Blair Books

I got some encouragement and growth inspiring information from this book, and some was too deep for me. I prefer the simple soul learning, and tend to remember information to help me the more simple it is to apply.

This is an excellent anthology of essays by many accomplished scholars (see the list of names above). Some are psychotherapists, some former ministers, and some psychiatrists; many are simply inspirational writers. This is a calming book with eclectic selections that will suit most tastes.

This book is wonderful. I bought it a few years ago when I was just browsing and not really looking for anything special. The title drew me in. This culmination of writers and various points of view on how to nourish your soul really makes you think. It's helped me find peace in so many ways. It's helped remind me what is important in life and how to be good to myself.

I picked up this book when I was at a low point in my life. It awakened me to a new way of seeing - both myself and the world around me. Handbook for the soul is a wonderful collection of short essays, by various people, all with the same message. It is one of my most favourite books and I highly recommend it!

Anything Richard Carlson lays his hands on is worth considering reading. Each essay offers a philsophical view worth pondering guiding the perseptive reader closer to the inner self. The wealth of information well surprasses the few dollars spent on this compilation.

Again, another in a series or similar plot line. It is a great summer and fall read. Sit down, drink your wine and put your feet up.

This book was awesome on so many different levels. i promise that you will not be disappointed.

Having known Luanne as we were young, I purchased this for a very close and dear girlfreind of mine whom lives on the San Carlos Indian Reservation. I had taken her to Mystic once, and thought she may enjoy a story by Luanne of Connecticut. I was right, she loved it and I am sure that I will be sending her many more books by Luanne.Thank-you Luanne----Jon S.----

This novel was a good read and very entertaining. It wasn't as breath taking as her previous novel Light of the Moon, which I thought was fantastic, but you will not be disappointed.

One year may have past since Charlie died in what the New York police determined was a random act; however, his mother singer/songwriter Sheridan still grieves her loss, numbing her pain with Wild Turkey. Joining her in mourning is Charlie's girlfriend Nell who has worn a ragged anklet cloth he gave her 350 plus days ago just prior to the lethal mugging. Both women who adored Charlie visit his gravesite in Hubbard's Point, Connecticut regularly.

Nell has doubts about the NYPD rush to judgment that her beloved was in the wrong place at the wrong time due to a bad luck occurrence. She needs to prove the cops wrong, but understands this is real life not fiction so an amateur is not successfully sleuthing. Instead she hires private investigator former Hubbard's Point native son Gavin Dawson to uncover the truth of what happened to Charlie. Gavin has an extra incentive as his beloved Sheridan tossed him to the curb for his youthful out of control lifestyle; he prays maturity and solving the case will give him a second chance with Sheridan.

The return to Hubbard's Point (see THE PERFECT SUMMER, SUMMER'S CHILD and SUMMER OF ROSES) is an exciting investigative romance with a touch of the paranormal and a feel of homecoming (appearances by former stars) although mourning is everywhere. The inquiry raises some intriguing questions related to Charlie's death, but though driven by a personal cause Gavin struggles to affirm premeditated. However, the key to the tale is Sheridan whose grief is so strong that her melancholy seems to be overwhelming Gavin's attempts for a second chance at love. LAST KISS is a deep character driven thriller.

Harriet Klausner

If you have seen "The Blair Witch Project" movies, then you must read "The Blair Witch Files, The Prisoner". The character, Cade Merrill, has made it a mission to out as much as he can about the witch. See, Cade, he's Heather Donahue's cousin and she is the girl from the first Blair Witch movie. So in this file he encounters a cry for help, from a girl named Eliza Baynes, and what's interesting is that she is in prison. So Cade sets out to see why she has requested him to help her. It turns out that she never sent a letter. She claims to not even remember writing one. So, being interested already, Cade puts that aside and talks to her anyway. At first the girl is scared claiming Cade will get hurt if she tells him her story. She says that is how all the others died. So already intrigued, Cade makes a few visits back to the prison. Eliza tells Cade that maybe he can hear her story, from Elisa's journal. So as Cade left that day he also takes Eliza's journal. The first few entries only tell about Eliza's moving to Burkittsville, Maryland with her father. Then, things get weird, and the murders start coming up in the journal. As Cade reads more, the more things get crazier around him. Now what kind of person would I be if I told you more? Sorry, but if you want to find out more, you are going to have to read the book and find out for yourself.

