I Books

I'M JUST A SURVIVOR - My Life, Before & After My Tour of Vietnam by Ritchie Wilson

Rating: Good

Ritchie Wilson was a Marine at the age of sixteen and in Vietnam combat at the age of seventeen when he received his first Purple Heart. At that time, he weighed about 135 pounds and with gear . . . about 200 pounds. Can you imagine?

I'm Just A Survivor is a short book about some of Ritchie's experiences while in Vietnam but also includes significant aspects of his life before and after his military service. It's well-written and flows smoothly; however, it would be my recommendation that it be professionally edited and proofread.

I personally find honest, true stories more appealing than fiction because real life, when someone has the courage to share it, is far more amazing, thought-provoking and complex. Ritchie Wilson is one such honest writer, and therein lies the value in this book. Allow me to quote from pages 8 and 9:

"...At some point after the divorce, my mother met Mr. C. Smith and soon after they got married (oh joy our new dad). I was still very young, I think five years old. My sisters, JoAnn and Janet, one year older than I and Kitty one year older than the twins and Boosie one year older than Kitty.

"My mom worked days and went to school at night. Leaving us in the hands of this sexual pervert, giving him control over us. I guess he found that he had the opportunity and the time to fondle or sexually assault Kitty on many occasions. Over time, he decided to take things a little further by making me have sex with my sister, by touching my genitals until I became erect, then he would place me on top of Kitty, having her spread legs so he could insert my penis into her.

"He would move me back and forth, until, `I said, I have to go pee.' He told me to pee inside my sister; it was ok.

"After I had ejaculated, he would put me aside, then he would get on top of her, trying to put his penis in her, or push his fingers in her, when she would tell him it hurts. Nevertheless, he would still try until he'd ejaculate by hand or on her vagina. He did this many times over the months; he would do the same with Boosie, or both with me being his starter on all occasions."

There are a lot of things that go on in real life which are hidden and not discussed, such as the above, and it takes considerable courage to bring them to the surface and put them out there for all to see. If you're like me, and admire an honest writer-even with the minor grammar errors-you won't be disappointed by this author and his story.

Reviewed by Kaye Trout for Kaye Trout's Book Reviews, specializing in POD published books.

It was an compelling store of one man life.It was well written,very emotional,It kept you reading,It give's me a sence of feeling that our lord is needed in all our life's each and every day.

My dad also went to Vietnam, & deals with some of the same issues, Good Reading...

Dealing with Veteran's as I do it is very informative and interesting to find true to life and honest information that can assist me in my quest to help them through the struggles of PTSD, disabilities, etc. I have known Ritchie personally and this let me see a side of him that provided inspiration to my work.

The Vietnam War ended well over 30 years ago...yet, for many thousands of our veteran Vietnam combat warriors, the war never really ended.
Many thousands of these veteran warriors continue to suffer emotionally and physically from their wartime horror and grief experiences.
The author, Ritchie Wilson, is one of those veteran Vietnam warriors. Mr. Wilson provides the reader an up-close, personal, (and thankfully, sometimes humorous) account of his life both before and after his US Marine Corps Vietnam combat trauma stamp.

"How can you be loved if you can never be known?" asks the author, and there's the core of her second memoir.

Recycling much of the narrative history of She's Not There - not a necessarily bad thing; Jong and Burroughs, to name but two, have successfully rewrote the same book many times over - there is increased detail and drama in Boylan's semi-sequel. Especially delightful are the music references; "Stone Soul Picnic" and "Little Green" punctuate that special era when it seemed history would never end. Boylan writes with a novelist's sense of timing throughout and most of the conversations, seemingly adventitious, ring right as rain. Ghosts, growth, loss and self-actualization all flow with the untidy logic of real life. Only this is a unique life, a destiny stamped with gender drama. To her credit, Boylan has a light touch and a lot of class in bringing the unknowable to light.

Who knows where the time goes.

