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W Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

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The Last Convertible
Published in Hardcover by Putnam Adult (1978-03-29)
Author: Anton Myrer
List price: $10.95
New price: $31.32
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $10.95

Average review score:

Had a hard time putting this book down
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-09-05
I enjoyed this book very much. As other readers have commented, it really captures the WWII era, has beautifully written characters, and has a romanticism that is very reminiscent of F. Scott Fitzgerald. George Virdon is the sort that everyone would like to have as a friend.

My only real criticism of this book is the author's treatment of Chris and Nancy. Frankly, I became a bit nauseated by George's constant gushings about Chris's beauty, charm, etc. I realize that it adds to the books overall romanticism, but it got to be a bit much at times. This is only somewhat relieved at the end where she tells them all to stop putting her on a pedestal and treating her like the group's mascot. I also think the author's treatment of Nancy was a bit harsh. It seems like she does absolutely nothing right and while she and George aren't really right for each other, he could've been a little more even handed in his treatment of both characters. Nancy deserved kinder treatment and Chris needed a few flaws. It would not have robbed the books of its romantic flavor one bit. All of the other characters have a better balance of good and bad.

I also had to chuckle to myself when the younger generation tears into the older ones during the Harvard reunion. Boo-hoo for finding out the world is an imperfect place, kids. That generation, the Baby Boomers, is now running the show and is making a lot of the same mistakes that they used to rip on their elders about.

This is a great read, however, and it captures a generation that is quickly dying out.

A gem of a book that shines through the years.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-25
I looked up this book because my dearly loved and tattered copy of the book I have read and reread over the years has finally gone missing, and I can treat myself to a crisp new copy to dive into again, read again, live again, love again.

I read "The Last Convertible" for the first time probably 20 years ago and I can still recite quotes, or passages, at any time. This book stuck with me.

Many other reviewers have stated very well what this book is about - 4 friends, Harvard, the War, the times they lived through. What I wanted to add is that this book truly stands out as a novel that you don't just read, you enter. The story shines a light on some remarkable people, but you feel that you know them, you are there. To some extent, like all remarkable works, you rethink your own life in context of the story, and it becomes part of you.

This story is a deep glowing ruby in my memory that still gives light and life to characters I know well. And I believe it always will.

One of the Best
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-28
I bought this book in hardcover form when I was 18 or 19. It sat on a bookshelf for a decade or more having never been read by me or anyone. Then it disappeared somehow through movings and such. Recently, some 25 years later, I found a used paperback copy at my local library and purchased it. This time I read it and kicked myself for days for having not read it so many years ago. I must agree with many of the other reviews. This is a wonderful book. Full of nostalgia and humor and so many other things. The characters become part of you and you don't want the book to end. I purposely did not read it quickly because I knew right away I was going to enjoy it. And I did. I love stories about nostalgia. I am nostalgic so I guess I identify with George. But all the characters are wonderfully illuminated by Mr Myrer and you feel like you know them personally. The use of the music of the 40's and 50's is great. A nice touch. Particularly if you love this kind of music. Which I do. A must read. Try it.

An Outstanding Novel
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-04-09
This book really encapsulates the experience of the World War II generation, and brings it alive for Boomers and Gen X readers. I would put this in the top twenty of the best novels I have ever read.

One of my favorite books
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-02
I first read this book probably 15 years ago, and I still pick it up and re-read it once in a while. It's so well-written, it makes me nostalgic for a time I didn't even live through! While it's about a group of college friends starting out in the 1940s, I think the story and its emotions are timeless enough to appeal to anyone. I saw parallels to my own experiences in college during the late 1970s, minus the war. The characters are so real, and they stay with you long after you've finished the book.

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Team Yankee
Published in Hardcover by W H Allen (1988)
Author: Harold Coyle
List price:
Used price: $11.51

Average review score:

One of the best war novels out there
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-12
Team Yankee is quite an interesting book. Harold Coyle describes a war between the Warsaw Pact and NATO in 1985 in great detail. But don't expect this to be like Red Storm Rising, this book focuses entirely on small unit tactics with zero politics. The action starts immediately at the beginning of the second chapter, and it never stops.

The battles are realistic and the tactics are described in great detail in the text as well as the maps that are in the book. The maps really help you figure what's going on and what platoons are moving where, etc.