Eliza Baynes is acused of a crime she didn't commit. She tries to confide in people what really happened, but everyone she tells she finds dead later. Is it the Blair Witch, Elly Kedward? Eliza is sure of it.

The Prisoner is only the second Blair Witch Files novel I'd ventured in and I must say that is fails to make me eager to read another. When I read The Witch's Daughter I was really impressed and I was very eager to read another entry in the series, but upon finishing The Prisoner I just kinda felt...empty? I don't know which word describes my post-Prisoner mood, but I just felt like I wanted more to the story. I mean it has an interesting premise of a girl, Eliza Baynes, who was convicted of a crime she didn't commit, Murder, and is desperately seeking Cade's help. Cade gets involved, reads her diary and a bunch of weird events happen which seem a little more than coincidental. But like other reviewers I wanted to know more about the Blair Witch and Eliza Baynes, some of the explanations seem a little too easy to come by, and some of the dialogue the characters used was simply laughable and seemed like something from a poorly written Teenage Soap Opera. But on a better note I will say that there were some elements of the story that were just flat out eerie, I mean the way the author describes them and the mental image that gets associated with those words is just plain eerie.

As a whole I would say that The Prisoner was mildly entertaining, there were a lot of elements that I wanted to be deeper explored and I wanted thought out explanations, not just sloppy one or two sentences to explain a few chapters worth of going-ons. The Prisoner left me wanting to desire fulfillment, it didn't leave things unexplained involving Eliza Baynes, it's just that every explanation was just so blunt and fast that it left something to be desired. I can only recommend The Prisoner if you are a true Blair Witch fan, as most non-Blair Witch fans would probably be lost and would laugh at the bland pre-adolescent dialogue. Simply put, The Prisoner only slightly provided a sense of satisfaction upon completion and I can only recommend that fans of the Blair Witch Project check into it. I hope my review will help you in your decision on The Prisoner, whether you pass or buy, thanks for reading.

When Cade Merrill is contacted by a girl convicted of murder, he is determined to uncover the truth about her crimes. At sixteen Eliza Baynes tried to take her revenge on the stepbrother she hated, but her attempts at a spell ended with the death of her father. Sent to boarding school, Eliza is haunted by her past and the fact that everyone she talks to about what happened dies in mysterious circumstances.

Finally convinced she has escaped from the witch's evil, Eliza returns to Burkittsville, where it is soon apparent that history is repeating itself. Eliza was only eighteen years old when she was given the death penalty for killing her then boyfriend Jake Henderson on the evidence of his younger brother Ryan. Her sentence is later retracted and Eliza is sentenced to life imprisonment, but the memories of what took place remain and she needs Cade's help. Eliza claims that she herself is innocent and that Jake's murder was committed by a person under the control of the Blair Witch. As she warns Cade, everyone who hears her story ends up dead. Will Cade be the next victim of the Blair Witch?

"The Prisoner" is the sixth book in the Blair Witch Casefiles series. It was a fast-paced, entertaining and genuinely scary book, although it did lack the suspense of some of the previous books. I love every book in the series so far and this one did not disappoint. I recommend this to all Blair Witch fans.

This book was a very good read, in fact it only took me a day to read it.(even though it was a short book)The story is about a young girl who is convicted of murder for a crime she claims she did not commite, that in fact it was the blair witch....and anyone who she tells her story to dies...so she asks Cade Merrill for help and he ends up reading her diary (which you will be reading in the book). While the story is really good...it was also depressing caues it turnes out sad. And of course sincs it is of the Blair Witch you still dont fine any truth about anything, you just read the story. I cant wait to ready the other 7 books in The blair witch Files. You can go to the website if you want to now more about the books, there are even clues to each of the books you can read, like the e-mails of the people who wrote to Cade Merrill and other interesting stuff. ...

