Customer Reviews:
A childhood in India early this century.......2002-08-16
M M Kaye bought India alive for me in her two novel's "The Far Pavillions" and "Shadow of the Moon" - in her autobiography I can see where her love of India came from .
She also brings to this, the first volume of her three volume autobiography, the same beautiful writing that she has used in her novels. She has a very easy and light writing style which brings her memoirs and her fiction alive. This first book takes us up to 1925 and her return to India after some time away back in England.
This is for those of you who love India, love MM Kaye - (better known as Mollie by her family) or are interested in the times of India under the Raj.
A great read - I couldnt put it down.......1999-05-24
This is the story of a childhood filled with wonder and excitement of growing up in India as well as the sadness of leaving home and loved ones behind for schooling in England. The historical aspects were equally interesting to one who hasnt any been exposed to them before. The social attitudes in M M Kayes times to the people working in India were an eye opener - this book should be read by anyone with an interest in India and especially as Kaye says to counter balance the views of India in books such as Passage to India.
Amazon.com
The children's photographer, Anne Geddes, may be best known as "the one who does those cute pictures of the babies in the flowers." This build-your-own scrapbook features flower pictures, babies dressed as bumble bees, babies on pumpkins, babies, babies, and more babies. Geddes's babies are adorable without being too "cute" and the scrapbook itself is great fun to look at, whether or not you manage to get the photos pasted in, the locks of hair snipped, and the details (weight at six months, first tooth lost) entered.
Book Description
For a parent, a baby book is near the top of the list of "must haves" for a new baby. It is one of those essential items packed for the trip to the hospital weeks before the baby arrives. All the special moments-the first smiles, the first words, the first steps-are lovingly recorded in its pages for posterity. In My First Five Years-Nursery Room Edition, those pages feature heartwarming photos of babies from Anne Geddes's new Nursery Room Collection of baby clothes. Adorable tots, decked out in pink, yellow, blue or white soft cotton, smile winningly, sleep soundly, and convey a love of children on every page.My First Five Years includes special details, like a tiny envelope to keep a lock of hair, height and weight charts to track growth through the years, and plenty of room to add your child's own photos and mementos. Completing a baby book is one of the great privileges of parenthood. A pleasure to look at even before it is filled, My First Five Years-Nursery Room Edition will become a treasured keepsake of a time that passes all too quickly.
Customer Reviews:
Love this book!.......2006-01-26
This record book is wonderful! It is very pleasing to the eye as well as practical. Many of the traditional baby record books had too many categories and information to fill in, some even had a spot for EACH day of your baby's first year! This book is extremely realistic and has all of the importnant information you would expect to find and even some blank Comment and Photo pages for things you and your family may find important but are not in the book, like family traditions or favorite pictures you have collected. I loved the book so much for my three year that when she was two, I purchased 2 more for future children!
ANNE GEDDES EXPLOITS!.......2003-08-13
Has anyone ever given a thought to the young children who are grossly exploited in ALL of ANNE GEDDES work. This woman has made her money off exploiting babies who have had their basic human rights taken away from them. This is a significant breech of human rights.
Absolutely PERFECT!.......2003-02-19
When I adopted my daughter, I was thrilled to find such a gorgeous baby book to go with my gorgeous baby! My husband is her natural father and he filled me in on all the birth details and enjoyed helping to create her memory records in this edition. I shopped for months to find the perfect book to keep her records in - I especially wanted the perfect one for her because it's difficult to put together the details of the earliest records as a mother who wasn't able to experience the earliest days of my baby's life. This is the most beautiful record book ever, and now that we are expecting our second baby, I will definitely order one of the Anne Geddes editions for the new one, too!
Beautiful book.......2003-01-10
I have purchased this as a gift for my sis and bro-in-law who are expecting their first child. This is a beautiful memory book, and I can't wait to give it to them.
The photographs are lovely, and it has room for all of the important moments to be collected, written about, and then cherished.
Excellent!
Not nearly enough space for an expressive mommy.......2002-10-08
The pictures were cute, but overpowered the layout of each page. I have twins, myself, and didn't think it was necessarily conducive to twins as mentioned in another review. I ended up getting a book that allowed more room for personal photographs and far more pages to keep track of my babies' first years.
Average customer rating:
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Crossing the Boundary: The Early Years in My Cricketing Life
Kevin Pietersen
Manufacturer: Ebury Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0091912059
Release Date: 2006-10-24 |
Book Description
Described by the media as “the David Beckham of cricket” and regularly gracing the tabloids with his looks and personality, Kevin is fast becoming the poster boy for English cricket. This is the story of the young cricketer from South Africa, who moved to England and helped regain the Ashes after 18 years.
Amazon.com
Africa may not always have been in Jane Goodall's blood, but animals were there right from the start: the list of recipients in what one hopes is only the first volume of her letters includes Dido the dog and Pickles the cat. And this is no flight of editorial fantasy. Goodall always accorded these members of her "darlingest family" their proper place alongside such correspondents as her mother, her father, her best friend, and her mentor, Louis Leakey (a.k.a. FFF, Foster Fairy Father). Africa in My Blood opens with 7-year-old Valerie Jane's encounters with various canines (real and porcelain) as well as signs of incipient naturalism--she has found "a ded rook he died of cold" and is caretaking a "catepiler." In the same communiqué, she also notes that her toy chimp has a new dress. Goodall would later prefer her primates au naturel but would continue to balance her urge for living taxonomy with love and empathy.