The story focuses on Captain Sean Bannon of Team Yankee, a military unit deployed in Germany during the Cold War. When war breaks out in 1985, he must lead his unit to victory. There are several other main characters including several other tankers, and an infantry sergeant. This is definetly a book you don't want to miss.

Yamabushi's mini reviews pt. VII
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-02-03
Setting aside all the geo-political baggage of the day, Coyle finds his real strength with one tank platoons story in WW III. It's a shame he never went back to this style. A real shame, as this is terrific, exciting stuff you wont find else where.

If you want to know what armored battle is like, and not have to dodge shells, just read this book.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-09
This book is, IMHO, the finest of the cold-war era military novels, and one of the finest military novels ever written, includng the writing of Patrick O'Brian and C.S. Forester.

The only book that can compare is Clancy's "Hunt for Red October", and it does not give as good a feeling as being there as does Team Yankee.

If you like military novels, or just good writing, read this book.

A good read, but...
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2004-05-24
This was the second Coyle book I read (the first being "God's Children") and once again I was compelled by his gripping battle scenes and poignant view of today's combat environment. The story flows well and was generally enjoyable and engaging.

However, by the end of the book I became disappointed because of the constant, repeated stupidity of the opposing forces. I felt cheated because it never seemed that the U.S. forces won due to good strategy & tactics as much as because the enemy used tactics a learned high school student would shun. Don't get me wrong, the book is a good read. I only wish Coyle would create an antagonist with some brains to serve as a challenging foil for our heroes.

Coyle makes impressive authorial debut with Team Yankee
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2004-08-23
Harold Coyle's Team Yankee: A Novel of World War III (Presidio Press, 1987) was published a year after Red Storm Rising's triumphant debut in hardcover, and although it is thematically similar (Soviet forces invade West Germany after a series of crises escalate into an all out conventional war), Coyle's approach is very different from Clancy's. Instead of creating his own possible scenario for a NATO vs. Warsaw Pact confrontation, he asked for, and received, permission from British author (and retired General) Sir John Hackett to set Team Yankee within the scenario created in Hackett's two
"speculative fiction" books The Third World War: August 1985 and The Third World War: The Untold Story.

Team Yankee takes place within a two-week period in an August in the late 1980s. Since late July, a series of crises precipitated by the Iran-Iraq war has morphed into a clash between U.S. and Soviet naval forces in the Persian Gulf region. By August 1, word comes that NATO is mobilizing and ordering their armed forces, including Bannon and Team Yankee, to their wartime positions. Soon, the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact "allies" cross the Inner German Border in force. Team Yankee and the rest of NATO's forces in West Germany must then fight the invaders and stop them before the Red Army reaches the Rhine River. After that, assuming the Soviet attack bogs down, the mission will change from merely defending territory to taking offensive operations and pushing the invaders back. The question Coyle poses is, can American soldiers, using their weapons and tactics against superior numbers of Soviet and Warsaw Pact soldiers, defeat Russian weapons and tactics?

Readers familiar with Hackett's macrocosmic World War III will know the big picture, but first-time readers will be turning the pages to see who wins, who loses, who dies...and who survives in this outstanding first novel by a true master of the military fiction genre.

The only flaw, and this is not Coyle's fault, is that reality -- in the shape of the fall of communism and the end of the Cold War -- has made the novel's setting extremely outdated. Some of the then-modern weapons, such as the M1 main battle tank, have been since updated to M1-A2 standard, older weapons have been retired, and obviously there's no more Warsaw Pact.


All in all, it's an entertaining read.

W
Absolut Book.: The Absolut Vodka Advertising Story
Published in Hardcover by Journey Editions (1996-10-15)
Author: Richard W. Lewis
List price: $60.00
New price: $29.00
Used price: $12.88

Average review score:

Best coffee table book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-08-27
I love Absolut ad's and have always wanted to get one. They are expensive new , so I got an used copy from an amazon seller. It came quickly and I flipped through the book for about 20 min when it arrived 2 days later. I love all the ads and they are all so clever. I might not get some of the modern art ones, but I love the city ones in particular. Anyway, I got this book for my new house and new coffee table book, I think it is one of the best hardcover coffee table book (marketing story book) ever.

shaken not stirred
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-09-03
Compulsory addition to the coffee table library. An excellent example of a clever, consistent, cutting edge branding campaign helping to position a generic product at the top of consumer mind. Absolut genius.

