Town Books

Now a staple by my bedside, this book offers a no-nonsense overview of moving to a small town. Ms. Rogak outlines the various types of towns, interviews successful transplants, unsuccessful transplants and others. Among the most valuable parts of the book are the checklists for moving. Her advice is practical and obviously well researched by her own experience. The ancedotes, checklists and other snippets of small town life make this book easy to pick up, open to any section and begin planning! Planning a move? Dreaming like me? either way this book is a "must have" guide!

The pressures of urban living at the turn of the millennium have generated a lot of romantic longing for a return to small-town America. Lisa Rogak's Escape to a Small Town! cuts through the day-dreaming and deals with small-town living in an honest way that creates an invaluable resource for anyone considering such a change of location and life-style. Rojak isn't wearing any rose-colored glasses.

Escaping to a small town in New England worked for Rogak--but she lets readers know why it might not work for them. For example, if you're a mechanical and home fix-up klutz, you better consider how you'll accomplish repairs and maintenance with a foot of snow on your dirt road and without a two-inch-thick urban yellow pages at your elbow.

She also emphasizes that all small towns aren't alike. A small college town three hours out of New York offers a living climate different from a dusty cowtown six hours from a small city. Her checklists of points to investigate and consider dramatically increase the chances that you'll select a small town that suits your needs and personality.

Although the book emphasizes New England in its examples and descriptions, the points it makes are just as useful for someone considering a move to southern Oregon or the lakes region of Minnesota.

Beyond the choice of a town, Rogak suggests how best to introduce yourself to your new neighbors and adapt to the new lifestyle. Things to avoid get attention, too. For example, you may have a masters in public administration and years of local government experience as a citizen activist. But do yourself a favor and don't try to start running your new small town right away unless you want to be branded as some snob from the city who thinks he's smarter than the locals.

All in all, the simple economic return on this book -- money saved and problems avoided in relation to its modest price -- makes it a must-buy if even the slightest notion of a small-town move lurks in your heart or mind.

Many Americans dream of fleeing urban blight to a small town, but what is life in small town really like? Will someone who's used to the city enjoy a small town? And how does one find just the right small town?

Lisa Rogak answers these questions and more in ESCAPE TO A SMALL TOWN! She starts the reader with setting goals, choosing what *kind* of small town is best for you, how to find that town, and how to adjust to living there, including issues of employment, your kids, fitting in, and staying happy. Rogak also includes sections on what it's like to live in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Upstate New York--her end of the country, where many former urbanites head.

Rogak is careful, however, to not see small town life through rose-colored glasses--she points out (and includes examples of) different types of folks who think they might like small town living but turn out not to. After all, there are many advantages to living in a big city that just can't be found in small towns, like a wealth of shopping, plenty of jobs, and gourmet restaurants galore.

It's obvious that Rogak is writing from her head as well as her heart and truly wants to inform her readers and have them be happy with whatever decision they make. The book is written in a witty, folksy style that is easy to read and includes first-person accounts from others who have taken the plunge. Highly recommended for anyone who wonders what it's like to not lock your doors at night, to smile and chat with people in your local market, and to hear birds, crickets, and frogs rather than sirens, horns, and engines.

Kimberly Borrowdale Under the Covers Book Reviews

Escape to a Small Town, by Lisa Rogak

This is the ultimate "how to" book to assist you in creating a totally new life out of the congestion of the city or the daily urban/suburban stress grind.

It's been my wish to escape the constant traffic nightmares, the crime, the noise, and air pollution of the large metropolitan area I currently live. While I've toyed with various scenarios in planning my escape, until reading this book I was unable to combine my perceived needs with the realities of moving to a small town.

Of particular help is the classification system whereby small towns are categorized into three groups: a "drop out town," a "suburban small town," and a "small 'city.'" While the New England examples weren't particularly helpful, (since I have no idea what those towns are like) the descriptions helped me to categorize the possibilities on my list and better understand the implications of each choice.

With my better understanding and assessment of my needs, I now have much improved analytical tools to use as I research the various communities in the area that most appeals to me. While some of the methods were obvious (to me), the book suggests additional research techniques that will improve matching a community to my "ideal."

Further "frosting on the cake" are the several stories told of other "escapees" to small towns. A very enlightening description is the "Silicon Valley" couple's list of requirements they had for the "perfect" small town. (Having been employed in Silicon Valley myself, I can relate to their situation.) Unfortunately, the list of requirements are highly unrealistic. Simply seeing this list clarified my own unrealistic aspirations.

