Suicide Books

Betty's first book, First You Cry, tells of her own battle with breast cancer. This one tells of her mother's battle with ovarian cancer.

As any daughter would want to do for her mother, this book plays a magnificent, loving tribute to a dying woman. However, I just could not get into the book. Maybe it was because I, too, have cancer (breast cancer,) but this book to me was depressing, long-winded and did not hold my interest. It was a chore to flip each page. The story could have been told in a few chapters. While the events are, without doubt, signicant to the family, they were rather predictable and uneventful to the reader. I respect the author's compassion for her dying mother, but the book did not stand out as a literary work of art.

This is a beautifully written, affectionate portrait of a much-loved mother, by her adoring daughter. Part biography, part memoir, part autobiography, Betty writes with candor about her relationship with her mother and about her mother's battle with ovarian cancer. We should all be so lucky as to have someone who makes sure we get our last wish. Bravo to Betty and Ed.

"Last Wish" is the true story of the author, Betty Rollin's mother, a health concerned and loving woman in her mid seventies. Betty tells the story of her mothers experience after being diagnosed with ovarian cander and her own experience being related to someone with cancer. This book shoes the hardships of cancer, chemotherepy, and assisted suicide on both the cancer patients and their friends and familys. Betty Rollin does a wonderfull job telling her story with great emotion and truth. I recommend this to anyone suffering with cancer, being close to someone with cancer, interested in or researching cancer.

"Last Wish" is the true story of the author, Betty Rollin's mother, a health concerned and loving woman in her mid seventies. Betty tells the story of her mothers experience with ovarian cancer and her own experience having a mother who is dying. This book shows the hardships of cancer, chemotherepy, and assisted suicide on both the cancer patients and their family and friends. Betty Rollin does a wonderfull job telling her story with great emotion and truth. I recommend this book to anyone close to someone who is a cancer patient, cancer patients, and anyone interested in or researching cancer.

Breast cancer survivor and journalist Betty Rollin, who wrote the classic First ,You Cry, has written another classic here, the story of her mother's failing battle with ovarian cancer and the suicide that Rollin and her husband, Ed, helped her mother, at her mother's insistence, to implement. I don't greatly approve of the suicide alternative nor of stories that, by making it sound so feasible, give encouragement in this direction. Not that I think God does such a great job of carrying people off; who would need suicide if that were the case? The problem is rather that the delicate boundary between personal choice and a choice brought on by social pressure gets breached as soon as a cultural movement toward the suicide option starts taking shape in the public mind. Indeed Rollin's book, whether she likes it or not, adds one more little increment to the assisted suicide ambience, an ambience that every family facing a situation becomes aware of. This being said, Rollin's mother's choice was so clearly her own and Rollin's book is so elegantly and perfectly written, without melodramatics and with just the right leavening of humor, that my impulse is to show it to everyone who might have the faintest reason to be interested! Rollin has an impeccable eye for the emotional, the medical and the legal complexities of the situation. In one episode, while she and her mother work out the plan, a chance remark sets off Rollin's tears: "Please, sweetheart, don't be upset," my mother said. "I'm doing what I want to do. I don't feel the least bit sorry for myself. I'm lucky I can get out of this. The people I feel sorry for are all the people who want to and can't. Please, sweetheart." I wiped my face with the back of my hand. "I know what you're saying, Mother, and I agree with you. But you can't expect me not to be upset. I think it's right what you're doing, but - but I love you. How can I not be upset?" She listened quietly when I said that. With some unsteadiness, I got up and blew my nose and came back and sat down. Then we resumed our plotting.

In another we find the plotter's coming up against the impasse of mother's failing digestive system: "What did you find out?" she asked. "Maybe these," I said, picking up the Dalmane. "How many?" "Probably around fifteen...or more." ...She looked at the bottle again and frowned. "How will I be able to take fifteen pills?" "That's the problem," I said, "But we're gathering other ideas." "What other ideas?" Oh God, I thought, please stop. She sighed and turned her head to the wall. "Maybe you could take me to the roof of this building. I hear it's nice up there." I looked down at my hands. It was getting hard to tell when something was a joke. "Your digestion could improve, Mother. That could happen." She nodded. "So I can't die until I feel better."