As advertised - a great buy
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-11
If you like the Absolut ads, this is a good book for you. It's what you'd expect - big pictures of the Absolut ads with explanations from the ad agency guys who made it happen. A fun coffeetable book.

Absolut Book: The Absolut Vodka Advertising Story
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2005-03-19
Absolut is one of the best selling vodkas in the world and the advertsing for it is second to none. In this fabulous book were are told the inside story behind the marketing and selling of this tasty treat. The paper is first grade and the pictures are outstanding to say the least. Absolut original with a bottle looking like a Roman ruin is probably my favorite one but there are so many nice advertising ideas that have become stupendous posters. Absolute Enivironment is also a nice one. This is a good coffee table book and a nice gift for the person that likes vodka and to read.

WOW!!
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2003-06-19
This is a wonderful, informative, and beautiful book.
This book is about the Absolut Vodka advertising campaign. How it began, and what it is about. There are many beautiful, and breath taking images which makes you see the entire light of the campaign which looks so simple from the outside. Now, you get the inside looks and it isn't simple at all but an amazing experience.
WOW!!

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People of the Lakes (First North Americans)
Published in Paperback by Tor (1995-08-11)
Authors: W.Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear
List price:
New price: $38.00
Used price: $7.99

Average review score:

People of the Lakes
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-12
People of the Lakes (The First North Americans series, Book 6) (Purchased on 05/22/2008)


came on time and in exact condition described. will buy from this dealer again

Great Northern Series
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-23
I have purchased the entire set of these books from Amazon. They were all delivered in great condition, not to mention how exciting it is to read about the "olden" days and how life was lived before trains, planes, automobiles, stupid music and electricity!!! WHAT????..No washer?..Go to the river! No dryer?..Wait for the sun to shine!...No toilet paper?..use your own imagination on that one! And get hooked on these great books.

Another homerun
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-29
But I have loved all the books in the series. That being said, this one was fabulous. They Gears do a good job of making the stories interesting and entertaining but if you are into the pre-history there is so much information in there well placed in broad daylight but it all blends together beautifully.

People of the Lakes (The First North Americans series, Book 6)
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-06-10
I've loved everything I've read by the Gears and I've read just about everything they have published. Wonderful interposing of fiction onto the facts! They use their expertise as anthropologists and as story tellers to combine what really has been found about North American Indians and interpose a very believable story onto it. They really make the past come alive! The inclusion of what has really been found by anthropologists adds tremendously to the books!

The Best One!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-12-17
If you like the Gears and haven't read it you need to. If you haven't read the Gears try this one. This was the first one I read and I had a bit of a problem at first following there style of writing a book...but I got over that fairly quickly as things progressed and I realized what and how it was written.

These characters are absolutely endearing. Based on historical facts of the Hopewells it is a marvelous journey based on suspense, humor and the supernatural. It made me addicted and craving more of there books! Try it out, as you can see I am not the only one telling you you won't be disappointed!

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The PreHistory of The Far Side ®:: A 10th Anniversary Exhibit (Far Side Series)
Published in Paperback by Andrews McMeel Publishing (1989-09-01)
Author: Gary Larson
List price: $16.99
New price: $3.00
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $14.95

Average review score:

This shaped my mind when i was young
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-09-14
The Far Side series shaped my mind. I'm whatever I am today because of the insight this humour brought into my life when I was a kid. And the PreHistory of the Far Side is a must have!

The Essential Far Side
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-07
This is a fantastic book and a must for any Far Side afficianado. Not only does it have the usual great material, but includes stuff never published and commentary by Gary Larson as he takes you through his creative process during various stages of his career.

A must for every Larson fan (excuse the cliche)
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-03
I first saw this in my school library, and after reading a bit I decided to buy my own copy as it was so good. It is kind of like a short biography of Larson combined with special features like his earliest cartoons that weren't published and others he decided not to publish for various reasons. He includes annotated versions of some of his best cartoons, which make you think "Oh, so THAT'S what he meant..."

It's like a Larson bible. You need it.

A must for fans of Larson and "The Far Side"
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-14
Gary Larson has one of the sickest, most demented senses of humor and we are all better for it. In this book, he describes some of the major points in his development as a cartoonist. There is not a great deal of insight into his mentality, although he does include some of his cartoons that were rejected as being in too bad of taste. Those are of course the most interesting ones in the collection.
If you love the slightly macabre touch that Gary Larson expresses in his "The Far Side" comic strip, then this is a book you should read. It all started in a music store and the rest is twisted history.

