Germany Books

This book can change your life. It certainly changed mine. It is a journey into the clarity and perfectness of the purity of faith, the purity of Being - THAT which is beyond all faith and culture, yet captured in simple terms in a Christian context. If you are a true seeker after truth or a true finder of the truth you will treasure this book. Well done Tony D'Souza - please give us another one as good as this.

I come to recognize publishers that publish books interesting to me, specifically with titles of spiritual and religious topics. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company of Michigan, USA and Cambridge, United Kingdom is one such publisher. A friend loaned me the book titled, "The Way of Jesus," I am happy to recommend this anonymous work after reading it. I admit I may have found myself overlooking the title if it had not been brought to my attention. This is a book helpful in knowing Christ and living the Christian life.

The book was originally discovered in Germany in 1516 under the title "Theologia Germanica," published by Martin Luther. A contemporary style helps with understanding the work, it was translated into the contemporary English by Tony D'Souza, who lives in London, England. The writing contains a certain charm without being difficult to the 21st Century American reader; hence the editing is successful if only containing a whiff of plainness and kind of simplicity. This may be to its credit, after reading the entire book and looking back on it.

You guess this is a mystical work, probably, and you guess right. Written in short segments, one may read it on a daily basis finding time to reflect on each chapter. I read it straight through, so to speak, not reading it as a devotional, but as an instructive and illuminating work on Christ and my relationship and understanding of him in my life. Fortunately, I found this satisfying and illuminating.

The work is an illuminating book, 140 pages and introduces itself on the cover as, "a contemporary edition of a spiritual classic." Tony D'Souza is noted as "editor," by the way. Just to be clear on the matter and give proper credit to him.

From the start, the book offers evidence and instruction: "...[O]ur knowledge of God should become so perfect that we see that none of our gifts or will, love or good works come from ourselves but that they all come from God, from whom all good proceeds." Perhaps you as reader of this review say, "How obvious." But I recall a situation where I confused my own sense of smallness before God instead of his largeness; instead my posture required an attitude of humility that accepts and acknowledges His goodness and greatness. This is not so large an error, or far from a way to humility, yet to get on a better path to the Way of Jesus this book is helpful in sorting out relationship and truths. There is discernment on its pages.

Again, in the same line, as the author says early in the book, "...[I]t is better that God should be loved, praised, and honored even if we vainly imagine that we love or praise God. This is preferable to God being left unloved, unpraised, and unhonored, because when the vain imagination turns into understanding of truth, then claiming anything for our own will fall away naturally...'Poor fool that I was, I imagined it was me, but all the time it was God.'" Simple, yes, but clarifying and also helpful in bringing the reader to an insight to Christ's significant and special relationship with mankind (womankind, too, of course.)

It is by degrees and example, by various dictums the writer lets us know something of perspective: "Four Things Are Necessary Before a Person Can Receive Divine Truth and Become Possessed by the Spirit of God."

Possessed by the spirit of God? I ask, and I wonder. This statement about divine truth is novel to my ears, as are discussions of evil personified by the Devil. Yet as a reviewer I urge you to buy the book to read on and persevere; the reader will find this endeavor of a book both entertaining and also written so that its certain realities are recognizable in our century. Reading a classic work does take some leaps and jumps, especially when written almost 500 years ago.

Christ says blessed are the poor. He means material poverty, and that is common knowledge. But he also says, blessed are the poor in spirit, and the author who is imparting "knowledge," or a way of knowing, ends a chapter with the promise of his teachings: "Out of this grows that poverty of spirit of which Christ said..." One gets the firm intention of learning something about spiritual poverty by this work, and thereby a humility. To this end, the chapter headings are like aphorisms, such as the chapter just noted: "There is a Deep and True Humility and Poverty of Spirit in a Person Who Shares in the Divinity of God." I thought these a kind of Zen Koan. But slightly so. More a puzzle made statement than an exercise in special construction. Yet the book is that, too, in its own way.

There you have a sense of the way mystery is constructed by the modern edition, I guess the modern language is true to the original since a noteworthy publisher publishes the book. Here is another "aphorism", clearer and less puzzling, but a puzzle: "What Sin Is, and How We Must Not Claim Any Good thing for Ourselves, because All Good Belongs to the True Good Alone."

