States Books

Out of print book came quickly and condition was very good, service was quick. I will be back.

I loved this book! The entire time I listed to this book on cassette I felt I was hearing privileged information...yet Jess Oppenheimer shared his intellectual jewels freely as if they were common everyday thoughts. Well, for him, they were. What a genius. And what a witty, creative, generous, and responsible man! If he were alive I'd write him a fan letter.

This is an excellent informative book about the "I Love Lucy" show and a must have for any Lucy fan! The cd that is included is worth the price of the whole set alone. In the cd it includes hours of hilarious episodes from I Love Lucy and My Favorite Husband starring Lucille Ball, you will also receive lost scenes from the shows on the cd. I am not much of a reader but this book you just can't put down because it is so good and of course I love Lucy! The book doesn't look thick on the picture shown on Amazon but it is a nice thick paperback book and includes lots of wonderful pictures of the cast of I Love Lucy and fun information that you may have not of known about I love Lucy and how it became to be produced.

I THOUGHT THE BOOK WAS VERY INTERESTING AND INFORMTIVE! IT WAS HILARIOUS AND I JUST COULDNT PUT IT DOWN. IT ONLY TOOK ME THREE DAYS TO READ IT. I THOUGHT IT WAS INTERESTING HOW IT TOLD ABOUT THE LIFE OF JESS OPPENHEIMER AS WELL AS THE LIFE OF LUCILLE BALL AND OTHER CAST MEMBERS FROM THE SHOW I LOVE LUCY. I REALLY LOVE THIS BOOK AND I THINK EVERY I LOVE LUCY FAN SHOULD READ IT!!!

I'd like to start with a clarification: this book is not a biography of Lucy, it is the creator's (Jess Oppenheimer) memoir. As such, there are many parts of the book that have nothing to do with Lucy, including episodes from Oppenheimer's childhood and young adult life.

However, this is still a GREAT book! It is well-written and full of entertaining annecdotes. "Laughs, Luck, and Lucy" follows Oppenheimer's slow rise to the top in the Hollywood radio industry. He describes Lucille Ball's program, "My Favorite Husband," which became the basis for "I Love Lucy." The book also includes some behind the scenes information about the making of "I Love Lucy."

The included audio cd is fun because it has clips from both "I Love Lucy" and "My Favorite Husband."

If you are only interested in information specifically about Lucille Ball, this might not be the book for you (try her autobiography, "Love, Lucy"). However, if you (like me) are fascinated with everything surrounding "I Love Lucy" and the Hollywood entertainment industry of the 1940s and 1950s, this is a great read!

This is a great book!! The stories are a wonderful collection for anyone who was a child OR adult during this time frame. If not read it anyway, it's very enjoyable to read. I took this book on a flight to Denver and had many people as me where I got it.

This book brings back memories of Christmas past. It is informative and entertaining. I gave this as a gift to four different people and got a copy for myself.

This book was an incredible walk down Memory Lane! I couldn't put it down. For all those reminiscing and hungry for "how it used to be" I highly recommend this book!

I bought this book for my mom (81 years old), and it brought back amazing memories for her from her teenage years through the first 20 years of her marriage. The package of ornaments shown on page 11 is the identical one my parents had bought (which we still have - most of them, anyway!). She (and I) enjoyed it so much, I also got copies for my aunt and a family friend of the same age as my mom. They both loved the book, and talked of all the memories it brought back for them, as well. It's a fun book that wil bring back memories for anyone who lived through those years.

I bought this book last year and again this year sat down to enjoy the wonderful photos. It brought back wonderful memories of a time before consumer advocacy when we used lead and fiber glass all over our homes, and especially during the holidays when we pulled out the painted ornaments (and ashtrays and candy dishes and ceramic figurines of Santa and the Baby Jesus) and angel hair for the tree. I can still feel the itching as I write this :-)

I highly recommend this book for anyone who remembers Christmas anywhere between 1940 and 1965. It brought back some lovely memories (aside from the itching).

I loved this book! If you want a cool {get it? She lives in Alaska} author to come to your scool,get Shelley Gill! I loved Kiana's Iditarod because it told me a lot of things.

