Journals Books

A beautiful book. Louise Palanker has written a touching and moving story. You will want to share & discuss with your children.

"Journals" was perfect for me, as one who grew up during WWII. My grandchildren loved it because Lanie's experiences approximate their own, and their parents are of the author's vintage. The juxtaposition of the two journals--Lanie's and her father's--made the book very readable and absorbing.

Of course I'm prejudiced. I'm Louise's Mom. But the book is truly splendid. It's of great interest to adults and an inspiration to the young.

This book is a gentle yet glorious reminder of those typical adolescent feelings of angst we all had ~ about every thing and every one! And that's important for those of us who have young people in our lives who are living through those mysterious, painful and joyous times themselves. Palanker's tale of a young girl weaving her way toward adulthood is made all the more memorable when juxtaposed against her father's dangerous early years. His sacrifices as a soldier during World War II places her adolescent "sufferings" in context and creates a perspective all youngsters should learn about. This is a book for girls and boys alike. I urge everyone to read it and pass it on!

I think this book is wonderful in so many ways! It's a beautiful right-of-passage story for teens...especially girls. It's a girl coming to a deeper understanding of who her father was by putting him in the context of history. It's a powerful example of "keeping the memory alive"with an age-appropriate tale describing what made the "Greatest Generation" so great! This should to be a must-read for middle schoolers!

Carol MacGregor did an excellent job of presenting Gass's writings. Gass appeared to clarify several situations that I had difficulty with in Lewis & Clark's writings in Thwaites edition. It is a strong addition to Coues edition and provides insite not evident in Ambrose's Undaunted Courage. I'm anxious to read writings of Ordway and Whitehouse even tho I understand that some of the writings of the enlisted men may be duplications of each other.

Carol MacGregor has done a wonderful job. She has taken the original Lewis & Clark Journals and footnoted the Gass Journal. Where Gass said men went out to hunt she names the hunters ect,. His account book told me when my g,g,g, grandmother died and what was bought day by day. I was surprised that so much fish was eaten. On behalf of the Gass family, Thank you for a job well done.

Sergeant Gass was one of the few members of the Corp of Discovery to keep a consistent log of the journey. His journal style makes his account interesting and very readable. Gass's log of daily activities shows the optomistic spirit of the corp and makes this an important contribution to the study of the expedition. The inclusion of Gass's newly discovered personal account ledger is facinating!

Patrick Gass's journal is much more readable than that of Lewis & Clark - for a start, his spelling is better; he doesn't resort to overblown, flowery descriptions (the notable and ludicrous exceptions are those added by his first editor); and Ms McGregor's wonderful notes flesh out this rivetting story.

Reading this after the better-publicised Lewis & Clark journals makes you wonder if they were on the same expedition - the Captains' journal is more concerned with who they met, making maps and taking measurements - whereas Gass's journal is full of description of the surrounding country and wildlife (interestingly, Gass rarely mentions anyone but the Captains by name).

The newly-included account-book is very interesting and the list of animals killed for food gives one some idea of the calorie requirements demanded by the intense labour these men went through each day, and also making you wonder if there was anything left for the poor natives after they'd passed through their territory!

Mrs. MacGregor gives a salient introduction to the story of Patrick Gass. His life and his own account of his trip with Lewis & Clark make for a remarkable read as we approach the bicentenial of the Corps of Discovery. A wonderful footnote to the personal history of this intrepid explorer is available in the detailed account books of Patrick Gass found only in this edition. For any student of the L&C expedition and the early history of the opening of the west, I highly recommend this book.

This would have to be one of the few diaries that tells the story of the horror of the Holocaust. Ruth lives through many tough situations, where her quick thinking saves her and her daughter Eva. It paints a clear picture of how people in Warsaw were treated, and how the Germans got rid of the Jews in the Ghetto and in Warsaw. It is rather sad, but it is true. If you read this story, you will learn first hand about the life that Jews lived in the Holocaust. I suggest reading it!

I read this book about 6 years ago, in a period when I read every Holocaust testimony I could lay my hands on, to help me understand the first hand testimony I, alone, had received from a lifelong friend who herself survived the Vilna ghetto, and three concentration camps.

As Cat R reports, the author's daughter found her mother's manuscript in 1979, after the former had died. The text gives a very personal account of the Nazi invasion of Poland, this one from the perspective of a Warsaw native shipped with her small daughter, in January 1943, aboard a cattle car from the ghetto, bound to a certain death at Treblinka.

Certain except that she fought back. She knew from rumors what happened there. With a hacksaw blade she had concealed, she determined to saw through the bars of one of two small windows in her car, and reached them from the shoulders of two strong young boys willing to help her.

