Bertha Books

In all of the chaos and confusion of an ordinary day, someone with a heart full of lessons to share holds the magic formula for couples to survive and fall in love with being in love all over again. Never have I fancied reading a book on relationships with such joy as from Bertha M. Davis, a masterful writer, shares over 40 years of experience on the "good and bad" of relationships.

Through all of her own pitfalls and personal triumphs, she is able to encourage the reader to compromise and "literally" grow up. There is much to learn, and even for those in fledgling relationships, Bertha's book, "Marriage and The Family," should be the anthem or perfect gift for a bridal shower or wedding. All bridal shops would prosper with Bertha's book that rings like sweet wine, but instead the only intoxicating message is "learn to stay in love." When couples are able to react maturely to even the worst of situations, love can remain everlastingly. Just ask Bertha who understands that marriage means, "a permanent bond," between two people. She reiterates the meaning of "LOVE." and instructs couples before saying, "I DO!" Bertha wastes no time spelling out the statistics on rapid divorce rates. The country has failed this test.

Every couple is vulnerable to the rising trend. Thank goodness for Bertha's clever remedies such as spending time together, learning to love yourself, appreciate the art of maturing, and most of all, rearing children to uphold the same values which may be the culprit for increasing divorce rates. Our adults today are kids all grown up who are the products of young parents who may have compromised going out to work to put food on the table for spending quality time with kids.

Not to worry, Bertha is not here to wreak havoc on our young souls as a woman of marriage for many years but rather lend all of us , and including the children, a kind of mother wit that unsurprisingly grandparents can provide as young lings grow into independent teens and young adults. Any married couple should consider reading Bertha's book together.

After all, we want our children to see us as role models and be on their way to college, or look out for problems later on as Bertha also, sheds light on the repercussions of neglecting youth who waywardly could end up in prison and resorting to drugs and crime if we don't collectively strive to fulfill our responsibilities as adults. "Love and Marriage" is an outstandingly well written book that acknowledges every minuscule ingredient of a successful marriage, and while all doesn't always turn out to be a fairytale, "Bertha's Ten Commandments of Marriage"as well as her scripture references on marriage, may very well be the next constitution to save this country, for social order begins with healthy families. Bravo to Bertha Davis, a lady who I have no doubt will take the seminar segment by storm with her new book, "Marriage and Family."

"On April 10, in the small town of Webb in the Mississippi Delta, I, Bertha M. Davis was born to Victoria M. Thomas, a single mother of four...." So begins the story of Betha Davis's life in Growing Up in Mississippi.


Growing Up in Mississippi is a true story about a young girl growing up in the south when segregation was alive and well; African Americans were labeled Negroes; and picking cotton was one of the only ways to make a living.


Textbooks and school curriculum can't possibly begin to teach the struggles many black men and women faced during this time. Reading Growing Up in Mississippi not only gave me a glimpse of the hardship they suffered, it also displayed the relationship and camaraderie they each shared as well.

In the story, Davis primarily focuses on her childhood and her relationship with her mother and siblings. Often moving from plantation to plantation offered Davis access to many interesting people including plantation owner, Mr. Johnson; the kindhearted Mrs. Fisher; and the scandalous Jenny.
Reading this book transformed my views on the history of the South. Davis wrote about many topics that I believe they'd never attempt to teach in school. I think people of all ages and races will benefit from reading Growing Up in Mississippi.



Reviewed by Joy Farrington



Joy Farrington is the founder and president of Nubian Sistas Book Club, Inc. and resides in South Florida. www.nubiansistas.org

This is one of the most astounding sea stories I've read. Captain Barnard's narrative is direct, simple and powerful. It really tells the story of a triple marooning--the only one I know. The introduction by Professor Dodge is a "must skip"--it is poorly written and dull. But once you get into Barnard's historic narrative, it is a compelling read. Captain Barnard's narrative begins just prior to the first days of the War of 1812. They set out upon a sealing expedition to the Falkland Islands. The Barnard family (his father is with him--also a sealing captain) is Quaker, and live a ways up the Hudson River. Once upon the Falkland Island, they set up operations (itself a remarkably interesting procedure). In the first few months of the expedition (it is supposed to last about a year or so) they see signal fires from a strange ship. It turns out to be a British ship bound from Australia to England. It has run aground on the Falklands. The Barnard family goes to the British ship's aid, knowing full well the United States is at war with the British. After the rescue (the British shipis ruined) Captain Barnard--in private--informs the British captain (there are British Marines on board) that their two countries are at war. Though they agree to neutrality during their difficulties, the Brits reneg! The British take the Barnard party prisoner--seize their ship and smaller boats, and in turn maroon Captain Barnard with two ordinary seamen on the Falkland Islands. Since few ships went to those islands then, their marooning was essentially a death sentence. The harsh winter was ahead of them. This outstanding narrative is of that marooning--and from this original marooning, things become even more complex. This is a unique read--a little known historic niche. Captain Barnard's narrative is impressive for its detail, composure and--a testimony to masterful seamanship plus mental and spiritual discipline. A must, must read.

