Biographies Books

This book gives a dipicton of WWII that you do not get in most books. I have meet this man and heard him give many presentations on his book and experiance. I would recomend this book to anyone that is interest in WWII and what happend over there from someone that experianced it.

I just finished this book. It is an amazing story that proves fact is better than fiction. What an amazing life this man lead. His courage and fierce determination to survive brought him through the key places and major events of WWII. Buy this book and pass it around. I was fortunate enough to have this book passed to me.

I too was fascinated with Mr. Van der Geest's book even though it sounded too good to be true. I am a student of WWII and of the Battle of the Bulge in particular as I had an uncle who was killed outside of Champs on Christmas morning. I question Mr. Van der Geest being there as he said he was. I have researched the events of December 22nd, 1944 in great detail and in no account (A Time for Tumpets; The Battered Bastards of Bastogne, The Bitter Woods, etc.)can I find any mention of Mr. Van der Geest being there and interpreting anything and these books go into great detail in naming names of those who were involved with the surrender proposal. I wonder if he was even attached to the 101st airborne as he talks about them fighting their way out of Holland on the way to Bastogne where they were going to meet up with Patton. The battle hadn't even started yet; Patton hadn't made his proposal to relieve the 101st and besides the 101st was going to Mourmelon to rest and refit. He writes about going to Bastogne the first week in December, but the 101st didn't leave Mourmelon until Dec. 18th.
I have found other errors in the book as well and it makes me wonder if perhaps Mr. Van der Geest took accounts of the war and made them his own.

Mr. Van Der Geest spoke at my school and I have never heard a more amazing story of courage and faith. This book captures his story of his survival during WW2 and all he accomplished after he escaped the death camp. I would recommend this book to any person young or old because we cannot forget what happened to this man and the thousands of others like him - especially those who were not so blessed as to survive. We cannot forget our history and we must learn from it. This should be a mandatory book to read in highschools everywhere, because it carries a far more important, interesting, heartbreaking, and yet hopegiving story than any other book I certainly ever read. I'm so glad this man had the courage to tell his story.

My father recently sent me this book as a present. It was probably the best book that I have read this past year. This story, of Jack Van Der Geest, life...really hit home for me. Recently, I became very sensitive to racism. Specifically, my fiances son was beaten by a group who believed him to be a white supremist.

I plan to buy this book on a regular basis and give it as a gift to those other parents that need it...to educate our youth on the tragic events of World War II.

Jack Van Der Geest...is an inspiration...

Rob Johnson

Wayne was one of twelve children. He is now married with four daughters and is a successful contractor in New Hampshire. It sounds like he is living the American dream; however, a phone call from one of his younger brothers triggers Wayne to seek answers from his past.

Wayne, his brothers, and his sisters were abused throughout their childhood. There were hospital visits and questions from teachers and social workers, but the abuse continued. Wayne digs back into these painful memories and the information he finds shocks and surprises him.

He has to confront his parents, and does so on a national talk show.

This is a true story of a brave man whose spirit could not be broken. His past continued to haunt him throughout his life. He needed to find out the truth, not just for himself, but for his family, as well.

This is a novel of terrible times and times of hope. While sometimes painful to read, the message of WAYNE comes through loud and clear to the reader that strength can prevail.

Reviewed by: hoopsielv

It takes a lot of courage to face your fear, and in this book Wayne faces and confronts his hideous past. Bringing to light his repressed memories of his upbringing. I think the way he rises above everything to be the person he is today, is a lesson to us all. This book is a good read, i could not put it down. I read the whole book all in one sitting.

i just read this book it was really good, i could'nt put it down,it told really good stories about what he had went throgh as a child.