Culled from more than 16,000 letters, this collection will inspire Goodall adepts and those coming upon her for the first time. Her "autobiography in letters" restores this icon to full, even frivolous, humanity. It also recalls a lost era of inspired amateurism. When she went off to Nairobi at 23 in the spring of 1957, Goodall had no formal scientific training. Yet within weeks she had met Leakey and was soon working with him, not to mention rebuffing his advances, though she assures her mother that "he's much too fond of me for any monkey business."
Meanwhile, they had already discussed monkey business of a higher sort. "There is the vaguest possible chance that little me," Goodall wrote, "may have the chance to go right out into the wilds of the Northern Frontier for two or 3 months to study a strange tribe of chimpanzees who may be a new species, or sub-species. That is too heavenly to even think about." By the summer of 1960, Goodall was installed at the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve (which she soon termed Chimpland). And over the next year, she made four key discoveries, if not more, and was proving herself the zoological equal of such masters as George Schaller, having documented her subjects eating meat as well as using tools with ease.
Africa in My Blood reminds us that Goodall was once a controversial rather than hallowed figure, her methodology viewed with suspicion and condescension. And as many of us happily vegetate in front of televised slices of animal life, her awareness of her privileged position puts things in perspective. In early 1961, Goodall recounts a complex ritual and then asks her family: "Can you begin to imagine how I felt? The only human ever to have witnessed such a display, in all its primitive, fantastic wonder?"
Because Goodall has written so elegantly and incisively on chimpanzee behavior in, for instance, In the Shadow of Man and Through a Window, some readers might initially be tempted to gloss over her descriptions of such animals as the venerable David Greybeard and expert towel thief William and concentrate on her own persona--teasing, hyper-enthusiastic, and absolutely determined. When her project is threatened in 1963, she implores FFF: "You would fall head over heels in love with all my darlings--never, never think that I will let anything happen to them through what I am doing. I KNOW it is right. I KNOW that I can work the Reserve the way it must. I KNOW that I shall come back here time and time again until the problems that remain are hardly worth mentioning." Africa in My Blood makes it clear that, as Jane Goodall has long stressed, human and ape cannot be separated. --Kerry Fried
Book Description
AFRICA IN MY BLOOD is an extraordinary self-portrait, in letters and commentary, of Jane Goodall's early years, from childhood to the landmark publication of IN THE SHADOW OF MAN. It reveals this remarkable woman more vividly and clearly than anything that has been published before, by her or about her. We see Goodall grow from a schoolgirl into the promising young candidate whom the legendary Louis Leakey sent to a wildlife preserve on the shores of Lake Tanganyika to undertake a revolutionary study of chimpanzees. At Gombe we see her immerse herself in the lives of wild animals as no one had done before. AFRICA IN MY BLOOD is a dramatic, moving, funny, and important book that tells the story of how an English girl who loved animals became one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century.
Customer Reviews:
Sit by the Firelight in Africa at Midnight with Jane Goodall.......2000-12-31
The letters in this collection date from Ms. Goodall's youth through 1966, when her stature as a scientist was well established based on her pioneering research in Africa.
Books of letters are normally associated with great female authors of novels, such as Virginia Woolf. In those wonderful volumes, beautiful style and playful use of words adds joy to one's appreciation of the literary works themselves.
So, I did not know what to expect from a book of Jane Goodall's letters. What I found was a most pleasant surprise. The letters provide a deep perspective into the personality of Ms. Goodall and how that contributed to the development of the research methods she used. I found the letters fascinating and very rewarding, despite the fact that they are the opposite of high literary style.
If you are like me, you may primarily know Jane Goodall from her National Geographic television specials. Those were very accessible and enjoyable. But I did not know the background concerning how her pioneering research with chimpanzees was initiated and developed. This book wonderfully filled in that background. Also, I did not know how an attractive young Englishwoman came to become a field scientist in Africa in the first place. Also, the shows made it all seem rather natural and easy.
First, you will come away impressed with what a devoted correspondent she was. Over 16,000 letters were found by the editor to draw from. Now, how many letters have you written in your life? Also, these are mostly long, newsy letters to family, friends, and professional colleagues. If she had been a book reviewer, no one would have believed her production. Remember that she had no computer to help her draft the letters. In fact, she had the balkiest manual typewriters imaginable.
What was even more remarkable to me was that so many of her early letters had been saved. How many letters have you saved from people under the age of 15? That these letters are available is quite a testimony to her relationships with these people, and the impact of her personality.
Then, I did not know that she was a secretarial school graduate when she went to Africa. A few jobs quickly convinced her that she was not cut out for indoor work. She was eventually accepted into a Ph.D. program without ever having attended college! In fact, she had done most of her breakthrough field work before her Ph.D. was even granted. So much for formal education as a way to create new scholarly methods.
