Camps Books

Philip Mechanicus uses his journalist's powers of observation to paint a painfully real portrait of life for people who were so soon to be robbed of theirs. I do wish he had written more about himself, his personal torment as he watched his friends deported week after week, but the book is nonetheless an exceptional account. So many voices were lost to history during the Holocaust; Philip Mechanicus brings those voices back to us in his diary. You must read this book, if you have any interest in the Holocaust.

THIS BOOK IS VERY INFORMITIVE,YET SIMPLE.THE PRINCIPALS OF BEING STRONG IN GRACE,HUMBLE,STAYING YOUR MIND ON GOD AND ACCEPTING THAT HE WORKS WITHIN YOU HAS HELPED ME GREATLY IN MY WALK WITH GOD.

I am a newly called camp director who has never been to a girls camp before, I have gotten all three books and now feel like I can do the job. Volume 1 gave me the basics and Volumes 2 and 3 made it easier to know what to do and had many ideas on how to do everything!! Thank you Vickie!

I am a newly called camp director who has never been to a girls camp before, I have gotten all three books and now feel like I can do the job. Volume 1 gave me the basics and Volumes 2 and 3 made it easier to know what to do and had many ideas on how to do everything!! Thank you Vickie!

Robert Lee Camp is back! FINALLY!

I discovered Robert Lee Camp's books over ten years ago and they have changed my life forever. As an avid student of astrology and numerology, I can say that for me, by far, this is the most accurate divination system I have ever worked with. I have attended one of the author's classes and would consider myself an advanced user of the cards.

I have to say that this book is not new material - but it does a great job of capsulizing the info in his two more advanced books. In short, this would be a great intro for a novice... an appetizer piece before moving on to his more detailed work. If you have a friend you would like to share this system with, this is the place to start.

I have a feeling this book will help introduce a whole new crowd of readers to his other works. This book is smaller and more portable that the two previous books - easier to take wherever you go! It's great as a quick reference. I think I'll keep a copy at the office!

I give the book five stars for the info, because it is vital and accurate- but for advanced readers looking for new material, this is not the book for you.

This book is amazing! All you need to know about camping and youth is in this book. It has information on just about every aspect possible for camping with youth, from camping with a youth group to being a part of a summer camp. Not only does Bob share his wealth of knowledge about camping, but also how amazing an oppotunity it is to share Christ in the camping atmosphere. It's got great instruction as well as plenty of ideas and resources you can use. If you are looking for an great resource for camp and youth and how to make it work well, get this book! Cho boy!

I gave this book to my grandson and he loved it!! Kaster's use of enhanched photography catches the readers eye and makes each page a special event. A must have book for any child interested in horses.

I was happy to see that this book was added to Oprah's book club, this ment that millions who never knew of this book would read it or at least hear it's story. I read this in college as part of the debates on wither the US should have entered WW2 before 1941. When I was done I felt that I had been robbed. Not that I didn't enjoy the book but that noone had told me about it before. I would rather have read this in Middle or High school then some of the junk books they forced on us, and while Romeo and Joilet is a fine work I belive that the story Wiesel gives us is more timly and would give kids something to think about.
The story of Wiesel and his Father in the camps should make anyone who reads this book take note of what happens when Fascism and National Socalism are given a foothold.Sadly we are having to learn some of this lessons again, hopefully we learned then well enough to stop another Holocaust.

Should be required reading for . . . for everyone who can read. Puts a face, a voice, a mind, a spirit to something that is so hard to comprehend that it often can feel more like an idea than a reality. A truly moving book. Also, I would recommend the PBS documentary made about Wiesel that was produced, written and edited by David Grossbach and Rob Gardner.

This book is absolutely not anti-religion, and it does not promote any one religion, so readers need not be worried that this book is promoting religion or atheism. I RECOMMEND IT.

Wow, it has ben a long time since I read a book so touching. Thank you!

Some of the scenes went on and on and on, but overall it was very heart touching, eye opening look at the truth of the situation.

The book came in great condition and in a timely manner. It was a pleasure doing business with this seller on Amazon.com

I love this book for a variety of reasons, and I'll share these before offering my criticisms:

1) Wonderful tale of a painful time and place in American history

2) Great characters - and powerful bonding between them. I loved their ability to sacrifice for each other - at great costs.

3) A metaphorically redemptive message: this book shows the strength of human perseverance in the face of awful odds

4) Incredible local color - accents, speech, behavior! John Steinbeck really knew his stuff, and brought it to LIFE! Kudos!

