Europe Books

Anastasia's Album is definitely the best children's book on the Romanovs! The main personality is Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolaevna - the youngest daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra, and a very lively girl who enjoyed activities and taking photographs. One very charming aspect of this book is seeing Anastasia's very own photo album, which she often hand-decorated herself - drawing and painting borders around her photographs and even adding a little colour to her pictures. Anastasia's Album also informs the reader of the Romanovs' family life up until their last days in Ekaterinburg.

Although the book's main targeted audience are children, Anastasia's Album will charm readers of absolutely all ages! Very cute book!

Since I'm writing a research paper, this was such a useful source for me to use. I loved the pictures and the information. It had so much of it! I was amazed; blown away. This is an amazing book for both kids and adults and I hope you get something out of it too!

This is an excellent book about Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of Russia's last tsar. As many know, Anastasia was murdered with her entire family in 1918. This book tells Anastasia's story through her own words. Her letters reflect a happy, secure young girl who came from a loving family. It shows readers a world that is gone and will never return. Though it was written for young children, all ages with enjoy "Anastasia's Album!"

The first time I found this book at the public library I just barely seen Fox's movie Anastasia for the first time. Surprised to find out that Anastasia was a real person, I checked out the book expecting it to be similar to most biographies.

Boy was I wrong. This book absolutely blew me away. Anastasia's album is a wonderful look into the life of the Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last tsar of Imperial Russia. Imagine my surprise to find out that Fox's movie was nothing like Anastasia's real life, although many of the costumes and sets came from real items. Full of pictures, this book also included bits from Anastasia's real diary. A remarkable biography about a remarkable girl.

I remember this book from when I was a kid, after the 'Anastasia' movie came out my friend had this book, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It's full of beautiful photos and pictures the Grand Duchess drew herself. It seems really heartbreaking now that all she got to leave was her scrapbook.

This is the most complete Spanish/English I have ever found. It can be used for Business, School or Personal purposes. It has all idioms and phrases that you could ever need.

This is a terrific dictionary used in conjunction with the Oxford Duden Pictorial Spanish and English Dictionary for hard to locate technical words. The Cassell's Spanish Dictionary can lead to a lot of imprecise translations in your readings, but it's useful in composition as a thesaurus.

This Oxford Dictionary is a true gem. It is the best general English Spanish dictionary written to date. In addition to having excellent meaning discrimination, it often includes the informal register in its explanations as well as the formal registers.

It is a tremendous resource for really understanding the nuances and shades of meaning between different synonyms and expressions.

As a translator, professor, and bilingual lexicographer, I am truly deeply impressed with this masterpiece.

This is by far the best dictionary I own. Not only does it specify a term's area of usage, but it also translates numerous idiomatic expressions. It is a bit bulky to take to class (but not impossible-I manage to), but the contents make it perfect for doing Spanish composition homework as well. Overall, the perfect bilingual dictionary

Excellent resource! I highly recommend this dictionary as it appears to have EVERYTHING in it! Even "kitchen" and "sink"... jokes aside, I find this book to be the perfect answer to all my spanish/english definition problems... What makes this dictionary unique is not only its exhaustive collection of words, but also the correspondence writings in its middle. It tells you precisely how to write a correspondence in Spanish (and English) including dates, openings, closings, how to address the envelope and more... It even has examples and instructions (with pictures) of how to create a professional job application, how to write a letter of complaint, how to write a check, how to request a catalog... This dictionary has everything! A must have for language students!! Too bulky to put in your backpack, but not too big for a bookshelf!

This is a splendid book. My suspicion has always been that a lot of people are frightened away from it by the fact that it is just the first of a six-volume series, and the sheer size of the work is intimidating. If that's your reaction, think again; first, Churchill's work, while comprehensive, is also readily consumable in bite-sizes. Second, this particular volume really stands on its own for anyone who would like to understand the "why" of World War II.

Admittedly, on that "why" question, Churchill represents a particular point of view, but it is a point of view which, with hindsight, seems to have been dead-on. Had the allies not insisted on squeezing Germany nearly to death at Versailles, or had the allies not failed miserably to enforce the military terms of treaties with Germany or to arm themselves for the emerging conflict, the whole history of the twentieth century would have been very different.

My view is that historical reading is almost always best when it comes from the hand of a participant in the events; and Churchill's role in the war and in the runup to the war was important indeed. This volume covers the span of time from the end of WWI through the invasions of Poland and Norway (and the eve of the German invasion of France), and the most interesting aspect is not the military, but the political, aspect of the story. The validity of Churchill's point of view as a military historian has been the subject of much debate, but his political understanding of the factors leading up to the war is deep and detailed. No one was more aware of the threat Germany posed, and when Norway fell, no one was a more obvious choice to replace Chamberlain as PM than Churchill.

I bought this book because I wanted to understand how and why the war began, and I had no intention of reading all six volumes of Churchill's war history. But this book was so gripping and intense that I couldn't stop, and I proceeded to read the whole darned thing. Highly recomended.