To ensure that the boys threw her daughter out the window after she had jumped, Eva gave a bag of chocolate, sugar and bread to a sympathetic friend too old to join her, and asked her to ensure they got it if they did as she had asked.

The jump was but the beginning of one Jewish mother's perilous and somehow miraculous bid to survive--with her child.

In the end, this sufferings of this mother and child were far less severe than those of my friend Masha. Nevertheless, this is a gripping, and important account, not to be missed.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

This wartime memoir was discovered by the author's daughter in 1979, following her mother's death. It relates the events of the Nazi persecution in Poland, the suffering and degradation of the Warsaw Ghetto ... and an extraordinary courage and will to survive. Realizing the fate in store for her, Ruth made plans for escape. In the winter of 1943, she and two-year-old Eva were rounded up and crowded into a cattle-car for the fatal journey to Treblinka. A single chance for life remained to them: a perilous jump from the moving train. Their first night of freedom was spent huddling together in a freezing, abandoned dog-kennel, with Ruth licking her daughter's wounds. In their danger-fraught flight for survival, they encountered kind-hearted Catholics who risked their lives to aid a Jewish mother and child. This book is a powerful first-hand account of terrifying times, and a testimony to a mother's courage.

It is ironic that the author of this amazing journal never saw her work published, instead it was her two daughters who published it after her death. It is a gripping read,and recounts how the author escapes a death train heading to Treblinka by sawing off the bars on the window of the train and jumping out of it into the wilderness, together with her 2 yr old daughter! It is so much more than an account of survival, it gives one pause for thought as to what one would do given similar circumstances...I myself am mother to a toddler, and reading this just made me feel connected to the author, in that I too would do anything for my child, but do I possess the same courage as Ruth? It's impossible to imagine her life in occupied Poland, trying to live on the Aryan side, amongst Gentiles, keeping her daughter amongst strangers, not knowing if she will be saved...this is an amazing account of a woman's courage, a mother's love, and undying faith.

Originally written in 1946, Cyprys' account is remarkably free of the Judeocentric, German-whitewashing, anti-Christian, and anti-Polish tendencies of today. She devotes almost as much attention to German crimes against Poles as to those against Jews. Furthermore, Cyprys makes it clear that the Germans regarded the Poles as having no more inherent right to live than the Jews. Consider what happened when two Poles were mistakenly herded with Jews into a Treblinka-bound train: "Two gentiles in our wagon tried to explain to the Germans that they did not fit into this society and tried to show their documents. All to no avail. `Even if you are not a Jew, you are a damned Pole', yelled the German, and slapped the older woman's face, barking `Polish swine' and with his rifle butt drove her to the wagon." (p. 95).

Cyprys reported a balanced range of Polish attitudes towards Jews (pp. 118-119, 127, 132), some of which varied within the same family (pp. 142-143). Ironically, she was helped by the obsessively anti-Semitic Mrs. Zosia, who felt sorry for the Jews and who aided them (pp. 220-221).

In his FEAR, Jan Tomasz Gross presents a distorted view of Poles acquiring Jewish properties during the German occupation. In contrast, when mentioning how some Poles pretended to be Volksdeutsche in order to join in the German-sponsored pillage of Jewish properties, she nevertheless added: "The local mob usually guided the Germans to the rich Jewish houses and stores. With the deepest shame I must admit that there were some Jews among the scum." (pp. 25-26).

One inflammatory Polonophobic Holocaust myth is the one about Jews, while being transported to the death camps and with full knowledge of their impending deaths, being forced to endure the sight of indifferent or gleeful Polish onlookers. Against such nonsense, we learn that the death trains had small, barred windows well above eye level, and with nothing to stand on in order to look out of them (p. 96). Viewing (in either direction) was nearly impossible. The author and her daughter were loaded on a Treblinka-bound train. It was only with the greatest difficulty that Cyprys was boosted up and enabled to cut through the bars to jump out and to have her daughter Eva (Ewa) get pushed out.

The oft-quoted Polish remarks about Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising "getting burned like bugs", although invariably presented as such, wasn't necessarily derogatory. After all, Poles used the same phrase to refer to themselves in the face of their defenselessness against German incendiary bombing during the Warsaw Uprising! (p. 200).

The Germans strongly promoted alcoholism among Poles. This was done in order to degrade them (Lemkin elaborated on this) and to exploit this dependency as leverage in the denunciation of fugitive Jews (p. 174).

