Kansas Books

Henry Matthews is working on a prestigious career at a top lawyer firm in Chicago. He gets a call to come back home to read a will his father put together 25 years ago. At first, he goes down to just read the will but soon it becomes more than just that. The son Roger wants to contest the will. Henry begins to doubt what he wants to do in life. He doesn't want to see the person who benefits the most to get hurt because it was not only a shock to the town but to Henry as well when it came to who was named. So will he give up everything he has worked hard to get or will he just let things go and continue on with his life?

Reed Arvin is a fabulous writer. The story dragged in places but once everything was known about the connections that were made 25 years ago and all the players involved I had to find out what was going to see if justice would prevail. He is able to write very suspenseful scenes that make you turn the page. I was surprised how corrupt the town in the book is made out to be even though he did fictionalize it. I know there are people out there that are similar to the characters in the book but it still shocks me.

I really felt for Henry. He not only had to deal with his past but he had to learn to work through it. He had some tough decisions to make and figure out what was really important to him. There was someone helping him through the entire process and that was Amanda Ashton. I really liked her because she was fighting for what she believed in and showed him how good it felt to do so. Henry had to make the final decision but Amanda was there to support him when he needed her the most. Dealing with the skeletons in the closet is not an easy thing to do but Henry was a great man. He did have doubts but he made sure to call the one person who could help through it. I was really impressed.

In the beginning of the book, I was not sure if I would enjoy it. About half way through when the novel really started to pick up, I couldn't put it down. I give it a 4/5. I really enjoyed this book and will read more by this author.

I can take or leave legal thrillers but this is one I'll gladly take. "The Will" for me is like an episode of your favorite television drama; it is well written,suspenseful, and may actually stimulate you to stop and think about the author's message, even if it has been done before and you might forget it all by the time the next episode comes on.

The plot is not something all that new. A big city lawyer, who has placed greed above doing what is right or wrong, is drawn back to his small Kansas hometown to execute the will of the town's richest and most powerful man who passes away suddenly. A seemingly simple task becomes all too complex. Our hero not only has to deal with the secrets hidden within the townspeople but he must also deal with his own fight to recapture the hope and faith he abandoned years ago due to his own family tragedy. I don't think it will spoil the ending to mention that, much like a thousand movies and books, the lead character must ultimately do things against the personna he has built in order to find redemption.

I found the book moved well even if perhaps you have to stretch your imagination a bit when the characters who come along to lend help are a bit too perfect and analytical. It's as though they are there just to emphasize the moral conflicts the lead character is dealing with. I enjoyed some of the philosophical tidbits thrown in along the way but am wondering if others won't be skimming them to get back to the story.

The only reason for the 4 instead of the 5 stars was I agree with those that felt the book could have been a tad shorter. Other than that, I may check out other things Mr. Arvin has to offer.

Well, I can say that it was very interesting the first time around. This was a book that I thought could have been shortened by about 50 pages. Arvin loves to draw out the scene, sometimes tries a little too hard to slam his point home, yet makes for an entertaining read.

He takes Henry Mathews back to his hometown of Council Grove, Kansas. His job is to execute a will of Tyler Crandall. It gets much more personal than that! He has to deal with a grown up child in Roger Crandall. But that's not all! There he runs into Raymond Boyd, otherwise known to the people of Council Grove as The Birdman. Birdman gets most of Tyler Crandall's estate, and boy is it worth a lot! He appears to be a loony, preaching in the middle of the park with his pet bird that he simply calls, "Bird". We find out that there is a past and that there are secrets! Sleazy stuff going on in this neck of the woods, let me tell you. This kind of reminded me of watching something Hitchcock style. The suspense is very real, the people are very real, and the situation is all too real!

You can tell Reed Arvin has a message for people, yet not in a way that everybody will appreciate. If you can tolerate little things, then you can certainly accept "The Will" by Reed Arvin. In saying that, and considering his background, he walked the finest line you could, and he still succeeded. That took guts, but it could've been a fatal error! While it is good to have some brass in you, don't get too much, it could weigh you down in the end! When dealing with issues such as these, be certain of the foundation. That was what made this critical. Hopefully we'll see a true masterpiece from a work in the making. But in saying that, I'll be looking for more of his work!

THE WILL is a complex story that defies simple categorization. It is nominally a legal thriller; its title certainly reinforces that impression but little of the action actually takes place inside a courtroom. The legal maneuverings instead form the basis for a complex tale that is part mystery, part political intrigue, part romance, part religion and philosophy, and primarily a study of human relationships and psychology. If you enjoy simple mysteries and action thrillers, this storyline may be too complicated and slow moving for you. However, if your reading interests incline towards stories with a more leisurely pace and substantial character development, then I highly recommend this book. I decided to read it after immensely enjoying the THE LAST GOODBYE (review 2/17/2004) by this author. While this differed in many significant respects, I found it to be an equally compelling read.