Essential book for "Far Side" fans
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-01
So you've got the massive two-volume "Complete Far Side" and figure you're all set, Gary Larson-wise. If so, you're a few cows short of a herd, because you need this book to round out your collection. It's not just a collection of his comics. The book has a discussion of how his career as a cartoonist got started and has examples of his previous effort, a one-newspaper comic in the same style as "The Far Side." It goes on to show particular cartoons, with his comments on them, both positive and negative, on how they worked, where ideas came from or even the mechanics of drawing them, amongst other criteria. He also shares some sketchbook drawings, some of which led to final, published comics and some which did not. (One of the latter, about a frontiersman named Jeremiah and rhubarb, would have been a good one.) And he discusses how editing had sometimes unexpectedly changed his cartoons, and he relates the letters from people about specific cartoons, some very negative as you might imagine; for certain ones, he engages in a detailed discussion of what he tried to do, contrasting this with how others saw it upon publication. Larson also shares some UNpublished panels, some of which are hilarious. There's also a giant picture of a louse. He ends with a generous helping of his favorite panels, some in color. All in all, it's a lot of fun, and it gives a lot of insight into how Larson went about creating his famous comic that so many of us miss seeing in our newspapers daily.

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Teen Study Bible, Revised
Published in Paperback by Zondervan Publishing Company (1999-02-01)
Authors: Lawrence O. Richards and Sue W. Richards
List price: $32.04
New price: $29.98
Used price: $0.50

Average review score:

No Sin is Unforgivable
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-23
In some (if not all) of the versions of the Teen Study Bible I have noticed just one of the Dear Sam letters that I don't agree with. When Sam wrote back to someone saying Blasphemy is an unforgivalble sin, I knew unless you reformed and turned to GOD, blasphemy can indeed be forgiven. It is a wonderful thing what Jesus, Son of God has done for us! To forgive all our sins. No sin is unforgivable. No sin is. Not one. The only way a sin is unforgivable is if you commit sins and never accept what Jesus did. Then how could your sins be forgiven? The choice of accepting Christ as savior is a matter of eternal life and death. Jesus makes it very clear that HE is the truth, the way, and the life!God is all powerful! In Luke 10 it says that "Whoever sins against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven." That verse merely means that only if you sin and do evil things against the Holy Spirit, you apparently do not have the Holy Spirit, and without the Holy Spirit, you can't accept Christ.
However, maybe Sam knew that. (And I'm sure she did). I just think it could be more clear. It is completely your choice wheather to NEVER accept Jesus, therefore if you are WILLING to avoid the point where you hate the Holy Spirit and never WANT to come back into the grace if GOD, than you shall be saved! The LORD is wonderful. Sam's letters are great and empowering. Jesus loves Sam spreading HIS WORD.

"THE" Teen Bible
Helpful Votes: 11 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2003-07-22
This is a GREAT Bible for teens because it is understandable, yet not cheesy. I love it! It makes it understandable and it includes a Bible Study plan showing what book of the bible to start and show how often you should read to finish it in 1 year or 2 years. Also includes real life situations...questions, answers, THIS is the book you need to get through LIFE!!

Better than Christian Rock
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2003-10-29
Being 14 years old I thought that the only Christan stuff cool enough for me was hardcore Chirstan rock. This book has proved me wrong. I know that BEHOLD THE BOOGNISH! I WILL CONQUER YOU AND YOUR PATHIC SHEEPISH WAYS everything about the Bible is totally awesome!...

OMIGOD, this bible, like, ROCKS!
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 17 total.
Review Date: 2004-03-01
My mom says that when she was, like, a teen or something, she couldn't understand the bible because it said like "Thou" and stuff and other words that sound like books written by old people. That's why she went to the mall and got me this bible because it's more, like, modern or something? Whatever -- it ROCKS.

Makes you WANT to read the Bible...
Helpful Votes: 9 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2004-04-27
The Bible normally seems confusing, rigid, and boring. This Bible is quite the opposite! The bible is colorful, easy-to read and UNDERSTAND! It definately makes the bible enjoyable and fun. The notes and other added things really help teens. I got this Bible as a 18 year old and still interesting at 19(although I am thinking about up-grading to a Woman's Bible).