Cyprys elaborates on the semi-collaborationist Polish Blue Police (Policja Granatowa): "There were policemen who would accept neither bribes nor ransoms but, for the sake of their ideology, would hand over the Jews. Looking at this group objectively, however, one has to say that among their ranks there were many Volksdeutsch volunteers. The activities of the Polish police aroused such hostility among the majority of the Polish people, that death sentences were passed on several policemen by the Polish underground organizations and executions were carried out by Polish lads...upon the orders of the Organization a detailed list of all policemen was kept in the Underground offices. These contained, apart from proved misconduct, evidence of their standard of living which ascertained whether a dark blue was profiteering from blackmail or extortion. These lists of evidence were kept till the Warsaw Uprising: I do not know whether they survived the insurrection." (p. 138).

However, by no stretch of the imagination was the Polish Blue Police the main force in the roundups of Jews for their deaths: "On about 5 August [1942] all `workshop territories' were hermetically closed and the Germans and Ukrainians started a ruthless expulsion of anyone found outside these areas--always with the efficient help of the Jewish militia. Wherever a German or a Ukrainian did not venture the militia men would gladly fish out as many as possible of those still hidden in cellars and vaults, only to oblige the Germans." (p. 52).

Most Polish blackmailers (szmalcowniki), "the scum of mankind" (p. 119), took only part of the belongings of their Jewish victims and didn't usually actually denounce Jews to the Germans (pp. 119-120). They sometimes excused their conduct by their poverty and even gave the Jews advice on how better to disguise their Jewishness (p. 140).

Underworld Poles weren't the only ones that fugitive Jews feared: "The Jewish Gestapo men who remained alive were very dangerous. Their eyes were penetrating and Jews pointed out by them were lost beyond hope." (p. 165). Cyprys personally observed them shouting Jewish slogans or singing Jewish songs in order to provoke a telltale reaction in fugitive Jews among the pedestrians (pp. 165-166).

Cyprys alludes to Zegota as follows: "It goes without saying that only a fraction of the Jews in hiding knew about the existence of this committee. Those who were in touch with the patriotic `Polish intelligentsia' or people who worked in the Underground were most likely to benefit. Everything was obviously carried out in the greatest secrecy, using all available means of security." (p. 150). Complaints about Zegota aiding only a modest number of Jews are clearly off the mark.

In fact, Cyprys has a very sage understanding of ALL underground activities: "In reality underground activities were extremely stressful and required a great deal of steadiness and concentration. And because it had gone on for so many years, it was exhausting even to the strongest individuals and led to many casualties." (p. 184).

Cyprys provides a level of detail about the Warsaw Uprising usually done by Polish authors. We read, for instance, about the devastating effects of the German nebelwerfer ("roaring cow" or "cupboard"), and the systematic destruction of Warsaw by Germans AFTER the Uprising.

Each chapter is an essay on some aspect of life in the Sand Hills, often connected to the author's trials with his university or other human institutions, often dam builders, stream diverters, highway folks, boaters, hunters. As usual, some chapters are much more interesting than the others. I liked the parts about curlews and malaria the best. He has a strong and distinctive voice that sounds like a lot of zoologists i have met. Botanists just don't have the same attitude, somehow.

John Janovy captures the excitement of biological field research in his "own back yard". This classic, "Keith County Journal", details the work he and his students did on parasitology in his home state of Nebraska; a state that does not immediately conjure up images of great scientific discovery. This is a great pity because many fundamental discoveries can be made without traveling to the Amazon or Antarctica. In fact a researcher can spend some very fruitful time in such places as mud holes and stock tanks, as well as others, such as agricultural fields. Barbara McClintock, for example, won a Nobel Prize by studying corn in her own research plots and Jean Henri Fabre wrote a whole series of very well-known books on the insect life found mostly on his home "harmas" of about one hectare.

While he and his students scrounge through ponds to look for snail and bird parasites, Janovy was also busy making drawings and paintings of birds. Not wonderful paintings, but certainly reasonable ones. In this he joins with a large number of natural scientists/naturalists/artists who have utilized art as a vehicle for observation. Indeed, Janovy makes a very good case for such observation as a basis for field biology.

This is not just a book for biology wonks, but will also give the general reader a taste of what field biology is all about. "Keith County Journal" is in fact a highly readable book and I recommend it and any other work by John Janovy without reservation.

There are books by scientists and nature writers that inspire an attitude of awe and wonder, and they do it with a graceful style of coolly elegant prose. This is not one of those books. Janovy, a University of Nebraska biologist specializing in parasitology, is often awestruck by nature, but his style is wonky and comically ironic, using the kind of classroom lecture technique meant to engage undergraduates by seeming to be anything but reverential about subjects he loves, enjoys, and deeply cares about.