With a fertile imagination and a gift of writing skills Jenny Boylan has created a memorable memoir revealing the life journey which has brought her to such acclaim in the art of storytelling.Real or unreal,we find that we all have ghosts in our own past who are responsible for our own private haunts. A most delightful read.
Lily B. McBeth
Tuckerton,N J

I had never heard of Jennifer Finney Boylan before I saw this book advertised, but I was drawn to it by the subtitle: Growing Up Haunted. We all live with memories of our past and from our family's pasts, and its interesting to see how others deal with their "hauntedness." Jennifer was born James Boylan, a child who felt "transparent" and "not there" through his childhood. Eventually, James recognized that he was trans-gendered, and succeeded in becoming a "solider" person as Jennifer. Before that transition she had a lively childhood in a house which had some weird spectres or "ghosts" along with a real living family of eccentrics.

Jennifer's story is interesting on several levels, both sad and amusing. She writes well and wittily and conveys a good impression of life in a haunted house as well as what it was like to grow up in a family which, while not wealthy, was part of Philadelphia's Main Line society.

There is a little "ghost action" in this book for those of you looking for "scary," but it's really about the author's "haunted" childhood in more ways than one - living in a haunted house (or is it) but also being haunted by secrets. I really loved it; the writing is beautiful. I picked it up off a bookstore's "recommended" shelf not knowing anything about the author and have since ordered some of her other books to read. If you are looking for an individual memoir/ghost story/family drama/character study all in one, check it out. Lots of humor in it, as well.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Am sneaking chapters during work - cannot put it down. It is terrifying and wonderful at the same time. You will not be disappointed by this book!

I purchased this book for my daughter - and avid horsewoman. We loved the video and the beautiful photography. The text and the quotes inside are an added bonus to this wonderful book.

Most likely the best book on horses I own. It is not a horsemanship guide on the "how to's" of owning a horse, but an insirational, moving, motivating book with exceptional photo's and beautiful written words describing why women have the dream of owning a horse and that it is ok do dream this dream especially as an adult.

Quote from the book:
"One of the earliest religious disappointments in a young girl's life devolves upon her unanswered prayer for a horse" (Phyllis Theroux)

Indeed.

The author doesn't quite capture the essence of life long yearning to be with horses; to always dream of owning your own horse and to have that dream just out of your grasp. The above quote from the book comes close to those feelings - and overall the book comes close, but doesn't quite hit the mark.

The title is a bit misleading, or perhaps my expectations got the better of me; the author already lives with horses, has horses of her own, and is in daily contact with horses. Thus, I couldn't quite make the bridge between "If I had a horse" and "how different life would be" within the pages of this book. The text and quotes are more zen like in approach and philosophy, rather than describing life-altering changes.

Nevertheless, this is a BEAUTIFUL book. The text is honest, thoughtful, spiritual and philosophical. The photographs in this book are equally beautiful, and truly compliment the text superbly. The photographer has done a wonderful job capturing the essence, heart and soul of equus.

This is a slim book, less than 1/2" thick, and only 128 pages, but printed in hardcover, and bound on heavy semi-gloss paper. Every single page features full-colour photographs of horses, with the author's insightful text and selection of quotes from various sources.

My only complaint (and it perhaps is a minor one) is that the stars and inspirati of this book - the horses themselves - go unmentioned. The author goes to the trouble to name her sources for the various quotations used, in a bibliography at the back of the book, but there is no mention of who the horses are, their names, what breed, where they're from, etc.

This book also came with a DVD titled "The Beauty of Horses", featuring a generous 21- minutes of live film footage of various horse breeds, from Arabians to Gypsy Vanners, Friesians, Appaloosa's and other horses. The music is a little annoying - but not overly so. How much better it would have been to let the horses speak for themselves in this DVD: the galloping of hooves, nostrils flaring and blowing, the clip-clop of hooves along a beach, horses neighing and snorting, tails swishing, etc. Instead the filmmaker opted to overdub with music and voiceover. This is perhaps a minor complaint, as the DVD production values are really well done, and the horses captured are beautiful to look at and inspiring.

All in all, this is a wonderful addition to add to anyone's equine library, and I am sure horselover's young and old will enjoy looking at this book.