5) Beautiful writing - so many times Steinbeck wrote scenes that sing off the page, transcending the story, the characters, and himself

6) I just love Steinbeck's character of Preacher Casy. He adds such a strong dimension of honesty, emotional courage, and truth-seeking to the book... He's one of my favorite characters in all of literature.

My criticisms:

1) Having previously read this book fifteen years ago, I learned then that the "filler" chapters - the ones NOT about the Joad family - were unnecessary to the story, so I skipped them this time around. This made the book infinitely more readable and enjoyable. I would guess these skippable chapters account for about a third of the book's volume...

2) I found the ending cheesy - didn't like it fifteen years ago, and still don't. I won't go into details (don't want to be a spoiler), but I found it too intellectual and emotionally disconnected to the pulse of the story...
3) Steinbeck uses various of his characters (particularly Preacher Casy) to make all sorts of philosophical comments on life, but never does he state the obvious, much less come near it with a ten-foot pole: DON'T HAVE SO MANY KIDS! The whole book is about people trying desperately to feed their children - for whom they cannot provide. To me this leaves the parents - sharecroppers, who, at the best of times, had life REALLY hard - and not just society, responsible. Even ONE little comment to this effect would have been welcomed. Yet has anything changed since the 1930s? Does anyone suggest that starving adults in Darfur not have children? (Or the EMOTIONALLY starving adults right here in the rich USA???)

I just finished reading "The Grapes of Wrath." Steinbeck's simple but poetic prose shows a mastery of subtlety and expertise. The dialog was very believable and realistic. The period in which J. Steinbeck wrote as did Hemingway was the realism movement, which never really strayed too long into what the characters were thinking or feeling. The characters words on the surface is what portrayed who they were and Steinbeck expertly reveals all of them, even down to his tertiary characters, Ruthie and Winfield. Ma Joad and Tom are beautifully realized as was Casey the former preacher.

If I have any quibble with the story, it's some of the chapters, which were a little too polemical and didactic. I felt Steinbeck trying too hard to drive his personal beliefs down my throat about "The Man versus the corporation and big business." Overall however, I still came away with great admiration for what he tried to accomplish with this story, considering we had just come out of the Depression only about five or six years later followed by the destructive Dust Bowls, created by man.

I now understand why this novel is considered in such high esteem by so many experts and admirers of fiction. "The Grapes of Wrath" is truly one of the great American novels!

Amid the desperation of the 1930s Dust Bowl, drought and changing agricultural practices force a family of Oklahoma sharecroppers to leave their home and join the great migration to California. Piling their broken-down Hudson with the few possessions they can carry, the Joad family sets off for what they believe will be a paradise of bountiful fruit and plentiful work. When they arrive, enduring one hardship after another along the way, the California they find is not at all the one they imagined.

Though a work of fiction, "The Grapes of Wrath" is a painfully real story of what can happen when profit is placed over concern for one's fellow human beings. Like the Mexican migrant workers of today, the Joads flee desperate circumstances in search of a better future, only to find exploitation at the hands of wealthy farm owners and resentment on the part of the people already settled there. Enticed by handbills telling of the need for workers, the Joads discover that the farm owners are merely flooding the market so the starved migrants will fight for the lowest wages. There are constant attempts to keep the migrants in a state of helpless docility: their cardboard Hoovervilles are periodically burned (under the guise of "public sanitation") to keep them from settling down, and any attempt to assert their rights can result in being blacklisted as a "Communist." Meanwhile, they watch with simmering anger as perfectly good fruit is thrown away in order to keep prices up. The locals have little but fearful hostility for the people they derogatorily label "Okies," whom they view as less than human.

Despite their unending hardships, the Joad family pushes on with dogged perseverance, never losing their dignity. Even when the reader is tempted to lose hope, the Joads find the strength within themselves to push on.

One of the strengths of the novel is its characters, who are simultaneously flawed and admirable. The protagonist, Tom, is on parole after unintentionally killing a man in a fight. He can only make the journey by breaking his parole and must not be discovered, which creates an undercurrent of tension. When Pa's status as the head of the family is weakened by his inability to support the clan, Ma emerges as the family's indestructible backbone and one of the strongest characters. Along for the journey is Reverend Casy, the reluctant preacher and a kind of Christ figure, whose philosophical ruminations provide much of the book's social commentary.

