On-the-tape

John McPhee, it's often noted, can write about anythying and make it interesting, so when he tackles a subject as broad and fascinating as Alaska you know you're in for a treat.

The book is divided into three parts; it begins in modern Urban Alaska, with the story of its history and contemporary society. From McPhee takes you to the remote villages and towns, a place still populated by Native peoples and rugged outdoorsmen (and women). The last chapter concerns Alaska's last frontier- the remote North Slope, and the men who drill for oil there.

Like all McPhee books, the author seems to fade into the background and let the people and the land tell the story for him. Sometimes the reader feels as if or she, and not McPhee, is standing there on an oil rig.

Alaska is a rich topic, and McPhee is a wonderful writer. A great combination.

In the summer of '81, Jane told me, "You have to read this book!" and meant to give it to me for a birthday gift. However, before she had a chance, I had bought the book and was 80 pages into it. Two summers later, I found myself walking along a desolate stretch of the Alcan Highway in Canada's Yukon Territory. I was hitchhiking to Alaska, a place I felt destined to visit having read "Coming into the Country". I never did make it to Eagle (the village described at length by McPhee) but nonetheless remained "in country" until my money ran out five months later. Few books I have read yield such a feel for a place as this one does.

John McPhee is simply a great writer. His skill is the leading character of this novel which is full of intriguing individuals.

From characters like the author himself -- who changes and is challenged himself by the environment -- to fellow canoe riders, to grisslies, to yuppie suburbanites, to the self-made, this book delves into what makes people move to Alaska, to adapt, to stay, to survive, to be frustrated, and to not want to be anywhere else.

I first stumbled upon a Georgette Heyer novel when I was 14 and for more than 30 years I have been an avid fan of her books. I got hooked on reading regency romance novels just because of Georgette Heyer books and NOTHING I have read until now (and I HAVE read a lot) compares to her original and sparkling romances. Her characters come alive on every page and there is no one who can write witty dialogue better. Frederica is one of my favorite Heyer heroines and this book has a really funny almost-proposal scene.

I've been a fan of Georgette Heyer's wonderful Regency Romances for 25 years. I've started reading her books when I was 13 and my library of Heyer books is one of my most cherished possessions. Her sparkling dialogue and wonderfully created characters come alive in every page of the book. Frederica has my all time favorite Heyer heroes - The Marquis of Alverstoke is a bored and pampered aristocrat who when he meets Frederica and falls in love with her, finds his humanity and a heart beneath his cold exterior. What's wonderful about this book how warmly Frederica's family is portrayed. This book is full of wonderful romance, humor, and heartwarming joy! If you read this you will become Hooked on Heyer forever...

I'm afraid bookjunkie said everything so perfectly and eloquently I have very little to add and yet I must add my voice to those who claim this as their favorite Heyer. In Frederica, you have an exquisite heroine - intelligent, humorous, well-looking but not a diamond, kind, and above all totally believable as a woman who could turn the world of an accomplished, arrogant, self-centered rake upside down. Heyer manages beautifully to make our hero, Alverstoke, all those things and yet absolutely marvelous at the same time. As usual, Heyer's secondary characters are perfection - interesting and amusing and so believable you feel she must know these people. This book is a must read for any regency fan - it is one of the best! An added bonus is that it hardly matters how much you pay for it - I don't think I could ever get tired of reading this book; I probably re-read Frederica twice a year: it never loses it's charm.

I got this book for my 13-year old son, but we both enjoyed reading it. The prose is wooden and we learn little about Aaron's personal life. But as a depiction of what he went through as part of the "second generation" of black baseball players, this is great stuff.

Aaron was one of the last great players to start in the Negro Leagues. He was also one of the players who helped break the color barrier in the minor leagues in the south. We learn the many hardships and dangers he faced long before his historical chase of Babe Ruth's record.

Aaron also "tells it like it is" about the great and not-so-great men with whom he played. If you admire men like Stan Musial, you won't be disappointed.

Aaron also tells a compelling story of how the white media consistently misportrayed him.

Finally, this book has a lot to offer about baseball. You'll read impressive testimony from men like Eddie Matthews why Aaron, and not Willie Mays, was the greatest player of his generation.

I was a kid when Hank Aaron broke the Home Run record -- and I grew up thinking that's what he was about, like an early George Foster. The audio book, with a Foreword and Afterword read by Henry Aaron himself, really brings the player and the man to you. He was an all-around player, at least once he found a defensive position where he had major-league talent.

His offense was outstanding, setting many more records than just Most Home Runs and reaching many milestones. He also is a man of conscience and character that pushed through a number of color barriers without the flamboyance of some of today's leaders.

The narrative, read by Courtney Vance, shifts without warning between 1st and 3rd persons. I found this interesting and it helped hold my attention. If you enjoy baseball entertainment like the movie "Bull Durham", this is for you.

