Fields Books

I have been collecting and reading the Foxfire series for several years now and I consider them as some of the best reading that I have found.I think that they are a direct link to our mountain heritage as well as American history. I have learned many skills and lost arts from these books and I would highly recommend them to anyone who has such interests.

It's a great deal of fun to read about the historical needs and solutions of the Appalachian people that applies as well to my own history. There are great reminders of a simpler and maybe happier life.

Both my husband and I enjoyed this book. He is from W.N.C. and enjoyed reading about areas near where he grew up. I liked it also, having lived there for four years.

The Foxfire books are a wonderful thing and we are so lucky to have them. Many of the ways, crafts, planting lore, animal lore, and as the book says "affairs of plain living" are preserved here. This particular volume includes oral histories of the Great Depression, CCC Camps and their impact on the local areaa and ecomomy, folk art, chair makeing, and of special interest to me, gourd art. This is a wonderful recording of life the way it was and probably never will be again. The book is quite well written and has faithfully recorded even the dialect of these wonderful people, from which so many of us sprung. That is a big part of the charm of these works. This book includes actual interviews with folks from that region of the country which I am sure are long dead now. Their knowledge would be completely lost without works such as this. Another generation or two and it will all be completely gone. This book will cetainly be of great interest to those, like me, who are interested in the depression era and in the CCC in particular. Thank goodness we have recordings such as this. Recommend this one highly.

France a la Carte (especially the introductory paragraph entitled "A Day to Remember") is wonderfully refreshing and an exceptional piece of writing. I reccommend it to readers of all ages.

There is a feeling that you get when you read certain works of literature. It's a feeling that fills the empty chambers of your heart and makes you truly feel alive. This is the feeling that I got from France A La Carte. The opening paragraph entitled A Day To Remember was one of the most emotionaly stimulating display of words that I have ever come across. Sitting around a table in the library, my friends and I were able to come to terms with the chaos of the teenage world in which we live. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a heart. And be sure to read the introduction- A Day To Remember.

I innocently walked into the library of my suburban high school, seated myself at a table, and discovered this incredible book, entitled France A La Carte, by Richard Binns, laying there. Just waiting for someone to open it. As I turned to the introduction, I read the most breathtakingly wonderful paragraph I have ever read in my life. It was called A DAY TO REMEMBER. Since that moment, life has never been the same. "Why is it that some hours of our life fix themselves so vividly in our memories?" Finding this book will certainly be an experience to remain embedded in my memory for the rest of time. To be savoured whenever my human spirit needs refreshing.

I loved this book and everyone should read it. It has a great section called "A Day To Remember" which EVERYONE should read, because it is one of the greatest literary works ever. I srongly reccomend that you read that 1 paragraph. Thank You for your time.

This is a freelancer's book written by a former freelancer now editor. As such you get an insider's view on what is needed to be a successful freelancer. There aren't a lot of hints for improving your writing or picking subjects or any thing like that. The author assumes either you have the necessary ability and talent needed or you'll learn soon enough that you don't. Instead the focus is more on what to do to get in the door and stay inside. That is getting the attention of the editor and once you do get it how to keep it. I'll give you the main tip in two sentences. Do good work. Write what the editor asks for, write it well and write it on time. The author goes into more detail and explains more of how to do it. Not a bad investment if you're looking to get into freelancing. I give it a B+ on the StuPage Reviews.

If you are a writer that wishes to get your work published but need a tool to help show you how---this book is for you! Every writer should have this in their library. The author, Bonnie Hearn Hill, makes points in the book that are VERY important to a freelance writer. Well written, easy to read--I couldn't put the book down!

Highly successful author Bonnie Hearn Hill begins this book with an important distinction: "The process of creation, exhilarating as it can be, is distinctly separate from the process of publication." In this easily readable guidebook, Hill offers specific tips about the creative side of writing. However, she focuses most of her attention on "the business of writing."

Readers will respond favorably to Hill's mission: To save other talented writers from the mistakes she made early in her career when she pitched her materials to publishers. You will welcome her candor. She admits her early blunders, and tells us how to avoid them. Enriching her readability, her keen sense of humor surfaces and resurfaces throughout the book.