Staying on the safe side, legally, meant making mother's suicide seem unassisted, and this involves Betty and Ed in detailed mental shuffling. Who will discharge the night nurse? Will the next day nurse be able to handle finding her patient dead and will she wonder why no night nurse met her at the door? How to keep a certain relative from calling that night? Who can be found to check in the night and make sure mother has not re-awakened in distress? Etc. Rollin learns, as she puts it, "A new respect for the intelligence of criminals." This book could, in all fairness be used to help families decide against assisted suicide as well as for it. In the end, Rollin's mother recovered sufficient digestive powers to keep her death potient down, and it was her continued mental lucidity and canny social skills - it was she who got the doctor to prescribe, it was she who rescheduled the nurses and fobbed off innocent relatives - that were the key to bringing it off. She ate a bite of food 6 hours before the appointed time; took a Compazine 1 hour before; then at the appointed time, 20 tiny 100 mg tabs of Nembutal, chased by 5 Dalmane. All washed down with soda water. There you go, folks.

Cyber-stalking is 'cutting edge' future shock for teens, and their peer-age teen victims are cutting alright, cutting their bodies and cutting themselves out of life. When someone gossips the old way, the pond ripples are limited to how fast people can dial a phone and repeat the info. But when someone goes on-line, millions of hits can result in hours, and it does not go away, but like the Eveready Bunny the slander and cyber-stalking and gossip keeps on going and going, like an especially bad dream from which you can't wake up. When friends betray trust and personal info gets pasted all over the Internet, kids are overwhelmed. This is a new phenomenon, because it derives its power from the Internet, which is an historic threshhold into a new era of electronic gossip and cyber-stalking. Teen suicide rates are at an all-time high. The Internet is sucking kids down to their graves. You can help save a life. This book is written for teens (altho reading by grown-ups is also strongly advised). All it takes is one friend to save a life. Learn what you need to know. This book is relevant. Get it.

I often talk to teens who carry the burden of their friends' depression. They perceive parents and teachers as out of touch, so they try to handle each other's depression themselves. This can be stressful and even dangerous. If a friend confides suicidal thoughts and then actually commits suicide, the adolescent may have to deal with severe guilt and remorse.

When I first saw the title of this book, I was afraid that the author was just going to try to train teens to be the primary therapists for their depressed peers. Actually this book is realistic but also quite responsible. It repeatedly warns teens not to keep silent when a friend is suicidal.

This book helps teens recognize the signs of depression and suicidal thoughts in their peers, and suggests ways to help. It also talks about taking care of oneself after a friend has actually committed suicide. It does discuss the importance of going to a responsible adult if a friend is really in trouble.

I often recommend this book.

Unlike many other books on adolescent psychology, this book takes more initiative in teaching teenagers to help each other during tough times. The tips included can be used immediately after reading them, and the authors stress certain important points repeatedly so that, although they may seem redundant to those who already know them by heart, no one can finish the book without having them permanently inscribed in their minds. The first person point-of-view style taken by the authors when explaining suicide helps, but not completes, a teenager's understanding of why his or her peers may consider suicide. There were a few detractions though. More fundamental information on depression as well as the increasing necessity to consider sexuality and ethnicity as aggravating factors in suicidal teens may have helped. A few sections were over-generalized, but the most important info (such as the "fact or fiction" of suicidal behavior) were well-covered. Combined with a book on teenage affected (i.e. emotional) disorders, alcohol/narcotics addiction, and/or risky environments (e.g. abusive families, violent neighborhoods, homogenous communities), whichever is helpful to the reader, this book can go a long way in reducing the heart-breaking statistics on suicide among young people. A newly revised edition with updated information is eagerly awaited.

