The Land Remembers: The Story of a Farm and Its People

Customer Reviews:

Sticks in your head for years.......2006-01-23

I'm biased, because I'm from Gays Mills, WI (I used to mow Leita Slayton's lawn!) - but I recently re-read it, and was surprised at how many of the anecdotes and images I remembered were actually from The Land Remembers, and not from Steinbeck or anyone else better-known. Parts of this book will stay with you for years and years. It's like going home again every time I pick it up.

One of my all time favorites.......2001-08-28

This is one of those books I will always remember. My children were young when I read it and I felt that it contained many lessons on how to be a good parent. And all in the context of very enjoyable reading. The story about learning to use the horse drawn cultivator shows how a parents help their child develop self-confidence, which is something I see so many people lacking. I can't say enough good things about this gem of a book.

One of my favorites!.......2000-01-27

This book is full of humor and spends wonderful time on how a farm is run, explaining the land, the chores, the wonder of living on a farm. Ben's antics with his brothers are delightful, and his account of his evenings with his family are memorable. I read this anytime I need a lift, and share its richness with anyone who will listen.

A time capsule of growing up on a farm........2000-01-16

One room school house, the changing of the seasons and the farm chores for each one...a memior of one man's boyhood experiences. I liked this book and my husband liked it even more than I did. He was born and raised in rural WI, picking rocks, milking, and going sledding with his brothers. This book is well written and reads like a time capsule...the people & chores on a family farm. I would have given it a perfect 5 stars, but there is too much about bees. Less bee watching and the author would have a classic here. Great that his story goes full circle. We learn what happens to the people we've read and cared about...which is always gratifying to us readers.

Hard to put the book down!.......1998-10-18

After finishing this book, I added Gays Mill, WI to my list of places to visit. I could hardly put the book down once I got into it. The stories that Logan tells are thought provoking...some brought tears to my eyes while others filled me with laughter. All will warm your heart! Having grown up on a farm, I could relate to the events that happened as Logan was going up. Although we are years apart in age, there are some aspects of growing up on a farm that all can relate to.

Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis

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Land of Imagination
A Search for Truth
so-so
Must read for authentic admirer of C.S.Lewis
Douglas' Memories

Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis
Douglas H. Gresham
Manufacturer: HarperOne
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060634472
Release Date: 2003-11-25

Customer Reviews:

Land of Imagination.......2007-01-02

This book adds to any C.S. Lewis collection. Anyone trying to undertsand better Lewis' life and works will gain some value from this book, but in addition, the book adds value to understanding Joy Davidman, herself a remarkable person and Doug himself. One reviewer is somemwhat upset about the book because the author writes mostly about himself, yes, it is subtitled "My Childhood...".

Doug Gresham is remarkably candid about himself (he directs most criticism at himself, well and the Millers). He is also very forgiving towards his father, which I found instructive for all of us. His insights into Lewis' chairity (both in time and money) and Christian heart are an addition to what a Lewis admirer might already know, but it helps add to the Lewis icon. I do wish he had a wrote more on his brother, but it may be he is keeping in with his brother's wishes (it is well known that David has avoided the Lewis/Davidman limelight).

This is a good book, at a great price, and it is a quick, nicely paced read.

A Search for Truth.......2006-03-12

Gresham's Lenten Lands provides a private picture into live with C. S. Lewis.
I envy Douglas for having the privilege of living with Lewis as together they traveled the "Lenten Lands!"
I'm impressed with the amount of time that passed before Douglas finally internalized the both the Truth and the truths taught and role modeled by his step-father.
But isn't that true of so many of us today, searching for Truth, but always testing that it's real!

so-so.......2005-12-22

If, as one reviewer states, you are an ardent fan of C.S. Lewis, you will want to read this book. The opposite is true, too. If you are not particularly interested in C. S. Lewis, this is a forgettable book, not very interesting. I am not particularly interested in C.S. Lewis, I'm not going to see "Narnia," I never read the Narnia books as a kid. I wanted to read this because I saw "Shadowlands" and wanted to know what happened to the little boy after his mother died.