What a suvivor. Wayne Theodore I appreciate this book. There are so many adults suffering today because of childhood abuse.People don't even know about most of the cases. Some parents and family have truely been mean to chidren and ruined lives. And do you know what, the abusers are crazy enough to wonder why those that they have abused have problems in life. Carl Theodore could have given his family a better life. His son mentioned him having money in his pockets.But he chose not to be a good provider. What would make a person want to inflict pain on his own children? What and why? I hope Wayne's brothers and sisters come to realize how wonderful Wayne is. I hope they have grown closer and supportive of each other. Can you just imagine how many sick people are taking advantage of children? There are a lot of sick parents in this world. Their children are sometimes the product of their wickness.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. It's important for adult survivors of child abuse to get our message out. Thank you, Wayne!

I had horrible colitis that made drop every thing in my life. I could hardly leave the house sometimes. I tried every other diet out there: vegan, raw vegan, paleolithic, specific carb diet (scd) etc. I was really depressed because none of them had worked. I finally got this book in the mail. It took a long time for me to receive it. I had almost forgotten about it. I opened it up and kind of laughed because to be honest, it really doesn't look very credible. I was at the end of my rope though and gave it a chance. A few pages in, I was hooked. I started to make one of his moisturizing shakes because they sounded good, and they were! Plus, I wasn't really ready for raw meat yet and I knew I could handle raw eggs because I had made my own mayonnaise before. I ate them two or three times a day for a week and my colitis cleared of in a snap. I guess all that raw fat regenerated the lining of my colon. (I didn't even follow his specific colitis diet. I just started eating lots of those shakes because I loved them.) So, now I am following his diet more strictly. I'm almost completely off the Prednisone (steroids). This book has given me my life back. Everyone thinks I'm nuts for eating raw meat, but I don't care. Anyone who's ever had colitis wouldn't care either. If you know someone with colitis or chrone's tell them about this book.

About four years ago I purchased We Want to Live at a friend's recommendation. Odd thing is the same day an acquaintance (a lady in her eighties who had met me wife while both of them were going to doctors and to hospitals) recommended the same book to my wife. I got so enthused even on first reading that I marked about 30 pages with different colored post-its. I have never done that before or since. Since then my health and my lifestyle have improved about 900%. See [...]for hundreds of similar stories.

This is a fantastic book and I highly recommend it. It opens ones eyes to a whole new form of diet. The 2nd edition is now available. Don't waste your money by buying from some of those who offer it used. (...). Hopefully amazon will soon update its catalog accordingly.

A fascinating book by someone who dares to challenge the medical establishment. Made me aware of biases I didn't even know I had. Helps me understand why I had so many problems when I used to be on a raw vegan diet. I have already developed a much healthier respect for raw fats -- and I never even really thought of avocado, coconut, soaked nuts, raw milk, etc., as raw fats.

This book provides only anecdotes and results from Aajonus's personal experience. It contains very little useful information unless you're willing to completely trust Aajonus, though he provides little reason to do that either.

Aajonus's second book The Recipe for Living Without Disease, on the other hand, provides verifiable reasons for choosing the Primal Diet, complete with citations of clinical studies.

Another great biblical resource that is packed with great illustration pictures, concise information and easy to carry along.

I purchased this book as a gift for my mother-in-law. My parents have the same book and they love it. My mother-in-law had been trying to find the book after seeing their's. The book is great to just flip through for interesting Bible facts or to find answers to questions.

I teach Bible Church School and this book is great when you need to understand the gist of a person or place in the bible. It's not your exhaustive detailed reference work, but it is a 'to the point book'.

Great little pocket/purse size for information on just about anything in the bible. Places, people, etc...fun to read!

A super resource for anyone interested in Bible characters and Bible places.

The book arrived on time and in excellent condition.
It will be a good read.

