Canada Books

At thirteen, Julie Edwards - or Miyax Kapugen - was married according to the agreement between her parents and those of her bridegroom. Miserably unhappy in her temperamental husband's home, Julie fled. She and a wolf pack befriended each other, out in the wilds of her native Alaska, and because of the wolves Julie has survived to find her way home. Back to her widowed father, who (to her considerable surprise) has missed her and looked for her. And then, when told falsely of her death, has mourned for the daughter he loved and now knows he should not have pushed into that early marriage.

In Julie's absence Kapugen has married again, and his new wife is a schoolteacher from Minnesota. Ellen has convinced Kapugen to give up, for the most part, his life as an Eskimo hunter. Although they still live in the village where they met, Kapugen flies an airplane and cares for a herd of domesticated musk oxen while Ellen continues with her teaching job. Julie's homecoming is marred not only by her doubts about her father's choice of a fair-skinned, red-haired outsider as his new wife, but also - far more - by her terror of Kapugen's insistence that if and when the wolf pack comes to hunt his musk oxen, he must kill them. Julie knows that Kapugen means it, because he killed one of "her" wolves before. She can't go off to high school in Fairbanks, not even when she falls in love with a young Eskimo man who will be going to the university there. She has to stay in the village until she figures out how to save her wolves from Kapugen, whom she loves despite his growing departure from the ways he taught her to follow.

Coming of age novels with girl protagonists are rare enough, if one doesn't count (and I certainly do not!) those books whose whole point is how that girl learns to accept the limits of traditional femininity as the cost of mature happiness. Books like this one, about a girl who comes of age by meeting physical and intellectual challenges thrown at her by Nature itself - and by the clash of cultures, too - are rarer still. Marvelous! Simply marvelous!

Julie was about an Eskimo girl who got lost in the Alaskan tundra. Julie, the girl learned to live by wolf ways. She followed the wolves and they accepted her. Amaroq was the pack leader and Silver was his mate. Nails was Amaroq's best friend and Jello was the lowly puppy-sitter. Kapu, Sister, Zat, Zing, and Zan were the puppies. Amaroq got shot by a helicopter flier and died. Kapu was also shot but was nursed back to health by Julie. Julie then found her father, Kapugen (Kapu was named after Julie's father.) near by. Kapugen had stopped following the Eskimo traditions and married a gussak (white) woman. Julie was not at all thrilled about this. Then she saw flying goggles hanging in the house. Julie then realized that Kapugen had shot Amaroq. Julie learned how Kapugen had changed. Then, she found out how Kapugen had started an industry in musk oxen. The caribou which is sort of like a moose or deer is one of the most eaten animals on the tundra. The wolves also eat caribou. The caribou was not going through Kangilik, where Julie was now living or where Kapu and his pack were. The wolves were very hungry and needed food to live off of. What will Julie do to save the wolves?

This one, in my opinion, is a bit better than the first one. Since this one has more social interaction, it makes time seem to fly by much quicker. It also contains the same friendly wolves, which also makes it exciting for anyone who read Julie of the Wolves.

This book is very amazing, it is just as good as it's original, 'Julie of the wolves'. I really loved reading this book, and I'm sure you'll love it too, if you love animals. Don't waste your time on another 'tundra imitation' book, get Julie of the wolves, Julie, and Julie's wolf pack now!

This book is about a young girl living in Alaska, in the village of Kangik trying to get used to her new home. She hears that her father will kill her wolf pack if they kill another oxen. She then goes back out on the Tundra to find her pack and lead them to Caribou. This book is wonderful and teaches us about Eskimos and their traditions. It is a fantastic novel telling how one girl is so in touch with all other living things. If you love learning about other cultures or love Julie of the Wolves and want to see what happens next, then you have to read this amazing book!

Roses for Mama is my distinct favorite of Janette Oke's Women of the West books. Angela is so sweet she is just about perfect. Yet, there is enough story to move along. If you read nothing else by Janette Oke, choose this book. Enjoy!

