Suicide Books

When Leila's much older sister, Rebecca, kills herself, it changes the lives of everyone who knew her, and many people who didn't. But did anyone really know Rebecca, or just the face she showed them? This is just one of the questions that Leila can't help but ask herself in the months after her sister's death. Did she know Rebecca? Or did she only know Rebecca through her interactions with other people? Leila knows her father. She knew her father's first wife, Janie, who died before Rebecca. But if she had really known Rebecca, if anyone had known Rebecca fully, wouldn't they have been able to figure out Rebecca's reasons for doing what she did?

It's for that reason that Leila is searching when she meets Eamon. At first he's only a customer in the café where she once saw Rebecca with the mysterious T., a man she thinks might know something of the reason Rebecca had for committing suicide. Later, though, he becomes something much more.

Clare is Leila's surviving older half-sister. Clare has her own life: a boyfriend, a career, and an apartment--suddenly one occupant short. Rebecca lived there, and now that Leila's parents are moving to Poland for the year, she will move in with Clare. During this year, Clare and Raphael, their unrelated "cousin," will become much, much more important in Leila's life. She will get to know them, maybe in the way she never got to know Rebecca--the way she is still trying to get to know Rebecca, even after her death.

STAY WITH ME is a very powerful, moving story about love, loss, and life. It's about the way life keeps going on, even after a tragedy. Since it takes place in New York and since Rebecca dies right after the attacks on the city on 9/11, the characters are healing from their own personal tragedy, but also, along with everyone else in the city, from the attack on them all. That's not the focus of the novel, but it's definitely a part of it.

Garrett Freymann-Weyr is brilliant at creating wonderful, three-dimensional characters. I've read two of her previous novels (My Heartbeat and When I Was Older), and that's something that can be seen in all of her work. It's a talent, and I was glad to see it shows just as much in STAY WITH ME as in the other two novels. We learn plenty, even about the characters only glimpsed in the novel. The character I felt I knew the least was Leila's mother, but she was not really a part of this story. She hardly knew Rebecca, whose death is what sets off the whole story (though Leila chooses to start the telling of it with her visits to Janie, her father's first wife). There are so many parts to this story, but Rebecca, her life and death, is what ties it all together so marvelously.

Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce

"Stay with me," I say, wishing I'd said it to my sister but also wanting to hear it from him.

"Stay with you?" he asks.

"No," I say. "You've messed up the pronoun."

Leila is the product of her father's second marriage. Her parents are still happily married, and she is their only child. She has two half-sisters from her father's first marriage, but she is not as close to them as she would like to be. Rebecca and Clare were in their twenties with Leila was born, so even though she is now approaching the age of seventeen, Leila still feels like a kid in their presence.

Even more remarkable than her parents' loving marriage is Leila's other source of adult support: Janie, her father's first wife. The book begins with Leila's memories of Janie, and the loss she felt when Janie passed away. It continues with the revelation that Rebecca has committed suicide, causing those familiar feelings of loss and regret to rise to the surface but in a new way. As Leila attempts to figure out what would cause Rebecca to do such a thing, she makes startling discoveries about her family members - and herself. What she thought she knew may not be true at all.

"There's such a gap between the images I carry in my mind and what can actually be found in the world."

Among many other things, Leila learns that nothing valuable is easy. Her life is as complex as that of any real person, and the book seamlessly weaves together various plotlines that touch Leila's life, with each given appropriate weight and attention. In Freymann-Weyr's best novel to date, the author has created characters who are intelligent, each in his or her own way, and realistically flawed. The first-person narrative is poignant and poetic, offering many memorable scenes and exchanges of dialogue.

"For me, they are one more thing that belongs in someone else's story."

This book is something to savor and share. Leila's story with stay with readers long after they finish the last page. Highly recommended to adults and older teens.

About two thirds of the way through this novel it began to be a bit tiresome. I felt the presence of the author looming over the story and I began to dislike the characters--the female ones particularly. Maybe my own background is too working class for the dialogue and the structure of the interpersonal relationships to come off as real or convincing to me, I don't know. The various men in the lives of the three sisters moon over these young women, put the lovely Abranels up on pedestals, and seem to have little to no lives of their own outside their worship of them. Hmmm, it just didn't ring true with me. Leila seemed far more sophisticated and fey than a dyslexic 16 year old would be--even one from such a remarkable family. I thought the writing was lovely, but the characters were somewhat distasteful. Ultimately they weren't people I could care about.

A girl's dyslexia, relationships with a father and stepmother, and determination to investigate romance, cheating and death makes for a vivid multi-faceted story in Stay With Me, which follows her evolving sense of self in the face of disability and changes. Stay With Me is a recommended pick for mature teens who will find plenty of interest in a story of love which keeps on changing.

Stay With Me is a highly complex and rewarding young adult novel. It tells of a year in the life of sixteen-year-old Leila Abranel, a New York City high school student with a rather unconventional family. Leila begins her story indirectly, recounting her occasional meetings with her sisters' mother. Leila has two much older half-sisters, from her father's doomed first marriage. Leila admires her vibrant and quirky sister Rebecca, and turns to her for advice, while respecting her more formal sister Clare's preference to remain distant. The family has a balance, if an unusual one, right up until Rebecca commits suicide.

After Rebecca's clearly premediatated suicide, everything changes for Leila. Her parents take a one-year job helping to create a new teaching hospital in Poland. Leila moves in with her sister Clare, and has Raphael, a distant cousin (and former boyfriend of Clare's), as a secondary guardian. Leila goes on with her life - school, a part-time job, finally getting to know Clare - but struggles to understand Rebecca's suicide. She latches on to her last sighting of Rebecca, and tries to find the person that Rebecca was with at the time, thinking that he might have some insight for her.