I was glad to find this book title available through Amazon.com, for I tried searching on it (the title), but could not find the book. I tried a search on the editor, Tony D'Souza, and found the book on Amazon.com. This particular copy, which was loaned to me, was purchased at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California (USA) where my friend said she found it by browsing.

I am happy she thought it suited my interests and tastes, and also that I would appreciate something that takes a desire for a special religious flavor of instruction. My Deacon friend practices contemplation in the morning, and knowing my own interest in contemplative prayer is correct in her recognition that contemplatives will find the book, "The Way of Jesus," helpful in living a Christian life. That is a lot to say about a book, but I am sure if you've gotten this far in this review, you have an interest that will make this a work beneficial to your own life, contemplative in leaning or not. This is also a book for the active life in Christ, for it clarifies and instructs on understanding this historic person and God. A helpful book in living a Christian life.

--Peter Menkin, Pentecost 2007

Compiled and edited by London-based writer and special teacher Tony D'Souza, The Way Of Jesus is a modernized rendition of an anonymous, mystical masterpiece that has been a cherished devotional text for nearly five centuries, since its discovery in 1516 in a monastic library in Germany. First published under the title of "Theologia Germanica" by Martin Luther, the text has been rendered into plain terms for the lay reader, and flows with a clear message that transcends eras. A highly recommended classic of worship, whether for stand-alone reading or as a companion volume to more archaically literal transcriptions of Theologia Germanica.

Martin Luther discovered and published this 14th century handbook in 1518, naming it "Theologia Germanica," and calling it the third most influential written work in his life, after the Bible and the writings of St. Augustine. Mr. D'Souza's contribution is to render it in up-to-date, accessible English, for which the modern reader on the contemplative path will be grateful. This is an important work. Clearly the anonymous German priest/author was aware of the teachings of Meister Eckhardt, the Dominican friar whose compelling writings were condemned after his death in around 1328; he knew the work of other 13th and 14th century mystics, and was familiar with the tensions between Church authorities and practitioners of Christian mysticism and contemplation. He frequently warns the reader that it is easy to fall into error on the contemplative journey, and identifies errors, showing how they may be corrected.

Why is The Way of Jesus important to us 650 years after it was written? It seems to be an original, authentic voice from the apophatic (via negativa) tradition, of which we have far too few. It explains clearly and concisely in simple language and imagery what the contemplative journey is and what its purpose, and invites the reader to consider the deepest of life's questions and answers in the company of an articulate, accomplished master.

The American desire for roots compels thousands of families to travel to the lands of their ancestors-poring through records, paying homage at cemeteries, visiting birth sites and churches, finding their history.

In "The Wayfarers," Californian Nathan Friedman travels to Romania culminating two years of extensive genealogical research, wanting to know more about his deceased father Sholem's life before he immigrated to America. After devoting countless hours to tracing his father's path, Nathan journeys with his son and grandson to Romania to visit his father's village, Birlad. He desires to see the synagogue and learn all that he can about Sholem and his ensuing march across Europe with the Birlad Fusgeyers.

In Romania, Nathan connects with Rabbi Nachman who tells the compelling story about the young Jews who left Birlad in 1904 seeking a better life. Tired of boycotts, poverty, pogroms and other persecution, Sholem joined one of the Fusgeyer contingents that marched across Europe. The recounting of their experiences reveals the prejudice against the Jews and other "undesirables" during the years leading up to World War I.

Readers will be transported to another era as the wayfarers prepare for and depart on their four-month trek. The Fusgeyers travel over Prislop Pass enduring the climatic and physical challenges. They absorb the history and sights of Budapest, Vienna and Prague. They encounter the dangers of conscription into forced labor, hostility of soldiers, and the foreboding atmosphere of Berlin. Once they reach Bremerhaven and complete their quarantine, the Fusgeyer band boards their ship and sail for America.

Although the book features an intimidating cast of characters and many Yiddish words to decipher, "The Wayfarers" should evoke an emotional response. Nathan and his family are deeply moved by what they learn about Sholem and the Fusgeyers. Their courage in the face of hardships, their sense of adventure and joy, evoke awe in Sholem's descendants. These same things should stir a similar response in most readers. Jew or Gentile, many of us descend from ancestors who came to America seeking a better life for themselves and their progeny.