Unscientifically, he personalizes and humanizes the species he discusses (termites, snails, fish, birds) and even the places where he and his students do their field work - the Platte River, the waters of man-made Lake McConaughy, the streams and marshes that feed into it, and the Nebraska Sandhills. And there are references as well to beer drinking, the Doors, and Waylon Jennings. He refers to himself sometimes in the third person and easily reveals his own embarrassments and frustrations as his attempts to unravel nature's mysteries are sometimes less than successful. Waxing philosophical at nearly every turn, he eventually reaches a state of mind he calls the "Ogallala blues."

Meanwhile, like a great teacher who inspires with his enthusiasms, he opens a world unknown to anyone unaware of the subtle and complex relationships between species. And he's able to do this by focusing on just a few life forms, including one-celled animals, in a small area of western Nebraska. Janovy invites you to take the nearest exit ramp within range of open fields and streams - even a patch of weeds - and just feast your senses on the flora and fauna. His book is full of fascinating material for the nonbiologist and a pleasure to read.

This story is very specific in its content, which is great for a biologist like myself, but because it is so specific it may appeal only to a limited audience. I especially enjoyed the field trips described and felt I was there, leaky waders and all, plus battles with barbed wire and seeking permission from land owwners to trespass their property.

The use of common names in addition to scientific names may have contributed to its readability. More illustrations would help too. I recommend this book to anyone interested in biology, particularly those over age 15.

This book is a quiet masterpiece. I am not a biologist, but I did not find the book too specific or too technical. Janovy sees lessons everywhere. He teases them from his subjects, his students, his experiences. When he wades into Whitetail Creek with his twenty biology students, he changes the lives of those that follow him, whether in the water or on the page. He writes of the Rock Wren, "Live in a place where you are not tested, and you are living in a place of inferior quality." True, the book is about parasites, and his treatment of parasites is fascinating. But the parasites are packed in among his observations about human being and place and the workings of the world. His writing style is graceful and enticing. I can't wait to read more.

This journal has information about his activites and duties as a Pop Artist. It will give the basic information. Keith Haring leaves you wanting more,but knowing that he is keeping many thoughts from you. Keith lets the reader know all that he wants you to know about his short life.

Keith had a fascinating life... although he and I went to the same school, I feel everyone will identify with his message. Read it!

I did not understand nor really enjoy Keith Harings work until I read his journal. His thought processes that develope in the book talk about what he was trying to acomplish with his work. Knowing the angle that he was working from gave me a much deeper appreciation for his work. I think this is a very valuable book in understand Keith's views and philosophies behind his work.

Keith Haring is unbelievably talented. He is one of my favorite artist's--and in his journals I got to understand where some of his compositions came from---If you like his work and you want to know where some of his ideas came from. Check out this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keith Haring was someone I would have liked to have known. I recall seeing his paintings, which at the time were almost considered graffiti, around Manhattan in the early 1980's, and, being charmed by his trademark faceless little expressions of mass humanity. He became the artist most identifiable with the 1980's. But, he was much more than that. He was always very aware of his role as an artist, and, without any conceived pretention, what that role meant in society. Some artists are very insular, and develope their art in total privacy, for later viewing. Keith Haring was an artist who wanted people "involved" in the happening of his creativity. These journals, which he began sporadically from his teens, until his death from AIDS in 1990, show someone far more serious, with a sincere social conscience, than his often whimsical style suggests. He had a huge and unquestioning admiration for children, having a connection to them which could be described as what he called a mutual joy in the "gift of life", not yet jaded or corrupted. There are excerpts here which sometimes read like a tedious travelogue, of his shows worldwide. But, they are worthy reading overall because of his observations about people, politics, and the publics reaction to what he was trying to say through his art. He hated the "business" end of the art world, but acknowledged it as a necessity, if you wanted your art to be seen. He especially viewed businessmen and politicians as inheritantly evil and corrupt, making the astute observation in 1987 that white men in particular use "religion and business as a tool to fulfill his greed and power hungry aggression..."Expansion", "colonization", "dominitation", are all filled with the abuse of power and the misuse of people." (Some things never change...) His very sensitive side can be seen in his reaction to the death of dear friend and mentor Andy Warhol. It is very moving, and pays tribute and appreciation to one of his first supporters. He believed in the good of SOME people, in a corrupt world, and in the hope of change for the better in mankind. His art was a reaching out, which he prophetically foresaw as outlasting what he always felt would be a short life. These journals are the entertaining account of the life of a very talented, very intelligent, dear man, and I feel they'd be an interesting read even if their author were anonymous.There are lessons here, and not just for art students. As he intended, his art is what remains. It has a universal appeal, it "speaks" to people everywhere, about life, war, technology, sex, in a language everyone understands. As he observed regarding his need to keep creating, even in the face of impending death... "Work is all I have, and art is more important than life."