This is the first volume of Churchill's Noble Prize winning six part chronicle of World War II. The Gathering Storm depicts the rise of Hitler and the indifference of the leaders of the European democracies to the clouds of the gathering storm. Churchill incorporates contemporary documentation and his own reminiscence in this opening memoir. Churchill was a great statesman with great literary ability - a winning combination. The Gathering Storm a unique work and has a message for us in today's world.

Read and reviewed by Jimmie A. Kepler

And he did. This compulisively readable account of Europe between the wars and from 09/39 to 05/40 covers European diplomatic history, shifts in British politics, Britian's unwillingness to prepare for war, Hitler's rise to power and German re-armament. It ends with the invasion of France/the Low Countries and Chuchill's ascent to Prime Minister of a National Government. For all it's readablity and heavy use of documentation and primary sources, this is still a memior and sometimes self-serving.

Churchill gathered his researchers and secretaries and wrote an account of the events of World War II. These memoirs would span a work of six volumes, and added with his other literary achievements win for him the Noble Prize in Literature. The 'Gathering Storm', Volume I, starts with the end of World War I..the war to end all wars..and concludes on May 10,1940 with Germany's invasion of the Low Countries(Holland/Belgium) and France. May 10 was also the day that Neville Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister and Churchill was asked, by the King, to form a new Government...in effect becoming the new head of Government or Prime Minister.

This is a work that is well worth reading. The contents and wisdom are just as relevant today as then. Churchill was relentless in his opinions, good and not-so-good, and did all in his power to try and stem the coming war. He had the advantage of being in the early government as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911 to 1915. Driven into the wilderness years by forcing the Darnanelles,..a plan he still maintained would have worked if not for the 'timid observationists'..he would still keep active in governmental affairs and had enough connections to keep up-to-date with current events. Chamberlain, in 1939, would put him back into the Admiralty as First Lord..ironically going full circle back to his old office. Now with victory and hindsight, he was in the enviable position to see and write about the events that took place, and what could have happened if certain plans had or hadn't been implemented.

Churchill states that all the trials he went through prepared him for the great task of war. Had he remained in office, the position of Prime Minister would never have come his way. He would have been swept out of office with the failed administration. Those 'invisible wings' of fate were watching out for him. He was freed from party antagonisms and with six years of warning, about the oncoming events, no one could reproach him. What he had warned about was now real and the future was not certain. Churchill felt he knew a great deal about it all and was sure he could not fail. As Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, he now had the power to direct the whole scene. That was one of the areas I felt he craved more than any. The power to move the action forward on the offensive instead of always on the defensive.

Churchill wrote of the events that were transpiring with Germany's disregard for the Treaty of Versailles, Locarno and the failure at Munich. The rise of Hilter and his ascension to Chancellor, the absorption of Austria, the neutralization of Czechoslovakia, and the fall of Poland. The timidity of England and France to respond to the treaties and strike a blow for freedom in retaliation. He doesn't hold back his opinions and what he felt should have been done. As First Lord of the Admiralty he pushed for taking the port at Narvik Norway and found this plan changed from a sea strike to a failed pincer attack. He watched with frustration the failed, yet fortunate, attempt to tangle and embed the war on the Norwegian front. It was fortunate because shortly the war was to break full upon the Western Front and all was needed there. Norway ended the twilight or false war and moved the events forward into an all out compaign of total war.

The face and technology of war has changed over these many years. I doubt we'll ever see countries signing peace documents on battleships again. Unfortunately the reality is that war is still very much alive and with us. These facts alone make these volumes important reading. Possibly the most important aspect is that we can learn from a great man's experiences and hopefully not repeat the past. Well worth adding to the library.

In his preface Churchill states that one day president Roosevelt asked him for suggestions as to what the war should be called. He replied at once " the Unnecessary War "

While hindsight is always 20-20, it is impossible to read this brilliant account without coming to the conclusion that Churchill was giving way to understatement. The absurd idiocies of the governments of the victorious Allies of The Great War from 1918 to 1939 were so blatantly appalling as to be beyond belief.

To name just one, there was strong pressure in the British Parliament and Press to have France, in the interest of fair play (?) reduce its army by half and allow Germany to double its own.-- As Hitler was rallying millions to his banner.

The chapter on Hitler is perhaps the best. To quote Churchill again: " When eventually he came to power there was no book (Mein Kempf) which deserved more careful study from the rulers, political and military , of the Allied powers. All was there . . . "

But the Allies, embroiled with their own party strifes, took little notice.

Juncture after juncture, The Second World War could have easily been avoided. Repeat, easily.

For readers only familiar with Churchill's reputation as an orator, this is a chance to get to know why so many justly regard him as one of the greatest prose writers of the 20th century.

Furthermore, neither Hitler, Roosevelt, nor Stalin had the means or inclination to give an insider's first rate account of the war. Here you will see it from the summit, blow by blow.

