On-the-tape

I read this book a few years ago, and I've never seen anything so sad in my life. I don't know whether to be inspired or repulsed. The Kennedys aren't cursed, they're just dysfunctional, period!

A woman who stays with her husband in spite of his being more absent than not (and who has numerous affairs with other women), because the money, power and privilege are supposedly too good to walk away from; A woman who allows a religion to tell her that she shouldn't enjoy sex with her husband but use it for procreation only (thus setting up the men in the family to cheat because their wives are only doing their 'duty'); a woman who is more concerned about keeping up appearances than about the emotional well-being of her children. YIKES! I have more sympathy for Ethel, Jackie, Joan and poor Rosemary than I do for Rose. At least, with the exception of Ethel (who, like her mother-in-law, wouldn't believe that her husband was cheating on her), Jackie and Joan didn't pretend that it was okay; they just tried to distance themselves from the whole mess.

Yes, times were different then; yes, divorces were frowned upon (with good reason). But Rose was the worst kind of enabler I've ever read about in my life. She could have taken the risk and left her husband, sparing her children the grief and leaving them with some sense of honor and respect for the feelings of others (which her husband failed to do when be cheated on her). Instead she, along with her husband, passed on to her children a tragic legacy of maintaining a good front, not showing emotions in public, turning a blind eye to the adultery that was right under her nose, etc. As a result, the Kennedy children have soent all of their lives trying to live up to what their parents expected of them, adversely affecting their families in the process.

I'm glad that with some exceptions, the latter generation of Kennedys have more normal lives than their parents. I hope they are each getting help for their problems so that history does not continue to repeat itself. Jackie would have been proud of Caroline and her late son John; she did a good job with them. The other younger Kennedy women (Maria Shriver, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend etc.) turned out fine too. Perhaps they have learned not to tolerate the foolishness their mothers put up with.

The important lesson to be learned is that family dysfunctions, when left unchecked and unresolved, can devastate that family (including the wealthy Kennedys) for generations to come.

For five years bestselling author, journalist & social historian Laurence Leamer researched the book, receiving unprecedented cooperation from Kennedy family members, interviewing scores of relatives & close associates, & gaining access to hundreds of personal documents. The book combines his exhaustive & superb scholarship with a gripping narrative that will forever alter our perception of America's royal family.

The Kennedy Women is a virtual feast for Kennedy lovers. The book could serve as a university course on the life of the family, chronicling five matrilineal generations in our nation's foremost political dynasty. It provides a poetic panorama of the history of American womanhood, as we are taken from the life of Bridget Murphy Kennedy, who arrived steerage class on an immigrant vessel to work as a servant in the slums of Boston, to the presentation of Joseph Kennedy's daughters to the Queen of England, to John F. Kennedy's White House, through discussions of the future Kennedy matriarchs Caroline Kennedy Scholossberg, Maria Shriver Schwartzenegger, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, & Rory Kennedy.

Wonderful, in-depth portraits with much new material are given of all the Kennedy women, particularly the ubiquitous Jackie, Ethel, & Eunice, & the mentally challenged Rosemary, whose story in all its horror & duplicity is revealed in detail.

It isn't often that one mourns coming to the end of a book. Although The Kennedy Women covers 933 pages, I was saddened to find myself on the last page.

"For the most part Rose grandchildren observed and respected and obeyed her, tiptoeing around her life as if she were an exquisite piece of porcelain. She had led such a decorous life, blocking out the untoward, the ugly, and the unacceptable, that her eyes no longer saw the darker colours of the spectrum. "Pat drank a bottle of wine in the morning," Rose was told. "That's impossible" Rose replied, Pat doesn't drink"