Being a teen who has been close to suicide many a time, I know from experience that reasons for suicide are plentiful, but finance is a main problem. Why sell a book on how to prevent suicide? To me thats a little bit of a tease. Also... I don't think parents would buy this book, as the symptoms of a suicidal teen are not in great supply. We hide our feelings. Well, thats just my opinion.... An online 'How to prevent suicide' would be much more effective

Nelson & Galas have put together an excellent book packed full of information such as the myths, facts, risk factors and warning signs as well as how to prevent suicide from happening. This powerful book is geared towards teenagers to help each other but it is also an excellent resource as well for parents, teachers and para-professionals. As a graduate student in elementary education, I found this book easy to digest and relative to the issues facing todays teens. As a parent of four girls, my concern in the prevention of the skyrocketing suicide rate is of utmost importance. As I read, I was able to recall what life was like as a teenager and the high importance of some issues to teens of things that I now would think of as minor or temporary. I recommend this book highly for parents, teachers, school nurses as well as any teen (contemplating suicide or not). It is a MUST resource, and should be easily available for all who would benefit. Maybe if more people can understand why teenage suicide happens, we can recognize the distinguishable warning signs and be more successful in preventing it.

Jesse Browner imagines the final hours of Titus Petronius Niger, the emperor Nero's "arbiter of elegance," in this convincing novel of ancient Rome. Knowing he has fallen out of the emperor's graces and will be tried and sentenced to death on the first day of the Saturnalia festival, Petronius holds a banquet for his closest friends and, true to Roman honor, plans to kill himself at the dinner's conclusion at dawn. Browner tells the tale from Petronius's perspective, focusing on his memories, regrets, concerns about his legacy, and meditations on his life: What is the good life? Is there meaning to life? To death?

Browner can be lyrical, as when describing the sea or the sky, but he is occasionally ham-fisted; for instance, when Petronius asks his slave girl what she would do if she were free, Browner writes that a bird flew into the villa and "would surely break its neck trying to get out again." Surely there's a less banal way to describe the perils of freedom? Yet he also produces unexpected descriptions that linger with the reader: the value of a certain ladle is "worth enough to change her life forever."

Browner also succeeds in building tension as Petronius's suicide approaches. Petronius is no Hamlet and has no fears about what dreams may come. He resolves himself to his death, and in the end, so do we -- though, contra history, we might wish he could have lived on.

I couldn't read this book. It's supposed to be 66 AD yet on almost every page there is a jarring use of 21st Century slang, not to mention the dozens of repetitive descriptions. This book reads like a first draft - the editor should be ashamed of him/herself and the author should try a little harder to have the dialog fit the proper century next time. I doubt Martialis would have said [Chrestina] "did me for free" [p. 30] or [Petronius] found [sex] to be extremely useful when trying to unwind after a day on the Senate floor..." [p.84]. I could continue citing these modern phrases all night, but the less anyone thinks about this book the better. I feel sorry that this cheesy book passes for literature. And descriptions of excess are becoming more obscene in this world when so many are homeless and starving.

This is a simply wonderful novel, allowing any reader with a historical interest the pleasure first of all of seeing ancient Roman life in startling concrete detail through the eyes of a remarkably sophisticated, witty person, Petronius, the Emperor Nero's Stoic/Epicurean ruler in matters of taste.

As others have mentioned, the novel is principally set on the last day of Petronius' life at the special farewell banquet - honeyed dormice are among its delicacies - which he's arranged before his own suicide, himself having fallen out of Nero's favor owing to court intrigue. Interspersed are flashbacks which give the background of Petronius' chief relationships in life, those with his cryptic mistress Melissa and his hotheaded, emotionally free Spanish protege, the poet Martial.

Even more pleasurable than the historical dimension is the human dimension of Petronius' life, his strengths and limitations, which Browner as philosophical novelist richly sets forth. As an emotionally reserved general who's spent much time in the provinces, Petronius is of the opinion that, though life should be lived well and nobly, public life at the courts of emperors offers much to endure and little to enjoy, and that a guardedness in such is, consequently, the path best followed. His private attachment to his mistress, though, for this very reason of his habitual tempermental reserve becomes one which, unfortunately, leaves too much unsaid. Their rapprochement towards the novel's end, after so much indirection, is credibly rendered and astonishingly moving.