Ken Bell's story of a tour flying F105 Thunderchiefs in Viet Nam is a masterpiece of the technique of making things dramatic by being understated.
Although, like a number of military writers, he tends to put exclamation points after quoting an order from somebody, none of his own writing hits you in the head. Not in any one sentence. It's the accumulation that is gripping.
Bell, although an experienced fighter pilot, had had no command time and no combat time when he was ordered to Southeast Asia. So while we don't hear much about his problems just keeping the aircraft aloft, we do see him feeling his way through demanding staff jobs in addition to his flying.
This contrasts with Jack Broughton's book, "Thud Ridge" where Broughton is immediately immersed in the problems of command--he'd had earlier command slots--along with the flying.
Very shortly after arriving, Bell was put in charge of standards and evaluation, a job in addition to his flying. It appears that most pilots had such additional taskings. Stan/eval meant keeping the pilots and their flying up to Air Force scratch, modified for local conditions. This had Bell monitoring and evaluating others, sometimes during combat missions, and some of them his seniors. Later, he was put in charge of developing and selling technical and operational modifications to the higher ups. Obviously, his seniors had confidence in him.
The book gives us, as do Coonts' fictional story of Viet Nam flying, and Broughton's books, one each of various missions. We get to see how it all goes.
Bell sets out the immense effort it took to put some bombs in Pak Six. A dozen and a half tankers, a squadron or two of F4s for Mig Cap, SAR on standby, electronic warfare aircraft, recce either before or after. If it works out right, a couple of dozen Thuds put two or three tons of bombs apiece on a target.
Which brings up a point. Some of these major efforts of a major industrial and military power were devoted to a ferry landing site. A ferry landing site!? You could bomb one of those for generations, and until you changed the course of the river by the accumulation of bomb craters, nothing useful would happen.
Lose guys for a ferry landing site?
Or a steel mill. A generating plant?
This was not Germany or Japan during WW II where they were making their own stuff and the manufacturing assets could be destroyed.
Bell only hints at what Broughton explains in outraged detail. Some or most of the targeting decisions were made by non-military geeks playing war games back in the White House.
While we were pissing away men's lives on ferry landing sites, the important targets, Haiphong Harbor, the Hanoi-Haiphong transportation axis, the railroad up to China, were all left alone. It would seem that the propensity to leave a good target alone was directly proportional to its use to the enemy, to the prospects of victory, and the number of American lives which would probably be saved.
Broughton, having a bigger picture as a commander, got sufficiently outraged about such things in "Thud Ridge" as to make that part of his book, and all of his later book, "Going Downtown, The Air War against Washington and Hanoi".
Another point that Bell makes, not meaning to, I expect, is the incredible complexity of flying combat.
He speaks of landing just behind his lead. Lead reminds him to pop his drag chute immediately and to tell him when the chute is working so lead can pop his. If lead goes first and decelerates quickly, number two runs into him. So Two pops the chute first and tells lead who then pops his. There are a million little ways to screw up and get somebody killed. And you have to be watching all the time. It puts one in mind of Kipling's poem about the extremely young naval officers of WW I, referring to the "drowsy second's lack of thought that costs a dozen dead."
Great book to learn about the war in Southeast Asia and the men who flew in it.
And it also gives us, inadvertently, an insight into fighting a guerilla war with conventional tactics. You end up losing guys to bomb a ferry landing site.

I was mechanic on the F-105 in Thailand when Major Bell was flying his missions there. I believe he has written a superb account of the trials, skills and frustrations the Thud pilots had during Viet Nam. He brought back many memories of the two years I spent in Thailand.

My dad, a Wild Weasel 105 pilot who was there around the same time Bell was, recommended this book to me and once I started, I literally couldn't put it down. As other reviewers mentioned, you really feel like you are experiencing it firsthand. I think it's important to mention that it is written in a way that your ordinary person can understand exactly what is going on (something I feared before I bought it). It is an outstanding book and while I've always respected what my dad did, I feel I have 100% more insight into the extent of what he, and his fellow pilots, were up against-how they were able to face those odds day after day is almost unbelievable. The (physical and mental) strength and bravery of those men leaves me speechless and in awe. Thank you Ken Bell.

I first learned about the F-105 strikes against Hanoi in G.I. Basel's masterpiece; "Pak Six". Prior to reading that book, my concept of the air war over North Vietnam were the B52 strikes that were publicized, in the popular media, in the late sixties. The breavity of "Pak Six" left me hungry for more which Ken Bell delivers in " 100 Missions North" "100 Missions North" fleshes out the details and gives the reader a better idea of what the job, and life, were like for the pilots who flew the dangerous missions into Hanoi. While life, planning and debriefing are covered in more detail, there is still plenty of in-the-cockpit action, rocketing toward earth in full afterburner through clouds of flak to put the bombs on target.