It is indeed a tragedy, but one superbly told.

This is a great book, all of Kapuscinski`s books are great. It takes you for a journey you don`t expect. Great style and I always regret it`s over, after I finish to read his book.

I purchased this book after reading about the author in the Wall Street Journal. He died earlier this year. The author, a journalist, kept two notebooks while on assignments throughout the world, one for his assignment and one for himself. In this book he combined his observations from several trips he took within Russia and its states over a span of many decades. At times his writing style can be quite poetic, and the book is not unlike a travel book, although Soviet Russia was not a friendly place at the times of his visits. I intend to read his other books, and highly recommend this one.

As stated in most of the reviews of this book, Kapuscinski is a great writer. If you have not read him allready, read this book and understand why. If you allready have read him, you are going to read this book based on what you allready have learned to know.

Having given Kapuscinski the credit he obviously deserves for his writing, I believe there is some points that should be done.

-First Kapuscinski stands on the shoulders of giants. His writing is to a great extent the result of the local people that he meets on his journeys and agrees to open their region and their lifes to him.

-Kapuscinski is a very gifted writer endeed, that have read a lot about the places and peoples that he visits. On one hand this is what always makes his writing so alive, something to go back to and read agian, so informative. On the other hand gret litterature sometimes can serve as a way of getting away with having little or nothing to really report from the battleground when his plan fails or when he does not get what he intended out of a trip. Striking examples of this is his journey at the Trans-siberian railway where he only observes the Soviet Union through the train window or to Nagarno Karabakh where he is stuck inside an airport, a car and a flat. That his stories is as intriguing, even when he hardly experience "what the war looks like on the ground" is a clear sign that his capabilities as dramaturg and writer can make up for a rather thin story. Even when he gets the chance to write the story he intended from a place he visits, the timeframe and the difficulties he worked under limits his insights compared to the writers that have covered the area afer him.

-Some paragraphs in the book makes me a bit uncertain about how good the translation is (my review is based upon the Norwegian translation). In the first chapter - Pinsk '39 the comment of a NKVD officer visiting their house "Muzh kuda?" is traslated "where is your husband" instead of the correct "Where have your husband gone", meaning that the NKVD officer allready knows that he has recently been in the house, meaning someone has infomed the NKVD that Kapuscinski's father (a hunted partisan) has recently been in the house. Things like this is not a big deal, but it makes you start thinking about the quality of the translation in general and if it can be the case that the author underplays the role of ordinary people as informers in the terror.

-In his story about the war in Pinsk 1939, his memory of the events as a child probably is an important expalianation behind the qualities of the stories. In the memory of a child events that would probably be described as horrorful and sad by a grown up, in the eyes of a smal shild gets exciting, intriguing, colorful and down to earth.

All in all, Kapuscinski is good reading and Imperium is a great intruduciton to the former Soviet Republics. To get true insight in the contemporary former Soviet Republics, you will need further reading though.

Perhaps history will never be told better than through the eye of this travelling writer (or is it a writing traveller?). Read and be awed by the staggering proportions of recent history in the vast empire that is no more, the Sovjet Union. And be chilled to the bones by the unimaginable amounts of suffering inflicted by the sovjet leaders on their own people. And be astonished that in the midst of the most utter despair, poverty, and enslavement, Kapuscinski can find optimism, humor, and love of life.

A lyrical masterpiece by this superlative writer! Nowhere have I found a dissection of the Evil Empire done with such fluid verse. He goes from the periphery into the heart of the beast and everywhere he discovers that appearances deceive and what seems to signal change is really a re-hash of old. Kapuczinski's sharp analysis and trenchant comments will be sorely missed!

This is a real jem. Well written, fast paced, and a must read for visitors to Paris.
Prepeare to be rivited!

Bob McCallan

This is a very moving story of courage and heroism in the face of overwhelming odds. It is evident that the authors did alot of research on the story. It helps that they are both journalists by profession. One thing I would like to see is how the major players lives turned out since. Perhaps in the next edition. I bought the movie on DVD at the same time as this book. Reading the book adds so much to the movie watching experience as well.

The liberation of Paris was a coup de grace for the Allies. Paris did not suffer the fate of Berlin or Stalingrad, to name a few cities, in becoming a contested battleground. Nor, as the book pointed out, did the German commander follow Hitler's orders to destroy the city's major monuments, bridges, and other sites. It is interesting to note his actions in view of other German officers' claims that they were "only following orders".

However, this book is written by two journalists rather than historians, so it does not have the academic research nor analytical insight that a serious work might have. Cornelius Ryan comes closer to the style of writing that might have made this a heavier book. This is understandably difficult, in some ways, given the relative sparcity of combat and drama; or so this book would suggest. Again, a better writer and researcher would find more material to include.

Some material that might be considered, for example, are Allied intelligence estimates, Axis intelligence estimates, operational orders, etc. It is not clear to me, for example, how the German commander could fail to execute Hitler's orders in August 1944 when the Gestapo and SS were omni-present, especially after the failed July plot on Hitler's life.