Set against Petronius' reserve, which we've seen colors even his private life, is the emotional openness, anger, and general imprudence of his adopted son of sorts, Martial. The handholding and goodbyes of these two wonderfully realized figures in the novel's final pages are also moving in the extreme.

The epigraph of the novel anticipates Henry James' urging that one should above all actually "live," rather than choosing to get through life without having to experience its joys and pains. I think in recognizing Melissa's loyalty - a light shows she's waited up for him to assist in his final act - and in telling Martial that he loves him as a son, Petronius for all his philosophy comes to realize he's in fact experienced those two consolations of a life often nasty, brutish and short - love and friendship.

The Uncertain Hour transported me into the Roman Empire: its food, its art, its poetry, its values. What better person to display the cultural bounty of Ancient Rome than Nero's "Arbiter of Taste"? Petronius's moral dilemmas and deathbed reminiscences are woven through a jewel box of Roman culture. I particularly enjoyed the Roman poetry--Browner chose translations that are beautiful in and of themselves.

The book is particularly resonant at the moment, as America faces comparisons to the Roman Empire at the height of its power and arrogance. Petronius's fate at the hand of Nero, a truly "unitary executive," is food for thought.

I found myself very caught up in this book, a depiction of Petronius's last day. Determined to die as he has lived, and condemned to death by Nero, he throws a final dinner party for his friends. Petronius's reflections on his life and what people and events have meant to him become absorbing and worthwhile fiction. How an author so young could fantasize what would go through a man's mind during his final hours is the true amazement here. I was reminded what Dracula said to Van Helsing, "For one so young you are very wise." A moving and lovely book.

I'm a friend and husband of the person who gave me this book(also going in for a liver transplant) It helped me to see all sides of the situation it's not a cure all -- but it does make you think right.

I read this book while I was incarerated. This book help to lead me back to my path of God. And to understand myself, the crime I commited and why. I read this book in an hour, I was and still am forever touched by this book. I have looked in local bookstores for this book and have not been able to find it. I think this book should be put in rehab. facilities for all to read. I honestly believe they can change the story to fit anyones life and their addictions. Thanks for this wonderful life changing book.

This book was sent to me years ago by a good friend. It was very entertaining and easy to read. While it didn't "cure" my depression, it does contain some helpful information.

Sol Gordon takes a very complex and painful issue and explains it in a more digestible form. While those who are experienced with depression and other affected disorders may find that he does not go into enough detail (the "What else is new?" complex), I'm sure they will appreciate the kind, gentle style of writing. One can almost feel the author right beside you, speaking to you the very words you read. I was also pleased to find that he dedicated a section to the effects of homosexuality on adolescent depression. An already hard-to-reach portion of the population, Gordon's readiness to accept sexuality differences will go far in helping GLBT teens to find comfort admist animosity. Moreover, the slightly religious glow of the language does not alienate readers from a non-Judaic faith. The book will be of great use to many people facing depression for the first time, desperate for some sanctuary.

Although most reviews of this book are on the far side of positive, I strongly disagree. Being a person with Major Depression who has struggled with suicide and other issues, I found this book to be the most pretentious, egotistical, demeaning book I've ever read on the subject (and I've read many).

Yes, his writing is very clear and easy to follow. He has a format with his book that is very simplistic. However, it's TOO simplistic! An example of audacity found in this book:

Page 27: "If you are depressed, you will be depressing to be with."

Well, thank you for that newsflash. Hey, if my being depressed is going to make others not want to be around me then I guess I should just stop being depressed. Poof! To tell a depressed person that they're actions and attitude are turning people away is not only redundant (we know people's reactions all too well), but it's just plain mean. It doesn't solve anything and it certainly doesn't change the fact that the reader is suffering. I think it just pushes the knife in a little deeper.