Henry Aaron is probably the most underrated baseball player of all time. His story is seldom told or mysticized like other baseball gods. 'I Had A Hammer' is story from the heart. Honest and bold, it tells of Aaron's and other black players' struggle to make it in the big leagues. A must read even if you have the slightest interest in baseball.

Empire of the Sun, by J.G. Ballard, is the poignant, unsettling story of Jim, a British boy living in Shanghai whose life is altered beyond recognition by the Japanese invasion of China during World War II. The book begins in the winter of 1941, as Jim, a carefree eleven-year-old, and his wealthy parents attend high-class Christmas parties with other foreigners who have prospered in Shanghai. The only life that the inventive, intelligent boy knows is one of luxury and privilege, hardly touched by the war in Europe. Everything changes after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Suddenly the Japanese soldiers that have long been a fixture on the Shanghai streets are forcefully, uncompromisingly rounding up foreigners and sending them to military prisons. Separated from his parents, Jim wanders through Shanghai until he "surrenders" to the Japanese and finds himself in a squalid, disease-ridden detainment center and eventually in Lunghua camp, his home for the next three years.
The book is based on the author's experiences in a Chinese interment camp from 1942 until 1945. Ballard has an incredible talent for articulating Jim's perspective and describing how the protagonist changes from an adventurous boy in a school uniform to an emaciated, resilient, thoughtful (and still adventurous) young man who desperately tries to make sense of the world. In Empire of the Sun, Ballard pointedly recounts the squalor, disease and starvation of the camp just as Jim sees them. While Jim quickly becomes immune to the sight of such things - along with constant the death, murder, and beatings - the reader remains deeply affected. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects is how Jim comes to rely on the camp because there he can build his own little universe amidst the absurdity of the world. Empire of the Sun is an arresting, shocking, frequently comical book that won't leave the reader unchanged.

This is an account of JG Ballard's childhood in Shanghai during World War II when he was imprisoned in an internment camp away from his parents but just knowing that alone tells you nothing about the book. Yes, it takes place in WWII but that's almost irrelevant to the book, Jim is barely aware of the war as far as most people would conceive it and the entire war seems to take place mostly on the periphery . . . if it doesn't affect him directly than he doesn't care. On one level this is a nicely detailed account of life in Shanghai, especially in the beginning. Ballard is a good enough writer that he can describe such mundane events with enough flair that they take on another ambiance entirely. This becomes more pronounced as Jim winds deeper into the war itself, with the book becoming almost dream like in its quality. A lot of people I think object to the actions of Jim, which are very much what we don't expect. He's fairly self centered and makes a lot of weird rationalizations but I had no trouble understanding his POV, even if I didn't totally agree with it. He's a kid caught in something he can barely understand, so he has to break it down into something he can understand and sometimes that means making it a game and sometimes that means doing some things that most of us would interpret as cruel. That was the most interesting part of the novel for me, watching Jim trying to cope with the events around him, deal with the fact that he can barely remember his parents, with the fact that the only life he can really remember after a while are in the camp itself. With everything filtered through his perceptions the reader has to evaluate for him or herself what exactly the truth is . . . Jim's perception of some characters can change over and over, or maybe not even agree with what the character is doing, but that's because he's looking at it through the eyes of a child and by way of Jim, so is the reader as well. The white flash of the atom bomb that comes toward the end isn't even a climax, it's just another strange event in a war where everything strange is normal and for Jim it doesn't even signify the end of the war, for him the war never really seems to end. Haunting in its grim depiction of reality, this stands as one of the better books to come out about WWII simply for its personal perspective.

A beautiful and terrible book, Empire of the Sun has become one of mine preferred. After the attack to Pearl Harbour, the Japanese invaded South-Est Asia. Thousands of European civilians, women and children, couldn't escape and were interned by Japanese. A lot of them died from disease and starvation. James Ballard, the author, was one of those children. Living in Shanghai with his family, eleven years old, he was interned till the end of the war in the Lunghua camp. Jim, the protagonist of the novel, is the 'alter ego' of the writer, so the story is quite autobiographic.
Shanghai is seized by Japanese and in an apocalyptic try to escape, Jim, born in a rich British family, become separated from his parents and must fight alone to survive. He will be soon prisoner of Japanese and will be interned till the end of the war, spending the years from childhood to adolescence in the internment camp. The war, that overwhelms everything and everybody, is reported from the point of view of the boy in a raw and shocking way, nothing is saved from the corruption caused by war.
Shanghai is a hell's city, where thousands Chinese people lead a life without hope, oppressed first by Europeans and then by Japanese. Jim spends a life of absolute loneliness, not able to have a true relationship with other people. Obsessed by the primordial necessity of food, he become a 'disgusting boy' ready to do everything to survive, even to steal the food from other European prisoners, or to become the slave of a small criminal without scruples. Jim looks with a corrosive eye and black umor at the life of the European prisoners. With their body destroyed by disease and starvation, they loose any hope and lead a life made of baseness and small egoism. Leave alone to cope with the ruin of his life, Jim will find a refuge in a world of dreams, populated by the myth of Japanese aviators. Jim feels himself close to the Japanese kamikazes for their bravery, but especially for their loneliness and sadness. His dreams will allow him to survive till the end of the war. At the end the only life that he knows will be the life in the camp, and when this will end also his world of dreams will collapse marking the end of his childhood. By now an adolescent without any hope, Jim will wander an apocalyptic landscape, almost crazy from starvation, welcoming the death as liberation, but he will survive. The death is an obsessive presence in every page of the book, bodies, devastated by flies, are every where and the air is saturated by smell of decomposition. In my opinion this story is one of the most important documents about the atrocity of wars in the twentieth century. For its strong and shocking message against the war this is a book without time and I think that will be read also by future generations.

