Roger Books

The most heartbreaking story I have ever read...Ngor tells his story with a lucid and clear voice and keeps you forever wondering how people can do such things to one another. A definite introduction to the history of the Cambodian genocide, and one that will humble you when you think your problems are too large.

That said, it it so worth the reading. The writing flows and moves you to see such a human spirit survive.

Before this book, I had only vaguely heard of the name Pol Pot and the nation of Cambodia. Where I go to school, we have history for four years, but never get past the Civil war.
As I was changing the television station, I heard the name Pol Pot and Cambodian again. This time I was determined to educate myself and I bought this book.
I was horrified, I was ashamed, I was overwhelmed. First we had allowed the Jews to endure the Holocaust, and now we had let millions of Cambodians die the same way.
Maybe the history teachers in my area just need to come into the 20th century and repeat IT over and over again, because obviously we're not learning from our mistakes.

This book is on top of my list as the best reads ever. It truly is an amazing story and will leave you thinking about this world we live in. I reccommend this book to all...what a great learning tool to use in the classroom also!

I first spotted this book at a tourist book shop in Phnom Penh and after scanning its pages, I was hooked. It is an immensely absorbing tale, both harrowing and hopeful. I was drawn not only into Dr. Ngor's story but into Dr. Ngor himself. As I kept reading, I felt hungry, exhausted, terrified and sad. But if I wanted it to stop, I simply had to close the book. Not that simple for Dr. Ngor.
I pray that Ngor Haing is now with his Sweet, living the life that was so cruelly denied to them. This book is definitely one of the best I've ever read in my life, and I hope that in your heaven, you can hear me say Thank You, Dr. Ngor.

If you are interested in reading the memoir of someone who survived the reign of the Khmer Rouge, then I can't reccommend any other book higher. I have read two other books from survivors, but Ngor's book was by far my favourite.

What sets Ngor's book apart from the others that I have read is that Ngor was an adult when the Khmer Rouge took over. His memories are very lucid, and he fully comprehends what is going on around him. He watches his young wife die in his arms, those close to him betray, and everyone around him suffer. There are no high points throughout the entire odysey. Ngor brings you to the senseless and incomprehensible suffering that pervades every aspect of life under the Khmer Rouge.

One element I particularily enjoyed about Ngor's book is the extensive descriptions of Cambodian culture, attitudes and behaviour. Cambodian society (from what I can gather from what I have hitherto studied) is highly formal, with a rather complex series of formality set up for intereaction with others and a rather reserved character in regards to expression of feelings. The most important of which in this context being "kum," which is a sort of bitterness and longing for revenge, that becomes evident in a lot of what is happening. You will leave this read with a feeling of not only being inside of what is happening, but also for the actual mechanisms guiding behaviour.

This is, however, not a pleasant read in the least. The descriptions of the atrocities are beyond anything that I was expecting, and for that reason, I would seriously warn others that this is not for the faint at heart. Luckily, Ngor offers notes at the beginning of graphic chapters so that one can skip over them. You will lose sleep, and I can guarantee you that it makes any of those goofy horror movies like "Hostel" and "Turistas" look like a day at Disneyland. This horror is real, and not far in the past. Being that my normal area of study is Russian history, I have read a lot about the horrors of communism and tyranny, but nothing from the basements of Lyubyanka Prison or Mao Tse Tung's Cultural Revolution comes close to the abominable atrocities of Pol Pot's Cambodia.

Ngor also describes his role in the classic movie, The Killing Fields, as well as his integration of life in America. An afterword by friend Roger Warner ends the book on a particularily haunting and sad note, but rightfully so, none the less.

There are a lot of truely excellent books available by survivors of the Killing Fields, and this is the quintessential starting point for those who wish to learn more.

This book was a God send. I found this book after discovering my son had a transcient motor tic. We were told to learn to live with the ticing unless we wanted to heavily medicate our son. This book opened our eyes and put us in contact with other parents facing similar issues through their website. At first I put him on a number of different supplements and I was able to get the tics to subside almost completely. Someone on the website suggested I test his strep titers because following a fever his tics increased. If it wasn't for this book we wouldn't have known to check our sons titers which came back extremely high. Come to find out he had developed strep and was never treated for it. Once we put him on anitbiotics his tics subsided quite a bit. We are in the process of testing him for metals because we think a hep B vaccination may have contributed to his current condition. There is a wealth of info in this book and even more on their website. Tics and Tourette cases have skyrocketed in current years along with autism, ADHD and seizure disorders. These disorders have increased with the increased schedule of vaccines. Our son had seizures following a hep b vaccine at birth and the more research we did the more we were convinced that the toxins in the vaccine caused him to be more suseptable to an avalanche of medical issues due to the fact that his immune system had been compromised. Now we are working on ridding his system of toxins and refuse any and all vaccinations. My newborn was not vaccinated at all and she is the healthiest baby we've ever seen. She has been to a number of physicians who have said she's the healthiest and most developmentally advanced baby they've seen in a long time. God bless the people who wrote this book.