For those who want an indepth and historically interesting book to help explore the Shenandoah Valley area, this is the book to buy. It has a number of short (up to two hours) car tours complete with maps, historical facts and places of interest to visit or drive by. I highly recommend this book to locals and visitors alike. I gave this book as a gift to friends who live just north of the Shenandoah Valley area for their own use and that of visitors to their area.

This book is full of great short trips on lesser traveled paths in the Washington DC area. We have done a few and have had a great time discovering some out of the way places. Great as a starting point for further discovery!

I've made good use of this book as we've explored one of the loveliest places in the world, the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and West Virginia. The maps are helpful and the descriptions are valuable history lessons. If you are coming to the Shenandoah, get this book and plan to extend your stay - there is so much to see and do.

This book is truly a work of art. Each of its thirteen driving/walking tours is thoroughly researched, exquisitely detailed, and wonderfully arranged in such a way that they can be enjoyed in as little as two hours, or savored over an entire weekend. In all my years of driving up and down I-81, I never appreciated the depth and intensity of these places that seemed nothing more than exit signs along the interstate. Andrea Sutcliffe's delightful stories of the people that once lived in this valley would be entertaining enough by themselves; seeing first-hand their homes and the towns in which they lived has brought them to life in a way that I am thankful to have experienced and highly recommend to fellow travelers.

I guess that's putting it wrong..the color pictures are all on the front of the book. I gave this book as a gift to my mother, to inspire her to come visit me after having moved here this year. I figured that the pictures would really grab her attention. When i called to ask how she liked her gifts she replied , "well it would have been nice if the pictures were in color." *UGH* I felt mislead because nowhere in the description does it say that the photos are black and white...i know that the look inside the book pic are b&w but i assumed it would at least be half and half. I can't really give it a bad rating because i don't know yet if the information given is helpful or well written, but if you are looking for a scenic travel book this MAY not be for you.

Belinda Hurmence is a excilent editor. It was a great idea to have this book published. It describes a lot of interesting situations. If you like books on slavery buy this one You will learn alot on the subject.

I've read the original South Carolina Volumes of the WPA Slave Narratives that this book was edited from. This book could have been a whole lot better. While the current editor did a good job of making the SC African-American dialect more accessible to lay readers (even she admits to having trouble with printed versions of this dialect), many of the better stories were either highly edited or left out, such as Elijah Green's Reconstruction Narrative that was heavily edited and Isreal Nesbitt's recollections of the Vesey Rebellion, which aren't included.

However, to the layman and non-historian, this is a good start in understanding slavery from the sources. Some interesting stories do remain, such as the Union County narrative about the Ku Klux Klan. So it's good for starters. The Tennessee and Georgia anthologies in this series are better, though.

This book was given to me by my social studies teacher as an extra credit reading assignment, so I read it just for the credit thinking that I would hate it. Little did I know how many metaphors and parallels to my life I would find. When I finished the book, I could not believe what some slaves had gone through. There were many theories that came out of this book, including that for many slaves, freedom was a two-edged sword. Yet to figure out what I mean by that, you will have to read the book yourself! I would strongly recommend this book to any 8th grade social studies teachers teaching the Civil War who want to make an impact on their students and wake them up to realize that history repeats itself and that the "killing of an old person is like the burning of a book in a library" - Mrs. Mahoney (my awesome 8th grade social studies teacher)!

A fantastic book that reveals the details of slave life through personal interviews of former slaves. Throw away the history books, forget what you learned in social studies, this is real. The book is printed using the dialects of the interviewees, so you almost feel as if you can hear the person speaking. A great read. Difficult to put it down once you pick it up.

This book was a very realistic view into the lives of slaves. I have gotten a better feel for the lives slaves through this book more than any other. It is well put together.

Master Apprentice provides an eye opening view for Trump first timers in to the life "The Donald". Trump appears more a master "salesman" than "apprentice" in his legendary efforts for power, prestige and notoriety in Manhattan real estate. A good read.

Jeremy Hill
JB Capital Management

I enjoyed her book on the Trump family history especially about the grandfather. This book however disappointed me. I found it to be a knockoff of the original trilogy with very little new material. Just being honest. I'm a true Trump devotee so I read everything out there on him, whether written by him or someone else.

Probably one of the better books out there on him. But, as the title sez "Master Apprentice"... How fitting a name.