This book is about so many different things. Stay With Me is about what it means to be a family. (Raphael, despite his relatively distant family connection, helps Leila with her homework, gives her advice, and takes on a near-parental role.) Stay With Me is about trusting your own body (and yourself), and knowing what you are and are not ready for sexually. Stay With Me is about why someone with most of her life ahead of her would commit suicide, and the devastating impact of a suicide on the people left behind. Stay With Me is about what it's like to be dyslexic (Leila is dyslexic), and how it can affect a person's entire way of thinking.

And yes, as you are sure to read in other reviews, Stay With Me is about teen-aged Leila's friendship with and sexual interest in a 31-year-old man, Eamon. What I found remarkable about this entire storyline was how normal Freymann-Weyr made it seem, and how NOT creepy the plot-line was. I want to be sure to get this across to you, because I was initially hesitant to read the book, knowing about this Lolita-esque theme. Leila's relationship with Eamon is an important part of the book, but it's only a part of a much more fully realized story, and it's handled exceedingly well.

I found Stay With Me to be very well-written. The characters, especially Leila, are complex and realistic. Leila's voice is particularly engaging. Her dyslexia shapes her perceptions of herself, her ability to make decisions, and her day-to-day life, with a pervasiveness that I hadn't anticipated or understood before reading this book. Somehow Freymann-Weyr conveys this without ever making Leila someone to be pitied or ridiculed over her learning disability. It's a remarkable achievement.

I think that high school readers will enjoy this book, especially those with learning disabilities or unconventional families (and what family seems normal, when you're in high school?). And I think that teens who are (horrifyingly) curious about suicide will find in this book a subtle, but strong, anti-suicide message. I believe in general that parents should read as many of the books that their kids read as possible. But I especially believe that parents should read Stay With Me with their kids. There are many great discussion points in the book.

As you can tell, I liked this book a lot. The plot is multi-layered without being confusing, with a nice blend of poignancy, humor, tension. I read it in a single day, not so much because I needed to know what happened, as because I wanted to spend more time with Leila, and make sure that she was alright. But I won't tell you the answer to that. You'll have to read Stay With Me yourself.

This book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on May 6th, 2006.

I have dealt with depression and suicidal feelings for years and have tried several medications and several psychiatrists. I found it immensely comforting to see my feelings expressed so articulately alongside useful, inspired suggestions concerning those feelings. Jillayne Arena's advice is so valuable because not only has she "been there," she has performed extensive introspection and has thereby earned wisdom and philosophy from which the reader may benefit. This book doesn't "wear out": after several readings it hasn't lost its power to renew my strength. I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone with mild to severe depression. I also recommend it to those who are close to someone depressed: this book will show you how to support them.

Sometimes I need to be reminded what is out there to keep me from suicide. This books reminds me what I have to live for and a few things I never thought about. I keep this book with me when this get really bad and it has help pull me through a few really rough times

I enjoyed reading Jillayne Arena's book because in today's world, there are too many reasons to feel really down and out. She writes with great wit and humor about her struggles and doubts and leaves the reader with a good insight, and one comes away with at least 45 reasons not to give up! I recommend this book highly to all who doubt, or feel they cannot handle it any longer: read this book, any paragraph and sleep on it, pray (if you are religious) and look further in the future. The glass is either half empty - or half full, after reading this book, you will find that it is half full

This book has potential for being a great book. By that I mean that the introduction described depression and suicidal thinking better than I've ever heard anyone else do so. It was like she was inside my head.

The chapter titles (each one is a reason to *not* commit suicide) are great. But the actual chapters leave much to be desired. In essence, she could have just written the intro. and the chapter titles, and it would have been better.

That said, this is still the BEST book I've seen to actually HELP someone who is feeling suicidal.

I wish the title and cover weren't so....obvious, though. Not something you'd want to leave lying around. I actually cut out the pages of another book I wasn't really needing so much, and replaced this book...so the cover says something totally different. Even put the dust jacket of other book on. I mean, who wants to have, in bold print "45 REASONS TO SAY NO TO SUICIDE" lying around where people will see it? What can you say? "ummmm....it's for a friend?"

From the preface I could feel the author's emotion and pain. I felt I finally found someone who could understand. Not the usual flowery "life is wonderful, don't do it" suicide prevention book. This is down to earth, real reasons for living despite the depression.