This book is terrific. I cannot say enough good things about it. I highly recommend it!

Tics and Tourette's: Breakthrough Discoveries in Natural Treatments

As a concert-pianist, music therapist, author, and an individual living with Tourette Syndrome, I must "take my hat off" to Sheila Rogers for bringing together a cascade of knowledge by various doctors, pediatric neurologists,
authors and many other leading authorities. As there is no cure for Tourette Syndrome, parents, families and adults are desperately seeking out new innovations and ideas with the hope that somewhere a new approach/approaches will come to the forefront. This book offers exactly what so many have been looking for, thought provoking ideas without the side-effects of medication, approaches that
are natural and display underlying common sense!
Since reading the book, I have followed many of the innovative ideas and have found improvement in my own tics.
As a music therapist, which is also a natural, non side effect technique, I have incorporated the many findings in this book with my own student's!

BRAVO! SHEILA J. ROGERS!, what will you come up with next!

Author: Raymond Vacchino M.Mus.(MT) A.Mus. L.R.S.M. Licentiate (hon.)

This book is eye-opening and thought-provoking. Just consider the possibility of your child being tic-free or at least know you might have the chance of reducing the incidence of tics without medication. Get this book, and share it with others.

This was an informative book. There certainly is hope for those suffering from these disorders that doesn't necessarily have to involve dangerous drugs. I am a candidate for a doctorate as a Naturopath and will use this in my resource library. The question to always ask is what is my body/mind trying to tell me with regard to my symptoms. This book will guide you to look at the symptoms and ask those questions. It will also help you begin your journey by suggesting various avenues to explore. It leaves the reader with a sense of hope for successfully treating the root causes naturally. Treatment can be multi-faceted, often like putting together a puzzle. The end result makes it worth all the time and energy spent. Hope is something soarly lacking in most medical resources for these disorders, that makes this book all the more valuable.

Mike Summey - this book's co-author with Roger Dawson - has a truly inspirational life story to share. He grew up poor in the coalfields of southern West Virginia, a region of bleak poverty. He hit the road at age 15 to make his fortune. As a young man, he carried a message in his pocket and read it every day: "I will become a millionaire by age 30 and retire by age 50." And so he did, though he had no formal education beyond "a Ph. D. from the University of Hard Knocks." Dawson is also impressive: A noted public speaker, he lectures on peak performance and negotiation. His audio program on negotiating produced more than $28 million in revenues, the best-selling program in the history of business cassette publishing. You can learn much about building wealth from these men. They explain how to develop the mindset you need to become a millionaire, persuasively presenting proven (in fact, familiar) methods and strategies for budgeting, saving, investing and managing your money. getAbstract recommends their advice and their attitude.

My friend gave me this book and I kept pushing it off and never read it. Finally, I got sick of my situation enough to give it a shot.

It is very motivating and has been a wake up call to me. I have read about 2 books in the past few years. Since reading this book a month ago, I have read 6. I am as hungry as ever so I have been trying to educate myself on wealth, strategy, and real estate as much as I can and it started with this book.

Very encouraging and uplifting book. Helps you believe in yourself and see that even imperfect people ,making big mistakes, can overcome and succeed greatly! David W.

Although most of the wealth-creating principles are not new, this book is well written and can still serve as a great resource for aspiring millionaires. Mike and Roger's style is very entertaining. I recommend it without hesitation.

"How Ordinary People Can Achieve Extraordinary Success" is just a small clue of the VERY BIG lessons I found in this book. It won't just make you a better investor but can help you be a better person no matter what you do. There is so much inspiration and information crammed in every page of this book. For every investor, this can be the one source to go to as the foundation for your entire business. I know investors who started out using Mike's methods and following the formulas in this book and have become very successful and continue to grow and I could prove it on paper. The results are amazing. I never get tired of talking about it and recommending it to other people.

I enjoyed this book very much and wonder why it's never been available on Video.

Many tv mini series have been put into video and dvd. is there any chance that this one will? this is a fantastic story and i would love to see the series again.

I have read this book many times and have thoroughly enjoyed. I loved the mini-series when it came out in the 70's. I too am perplexed as to why it has never been released on video as so many others are.

I read this book for the first time in junior high school and fell totally under its spell. I now own a very tattered paperback which I have read many, many times. No matter how many times I read this book, I find something that I didn't in a previous read. You really get caught up in the lives of Maggie, Lillian, Mercer, Mays, Jackson and all the rest. To me, this is the mark of a great author. I waited anxiously, fearing that it could never equal the book, when the mini-series came out and was delighted all over again. If you are a reader of history or just want a plain good read, this book is for you. I keep hoping that sometime the mini-series will be available for purchase on VHS or DVD.