I would imagine his kids are going to have a tough time living in the shadows of this guy when he's dead. They'd be wise to start their own company and do it from scratch.

Everybody and his brother wants to ride along on Donald Trump's current wave of popularity. During the past year, we've seen books appear by Apprentice-candidate Amy Henry, first Apprentice winner Bill Rancic, board-room colleagues Carolyn Kepcher and George Ross, and naturally, several business / autobios by Trump himself. Now in early 2005, we have two new Trump biographies: this title, and "No Such Thing as Over-Exposure," by Robert Slater. But this one isn't entirely new. It's based on a longer book that Gwenda Blair released in 2000.

"The Trumps: Three Generations that Built an Empire" was a much thicker volume, divided into three equal sections: the first for grandpa Friedrich Trump's immigrant story, the second for father Fred Trump's rise in New York real estate, and the last for son Donald's takeover. Several glossy pages of photos were included so that we could see the family grow and change along the way. In "Master Apprentice," Blair used her previous work as a foundation. She stripped the Friedrich and Fred sections away, condensing more than 200 pages into an interwoven 6-page introductory backstory. She eliminated the photos. She kept the same chapter titles and structures for Donald's section and added a final 16-page chapter that covers the last five years, chronicling the Atlantic City bankruptcy and the tremendous fame surrounding "The Apprentice" TV show. The last four pages turn the reader's attention to Don Jr. and predict his own beginning success. While much of the original text remains the same, Blair should be given credit for retooling and refining some of the initial writing and adding new details where they are pertinent. The final outcome doesn't look or read like a slapdash piece, and it's not a carbon copy of "The Trumps."

Blair's work stands apart from the other books mentioned because of the substantive detail she's gleaned about every Trump deal ever made. (It's appropriate that many negotiations hinge on the Atlantic City properties, because the facts read like a never-ending Monopoly game gone tremendously awry.) Her research is exhaustive and her bibliography, extensive. She spoke to hundreds of individuals, though seemingly, not to Donald Trump himself. The result isn't a glowing account of its main subject but is about as neutral as it can be. The reader is left to decide whether Donald will ultimately ride off into the sunset with a white hat or a black one covering that signature coiffure. Given his drive to be the best and to have only the best, we know at least that the horse would be the fastest, the Stetson would be the largest, and they would both cost more than the average American's annual salary.

Read this book (or its predecessor) first. It will provide perspective for the rest of the titles in the Trump / Apprentice canon.

Becoming a successful real estate developer in New York, one of America's most difficult cities, requires laser focus and ruthless tactics. So that's what Donald Trump and, to a lesser degree his father, Fred, brought to the job as they rose to power and fame. Journalist Gwenda Blair does a masterful, thoroughly reported job of describing the various forces, conflicts of interest, power plays, politics, personalities and near-criminal behavior that resulted in three FBI investigations (but no indictments) of Trump's various real estate deals. Blair provides insights about the family relationships and friendships that shaped Trump's personality and business deals. This is a careful study of the underside of the real estate development business and what it really takes to get big projects done in complex political and financial environments. Would most corporate managers find this book useful? Certainly. We think it provides fuel for thought and a new perspective on being relentless and persistent, as well as being pretty clear about the downside of lying and of having what Donald Trump calls a "killer instinct."

Ms. Ardinger has done a great service by infusing the traditional goddess listing with new more applicable goddesses we can work with in everyday life. The traditional deities can be adapted for modern day life, i.e., cellphones (Athena for communication, perhaps), but a goddess specific to cellphones seems much more logical and effective. There is a lot of humor but each goddess is in the now, rather than the museum. I started reading the book and could not lay it down. Read right through, and chuckled (sometimes even roaring with laughter) all the way to the end. Barbara, thank you for the great work. I can only say to all those who work with goddess energies, please buy this book for reference and enjoyment. Attractive and informative, there is a goddess for every aspect of modern day life.

I approached this book a bit skeptically, as these days everyone and their brother is inventing new Deities. But this book is different. The approach to Deity is lighthearted, whimsical and yet practical.