I like this book because it is funny and makes me learn about dogs and cool places and how to do it in a dog race.I did not know you had 13 dogs. How can you feed them. I wish I had won the dog race but that would not happen.

I like this book. This book reminds me of snow. This is a cool book. I like you. This is very very interesting

I liked this book because it has excitement.I also liked this book because of the colorful pictures.I liked the part when they were in the iditarod near the finish line.

This book was a good book but I think it didn't really tell that much about the Iditarod. It was about a musher and the dogs. She's doing the Iditarod and she goes around mountains and peaks. I would recommend this book because it has good illustrations and is about a lead dog.

Brian Copeland's new memoir shows us the world through the eyes of an 8-yr old black boy and the challenges of growing up black in an all-white neighborhood and school. He never really got to relax and enjoy his childhood because life was pretty much a war zone for him. His absentee father would show up and verbally abuse him, as did potentially anyone he came in contact with. So he had no role model; he had to grow up too soon and become the man of the house. The protector of his mother and younger sisters. No one was in his corner. Teachers feared uprisings or job loss for taking up for him. As he got older he learned how to mask his fears and to use humor to cover up the painful past. The book also delves into mental illness. When suffering from tearful outbursts for no apparent reason, his psychiatrist likened his condition to PTST - Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Dealing with that after all these years has made him a stronger person, and one who can reach out to help others. The book is a huge eye-opener. It is a heartwrenching read. But his humorous writing provides the foil needed to keep the reader from throwing down the book and drowning in despair and shame for what injustices blacks went through in order to get out of the ghetto and to have a productive, satisfying, prosperous life. While race is a big part of the book, Copeland insists his story is more about being an outsider and what skills outsiders can use to "cope" in a "land" of insiders. I highly recommend this book! I couldn't put it down! I am a richer person for having read it.

Brian Copeland shares his life story with us in Not a Genuine Black Man. It is insightful, touching and important. Although the subject matter of racial prejudice is serious, he tells the story with much humor to help us, and him, be able to get through it.

If you've ever seen Brian do stand up comedy, listened to him discussing topical news issues on his highly rated talk radio show or met him in person he comes across as being "not like other blacks".

Every white person knows someone like Brian. The co-worker at the office who doesn't have the "accent". Who talks about and does "normal" things. The one who is "just like us". The one who "doesn't play the race card". You've heard at least one person say "why can't they all be like him?"

There are white people who believe racism and discrimination are a thing of the past, saying that no one alive today was ever a slave and everyone now has the right to vote. They feel that African Americans just have a chip on their shoulder based only on injustices that happened a long time ago to someone else. For "proof", they point to African Americans like Tiger Woods, Barack Obama, Colin Powell, Dick Parsons, Stanley O'Neal, John W. Thompson and Oprah Winfrey. Surely they are "just like us", the theory goes, because they choose not to feel victimized by the ancient injustices others suffered.

Copeland lets us see behind the curtain. We learn of the pain that prejudice causes first hand through the eyes of Brian as a child and the toll that experience takes on him as an adult. We learn that with everything he has accomplished, there are white people to this day who say "Yeah, but he's still just a n____". We learn the pain doesn't stop with the discrimination -- when he refuses to make an issue of it and not let it get him down, there are those in the African American community that accuse him of not being a "genuine black man".

Brian let's us know that he is successful and "like us" not because he never experienced the pain of prejudice, but rather he is successful and "like us" despite it.

"Not a Genuine Black Man" is a must read with lessons for everyone. African American readers will surely relate to his experiences and the pain he feels. White readers may begin to understand it.

An ideal assigned reading for ANY and ALL high school/college level students. So poignant, humorous, self-reflective and blatantly truthful --Mr. Copeland's personal retrospective, analyzing just exactly what he knows (his life), comes entertainingly packaged in a wrenching yet totally engaging exhalation.

I'd say that this book IS GUARANTEED (yes, this is a superlative) to activate "the thinking mechanism" and elevate your class to that of an educational milestone. If there is one common element which student readers most respect, it's an author's iron-clad commitment to
"keeping it real". Well, Mr. Copeland's clever and stylish prose delivers a tasty dose of head-on reality which will move readers to a new and better place.