I found this book kept my interest from front to back. I had amazing little tidbits of information about every president and their wifes. I thought this book to be thoroughly entertaining.

This book is certainly the greatest single published wealth of knowledge on Wailers recording I have ever seen. However, Steffens' choice of what is included in the book seems at times erratic. He has included a smattering of live shows (both historical & typical), but he has not fully documented all the shows currently in circulation. He has included some shows for which no tracks are issued, some which are partially issued, and some that are in for sale in thier entirety.

He also includes only a partial glimpse into the known unissued studio recordings of Marley. For instance, he lists tracks such as "Show Your Dreads" and "She Used to Call Me Dada," and intimate sessions, such as the one commonly known as Mother B Reel I. However, he includes no mention of known unissued studio tracks, such as "Wounded Lion" and "Real Good Time." For that reason, I must wonder how many songs & sessions are sitting in the vault that were purposefully omitted from this "definitive" discography.

This is a valiant effort and invaluable resource for sure. I'll be looking forward to the 2nd edition.

One.

With any discography, you expect to get details layered upon details about an artist's output. Here you get all of that, but there's much more. Roger Steffens is not only a huge reggae fan and supporter, but he's one of the premier collectors of reggae (and Marley in particular) recordings and memorabilia. He shares photos, anecdotes and insights into countless Marley recordings and sessions. As a long time Marley fan, I have spent hours just browsing and absorbing the information. Highly recommended if you want to know the minutiae and tidbits of the record releases from the Bob Marley.

Even "experts" have long been confused about details of Marley's recorded works, but here is the long-awaited authoritative reference source. Anyone, no matter how knowledgeable, will learn from flipping through this book, and the many illustrations of record covers/labels/etc make it fun to do so. Imagine Bob himself looking at this one - even he no doubt would be reminded of many recordings he might have forgotten - and would be proud indeed.

-steve heilig, BEAT magazine

Many a fan has wondered about the provenance of a certain track by Bob, Peter or Bunny or the whole holy Wailers trinity; only to be stymied by the seeming impossibility of ever imposing rational order on the gush of Wailers releases over the years. Helped by other aficionadoes, including my fellow Marley biographer Tim White, reggae historian and archivist Steffens and multi-talented bluesman Pierson have kept the faith -- and the vinyl -- for a full fifteen years to produce this handsome, thorough volume, illustrated with previously unseen pix by lenspersons including Kate Simon & Steffens. Delightful essays round out a very valuable work that's a true labour of love.

This long gestating book on the wild and wonderfully wide-ranging releases from 'Jamaica's Beatles' is finally out and meets all expectations. Thanks in part to the extensive interviews authors Steffens and Pierson conducted with 'the living stone' Bunny Wailer over several years, BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS: The Definitive Discography plows through the mountains of facts and dis-information to provide a clear and thorough, yet still living and evolving, look at the tremendous output of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny in all forms, roots and branches. The days of frontin' Wailers discs as originals in online and other record auctions are over as this compendium provides detailed proof of all origins and matrix numbers. Here's a slam dunk that actually merits an Order of Freedom Medal. Go deh dready go deh. -Doug Wendt, www.midnightdread.com

This is the ultimate book on Disneyland. It's more than a postcard book, it traces the history of the park & combines descriptive text with some of the best pictures you'll ever see of the park as well as the attractions, past & present. I have most every coffee table photograph book on Disneyland that has been released over the years, & this one is definitely the E-Ticket of the bunch. If you have the excellent 'Disneyland: Then, Now & Forever' (also Bruce Gordon), you have a taste of what you will find here.
The 2nd Edition is also the better of the 2 editions, with added material (1st Edition was 1995, 2nd Edition updates to 2000). I would take the 2nd Edition over the 1st Edition if they were both offered at the same price for this reason. This book is out of print... permanently since the unfortunate passing of Bruce Gordon in November 2007, there will not be any future updated editions.
Speaking of price, this book retailed for $75.00 when it was released. With some patience, this book CAN be found for around $150.00-$200.00 despite what you see here. These copies have been sitting for at least a few years at an inflated value. The book itself is spectacular, the fact that anyone would try to sell the book at $300 & up is shameful.

What memories this brings back! Not only are the postcards wonderful, but the narrative is very entertaining - much more than I had hoped for - and the postcards are supplemented with some wonderful photos to fill in some of the gaps. A great way for us (we?) older Disney fans to share our memories of Disneyland with our children (and later grandchildren), too. I know I will get many hours of enjoyment from this book over the years to come. I am so glad I decided it might be worth the price - it's worth many times over! 2007 update - Wow, the price I was referring to was $52.50, not the $189 I see it going for now.

Let me start this review with the following statement: This is the most prized book in my collection. I'll try not to be too biased. It is also the most expensive and one of the hardest to come by. In the Afterwords section of Walt's Time, Bruce explains how The Nickel Tour came to be:

"We talked to every publisher we could find, and heard the same story, word for word. No Commercial Potential. No audience. No Market. No Deal."