Barbara Ardinger is an author I am acquainted with from her book "Goddess Meditations" and I know her to be respectful of Deity. She approaches Deity in this book with the same respect, yet ads to the scope of the Deities we are already familiar with. While remaining reverent of the Goddesses of old, she weaves the new needs the modern woman has for Goddess' to help in today's day to day existence and gives us some very powerful and yet approachable new Goddesses.

While most of her Deities are Goddesses, and I could have asked for more balance in the addition of a few Gods, we do see the need for modern women to find an association they can relate to. While many of us may be familiar with the modern "Asphalta", Ms. Ardinger elaborates even further. How about "Acme" the Goddess of High Tech or "Agenda" the Goddess of meetings. These are obvious. I found "Buffy" the Goddess of the Gym to be a poor choice of names, as many of us are familiar with the TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and would have preferred "Svelta" or something along that line, but many other names are almost "tongue in cheek". How about "Chocolata and Vibrata, the Goddesses of Ecstasy."

And while Ms. Ardinger does introduce us to some of the consorts, like "Mr. Buzz- All-Night", consort to Vibrata, again, I find myself being a more balanced type and looking to see what other consorts would fit in with these new Goddesses.

I enjoyed this look at the new needs of women today and how modern Deity can be worked into our daily lives. We stretch sometimes the abilities of the old Deities to try to associate them with our every day chores and sometimes we do feel a need for a Goddess who fits more in place with what we need at the moment.

And as Ms. Ardinger points out in the beginning of her book "A note on Playfulness in Spiritual Writings" "The Charge of the Goddess tells us "All acts of love and pleasure are My rituals. Let there be ... mirth and reverence within you." We've found the love and we've found the reverence. I think it's time to find the pleasure and the mirth. It's time to lighten up. It's time to play with our Goddesses."

I loved this book ... a lighthearted, funny and sometimes-zingingly-right on point look at some goddesses you may never have heard of ... but who you will invoke frequently in the future!!!

Definitely a must-read for all goddess women!

With great wit and delightful commentary, Barbara Ardinger brings us a wonderful treat via her new book, "Finding New Goddesses." What fun! The Goddess-Pagan genre needs new books like this one, they helps us to lighten our spirits.This book leads us down a path of laughter and joy. At the same time, why not name Goddesses of various modern realities? Perfectly logical; we need them.

A few of my favorite Divine Ladies from her book are: "Auntie Gravity, An Antic Cronish Goddess," "Roadesia; Goddess of Freeways, Country Roads, and City Streets," (a particularly useful Goddess), and let us not forget "Fixorrhea; Goddess of Duct Tape," (I'm smiling, just typing in her name!)

Next book you buy, don't miss this one. It will keep your spirits up, not to mention helping you find the perfect parking space! Add this one to your collection; its a keeper.

It's not that worshipping the old ones is boring (can't say that working with powerful Pele, or with trickster enegy such as that of Loki doesn't have its moments), but can they help you find the perfect shopping mall? Spendifera, Goddess of the Mall can. Who do you invoke while worshipping at the altar of your favorite fast food restaurant feasting on guilty pleasures? How about McVitual, Goddess of Fast Food? Who do you invoke while at the gym toning that perfect Pagan body? Buffy, Goddess of the Gym, of course! Do we always have to take ourselves so seriously? The answer here clearly is no! Finding New Goddesses puts the fun back into the fundamentals of Goddess Spirituality.

Ardinger, has written some wonderful, serious books, such as Goddess Meditations, Practicing the Presence of the Goddess and a Women's Book of Rituals & Celebrations. With Finding New Goddesses, Ardinger lets loose and provides Goddess worshippers a clever, humorous A-Z encyclopedia of Goddesses for 21st century life.

The Gods and Goddesses of old can help us deal with the bigger pictures in our lives, such as wealth, health, and love. But this book is chock full of new Goddesses invented to help us through the day-to-day struggles of modern life, such as finding parking spaces, finding/coping with temp jobs, dealing with technological issues, shopping, daycare, credit cards, etc.