Ms. Goodall has a wonderful love of humans and animals that makes no significant distinction between them. I was overwhelmed to read her descriptions of her pets and the chimpanzees and baboons she studied. It is remarkable to read page after page as she gossips with people about the animals by name in more detail and with more sympathy than in much of what she writes about people who were not close to her. This perspective is a fairly unique one, and led to her finding ways to relate to the animals throughout her early years.
There is great humor throughout the letters. Her many descriptions of men becoming interested in her and how she handled them are echoed in her descriptions of the female chimpanzees eluded the hovering males. Humor and laughter came easily to her. You will laugh too at the descriptions of the chimpanzees tickling each other.
You will come away with a great respect for what she accomplished. The difficulties she overcame were incredible, and the work that she put into her research is beyond imagining. She mostly wrote these letters around midnight, after working from 6:30 in the morning . . . often in the driving rain. This was a 7 day a week effort for her. Frustrations were everwhere. Great sequences would occur, but where no one could photograph them. Or the exposures were set wrong on the camera, and the whole roll of film produced nothing. And the camera problems were just the least of it . . . although they were the most maddening to Ms. Goodall. Malaria, shingles, and mysterious diseases affected her and the others she worked with. But her commitment remained strong.
Dale Peterson has done a fine job of selecting the letters and summarizing them at the beginning of each section. My only complaint about the editing was that more footnotes would have been helpful. I was regularly lost in trying to understand who some of the people were whom Ms. Goodall refers to.
I suggest that you give this book to a young person who loves animals. Perhaps something will "click" that will allow that person to see that she or he can live a life devoted to inquiry and closeness with animals.
Follow your instincts!
A New Jane Goodall.......2000-04-18
For those of us who may think we know Jane Goodall as theheroine of National Geographic specials, the champion of primateintelligence and animal rights, one of the great scientists of thetwentieth century, Africa in My Blood comes as a revelation. Here is the young girl and woman discovering life for the first time, having a crush on the local curate, writing to her best friend Sally and her "Darling Family," traveling by slow boat to Africa, and then launching the career that we have never seen through such fresh eyes. Most astonishing of all, it turns out that Jane Goodall is a splendid writer of letters, which are full of comic anecdotes and finely-observed details, capturing in vivid prose the immediate events of her life and much wonderful material not included in her other books. Dale Peterson has done a superb job of editing, organizing, and introducing this monumental collection, showing Goodall as both private and professional woman, in both intimate portrait and dazzling display of her gifts as a writer. One can only hope that a second volume is on its way soon. END
Amazon.com
You would think that a 12-pound dog would know her place in the world. Well, you obviously haven't met Clara, the pug that rules writer Margo Kaufman's life and the topic of discussion in Clara: The Early Years, Kaufman's hilarious account of living with the imperious pug. Kaufman, author of This Damn House! and the Hollywood correspondent for Pug Talk magazine, admits to being the "Official Pug Lollipop," a fact that Clara takes full advantage of. From their first meeting in a New York hotel room, Kaufman knows that Clara is "different": "Five minutes after her arrival, she inspected our junior suite like Leona Helmsley checking to see if the chocolate mints on the pillows were lined up at the right angles. Clara noticed the spacious queen-sized bed, the plush carpet, and the cozy loveseat in my sitting room. She beheld the cold hard floor--tile, not even marble--in her tiny bathroom. And she realized that the Human had put her own comfort over the pug's--a serious error that must be corrected at once so the Human would not make this mistake again." Sure, most people would have run screaming from the little Hitler, but not Kaufman. She's instantly smitten with the tiny, "bat-eared," "jack-o'-lantern"-toothed puppy, as the whole world soon would be. Joining Kaufman on book tours, stealing the show with her designer doggy cap and natural on-air charm, posing for photographs (to be used in dog-food endorsements, no less), and generally hamming it up and handing out orders, Clara comfortably stakes her claim to the Kaufman clan--including fellow pug Sophie. But when Kaufman and her husband decide to adopt Nicholas, a Siberian orphan, Clara feels the limelight slipping away. Wrapped in bureaucratic red tape, the adoption process involves not only months of paper pushing but a trip to Siberia that just about puts Clara over the top. Luckily, the persnickety pug accepts Nicholas into the fold and all is well in Clara's universe. As for the Kaufmans, well, indentured servitude to a pug isn't so bad. Kaufman's witty observations--combined with Clara's unforgettable antics--make for a memorable read. --Stefanie Hargreaves
Book Description
Pugs were dogs. Cute dogs, willful dogs, lovable to be sure, but I was a Human. I was in charge.
Then along came Clara, and all bets were off.
Once a pug owner, always a pug owner--or so thought Margo Kaufman, having shared her home with the lovable snub-faced imps since her college days. But it was not until the 1992 arrival of Clara--petite, imperious, whip-smart, and seductive--that Margo found what it meant to be a pug parent: that a pug could rule her life, and perhaps the world as well.
Clara, the Early Years is the hilarious story of how a glossy-black, twelve-pound package of canine energy took over Margo's heart and home while charming the pants off the rest of the world. From commandeering the dressing rooms at Saks (where a personal shopper offers Clara Evian in a cut-crystal bowl), to accompanying Margo on her first book tour, to an appearance on PrimeTime Live (where Margo plays a supporting role), the indomitable Clara establishes herself as a world-class personality, a star of the first order. But there is one event Clara cannot upstage, as Margo and her husband, Duke, travel to Russia to adopt an infant boy, and all of them learn new meanings for parent, family, and home.