This book has given me the information and tools to work on my escape plan and give my plan a realistic chance at achieving the results that I want. It's probably saved me from either making a serious mistake in moving to a location that would prove personally disastrous (forcing yet another move) or continuing my life of 'quiet desperation' endured by living in one of the major metropolitan areas of the U.S.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who has had any "daydream" of escaping from the "big city." It just may help you turn your dream into a pleasant reality.

I like the way the author chose to frame the title in a positive Escape "to" instead of "from" (the big bad city). That and the fact that everything in the book forces the reader to understand not only the financial benefits of small town life, but the physical and emotional bonuses that come with slowing down and simplifying.

The list on pages 64-68 titled "Moving to a Small Town 101" is worth the price of the book alone (although I would retitle it "How to be a Human Being rather than a Human Doing")

A must read for anyone considering dropping out of the fast lane to smell the roses instead of the exhaust fumes.

This book takes me back to Sundays with my parents. Every parent will remember those times when their parents spent real, quality time with them. My kids really enjoy the story also, and while we're reading, we're getting in some real, quality time ourselves. Great Message!

I love this story and the pictures. I gave it to my husband for Father's Day. He really loves it too. Great message.

This book is a throwback to gentler times. My son thinks that the boy is him and the father is his own. It even looks like the two of them, and they have, indeed, gone to a diner together on occasion. Just a sweet story of a son anticipating the time he has with Daddy.

I checked this book out of the local library and my 3 year old daughter absolutely loves it. The story follows a weekly ritual between a father and his young son - they go to a neighborhood diner every Friday for breakfast, just the two of them [mommy and baby stay home] and along the way they pass by people in the neighborhood and observe the various activities that go on around them.

The illustrations are charming, and to me, nostalgic, as it brought me back to my own childhood when my mother used to take me to the weekly fresh market. The sights, sounds and smells of those weekly visits have remained with me to this day.

In its own sweet, simple way, this book reminds us of the importance of making time for our child/children in this constantly humming, busy world. Highly recommended!

Our 20 month loves this book. He asks for "Friday" every night. He likes to name the things happening on each page.

Joy's mom and dad have a divorce and every day she's at a different parent's house until she decides she wants to live her mom's full time. She thinks she'll have more freedom, with no one watching over her and it will be great-- or at least she thinks! Maya's trying to make a difficult choice. Can she make her oldest best friend Shana become friends with her new friends because friendships got to grow! Carolyn thinks that ever since mom dyed she thinks her dad is a miserable man with is just a little over-protective rules that force he to keep secrets then she finds out he's keeping secrets from her. There are three friends who are doing three different projects to do with three cameras sharing fun times, adventures, and even some bad times.

Joy's mom and dad have a divorce and every day she's at a different parent's house until she decides she wants to live her mom's full time. She thinks she'll have more freedom, with no one watching over her and it will be great-- or at least she thinks! Maya's trying to make a difficult choice. Can she make her oldest best friend Shana become friends with her new friends because friendships got to grow! Carolyn thinks that ever since mom dyed she thinks her dad is a miserable man with is just a little over-protective rules that force he to keep secrets then she finds out he's keeping secrets from her. There are three friends who are doing three different projects to do with three cameras sharing fun times, adventures, and even some bad times.

I absolutley love this book!It talks about problems every teen has.I really hope there is a movie.

I read this book and, although it may be boring at first it gets interesting. Really interesting. It tells the story from the view of three different girls, Carolyn, Maya and Joy.

Each girl is dealing with a problem:
Joy's parents are divorced and she wants to live with her mom full-time.
Carolyn's father is acting strange. Is he keeping secrets from her?
Maya's old best friend Shana is angry that Maya's spending time with Carolyn and Joy.

This book was great. Very realistic as the three girls deal with their problems... together. Plus, they're doing a photography assignment which leads to trouble... for all of them.

Theft, Lying and Secrecy from three girls. What will happen?