Reviewer's "poetic license" observation:

Inexplicably often, peoples' names accurately and ironically depict a significant measure of their calling. Mr. COPELAND, I'm personally thankful for you and your families' inspirational determination; I'm humbled by my ability to include you in this often recognized, yet little understood club.

NOT A GENUINE BLACK MAN: OR, HOW I CLAIMED MY PIECE OF GROUND IN THE LILY-WHITE SUBURBS

I enjoyed the book, but not for $14. I thought the author could have had more depth instead of simply recalling the past. I did enjoy learning about the Bay Area and the history of San Leandro, though. He is a funny man, but the book could have had a little more "meat".

Brian Copeland's "Not a Genuine Black Man" is a provocative and moving autobiography that begins the Copeland family's 1972 move into "lily white" San Leandro, California. Brian was then eight years old. And San Leandro (99.9% white) was using any method it could to maintain an all-white status.

Copeland, a San Francisco Bay Area TV/Radio celebrity, comedian, and author, is an excellent story teller and tells his story alternating between his arrival in San Leandro and an awakening at age 35 which led to an attempted suicide. "Not a Genuine Black Man" is more than the story of Copeland's struggles with overt bigotry and eventual depression, it is also the story of his mother's and grandmother's resilience that brought San Leandro into the post-civil rights era as a diverse, inclusive community.

The book's title "Not a Genuine Black Man" comes from a letter Copeland received from talk-radio listener which said, "As an African-American, I am disgusted every time I hear your voice because you are not a genuine black man. The letter becomes a catalyst for Copeland to explore his past and find out who he is. "Not a genuine black man...What does that mean?"

Upon reflection, Copeland sees that his mother really wanted white childre and did not want to associate with the black community. "I'm not one of these blacks." As a result, a young black child was faced with the challenge of growing up in one of the most racist suburbs in America with a mother who was trying to escape her black roots. Unknowingly, he had to develop a mask to protect himself from these truths...a mask that would lead to depression.

"Behind most of our masks is a truth that is hidden for a specific reason. Often we don't know what that truth is. I wasn't ready to deal with my truths, but ready or not, they started to bubble to the surface. Once that began to happen, try as I might, I couldn't get the toothpaste to go back into the tube. I knew I had to face the truth about my mother."

Today, San Leandro has changed and Copeland now feels proud of being part of the change. Members of all races worship side by side in the pews of churches of all denominations. His grandmother and, posthumously, his mother were presented with a commendation from the City of San Leandro for "their bravery" to make San Leandro a better place for all.

And as the City has changed, Copeland has also changed. He knows now what it really means to be a genuine black man - he is a "unique man" who has the resilience of his forefathers and the fortitude of his mother and grandmother. His experience is unique and it is a "true" black experience because this is his experience.

A human life is the most complex narrative of all: it has many layers of events which embrace outside behavior and actions, the inner stream of the mind, the underworld of the unconscious, the soul, fantasy, dream and imagination. There is no account of life which can ever mirror or tell all of this. Copeland has offered us a sample of this complexity and reminds us that black people are not a monolith with one lifestyle, one viewpoint, and one agenda. They are a varied lot like any ethnic group, each with their own complex narrative to tell. Narratives that we all must hear.

Even though I did not really use this book for the photography information, it has great suggstions of places to visit and good directions on how to get there. I highly recommend a trip to Sentinel Dome, what an amazing view from the top.

Whether you're an amateur or a pro, this book has a lot to offer. It's loaded with information on how and when to take fabulous pictures while you're in Yosemite. It's well organized and it's easy to read. It's loaded with beautiful photographs that serve as good examples.

It's small and can be easily packed with your stuff as you venture into the valley.

A must-have for those who are visiting the park and want to take great pictures!

I took the trip of a lifetime earlier this month to Yosemite and San Francisco, and it was wonderful. Photography is a big hobby for me, and I spent every second looking for photo opportunities. I read that this was a great book to have and bought it before the trip. It is available at most of the gift shops in the park, but you'll love having ahead of time if you want to make some plans before you go. It's not much cheaper here than in the park, though- maybe $1. Anyway, this was an invaluable tool and I used it to plan most of my hiking and sightseeing while in Yosemite. I also had a PhotoSecrets book for San Francisco, but it wasn't nearly as helpful as this book. This is a great investment to make sure you get the pictures you want on your trip to Yosemite National Park.