Moreover, good research might show to what extent the Allies knew of Hitler's intentions. The Allies had significant intelligence capabilities, not the least through Ultra. And if they knew of the plans to destroy large parts of Paris, why didn't they send in commandos and special forces to disarm any explosives? Indeed, the French themselves seemed to put a higher priority on erecting road blocks rather than disarming explosives.

This is an easy, enjoyable read; and one of the few on the subject in English. However, it's about time someone else updated and added value to this book.

I just finished reading Is Paris Burning? by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. The book is the fascinating tale of how Paris evaded the fate Hitler envisioned for it at the end of the Second World War. It's a complex tale, , with characters including Hitler and his staff in his bunker, the last German military governor in Paris and his staff, the French freedom fighters in Paris (both the Gaullists and the Communists), de Gaulle himself, Eisenhower and Bradley and the various other members of the Allied command structure, the Swedish ambassador in Paris, and common people, in the armed forces and in the streets of Paris. The title is drawn from a question Hitler asked, when he found out that Allied troops were approaching Paris.

The tale starts with the uprising in Paris, and ends just after its liberation is celebrated in the streets. Hitler had hand-picked the last military governor of Paris, based upon his reputation from attacks against Rotterdam and Sevastapol, and he had the task of holding back the Allies at Paris, or, failing that, reducing Paris to ruins, much like Warsaw had recently suffered. The Allies had every intention of bypassing Paris and moving onwards, but the freedom fighters in Paris knew the Allies were nearby, and hoped to push things to their advantage. All of these things should have spelt disaster for the City of Lights, but opportunity and stubborn resistance and collusion and soldier's honour led to a different outcome.

The authors tell a spellbinding tale, based upon much research. My copy is a used copy, and dates back to the mid-1960s (bought it on amazon, used). There are a great deal of photos, documenting scenes from throughout the story. The authors, in my opinion, did a commendable job, and I would recommend this book to those interested in Paris, or in the Second World War.

This book accomplishes what many "popular" history treatments do not, in that it leaves the reader much more enlightened on its topic (at least capable of actively contributing to any cocktail party conversation on the topic) without requiring the reader to have had a lot of background on the subject first. This is not a comprehensive, academic-style study of the German occupation and surrender of Paris; rather, it reads like a collection of anecdotes and vignettes (mixed with generally known facts about the events) that weave together to present a reasonably clear picture of what sounds like a fascinating time. You don't have to know a lot about the war, Paris, or military strategy to enjoy and benefit from this book. Another comment: This made the liberation of Paris sound like the world's greatest celebration, and leaves one feeling sorry to have missed it.

I read this about 6 years ago when it was assigned in one of my undergrad classes. There are enough online reviews for you to read about the plot and like. Rather I want to tell you how her voice has stuck with me. I think of her ability to see the slivering when everything is just gray, and her amazing capacity to keep going. Whenever I think I can't go on, this death/or lost/ or series of unfortunate events as shattered the very last of my will I remember her words. I highly recommend it. I regally give this as a gift, I know I'm not just giving someone a powerful story, but really I'm giving someone a packet of extra strength for when they need it most in life.

This is a well-written, quick read. Heda's 27 years of suffering - first at the hands of the Nazis & then under the communist regime in Czechoslovakia - is heart rending. It's a book that should be part of high school curriculums to raise awareness of what too many people had to endure in the middle of the last century. It would be much more effective than relying on a history textbook that deals only with the 'facts.'

I would recommend this book to anyone. Even if you think you don't like reading about history, you'll like this book. In fact, it is books like these that are the reason I love history so much, and why I'm majoring in it. It isn't about the politics or the wars or whatever else (although those are certainly important), it is the story of a woman trying to survive through a hell most of us cannot even imagine has existed on this earth, especially not in the last 50 years. Peoples' lives are what connect us to the past, and what make it relevant to the future. It gives a little meaning and heart behind all the dates and events that you have to memorize in class...make them more personal. And furthermore, you will be inspired by this woman. Her strength and character is admirable, to say the very least. Actually, I don't think even a fictional writer could invent a heroine more honorable than this one.

So please, read it. stories like these deserve to be shared.

it is a great book use in my world civ class, and highly recommmand by my professor and TAs.

Clive James, in "Cultural Amnsia' - his magesterial review of literature and totalitarianism - said: "Given thirty seconds to recommend a single book that might start a serious young student on the hard road to understanding of the political tragedies of the twentieth century, I would choose this one". It tells a remarkable personal tale of a Jewish girl in Prague caught up by the Nazis and going to Auschwitz, then her escape and return to her beloved Prague, and subsequent worse sufferings under the communist government in the 1950s and 1960s. Her husband was a high ranking government official but later was put on a show trial and killed.