"La Nuit Des Temps " is the most poetic science-fiction novel I've ever read! Unforgettable !

Like all French sci-fi, a very poetic read. The images described will stay with you. The science is dated but the fiction still works.

I read this young adult sci-fi/fantasy/romance while studying abroad in France recently, and enjoyed it immensely. Especially for non-native french speakers, the beginning can be tedious, as it works to establish some scientific basis for what follows. Don't get hung up by the technical jargon (ie don't bother looking up words you don't know), the story transforms to become a beautiful love story accross the ages a casts a critical eye at civilization, inspired by the cold war era it was written in.

Sure to absorb you, despite the difficulty of reading in a foreign language. Bon chance et bonne lecture!

First off I want to say this book has been translated into English. The title is The Ice People. This is one of the greatest science fiction books of all time. I was forced to read it in 1985 in high school and now own 2 copies of it.

won't someone make this a movie or translate it so non french readers can enjoy it?
some modern day scientists find something nearly inexplicable deep in the ice. it builds non stop to a super climax.
wow. what a cool story. so much goes on, but you're always engrossed. his other books are great too.

When I left England to live in the United States for one year last August, there was only one book I took with me - Alistair Cooke's `Letter From America'. What else could I have taken? Cooke saw into America like no other Brit (or no other non-American, for that matter).

Starting at the mid 1940s, the book winds its way through post-war America nearly right up until the authors death in 2004, picking out the best of his weekly broadcasts. The subject matters range from politics, history, current affairs, entertainment and the topics from the New England fall, jazz, Robert Kennedy's assassination and O.J Simpson.

But it is not the subject matter that makes this book so special (for we already know about most of them anyway) it is none other than Cooke's insight and writing style. The articles flow like the finest novel or poem (which is probably attributed to Cooke's background in theatre). Each time you come back to read the book again it feels as though you are receiving the opinions of a familiar friend, and not some distant journalist.

There are drawbacks. Cooke was often criticised, and quite rightly so, for ignoring the darker side of the American dream. The other possible drawback, depending on your viewpoint, is that Cooke was a committed conservative, especially in the latter half of his career. Many of the final articles from the late 90's and early 00's lament the current position of America and (what he saw as) the sliding standards of journalism. Maybe, but you also can't help feel that he was by this point slightly out of touch.

These minor quibbles, however, cannot undermine Cooke's overall achievement of helping us better understand this important nation, which could be described as love letters to America.

Alistair Cooke is an observer of the American social fabric, of our heros, of our blemishes, of our short history and sense of place. His first hand accounts of American and Americans is not unlike a nation looking at itself in a mirror. He is at times generous with his observations. At other times he is very British in his ability to be critical with a smile. He can describe a familiar person and make us see the person anew. The book is a pleasure to read, each chapter a new adventure of wit and insight. He wanders a bit but his style makes you enjoy the journey and look forward to the next excursion.

For many years I listened to Alistair Cooke's ' Letters from America'. The calm, erudite voice , the super- civilized tone , the suggestion of great intelligence somehow always promised to provide insight into America that no one else had. The British Tocqueville of the airways who knew more about the Americans than the Americans knew about themselves.
Yet somehow I more often than not felt a certain disappointment in the communications. Reading them without the Cooke tone and pause, without his special emphasis diminishes them further. There is it seems to me a great deal of observation and color , and not enough striving for deep general understanding.
And there is too in the calm of Cooke's tone something strange and distant.The many rich voices of America, its ways of shouting and making itself felt are not transmitted strongly here.
Nonetheless in close to sixty years of reporting there are numerous insights and observations and much that entertains.
I think of Cooke's elegy for his old friend Isaiah Berlin. I think of reports made from all kinds of whistle stops on Presidential campaigns. I think too of his capacity for friendship, and how that does move through these letters and give them a warmer feeling of comraderie.
I think also of Cooke's basic real affection for America, his interest and appreciation of much what is good and beautiful in it.
I think too of how many listeners he delighted with his wit, and dry humor and clear - cut language.
This is a lifetime work of special meaning and value for the many thousands who waited each week for those fifteen minutes of his often most delightful and insightful talk.

Alistair Cooke's wonderful Letter from America broadcasts were heard world-wide and were an institution for close to 60 years. In that time, Cooke - UK born but for most of his life a resident of New York City - sought through his thoughtful pieces to convey the complexity of life, of society and of politics in the United States.

In this collection of essays, organised chronologically, Cooke takes us from post-war America through to mid 2005, and his subject matter ranges from the specific relatively "small" topics (for example McLaren's dogged creation of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park) through to large, world-changing subjects including the Vietnam question and the assassinations of both John and Robert Kennedy. The latter is a riveting account because Cooke was there when it happened and his journalistic and observational skills come through as finely honed, dispassionate yet all the more powerful.