Maya, Carolyn, and Joy are best friends. They are three friends who are doing projects with cameras, sharing fun times, adventures, and even some bad times.
Joy's mom and dad were divorced. Now she can't stay at just one place because her mom and dad live in separate houses, so every day she's at a different parent's house. Then she decides she wants to live at her mom's full time. She thinks she'll have more freedom, with no one watching over her and it will be great-- or at least she thinks!
Maya, tries to make her oldest friend, Shana, become friends with her new friends, Carolyn, and Joy, because friendships got to grow!
Carolyn thinks that ever since her mom died, her dad is a miserable man, and has over-protective rules that force her to keep secrets. Then she finds out he's keeping secrets from her.

I agree with all the previous reviewers, this is indeed a beautiful book. I could hardly put it down and stayed up late at night reading it. I was anxious to finish it to see how everything turned out and now wish I could still be reading it - I miss all the characters as if they were people I knew. I had just returned from my first trip to Ireland this past summer and was looking for movies and books set in that beautiful country. I found the movie "Falling for a Dancer" and liked it so much I looked for the book. I now want to read the rest of Diedre Purcell's books. She is a talented writer.

I saw the movie and fell for Liam Cunningham and am now looking for my Mossie Sheehan. I am not much for the romantical farce normally, but this one caught my eye and heart. I am also looking for a copy of the movie.

From beginning to end, I found this book truly enthralling. I absolutely adored it. I could not at all put it down. The story is in depth and right at the heart of conflicts of emotions. The characters are lovable and realistic. It is full of heart ache, joy, love, romance, modern dilemas and sex. What else does one need from a book?

My advice to any hopeless romantic is to read this book, and maybe even then, buy the video. Even if you have already seen the video, it is worth reading the book. The plot is a lot thicker and more enjoyable!

Falling for a Dancer is the first Deidre Purcell novel I had read. I bought it after having seen the movie; which by the way is also very good. I was immediately taken with the very difficult living conditions in post WWII Ireland. I hadn't realized hard the Irish worked just to have enough food for the many mouths at the table. The leading character Elizabeth is a credit to her heritage. I admired her sense of commitment, yet she wrestles with her strong, youthful sensuality. This book tells as much about life as it does about living. Gals, if you want a well developed story line with well-written sexuality and romance, this is your book. I now have a complete library of Purcell's works. As the previous reviewer said, this book is known by two titles, Ashes of Roses, and in the US, Falling for a Dancer. It is a novel I will read again & again. Even with its pathos and often heart wrenching tragedy, it is definitely a book you will not want to pass by.

Have you ever wondered what life would have been like if a certain event in your life had never occured?To read this novel is to read about the life of some one like that. If the bus had never broken down Elizabeth(Beth) would never have met George and her life wouldn't have been changed for the worse. It is the 1930's and Beth is living in Cork with her parents. She is after arriving home from a trip to Dublin with her friend Ida, but she has a deep secret that no one must know - she is pregnent and has only two choices- leave home and move into a home run by the nuns for unwed mothers or to marry... After a horrifying visit to the nun-run home Beth solomly decides to marry. The match is made for her, she is to wed a resently bereaved man named Neeley Scollard. After a quiet ceremony Beth is brought home- not to Cork but to her new home in Beara on the west most tip of Dingle where she is met by her new daughters.Beth has a son whom she calls Francey. Straight away it is obvious that Neeley is a strict man- all of his family fear him. Neeley's cousin Mossie is a decent type of person but Neeley maintains that Mossie is a land-grabber and that he and his family are to have nothing to do with him. After a dance Neeley losses his temper and hurts Francey, that night while Beth is in Cork hospital with Francey, Neeley dies. Everyone suspects that young Danny Mc Carthy has murdered him- noboby knows. After many years of heart ache and turmoil Beth wants to leave Beara but finds it too hard to leave. Mossie trys to win her heart but ............. You don't think that I'm going to tell you the whole story? If I did where's the point in reading the book? Deirdre Purcell is the best in a new type of writer. She is able to pull you into the story and into the lives the characters. I really enjoyed this book- I've read it God knows how many times. I have found that I hate to put this book down when I'm reading it. If you want to read more about the Scollard family, the continuation book is called Francey and it lets us know what happened the only boy and the rset of his clann (family for those of you that don't speak Irish). Happy reading- let me know if you read the book and enjoyed it or even if you hated it- I might be able to suggest more books for you. Slan o mise !! (Good bye from me !!

