Caldwell Books

My friend found this jewel of a book (The Beth Book) at a Garage sale for ten cents. Now in our small town teachers and waitresses are discussing the profound nature of Sarah Grand's masterpeice.

Originaly I was intrigued by the oldness of the book, but was swiftly engrossed in the details of Beth's life, upbringing and the changes she makes from sheer determination. The inconsistancies in her nature make her real. The loss of her Father is eloquent and vivid.

Adolecense is as troublesome for beth as is anyone. The author gives a great story of someone whom we can understand and not understand at times. She is all human. Both great qualities and some not so great accompany Miss Beth's diverse if not contradictory charater. The woman she becomes is to be admired.

The Beth Book is seemingly a biographical novel of a genius female raised in the days that her peceptions and intellegence is squashed and suspect. Rather than be beaten down, comes through life triumphantly. The Beth book is not only a story of life, but one of abuse, feminism and true love.

I highly recommend The Beth Book. I anticipat learning more of Sarah Grand and reading more of her works.

My friend found this jewel of a book (The Beth Book) at a Garage sale for ten cents. Now in our small town teachers and waitresses are discussing the profound nature of Sarah Grand's masterpeice.

Originaly I was intrigued by the oldness of the book, but was swiftly engrossed in the details of Beth's life, upbringing and the changes she makes from sheer determination. The inconsistancies in her nature make her real. The loss of her Father is eloquent and vivid.

Adolecense is as troublesome for beth as is anyone. The author gives a great story of someone whom we can understand and not understand at times. She is all human. Both great qualities and some not so great accompany Miss Beth's diverse if not contradictory character. The woman she becomes is to be admired.

The Beth Book is seemingly a biographical novel of a genius female raised in the days that her peceptions and intellegence is squashed and suspect. Rather than be beaten down, comes through life triumphantly. The Beth book is not only a story of life, but one of abuse, feminism and true love.

I highly recommend The Beth Book. I anticipate learning more of Sarah Grand and reading more of her works.

My friend found this jewel of a book (The Beth Book) at a Garage sale for ten cents. Now in our small town teachers and waitresses are discussing the profound nature of Sarah Grand's masterpeice.

Originaly I was intrigued by the oldness of the book, but was swiftly engrossed in the details of Beth's life, upbringing and the changes she makes from sheer determination. The inconsistancies in her nature make her real. The loss of her Father is eloquent and vivid.

Adolecense is as troublesome for beth as is anyone. The author gives a great story of someone whom we can understand and not understand at times. She is all human. Both great qualities and some not so great accompany Miss Beth's diverse if not contradictory charater. The woman she becomes is to be admired.

The Beth Book is seemingly a biographical novel of a genius female raised in the days that her peceptions and intellegence is squashed and suspect. Rather than be beaten down, comes through life triumphantly. The Beth book is not only a story of life, but one of abuse, feminism and true love.

I highly recommend The Beth Book. I anticipat learning more of Sarah Grand and reading more of her works.

This is one of the "lost books" by a forgotten female writer who didn't make it into the literary canon.

Unfortunately, that's probably a good thing. The book purports to be the history of a "woman of genius" and the intro to my edition of the book waxes eloquent about authenticity of voice and how Grand was able to capture the mental and emotional growth of a child from birth onwards.

The problem is, the book is badly written. Grand contradicts herself time and time again in her characterization of Beth. Beth had "no ear for music" on one page and then on the next she possesses a "great talent for music." Beth is "painfully sensitive to others' feelings" yet her favorite passtime as an adolescent is to beat up on her younger sister.

Where it really gets strange is in the final quarter of the book. Here Grand throws in everything but the kitchen sink: drunkenness, immorality, prostitution, and vivisectionism.

The book ends up being more polemical than anything else, which may have been Grand's point, but to call this good writing is to besmirch the memories of the truly fine "forgotten" women writers.