What gives this volume real richness are two things in particular.

First; Cooke has an unfailing grasp of history. In writing each week's snapshot of a changing nation, he manages to contextualise what he sees, and to draw upon both his enormous grasp of history and his unparalled contact with top politicians, writers and artists over 60 years. In today's age of soundbyte editorializing and glib simplifications (history seen through the eyes of Forrest Gump, if you will), Cooke's essays are thoughtful, well researched and highly reasoned. As a reader I'm struck by how prescient his comments are, and I'm also struck at how relevant his thought provoking comments about previous political events resonate in today's unfolding history.

The second facet of this rich gem is Cooke's beautifully crafted writing style. He wrote these essays for radio and perhaps this is why they read so beautifully. In his portrait of Charles Lindbergh, for example, he talks about the man for 500 words - creating a vivid, recognisable picture before he even mentions the name of his subject. In so doing, Cooke furnishes the reader (or listener) with the frisson of a delightful guessing game (he's talking about Lindbergh, right?) that allows us to hear more about the subject matter without letting us backfill the story with our own preconceptions. His humour is delightfully wry, and his ability to choose surprising and sometimes quite earthy quotes from the history makers of the past 60 years provides additional pleasure. Cooke clearly laboured over each and every essay to ensure their seamless recipe of wit, fact and observation.

This volume is a remarkable collection of essays: a format that encourages thoughtful, enjoyable bedside reading. In devouring this marvellous book, you are taken to the heart of a complex nation. An easy 5 stars; I'd add that this book makes an excellent gift, regardless of which way your friends vote.

When I left England to live in the United States for one year last August, there was only one book I took with me - Alistair Cooke's `Letter From America'. What else could I have taken? Cooke saw into America like no other Brit (or no other non-American, for that matter).

Starting at the mid 1940s, the book winds its way through post-war America nearly right up until the authors death in 2004, picking out the best of his weekly broadcasts. The subject matters range from politics, history, current affairs, entertainment and the topics from the New England fall, jazz, Robert Kennedy's assassination and O.J Simpson.

But it is not the subject matter that makes this book so special (for we already know about most of them anyway) it is none other than Cooke's insight and writing style. The articles flow like the finest novel or poem (which is probably attributed to Cooke's background in theatre). Each time you come back to read the book again it feels as though you are receiving the opinions of a familiar friend, and not some distant journalist.

There are drawbacks. Cooke was often criticised, and quite rightly so, for ignoring the darker side of the American dream. The other possible drawback, depending on your viewpoint, is that Cooke was a committed conservative, especially in the latter half of his career. Many of the final articles from the late 90's and early 00's lament the current position of America and (what he saw as) the sliding standards of journalism. Maybe, but you also can't help feel that he was by this point slightly out of touch.

These minor quibbles, however, cannot undermine Cooke's overall achievement of helping us better understand this important nation, which could be described as love letters to America.

Having read all of Ron's works, and anxiously awaiting future publication of his fantasy trilogy, I have to say that this book is probably my favorite of all his books.
It allows us a glimpse of his soul, from hurt and lonely when he's left by his 14 year partner, to an optimist looking at the best in the people around him when he escorts an elderly man on his farewell trip to relatives before he dies and staying with 2 HIV-positive young men on a primitive goat ranch.
His description of the New Mexico landscape approaches poetry at times, and his love for his parents is tender.
He only briefly describes the newest segment of his life, and I hope that he follows this work (and My Year of Living Heterosexually) with a sequel. It will be eagerly read by those of his readers who enjoy his writing and want to know more about him.

I have been following the writings of Ronald Donaghe for many years, from his first novel, Common Sons, to essays that have appeared in Hometowns and Member of the Family. But here, in this one volume, I finally got to meet Mr. Donaghe, during a time in his life when he was deeply hurt; yet all of his essays (whether about his pain or his family) reveal a rare optimist. I came away from this collection of Mr. Donaghe's essays committed to my own self-renewal, by following his lead: one must examine oneself as a gay person, in context to one's roots, one's family, and ultimately one's sexual morality. Mr. Donaghe, an author, is filled with love for his family and the love for truth (as it affects him), and gives one a sense of strength, even when in deep psychological pain. Read it, treasure it. Tell everyone you can about this rare gem of a book.

Most gay readers know Ronald L. Donaghe for novels that explore gay issues, especially his bestseller Common Sons. However, many of his readers have also discovered his autobiography: My Year of Living Heterosexually...and Other Adventures in Hell. I also suggest that book, but Letters in Search of Love...and Other Essays offers a probing look at various other times in his life, finding wisdom, insight, and sometimes humor from those moments. The fact that he wrote the essays at various times allows him to look back more introspectively, discovering and re-discovering the full impact of those moments on his life.

