Williams Books

This is an inspirational little book. I read it from cover to cover in a couple of hours. The author's mother was told she was dying of cancer when he was twenty years old, and so he utilized her remaining time to get closer to her, realizing that she loved him and that, like most young people, he had simply accepted her love without much thought.

This is not a tear-jerker. Rather, it is a book about love and its various forms and expressions. It is really inspirational.

It is the kind of book you will want to give as a gift to someone you love. It is replete with quotations, some attributed and some not, and anecdotes (allegories) expressing the wisdom of love, some from obscure sources and some folktales from various cultures, but all germane to the subject.

I liked it. I hope you will, too.

Joseph Pierre

Here is a compilation of 25 short allegorical stories that illustrate the necessary and various parts of love. The lessons contained in each story are not only lessons for life, they are lessons for a lifetime relationship. Mr. Oak, who learned the composition of love from his mother as she was dying of cancer, relates this wisdom in short, well-written fables.

For instance, in Labyrinth we learn that love is giving, and sometimes giving means giving in. And in The Sowing Fields the lesson is that one must sow love to reap love...but only by daily cultivation will the harvest be abundant.

For Love or Nothing teaches us about forgiveness---as Peter Ustinov said, "Love is an act of endless forgiveness", as well as compassion, selflessness, growth, sharing and the requirement for each to feed the relationship. Mr. Oak deftly and perfectly introduces concepts of trust, appreciation and the awareness that we each are entitled to be different.

For Love or Nothing is a means to seek out, and find a path to happiness, peace and contentment. William Oak makes sense of the expression, "The more we love. the more we are". In this reviewer's opinion, For Love or Nothing is a must-read for everyone seeking permanent and meaningful relationships. Everyone!

Along life's journey we can all use a little direction - especially when it comes to matters of the heart.

For Love or Nothing is an inspired book filled with practical lessons meaningful to our everyday lives.

Simply wonderful!

T.W. Winslow - Syndicated Columnist

Over the years, the photographs have been misidentified, placed out of sequence and, in some instances, forgotten. William Frassinto's "Gettyburg, a Journey in Time" (1975) was among the first books to recapture this photographic legacy, to study the scenes and the makers of the pictures, and to organize his material in a book for the modern reader. Mr. Frassinto has since published a number of sequels to this inital book as well as a study of photographers at Antietam.

The book consists of approximately 100 photographs, most of them dating from shortly after the battle in July, 1863 through 1866. There are also a number of photographs that Mr. Frassinto himself took dating from the late 1960s and early 1970s. These photos allow the reader to compare the original scenes with the current state of the Gettysburg Battlefield.

After a short discussion giving biographical information on the photographers and information on their visits to Gettysburg, Mr Frassanito presents and discusses the photographs themselves. His presentation is arranged in six groups: 1. the first day's battle (north and west of the town); 2. Cemetery Hill; 3. Culp's Hill; 4. Cemetery Ridge; 5. Little Round Top and Devil's Den; 6. the Rose Farm.

Mr. Frassanito introduces each group with a short description of the significance of the site. He then discusses each picture in detail, explaining when it was taken, what it shows, and its importance to the Battle of Gettysburg. The photographs are themselves eloquent and compelling and their effect is heightened by Mr Frassanito's commentary. I came away understanding the first day's battle and the fighting on Culp's Hill and Cemetry Hill on the Union right much better as a result of Mr. Frassanito's account and the photographs.

The most famous photographs in the book are probably those of the dead soldiers (in a few cases the photos were taken of live soldiers posing as dead for the photographers) on Little Round Top and on the Rose Farm. Most of these photographs were taken by Gardner because the dead were removed from the Battlefield relatively quickly after the battle. Gardner moved from south to north on the Battlefield and captured the few instances in which the dead had not yet been buried. The photos capture the terrible costs of the Battle.

Many of Gardner's photos have been erroneously identified over the years as originating from the first day's fighting on McPherson's ridge. Mr. Frassanito explains how he determined these photographs in fact originated on Rose Hill, on the southern part of the Battlefield. (The first day fighting was on the northenmost part of the Battlefield.) Yet misidentifications die hard. I have seen books which postdate Mr. Frassanito's which continue to attribute these photographs to the first day of the fighting.

The photos and the text in this book will give the reader a good sense of the tragedy and cost of this seminal battle. Mr. Frassanito's book remains essential for those interested in seriously exploring the Battle of Gettysburg.

This is the book that describes this and many other pictures of the Gettysburg battlefield, many depicting dead men or horses. Many of these photographs are famous in the sense that they are used frequently in civil books and now in documentaries. Frassanito demonstrates convincingly that several of these frequently used photographs are mislabeled, generally to make the photographs seem more interesting and therefore more saleable.

Frassanito was an intelligence analyst during the Vietnam War and won the Bronze Star. I feel that only from a lot of practice analyzing photographs during the war could he have developed the skill needed to make the many clever observations in this book. Clearly, his wartime experiences left their mark in other ways as well. He frequently loses the detached air of a historian and reminds his readers of the horrors the subjects of the photographs must have experience. For example, he describes how rapid decomposition bloated the bodies immediately after the battle and how in some instances forced open the corpses' trouser buttons. "Thus the trousers on the soldier seen here were most likely open before his body was dragged to this position, the dragging action forcing them down below his hips. Here then was a young man who, only three days prior... full of life...But by July 5... was just another nameless corpse, his faced pressed against the earth, his exposed buttocks, once carefully hidden in accordance with the vanities of civilization, a sign of war's ultimate glory."