I was glad that I read this book because it has helped me to understand so much more about this so much talked about family. In Mr. Leaner's book we get to know about the Kennedy women's personal thoughts and the correct stories of the daughters and daughters-in-law. Mr.Leamer has given us indept portraits of these women and my favourite is Rose Kennedy the Matriarch of the family. For Rose was a woman so strong and who suffered great disloyalty by her husband which she took all gracefully all for the sake of her family and what she supposed the public expected of them. She was a stern Catholic and gain her strength through her prayer and trust in God.
Also portrayed are Joan Kennedy; Ted wife who had a problem with alcohol. Jackie Kennedy Onnassis; the President's wife who remarried after the President's death to a Greek tycoon. Pat Lawford; married to a Hollywood star and spent most of her time in Los Angeles. Eunice Shriver, who was always working for the handicapped and underprivileged and was one of the Kennedys with great patience and common sense. Ethel Kennedy, Robert Kennedy's widow and Jean Smith.
The Kennedys pushed their tragedies to the inner recesses of their minds.They refused to let others see the negative side of their lives, and carried their problems and burdens inwardly taking pains not to show their broken hearts. To some this might seem pretentious, but they honestly had their reasons. After all they were special in the eyes of America.
Whenever tragedy struck it was not unusual for them to suddenly get physical by taking walks, riding, swimming and any form of exercise. Rosemary the eldest daughter who was mentally retarded was isolated from the public eye and sent to Wisconsin where she was looked after by those of the Sacred Order. This book has helped me to understand so much more about the choices they made and the reason they made them, though tragedy seem to follow them everywhere.

Mr. Leamer has pulled out all the stops in the brilliantly written book, and I would not hesitate to read anything by him in the future. Bravo! Bravo! Heather Marshall 04/04/04

i have read this book many years ago and have told a lot of people about this book law of success. and even after about 6years after reading it i still apply the thing he says and it helps me 110%. so if you want to succeed and change the way you think about your life this book will do it! it done it for me and done it for other people so why not you.The book is so good im going to teach and show my daugher this and tell her everything in the book when she gets older to understand it! buy it and become a success forever! all the best keith jones

Although written in the first quarter of the century, this book is still applicable. I constantly read and listen to motivation/success books and tapes, and this is the best I've read yet. I am striving to become a motivational speaker and writer, but, after reading this book I have to question my own abilitity. Sometimes it seems to me that everything pertaining to success has already been written, but I know there is always room for top-notch success teachers and movers. As Napoleon Hill states in Law of Success "I know your weaknesses because I know my own. It has required the better part of 25 years of ups and downs-mostly downs--to impress these basic truths upon my own mind so that they influenced me. I have tried both them and their opposites; therefore, I can speak, not as one who merely believes in their soundness, but as one who knows."

Laws Of Success

This book is a must read if you want to do anything worthwhile; while you here on this planet!

It sucks that most personal motivators today, such as Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, and men of the like, are taking all the credit for this book. Yea! They mention the man (Napoleon Hill) for his finds but they take the credit for being responsible for such a book available. I learned more from this book about this life and chemistry of every person and thing alive on this planet, from plant life, to animal life, than all my years in school classrooms.

High school students, College students, trade school students, people out there searching for their identities if you are, or have been raised in this world in a poor, or low middle class environment, the only real chance you have in this life is to get your hands on this book. While many people out there are trying to screw you of your belongings, such as money, reputation, self control and other personal possessions, this book will guide you through a hard core situation such as; depression, self control overeating, drug abuse, and all of the bad habits we acquire here on this planet, from TV commercials and Radio commercials and some bad influential so called friends.

Big companies spend millions of dollars on paid advertisement because they have read this book from cover, to cover and over and over and now they are using it against you.

I can almost guarantee you that a lot of big companies such as Mc Donald's, Starbucks and companies alike, have mastered this mans philosophy and now they are using against you to get you to spend all of your money on their over priced service. I would put my life on the fact that McDonald's took this mans writings and used it against parents by building a small playground in their restaurant so the parents can eat while the kids are safe playing. This is an idea that has been written by this man because I read it in the page of this book and McDonald's has been using it to fatten people up for two or three decades now.

This book will tell you how someone's last five hundred dollars paid for a simple chemistry ingredients that produced Coca Cola. And now it has become a great support of jobs for so many. I learned more about this Country's freedom from this book than every History book I passed by when going to school. Learned about Autosuggestion, the number one agency to getting anything you want by applying this formula to your daily prayers. Learn about how some Doctors are keeping the fear of Ill health in the hearts and minds of millions of people for their pocket book.