Other commentators have explained the basis of the book, and I agree with them. I first read this in 1968 at the age of 12, one of the first "serious" history books I have read. There are a number of photographs, and the book is heavily footnoted. I recall that I enjoyed the book and also was incredulous at the stupidity of the officers back in England over the use of the convoy as bait to try and trap the Tirpitz and the failure to protect the convoy from the U-Boats and Luftwaffe. Later on in life it was hard to compare this book with the fact that Irving seemed to deny that the holocaust took place. At the time he made these allegations there were certainly plenty of folks alive who had entered the camps as liberators. But putting that aside I thought it was a very well done book, it certainly pricked my interest into a serious study of military history. For that reason alone I like this book. 4 stars out of 5.

David Irving's "Trail of the Fox" is the best action biography I've ever read, so when I wanted to learn more about the infamous Lend-Lease convoy PQ 17, Irving was my author of choice for source material, despite the controversy that now hangs about him as a result of his being tagged a 'holocaust denier' (a punishably crime in many European 'democracies'). I was especially intrigued that this book was banned by the British Admiralty for twenty years. Did they have a book bonfire, I wonder, or do only NSDAP students have those?

This book is a sample of Irving's early work, and is much drier and more methodical than I was hoping for. Unlike a biography, where the writer can focus on a single individual or cast of characters, a book like "Destruction" is forced to split its attention over numerous historical figures -- pilots, U-boat commanders, staff officers, ship captains -- with the result that we never really get a clear picture of any of them. Then again, the story is about the convoy, not just the people in it.

Convoy PQ 17 was a 34 ship train, with heavy naval protection, dispatched from Iceland in July of 1942 carrying hundreds of thousands of tons of American-manufactured war materials for the faltering Soviet Union. The Germans were determined to prevent it from arriving, and prepared their battleships and battle-cruisers in Norway to intercept it. The British Adminralty got wind of this, panicked, and withdrew the convoy's naval escort, ordering the convoy to scatter and make Soviet ports alone. When the Germans realized this, they threw in every aircraft and U-boat available on the now-defenceless mass of ships tacking over the Arctic Circle. What followed was the biggest single massacre
of merchant ships at sea in World War II -- twenty-two of the thirty four transports were sunk by aircraft or U-boats, hundreds of men drowned in icy waters or were captured, and more than 100,000 tons of spare parts, explosives, tanks, aircraft, fuel oil, and God alone knows what else sank to the bottom of the ocean, where it all remains to this day (and for all time). The slaughter was so severe the PQ convoy route (Iceland to Murmansk and Archangel) was suspended afterwards, the Soviets screamed bad faith, and the British Admiralty began a systematic attempt to muzzle the truth of what had happened (hence the banning of this book).

Irving recounts all the strategy, planning, accident, confusion, cowardice, and heroism in a dry, by the numbers fashion, as if reciting a list of figures. Sometimes the human moments break through, and they are moving and horrifying: men are left adrift on icy seas with only the cigarettes, congac and advice their German attackers threw them to sustain them ("Russia is 400 miles that way, start paddling"); a German pilot lands his seaplane in the path of an onrushing British destroyer under heavy fire to rescue a shot-down comrade; teenage British gunners volunteer to man their AA weapons to the last round even as their ship sinks. Unfortunately, Irving tends to go too deep into all the fruitless planning of the various Naval Staffs and leaves these human moments fewer and farther between than I wanted.

In light of the present war in Iraq, the most interesting point made by the book is how truly difficult the so-called "intelligence game" really is. British Intelligence is portrayed in books and novels as being almost Omnipotent in its genius, besting the Germans over and over again in World War II, and indeed the Brits won numerous intelligence triumphs, some of them staggering in their brilliance. But in the case of Convoy PQ 17, the Admiralty misread the facts, saw an enemy fleet where there was none (the Germans actually never committed their heavy battleships, fearing Allied aircraft carrier attack) and left a helpless convoy at the mercy of the Luftwaffe and wolf packs.

Intelligence is a brutally difficult affair, with horrendous consequences for even small mistakes, and a constant orgy of Monday-morning quaterbacking by men of self-righteous personality and cowardly character. Hack novelists often refer to it as "the great game." I doubt very much if the men who drowned in freezing water looked at it that way, and I prefer Dirty Harry Callahan's view: "Funny....I never thought of it as a game."