Full of the kind of uproarious observations and brilliant insights that have won Margo Kaufman's books and commentary legions of loyal followers, Clara, the Early Years is a laugh-filled portrait of a singularly memorable pet.
Customer Reviews:
i owe so much to this book........2007-08-14
After stumbling upon this book in a tiny country bookshop, i read it in just a few days and fell deeply in love with pugs. i was completely charmed my the author's dogs, especially Clara, and soon i had rescued my own little black pug from a shelter. My pug goes with me everywhere, and as the author states, "is living proof that god has a sense of humor." these little dogs make me laugh every day, and this book will make you laugh on every page. Clara, Margo, and their adventures in LA will have you splitting your sides, and whether this is your first introduction to pugs, or your a long time lover of the breed, you will relate to and be touched by this book in unexpected ways.
Clara-Quick Read.......2007-07-08
I really enjoyed the first half of the book, after all we do have two black
pugs, but the second half was more about their adoption of a foreign baby and the pug story got left by the wayside.
never received item.......2006-11-10
I have been waiting since Sept. and I never received this item!
This book is great for pug lovers.......2006-10-26
but for those of us going through adoption, it was a bit cold. I actually shuddered when she spoke of her reluctance towards adopting a Chinese girl. I might be overly sensitive here, but it did strike me a bit racist. I also have a puggy whom I adore, but if there's any problem between her and my to be adopted daughter, I'm afraid that puggy will have to go live at my mum's. Anyone who isn't ready to put their human child first really isn't ready for parenthood (on the bright side, the author eventually did come around to putting her son first, but I've seen quite a few couples who were so wrapped up with their dogs that it's like the kid should be kept in a cage, and that's not right. This is why people like Caesar Milan exist to teach yuppies the importance of treating dogs like dogs and not spoiling them as children).
Overall, very interesting story. I'm sorry that the author lost her battle to cancer. Unlike one of the other posters, my first thought wasn't "Poor Clara", but "Poor Nickie" to have lost the only mum that he's ever really known. I'm sure that die hard dog (and especially pug) people will be mad at me for this review, but I'm not a dog person. I'm a person who happens to have a dog that I love. I agree that pugs are the only dogs cute enough to make one put up with the hassle of dog ownership (it is very costly, restricts much of your time and vacations, and there usually is something in the house to clean). I love my puggy to death, but she is absolutely my first and last dog. Hopefully, with this book, readers can get a sense of what it's really like to live with this breed (there's quite a tale about an expensive eye operation) so they can look before they leap into pug ownership.
Wonderful book for Pug lovers.......2006-08-25
If you don't own a Pug, you won't understand the humor. If you do, you're going to love this book!
Average customer rating:
- Intriguing
- An interesting look at a complicated man
- Better than expected but less than the hype
- Better than I was led to believe.
- Life-Sized
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My Life: The Early Years
Bill Clinton
Manufacturer: Vintage
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My Life: The Presidential Years Vol. II (Vintage)
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Living History
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My Life
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The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton
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First In His Class : A Biography Of Bill Clinton
ASIN: 1400096715
Release Date: 2005-05-31 |
Book Description
President Bill Clinton’s My Life is the strikingly candid portrait of a global leader who decided early in life to devote his intellectual and political gifts, and his extraordinary capacity for hard work, to serving the public.
It shows us the progress of a remarkable American, who, through his own enormous energies and efforts, made the unlikely journey from Hope, Arkansas, to the White House—a journey fueled by an impassioned interest in the political process which manifested itself at every stage of his life: in college, working as an intern for Senator William Fulbright; at Oxford, becoming part of the Vietnam War protest movement; at Yale Law School, campaigning on the grassroots level for Democratic candidates; back in Arkansas, running for Congress, attorney general, and governor.
We see his career shaped by his resolute determination to improve the life of his fellow citizens, an unfaltering commitment to civil rights, and an exceptional understanding of the practicalities of political life.
We come to understand the emotional pressures of his youth—born after his father’s death; caught in the dysfunctional relationship between his feisty, nurturing mother and his abusive stepfather, whom he never ceased to love and whose name he took; drawn to the brilliant, compelling Hillary Rodham, whom he was determined to marry; passionately devoted, from her infancy, to their daughter, Chelsea, and to the entire experience of fatherhood; slowly and painfully beginning to comprehend how his early denial of pain led him at times into damaging patterns of behavior.
President Clinton’s book is also the fullest, most concretely detailed, most nuanced account of a presidency ever written—encompassing not only the high points and crises but the way the presidency actually works: the day-to-day bombardment of problems, personalities, conflicts, setbacks, achievements.
It is a testament to the positive impact on America and on the world of his work and his ideals.
It is the gripping account of a president under concerted and unrelenting assault orchestrated by his enemies on the Far Right, and how he survived and prevailed.
It is a treasury of moments caught alive, among them:
• The ten-year-old boy watching the national political conventions on his family’s new (and first) television set.