They put the book together themselves: Scanned all of the cards, did the layout of every page and had it printed in Italy. They lugged the books to every convention and sold them through mail-order.

"And guess what: we sold every book we printed". --p. 241, Bruce Gordon, Walt's Time - From Before to Beyond

Disneyland, the Nickel Tour is a look at the first 45 years of Disneyland's history seen through the postcards of the park. In addition to Randy Bright's wonderful Disneyland the Inside Story, The Nickel Tour stands as one of the two most comprehensive books about Disneyland's history. Where it edges out Mr. Bright' work is that The Nickel Tour does cover the past 20 years. Unfortunately, Mr. Bright passed away in 1990 and a second edition is not forthcoming. Bruce Gordon, the primary writer of The Nickel Tour, was an Imagineer and started with the Company in 1980. Mr. Gordon co-authored many books about Disney and there are several that will be published posthumously later this year. Mr. Gordon passed away in November 2007. As it stands, the second edition of The Nickel Tour will probably be the last.

The Nickel Tour is an amazing work on so many different levels: the postcard images, the photographs of attractions that weren't released in postcard form, the historical information and the writing. They begin by sharing pre-opening cards and work their way through the history of Disneyland. One of Gordon and Mumford's strengths is that they write well and can take something as simple as post cards and turn it into an epic look at a theme park. The writing never gets technical and is always filled with reverence, love and a little remorse. Occasionally, they slip in some humor. It is always fitting and they obvious love word-play. The following paragraph could have been presented as just a litany of facts, but they went a different way with it.

"On the left hand side of Main Street, we encounter the Sunkist Citrus House. Long before this view was taken, the Citrus House had actually been two separate stores, one housing "Sunny View Jams and Jellies" and the other housing the "Puffin Bake Shop." By October of 1958, Disneyland had canned the jam and jelly shop and opened a candy store in its place. It was a sweet deal until June of 1960, when the Puffin Bake Shop went stale. (It seems they just weren't making enough dough to stay in business.) And even worse, it wasn't long before everyone was beginning to sour on the candy shop next door. So the two shops were joined together, and in a dedication ceremony held with Walt on July 31, they finally became the home of the Sunkist Citrus Shop. Things were calm until 1990, when the time was ripe to spin around in a circle once more - only to find the Sunkist moving out and the Bakery moving back in! Well, that story certainly had a peel. Orange you glad we wasted all this time? Meanwhile, here's the scoop on the Carnation Ice Cream parlor: in 1997 they split from their original parlor and (having lost their Carnation along the way) floated into the home of the bakery. Then, with perfect Disneyland logic, the bakery moved into - the ice cream parlor! If that doesn't get a rise out of you, nothing will!" p. 121

The sense of history that you get from The Nickel Tour, through the postcards and photographs, has not been presented in any other form. Besides being a reference work for postcards, it is almost a wish book--one you can flip open to any page and see a favorite or long-gone attraction and dream about visiting or re-experiencing. The images are stellar and your appreciation of postcards as art and history will grow.

Bottom Line: This work was obviously a labor of love for Gordon and Mumford. It is hard to stress how important this work is in the Disney Literature. Beside being one of two major historical works about Disneyland, you get a feel for how Disneyland evolved, how Walt plussed the park and how the Disney Company moved forward after Walt. It is the most cherished book in my entire collection. If you are lucky enough to find a copy, get it. I know that many people will dismiss this book because it is about Disneyland, but without Disneyland, there would be no Walt Disney World. The history of Disneyland offers a lot of insight into the growth of Walt Disney World as well.

This book is simply amazing!

www.imaginerding.com

I cannot say enough about this handsome, evocative, skilfullywritten book. Just as Disneyland is more than an amusement park, thisis more than a trip through Disneyland's places and times...

I wouldhasten to add that this book does more than to simply transport you tothe park as it is today; it is the best simulation of a time machine,transporting you back to previous incarnations of the park, the waythat they were experienced and enjoyed in the vanished culturallandscape of the 1950s and the 1960s. A lot of those joys are gone --the Rainbow Caverns of the Mine Train, the subatomic journey of InnerSpace -- and this is the best way to see them again.

What Iparticularly enjoy about this book is that the authors clearly sharemy childhood fascination with wondering "how it all worked."You get aerial shots of the park under construction, pictures ofaborted attraction developments, and the stories behind detailsranging from the marching band kiosk to the eucalyptus trees inAdventureland.

Walt would have approved of this magnificentlyconceived and executed journey through Disneyland's past and present.

