Languages Books

Review by Sherry North, Author, Because You Are My Baby

Bold artwork and simple text combine to offer an outstanding introduction to trains for young children. There are only a few words on each page, making it a quick read-aloud that will hold the attention of even very young toddlers. The text describes the different types of cars in a freight train, then follows the train through tunnels, past cities, in daylight and darkness. Satisfying and highly recommended.

My 3 yr old grandson loves this book. The "story" is so simple but allows the reader many way of expanding the story through sound effects, color recognition, parts of the locomotive, parts of the track bed, speeding train sounds, it's going,... going,... gone.

Freight Train/Tren de cargaSimple words with simple images. You can hear the "click clack" of the train coming down the track, the chugging sound of the steam engine, and the sound of the horn as it approaches and then moves away. My daughter loved this book before she could even say the words.

My oldest son loved this book. It was his favorite when he was little. It builds on vocabulary; you can count the cars, name the colors, and look at different scenarios. I learned a lot about trains by reading this book to them. I am raising my children bilingual and when I found it in English and Spanish I knew I had to get it for them. It also helped me remember the words in Spanish, which I had forgotten. I must have for any child that likes trains. Donald Crews again has delighted us with a masterpiece.

My 2 year old son is obsessed with trains - he loves this book. It is very short and the pictures are well drawn. This books shows the difference between a hopper car and a box car, etc so now when we see a real train he can tell me what kind of cars they are.

I love the message of this book, but it is sad when we look around at our world today and see so much "country" turning into city. Loved this one as a child and am reading to my son now.

This was my favorite book when I was little and still is one of my favorite books for children. I add this book to every gift I give at baby showers. A good book with a good lesson!

This was one of my favorites as kid. Then, sadly, I forgot about it until stumbling across it in the school library. It is once again one of my favorites. Cynics might roll their eyes at this tribute to good ol' days gone by, but I personally appreciate the nostalgia and the house with its subtle face parts is adorable. You feel so bad for the cute little house! It is also an observation at the change of time. I don't know how intense that is as a theme, but I found it touching and Burton tells the tale with such heart and care.

We live in a very old house in the country and this book was such a cute story about just that. We enjoyed it.

Another timeless classic by this author. It's an amazing story about appreciation. Completely entertaining and like the other books in this series, the artwork is phenominal!!!

My sister and I had this book when we were kids. She filled hers out when she was about 5 (1976) and I did mine when I was 8 (1986). My mom saved them and it was so fun to go through when she brought them out!

The book is great. It allows kids to draw a picture, write a story and answer questions about themselves. Even if they aren't reading yet it's something parents and kids can work on together. Somethings are a little harder to figure out (# of steps to closest store) but it really is fun.

It does need a little updating (a newer edition maybe)... when it asks what country you live in it still has East Germany, West Germany and the Soviet Union as options. Now I understand it is hard to keep up with all the small changing countries, but those are pretty major! But that's the only thing. Even that could be a teaching moment for parents and kids. I am buying several as gifts this Christmas.

Wonderful book! I've bought three copies over the years for three of my kids/grandkids when they were 5 or 6 years old. It's their book, to write the answers in (in fact the first thing is to have the kid write his name in it!), to read and figure out, etc. Highly recommended both for the parent/grandparent - and, more importantly, for the kid.

My Book About Me

This book is great! My young reader loves the interactiveness of being able to count all the steps in the house, find out the color of his eyes and tell all the things about his life at this moment. I'm thinking about adding some scrapbook pages for each year for some of the questions that will change over time.

The best part is, I can show him My Book About Me that I completed in the 1970's.

I bought this book for my daughter who is now 41 years old. My youngest grandson was visiting and he found the book (which I had saved) and just loved it. Everytime he comes he wants to read and look at the book. He is five years old and this Halloween instead of giving him candy, I bought him this book to put in his Halloween bag. It's better than any candy and it certainly lasts longer.

We had this same book for our daughter when she was about [...] old. Her children found it recently and loved reading about their mom. I was delighted to find it still in print, so ordered a copy for each of my grand children so that "their" children may have a similar delightful experience reading about them thirty years from now.
It is a fun book to fill in with large Dr. Seuss illustrations and silly suggestions. I'm hoping it will be a favorite Christmas present for them this year.