Angela Peterson was only 14 years old and her older brother Thomas was only 16 when they were both left to care for their three younger siblings after their both parents died.
Angela's family moved to the west because their mother wasn't feeling very well and the doctor said that the cooler air might be better for her lungs. Their father sold their farm and they were searching for a new land to build another farm in a region with clear air that would improve their mother's health. Their mother felt better for a while, but when the winter cold made her feel sick again, she knew that she had only months to live. Nobody knew that their father will die even faster.
Now three years had passed. Angela is now seventeen and with the help of her nineteen year old brother Thomas, she worries that she won't be able to raise her siblings to be good people and struggles to teach them what they need to be taught, as her mother would have. Angela also worries that Thomas might soon get married and she'll be left on her own to take care of the children. Angela wishes her mother was still there to guide and help her, but she trusts God and relies on him.
Angela begins to think about her future too. Meanwhile her neighbor's son, a wealthy man from the city moves in and begins to court her. As she begins to know Carter Stratton more and more she realizes that he's not perfect for her, and marries Thane who has been Thomas's best friend ever since Thomas and Angela were little.
I think this book was very interesting and touching. It was also very easy to read. The author described beautifully every point in the story. It's a wonderful story of how God changed their plans, but at the end everything turned out to be even better for them.

This is the third Janette Oke novel I have read, and her books have been consistently good. I think I especially liked this particular novel because the romantic male leads were introduced early, and there were two of them vying for the heroine's attention, which made for a more exciting read. The story begins with Angela and her older brother Thomas running the farm, managing the household, and raising their younger brother and two sisters. Their parents have previously passed away. Enter romantic lead number one - Thane is a good friend of Thomas and the family who works at his father's store in town. It's obvious to the reader Thane is interested in Angela, but she just doesn't seem to see past the old friendship and familiarity to recognize it. Enter romantic lead number two - Carter is the very rich and sophisticated gentleman from back East who comes to town after his estranged father has suffered a stroke and is on his death bed. Angela is taken with Carter's fine appearance, and he makes it know that he is quite taken with her. Obviously, she ends up with one of them, but which one will it be? Finding out is a entertaining read.

My only real complaint about the novel is that it gets a little preachy at one point when Angela explains the salvation process to an elderly neighbor, Charlie. In my opinion, this interupts the flow of the rest of the story. I don't understand why Christian authors feel the need to preach in their novels. Isn't their primary audience already Christian? Wouldn't that audience already understand the basics of the salvation process? It makes me wonder to whom they think they are preaching. I wouldn't expect a casual reader to select a Christian romance novel. Perhaps I am mistaken, and I think this is probably my own little personal irritation anyway. Overall, Roses for Mama is an easy and entertaining read, and the quality is consistent with the other Janette Oke books I have read. I think most readers who enjoy Christian romance novels will enjoy this novel as well.

Janette Oke is a wonderful author and this is a well written series. The reading level is for ages 4-8. My concern is whether it is wise to introduce romance to girls at such a young age? I don't think so and hence my lower rating.
There are plenty other excellent historical fiction series and clsssics for that do not contain romance that I would rather see my daughter reading.

I first read "Roses For Mama" when I was 13 (many years ago), and was completely "hooked" on this story from the start. I have read it over and over and keep thinking about the characters and events even though it's been about a year since my last read. This is excellent fiction for readers of all ages - particularly for teenage girls, as it provides good moral lessons that are strongly needed today.
Though I do agree with some reviewers that Angela is a bit on the perfect side, you can't help but love her. The love that gradually develops between Angela and Thane is very sweet and memorable. One of my favorite scenes between them is after her birthday party, when Thane gives her the necklace (swoon!).
This book is really a page-turner. Thank you, Mrs. Oke, for this story...I wish there was a sequel!

There are parts of the book that are clearly written in the immature style of a teenager (colloquial speech) and parts that have been edited so much that they seem to come from an entirely different person. The overall book is choppy in terms of style, although the organization is excellent.

I would have preferred that the author articulate more clearly his emotions that accompanied his experiences. I would have hoped that his editor/professional writing mentor would have worked on making the story more compelling. I was a bit sad to get to the end of the book and not feel inspired. I felt like it was an "interesting story," but inspirational--not quite.

The captions below the photos should either not exist or tell additional information that is not contained in the text. I was annoyed to read a summary statement below the photo that I had just read on the previous pages.

It would be a good leisure read for high school students (or anyone for that matter), although as an example of good quality writing, I wouldn't suggest it.

A wonderful book that will give you a firsthand account of the situation surrounding child labor in South East Asia.