Henry Mathews is a young associate at a prestigious Chicago law firm with a high powered partner as his patron. His drop dead gorgeous girlfriend Elaine is on an equally fast track at her brokerage firm. Together, they seem to be the prototypical unstoppable power couple with everything within their grasp. Suddenly an apparently minor detour appears in Henry's path; he is notified that Tyler Crandall, the richest man in his tiny hometown of Council Grove, Kansas has died and Henry feels dutybound to return to unseal and execute THE WILL. It had been prepared by Henry's father shortly before he and Henry's mother were killed in a tragic automoblie accident several years earlier; its contents have remained unknown to everyone except Ty Crandall and Henry's father until this moment. When Crandall's family (as well as the residents of the town and several powerfully and poitically connected Kansans) learn that the estate was left primarily to a local resident nicknamed The Birdman (Raymond Boyd), chaos erupts! Ty's son Roger wants to challenge the will, but can only do so at great potential cost to both his mother and himself. Henry is forced to confront his feeling about his father's relatively unsuccessful career and his loss of faith resulting from the accident. (Upon the death of his parents, Henry had immediately left the seminary where he had been studying.) He can still recall his fear of and fascination with The Birdman during his childhood days in Council Grove. Now he quickly has to determine if he should attempt to enforce the provisions of a will that makes a multimillionaire of an apparently crazy man who has spent most of his life in the town park with a huge bird as his only companion and who had no known contact with Crandall. (I found Raymond Boyd to be a wonderfully drawn character, the gradual insights provided into his seemingly mad ravings with spiritual overtones were very well handled.)

There are an several intertwined threads to the story; a full description would both be beyond the scope of this review and also impossible without spoilers. The reader is soon introduced to Amanda Ashton, whose efforts to convince the Kansas legislature that she should be allowed to investigate the environmental hazards which old oil wells pose to local groundwater has raised the ire of Carl Durand, a powerful state senator with ties to Crandall and his son Roger. How their lives all intersect become one of the major threads in this novel. Finally, as Henry attempts to balance his time in Council Grove with his job in Chicago, a crisis erupts which forces him to reexamine his goals in order to avoid his own potential "moral deconstruction". The latter part of this book gradually uncovers the mystery that has lain hidden below the surface of Council Grove for decades and caused the mental anguish of Raymond Boyd. It is about how the cancer of lies can kill souls and destroy lives, and major segments of the book involve Henry wrestling with the deep spirtual emptiness that followed his rejection of a role for God in his life following his parents' death. The author handles this element incredibly well and I believe that it is essential to the storyline and enhances the narrative, but it certainly separates this from the usual action thriller.

This is a powerful story of how Henry's attempt to find redemption and perhaps even salvation for Raymond leads to new insights into his own life as well. There are some characters here who are as complex as the story itself; the reader comes to appreciate their struggles to overcome the roadblocks put in their way and the costly mistakes which they have made. My only minor criticism/caution is that while the action is almost continuous and often compelling, there are so many elements to this tale that it takes quite a while for them all to coalesce. Although this book is very differnt in plot construction than THE LAST GOODBYE. I found it every bit as enjoyable. The philosophical discussion of the characters' lives and the role of their ethical choices was an integral element in the richness of both stories; the major difference was the central role which the element of spirituality played in this book.

Tucker Andersen

`The Will' was just plain painful. I don't often review books unless I have read the entire tomb from cover to cover. The only time I might put in my two cents worth is in a case like this. I really truly did attempt to get into the writing and story here, picking the book up before dropping it again in disgust. Eventually I made it a little over 100 pages in and by this point I realized that the author was intent upon his course and there was nothing left to do but abandon ship.

Booklist said that this work was on par with Grisham. And you know what, it is. I felt like Arvin was weaving a Christian tale of the little guy prevailing and finding himself again against the backdrop of his old hometown. The voice here was not even really Arvin's, but instead a sickly version of a Grisham mimic. Arvin creates a very motley cast of characters dealing with their own inner demons in such a false manner that it made me kind of sick. If people in rural Kansas are really so paper thin and stupidly moral as they are portrayed here in this book, I say lets nuke em before they cross pollinate with the rest of our country.

I shudder. This book was a nightmare for any self respecting fiction lover.

Following the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, the Beatles tried to assume control of their own careers and to promote other artists as well. Apple Records was one component of the impossibly utopian Apple Corporation developed to nuture aspiring artists. Despite the best of intentions, the business rapidly disintegrated into a state of anarchy and chaos as most costly socialist schemes are apt to do.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were not especially well suited to play at being business executives or philanthropists. During the course of these pages, the actual members of the Beatles, individually or as a group, turn up only ever so often, usually at press conferences and receptions. On a day to day basis, Derek Taylor, a former music reviewer, who became Apple's press secretary is holding down the fort while Apple hemmorhaged money left and right. Apple's ultimate failure hastened the dissolution of the Beatles as an amazing influential and successful pop group. The Fab Four went their own separate ways as solo artists and several members were estranged for years.

Despite some genuine talent, artists such as James Taylor, Mary Hopkins, and the group Badfinger were promoted by Apple, Apple Records produced only middling results apart from the Beatles franchise. Richard DiLello accepted a job as an intern and stayed on board until Apple closed up shop. He witnessed it all and records his kaliedoscopic recollections of a lengthy Roman saturnalia.

Afterwards, there was only sweeping up and chartered accountant work left to do.

I've read a lot of the Beatle books. This is actually one of my favorites in that it kind of captures the spirit of the times. More about Apple than the Beatles but when they do pop in the office, it's interesting. It's really a unique perspective and just a fun book to read.