Why do all of the documentaries, television and book, leave out all the critical information? For example, why is Jones painted as a Christian reverend when in fact he was a socialist and atheist? That's why they called it the People's Temple. Why do they ignore the CIA connection? The only person I know who addressed this was Bill Curtis from American Justice. Why do they ignore the fact Jones himself revealed he was going to take off with all of the money and go to Castro's Cuba? He had no intention of dying (is he dead today?). Curtis also is the only one to address this. Why do they ignore the origin of Jones' own thinking? For example, when Father Divine told him "Jones, You are god," Jones went hog wild. Why do most of the documentaries ignore the fact that Jones used to jump up and down on the Holy Bible and kept reports in his file cabinets on the resulting effect on his congregation - files which were confiscated by the CIA after the tragedy occurred, as reported by Bill Curtis' documentary. For information on Jim Jones, I recommend the Bill Curtis documentary on American Justice and the tape by Walter R. Martin. What is interesting about the forced suicide (oxymoron) is the statements Jones made. For example, Jones talked about death with dignity. And similar to the tricks governments play on people, he said armed men were coming and that they had to act fast. It reminds you of 911. What is also interesting is the common theme of Gnosticism and Socialism as one package: Eric Voegelin explains that socialism IS Gnostic in his famous book "Science, Politics and Gnosticism." So, it is not a coincidence that communist leaders are usually merciless dictators because, like Father Divine said, they think they are a god. Think of the tens of millions of lives taken in the name of socialism: Pol Pot, Jim Jones, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, the Ukrainian forced famines, and so on. Today, we call socialism "liberalism." It reminds me of the woman who approached Bill Clinton and said, (get ready to barf) "Lead us." It reminds me of Tom Hanks crying at Obama's election. It reminds me of Charlize Theron (beautiful babe that she is) crying in the presence of Nelson Mandela (a well known member of the communist group that African National Congress). It reminds me of the millions of people who responded to the empty rhetoric of "change" espoused by Obama. So, why is the Jonestown story always left incomplete in everybody's' report? It is because he espoused the same philosophy that is espoused today by the liberal establishment. For example, the tapes of the massacre is filled with famous slogans you hear today: death with dignity, gender equality, racial equality, and so on. All he really cared about was joining as many people as possible under his control. His racial rhetoric, like modern liberal slogans today, only operates to win your affections in order to gain more votes and hence more power. Jones also preached same sex unions (Jones was caught by a police officer soliciting a purported male prostitute in a movie theater bathroom). Jones wanted everyone to learn Russian so that they could move to communist Russia. This book leaves out all of the information I noted here and for that reason I cannot give it more than three stars.

Published just after the mass suicide in 78, The Suicide Cult gives us a good look at Jones, Ryan, the People's Temple, and the airstrip shooting. It provides a fine overview of this most unusual event, and is most valuable as an eyewitness account of some of the cult's last moments. As expected for a book of this kind, though, there is little analysis or depth. I was also surprised that so little was included about the suicide itself. Perhaps the sources just aren't there; the people involved all dead.

NO PERSON HAD MORE POWER OVER HIS PEOPLE NEXT TO HITLER THAN JIM JONES!!!THE AMERICAN HITLER!!THE AUTHORS TRACE THE CHILD HOOD OF THIS BRILLIANT BUT MAD MAN AND COVER THE RISING OF THE PEOPLE TEMPLE AND THE TRAGIC ENDING!!! A MUST READ!!!

I read this book along with Seductive Poison, a memoir by one of Jones financial secretaries. Ms Layton's book was more profound in that she allows a fascinating look inside the inner working of a madman's Temple. Thankfully she finally caught on and blew the whistle.

Both books ought to be reguired reading on high school and college campuses.

...and one that is written from the inside out I would also suggest SEDUCTIVE POISON by Deborah Layton. It has received incredible reviews both on-line and in print. It is a insider's riveting accountof how and why people were caught up in this humanitarian organization. JimJones was a well respected politician and Reverend in teh early 70's and many young Vietnam protesting rebels joined him.What had seemed like a Humanitarian organization soon turned darker and 900 of his more than 3,000 members found themselves isolated in a jungle and suddenly unable to leave. VERY POWERFUL!

One of the best attacks on liberalism I've ever read, though Burnham makes the misleading argument that liberalism is a symptom of our dying civilization rather than its primary cause. But even if you believe this, there is no denying that liberalism is a malignant symptom that has rapidly sped up the self-destruction of the West. This book is a must for anyone who wants to understand the most significant political transformation of 20th century--the shrinking size, power and influence of the West. To truly understand the political dynamics of this shift in power, I would also recommend reading Samuel Francis' book James Burnham: Thinkers of Our Time

This book was written in 1964 but is as relevant (if not more so) today than it was when first published. Since that time, modern liberalism has moved further leftward and worldwide Communist revolutionary impulses have only marginally declined, notwithstanding the collapse of the Soviet Union. Red China is becoming the new Red menace and Russia is in the midst of potentially dangerous changes.

The very premise of this book has played out on the world scene since its writing. The liberal approach towards Communism (i.e. appeasement) in the 1970s had weakened the Western resolve to contain Communism just as Burnham predicted it would. On the other hand, the 1980s demonstrated the efficacy of the opposite approach, namely mustering the will and resources to rollback Communism. And the 1990s served to remind us all once again how ill-equipped liberalism is in containing Communism as the Red Dragon raised its ugly head and the Bear grew restless.

Burnham spends the first two-thirds of the book describing the liberal worldview in intellectual and moral terms. He begins by first outlining the major tenets of liberalism and shows from whence they arose. He then demonstrates how some of these tenets are intellectually weak due to their internal inconsistency, mutual incompatibility, and failures in application.

Burnham then shifts to the moral/psychological aspect of liberalism, specifically the role of values in liberal ideology; and the priority that liberals give to those values. He also explains the sentiments that drive the commitment to liberalism and explains how, in many cases, those sentiments are inconsistent with the intellectual tenets of liberalism. He also describes the powerful role guilt plays in the liberal impulse towards egalitarianism.

Especially enlightening is Burnham's contrasting of the modern liberal with the classical liberal of the 19th century. He makes the comparison by showing that many of the intellectual tenets of modern liberalism are absent from the 19th century laissez-faire version. He also describes how and why values have been inverted - namely that the modern liberal now esteems peace/security above freedom/liberty.

With the intellectual/psychological analysis of liberalism complete, Burnham then proceeds to evaluate the threat of Communism to Western Civilization. His explanation of Communism's inherent demand to achieve world dominance is superb. There is no mistaking the fact that co-existence with capitalism is simply not an option for the Communist.