This book is just one more proof of Rosemary's undying devotion to energize writers, stir belief in themselves and evoke the best that lies within their hearts and psyches. She never gives up--always looks for ways to teach and motivate. Thank you many times over.

No more excuses. Whether you are a published author, have never written a word, or just want to get some thoughts on a page, Secrets of the Zona Rosa will change your life if you let it.

The lessons in these pages are are powerful, provocative, and positively practical because they are universal. This book is not just for writers. It is for everyone.

Willing students will learn how to free their trapped, inner demons - as well as angels - through the healing, therapeutic power of words in Rosemary's "Exorcises". These wonderful writing tools will allow you to celebrate yourself by helping you reveal facets of your soul you might not otherwise knew existed.

Rosemary Daniell is not afraid of writing and telling her truths. Neither should you be! A marvelous follow-up to The Woman Who Spilled Words All Over Herself, Secrets of the Zona Rosa will make you laugh. Sometimes, it will make you cringe - with a smile. Most of all, it will make you write. Read it, apply it, and gain the power to tell your story!

My hand reached for this book as if it were a divining rod to grab onto something to help me find the way out of the darkness I was in...
Reading other women's stories of finding their true ALPHA voice gave me courage, confidence and broke the isolation of going it alone...
Rosemary recounts stories or events that are sometimes disturbing, painfully truthful, colorful and full of the true paths that many women have been on. Sometimes, the passages I read would haunt me through the day, but motivated me to read on to gain wisdom and life lessons.
You will not be disappointed in this book...it is worth it's weight in gold...!

Rosemary Daniell is a fascinating woman with wild and unbroken energy in terms of her life and her writing. This energy along with a sharp focus for writing is establishing an example for women around the world to follow. Essentially, she is (and has been for years) writing her way through what, in part, seems to be the unconscious shadow of a civilization who for hundreds of years has not freely admitted the feminine into it most prized corners of culture and art, particularly in the south.
In her books, as in her teachings at numerous talks and workshops across the country and in Europe, Rosemary Daniell lifts the ordinary of life to the sacred and then she brings the sacred back to the ordinary as she connects writers and ideas from all areas of life.
All in all, her latest book, "Secrets of The Zona Rosa How Writing (and Sisterhood) Can Change Women's Lives" presents not only a way to show up for your writing but for your life as well. Rosemary uses numerous quotes from other writers, such as Georgia O'keefee, Natalie Goldberg, and Menander to support the points of stories and ideas that make up the book.
"Secrets" is huge in terms of information for beginning as well as "old" writers. And there is laughter throughout the book, belly laughter rolling off pages of this book even in the midst of a painful story being told by Rosemary about writers and writing.
Carefully laid into the pages of heart-wrenching truths and the gut-splitting laughter are also guidelines and "exorcises" as well as the most sinful but delicious recipe for Strawberry Cream Cake--the Official Zona Rosa Dessert.
This book is so rich with ideas and stories that it will take years for its contents to settle within our culture but when it does, and as it does, it will take hold and become part of the anchoring force of great writers and great women who create (and a few great men who are willing to wear pink and the ZR tattoed across their hearts).
Every women should have this book as a guide for living; every woman writer should stop what she is doing right now and go out and get this book if she doesn't already have the book. Ryder J Finnegan,Ph.D./Writer/ Fayetteville, Arkansas.

When you pick up a copy of Secrets of the Zona Rosa, better pick up two or three extra notebooks and a box of pens or pencils because you are about to start writing.

It's hard to imagine not getting itchy writing fingers while reading the intriguing titles in the table of contents: "We are all doors until someone slams us," "If I was really wild," and "If I thought like a guy."

Rosemary Daniell is an intriguing and powerful woman. She writes her own truths and invites other women to do the same. No, she doesn't invite; she insists. And insistence is hard to resist.

I first met Rosemary Daniell in the pages of her 1997 book, The Woman Who Spilled Words All Over Herself: Writing and Living the Zona Rosa Way. It headed this fallen-away writer back on the writing road. For several years, I was a member of Rosemary's Atlanta Zona Rosa group. It is with real joy I welcome this book, as will other readers of this author's works. Those who have not had the fun and challenge of working their way through Rosemary's exercises--and exorcises--will soon share our enthusiasm.