As you read this nostalgic artifact of a bygone era you realize that the author really never met or got to know any of The Beatles! So anyone looking for that kind of intimate insight into these artists' lives at this turbulent time is out of luck. The closest it comes is an in-depth portrayal of the charismatic Derek Taylor, The Beatle's legendary press agent. Also, unfortunately (but possibly for legal reasons) the author provides pages of dialogue without ever identifying who is saying what! I know, I know, you're ready to kiss it off. But taking its weaknesses in stride, if you want a fly-on-the wall, somewhat sly account of the day in and day out weirdnesses at Apple's 15 minute empire, then you'll have a jolly good time with this one.

This is an excellent memoir of the author's times in the Beatles Apple corps press office from 1968-1970. It successfully evokes - albeit somewhat crazily - the highs and lows of the Apple corps ideals and attempts at helping impoverished artists along. Funny and sad, cleverly written, evocative of the times, with a few Beatle anecdotes thrown in for good measure. Dilello especially provides a brilliant portrait of Beatles and Apple press officer Derek Taylor, and describes as well briefly some of the other Apple execs like Neil Aspinall, Mal Evans, Peter Brown and nasty Allen Klein. Reproduces contemporary news accounts to highlight big events, and has a decent chronology at end. Wally Podrazik's preface adequately describes the purpose of the book - - to give Americans a feel of the Beatles in London during the Apple period, which Mr. Dilello does very well here. Recommended!

Of all the Beatles books I've ever read, this one is hands-down the oddest. Not an exhaustively checked fact fest, but more of a space cadet memoir, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Richard Dilello was the "house hippie" at the Beatles Apple offices, a position that allowed him a ringside seat for what had to be one of the most entertaining, misguided, and heartbreaking business ventures ever conceived. It has its moments, quite a few of them actually, but the whole thing is awash in a tide of sadness because we all know how things turned out in the end.

When I saw this book had been built on two chapters that Bronte' never had the chance to expand, I decided to read it as itself, without expectation of hearing the author's true voice as it exactly was. Some of the coincidences are too neatly wrapped up (the reappearance and eventual real death of Finch, anyone?) The descriptions of deprivation and poverty are sometimes difficult to stomach, especially in terms of the children who suffer in them. It would have been interesting to see the where Bronte's interest in social conditions would have lead if she had lived a bit longer. Emma is an attention-grabbing character, with her intelligence and resourcefulness. I agree there are a lot of parallels to A Little Princess, and I think that she may have been more multi-dimensional if the author had departed more from the riches-to-rags-and-locked-in-the-attic pattern. Overall, you probably won't find this book on a list of required reading for a college Victorian literature course, but it was an enjoyable read during my breaks at work.

I love the Victorian era and this book provides a wonderful glimpse into its underside. The intricate plot keeps both readers and main characters discovering and learning.

Highly Recommended.

James Conroyd Martin, Author of PUSH NOT THE RIVER
Push Not the River

I like the novels of Clare Boylan ("Holy Pictures"--her first novel was a bit overstuffed and almost crazed in its scope, but it was memorable and a page-turner nontheless.) In "Emma Brown," Boylan takes 20 sparse pages of notes from Bronte for a novel that was fated never to be written and she fleshes it out. It doesn't read at all like Bronte; the crisp prose is missing and this is definitely in Boylan's more ornate voice.

Emma Brown is about a girl with a mysterious past and it takes us through the seamiest parts of London. This departure from Bronte's usual venues of rural town life are excused by letters written at the end of Bronte's life where she has clearly expanded her horizons beyond Haworth as a celebrated writer. Emma is a bit like all Bronte's characters, alone in the world, with powerful figures in the background and always searching for true love and a way to maintain integrity in the face of severe trials and temptations.

As a gothic novel, this has a lot of merit and is a very fine novel. What is really uncanny, however, is that the beginning of the novel is almost a copy of "The Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The treatment of the show pupil at a ladies' seminary and the soon-to-be-destitute heiress's ornate wardrobe is amazingly similar, and her treatment by the tough-minded headmistress and proprietress of the seminary is right out of that famous children's classic.

I didn't find the Bronte voice, as some have, in this book except right at the beginning (possible the 20 pages Bronte actually did write0 but it doesn't matter. As a novel set in Victorian days, it's wonderful enough and despite some melodrama, well-written.

I was very intrigued with the idea of this book and the task that Ms. Boylan was undertaking. And I have to say she started off beautifully. She is obviously familiar with Bronte's style and rythm. However, the final few chapters diverge slightly, almost as if Ms. Boylan is tired of writing as Bronte and decides she wants to give the book a 20th or 21st century feel. The style changes, the scenarios and the way the characters interact with each other is suddenly different. She also wraps up the ending a little too neatly. All that was missing was a big fat bow on it.
Overall, the book was an enjoyable read, but by the end, I could only roll my eyes at how neatly all the characters were tied to each other.

In EMMA BROWN, author Clare Boylan takes two chapters of an unfinished novel left behind by Charlotte Bronte and turns them into a complete novel. In doing so, she incorporates other pieces of Bronte's writing, including a short story published by her husband after her. The result, while perhaps not what Bronte herself intended (we'll never know), is a rich, multi-layered novel that makes for an engaging read.