Find out how to use a mastermind alliance for your only true success if things seem helpless today. Know that all big companies today have mastered the law of this idea called mastermind alliance and that's how they are becoming Giants through a mastermind merge. This was the first man to describe the philosophy of a mastermind alliance. First time heard through the words spoken by Andrew Carnegie. Know that a positive and mental attitude is only one of seventeen principles of true success. "Yea! You hear about having a positive and mental attitude by other Authors. But those Authors don't tell you the rest of the principles and how to apply them successfully. Learn about why is it that every application you fill out, has the question of how much is in your savings account???

Napoleon Hill describes how a simple habit of saving five or ten dollars a week can add to substantial amounts and not in money alone, but! In other areas of your life. Through good or bad habits you build definite life style. How are your habits?

This is where the term The Golden Rule became produced through building facts, upon facts, and other people's trial and error. Know how important it is to have a definite chief aim in life and how to build a burning desire to acquire it's final destination. How to apply the habit of going the extra mile, when people today don't even want to go the first mile.

Self-confidence? One must have this formula to succeed in anything, But here Napoleon Hill doesn't only tell you one must have this ingredient, he tells how to apply this by an autosuggestion formula that you must write down and than read it everyday again and again, until this formula becomes the burning desire that will work for you day and night through a metaphor that a lot of people want you to believe does not exist but it does and that my friend is ETHER! What is ether? (Look it up in your dictionary) This book will explain it to you how it works on humans, but only after your mind has been opened to accept such a formula.

It is a formula you cannot see, it is a formula you cannot touch, taste, feel, or smell, it is a formula that if you learn to believe in it, will protect you through an agency indescribable. And know that everything that you do bad or good will come back to you many times over. Sometimes the get back waits until it has time to build and all of as sudden there it is, smacking you right in the face of reality. "So you better be good for goodness sake!"

Reading this book alone will not manifest a thing until it is applied and used accordingly. I have proofed this man's writings to be true because I am applying the formulas to my life now and so have a lot of other people. Who am I, to disagree with them? "IT AINT NO FREE RIDE BUT IT'S WORKING!" FIND THIS BOOK AND GO GET IT!

I just finished a wonderful book by Liz Curtis Higgs.I was drawn to this book because 1) I had read her previous novel MIXED SIGNALS and loved it (she has also written several nonfiction inspirationals) and 2) It's one of the rare books set in a Moravian community (this time ontemporary Lititz, PA) as I had a family of Moravian ancestors. This book was terrific. It dealed with a young woman, Emilie, who has a Ph.D. in anthropology and has returned to her hometown on hiatus from teaching in NC to write the history of her hometown Moravian church for its 250th anniversary celebration. But she has an ulterior motive as well -- one that will give her accolades from her collegues and help her recover from hurt pride. While there she meets land developer Jonas Fielding, who is best described as a real "hunk." A big conflict comes in when Emilie who cherishes everything from the past, locks horns with the modern-thinking Jonas. Of course the fact that they are both attracted to one another gets the sparks flying. Things don't always go smoothly as when Emilie discovers Jonas is building the 18th hole of a golf course right on the ruins of the first Moravian church in the community.

Liz Curtis Higgs has quite a way with words and her witty, seemless style of writing is very appealing. I laughed out loud more than once. I can only hope she writes fast as I can hardly wait for her next book!

Wow what a book! Funny and heartwarming. I loved every page of it. If Liz Curtis Higgs reads this I hope she considers a sequel. We would all love to find out what continues to happen to these wonderful characters.

"Bookends" reveals a talent of the author, Liz Curtiz Higgs, that is nice to find in Christian Romance Novels. The characters are engaging and entertaning. Best of all, you do not have to wait till the end of the story for the main characters to have fun together! In this book the stroyline is creatively weaved with humor, seriousness, and romance, from begining to end. I highly recomend it to those who enjoy quality, intelligent, romance/comedy novels.