Definately recommend to any pre-teen or teen!

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Evaluability assessments of five rural economic development programs: A synthesis (Accountability and evaluation reporting system)
Published in Unknown Binding by Extension Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (1992)
Author: George W Mayeske
List price:

Average review score:

Existential adventure
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2004-06-12
The hero is a pragmatist in a Godless world. The protagonist, Frank Cassidy, had not had a day off in two years when he quits his job in New Jersey to go the the Upper Peninsula, Michigan for reason of a death in the family. He steals a car and later robs a man named Melvin. Frank's brother-cousin and his wife, Norman and Martha, dread the arrival of Frank and Honey and Robert Lee and Ernie, the children.

In the boarding house where they stay there is a hint of opulence. It is learned that the body of the deceased uncle, Ward, is being held by the authorities. Honey feels they should try to get jobs in the town. Frank works as a security guard and Honey in the business office of a college undergoing a transition from a community college to a four years residential college with a Great Books curriculum.

For Thanksgiving it is decided to eat at Cedar Lodge and stay there through the long weekend. Listed winter activities are ice skating and ice fishing. In a telephone call Frank learns that his cousin Norman is collapsing. Norman upended the sheriff's car when served with papers of foreclosure. Frank and his family go to Norman's place where it is discovered the dairy herd has been killed. In the end Frank uncovers and clarifies mysteries that have always surrounded his boyhood. The atmosphere created by the author matches the subject of the search for meaning by being indeterminate, foggy, bewildering. The children are presented in interesting realistic detail.

Very very weird, and not what it seems
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-12-14
This is an unusual book, strange in so many ways I'm going to have trouble listing them all. I'll try, though. I will say that at some level I enjoyed this book, and if you can overcome the shortcomings that I'll list below, you may enjoy it more than I did.

For one thing, there's the issue of the author's name. This *isn't* the Michael Collins who was the first president of Ireland (of course not, he's been dead for 80 years) though the author was born over there. He's also not the astronaut who stayed on Apollo 11 while Armstrong and Aldrin wandered around on the moon. And he's also not Dennis Lynds, who has a series of detective novels featuring a one-armed private eye named Dan Fortune, and who writes novels under the pen name Michael Collins. This is the other other other Michael Collins. Very weird.

The plot of the book is pretty complex. All of the plot takes place in the late 1970s, a strange choice for the author. It works at some levels, though. Frank Cassidy is a small-time next-to-nothing, working at a burger joint, married to a woman who is at first a dispatcher for a trucking company. They have two kids, though the older one is from her previous marriage. Frank gets word that his uncle has died, and he decides to return to his hometown for the funeral. However his cousin and the cousin's wife are very angry at this.

This is where things begin to get strange. It turns out that Frank's wife, Honey, was married before, and her husband killed two people and is now on Death Row. She beats the son she had with the first husband. Frank, meanwhile, steals cars and money in order to finance their trip back home. As the novel progresses, there's not a single solitary character in the whole plot who's truly honest, good-hearted, and/or selfless. Everyone's out for themselves, dishonest, and nasty. It's sort of a cross between American Beauty and The Grapes of Wrath.

One point I think worth making is that the author isn't an American. You've got to wonder what these guys are thinking (I'm thinking of the guy who wrote American Beauty) when they move here in order to write stuff and tell us what jerks we are. I wonder if an American could move to Britain or Ireland and write a novel like this, and get it published, let alone receive awards. Needless to say, all the gushing blurbs on the back of the book are from British and Irish newspapers, which all insist (of course) that it reveals "America's long malaise".

The author *can* write, though. There's not that much of a plot, unfortunately. Instead, we get a bleak, desolate account of Middle America a quarter century ago. While the author isn't positive about anything, it's interesting to watch the characters wander through the plot. The mystery angle isn't (as is traditional) important to the book, and the solution, when revealed, seems rather forced and quick. Luckily, as I said, it's not that significant.

I enjoyed this book within these parameters. I might recommend it, but you've got to be aware of how annoying it can be at times.

This is where things get weird, however.

A Pleasure to read
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2005-01-02
This book is a pleasure to read. The writing style is effortless - Mr Collins is a skillful and inventive writer.