The novel's title character, Emma Brown, is introduced early in Bronte's opening chapters as Matilda Fitzgibbon, a young girl of about 13. Her background lies in shadow, although it soon becomes clear that she is not who she was pretending to be at the small, exclusive school for girls where she was residing. However, something about Matilda (later Emma) intrigues a local gentleman, William Ellin, who agrees to help her discover her way. He enlists the assistance of his friend and local widow, Isabella Chalfont (who also serves as the book's narrator).

In an effort to draw Emma out, Mrs. Chalfont shares her own experience as a young girl; later, the reader gets a glimpse into Mr. Ellin's past as well. Then, as Emma's own history unfolds, we begin to learn that these three stories are surprisingly connected. Boylan's plot definitely becomes a bit TOO coincidental at this point, but by then, I was so engrossed in the lives of these three characters that I didn't mind. Although I can't vouch for whether this book will please fans of Charlotte Bronte, I do think that most fans of historical fiction would enjoy it, and thus I would not hesitate to recommend it.

I truly enjoyed reading this book. Ms. Skiba takes the time to describe a completely different perspective on the weeks and months leading up to the invasion of Iraq and the invasion itself. This is a memoir of her time in Iraq, not a book of the stories she wrote as a reporter. This allows her to shine a light on the often ignored experiences of the soldiers when they are not in combat. The preparation, daily grind, and life of a soldier are laid out for the reader. She brings an outsiders view to the military and then allows the reader to follow her progression inside the days and lives of the men in the 101st. She is almost surprisingly blunt about her personal feelings, observations, and relationships, but the honesty is refreshing.

In 2007, it's difficult to remember the situation in 2003. Her focus and fear of weapons of mass destruction seems almost petty today, but thinking back, it was such a prevalent part of the build up and invasion, it's amazing to see the fear they struck in the men and women actually searching for them. From a journalism perspective, this event was arguably the defining moment in war reporting in the last 40 years. To watch Ms. Skiba's experiences as a reporter preparing for and entering war zone, and an awfully sandy one at that, were both different and new.

"Sister In The Band Of Brothers" is just one person's experience, but that experience is quite compelling and plenty funny. I'd strongly recommend this book, it makes for an overall great read.

After reading the Nathanial Fick book, I was starving for more on the Iraqi war subject. Skiba's book was more about her, and less about the war. I found the Evan Wright embedded reporter story to be far more interesting that Skiba's.

As I watched the "shock and awe" unfold on the news channels, knowing my husband would soon be heading up into Iraq, I never knew at that moment there would be someone amongst my husband and his fellow commrades who would be the link between us at home and our loved ones "over there". As the weeks went by, I discovered that there was a journalist by the name of Katherine Skiba who was telling the stories of our loved ones. This book was a great read. My husband was one of the soldiers within the battalion she was embedded in, and it was funny to read her take on some of the stories, that my husband had told me about. This book gave me more of an idea of life out there, in ways that my husband wasn't able to explain to me, for different reasons. Thanks Katherine!!

In Sister in the Band of Brothers, author Katherine Skiba emerges as stronger and more tenacious than she perceives herself. A seasoned international journalist, she vividly tells of her adventures as an embedded reporter with the 101st Airborne. She relates the story of her participation in the landmark, but now familiar, program utilizing embedded journalists among the troops in the Iraqi war zone and the stories of those serving in the U.S. military around her. Skiba's writing is insightful, entertaining, and (thankfully) without political commentary. Beginning with her motivations and first inklings toward participation in the program, to journalist boot camp, to the distant and dangerous Iraqi war zone and home again, she skillfully exposes very human, intimate, and often humorous insights of herself and those she interacts with and observes. Skiba's lively memoir is a refreshing break from the typical highly politicized news of the war in Iraq that is de rigueur. Accolades to the author for leaving normalcy behind, embracing the discomforts, and accepting the risks that make our view of the war in Iraq from this vantage point possible!

Milwaukee journalist Katherine Skiba has a taste for adventure, so she volunteered to be part of the US Army's "embed" program. Following a tough mini-bootcamp and some immunizations that sounded worse, she became part of a military unit. She flew over with the soldiers. She ate and sometimes slept with them. And along the way, she wrote dispatches to her home paper.

Skiba's no heroic figure. She accepts a male comrade's offer to pack up her gear (and realizes she's got a stack of personal items sitting around). She smokes. She oversleeps. She goes overboard telling everyone she meets about a snake in her sleeping bag. And yet she manages to complete her mission successfully.

Skiba's midwestern Catholic background seems to help her fit in, although she reports clashes with mean officers and uncomprehending soldiers. At times she seems amazingly naive, as when she speculates that surely others havae overslept and broken rules -- there are so many regulations in this army! She told an off-clor joke, over and over, not realizing the full meaning till she got home and told her husband. And she was surprised to learn about co-ed sleeping arrangements.

She returns home, realizing she has a new perspective. Her husband's SUV smashed into her car? No big deal. A soldier's wife admires her looks and she says, "I didn't look like this in Iraq."