This book has the potential to make you feel like an expert on the battle of Gettysburg. If you read this book, you will recognize misidentified photographs in even some of the best documentaries. Further, you will be able to find the locations most of these photos with the aid of this book, even those in less frequently visited portions of the battlefield.

I would recommend all of Frassanito's books to Civil War buffs, but this one above all. The section on the Rose Woods photographs is brilliant, more so than even the passage that earned a marker at Devil's Den.

It is easy to forget that history is made by men, not the other way around, and Ms. Muntz's novel rises above hundreds of others of its type because she understands that things happen in this world because of the characters of those involved. After meticulously painting the complex personalities of both Harold and William--and those who preceded them--their conflict becomes inevitable. What is fascinating is that the outcome of this conflict, this world-altering conflict, was in doubt almost to the bitter end.

What is known is that heirless Edward, Harold's predecessor, promised the throne to William the Norman. He himself was raised by the Normans, was their friend, and was enamored of them. We also know that prior to Edward's death, Harold himself promised to support William's ascension, although there is some debate as to whether this promise was coerced.

How did this come about? Harold would seem to have been the obvious successor. He was by the far the single most respected figure in fractious England, his was the largest earldom in the land, his sister was married to Edward, and, perhaps most importantly, he was English to his bones, unlike the Norman William.

The die was initially cast by a weak and vacillating Edward, who foolishly promised the crown to William more than a decade earlier. But when it became obvious to Harold and the English nobility that he would be the most logical choice, Harold went to Normandy to undo this. Harold, you see, was a proud, powerful, generous man, motivated entirely by his desire to see a united and peaceful England. His mistake was that he naively assumed William's desires for the English were similar, and although unstated, it appears his motive in visiting Normandy was simply to convince William that he was the right man for the job.

But William was far less altruistic, and in fact was unscrupulously motivated by wealth and power. After months of being feted, it became obvious to Harold that William was not going to let him go. When informed that civil strife had erupted in England, Harold determined to leave by using any means at his disposal. Thus the promise--nobly motivated to be sure--but a terrible promise nevertheless, and with his youngest brother Wulfnoth left behind as hostage to it.

There then follows the inevitable. Edward dies, Harold succeeds him to the throne, and William vows revenge. Harold marries Aldyth, sister of an English rival, in order to facilitate peace, but in doing so breaks the promise he made to the mother of his children, Edith, his "hand-fast" wife. Again, a poor, but nobly-made decision.

By this time the reader has been utterly swept up by the empathy he has been made to feel for the all-too-human Harold, and the tragic events we know must follow. Yes, tragedy is the word. The passages in the latter part of the novel are almost Shakespearian in their eloquence and power. On the eve of battle Harold is scorned and reviled by Aldyth, who was jealous over his inability to let Edith go; on the eve of battle his weeping, inconsolable mother berates him for losing her youngest son, the doomed Wulfnoth. Harold goes to his final confrontation tormented by these thoughts.

William, in an enemy land and with dwindling supplies, knows he must force the battle with the weakened Harold immediately, and does so by ravaging the countryside, knowing that the good Harold can not abide the suffering of his poor peasants. Again, we see actions motivated by character.

And then there is the battle itself, the horrific, day-long, bloody, hate-filled clash, the ebb and flow of which is recounted here in vivid, realistic detail. Both men fight valiantly, but in the end, a mortally wounded and practically blind Harold is informed that his brothers are dead, and that the Normans have broken through the right side of his line.

The first part of this novel can be a little daunting. There is a large cast of unfamiliar, inter-related characters, with names like Leofwin, Alfgar, Siward and Gytha. But once the narrative begins to focus on Harold and William, the going gets a little easier, and the book becomes a powerful, irresistible force. This is truly a magnificent piece of work, the memory of which still haunts me weeks after finishing it. It will likely do so for many weeks to come.

It also showcases Duke William of Normandy as a shrewd, calculating future ruler of England. He uses Harold's faults as well as his virtues against him whenever possible.

Although the writing is somewhat archaic, it is a genuine retelling of this famous man, who would be King and for a brief time was just that. This book is out-of-print, however, if you can locate it it is well worth reading!

The book is filled with anecdotes, observations, and songs arising from the era. (I very much appreciated the introduction which details the election of 1860 and started the whole terrible tragedy that ensued over the next half decade.) The generous amount of illustration truly helps evoke the period. "Hardtack and Coffee" is a perfect companion to Bell Irvin Wiley's "Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union" and "The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy". And it is a perfect part of anyone's Civil War/American History library.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS

Thankfully he managed to get himself out of the bath enough times to write this gem.

Thanks Douglas

I recommend this book to anyone who thinks of the abstract or abnormal, or for that matter anyone who has an inkling of creativity in their minds. Recommended to ages 15 and up.

I really dug this book. It didn't take you straight from point A to point B, as some novels do. It had twisty unpredictable swerves that gave you a glimpse of points X, Q and H, along the way, even though Q and H had nothing to do with anything. They were there for appreciation. For example, a nuclear bomb makes a quick transformation to a sperm whale before any damage is done. The reader is fully exposed to the Sperm whales thoughts and inner ramblings... all thirty seconds of them. It's beautifully absurd, and I loved it.

I fully enjoyed the nonsense and the silliness of the book. Little details, especially. An incredibly depressed robot, the hailing of digital watches, eager to please doors; all these things didn't necessarily prove incredibly important on the character's quest, but amusing, nonetheless. Without the silliness, this may have been another book about post-Earth days and the last thing we need is just another book about post-Earth days. Have no fear, this is not just another book.