I've read "The Art of Walt Disney", "Walt Disney Imagineering", "Disneyland:The Inside Story", and several other books about the Magic Kingdom, and this book is by far the most detailed and enjoyable of them all. Every store that's ever had an address on Main Street...every sponsor that's ever had an exhibit in Tommorowland...IT'S ALL HERE. My only complaint is that I wish some of the illustrations were larger so you could take in more detail...but considering that every postcard ever issued by Disneyland is included, in addition to behind-the-scenes photos and concept art, this is an understandable compromise. Absolutely the best book ever printed on Disneyland.

I got this for my son who wanted a different title on the same subject. He reads extensively about reptiles and I thought this might be more info on the subject than the "pet store" book he asked for. Was I right! Lots of great info and tons of pictures.

I am a breeder who tries constantly to learn new things about my leopard geckos. I like to find out the best way to take care of them. I test various methods I read about or figure out and I find that this book has great methods. This book not only has excellent detailed descriptions of how to take care of your geckos but it goes further into breeding then many would. It talks extensively about the many morphs and the genetics involved in breeding them. It goes in detail about the dominant and recessive traits of the various morphs and illustrates all phenotypes. You will be able to learn how to create any existing morph and even how new morphs have been created in the past.

This book is the best literature on Leopard Geckos there is for the time being. I would highly suggest it for any level of experience a person has with these guys.

What a great book. The most informative book on the husbandry & breeding of leopard geckos. Whether you are keeping these gorgeous animals as pets, or planning a breeding operation I highly suggest you read this book. 5 stars!!!!

I have read several books on Leopard Geckos; this is the one for the serious Leopard Gecko fan!! Lots of information on breeding, newer morphs, illnesses, etc. Even though it's a bit pricey, it's a good investment and a great read.

This book is very accessible for all audiences interested in leopard geckos as captive animals. It's inexpensive considering the contents and should be purchased by all leopard gecko keepers. There is far thicker coverage than top breeder websites offer. Some of the information will be helpful to persons using these animals in a lab setting for behavioral and physiological research.

The chapter on commercial breeding is brief and sparse considering all the details one must evaluate to start a business, and should be used as a very modest supplement. The chapter on natural vivaria and community enclosures seems incomplete. The final chapter, on medical issues, is nothing compared to Mader's big book or the like, but it will get you started on what to fear and how to avoid more common problems in leopard geckos. There are more grammatical errors in this book than I'd like to see considering its overall caliber.

The heart of this book - on setting up for, breeding, and rearing leopard geckos - is what makes this book jump to the top of everyone's lists. The basic genetics chapters will help breeders learn to plan optimally for new projects. The coverage of color phases is already outdated, with a dominant gene - the "enigma" - having made ready appearance since the book's publication. Tremper himself has exhibited at least three new recessive color strains in leopard geckos post-publication! In this book's defense, only quick-release magazine articles stand a chance of keeping up with this rapidly-advancing facet of leopard gecko herpetoculture.

If you are looking for natural history, buy "The Eyelash Geckos" (Seufer, Kaverkin & Kirshner 2005) instead - it's more elaborate and attempts to address regional variation in the species. "The Herpetoculture of Leopard Geckos" is, and will long be, THE book on captive leopard geckos.

I took "Lt Colonel de Maumort" on a cruise in 2006. I started reading the book on the flight out and was virtually in awe of what I was reading. The discription of his youth and his relationship with his father was very impressive. When it came time to start the cruise, I put on my seasick patch that kept me from getting seasick but also dulled my mind enough that this book suddenly became "over my head". After I had switched to a less intensive series of books, I returned to Lt.Col de Maumort and read it one chapter at a time. I liked it better that way for some reason. Maybe it was because it is so intense a style and depth of writing that I preferred savoring it. When I came to the end of the book, I planned on reading the 130 or so pages of letters and files that comprised, I believe, the further notes on the outline of this posthumously editted and published work. I still haven't gotten to that part but I'm sure I shall some day. This is the fourth book by Roger Martin du Gard that I have read and all, with the exception of the short novel "The Postman", seemed to be very deep. I am always on the look out for more of his work translated into English. I have read a book entitled "The Thibaults" but I get the impression that it was just one vollume of a larger worker under the same name. I would appreciate any information that might clarify that for me. In the meantime I would rate "Maumort" as the best of his works that I have read. The book bogs down a bit about halfway through with a prolonged incident that didn't, in my opinion, add much to the book.

As I understand it, du Gard left a partially completed novel that was completed largely on the notes he left behind. I an many others are grateful for the effort. Often it is an author's lessor works that appear after their death (probably because the author might not have thought that particular book was worthy of publication). However, in the case of Roger Martin du Gard, it is just the opposite.

Some people like short books, others like them long - I like them great. I read this book in every spare moment I had for two weeks. I've finished it, and now I am bereft. Reading it, I felt so known, so human, so accompanied. I want the honesty and clarity of this book in my life.

I stopped reading Colonel Maumort at the halfway point. So good, I'm saving it for vacation. Same feeling I had when I read Tolstoy.