This is one of the most astounding sea stories I've read. Captain Barnard's narrative is direct, simple and powerful. It really tells the story of a triple marooning--the only one I know. The introduction by Professor Dodge is a "must skip"--it is poorly written and dull. But once you get into Barnard's historic narrative, it is a compelling read. Captain Barnard's narrative begins just prior to the first days of the War of 1812. They set out upon a sealing expedition to the Falkland Islands. The Barnard family (his father is with him--also a sealing captain) is Quaker, and live a ways up the Hudson River. Once upon the Falkland Island, they set up operations (itself a remarkably interesting procedure). In the first few months of the expedition (it is supposed to last about a year or so) they see signal fires from a strange ship. It turns out to be a British ship bound from Australia to England. It has run aground on the Falklands. The Barnard family goes to the British ship's aid, knowing full well the United States is at war with the British. After the rescue (the British shipis ruined) Captain Barnard--in private--informs the British captain (there are British Marines on board) that their two countries are at war. Though they agree to neutrality during their difficulties, the Brits reneg! The British take the Barnard party prisoner--seize their ship and smaller boats, and in turn maroon Captain Barnard with two ordinary seamen on the Falkland Islands. Since few ships went to those islands then, their marooning was essentially a death sentence. The harsh winter was ahead of them. This outstanding narrative is of that marooning--and from this original marooning, things become even more complex. This is a unique read--a little known historic niche. Captain Barnard's narrative is impressive for its detail, composure and--a testimony to masterful seamanship plus mental and spiritual discipline. A must, must read.

I was turned on to this book decades ago by one of my professors. The book bursts with useful material, but the organization is poor, the explanations almost nil, and the problems remote. (Indeed, most of the "drill" problems that the book provides are from British university honors' examinations in mathematics on which applicants are expected to score 15%.) If you are looking for a strong, harmonious collection of advanced techniques in advanced analysis, harmonic functions, and many aspects of operational calculus, you would do better to read "Applied Analysis" by the immortal Cornelius Lanczos.

The preface to the first edition of this book starts by saying it will provide an account of those parts of pure mathematics that find an application in at least two branches of physics. This sets the tone for a volume that sets the tools of mathematical physics on a solid, rigorous foundation, from tensors to multiple integrals, from functions of a complex variable to Fourier analysis, with a thorough coverage in the last ten chapters of differential equations including the wave and diffusion equations, and the Bessel, Hypergeometric, Legendre and Elliptic functions. The style is crisp and precise throughout, without any of the hand-waving that is all too common in some mathematical methods courses.

If you apply a method from this book to a problem, you will know exactly what conditions are required for it to be valid, and there is little in this book that is not still useful, despite the 60 years since its first edition.

This is a nice love story enhanced by the fact that it is true and written by a grandchild of the couple.

Bertha Garlan is twenty-six and widowed. She has a small child, Fritz; when not caring for him, she teaches piano to the children of her town. Her life is happy, or more accurately it is pleasant; There isn't much opportunity beyond what she has, though a yearning for something grander exists within her heart.

For what? She doesn't know. Her friend, Frau Rupius is traveling to Vienna; she invites Bertha along with her. We learn that Bertha is to be used as an excuse, a cover for Frau Rupius' infidelity. Bertha is at first shocked, but then her thoughts wander to Emil, the man she loved as a boy. Her first love, she repelled him after he suggested a consummation of their love. But now, with her husband in the grave, perhaps she could offer her affection. After all, if Frau Rupius is capable of having a lover in Vienna, then so too can Bertha Garlan.

The idea takes hold in her mind. She idealises the time she spent with Emil and, without properly considering the consequences, writes him a letter. He is by now a famous musician, a violinist of some repute - Bertha hopes that he remembers her. He does and his reply, which comes quickly, suggests a meeting.