I don't recommend this book to anyone. I think Dr. Gordon's flippent and casual attitude will make any reader seeking a little relief from their personal hell only fall deeper into that lake of fire. Bad news all around. :v(

Politics. A failed marriage. The intricate world of Washington in the years of 1979-1980, without naming names, a gentle gloss over realities. The politics is just a backdrop, however, for the Halleck family. Maurice, the head of the family, leaves a drunken, convoluted confession and his car is found in a brackish swamp in a small Virginia town. His children, Owen and Kirsten, are convinced it is the doing of his wife and his long time friend (and wife's lover) Nick; everyone else is convinced it is a suicide due to his unscrupulous practices in D.C. The story follows the children and their plans to exact justice however they can.

The characters are well written and realistic, and, although it might seem to end on a rather simplified note, it is a satisfying read.

The story line was simple, a murder, children trying to find out who murdered their father and a mother trying to keep everything a secret.

This family was so confused it would take a genius to figure out what was going on. The sister was crazy, she disgusted me in so many ways. She had strange, not every day, thoughts about every day things. The brother didn't know if he was straight ot gay. The mother was a what I considered a typical high class prostitute. The father you're not sure about, other people telling his story. The whole family was a little strange.

There was so a little too much back tracking in the book. As you read you traveled through too many avenues in the lives of these people. Too many times she went back in time and then jumped right back to the now, all on the same page. By the time you got one chapter figured out, you were once again confused about who was speaking or being spoke about in the next chapter (until about half way through it). I never knew from one chapter to the next what generation I was going to be in.

I judged this book by it's title, I had hoped for more. I would not recommened this book.

Maurice Halleck, direct descendent of 1850's anti-slavery martyr John Brown, is accused of wrongdoing and then found dead w/ a suicide note. His kids suspect foul play involving their mother and her lover. This unusually involving book by Oates uses family, politics, and history to weave a tale of justice against those in power.

This story of the American political scene is one of loyalty and betrayal, revenge and forgiveness. It's the old two-men-in- love-with-one-woman tale but this time with a twist: save a life and share a love.

When Maurice Halleck dies in disgrace his children vow to kill his betrayers -- their mother and her lover. It's a thriller that takes a good, hard look at the alienation of youth.

Oakley Jordan is as great a writer as he is a terrific doctor. I finished the book in 4 days. I just couldn't put it down. Can't wait to read "Fallen Angel".

I loved the book. It kept me in suspense. I cannot wait to read
Fallen Angel. The author lets you get into the story and get into the minds of the characters. I was sceptical at first when I started to read the book, only because I used to work with the author, I didn't think it was going to be as good as it is. This is one mystery book I would read again and again. Anyone who hasn't read it yet, please do so. And if you love a mystery where you try and guess who done it, well this is the book for you. This is one book that gets your attention from the first chapter to the last. You won't want to skip any pages while reading this book. I enjoyed it, and I hope anyone else who reads it enjoys it too. I've already passed my book on to my fellow co-workers and they enjoyed it also. Oakley Jordan you are one hell of a doctor and one hell of an author.

This book is a JOKE. I was so excited to read this debut from our local physician, and was terribly disappointed that I wasted a whole day trying to find the darn thing in town. This book has had me in stitches the entire time. It is comical - the tone and the language that is used...it sounds like a bad joke on SNL. Not to mention the characters that are just like recent movie characters, but only by "coincidence" of course. This is something that should have remained a manuscript in the good doctors desk.

I really loved the story and characters. It was intense and kept me on the edge the entire time. Oakley Jordan seems to have a highly creative mind which is revealed throughout this incredible story. It has twists and turns that lead up to the final scene in which the killer is revealed. It includes a sinister mixture of aided suicide, serial killings and radical anti-abortionists. I highly recommend this book!

This is one of those good stories that makes you wonder why you didn't come up with the idea yourself. 20 years after a religious cult commited mass suicide, some survivors are preparing a new mass suicide, and a woman who was rescued from the cult twenty years ago is in danger again.

The story is well structured and the characters likeable. It does lose its pace for a while in the last third of the book but it picks up again. Overall a good quick read.