David Irving's The Destruction of Convoy PQ-17 is a well-researched and well-written story of one of the northern Lend-Lease convoys to Soviet Russia during World War II. Due to a series of maneuvers by the Germans, messages by the British, and mistakes, the convoy scattered and suffered very high losses to German U-boat and air attack before the survivors finally reached Soviet Russia. Irving's account of this action is one of the most readable narratives of any sea action that I have ever read.

(The author is a controversial "historian" and a Holocaust-denier. This book pre-dates his public refutation of the Holocaust. However, Irving was sued for libel and lost because of some passages in the book about Captain Broome, the commander of the destroyer escort for Convoy PQ-17. Anyone reading this book should be aware of the libel action and should also realize that the action was based on a handful of passages that were taken out of later versions of the book. There are accounts of the libel trial on the internet. I did not even find the "libelous" actions offensive.)

Irving's account of the battle is extremely well-researched. He recounts how confused and in the dark both the British and German commands were during the battle. Much of his story is based on archival research into both the British and German commands' actions and decisions, but he fleshes out the story with great narratives based on ship logs, the memoirs of many participants, and interviews with many of the survivors. The personal stories help add a human dimension to the story, as he recounts the difficulty of trying to survive at sea in the northern latitudes with German aircraft and U-Boats stalking the ships.

Irving wrote a wonderful book that tells a fascinating and harrowing story of a WWII naval action. Even if this book is read with skepticism toward Irving's handful of criticisms of Broome, his numerous criticisms of the RN, and his later controversial history (at the time of this writing, he is in prison in Austria for Holocaust denial), it is a great work. It is a shame that someone of Irving's considerable research and writing skills has wasted them for much of his career.

Desperate Voyage by John Caldwell is a terrific book, and his widow Mary deserved no less. Sadly, due to her advanced age, she has entrusted her tale to "Dr." Matthew Douglas, my current choice for the most inept author on the planet. Grammar errors. Horrific sentences. Even has her on the wrong boat at one point. As a fan who has spoken with Mary and son Johnnie to convey my respects, this book is an especially sad end to a memorable saga.

Circling around the world is a feat in itself, doing it with your entire family is an adventure. "Mary's Voyage: The Adventures of John and Mary Caldwell" tells of the Caldwell family and how they began their long journey around the globe. Starting in California, Mary pregnant, one of their own was born during the trip to join their toddler and infant son to their crew. Facing the long sailing trip and the wrath of nature, "Mary's Voyage" is a true life adventure sure to please fans of unusual feats by common people.

a truely daring and adventereous read... not to mention humerous,
I enjoyed every page of this book and envied the great life they endured!

Since Amazon didn't post an editorial review, here's the description from the back of the book to help you decide if this book is for you: "Two beautiful women wanted FrankClair -- the handsome, talented, sensitive artist aflame with an adventurer's passion for life, and with a bursting lust for money, fame, and women ... One would give him all she had -- a voluptuous blonde beauty forced by poverty into prostitution. It was she who first took this twisted, angry young man and taught him his earliest, sou-shattering lessons in tenderness and passion .... And one would take all he had to give -- a ravishing, highborn, dark-haired vixen who taunted the young writer for his crude, urgent longings, and yet spurred him on to incredible heights of literary achievement and fame ..."

Taylor Caldwell's "There was a Time" is a bleak but unsatisfying view of life for the poor in America in the early part of this century. It focuses on the struggle of Frank Clair to rise above his friendless and loveless circumstances to become a successful writer. Despite some promising settings and characters (the hills of Kentucky, the factories and schools of upstate New York, the Depression), and the potential to say something about the big issues of the times such as poor industrial conditions, segregation, anti-British setiment during WWI, the book in the end does nothing except follow the mopings of the protagonist from emotional failure to disappointing moment. The book is also quite sloppily written with some glaring continuity errors. None of the characters which are remotely likeable stay around for long.