Rosemary took the name Zona Rosa for the writing groups and workshops that she leads from the bohemian quarter of Mexico City, but she gives it the additional meaning of the "feminine zone," where women (and not a few men) explore using writing not only as a challenging, creative activity but also "as a tool for healing."

Secrets explains how her mother's suicide inspired her to explore her own life and truths through writing, and how the knowledge of her mother's frustrations and sadness over a lost ambition to write led her to devote her time and talents to helping other women not only fulfill their dreams of writing, but also to hone their skills in practical ways. Rosemary, already a published poet, was leading a writing workshop for women prisoners when she learned of her mother's overdose.

"I felt once more how little she--like the women in the prison--had been able to tell of her own truths. How little permission she had been given--whether by herself or others--to express them.

Although I didn't know it yet, Zona Rosa was born in that moment; an unrealized passion that would lead me to spend much of the rest of my life seeking to help women like Mother and women in prisons of all kinds to achieve their dreams."

Rosemary does not and did not flinch at telling her own truths. She spent the next three years of her life writing a memoir, Fatal Flowers: On Sin, Sex, and Suicide in the Deep South, inspired by her mother's death. Not long afterwards, Rosemary began leading a small group of writing women. Zona Rosa was born.

This book tells Rosemary's story and more. She looks back over the nearly twenty-five years of Zona Rona writers and shares (with their permission) the moving tales of how their writing has changed their lives. There are sad stories and stories of triumph, all of them fascinating.

This is not, though, a book of stories. We find guidance and guidelines that all writers, novice or expert, use with relish.

While the book deals with serious subjects, it is filled with Rosemary's wit and humor. "Pilates on Paper" first appears in Chapter 1, and the reader becomes the writer before she turns the page. (Remember my warning about new notebooks and pens!) "Book Therapy" appears regularly with reading suggestions and guidance. Writing exercises (or exorcises as Zona Rosans call them) appear throughout. Toward the end of the book, Rosemary addresses "The Emotional Tai Chi of Getting Your Work Out There"--excellent advice on finishing and submitting our work when it is ready (and we are ready for it) to be shared with the world.

Attending a Zona Rosa group or workshop is an exhilarating experience, but so is reading and writing from this book. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

by Patricia Nordyke Pando
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I knew I loved this book before I ordered it, so that wasn't an issue. But it arrived quickly and in good condition.

In my school district we talk a lot about social, emotional literacy. This book is great in showing students that differences and individuality is what makes everyone unique and exciting. I used this book with seventh grade students and they loved the fact that I was reading them a storybook. For many students it has been so long since an adult has read them a storybook but I feel it is important to continue to model how to read fluently.

at teaching good things in a fun way. This book shows that a looking different doesn't make a person less fun or likeable. It has great rhymes, & is a quick read before sleep time.

Seuss teaches so much to my daughter that I would have a hard time starting a conversation about. My daughter doesn't quite get the stories so she asks me and we have great conversations about right and wrong.

I ordered this after seeing it on Amazon. It was one of my favorite books growing up and I wanted to share it with my three daughters (8,6,& 2). After reading "The Sneetches" to my 6 year-old, she looked at me and said that it wasn't very nice to treat people badly because they aren't the same as us. I was thrilled that she got the meaning of that story right away. Dr. Seuss is a genius for getting these moral points across in a way that children understand and making it so fun at the same time. She thought that "The Zax" was funny. She didn't understand why they just didn't compromise. Every story in this book has an important lesson and it's such a great way to spend time with your children too!

It's a beautiful story that is passionate about nature and the relationship between a father and a daughter. Jane Yolen's writing turns down a notch as she focuses on making the most beautiful moonlit knight you could imagine for a winter. It's not so much about looking for owls as it is about being out in nature with someone you care about. The description of the cold, snowy night is amazing, and the illustrations epitomize that feeling.
A beautifully written and illustrated romance.

He liked the book alot, but only when I read it with alot of inflection in my voice - especially whispering to emphasize quiet while owling. The book is lovely but the prose is a little long on each page for my 3 year old to really take in.