I enjoyed this book rather immensely. It was short but was simultaneously gripping. It one man's story of the Vietnam War as he experienced it serving with a LRRP unit in the 101st. For those interested in seeing and understanding the Vietnam War from all the angles necessary to more completely comprehend the goings on over there, this book is an excellent addition.

Having been in the army, served in a war myself, and now turned helicopter pilot, I can truly recommend his book to everybody. Especially readers who are thinking of joining, people who have served and wifes who are trying to understand. Larry Chambers tells it how it is. It's the "real experience" without the politics and the [] Hollywood drama. I personally enjoyed most how the book showes that in the real world, all that was learned in basic and from the handbook, needs to be "slightly modified" to survive a real battle and keep working. You guys are true heroes to me and I thank you, Larry, for a wonderful book I couldn't put down until I was done at around 3am next morning.

If you want to fully comprehend and sense the rigors of that unforgettable war in Viet Nam, RECONDO is a "must read paperback." Larry Chambers' powerfully written book, accurately documents what has been told to me again and again by every one of my buddies who was there.

Absolutely the way it is. Lopez fused a reporter's eye with a novelists' soul and artistry with no small success. Somewhat awkward stylistically- it feels like a new form- but very slightly diminshed. This is a page turner, a shocker and a fine story.
Realistic art and tragedy- a slam dunk.

Being a kid myself, about Gabriel's age, I found this book absolutely riveting and couldn't put it down until the last page. Although I've never experienced the Philly scene, because I'm from a small town, I really felt the atmosphere of the danger and "survival of the fittest" there. Steve Lopez did an excellent job of communicating to the world the trap young kids can get caught in, where it starts out as fine, but then you keep getting deeper and deeper until you don't know how you got in the first play. The book is tough, yet soft, and I found myself crying at the end... it's a must read book!

Steve Lopez paints the most accurate picture of Philadelphia's Kensington section I have ever read. There is no way to candy-coat the truth, but you can depict it with truth, in hopes of bringing some sensativity to the issues. Lopez's portraits are tight and clear. If anyone reading this story is not moved by Ofelia Santoro's search for her son, night after night, I don't know what that person would be affected by. Equally compelling are all of the portrayals of the characters in the story. I, unfortuately, know many of the families of Kensington in circumstances like the Santoros-- and worse! This book is certainly Pulitzer material.

I am an avid student of history, especially military history. I have read literally hundreds of books about WWII. This is without a doubt the best account of what war at the level of the infantryman is like. Mr. Megellas fought with the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division from Anzio to Holland to The Ardennes (Bulge) to Germany. He and his Co. H troopers were in the first wave in what many have called the second Omaha beach; the epic crossing of the Waal River in Nijmegen, Holland to capture the massive railroad and highway bridges. This was actually the first crossing of the Rhine River by an allied unit. It was arguably the greatest feat of arms in WWII. The accounts of Mr. Megellas and his men tell this story better than any I've read. They literally take you into the middle of the battle as they describe the crossing and the assault on the bridges.

Another very unigue part of the book is telling the story the 3rd Battlion played in the capture of Cheneux, Belgium where the 504th was the first American unit to defeat the 1st SS Panzer Division's Kampfgruppe Peiper during the Battle of the Bulge. This was the armored spearhead of the German effort in the Battle of the Bulge.

This book weaves many accounts of the men of Co. H 504th PIR together without redundancy. You not only read about the combat, but the daily struggle to survive under the harshest of elements in the winter of 1944-45 without adequate winter clothing, the constant search for food, and the lack of sleep day after day while being subjected to a deadly game where your reflexes and senses needed to be sharp just to survive.

You learn about the inner thoughts of the men. How the loss of their own brothers in other units on other battlefields affected them. You gain an understanding of how these men were closer than brothers, where each man's life depended on the courage of his fellow paratroopers.

These paratroopers were among the best fighting men that any country has ever produced. This book tells their story in a very riveting fashion with no phoney heroics. But, if you want to know what real heroism is, then read this book.

If you enjoyed T. Moffatt Burriss' "Strike and Hold" you will certainly enjoy this book. If "Saving Private Ryan" opened your eyes to the sacrifice of the WWII combat veterans, then this book is a must read.

