History Books

We move too fast; our senses are daily bombarded with loud (but shallow) noise. When one comes in contact with a book like "PrairyErth", it requires a shift of mind, a change of gears.

Heat-Moon walks slowly and digs deeply. There are sentences in this book that have great weight- they didn't come easy, and they speak softly. It is a heavy book, but one with which you will develop a lasting relationship. I don't know of any book like it, surely a credit to Heat-Moon's formidable skill of turning land and time into words on paper.

I have read this book every year since it came out and have walked on the same ground, talked to some of the same people, known the same dirt roads. I encourage you to do the same, and feel the same pull.

This is an important work. A rewarding read. A book that gives back.

A deep map, indeed.
Gary Gackstatter, St Louis

A very deep map indeed, the second of Heat-Moon's three literary tours-de-force is the story of a county in Kansas. In his first excursion, the best-selling BLUE HIGHWAYS, the author reported on a ten thousand mile sojourn along the old Federal Highways (blue on most maps). PRAIRYERTH grew out of three years of hiking, conversation and archival research in Chase County, Kansas and the result is a living history of both the particular locale and the European invasion of the west. From Knute Rockne's death in a commercial plane crash to Sam Wood's murder to Native medicine, dream walking to newspaper accounts of life on the prairie, and fossils to legends to The Land Institute where Wes Jackson explores the looming demise of the liquid fuel era, this volume casts a wide net. Heat-Moon is clear eyed enough to see the facts and then see beyond the facts to the life between the lines of old courthouse documents and pioneer diaries. He is open to less tangible subtlety as well, admitting susceptibility to hunch, daydream or the message from another's Ouija board. He tells a tale of hawks, buffalo, cowboys and beef, notes the profound damage wrought on the American prairie by McBurger mania and the possibility of recovery in a place of vast flatness and endless wind and sky. He lunches with the dead in old cemeteries and stakes out to observe life in a dying town where nothing happens. There are midnight moonlight hikes and journalistic experiments, pertinent quotes by the truckload and poignant still lifes of moments of love and loss. Such a deep map makes for a long read, but well worth the effort as pieces click into place in later chapters and a pastiche emerges, a hologram in which you can walk between the hills and dip a cupful from a clear flowing spring.

In Blue Highways the inimitable William Least Heat Moon drove across the backroads of America. In River Horse this courageous, spiritually-venerable man floated in a barge across this nation's waterways. In Prairy Erth, he does his exploration mostly on foot. Confining himself to a microcosmic canvas, Least Heat Moon spends over 600-pages describing how he spent months delving into a single county in the heart of Kansas. Packed with maps of Chase County, its hills, waterways, roads and farmsteads, the author tells a sometimes dry but often rich story of one remote but improbably charming spot on planet earth. He meets many of the county's 3,000 residents, hears and tells of the folklore, the history, the textured layers to life in such a location. By the book's end an unknowingly begun spiritual journey reaches its conclusion, which is the way with all of William Least Heat Moon's writings. If you have the time to put into Prairy Erth, it is a compelling book that challenges the nature of individual outlook.

New to William Least Heat Moon, I wasn`t quite sure what to expect with Prairyerth. Having heard about the critical acclaim of Blue Highways, I thought a lesser known work would be the place to start. And I am glad I chose Praityerth.

With Prairyearth, William Least Heat Moon has dug down to the heart of a specific place, in this case, the Flint Hill country of Chase County, Kansas. Not unlike Thoreau`s Walden, Prairyerth is an exhaustive chronicle of one man`s journey to the bottom--historically, geologically and geographically speaking--of one particular and rather insignificant place in the American landscape. Prairyerth, like Walden, is impossible to lump into one clean-cut literary category. Neither pure history, nor pure geology, nor `storytelling` per say, it is rather a brilliant concoction of all three. It is, as the author pens it, a `deep map` of one tiny piece of the New World. And deep it is. Least Heat Moon delves into every square inch, every prehistoric layer of his subject. The result is a stirring and fascinating ride through the discovery, settling, exploitation and ultimate destruction of the American prairie. Half Native American himself, Least Heat Moon walks through the tall grass of the American Sea with much the same spirit of his ancestors. Here was not emptiness as thought the first Europeans, but rather a vast ocean of endless natural wealth. Home to the once vast bison herds, the tall-grassed hills of Chase County were once giant mountains of the Kansas range that were slowly worn down into the Flint Hills of today. Least Heat Moon follows the tracks of the Osage and the Kansa, `people of the wind,` who traversed this area long before Zebulon Pike and John Fremont made their tentative forays across the prairie towards more secure landscapes. The author vividly captures the reverence that the Osage and Kansa held for the `prairie.` Tracking down the stories of the few remaining pure-blood Kansa, Least Heat Moon paints a metaphor for what looms in the future for us, lest we ignore the lessons of the past. Not only does the author richly expose the layer of Native Americana within Chase County, but he does justice to the natural elements of the place as well. Some of the most fascinating parts of Prairyerth are the sections on two of the county`s most enduring denizens, the Osage Orange tree/bush and the Wood Rat, aka Pack/Trade Rat. Least Heat Moon has an ultra sharp eye for interesting detail and oddity and knows how to bring such things to life.