What stands out the most is Gresham's writing style: rather like that of the people who send anecdotes to Reader's Digest. It's clear enough, rather rambling, rather predictable imagery, lots of repetition. Not very interesting. I didn't even finish reading it.

So, my recommendation, if you're not a fan of C. S. Lewis, is to skip this book, and watch "Shadlowlands" when it comes on television again - it is beautiful and stands on its own.

Must read for authentic admirer of C.S.Lewis .......2005-12-05

This is one of those books I think any authentic admirer of C.S.Lewis should read because Douglas H. Gresham writes so empathetically as well as objectively of his Mother Joy and his step father 'Jack' Lewis. Seeing these two people thru his eyes from childhood to young adulthood is fascinating. Be it the feel of his Mothers embrace that made him feel safe, to how mature his view was of his father who had problems with alcohol. Where some people would have been harsh or mean in how they saw such a parent Douglas was able to see beyond the issue of alcohol to something deeper.

Reading of his first impressions of C. S. Lewis and his brother Warnie again shows reality vs visions one has in their heads of things and people not yet seen. From the cigarette stained teeth to the evening visits to the local pub, Douglas bring a sense of humanness to the great author. And his descriptions of the places he/they lived are so real one feels as if they are a fly on the wall.

The thing that makes me appreciate Douglas so much is how the lessons he saw and was taught have taken root in his life . He now lives in Ireland and is active in walk the community helping women with unwanted pregnancies.

So the nasty comment by reviewer Kona (Emerald City) 'The problem with this book is that Douglas Gresham did nothing in his own life to warrant an autobiography' makes me wonder just how much of the book did they actually read, since having taken the priceless lessons that the great C.S.Lewis wrote and taught and putting them to day to day use, makes Douglas well worthy of being an author. The title is after all 'Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis'.

Douglas' Memories.......2005-11-24

In the preface Greshman makes it clear that the book is his story about his life. No doubt the publisher thought it necessary to throw "My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis" on the cover because this is the reason why we care about Douglas Greshman.

Most of the book is about his early life and there is much on his mother Joy and Lewis. I found the parts that had nothing to do with Joy and Lewis to be enjoyable too. Gresham is a very good writer and you get a feel for what it was like to grow up in England in the 1950's.

Only the last few chapters deal with his life after the death of Lewis. But in some ways, this is an important part of the Lewis story. Why you ask? Because we see how little Gresham, Lewis' stepson, benefited from being his stepson. Greshman was dirt poor and barely getting by. What happened to Lewis' money? Why were Lewis' two stepsons not in his will?

Whatever one thinks about the book overall, it is an essential piece of C.S. Lewis history. Greshman saw Lewis up close and personal. He gives insights that few others can. Even if he did not live with Lewis all the time (he was at boarding school), he still lived with Lewis some of the time, and this is more than most. His memories are invaluable.

Pearls of Childhood: The Poignant True Wartime Story of a Young Girl Growing Up in an Adopted Land

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Pearls of Childhood: The Poignant True Wartime Story of a Young Girl Growing Up in an Adopted Land
Vera Gissing
Manufacturer: Robson Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Nicholas Winton and the Rescued Generation: Save One Life, Save the World (Library of Holocaust Testimonies)

ASIN: 0860519457

Redneck Riviera: Armadillos, Outlaws, and the Demise of an American Dream

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Excellent small book!
Fascinating, in fits and starts

Redneck Riviera: Armadillos, Outlaws, and the Demise of an American Dream
Dennis Covington
Manufacturer: Counterpoint Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1582432953
Release Date: 2003-12-23

Book Description

From the author of the National Book Award finalist, Salvation on Sand Mountain, a quixotic, comic account of one man's quest for a small piece of the American Dream.

Every year, Dennis Covington's father brought his family to the Gulf Coast of the Florida Panhandle, the "Redneck Riviera," and it seemed there was no place he was happier. Florida was an intoxicant to him. In 1965 he made the only investment of his life--two and a half acres of an inland Florida development called River Ranch Acres. Years after his death, the development went bankrupt, setting the stage for a classic, often violent, confrontation over land use and property rights.