• The young candidate looking for votes in the Arkansas hills and the local seer who tells him, “Anybody who would campaign at a beer joint in Joiner at midnight on Saturday night deserves to carry one box. . . . You’ll win here. But it’ll be the only damn place you win in this county.” (He was right on both counts.)
• The roller-coaster ride of the 1992 campaign.
• The extraordinarily frank exchanges with Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole.
• The delicate manipulation needed to convince Rabin and Arafat to shake hands for the camera while keeping Arafat from kissing Rabin.
• The cost, both public and private, of the scandal that threatened the presidency.
Here is the life of a great national and international figure, revealed with all his talents and contradictions, told openly, directly, in his own completely recognizable voice. A unique book by a unique American.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Intriguing.......2007-01-12
Even though I had the chance to live through the years that Bill Clinton was president, I cannot believe how much of the Clinton years I had forgotten. Bill has a great sense of humor and is a great storyteller with compassion, grace and style. He is one of my favorite presidents of all time. A great read. It made me want to know more about his early years growing up in Arkansas.
An interesting look at a complicated man.......2006-12-17
As someone who has written a lot on Bill Clinton I eagerly awaited the release of his biography. It met most of my expectations although at times he put in far more than I needed to or cared to know. Nigel Hamilton does an excellent job in his early years biography and it matches most of what Clinton talks about here. The need for Bill Clinton to please everyone around him really comes out in his own biography and while I feel he skirts around his disagreement with Carter and does not express the anger that most sources say he felt it is a very honest attempt. I would have liked more details about his college years and meeting Hillary which he jumps past fairly quickly and gets into their political relationship. It is very well written which is to be expected from someone as educated as Bill Clinton.
Better than expected but less than the hype.......2006-08-27
As I said to my fellow authors earlier, Bill's one of us. He's a writer. This isn't about agreeing with his politics, by the way. It's about, as the book title implies, his life. Which, as luck would have it, does feature a whole lot of politics. I can picture professors building courses around this book, and I think that'is probably a good thing. In China we use FORREST GUMP, which is quite good, but in the US let's go for the gold. MY LIFE goes way below the surface.
Bill Clinton has an amazing memory, in addition to detailed notes and journals and such, and he takes us on a very candid journey. It's almost like being an imbedded journalist. We start with a country boy and many southern tales, then move through some "small town hick in the big city" tales that include Oxford and the soul-searching of the Vietnam War years, then finally through his lengthy political career, one year at a time. Campaigns for others, then for himself. A lot of politics when he's in office.
Politics doesn't simply bore me. I find them downright painful. But I must admit that I've wondered where presidents come from. When I was a little boy, I wanted to be a writer, a teacher or perhaps a cop. Or an NFL quarterback, but I realized early on that might be a tad unrealistic. But president? It never occurred to me. Why did it occur to the poor bumbling fat kid from Arkansas? Read his book and you'll know the answer.
I admire anyone who can pull together a wide variety of seemingly contradictory influences into a consistent whole. You've seen me try to do it in this newsletter, and you can see Bill Clinton do it in this book. Those who equate "thinking" with "waffling" just don't get it. Quite probably they quit subscribing to THIS rag ages ago, if they ever found it at all. So I don't write for them. I write for you.
I'm reaching the age where it's getting very hard to find a non-fiction writer older than me writing about events that I find interesting. Bill qualifies. It's very good to watch history unfold through his eyes. The events I lived through and remember, the ones that preceded those, the ones I just plain missed because I was too busy with other things. One of life's little ironies is that I missed some of Bill's efforts to unburden the lower class because I was too busy shouldering that burden.
This is a 957-page monster, folks. It's a big-un, and it's largely narrative. I've been at it for maybe two weeks. There's no law saying you can't take longer. Stop to read something else, come back to it later, whatever. I'm glad I'm reading it. I think you will be too. (It helps to be American.) Heck, I think you already have read it and I'm just preaching to the choir over here. But hey, Mikey likes it.
Better than I was led to believe........2006-02-23
I like a story that takes its time and give me the details to make my own conclusions and that is just what Bill Clinton has done with his book. I didn't vote for him either time he ran for national office and I still enjoyed this book.
Life-Sized.......2006-02-13
Okay, so the man didn't exactly need redeeming in my eyes. I thought him a kind of hero before I picked up this book and think of him that way still, though now I have better reasons for it than his public humility, esteem on the world stage, and deft financing of public schools across the country. In his biography, Clinton plies his stock-in-trade, or better, his skill in spades, charm, to his life, both private and political, early and late. When was the last time a public figure acted with such transparency regarding his motives, failures, and frustrations? If he is guilty here of recasting his life favorably, as most biographers eventually are, it is not the usual kind of favoritism that has a large figure becoming mythic, larger-than-life. It is rather that he is uber-authentic, having been born of an alcoholic dad, and living aside an estranged and drug-addicted brother; these snapshots tend to emphasize his claim to the title "the nation's first black president," a street kid who made good through excessive pulling of bootstraps. Larger-than-life is precisely what Clinton is not in this story, but endearingly and precisely life-sized.