This is a story about a young child who goes owling with her father. This is clearly important to her - there's a family connection, it's something she's wanted to do for a "long, long time".

The writing is simple. The pictures are majestic. I can't recommend this one highly enough, and I really wish I lived in an area where I could go owling too :(

I read to my children every night, religiously. This is one of a very few books that we are happy to pick up and re-read. They enjoyed it when they were 3 and 5, and they still enjoy it when they're now 7 and 9.

As an added bonus for fathers, the theme is about little things we might share with our children that leave a lifelong impression. My dream is that I am creating one or more lasting legacies with my children.

I used this book in my classroom as an example for my students to write thier own story. My 3rd and 4th graders loved the story and it worked great for the lesson I was teaching.

I have read so many books on public speaking but none has ever addressed the subject the way Janet does it. I feel at last somebody has known what my problem is. I have not finished reading the book yet, but it is so useful for somebody who has tried everything else without success. Most books under estimate this fear but Janet has experienced it and she knows its magnitude.I am very positive this book will help me cure my fear

I am a college student studying Business and I've had a long history of anxiety and panic with being "In the Spotlight." I finally got sick of living in fear-- that a teacher would call on me or that I would have to give a presentation. If a presentation was listed on the syllabus for a class I would have a panic attack right there just in anticipation! I was finally fed up and joined Toastmasters about a year ago. I then set a goal to start the only Speech club on my college campus. At this point, I was still VERY nervous about public speech and decided to read this book in preparation of the first Speech club meeting.

This book helped me in many, many ways. It helped to go forward with that first meeting for the Speech club-- something I had been dreading for months and months! There are many positive and useful techniques: positive thinking, reassurance training, breathing techniques, getting to the source of the anxiety... The list goes on!

I still get nervous giving speeches and continue to have small panic attacks when put on the spot in a class. I know that if I continue to face this fear and use constructive techniques such as the ones in this book, I will slowly grow out of it. Good luck!

I would listen to this CD to sleep, not for my anxiety. The best thing for anxiety is Celexa and EMDR. I bought this CD with the book and it's terrible. It states the obvious and is not helpful at all.

Sorry, but it sucks.

The author had first-hand stage fright experience and she shared the techniques that she learned to overcome the stage fright and to go beyond the fright to enjoy being in the spot light. The skills are very valuable for a stage fright person like me, and are also valuable for teachers of music who would want to learn how to help students with stage fright.

The skills mentioned in the book are transferable skills that can be used to reduce stress and to cultivate positive self-esteem. Teachers can use these excellent skills to help their students.

It was by far the best book that offers alternative and possible solutions to shift the stage fright paradigm. The book has been helpful to me as a personal growth tool and in other areas of my life, in addition to the performance anxiety challenges. One day I was feeling down, and reading chapter 10 of the book re-channeled me to something more funny and pleasant and I was uplifted. That was a powerful experience.

The book is easy, fun and enjoyable to read. Once you start reading, it is hard to stop reading.

Reading Janet's book was a revelation for me. It was amazing to find that someone understood exactly how I felt when I found out that I had to speak in public and the torture I imposed on myself leading up to, during and after speaking. But better yet, she not only empathizes with the reader, but provides a clear path to overcoming the torture. So enjoy the empathy, but enjoy even more the tools for success!

A very readable & enjoyable book. I especially enjoyed the chapter on autism & the origin of language. Fritjof Capra's book "Hidden Connections" referenced this informative & amusing text including the link between brain function involved with hand gesture, signing, & tongue movements that unexpectedly led to the promotion the uptake of speech in autistic.
There are many insights into the shared psychology of humans & other primates. Despite the physiological and genetic similarities of all primates that have made chimps attractive model organisms for research,it was interesting to read about the reluctance of biological scientists to accept the anthropomorphic traits of chimps. There can be little room for a claim to "value-free" objectivity by biomedical researchers who can apparently dismiss the psychological effects of enforced confinement & sensory deprivation, on the effectiveness of anti-viral medications, or a range of other pharmaceuticals. The author has shown considerable bravery & commitment to expanding this area of learning, despite the threats against his personal career by people with vested interests in ignoring or denying the contradictions to their implicit or explicit values.