But because modern liberalism shares similar egalitarian impulses with Communism, it is intellectually and morally weakened before the Red menace. In short, it is difficult to oppose Communism from the Left. There simply is too much in common to come out in direct opposition to its ideology. This is not to say that liberals support Communist tactics, although they have been among the Kremlin's chief apologists at various times (e.g. 1930s, 1960s).

Because liberals share many egalitarian goals with Communism, they become "useful idiots" for the world revolutionaries, whose interest it is to create instability in non-Communist countries. For example, it is now known (vis-à-vis post-Cold War Archives) that the Soviet Union incited and exploited much of the American civil unrest (1930s, 1960s) that liberal ideologues created in their pursuit of egalitarianism. In essence, because of an overlap in their common goals, the Communists found the modern liberal to be a useful tool for hastening the world revolution of the proletariat.

However, unlike its explicit goals, liberal sentiments are actually quite disjoint from the Communist. In fact, the differences in sentiments are what permit Communists to use liberals to further their revolutionary goals. For example, the liberal's quest for peace is not the same as the Communist's. The Communist sees peace as the calm arising out of a world free of capitalism. It does not mean peace achieved by nation's agreeing to mutual co-existence. But the Communist finds the liberal's pursuit of "peace" useful in order to weaken the security of non-Communist nations.

So willingly or unwittingly, modern liberals, especially from the West, are essentially useless when it comes to halting the Communist quest to dominate and eventually overthrow non-communist systems. Their perspective prevents them from confronting the non-rational ideological menace with the only principle it understands -- force.

Only a hard-line stance (as Ronald Reagan promoted) and proactive measures will put a check on an ideology that has world domination as its ultimate goal. This lesson has been demonstrated once as a result of the Cold War outcome. And one can only hope and pray that the lesson will not be forgotten. Because if it is, the West will indeed commit suicide and be delivered into the hands of International Communism.

~The Suicide of the West~ by James Burnham is a trenchant critique of modern secular liberalism, which Burnham characterizes as the ideology of Western suicide. "Liberalism," observes Burnham, "is the ideology of Western suicide." Why? Liberalism presents a false anthropology of human nature, seeing mankind as essentially good, but in need of liberation from social problems rooted in tradition, prejudice and ignorance. Liberalism appealed to the politics of guilt. Its ideological nostrums of egalitarianism and social justice meant the suicide of the West, he postulated, and the inevitable contraction of Western culture, power and social stability.

Burnham was apt to invoke the pessimism of Alexis de Tocqueville in his nineteenth century work Democracy in America, in which he presciently foresaw democracy's deterioration: "After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp, and fashioned them at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community." And here we find Tocqueville's prototypical critique of the managerial state: "It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided: men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting: such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd." Such a view animated Burnham's critique of the managerial state.

Burnham himself was a political pessimist who had abandoned the doctrinaire Marxism of his youth to become a conservative stalwart, and ironically his youthful flirtation with Marxist ideology nonetheless profoundly colored and shaped his perception of reality. His historiography was itself gripped with the notion of a vigorous struggle between the beleaguered West and vigorous communism. Burnham respected communist ideology, not for its merits or virtue, but for the spirit of self-sacrifice embraced by its most zealous adherents. The West had lost its virtues of heroism and self-sacrifice so vitally requisite to contain and overwhelm communism, he held. The virus in the West was according to Burnham, liberalism, which was an ideology in complete capitulation to communism, for it disarmed the West of its core values needed to engage communism on cultural, economic, intellectual, moral, political and social fronts. For Burnham, communism as an ideology, despite the misery it wrought, had appeal to the intellectual class, for it incited virtues of self-sacrifice, mobilized the masses, and gave history significance in manner that liberal democracy simply could not accomplish. Burnham despite his notorious pessimism esteemed a civic republicanism and cherished freedom, individualism and private property. Liberalism to Burnham represented disfigured values of the West, and its brand of individualism was a crass selfish sort that naturally yielded to collectivism.

Despite the collapse of communism as an ideology, Burnham's spirited critique from the post-WWII era is still worth reading over for political conservatives. It's not flawless, but the analysis is worth considering nonetheless.

James Burnham's useful little volume, originally published in 1964, is not so much a book about the impending death of Western civilization as it is a treatise against liberalism and the sins of liberals.

Burnham justifies the book's title by tying liberal domination to what he recognizes as the mortal peril in which Western civilization finds itself, but he is reserved enough to state in the end that liberals and liberalism are not the cause of the decline of Western civilization but the cause of the West's suicidal reconciliation to its decline and of its failure to take restorative measures.

And Burnham takes a balanced historical approach which is incompatible with that of the polemicist. He discusses the history of liberalism, starting with the early days, during which liberalism indeed represented advocacy of human liberty and ending with the post-New Deal era, in which liberalism has come to mean liberty for liberals only and servitude for everyone else.

The ugly double standards that liberals practice when distinguishing "us" from "them" are elaborated on, as is the liberal enshrinement of all allies on the left, including Communist dictators, no matter how dangerous or offensive, and demonization of all opponents on the right, no matter how inefficacious. Political correctness and affirmative action are exposed here, even though these phrases have not yet become part of the American lexicon.

For while the themes are familiar, this book was written in an era that seems quite removed from that which we live in now - in the shadow of JFK's death and prior to Khrushchev's ouster and to the Tonkin Resolution which expanded America's role in Vietnam. It was also written at a time when the unsuccessful Goldwater presidential campaign, which would spawn Ronald Reagan's successful one, had not yet taken shape.