I was hooked early in this amazingly ambitious novel by a lovely metaphor where the narrator Maumort compares the way our early memories follow one another to the fish that came each morning out of the lake on lines that he and his sister had set the evening before. Yet memory is only part of the story, as Maumort, a career army officer, is also in thrall to matters abstract, in love with ideas, theories, analysis--all that intellectualising that we Americans love to have the French do for us. However all that cerebration also serves du Gard in developing his characterisation of the Lt Colonel himself, a man determined to understand himself and his society. That such an ambitious story reads so fluidly and fluently is a testimony to both du Gard's and his two translators' splendid prose. Midway in the novel is is a cinematically rendered and unsparing account of a tragic seduction that utterly establishes du Gard's gifts as a novelist, and which by itself might justify the entire novel, were there not so much more here: the marvellously canny portraits of character after character who Maumort encountered in his life, the unflinching account of human sexuality (especially early male sexual experience), the lavishly detailed picture of French society, and as already mentioned, no shortage of food for thought. All this capped by a poignant and powerful moment of dark paralysis towards the close, as the aged Colonel, having just reclaimed his beloved rural estate from its Nazi occupiers, takes one last look back at a relentlessly examined life.

Timothy Crouse has always had an eye for the telling story that's right under everyone's nose, but which most everyone else misses. His book "The Boys on the Bus" was the first not only to notice the enormous power of the press in a presidential campaign but also candidly to describe its operations.

His journalism over the years has been marked by a stubborn willingness to describe contradictions and unfairness, bringing a clear Orwellian eye to an examination of the social and political conventions by which we live and would just as soon forget. Yet he has always been among the most entertaining and fluent of writers, successfully tackling many genres.

His update of the libretto to Cole Porter's musical "Anything Goes" matched that 1920s show with the madcap spirit of the `80s, and ran for years in New York.

When, lately, the word trickled out that for his latest project Crouse was engaged in translating a massive, 60 year old French novel, by an obscure (to Americans) Nobel Prize winner that dealt in detail with French life in the 19th century, readers wondered what was with this chronicler of our own times and spirit.

Trust Crouse, however, to find the contemporary in what everyone else thought of as antique. The book, "Lieutenant-Colonel de Maumort" (Knopf), written by Roger Martin Du Gard, is now out in a fluent, companionable translation done jointly by Crouse, and his collaborator, Luc Brebion Ph.D.

Brebion himself is a distinguished, Berkeley-based, writer, translator and lecturer on aesthetics

As an example of the translators' art, Brebion and Crouse have produced a model. The text flows easily and persuasively; the notes are few and unobtrusive; the narrative voice is candid and companionable. In age when most writers are writing books designed to be read in 10 minute spurts, Brebion and Crouse offer a text that inveigles the reader into a richer, more rewarding reading experience. The ten minutes you have before bed for reading, quickly becomes with "Maumort" thirty, thirty minutes become forty-five.

Ostensibly the memoir, written as the Nazis invade France in 1940, by a retired French officer of his life in the previous 80 years, "Maumort" is a surprisingly frank and insightful account of social, family, political, intellectual, and sexual manners.

It may indeed have been too frank - the author, Martin du Gard, who died in 1958 before he could finish the work, had, at any rate, ordered its publication to be posthumous.

One of the most modern portraits is of a single woman, who adopts a child, only to be disappointed when the adopted child fails to prove to be brilliant. The consequences are horrible as the mother withdraws from the adopted daughter. As Martin duGard writes, "In fact, she was not satisfied with loving the girl, she wanted to be proud of her as well, wanted her affection to be, as it were, justified by the child's exceptional qualities." This novella, "The Story of Henriette," sounds an eerie current note as one listens to contemporary parents measure their children's worth primarily in terms of schools, and tests.

Written with enormous sympathy for the plight of each of its characters, "Maumort" nonetheless posits that much human behavior is situational, not innate. As Americans, these days, feel more and more that they are born into tribes, some may find this view controversial, others, objecting to the reduction of personality to traits, may find it welcome. It is an insanely contemporary discussion.

Martin du Gard's detailed portraits of marriages will leave readers' jaws agape as they see themselves in the lives of these early 20th century Parisian couples.

And as baby-boomers find themselves in small families, wondering about old age, Martin du Gard's assessment of the failures and strong points of large families, and on the emotional life of the aging, is vivid and apposite.

"Maumort" is one of the first novels in which there is a serious, modern treatment of gay themes. A subsection of the novel, entitled "The Drowning", an account of a tragic obsession between a schoolteacher-soldier and a baker's apprentice, rivals Melville's "Billy Budd" as a depiction of the high cost that is paid when societal strictures cross passion, drowning not only happiness, but also courage.

Not the least of the book's valuables, is the vocabulary Martin du Gard - and here the translation work of Brebion and Crouse is at its most pellucid - gives to the evanescent moments when a relationship shifts and suddenly redefines itself.