This is the first book I've ever bought to prepare for a trip. I usually spend endless hours searching out tips from links on websites and then printing them--now I look for a photographer's guide first! Michael Frye has given every tip on 'what, when, where, and how', including which filters to use for problem situations or enhancement. This guide is equally beneficial for those travelers looking for the perfect time and place for wonderment--those special spots not marked by signs with arrows and time tables. And the images are awe inspiring. Definitely something to keep out on the coffee table when you get back home.

There are many glowing reviews of this book and it does provide the goods on how and where to go to get good shots. The maps (5) and sections are also quite simple to read. In addition, the sequential numbering of the points of interest is a help.

I was disappointed to find so much coverage of photographic technique. While some technique discussions directly relate to the unique character of Yosemite (for example talking about color and the lack of it in granite) most of it feels more like filler, and indeed makes it harder to navigate to the sections of interest.

The book also lacks an index so the only useful navigation tool is the brief table of contents. Without that table of contents it would be hard to find any particular section and even with it, you're going to have to resort to man-made book marks to find what you want. For example if Pohono Bridge and Fern Spring caught your fancy but you didn't remember to book mark it or remember its number you'll have to resort to scanning all of the maps and/or all of the numbered interest points because despite the page of content, there is no entry for this viewpoint in the table of contents (and remember there is no index).

I would prefer the maps be all together at the front or back so that it would work better as a reference book. I would also have liked to see some more examples of "out of the way" hikes to desirable vistas.

Finally, I would like the author to have provided some sort of "effort vs eye-appeal" rating to help me focus on which sunrise locations are the "not to miss" areas and which are "ok". Perhaps the author can even suggest a few itineraries. These more useful things could replace the "choosing film" techniques section and others like it that are a bit basic and detract from the otherwise good "where and when" information.

I'm tempted to get Harold Davis's book "The Photographer's Guide to Yosemite & the High Sierra" just to make a comparison.

Wow! I feel like I have just escaped from the jungles and the enemy myself! This is a great book. It has the perfect blend of action, technical detail and personal information. The technical details on the aircraft, combat procedures (bombing runs, strafing, etc)and how a rescue mission is run are presented in a manner that is interesting to the reader; not boring. The descriptions of the on the ground action as the two pilots attempt to escape and evade are riveting. As I read, I could feel the heat of the jungle, my body was tense with apprehension when the enemy was near and I could feel my heart bursting with fear as the pilots burst through the jungle as the enemy chased and fired upon them! Outstanding book!

The true story of a US navy pilot forced down in Laos during the Viet Nam war. Surrounded by enemy troops, he was only feet away at times from being discovered. The suspense makes this a very difficult book to put down. The minute by minute account is heart pounding.

A well written first hand account of one of the most amazing rescues of a downed pilot in the Viet Nam war. The author puts you in the jungle with him and I found it difficult to put down even knowing that he would eventually be rescued. An excellent read.

This is a truly amazing story of determined, (real) heroism by both downed aviators and their airbourne rescuers. This very well written, technically detailed, story narrates some forty hours following a naval aviator's harrowing parachute descent into the midst of a large concentration of North Vietnamese army, complete with many light and heavy caliber AA artillery, in the Laotian jungle.
The evasion by Streetcar 304 and the truly dedicated and dogged attempts by airbourne rescuers, the Jollys and the Sandys, is almost beyond belief.
This saga will become a classic of the Vietnam Air War.

Author and Navy veteran Kenny Wayne Fields flew 139 combat missions during two combat tours in Vietnam, and served for years as a flight instructor. The Rescue of Streetcar 304: A Navy Pilot's Forty Hours on the Run in Laos is Fields' true-life story of his first combat mission in his A-7 Corsair II. At the time, his target was Laos, even though it was "officially" off-limits for U.S. attacks. He destroyed his target, but was shot down with enemy troops in pursuit. This began his brutal, 40-hour struggle for survival while the U.S. Air Force embarked on one of its largest air rescue missions of the war. In the process, 189 sorties were flown, four pilots were forced to eject, seven planes were lost or severely damaged, and one pilot became a prisoner of war for five years. The Rescue of Streetcar 304 is a captivating true tale of duty, brotherhood, and confronting the very real possibility of an early death. Highly recommended.