Bertha is now faced with a problem. Should she meet with Emil? Her heart yearns for it, but her innocent mind is unaware of what might occur. It is almost as though she has no knowledge of what men and women do, for all that she has a child. But her mind is made up when she considers herself: 'A shudder seemed to seize her as she recalled that she was nothing but the widow of an insignificant man, that she lived in a provincial town, that she earned her living by means of music lessons, and that she saw old age slowly approaching.' She must seize this moment, to prove to herself and to the world that she is not a prune on its way to becoming shriveled and old.

Her passions are that of a novice in the arts of love. She is too energetic, too determined to give all of herself to Emil. Before they have met, she thinks grand thoughts of love: 'She was only going to Vienna to be his, and after that, if needs must be, to die.' Bertha spends the day wandering around Vienna, by turns anxious and excited as to the course of the evening with Emil. What lies in store for her? Innocent as she is, her thoughts approach, but ultimately shy away from what it is that she wants. She is able to desire, but unable to properly elucidate these thoughts for herself. At times, she considers breaking off the engagement, her thoughts rocketing up and plummeting down. 'Would it not, perhaps, even be better if he did not come, she wondered. She was so bewildered at that moment ... and supposing she was to say anything silly or awkward.... So much depended on the next few minutes--perhaps her whole future....'

After they meet, Bertha is very excited about what has happened. She reads much - too much - into their conversation. 'She would completely envelop him in it ... no more would he yearn for any other woman.... She would move to Vienna, be with him each day, be with him for ever.' She considers their love to be complete, assured, a new turning point in both their lives. Indeed, Bertha even goes so far as to hold herself above the men and women in the street, as though she now knows more than they about the adult realm of love.

All this is, of course, painful to read. We know that Emil is unfaithful, married, uninterested, or something of the kind. His manner is, at all times, distant - when they do finally spend a long time together, she becomes drunk and misinterprets his words. As a famous violinist it is to be presumed - and Bertha, to her credit, presumes it as well - that he would have known many women. It is Bertha's misfortune not to realise that this makes her the latest in a line of women, not the premiere female, as she would like.

The realisation hurts. When innocence is taken advantage of, it is of course the victim who suffers the most. They perceive their prior ignorance not as naivety but stupidity, as though the world was one great joke at their expense. Bertha is no different. 'for the first time in her life, she was so stirred, even to the very depths of her soul, that she understood those who in their despair have hurled themselves out of a window to meet their death....'

Bertha's innocence - or perhaps ignorance now, as she has ample evidence to discredit her fantasies - remains throughout the novel. By the end, she has not learned a thing and has in fact become a horrible egoist. She sees in everything a reflection of her own thoughts, considers all events and actions a mirror by which to study the passions that rage through her heart and mind. She becomes foolish and sad, a simple creature for which it is difficult to remain sympathetic. Even in the death of a major character, Bertha is able only to learn how it might play upon her love for Emil.

Can we believe this delusion? We can, because Bertha takes it to the extreme. No matter how Emil lets her down, how bluntly he states that all he wants from her are pleasures of the physical kind, she bounds back from an initial minor depression to ridiculous levels of enthusiasm. It is as though Bertha does not want Emil to be her lover so much as for a lover to be hers. She is in love with the fantasy of it all; the reality leaves her cold or simply leaves her.

Perhaps we have all had such thoughts, though I dare say that for most they remain the artifacts of teenage years. Indeed, that is how Bertha comes most to portray herself - her passions are that of the over-exuberant teenager, not the aware considerations of the adult. We are able to criticise her because she is twenty-six with the heart of a sixteen year old, not necessarily because her heart is wrong.

There are interesting echoes of Flaubert throughout the text. The most striking of which comes from the following line, 'You have only a husband, but I have a lover!--a lover!--a lover!"...'. In this we are of course reminded of the famous scene where Madame Bovary struts before her mirror, exulting in her status as a woman with a lover. This similarity to Flaubert is a weakness and a strength. Flaubert is by far the greater writer, but the themes of love and lust and the innocence of a woman are ones that can never properly become exhausted, and with the addition of novels such as these, perhaps we are able to understand all the better the inner workings of our minds and hearts.

This is the most accessible, yet detailed text on Scandinavian literature I have found. Dame Phillpott's work, although originally printed in 1931, is no less valuable to teachers and Nordic enthusiasts today.