~appaloosa
11/03/2006

If you know a horse crazy kid, buy them this book and they'll cherish it forever. The cover image is absolutely stunning, and just a taste of what is inside. Beautiful photography, moving writing and inspiring quotes. It's not for little kids, but a horse crazy girl about 9 or 10 will devour it just as much as that horse crazy 40 something. Even if you horses aren't a big part of your life, animal lovers will enjoy it just the same. The included DVD is just icing on the cake. When I was a horse obsessed 10 year old, I would cut pictures of horses out of magazines, newspapers, or anything I could get my hands on. This is the book I wish I had back then.

this is a wonderful book whether you own a horse or not. there are so many lessons to be learned, it was hard to do more than just read a page or a quote and then put it down and contemplate the lesson. horses have so much to teach us if we just allow it. this book opens up our minds to the possibilities of these lessons. beautifully written. carefully chosen quotes and wonderful photography. i find i refer to it often and it slows me down to remember what is really important to me.

This book has to be the most romantic and honest book of all time! I give "If I Should Die Before I Wake" (Lurlene McDaniel) five stars *****. Deanne's mother has her whole life figured out for her, while Deanne doesn't want to be the "star of social register" like her mother dreams. Deanne decides to do something useful, so she became a volunteer worker at the local hospital. At the hopsital, Deanne learns every important life lessons starting from friendship and sharing secrets with her best friend, to life and death relationships. When she makes friends with one of the cancer patients, it changes her life forever.

...The book grabbed me and stuck with me all these years. I connected with Deanna when she had to deal with her over bearing mother, her weight problem and the way she stood up for herself. I loved the way she first met Matt at the hospital, not knowing he was a patient. The way they became friends and then how beautifully their romance grew. Especially over labor day weekend at Matt's vacation home. It was every teenage girl's dream. I admired Deanna's strength, courage and her heart.

I just recently bought this book for my eleven year old daughter. This is a wonderful book. I strongly recommend it.

Author:Lurlene McDaniels

This story is about a girl named Deanne who mother wants her to work at a country club so she can work with the right people. The problem is she wants to volunteer at a hospital her father works at. She gets a job there and meets a boy named Matt, who has canser. She gets real close with Matt, who has cancer,but she gets scared he might die. So she find out that working at a hospital can be sad.

Author:Lurlene McDaniels

This story is about a girl named Deanne who mother wants her to work at a country club so she can work with the right people. The problem is she wants to volunteer at a hospital her father works at. She gets a job there and meets a boy named Matt, who has canser. She gets real close with Matt, who has cancer,but she gets scared he might die. So she find out that working at a hospital can be sad.

I got this book from a book club when I was about 9 years old. Through the subsequent years, I read this book at least 40 times. It is a lovely story about a young woman growing up, learning about love, and learning about grief. Somewhere along the way, I lost my battered and worn copy. But all this time, I've remembered this book as one of the first to ever move me and to instill in me a lifelong love of reading. I recommend it to any parent trying to get a girl more interested in reading. Hopefully, I'll be able to reaquire a copy soon...

We've given these books away as gifts to families with young children and it has been a "hit"! The story line is very cute and the graphics are adorable. Highly recommended for gifts.

I read Darla's book to my grandsons, ages 5 & 3, for their bedtime story. They loved it and asked me to read it several times to them that night. They thought the pictures were cute and each grandson picked out the animal that was their favorite. The book has such a simple truth to it that we often forget - just be happy with who we are. Darla and her children deserve a special 'Thank You' for sharing their talents in creating this book for us to enjoy.

Our one-year old loves to read 'If I Were a Monkey'. The book is simply, but cleverly written and has a subtle message that encourages children to explore, but to value who they are. I believe this will be a book he continue reading as he gets older. Great Job!

The illistrations in this book are almost as precious as the message in the story! This is a treasure & a classic in the making......

My teenage sons and my 5-year old nephew thoroughly enjoy this book. It is absolutely wonderful!

This book is a gold mine of hints on everything from dealing with laundry and household stains to how to pack for a trip. After receiving the book, I immediately ordered three more copies for my college-age children. I highly recommend this book!

This book should be part of every households library. That includes you bachelors Everything I try from this book has worked perfectly and is very easy to follow. I originally bought a copy for my newly married daughter but after really studying it before I wrapped it I went out and bought one for our house as well.

No self-respecting reference library would be caught dead without this valuable and practical guide. Anyone who lives indoors should own this.

Everyone should own this reference guide. I have given this book to many of my friends and they have thanked me profusely. They find themselves reaching for it often. All are pleased to own such a reference for their home. I strongly recommend this author and title for purchase. You won't be disappointed.