Between 1881 and 1914, about 50, 000 Jews left Eastern Europe and the Settlement of the Pale in Russia for America. Most emigrants from Russia or Poland traveled by train to their embarking sea ports; however, in eastern Romania trains were either unaffordable or less accessible. As a result, there arose groups of individuals known as Fusgeyers (Yiddish for "they who go by foot") who literally walked across hundreds of miles through Europe to catch ships to America.

In his book The Wayfarers, Stuart F. Tower has written a compelling fictional tale based on this significant event of one such group that marched out of Birlad Romania in April 1904. Their journey led them across Hungary, Austria, Moravia, and Bohemia ending four months later at the German sea port of Bremerhaven where they sailed on the Cincinnatus to New York.

Tower frames his tale around a Californian, Nathan Friedman, who travels to Birlad with his son Herb and grandson Rico in search of his roots. It is in Birlad where he meets with Rabbi Yossi Nachman, who is the son of a rabbi who lived in the village in 1904, where Nathan Friedman's father last lived before emigrating to America. Friedman hopes and prays that the elder Birlader Rabbi passed onto his son Yossi information, oral or written, pertaining to the legacy of the Fusgeyers.

Tower's narrative performs a feat deserving top applause in remembering these courageous poor souls who encountered relentless anti-Semitism as they crossed hostile countries while flying the unpopular Star of David flag. Tower vividly captures the group's instinct for resistance and defiance, as well as taking on risks without concern for the odds or consequences. Their survival no doubt can be attributed to their instinct of self-preservation; however, as the story of the Fusgeyers unfolds we notice that it was their innate zeal to test their limits that led to their survival. It was also their organizational skills and self-discipline that kept their spirits in high gear most of the time, notwithstanding the many unpleasant encounters they endured along the way.

Committees were set up to take care of food, entertainment, health matters, fund raising, and there were individuals in charge of map reading, defense, English education, keeping time and recording of events. It should be pointed out that although the group did carry firearms, they generally chose to fight oppression by employing more restrained means and diplomacy.

Tower cleverly creates a matrix of meaning-connecting the facts that he uncovered in his five years researching the topic of the Fusgeyers with the history of the era.

Much of the material that Tower weaves into his tale is intriguing, particularly the hostility and xenophobia that was very prevalent at the time. Tower also supplies, when necessary, historical background and introductions to important figures as Theodore Herzl, Franz Kafka, William Frederick Cody (Buffalo Bill), Max Nordau and others.

The Wayfarers is not a collection of pieces cobbled together or an almanac of loosely related information. It is rather a sequence of carefully arranged chapters each completing the last and leading the reader to the next that are connected by smooth transitions. Tower crafts his narrative with an admirable fluidity with dialogue that is realistically shaped. He even throws in a fair number of Yiddish words and for those who are not conversant in the language, there is a brief glossary at the end of the book.

I have been informed that there is a movie in the works and I look forward to seeing the movie as well as reading more from Stuart F. Tower.

Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor Bookpleasures

The Wayfarers is a captivating tale of the 'Fusgeyers'' remarkable trek from their native Romania to America. The story combines historical fact with fiction to bring the reader a vivid description of what the journey must have been like for the courageous individuals who were brave enough to seek a better life. I strongly recommend this book.

This heart-wrenching story is event-filled, exciting, historically accurate. From an attention-grabbing opening, through page after page, it holds you to the final paragraph. Author Stu Tower has taken it up a level with this, his third title: It's his best to date, is highly recommended! [Robert Stein, with six editions in print, including VENGEANCE EQUATION, and BLACK SAMARITAN.]

This was a good deal at the time, and by shipping it with more priority, was able to obtain it in the amount of time I needed.

Until I read this book I never realized there were British (and American) women who had married Germans prior to the outbreak of WWII and actually lived in that "enemy" country while we were at war with them. The author suffered along with the German cicil population as the allies methodically bombarded Nazi Germany into submission. The constant fear of daily aerial bombings,hunger, and the fear of the Gestapo make this an epic story of survival.Better than fiction!