Skiba's book was published by a university press, which means the writing style comes across as more sedate than would be the case with a mass audience publisher, such as Harper's. I'd expect less verbosity from a journalist and perhaps a lot more stories.

But I admire Katherine Skiba for rising to the challenge. In my experience, adventure is something you're glad you did -- afterward. So I admire her for doing something I wish I could do myself...in my next lifetime.

Again, I will not give a synoposis of the story as it has previously done by
more literate than I. This is a delightful story, life of a girl-woman
alone since the age of 12 or so. She makes her way the only way she can and
she is still independent. She always has a bath at night, every night, and has
an eye out to better herself. What she does and how she does it is a story
worth reading and better than that-a story filled with laughter and giggles
and snorts of just plain hilarity. Give this book a try and I am sure
you will be reading the other two.

Set in the early American West, this book was enjoyable on so many levels. Was it a romance? Sort of, but it was also so much more. I laughed out loud at certain parts and was close to tears at others. Thanks to KG for recommending this one.

I've read a lot of her stories and have enjoyed them well enough to chance this one. Lots of clever make you "laugh out loud" lines. Lots of characters facing their own dilemmas all ending up in or passing through Lizard Flats. I truly enjoyed this book and hope you will too.

I enjoyed this book especially toward the end as the author tied all of the people together. It is especially funny (laugh out loud) in the last few chapters. And the sequel The Amen Trail is laugh till you cry from the very first chapter.

When I read the introduction to this book, I didn't think I would like it. I have just started reading Sharon Sala and really like her work. I made myself read this book. I read it in one afternoon. I laughed so hard in places I had tears running down my cheeks. It will be hard to find a book I will enjoy as much as this one. I purchased it in large print for my mother so she could enjoy it also. EXCELLENT READING!!!!!!!!

I read this book to learn the motives of those who risked themselves to shelter Jews in WW2 (a valuable subject) but was sadly disapointed. It's as readable (and interesting) as a telephone book.

Try Browning, Kuznetsov, Sereny, Rhodes, Hilberg, Wiesenthal, etc

I have long appreciated Martin Gilbert's works. His compendium of the Holocaust, titled "The Holocaust" in my opinion is one of the best works on the subject. This book may not be in the same league, but is of no less importance, for it focusses on the people who risked their lives to help the Jews in occupied Europe during World War Two.Some of the accounts are just mere sentences, but reading them all gives one a better picture of these heroes, many of whom were ordinary people who had everything to lose, yet through individual acts of heroism, made a difference in the lives of the saved Jews.

After watching the procession for Oskar Schindler's funeral, Gilbert is inspired to do more research on those who risked their lives, called the Righteous, to save to aid Jews in WWII. Extensive research in archives and interviews lead to short sketches of courage and rescue.

Gilbert divides the book up by geography which gives the book some order. Many of the stories of courage are very short and thus the number of them is overwhelming, at times you don't realize that he has shifted to another story. Another fascinating element of the stories is the various methods that were used to save lives. Some so ingenious and others so horrific you can't imagine how anyone could survive under those conditions.

This book is at turns a wonderful monument to those who risked everything to save others but in the end you are struck with the fact that every 100 saved from some town -- 1000's died. It is well worth the read but be prepared.

For the most part, this book bored me to tears. I did find the stories of the heroes whose selfless devotion to humanity portrayed to be moving and inspiring. These people have (or will have) a special place in Heaven, I am sure. Having lived most of my life among holocaust survivors and their children, I have heard and read alot of stories in several languages. These stories, while moving, I felt were quite boringly presented. I have read other works by Mr. Gilbert, and found this one extremely disappointing because of its literary style, although the content was o.k.

Martin Gilbert is the greatest historian on the subject of the holocaust out there, and is one of the most prolific historians of today.

In The Righteous, Gilbert describes the many cases of righteous gentiles, throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, who risked their lives and all they had to save Jews, many of them children, from certain death at hte hands of the Nazi killing-machine.
Gilbert describes the heroic actions of those brave and righteous gentiles, by region describing the action of the unsung heroes in Eastern Galicia, Vilna, Lithuania, Poland, Warsaw, Western Galicia, Germany and Austria, Central Europe and the Balkans, Norway, Finland and Denmark, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, Holland, Italy and the Vatican and Hungary as well as in the Camps and on the death marches.
In some cases, entire nations came together to say no to Nazi evil, and to save the Jews of their country.
Denmark, Bulgaria and Albania stand out in this regard.
Irene Grunbaum wrote in her memoirs that one day she would tell the world how the Albanians 'protected a refugee and wouldn't allow her to be harmed even if it meant losing their lives. The gates of your small country remained open, Albania. your authorities closed both eyes, when neccesary, to give poor persecuted people another chance to survive the most horrible of all wars. We thank you'.
Morechaie Paldiel writes that 'An overwhelming majority of the Albanian population, Muslim and Christian, gave refuge to two thousand Jews in their midst, resulting in the almost total rescue of the Jewish community'.
While Gilbers describes the hroism of the Danish and Bulgarian people, he does not write enough on the very special and noble roles, to save Jews, taken by King Christian X of Denmark and King Boris III of Bulgaria.
Despite the collaborators and local anti-Semites in these nations, whole towns and villages came togehter in some cases, in France, Belgium, Holland and Greece, to save their Jews from Nazi anihilation.
Nazi Germany's allies, Italy and Hungary rejected Nazi genocide of Jews, and did what they could to save the Jews. Italian occupied zones in France,the Balkans etc were safe zones for Jews. Only after direct Nazi ocupation were the Jews of these countries taken to the death camps. Finland also protected her Jews, and the neutral countries like Spain, Portugal and Sweden played a role in saving a number of Jewish refugees.