This was a wonderful story, both entertaining and heart-wrenchingly honest. I've always admired Jameson Parker as an actor - I admire him even more as a man! Loved, loved, loved the book!

I am still in the middle of reading this but I have enjoyed so far and the dekivery was amazing it took less then a week to recieve it Lenore

You never would have known an actor from the 80's would turn out to be a modern day cowboy. Well, it seems that Jameson Parker has. You always wonder what happens to a person after a successful tv stint and now we know. The parts in this book that explain the shooting incident were intense. True, the wounds turned out not to be life threatening. Be that as it may, how would any of us react to looking down the face of a gun and watching as the bullet comes straight for us. I can understand where the PTSS would come in later in life. This book is recommended for anyone who wants a good read about cowboy life, life's ups and downs, stress, loss, ect. It is extremely well written and will hold your attention. Bravo, Mr. Parker. I already own Absent Friends and anxiously await further works from Jameson Parker.

I loved this book. I have been a fan of Mr. Parker since he starred in "Simon and Simon" in the 80s, and always wondered what had become of him. In "An Accidental Cowboy" I found out.

I commend him for writing about things that he probably would have rather forgotten -- his depression, his suicidal thoughts, etc. It is very hard to explain things you do not know yourself. And to open yourself up to total strangers, even when you don't have to look those people in the face, is especially difficult. Thank you for being so honest.

The stories about ranch life were very entertaining. Even people who have never been on a ranch before should find them fascinating. I grew up on a farm in Oklahoma, where we had cattle and horses, and I was caught up in the day-to-day life of the California cowboys. I will never forget this book, and I hope anyone else who reads it enjoys it as much as (most of) the reviewers here did.

I've read a lot of books, and while many of them may be fun to read, they are not always well-written. This book is both. I grew up on a farm and thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Parker's account of ranch life. His account is witty and fun to read, as well as being right on target with how cowboy life really is. At the same time, Mr. Parker has a wonderful grasp of the English language. His descriptions are easy to visualize and some of his comparisons are poetic as well as funny/heart-rending depending on what he is depicting. All in all, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read and one that is worth reading a second time.

I was given this book by a research mentor at the conclusion of a summer of undergrad research. She thought I would find the sections advising scientists to find appropriate wives amusing, and I certainly did. Cajal is certainly opinionated on this and many other subjects, and he writes well and clearly. Although the book is dated, the basic philosophy of science itself has not changed, making Cajal's insistence that young researchers question authority and trust their own abilities as timely as ever.

a wonderfully written, sharp, succinct account of how and why we should do research. for anyone embarking on long term work in the natural or social sciences this book provides invaluable advice. if only everyone worked this way!

This is a great book for anyone who is embarking on research life journey. It should be a madatory reading for all persons getting training in research.

Could one expect have such a magnificent review of the life which can give you the main principles to enjoy your life as a scientist? Yes, read this book which still inspires me in most aspects of my life. By some pertinent illustrations, Santiago gave us the basis to lead not only a sucesss in your scientific career, but also (and more important) advices to a better human being.
This book (and all others of this kind) speaks to human's heart, and should be proposed in our education system instead of so many boring and barely useful.

This book was recomended by Dr. T T Sun, who himself is a great motivator and researcher. I read this book and its incredible. It changes the view of thinking towards science.

Alex Scott was a very special girl. Book tells the true story of a amazing Scott family.