I don't know I managed my home before this book. It has an answer for every problem or situation I've encountered. I wouldn't want to be without it!

Genre: Non Fiction/Biography
Title: If This is Heaven, I Am Going to Be a Good Boy.
The Tommy Leonard Story
AUTHOR: Kathleen Cleary

Tommy Leonard was and still is an outstanding character, well know by many. He began life in a poor family. His parents finally had to send he and his sister to Shurtleff Mission, a home with the sole purpose helping children of destitute families while teaching the gospel. Tommy was determined to leave the mission, but each time he ran away, he was caught, returned and punished. He was finally freed of his mission experience and lived with several different families during his youth. As he grew into his teens and young adulthood, he became known for drinking and partying and having a way with the girls but Tommy was also a runner. He loved to run and after a stint in the Marine Corp, he continued running in marathons, becoming known for his promotion of health and fitness. He founded the Falmouth Road Race.
Kathleen Cleary has captured the personality and warmth of this man. He is truly loved by so many. Even those who have never had the pleasure of making his acquaintance, can sit back and chuckle at many of the events of Tommy's life, or share in the heartfelt love that Tommy has for his fellow man. The reader will also find a selection of pictures dating back to his life in the mission and forward to 2004 where he is seen with Edie Doyle in front of the Boston Red Sox World Series trophy. So many years with so much to tell, and Kathleen Cleary has been able to share these years, giving us a view of an extraordinary man.



Reviewer: Elaine Fuhr, Allbooks Reviews

I am not an avid runner. Nor have I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Leonard. Readers may not know the people or recognize the local names in this book, but the Kathleen Cleary's message is unmistakably universal: Tommy Leonard touched the lives of many and made his and our world a better place. Read this book and learn how and why he did it. The title alone is worth the price of admission into Leonard's remarkable life.
Mike Considine, Lenox, MA

This book is a true delight from start to finish. In this day and age where we hear so many stories of people doing bad things, it is so uplifting to read about a man who is such a good person through and through. Kathleen Cleary has captured the spirit of Tommy Leonard for everyone. I highly recommend this book and I promise it will bring tears to your eyes, a smile to your face and probably quite a few belly laughs. Enjoy!

This book is very interesting and well-written and is not just for running fans. The life of Tommy Leonard serves as an example of how enthusiasm and a positive attitude can prevail over almost any difficulty life may throw at you. If you want to read an uplifting book, this is the one!

Joe Concannon, Boston Globe sportswriter and chronicler of the Boston Marathon, tabbed Tommy "The Guru" as every runner of note made their way to the Eliot Lounge, from all corners of the planet so that they could counsel with the great one: Thomas Francis Leonard!

Read this book and find out why, or read this book and feel all warm & fuzzy like. The man has had quite a life.

The quotable Tommy:

". . . Tommy Leonard, the running guru at the Eliot Lounge talking in a TV interview about the particular appeal of the Boston Marathon: "It's better than sex."

Tommy got some strange looks from folk's after that one.

A great book to enjoy over the Holidays!

really good book. no matter who you are, it will keep you turning pages

wonderful. inspiring. positive thinking.
one of my favorites.
a treasure.

I totally enjoyed this book. Kathy is an inspiration and I wish her nothing but continued success in the future. The book is hard to believe in some points - that so many bad things can happen to one person. It is amazing to see the metamorphasis Kathy goes through in her life and how the total of all of her life's experiences both good and bad have shaped who she is today. She's triumphant!

Kathy's severe hearing loss lead to an early diagnosis of mental retardation: she was also molested, run over, and stricken with cancer all before the age of thirty but she never lost her sense of humor. If You Could See What I Hear provides her life story and how she kept this sense of humor through the darkest of days. A powerful memoir and personal account of hope.

This poignant and beautifully written tale is both inspiring and hysterically funny! An easy read, but brilliantly written, it ties the reader to the book. Without pity, Kathy portrays herself and shows her life through wit and humor that can bring a tear to your eye without making you feel sorry for her. Instead it helps you see your life in better perspective and inspires the reader to attain higher goals. Excellent read.