Many Jewish children were taken in by Christian families throughout Europe and looked after them as their own.
In Poland and the East, the penalty for just having contacted a Jew was death.
There are many accounts of the recue and care of Jewish children by saintly people and families, during the war.
I will mention a few of them.
*In the Novogrudok region (which is today in Belarus), one of those saved was a baby, Bella Dzienciolska. 'Her parents had entrusted her to a farmer to hide. She was blonde and did not look like a Jewish child, but at two years old she already spoke Yiddish. So the farmer made a hole under the floor and kept her there during the day for a year until she forgot to speak. He then took her out and told the neighbours that a relatives child was staying with them.'.
Bella Dzienciolska suvived the war, and fifty years later, returned to the farm, and found the hole under the floorboards where she had been hidden.

Other children were hidden and raised by nuns and churchmen, in abbeys, monasteries, churches and hospitals and schools run by the Church.
* In the small town of Licskowke, in Eastern Galicia, Father Michael Kujita hid eight year old Anita Helfgott, a fugitive from the ghetto of Skole, in his parsonage. Later a Catholic couple, Josef and Paulina Matusiewicz gave her sanctuary. She survived the war.

* In Czêstochowa, in Poland, Genowefa Starczewka-Korczak gave sanctuary to a little Jewish girl, Celina Berkowitz, shortly before her parents were killed. When the Nazis executed Genowefas husband she was forced to place her Jewish charge and her own two daughters in a Catholic orphanage. But each weekend she brough all three girls home.

* In the Siedlce region east of Warsaw, a poor peasant widow gave shelter to two Jewish girls, Eva, aged 11, and Batja, aged 5, sisters who had escpaed from the Warsaw ghetto and wandered for several moths through the Polish countryside.
Fearing betrayal, the peasant woman took Ester and Batja for sanctuary to Sister Stanislawa Jozwikowska, in the Heart of Jesus convent, near the village of Skorzec. 'I was dirty, ill, weak and full of lice' Batja recalled years later, 'The nuns washed me thoroughly, put me into soft pajamas and put me in a clean bed'.

Despite the convent being occupied by German soldiers, nobody knew of the girls Jewish identity except the Mother Superior, and
.Sister Stanislawa Jozwikowska. Sixty years after having been given shelter Batja recalled "Mother Superior Beata Bronislawa Hryniewicz healed me; she recovered my soul by great love; she pampered me as her own child; she dressed me nice and neat; she combed my hair and tied ribbons in my plaits; she taught me manners (she was from an aristocratic noble family). She was strict but fair with my duties; to pray, to study, to work on my character, to obey etc, but every step was with love, love love!'

Children, who were rescued by righteous gentiles, included Israel Lau, later Chief Ashkenazic rabbi of Israel, and Aharon Barak (out of the Kovno Ghetto in a suitcase as a child and hidden by a Lithuanian farmer), later President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995 until the middle of 2006.

Many people chose to help out of moral reasons or out of love for their charges. These people were Saints!
These stories are being re-examined at a time when some, like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad deny the Holocaust happened-while working to carry out a real holocaust against the Jews , while others forget history and aim to dismantle the Jewish State, built to a large extent by Holocaust survivors.

I think the best guide to this kind of thing is the conversation between Beelzebub and Satan in Book One of "Paradise Lost" by John Milton. Satan is quick to learn that even though they are in hell, they still have armies and can keep fighting. Citino notices things like when the Germans could not move as winter came in 1941, an order to retreat would have been impossible to execute, so Hitler's decision that the German armies would stay in place to have some kind of option hoping for rivers of oil in 1942 made the most sense.

World War II had some close things, but life is most interesting when people can reconstruct what went wrong with the best plans some people ever had in their entire life. Death was quite common in World War II, so I do not think that the title is too strong.

Along with the prequel of sorts, the GERMAN WAY OF WAR, Citano fully develops the mindset of the entirety of German military thought. As a prior reviewer mentioned, the maps need a little work, but that aside, this is top-notch military analysis. I'd suggest one read the GERMAN WAY OF WAR first, although DEATH OF THE WEHRMACHT can stand alone. Many core concepts, however, are introduced in the inital volume.

Finally, I would not suggest this for the novice reader. One needs a handle of the 'big picture' for all full appreciation of the scope of the work of both volumes.
Best...
Carlo DiVincenti
Metairie LA

This book tells the story of the German Wehrmacht's disastrous year of 1942 through a description of the fighting in N. Africa and in the southern part of the Eastern Front. The Eastern Front fighting includes Kharkov in May, the Crimea, Operation Blue in June/July, the advance to the Caucasus, and Stalingrad. The descriptions are more or less the standard ones, and I didn't find much new there. Throughout the book Mr. Citino shows how the German operational style was rooted in hundreds of years of Prussian and German military history.