The book therefore provides valuable historical perspective at the dawn of some of liberalism`s most significant influences, as well as the ascendancy of conservatism as an impotent political force.

Burnham doesn't score 100% on the "crystal ball" test. His pessimism about the virtual invulnerability of communism and the need for American resolve to defeat it rings naïve today. Since the end of World War II and the invention of the Bomb, Americans were probably always too fat, dumb and happy to be willing to die in large numbers to prevail over the Soviets, ever preferring to believe that freedom is free. But Soviet communism turned out to have enough of its own fatal defects so as to render unnecessary the need for American resolve.

Nevertheless, in other respects, Burnham demonstrates impressive forethought in writing this volume. His conclusion that contemporary liberalism, by nature, is incapable of governing or of using timely military force in appropriate amounts very much anticipates the Clinton and Carter administrations, even if Burnham can't quite anticipate the Clinton War Room or scandal-driven military strikes or any of the extraordinary acts of destruction that liberals would actually turn out to be willing to commit in order to acquire and maintain power for its own sake.

As Burnham is writing, some of the worst evils of liberalism haven't yet taken shape. The liberals, especially RFK, haven't yet performed their cynical "about face" maneuver on Vietnam; They haven't yet completely poisoned American civilization with obscene, mindless, standard-less, witless, indulgent entertainment and pop-culture therapy, masquerading as empowerment, self-fulfillment, and individualist expression. They haven't yet made infanticide a constitutional right. They haven't yet led female and homosexual minions to war against the traditional heterosexual male ethos, nor have they secured their political future by unleashing on America's borders countless numbers of undocumented aliens to assault American civilization in the name of "multiculturalism".

Yet Burnham's relentless analysis lays bare the intellectual bankruptcy and moral shortcomings of even the 1964 class of liberals. And the examples that he provides of liberal intellectuals savaging human lives in order to score ideological points anticipate the even more destructive childlike New Class of liberals that will arise later in his decade and rule into the 21st century.

But Burnham ultimately fails in the same way that other conservatives have been failing since his time. He does not call for the eradication of liberalism. Instead, he argues that a liberal spirit of innovation is desirable to enact needed social reforms and that conservatives are needed to govern them. Unfortunately, this is a slippery slope that conservatives tend to fall into quite often - giving up the ghost of past battles by venerating liberal reforms and politicos that they rightfully assailed a generation earlier.

Witness the way in which America's most prominent conservative now tries to put a "compassionate" female-friendly multicultural face on conservatism - the better with which to "conserve" the evils already wrought.

"We don't want to repeal Title IX," conservatives plead regarding a wicked law whose name and face belong on a "Wanted" poster. "Title IX is GOOD! We only want it enforced in accordance with its ORIGINAL INTENT." Oh my God!

Such actions cause conservatives to slide into hollows designed by liberal troglodytes, such as the late Herbert Block. "Half a step, half a step," a mocking Herblock once had Dwight Eisenhower plead Father Time in one cartoon. "You keep marching too fast."

And if the only function of conservatives is not to combat liberal reforms but only to manage or trim them, conservatism scarcely seems worth the trouble and expense of maintenance, and the Herblocks of the world are indeed entitled to a laugh at conservatives' expense, ridiculing them for always being a half step behind.

Nine years after National Review`s inception in 1955, Burnham has already tragically moved away from the publication's stated purpose of standing athwart history yelling "Stop", and he sets the stage for others to move even further away. Neither he nor they understand that conservatism and its advocates will not be worth a damn until they obtain the will and the wherewithal to put Father Time in a headlock and march him firmly BACKWARD.

This well written, extremely thoughtful book was first published in 1964 at a time few thought Liberalism to be a threat to our civilization and, indeed, the Western World.The brilliantly intellectual author wrote from a state of reality and recognized and characterized what has become a significant destructive force to our culture almost 50 years before the currrent obvious crisis is forcing awareness on more and more people. The book reads like it was written today, but amazingly was written in 1964. It is an amazing study of the liberal mind, it's lack of ability for rational thought, an amazing ability to "know" all answers, based on their catechism--without the inconvenience of making the effort of informing themselves of the facts or issues. An in depth psychological study of the anarchic mind and where it is leading us.

While thesde stories are almost uniformly about the survivors of tragedy (and therefore offer little to make one smile), I would read them stories simply for the beauty of the words. In her writing, Barton has the economy of a poet, using spare but resonant words, Her dialog is wondrously authentic and would sound real to anyone who has lived in the South. As most of the stories are written in the first-person, they come across as authentic and deeply personal. One suspects that Barton is not unfamiliar with the dark places of which she writes. It is, simply, good writing.

I enjoyed reading Staci's stories immensely. Not only were the stories powerful and sad and exquisite moments of ordinary lives, but the way in which Staci tells these stories shows a strong grasp over technique as well.
I highly recommend this collection.

The stories of "Surviving Nashville" are so powerful, I could only take a little bit at a time (like horseradish!). I love what Barton does with voice and dialogue--I get the sense of watching a film or a play, and the conversation flows naturally but with many levels of meaning. And Barton doesn't shy away from harrowing scenes. I am amazed that she gets such earth-shattering stuff into tiny short stories. Overall a great read.