Incredible story. Incredible characters. A film could be made to join the ranks of Hollywood's greatest movies. Oscars abound. It's got it all ... a "girl" movie, a "guy" movie, sweeping story lines, incredible adventures, unbelievable events ... all set against the backdrop of the Florida Keys ... Cubans, Americans, Hispanics, African-Americans, Caucasians, ball players, fisherman, priest, robbers, cheating spouses, good brother, bad brother, meddling mother, mysterious Jewish builder, monuments on a beach, hurricane ... This BOOK has everything that would make a great movie. Life, marriage and the struggle with the two. Hollywood, take notice! Make Mary Hood a household name.

The characters, the plot, the message - great hope and rejuvenation played out in an intoxicating location - a true refreshing novel. Bravo! Encore!

I loved this book..especially Senora Rios and her meddling and of course Mrs. Lockridge and the neighbor's cats. Great characters throughout. A great read and would love to see the movie. Great job Mary!

Incredible story. Incredible characters. A film could be made to join the ranks of Hollywood's greatest movies. Oscars abound. It's got it all ... a "girl" movie, a "guy" movie, sweeping story lines, incredible adventures, unbelievable events ... all set against the backdrop of the Florida Keys ... Cubans, Americans, Hispanics, African-Americans, Caucasians, ball players, fisherman, priest, robbers, cheating spouses, good brother, bad brother, meddling mother, mysterious Jewish builder, monuments on a beach, hurricane ... This BOOK has everything that would make a great movie. Life, marriage and the struggle with the two. Hollywood, take notice! Make Mary Hood a household name.

Mary Hood is a secret that needs to get out. I found out that Amy Tan listed her as among the company of Alice Munro and the great living women writers in Best American Short Stories of 1999. Familiar Heat is a novel that confronts evil, but leaves you feeling like there is much in humanity worth praise. These characters are amazing and human. Mary Hood is more than a writer; she is a wise woman who knows a point can be made just as easily through laughter as through knee-jerk tragedy.

I previously read "Dear Emma," and it was a great book. I really wanted to read the sequel, and as soon as possible I checked out "Faraway Summer" from the library.
This book is the journal of Dossi, who lives in crowded Essex Street with her older sister, Ruthi, in a small room in someone else's apartment in a tenament building. She's shocked when she learns that Ruthi has filled out a Fresh Air Fund application for her.
But whether she likes it or not, she boards a train for Jericho, Vermont. She's staying with the Meade's, who live on a 52-acre farm and who own a large house. They have an eight year old girl Nell and a girl Emma her own age. Most of all, she wants Emma to be her friend.
She sees lots of new things-fireflies, huge amounts of food, cows and chickens, and large, open space-something she's never experienced before. She thinks the food is the best thing ever!
Emma remains cold and unfriendly until the end of the book. I think it's said when Emma leaves Dossi's library book out in the rain by the pond.
This was a great book and I'd recommend it to everyone. Good work, Johanna Hurwitz!

I have read lots of Joanna Hurwitz's books and i must say this is one of her best. Haddasa [Dossi for short] has nobody but her sister Ruthi and her friend Mimy. Dossi 's parents have passed out and so has her sister . Dossi and Ruthi live in a crowded tenament with just one room too do everything : Eat , Sleap , Sit , Stand ....... Ruthi works in a sewing factory. The tenament smells of sweat and OF COURES They dont have a single toy. When Ruthi signs Dossi up for a Fresh Air Fund ,Dossi objects . But when Dossi starts to like , even befriend the family she is staying with ..............

Dossi is a poor girl who lives in the city.Her parents and younger sister,Velvel have passed away.Dossi's sister,Ruthi is the one who will take care of them.She works in the factory.When Ruthi signs Dossi up to be sent to the country,on a Fresh Air Fund vacation,Dossi is terrified and surprised.Soon,the day had come to go to the country.Dossi packed her bags and brought along a library book which was a new one.She and her friend,Mimi, didn't tell the librarian that Dossi was taking it away.Dossi prommises Ruthi that she will send a postcard to her as soon as she reaches her destination.In the country,she meets the gentile Meade family.Nell and Emma are around Dossi's age.Mr. Meade and Mrs. Meade also have two sons,Timothy and Edward.Nell chats nineteen to a dozen.Emma doesn't.There are a lot of things that Dossi hasn't seen.Like fireflies,cows,two yolks in one egg and many other things.She learns about a man named Snowflake Bentley.He is mad about snowflakes.Snowflake Bentley also takes photos of snowflakes not people.Dossi likes Nell but she wants to befriend Emma too.But Emma treats her like if she is not there.Will Dossi be able to befriend Emma before her holiday in the country ends?