"Hail Trivia, keen of mind, I forget again what I must find. Refresh my memory, help me focus, in you do all things have their locus." Along with Trivia, Goddess of Details, there's Agenda, Goddess of Meetings, Daymentia, the Goddess of Temp Jobs, Kickapoo, Goddess of Professional Wrestling, Queuemulus, Goddess of Standing in Line, Roadesia, Goddess of Freeways, Country Roads and City Streets. Not many stones are left unturned as you will see, Dot Compost, Goddess of Spam, Fixorrhea, Goddess of Duct Tape, and this librarian's personal favorite, Litterata, Goddess of books (who I worship in excess!). These are some of the many ideas for modern deities one can invent.

There's plenty of wit and humor mixed into the Goddess backgrounds, chants, ritual ideas, meditations and visualizations that Ardinger provides. She also shares some thoughts with us on playfulness in spiritual writing, playing with words, Found Goddesses and finding new Goddesses every day.

More than providing a little levity to our spiritual lives, this book is a great tool to spark the imagination. Bring some fun into solitary, group or community celebrations. Use it as a tool to encourage outside the box thinking. For spiritual writers, writing groups and writing coaches or teachers, some great writing exercises could be fashioned around this book. See how you can expand on the Goddesses in these pages. Or, challenge yourself or others to create their own imaginary deities, or new totem animals. Name and describe them, write their lore, create poems, affirmations or chants in their honor, and fashion rituals or other magickal workings around them. This can do a lot to liven up writing classes or workshops, or classes covering deity worship and invocation.

If I hadn't been languishing so long at the altar of my sometimes overwhelming personal Goddess, Procrastinata, I would have reviewed this book much sooner! This makes a great gift idea for the light at heart among us and is suitable for any level of spiritual practice.

I really enjoyed learning about another set of conjoined twins. I felt the author told a story and didn't just rehash facts.
Thanks.

Millie-Christine is a fascinating story. She/they managed to have a happy life, full of love and faith, despite their condition. They come across MUCH more sympathetically than do Chang and Eng in the recent novel about those Siamese twin brothers. Chang and Eng's degree of conjoinment was considerably less serious than Millie-Christine's, yet the Siamese Twins led a much more unhappy and depressing life, constantly bickering with each other. Millie-Christine chose to live by the philosophy "As God Decreed, We Agreed". They seemed to really love each other, and nearly everybody around them seemed to love them. They didn't let prejudice, slavery, or the ridicule of others get them down--they chose to cherish the unique advantages of their situation (what black girls in the 19th century would EVER have gotten to meet Queen Victoria)? They come across as truly inspirational.

I give this book 4 stars because the writing, although the research is commendable, doesn't quite "grab" you, doesn't seem to really bring out their personalities or to tell enough about Millie-Christine as people, especially as children. The first part is a bit confusing--too many people kidnap Millie-Christine, the girls are being tossed around like a hot potato and it's hard to figure out who's got them, or who should have them! But of course that really did happen to slaves and "freaks of nature" in those days. The use of both singular and plural ("she" and "they") for the girl(s) is also a bit jarring, although it is explained clearly at the beginning why this is done. I wish there had been more elaboration of their thoughts and feelings--but probably that kind of stuff just didn't really get recorded beyond the innocent songs/poems and sanitized mini-biography which they wrote for their show. More from their letters and family memoirs would be interesting.

All in all, though, a well researched portrait of one (or two, if you prefer, as I do) amazing, intelligent, and lovely and loving lady/ies.

I'm so glad that this book was written! I read another book years ago about the freak show circuit in which that author dismissed Millie-Christine as an obscure act about which very little was known. Wrong!

Joanne Martel has found a rich trove of information about the conjoined twins, and she presents it in an interesting way. Photographs show the twins at different stages of their development. There are exerpts from newspaper accounts,handbills from their performances, family letters, etc. This author really did her homework to produce this solid work.

While exhibiting "human oddities" is distasteful to us today, this book shows how Millie-Christine's life was not entirely horrific. The twins led a dignified life in the show business world. Born as slaves in 1851, they were lifted up from that life and were educated and taught to perform pretty songs and light amusements for the benefit of their audience. They were adept in social chatter, and were able to converse with adults and children in all walks of life. They traveled through Europe at an early age and met famous people and nobility.

They were able to contribute to their family's support immediately after th Civil War, when the entire family found themselves free. Without the income provided by his twins, their father would not have been able to buy his parcels of land in North Carolina.