It's 2:24 AM and I couldn't wait until daylight to tell the world how much I loved this book. The characters grabbed hold and wouldn't let go, and I know I'll linger in their spell for a long, long time. Savor this collection in little bites; it's too wonderful to gobble down in a rush. Red Wax Rose

These stories get into your head like your own memories. They are very short; they don't spare any words to explain or apologize for themselves. They just give vivid snapshots that, in a page or two, summarize a life, or several lives. You can see way before, and imagine way after, each narrative takes place.

Barton looks at the good, the evil, the beautiful, and the ugly of who we people are. We can see the world crashing in because of an unlikely first kiss, or understand how justified a mother in a trailer park can be for shooting the balls off her ex-husband. Like in memory, what is horrible also becomes the beautiful path to who we are.

A book by a well-known and well-respected author, this is, as one would expect, good writing, especially if you wish to know more about the undertaking business or how it was conducted in the West during the period of western expansion. But the book, the story of one man and his wife's life as they travel about, lacks a villain or the tension necessary to make one want to turn the page.

An unusual subject...undertaking in the 1800's and as a backdrop for a story of love and marriage, it's even more odd. But don't let the subject matter deter you from reading this well written, interesting and poignent novel. From the first sentence to the last, this historical look at the undertaker's art and life is a winner.

I have read almost all of Loren D. Estlemen. Sorry not the westerns though. All of the Amos Walker and the Detroit series.

This books is different from his other novels. It is a historical view, while not seeming to be one, through the eyes of a devoted wife of that period. One might learn a bit more about the undertaking process than he wanted to know, but very interesting. From Michigan to Californina to Kansas, keeps one's interest.

Estlemen's view of women in his novels has been a bit cynical, each of them having a personal agenda. Here he shows his sensitivity to the feminine emotions and the culture of the time.

I love Estlemen's style of writing. Think it is among the very best of novelists today. I don't like all of Estlemen's novels equally, but I do love how he tells it. He can make you feel as though you are there, you can smell the rain and snow. Know the charaters on sight. Give you some humor without lowering it to gags. He knows you have met these people before, he is just allowing to think about them in depth.

Although this book is labeled a Western by those who do such labeling, it only peripherally fits that genre. Here is a book about America told not from the perspective of titans but from the point of view of a woman whose man happens to be an undertaker in the days when the craft-and the country--was young and raw. It is a book about ordinary people living ordinary lives, doing ordinary things about which we seldom think. But Estleman does. And both his thinking and his skill at portraying them enrich us.

As ever, Estleman's characters are nomads, roaming the backroads of his landscape which allows him to draft some of the most descriptive prose being written about places and things. Add to this his meticulous but tasteful treatment of a craft only vaguely understood, even by us moderns, and you have a book that entertains yet informs. Still, it is not the prose or the dialogue that captures us. It is the emotional journey of two people down life's pebbled path that is the core of this book. The man tells a good story. It is well worth the read.

Loren Estleman's "The Undertaker's Wife" is one of the most unusual novels that I have come across in some time. The story takes place in the second half of the nineteenth century. Richard Connable is the undertaker in the title, and he is a perfectionist at his trade. He learned mortuary science from his father, Janus, and Richard has elevated it to a high art. His knowledge of chemicals and makeup is so advanced that he is summoned by a millionaire to work on the corpse of a man who died of a gunshot wound to the head. Richard is one of the few people who can be relied upon to restore the body to its original appearance.

The undertaker's wife is Lucy Connable, a sensitive woman who, had she known what life had in store for her, might never have agreed to marry Richard. After dealing with the many corpses of mutilated soldiers injured in the Civil War, Richard becomes argumentative and abrupt with Lucy, and he starts to drink. In addition, without first consulting his wife, Richard decides that they will head out west to San Francisco to make their fortune. What follows is a series of adventures and misadventures that sorely tests the mettle of this young couple and strains their relationship to the breaking point. The undertaker's ambition blinds him to the damage that he is doing to his marriage.

The author is a master writer who captures the pioneering, "anything goes" atmosphere that existed in certain parts of the country after the Civil War. Profiteering, graft, and outright fraud were commonplace in such towns as San Francisco. Slick characters preyed on the unwary and parted the gullible from their money. Richard quickly finds that setting up a business in this lawless place will be logistically difficult and very expensive.

Estleman's varied cast of characters include a dandified and dangerous Wild Bill Hickok, Max Crespo, a master carpenter who comforts Lucy during her husband's lengthy absences, and a Russian Jew named Sergei Rubyoff, who becomes Richard's partner in Hays City, Kansas, after Richard and Lucy leave San Francisco.

Although squeamish readers will undoubtedly recoil from the graphic description of how a dead body is prepared for viewing, fans of such shows as CSI will revel in the intricate details of the embalming and restoration of the dead. The author has certainly done his homework and his research pays off handsomely. The details of mortuary science in nineteenth century America could not be more realistic. Even with its serious subject matter, however, this book is not depressing. It has many scenes of lively humor and spirited dialogue.

The tale of the Connable marriage, with its infrequent highs and many lows, is both poignant and heart wrenching. Lucy and Richard gradually move in opposite directions, and when tragedy strikes, the damage to their peace of mind is irreparable. Richard has been so busy at his profession that he has neglected his wife's needs and desires. "The Undertaker's Wife" is a richly textured narrative with fascinating psychological, historical, and scientific elements. It is an indelible and touching story of a man and woman whose experiences and attitudes irrevocably drive them apart as the years go by.

I thought this was a great book to read. It's the kind of book that it doesn't matter what age you are or what kind of books you like, anyone can really enjoy it. It is about a boy named Robert Nobel who needs to make a coat of feathers, for Mrs. Sorrel. Robert is doing this for a project for an elderly person, which he's doing in his school. Robert believes that if he makes the coat for Mrs. Sorrel it will save her life from cancer. This book is adventurous and very funny, with a little of romance on the side.