Deed in hand, Dennis Covington journeys into the Wild West of the Redneck Riviera to claim his only inheritance. His quest charts a dangerous course: His life is threatened, his truck torched, and his small plot shot up and vandalized as his father's passion to possess the land becomes his own. Redneck Riviera is a personal journey as well as a brilliant look at the clash of values that is tearing apart much of rural America in a place beyond the law.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent small book!.......2004-11-17

Despite its relative lack of heft, this book makes for rich reading. You will learn a lot and think about what Mr. Covington has to say on the subjects of family, land, and place.

Fascinating, in fits and starts.......2004-03-05

The core of the book, which is the author's wrongheaded and doomed attempt to reclaim his father's land -- now dominated by local hunters, outlaws and vaguely corrupt law enforcement officials -- is fascinating. Covington's attempt to transfer his dream of recapturing his inheritance to the wilds of Idaho is somewhat less interesting. Most dissapointing, though, is the attempt to string together a narrative over what must be about a decade's chronology. All told, a few key days on his father's land makes up the core of the story, and you don't get a sense of how long or how hard Covington's efforts were.

Interestingly, this area in Florida where the book takes place seems to dovetail with the swamps covered in Susan Orlean's "The Orchid Thief," which also gives a brief history of the land scam that sets this book's plot in motion.

Product Description

This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University LibraryÕs preservation reformatting program.

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Journey to a New Land: An Oral History
Changed My Life And View!

Journey to a New Land: An Oral History
Kimberly Weinberger
Manufacturer: Mondo Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1572558113

Customer Reviews:

Journey to a New Land: An Oral History.......2004-03-31

What a wonderful family history to share with our children and grandchildren! My husband came to America from Italy in the 1950's and I have heard similar stories of his family's voyage to this "New Land" for many years. As we read the book, he talked about his own experiences after leaving his home in Vallecuppa, Italy and arriving in New York as an eleven year old. He, like Elda, lost his father after being here for only one year. His family also struggled to survive. This book covers feelings of coming to a strange land, not knowing the language or customs and how the family adjusted. Please read this book with your children and grandchildren...don't let this important message of survival, struggle, adjustment, hard work and success stop...the story belongs to all of us...it's our heritage.

Changed My Life And View!.......2000-12-23

It helped me learn more about Imegation. I would recamend this book to even 4th graders.

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The oppression of the Jews in Egypt

Exodus II The Promised Land
Henry Mourad
Manufacturer: Airleaf Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1594539146

Product Description

A child is born in old Cairo; life does not show him any mercy! At the age of six, in horror, he watches his Jewish school burn down the brutal act left him with a recurring nightmare. When he was eleven, the Suez War began, his relatives were deported, and the family business was sequestered. At school, his classmates ridiculed him, and his Arabic teacher made his education a living Hell, only because he was Jewish. When he was admitted at Cairo University, he did not dare disclose his true faith. He remained undercover, pretended to be an observant Muslim, avoiding the risk of confrontation. But it was not to be; he was eventually discovered and the resulting mayhem was harrowing. Mid-third year in college, his familys business was confiscated without reparations. Luckily, his father evaded imprisonment, but the family had no choice but to escape from Egypt. As they attempted to flee, their humiliation persisted and climaxed when they were denied freedom twice at Cairos Airport. Throughout the book, this boys life is vibrantly recounted, capturing the readers compassion while leaving them in utter shock. A true story that defies the imagination!

Customer Reviews:

The oppression of the Jews in Egypt.......2007-05-30

This book describes faithfully how the Jews have suffered under the dictatorial regime of Nasser the humiliations, discriminations, jail imprisonments and the confiscations of all their assets for the sole crime of being Jews. During all that period from 1952 to 1977 the western world turned a blind eye and a deaf ear on what was going on. During the peace talks between Egypt and Israel in 1978, the state of Israel didn't submit any claim for compensation or indemnity for the Jews of Egypt and the reason for that is they didn't want to deal with a similar claim against Israel coming from the Palestinians who left their homes in 1948. The book relates the political history of events which ultimately led all the Jews to escape from Egypt. The author also writes about the easy and comfortable life during his childhood. I particularly liked the chapters dealing with the Mediterranean summer resort of Ras El Barr, the winter villa at Helwan and how the author's Grand father got his nickname of Canon. I highly recommend this book.

