Shadow Books

This was one of the best books on life's little experiences that i have ever read. I really couldn't stop reading the funny and sometimes embarrassing momments of Louis Plummer. She is such a gifted writer. I went out and bought 5 more copies to give as gifts. Louis Plummer makes life come alive and makes everyone to record their little life experiences and by doing so realize the joy we all share in life. I loved it what more can i say.

I began reading this book for an english class at about 3 in the morning and after reading only a few pages I just could not put it down. There were times where I was laughing so hard I had to cover my mouth because I didn't want to wake-up my roomates. Plummer is an amazing writer, her essay's are inspiring, and original. This is a book that I have been recommending to all of my friends. If you like clean humor and wit then this book is for you.

"I offer a whole-hearted recommendation for Akendo Ntangku's novel, Through the Eyes of a Warrior. It is not often that an author's debut novel tells such a profound and thought-provoking story. Let's hope this is the start of a long career for Akendo."

- Rusty Shelton, Phenix Literary Publicists, Austin, TX




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I saw the commercial of this book on dishnetwork, chanel 749, and know this is a great classic. Everyone should make sure the read this book. It is thought provoking and a 'must have' piece, if you appreciate good story telling.

As an avid reader I was really impressed with this book. It moved along with adventure, mystery and unexpected circumstances in Jacobs surreal world. It is definately, action packed as Jacob experiences different circumstances at the controls of the biplane which take him back in time and adds to his confusion of where he is going. I would definately recommend this book.

I am extremely impressed with the imagery and style that Brattain uses. Jacob's surreal world is full of action and moves along quickly. Jacob's many adventures and strange twist will make you contemplate your own life. The use of flashbacks to tie together Jacob's life was interesting way to develope a plot. Great book would definitely recommend it.

Ann Turner Cook was one of the celebrated Gerber babies at the beginning of her life. She is presently a retired English teacher, living in Central Florida, where she researches for her mystery writing with her husband. She acted as an emissary for the Gerber Company and has made several guest appearances on national talk and news shows, including The Today Show; Good Morning, America; Entertainment Tonight; Sally Jesse Raphael; and the Rosie O'Donnell Show. She is just as cute now as she was as a Gerber baby.

Brandy O'Bannon is trying to save her job with the Tavares Beacon by writing an interesting feature article for her editor, Mr. Tyler. It concerns an old mansion that is decaying and about to be sold to a developer. Brookfield Able bequeathed the old mansion to his sister Sylvania, with the understanding that she could sell it if she so desired. There are rumors that the mansion is haunted, and the tale of a bizarre drowning forty-five years ago adds to the mystery. Brandy enlists the aid of Sylvania's grand-nephew, architect John Able, to gain access to Sylvania and the mansion's sad and eerie history. John and Brandy connect after sharing life-threatening experiences as they "look around" the mansion for artifacts and find human remains:

"At the same instant, the moccasin's fangs sank into John's hand. She gave a sob, sprang out of the boat, and rushed toward John as the moccasin drew back and slid over the edge of the pier into the water. John had dropped to his knees, supporting his wounded arm with the other hand."

Ann Turner Cook's twenty-six years of teaching high school literature shines through in her writing. The plot is first-rate; characters are people who are easy to relate to and care about; the action is nonstop; and the denouement is excellent. Ms. Cook intertwines a sad but wonderful ghost story into her plot, which keeps the reader guessing from page one until the delightful finale. I got totally caught up in her tale and couldn't put the book down! I personally wish I could have experienced Ann T. Cook's teaching, because I'll bet she was a superb teacher. Trace Their Shadows is an entertaining mystery and ghost story that can't help but please.

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer

Mount Dora is a sleepy lakeside community outside bustling Orlando, far away from the big mouse and screaming rides, and is known more for antiques than crime. My most personal memory of Mount Dora is a wonderful, sleepy day of drinking far too many Dos Equis at the Mexican restaurant while celebrating Cinco de Mayo, years ago.

In contrast, author Cook takes you along with Brandy O'Bannon, an enthusiastic if inexperienced journalist, to the Mount Dora where cottonmouths strike out of the dark and old murderers flit across the mists. A classic mystery novel, Trace Their Shadows has more than a fair share of crime, clues and villains.

Cook brings an old south knowledge of the people and place alive, reviving memories of the Florida, good and bad, that is rapidly disappearing, replaced by developments and theme parks. O'Bannon reminds me of what I imagine Nancy Drew would be if she were plopped into the twenty-first century, a little more worldly-wise, but still inquisitive and forever into things she shouldn't.

Trace their Shadows is well crafted, an entertaining trip across the new Florida to the old.

Anthropologist Dutch Van Deer discovers a find of a lifetime, an underground cave of indian artifacts and graves. Some of the bones do not appear ancient and Dutch sets out to try to find out who the bones belong to and runs up against a stonewalling police department, an angry Native American community and a menacing, megalomaniac industrialist, and an ex-love of his life. As Dutch gets closer to the truth, the unimaginable happens...the murders start up again.

Gary Gottesfeld is a wonderful writer. I have read all of his books I have gotten my hands on. He only wrote 4 or 5 books and quit. I'd love to find out what happened to him. If anyone knows please let me know. Thanks, Linda

Anthropologist Dutch Van Deer discovers a find of a lifetime, an underground cave of indian artifacts and graves. Some of the bones do not appear ancient and Dutch sets out to try to find out who the bones belong to and runs up against a stonewalling police department, an angry Native American community and a menacing, megalomaniac industrialist, and an ex-love of his life. As Dutch gets closer to the truth, the unimaginable happens...the murders start up again.

Gary Gottesfeld is a wonderful writer. I have read all of his books I have gotten my hands on. He only wrote 3 or 4 books and quit. I'd love to find out what happened to him. If anyone knows please let me know. Thanks, Linda...