The story follows a 1970s family who return to the Frank Cassidy's hometown for his dad's funeral. As the mystery around the death unfolds, other themes are also addressed. In a couple of generations Frank's family has moved from primary industry, mining and farming, into the service econony (flipping burgers). The novel shows the impact on families, on men and women and their ideas of their place in the world. Some people can survive in the modern world of corporate farming, of colleges which free people from their tie to the soil. It is not an easy journey but the ability of people to survive shines through, especially when the benefits of education are used to change for the better. In the background the impact of a war fought overseas is also in the air.

Ultimately, a novel about hope. Perhaps even an update of the American dream? Great book, deserves more recognition.

"I got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals."
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-08-07
Frank Cassidy lives on the fringes of society in a succession of demeaning jobs, a wife with an ex-husband on death row in Georgia, an angst-riddled stepson waiting for his father to be executed and an innocent pre-schooler, obsessed with his toy dinosaurs. Frank's edge-of-desperation lifestyle can be traced back to his childhood, his father and mother killed in a fire that erupted on the family farm when Frank was five-years old. His memories of that time are dim, shaped by the overwhelming presence of his uncle, who raised him as one of his own, and the psychological evaluations the doctor hoped would unlock Frank's fragmented memory of the night of the conflagration.

As soon as he is old enough, Frank leaves the farm behind, along with all family connections, to make his way in a hostile world with no patience for an emotionally damaged survivor. His life since then has been a series of misdemeanors, an anti-social approach to the rest of mankind. Frank views his occasional petty crimes as the natural evolution of a careful society, like car theft, his deeds "preordained statistical probability", but refuses to believe that "stupidity and desperation equate to evil". When he reads of his uncle's murder, Frank gathers his family and heads for the past, a dark trek from New Jersey to the vast, empty cold of the far north in Michigan.

Along the way, Frank telephones his cousin at the farm, arguing about the purpose of the trip and the resolution of a shattered history. For Frank, this journey is like poking a stick at a bad tooth, as painful memories surge, taunting and confusing his every action, his haunted youth returning with savage intensity. He makes his way back to the kind of town nobody would willingly return to unless called by tragedy or loss. People here live in despair, inhabiting days frozen in minimal needs and obligations, waiting to thaw. At each phase of his odyssey, Frank is beset by images and memories, the flickering light of a television screen in a starless night, black and white reruns the backdrop for a tragedy buried in his subconscious that fills him with a vague sense of guilt, a mistrust of his own motivations.

Thirty years after the traumatic events that stole his childhood, Frank is called back into the chaos of his youth, the self-destruction that has defined every rebellious action since. Both distressed and comforted by a suffering family he can barely provide for, Frank plunges into what remains of his world, forced to redefine time and place, to make a stand in this frozen wilderness, drawing courage from his own need for resolution and the love of his dysfunctional family. He does so with consummate grace, a tragic character cart-wheeling through free-associative hell on a collision course with the truth. The prose is shadowed and disturbing, a painful view of the underbelly of American life, where the have-nots gather around a burning trash can in hopes of warmth in an indifferent landscape. Luan Gaines/2005.

Nothing special
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2004-03-29
~ Frank Cassidy learns in a newspaper of the death - possibly, murder - of his uncle, and goes back to North America to investigate any possibility of inheritance; to find out why his uncle died; and to sort out loose ends left in his head from a fire at his family farm in his childhood...

This book starts off quite promisingly. The writer evidently knows the mechanics of how to write well. But the book lacks sufficient plot after about the first hundred pages (of a 360-page book) to keep the reader very interested in continuing with it. The journey to the end of the book becomes boring, too unstimulating, too slow, too drawn out, with too much description and detail just for the sake of giving description and detail, too much describing of humdrum life, with the reader wondering if the book is going to go anywhere sufficiently interesting to be worth going on turning the pages. The characters in the book aren't made particularly interesting in themselves. The story ceases to be interesting. The reader is left in the dark for too long as to where the book is heading to, or why all the details are supposed to be interesting, or what the point of the book is supposed to be. Whilst what really happened many years before, in Frank's childhood, is revealed to us in the last fifteen pages of the book, by the time the reader gets there, he will probably have lost interest in the tale anyway.