While writing from a Libertarian and non-religious perspective, Vin takes us across the gamut of current attitudes and the hopes and aspirations of self-sufficient, liberty minded, and responsible persons everywhere. Vin really nails it as to the virus and bacteria infection that holds this land in an ever tightening grip as it chokes our very lives. What kind of virus is this?

1. The Public School. 1.6 Billion dollars later a Kansas City School still cant stop truancy and raise test scores. Vin finally says what many have screamed from years, that you cant fix the public school system because its ALREADY WORKING. Vin give you history of development of public schools, statistics, and then contrasts a public school with home schoolers who are doing tremendously better, at a fraction of the cost, and in fact raises test scores and perfromance across all class, and racial lines!

2. Gun control. I dont even need to describe this canard.

3. Unaccountable Federal Agencies. Whether its the DEA, the INS or even the Farm bureau, the activities of various 'protectors of independance', who used to leave us sorely disappointed, but who know take family farms and get people killed.

4. Restriction of Jury Trials and the rights of jurors to be fully informed of their 1200 year old right to judge not only the facts of the case, but also the law!

5. A lapdog press that does whatever a corporate or government interest dictates. This is why more and more Americans read European newspapers or otherwise use the internet to get the real news. Vin documents the attitude of the press and gives personal experiences with getting his own column published. You need to read Vin's article on the press to fully appreciate the fog let off with the current Iraq situation.

Now all of the above problems are such that they can be solved with the ballot box, and appropriate education. That is why this book is important. When the public propaganda school system is dismantled by default, when the jurisdictions of various government agencies are curtailed by consisten not guilty verdicts by fully informed juries excercising their rights to nullify the law, this apocolyptic revolution that every right wing crackpot spouts as being inevitable will never occur, thank God. ...

For the past several years, there has been a lonely libertarian writing a column for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and now his columns have been collected and sorted by subject. He and I don't agree about absolutely _everything,_ but then, we do agree about the important things, like doing something about the inexorable growth of the Nanny State into an all-devouring shoggoth. If the news media weren't so single-mindedly leftist, his columns would reach the wider audience they deserve.

I was originally turned off by the title of the book. However, it had been recomended to me by a friend. I have to say that it turned out to be the most thoughtful, well reasoned, documented accounting of just how far out of control the Federal Government has gotten over the years that I have ever read. The point is driven home over and over again in this book that every Constitutional protection you thought you had can be abused, with no consequences, by the Federal Government. Think the money you worked hard for all you life is yours? Think again. Federal police, with local police support can seize it and any other property they covet with impunity. And the cop that takes it gets to profit in the transaction. Think you have a right to a trial by a jury of your peers? Wrong again. Jury picking has become an art, designed to eliminate anyone who may be sympathetic to your views. Think the Constitutional guarantee in the 2nd amendment means what it says? Well, you are probably breaking one of the 20,000 gun laws already in affect, directed against honest Americans like you and I, and don't even know it. And if you are caught by one of these "Special Militia" ( ATF, DEA, FBI that we were warned against over and over by the founding fathers) you will spend more time in jail than a bank robber. Think you cannot be murdered by the Federal Police without justice being done to the ones who murdered you or your family members? You are living in a dream world. This book should be required reading by every 9th grade civics class in America. But of course, as is pointed out in this book, these "Government Schools" will do everything in its power to ensure that your children will NOT understand the true meaning of our Constitution.
This is a Must Read.

Finally someone speaks out against the libtard Clinton dolts who were trying to ruin our lives. It is good, no it is stupendous literature that should be read by every American who does not want to be a zombie slave under a socialistic movement that the Dems are trying to pull about as we speak. Long live our freedom and individual responsibility, so that the lazy turds who want the government to think for them can move to Canada or wherever they want to be relocated to.