"There was a Time" is the story of Frank Clair, a young English writer and immigrant to the United States. Like Caldwell's other characters, Frank suffers from a fatal flaw: his once passionate artist's nature has been warped by his miserly parents until he is a bitter shell of a man whose only concern is money. He compromises his writing to achieve his obsession with wealth. As always, Caldwell characters are multifaceted, tormented people whose thoughts and actions are so well described that the reader sympathizes with their plight. Caldwell's lyrical prose makes this especially good reading for those disgusted with simplistic, poor writing. While "There was a Time" is not Caldwell's best work (to me, the ending was abrupt, and did little justice to the complexity of the work), it is a fine introduction to this prolific author and a must for her continuing devotees.

Before we venture to Rome with Joseph (named after Jesus' earthly father), here is an appropriate prayer for December by Catherine Marshall: Almighty God, When You came to us, a darkened world was struck by light; nor only at Christmas but for all eternity. How can we ever thank you enough? Joseph finds himself alone in Rome with no job, no money, no real prospects in sight. His spirit was weighted down on that Christmas morning in 1980. He was despondent and felt there was nothing left to do except grieve, for himself, for all creation, for Jesus who kied on the cross, for the pope. Still, it was Christmas and he was in Rome outside St. Peter's waiting for the Pope's appearance and prayers for those present on Jesus' birthday. Let us not forget the real purpose of Christmas.

In the piazza, the spirit was one of cheerful exhilaration, but Joseph felt that he was there more in body than in spirit. The contrast with the browd's mood and his own was tremendous and he just could not be open to the joy all around him. There didn't seem to be much he could do about it. Far from his home in Wisconsin in the United States, there to visit his uncle, he felt bereft and lonely on Christmas Day. The crowd roared a greeting waving to the Pope, holding high the banners and placards. Joseph suddenly felt the fulfillment of an old, induring hope. These people had risen from theeir harsh sorrow to proclaim their joy. Nothing mutes the glad tidings of the angels' song, neither petty concerns nor deepest sorrow. The crowd showed him that Christmas doesn't dismiss unhappiness or undo tragedy.

He thanked God for letting him be alive and there in Rome witnessing a miracle. They couldn't hear him but Christ could especially on Christmas. He had a strange, persistent urge to go back to the store he felt he had left forever. Miracle of miracles, the skates someone had put on layaway and failed to pick up were ther for young Jimmy. "What I saw in his eyes was like a blessing. It was pure joy and it was beautiful." His low spirits rose. Jimmy told him, "I asked Jesus to send you." One thaing that made that Christmas really wonderful was the one thing that makes every Christmas wonderful -- Jesus was there.

Joseph Caldwell also wrote 'The Deer At t he River' and 'In Such Dark Places.' This is the best Christmas and most inpiring I have seen to date.

I enjoyed this book. Not an opera fan myself, it used the opera culture as a backdrop for an interesting tightly knit plot. The detail used to describe Naples transported me. The twists in the book, the double-life of Michael Ruane as a supporting opera actor and his assumed identity of Don Michel, the uncle from Rome, interweave to create an fascinating tapestry. All of the supporting characters are well drawn. Cross-dresser Piero with his wry smiles and penchant for betrayal was my favorite. The Italian flare for emotion was beautifully illustrated in the Gaetano and Peppino, the two brothers fighting over the multi-layered Rosalia. If there were any weakness in the book, for me it was in Michael's character. He never seemed to know who he was, a man adrift in search of true emotion. While this may be the point, it kept me distanced from him. The only other thread that didn't quite gel for me was the result of the Curlew River Opera. Not knowing whether it was a success or not seemed to mute one of the major subplots. However, that is a minor objection to the volatile love triangle that is played out with Michael as the uncle, and the reversals that come fast and furious as the book climaxes in operatic fashion at the end. Read and enjoy!

I had the opposite reaction to this book: for me it jelled to perfection! The Kirkus reviewer obviously doesn't know any divas or any Italians. I found the book a joy to read -- very funny, colorful, and filled with well-wrought sentences that begged a second perusal. Caldwell kept me right with him through all the outrageous twists and turns of the plot, like a tour of the Neopolitan back passages. If anything, I felt that the section focusing on Michael's ex-lover was the weakest in the book, not the strongest. Maybe you have to be a singer yourself to fully appreciate the tenor's angst and the life-as-aria theme to the book, but I found it delicious fun to read, moving, and memorable.