I am an avid reader of WWII history and have been especially interested in the ETO. I have read all of the late Stephen Ambrose's WWII offerings and particularly liked the way Ambrose would quote the soldiers so that the reader could get a better understanding of what it was like to really be there. As much as I respect Ambrose's writings, he wasn't there. Maggie was. James Megellas (Maggie) tells it like it was, and pulls no punches. Through his writing, I was able to gain insight into his thoughts and emotions before, during and after battle in a way that no third party author could convey to a reader. I had the pleasure of meeting James Megellas recently in Dallas and am proud to say that I shook the hand of a true American hero. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what it really like to fight in the ETO in WWII.

As one of the six Ripon College Grads who went to Ft. Knox with Jim mentioned in the book, I appreciated the Authors story. I am proud of Jim and all of his accomplishments. It was a great book, and greater story of many young men who saved the World.

Like its prequel "Becoming a Man", Paul Monette's Borrowed Time is exceptionally well-written, and together they form one of the most important autobiographies our times. Borrowed Time, the story of Paul Monette's and his partner Roger Horowitz's struggle with AIDS, is sometimes emotionally too hard to go on reading, but at the same time too engaging to put down. While reading it I literaly had those feelings. If Becoming a Man is the ultimate growing up/coming out story, then Borrowed Time is the ultimate AIDS story. Together they tell the story of gay life in our times better than any other book I read.

Nothing I have ever read has moved me like this book; even though the medical side of HIV is far better these days, those of us in the war are still going through the same emotions. I cannot believe how brave Monette was to share all this with us, yet I know stories like these need to be told. He does a creditable job of holding in his anger, as I'm sure even today he must still be very bitter towards those who made treatment so long in coming. This is an incredibly powerful book, a testament to love and a terrible indictment of our society and some of our values. Everyone should read this book; while it's a true emotional roller coaster, and ultimately heartbreaking, it's only through works like this that we can hope for a broader understanding of what HIV means for the patient and their family. My thanks to Paul Monette for sharing this ordeal.

I had to take two days off from work when I started this book because I just couldnt make myself put it down.

Paul (I write in Frankness because by the end of the book all the charecters become like Family) writes with such simplicity and command that one feels like sitting by a campside listening to a wise man tell a heart wrenching tale.

Moreover, one thing i really admired about monette was that he doesnt try to gain sympathy by cashing in on his life. He doesnt use over dramatization as tools of deploying tears!

I really loved the ending because it brought such a fatal blow and with so little effort that the readers themselves had to grieve.

Furthermore, I learnt a wealth of information about HIV and AIDS from this book. Plus I just couldnt believe the red-tapism in the USA medical system. It really made me angry.

Read this book , Pronto!!
May Paul and his lover rest in peace!!

I've not picked up a novel by Gunter Grass since I plowed through (and enjoyed) "Cat and Mouse", "The Tin Drum" and "Dog Years" a couple of decades ago. Prior to reading this novel, I was completely ignorant of the catastrophic sinking of the German ship Wilhelm Gustoff by a Russian submarine in the Baltic Sea in the last few months of the second world war. As presented by Gunter Grass, this incident was the result of many fateful events, each one of which may not have been deadly, but when combined resulted in a horrible tragedy.
I found this novel very difficult to read. Grass aptly titled the book "Crabwalk" because the story does not unfold in simple chronological order. Instead the story, as told in the first person by Paul Pokriefke, wanders back and forth over more than half a century. As I read the novel I was flipping back through the pages I'd already read trying to figure out who a particular character is, or to recall a given event. I had to get halfway through the novel before I could recall all of the main characters and events. My knowledge of German is fair, and I found it helpful in understanding location names and some of the peculiar sentences. A good atlas is helpful to have when reading this novel because a map of the region where most of the events in the novel take place is not included.
I'd recommend this book, but it does require some effort on the part of the reader. It's not a poolside read.

Crabwalk is the first great book I have read that was written in the 21st century.

Why Crabwalk? Here's a definition of "crab:" "to move sideways, diagonally, or obliquely, especially with short, abrupt bursts of speed." Crabwalk's structure is similar. Grass offers a clue in referring to "scuttling backward to move forward."