Although Martin du Gard was unable to finish his portraits of French military leaders, his panorama of Parisian intellectual life is rich. Again, while these portraits are rooted in a long gone age, they are of more than antiquarian interest: Here is the academic who, beguiled by the media scene, never writes anything important. Here is the blustering ideologue who has nothing to say, but says it about everything. There, the trust-fund baby, rendered impotent by an addiction to comfort, who nonetheless considers himself part of the great world of affairs.

His sketches of French military and political leaders also resonate deeply. As I read them, I found myself thinking, "that's as apt a description of Bill Clinton [or George W. Bush, or Al Gore, or Bill Bennett, say] as I've ever read.

So Brebion and Crouse have pulled from history, a novel valuable not only for its description of olden days, but primarily for its uncanny, and needed, articulation of the people, mores, and manners of our own day.

Part and parcel of the book is a section containing Martin du Gard's notes and files. These "Black Box files" offer a fascinating insight into an author struggling with, and conquering, problems of narrative. A boon for writers.

I went to college with Roger but lost touch with him after graduation. I read this book shortly after it was published, and it reminded me what a terrific person he was and how awful it was to lose him so soon. But you don't have to know Roger to appreciate this book. I'd recommend it for anyone, and especially anyone who knows someone struggling with cancer or who it struggling with it themselves. It's a smart and often wry guide to what to expect.

While Roger's memoir is a lesson in living though illness, I found that this book was more about relationships based on love, courage, empathy and humor. Roger shares with us the remarkable intimate relationships he had with his amazing wife Jen, his family and all those friends (and strangers) touched by his infectious humor and optimisim. His account of his life as a patient should serve as an instruction guide for all in the medical profession; it will teach you more about the patients experience then any textbook or residency. For patients, it serves to teach us how to advocate for ourselves as well as help us to understand that medicine isn't perfect and our caregivers do the best they can for us with what is available.

This is a book about living. An inspiring and often times laugh-out-loud read. Highly recommended!

once started, i could not put the book down! an incredible first person brutally frank and honest account of a young man's difficult journey through a terrible ordeal.

This funny, brave, honest little book educates and edifies. I recommend it to all, but foremost to those training to be healers. I know of no finer introduction to disease then the one communicated here with careful, journalistic prose. As a doctor, it taught me more about the experience of illness than any grand rounds or medical school lecture. The author shows us that the great battle that is terminal illness is fought in many ways and in many places. As we interact with patients as therapists, nurses, and doctors we have an opportunity through our actions to honor this battle or to miss that opportunity. We are summoned here to know the experience of illness more deeply and with this understanding to act with far greater sympathy and compassion. It has my highest recommendation.

"Roger Madoff." I was just on my way out from my hairdresser when the name on the book jacket caught my eye. Roger had been a star among my reporters for two years when I was stock market editor at Bloomberg in the `90s. He was brilliant, personable, knowledgeable but humble, an excellent reporter. Delighted to see his name in print and eager to see what he had written, I picked up the book and found a photo of a very young Roger with a huge Smoky the Bear in the background. My pleasure disappeared suddenly as I read the title: "Leukemia for Chickens."

My heart fell as I opened the book and read the foreword written by a dean at Weill Cornell Medical College. "When Roger was first diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 29, he very made a conscious decision to fight his disease...With candor and humor, Roger chronicles his illness up until a few months before he courageously faced death in April 2006."

I turned to my hairdresser. "I knew him!" I blurted. "His whole family comes here," said the hairdresser. "They gave me this book today."

Mumbling a plea to pass along my condolences, I headed for the elevator, images of Roger flooding my mind. It wasn't until I had arrived home and ordered Roger's book on Amazon that I realized that in my shock, I had walked out without paying the bill.

When the book arrived a day later, I thought it would be a tough read. Roger's widow, Jennifer, had published it herself. No surprise there - no doubt, agents would have wanted an uplifting account about how somebody beat the disease. Over the next few days, though, I found myself unable to put the book down. I finished it today, crying.

It took just one day for Roger to enter the tortures of the damned. Feeling tired, he went to the family doctor and had a blood test that showed a high white blood cell count. Within 24 hours of retest and diagnosis, he began chemotherapy -- the first step in a process that would involve the complete destruction of his immune system in the hope of growing a new, healthy one.