This book is laced with incorrect historical information, such as the author's statement that Prince Metternich represented the "Austro-Hungarian Empire" at the Congress of Vienna 1814-1815. For a political scientist who uses models founded in European history he should know better than this. The "Dual Monarchy" that the moniker "Austro-Hungarian" stands for did not begin until 1867. This was as a result of Vienna losing a war to Prussia, in which it had bid unsuccessfully for leadership of the German Confederation. The resulting re-organization of the Hapsburg domains resulted in the dual monarchy. Caldwell should know this, but he refers to the dual monarchy as if it existed well before 1867 all throughout this book. I attended a lecture of his years ago and he was even making this mistake then.
He also refers to Julius Caesar as a "great Roman emperor." Anyone who knows their Roman history knows tha Caesar himself never held such a title. He was counsel in the First Triumpherate, then a self-declared dictator of Rome, and always a general, but never made emperor.

Caldwell also cites the Christian Crusades of the High Middle Ages as the beginning of Christian-Muslim enmity. He implies that these episodes of Christian expansionism were responsible for much tragedy and suffering; it is plain to see that he connects the crusades to today's troubles. But he ignores the fact that Arab solders invaded the Iberia peninsula (and hence Europe) in the early 8th century, and their over-run of western Europe was only stopped during 732 by Charles Martell and the Franks at the Battle of Poitiers. But I guess we are to assume these events had nothing to do with any long-lasting Christian-Muslim discord.

The book also starts off with a silly, and with respect to his thesis, non-sequitur fulmination on African slavery. Caldwell, without any apparent connections to his book's themes, sees fit to dswell on African slavery and seems to imply that students should feel sorry for fellow students who are of African ancestry. Never mind that Slavey was destroyed a century and a half ago, that problems since then (as stated by Eric Foner) have stemmed from the botched Recontruction of the South, and that the descendants of those slaves are today much better off then if they were living today in Africa. If Csldwell's sentiments are to be taken seriously, then as much pity and externally-obligated respect shouild also be due to Hispanics, who lost family lands in the Southwest after the Mexican War, and to Irish and Scottish, many of whom came here as indentured servants following Oliver Cromwell's trashing of the Celt lands or came here in absolute destitution after the famine.

The book is written to the level of a 10th grader, I'd guess. I'm not certain if this is a virtue or a flaw. I suspect some of both. A great writer such as Norman Davies should not have to resort to such over-simplification, as it causes generalities that leave out salient facts. But Caldwell apparently is not in Davies' class.

Caldwell makes learning facts about international politics interesting enough not to fall asleep while reading it. Unlike other books that are used for college courses this one flows. It makes the reading more enjoyable.

Dan Caldwell is innovative in his approach to make the learning experience practical, informative, and interesting. Perhaps the greatest asset to World Politics and You are the critexes (Critical Thinking Exercises) at the beginning of each chapter. Each critex helps wet the palate for the reading that follows. These exercises challenge the reader to move outside of their comfort zone and contemplate issues relative to the reading. While starting each chapter in critical thought, I found the reading to be much more applicable and thought-provoking. It is truly a revolutionary way of challenging learners to be thinkers, rather than simply fact-gatherers. Way to go, Dr Caldwell!

I have traveled with medical groups in this area of Vietnam & this book was of great interest to me. It was obviously written by an amateur author, but did a fine job of telling the story of humane behavior under the horrible circumstances of war. Dr. Caldwell was a true hero of this terrible war. By the way, this book was very short & way too expensive.

Dr. Caldwell's book, "Bac-Si, A Doctor Remembers Vietnam", embraces the best in the Vietnamese and tells a compelling story of his experiences there as a Navy physician attached to the Marines. It is a very moving portrayal of the gentler side of the Vietnamese, a side many Americans in Vietnam never experienced. Most readers would be pleasantly suprised to know that Dr. Caldwell never did really, "Fini Vietnam." From his home base in Hawaii, Dr. Caldwell and a team of other physicians return each year to Vietnam as part of humanitarian medical teams. His book brings the reader into an area of human compassion seldom explored by other authors writing about the war. This is not just another book about Nam, its about a doctor and his patients who became part of a larger extended family. He visited and photographed interesting historical places like the Citadel in Hue City, yet never loses sight of the fact that he just happened to be an American military doctor, his patients happened to be Vietnamese and there just happened to be a war going on. The book is small, easy to read, has plenty pictures and maps and the best part is, its written as a true expression of one human's emotion and compassion for people. Its not just another book about war. Its a must read for anyone interested in a great book about Vietnam minus all the "war stories."