Haddassah (Dossi for short) is a Jewish girl lives in a cramped apartment in New York City. Her sister (Ruthi) signs her up for a Fresh Air Fund which sends poor children too the country for 2 weeks in the summer. Dossi leaves excited and yet afraid to go on vacation with a family she doesn't know in Vermont for 2 weeks. She is stunned by things in the country and doesn't even know what fireflies are. This is one fault that I found with the book, she seems to know NOTHING of the country, now I can believe she's never milked a cow, but some of the things she had never seen are unbelievable. Anyway during the book she sprouts friendship and learns new things of her trip. She meets new people and learns what the lovely countryside is like. This is a really fast paced book, you should be able to finish it within an hour or so, but nonetheless it is worth reading.

This is a good story about a girl who spends a few weeks with a family that is very different from her own. Dossi learns other people have alot to offer her and she has alot to offer in a friendship,too. Hurwitz is a wonderful author; she makes the characters and situation come alive.

Warm and insightful story of a white boy growing up in a poor black/latino neighborhood in the 60s. Fascinating perspective on the experiences and perspectives of blacks, whites and latinos. Also, a touching story of a boy coming of age, dealing with a best friend who is gay. Open and honest -- addresses issues of drugs, alcohol, gangs, crime, violence and racism but recognizes the good too. He maintains a positive outlook (in the book and in life).

Flying over 96th Street encourages the reader to examine race and relationships. It challenges the reader to look beyond the color of one's skin and examine what happens when you allow yourself to trust and love others who neither look like you or who at first glance seem so different.

A must read for those yearning to explore their relationship with others - and a exceptional message for young people - encouraging them to reach beyond their small circle, embrace and take the risk to love others who "appear" so different.

Flying Over 96th Street is a great read. Tom Webber tells his story in with humor and remarkable powers of observation. As a New Yorker, I loved the details of "El Bario".. But you don't have to be a New Yorker to get into the experience of this young guy who goes "beyond the looking glass" of the white middle class world into another reality-- where HE is the minority...

Even though race and class is rarely (if ever) being discussed nationally, it is a core issue of who we are as Americans. And for those of us who talk about it, it is often just that-- talk. Kudos to the generations of the Webber family who put their neighborhood where their mouth is...

Webber's portrait of New York in the 1950s and 60s is full of vivid description. He captures the sounds and smells of his neighborhood and, more importantly, draws his characters with an empathetic brush. Yet the book is not just an elegy to a time past. Dr Webber deals deftly and incisevely with class, race and prejudice, while never preaching or teaching. Every page is full of delights. It is a deeply touching book that will rank as one of the great New York City memoirs.

Flying over 96th Street is the most moving memoir I have ever read. It tells the story of a white young boy growing up in Spanish Harlem durnig the 50s and early 60s and how he and his new black and Puerto Rican friends grow to appreciate, help, teach, and love each other. It is a totally absorbing account of coming of age and should be read by every high school student in america.

I had this book when I was a teen and lost it. I've read it a few times. I can't say that about many books. I've also read More Forgotton Town a few times as well. A must have for anyone interested in Jersey history.

Henry Charton Beck spent much of his spare time in the 1930s traipsing around the rural areas of New Jersey searching out local history and lore. He wrote about what he learned in newspaper articles and then in full-length books. This book is the first in a series, published in 1936 (always in print since then, but never revised).

Beck is concerned with the tiny settlements that grew and died mainly in the Pine Barrens, a huge, sparsely settled area that stretches across a good portion of southern NJ. Beginning with Ongs Hat, he tells about 37 different places, one per chapter. The chapters are short, and all the places were visited by Beck, with much of his narrative told through his own eyes. Many of the places are still identified on larger topo maps (there are no maps in the book, unfortunately); very few of these places were ever large enough to support a post office and were merely placenames. Photos grace the book, though what is depicted in them has long disappeared for the most part. Also missing, though it would be very helpful, is an index.

Beck's style has the effect of drawing the reader out into the field to see what he's seen. I've been to quite a few of the places mentioned in the book and have enjoyed having the book along with me. Being almost 70 years old, the book is somewhat outdated (some isolated areas he writes about outside of the Pine Barren reserve are filled with housing developments and strip malls now), but it's still a great book on the local history of southern NJ of long ago.