The structure of the work is as ambitious as it is groundbreaking. Every other chapter covers another quadrant of the county. Least Heat Moon spends most of his time analyzing the present inhabitants of the county, trying to distill the essence of `Kansasness.` He chats with the weathered old farmers and ranchers who`ve survived every tornado and flash flood over the last half-century and who entertain no thoughts on living anywhere else. Every voice in the county gets its chance. Feminist cattle ranchers give him the lowdown on castrating bulls, local high schoolers divulge their dreams and the regulars of the Emma Chase Cafe unload gossip unaware of who`s writing it all down. Kansasness, according to the author, is a baffling mix of progressive politics and constrictive convention. A place of often violent contrasts. Kansas was the first state born out of the fires of abolition, first to stimulate integration (Board of Education vs Topeka), yet the `n word` is still commonplace all over the county. The forefather of the county, Samuel Wood, was one of the most eloquent voices among the abolitionists, yet he stopped short of pushing for full integration. Kansas was a place where all people had freedom of opportunity (especially to better oneself economically), as long as everybody kept to his/her own. One of the first states to allow women`s suffrage, it was also one of the first to embrace Prohibition. It also kept its archaic and puritan sex laws on the books until the recent Supreme Court ruling overturned such laws.

In between his quadrant explorations of the county, Least Heat Moon has interspersed chapters comprised of nothing but various epigrams and short passages regarding the state. Coming from sources as disparate as Horace Greeley and Black Elk to graffiti found at the KU library, these chapters are some of the most entertaining and enriching of the book.

William Least Heat Moon is one of the greatest prose stylists I have ever encountered in modern American letters. His writing is rich with metaphor and digression, begging second and third readings of certain passages. While sometimes he expands profusely, Faulkner-like, for paragraphs, clarity is rarely forsaken. It just means reading carefully and slowly. Prairyerth is definitely a book that needs digesting. I took me almost six months to finally devour it up and when I did, I had the distinct feeling of having consumed something grand and very nutritious, albeit a bit heavy. In fact, those without persistent natures would best choose something else to read. Prairyerth is meat and potatoes and requires a lot of chewing. And perhaps that is where the work falls a tad short of its possible ancestor. Whereas one can open Thoreau`s Walden anywhere and revel in the beauty and wisdom (albeit often cryptic) found therein, Prairyerth is nothing if not taken in its entirety. Its just too dense, with too much stuff packed into its innards. In fact, a little editing could have helped the book. Some chapters are a bit superfluous and leaving them out would have only helped the work as a whole. Moreover, Least Heat Moon`s astute observations serve his examination of the natural world far better than they support his delving into the human realm. Somehow a lot of the `characters` of Chase County never fully come to life in Prairyerth. Rather, they seem two-dimensional and oddly trapped on the page. Yet, taken as a whole and for what it is, a grand archaeological and sociological dig through the layers of New World settlement, Prairyerth succeeds grandly. Never has one tiny and often ignored section of the American quilt come to life so vividly and richly as does Chase County, Kansas in Prairyerth. A place so seemingly devoid of life, is, in actuality, overflowing with the past, present and future. All you have to do is look,look carefully. The author himself says it best: `A traveler(who cannot even remotely detect the thousand-mile-an-hour spinning of the planet he rides through space at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, to say nothing of its solar and galactic movements and its precession) writes in his notebook, ~nothing is happening~. Man muses, God guffaws.` Next time you feel that nothing has ever happened or is happening now or will happen where you`re at, pick up Prairyerth and be amazed.

If only every county in the United States had as passionate and articulate a chronicler as William Least Heat-Moon.

I came to "PrairyErth" after having read and loved "Blue Highways." This tome--though longer and less expansive, geographically--possesses many of the qualities I admired in Heat-Moon's earlier work: the narrative tone (there's none of that stuffy, impersonal, third-person prose one finds in some travelogues; the author is himself part of the story), the occasional dips into philosophy and history; the candid interviews with "locals"; and the intense search for meaning in the most ordinary of places.

I have never been to Chase County, Kansas, but after spending a month or so accompanying Heat-Moon through the pages of his book, I feel as though I have. The book is subtitled "a deep map," and that is indeed what the author provides here. Square mile by square mile, the reader is introduced to the prairie, its topography and history, its residents and its wildlife. Heat-Moon correctly understands that the essence of a place is often best captured through anecdote and observation. There is nothing sweeping or grand about his narrative, and that's what makes "PrairyErth" such a delight. It's a detailed, intimate read; one almost has the feeling of looking over the author's shoulder (and back through history) as he ambles and rambles about the quadrangles of Chase County.