At the end of each chapter, she lists rules writers should follow to become consistently paid writers. Concluding the book, she repeats the rules-all 112 of them.

Her advice covers: proper letterheads, query letters, how to follow up with the editor who has held your article too long, using the Internet judiciously, and much more that relates to getting the free out of freelance.

Good news: Knowing that she has excelled as a nonconformist at times, she encourages readers to exercise poetic license with her proposed rules. After all, "None of this means you have to write a paint-by-number piece." One of her views as an iconoclast: Query letters may just delay a decision, rather than speeding up the decision by sending the manuscript itself.

Had I bought this book two decades ago, my submissions to editors would have generated a much greater percentage of paid acceptances. I recommend The (Expanded) Freelancer's Rulebook enthusiastically.

Thanks to the tips and suggestions in this book, I regularly freelance for magazines and newspapers. The pracitical advice and sound rules have actually had editors asking me for articles. My byline on the stories has even helped to promote my own book. This is a great book for anyone looking to break into the freelance field.

Most school-age children grow up learning about George Washington Carver, and about all his wonderful inventions with peanuts. In fact, because of these inventions, he became known as "The Peanut Man," an identity that George Washington Carver wanted to shed.

George was born to a slave woman in southern Missouri, but when he was young his mother was kidnapped and he never saw her again. George and his brother Jim were raised by the farm owners, and treated as their own kids. In fact, Mr. and Mrs. Carver encouraged George to further his education when they realized how talented he was with plants.

George went on to go to school and colleges, eventually earning his master's degree in Iowa before being called to Alabama to work. When he first arrived there, he was shocked by the poverty and devastation. He quickly developed the motto "Make grass grow"-and he promptly did just that, made grass grow on the campus, and then in the agriculture department that he directed.

There are some facts that are misrepresented about George in public education--for instance, I always heard that George Washington Carver invented peanut butter. According to this book, he didn't, but did come up with several other imaginative uses for it.

I read the book in one sitting out loud to my 12- and 6-year-old daughters. I appreciated how educational it was, but it was a bit hard to read all at once. It didn't hold my six-year-olds attention long either. My older daughter, on the other hand, was fascinated by the story as this was more information than she'd ever seen on this interesting historical character.

George Washington Carver is highly recommended for public school teachers, and home school students alike. Stock full of information, your child (and you!) are sure to go away with little known tidbits about this wonderful inventor.

Armchair Interviews says: Most interesting and educational.

Books about George Washington Carver are typically written for an older age range, so it's refreshing to find a picturebook biography on the subject complete with color illustration and vintage black and white photos throughout. Kids in grades 3-5 will find it most accessible, following his early life as a slave and orphan, his college achievement as the first Afro-American to attend Iowa State, and to his work in conservation. An outstanding coverage, not to be missed!

Bolden, Tonya. George Washington Carver. Abrams Books for Young Readers. 2008.

This very handsomely designed book chronicles the life of an extraordinary man. His story unfolds in clear informative text and fascinating archival photographs and other visuals including Carver's own scientific drawings and artistic paintings. It documents his heroic persistence to obtain a college education in a country laced with racism and then describes his impressive career as a researcher and educator. Carver taught and modeled a "waste not, want no" philosophy, believed that "every human need could be met by things that grow" and when he could no longer teach funded the creation of a foundation that would benefit students in the future. We need a teacher like him even more in the early twenty-first century. This absorbing, respectful and inspiring biography belongs on every library shelf.

In New York City, the early months of the year are known for two things: Cheek chilling winds of a bitter nature, and assigned biographies of famous people. All around the city children and their parents scramble to find something ANYTHING on their assigned subjects. And in February's Black History Month some familiar names start to crop up. "Harriet Tubman. Do you have ANY Harriet Tubman books?" "Jackie Robinson. I'll take whatever you have." "I'm sorry, but do you have any books on," glances down at paper, "George Washington Carver?" It's funny, but a librarian can start to get a little picky about the biographies they're handing out after a while. We have a couple George Washington Carver books on our shelves. There's Aliki's A Weed Is a Flower and of course David Adler's A Picture Book of George Washington Carver. You'll find some books for older kids as well, but these are usually either too complex for the fourth graders who need them, or too dull. So imagine my delight when I heard that Tonya Bolden not only had a new biography coming out, but that it was also going to be on George Washington Carver! My personal philosophy when it comes to biographies is that you can never have too many on one subject or another, and to my mind no children's author has ever done this man justice. Now, with eye-popping visuals and a great deal of research, Bolden presents a man who accomplished much more than merely finding a use or two for the peanut.