This is an excellent book on land trusts by the best "guru" around. He developed and has been using his Equity Holding Trust system for over 20 years. I have used his land trust system for over 10 with great success. Highly recommended.

This book is very exciting, taking a tried and true real estate investment technique ('subject-to' purchase) and adding a twist that supposedly makes the exit strategy (what would otherwise be known as a 'sandwich lease-option') safer than the traditional method for everyone concerned.

Further investigation, though, indicates the practitioner should be very careful in following these recommendations. For one thing, the argument is used that the land-trust technique touted by the author's real estate services company prevents the mortgage-holder from exercising a due-on-sale clause. Cleverly backed up by a partial citation of a federal regulation, but not true.

This technique may indeed be valuable, may indeed make everyone feel safer, but the central premise is faulty. I recommend Mark Kohler's 'Lawyers are Liars' as a balance to this book.

Though it's been a few years since I read this book I have to say that I truly enjoyed it. Perhaps it's not the rollicking spirited style of The Three Musketeers but it's the sweet and yet sad fate of the duke's page that stayed in my head years after. It was a very surprising read - who would have guessed that the page would end up being a woman impersonating a man in order to stay close to her beloved Duke? I like it because it is so different than many of the other books that he wrote and I feel it is done very, very nicely. Mind you, there are a lot of war descriptions but if you enjoy reading Dumas and enjoy a unique little romance then I advise you to definitely check this out. This woman enjoyed it immensely.

This novel is much more obscure and difficult to find than are the more celebrated Dumas novels such as The Count of Monte Cristo and the Musketeer novels. While it is certainly the work of Dumas, with his inimitable style and engrossing characters, it is much more a history than a Romantic novel. He frequently spends chapters upon chapters describing which army did what to whom and for how long, not that it mattered because God was protecting France. It is not a bad read, but it is a bit dry if you are not as interested in serious history as in the tales the author habitually spins.

... then this is your book.

One of the authors' experience is primarily in corporate video and teleconferences. The other is a marriage and family therapist. Some of the screenwriting authorities they quote are Donna Flint (huh), Tony Bui (?) and Sharon Y. Cobb (another huh). They cite the screenwriter and director of The Green Mile as Frank Tattersall (Darabont) and condemn both Green Mile and War of the Roses as "movies that have lost their believability" (Green Mile was a Stephen King supernatural fantasy and War of the Roses was a black comedy - neither of these genres pretend to be believable). They serve up new-agey advice such as "reaffirming what your own creative voice really sounds like will be a lifelong process" and "it is not until we decide to claim our destiny that we are faced with the true meaning of taking risks."

While this book doesn't pretend to provide anything other than motivation, it didn't succeed even in this regard. A screenwriter needs determination, resiliance and talent (along with some luck) to succeed in the biz, not half-baked, touchy-feely "there, there" strokes and condolences.

Sorry, gotta give this one a pass. I did give it two stars instead of one simply because they got Harold Ramis to contribute.

I really enjoyed this book because it takes a slant on screenwriting that's different from the (numerous) other books I've read on the subject. Instead of focusing on craft-like issues such as 3-act structure, which many other books have already done, "So You Want to be a Screenwriter" concentrates on the emotional and psychological issues of screenwriting. If you've ever experienced writer's block (and who hasn't?), if you've wondered things like what it would be like to collaborate with someone else on a script, or if you're trying to create more memorable characters in your scripts, this is the book for you.

Don't think though that because I've used the word "psychological," that this book reads like a college text - it doesn't. Also, it includes many interesting interviews with Hollywood insiders.

"So You Want to be a Screenwriter" would make a great addition to any writer's bookshelf.