I enjoyed this book very much. It was a great story of a shy little boy named Robert. I'm shy too sometimes so I can relate to him. And who hasn't been bullied at school? I'm glad he finally stood up for himself. It was a sad ending but it felt right. People live, people die. That's just the way things are.

Awesome book, reminiscent of David Almond's Skellig. Robert becomes a hero when he faces the room at the top of Chance House. Not only does he rescue Edith Sorrel from death, if only briefly, but he saves himself from the frightened boy who is bullied by others. There is a magical quality to the writing that transports the reader to the places so hauntingly described in the book.

My gradmother gave this book to me for my last birthday. When I read the back of the book, I pretty well made up my mind that this isn't the kind of book for me. When I was getting to the end of my book pile this summer, I figured that it was about time to read it. And now, I'm very glad that I did! This book inspired me to follow my dreams, and not many novels have done this. It says in the last chapter, it says that luck is something that you have to make for yourself, which I found a very interesting perspective. I would recommend this book to anyone who is feeling left-out or under any strong emotion. This book truly lifts your spirits, and makes you feel like you can fly.

Not much is more cruel than the way young people may treat the one they consider to be the "class nerd." Such is the case with Robert Nobel, often called "Norbert" by his primary bully, Jonathan Niker.

Like every other youngster Roberts wants to have friends, to be recognized as a person of value. It seems this will not happen until he takes part in what is called the Elders Project, an endeavor in which members of his class visit the elderly residents of a rest home. Jonathan considers these older folks "vegetables," but Robert sees something more and this is a vision that changes his life.

Edith, thought to be quite a bit off, becomes Robert's friend and it is through her story that he eventually finds himself.

Director/actor Philip Franks invests understanding and suspense into this unforgettably moving tale.

- Gail Cooke

I love this book! In third grade, I had a reading group and chose this book to read.
In these brillliant pages, you'll find a wolf hybrid, Sharon Hinkler, glow ropes, and Ms. Jewel. I'd recommend this book to anybody, even if they're not interested in wolf hybrids because I don't think too much of them myself, but I love this book anyway.

From the paperback cover

-Written by Cora C.

I read a book called ¡®The Fourth Grade Wizards¡¯. This book is about a girl named Marianne. Her mother died and her and her dad moves to a new house, and buys a half-wolf dog. And at the end Marianne and her friend Jack becomes a fourth grade wizards. You get to be an wizard when you do nice things and don¡¯t fight with others.
I liked the part where she gets Kipuck. Kipluck is Marianne¡¯s dog. After
she buys him, Marianne gets really happy. She always plays with Kipluck. I like that part because she gets a new friend and Marianne and her dad gets happy.
I liked the part when Marianne and dad met Lucy. She lives next door. Lucy and Marianne gets along. And Lucy always eat dinner and lunch with Marianne and dad. At the end Lucy marries with Marianne¡¯s dad. It¡¯s really happy to read a part when the character is happy.
I didn¡¯t like the part when Kipluck ran away from home. Why would he have done such thing? Well, I was really sorry for Marianne.
I liked the part when Jack and Marianne becomes a member of The Fourth Grade Wizards. I liked it because Marianne and Jack¡¯s dream came true. I loved that part.
This book was great! I loved it! I t was better than Otherwise known as Sheila the great. Now I want to read ¡®Nothing¡¯s Fair in Fifth Grade¡¯ by the same author. I am going to read this book again. I loved It!!!!!!

I am a 4th grade teacher and I wanted a quick read-aloud book for my students. I really enjoyed Barthe DeClements when I was a kid, so I thought I'd give this one a try. The story is about a girl named Marianne who recently lost her mom in a plane crash. She is struggling to cope with her sadness as well as her dad's sadness, and there is a really nasty neighbor girl that torments her. What I liked about this book was the main character herself, however, her neighbors-- the mother and daughter, were over-the-top awful, and I found myself growing upset with the father character for not intervening more in his daughter's plight. While this MIGHT have been a subplot of sorts, it really wasn't... in general, I was really dissapointed with the adult characters in this book. It has good moments, though, especially when Marianne brings home a new puppy. I would recommend this to my students to read independently but I will not read it aloud to them.

Have you ever thought about getting a puppy? Well this book is about a girl who gets a puppy because she misses her mother too much after her mother died. At school she is not paying attention to the teacher, that means she might not become a fouth grade wizard. One day her puppy ran away! Will she become a fouth grade wizard? will she find her puppy? Read this to find out what a fouth grade wizard is.

This book is great! It is about a girl named Marianne whoes mother died. Marianne can't pay attention in school! At her school they have wizards and Marianne can't become one if she doesn't start to pay attention. Marianne gets a puppy and starts to listen and do her work. Now if she keeps working this hard she can become a master wizard! To find out if she does you have to read this book! It is great and I would reccomend it to anyone!

At the opening of this story, Karen, a bright sophomore in high school is facing more than the usual adolescent angst. She experiences extreme mood swings ranging from spurts of energy that last for days to bone crushing depression.

During one of her manic phases, Karen encourages her friend Gina to secure her a waitressing job at Gina's uncle's restaurant. Things start off well until Karen hits a manic swing and goes to a party instead of reporting to work. Losing her job and the ensuing downswing push Karen into desperation. In confronting her own demons, she discovers that the illness runs in her family. Karen's mother is also bipolar and it is all they can do to keep from being consumed by their condition.