I liked this book a lot. I liked the characters and how the plot developed. The reason for four stars instead of five, towards the end it did get a little slow. I hope these characters show up in another book.

Not as good as the last book - these characters were good but the premise was alittle strange. The whole "Luna-K" thing was not my cup of tea. I guess if you buy into the whole cult theme you would find this story enjoyable. Get this one at the library or the used bookstore!!

In New Mexico, young police officer Ian Campbell and other cops work the fatal car accident in which four people survive. Since the vehicle came from the Butler Divinity Mission, Ian and a veteran cop drive there to inform Reverend Michael Butler about the accident. However, no dogs or people are anywhere in what seems like a ghost town until they enter the chapel. They find a mass of dead people including Ian's newlywed wife social worker Anne, who worked closely with Reverend Michael.

Twenty-two years later, Ian takes a room in New Hampshire's Tranquillity Inn owned and managed by Kelly Stone, one of the four survivors of the Butler massacre. Ian fears for Kelly's life, as an unknown assailant is completing the mission of Reverend Butler by killing the survivors. Ian plans to insure this widow with a brilliant three-year-old daughter Jade lives. As he and Kelly fall in love, neither realizes that the serpent has entered Eden and will use Jade if necessary to complete the quest that includes Butler's daughter Luna-K better known to Ian as his beloved Kelly.

FOURTH VICTIM is an exhilarating romantic suspense that starts off with horrific Jones like suicides and murders, slows down to enable a relationship to form between the lead duo, and then goes full speed until the climatic confrontation. Ian is a terrific champion seeking revenge for the murder of his beloved Anne and feeling guilty as he falls in love again. Kelly is a fascinating protagonist hiding her tainted ancestry to protect Jade. Fans of taut thrillers will want to read Ian's efforts to keep the two females who have reawakened long thought comatose feelings safe.

Harriet Klausner

I'll tell the truth. Just reading other peoples' reviews and plot summaries of Goodbye Mog brought tears to my eyes. I knew before receiving the book that I was going to have a good cry. On the first page is a picture of Mog's cat basket, with her name on it, but with no Mog sitting in it. Tears immediately streamed out of my eyes. However, I was eased by the fact that Mog seemed happy to coach the Thomas' new kitten along, and when their new kitten warms up to the family at the end, it is a tearful heartwarming story. I am crying as I write this review, and for good reason.

Every child will experience loss eventually, be it the loss of a beloved pet or the loss of a relative. This book will help a child cope with the subject of death. We received this book as a gift, and what a gift it is. I read it to my daughters and they are enchanted and inspired by the sweet story of Mog mentoring the new kitten and helping it learn to love his family. No one my daughters know has died, but you never know when tragedy will strike. When someone in our family, or one of our pets, passes, they will know a little something about this very natural process and part of life. We cannot protect our children from loss, so let us prepare them with this loving story.

this book is a tear inducing story it is the saddest book i have ever read and i will never beable to read it again

Mog dies in story, and dying is part of living!

This a not too sad story about dying with a happy conclusion. Our 3 year old finds the story very sad and is most tearful that Mog "has gone to cat heaven", and has "gone all white". But the story is a great way of introducing a very vital life lesson.