Author and journalist Vin Suprynowicz has something to say about the political climate in the United States. He doesn't like the government's excesses of control, the lying, the manipulation, and the almost complete disregard for the constitution. A strong proponent of individual liberty and personal responsibility, Vin covers many topics in this book that relate to government run amok, all with an inspired fervor and a very Libertarian angle.

Starting with the first chapter, Vin talks about where Americans have gone wrong since the founding fathers established the constitutional framework that suited the nation well for so many years. Juries are now "stacked" in an attempt to control the outcome of a trial; guns are confiscated in direct violation of the second amendment; people are sent to prison just because they choose to smoke a plant; and school children are indoctrinated to ensure that they are all slaves to the supreme command of the state, from now and into the future.

After commenting directly on the miserable failure of these various government policies, Vin describes countless examples of how government power has been used to manipulate individuals and destroy their lives. You can read all about hard working Americans who had their rights trampled on by government, like a man who saw his farm business wrecked by government officials who declared areas of his farm a wetland, and refused to allow him to farm on it, then refused to allow it to be used for other purposes either, making it worthless. Another true story covers a woman who was harassed by government because she refused to lie (yes, you heard me correctly) and disclose inaccurate ingredient listings on her company's pet foods.

Vin also talks about the government debacle at Waco and he gives sound reasons for why, he believes, the government is solely responsible for the deaths of the Branch Davidian members. He talks about the failed war on drugs, pointing out how government has used this disastrious policy to erode individual liberty.

Suprynowicz is a very outspoken person, and his in- your- face style might make some people uncomfortable. He frequently resorts to sarcasm and he provides countless examples of how government has ruined people's lives through its ruthlessness and its total failure to follow the constitution.

"Send in the Waco Killers" is well- written and easy to understand. Vin is a skilled wirter who knows exactly how to take an ordinarily complex situation and state it in a way that will make sense to most anyone. This book is one of the best I have read, and it was even recognized by freemarket.net as the "Freedom Book of the Year" in 1999. It's a book that everyone should read, just to see how far government has pushed its will on the people and how we, as a nation, are slowly marching toward a police state as each day passes.

I found this book (rather thick - 251 pages) on the shelves of my local Santa Cruz library shelves. At first I thought it was rather boring - the cover is dizzying to look at. Then as I opened and perused thru more pages, I realized that this was a work of love - Adah Bakalinsky's love (a San Francisco local, and an emigrant to the US).

Adah Bakalinsky has expended previous editions and the January 2007 is the 6th edition.

What I liked about this book:
* informs the reader on some cool areas to walk in San Francisco, with cool architecture, and routes that will have your blood pumping.
* the 27 walks are all detailed with a map layout, interesting points of interest, photographs, and many factoids.
* Appendix 1 contains "An Informal Bibliography" (one pager with more info on the San Francisco)
* Appendix 2 lists all the staircases (across 36 pages) for each neighborhood in San Francisco and rates each one according to a 1 to 5 scale of combined: steepness, length, location, elevation, and beauty.
* and ... it was FREE.

Whether you are from out of town visiting San Francisco, a local denizen, or a Bay Area suburbian, you are sure to enjoy this book, even if not completing a walk from start to finish. The details are worth reading before each walk, as one is sure to add more mental details and moments of enjoyment as one walks across the beautiful city of San Francisco.

I love this book!! We live an hour north of S.F. and when ever we go to the city we start with one of these great walks. We have gone and explored neighborhoods we never would have without this book. San Francisco is such a beautiful city and getting to the top of some obscure staircase always gives you a unique and beautiful view. It is a must for anyone who lives in or near S.F.

San Francisco has over 50 hills with scenic vistas and small neighborhoods - so these nearly 30 urban walks are top picks for any who want to walk the city's byways. The revised expanded edition has been updated with new maps and color photos and adds three new walks, while an appendix lists the City's 600-plus public stairways. It's a 'must' for any San Francisco travel collection going beyond the general-interest city guide.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Great book to have for anyone who enjoys an adventure. Lots of walking options within the city

Adah's book is a great collection of walks all over the city. As the name implies, all the walks focus on the stairways for which San Francisco is so well known. This has two implications: one is that these walks will wear you out; the second is that, on sunny days, you get incredible views from the tops of all the stairways Adah has you climb.