Born during the Civil War, George was raised by a couple that had owned his mother before him. Quick to learn, if a bit sickly, George had an affinity for the natural world around him and was as interested in art as he was in working with plants. He got his schooling at the Neosho school and after a variety of jobs he attended college and became the first black professor at what is now Iowa State University. Booker T. Washington was quick to pick up on George's skills and convinced him to come to the Tuskegee Institute. There, Washington did everything he could to teach others about revering and respecting nature. He helped farmers learn how to yield better crops and make the most from their land. He found infinite uses for the peanut and the soybean. In 1943 he died, but his legacy of caring for the earth and its products lives on and is more important now than ever.

As I read through this book, it became pretty clear that I knew next to nothing about Carver aside from his peanut-related accomplishments. Right from the start Bolden sucks you into his strange and interesting story. Born during the Civil War, George and his mother were kidnapped by raiders when he was a baby. George was rescued. His mother was not and he never saw her again. I also didn't know that his notoriety as "the Peanut Man" was around even during his lifetime and that he had to fight against it, to some extent. I was particularly grateful for Bolden's Afterword too, which is not afraid to bring up criticisms of Washington that he was a "non-threatening Negro" because he did not openly protest segregation. I respect any children's book which isn't afraid to show a little of its subject matter's complexity. To me, this Afterword fits the bill.

If Tonya Bolden is known for anything, it may be for her remarkable ability to write visually stimulating, interesting biographies without a lot of photographic elements on hand. Her Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl was an excellent example of this. With Carver she has had a slightly easier time of it. Somehow she was able to find great photos of many of the important people in Carver's life as well as images of him as young as thirteen or so. The book is designed to resemble a photo album both in its paper and in the lovely little corners that look as if they are holding each photograph in place. I also found it interesting that Bolden would sometimes, perhaps with space in mind, put interesting tidbits in her photo captions and not the proper text. For example, George was raised by Susan and Moses Carver who were opposed to slavery. Says the caption next to their photographs, "Some suggest that George's mother was a mercy purchase, but it is unclear why she was not therefore immediately freed."

Sometimes it's a lot easier to write a biography about a firecracker. Writing one about a quiet man who enjoyed painting flowers is heads and tails more difficult, but no less important. In one section Bolden says, "If he had had the temperament of a Frederick Douglass or an Ida B. Wells, he might have packed away that microscope and raised rallies for equality of opportunity and against night riders and lynch mobs. Carver was no magician, no Douglass, no Wells. He was his own unique self with much to offer flowing from his innate and studied insights into nature's ways and gifts." As such, I've read few biographies of quiet scientific people that quite compare to Bolden's beautiful 41-page title. She shows how our contributions to the world hinge upon the gifts we choose to use.

Lopez heralds a message to our so-called "modern" Judeo-christian culture from the stone-age past: You can't separate the good from the bad. Coyote resembles nothing short of an agent of Bacchus, welding god-like powers of creation, with basal human desires and weaknesses.

In his anthology, Lopez has focused strictly on the Coyote of Native American lore, and thus has attempted to filter out most of the more modern interpretations and spin-offs, as well as removing any european influences. The observation that Lopez was not entirely successful in this effort shows the difficulty of such a task. The last story, "Coyote Finishes His Work", shows a distinctly "Euro-christian" influence. However, Lopez was at least successful enough to distinguish this piece from Bright's "Coyote Reader". Both are excellent works, and deserve your eye.

Of all the Coyote mythology collections I've read, this is the best. It features an assortment of styles from over 30 tribes, giving a broad sense of what the Coyote is. The author takes great pleasure in the introduction when he states that the greatest mistake is to generalize the Coyote, even to say he is a trickster is sometimes wrong. This book is just as if someone took all their favorite Coyote stories and put them in order (he starts the book at the creation of the Earth, and Man. Ending when "Coyote finishes his work.")

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about the Coyote.

I know this book is out of print and hard to find, but if you can let Amazon.com search it out for you, it is worth the effort. Lopez is at his best form in telling these stories of the coyote trickster. Some of the stories can best be described as ribald versions of the Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit stories. However, these are fresh stories that will engage your imagination and tickle your funny bone. I once entertained a group of young men with these stories one evening around a campfire...young men who thought they were too old to be read to. They laughed and wouldn't let me stop reading until my throat was hoarse. Find a copy if you can!

For those people who are still trying to decide between evolution and intelligent design, here is yet another creation story to ponder (or add to the curriculum), this one involving Coyote, who "was not necessarily a coyote, nor even a creature of strict physical dimensions." The subtitle of this book is "Coyote Builds North America."

"Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping with his Daughter" is a magical read, like all of this author's books. It is mythology without the density of "The Golden Bough," but still with the serious purpose of teaching world views that may seem strange to non-Amerinds.

I needed to ponder the implications of these stories. I wondered if coyote creation myths were any more unbelievable than the invention of a CNN 'faith and values' correspondent, or the news of a televangelist encouraging his fellow Christians to assassinate a foreign head-of-state. Are they stranger to the human experience than mullahs issuing death fatwas against authors or encouraging followers to gang-rape young women?

Coyote steals, rapes and murders in these sixty-eight stories from forty-two different First Nation tribes. He is a Creator, dupe, loving husband, and lusty rogue; a sorcerous Rhett Butler with a brushy tail and extreme bipolar disorder. My favorite stories involve other clever creatures who dupe the Trickster into eating his own anus or tossing his eyeballs into a tree. It's always good to see a powerful bully with an uncertain temper taken down a notch or two.

Luckily Coyote is able to laugh at himself, unlike certain gods on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Glaciers' Treasure Trove: A Field Guide To The Lake Michigan Riviera by Jacqueline Widmar Stewart is a full-color travel guide to the sights, lakes, vineyards, state parks and other attractions of the area. Locations, contact information, extensive descriptions and photographs on every page characterize and enhanced this exceptionally useful, on-the-go, "pocket portable" traveling companion. A spiral binding and sturdy allows this handy reference to weather extensive use while one enjoying the best a Lake Michigan vacation has to offer.

I really liked this book. I have been visiting the Indiana-Michigan shoreline on and off again since the 1950's. I never understood the area as a whole until I read this book. It is truly a first rate resource -whether you are planning a weekend excursion or the whole summer along this part of Lake Michigan. I especially liked the spiral binding and the easy to read maps. The colors are magnificent. It is just the right size to keep in your glove compartment. I ordered three copies and plan to pass them on to my friends.

Obviously a labor of love. A must have addition to the collection for the serious lover of "the dunes". Finely researched from an author who has been there, soon to become the definitive study of the area. Well written, glorious photgraphs, many by the author herself. It serves the first time visitor well, yet also enlightens the veteran repeat visitor or resident. A great gift idea.....

This book opens up a midwestern treasure spot that is not well-known to most Americans but deserves to be: the sand dunes and beaches that are around the bottom of Lake Michagan. I lived in that area years ago and this book does a great job telling the story of why the place so special. The history is told and developers' mistakes are not ignored. But mostly the book is about the present and what's there now: good living amidst tremendous beauty.

I bought this book when it first came out in 1996. I have now just gotten around tor reading it (1999). I am bad about putting off things I suspect are going to be very good (Delayed gratification).

One of the great pioneers of not just running, but healthy living via serious play, George Sheehan, wrote a book that is the final work of his life. Subtitled, One Man's Journey To The End Of His Life," Sheehan has his eyes wide open, avoiding clinging to pure emotionalism and the could-of-should-of-would-of mentality, looking deep into his own felings and observations.

This book is not for everyone. It is for those that choose to face life and death with their eyes open -- willing to face themselves and what makes them tick.

Just as you cannot put a bandaid on cancer, George Sheehan doesn't try to cover up his humaness. He fully embraces what he was, what he is now, and acknowledges the similarity between the very young and the very old.

Unfortunately, this book will hard to find if you have an interest . . . Long overdue for a reprint.

G.R. Ford

This was the first running book I ever read, I am trying to read all of his books. But some are hard to come across. A touching story of a man and such a stong devotion of the meaning "life," god bless him.

While George Sheehan is best known for his expertise in running, he may be more accurately described as a philosopher than a runner. Going the Distance is a wonderful journey through a dying man's thoughts and reflections on dealing with the end of his life. Diagnosed with prostate cancer, Sheehan embarks upon a journey to battle the disease, and then come to terms with his own mortality when the battle is lost. As per his usual work, there is the obvious emphasis on running, but even the non-runner will enjoy this book. Not merely a book for "jocks", Sheehan once again displays his artful writing style and philisophical nature. A must read for the runner, walker and couch potato alike!

I would give this book 10 stars if I could. First, I should mention this is *not* a book about running any more than Moby-Dick is a book about whales. Rather, it is a discourse on how best to live one's life, written by someone near the end of his. I read this every year, and every year I'm amazed at how wise Dr. Sheehan was. Like Shakespeare or the Bible, it opens up to me the more I read it, and every time I learn something new, if only because I've changed and understand it better through experience. It helps me measure my own growth. I can't express what an influence it has been.

From the compelling portrait on the front cover, the photographs are one of the strongest features of this book. There are full-page photos of gorilla hands and feet that would be wonderful for actual comparison to a young readers' hands and feet. And this comparison would support one of the key messages of this book: humans and gorillas are very much alike. Sometimes that similarity is not such a good thing; for example, as humans and gorillas come into closer contact, the apes are catching human diseases which are hard for them to fight. Gorilla Doctors describes the work of veterinarians and other scientists who are struggling to keep the great apes safe in the wild. The language is very accessible, and could even work for a read-aloud to a younger child who's particuarly interested in gorillas.

This engaging book follows staff members of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project as they provide medical care to endangered gorillas in Rwanda. Turner combines compelling stories of individual gorillas with clear explanations of how diseases are transferred between species. Kids will be intrigued by the detective work required to diagnose gorillas from a distance. Highly recommended.

A vivid portrayal of important work being done by gorilla vets in Rwanda. Written by a science writer who is also a skilled storyteller, it gives the reader a first-hand look at the plight of gorillas and what is being done to help them. Accounts of charming individual animals bring emotion to the fact-packed text.

GORILLA DOCTORS takes readers into the amazing world of gorillas and introduces us to a group of dedicated veterinarians who are passionate about saving this endangered species. Pamela Turner does a fabulous job of explaining the problems the doctors face, while giving readers a sense of place for that part of the world that most of us will never see. Well illustrated with touching and informative photos of the scientists and apes.

The Great Design: Particles, Fields, and Creation by Robert Kemp Adair is a great book of physics that explains concepts that are important such as Faraday's fields to nonphysicists and people who want to learn more. This book explained a lot and cleared up a fog of questions about physics. It describes, in short, the many concepts physicists use to try to find the universal unified field and the universal theory and equation. Major components of phsics like quantum mechanics and theories like the general and special theories of relativity are explained clearly and effectively.

What I liked most about the book is the information Adair chooses to write and the way it is put together with enhancements. This way, it adds to the experience because it helped the reader clearly understand the point Adair tries to make in each chapter. This book was great in the sense that it is easy to understand once you grasp a little meaning of the concept. But I personally felt that the chapters were too long so that it was kind of repetitive, and that this book would be better if Adair spent more space telling of other subjects in physics than emphasizing minute details on individual ones.

The Great Design was an overall good read and specially designed for people who thirst for the truth. All in all, I give it a good rating and I suggest people to read this book.

This book makes for a great introduction of particles & fields for the layman who is inclined to take on a book which surpasses the completely qualitative & popular (non-technical/historical) books that one can easily find at your local bookstore. I should clarify that this book might be seen as somewhat more than an easy introduction by the kind of reader who enjoys reading, for example, Paul Davies, John Gribbon, Steven Hawking, and Michio Kaku's popular expositions on science (physics & cosmology). From a popular science reader's perspective it could said that this book has a technical element to it in that the mathematics are present however I believe they are at an approachable level (i.e. there are no daunting calculus derivatives, integrals or other scary looking formulas). Here, let's have the author speak for himself from the preface:

"In this book I have tried to present those basic concepts of particles and fields and of space and time, as illustrated by modern physics, very much as a professional physicist understands them. I believe that these concepts are accessible to the nonprofessional - that which I can't explain to an interested layman, I must not understand properly myself. Which is not to say the ideas are so trivial that they can be understood by physicists or layman with the "attentive mind"...
The text is nonmathematical, though on occasion simple relations are expressed in algebraic forms that should be known to anyone with a high-school education. Some more complex relations that seem to be especially interesting are presented in the extensive set of footnotes. Though few of these require mathematical sophistication beyond that taught in the first few weeks of a high-school algebra course, mathematical simplicity does not translate into conceptual simplicity, and these presentations often require careful and time-consuming thought. Once written, a book has a life of it's own independent of the author's control; however I suggest that the mathematical footnotes be samples rather than consumed. There are those who can "read" mathematics like a novel, but for most of us so compact an information transfer cannot be assimilated easily and the time required to penetrate the arguments interrupts the narrative flow excessively."

Some of the nice features of "The Great Design" include plenty of intuitive examples, illustrated figures (with some decent Feynman Diagrams), important graphs and tables. I always enjoy when an author includes famous quotes at the chapter headings as Dr. Adair does. I think that you can see into the author's mind just a little more. As promised in the authors preface I quoted above, there are a generous amount of end of chapter notes referenced throughout the main text by number. Many of these offer slightly more rigorous (and technical) mathematical elucidation of the subject or just a deeper peek at the heart of the matter. So, if you are a layman like myself, I would warn you that this book might pose a challenge but a rewarding challenge nonetheless. Based on my experience with other books I have to say that a glossary would have been nice in this book but I did without.
Finally, I thought you might like a peek at the Table of Contents:

Preface.
Contents:
1. Concepts in Physics.
2. Invariance and Conservation Laws.
3. Covariance, Scalars, Vectors, and Tensors.
4. The Discrete in Nature - The Atoms of Demokritos.
5. The Continuum in Nature - Faraday's Fields.
6. The Nature of Space and Time - The Special Theory of Relativity.
7. The Equivalence Principle and the Theory General Theory of Relativity.
8. The Electromagnetic Field - The First Unified Field Theory.
9. The Problem of Change - The Second Law of Thermodynamics.
10. Quantum Mechanics - Determinism to Probability.
11. The Atom - A Quantum Laboratory.
12. Fundamental Particles and Forces - An Introduction.
13. Symmetries and Conservation Laws - CPT.
14. The Strong Interactions.
15. The Weak Interactions.
16. Cosmology - The World's Beginning and End.
17. Gauge Invariance - The Unification of Fields.
18. To the Ultimate Theory - Through a Glass Darkly.
Index.

I've really enjoyed this humble book and benefited from its comprehensive & comprehensible exposition of particle & field physics. It served my wants & needs very well. My hat is off to the author expanding my appreciation and understanding of the subject. A fantastically well-written book which is similar yet smaller (wonderfully succinct & concise) and has less mathematics is "In Search of the Ultimate Building Blocks" by Gerard 't Hooft. If you want a more popular book (no mathematics) you might want to look at "The God Particle" by Lederman & Teresi. As a final suggestion, I am compelled to insist that "The Force of Symmetry" by Vincent Icke would complement "The Great Design" very well! I've written a review of "The Force of Symmetry" as well.

Pick up a copy of "The Great Design" quickly before it goes out of print and enjoy your pursuit of knowledge (it's a wonderful adventure)!
Ciao!
IndiAndy
p.s. remember to read the other reviews as well as the book description & editorial reviews above my review.

This is the finest overview of physics for the layman or beginning physics student I have seen yet. This is not the usual history or biography based introduction but a good low-level mathematical expository on just about every current physics concept.

Perhaps the most lucid introduction to the quantum and touches of cosmology I have yet read. You can take it to many levels and go with the author and his sometimes clever, understated manner. Provides the MOST UNDERSTANDABLE explanation of the twin paradox of any of the (32) books I've read.

Well written and astute, Katya Jung (Cathy Young) did an outstanding job of capturing life in the former Soviet Union in the 70's and 80's.