It is ultimately the pregnant young Rose of Sharon who most embodies the story of loss, resilience, and renewal. Throughout the novel, she is an immature and emotionally fragile girl who seems defeated by the dashing of her dreams: her teenage husband, Connie, runs away, and her baby will be born into unbearable poverty. However, at the end she shows a tender heroism, and her actions in the book's final scene are powerful and unforgettable.

This is a deeply moving book. You will grieve for the Joad family's tragedies, all the more because these tragedies are largely the result of human folly and greed. But you will also dream along with them, and find hope in their resilience and will to survive.

I only actually have to read this book as a Summer Reading assignment for my AP English class. I'm not a really a big fan of books that have this genre but when I reached halfway through the book, I started loving it. I find the feelings portrayed in this novel clear enough for me to understand it with the help of vague dialogue of the characters. A message is there and though you need to read more to understand what they're saying, the reality is always present.

Very readable historical novel from which a Hollywood Film Production was rendered.
Gripping, realistic. Very human.

This is more of the story about the prison camp and the prisoners themselves, so if you are looking for a super dramatic battle story this is not it. The raid is not an easy or boring one by any means, but it is no huge conflict. That said, it doesnt take away from the story, because while I started the book looking for a big battle, i later found myself interested in the life of the prison camp. Also, the book does tend to slow down to a halt in a few places, but it does not kill the read. Anyway, it truly is worth the read and i give it four good stars, pick it up.

This is a fascinating, extremely well-written (an easy read) book about an interesting subject (though I hear the movie based on the book is not very good). I am giving it 4 1/2 stars rather arbitrarily, because the author does not appear to be a professional historian, does appear to make a few historical errors, and because I like to save 5 stars for professional historians. After all, they make less money than regular authors and have to teach students for a living on top of that!

My father had a friend who he always identified as "that guy survived the Bataan Death March". I was too young to really understand what that was but the way my dad became so reverand about it I knew it must have been bad. I now finally know just how bad it was. In a gripping, harrowing, page turner of a book follow the rescue attempt of American GI's from
Cabanatuan death camp in the Philippines. Unforgettable.

Ghost Soldiers is an excellent account of the liberation of the allied POW's from the Cabanatuan death camp in the Philippines. The book consists of a very large part of primary material, the authors interviews with the former prisoners and in some cases their surviving relatives.

Where most of the healthier POWs had been shipped elsewhere at the time, including to Japan, those remaining in the Cabanatuan camp towards the end of January 1945 were the "sick and the dregs, the sickest and the weakest." As the book also states "They were a special lot, a subset of a subset of bad fortune, an elite of the damned."
General Walter Kruger was General MacArthur's commander of the U.S. Sixth Army. He was tasked by MacArthur to "Go to Manila. Go around them, go through them, but go to Manila." This presented General Kruger with a problem when he received intelligence of a prison camp just over 30 miles away from his forces, that contained the remaining 500 or so allied POW's, mostly survivors from the infamous Bataan death march. The intelligence indicated that the Japanese were likely to execute all prisoners if the allies got too close to Cabanatuan.
Since they could not slow down their advance, the General quickly dispatched an outfit of 121 Rangers of the 6th Ranger Battalion. The rangers were at the time a new and largely unproven elite force of highly trained soldiers, that would work together with the local guerilla to liberate the POWs. The urgency of the mission was immense. Intelligence indicated that they had less than 3 days before the Japanese were likely to start massacring these prisoners due to the proximity of allied forces.

This book describes the events leading up to the surrender of the American forces in the Philippines and the subsequent march that has been referred to as the "Bataan death march". The book's focus switches frequently between the lives of the prisoners in the camp, and the actions of their liberators led by Colonel Henry Mucci. The book culminates with the actual prison break and the harrowing flight back to allied lines with these 513 men, many too weak to walk, with the Japanese in hot pursuit.

The book does a very good job at giving a good insight into the daily lives of the prisoners. It contains sometimes tragic but also comical accounts of how the prisoners were affected by countless infections and severe vitamin deficiency. It shows how the prisoners managed to retain a sort of normalcy in the situation they were in, and how their amazing ingenuity helped make it their "home" for three years.

I found every aspect of this book exciting, whether it was about the history leading up to Bataan march, information about the daily lives of the prisoners, or the actual rescue. It becomes obvious that the rescue could not have been undertaken without the help of the two Philippine guerilla units lead by Eduardo Joson and Juan Pajota. These are given their due credit in this book as well.

I do not hesitate to give the book 5 stars - highly recommended.