Paul Pokreife, a journeyman journalist, narrates several parallel tracks: his life, his mother's (Tulla), his son's (Konrad), his ex-wife's, the ship Wilhelm Gustloff, the Nazi Wilhelm Gustloff (and his monument and remains), Gustloff's assassin (David Frankfurter), the Soviet submarine commander who sunk the ship (Marinesko), and Konrad's online challenger (Wolfgang "David" Stremplin) and his parents. Sometimes Mr. Grass jumps sideways sharing several stories at that time. Other times he jumps forward or backward to a different time or story. . . and then goes sideways to other stories. It's like stream of consciousness narration except it's finished prose and dialogue. . . rather than thought fragments.

This structure establishes many connections between one person and another to show an interconnected fabric of German society and consciousness since 1933 in the context of a few events, a family and a few other characters. I felt like I had just absorbed the richness of War and Peace . . . except in a relatively short and simple book.

Crabwalk can be read at several levels of meaning. The most compelling story relates the terrible tragedy of the sinking of the German refugee ship, Wilhelm Gustoloff, in January 1945 on the frigid Baltic by a Soviet submarine. More than 1200 survived while most others (estimated between 6,600 and 10,600) died from explosions, equipment faults, rescue mistakes, freezing, drowning, or the icy waters. Of these, more than 4,000 were probably children. There were only 22 lifeboats on board, and only one was launched properly. You'll have to read Crabwalk to appreciate the tragedy, but it dwarfs the Titanic. Yet it's a little-known event. The Germans made no announcement then to help maintain civilian morale. The Soviets were embarrassed and hid the event. Post-war Germany has kept a code of silence around any German civilians suffering as a result of the war, seeming to reflect the national guilt for starting the war.

Paul's being born the night of the sinking, aboard a rescue ship, links him to the Nazi past (through the anniversaries of the Nazi rise to power and Gustloff's death), the consequences of the sinking on the survivors, and the sinking's effect on the next generation of Germans. This connection is the bridge to other ways to read the book.

At another level, it's a story of a dysfunctional family: A woman who wasn't sure who the father is of her only son; a son estranged from his mother by her disappointment in him and his rejection of her values; a fatherless son becoming a poor father and failed husband; and a grandson reaching out to a grandmother for the emotional support his father fails to give him.

At a third level, Crabwalk is about the experience of the German nation since January 1933 when the Nazis took over. We go through the economic recovery years as Tulla's parents take a cruise to the Norwegian fjords aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff. Tulla grows up during the war and has a miscarriage while being a streetcar conductor. She becomes pregnant with Paul, and after the rescue are settled in East Germany where she becomes a carpenter and a devoted Stalinist. Paul escapes to the West as a teenager, and the two becomes estranged. Tulla also admires the old Nazis after East Germany falls and tries to fascinate her grandson with the ship's history. She succeeds through giving him a computer, and Konrad runs a Web site about the ship and the man it's named for. At the same time, you find out how Gustloff becomes a Nazi martyr after he's assassinated by a Jewish medical student in Davos. Ironically, Frankfurter's health improves by being in prison. He's released after World War II by the Swiss and heads to Palestine.

At a fourth level, this is a story about how our lives are influenced by our environment (our family, our nation, our history and our ways of perceiving).

At a fifth level, Crabwalk teaches us to think about the consequences of when and where we're born. If Paul had been born a few hours later, he would have spent his whole life in the western sectors of Germany rather than starting in the east. He believes his whole life would have been different . . . and it probably would have.

At a sixth level, Crabwalk explains that history repeats itself through the influences of the earlier generations on another. There are many deliberate ironies in the book as one character acts out variations on what an earlier character did (especially the way Konrad mimics David Frankfurter).

Ultimately, the book is about guilt. Who's guilt is it? And for what? What's to be done to atone? "History, or, to be more precise, the history we Germans have repeatedly mucked up, is a clogged toilet." "We flush and flush, but the [content]. . . keeps rising." In particular, should Germans deny their own suffering in World War II as a means to expiate guilt, or will that denial lead to new guilty actions?