The Kielburger story is one of an incredible journey that he took as a twelve year old to explore the problem of child labor. The "journey" has continued since then into his discovery of the problem all over the world, in addition to his solution through his organization. They build schools, spread awareness through lectures (and their website www.freethechildren.com), inspire young leaders through their programs, and so much more. This is a story that needs to be told over and over again to whomever in hopes that the world can work together to "Free the Children" all over the globe. Get this book and pass it on to any one and make sure they pass it on....

Craig and Marc's stories are so amazing. I used to think that I can't make a difference in the world because I am only 14 years old. This book taught me that even the smallest of actions can create a ripple that affects more people than I can ever imagine. The ideas in this book are really quite simple, but when articulated so clearly by Marc and Craig, it just makes so much sense.

Craig Keilburger is an amazing man and is one of the Worlds greatest heroes. I have learned more from this book then any in the whole world. Even Social Studies!

Which means yes. I learned many fascinating things reading this book It is an exciting read and an incredible journey, both physically and mentally which makes the book one you want to read fast, but not so fast that you don't take time for quiet contemplation of all Waterman has to offer in his honest, fresh account of the north. Having been a student of bears for a long time I was engaged by the language of the people who must have lived there before outside influences gave them motors, steel and pollution. The communication interspersed with body language was a key for me to want to do much more research into this culture. There are many things to be gained from this book, the nuts and bolts of kayaking, the intense weather, the camping and logistics of this kind of wilderness, the mental tools to handle isolation, and of course, the means of interacting with the cultures, food and cold. This author is not only and adventurer but he can write!! I found myself stopping to fully enjoy the scenes of the arctic and the sights and smells of the camps.

Jonathan Waterman travels over 2,200 miles across the roof of the World. He tells us about the people, places, and history of the land he moves over. Sometimes moving by boat and sometimes moving by dog sled he absorbs the culture, good or bad, of the Inuit life. Alone for weeks at a time he has to deal with the cold, the bears and the weather. Along with fear and loneliness. Sometimes sad, something wonderful, always truthful, this is the book for people who love history mixed with travel and adventure.

Who was it who said, "less is more"? That's one truth that stands out in Jonathan Waterman's "Artic Crossing" - a epical solo trip of the Northwest Passage done without fanfare, without oodles of sponsorship dough. I liked the author's cool, understated writing style, the wry observations about his sufferings and about the Inuits. No hyperbole, none of self-inflation that is so common in adventure writing, this book is truly believable. A wonderful read.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The author keeps you engrossed in his story through thick and thin. He admits his faults and mistakes and you learn along with him. I doubt anyone will not like this book.

Jon Waterman is a writer who belongs between the hardcovers. His explorations and introspection make for compelling reading.

My grandfather served with the Devils Brigade, and since knowing that I wanted to learn more about this extraordinary elite unit of WWII. What I found was perhaps one of the best oral recount's of one of the finest units to ever exist. Having grown up in East Helena (3 miles east of Helena, Montana) and working at one point out at Ft. William Henry Harrison, this book gave me a new found respect for my grandfather and the great men who served in the First Special Service Force. Having finished the book I passed it on to my grandfather and he couldn't let it go. Driving by Memorial Park in Helena and watching the American and Canadian Flags both flying next to the First Special Service Force memorial, day and night, 365 days a year, I can't help but utter a simple, "thank you" everytime I go past it to those that are still living and those that perished for the freedom they helped provide for both countries.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a greater depth of knowledge of this elite unit, or for the military buffs who wish to learn about or learn more of this outstanding unit!

My grandpa happened to pass away about 6 years ago, and he happened to be a part of the Black Devil Brigade. His accounts are in this book, his name is Fred Hubbard, and throughout the book he moves from a 2nd LT to a Captain. The funny thing is, I married a man who just commissioned into the army as a 2nd LT. and will soon be deploying. It is amazing to hear the story of what my grandfather when through captured in a book. The things these men endured for our freedom will always amaze me. I will always wish that I spent more time picking my grandpas brain while he was alive, but I am thankful to have this book to remember these things. This book really captures the essence of what these men went through, and what began what is the special forces today.