At age 62, I still look for writers who will change and deepen my sense of our human nature and our place in the natural world. More than writers about religion per se, I think these writers are able to help us advance our moral and spiritual understanding and reconcile our human/animal natures. For some years I've been reading Goodall and others on primates, but Next of Kin was, for me, a pinnacle illumination. Even if you aren't interested in these types of questions, I think this book will move you deeply. If you ARE interested, may I also suggest the recent Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets.Take Me With You When You Go

A must-read for any animal lover. Roger Fouts and the recently deceased chimpanzee Washoe are my heroes.

Although this book was written some time ago, it is exceptionally timely because the relevance of chimp behavior to our own continues to unfold. The devotion the author invests in his charges and the passion he feels about the atrocities visited on chimps both in the laboratory and in the wild drive his story. This abuse is reinforced by the backward and ignorant thinking that stems from bible thumpers who fear the truth about evolution and man's close relationship to apes. Roger Fouts and his wife have provided an invaluable service to our understanding of chimps, and their research related to sign language is truly stunning. They have succeeded in accomplishing their observation and reporting against considerable odds. All these aspects, and the Fouts' fully rounded examination of their subjects make for a gripping and emotional tale well told.

"Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees" is one of the most amazing, heartbreaking, and inspirational books I've ever read. The book is written by Roger Fouts, a primatologist who devoted his life to studying the language patterns of chimpanzees. While in graduate school, Roger was introduced to Washoe, a precocious young chimp who became fluent in American Sign Language. Eventually "Project Washoe" expanded to include many chimpanzees, all who learned to communicate with humans using ASL and demonstrated unique personalities, complex emotions, and astounding intelligence.

I've always been a big animal lover, but reading this book taught me so many things that I never knew before. Anyone who questions an animal's ability to think or feel will get a sharp reality check after reading this book. Chimpanzees are people, too, just as much as human beings are. Unfortunately, the majority if humans in this world don't agree with that logic, and thousands of animals, including chimpanzees, are routinely kidnapped from their natural habitats and bred in captivity for the sole purpose of participating in biomedical research. In many cases, medical laboratories house animals in appalling conditions and literally torture them to death. "Next of Kin" details the horrors that go on behind closed doors at biomedical laboratories, and chronicles the steps Fouts and other animal activists have taken to protect chimpanzees from being treated inhumanely.

I absolutely loved this book. Reading it made me feel close to Washoe and her chimpanzee friends, even though I never met any of them before. (Sadly, Washoe passed away last fall at the age of 42, but I hope to visit members of her family at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute in Washington someday.) Parts of this book are incredibly depressing and difficult to read, but hopefully learning about the terrible ways animals are treated will inspire people to take action. I admire everything that Fouts, his family, and his colleagues have done to protect chimpanzees, who are our next of kin on the great evolutionary scale. I hope other readers get as much out of this book as I did.

The book is well organized and very easy to read. It captures both the novice as well as those who have been working in WPF since beta (or is that CTP). The only complaints I have for the book are really just complaints on WPF in general. A lot of the material in the book (as well as WPF in general) focuses on making fairly outlandish applications (getting all the wizz bang features and animations). What I find lacking are items like validation, threading (when having a long background task), and items more akin to Windows Forms development. This book was an invaluable tool while I put together my first WPF application.

A quick background of my skills prior to reading the book so you know where I'm coming from:
- Strong: C++, Win32, 2D UI
- Learning: C#, .NET, WPF, XAML, XML

Being extremely anxious to dig in to WPF, I was seeking a book that would hold my hand through the process but by the end, leave no stones unturned. This book comes close.

My first attempt at learning was "Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed" by Adam Nathan. I quickly became frustrated with the book because I was regularly feeling lost. You know, like when you are conversing with a really intelligent person who has a hard time helping you connect the dots. I do recommend Adam's book as a supplement as it's got good material and is in full color. After reading the reviews for "Programming WPF" by Sells & Griffiths I took the leap.

I read the book cover to cover minus 3 chapters: 3D, Interoperability and Async/Multithreaded -- about 700 of 800 pages. Usually books this fat have lots of useless pages. Not this book, no sir, which just goes to show how much there is to learn about WPF and XAML. In a word, the book is brilliant, written for experienced programmers who want to learn WPF and XAML.