The book profoundly expanded my understanding of the German experience. As a young man in Munich on business, I found my sleep troubled and interrupted by dreams and memories of Nazi marchers on the street outside, death camps in the countryside and murderous attacks on fellow Germans. Some taxi drivers who were old enough to have been in the Wehrmacht looked at me with obvious hate. Clients my age were very punctiliously correct anti-Nazis (we even visited events criticizing the Nazi past together). On the streets, young skinheads passed wearing swastikas. Crabwalk helped me to understand what was happening then and now.

The suffering of ordinary Germans during the Second World War is a topic that for many years has been virtually off-limits for discussion. There have been several books recently, both fiction and non-fiction which however have tackled this subject head on and Crabwalk is one of them.

Set nominally in the present day, the narrater of this novel is Paul Pokriefke, an unsuccessful middle-aged journalist, with a failed marriage behind him. His mother, Tulla, was a passenger on the cruise liner Wilhelm Gustloff, sunk in January 1945 by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic with the loss of 9,000 lives, as it carried mainly civilian refugees away from the advancing Red Army. Paul himself is born on that fateful night after his pregnant mother is rescued. After being asked to write about this incident, he comes across a right-wing website dedicated to the memory of the liner and its namesake, a Nazi official murdered by a Jewish student in 1936. He discovers the website is run by his alienated son Konrad and is subsequently forced to deal with the effects that traumatic night has had on three generations of his family.

The crabwalk of the title refers to the erratic, unpredictable path back and forth in time which Paul must take in trying to reach an understanding of the war-time events which have shaped his and his family's existence. The narrative therefore flits between several storylines. There is Paul's own investigations on the internet and the strange relationship he discovers between his son and his main online antagonist, who calls himself "David", after the name of the Jewish student who assassinated Gustloff. There is the story of the Russian submarine commander who is fated to be responsible for the sinking of the liner and its massive loss of life. There is his mother's story, one of the few survivors of the sinking, who after the war remains in East Germany as a committed socialist yet who defines herself in terms of her experiences during the Nazi era and is determined to exert influence over her grandson Konrad. And there is Paul himself, an aimless, un-ambitious individual, a second-rate journalist whose life has been overshadowed by events outside of his control.

This is a powerful and thought provoking novel, yet written in a relatively unemotional style and very elegantly structured. It is a short novel yet wonderfully constructed and executed. The central theme is of course the denial of Germany's suffering during the war, or rather the suffering of ordinary individuals. The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff is possibly the worst maritime disaster in history, yet it has been excised from western popular culture, replaced, as is pointed out at one stage, in the public consciousness by films such as Titanic and so forth. The failure of Germany's post war generation, exemplified by Paul, to collectively deal openly with the guilt and suffering of their wartime parents is seen to drive younger generations towards the dark side of the equation. Post war Germany sought refuge in economic progress and reconstruction, its people seeking to exorcise the Nazi era by rebuilding a bright new European nation over its ashes. Paul is an example of someone falling by the wayside, unable to forget his wartime heritage and get on with life along with the rest of society. Consequently, as his career and family life is one of disappointment and failure he is unable to guide his son properly, who by himself inevitably ends up being drawn to the negative implications of Germany's defeat. Konrad seeks revenge on the Jews and demands that Wilhelm Gustloff's "martydom" is properly recognised.

The ending of the book is bleak. Failure to deal with the war is leading a new generation to repeat old mistakes with the danger arising of an unending cycle of violence and recrimination. Konrad is the example, unable to place the terrible suffering of his grandmother in its proper context and therefore learn from history. With the Tin Drum and Too Far Afield, Gunther Grass became the master of the Zeitgeist novel and a masterful commentator on his native Germany. He succeeds again with Crabwalk.

Ha! A terrific book! For those who have read other Flashman books, nothing needs to be said beyond "Flashy strikes again!". For the rest, you're missing something. Where else (in your reading)can you have a rip-roaring good time, yet be encouraged to learn more about the (ludicrous) Crimean War and the Russian expansion into Central Asia? And how Flashman survives the charge of the Light Brigade...