Hats off to Joe Springer....! He did the men of 5-2 and the FSSF an honor. My father was a Lieutenant in 5-2 FSSF and one of the main characters of the book, and Joe's Uncle was one of my father's NCO's who was KIA on Anzio. The personal accounts in the book may sound far fetched and exaggerated. However, this is far from the truth. The exploits of the men of the FSSF are a matter of record. Every man who served in the FSSF is a very unique individual. I got to know many of these gentlemen over the years by attending the annual FSSF reunions. And yes, what an honor and a privilege to just meet and speak with them about WWII and life in general. Every man in the FSSF willingly, and knowingly volunteered to join a unit where the odds of being accepted in the unit is less than 20%, and your chances for survival were even less. Thank You Joe for getting my father to open up regarding his experiences during WWII for your book. It also meant so much to him to honor the men in his command who were taken, that were not only soldiers/warriors, but true friends forever.

TAKE ABOUT FIFTY AMERICAN AND CANADIAN WORLD WAR TWO COMBAT VETERANS THAT WILLINGLY VOLUNTEER FOR A WINTER SUICIDE MISSION BEHIND GERMAN LINES. THEY ALL HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF EXPLOSIVES, THEY ARE SKIERS, PARATROOPERS, AND ARE EXPERT SHOOTERS. THEY BECOME THE BEST TRAINED AND HIGHLY MOTIVATED AND FIERCEST SOLDIERS THAT THERE GENERATION AND NATIONS PRODUCED. SEND THEM TO CENTRAL ITALY, ANZIOBEACH, AND SOUTHERN FRANCE WHERE THEY SLAUGHTER FIFTEEN TO TWENTY THOUSAND GERMANS. MORE THAN SIXTY YEARS PASS BY AND THEN THESE SAME FIFTY COMMANDOS INVITE YOU INTO THERE HOMES AND TELL YOU ABOUT THE FUNNY, SAD, AND ASTOUNDING THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO THEM IN COMBAT. THAT IS WHAT THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT.

Mr. Springer may have been initially motivated by the desire to honor his uncle (killed serving with the First Special Service Force) but his work honors all who served in that unit. One seldom sees an oral history which tells the story of a unit so well. All the contributions by unit members tell the story without the distractions often found in other compilations. Always engaging, you just don't want to put the book down. Not only does one learn about the unit and individuals who made up that unit but one also learns about the equipment used, how it was acquired, and the soldiers' opinions of its performance. An amazing amount of information presented in a way that also entertains and honors the men who served.

Before I picked up this book, I had no idea what a detailed and interesting history lay behind the explorations of the Arctic region. This is a truly fascinating book about man's determined quest to explore one of the last unexplored regions of the world.

This is a story of the search for the Northwest Passage, that elusive waterway that would let ships sail over the north of what is now Canada, instead of having to sail around the tip of South America. Even after the British had determined that the icy arctic conditions and the maze of islands made the Northwest Passage worthless as a commercial shipping route, they were still determined to find it anyway. Ship after ship headed to the Arctic to find the passage, sometimes spending two or three winters trapped in the ice, with only a few warm summer months each year in which to explore before the winter ice returned. Many men died, mostly because of the remarkable inability of the British Navy to learn from its mistakes, or more importantly, to learn from the natives, who had lived in the Arctic for thousands of years. The British sailors wore wool instead of fur and sealskin, refused to hunt (they didn't even know how), suffered from scurvy from their impractical diets, and hauled extremely heavy sledges over the ice with man power instead of dogs. Not only did the British fail to learn from the natives, but the natives also got less than their fair share of credit at the time for helping avert death and starvation for hundreds of expeditions over the years.

This is also a story of the quest to reach the North Pole. Early explorers held the belief that the top of the world was an open polar sea, and tried to sail all the way to the pole. Once that theory was abandoned, explorers tried other ways of getting there. One allowed his specially-designed boat to become trapped in the polar ice and then played a waiting game as the boat drifted with the ice. Another tried to float to the pole in a balloon. Many tried and failed to walk to the pole over the hundreds of miles of ice. And even when two explorers claimed to have seperately reached the pole in this fashion, their claims were dubious.

While this book is long and a bit heavy at times, it is worth it to stick with it. Pierre Berton has done his research, and he is an excellent writer. I look forward to reading more of his books.