The book has extensive notes, some over a page long, and it is obvious that the author is very knowledgeable about works published in Germany. These notes alone make this book valuable to researchers interested in WW II. On the other hand, there are few if any references to Russian-language publications, a serious deficiency given the number of military history book which are being published in Russia these days. This is a work of synthesis; I didn't see any primary sources in the notes except for memoirs.

Frankly, the thesis about Wehrmacht operations being a continuation of historical Prussian and German methods could have been covered in a journal article, and the operational descriptions are nothing new. The lack of original research and the absence of Soviet or Russian works is disappointing. I expect more from a university professor and professional historian.

This is a great book, it has tons of interesting facts. Its also very well written.

Regettably have to give what is otherwise an excellent contribution to
this subject 3 out of 5. The reason is the numerous typo errors throughout the book. Whilst this is only a niggling point for
buffs, it is not good enough for the student who is new to the subject.
This book deserves better treatment.

This was a poorly written piece of junk. The 2nd half of the story does not fit with the first half at all. It's like a completely different story. Andromeda's revenge is as cheesy as it gets. There is nothing even mildly creepy here. My father and I got more laughs out of listening to it than anything. At least it was only a quarter at a yard sale!

Not much to add to the other reviews...
I really enjoyed the 1st half but thought the 2nd half didn't really fit in with the rest of the story. Overall a fun read that I have recommended several times. 1st half of the book: 5 stars. 2nd half of the book: 2 stars. The biggest problem: this author hasn't written anything else since!!

A great book from the beginning to the very end. A poor family in Kansas with nothing to go on in their lives decides to stage a fall of their 8-year old son into a 90-feet deep shaft, so that they will get media coverage and support from people all over US. Instead of the son, their even younger daughter falls in. When she is rescued, she doesn't return as the same person, she brings something back with her. The family gets rich and Andromeda returns to avenge her fate along punish those who benefited from her tragedy. Dark, creepy, scary, gory... one hell of a book.

I'm not sure how I even got this book - I think maybe it was with some other ones I found at a yard sale. I liked Schenk's writing style and story line so much that as soon as I was finished with his book, I checked Ebay to see what else he had written. I was disappointed to find none.

i liked the book alot but i could have come up with a better endind despite that it was really good goes into good detail.

For a little over 9 months I have been working with a pastor team by the name of Joel and Kathy Davisson, (visit them at www.godsavemymarriage.com), and through their ministry my husband and I are braking the cycle of abuse in our marriage. The Davisson's highlightly recommend reading Paul Hegstroms books, "Angry Men and the Women Who Love Them" and "Broken Children, Grownup Pain".

Along with Both of Joel and Kathy's books "The Man of Her Dreams and the Women of His" and "Livin' it and Lovin' It", they are showing my husband and I how to have an outrageously happy marriage and to break the chains of marital frustrations!

Paul Hegstroms teaching at Life Skills showed Joel how to grow up emotionally and because of Paul's teachings, Joel and Kathy are showing thousands of other couples how to have the same kind of marriage that we all dream about.

Both my husband and I have met with and talk with the Davisson's on an almost daily bases and they are real people who just want to help couples. They are NOT in this ministry for the money, they are in this to help men become Christlike husbands and to teach them how to lay down there lives for there wives as Christ did for the church.

Because of their teachings and Paul Hegstrom's teachings, my husband and I have found the answer to our prayers, and are thankful to God for bring these pastors into our lives, even at the darkest days, when I thought that my marriage was over for good.

Between emotional abuse, porn and affairs, I didn't think that my marriage would survive, let alone in 9 short months start to thrive and come alive again.

If you are looking for a way to save your marriage, then look no futher than Joel and Kathy Davisson! I have been where you are at, and if my husband and I can do this, Paul and Judy Hegstrom can do this, if Joel and Kathy can do this, and thousand of other couples can do this, then so can you!

This is a good book if you need awareness about the abusiveness in your marriage and how things should be in a marriage and the appropiate behaviors your husband should be asserting. At the end of the book it leaves you with little more than that and his advice is to leave. Unfortunately it doesn't help with the skills needed to CHANGE the relationship. I was helped a great deal more by You Don't Have to Take it Anymore: Turn Your Resentful, Angry, or Emotionally Abusive Relationship into a Compassionate, Loving One I feel like this book had some very good information about the abusive relationship, but left me feeling just as helpless as before.

It was Dr. Paul Hegstrom's teaching that changed our lives forever. In 1994, we were struggling in a ten year marriage that had lots of problems including abuse and adultery.

Dr. Hegstrom's teachings began the miracle that we needed in our life and marriage. The next ten years of our marriage were so wonderful that in 2004, we wrote our first book on marriage, "The Man of Her Dreams/The Woman of His!" Dr. Hegstrom wrote the Preface to the book.

Let Dr. Hegstrom's teachings change your life!

Order this book today! While you are at it, look at ours by clicking on The Man of Her Dreams The Woman of His! and The Man of Her Dreams The Woman of His 2 - Livin' It and Lovin' It! (Volume 2)

These books are full of help from a real couple who overcame adultery and abuse to experience an outrageously happy marriage utilizing the principles of Life Skills International which was founded by Dr. Hegstrom.