In just over 250 she manages to conscisely take us on a tour of all the major divisions of Teutonic writings, and all the time she engages us with a style that is at once scholarly yet gratifyingly easy to read.

Dame Philpotts has an ability, for example, to discuss antique Scandinavian poems (including the Voluspa and Havamal)in terms of their mythological content, and yet also to brief us on the grammatical techniques of verse construction. Hence in this way she allows us to actually 'get inside' the mind of the skalds and to glimpse the world-view of the Norsemen. She shows herself to be equally skilled when dealing with Scandinavian prose, i.e., the Sagas of the Icelanders. In this case she also makes the interesting point that these prose documents may well represent some of the earliest democratic or 'realist' kinds of literature in Europe, given that their subject matter is the social background and everyday life of ordinary Scandinavian folk.

Dame Phillpott's work deserves to be rediscovered, given that the ancient, fragmentary documents which she brings to life are really the Nordic equivalents of 'Classical' Mediterranean literature.

I looked everywhere for this book - I'd somehow lost my old copy. I'm so glad I found it on Amazon.com. It has a great selection of, as the title suggests, everybody's favourite piano pieces! Particularly like the Chopin and Rachmaninoff pieces contained within - and all in original keys!

This geneology of the Haas family was my mother's first published project. There are still copies available which are in perfect/new condition.
This is the geneology of my husband, Joseph (AKA Joel) Haas', family. His father, author Ben Haas, was the second born of Otto Haas Sr. Otto came to the USA as a young man and established himself in the film industry as the owner of the first movie houses in Charlotte, NC. Several members of his family came to the USA and to S. America escaping the Nazis. While others were murdered in concentration camps during WWII.
This book was written before the internet with the information gathered by US mail primarily. With correspondence from surviving family members and without my mother speaking or reading German. It is a fasinating story but not unique from the perspective of the tragedy and loss of so many during WWII. But I think both sides of the family are proud of this publication.
My mother's second published geneology was about her family and is also listed on Amazon.

The biography of a slave girl from Thomaston, Upson County, Georgia, written by a granddaughter. Fannie is born in 1855 ten years before emancipation proclamation. She is one of fourteen children born to Liddy and Ben, slaves on the Revere plantation.

Fannie is raped by the slave master's son, she bore a son. She had eight other children by Olin Graddick. She had three sons by Big George her black mate.

One hundred fifty-two years later the Revere Family, located through out Georgia and Ohio, continue to celebrate the legacy left by Fannie Revere.

She has three grandchildren still alive who knew her while they were growing up. It is another part of black history preserved.

Jarvis C. Archer, a business executive, visits the agency to hire 24-hour bodyguards for his confidential secretary Marilyn Chelan. She has been getting threatening telephone calls and letters from an anonymous person. Chapter 2 tells how Donald Lam needles the caller to provoke him into talking. Chapter 3 tells how Lam now follows Archer from Marilyn's apartment. Archer made phone calls from a public booth. The next day Lam and Bertha Cool compare notes; something is going on in this case. Marilyn decides she doesn't want protection, and this job is over for Cool & Lam (Chapter 4). Lam creates a cover story for his activity on Rhoda Avenue (Chapter 5). Sergeant Frank Sellers tells Lam to forget everything he may have seen around Rhoda Avenue (Chapter 7). There was a murder there of a woman who ran an escort service, furnishing attractive girls for dates. Lam explains the circumstances to his secretary Elsie Brand (Chapter 8).

Complications arise, and Donald Lam again talks to Marilyn Chelan. Is there a connection to Rhoda Avenue (Chapter 10)? Chapter 11 reveals the hidden facts of this case, but Marilyn's connection is unknown. Chapter 12 tells how to fix an identification for a line-up. In Chapter 14 we find out about the hidden scandal. There is a connection to the events in Chapter 1. Eventually an interrogation brings out the hidden facts (which ties in the characters introduced earlier). Cremating a body prevents any test for toxic chemicals (Chapter 18). But the case is cracked when somebody talks (Chapter 19). Arranging sexual liaison for blackmail purposes is an old, old trick for secret services, and others. But the bait doesn't always catch the fish. A perfect plan failed when applied to an imperfect world. Corporate corruption is covered up. One anachronism was the "woman's woolen stocking" used as a murder weapon. [This story echoes some of the events in the "Black Dahlia Avenger" book.] Nixon's 1971 devaluation of the dollar soon made these dollar figures.