"Under a Cruel Star" (also called "Prague Farewell" in some editions) is not as bleak as the story sounds. It is a slim volume of hope and understanding, written elegantly by a woman who later in life worked as a translator from English and finished her working life in the Harvard Law School library.

This personal narrative set in the midst of global history is a tremendous story. A touching and humorous account of an unforgettable era, told with skill. Couldn't put it down until it was finished. One reads it thinking, "This would make a wonderful movie."

This book is a compelling story about a young man who grows up on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama on his family farm and goes on to serve his country in World War II. Sacco made the unique decision of telling the story in his father's voice, which adds to the authenticity of the account.

This tactic also makes the writing come across as glib in places. While the elder Sacco tells anecdotes about bad food, and seemingly endless hours of drills in all types of weather, he glosses over some of these hardships as the story moves on. The book would have been strengthened a bit if the author had filled in some of those gaps for the reader. The liberation of Dachau gets surprisingly few pages, as one would expect this event to be the pinnacle of the young soldier's life.

However, there are a number of places where Sacco's first hand account proves very effective: The story is full of wiseacre remarks about the shape of a woman, and while these types of comments aren't acceptable in our time, in most circles, they add to the realistic feel of a group of young GIs serving half a world away usually without female companionship.

Sacco's account of the group dynamics in his unit is fascinating. There are a number of anecdotes about race relations in the Army. The elder Sacco seems to pride himself on having been more enlightened than some in his time, in part because he himself experienced prejudice. Finally, his account of falling in love with a young woman named Monique during a stint in a small French village on the border with Germany is truly riveting.

In sum, the book seems to serve as a realistic account of military service and of the horror of war. And while I was disappointed by the casual telling of the story in some places, one has the sense that the elder Sacco's sense of humor, combined with his ability to minimize certain aspects of his tough experience, helped to keep him going during some of the most harrowing experiences of his life. Indeed, the author's style provided plenty of comic relief. This book is more for those who like biographies rather than those who want a straightforward account of the facts and dates associated with these historic events.

I concur with the excellent reviews preceeding mine. This is a beautifully written account of the guys from the 192nd Signal Battalion from basic training to the end of World War II. I'd like to identify three significant elements undergirding this excellent account of the incredible fortitude of teenagers turned warriers in a brutal environment. First, Joe Sacco and his buddies had the immense good fortune of being under the capable direction of First Sargeant Ernest Thomas. His presence in the background is a constant element in keeping these young men the best that they could be. Next, Joe Sacco and his buddies were among those who forever identify themselves as members of "Patton's Army". Through Joe's eyes we can appreciate the inspirational leadership he offered in the worst of times. Last, these guys were such good guys--in their treatment of little children, a child German soldier, and others, it makes one so proud of all those very young American soldiers who could see the worst, and yet keep their faith in the importance of each human being.

Superbly written! At once epic in scope and intimate in detail, WHERE THE BIRDS NEVER SING effortlessly transports even a casual reader on an emotional and unforgettable journey. Author Jack Sacco masterfully recounts the true story of his father, Joe Sacco, an American GI in World War II. Instead of using the tired genre of third-person documentary-style writing to tell the tale, the author speaks in the first person, through the eyes of his father. The result is one of the most powerful and honestly moving accounts of the human drama in World War II in recent memory.

The story begins in 1943 on a farm in Alabama, when the young Joe Sacco receives a letter informing him that he has been drafted into the service. From there, it seamlessly moves through his training with the 92nd Signal Battalion, shipping out to England (where the soldiers witnessed the stirring and famous speech by General Patton), landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy, surviving the Battle of the Bulge and fighting their way across Nazi Germany to eventually arrive at the notorious concentration camp at Dachau by war's end.

The book, already powerful and moving up until that point, then takes the reader to a new level of realism as horrifying details of the camp are revealed. Considering all he had seen and experienced since landing at Normandy, the emotional response of the young Joe Sacco to the carnage inside Dachau may leave the reader near tears. Rarely, if ever, has there been a written account of the reality of the concentration camps so graphic, gripping or compelling. As if that wasn't enough, Jack Sacco has included actual historic photographs his father took during the dramatic liberation.

All along the way, the author crafts memorable and beautifully written scenes, from the terrors of battle to the tranquility of a snowfall in the forests of Alsace-Lorraine, from the sorrows of the death of a buddy to the simple joy of decorating a makeshift Christmas tree with gum wrappers. In describing the emotions of the men before leaving Dachau, Sacco writes, "Now, after a year of combat, each of us finally and forever understood why destiny had called us to travel so far away from the land of our birth and fight for people we did not know. And so it was here, in this place abandoned by God and accursed by men, that we came to discover the meaning of our mission."

This is not another book about World War II. It's an intimate journey into the heart of an American soldier, and as such, it is as triumphant as the men it depicts. Readers will not only delight in WHERE THE BIRDS NEVER SING, they will gain a new appreciation for the accomplishments of their own fathers, uncles and grandfathers who may have served in World War II as part of the Greatest Generation.