Joel and Kathy Davisson

The psychology in the book was excellent. I especially appreciated that it discussed both sides of the relationship. What I didn't like were the Christian references. It was very annoying and there were many pages that I completely skipped over because of the Christianity. If you can overlook Christian references then this book was very insightful and helpful to me.

An excellent book to help couples having anger issues. I was suprised to learn that I was angry (by definition) and that it is controllable (never thought so). It turned me round, made me face myself, in a similar way to an alcoholic.

I think every person who was born and raised in Kansas and Missouri should be required to read this book. Lots of history in it and very inspiring to know how these states history affects us all.

While it does assume you know a fair bit about the Civil War period in America (I didn't), this is a good solid bit of history. Good to see someone challenge the previous historical versions of Quantrill and his raiders.

Donald L. Gilmore's book is unadulterated rubbish. It is revisionist history at it's worst. His absurd exhortation that the Missouri guerrillas "were not ordinary men but members of the elite class of western Missouri," is utter nonsense. Perhaps what he meant to say was some of the guerrillas came from elite families. Quantrill, Anderson, and Todd certainly did not spring from the upper crust of society. Those Missouri guerrillas who did in fact come from elite families probably had more in common with Vice President Dick Cheney than with Quantrill. Like the VP during the Vietnam War, the elite guerrillas seem to have had "other priorities." I would think, that if they really cared about the war effort, they would have signed up for the Confederate Army. When a real Missouri elite, General Sterling Price, met Anderson for the first time, he was shocked and dismayed, and promptly sent Anderson away. Like most real Missouri aristocrats, Price wanted to maintain as much distance as possible from these reprobates. Gilmore's work ranks with those who would have us believe there were legions of Black Confederates and that the South was right. Simply stated, Gilmore's book does a great injustice to history.

Gilmore's book rightly covers the time period before 1861, as well as after, and he notes that history is written by the victors. But instead of offering a more balanced view of both sides of the border war, he becomes an apologist for the secessionists and rides the pendulum in swinging too far the other way. Of course, since I live in Lawrence, Kansas, I have a hard time feeling sorry for Quantrill! Gilmore's references to other conflicts in history don't always work, either. Instead of comparing Missouri bushwackers to U.S. troops in Vietnam, he should have referenced the VC and NVA. Gilmore's own ancestors may have worn blue, but he sees everything through gray eyes. This actually obvious in the title of the book, since it says the Missouri-Kansas border, instead of the more common and alphabetical Kansas-Missouri. Which came first - the border ruffians or the Jayhawkers?

[...]

CIVIL WAR ON THE MISSOURI-KANSAS BORDER, Donald L. Gilmore, Pelican Press, Gretna, LA, 2006, 376, $[...].

Donald L. Gilmore has written a vivid, enlightening account of events along the Kansas/Missouri border from 1854 to 1865. He discusses the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Compromises of 1820 and 1850, and other problems that led to the border conflict. This was a time that challenged men's souls as they experienced life and death in "Bloody Kansas" and in western Missouri's "Burnt District," and Gilmore describes it well.

Gilmore breaks new ground by offering a version of the border war from mostly the Missouri point of view. In doing so, he provides an in-depth study of why good men do bad things. The book highlights infamous Kansans such as John Brown, James Montgomery, Daniel Anthony (brother of Susan B. Anthony), James Lane, Charles Jennison, and the "Red Legs" whose solution to problems were to terrorize, murder, pillage, and burn (a practice otherwise known as jayhawking). Many of the Red Legs' actions (not unlike the exploits of Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun) would be considered war crimes today.

The book discusses law-of-war violations in Missouri, such as scalpings, the severing of extremities, executions of prisoners of war, illegal use of civilians on the battlefield, robberies, the burning of homes and businesses, and the round-up and confinement of insurgent families. According to Gilmore, these events help explain why William "Bill" Quantrill transitioned from a school teacher to a bushwhacker, and how he overcame his moral scruples to raid Olathe, Paola, and Lawrence--the latter resulting in the massacre of every townsman from 16 to 60.

Quantrill wasn't the worst of the lot: Many of his men considered his actions insufficient to stop the Union plague in Missouri and took it upon themselves to fix the problem. One Quantrill apostate, "Bloody Bill" Anderson, earned his nickname in 1864 by wiping out a 115-man Union force and by massacring 24 unarmed Union soldiers during a train robbery. Anderson's father had been killed by abolitionists, and in 1863 some of Anderson's sisters were killed and the others maimed in a make-shift Union prison. He was already a killer, but these events made Anderson psychotic. Frank and Jesse James, who were part of Anderson's party, learned devious lessons from him for their postwar careers as bandits.

Gilmore also provides insights into insurgency and counterinsurgency operations before and during the Civil War. The book discusses the tactics, techniques, and procedures of seasoned Civil War insurgents, the experiences they had and the lessons they learned during the first 2 years of the war, and how they developed into seasoned, hard-edged raiders.

In sum, Civil War on the Missouri-Kansas Border is a captivating account of western life during the violent years prior to and during the Civil War. A thorough, well-researched study of the realities of life during a particularly volatile time, it should appeal to scholars and laymen alike.

--MAJ Jeffrey Wingo, USA, Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas