Stuart Books

This is a beautifully written novel about the Great Auk of San Francisco Giant fame, who batted behind Barry Bonds for a brief stint during the 2007 season. Thought to have gone extint in the 19th century, "Auky" surprised everyone with his metoric rise through the minor leagues, and his brief call up with the Giants.

Eckert describes in exquisite detail each of Auky's at bats, which unfortunately all ended in weak ground outs to short.

This is a story of not just a Great Auk, but Auk's everywhere, who give it their all in everything they do.

Really, this is quite an unforgettable book. I remember first reading it as a child. I never came across the book again (it was from a library) but occasionally thought about it and always hoped to find it. Now The Last Great Auk is in print again, and some 25 years after I first read it, I find it still captures and holds my imagination like few other tales.

The Last Great Auk tells the story of one particular member of a large group of the last remaining Great Auks - flightless birds that were the North Atlantic's equivalent of penguins. Eckert's prose is simple and restrained - understandably it can appear in a childrens' library - but the themes he explores and the emotions he works with are deep.

We follow the auk through his growth and along his great migrations, as he and the species' remaining thousands face the yearly challenge of swimming from Iceland to winter on America's eastern coast, and returning months later. Along the way, our auk must face and overcome challenges that are no less fearful for being so familiar. We empathize as he struggles through youth, loses his parents, faces indifferent Nature with courage, and wills himself to survive and win.

Eckert's writing is descriptive and convincing, but it is the familiarity of the bird's predicament, and his courage that we hope to share, that makes us relate to him so immediately. The loss of a species may seem abstract, but the loss of a friend is all too real. The Last Great Auk pays homage to the lost multitudes by following the tragedy of their single last survivor.

Along the way we are reminded - if we care to think about it, because this tale never strays from simply describing the auk's life - that life and death are not experiences unique to us, and the fact of our being is little different to those other expressions of life around us.

A universal story, beautifully told.

I got this book for my first grade son, who is intrigued by stories of early settlers. We highly recommend this book! Over several evenings, I read this book to my boys (age 6 and 4). The story was very engrossing --there was so much that my boys wanted to discuss each time we stopped reading. They enjoyed thinking about what decisions they would have made on such an expedition. The story is written very well. The pictures are fabulous.

You may have heard of Lake Powell, the man-made reservoir on the Colorado River found on the border between Arizona and Utah, that was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon. The reservoir is named for John Wesley Powell, a one-armed veteran of the Civil War who explored the river on a pair of boats in 1869, and is considered one of the most scenic lakes in the United States. "The Last River: John Wesley Powerll & the Colorado River Exploring Expedition" by Stuart Waldman, illustrated by Gregory Manchess, tells the story of an unlikely bunch of explorers. The ten men that boarded four row boats in Green River City, Wyoming in May 1869 included a one-armed geology professor, an emotional disturbed Civil War veteran, an Englishman whose knowledge of the west came from dime store novels, and a group of free-spirited westerners who did not take kindly to orders. Their mission was to explore the Colorado River, the last unexplored river in America, which flowed through hundreds of miles of canyons. Three months and a thousand miles later, only two of the boats and six of the men would emerge from the Grand Canyon.

After covering the geological origins of the Colorado River, Waldman tells how Powell, who lost his arm in the Civil War, became a professor of geology interested in the Rocky Mountains, and how the expedition was organized. The expedition itself involves running rapids and "lining" boats along the more dangerous ones, losing boats and men along the way. In addition to the paintings by Manchess there are black & white photographs of what these men saw, such as Flaming Gorge and Desolation Canyon, taken by John K. Hillers who traveled on Powell's later surveys of the Colorado River and its canyons. Often in the margins you will find sidebars containing quotes from the journals and letters of expedition members. The result is a solid introduction to the history of the expedition that will give young readers a sense of how difficult it was to explore the Colorado River. The main text ends by talking about the series of scientific expeditions Powell organized over the next decade that completed the first geological study of the Grand Canyon in 1880, so that by 1882 the map of the United States no longer had any blank spaces.

The Lewis & Clark Expedition is the greatest story of exploration and discovery in the history of the United States, and while the effort and consequences were decidedly smaller in scale, the Colorado River Exploration is in that same tradition. Waldman focuses on the story of the expedition, thereby emphasizing the journey itself rather than its results. One of the nice touches of this book is that the title page opens up to display a map of the area that traces the route of the expedition so that students can read about Powell's travels and follow them on the map at the same time. The back of the book has a section that tells what happened to the ten members of the expedition after it was over, and a list of sources, including Powell's own "The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons." Consequently, young readers who are inspired by this book to find out more about the expedition and its leader will be pointed in the right direction.

LAUGHING BOY opens in 1969 California, a time of hippies and protesters. We meet Rock Singer Tim Roper and his band, but they are only the prologue as Tim is violently murdered.

Flash to Yorkshire in the present and murder is still the order of the day. Laura Heeley, an average thirty-eight-year-old mother of two, is stabbed in the back on the way home from bingo. Detective Inspector Charlie Priest and his team are, stumped except for a vague idea that her murder might be linked to the murder of teenager Robin Gillespie earlier. Then Colinette Jones, a popular and attractive student is strangled, her body dumped on the roadside.

Two females, one male, no connection to each other, however Charlie and his team soon begin to suspect the murders are part of a series, with more to come. And as they sift through red herrings and taunting letters they find a connection to long dead Tim Roper. The number of victims rises and it becomes clear to Priest that this could be his biggest challenge yet as he races against time to figure out what message the killer is trying to send through a childlike song Roper wrote for a friend's newborn a generation ago.

Stuart Pawson's police stories keep getting better and this, the eighth five star mystery in the series is one that held me captive for a whole Saturday. Not only does Pawson paint a good mystery, but his attention to detail, people and places, is second to none. His Detective Inspector Charlie Priest is both likable and flawed and an absolute delight to spend a weekend with.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Stuart Pawson had a career as a mining engineer, followed by a spell working for the probation service, before he became a full-time writer. He lives in the village of Fairburn, in Yorkshire only about four or five miles from where I live myself. A place I regularly visit to look at the bird sanctuary there with all the water birds and a welcome pint in the Bay Horse.

This is the eighth book in the DI Charlie Priest series: When Colinette Jones fails to return home and a body turns up not more than half a mile from her house DI Priest knows he has to make that house call that every mother dreads, and every copper for that matter. Further a field Laura Heeley is also found dead down a country lane, the only sign of violence on the body, a single stab wound.

Is there a link between the two young women, apart, that is from their unfortunate death? And what if anything is the link with a sixties rock star? In a small town to all intents and purposes cut off by the foot and mouth outbreak DI Priest knows that he must apprehend the killer before he or she strikes again.

I live in the same community as Hope did. She is a child who was more mature than her age. This book is an inspiration that tells you how a young lady took a horrible disease and made a wonderful contribution to this world. Her life touched so many people through this disease. You won't be able to put this book down. Hope was courageous, humorous, lovable, and caring, to name a few qualities. Hope made dreams come true for other children and their families.

One thing that I hope comes out of this book is that society will see that children with terminal diseases (actually even healthy children) need a strong support group. Hope talks about how some children didn't have anyone at the hospital with them (either because their parents both had to work or had to care for younger children at home or were single parents). She was so angry that kids had to be alone through this horrible disease. Even one father lost his job because he missed so many days spending time at the hospital with his child.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the health care system would HELP families when a child (or any family member) has a terminal disease instead of making it more difficult? Definitely a book that will inspire you to make a difference in this world, no matter what age you are. And it doesn't matter what age you are, Hope teaches you that YOU CAN make a difference.

Take a journey with a family that has lived through every parent's worst nightmare-childhood cancer. The story of 12 year old Hope Stout is one that will move you to be forever changed. Though faced with a terminal illnesss, this spunky red head never lost faith that her suffering was for a purpose. She found the courage to make a difference and use her life to change others. Her selflessness was an inspiration to a whole community & eventually a world of people who would follow in Hope's footsteps to leave a legacy of giving. You won't be able to put this book down, unless it's to grab the tissue. Be prepared for a laugh, too, as you relive her childlike perspective of hopsitals, chemotherapy and pre-teen worries of losing her hair. Purchase one for yourself and another copy to give someone who needs a dose of inspiration.

John Stuart Mill's "liberty principle" caused a great schism between his and James Stephen's ideas of human nature, the public role of religion, and society's duty in setting moral standards for its citizens. James Fitzjames Stephen lived from 1829 to 1894. After serving as a judge in India for three years, Stephen decided to write a critical analysis of Mill's book, while on his long voyage back to Great Britain in 1872. While Stephen was in India, he observed with great trepidation, political changes taking place back in Great Britain after the passage of the Reform Act of 1867. This legislation granted voting rights to male urban workers. "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity was the most penetrating defense of conservative values written in Victorian times--and after Burke and perhaps Coleridge, the most important work of English conservative thought." However, Stephen's book never really caught on in his lifetime. Alexander Bain recorded Mill's only known comment on Stephen's book. Stephen "does not know what he is arguing against; and is more likely to repel than to attract people." These were very prophetic words, "Stephen suffered the fate of most men out of step with their age: unable to attract any school of thought, his ideas failed to bear fruit in his lifetime." While Mill's book On Liberty has had numerous printings after its publication, Stephen's book laid virtually dormant until 1967, when it finally came back into print. Though Stephen failed while he was alive to garner a multitude of adherents to his cause, his ideas have earned a considerable amount of vindication in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Stephen distilled Mill's "liberty principle" theory down to every person pleasing himself without harming his neighbor. This means that every moral system that interferes with Mill's "liberty principle," "either to obtain benefits for society at large other than protection against injury or to do good to the persons affected, would be wrong in principle." This leads Stephen to think that Mill had made a fatal flaw politically in his "liberty principle," when he said that free discussion was primarily all that society needed to rule its citizens. Once again, Stephen thought that Mill put too much faith in education advancing humanity to a place where a shared social morality would become obsolete. Stephen made his point with a bit of wit when he wrote, "Society cannot make silk purses out of sows' ears." First, Stephen argued that a large portion of the population has been and always would be either uneducated, or of dubious character. Second, Stephen argued that most of law-abiding society did not feel particularly constrained by the moral force and law imposed by society on them. After all, most of the citizens have enacted and supported these moral standards and laws through their elected representatives in government. Stephen agreed with Mill, that people felt most restrained in their actions by public opinion and from social ostracism.

Once again to restate the issue, Mill's main reason for proposing his "liberty principle" was to free people from the constraints placed on them by the moral values, customs, and mores of society. Mill wanted people to have unfettered freedom to experiment with their lives provided it did not harm others. Stephen rightly concluded that societies used force of morality and sometimes the law, depending on the severity of the act, in order to guard against social ills that a society deemed dangerous to its existence. "Laws and moral systems are conditions of life imposed upon men either by political power or by the force of argument." Thus, Stephen took great umbrage with Mill's "liberty principle," because it disallowed three types of coercion that Mill argued society had no business imposing on its citizens, since they did not meet the standard of self-protection, or of preventing harm to others. These three types of coercions are,

1. Coercion for the purpose of establishing and maintaining religions.
2. Coercion for the purpose of establishing and practically maintaining
morality.
3. Coercion for the purpose of making alterations in the existing forms
of government and social institutions.


Stephen pointed out, that all three type of coercion's were examples of coercion used by people in their opinion for the betterment of society. Simply stated, the world of politics and the world of morality cannot exist separately. Since these coercive forces went against Mill's "liberty principle," Stephen concluded that Mill would consign every system of morality to the dustbin.
Stephen believed that the correct answer in how to build and maintain a healthy society came from his readings of the English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, and from religious morality. Hobbes lived from 1588 to 1679, and he greatly influenced Stephen's knowledge of human history and psychology. Both Stephen and Hobbes correctly perceive that humankind has been constantly in fear and conflict with one another, "Man has a fearful disease..." Stephen wrote Hobbes on Government for the Saturday Review, which illustrated the influence Hobbes ideas had on Stephen. In his essay, Stephen writes, "If no one or more men had the power of issuing to others such commands as appeared reasonable to themselves, there would be no such thing as society amongst men." Stephen understands, as Thomas Hobbes did, that force lies at the root of all government. "People are said to govern others by law, where they influence their conduct by imposing laws upon them." In politics, moral persuasion and coercion went hand-in-hand, and Stephen expanded on this duality of moral persuasion and coercion to illustrate his point. One could not be a political leader without the ability to use moral persuasion to convince others to follow their leadership, and while possessing the capability of consolidating the force and power of their numbers. Stephen correctly realized, that it was only natural for people, when they came together to form societies, to bring with them shared religious and cultural values that would serve as the foundation of the society they wished to build.

Stephen's experience, as an attorney and judge, gave him a unique insight into human psychology, which had him arguing that most of the social ills perpetrated by humankind were done out of evil or weakness of willpower, and not out of ignorance. To illustrate his point in his argument, Stephen used, as an example, the poor plight of the drunkard. No drunkard would admit to making a reasoned choice to become a drunkard. If asked to reflect on their choice, they would freely admit that they had no willpower to stop their drinking habit. Looking at human misconduct, which Stephen saw a lot of as an attorney and judge, he adamantly believed that persuasion of argument alone, an idea that Mill supported, could do little to persuade people to change their mischievous ways. Thus, Stephen refuted Mill's idea of reasoned discussion being an adequate amount of force to change a person's actions. Only people that had control of their willpower would be open to change through the force of a reasoned argument. It was Stephen's experience that coercion through punishment and force of law, more times than not, changed one's conduct when they were devoid of an adequate willpower. Moral persuasion also had the ability to point to the consequences of one's actions. One could say that Society's laws were morality and force working in conjunction. Moral persuasion caused people to act in accordance with the law, because the force of punishment instilled fear in them. Stephen understood the human psychology of how in most cases, when moral persuasion and force were applied together to elicit the same outcome, some people considered themselves persuaded, while others considered themselves forced to commit the same act. This fact becomes abundantly clear for anyone who has raised or worked with children. One can observe how children react differently to the same argument. When adults ask children to conduct themselves in a certain way, some children persuaded by the reasoning of the argument will comply, while other children would have to be threatened with some form of punishment to comply. The preceding examples help to illustrate how society winds up infringing on people's liberty every day. People will always have to make choices based on moral persuasion and force, and once they choose, they will have to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Based on their character and psychological makeup, their actions will receive either reward or punishment. As a whole, this is how society operates; it persuades morally or threatens, causing people to act accordingly. Stephen rightly articulated that laws and punishments were nothing more than outgrowths of moral precepts, which were handed down by religious institutions in order to establish and maintain moral values that citizens of a society agreed to follow.

In fact, as a society matured, it would find many of its moral values evolving; thus, becoming constantly debated. Therefore, when Stephen observed what was taking place during the current political affairs of his day, he saw that even small issues before Parliament engender endless debate with seemingly no resolution, until finally a majority forms to solve the issue on their own terms. "Parliamentary government is simply a mild and disguised form of compulsion." Stephen observed that moral force was even more influential in his time, and would be so in the future. The most that one could hope for was that one could regulate and subdue the government's use of force. However, Stephen astutely observes that, "President Lincoln attained his objects by the use of a degree of force which would have crushed Charlemagne and his paladins and peers like so many eggshells."

Stephen knew through his study of history, that no amount of economic progress, improvement in education, freedom of religion, or political equality would change the fact that any society would always embrace shared moral, religious, and cultural values. Simple human nature taught Stephen, that most of the citizens in any society would want to impose their moral values and beliefs on all the members of the society. The majority of citizens in any society will constantly be jostling for the adoption of their beliefs, and will be probing the boundaries of how far they can impose their beliefs on the rest of society. Thus, the very best that citizens of a society can hope for is that those people who are in power, and have the public trust of most of a nation's citizens will follow Stephen's examples of legislative restraint, and respect for people's privacy as he defined privacy.

I read this book for a graduate class in Philosophy. Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, political science, and history.

John Stuart Mill's "liberty principle" caused a great schism between his and James Stephen's ideas of human nature, the public role of religion, and society's duty in setting moral standards for its citizens. James Fitzjames Stephen lived from 1829 to 1894. After serving as a judge in India for three years, Stephen decided to write a critical analysis of Mill's book, while on his long voyage back to Great Britain in 1872. While Stephen was in India, he observed with great trepidation, political changes taking place back in Great Britain after the passage of the Reform Act of 1867. This legislation granted voting rights to male urban workers. "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity was the most penetrating defense of conservative values written in Victorian times--and after Burke and perhaps Coleridge, the most important work of English conservative thought." However, Stephen's book never really caught on in his lifetime. Alexander Bain recorded Mill's only known comment on Stephen's book. Stephen "does not know what he is arguing against; and is more likely to repel than to attract people." These were very prophetic words, "Stephen suffered the fate of most men out of step with their age: unable to attract any school of thought, his ideas failed to bear fruit in his lifetime." While Mill's book On Liberty has had numerous printings after its publication, Stephen's book laid virtually dormant until 1967, when it finally came back into print. Though Stephen failed while he was alive to garner a multitude of adherents to his cause, his ideas have earned a considerable amount of vindication in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Stephen distilled Mill's "liberty principle" theory down to every person pleasing himself without harming his neighbor. This means that every moral system that interferes with Mill's "liberty principle," "either to obtain benefits for society at large other than protection against injury or to do good to the persons affected, would be wrong in principle." This leads Stephen to think that Mill had made a fatal flaw politically in his "liberty principle," when he said that free discussion was primarily all that society needed to rule its citizens. Once again, Stephen thought that Mill put too much faith in education advancing humanity to a place where a shared social morality would become obsolete. Stephen made his point with a bit of wit when he wrote, "Society cannot make silk purses out of sows' ears." First, Stephen argued that a large portion of the population has been and always would be either uneducated, or of dubious character. Second, Stephen argued that most of law-abiding society did not feel particularly constrained by the moral force and law imposed by society on them. After all, most of the citizens have enacted and supported these moral standards and laws through their elected representatives in government. Stephen agreed with Mill, that people felt most restrained in their actions by public opinion and from social ostracism.

Once again to restate the issue, Mill's main reason for proposing his "liberty principle" was to free people from the constraints placed on them by the moral values, customs, and mores of society. Mill wanted people to have unfettered freedom to experiment with their lives provided it did not harm others. Stephen rightly concluded that societies used force of morality and sometimes the law, depending on the severity of the act, in order to guard against social ills that a society deemed dangerous to its existence. "Laws and moral systems are conditions of life imposed upon men either by political power or by the force of argument." Thus, Stephen took great umbrage with Mill's "liberty principle," because it disallowed three types of coercion that Mill argued society had no business imposing on its citizens, since they did not meet the standard of self-protection, or of preventing harm to others. These three types of coercions are,

1. Coercion for the purpose of establishing and maintaining religions.
2. Coercion for the purpose of establishing and practically maintaining
morality.
3. Coercion for the purpose of making alterations in the existing forms
of government and social institutions.


Stephen pointed out, that all three type of coercion's were examples of coercion used by people in their opinion for the betterment of society. Simply stated, the world of politics and the world of morality cannot exist separately. Since these coercive forces went against Mill's "liberty principle," Stephen concluded that Mill would consign every system of morality to the dustbin.
Stephen believed that the correct answer in how to build and maintain a healthy society came from his readings of the English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, and from religious morality. Hobbes lived from 1588 to 1679, and he greatly influenced Stephen's knowledge of human history and psychology. Both Stephen and Hobbes correctly perceive that humankind has been constantly in fear and conflict with one another, "Man has a fearful disease..." Stephen wrote Hobbes on Government for the Saturday Review, which illustrated the influence Hobbes ideas had on Stephen. In his essay, Stephen writes, "If no one or more men had the power of issuing to others such commands as appeared reasonable to themselves, there would be no such thing as society amongst men." Stephen understands, as Thomas Hobbes did, that force lies at the root of all government. "People are said to govern others by law, where they influence their conduct by imposing laws upon them." In politics, moral persuasion and coercion went hand-in-hand, and Stephen expanded on this duality of moral persuasion and coercion to illustrate his point. One could not be a political leader without the ability to use moral persuasion to convince others to follow their leadership, and while possessing the capability of consolidating the force and power of their numbers. Stephen correctly realized, that it was only natural for people, when they came together to form societies, to bring with them shared religious and cultural values that would serve as the foundation of the society they wished to build.

Stephen's experience, as an attorney and judge, gave him a unique insight into human psychology, which had him arguing that most of the social ills perpetrated by humankind were done out of evil or weakness of willpower, and not out of ignorance. To illustrate his point in his argument, Stephen used, as an example, the poor plight of the drunkard. No drunkard would admit to making a reasoned choice to become a drunkard. If asked to reflect on their choice, they would freely admit that they had no willpower to stop their drinking habit. Looking at human misconduct, which Stephen saw a lot of as an attorney and judge, he adamantly believed that persuasion of argument alone, an idea that Mill supported, could do little to persuade people to change their mischievous ways. Thus, Stephen refuted Mill's idea of reasoned discussion being an adequate amount of force to change a person's actions. Only people that had control of their willpower would be open to change through the force of a reasoned argument. It was Stephen's experience that coercion through punishment and force of law, more times than not, changed one's conduct when they were devoid of an adequate willpower. Moral persuasion also had the ability to point to the consequences of one's actions. One could say that Society's laws were morality and force working in conjunction. Moral persuasion caused people to act in accordance with the law, because the force of punishment instilled fear in them. Stephen understood the human psychology of how in most cases, when moral persuasion and force were applied together to elicit the same outcome, some people considered themselves persuaded, while others considered themselves forced to commit the same act. This fact becomes abundantly clear for anyone who has raised or worked with children. One can observe how children react differently to the same argument. When adults ask children to conduct themselves in a certain way, some children persuaded by the reasoning of the argument will comply, while other children would have to be threatened with some form of punishment to comply. The preceding examples help to illustrate how society winds up infringing on people's liberty every day. People will always have to make choices based on moral persuasion and force, and once they choose, they will have to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Based on their character and psychological makeup, their actions will receive either reward or punishment. As a whole, this is how society operates; it persuades morally or threatens, causing people to act accordingly. Stephen rightly articulated that laws and punishments were nothing more than outgrowths of moral precepts, which were handed down by religious institutions in order to establish and maintain moral values that citizens of a society agreed to follow.

In fact, as a society matured, it would find many of its moral values evolving; thus, becoming constantly debated. Therefore, when Stephen observed what was taking place during the current political affairs of his day, he saw that even small issues before Parliament engender endless debate with seemingly no resolution, until finally a majority forms to solve the issue on their own terms. "Parliamentary government is simply a mild and disguised form of compulsion." Stephen observed that moral force was even more influential in his time, and would be so in the future. The most that one could hope for was that one could regulate and subdue the government's use of force. However, Stephen astutely observes that, "President Lincoln attained his objects by the use of a degree of force which would have crushed Charlemagne and his paladins and peers like so many eggshells."

Stephen knew through his study of history, that no amount of economic progress, improvement in education, freedom of religion, or political equality would change the fact that any society would always embrace shared moral, religious, and cultural values. Simple human nature taught Stephen, that most of the citizens in any society would want to impose their moral values and beliefs on all the members of the society. The majority of citizens in any society will constantly be jostling for the adoption of their beliefs, and will be probing the boundaries of how far they can impose their beliefs on the rest of society. Thus, the very best that citizens of a society can hope for is that those people who are in power, and have the public trust of most of a nation's citizens will follow Stephen's examples of legislative restraint, and respect for people's privacy as he defined privacy.

I read this book for a graduate class in Philosophy. Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, political science, and history.

I was looking for a text that could be used in a classroom. This text would need to be high school level reading. This text was more than suffieient for my use. I am very impressed with it. The next time I need to search for text or reference text you will certainly be first.

Dr. J Fenner, Phd

James S. Stewart has taken the life of Christ and not only presents Him as a child, in His ministry, His miracles and works, but also answers questions. Questions concerning pain, forgiveness, the law and love. He also helps the reader see how sin is truly hurting love. I found this book well documented and an excellent book for those desiring to learn more about Jesus as God and man. Superb for Sunday school techers and those seeking to know more about Christianity.

Stuart Van Slyke has led an amazing life - born at the end of the First World War, he lived through the Depression and served in some of the most interesting theaters of the Second World War. He leaves out no detail, no matter how painful or seemingly small, which has the effect of building a very rich story - at the end of which you feel you know the author and his times quite well. I highly recommend it.

This book is one of those rare finds for which historians are always looking. Mr. Van Slyke managed to keep all of his old correspondance and notes from a lifetime of over 80 years, and has compiled them into a gripping story of one person's experiences through the Great Depression and WW II. Although not interested in the "big picture", this book conveys a ground's eye perspective of some under-developed areas of WW II history. The portion about the author's challenges in the military government in Korea at the end of WW II, provided this Iraq War veteran an eerie sense of deja vu, as well as highlighting several key lessons that are still valid today.
The writing style is very simple and flows naturally. The reader feels like they are sitting in a living room, while their grandfather relates his stories to them. The addition of actual copies of orders, pictures and other documents throughout the book serve to further enhance the experience.
In sum, this book is a must have for any serious student of American life from the 1920s to the end of WW II. Future books may include a continuation from WW II until the present day.

***Truth in Lending***
The author is the Maternal Grandfather of the writer of this review. However, the reviewer has been trained in history at the United States Military Academy, and conducted research on WW II history.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The description and previous reviewer did not due this book justice. It begins with an excellent overview of the history of Eastern Europe and the travels and travails of the Jewish population. The emphasis is on Poland and the Baltic which needs no explanation. Also, with each town listed you get a few details that while not of any depth is interesting.

This book was written for those who want to research their family origins. It would be an excellent resource for this.

A wonderful and absolutely essential reference for anyone interested in genealogy!

A really amusing book - makes a superb present for any cat or cat loves. Very amusing, true to cat life and great illustrations by Erika Oller.

I purchased this delightful book for my wife's 14-year old tabby "Bobo" and he loooooves it. At his age he's already slowed down a little (I've been trying to get rid of him for years), but he can still whoop it up pretty good--especially when there's a thunderstorm or whenever a train goes by (we practically live ON the tracks). Well, thanks to this wonderful book Bobo is now a tame, calm, happy cat and my wife actually thinks I've grown to adore him (I haven't). Hop-along!

This is a very amusing book giving great advice on how to become really stressed. Every page is another laugh! It certainly hits the point that we all do stressful things that we do not really need to. Best little book I have ever read.

When I read this book my stress level went higher than ever. My blood pressure almost took off! The lift was really worthwhile. I have now taken to nail-biting and stomping with a view to head banging! What a hit! The Little Book of Stress is such a hoot that owls will need to take up laughing. Who needs relaxation classes when your nerves can be twanged to the tune of the William Tell Overture. In short "Don't Panic" just read this book and tear your hair out. You owe it to yourself