It has the same feel as Petzold's Win 3.x books, i.e. Light-hearted, start easy and built to a powerful crescendo as the chapters progress. The latter chapters are no more difficult to digest than the previous chapters, but do build upon previous chapters. That said, I was extremely grateful that the book didn't have a grand project that was slowly built upon chapter by chapter; code examples mostly stood on their own and were plentiful (and they worked as printed!)

As noted above, I know very little about WinForms, and WPF is the obvious successor. Though parallels were duly noted, I was thrilled that there were not constant sidebars saying "Hey Mr. WinForms! Everything's OK! This is just new stuff and you can handle it. Rah! Rah! Rah!" As the authors make abundantly clear from page 1, WPF is light years ahead of WinForms.

As noted above, WPF and XAML are big topics so be prepared to get up and stretch your legs a lot, hold you head frequently and doubt the wisdom of learning new things.

On the down side, the book is weighted a bit too heavily towards XAML for my tastes. Since C# can do absolutely everything (and more) that XAML can do, I wish there were more dual examples that show how XAML does it and then how C# does it. There are examples like this but not enough. This would satisfy the curiousity of developers who wonder about how XAML "magically" achieves things.

Another gripe, now that I am attempting to apply what I have learned: I am frequently having to turn to a Google search to find details not present in the book. For example, the section about event bubbling covers good ground but I immediately had a problem when trying to use bubbling: I was attempting to use it with sibling elements and that does not work but (as far as I can tell) this was not noted in the book. It feels as though the book was not field tested.

And a final gripe: The index is sparse. I am regularly having to pencil in items.

Some brief notes:
- I really hope this book evolves along with WPF's evolution
- The material seemed fresh (as of Oct 2008) except the Silverlight appendix which has aged since Silverlight 2.0 has been released
- The corresponding errata website does not seem to be updated regularly (though I didn't encounter many editing problems)
- Even though the book only has a dozen pages of color plates, you won't feel deprived as the examples will light up your display in all sorts of fun ways.

I have both WPF books by Chris Anderson and Adam Nathan. I read initial chapters of both of them but never got so excited to continue reading and got astray into LINQ and other stuff. Then I bought this one from Chris Sells and all I can say is it is much better than both Anderson and Adam book and the book keeps you engaged making you eager to find out what next in very simple terms and wonderful example. I loved the way the data binding chapter was explained and am hoping to finish this soon.

Great Job Sells and Ian.

I'm almost ashamed to admit that after diving into WPF back when it was known as "Avalon", I haven't even touched WPF since. So I finally needed to suck it up, get started, and learn WPF.

As somebody new to WPF, I just have to give a huge "Thank You" to both Chris and Ian. This book is very entertaining and the quality of the writing between both Chris and Ian is just tremendous. The pace of the book is perfect and the teaching style is one that any developer can relate to.

As a Technical Evangelist working for Microsoft, I think that every "Evangelist" in the tech industry can learn from Chris and Ian on how to tell a compelling story that developers can relate to and "grok". We evangelists are all-too-willing to simply explain the technical details of an API while completely forgetting to answer the "why" (let alone telling a compelling story to suck people in). This is yet another area that this book excels at.

I can say with full confidence that this book is the first book I recommend to anybody wanting to dive into WPF. Enjoy!

Jason Olson, Technical Evangelist, Visual Studio & the .NET Framework
[...]

Writing a programming book is not an easy thing to do -- I know, because I've done it myself. And I have to say that I'm really impressed with the job that Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths have done with "Programming WPF". This is one of the best programming books I've ever read (and I've read a lot of them).

For a programming book to be good, it's not enough for it to simply contain all of the information that you need to know. If that information doesn't stick to your brain, then the book hasn't done it's job. If you want the information to stick, then the book has to be interesting to read. It has to have a lot of clear examples that show you real-world applications without extraneous fluff. And to be really effective, all of that should be done with a little bit of style and wit.