Karen bravely confronts her illness and once armed with knowledge of her bipolar condition, she is empowered to make better decisions about her life.

I usually can't stand the thought of reading books. I either get easily bored or it takes me forever and I quit. I have found an interest in these types of books. I took me a little more than 2 hrs to read this great book and I never put it down till I finished, I was so afraid of forgetting everything. I would recommend it to anyone who likes journal type books about teenagers.

I read this book probably when I was 13 - 14 years old. I would have never known then what I was about to go through would be almost exactly like Karen went through. I lost some of my relatives, but my depression and mania were so bad that I had to be hospitalized. This book takes the stigma of mental illness and enlightens everyone about the disease by reading what Karen's mind was thinking. Awsome to read if you know anyone with a metal illness (especially a girl in their teens), if you have experienced mental illness yourslef, and if you just don't understand the disease and believe that we are making up this "thing" inside our heads.

At first it seems that Karen is just a normal girl going thru the "teen phase". But then she starts getting into trouble with teachers, friends, and at home due to her extreme mood swings.

When her mother overdoses on pills, Karen finds out that manic depression runs in her family and realizes that she's not crazy.

The POV from Karen's prospective shines new light on mental illness and proves that no matter what some people believe, you just cannot control extreme emotions by yourself and it's ok to ask for help.

Wendy Corsi Staub has done a wonderful job portraying the effects of mental illness on a teenage girl and her family. This book should be required reading for all teens (and pre-teens) and their families.

I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT THE AUTHOR THIS BOOK DID A SUPERB JOB IN PLACING THE EMPHASIS AND KNOWLEDGE OF VARIOUS CULTURES HANDLING OF DEATH. I HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH FROM THIS BOOK.

I have the third and seventh editions of this book and not surprisingly there is not much change. In their treatise on death, Authors Bruce and Dorothy DeSpelder offer an interesting glimpse into the multicultural world of death.

Developmentally speaking the authors take us through phases that humans experience and how they interpret death at each phase in the early life cycle. From infancy and toddlerhood, to early and middle childhood, we learn how the ever evolving concept of death changes within us until our schema matures.

The authors do a good job pointing out ever vital sociocultural factors that influence our understanding of death bringing to forefront how the agents of socialization such as the family unit, our peers and colleagues, the mass media and children's literature and Religion play in shaping the views that we hold on death.

What I found most interesting were the Cross cultural and Historical perspectives on death especially the postulations of the early primitive cultures that have in effect given us a good part of our mythology of death. Native American, African, Mexican, Asian, and Celtic death traditions are featured and expounded upon in small but satisfying detail.

The effect of death as reflected through Healthcare Systems involving critical issues such as how to be with some one who is dying, modern health the its institutions that care for the dying were informative. More critical are chapters that deal with issues involving such matters as how best to deal with children who are facing the reality of a life threatening illness with lessons and valuable advice on helping both children and adults in coping with terminal illness and loss.
The chapter on end of life issues and decisions covers such areas as informed consent, advanced directives, and matters of probate. It elucidates well on the dynamics that encompass the Caregiver-Patient Relationship such as responsibilities and ethical issues involved when disclosing a life threatening diagnosis and those involved when a person chooses to die.

I feel that most important part of this book is how it deals with understanding the experience of loss. It compares and contrasts the mental verses the emotional response of grief and mourning and carefully and responsibly explains the course of grief in simple and easy to understand terms. The chapter also provides models of grief each of which offer forth their own interpretations involving the tasks of mourning. For those who are pursuing a career in the helping services this book will most likely be required post graduate reading. However for those are curious what books we professionals study about death, this is your ticket to the secret knowledge and also the keys to the gates of understanding on how this subject is taught at the graduate level in Universities worldwide.

For those readers who have not done much reading or thinking about death, this book offers an easy to read and thoughtful introduction to looking at death vis a vis topics. In addition, this book provides for the scaffolded reading experience by asking the reader many questions, summarizing the main points of chapters and providing resources for further exploration.
On the negative side is the fact that the topical approach is available elsewehere in other books on death and dying in more encyclopedia form and more complete form.
The authors seem to think that death isnt something that people wonder a lot about or should wonder a lot about the mysterium tremendum of death. The illustrations in the book are sans context and images or illustrations on death are important in their own right for exploration as numerous authors like Robert Lifton have pointed to the importance of images when contemplating mortality. Furthermore the authors could have and should have indicated what complete exploration of death might be-surely the topical approach is just one amongst many approaches to death. So in this regard there is a disconnect between death as a subject of interest to be held at arms length and death as a highly personal vital concern that transcends topical approach.
In concluding if looking at death from arms length as a subject of interest is what youre into this book provides a good enough scaffolded reading experience. If you want something to be or more personal value in dealing or orienting to your own mortality then this wont fit the bill.

This book accomplishes a rare feat--appealing to those who would use it as a teaching guide but also so readable that the average reader will find it fascinating and invaluable. It is packed with illustrations as well as solid advice and history--from ancient funeral practices to today's arguments on assisted suicide. In between is every conceivable question and answer you could want on the subject of dying and death.

I will be using The Last Dance for the third year in a course I teach on Death and Dying in Western Culture. This text does a marvelous job of addressing the socio-cultural aspects of death in America and the world. The chapter on suicide is both helpful and haunting. There are so many excellent illustrations and photographs in this book that it really comes alive for the students. It is clear that the authors are very familiar with their subject matter, and that they care very much about those who read this book. I cannot imagine a better general text on the subject of death and dying.