Where The Birds Never Sing is the story of Joe Sacco's years in the army during WWII as written by his son Jack. From the time he was drafted until the time that he returns home we live with Joe as he experiences everything from basic training to the liberation of Dachau, which left Joe and the men of his company, soldiers who had witnessed everything that war has to offer, speachless and sickened. It also, as Joe so eloquently tells us, brought home, all too clearly, to these soldiers just why they had left their homes to "fight for a people we did not know."

A remarkable story about a remarkable man. This book must be read by all who are interested in "The Greatest Generation."

For those of you wondering about the title to this review, yes, that was Sarcasm. Having read Fleming's "Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration", I would recommend skipping this tome and reading that one instead. Many of the same people are covered in both books, but Fleming's talent is much better presented in 'Off the Map'.

I'm not totally sure how the stories in 'Barrow's Boys' disappointed me in that they suffered from "Michneritis". This is a virus that effects the writings of certain historians/academics and the like. They feel that they must include in their writings every piece of information that they have accumulated in preparing to write their book. Having spent so much time close to the info, they have lost the ability to exorcise any piece of data, not being able to tell the diamonds from the coal.

Putting all this aside, and keeping in mind that this was Fleming's first true stab at a mass market history, he has done a fine job. (Just wish he had left of some of the torturous descriptions of what people took along or how they managed to bring it back in written form for posterity.) He has written about both the sublime and inarticulate, not to mention the obstinate and insane. It's an engrossing story, just a little too gross.

It is amazing and fascinating book. Length to whitch desperate explorers would accept years of being exposed to dangerous and deadly conditions of Arctic and Africa is unbelievable. Just to get recognition, sinecure or promotion, these brave people risked their lives and actually begged government and influential British societies for being sent to most climatically unpleasant, unfriendly and ramote places on Earth. All this to open new trading routes for England's riches and help them to get even richer in the future.
Explorers were truly a strange breed of human beings and Fleming presents them in an extraordinary fashion. Enclosed maps could be better though.

This is a fascinating story of an ambitious program of exploration launched by John Barrow, Second Secretary to the Admiralty in 1816.

Between 1816 and 1845 `Barrow's Boys' worked - sometimes with each other and sometimes against each other - to fill in some of the blank spaces around the globe. Some of the questions they set out to answer:

What was at the North Pole?

Was there a North-West Passage?

Where did the Niger go, and what was at the heart of Africa?

Did Antarctica exist?

To a large extent, John Barrow's ambitious program was only possible because of the oversupply of officers and ships as the Royal Navy reduced in size following the Napoleonic Wars. The politics of the bureaucracy, the unfettered ambition of some of the key players, the bravery of many, and the stupidity of others makes for intriguing reading.

Were these expeditions successful? The answer to that depends on how success is measured and who is applying the measure. It is indeed true that most (if not all) of Barrow's goals were of dubious value once found. However, the heroic activities of men, however badly directed, should not be dismissed so simply. We know far more about the geography of the world in which we live as a consequence of these expeditions and that knowledge is invaluable.

I invite you to read the book and decide for yourself.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Barrow's Boys is an account of the British exploring efforts of the known (and unknown) world of the first half of the 19th Century. Spearheaded by Sir John Barrow, Second Secretary of the Admiralty, the British Navy sent out a number of ships to diverse areas of the globe. Notably Fleming does not focus solely on the Arctic explorative efforts for which Barrow is most well known. Fleming argues that Barrow could well be considered the father of Global exploration. British explorers penetrated the frozen wastes of the Arctic, and Antarctic, as well as the African interior, all in the name of Science and Knowledge.

Fergus Fleming is a particular favorite of mine, since I picked up his book "90 degrees North" a couple of years ago. He has a particular knack for drawing fine textual character sketches of the individuals whose tales he tells. Barrow's Boys is no exception. Fleming relates with ease the characters and adventures (and tragedies) of John and James Ross, of Parry, Back, Richardson, and the doomed Sir John Franklin.

Lesser known names in the annals of British exploration are not neglected: Lyon and Ritchie's mission to find the source of the Congo via the Sahara is discussed, as is James Tuckey, on which the book first begins it's exploration narrative after having introduced Sir John Barrow in the first chapter. The stubborness and arrogance often found in Victorian Englishmen that often rendered them inflexible to changes in their environment- for example the wearing a heavy woollen navy uniform in the suffocating heat of Africa- is well portrayed by Fleming.

Barrow's Boys covers the period between 1816 (Tuckey sails to the Congo) to 1859 (the efforts to locate the missing Franklin exidition). A neat touch is the epilogue, in which Fleming relates briefly the lives of the British explorers after they had their moment in the sun. Barrow's Boys is authorative, but by no means academic, as it is a very easy read. Recommended for those with an interest in exploration, particularly from the viewpoint of the British.