For locals, the 27 walks cover the entire town from Glen Canyon to Lands End to Potrero Hill. No matter how long you've lived in San Francisco, I guarantee you'll see great spots you've never been to before.

Most of the walks are well off the beaten path for visitors, but a couple cover the classic tourist areas of North Beach, China Town, and Telegraph Hill. The Russian Hill North walk, done on a sunny day, will have anyone believing San Francisco is the most beautiful city on earth.

Adah provides maps, directions, and a great deal of color commentary for each walk. She tends to focus on eccentric details of the local architecture and flora for each walk, lending a whimsical quality to the whole experience.

Two last things to keep in mind. First, because the views are such a big part of these walks, Adah's trips are much better in good weather than in bad. Second, Adah is sometimes a little loose with her directions; I recommend cross checking the directions and the map often.

Riveting. Lyn Spencer writes an excellent account as seen through the eyes of those in command of our airlines during the 911 "emergency". These tragic events hit close to home for every one of us who ever piloted a passenger plant and subsequently turned our nation's attention to the War on Terror. As the author of Inspiring Leadership: Character and Ethics Matter, I devote an entire chapter to the chief pilot of American flight #77, my friend and classmate, Chic Burlingame: and as I read Spencer's book gained a greater appreciation of what he must have faced on this tragic day. Spencer hits a home run as an author and her book is a must read for not only interested Americans but also those who believe that we are not immune to this type of event ever occurring again. Lessons of history are important if we learn from them that we will never repeat our mistakes or drop our guard against those who want to end our free society.

This book is full information from a pilot who was in the skies on 911. It is a real eye-opener. It is worth reading. HOWEVER........THE AUDIO VERSION IS VERY ANNOYING. The reader should have been a man not a woman. My Daughter and I were hooked on the story but could hardly stand the intonation, inflection, and sound of the voice of the reader. We had to stop listening after the last plane crashed. I would recommend an abridged audio version.
I read the book and it was great!!!

I wanted to know more of what happened, the goings on behind the scenes right after and beyond the day of 9\11. This book was very enlightening. It answered how the planes were grounded. Why the airspace over Washington was able to be invaded. Either the terrorists were extraordinarily prepared or "lucky" upon picking that day because of the events that the military had scheduled on that day, thus causing them to be away from the areas where they were needed. It was a great book. A little hard to absorb all the agencies involved-military and civilian but I got over that.

This is a very compelling book. Well written, and a very fast read. The subject was of great interest to me and Ms. Spencer helped me understand the huge dilemma that our country and it's dedicated soldiers and employees faced on Sept. 11, 2001.

This book was awesome. I couldn't put it down. We should never forget what happened on 9/11/01.

What a gorgeous and searingly honest book. I love how he does not make himself out to be guiltless in all of this, or a victim--- even though clearly, he could have. It's such a rich book, not only about abuse but about childhood, Catholicism, sex, guilt, desire, love, attachment, forgiveness, family. It's so full of life. I saw the play in NYC and that was amazing, too.

How does he do it, show the light in darkness? A story of a boy as he says falling from trespass into grace. A boy exploited, given too soon to the knowledge of the body--betrayed, as he felt, by his own body. And this man, the one who showed him his strength and wonder, then used his beauty like a Kleenex for his disposable desires.

Grace, then. No, first, despair, the attempts at suicide, the empty hours in the echoing school hallways full of crosses, holiness, and distance. Even in those places, an occasional light and this is what he shows gorgeously--the old nun telling him, at the kitchen table, that everything he does is already blessed. No disclosure, no healing stories, but this Light poured upon him.

More despair, more thoughts of killing himself. Then the tryouts for the school musical. A voice is found, a wonder arises in his soul--what is this miracle? I am seen and loved. The lights pick me out, the people laugh and clap. Maybe I should put off my suicide until after the fall production. The voice teacher witnesses his singing in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, she urges him to take lessons. She has to repeat her urging at the next musical in the next season before he takes it seriously, then goes trembling to her house.

Voice lessons, lessons in projection of spirit. She says, this is you in the universe, this is your soul coming out of your mouth. You have a gift to give to the world, Marty. You have a beauty of soul.