Product Description
Perfect Book to explain Death, Heaven, Spirit, and Jesus to a child that has lost a younger sibling SUDDENLY (i.e., SIDS, Accidents, etc) Tender story about Luke and his baby brother Jake. Luke tells of all of his favorite things he and Jake did. They were inseparable. Until Jesus took Jake home to Heaven.
Customer Reviews:
Book was a help to our family.......2007-08-10
Our family recently lost our Baby Jake in a tragic accident. The first book was purchased for Jake's older sibling. I then purchased two other books for Jake's grandparents. The book touched all of us as we were able to relate the book to our Jake and the book seemed to be written just for us and was helpful to us during our time of grief.
Keep the Tissues Nearby.......2007-07-28
This is an ideal book for discussing death and loss with young children. The illustrations are cheerful and appealing and the boys' faces are very expressive.
Luke, the elder of two sons loses his baby brother Jake to crib death/Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Jesus is part of this deeply moving story and one picture that will surely spark many conversations is the one of Jesus reaching towards the baby from heaven.
The story is told in Luke's young voice so children will be able to identify with it. Cristine Thomas discusses the human spirit and what happens to that spirit when someone dies. The gentle illustrations and frank discussions of spirituality will help grieving families bond during a time of loss. I just can't read this one with dry eyes, so I admit passing the buck on to someone else to read aloud.
While the death of a loved one, especially a child is an indescribably painful one, this book is helpful in that it discusses Jake's brief life in happy terms; the love he had from his brother and others who knew him and of God's universal love for all of His children.
The only book that really helped my son!.......2006-10-04
I bought this book for my son, who lost his baby brother to SIDS, He is five years old. What stood out for me the most was the truly visual instances of Jesus Christ holding little Jake, these images helped my son to visualize our little Bobby in the arms of our lord. As we read the book together I felt so comforted that my baby is with the lord and living as he should. Marky loves this book and carries it with him to show everyone that Jesus and Bobby are together like Jake and Jesus. He seems to want to tell the whole world about his little brother and Jesus.
On an Adult note: My grief process is also taking place, and to know that books like this are out there to help me help my son in our time of need, makes me breath a sigh of relief. All the questions were answered and in a way that I know Marky understands, because he tells others about it when he sees that they are down. Thank you for this book. I have told my friends about this book.
Beautiful Story.......2006-08-23
I chose this book for my five-year-old son who lost a young friend in an accident. He loved the cute and colorful illustrations, especially the one of Jesus reaching out and accepting baby Jake. The story is told through the eyes of a young boy, so other children can really relate to it. Cristine explains the concept of our spirit and what happens to it after we die in a way that children can understand. My son seemed to grasp it better than when we had tried to teach him ourselves. While I can't read it with dry eyes, I think it has helped my son understand and accept our loss.
I strongly suggest this book for anyone who wants to help a child cope with the loss of a friend or young family member because it focuses on the positive aspect by reminding us of God's love for us.
A Tender book that explains Death, Spirit, Heaven, and Jesus to a child........2006-08-19
Perfect Book to explain Death, Heaven, Spirit, and Jesus to a child that has lost a younger sibling SUDDENLY (i.e., SIDS, Accidents, etc)
Tender story about Luke and his baby brother Jake. Luke tells of all of his favorite things he and Jake did. They were inseparable. Until Jesus took Jake home to Heaven.
The creative way the author explains Heaven, Spirit, Jesus, and death though the eyes of the child, helps the child relate in terms and illustrations they understand. From a child's point of view for a child.
EXCERPT: ..."What is our Spirit?" I would always ask.
Mommy would say, "Our Spirit is the life deep within our bodies where Jesus lives. It is like the wind; you can feel it on your face and skin; it can make bubbles when you blow into the bubble wand, but when you try to hold it in your hands, it is not there."...
...Then Mommy would always tell me to blow into my
hand with my breath.
Mommy would say, "You see, you feel the warm air on your hand and face, but when
you try to catch it, it is not there. You can't see it, but you can feel it"...
Average customer rating:
- A Great View Into An Important Figure
- A great text
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Fidel: My Early Years
Fidel Castro , and
Deborah Shnookal
Manufacturer: Ocean Press (AU)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1920888098 |
Book Description
An exclusive collection of Fidel Castro's own remarkably frank writings about his formative years. This new, expanded edition, featuring a brilliant introductory essay by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, includes previously unpublished personal reflections by the Cuban president.
"We have no doubt that he will make a brilliant name for himself. Fidel has what it takes and will make something of himself."-From Fidel Castro's final school report, 1945.