Roger had always been a compelling writer -- exuberant, totally original. A member of one of the most dynamic families on Wall Street, he had grown up talking stocks around the family table and probably knew more about the market than the rest of Bloomberg's New York news staff combined. But he never mentioned his family at all, and accepted editing with great grace. Grace, in fact, was a word that could have summed him up - he was a gracious person, graced with brains, a great personality, high energy, inventiveness, good looks, a wonderful family and a girlfriend, later wife. As a reporter, Roger had the equivalent of what my partner Victor Niederhoffer calls "a money-making personality" in traders - he had a story-making personality. He could find "new news" and do it justice. Not only was he an exceptionally vivid writer and expert phrase-turner; he had a merry sense of humor and would often put something outrageous into his stories -- just so that I would have something to take out, he once explained with a grin. I remember one classic Roger story that included the quote, "Puts are for putzes." I thought it was both funny and accurate, but a higher-up indignantly demanded the removal of what he deemed exceedingly offensive profanity. (One result of the incident is that we were treated to a highly detailed and hilarious explanation by the bureau chief of the scale on which "putz" falls.)

Roger was regarded with affection and respect in the newsroom. That doesn't explain why I, who rarely finish any book, finished his book. It wasn't as though we were personal friends. I knew he had gone to work for a unit of the family firm, Primex, on a project to build a digital trading auction, but I hadn't spoken to him in years.

The reason I couldn't put the book down is that it's a highly interesting, endearing first-person account by a stellar reporter of what it's like to undergo cancer treatment in the 21st century. You won't hear the real story by asking a patient or a doctor. The patient is likely to say, "I'm doing fine," while even an exceptionally sensitive doctor would be unable to give the story from the patient's perspective. While leukemia is rare, the stem-cell transplants that Roger underwent are used to treat two dozen other diseases. (He never had much more than a 50% chance - a fact that Roger says he was not aware of as he embarked on the treatment. His doctor, he writes, `discouraged me from inquiring about discomforting statistics."

Roger tells about the treatments, the geometrically expanding side effects and resulting physical ailments and difficulties associated with the treatments, about his own emotions, about the effect on his own family and his marriage. The gracious Roger I knew survived it all -- there is no hint of bitterness or rancor toward his doctors or anyone else. Eventually, he tells how he came to terms with not being a conquering hero.

"I had to reconcile myself to the fact that there are forces beyond my control, and yet I had to continue to work as if there weren't," he wrote. "Maybe I was turning a blind eye to the reality of my struggle, but I knew I would resume living my life as fully as possible. I would try to find richness in every day I had in front of me. I had always tried to live this way and I would reserve my strength for the moments that mattered, regardless of how small they were and how often they came."

If you are close to someone with cancer, or if you are in health care yourself, I'd recommend this book. As an example of great work performed under extremely adverse conditions, it is worthy of a Pulitzer.

The Birth to Five Book: Confident Childrearing Right from the Start

Mr. Rogers was always a soothing voice on TV. My children watched and enjoyed his programs. Now I have the privilege of reading his books. You can almost hear his soothing, calm voice in each passage. I love the insights and candor of this man and recommend this book.

Just a great book to have to thumb through. Just neat thoughts from a great person.

I have been gripped recently, nearly 5 years after his death, with a wave of Mr. Rogers nostalgia. After reading Tim Madigan's wonderful "I'm Proud of You," about his friendship with Fred Rogers, I wanted more. It seems that this 1-CD tribute would do the trick, slaking my thirst for words of wisdom from this warm, sweet man, while perhaps not overdoing it. I was disappointed. The CD consists of a series of short snippets gathered from Fred's writings, read by Lily Tomlin and others. This sounds like a wonderful way to pay tribute to the man, but comes off wrong. Fred had a way of making even the most treacly saying seem profound. Then there was his stance of complete acceptance, non-judgment and kindness that made his words seem salving and utterly non-threatening. In the voices of others, these sayings lose their power and become simply "nice," and even trite.

The best parts of the CD were where Fred himself appeared, in recordings of music from his shows ("I'm Proud of You, "I'm Still Myself Inside") and in his words to the graduating class of his alma mater, Latrobe University. Here, in extended segments, Fred's warmth and humanity had time to take root.

Beautiful as the sentiment may have seemed to the participants, the essence of Fred Rogers cannot be removed from his slow, gentle delivery or his meek and inviting persona. I would NOT recommend this product for anyone who wants to experience the extraordinary person who was Fred Rogers. Madigan's book helps, but as for me, I am still seeking a relatively short volume or CD that lets me experience the affirming and healing grace of God that was Mr. Fred Rogers.

I was a bit apprehensive when I first picked this up at the library because I was afraid that Fred might concentrate more on the religious side of things.actually,he only mentioned god a few times in it and each of those times he mentioned god unforcefully,which was both smart and caring of him.I liked it so much I'm going to buy a copy!it was uncanny to see that his writing style(although compiled by others)in this book was very simmillar to that of david lynch in his "catching the big fish" book--short and to the point/abstract for a purpose:I love books which demand that the reader think things out themselves rather than have it served up american-style on a big silver platter!

Such joy in living simply. Mr. Rogers had a way of bringing people in with his ordinariness. His philosophy is one of love and positive thinking. He separates true happiness from temporary satisfactions. This is a must read.