In this collection of richly detailed and reflective prose, Donaghe constantly stresses the importance of learning from one's family and one's experiences, which makes the essays themselves so much more than just true stories from a fiction writer. Like one of the other reviewers here at Amazon, I found the tribute to his parents especially touching.

You'll share in Donaghe's surprises, disappointments, and personal growth. Though being gay and breaking up with his first lover both affect much of the writing, these essays should appeal to anyone, gay or otherwise, who likes thoughtful, well-written prose that analyzes an individual life. In that analysis, Donaghe finds reasons to keep living, loving, and writing, while you will find reasons to keep reading this truly gifted writer.

Mr. Donaghe has given us an intriguing look into his life, during a time when he was back at home with his parents, hurting from the demise of a long relationship; and yet, shows us how he was able to recover himself and learned to value family. These essays are of pain, as well as healing; disappointment, as well as triumph. Donaghe is a teacher and should serve well as a role model for gay men who fit in to their families and communities. I recommend this work without reservation.

"Letters in Search of Love and Other Essays" by Ronald L. Donaghe is a wonderful collection of essays that are filled with love, hope, despair, some anger, adventure, realizations, relationships, and the importance of a family's love and support. It may be a thin book to the naked eye, but it is thick in content, wit, wisdom, and humor. This small book is so full of what life is all about, what is really important, that you are happy to be along for the ride, picking up bits of advice that may apply to your own life, as you go along.

Donaghe takes us on an adventure from the depths of despair, over the break up of a fourteen year old relationship with a man he thought he would spend the rest of his life with, to the renewal of hope that, time, experience, strong family ties, and connections with other people--even strangers, brings. "Letters in Search of Love" is an open and honest account of a young man's feelings and experiences during a difficult time in his life.

This true story makes the reader feel privileged to be allowed into the private mind of the writer while coming to the realization that we are not as unique as we thought. We often share the same feelings, emotions, and thoughts, and because of this, we need each other, and there is a strong connection to one another.

In response to the pain, sorrow, and possibly even depression, Donaghe posts a letter in a rural gay magazine, RFD, in hopes of finding love or at least to connect with other people with similar circumstances. The responses he receives all help him through his healing and he summarizes some of them from the most poignant to the most absurd. Most importantly he shows that it is through human contact that one can heal thy soul, and be able to move on, and hopefully find love again.

As an adult, he went back home to live with his parents and to help them in their failing health--only to be healed himself by their unconditional love and understanding. He does not regret for a moment this dark period in his life since he was able to "rediscover" his parents and appreciate all they had unselfishly, sacrificed and done for him, and his five siblings, even helping friends, extended family, and strangers alike. They were excellent role models who helped shape the person Ronald Donaghe is today.

My favorite essay is, "The Healing Place" because it is a beautiful tribute to his parents and shows his roots. Any parent would be proud to call Ron Donaghe their son, and his words and actions are the best thank you they could receive, for raising him right.

Donaghe's essays show a kind and intelligent man who may not be wealthy in worldly possessions, at this stage of his life, but is wealthy in what is most important in life, and that is love, caring, compassion, and appreciation for nature and the simple pleasures in life. This is a man whose belief in equality for all human beings regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation, is best expressed in his essay, "The Old Man and St. Louis", when he compares the plight of gays to that of the Negro slaves. It was an excellent analogy--worth reading and thinking about. In this essay he describes his employment by a sick old man, as his chauffeur, driving him from New Mexico to Missouri, for his last trip to visit his family.

Other essays in this book include: "My Sister and I", about his loving relationship with one of his sisters; "AIDS in Paradise", about his adventure working on a goat farm where he was able to strip down all the conventions of modern living and get back to the bare bones of nature, gaining both inner and outer strength; and "Deming, New Mexico", where the reader gets to happily share Donaghe's joy and excitement of having his first book published, and coming out of the closet to his hometown. Best of all, the people in Deming didn't make too much of a fuss about his being gay, and they celebrated his book, even if they weren't thrilled with the gay theme. If it bothered them to know he is gay, they didn't let on. He learned he would always have a place to come home to.

"Letters in Search of Love" just reaffirms my love for the fiction and non-fiction written by one of my favorite authors, Ronald L. Donaghe. He teaches many valuable lessons and even though he posted on his website that you could read this book without purchasing it, I recommend buying this book at any price. It is worth the money--and for the most return on your investment, lend it to a friend.

