of the few that I recommend buying at the publisher's price rather than my usual recommendation to wait for a discounted copy. Instructors for college creative writing courses should put Sylvia's journals on their highly recommended list.



4. before this book, i had only read the bell jar, and as good as that book was,now i know what a capable writer she was. there is so much passion in everything she says, you can tell when she's excited or sad or whatever. she uses great description for such a young age, and has such a sense of humanity...she would have been a amazing person to know



5. some college professor said that every single year, at least one out of a class full of girls studying sylvia plath will feel that she is sylvia plath reincarnated.
   
   what's funny is that after reading only a few pages, i absolutely understand why, to an almost humiliating degree. that in itself really explains this book. something about this is really affective - everything she says sounds just like something i've written, thought, or experienced in the past. i haven't gotten through the entire book because it often makes me feel uncomfortable with how much i relate to it.
   
   this is most definitely worth your time and your money.

5 comments about Crazy Aunt Purl's Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit After He Split.

1. Cute, funny, and A silky smooth ride.
   In the beginning, Charlie, her beloved husband, gave a single reason (his "creativity") and said he was leaving the marriage. And then, he did.
   So a thirty-something young professional finds herself alone, dumped, and devastated in Los Angelos. She goes crazy. After a while she learns to knit. She makes knitting into a hobby. And that's it.
   Of course the story isn't really about knitting - though it claims to be. And we find that our heroine is a survivor, after all. I won't steal - by quoting - the hilarious one liners and funny story episodes. Author Laurie Perry is quite comfortable with character development and, in matter of fact, manages her subtle story progress quite handily.
   I guarantee you will like this fast, short, and very funny read.



2. Strap yourself in and be prepared for a compelling true story ride that goes up and down, side to side, spirals this way and that and leaves you smiling in the end.
   The Crazy Aunt Purl thing in the title is misleading to the unitiated (me), that's just the name of Laurie Perry's blog/website (add a dot com), and obsessive knitters who've read Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's books shouldn't expect the knitting to be the star here, because it's not: it only makes an appearance around chapter 7 and is mentioned only a few times thereafter. Yes, there are knitting patterns (14), written in the same vein in the rest of the book-which makes a nice change if you're used to only normally written knitting patterns: These are in the back followed by a gallery-you have to see the picture of the cat wearing the hood of the devil baby blanket! There are scarves(5), hats(2), bags(3) and one each of a cat tunnel, pom-pom, flower, aforementioned blanket and shawl. My glitch with these is that they mostly come with a wine recommendation but not always gauge or yardage-extra homework for those who wish to substitute yarns.
   The knitting comes across more as a crutch, but this might be a good thing: one could give this book to non-knitters also going through a divorce or break-up, because that's what this book is really about, and how she, Laurie, survived the dark days of divorce and created a wonderful, sparkly new life (and with luck, the recipient of this book will be encouraged to knit too! So diabolical, it's brilliant! Get 'em when they're vulnerable-because knitting is, of course, healing and did I mention useful?)
   Although this is by a woman and probably marketed to women, there's no reason a man shouldn't look into it.
   The 44 chapters are bite-size, for that sense of accomplishment, and it feels like reading someone's really well-written diary or pages of a nice long letter, flashbacks to childhood and those real, often uncomfortable feelings we're too polite to say out loud, included.
   It's funny in places, smile-free in others and unwittingly kind of self-helping, mostly the third act.
   4 stars because I like it but don't swooningly love it (needs a pinch more knitting for my taste) but I'm happy to have it in my knitting book collection.
   Definitely worth a read if you're in the mood for comfy, cozy, light and ultimately feelgood (and/or are on a diabolical mission to convert the non-knitting...)



3. I don't know how she did it but she channeled my life! So many of the same things happened. I can't write as houmrously, though. This lady is a stitch (pun intended)! Easily enjoyabe and quick read. My co-workers love to hear it on rides in the truck!



4. I thought this book was great. It's a quick read because you want to keep reading it. She is so open and honest about her life and quirks that you want to be friends with her. And she's funny. In addition to being a funny book, it is really good for someone to read if they are contemplating divorce but are on the fence about it. She gives very good coverage of the pros and cons as per her own experience.



5. I picked up this book based on the title alone. I had once been drunk, divorced and covered in cat hair and trying desperately to make myself whole again. Now, many years later I find myself knitting furiously to fill the empty next. Not quite the same as being dumped by one's husband, but a similar feeling of loss and loneliness. In addition to knitting and latch hook and crocheting, I've started reading voraciously so I took myself to the bookstore to find a book to fill the void.
   
   I knew, instantly, from the title of this book, I had to read it and I was not disappointed. Any woman who has found herself clinging to an empty marriage, unwilling to accept that it's over only to be unceremoniously dumped will be able to relate to the sad but funny antics of the author. She takes you on her journey from shock and despair, to total depression to re-entry into the world as a whole person equipped with knitting needles. You'll both laugh and cry and remember your own journey to becoming whole as you read.
   
