Memorials Books

The book is helpful in research, but found it repetitive in some information.

In my opinion, there were two overwhelming news events in the United States in the twentieth century, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the assassination of President Kennedy. Both were events that were stunning, unexpected and literally brought the nation to a halt. The Kennedy assassination has also never been thoroughly resolved, over four decades later, conspiracy theories abound and I am sick of seeing the "second shooter" being used as a plot device in novels. In this atmosphere, young children need to learn exactly what took place that terrible day and the aftermath, when Oswald himself was shot.
This is a good book about the assassination, although why the publishers chose to use washed out images rather than actual photos is something I do not understand. The images of Kennedy, Jackie, the day in Dallas and the funeral are so strikingly moving that not using them dramatically lower the quality of the book.

The quality of the speakers in this collection varied. Some, like those by Fred Friendly and Tom Brokaw, were interesting and thought-provoking but the decline in talent from lecture to lecture was obvious - the last one was by conservative ideologue and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, defending sleeze (sp?) on TV. The editors also did a poor job - all they had to do was transcribe some speeches. The fact that they wound up with spelling and grammatical errors just goes to show how quickly this work was thrown together. My advice - read the offerings by Wicker, Chancellor, Friendly and Brokaw and skip the rest.

The Holt's guidebook to the D-Day beaches exhaustively locates each monument, cemetery and gun battery, putting each within the context of overall operations. Despite the large over-all map and the smaller maps that occasionally popped up, I would still have appreciated more detailed maps of what was being described in the text. Smaller maps of exactly where to walk at each site described would add make it easier to visualize, as one reads the book. Also, I would have appreciated more of an effort to highlight what one must see with limited time, what to see with somewhat more time, etc. One is left with a dizzying list of sites with not enough assitance in prioritizing them.

Wittgenstein is primarily known for his work on philosophy of logic, language and mind, but he was a cult figure at Cambridge when he taught there in the first half of the 20th century.

Part of this, I think, has to do with his eccentric but enduringly fascinating views on ethics and religion. In this book, the late Norman Malcolm, a protege of Wittgenstein's, examines a curioius remark Wittgenstein makes to his friend Maurice O'Drury--along the lines of 'seeing every problem from a religious point of view'. It's curious because W. was not religious in the traditional sense. Yet he was a deep thinker, passionate about his own attitude toward life. He was, in a sense, a grippingly spiritual man, and Malcolm's book is a worthwhile attempt to understand Wittgenstein's religious attitude toward life.

I recommend it for those interested in Wittgenstein, religion or spirituality.

i read this book for a class i was taking in college. some of the lists and letters haas reproduced made me cry...most books that people read in college don't make people cry. haas' main (and one of her only) shortcomings was her apple pie, americana approach to what people left. many latino-americans and african-americans fought in vietnam and the material and social analysis is, at times, very white bread. very good overall. moving and interesting.

This book is tripe. I was forced to read it for a college class, and am disappointed by the lack of substance in the book. While it claims to be about tributes to fallen soldiers in Vietnam, it spends a substantial portion of the time discussing battle monuments of the Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, along with an extended discussion of the dedication of the Gettysburg battlegrounds. It looks too far into many of the objects left, such as the bike tube and nursing pads. Frankly, I'm ashamed to be associated with the same instution as this woman. Don't read it if you don't have to.

A far from complete collection, who wil dare to ever publish the complete collection? Other less important song writer had theyr collection published hile they are still alive.

The Jimmie Rodgers Memorial Songbook is a good resource for Jimmie Rodgers fans. I like Bluegrass and Old Time music and this is a good collection of songs by a very important early country artist.

Prodigal? Does the author know what the word means - really?

Does the author mean raising a squanderer, a wasteful child? One that is improvident, or short-sighted? Thriftless or unforethoughtful?

While the author uses Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, he seems to miss the point entirely, and in a non-Christian manner, apparently drawing on his own interpretation of applying it to today's teens, which is simply inappropriate.

The book views the child as the problem, and while there are some fairly good parenting tips, some of them can easily step over the line of abuse, and might be interpreted by some to justify abusing their children.

The tips to prevent a teen child getting out of hand, then lead into the what to do if the author's advise fails, or if one is already past that point... not any more helpful than common sense really. Not any more than one could get from talking to a friend. A respectable minister or clergyman and prayer would be much more helpful, and more appropriate.

If one is starting to have the types of problems where they feel they have a "Prodigal" teen or child, they may wish to take a self-examination at why they feel that way in the first place (perhaps resentment of thier child? Depression? Abuse issues of thier own?)and seek therapy. No book can replace professional help in this area, and this one is no exception.

I have enjoyed this book thoroughly. I needed some practical advice on parenting a willful son, and this reading will help me keep things in perspective. The author describes why and how teens become prodigal, and teaches me how to keep a welcome home for my son to feel safe in.

I purchased this book because I am interested in battleships and saw that it was the guidebook of the USS Missouri memorial in Pearl Harbor. I was very disapointed to find almost no technical information regarding the Missouri such as is found in the guidebooks at other battleship memorials. Although this book contains a few nice color photographs, most of the WW II era photos are printed in a brownish sepia tone, presumedly to make them look more "antique"

Danger in High Places is set in 1993 and features Alix Nicholson, a freelance photographer who travels from Iowa to Washington, DC to snap photos of the AIDS quilt. As supporters for funding for AIDS research are reading the names of victims, a woman interrupts the reading to shout her opposition to AIDS funding when so many women were dying of various cancers for which there was little research funding. Alix is drawn to the woman and invites her to stay the night with her when it turns out that Sandra has no where to stay. Sandra is angry, mysterious, and piques Alix's interest and lust. During the next week, there is a murder, an arrest, and a confession. Alix is also drawn to a Congresswoman's aide and spends the night with her, too. While all this sounds interesting, even intriguing, the author was unable to make the reader care about any of the characters, from the murder victim to Alix. They are all cardboard characters and as the book progresses, the readers indifference grows. While I did finish reading the book, it was more because I wanted to know if the denouement was going to be as predictable as the characters were lackluster. It is to the author's credit that there was just enough of a twist at the end to be interesting although she pulled the murderer out of nowhere and didn't play fair with the reader by providing enough clues to even suspect the murderer. There are better written mysteries, there are better plotted mysteries, and there are more finely drawn characters in mysteries available. But if you're starved for a lesbian protagonist and a non-Naiad-formulaic read, this just might be your cup of tea.