Image processing is used to improve the visual appearance and transmission of images to a the human eye. It also concerns the preparation of images with respect to measuring an image's features and structures. Now in a newly updated and significantly expanded fifth edition, "The Image Processing Handbook" by academician John C. Russ (Materials Science and Engineering Department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina) "The Image Processing Handbook" features an informative chapter explaining which visual cues elicit a response from the viewer; descriptions of the latest hardware and software for image acquisition and printing including digital cameras; multichannel images and an analysis of their principle components; the issues of deconvolution, extended dynamic range images, and image enlargement and interpolation, and so much more. Enhanced with more than 2000 illustrations, and with the availability of a companion CD-ROM, "The Image Processing Handbook" is a seminal and essential addition to professional and academic library Computer Science and Electrical Engineering reference collections.

This, the fifth edition of this industry standard reference book on image processing has been significantly expanded. There are some 600 new and revised images. A major feature of the new edition is to describe the new advances that have come about in hardware for image capture and printing. This includes both new versions of traditional equipment and new emerging technologies. The text has been expanded in areas like deconvolution, extended-dynamic-range images and multichannel imaging including principal-components analysis.

In general this book does not cover the background mathematics that enables image processing. Those are left to specialty books on the subject. Instead this book is intended to be used in conjunction with hands-on equipment where the reader is encouraged to experiment with different methods to determine what is needed for the particular job.

While suitable for use as a text, this book is really a handbook for technical users. The book is more oriented to what the various tools availavle to help actually do.

I am a biologist with a little background in math. Using this book and matlab I could quickly implement basic feature recognition tools to analyze microscope images. The book focuses on concepts and explains them in intuitive language rather than in mathematical terms. Overall, it worked perfectly for me, but could be over-simplying for people with technical background.

John Russ' book on image processing was never intended to be a textbook on how to understand and write your own image processing algorithms, as you might believe by looking through the table of contents. It does cover just about everything you would see in such a textbook, but from a user's standpoint of these operations, not as an author of image processing code who needs to understand the algorithms behind these operations. Instead, Russ explains all of the operations, their value in various applications, and provides many illustrations showing before and after pictures of what each operation does. There are no algorithms, pseudocode, or mathematics in this book.

The jewel in the crown of this book is the companion CD. It contains over 200 Photoshop plug-ins for performing the operations mentioned in this book. These plug-ins work on 8-bit grayscale and 24 bit RGB images and are divided into the categories of image adjustment, color manipulation, image math, boolean operations, Fourier processing, morphological operations, neighborhood processing, distance-map operations, thresholding, feature measurement, calibration, stereology, and surface rendering. The bad news is that you have to obtain the CD separately. If you need to understand the detailed mathematics behind such operations, you might consult Digital Image Processing by Gonzalez and Woods, and then come back to this book for the tools to accomplish the operations explained in that book. The updates to this fifth edition include an additional chapter on human vision and how it ties into image processing. Also, the author has updated his sections on image acquisition hardware and software to describe the latest tools available. Finally, the topic of tomographic imaging has been expanded and given its own chapter and the chapter on 3-D image acquisition has been deleted.

This is an excellent book on image processing from a systems engineering and user standpoint. You will be disappointed if you expect to learn the algorithms behind the techniques demonstrated in this book.

As others have stated, this book comes as close as you'll ever get to a single-source reference on image processing. But if I were ever going to shoot anything down in it, I'd say that a little more mathematical background on some topics (and maybe pseudocoded examples) would help. For example, in the satellite geometric correction section, only a very high level view is given yet this is a challenging topic that could use more depth. Geometric transformations in general could use more depth, e.g. camera calibrations or image warping/morphing/mapping to other projections for example. Another example would be the need for a little more depth on how to make slow algorithms fast ...like convolution multiplications for example. Sure, you could write out the multiplies and spot commonalities, then re-use results that appear in more than one subsequent equation and what not, but some exploration of matrix math and how to make it efficient would be nice. But again ...I'm picking at small things here, and if John's book covered everything that I'd like it to, then it would become 2 books, not one ...hey! Now THERE's an idea! A 2+ book set by John Russ that covers a broader range of topics and does so in greater depth! That's something that I'd pay for (and much better to read than Ballard & Brown)

I read this book shortly after it was published and given recent events, I'll be reading it again. It beautifully illustrates the paradox of political institution of religion versus the spiritual faith while investigating possible murder (Pope John Paul 1) and corruption (money laundering, etc) in the Vatican.