A few specifics in the plot that didn't really seem to fit together well:
1. It seemed odd for Frank just to dump Juniper, the family pet, in someone else's car, and for that action then just to be accepted by the rest of the family.
2. It seemed odd for Frank to go back home with specific personal missions in his mind, but yet then never actually to get round to meeting up with Norman and Martha face to face for the whole time he was up there.
3. It seemed odd for Norman and Martha just to run away without saying more to anyone, after their herd was slaughtered.
4. Why Chester Green was suddenly being referred to as 'the Sleeper' didn't seem to be explained.
5. It seemed odd for Frank, not rich, not to want to salvage any possessions from either house before they were bulldozed.
6. It seemed odd and too convenient for Frank suddenly to be interrogating Baxter, his new co-worker, for information, which was forthcoming, as soon as he met him.
7. It seemed odd for Frank just to be allowed to be left alone with Chester Green in a hospital unsupervised, particularly in later visits after he had already been suspected of trying to harm or interfere with Chester Green earlier on.
8. Why Baxter suddenly ended up in the sanatorium following the window-smashing incident and ended up getting ECT treatment wasn't very clear.
9. Frank suddenly realising his mother had died in a fall many years ago, by listening to tapes, didn't really ring very true.
10. The detail at the end of the book (page 357), of Frank killing the paralysed 'Chester Green' in the sanatorium, seemed to be a detail borrowed straight out of 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest', where the huge red indian suffocates the comitose Jack Nicholson at the end of that film. That conclusion seems to be borne out by a reference to 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' in this book, just a page later (page 358).

All in all, this was not a very satisfying book, for a variety of reasons - mainly lack of interesting plot and lack of interesting characters.

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All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking
Published in Hardcover by W. W. Norton & Company (2004-10)
Author: Molly Stevens
List price: $35.00
New price: $21.34
Used price: $15.93

Average review score:

Wonderful
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-11-17
This book was everything I was hoping it would be. It was filled with easy to find ingredients and yummy receipes. Some will take time, but it was worth the wait!

Like a good date...
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-11-12
Like a good date, this book is easy and fun. I take it out as often as I can.

One of the best cookbooks I own...
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-10-26
The techniques presented in this book are simple yet spectacular. The discussions regarding some of the more subtle ingredients for building a braise (salt-packed anchovies, salt-packed capers, dried figs, etc.) are priceless. Additionally, the author presents great recipes from the Mediterranean to south east Asia. If you are serious about braising meat, this book is a great place to start.

A must have for cooking
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-10-09
All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking

This is a must have for anyone who likes to cook. I wasn't sure how much difference braising would make but figured I'd try it. Wow! once you try it you will never want to cook chiken or roasts any other way.

praising braising
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-05
I already owned a copy of this book. My brother was home and borrowed it to make osso bucco. He is a chef and was thoroughly impressed with Ms. Stevens' book. I just ordered another copy to have sent to him for his birthday. I've only had rave reviews from food I prepared out of this book. I think it should be on everyone's bookshelf.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393052303/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title

W
I Am David
Published in Hardcover by Harcourt Children's Books (2004-01-01)
Author: Anne Holm
List price: $17.00
New price: $10.40
Used price: $7.90
Collectible price: $17.00

Average review score:

A beautiful read
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-15
This story is about David, a boy who has spent most of his life in concentration camps of Eastern Europe. When he is given a chance to escape, he does so with the expectation that he will be caught and returned to the camps at any moment. Eventually, he accepts that he has finally gained his freedom. His journey to this realization and beyond is one of enlightenment and revelation as he discovers the things about the world and its inhabitants that he never knew before. Most touching are his prayers to God for help to get through his the various trials that come his way. This book made me appreciate all that I have and I think it will have the same effect on anyone who reads it. Highly recommended.

Read it!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-29
An amazing story from the 'inner world' of a lost boy. When one wants to feel its heart touched? than read it!

Inspiring Book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-13
The movie was wonderful and the book was even better, filling in details the movie had to leave out. I especially was touched by his growth in faith that was absent in the movie. A wonderful book for young people to develop character, but for adults as well. I was a little disappointed in the abrupt ending.

A Read Through
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-12
I Am David shows the horror of a country without freedom and what living in a country that holds no love for freedom for all men, shows what is done to men and children "they" find subversive. David is a special child given the strength to trek through difficulities and the unknown looking for what he knows in his heart to be something "lost" and so much better. Even though this is a book aimed for the primary younger crowd, this grandma couldn't put the book down until young David experienced the bad and good from those that journeyed with him in his search.