To those who have never heard of Flashman, please go look up the book "Flashman" and buy it. If historical fiction is your cup of tea, you'll be hooked. In this entry: Flash signs on to munitions duty as the Crimean War begins to heat up, never suspecting that one day he will unwillingly take part in Colin Campbell's stand (The Thin Red Line) and Scarlett's charge uphill of the Heavy Brigade, not to mention the infamous charge of the Light Brigade... And then be captured, become an unwilling spy and resistance fighter, and of course bed a Russian noble's beautiful daughter... All in a day's work for old Flashy, of course, who would rather be at home. I have little to say about this entry into the Flashman series other than it offers up more of the same, and three cheers for it, and too bad there's not even more of it. Flashy's still a rogue, bluffing his way through horrors, rogering his way into the confidences of the enemy, and sniveling his way out of danger. The facts that Fraser re-creates historical characters and events with a scholar's eye for detail and a great novelist's flair for the story, that Flashman is neatly and unerringly made to be the impetus behind historical events, and the whole exciting yarn is awash in a heady dose of sly wit and knowing parody, all go without saying: this is Fraser, after all, the best historical novelist of all.

He'd have written Harry Flashman instead of Hornblower. Thank goodness he didn't. We get to have both.

Living in the Seattle area, I enjoy reading books written by the Northwest authors. It's always fun being able to "picture" all the places the author talks about---having been there in person. With that said, I also love this author's style of writing, the development of her characters and the story's plot as well. She didn't disappoint in this novel, "Between Sisters".
This was her best work thus far and each book seems to be the best---a trademark of a great author. I haven't cried so much since "The Bridges of Madison County". It had much humor, sensitivity, sadness,happiness, love,and the dysfunctional families. It had it all!! I didn't want the story to end. I also hope she might continue the characters in a future novel. The story of Joe and Meg could be a book in itself.
I could not put this book down--became very involved with the story and people and felt that I "knew" them as friends. I lost a child to cancer--so I could also relate to the pain of that disease, the agony of the survivors.
I hope Kristin Hannah continues to wow me with her books. I look forward to the next one.

Between Sisters by Kristin Hannah, is another heartwarming story by this amazing author. I have read all of Hannah's books, and each and every one of her books is endearing and so filled with life's realities. Hannah is able to draw the reader directly into the story and one just does not want to put her books down until the every end! The reader is relating to all the characters by feeling all of their emotions and seeing their world perfectly due to the artistry of Hannah's words.

I love Hannah's books, as they are so full of hope and love, even through the challenges that life presents each and every one of us. There is nothing stronger than love and Hannah portrays that so very well in all of her books. A crisis surely pulls a family together, where the love of one another is able to overcome even the strongest challenge.

Hannah portrays that so well with her latest book on the bond of two sisters, broken apart by life, yet love pulls them and those around them closer together. Love heals, as Hannah so clearly shows. Sisters torn apart by family forces yet brought together again though their love of one another.

Hannah's books are not only wonderful stories, but she also weaves a message throughout her books that just fills one with hope.

I loved this book and highly recommend it anyone! You will not be disappointed! Five stars does not do this book justice!

ISBN: 0345450736
Title: Between Sisters
Author: Kristin Hannah
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Prominent but jaded divorce attorney, Meghann Dontess, discovers that her estranged younger sister is planning to marry a penniless would-be country singer. Since Meghann knows there is no such thing as happy-ever-after, she is determined to save her sister from a marriage sure to fail. Thus begins Kristin Hannah's grab-the-tissue-and-a-soft-seat fabulous page turning narrative. "Between Sisters" is a touching exploration of the relationships that abound in families. This well-penned fiction rings with honesty, the characters are your friends and neighbors, the dialogue is authentic and the action believable. Hannah has a talent for unforgettable plots and "Between Sisters" is destined to become a true classic.
Beverly J Scott author of "Righteous Revenge" and "Ruth Fever." Reviewer for Intriguing Authors and Their Books at http://www.funeralassociates.com/authors.htm