The Mom's Choice Awards® honors excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. An esteemed panel of judges includes education, media and other experts as well as parents, children, librarians, performing artists, producers, medical and business professionals, authors, scientists and others. A sampling of the panel members includes: Dr. Twila C. Liggett, Ten-time Emmy-winner, professor and founder of Reading Rainbow; Julie Aigner-Clark, Creator of Baby Einstein and The Safe Side Project; Jodee Blanco, New York Times Best-Selling Author; LeAnn Thieman, Motivational speaker and coauthor of seven Chicken Soup For The Soul books, Florrie Binford-Kichler, Founder of Patria Press, Inc. - an award-winning independent publisher, President of PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association, and Member of The Children's Book Council; Tara Paterson, Certified Parent Coach, and founder of The Just For Mom Foundation(tm) and the Mom's Choice Awards®. Parents and educators look for the Mom's Choice Awards® seal in selecting quality materials and products for children and families. This book is an honored recipient of this distinguished award.

I bought this for my daughter and we both love it (me more than her)! She is almost two and doesn't quite get the message of the book; however, she loves the fun rhymes. I can't wait untill she is old enough to make lemonade stand and help the cause. This is a great book for any child!

very accessible story for telling little kids about fatal diseases like cancer.

This is the story of an extraordinary little girl. Alexandra Scott was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a form of cancer, when she was one year old. When she was four, she decided to build a lemonade stand and donate the proceeds to the hospital where she was treated. News of Alex and her goals spread, so that others decided to help her raise money. Now there is a foundation (Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation) dedicated to continuing her work.
Told in a set of delightful rhymes and attractive illustrations, this is a tale that is inspiring and demonstrates how much one person can change the world if they simply try. If you buy this book, you will enjoy it and young children will be delighted to have it read to them. I also encourage you to make a donation to what is truly a worthy cause.

I found this book so topical that I suggested it for my book group. We will be discussing it this fall! I think it addresses the unspoken fear of many boomers -- getting old. I took this book with me on plane trip. I found people doing double takes when they saw the title. Even our cabin attendant wanted to give me an answer to the title's question. Komaiko handles the subject with loving humor.

This is a brilliant, compassionate, funny, inspired, dedicated quick read! It is, I believe the best book about relationships I've read in a very long time. Leah Komaiko says what I think but have never been able to verbalize much less write and put out into the public! When is her next book out?

I am so impressed by the honesty of the author, Leah Komaiko--her fear of being old and her sense of insecurity. I am also pleased that she found a way to go through her fear. I am so sorry to know that Adele (the 94 years old lady in the book) was abandoned by her family with no particular reasons. I remember my 89 years old father told me that the worst thing to be old is... you were young not too long ago. And when you get older you would prefer to be with your family. I can imagine how Adele felt when she was left at a nursery home by herself with no visitations from her family... It is a wonderful book!

I was touched by the honesty, simplicity and humor of Leah Komaiko's writing in this wonderful book. As a 44-year-old woman, I relate to the challenges of aging in our youth-worshipping culture. I was also struck by the ways in which the friendship between these two women progressed. There were moments when the author seemed ready to "throw in the towel," but the fact that she persisted even when things didn't go quite the way she planned was an inspiring example of how to love another human being, warts and all. I recommend this book to anyone.

I saw Leah Kamaiko interviewed on last Sunday's Today Show. We were also treated to footage of Leah and Adele walking and talking together. True soulmates. Seeing them reminded me of how moved I was when I read "Am I Old Yet?" the book Leah wrote so that all of us could share what these two wonderful women have learned from each other. There is only one age, alive, and that life is best lived in connection to ourselves and each other. Leah's willingness to face her fears of aging and learn from them gives gentle space for the rest of us to explore this taboo subject. For years in my psychotherapy practice I have worked with many people facing aging and mortality issues for themselves and their loved ones. "Am I Old Yet?" is poignant and wise. It illuminates while it confronts and comforts. I highly recommend this book. It is a valuable resource for our continuing collective journey.

William Manchester's "The Arms of Krupp" is an epic look at the company, personalities, dynasty, and the nation that formed one of the world's most infamous armaments manufacturers.

From the earliest records of a Krupp in the late 16th century, the Krupp family profited off the suffering an misery of others when Arndt Krupp bought land in Essen for a bargain following an outbreak of bubonic plague. It was a pattern that played out again and again up to the Second World War; but the later tragedies the family profited off was human conflict rather than disease.