How does he do it, this Martin Moran? The light and love pouring through a living room with grand piano in Colorado are made manifest in the lines she says, the wonder he feels. Not uncomplicating anything, he holds the lust, the love, the exploitation, the forgiveness, the unfolding all in his hands.

Writing! Is there any more powerful act in the world? Well, there is acting. The first I knew of Martin Moran was his one-man show of The Tricky Part--painfully, beautifully open.

Thank you Martin Moran. Thank you for living into a full life as an actor, singer and writer. Thank you for showing us how you made it by the grace of what we might call God except that invokes the catholic Big Guy in the beard, the one whose church and sense of sin helped to make this story into a near-tragedy. But can we wish it had happened otherwise? No, that's the Tricky Part of the title of the book. We can't exactly wish it had happened differently.

As many here have stated this book was captivating. I work with sexual abuse survivors and found many of them in this book. Mr. Moran really knows how to put his finger on the pulse of the issue as he did here throughout the book many different times. I also like how the perpetrator, Bob, is not portrayed as all evil because as we know so many perpetrators are charming, smart and suave. Hence, their success. I also thought it realistic that it was pointed out that Bob provided something for Mr. Moran. I have clients who are "messed up" because of their experiences but they are able to discern the positive they were reaching for, or as in the case here, what kept him going back. This is at a price, of course, but generally kids don't realize then the depths they have already been to, and the effects it will have on them as adults.

I just finished the book a few moments ago. I realize I'm feeling kind of sad. This book is very good, and it's real, but it's not a light summer read. So, I chose to read it over Christmas. Go figure!

PS - Another book I read in a similar vein was The Abomination. I have a review on Amazon about it. It also involves a similar situation but shows more about what the "relationship" is doing for the kid in the beginning. Then later it all changes. My book club of 2 straight women, 2 lesbians, and 2 gay guys gave it a unanimous thumbs up.

Frank and moving account of the abuse the writer suffered as a child, and how he was subsequently affected and managed to cope. When he was twelve years old Martin Moran was seduced and abused at the hands of a camp counsellor named Bob, and so entered a relationship that lasted not unwillingly for three years. But the effects were lasting; such that Martin eventually took steps to confront the issues head on.
Martin's memoir is Insightful and enlightening, not always easy to come to terms with, for while what he suffered as a child was clearly an abuse, he was not an unwilling participant, and it maybe opened the way for Martin to accept more readily his life as a gay man. His account tells in detail of his early days, of the seduction and the continue relationship and its effects; of how he came to terms with the abuse, and of a successful career that eventually took him to Broadway.
Martin Moran's open well written account, at times funny, at others moving, is well worth reading

The above quote from Shakespeare expresses a kind of numinous awe; a feeling of inadequacy at having to express the character of this book. I was moved to order it by the unstinting praise given by previous reviewers here. Mr. Moran has managed to transcend the terrible pain he endured through the medium of his art; to me it seems miraculous.

The confusion and suffering that took Mr. Moran the better part of thirty years to work out was not least because he was--and is--gay. This overlays the story with yet another dimension of complexity. The author notes the sexual and emotional longings on his part that were not only picked up on by his abuser, but that kept him returning to this man for three years despite his guilt and confusion. That guilt and confusion would continue to hobble Mr. Moran's sense of intimacy for many years to come.

In my own circle, I know two gay men who suffered abuse when they were scarcely more than boys--one of them from a member of his extended family. The abuse did not make either of them gay; rather, it seems that in each case (as with Mr. Moran) the abusers sensed both the sexual orientation and the vulnerability of their targets.

Despite immense changes in society over the past twenty years, too many boys sense a secret within themselves that they cannot tell anyone--frequently not even themselves. The derision and stigmatization of gays by ignorant religion and ignorant people alike do nothing to prevent anyone from becoming gay--only serving to set up gay kids to be taken advantage of by their abusers. Those who have been abused will find this book a fount of insight, courage and (hopefully) healing. Anyone imagining that using a vulnerable young person sexually does them no harm will have much to consider after reading the book. All readers will discover the wisdom and pathos of a man who could have ended up as an abuser or a misanthrope, but through (dare one say?) some mysterious grace did not. This book deserves every bit of the praise that reviewers here gave it.