Including Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey I also owned 4 other books by Henry Carlton Beck.
I purchaded these books in 1982 and read them over and over until the pages became worn.
There is no better way to study and get to know the ghost and forgotten towns of southern New Jersey than through these books.
Henry Carlton Beck put his heart into every word and deed, the information coming from that is wonderful.
There is no better reading on southern New Jersey that can be found on book shelves.
These books will live on forever and to experience his windom in these is a real blessing.
I lost all my books to a fire but plan to replace them next month.
If your interest is in southern New Jersey these are the books to have on your shelf.

Beware that once you read this book, you'll be hooked on trying to find these towns.

An excellent reference for those looking to disover the history of Southern New Jersey.

Need a brief escape from the modern world? Want to know what life was like a hundred years ago in Southern NJ? This is the book for you. Mr. Beck wrote in a beautiful, yet folksy style about the people and places that once existed in what we now call the Pine Barrens. After reading this, I am anxious to go back and look for some of these places myself.

Since I was born in 1945, World War II and the Holocaust had always been history to me. So when I spent five years working in Germany, I constantly wondered about the older people I met--"How did you respond to Hitler's regime? What do you feel now?" Even with Germans of my own generation, the topic was one I felt uncomfortable raising.
I have found Mimi Schwartz's book fascinating because she acknowledges very human conflicted feelings, the need for Gentile Germans to feel they did the best they could to help their neighbors, the deep-seated fear of a Jewish survivor who wants to believe people are basically good, the almost militant fervor of a young German Gentile seeking to discover the darkness of his parents' past. And Schwartz raises timely questions about conflicts between Christians, Jews, and Muslims that trouble this century.
Beyond the topic, I am intrigued with issues of writing memoir which Schwartz's book raises. How much should an author reveal about personal feelings? How does the writer reconcile conflicting memories? Can a writer allow herself to become vulnerable? To be too naive?
I have hardly been able to put this book down since finding it at the library, and now I want a copy for myself to highlight and reread.

In Good Neighbors, Bad Times, Mimi Schwartz writes a highly nuanced account of the Holocaust and how it affected the small German town where her father was born and which he remembered fondly until his death in the 1970s. While other reviewers have suggested this memoir for a Holocaust shelf or course, I recommend it to Christians seeking to understand how religious prejudice can blind us to the humanity of those who worship differently.

Schwartz writes engagingly of growing up in a neighborhood of mostly Jews and longing to break out. She did this by first attending the University of Michigan and later (after marrying her Jewish boyfriend) assimilating into the predominantly Christian town of Princeton, NJ. Schwartz seems to have identified more with her mother, a city girl, than her father, who was born into a cattle trading family and left the village referred to here as Benheim to fight in World War I. As a soldier, he saw how Jews were treated in Russia and when, in 1933, he attended a rally at which thousands of enthusiastic Germans saluted Adolph Hitler, he knew to leave.

While Arthur Loewengart and his brothers came to the United States, other villagers emigrated to Palestine, which was still under British rule. In the end, all but 89 of the village's Jews escaped. They were deported to camps where only two survived. Throughout her childhood, Arthur told Mimi that people in Benheim were different, kinder and more principled than the typical Nazi. After he died, she wondered if what he said was true. She began to connect the dots between survivors in New York and Israel and the German village where no Jews live today.

Her journey both physical and metaphysical is told here. It is a story of small kindnesses (and cruelties) in the midst of unimaginable larger horrors, and how truth is deeply textured but well worth knowing.

"Before Hitler, everyone got along," according to the author of "Good Neighbors, Bad Times: Echoes of My Father's German Village". This a true story of decency and compassion in a small German village and how its generosity stood in the face of an empire of Nazi hatred. Author Mimi Schwartz recalls tales from her father and goes on a journey that spanned over three continents and a dozen years to get the more complete story of her father's village and learns interesting details about it all from every interview and discussion. "Good Neighbors, Bad Times: Echoes of My Father's German Village" is highly recommended for Holocaust studies shelves and for anyone seeking a more upbeat account of 1930s Germany.