Victor Klemperer's "I Will Bear Witness". Christabel informs and entertains us, her writing is engaging and a world beyond the simple "diary entry" accounts. She is very perceptive, and her impressions from inside Nazi Germany, as a non-German, help us to better understand the people who brought Nazism to the world. Her writing style puts you right there in the minds and hearts of simple villagers, Nazi officials and those opposed to them. It also brings us a fresh perspective, one perhaps not encountered in other books on the subject. I have read numerous books, diaries and accounts of life in Nazi Germany (and Europe in general) and can highly recommend this one.

Fascinating account of life in Nazi Germany as told by an Englishwoman who had married a German aristocrat in 1934. Not as profound as Victor Klemperer's "I Will Bear Witness" but still one of the best of its genre. I liked it even more than Iris Origo's "War in Val D'Orcia" which I also highly recommend.

Bielenberg writes beautifully, and although the narrative can be a little confusing at times, certain passages of "When I was a German" read to me like bits of "found poetry." Unfortunately a few typographical errors mar this edition; an historical document this important deserves better.

There was a British television series produced in 1988 based on this book, called "Christabel" and shown in the United States on Masterpiece Theater. Bielenberg also testifies in various episodes of the "World at War" television series, which I am now looking forward to seeing again.

Great historical read of the Russian Bering/Stellar voyage to Alaska. Corey Ford's writing is vivid, flowing, has first hand knowledge of the Bering Sea islands, gifted nature writer. I've given this book as a must read to several friends.

A true account of Vitus Bering's voyage from Russia to discover what is now Alaska. Anyone interested in the history of Alaska should start by reading this book, or someone looking for an actual true life adventure story that makes one appreciate the dangers encounted in the 1700's by these amazing explorers. This book is written from the journals of Georg Stellar, the naturalist on-board the boat that discovered Alaska. The first written account and identification of many species that Stellar discovered and writes about in his journals. One of which is extinct today and his writings are the only account of the massive Stellar Sea Cow. A fabulous account of these adventurors and their interaction with the beautiful, but deadly, Alaska coast and it's native people.

This was a terrific story about the quest to find what is now Alaska. It gives insight into just how courageous these early exployers were. I can't comprehend of enduring those sort of hardships. Ford is also a good biologist and gives interesting commentary on the animal life. He also describes what may have been the first observation of a diving reflex in a marine mammal, the now extinct Northern sea cow. If you read this, it would be hard to complain about our current quality of life.

Excellent story of the discovery of Alaska by the famous explorer,Vitus Bering and naturalist, Georg Steller. Combines text from Steller's extensive notes and observations of the author.

Quite simply one of the greatest historical biographies you can find, and a source of marvelous insights into the Wagner family, the Fuehrer, the great composer himself, and of course Winifred Wagner. I came away with a far deeper understanding of this woman who, unfortunately, was never able to comprehend that the charming man who brought toys for her children and made Bayreuth a national shrine was in truth a demon. And yet despite that, you cannot read this book without feeling a deep sense of sympathy and admiration for this woman, who courageously saved the lives of many Jews and Communists, whom she naively believed were being persecuted by local thugs without the knowledge of her dear friend Hitler. Naive, at times stupid perhaps, but a great woman with an amazingly big heart, a girl brought up in a cruel orphanage in England to become the dowager empress of Bayreuth - an amazing story told with grace, thoroughness and objectivity. Absolutely a must read.

The subtitle of this book is important - A Life at the Heart of Hitler's Bayreuth - for Winifred Wagner's institutionalised childhood, her youth with the ageing hippie Klindworth couple and the early years of her marriage to Siegfried are all raced through in around 50 pages (out of 500). Another mere 50 cover the 30 odd years after her de-nazification hearings and the takeover of the Bayreuth Festival by her two sons. The main bulk of this book concerns itself with the 25 years of her relationship with Hitler (and his with the Wagner family and the Festival) and its immediate aftermath.

That said, Brigitte Hamann provides a fascinating and eminently readable account of that relationship. Her attitude towards her subject seems to change as the book progresses. Initially she presents Winifred as a fervently (German) Nationalist, anti-Semitic character, much influenced by the writing and the presence around Wahnfried of her brother-in-law, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, even before she met and fell under the spell of Onkel Wolfi, as the family referred to Hitler. (Incidentally, Chamberlain was also English by birth but, like Winifred, became more German than the Germans.) The older Winifred is a rather different person as portrayed here. Throughout the war, as evidenced by many of the testaments taken from her de-nazification hearings, Winifred became some kind of Schindleresque saint, saving everyone she could from the clutches of her top Nazi friends - friends, acquaintances, friends of friends, people she didn't know at all, jews, gentiles, the lot. One suspects that all this is coloured by Winifred's own practical need for self-justification at those hearings and should be taken with a slightly larger pinch of salt than Hamann seems prepared to. One can accept that there was a certain naivety to Winifred that wouldn't allow her to accept either what was happening to these people or that her beloved Fuhrer had any knowledge of what was being done in his name. But her continued and oft-expressed loyalty to both Hitler and the principles of National Socialism throughout her later life would suggest that her opinions had not changed gthat much since her youth.

What comes clearly out of Hamann's narrative is a Hitler who found in the Wagner family and its mistress a privacy, a domesticity and a family life he so obviously needed and lacked elsewhere. Hamann remains remarkably tacit on whether the Adolf/Winifred relationship was ever consummated. One suspects not. What does come as a surprise, though, is how early in the War the relationship between them broke down. After all those secret midnight trysts in the 30's, it comes as a shock to realise that they didn't meet at all during the last four years of the War and that correspondence between them became more and more infrequent and formal.

Most of the other members of the Wagner family and many around the periphery come out of this book pretty badly. It seems as though there's something in the genes that drives Wagners to the bloodiest and most internecine of family wars. What is currently going on around the succession to possession of the Green Hill and all that goes with it appears to be little more than a re-run of what occurred towards the end of the war with the previous generation. Wieland emerges particularly badly. A spoiled kid determined to get his way and inclined to smash things if he didn't, he played the most political of games in securing the Festival for himself, conducting vicious and potentially lethal campaigns against the likes of Tietjen, Preetorius and even his own mother. And he was certainly the most duplicitous of all of them about his relationship with AH and the party. It transpires that he was actually second-in-command of a local concentration camp in the latter days of the War - something he would never admit to in later life. Wolfgang remains a much shadowier figure - perhaps because he was necessary to the writer for allowing access to the family archives, albeit still severely restricted and censored. Even Furtwangler turns out not have been quite the Parsifalian simpleton, devoted only to his art, that he and his supporters made him out to be after the Fall of Berlin. In fact, both before and after the War he was a dedicated schemer, determined to get the better of Toscanini, Tietjen and later the one he called the `K man', von Karajan, by whatever means it took.

So this book provides a good sprinkling of gossip as well as a fair amount of new material and information about a crucial and shaming period in Bayreuth's history, all meticulously researched and referenced. It also does us the service, like the film Downfall, of showing Hitler as a human being with human foibles and human insecurities rather than just as a mythical ogre - and that is what is so much more frightening.

One of the most interesting books of the many that have been written about Nazi Germany. The book explains the motivation behind the seeming adoration of Hitler by the Wagner family. Having read Friedelind Wagner's book "Heritage of Fire" , it was very interesting to get a more objective account of those years in Bayreuth. The book can be read on several different perspectives and is carefully document. this is a "saver"

This biography is for those with a deep interest in classical music history, Hitler and the Third Reich. For those who have the particular interest, this book repays close reading. I must personally thank the author, Brigitte Hamann, for the enormous research project she undertook to bring Winifred Wagner to 21st century readers, and to history. Hamann has meticulously read correspondence, archives, newspapers and conducted personal interviews with those still living. And unlike so many researchers, she brought her story to life in readable language. This is a jam-packed history, brimming with event, and I read almost every word with intense interest. Winifred Wagner's purpose in life was the Richard Wagner festival in Bayreuth, and as head of the festival she maintained a close friendship with Hitler, who was her chief sponsor from 1933 to 1944. The source of this partnership was the so-called "spiritual" relationship between the German nationalist ethos of Wagnerism and the theoretical underpinnings of Nazi Germany. Winifred Wagner was a hyper-nationalist and ardent Hitler supporter since the Munich putsch of 1923, she was a strong anti-Semite as her many letters attest; and yet she extended herself for individuals, especially Jews, many of whom she personally helped and who survived Nazi Germany because of her intervention with Hitler on their behalf. This is fully documented in the book. After the war, unlike most Nazis who hastened to obliterate their past, Winifred Wagner was proud of her friendship with Hitler and made no apologies; never did she try to whitewash her history. She was a remarkable, deeply deluded woman, who ran the Bayreuth festival and headed the Wagner family for many years. Her logistical abilities could easily have been put to deadly use in World War II - luckily, she was buried in Bayreuth where she could do the Allies no military harm! There is no doubt that Bayreuth today is implicated and besmirched by its close Nazi ties. This biography is a brilliant accomplishment. Only toward the end does the story begin to flag as Winifred's life winds down in a series of futile family quarrels. But til then it is a fascinating history. Do read it!

Possum was General Haywood Hansell; Eagle, General Curtis LeMay.

Ralph Nutter was a student at Harvard Law when Pearl Harbour occurred. A few weeks later he was in the Army Air Corp headed to navigator school. (A few years later he was the only survivor of his 22 fellow graduates.) A few months later and he was in England as a navigator on a B-17. In an incident where he knew where they were and none of the others did, Eagle made him the lead navigator of the group.

As the European was was winding down, he was transferred to the Pacific and B-29's. Again he was made lead navigator. Eventually LeMay was sent to the Pacific and Nutter returned to work with him.

This book is both a story of the war, and a story of leadership in war time. His insights on LeMay are enlightening and impressed me. LeMay's general reputation is a lot lower than that held by Mr. Nutter.

Although we had to wait until after General LeMay's death, we finally find within "With the Possum and the Eagle" the real story of the leadership of General Curtis LeMay. If you're interested in the history of World War II and the significant role aviation had in both the European and Pacific campaigns, Ralph Nutter's account is difficult to put down. Nutter's close proximity to senior aviation leadership during the war gives the reader a rare glimpse into what those wartime leaders faced and the decisions they had to make vis-a-vis both logistical and environmental constraints to operations. A superb account.

Ralph Nutter writes with extraordinary candor and clarity about a period in our history when he and others of his generation faced terrible odds in the struggle to save the world from Fascism. His account is as compelling as it is straightforward and unvarnished. A must-read for anyone fascinated by the true meaning of courage under fire.

Reads like a good, fast paced novel. Exciting, building chronicle of the air war over Europe and the Pacific.

Explains with starteling clarity the cockpit horrors that left no alternatives to the area bombing of Dresden and Tokyo. Makes it very clear that the A-Bombs were redundant and unnecessary.

A terribly real sense of our "losing years" and the desperate process of a war of attrition. The author, being one of only two survivors of his navigator's class of 22, lets us glimpse the terror and the heroism of an air war where victory would finally go to the combatant who had more young men to "expend"...

This book is so breath-taking, the art, the feelings portrayed through Mr. Olere's art is undescribable, you must own the book to get 1 % of the feelings being expressed.

This slim volume contains over forty drawings and paintings done by David Olere. He did these works from personal remembrances of his time at Auschwitz death camp. The text is written by his son, Alexandre, who was not at the camp, but hiding out with his mother.

Olere spent his time in the camp working in the crematorium. He would bring the bodies from the chambers and put them in the ovens. His story is not told as most stories are. His story is told through his pictures and his son's writing. Both are horrific to witness. "Witness" is an important word in this book. Through Olere's art, the reader witnesses what he witnessed. Through Oler's words, the reader becomes a witness. The father and son force the reader to look at the horror, and not turn away.

The images are not for the faint of heart, but the faint of heart should witness this book. Everyone should witness this book. Oler writes that his father died in his eighties but not of a disease. He died from a broken heart when university professors began to deny the Holocaust altogether.

"Witness: Images of Auschwitz" is a small, terrifying book. I suggest it to anyone who thinks we should "get past" the horrors of World War II, and the events of September 11, 2001.

Quote:
"I did not survive to rewrite the history
Of the Second World War
And explain how it came about and why.
I have no idea. I have no opinions.

I survived just to show you what it is like
Every day in the camp.

I say, "What it is like," not how it was.
To me it still is. I am in it.

Every morning I start all over again from
The Hell Train on.

Every night, I struggle for my next breath
Of fresh air."
--page 26

The books images are very very disturbing. I will never be the same, little kids should not see this. Good Lord all the humanity. Please do not read it if you are weak of heart. If you are satomasikist then go right ahead.

I first saw this book when I was visiting the Holocaust Museum (in Washington) and it was equally disturbing as all the displays/exhibits in the museum. The illustrator is a very talented artist, and the author of the text was very poetic. It's an extremely powerful piece of work, both terrifying and also touching. Specifically, I remember the pictures of the phases of the gas chamber, and the text entitled something like "How Many More?" which was a prayer. An incredible book, but only for mature audiences.

I wrote this as part of a blog post and didn't want to see it go to waste. I'm 41 years old, and my mother can still quote large sections of the book from memory because I begged her to read it to me so many times! I believe that this story has really helped to shape my life for the better, even though I would grow up to fall for the deception of a wolf that had all the appearances of being safe. I'm so glad that I had this story so deeply engrained in me when I did.

"The Wolf and the Seven Kids" was about an evil wolf that, despite the mother goat's wise instruction about how to spot wolves, deceived her seven baby goat "kids" while she was away. That wolf uses some very clever, deceptive tricks to break into the home and devour all but one of the kids. With the wolf asleep in the backyard of mother goat's house, the one little survivor who had hidden in the base of a grandfather clock told his mother what had happened. Mother goat goes into the yard, cuts open the belly of the (apparently very profoundly tired wolf), liberates her children who were saved from being swallowed whole. The kids find six rocks to replace in the void of the wolf's stomach, and the mom sews the wolf shut (before he wakes up) with the sewing kit that the kid who hid in the clock brought to her. The wolf awakens saying "What is this that knocks against my poor bones? I thought it was kids, but it feels more like stones!" He thirstily hobbles over to a well to draw out some water and falls in - to his death - instead. Mother goat and her baby kids join hands and dance around that well, rejoicing that their foe had been conquered, all resulting from the effects of his own actions."

If they're are any Christians out there, you are welcome to come and read my blog post about the book. Some of the elements don't relate to the book, but I do talk of the impact of the moral message on my life.

http://undermuchgrace.blogspot.com/2007/12/christmas-monikers-and-cat-in-box-for.html

This is one of the great books I've grew up with and during these days it's hard to find any good books to read for children that actually have a moral point. This story teaches your kids the dangers of talking to a stranger. Although it's a bit scary, it's a good story for kids out there to alert them the dangers of the world involving strangers. The illustrations are beautiful and enjoyable for kids

It features a goat with seven kids (like the title suggested), warning them of not opening the door to anyone but her, because a wolf is looking any ways to gobble them up, by hook or by crook, while she's going away for a while into the forest to look for for food. As expected the wolf came and tried so many ways to tricked the kids to open the door. When he finally complished this, he gobbled them all up, except for the youngest kid, who managed to hide itself somewhere. Both of them found the wolf and a graphic scene of the mother goat cutting the wolf up to save her kids and replacing them with rocks before she sew it back up.

The Wolf and the Seven Kids is an excellent story to use for children when teaching them about the dangers of talking to strangers. The illustrations in this story are vibrant and grab the readers attention. Even though there is a graphic scene where the wolf eats six of the seven kids the mother saves her children by cutting them out of the wolf's stomach with a pair of scissors and then fills his stomach with rocks and sews him up. This shows the mother as the hero because she saves her children. This is an excellent story but I would be careful about reading it to younger children because they may get scared when the wolf eats the kids.

Ann Blades' version of this familiar Grimm tale is delightful. It took me back to my childhood, when I spent many happy hours studying my books of Grimm's fairy tales. The soft-edged, colorful drawings are appealing and playful. I consider this a very nice book, and have ordered several as gifts.

The book starts off with a wonderful insight into the German people before and after Worl War 2. Having spent time in Germany with German people, this helped me understand where they came from in current history. This is followed by stories about his conversion and finding a living God who answers prayers and is a real source of assistance to people. It appeals to the spirit rather than the intellect that is not to say the brain is left out of the book. It is difficult to put down and at the same time so engaging that you have to take a rest while reading the book. Very uplifting to me! I have suggested it to many of my friends and those who have read it have the same opinion.