A great book. All about the Arctic voyages in search of the North-West Passage and the interior African explorations mainly in search of the fabled town of Timbuctoo and the course of the Niger River. All of these adventures were conducted while John Barrow was Secretary to the British Admiralty, and thus under his watch. Most of the explorations were unproductive for the most part, though success was finally achieved for all endeavors. In the Arctic Fleming recounts the Ross, Parry, and of course, the John Franklin disaster (along with the numerous follow-up search expeditions for Franklin) [1818-1860]; in Africa he relates the Denham, Laing, Clapperton, and Lander explorations [1822-1831]. The hardships and privations endured by all involved often seem beyond belief. Fleming is an interesting writer and is able to capture the most intriguing details of each expedition as well as the personalities of their leaders, which are often pretty eccentric. The petty feuds among explorers (and Barrow) are also aired. Despite its 400+ page length, the book was hard to put down. Fascinating.

I just finished reading Bitter Memories, and this is a definite for everyone to share with their family. What this family saw and lived through is awe inspiring and will leave you looking at your own lives. It will make you appreciate where we live and gives a new look at what the Holocaust victims went through. There are so many who will deny that the Holocaust ever took place, but Mrs Wallach and her daughter will help you see through their memories just how horrible it truly was.

This is an incredible story which while simply written,
encompasses all of the best and worst of what humans are capable of. The unbelievable love between and mother and her child is the overwhelming power that pervades the narrative. A gift to anyone who needs to understand what that period of history was all about.
Patti Sacher

A very poignant and interesting memoir. You can never imagine what these poor people went through to survive and re-establish their lives. A worthwhile read.

Jafa Wallach has succeeded in retelling the horrors faced by holocoust survivors in a short volume which consumes the reader from the first page to the last. It is astonishing how the will to survive affords Jafa, her husband, two brothers, and one sister, living underground in a hole, to persevere based on the knowledge that Rena, Jafa's daughter, is alive and being cared for by Poles. Don't miss the opportunity to read BITTER FREEDMOM. Pass it on to a family member, friend, or colleague. Soon, holocoust survivors will no longer be able to document their experiences.
Jafa Wallach will celebrate her 96th birthday in two weeks. We owe her thanks for sharing her story and enriching our lives.

Bitter Freedom
Jafa Wallach
Paperback: 209 pages
Publisher: Hermitage Publishers; First edition (April 25, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1557791570
ISBN-13: 978-1557791573

Although I have read many first-hand account books written by holocaust survivors, I found Bitter Freedom to be the most compelling story of it's kind since The Diaries of Anne Frank. The book moved me like no other.
Bitter Freedom is written in straight-forward prose by a mother survivor (Jafa Wallach) who shortly after the WWll ended, sat down and wrote the personal history of her family's lucky and often miraculous survival of the Holocaust. In letter form to her daughter- (Rena Wallach Bernstein) too young at the time to know the adult horrors of in which they survived, Mrs. Wallach pens an incredibly honest and poignant memoir.
"The years have gone by and yet the memory of how it all began remains vivid, fearfully close, as though it all happened yesterday. We were at home, apartment #3 Jagielonska Street in the town of Sanok Poland, listening to radio bulletins of Hitler's attack. You, my daughter, were just one year old. You looked up at our anxious faces, your father's and mine, but you could not have understood how deeply frightened we were. You repeated after us, in your baby lisp, "war, war"-the ugliest word in human speech. It wasn't long after that German planes began to pay their deadly visits to our little town of Sanok."

The book transports you back in history allowing you a glimpse of what everyday families were seeing, feeling and experiencing during this horrific time of war. The Jews of conquered Europe were taken by surprise never dreaming that civilized man could do to their fellow human beings what was now being done to them. Terror and mayhem swept Europe, and so swiftly had Hitler come east and so complete was his control of the lands he occupied- there was literally no where to run-no where to hide. Those hunted were now trapped in their own villages.

Escaping the terror was made especially difficult because many people of the Nazi controlled villages were deeply and historically ingrained with hate for certain groups of their fellow countrymen. The Nazis used this hate to their advantage by turning neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend. Christian against Jew. Those of the hated lucky enough to survive, did so only with the help of others who chose to put their own lives, and those of their families at risk to save their friends and neighbors. Very few were willing to take that risk.

Fortunately for the Wallach family One Christian man- a mechanic named Jozef "Jozio" Zwonarz did choose to put his own life and family at risk to save five fellow human beings. As he concealed four adults under the very noses of the Gestapo, he desperately schemed to save the life of the fifth family member, a four year old child. (Rena Wallach)
With parents and daughter now separated, the nightmare for this family was complete. There was nothing left for them to do. Their very lives were now in the hands of God and an auto mechanic named Jozio.

Bitter Freedom is a touching memoir, a suspenseful thriller, and an accurate historical novel all in one. Although the story took place more than 60 years ago, Jafa Wallach's messages to the reader are timeless and wonderfully relevant in today's world where war is in the news every day.

I predict that Bitter Freedom will eventually be on the top of every school's reading list. There are lessons here for all of us.
A must read.