"Fidel Castro's autobiography in the form of personal sketches offering a glimpse of him as a young boy and as a young rebel . . . Fascinating reading."-Midwest Book Review
Also available in Spanish as Fidel en la memorio del joven que es (ISBN 1-876175-16-8)
Customer Reviews:
A Great View Into An Important Figure.......2007-04-06
Fidel Castro remains one of the dominant political figures of all time, certainly the most controversial and impactful political leader Latin America produced in the 20th century. The Cuban Revolution was an important moment in the history of the Americas, one can easily see it's influence in later movements such as the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Salvador Allende in Chile and in our own time Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia. "Fidel: My Early Years" is a great collection of material where Castro himself discusses his youth from his childhood in Cuba to his student years up to the time right before the revolution. Political and history students must read this volume which gives a clear insight into the vast intellect and powerful speaking skills of Castro. Colombian Nobel-Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez opens the book with a wonderful essay where he describes his long-time friend and his eccentricities, sleepless working hours, voracious reading habits, passions, angers and hopes. Marquez with true eloquence captures a giant of revolutionary movements. Excerpts from major works such as "Fidel & Religion" are featured where Castro discusses his religious upbringing (mostly from his mother) and the poverty and suffering Cuba's campesinos and blacks suffered under U.S. imperialism. He also makes a point of supporting Haiti, which has also been ravaged by colonial abuse. There are fascinating moments such as Castro's discussions of his time in Colombia where he witnessed the political upheaval resulting from the assasination of the reformist Gaitan who Castro (and many others) suspect was assassinated in a plot hatched by Colombia's elites. The beauty of "Fidel My Early Years" is that we get a true human portrait of a man reduced to the level of slogans, cartoons and demonization by the American press, here we get his actual words and ideas. What we see is a man with an amazing capacity for recording facts, figures, thoughts, philosophies and a brilliant sense of calculation and observation and an appreciation for history. Fidel Castro has already left his imprint on Latin American and world history, but for many in the U.S. he remains a distant, threatening figure, here you get a chance at listening to the actual words because listening is a habit we really lack and very much need in the current world state.
A great text .......2006-05-07
This book consists of one lengthy speech that El Commandante favored students with at his alma matter, the University of Havanna law school in 1995, and a few long interviews, including his famous 1985 interview with the Brazilian priest, Frei Betto. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has a very good introductory essay, with some personal reflection on his buddy Fidel.
If you are a good right thinking American, you probably consider Fidel Castro an evil dictator, even though most Americans the polls show, favor a lifting of the embargo. Well whether you consider him a monster, a somewhat brutal benign dictator (as I do) or as a holy saint (as Fidel hints he thinks himself at some points in this collection), this book is a fine piece of literature. Fidel is a first rate storyteller, he evokes the images of his life in a simple and clear style and is able to impart to the reader the rather inspiring gusto and confidence with which he went about life in his early years.
Cuba pre-1959 was a very wealthy country and put up some good numbers but most of the wealth was concentrated in the hands of an indiginous elite, significantly tied to American investors. Once the United States grabbed Cuba after 1898, much of the land was handed off cheaply to U.S. investors. Castro describes how his father was an extremely poor Spanish immigrant who arrived in Cuba in the late 1890's as a soldier in the Spanish army that was barbarically trying to repress the Cuban independence movement. His father, Angel, over the years managed by his own enterprize to eventually become a pretty successful landowner out in the sticks of Oriente Province. His mother, a native Cuban, also was extremely poor growing up. His father eventually came to employ a large number of workers in his sugar fields, including some Hatians. He grew up playing with the children of these workers and never was aware of any class distinctions between him and his mates, or so he says. The Haitians, Fidel says, he used socialise with in their mud and thatch dwellings. The workers lived an extremely hard and impoverished life, but these Hatians had the hardest lot of all.
In the 1933 revolution against the dictator Machado, Hatian migrant workers were expelled on the ground that they were taking jobs away from Cubans. Included in this expulsion was the Hatian Consul General at Santiago De Cuba, a mulatto who became Fidel's godfather. As a four, five or six year old Fidel spent some time during the Great Depression in Santiago, as a student in the home of an impoverished teacher and got his first taste of real poverty. The Great Depression years in Cuba made the same period in the U.S. look rather mild by comparison. Many people starved to death. When it set up its neocolonial rule over Cuba in 1902, the U.S. also set up a military contigent called the Rural Guards, which terrorized the peasants. Fidel reminisces how in the elections of 1940, when he was back home, he was assigned the task of visiting the homes of the illiterate workers around Angel's estate and others in the area, explaining to them how to vote for his step-brother as a parliamentary canidate for the Autentico party. The workers on estates ussually voted for whoever their boss told them to vote for. Fidel says he remembers the Rural Gurads terrorizing the peasant voters at the voting booth, making sure that the peasants understood that they had to vote in that election for Bautista and his associates.
He spent his school years in various private Catholic institutions and had a few notable bouts with the authorities after he recieved physical punishment. He remarks that at one point he felt compelled to ask at of curiousity why there were no students of color at these institutions. People of color, of course, in Cuba before 1959, suffered Jim Crow style discrimination. At Jesuit schools in Santiago and Havanna, he, with no false modesty, describes that the priests were deeply impressed with his extraordinary gifts in intellectual fields as well as in sports. Just about everyone of these Jesuits had been a supporter of Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War, but nonetheless, he says, he grew close to many of them and deeply admired their austere spirit, their willingness to sacrafice for their students even though they didn't recieve any salary.