This hefty door-stopper details the first century of Arctic exploration, from the intrepid but failed first expedition of British Navy commander Sir John Ross to the flawed triumph of America's Robert Peary, whose expedition to the North Pole made him an international hero -- though it was revealed decades later that Peary had faked his data and probably never actually reached the pole.

Berton was a great writer and historian, and he makes each of the explorers and their expeditions come alive in fascinating detail.
Tragically, most of the expeditions were failures that resulted in strandings, lost ships, horrible deaths from scurvy and starvation, and the loss of countless seasons that could have been used to further human knowledge and instead were spent waging a desperate battle just to survive. The march of human folly is on display in page after page of this book.

If you like history and are interested in explorers and what makes them tick, you will enjoy this book.

Reviewers: Liz Clare, co-author of the historical novel "To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis and Clark"

Very rarely the reader is so moved by a book that he simply starts thinking about it around the clock. It is such a powerful book. For two weeks I couldn't think about anything else than Arctic and those people confined by and in the ice for often several years.

It is the book you will never forget. It is so powerful narrative.

Reader get accustomed with names like Lancaster Sound, Admiralty Inlet, Gulf of Boothia, King William Island etc. Reader feels urge to see those strange locations on a map.

I bought and read this book just out of curiosity about arctic exploration and the men behind the quests...I was very much awed at this spellbinding tale of adventure,loneliness,deprivation,life,death and above all the courage and determination of the individuals involved in the Artic explorations....I had no idea at all what to expect and after the first chapter was hooked till the very end...I recommend this book to anyone interested in history,explorers,'firsts'...I gave it 5 stars on everything...I wish there were more photos but the drawings were good and the maps explained a lot....READ IT !!!

This excellent book, first published in 1988, stands as a fitting memorial to the prolific and accomplished writer Pierre Berton, who passed away at age 84 as recently as November 31, 2004. It details the events and personalities of Arctic exploration over nearly a century, beginning in 1818 with the first British naval expedition of John Ross and Edward Parry, and the related disastrous first naval land expedition led by the oddly ineffectual John Franklin. It concludes with the strange twentieth century tales of Robert Peary and Frederick Cook, both of whom claimed to have reached the North Pole, though neither could prove actually to have done so (nor had they). Along the way we meet a host of players, including the indomitable Lady Jane Franklin, Admiralty puppeteer John Barrow, the underestimated arctic masters Edward Penny and John Rae; Robert McClure, M'Clintock, Charles Francis Hall, Sabine, Nares, Greely, Elisha Kent Kane, Nansen, Amundsen, a number of memorable Inuit personalities and a host of others.

The great strength of this account is the repeated demonstration that the outcome of almost every event in the drama depended ultimately on the characters and personalities of the major players, their strengths, weaknesses, flaws and ambitions, and their capacities to learn from the experiences of their predecessors and their Inuit contacts. This gives a Shakespearian, if not biblical, dimension to the history, which is ably exploited by Berton. The book is as much about explorers as exploration.

Berton's well-detailed sources include the numerous accounts of the explorers themselves, their biographers and ghost writers, and much archival material - letters, original field notes, official reports etc, all woven together in a skilful and compelling synopsis. The book can be heartily recommended!

A few matters are missed among the vast number of items covered, for example James Cook in HMS Discovery, shortly before his death in Hawaii, reached Barrow Point, Alaska, from Bering Strait in 1780, setting the target for Franklin and others exploring from the east. One would like to have read the story of the Oval Office "Resolute desk", donated to the American Presidency by Queen Victoria in 1880, and constructed from timber salvaged from HMS Resolute, a ship mentioned frequently by Berton. The icebound Resolute was abandoned at Bathurst Island, Melville Sound by the British in 1854. She released the following summer and was later found adrift in Baffin Bay by a US whaler, sold on to the US government, refitted and returned to the British with a gorgeously attired naval band, much panoply and splendid one-upmanship. Also that Amundsen eventually disappeared in the arctic in 1928 while on an aerial search for the wonderfully zany General Umberto Nobile and his downed dirigible Italia (watch those late-night movie listings for the excellent film Red Tent (Krashnaya palatka), in which Peter Finch plays Nobile and Sean Connery Amundsen). Most of all perhaps, that the first expatriate to fully traverse the north west passage (on McClure's Investigator to Banks Island in the west and Intrepid from Barrow Strait in the east, with much walking and sledging between the two) was Lieut. Samuel Gurney Cresswell, in 1853 (he departed for Britain ahead of the other former Investigator crewmen with the news that McClure and his men had traversed the elusive passage).