If there's one criticism I would offer, it's that Heat-Moon sometimes lapses into needless digressions about himself and the challenges he faced while writing the book. It struck me as a bit self-absorbed--as did the occasional Faulknerian stream-of-conscious, punctuationless prose. These stylistic excesses add little to what is otherwise a magnificent and fascinating travelogue.

The Rhythm of Life is a book that I keep going back to. It brings back that life is made up of choices. The choices we make reflect on how balanced our life can/should be. Happiness is not brought about by the amount of "stuff" we have, but by the substance we share physically, mentally, and spiritually within ourselves and others. I've been told that a happy home consists of a good coffee maker and dog. After reading The Rhythm of Life I need to add to a good coffee maker and dog to include a good book, church, and God in your soul. Well worth reading.

This book is so thought provoking that I plan to buy 5 more copies and share with important people in my life. I enjoyed the insightfulness of Matthew Kelly--this was the first book I have read of his and have moved on to Perfectly Yourself: 9 Lessons for Enduring Happiness.

If you are looking to examine your life and ask yourself some questions about how to move forward and become a person of greater character this book is for you.

The Rhythm of Life books are awesome, in great shape and arrived promptly. Thank you!

I have incorporated the teachings in this book to my life and highly recommend it for all ages.

I am a fan, this purchase was actually a gift for a friend, the perspective while not entirely unique, almost feels like it is, because it touches on the core issues that many of us identify as the true obstacles to personal , spiritual and emotional health. 5 stars becuase of the integrity and depth of the message... you can "tell' when the message is the result of a personal desire to identify ,and more importantly "share" via effective communication practical tools to change and grow

Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton with Henry R. Schlesinger, foreword by George J. Tenet. Dutton, $29.95 (576p) ISBN 978-0-525-94980-0



Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton wrote Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spycraft is a great book that depicts the collective historiography of the CIA's Office of Technical Service (OTS) department. Wallace and Melton both have a wealth of information concerning clandestine work in relationship to technology, and its impact on the tradecraft profession globally. The book historically illustrates audio devices, miniature cameras, disguises, codes, and dead drops that are major elements in the profession of national security and espionage. Spycraft covers the epoch of secret intelligence devices from World War II, The Cold War, and Al-Qaeda Terrorism, which is well written for any laymen to discern. I recommend Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA to academic and public libraries.

I was hoping for a lot with a 5 star amzn rating but unfortunately I only got through half of the book because it failed to meet those expectations. I was hoping for a technical presentation of clandestine affairs. If the author was going to describe a particular stakeout and audio operation I was hoping it would be presented with maps, technical layouts, and diagrams of devices such that the detail would justify another book in this area. What I got was a shallow examination of multiple operations where little information was divulged and most of the drama centered around the departments lack of preparation and eventual overcoming of their technical shortfalls through private industry or industrious tech.
I was hoping to read a book about the technicalities of the operation not a book where i had to flip back and forth to the appendix to look up the abundant acronyms used and where I would go pages just reading about the cia's lack of preparation. occasional stories were interesting but would likely not be new to anyone versed in the subject.

SPYCRAFT is the book, every lay person should read. This book shows that good intelligence work rather than being glamorous, can be a tedious and perilous occupation that involves pain-staking preparation. Intelligence means gathering necessary information for policy makers to make realistic and level-headed decisions. With provided intelligence, policy makers can take steps to prevent disasters from occurring or global conflict from taking place.

While reconnaissance satellites can show what physical movements are taken by nations and NGOs, HUMINT or human intelligence is needed by policy makers to decide if a bluff is being made or deterrence will be required. SPYCRAFT shows how the CIA has used innovation and daring in the gathering and transmitting of HUMINT. The innovation of inventing tools is used for gathering and transmitting of intelligence. The personal risk involved usually doesn't involve gun-play or some melodramatic heroism. Personal risk is about not getting caught and taking personal risk to protect a source or helping an exposed source from deadly reprisal.

Too often, the public sees the Central Intelligence Agency as later day Keystone Kops or Americanized versions of James Bond. Neither stereotype is accurate. SPYCRAFT demonstrates that the people who work at the CIA are everyday Americans who have decided to take up the cause of maintaining the peace by sustaining a professional intelligence organization.

I skimread this book, I admit it. Sections were so dry, I just couldn't deal with it. I needed a good mix of the technical and the real-world.

It broke my heart that so much time and effort was needed to get to a place where our Soviet informants could share info, only to be ruined by Hanssen.

Meantime, I roared at the stories of the agents desperately experimenting with inflatable sex-toy women as possible "doubles" for car passengers who had bailed from a car moments before.... and the stories of what was involved in trying to buy bulk numbers of inflatable person-shaped anythings for experimentation as body doubles. THAT tickled me enormously. The ultimate details of why this double was needed, the misery of what the real human would be doing in the meantime, grim grim stuff. James Bond movies have done us all a big disservice. The real spy world is anything but glamorous stuff.

I am in awe and forever grateful to those who stuck it out to get a few seconds of eavesdropped conversation, a page of forbidden blueprints. Thank you guys. I get what you did, what years you sacrified.

Oh, and, yeah, I will no longer be impressed by people who think it's clever and antidisestablishment to sneak over and hang out in Cuba as tourists, having read the detail of the Cuba prison system. Horrific stuff.

Having read and enjoyed Spycraft, I expected it to garner solid reviews. However, I am quite surprised to see that until now, it's received 100% five-star reviews. I've almost never seen a book reviewed this favorably and I've certainly read better books with more mixed reviews.

Don't get me wrong, Spycraft is a good book. It allows its reader behind a curtain into a world that is typically strictly off-limits. You get to experience the real-world existence of spies living and working secretly behind enemy lines. The book reveals a lot of the technology used by spies, focusing in on listening devices, cameras and communication devices. What stands out is the ingenuity and craftsmanship that goes into the creation of the devices upon which people stake their lives.

While the book is written about spy technology, what I found to be the most surprising from the book was the the amount of time and effort invested in some of the CIA's covert operations. Often times, years are spent establishing credible cover or doing piecemeal research about a target to avoid drawing attention. 100% of some peoples' living patterns are built around an operational necessity that takes up only the smallest percentage their time. It's truly amazing to read about the sacrifices made to achieve an intelligence payoff.

There is a problem, however, the book reads unexpectedly dull. I'm sure this is an outgrowth of the fact that real CIA operatives have to be consummate professionals and not suave, womanizing James Bond-types, but it takes away from the book. I am not implying in any way that anything should be fabricated or embellished to add to the excitement, but instead that the story is inherently exciting and that the writing should have reflected that more even if the author's demeanor is necessarily even-keeled.

A great book, but exciting stories get told in a seemingly Prozac-tamed manner. I recommend this one highly, but it could have been better still.

Solid construction, cute illustrations, fun textures for little ones to feel. My only complaint is that one of the puppy's shaggy ears get kind of poofy so the book won't close completely. Other than that though, great book.

This book is cute. It has a different texture on each page. I would recommend using it for read-alouds for awhile. Young children may eat or tear off the "feely" parts.

This is great as far as touchy feely books go. There are a variety of textures for baby to explore. But it is very short with a total of five page of text. And the text itself is fine but not very rich.

This is another winner in this board book series, written by the "touchy-feely" team of Watt, Fiona, and Usborne. It's essentially a monologue by an unseen narrator (perhaps a young toddler like the book's audience),who notes why various breeds of dogs are NOT his or her own.

The illustarions are bright primary colors, against similar but contrasting backgrounds. Embedded within the triple-thick board book pages is some texture-rich material described in the book. These attributes enable the narrator to label and categorize the various dogs, and to deduce that the pictured dog is NOT "my puppy."

Ultimately, after you and your young charge touch the materials, enjoy the bright volotd and varying breeds, and delight in the repetitive; "that's not my puppy," refrain, the tenacious reader/listener will celebrate the ultimate discovery of the beloved dog. A nice little vocabulary buikder and an all-around suinpke but fun boatd book that imaginative adults can enahnce with a nicely dramatic reading.

That's Not My Puppy: Its Coat Is Too Hairy is short and sweet on length, but wonderfully entertaining with textures. This is a great, sturdy board book that very little readers will enjoy multiple times.

And, when you've explored all you want about the dogs, you can always discuss that cute little mouse who seems to appear on every single page!

Cute, educational, and very, very entertaining. This is a must for your toddler's library.

My dad flew as a navigator (on some missions lead navigator) of B-24s in the last 5 months of WWII. But all the fellows he trained most closely with, the guys he became personally closest with, died in a mid-air explosion before my dad flew a single combat mission (my dad opted out of what was supposed to be a pleasant free day-trip from England to Ireland). This book helped me to understand my father's never-ending sense of loss and regret.

There has probably never been a more masterful account of what these young men went through, and the risks they took, in the combat mode of the massive campaign to cripple the Nazi war infrastructure from lumbering, unpressurized bomb-ships 30,000 feet in the sky. The comradeship among the crews is what comes through most clearly in Childer's remarkably poignant book. That, plus the randomness of the winnowing-out process that took so many of these brave airmen. The loss of Childer's uncle and several of his crew mates was especially pathetic, and not only because of the proximity of the end of the war.

WWII, the greatest conflict in U.S. history. The B-24 Liberator, one of the greatest bombers ever built. But those two in a book, and what comes out of the oven is Wings of Morning. Howard Goodner was drafted into the United States Air Force in 1943. He set off from his home state of Tennesee to prepare for combat in Europe. He trained as a radio operator and finished in the top of class. Howard recieved a job as an instructor, but instead of "sitting out the war" Howard instead, accepts combat duty, and is sent off to train with his new flight crew. Soon, Howard arrives in England, awaiting his first bombing mission. After many bombing runs, Howards crew is appointed leader of his flight squadron. On April 21, 1945, Howard's crew sets off on a dangerous mission over Germany which runs straight into enemy flak, and crashes.
Fifty years later Thomas Childers, author, and nephew of Howard Goodner beautifully recreates what happened during the few years Howard was in Europe using the countless number of letters Howard wrote, eyewitnesses of the crash, squadron members, government documents, and the only surviving member of Howard's crew. This book was written beautifully, but a bit too dry for my liking. This is the reason for my 4 out of 5 review of Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down over Germany in World War II, by Thomas Childers.

A fascinating but tragic story of a US bomber crew that almost made it home safely. The war in Europe was in its closing days and they were assigned to make one of the last bombing raids over Germany and were shot down, only two survived. The author is a wonderful and gifted writer who describes the story of his uncle, the radio opeator on the B24, his enlistment in the Air Corp, the training, the close bond that develops with the other crew members, the terror of flying through enemy flak and fighting off German Fighters. It is a heart rending story wonderfully written.

John Brennan

There are very few books written, and even fewer read, that will motivate or so move a reader to go to unusual lengths to want to know or try and understand who the protagonist of the story really was;who he must have been. This is just such a book, and this is no ordinary story. First, and foremost, it is a true personal account of one of thousands of American young men from a typical all American small town of the 1940's, who had everything going for him in his small southern town, with a bright future before him. Sports, a steady girl, maybe college. But the war in Europe and Pearl Harbor interrupted that future for Howard Goodner and the many like him. He stood on a train platform one morning and,like so many others, kissed his mother goodbye, assured her he'd be alright and went off to the army to become an aviator. But not everyone who trained could sit in that pilot or co-pilot's seat of the new B-24 Liberator heavy bomber. This amazing story is taken from the letters of SGT. Howard Goodner to his mother, and found, quite by accident, by Professor Thomas Childers locked in a desk, that Howard's mother, Childers' grandmother, had left for him upon her death. The letters, stuck in a drawer that must have been much too painful to open, describes in vivid detail the complete stateside training of a typical B-24 aircrew...the selection process,the daily routines, the nuances of the B-24, the incredible training accident rates and the midair accidents that Howard witnesses, that kill 10-20 men at a time, before even leaving the United States. The narrative is compelling and written so well that you feel that you are getting to know Howard Goodner as he operates the radio on board his plane and interacts with his crew. Goodner describes what a B-24 aircrew was like, personally, on the ground and in the air. The men in his crew...the quiet ones, the screwballs and the crewmember they even vote off the airplane. He describes the terror of the missions and the relief of seeing that home base runway. This is perhaps the best description of the training, deployment, combat and daily life in wartime England of an average WW2 American bomber aircrew ever written. The story is also a family one. Goodner's brother in law, also an airman, is within bike riding distance of his airfield in England and they often meet after either one returns from a mission over Germany or Holland. They write letters home telling of seeing each other and that all is okay, until the day that Howard's ship, The Black Cat, does not return from a mission. The entire crew but one is lost and the family's share an anguish for years afterward that Childer's describes in one of the few "Gold Star" families accounts you will read. Childer's writes movingly of the families of the crew as they desperately attempt to learn something from the War Department. Childer's narrative is such that you can feel the fear as though the fateful telegram is arriving at your own door. Victor Davis Hanson describes in his "Ripples of Battle" the ramifications of lives lost in wartime and the ripple effects, we almost never consider, on the surviving families. His theory is spot on in "Wings of Morning." It is a moving story of a nephew,Childers,who, decades later and against astronomical odds finds the lone survivor of the Black Cat and persuades him to return to England to a quiet deserted, unused airfield, where machines of war once roared and hundreds of men lived and worked. You will thrill as they find the cement pad where the Black Cat crew hut once stood and where Childer's uncle may have even had his bunk. You will become emotional when the surviving crewmember, now a senior citizen, while on the commercial flight into Germany to find the crash site of the Black Cat,tells Childers, "The last time I flew here was that day, with your uncle." The fatal flight was only two weeks before the war in Europe ended. This is a human history, a detailed incisive aviation history and a truly American family story. After reading this book I was so moved, unlike any book I have read of this period, that I drove to Cleveland, Tennessee with a colleague who also had read the book. We went to "Find" Howard Goodner. We saw all the surprisingly surviving places that Howard knew and that Prof. Childers describes in the book. The old hotel, the soda shop and even the old train platform where he said good-bye. Finally, we found Sgt. Howard Goodner. Or rather, he found us. Why we turned into that particular cemetery of the three that serviced the area we didn't know, and although we searched for his grave, after three hours searching in the hot sun we were ready to give up and drive the three hours home. We had ranged far from where we parked our car on the top of a hill and were heading back up to retrieve it, when just five feet from the car, we "accidentally" found the grave of SGT. Howard Goodner. Or, did we? We thanked him for his service and his sacrifice and we thanked Prof. Childers for writing such a vivid, moving and accurately engaging account of the short life of an average American hero.

Through the years, I've read a number of histories and memoirs on the Eighth Air Force in World War II. Many of those volumes, published over 6 decades, were more authoritative, complete, wide-ranging, and fact-filled than this volume.

Yet if I had to recommend a SINGLE book to give someone the flavor of all of those experiences represented by all those many books, this would be the one.

WINGS OF MORNING is an exceptional effort. The writing is wonderful; the information and tales presented colorful and telling. The author has a level of talent given only to a handful of non-fiction writers - the ability of a poet, to flash insights of feeling while describing facts. It's in the class of Bruce Catton and David McCullough.

In a plain and straight-forward manner, and without resorting to any plot gimmicks or other devices, this book wrings the reader through an emotional journey that doesn't start or stop around VE-Day. It is a *wise* book; informed by age and living.

I recommend it to everyone.

This was an interesting book. Not fantastic but I think it could have been. The author states she has her choice of stories from dozens of women and while she says she picked them for their variety, sometimes it didn't feel like it. That being said however, her portrayals of these women is excellent. She is able to empathize with them because she was going through the exact same thing. Army wives who are really hurting do so in silence because they don't want to be included in the ranks of whiners who want attention. She lets their voices be heard in a way that honors their sacrifices and the duty that their husbands are called to. This was one of the first books about deployment that I really enjoyed.

Although I am the wife of a retired soldier who spent 24 years in the Army with two tours in Viet Nam, I still could identify with these women during their husbands' deployments to Iraq. I was especially pleased to read about Baumholder since that was where we were stationed in the 70's. This is a different war from ours, the Army has changed, women are much more independent than I was in the late 60's and early 70's when my husband went to war; however, the loneliness, worry about your spouse, counting down of days until he/she comes home, sometimes the anxieties and sheer terror that you feel...those things remain the same. This is one of my favorite books about this war and I think that it is ideal reading for any woman who watches her man leave for war. I was glad to read that the Army has Family Readiness Groups and support groups for the families. A glimpse into these women's lives was so revealing and I felt their pain. Just an excellent read, in my old Army wife opinion.

As a military spouse and after reading so many great reviews here and elsewhere, I felt the need to read this book. It was a little fluffy for my liking. I did relate to events and day to day life of the women. However, I felt as though a lot was missing from this book. I was left wanting to know more about the characters. I think it could have been developed a little more.

all i can say is that by reading this book the last 3 deployments my husband has gone thru and the time i have spent by myself and the kids are finally validated.
im a army wife of 8 years, and 3rd deployment survivor.
i am german where my husband was stationed at for 10 years, and deployed to iraq twice from there.
i got the book and instantly started to read, and i couldnt stop, i sat on the couch for 6 hours crying and sobbing.
and realizing what i have been thru, some of the things i have pushed aside, as my husbandactually deployed from darmstadt in january, pushing into iraq right away, i pushed aside not sleeping for 2 years, while everytime at night i started to jump up when i heared car doors slam, checking the window as my heart almost stopped.
i am one of these women, and i feel after reading this book that i am somewhat relieved.
now that my husband is deployed for the 4th time in his career, i told him as soon as he gets home he will read that book to understand what i had to deal with.
i absoloutly love this book and will keep it for my kids to read, when they grow.
i am at peace in a sence.
thank you jessica redmon

Finally, a book that got it right. I've gone through my husband's 6mo deployment in 2002 to Kosovo living by myself in Schweinfurt. Then the next deployment to Iraq in 2004 while stationed in GA. This time with the surprise of finding out I got pregnant sometime in the week before he left. There was talk about an extention for them, but thankfully, they came home 1 year to the day. We are now on our third deployment. This time Afghanistan. I'm now home with three dogs, a three year old and a new baby that was 3 mo old when he left. Each deployment has been totally different with our location and family size. I love this book because every woman's story was a bit different. In their job status, family size and coping mechanisms. All were right on! I know and knew women just like them. I read this book after borrowing it from the library on post. Now its going on my Amazon.com wishlist and will be recommending to anyone who will listen. Thank you Jessica for giving us an outlet to share with the world of what its really like.

This is a collection of essays about the first twelve rulers to bear the name Caesar. It is the definitive collection of eyewitness stories about the early emperors as they were seen by their contemporaries.

The rulers covered by this book include Julius Caesar, his adopted son Augustus and his descendents, the warlords who contended for power in the "Year of Four Caesars" after Nero was overthrown, and the Flavians.

In other words, the full list of twelve is:

Julius Caesar
Augustus
Tiberius
Gaius Caligula
Claudius
Nero
Galba
Otho
Vitellius
Vespasian
Titus
Domitian.

If you want to understand the early Roman Empire, you need to read this book. If you are a budding novelist and want to write about the early Empire, you need to read this book.

Robert Graves, author of "I Claudius" and "Claudius the God" translated this version: not surprisingly many of the snippets of gossip and fascinating little stories from Suetonius find their way into his novels. They also find their way into every good novel about first century Rome that I have ever read, absolutely without exception.

You should not take for granted that every word of Suetonius's account is accurate. For example, he supports the story that Nero set fire to the city of Rome, and then sang an aria as he watched the city burn. (This is story is often misquoted as Nero having fiddled while Rome burned - an impossibility since the violin had not been invented.)

Some modern historians have made a strong case that this was a clever libel spread by Nero's contemporary opponents, that Nero was actually away from the city when the fire broke out and hurried back to Rome to personally lead the fire-fighting efforts.

If they are right it does not cast doubt on Suetonius's integrity as a reporter of what was said about the emperor, because there is no dispute that the story of Nero singing while Rome burned was widely believed at the time. As the saying goes, "Si non e vero, e ben trovato" - if it's not true, it's well invented. Aspects of the story certainly seem in character with many of Nero's other proclivities including his love of art, enormous vanity, and complete ruthlessness. However, it illustrates that Suetonius does seem to have a propensity to repeat every snippet of gossip he heard about the early emperors, with rather less selectivity and critical judgement than the other great ancient historians, Herodotus and Thucydides.

However, for this very reason, though perhaps he is a whisker behind Herodotus and Thucydides as a historian, Suetonius is far and away the most entertaining of the three.

The translation by Graves is very easy to read. This is one of the most important, fascinating, and informative works of ancient history which was ever written.

That question can be solved by me by choosing the former simply because of what survives of his work and here it is: The Twelve Caesars. Tacitus is the other great Roman historian but what survives of his two masterpieces: The Annals and The Histories, is not as comprehensive as what is found in The Twelve Caesars.

The Twelve Caesars is definatley my favorite historical work of the Roman Empire. In it, Suetonious goes over the actions and character of not only the entire Julio-Claudian dynasty but the Flavian as well, making The Twelve Caesars cover roughly 138 years.

This is probably the best historical account of the emperors of the Roman Empire and is the best introduction to other works such as the great works of Tacitus.

lunatics that ruled Rome in the first century, & told very well in the audio cassette format. As history it is not much but as biography it is informative & entertaining. Apparently the mores & standards of decency were much diiferent than they are today. Most of these 12 Caesars did not not rule very long but they impacted the Empire probably for a long time after. I'd like to read more about the individuals that followed Domitian & before Julius thus supplementing other well known works such as the Fall of the Roman Empire. This book however, is a good start.

Suetonius grew up in the years following Nero's reign and wrote these histories while he was the secretary of the emperor Hadrian in the early second century A.D. His book covers the successive reigns of Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian.

The stories focus on the emperors themselves more than the events which took place under their reigns and, although there's certainly some truth to those emperors, many of Suetonius' facts are anecdotal stories and rumors. Suetonius has therefore been called one of the first tabloid writers. Nevertheless, his biographies are rather concise and systematic; touching upon the physical attributes of the ruler, his background, the good deeds (if any) in his reign and then, of course, the bad deeds.

Robert Graves' translation is superb and carries the jovial mood of the writings quite well. I can't help but be amused at some of the stories Suetonius recites on Nero and Caligula as they are definitely two of the most eccentric emperors (to put it lightly)that ever ruled the Principate. For example, when Nero first inaugurated his new gigantic Golden House with a mile-long corridor and a 130' statue of himself at the entrance, he was said to have exclaimed, "At last! I can live like a human being!"

The Twelve Caesars is the first classical book I ever read, and it fascinated me to no end. I'd recommend this is a starter book for anyone interested in the History of Political Power. Gore Vidal reviewed this book years ago, and he wrote an excellent piece about it--the nature of power, the perversions it causes, and the absurd humanity of it All. Hopefully there won't be another Tiberius as President of the USA (we only have our cheap Clintonius) but it's fun to wonder what may become of our American Empire. Please, please buy this book.

Hey! I've got an autographed copy of this book. I drove a hundred miles because I had heard the author would be there--and I'll tell you the truth, I've never done that before! (And he was a nice guy, too.)
Very good read. Very sympathetic to the children who were captured. I'm proud to have it on my shelf.

Wow , this author did a lot of research for this book . He started out researching info on his own family member (adolph Korn) and found lots of other info on the children that was captured by the indians and raised with the tribes (White Indians) , The children were captured in indian raids and some were taken as they were out working in the fields , taken at a very young age they learned easily the lives of the salvages . Eventually all the children would be returned to their "paleface families" but then they never fit in and some even choose to go back to the commanches and live with them . These white indians never had a good life and were misserable even after their return to family . Adolph Korn disliked the white mans ways so much that he choose to go live in the diamond caves in TX , most of these white indians never had material possessions even in adult life . During the raids by the indians people were killed and some scalped , and they even took the white male indians on raids with them where they would still horses , cattle and even kill people .
This is really a great read if you are into genealogy and have found some indian hertiage in your family line or if you just want to know more about the various Indian tribes and their way of life .
These kids were captured very harshly and went for days sometimes without food or water until they reached the indian camps , but once there they seem to be treated Ok other than the males going on the warrior raids . They also learned how to live off the land by killing buffalo & etc with a bow and arrow that they learned to make from dogwood trees . After the capture some indians raised these white indians like their own children .

Very well put together book of white captives abducted by the Indians.
Scott Zesch did a great job at researching information to put to this book together.
This book tells the life of the captured and also helps the reader to understand how the captives became Inianized with in a short time frame.
The transformation of being taken from the captives white family to become Indians, then being recovered back to their birth parents gives the reader a better understanding of what they had to go threw.
Thank you Scott Zesch.

This is a must have book.

My 7th grade Horizons English class enjoyed this novel immensely! We used it as an extension of Texas History, combined as an interdisciplinary unit.

A few years back, Scott Zesch was doing family history when he ran across a grave of a long-lost ancestor named Adolf Korn. Scott eventually learned that Adolf had been a captive of the Comanche Indians for several years as a boy. After being "rescued," he was always strange, and ended up living his life as a hermit in a cave.

Zesch expanded his research, and the result was "The Captured," a fascinating book about children captured by the Comanches, their experiences, and what became of them in later years. Zesch discovered that children younger than puberty tended to assimilate almost immediately; they forgot their native language (English or German) and even lost their attachment to their mothers. Zesch examines this heartbreaking psychology through his research into the lives of the individuals, which he relates in vivid detail.

"The Captured" is a thoughtful book that both sweeps you up in human drama and leaves you with a lot of things to think about.

Reviewer: Elizabeth Clare, co-author of the historical novel "To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis and Clark"

This book provides excellent explanations of the knowledge of the Toltecs. Dr. Rosenthal definitely knows what she is talking about. I've studied Toltec knowledge for about 13 years and her insights are helpful in providing different ways to approach this art. Thank you Dr. Rosenthal.

I bought this book because I absolutely love The Four AgreementsThe Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, A Toltec Wisdom Book and thought it would be a great and simple reference for Don Miguel Ruiz's teachings. This book is confusing, rambling and boring! I didn't get past the first couple of chapters....it just isn't worth buying.

A wonderful, wise book brimming with Toltec wisdom and practical examples. I have read it more than once and given it as a gift to friends (who always borrow my copy).

This was a pivotal book for me. Upon reading this clear, funny, beautifully written text, I went from being a casual "spiritual surfer" to jumping in with both feet! I literally could not put it down, and when I finally finished it, I decided to apprentice with Sheri, who is an amazing teacher. I have never looked back as my life has gotten better and better. I have immense gratitude for this book and highly recommend it to others with a wish that they might have the same experience.

Dr. Rosenthal explains the Toltec path quite eloquently and leaves little room for possible misinterpretation!

A great book for any Band of Brothers fan. The enlisted perspective is priceless, along with how these heros lived post WWII.

A good book if you want to learn more details about the men from Easy Company. You should also read Dick Winter's books.

It is a good book, but the actual battles are not really in depth. If you are looking to learn more about the was battles don't buy this book. If you looking to learn more about Don Malarkey because you liked his character in the series then this is a must read.

Having read the "Band Of Brothers" by Ambrose and the books written by Maj. Dick Winters which were all great books and very interesting, Don Malarky also came up with a very good one. He sure lasted a lot longer in combat than the average infantryman. He seemed very conscientious in doing his job. I can relate to a lot of the situations that he was in. I was in "Easy Company" 318th Reg. 80th Division. Our 2nd Battalion was attached to the 4th Armored and made the contact to the 101st Div. at Bastogne. I've read most of the memoirs of the ETO fighting and this one rates among the best.

A good easy read and another great perspective of the efforts of the soldiers of the 101st. Not written as boldly as some other easy company author's work but a good read`all the same. When comparing you do however pick up on how the wars affect was different for the individual soldiers of easy co.