As those who lived through the Holocaust are rapidly disappearing, this sensitive and open-minded work captures the anguish and inner conflicts of Jews and Gentiles living in a small German village during the Nazi period.
Knowing a number of the people Mimi Schwartz depicts, I can enthusiastically attest to her accurate portrayals.
For those of us born after this time, but still bearing some of its burden, there are important questions: What was the flavor of 400 years of mutual tolerance? How did this harmony disappear? What can we understand about ourselves in reflecting on the daily moral challenges of life lived under an evil regime?
There are no easy answers here, but a moving and true story.

2008 marks seventy years since the tragic events of Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. On November 9, 1938, the Nazis unleashed a wave of destruction against Germany's Jews. In the space of a few hours, thousands of synagogues and Jewish businesses and homes were damaged or destroyed. Mimi Schwartz, author of "Good Neighbors / Bad Times: Echoes of My Father's German Village" wasn't born yet. She would be grow up in Queens, New York, on milkshakes and hamburgers, and her father's stories of life in Germany, a life she had very little interest in. Her father grew up in Benheim (the name of the village has been changed to protect privacy), a little village of Christians and Jews in southwest Germany where according to all accounts Jews and Christians lived peacefully side by side. No allied bombs fell on Benheim during WWII so much of it is still preserved. The synagogue which was attacked during Kristallnacht is still there, now as an Evangelical Church. One can still visit the Jewish cemetery with 946 old graves.

Schwartz was in a village in Israel when she saw an old Benheim Torah and was told that "the Christians of Benheim rescued the Torah for us during Kristallnacht." That story sent her on a quest to discover all that she could about this little village, to determine if, like her father had always told her, Benheim was special in that the people there got along and would do anything to help one another.

In "Good Neighbors / Bad Times" Schwarz interviews many old Benheimers, some in Israel and some in America. She also visits Benheim several times, a village which now has no Jews. The Jews that were there either escaped in time or were killed in the concentration camps. Only two Benheimers who were interred in the concentration camps survived. The other eighty-seven were murdered. On her journey, Schwarz discovers a series of individual stories and individual perspectives which each tell part of the whole story. She discovers both the Jewish and the Gentile perspective on what happened. She struggles with knowing what everyone knows now versus what people knew then. There was a large swastika that had been erected in the town in 1934, but as one Benheimer stated, "It was not important; no one knew what it would mean." She learned of other kind deeds that occurred in Benheim and of a second Torah that was saved and is now located in Burlington, Vermont. She learned of how good people struggled to live through such difficult times, of people too scared to take a stand and the punishments that came to those who did. She learned of children being indoctrinated with hate in the local school and parents who struggled to fight against it.

"Good Neighbors / Bad Times" is a valuable work of social history. It is so important to preserve the stories of those who lived through these tragic events. In the end, Schwartz decides that Benheim was special, that decency managed to prevail there despite the Nazi hate that infected the land. As Schwartz states, "decency is often such a solitary act; it's evil that draws a noisy crowd." "Good Neighbors / bad Times" is recommended for anyone who wants to learn more about Jewish / Christian relationships during the World War II era. It would also make a wonderful text for a college course on the topic.

This book is wonderful both for its content and ability to describe the Coast's landscape and lifestyle perfectly. I travel to the Coast regularly, and Owen's descriptions are right on target. I read the book in about three days, it was so good. Not only are the books descriptions of the Coast spectacular, the story is great too. I thoroughly enjoyed every character, plot twist, surprise, and shock. He also inserted enough interesting facts to the work that I actually learned something as I read.

A wonderfully warm, human, and quirky cast of characters populate these pages. The plot is full of twists, surprises, and moments of sublime, perfect absurdity that will have you laughing out loud. Highly recommended.

I live just a few miles from Gulfport and have spent a great deal of time there. I work and used to live in New Orleans. I was really impressed with Mr. Owen's ability to describe the area and to catch the essence of these places.

Rory, his main character, is both interesting and funny. How Mr. Owen knows all the stuff he knows is amazing. I kept thinking when I read it how great a movie this would be. It has it all-humor, mystery, suspense, romance and surprises. In fact, I liked all his characters. I am going to buy another couple of books to give to friends as gifts. I am hoping that there will be more of his books in the future.

I found the main character believable and funny. The author's descriptions of the gulf coast are right on target. I live a few miles from there and am very familiar with the area. I recommend this book to all.

The Funniest book I've read all year! The characters are novel and the book is offbeat and different. I'd like to read more about Rory Ripple and friends.