And I'm really pleased to say that "Programming WPF" does all of those things. I recently needed a refresher on WPF, so I just spent a lot of time over the last few weeks going through the book very carefully. And I have to say that I'm really impressed. It's engaging, interesting and they chose really good examples. And it's witty! (You'd be amazed at how the occasional chuckle keeps a reader from getting that "eyes glazed over" feeling that far too many books induce.)

I know from experience -- believe me, I know! -- just how hard it is to pull that off. And they did it with style. So first of all, congratulations to Chris and Ian for doing a great job. And second, if you're a C# developer looking for a good, hands-on way to learn WPF, I highly recommend "Programming WPF".

This memoir has it all----there is fascinating and horrifying history of the turmoil in Zimbabwe---an in depth look at an unusual b ut recognizsble family- plus a totally surprising revelation about the family background- The b ook is a " good read" and raises many questions---

This is simply one of the best books I've "read" in many, many years. I first listened to it on tape while I was painting and then ordered this copy for a friend. I would love to pass it along to any thinking person who is curious about Africa -- and why we should be concerned about events on that continent. I think the fact that Jimmy Carter and Kofi Annan were denied visas to visit Zimbabwe this week should make everyone concerned about human rights in that country. Peter Godwin's story is personal and riveting -- not to be missed!

It's always easier for me to learn about an event or situation through the eyes of someone who lived it especially someone who writes as nicely as Mr. Godwin does.

I cannot add anything to the superlative reviews already written. Peter Godwin learns his father's secret as the nation of Zimbabwe which is his family home is destroying itself from the inside out. I stayed up until 4 in the morning two nights in a row because I could not put the book down. It is one of very few books that I've read that I want to read again. This beautifully written book about ugly deserves ten stars. It is superior book that I will never forget.

When A Crocodile Eats The Sun is a gripping memoir detailing the account of author Peter Godwin and his experiences in Zimbabwe. Set in the time of the brutal regime of Robert Mugabe, his story is one of perseverance and reflection. When his parents refuse to leave Zimbabwe even amongst the brutality and corruption, Peter must learn to understand his parent's decision, even if it may cost them their lives.
Peter Godwin writes this memoir from a very honest perspective. Without incorporating a major bias into his writing, he has managed to craft a factual representation of what happened in Zimbabwe under President Mugabe. He brings to light a very relevant and important issue in our world today, and raises awareness about the horrors of governmental corruption and oppression. He effectively works to show how President Mugabe was a two faced president who often said one thing and did another. "And you could see that this was a man fueled by thoughts of revenge, that he was boiling with public humiliation. How could he, who had liberated his people, now be rejected?...It couldn't be his own people who had done this...it must have been other people, white people, leading them astray" (59.) Peter Godwin not only explains the situation in Zimbabwe, he takes us through the events and thought processes of the leaders to illustrate how it happened. It is a riveting account in which he masterfully weaves the story of the rise of hate against whites and the struggles of his own family, including the failing health of his father. The author struggles with staying true to his homeland and saving his fathers life. "'Dad's life's on the line here,' I say. `The time for political correctness is over. We must get him the best physician'" (18.) He shows here how he finds it difficult to understand his parent's stubborn enchantment with the ways of a third world country. Godwin writes in such a way that we can't help but find his homeland beautiful, even amidst the strife. He helps us to see the position of himself and his family, living in a country where your race could spell either life or death. His sister, Georgina, explains their parents situation well when she says, "if you put a frog in a shallow saucepan of water and heat up the water very slowly, the frog will never quite notice how hot it's getting. It won't actually jump out. Until it's too late. Until it's boiled alive." Godwin's conflicting emotions become more evident when he learns of his father's past, and his experience as a Jew in Nazi Poland. Armed with this revelation, hs attempts to make sense of his family's attachment to a place where being white could cost you your life.
Peter Godwin has created a memoir that transcends the conventional understanding of an account of one's life. He not only explains the problems among his own family, he intertwines them with the escalating violence and political corruption in Zimbabwe. He uses a very personal tone that not only highlights the injustice of the regime of Robert Mugabe, but also draws in the reader into connecting emotionally with Godwin and his family. He has written a powerful and deeply affecting book that helps us to appreciate our freedom, while at the same time painting the story of a family's struggle amidst a very dark and dangerous time in Africa.