Their specialness did cause unfortunate events in their lives. When young children, they were removed from their mother's care and sold to a showman who later lost custody. They passed through several hands, and ended up the wards of a kind and generous man who cared for them and their entire family.
The constant prodding and poking of physicians, especially trying to the young girls as they approached womanhood, was a source of sorrow and embarassment.

This is a good, readable account of two girls born into an interesting situation during interesting times. Recommended!

This amazing, fascinating true tale deserves more attention than it has gotten from the press and review sources. Author Joanne Martel does a terrific job of not only telling Millie-Christine's story, but also of detailing the world she lived in.

Much more interesting than the original Siamese twings Chang and Eng, her life crossed theirs and they even exhibited together for a time. Why their story survived in popular culture and hers is largely lost is a mystery. This is a remarkable story.

Millie-Christine deserves ongoing recommendation, providing the remarkable story of Siamese twins who were born into slavery in 1851 and who moved from slavery to the courts of Europe during their lives. Twice sold and kidnapped as a child, Millie-Christine traveled throughout Europe and earned a fortune.

Resisting Hitler, by Shareen Brysac

When criminals gain control of governments, average citizens mostly pretend not to notice. Each thinks to himself something like, "How could I possibly pass judgment on our august leaders?" In a state ruled by force there are no competing politicians left to whom they can shift their allegiance. By default, then, they allow themselves to be used by the regime to prove that it has popular acceptance.

Not so my great-aunt Mildred Fish Harnack, whose resistance against the Third Reich has been a vivid legend in our extended family for half a century. Her story gradually became known to a widening circle of interested people, including Shareen Brysac, who finally taking the initiative, researched the case exhaustively with its myriad details, and assembled from them a powerful, vivid mosaic.

Like the Diary of Anne Frank, it is a tragic story imbued with the sense of inevitability that comes from everyone knowing the ending -- and yet it is joyous, because through Brysac, we cannot help being deeply inspired by the example of Mildred and the scores of her fellow resisters in the Red Orchestra, including her husband Arvid Harnack. They all knew they were taking a mortal risk, but as serious intellectuals who cared deeply about -- and even helped to create -- the best in German culture, they knew the truth of Socrates' dictum that "the unexamined life is not worth living." And so they lived their lives to the hilt.

By telling Mildred's story, which is by extension and implication the story of every person willing to put their life on the line to resist tyranny, Brysac has enriched my life, and all our lives. I have been inspired by Mildred for 50 years. Now let the rest of the world be inspired too.

Initially,Shareen Brysac's Resisting Hitler attracted me because of my long-term fascination with German history, Holocaust Studies in particular.This book opened a whole new world to me! Brysac's sensitive portrayal of Mildred Harnack's tragic and extremely heroic story literally brought tears to my eyes.I'd never heard of her, nor of the "Red Orchestra"--a Nazi Resistance group little known in the U.S.Brysac's gripping tale is supported by copious research in archives, including those only recently opened to the scrutiny of scholars.I strongly suggest this biography to those interested in having a fresh look at a much written about period in German history, and to anyone who appreciates a well written book--both informative and exciting.

I wanted to read this book because I am interested in WWII espionage, but only the last third of the book really deals with this, and the actual espionage is sketchy at best. The first third recounts Mildred's early years in Wisconsin (and her life just isn't that interesting) up to her marriage to Arvid Harnack. She has a hard life with him after they move back to his native Germany. They never have any money and for fun read Goethe to each other and their friends. The author tends to glorify Mildred, but she is made human, perhaps unwittingly, in recollections by her friends during a visit to her homeland after Hitler is in power. She reveals herself to be full of insecurties by making references to her own beauty and by looking down her nose at the hicks she grew up with. Much is made of Mildred's beauty throughout the book, but it must not be the kind that reveals itself in pictures, since she looks rather plain. Arvid comes across as unlikeable, humorless, controlling and provincial in his own way, while Mildred is a gentle soul who really should have been a literature professor at an American university instead of getting tangled up in her husband's underground activities for the Red Orchestra. But she is loyal and her love for him leaves her no other choice. The book comes alive in the section about Martha Dodd and the Schulze-Boysens, who all did their share of clumsy, though well-meaning espionage for the Russians. Both Arvid and Mildred are highly intelligent and cultured, but neither of them seem to have a lick of common sense, which leads to their eventual arrest by the Gestapo. The author has done a remarkable, exhaustive amount of research and the book is well-written. A problem, though, is the amount of names thrown at you, and frequently someone is referred to and you have no idea who he is until you look in the index and see he was mentioned 200 pages earlier. All in all, this is a portrayal of a woman who really didn't have that much to do with espionage but was punished because she was Arvid Harnack's wife. But somehow I don't think she would have had it any other way.