It is a shame this book went out of print so quickly. The author was a fresh, naive immigrant at the time, with perhaps a tendency to engage in a cliche or two but with a very witty turn of phrase. She acknowledged upfront the fact that her experience in Moscow--one that included a nanny, summers at a dacha and in Latvia, and a father with an important job with Melodiya who seemed very wise to the ways of politics--differed from those of the average schoolgirl. Those caveats aside, Young (Jung in her native Russian) engages us in a story of a girl growing up as a Jew in Brezhnev's Russia, to some extent aware of the differences in politics amongst adults around her, to some extent just being a kid, ironically learning and performing in her appartment for Mama and Papa "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Lloyd-Weber's "Jesus Christ Superstar." As she discusses her life in a special English school for which she qualified from first grade to tenth, when she emmigrated, the anecdotes she tells of herself and other children are amazing both for their similarity to Western primary and secondary educational experiences, and their differences. One of the more horrific scenes schoolchildren (not the author) become involved in has to do with a hockey game, at night, where many Western tourists are attending. Kids would know that Westerners would have gum, candy, and other treats to hand out, and would, in gestures highly embarrrassing to the Soviet heirarchy, not wanting their populace to have a third world sheen, grab, beg, and run for such treasures. Apparently to stop this from happening, when the hockey game let out and the children were waiting as expected, all lights on the outside of the arena and parking lot were turned off. Deathly screams were heard, but as Young states, it's difficult to know whether anyone was hurt or died because it was never covered in the media. (Young also notes that she felt much safer walking around in New York at night in 1988 than Moscow; the reason people thought there was "no crime" under communism was that it simply didn't get written about. Everyone knew someone who had been mugged, raped, shot, or so forth.)

Many of Young's other stories of school are much more idyllic, learning about the history of Russian literature and poetry, learning about those who went against the system as well as those who were held up as Soviet models. There are the descriptions of the ceremony surrounding school: flowers brought for the teacher on the first of September, the first, second and third graders in their Octoberist scarves, pinned with a tiny gold picture of the baby Vladimir Lenin, the older children in their red and white Pioneer uniforms. Each dual desk accomodated one boy and one girl. Young, flirty female teachers the boys oggled at, and old grouchy teachers. An air raid drill with real air raid masks.

Sprinkle in some great Soviet jokes, a few more anecdotes concerning home, travel, relationships between Katya and her family and friends, and this book becomes not only fascinating but enjoyable to read.

Speaking of jokes, to set up my title....the author lived in the USSR when it was being run by a funny looking guy with very bushy eyebrows named Leonid Brezhnev. To everyday Russians he was known to not speak very well, according to Young...both because it seemed he had marbles in his mouth and because he needed a lot of prompting, and was always seen reading notes up close. Ergo, he is alone in his apartment, the doorbell rings; and Leonid Ilyich slowly pulls out a paper from his pocket and reads "Who....is.....it?" (paraphrased from book).

I did not give the book five stars because I know that while the writer's experience in Russia was exceptional, her experience as a Jew leaving Russia was also exceptional. And with the amount of worldliness she had at that time, she should have known that. I would have liked to have discussed the experiences, for example, of friends she'd made in New York who'd had a more difficult time. Ms. Young talks freely with her school friends about leaving Russia (although she tells them she's going to Israel); I have immigrant friends who were told "we're going on a long vacation; we can't tell you where, and you can't tell anybody" and they didn't, out of fear of the government intervening, even though they had a legal right to leave.

I was lent this book by a friend who grew up in Soviet Russia. The author has done a magnificent job of illustrating what life was like under the communist regime. Soviet Moscow seen through the vivid memories of a young girl is a fascinating and sometimes disturbing place.

I enjoyed the opportunity to be taken inside a different culture and shown around by such a masterful writer. I'd recommend this book to anyone who is interested in first hand accounts of Soviet Russia or biographies that illustrate a different lifestyle. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A friend lent me this book to give me a feel of what her childhood was like. It paints a vivid picture of Soviet Russia seen through the eyes of a young girl. It was a fascinating and insightful read that taught me a great deal about a very different way of life.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in Soviet Russia or who likes to read biographies that illustrate a different culture to their own. I thoroughly enjoyed it.