His life took a dramatic turn when he entered the University of Havanna Law School in 1945 at the age of 19. In 1944, Ramon Grau San Martin, was elected President. Grau had been a leader in the short lived government of 1933 that tried to enact social democratic measures but was overthrown with U.S. backing by Bautista. Grau and his Autentico party had forgotten their revolutionary roots by this time and devoted the next eight years mainly to murdering their opponents and each other, and embezzling government money at a really astounding level. The Autenticos controlled the administration of the University of Havanna and used gang violence against their opposition. Fidel threw himself into this mess, gradualling setting himself up as the leading student opponent of the Autenticos. He describes one instance, when apparently his struggle with the Autentico gangsters had reached such a point that they were going to kill him if he kept opposing them, he went to the beach and cried. He resolved while he was thus wiping away the tears that he would go back to campus life and face whatever came his way. Actually I think that he probably used the connection of his father-in- law, the United Fruit company lawyer, Rafael Diaz Bilart, to fly to the United States, after there was a bounty on his head by some Autentico gangs for allegedly planning to kill one of their leaders. I'm not sure. Ann Louise Bardach's book "Cuba Confidential" is a really fine book that explores these matters about CAstro's life. Maybe this incident after the killing of the gang leader took place later, I can't remember. Certainly, the people who told such a story to Bardach had a motive to strech the truth.
In any case, Fidel aligned himself with the most progressive forces in Cuban society. He joined the Orthodox party under the leadership of Eddie Chibas, and became the leader of that party's left wing. The Orthodox party wanted to eliminate the extreme corruption that had been an endemic part of Cuban life since 1902 and create a government that respected civil liberties, but it was in favor of keeping the capitalist system. Castro explains that he was really worried about the party because it was being co-opted by big landowners and being dilluted of its principles.
Castro was a leader of the Havanna University organization in solidarity with opponents of the barbaric U.S. backed dictator of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo. He joined a boat expedition in 1947 that aimed to land in the DR and start a guerilla war but the boat was stopped by the Cuban military as it went out to sea and its occupants were arrested but Castro jumped out the boat and swam to safety before they could get their hands on him. This expedition had been originally funded by the most corrupt minister in the Grau government, Julian Aleman, but some of the latter's rivals in the military called off the expedition after a couple of Autentico gangs massacred each other.
Castro's description of his involvement in the mass uprising in Bogota, Colombia after the assasination of Jorge Gaitan in April 1948 is really extraordinary. He is a first rate story teller as I've said. What is probably most remarkable about this section is how Castro explains, with no false modesty, repeatedly that it was his own extraordary courage and selflessnes that got him through that difficult period, as he tried to organize the people. He led a detachment of revoltees and tried to encourage a mutinous police station, to go on the offensive. No doubt the murder of Gaitan played a role in convincing Castro as did the U.S. backed coup in Guatemala in 1954 for Che Cuevara, that one cannot affect social change for the poor without having the oligarchy or the CIA kill you. Castro had been in Bogota as the leader of a Pan Latin American conference which was supposed to serve as a forum for Latin American students to unite to oppose the British occupation of the Falklands, U.S. control of the Panamma Canal and Puerto Rico and other such banal nationalist issues.
The idea that there is anything admirable whatsoever in Fidel Castro is likey incomprehensible to the average American, who rarely hears any notion in the corporate media that U.S. policy and U.S. foreign investors have served as a deciding factor in keeping the masses of Latin America in extreme poverty and misery. Few Americans, except those in Florida in a mostly positive way, have ever heard of Luis Posada Carilles or Orlando Bosch.
This is a fine piece of literature.
Book Description
The return of a classic: This biography of the young James Joyce is "a remarkable exposition of the relationship between a famous man and [his] brother."--T. S. Eliot.
Stanislaus Joyce was more than his brother's keeper: he was at various times his brother's co-dependent, touchstone, conscience, and biggest fan. The two shared the same genius, the same childhood influences, and had the same literary instinct, but in Stanislaus it was channeled into sober academic pursuit, while in James it evolved into gaiety, wild whimsy, and at times sodden despair.
Covering the first twenty-two years of James Joyce's life in Dublin and Trieste, My Brother's Keeper is a window onto the drama that was his youth. Thanks to Stanislaus's superb memory and sure hand, here we find the Dublin of Dubliners: the streets, neighbors, churches, and unforgettable eccentrics. Here we see the model for Ulysses' Simon Dedalus: James' father, a dour and violent figure when in his cups. Here are the Joyces in their own home, and the minor characters that pepper A Portrait of the Artist: Eileen, Leopold Bloom's comely daughter; Mrs. Riordan, the surly teacher; Mr. Casey, the political agitator. And finally, here is Trieste, a place of exile for Stanislaus but a retreat for James. Stanislaus Joyce has fashioned both an invaluable primary source for his brother's opaque masterpieces and a loving memoir of his brother's early life.
Customer Reviews:
EXCELLENT INSIGHT INTO THE ARTIST.......2006-08-15
STan really did keep and care for James and his family, including when JAmes briefly returned to Ireland to establish an art cinema chain leaving his family in ITaly.
Excellent insight into the brilliant writer by his also brilliant brother. Please read this book for greater understanding and afection for the specifics of Joyce's work (how stan was pictured in the story A Painful Case), although the view of the universal themes grows dim as we can no longer see the woods for the trees
Essential to any complete James JOyce bookshelf and a wonderful and grateful gift for any member of the fervent Joycean faith
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