Many original works of relevance have appeared in recent years. Notable are the excellent commentaries and reprints of the first Franklin expedition journals and paintings of John Richardson, George Back and Robert Hood edited by C. Stuart Houston (Arctic Ordeal, Arctic Artist and To the Arctic by Canoe), and David C. Woodman's studies on the Inuit memories of Franklin and his lost crews (Unravelling the Franklin Mystery - Inuit Testimony and Strangers Among Us ( all published by McGill Queens UP). Also the hard-to-find and indispensable arctic chronology of Alan Cooke and Clive Holland (The Exploration of Northern Canada - Arctic History Press), a first version of which was used by Berton. Many others are well covered in Amazon.com documentation.

"They sat on in silence, or almost silence; if you listened closely you could just hear a faint thrumming from thousand of wings. Beyond the dragonflies the sun was sinking slowly, casting its rays across the lake, on either side, everything as far as the eye could see was slowly dissolving into the haze. Ian thought, If I live to be a hundred years old, I will always remember this."


Mary Lawson has done it again in her second novel. Beautifully written, we are introduced into the farming community of Straun in Ontario. The characters are ordinary people but such fine people as we see in patient and long suffering good hearted; Arthur Dunn, his brother Jake; handsome, devious and charming, the complete opposite of Arthur. They, having just suffered the death of their father are left with two big farms to manage. This is no easy job as the World War is on, and as Arthur has just been declared unfit for the army, he decides that he will play his part by at least growing the food that will feed them. He goes by diligently; working morning to evening, so very hard on the farm, marries the most beauteous woman in the world Laura, who bears three lovely children. They live comfortable lives but their private life is about to be interrupted as Jake returns to the farm after years of living in many varied areas of the world and with his wary ways continues where he has left off. Other people are not happy to see him especially his brother. The people who passed through the life of the Dunns, and they themselves will quietly entertain you. I highly recommend this fine work by Mary Lawson.
Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 03/11/08)

As my review for her début shows, I was not impressed with the final result there. This however, is a far more accomplished novel.

For one, she got the narrator right; third-person omnicient. First-person was beyond her abilities as a rookie (I'm not excusing her editor in the debacle). Here, she tells the story with a far more confident voice, laying everything out for the reader in a way befitting the setting, and the times.

Her characterizations are richer, are drawn with a little more clearly, and their connections are more finely wrought. There's more opportunities creating for dovetailing and synergy...and she makes the most of these. Finally, her storytelling is coming into its own. Clearly, she does not aim for 'epic', and maybe that's never going to be her goal, but I suspect that were she to take this tack down the road, she'd be up to the challenge.

This was a far more gratifying read, leaps and bounds beyond what 'Crow Lake' delivered. 'Brava!' to the author. I'm looking forward to her next offering.

I really enjoy this author. I have read Crow Lake too. Very well written and interesting backgrounds of the Characters.. This takes place in Canada in the far North, so learning about someplace so far away and different in very interesting to me. I recommmend Other Sisde of the Bridge and Crow Lake.

"The Other Side of the Bridge" was warmly received, not just by me, but by the 13 other women who appeared at the book club meeting at which it was discussed. I can't remember any other book--and there have been many--that was discussed by our book group which received such unanimous approval. It is a heartwarming, interesting, study of human lives interacting in ways both good and difficult, with all warts showing. It stimulates much thinking about what happens to people because of events beyond their control.

Mary Lawson is a wonderfully evocative writer. You ache for her characters. You enter into the desolation and into the pull of the hard life in a very small northern Ontario community. I only want to add one thing to what else has been written in these reviews.

Sibling rivalry? yes. A wonderful re-telling of the story of two brothers, one charming, smart, handsome, irresponsible and careless of other people's feelings; the other slow, stolid, uncommunicative and responsible. However doesn't Lawson also show us that the parents are at least in part to blame? Would Arthur been more secure, more able to communicate with other people if his mother had been loving and encouraging of him? Would Jake have been less irresponsible if he had been able to win his father's approval for who he was rather than what his father thought he should be - a farm boy? Lawson seems to suggest that, despite Jake's careless ways, he really did long for his father to accept him for who he was. He wasn't Arthur. Arthur wasn't Jake. Neither parent can really embrace the differences in their sons.