   The chapters are all very short, some only one or two pages long and cover a particular point in her journey - like the hair emergency a few days before divorce court or "cooking ADD". Her style of writing is very similar to Erma Bombeck who could also make you laugh at the irony of life. Whether you were dumped when "he" decided he was losing his creativity or you lost your spouse through death or you find yourself alone after the children have left the nest, this book is for you.

5 comments about Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir.

1. Let me just get this out of the way, regardless of WHO YOU ARE, this is a really good book (plus the story has an amazing twist) . The people who feel they have to go on the defensive and gave this book a bad review, I feel sorry for. I read to open my mind, not to close it; THAT DOES NOT MEAN I TAKE TO HEART the veracity of everything I read . Small minds come in many different flavors, so please don't feel so special.



2. I'm sorry I cannot review this book as I have yet to receive it. Maybe you should improve your delivery serviuces to countries such as mine.!



3. This is a sad story of a little girl in which she is forced to set aside the crown of liberty and live like a beggar, but she fights to retain her dignity...
   Excellent Job, Great Audacity.



4. As a person of the same age as of this woman, who has lived in Iran until 1994, I have to say I find this book a bad piece of fiction, written for the Western audience and ready-to-be-sold to Hollywood to make a crappy movie.
   The truth is, in those years our life as a nation was miserable. Evin prison was full of political prisoners, and there was no freedom of speech. But things were not the way Nemat describes it. Her memoir is ridiculously fabricated with lies about everything you can imagine about Iran. People of age 15 were executed in Iran in those years, but for reasons more politically important than leading a strike in high school! Is she crazy? If the Iranian regime wanted to arrest every high-school student for their argument with their math teacher they could not rule the country. And that story about being saved by her interrogator: nothing can be more far from reality than that. This is more like an emotional Hollywood movie than the reality I have lived in.
   
   I cannot believe people here actually believe this nonsense. This woman is either a charlatan, or a psycho.



5. I have read the reviews that are good, bad as well as the very heated discussions about this book and I have to say that it is good that this book generated such intense reactions in mind of the readers as it did for me. Regardless of the accuracy of the author's account as I don't have the first hand experiences, I assume that most of the author's accounts of the general political and cultural environment in Iran are fairly accurate. My reaction is again, the disbelief over the oppression and violence towards women in the name of religion and traditions, and the conspicuous lack of uproar in the international community in the name of political correctness or "cultural sensitivity". I don't mean to minimize the importance of other causes that received attention, such as Chinese government against Tibet, but when it comes to women, the world seems to be rather silent. Books such as this, and other memoirs such as Infidel, Bookseller in Kabul, Wild Swans,and memoirs by FLDS survivors are important means to raise awareness, therefore need to be written and to be read. Having said that, I gave only two stars because the writing is very poor and flat and some recollections of her childhood experiences seem too romanticized and blantantly inconsistent with her developemental stages, which raised questions in me about the believability of her account, and eventually became distracting to me.

5 comments about My Point...And I Do Have One.

1. It wasn't as funny as I thought it would be. I much prefer watching Ellen's show.



2. This book was soooooooo funny. I laughed more when I read this than when I read The Funny Thing Is... even though both were great books. If you read this I suggest skipping to the airplane chapter first....it's the funniest part of the book!!!!!



3. I found this book extremely hard to get through. I love Ellen, and her brand of humor. Why did I dislike the book so much? Well, I finished reading the book yesterday. Except if you can't see the date, then you might think today is yesterday, which it may have well been depending on when you read this review. But if you read the review a year from now, then me saying I read it yesterday will be irrelevant. But if you read this review today, then it can be accurately concluded that it was really truly yesterday that I finished reading the book. Cover to cover. But if you didn't get a copy of the book with a cover on it, you will have no idea what I am talking about. Like if your dog ate it or you happen to buy a book at a bookstore for cheap because it doesn't have a cover on it. And in that case, I hope the bookstore guy sold it at half price, because it would really stink to buy a book without a cover and not know what it is until you get it home.
   
   (get my drift? thats almost the entire book. I love her act in person, but I expected to learn a little bit more about her than I did by reading the book.)



4. I love Ellen, but this book is soooo boring. All she does is talk in circles and nothing about her life-or her point



5. Ellen DeGeneres writes in a relaxing style and entertains her readers with cute experiences and expressions, but I cannot recognize a central point she makes. She simply goes through several experiences she has had in her life and tends to be exhibitionist about herself. She makes the reader "tingle" when she describes how she happens to be naked when her mother calls her. I would not want her to be naked on her show, but how about a bikini appearance? That would fit her perfectly.