Other contradictory activities are uncovered; e.g. contraceptive factories/companies whose existence/ownership is traced back to the Vatican which preaches against contraception. Some critics say the book names no sources and has no footnotes; why should he? The facts are so clearly described that you are able to confirm certain things if you needed to (what with other evidence cited like documents, etc) without necessarily interviewing his sources who obviously helped on condition of anonymity for their own protection.

As much of a furor as this book caused, it's interesting to note that almost 20 years later, not a single allegation contained from within the book has been proven to be false. Rather, much of it has been officially established as true. (see author's site yallop.co.uk). I'd recommend to anyone, especially Catholics.

Whether or not you buy the premise of this book--that a conspiracy among Vatican hard-liners, the Mafia, Freemasons, and others killed Pope John Paul I--IN GOD'S NAME by David Yallop presents a world of Church intrigue that is little discussed. The internecine wars among the Cardinals, the influence of huge amounts of dirty money, and the need for control of the Vatican are fascinating, if disturbing. It is a grim portrait to say the least. IN GOD'S NAME is an important book that deserves a new edition. Until then, pick up a used copy available here.

This book gives a terrible tarnished picture of the Vatican, even if the author is wrong and there was no murder or active murder (they could have let Pope John Paul I die, by not administering him his medicine).
A Vatican controlled by a bunch of corrupt, merciless, avid for power, 'holy' cardinals (Villot, Cody, Marcinkus, Baggio), implicated in a web of depraved banking, masonic and Mafia figures like Calvi, Gelli and Sindona. (I recommend for the 'banking' part also the book by Richard Hammer 'The Vatican Connection').
What is also intriguing, or should I say 'demonic', is the fact that the next pope didn't remove anybody entangled in these murky affairs from his office.
The author gives also very plausible hints why, besides personal career interests, there were moral (the issue of birth control, for instance) and financial (money laundering to help friendly unions or parties) motives.
A devastating book. Not to be missed.

Wow! What a read. This non-fiction reads almost like a novel, but with LOTS of information. My head was dizzy trying to keep up with all the names of who did what and when. How did the author manage to keep it coherent? Anyway, I got the jist of it and was completely intriqued through all of it. It became obvious throught Yallop's investigation that Pope John Paul I was murdered. And, admittedly, he doesn't name his sources for their protection, but there's enough information to convince even the hard-to-convince. He mentions Freemasons and P2 (Propoganda 2), some clerics, and Mafioso persons who could stand to lose a lot of money by having this Pope in office. For a moment I thought I was reading the Godfather. As Yallop pointed out, was reality imitating art (or the other way around)?

The web of deceit and manipulations that are weaved in this story is harrowing and endless. This is a must read for anyone interested in how our economy, politics, wars, and religions are affected by the Vatican (and have been for centuries), run by deceitful, self-serving or indifferent people choosing to play this dangerous game.

Although this book is 20 yrs old, it's a great insight to the dangerous games played by those in power - at the final cost to the layman, citizen, and hard-working persons of the world.

Albino Luciani was elected Pope and chose to be Pope John Paul the First. Not only becoming the first double name in the history, but also appended the first to it. He was known as the "Smiling Pope" and though his reign was the second shortest in history, only 33 days, he was loved the world over. This wonderful Pastor would have taken the Church back to its Gospel roots where it belongs. He was truly a Man of God. And you could see from his 33 days as Pope that he would have been the greatest Pope ever in the eyes the world.

This book builds a very good case showing that Pope John Paul I was murdered, as many has always thought. It also exposes the corruption both within the Vatican and in the Diocese of Chicago during the years covered. All his research show ties between the Vatican, the Mafia and the Freemasons tied to financial corruption. Documented proof is uncovered and other governments have tired to act on them, but they are blocked by the Curia according to the book.

The author names those involved in the illegal and immoral acts and their motives and opportunity to have Pope John Paul I killed. The author leads the reader to see that it is no coincidence that the Pope was killed the evening before he was going to clean house. Though I was surprised by how obvious the cover-up and lies were according to what we read here. I highly recommend this book.