I bought this book for a little brother entering college, because I used it myself in college. Straightforward instructions, recipes that are comfort food but simplified. Nothing fancy, no photos, just a great resource.

well im not really clueless in the kitchen but this book helped me find new recipies and cook stuff i never cooked b4.well i like this book (even though my brownies sucked)

after my sister got this I got to read it and it is the ultimate beginners cookbook for anyone on a budget or anyone wanting to learn how to cook who has no experience in the kitchen, wonderful for dorm/minimalist cooking or cooking for a small group.

While I'm sure there are a few teens out there who are interested in cooking a turkey or baking bread, the book is doing itself a disservice by suggesting it is for teens. It's a very good book for the more adventurous of young cooks, but more probably for the 30-something set who loves spending time and money in the kitchen. This book is a wealth of information for the more adventurous cook of any age. The style is warm and a bit humorous, never a bad thing when tackling your first pot roast. So, while I do recommend this book, I have to add that I would not buy it for any inexperienced cooks, especially teens. 50 Ways to Leave Your Mother

This book is great for teenagers, and also for people like me: the ones that just never learned. It is simple and easy to use. My guests are so happy that I can now whip them up something for breakfast or dinner. Also, this is a really great gift for those people going off to college. It even includes a complete list of what to get for a starter kitchen.

This is a great book, all of Kapuscinski`s books are great. It takes you for a journey you don`t expect. Great style and I always regret it`s over, after I finish to read his book.

As stated in most of the reviews of this book, Kapuscinski is a great writer. If you have not read him allready, read this book and understand why. If you allready have read him, you are going to read this book based on what you allready have learned to know.

Having given Kapuscinski the credit he obviously deserves for his writing, I believe there is some points that should be done.

-First Kapuscinski stands on the shoulders of giants. His writing is to a great extent the result of the local people that he meets on his journeys and agrees to open their region and their lifes to him.

-Kapuscinski is a very gifted writer endeed, that have read a lot about the places and peoples that he visits. On one hand this is what always makes his writing so alive, something to go back to and read agian, so informative. On the other hand gret litterature sometimes can serve as a way of getting away with having little or nothing to really report from the battleground when his plan fails or when he does not get what he intended out of a trip. Striking examples of this is his journey at the Trans-siberian railway where he only observes the Soviet Union through the train window or to Nagarno Karabakh where he is stuck inside an airport, a car and a flat. That his stories is as intriguing, even when he hardly experience "what the war looks like on the ground" is a clear sign that his capabilities as dramaturg and writer can make up for a rather thin story. Even when he gets the chance to write the story he intended from a place he visits, the timeframe and the difficulties he worked under limits his insights compared to the writers that have covered the area afer him.

-Some paragraphs in the book makes me a bit uncertain about how good the translation is (my review is based upon the Norwegian translation). In the first chapter - Pinsk '39 the comment of a NKVD officer visiting their house "Muzh kuda?" is traslated "where is your husband" instead of the correct "Where have your husband gone", meaning that the NKVD officer allready knows that he has recently been in the house, meaning someone has infomed the NKVD that Kapuscinski's father (a hunted partisan) has recently been in the house. Things like this is not a big deal, but it makes you start thinking about the quality of the translation in general and if it can be the case that the author underplays the role of ordinary people as informers in the terror.

-In his story about the war in Pinsk 1939, his memory of the events as a child probably is an important expalianation behind the qualities of the stories. In the memory of a child events that would probably be described as horrorful and sad by a grown up, in the eyes of a smal shild gets exciting, intriguing, colorful and down to earth.

All in all, Kapuscinski is good reading and Imperium is a great intruduciton to the former Soviet Republics. To get true insight in the contemporary former Soviet Republics, you will need further reading though.

Perhaps history will never be told better than through the eye of this travelling writer (or is it a writing traveller?). Read and be awed by the staggering proportions of recent history in the vast empire that is no more, the Sovjet Union. And be chilled to the bones by the unimaginable amounts of suffering inflicted by the sovjet leaders on their own people. And be astonished that in the midst of the most utter despair, poverty, and enslavement, Kapuscinski can find optimism, humor, and love of life.