This is the funniest book I've ever read, heck one of the funniest things I've ever seen, read, or heard. Buy this book and you won't regret it.

I got the book about a week ago and I haven't been able to put it down. It's funny and I just love it! These guys are great! This is such a great book for college students. Wait, a great book for everybody. Yeah!

I recommend this book for everyone who has a sense a humor and for those who don't have a sense of humor, you'll get one. Believe me. You'll love it. It is incredible how every day things can be turned into something special.

This book is great for anyone out there who is tired of the same old thing. I felt like my life was bad but when I read this book, my life looked so much better. I love how they turn an everyday thing into an adventure. Who knew getting locked out of your car can be so funny!!! I recommend everyone who has a sense of humor to get this book...NOW!

i LOVE THIS BOOK, IT ACTUALLY MAKES ME WANT TO READ!
EVERYONE READY PAGE 53!!!!!! IT'S THE BOMB!!!!!!
CONGRATS!!!!! TO ALL YOU GUYS FOR WRITING YOUR BOOK.

Maeve Brennan was born in Dublin, which she wrote about in "Springs of Affection," a book that the editors at Amazon named one of the best of 1997. She came to the US when she was 17, and in her 30s hooked up with The New Yorker, for which she wrote the 50-odd sketches about daily life in Manhattan that are collected in "The Long-Winded Lady."

Where the Dublin stories are savage studies of failed marriages, these New York sketches are gentler in tone, more wistful and blue. Brennan, the "I" of all these pieces, eavesdrops on conversations in the bars, streets, and hotel lobbies of the seedier parts of Times Square and the Village. Her vivid, precise reports are then fleshed out with sepeculations, opinions, and little autobiographical details that reveal her own humorous, melancholy sensibility. The book ends up being not just an incomparable time capsule of the city of the 1950s and '60s, but also a self-portrait of one of its many silent "travellers in residence," a somewhat timid, ultra keen-eyed, super-sensitive exile trying to keep her bearings in an often inhuman metropolis. Brennan is never precious, never self-pitying. And there's not a dull or cloying or lame sentence in the book. "The Long-Winded Lady" is a small masterpiece, and both it and "Springs of Affection" are not to be missed.

This exquisite book of short essays is for you. She captures New York of the `60s in her highly focused vignettes. A long-time writer for The New Yorker, these sketches were featured in the "Talk of the Town" section of the magazine always beginning with "Our friend, the long-winded lady, has written us as follows:" I always looked forward to them and vaguely thought the author was likely to be a well-heeled matron of impressive family lineage with a flair for turning words. My impression was totally incorrect. Ms. Brennan emigrated from Ireland at age 17, never had much money or security and viewed herself as "a traveler in residence."

She gave personalities to streets, buildings, and stores as well as people. " Sixth Avenue possesses a quality that some people acquire, sometimes quite suddenly, which dooms it and them to be loved only at the moment they are being looked at for the very last time." Her focus is keen and unblinking, but she sometimes infuses the scene and the people with the magic of her imagination. Her word portraits are so incisive, I often felt that I was sitting beside her seeing a man "morose and dignified, as though humiliation had taken him unawares, but not unprepared."

There is a certain sadness and loneliness in Ms. Brennan's peripheral outsider remarks, but you never feel pity only admiration for an author that always looks outward to keep from looking inward.

I am so impressed with this book. Brennan's eye for detail, her descriptions of New York, her own loneliness are written in prose that any writer would envy. I have recommended this book to a couple of friends and also will suggest it for my bookclub. Brennan's writing sometimes reminds me of an Edward Hopper painting-the way she captures the light from a room across the way, her observations of situations in restaurants, hotel lobbies, and subways. I read somewhere that she had a terrible breakdown and her last column was written in the early 80's. After that she was seen wandering the streets of NY. I bought this book on a recommendation and never expected to be so moved. Also the book brings the reader back to the 60's.

Maeve Brennan's book is a collection of perfectly polished little gems. Writing just doesn't get any better than what you'll find here. "Howard's Apartment" is a piece that you won't just read; you'll also see, hear and feel it. Follow this wonderful writer as she leads you through a New York City that no longer exists.

She is a marvel, a gem. Each of these little expositions is so rich... You're walking down a street, when suddenly, gracefully, she turns a corner and glances into a window of our common soul, and describes what is reflected therein. Her observations are touching, without maudlin sentiment, dead-on accurate, and her language clear and hard. It is more a book about New Yorkers than New York; what I mean is that there is a certain approach to life that is genuinely cosmopolitan without being especially clever or reckless or cute, and we who love reading have a deep affinity for the well-tempered, understated observation that Maeve Brennan perfected. This is one of the two or three best reading experiences I've had all year.