This book is well written and quite well documented. It contains some of the best endnotes I've seen in a long time. The author drew from several other diaries (often not published) to present a more well rounded view often elaborating in the chapter endnotes. My only complaint is that the notes were presented at the end of the chapter instead of as page footnotes. I was constantly flipping pages to access the notes as I read. Overall an interesting book to anyone fascinated with WWII.

This book kept me glued to the page. A gripping account of a teenager stuck in a concentration camp without having done anything wrong. A surprising lack of rancor, the author gives a picture of the good and bad in the people on both sides of the conflict. Also unusual are the admissions of less than perfect actions on his own part. It almost made me feel like I had been there.

This is a remarkable study in the practical morality of collaboration and of resistance. Rab Bennett shows clearly how these terms have been over-simplified in many previous studies of the second world war. The reader is invited to put herself or himself into the position of partisans who had to weigh up the economic value of sabotage against the certainty that reprisals would be enormous. Or the mother in a concentration camp who had the choice of either hiding her own newly born baby and inviting the murder of the other inmates in the hut, or herself killing it in order to save lives. Given the nazi policy of effectively holding whole populations as hostages for the good behaviour of individuals, the choices on offer were well nigh morally impossible. The author has succeeded in illustrating for the general reader the issues which faced ordinary women and men on the ground. He also makes plain that murder and atrocity were also used by resisters against Germans especially as the Reich empire crumbled from 1943. This is an excellent account of the moral dilemmas which formed the basis of German rule of subject populations.

Among the many books about World War II and the Holocaust, very few come close to explaining how the Nazis were able to successfully subjugate and exterminate entire populations and ethnic groups. Why did so many peoples (not just the Jews) seem to have cooperated in their own self-destruction? I believe Rab Bennett's "Under the Shadow of the Swastika" has the answer. At the core of Nazi policy in dealing with conquered nations and population groups was one main central principle: the doctrine of Collective Responsibility.

"On the 26 December 1939 two German soldiers were killed in a bar by criminals in Wawer, a suburb of Warsaw. The Germans rounded up all the men in the area, and in houses where there were several men in the family, the women were forced to choose who should be taken in reprisal. In one house a mother had to choose between her two sons, and another woman had to decide between the life of her husband, brother or father. Every tenth man was shot, including 34 youths under the age of 18-a total of 106 hostages..."

This was the beginning of the practice of Collective Responsibility. From then on, the Nazis refined this doctrine until they made fear and terror into "an exact science." Why didn't more people fight back? Why didn't more people help the Jews?

"..In Poland, a family of eight people were shot because they had hidden one Jewish child. In a similar incident, five Poles in a family, which included a 13-year-old and a one-year-old baby, were killed after it was discovered that they had hidden four Jews...In February 1944 the Germans were informed by Ukrainian collaborators in the ethnically mixed area of Galicia in eastern Poland, that about 100 Jews were being hidden in the Polish villages of Huta Pienacka and Huta Werchobuska. With the help of Ukrainian policemen, the Germans surrounded both villages and burned them to the ground. The soldiers assembled all the farmers together with their families and locked them in the barns..[They] stood guard to make sure that no living thing, human or animal, would escape from the burning buildings. The village burned all day."

Could the Resistance have done more to stop the Nazis? They were constantly facing dilemmas forced on them by the Collective Responsibility doctrine, which Rab Bennett explores in detail. For each act of sabotage or assassination against the Germans, members of the Resistance faced reprisals on a ratio of 10-1, 50-1, 100-1, and in many cases, 1000-1.

"On 20 October 1941, after an ambush upon a German convoy had left 30 dead and numerous others wounded, an estimated 4000 inhabitants of the village of Kraljevo [Serbia] were killed. The following day, in reprisal for the death of 10 German soldiers and 26 wounded, the town nearest the raid, Kragujevac, was subject to the most bloody reprisal of the German occupation. According to the official German hostage quota, 2300 people were executed: 1000 for the ten dead soldiers, and 1300 for the 26 wounded men."

Elie Wiesel once said, "When the Jews were being murdered, the world was indifferent. Now it asks why the Jews did not fight." The horrifying answer to both questions may be in this book.

I am privilidged to actually know the author. War is a terrible thing, and Traugott brings the personal touches of how he overcomes bitter feelings to accept Christ and begin a life of service to the King!

Very uplifting book highlighting the redemptive nature of Gods plan for the life of a young boy raised in the Hitler Youth Movement. It also offers an historical perspective on the days of Hitler-era Germany and the often overlooked fact that not all who were part of the elite German SS were there by their own accord. The book is historically accurate but also entertaining - easy to read but hard to put down.

Since our schools no longer teach AMERICAN history, this is a great read for people of all ages (especially children)that gives a glimpse of our country from it's earliest days and the horrendous hardships the men, women and children faced to live in freedom, not only for themselves but for those who would come after them.

I really love this book. The very first story that I read was about a criminal who saved the life of George Washington. It is a very entertaining way to learn about the American Revolution because it is like you are learning about these events first hand. Also the story about Admiral Peter Parker's Drawers is just halarious. I am so glad my parents got it for me for christmas. I had to point out to my mom where the book was at Barnes and Noble. It was hiding behind another book. She totally accused me of hidding it. Still I am glad I got it because there were only four copies left.

This is a beautifully illustrated and compelling conversation, that is both instructive and entertaining. Plumb challenges us to confront ourselves, our country, and our world through the lens of The Human Shadow. It's a great read.

Intelligent and engaging! Plumb's voice makes her subject both thought-provoking and down to earth. I would definitely recommend this for anyone from teenagers on up!