I purchased this book after reading about the author in the Wall Street Journal. He died earlier this year. The author, a journalist, kept two notebooks while on assignments throughout the world, one for his assignment and one for himself. In this book he combined his observations from several trips he took within Russia and its states over a span of many decades. At times his writing style can be quite poetic, and the book is not unlike a travel book, although Soviet Russia was not a friendly place at the times of his visits. I intend to read his other books, and highly recommend this one.

A lyrical masterpiece by this superlative writer! Nowhere have I found a dissection of the Evil Empire done with such fluid verse. He goes from the periphery into the heart of the beast and everywhere he discovers that appearances deceive and what seems to signal change is really a re-hash of old. Kapuczinski's sharp analysis and trenchant comments will be sorely missed!

This book was written in 1959 by a young French Jewish man who fought with the French resistance, was himself imprisoned, and somehow survived the holocaust. Mythical and artistic and touched with a bit of magic realism, it is the story of the persecution of the Jews in Europe in the context of history dating back to the eleventh century. The basic premise is a fictional Jewish myth of 36 just men, one from each generation, who absorb the burden of humanity's suffering so that mankind can survive.

The first third of the book relates one gruesome story after another, all the in the context of Jewish persecution as it moves through different historical periods, with some of the stories even including a bit of humor. It gave me the feeling of the inevitability of Jewish suffering and how long it has been going on. Once this concept is firmly established we are soon in the beginning of the twentieth century and are introduced to a family in the Polish ghetto. Each one becomes an individual and I was drawn into the personalities, especially the courtship and marriage of a young couple who later figure prominently in the story. We watch them move from Poland to Germany and then to France, each time hoping for a better life. We meet their grandchild, Ernie Levy, as a child in Germany, suffering the mental and physical violence of his schoolmates. Later, we see him as a young man in France, as the Nazi war machine moves in. Always, we are aware of the realities of history and the horrors that still await him as he gradually realizes his fate as the "last of the just men". Eventually he and the woman he loves await death in a concentration camp surrounded by Jewish children who have all lost their parents. I shuddered throughout at the awfulness of it all. But I just couldn't stop reading.

This book is a small masterpiece and a literary gem. Yes, it is sad. It is very sad. And yet, there is beauty in it too, and love and courage. I will never forget the impact it had on me. I give it my highest recommendation. It is a true work of art.

An immensely illuminating and personal history of the Jewish people. It educates and elicits emotional response. Brilliantly written. Essential for anyone interested in Jewish history.

The Last of the Just
THis novel ,in my opinionis the greatest,most moving and most unllifting book about the holocaust ever written; about a jewish boy ,a just man ,in the midst of NAzi Germany and finally the concentration camps.The belief that there a a finite number of Just men ,who keep the balance of goodness in the world, in any given generation and the holocaust ,by killing them tipped a cosmic balance is a powerful . I first read it over 20years ago and I have never forgotten it .It is one of the world's great books .
I have just replaced my copy { my old one stolen by book lover]because it bears a re read often to remind us all of us may be "just men/womenTHe world can then will be a better place . Read this book to remind yourself of your humanity and that of others who suffer .

My father got me this book and it took me a few years to get around to reading it. After I did, I found "The Last of the Just" to be quite a memorable story, to say the least. Once you get a couple of chapters into the story, it becomes emotionally gripping as you begin to get to know the characters. The story weaves together fiction and legend against a historical backdrop. The writing is poetic, haunting and beautiful. To me, the spiritual and emotional depth of this novel is unmatched. I plan to read this again some time, after taking some time to digest the entirety of this story. This book is definately a first-class work of art in my opinion.

This book is a deeply personal account of a Jewish family in the 19th and 20th centuries. Part of it's power comes from following the lives of the family well before the holocaust began... thus showing that anti-semitism was not only a Nazi trait and making the continually worsening conditions even harder to bear in contrast to their lives before. Ernie Levy, our main anti-hero, is so real. Every moment of his roller coaster of life is so charged with real emotions and desires that you cannot help but be 100% invested in what happens to him. The paragraph on the final page is possibly one of the most powerful in all of literature. I finished this book two days ago, and am already ready to read it again. It is a cleansing, miraculous experience.