A Family Reunited
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-16
"I Am David" by Anne Holm depicts years of the tragic concentration camps. A young boy with no parents, in a concentration camp, has to escape or die trying. David meets an older women that is very kind to him. As David asks the older women about some books people are carrying around. The older women explains the book. David realizes the author of this book is his mother, who he thought was killed when they were separated to go to concentration camps. David and his mother are soon reunited at once. this is a good book, I think this it is a god page turner because this book will keep you guessing; what will happen next? Who is he going to meet next? I don't recommend this book to a 13 year old, I would recommend book to 11-12 year olds because it would be more thrilling ate that age. this book is a page turner but I thought it wasn't very exciting. If you are someone who loves happy endings then this would be a great book for you.

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Small Miracles: Extraordinary Coincidences from Everyday Life
Published in Paperback by Adams Media Corporation (1997-03)
Authors: Yitta Halberstam and Bernie S. Siegel
List price: $12.95
New price: $0.50
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $12.95

Average review score:

about ALL small miracles books by these authors
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-10-27
Hi, I have read many of these amazing books and they are all true. It is beyond uplifting to read these stories because they are about love, about serendipity that is often so beyond amazing we call these things, "miracles" surely as miraculous as dawn, the sunset, the smile on a baby's face, a tree in the full glory of autumn, LIFE itself! Now I am experiencing massive astonishing synchronicity and once contacted these authors, because by now, in my small life I have a Library of such incredible but true events and they do, they must, involve us all, and also bring us into a new understanding of the cosmos and our place here. There is no way any thinking person could characterize these connects, called also "beshert" in Hebrew, "random" when they occur so frequently and so obviously that it is a hail of story. I am recording this. I do believe in aggregate this is Proof of the existence of a prime mover, and in fact this is how it all began for me. With Give me More, I can Prove YOUR existence by way of a life.

I am saying something deep. Parts of my Diary, about such synchronicity, about friendship and love, are now at Brown University, the Hay Library, the Mel Yoken Collection of Letters.

Back to these books: READ them. They are inspiring and spirited. They are entirely about a miracle, that's occurring right here, right now. I am saying these coincidences are leading us into a new way of perceiving ourselves and this "journey" that is part of all of our lives. Share the Road! We all are storytellers and we all need to do this, NOW, and we may be sure that we are leaving profound footprints, all of us, wherever we go but that this story about footsteps in the sand, is more true than we ever thought possible.

A real uplifting treasure!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-08
This is a little treasure chest of wonderful stories that truly are uplifting. I really did enjoy reading this book!

SMALL MIRACLES
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-18
I read SMALL MIRACLES, some years ago. This seems to be the same book, exactly, although, when I ordered it, I thought it was a sequel. I liked it better the first time around, when the anecdotes sounded more "golly-gee-wiz" than they do the second.

Fabulous, cherish each story!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-22
Miracles happen every day. Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal are angels themselves, bringing these fantastic stories to millions of people. Buy and read every single one of their books. Not only are they hard to put down, you won't be able to look at your life with the same eyes ever again!

enjoyable, heartwarming, universal, read a story every night
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-18
I found this unique book of coincidences to be remarkable. While the authors relate it to Jewish principles, giving a moral or rule at the end of each 'episode,' their statements are applicable to those of all faiths.
There were short, short stories, short stories and those a few pages long. But all showed the positive human spirit that exists in everyone of us if we give ourselves a chance and don't close our minds. Sometimea a bad choice becomes a great move. An ordinary act becomes heroic to those on both sides. And, almost always, WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. There are no stories of coincidences that backfired, although one can be sure scores of these exist too. But the purpose is to bring joy, hope,
confidence and more open-mindedness to the readers, with the desire that they will share this with many more. A brilliant person with a promising
future suddenly gets terminal lung cancer. But the person telling it mentions some small act that was done, often out of common courtesy. And in this case, one of the six items the dying person wanted in his casket was a letter of encouragement from the teacher.

This is a book for teachers, educators and all who desire to be educated.
I acquired it for $.50 at a flea market booth, after just noticing the
colorful (but also bland) yellow cover. This is the best $5.00 expenditure
I've ever made. I'll share my copy with others and have ordered another
version. Whether you are in the dumps or feeling great, the stories will
heighten your consciousness and create more appreciation for your present lot. I am fortunate to have found it. Please consider my words. Advice
is worthless. Words from the heart can be meaningful. My heart speaks.


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