Throughout the narrative, the reader is introduced to a long list of eccentric and sometimes brutal 'Cannon Kings': from manure-loving Alfred whose genius launched die Firma into its infamous glory, the scandalous Fritz, the robotic Gustav, to the WWII-era slaveholder Alfried. At times, readers will envy the early Krupps for their dedication to die Firma, while in other instances the audience will be appalled by the Krupps' cold-blooded arms dealings that led to the deaths of so many of their own countrymen.

Manchester is keen on casting the house of Krupp as a symbol of modern Germany; as their trials and boons both seemed to coincide in recent history. Furthermore, "The Arms of Krupp" is an excellent source for insight on the pre-WWI arms race and the post-Versailles rearmament that other histories of the period overlook. Over all, it is a highly recommended book for anyone interested in the history of Germany and the barons of modern warfare.

The ultimate story of the KanonenKonig. I highly recommend this book to anyone intersted in the industrial history of the Ruhr. The best work on the rise of Germany available.

It covers a lengthy span of time in Krupp saga. Its 900 pages have space for all kinds of detail, from the purely familiar and personal to the more general of German customs and idiosyncrasies, and finally -to me the most relevant and interesting- the historical. The historical from the ground perspective, is what I mean, not the ideological or political.

There's a lot of merit in this author to keep the interest along so many pages. Some of these pages are of great style, elsewhere the interest plummets a little, which is totally understandable.

One paradox in the book that can summarize the story of Krupp is the difference between the way the greatest Krupp (Alfred) treated a poor and foreign woman appealing for help, and the way his great-grandson, would treat people like her in his not-known-well-enough private concentration camps. For Alfred it was: "Necessity knows no law", a fitting motto. Exactly the opposite would be during the Nazi times. Here's a sample of great writing: "Yet there was a time when Alfred's great-grandson not only abandoned helpless women from abroad, but exploited them, and then left them to a doom far more unspeakable than the turbid gray waters of the Rhine. The bonfire of the Third Reich was rapidly being reduced to embers. No sources of manpower were left and so, necessity knowing no law, Krupp turned to girls, to mothers, and, in the end, to the construction of a private concentration camp for children."

A must read, for the fine style in which it describes important historical subjects that must be known, the day-to-day lives of the people who lived those turbulent -to say something- times. Let's not forget those horrors. And don't try to understand them, just beware how low the human race can fall.

This book is excellent for all the reasons mentioned in the other reviews. What I found REALLY annoying was the author's use of German quotes. He provides quotes, in German, usually somewhat abbreviated as shown by the use of ellipses, and then provides the translation of the entire quote in English. Since most of his readers can't read German, and the entire quote is NOT in the German version, why include them? More frustrating are the German phrases that he quotes and doesn't translate, leaving us to guess at their meanings.

William Manchester squeezes yet another masterpiece into just under a thousand pages (not counting index!) For four centuries one name was associated with the armaments that were utilized in four major wars, creating the richest family in Europe; Krupp. Each leader of the dynasty had peculiar quirks that Manchester delights over, some were involved in sex scandals, and another ran his day to the second with pure Prussian obsessive-compulsion. Krupp innovations included the steel cannon and railroad wheel; they designed the notorious 88mm of WW II, and the descendant of that gun, the 120mm hypervelocity cannon, may be seen on U.S. tanks to this day. The driving force behind the industrialization of the Ruhr, it would be legitimate to ask if Germany were responsible for the rise of Krupp, or Krupp responsible for the rise of Germany. Like so many others, Alfried Krupp fell under Hitler's spell, spurring him to run private concentration camps in order to produce more weapons. Intrafirm Krupp memoranda from this period begin to use terms such as Sklavenarbeiter (slave labor), Sklavenmarkt (the slave market), Sklavenhalter (the slave-holder, Alfried Krupps), and Judenmaterial (Jewish livestock.) The Nuremberg Trials follow, and Krupp walks away almost unscathed, to continue in business until the company foundered in the 1960s. German history and the Krupp lineage is inextricable, and there is no better writer to bring such a unique saga to life.