Red Land Yellow River: A Story from the Cultural Revolution

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gorgeous art , fascinating history and important lesson

Red Land Yellow River: A Story from the Cultural Revolution

Manufacturer: Groundwood Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0888994893

From Amazon.ca

In this moving autobiographical picture book for older children, Chinese-Canadian artist and book illustrator Ange Zhang tells the story of his teenage involvement in China's Cultural Revolution. The son of a famous Chinese writer, Zhang grew up in a comfortable Beijing home with his extended family. When the Red Guards first infiltrate his school in 1966, he feels only pride, for both his parents are high-ranking officials in the Communist Party and helped bring Chairman Mao to power. But before long, he witnesses his father's public humiliation as an intellectual and finds himself blackballed from joining the Red Guards with the rest of his friends because he is one of the "bad guys."

In simple yet unflinchingly direct prose, Zhang describes how these injustices did nothing to dampen his fervour for Mao's revolution. To his mother's unspoken horror, he forms his own one-person unit of the Guards, shaving his head and arming himself against other rebel groups. "All I wanted," he recalls, "was to be just like the other kids, to wear the olive green uniform with the red armband." It is not until he climbs to the top of his house one day and gazes over the tiled roofs of Beijing, that he begins to see his way as an artist and an individual. Illustrated with lush digitally rendered pictures of everyday life during the Cultural Revolution, along with family photographs, Red Land, Yellow River delivers a poignant reminder about the essential vulnerability of youth. A fine appendix expands the historical context. --Lisa Alward

Book Description

When Mao's Cultural Revolution took hold in China in 1966, Ange Zhang was 13 years old. He lived with his family in Beijing, he attended school and excelled in drawing, and his father was a famous writer whose "Yellow River Cantata" was widely considered to be the anthem of the revolution. Yet soon, Ange's life — and his family's — would change forever.

Complementing this autobiographical narrative with evocative color illustrations, archival images, and some of his own black-and-white photos, Ange gives a moving account of difficult experiences: from his early longing to join his peers in the Red Guard, to witnessing his father being publicly humiliated, to his growing alienation and disillusionment. But he finds some good fortune, too: during his "reeducation" in the countryside, Ange discovers enough emotional space to develop his own ideas and to find that he, like his father, is an artist in his own right.

Customer Reviews:

gorgeous art , fascinating history and important lesson .......2005-10-18

Experience the Chinese Cultural Revolution through a teen's eyes in Ange Zhang's straightforward and poignant autobiography. After his father, an intellectual seen as a counter-revolutionary, is publicly humiliated and later arrested, Zhang's shame grew, as an adolescent's could, towards his own family. In 1966, at the age of 13, he wants desperately to fit in, and not be labeled the "bad guy's son". In time, Zhang creates his own faction of the Red Guard, alienating himself further from his family until an experience unravels his fervent idealism. Gradually, he is re-awakened when he discovers his father's hidden books. Locked in bookcases sealed with paper strips bearing the Red Guard's seals, Zhang takes the hinges off the book case doors to keep the locks and seals intact. Day after day he stays inside his house reading banned books by Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, and Jack London. He realizes through reading that each of us is unique and needs to pursue our own destiny. By the end, his family is re-united and Zhang is able to pursue the life of an artist.
Zhang's moving account is illustrated with lush digitally rendered pictures of everyday life during Mao's Cultural Revolution, and accompanied by reproductions of period posters, black and white photos and artifacts. His striking artwork is reminiscent of silk-screened posters, and you will be astonished by his lovely work. A fine appendix expands the historical context.
Earning a *Starred Review* from Booklist, Zhang's stirring experience gently unpacks a hopeful message to resonate with all pre-teens: oppression cannot squelch individuality and the power of dreams. For ages 8 and older.

Stories of the Child Jesus from Many Lands

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Stories of the Child Jesus from Many Lands
A. Fowler Lutz
Manufacturer: Sophia Institute Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1928832962

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