This book is rather a slow starter, but stick with it and it becomes a page turner with characters you will care about. Mead's WWII tour is revealed in flashbacks and the reader learns what shaped him into he man he is today. His grandson, Andrew, has his own haunted past and the widow next door is keeping a secret. Beautifully written by a talented author.

Both grandfather and grandson are more the same than they realize. Each generation feels isolated, yet is each going through the same sort of loss and fear over losing loved ones. I loved the interspersed flashbacks that Mead has; they show how much of a young, scared man he still is, even inside an older man's body. Highly recommended!

Hull's second book doens't come near the high quality read that his first (Losing Julia) did, but his ability to take the reader from the present to the past and back again is remarkable. Can't wait for his next novel.

I have read Losing Julia and just loved it ~~ it was my favorite book for awhile. I read this book expecting to get the same kind of reaction as I did with Losing Julia ~~ and this book, while very well-written, didn't move me as much. I loved reading about Mead's experiences in the World War II. I can relate to Andrew not fitting in with his peers. I admire the relationship between grandfather and grandson even though they had to work to get it. I find it a very good story ~~ just not as heart-felt as Losing Julia was.

Mead takes in his grandson after his grandson was found threatening a class bully with a pocketknife. Disgusted with today's generation, Mead didn't know what to do with Andrew as he didn't understand the lack of direction his grandson exhibited with his own life. When Andrew tried to committ suicide, Mead decided that enough was enough and took him to retrace his old footsteps in WWII. Mead was one of the wave of young men that stormed the beach at Normandy to over-take it for the Allies. Mead had witnessed unspeakable horrors and sorrow as a young man and he had sworn he would never go back. Well, he reneged on his promise to himself for the sake of teaching his grandson the value of life.

This is a beautifully-written book. It has the substance of sharing a valued historical piece ~~ that will soon be lost to the tombs of time as more and more WWII veterans passes. It is a wonderful story of a man and grandson coming together in life to find themselves having something in common ~~ their love for one another.

11-24-04

In THE DISTANCE FROM NORMANDY, two lives of quiet desperation, further divided by a two-generation gap, intersect.

Mead, in his late 70s, lives in San Diego. His beloved wife of 51 years died of cancer three years previous. Now, he joylessly trudges from day to day living with her ghost - and the ghosts of his comrades killed in combat against the Nazis when they parachuted into Normandy on D-Day with the 101st Airborne. Oh, and Andrew, the difficult teenage son of his single-parent, dysfunctional daughter, is just pulling up at the curb for a visit.

At 16, Andrew is a physically unprepossessing nerd. By his own estimation, he ranks 2,888 out of 3,000 on his high school's social ladder. He's ignored by girls, and bullied by boys. He was recently suspended for pulling a knife on one of his tormentors. Andrew's ghost is that of his best friend Matt, another social outcast, who recently committed suicide. Andrew is tempted to follow.

Mead's first impression of Andrew:

"What a punk, thought Mead, studying his grandson, whose enormous jeans could easily have fit on the biggest man in Mead's old rifle company. He wore dirty, unlaced sneakers ... and a large and rumpled black T-shirt with some sort of Satanic omen painted on it. He had a small, gold hoop earring in his left earlobe and his hair ... looked like it had been cut with shears, then fermented under a helmet for several weeks. In short, the boy looked like a refugee or drug freak."

At one point, Andrew shouts at his grandfather:

"You expect everybody to be like you, don't you? Well, I don't want to be like you! Why would anybody want to be like you? You don't have any friends, you don't do anything all day ... All you've got are your stupid medals and your stupid secret memories about stuff that happened decades ago ... Well, I don't want to turn out like you. I'd rather die."

This visit should go well, don't you think?

The prose of THE DISTANCE FROM NORMANDY doesn't have the powerful eloquence and elegance of Hull's previous work, LOSING JULIA, which perhaps has the capacity to reduce a sensitive person to tears (see my review dated 4-14-01). However, the strength of author Jonathan Hull's writing is that it poignantly conveys the human condition in general and that of his characters in particular. When, in flashback, Mead remembers for the reader his wartime experiences, one is perhaps reminded of the TV miniseries BAND OF BROTHERS, also about a company of 101st Airborne troopers fighting their way into Hitler's Reich.

The crisis in the plot occurs when Mead discovers Andrew with his finger on the trigger of a Luger pistol, one of the former's wartime souvenirs. In a last, desperate effort to put some iron in the boy, Mead takes him for a tour of the Normandy battlefields. And it's there that Mead himself must confront his most implacable and most secret ghost. Only then can he be healed and become a role model for Andrew.

As these two crippled lives collided, I thought the bridging of their differences a bit too pat and too tidy for me to award more than four stars. A TV adaptation would be the perfect Sunday night tearjerker, but not represent real life, in which too many loose ends form a ragged edge. But THE DISTANCE FROM NORMANDY is an engaging read, and I look forward to Hull's next offering.