As an avid reader of WWII Pacific War Historical material, I was disappointed in this book. To finish it I had to choose to read it as a fictional novel as it challenged my intellectual sensibilities on the Japanese War effort and the destruction of the Japanese Air Forces starting at Midway on through the Battle of the Philippine Sea (Turkey Shoot) and beyond. Mr. Allred cautions readers that the book may be a hoax. Trying to plumb the internet I could find no references to Mr. Kuwahara other than his coauthorship of the book. It is interesting that after one year with him in Japan Mr. Allred did not have one photo of him, nor are there any on the internet. I find it hard to believe that any pilot would close his eyes and speed to the ground only to "sense" the time to pull out of the dive during Kamikaze training. Any pilot would find that ludicrous. Pilots will train for instrument flight by using blinders to external stimuli except for the instruments, but diving blind has got to be untrue. The Japanese, I am sure, would not have left several pilots hanging around for weeks and months on end during that period, wasting fuel on those described reconnaissance flights. Shooting down B-29s and Hellcats with the planes he describes is a stretch. A further stretch is all agreeing to buzz his hometown on the way to shoot down U.S. Aircraft and flying over his school and home, dropping messages. Mr. Kuwahara's recollections seem adolescent, sophomoric, and beyond schmaltz. Being in Hiroshima during the A-bomb and then flying over it days later with poor eye sight due to the blast is beyond belief. There are numerous instances of assertions made in the book that challenge credulity. Read as a Romantic Novel of fiction one can see it has many touching scenes that, at times, almost to be written for a screen play. As a pure novel it is a touching love story that lets one peek at a Japan at War with all the hardships experienced by the Japanese at the time.

In basic training, Kuwahara and the other cadets were beaten with clubs, learning to endure pain and to disregard their own lives. In flying school, physical abuse was encouraged and Kuwahara was nearly beaten to death by his hancho. When these loyal young cadets finally graduate, they are no longer boys, but hardened men willing to plunge their bomb-laden planes in a suicide dive onto the deck of U.S. Navy carrier.

Some Kamikaze pilots lived for only one purpose -to die for the emporer. Although inwardly doubting the cause, all were willing to do anything in defense of their homeland.

Yasuo Kuwahara was one of them, amd he tells this extraordinary story of life and death in the last nine months of World War II. This excellent book will percolate within you, and elicit a visceral response to this young mans incredible journey. For me, I gained a tremendous insight into the desperate young pilots of the suicide squadrons. That he survived to tell this heartwrenching story makes it among the most incredible stories of World War II.

This book reads like a novel. It is a literary work like no other biography I've ever read. The fact that it is true makes it even more compelling.

Now in a newly revised and expanded 50th anniversary edition, Kamikaze: A Japanese Pilot's Own Spectacular Story of the Famous Suicide Squadrons is a classic biography published in 1957 about the famous suicide squadrons of Japan. Co-author Yasuo Kuwahara tells his story of entering military service at age 15, enduring training so severe that nine men of his squadron committed suicide, qualifying for fighter pilot school, and surviving fierce aerial combat. Co-author and university literature teacher Gorden T. Allred has recently worked to improve the literary impact of Kamikaze, by revisiting each word and sentence without changing any elements of the story. Kamikaze is an overwhelmingly insightful and vivid look into the life-or-death intersection of war and culture, and is highly recommended.

I'm an avid reader, and this is my favorite book ever. Read it, and you'll never watch grainy footage of Kamikaze attacks without tears in your eyes and understanding in your heart.

This is a brilliant book.

It wasn't until I was a few pages into the first chapter, when I realized that this is Vilar's book entitled "A Messsage from God in the Atomic Age", with a new title. Now, I have both of her books, or rather, 2 of the same books. This seems rather curious to me.

Startling, this is a visionary memoir of Puerto Rico's political, social and cultural wars for its identity told by the heir to one of the most important heroine and political leader in Latin America in this his century. Vilar is an unmistakable talent and this book an extraordinary and unusual example of how memoir as therapy becomes memoir as art. The word depression will not mean the same to you after you read this book.

The potential for this book was tremendous. The author is the daughter of Lolita Lebron, the Puertorican independentist imprisoned for, along with a group of men, storming Congress and riddling it with bullets.

Instead of telling us what it was like growing up in a *revolutionary* atmosphere, during the short spurts of time spent with her mother - or offering some insight into who her mother was and how she became what she became, instead Irene Vilar obsesses on a tenuous thread of mental illness and wastes an opportunity to tell a great story.

There remains a great story to be told.

This is a beautifully written memoir by the grand-daughter of Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebron. Alternating chapters, Vilar presents her family history as well as her personal memoirs from inside of a mental hospital. This is not necessarily meant to be a political project. Nonetheless, it effectively captures the the emotion and experience of a woman who has inherited a heavy political legacy.