This book contains much more than a description of one woman's efforts at wartime resistance. It is a remarkable depiction of the intellectual and social life of the liberal and sometimes left-leaning intelligentsia in Madison, Wisconsin, and as well as of the liberal upper class in Germany in the period from the turn of the 20th century to 1945. The material ranges from vivid social commentary,historical narrative, and thriller, to final tragedy and its aftermath. The writing style is lucid and the footnotes copious. This book conbines the virtues of being a good read and a highly informative social history. I recommend it strongly.

A first class research by Brysac finally puts to rest the conflicting histories of the Red Orchestra (Rotte Kapella): the white-washing done by the FDR (former Federal Republic of Germany) vs. the pro-communist embellishments of the DDR (former East Germany).

The author's exhaustive research (de-classified Stasi and KGB archives, interviews with survivors, US Army documents) finally does justice to the only American in the German Resistance who was executed (Mildred Fish-Harnack) and also allows the readers to reach a balanced view about who the Red Orchestra was.

The reader will also become acquainted with how life was in Germany (particularly Berlin) during the 30's and early 40's through the lives of Mildred Fish-Harnack and her husband Arvid Harnack. Since the Harnacks were highly educated, came from esteemed families, and had influential friends in elitist Berlin society the reader also gets a glimpse of how divergent the views of various Germans and Americans were towards the Berlin regime.

In conclusion, it is sad to see how a heroic German-American (Mildred Fish-Harnack) and an independent thinking German intellectual (Arvid Harnack) who spoke-out against, resisted, and even sabotaged the evil regime of Hitler met such a drastic end due to the follies and reckless acts of Stalin's regime.

I wish there were more history books like this one written out there:
* impeccable research
* excellent prose (and thus easy to read)
* semi-autogiographical
* great lessons to draw about WWII, society, economy, and contemporary events.

I lover the characters and of course the setting, since I have visited the Outer Banks, etc. for years. It was entertaining, but story was a bit weak. The author has a clever, quirky style that keeps the reader, but I would not highly recommend this to anyone that didn't enjoy the world of fishing, as I do.

I know well the area (Carteret County, way "off" Atlantic Beach) that is the setting for this book, and I live in the Triangle, so I loved reading about landmarks in both places. Although I've followed the underlying controvery in the book to some degree, I learned a few things, too, that I didn't realize were going on in my own backyard, so to speak. A good story and characters; a thoroughly enjoyable read. I especially loved the theory about The Lost Colony. Hmmm...

Bill Morris has given us an entertaining mystery story filled with twists and turns, rich characters who really are characters, and a depth of detail and experience that brings the Banks to life -- even for someone who's never been there in person. The saltwater cowboys are the salt of the earth, but they're one step ahead of the city slickers who try to take advantage of them. When does the movie come out?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The best part about it is the richness of the characters. I did not want to say goodbye to Dodge, Pogy, Ilse, and Johnny when I finished the book. This book gave me a better understanding of a culture that deserves more attention than it receives. It also made me want to move to the beach and become a fisherwoman. A superb mix of humor, sincerity, political intrigue, and good ole' fish stories. I highly recommend this book.

I read the book while on a beach on Atlantic Island in North Carolina. It was an added bonus being able to relate to the various places mentioned in the book; Moorhead City, Cape Lookout and Beaufort. The author developed each character in a light and funny manner; to the point that you felt that you knew each of them. It gave me a great insight into the way of life for the locals of the Outerbanks. I strongly suggest this book and especially if you have been to the Outerbanks.