F. Enzio Busche recounts the spiritual experiences that led him to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as many experiences since his conversion. His humble and powerful example truly inspires rededication to God. Elder Busche (as members of the Church in his position are called) lets his experiences speak for themselves in teaching the importance of dedicating our lives to God, serving others in charity and love. He minimizes editorializing on the stories, recognizing that they teach better than any summarized moral conclusion could.

The first ten chapters of the book give the narrative of his conversion and early membership in the Church. As a young father, I found chapter nine ("Raising a Family") particularly insightful in showing how love, respect, and being prepared for inspiration can help us lead our children in good directions. Several of the later chapters are dedicated to recounting spiritual experiences that others shared with Elder Busche, and many of these reminded me that I often aim too low in my spiritual expectations. An example of this is in chapter fourteen, in which a woman visiting Salt Lake City from Eastern Europe tells Elder Busche, "Can you imagine? I have found people in Salt Lake City who have never seen an angel."

Almost every chapter of this book, especially once I reached the beginning of Elder Busche's spiritual life in chapter four, left me pondering how I could reorient my life towards God and draw closer to Him.

Another excellent spiritual memoir by a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is An Abundant Life: The Memoirs of Hugh B. Brown, edited by Edwin Firmage.

This is a collection of autobiographical vignettes written by F. Enzio Busche, a German-born leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS or Mormon). The vignettes are arranged in chronological order and are almost exclusively religious. They chronicle the spiritual development and conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of the author.

The story starts with his growing up in Hitler's Germany. Even as a young boy he begins to have spiritual experiences that leave him yearning for something more. The author describes well the post-war disillusionment in Germany and the counter-development of cynicism and distrust of any noble-sounding idea or endeavor after being so misled by the Nazi's. His war experiences including his being drafted at war's end at the age of 14 are poignant.

Eventually he encounters Mormon missionaries and joins the Mormon church when there is little Mormon presence in Germany and little respect. His personal spiritual growth parallels the growth of the Mormon church in Germany. Then he is called as a General Authority of the church and serves in a variety of callings from Mission President to Temple President.

The latter portions of the book are a collection of experiences from his later life and are not as conprehensive as the earlier parts of the book. I would have liked more of these later experiences and a more complete time-line of the authors more recent life events.

Overall, the book is filled with many inspiring and informative experiences and I would recommend it highly to anyone.

Besides only the holy scriptures themselves, this is the best, most inspiring book I have ever read. Full of important spiritual insights, it deserves to be read and contemplated. I have been recommending it to friends and family, and all who have read it agree with my assessment. The book's anecdotes are fascinating and stunning. You will be moved to strive for the benefits of a spiritual life.

This is part of a collection that I am ordering, a few at a time. I hope to have the whole set displayed in my dining room available for my grand-children and I to share.

What makes this particular volume of Lang's collection remarkable is its collection of quite unknown stories. While we all love "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Cinderella", there is nothing wrong with venturing for more complex stories, and that is what this volume provides.

I have not researched these, but I am under the impression that many of these stories were actually "written". I'm not sure how everyone will take that threat to oral folklore, but good fantasy is good fantasy, and I enjoy reading a fairy tale-esque story with extra complexity that still holds the same aura.

The illustrations are gorgeous, as usual, and display intricacies that fit the stories superbly.

Perhaps a more wild collection, but for that I love it all the more.

With tales such as The Blue Mountains, The Cat and the Mouse in Partnership, The Dragon and His Grandmother, Fairer-than-a-Fairy, The Flower Queen's Daughter, The Glass Axe, How To Tell a True Princess, and many others how can anyone not find this book fun to read? Once again, Lang edits a book full of fairy tales from many lands that will entertain children and adults. The black and white illustrations are also superb.

When I was younger my Mom used to read me a book until I fell asleep. As I grew older, I began to read myself to sleep. As things changed only one thing stayed constant, my favorite books are still Andrew Lang's Fairy books. The Yellow Fairy book is a collection of 48 fairy tales written the way they were supposed to be written. Each tale ranges in length anywhere from a couple of pages up to about 20. The tales are fairly easy reads, but they don't lose any of their appeal. The book also contains several wonderful illustrations.
Some of the stories include: The Six Swans, Story of the Emperor's New Clothes, The Crow, The Cat and the Mouse in Partnership, The Three Brothers, The Magic Ring, How to Tell a True Princes, Thumbelina, and more.

I would suggest reading this book, I love it!