A MUST read for gardeners and non-gardeners alike! This has been my absolute favorite of all the Chicken Soup books so far. I think it will outsell all of the other books because gardeners and Chicken Soup fans tend to be of like spirit. Every story made me cry but yet left me feeling good, in true Chicken Soup style!!! Erma Bombeck and Nelson Mandela were a real treat.

Gardener's Soul is my first read in the Chicken Soup series. Had I an inkling that the series could evoke that cozy-fuzzy feeling, like a purring kitten warming your lap, I would have been reading them all.

Paula Silici's Nona's Garden stands as a fine example. I could smell the beef, garlic and tomatoes simmering in the kitchens of my childhood as I read of the life's lessions learned from her grandmother. I have more hope for the future after reading Beth Pollack's Planting Day,especially considering that such words of wisdom came from a 16-year-old. Good job,young lady! And A Bedside Story by Pat Stone reassured me that I'm not the only gardener who talks to plants.

No wonder the publisher has the name Health Communications. When the mind is calm, the body is better able to heal. This book is a fabulous choice for anyone feeling blue or for just anyone!

I wrote my review a second time because I thought I'd done something wrong and you weren't going to post it. Please delete the review dated October 23 and leave the later version. Thank you.

The Christmas Tree was a really sweet and easy christmas read. It was a nice story about "tree" and how it eventually made it's way to Rockefeller Center. It's a really short book and I read it in one evening. Don't pass this one up... it'll get you in the spirit of finding your christmas tree.

As the chief gardener of Rockefeller Center in New York City the narrator of our story has a colossal job ahead of him each year at Christmas Days end. Another year begins and he is already scouting out possibilities for the next years most perfect tree to decorate the prestigious Center for all to take pleasure in.

It is when the perfect tree is found on the Bush Creek Convent grounds that his job gets just a little bit harder. Sister Anthony unfolds a splendid Christmas tale that will leave the reader with a story you will want to share with the whole family. I can see this book easily becoming a family tradition. Heartwarming and wonderful a 5 star Christmas tale for certain. Kelsana@yahoo.com 12/25/01

I read this book when i was in 3rd grade i believe. it is a great holiday book for people of all ages

"Final Flight" really appealed to me as a techno-thriller where at least most of the people came across as real people, not shallow clichés.

Most of the story takes place on the aircraft carrier USS United States, and I found the descriptions of how a modern aircraft carrier functions fascinating. A ship like this and the aircraft on board it are an incredibly complicated yet awesomely powerful fighting machine.

Stephen Coonts describes in detail many of the procedures involved in launching and recovering the airplanes on an aircraft carrier. The level of complication is such that I found myself surprised that these things function at all, let alone function reliably.

The assault on the aircraft carrier by a group of ruthless terrorists, and its defense by the seamen and marines made great reading. I also loved the description of the dog fight between the lone F-14 Tomcat and four MiG-23 Floggers. This was a real edge-of-the-seat climax to the story.

As mentioned above, I found it appealing that most of the characters in the story actually come across as real people, with real people's problems and worries and motivations and good sides and bad sides. Also, the U.S. Navy is depicted as an organization with certain deficiencies, such as excessive bureaucracy, suppression of private initiative and lack of rewards for individual thought.

This is in contrast with most techno-thrillers, where all the characters are stereotyped and shallow "good guys" or "bad guys", and the western military organizations are the epitome of efficiency and functionality.

Despite what I've just said about the characters, I did find the top bad guy somewhat unrealistic, and this is the reason for the lack of the fifth star. Am I really supposed to believe in someone who,
- makes love to a female assistant in the locked trunk of a limousine?
- talks to a Russian General via a radio transmitter in a belt buckle?
- spends 1/2 hour burning a top secret manual for a nuclear bomb a few pages at a time in a furnace in the basement of a hotel?

But despite my problem with the top bad guy I really liked this book, and am looking forward to reading more of Stephen Coonts' books.

This book had all the making of a best seller. A great plot exciting and doesn't let the reader go. I personally found this one of Stephen Coonts best books ever. The reality of the events of this book almost makes it seem like a real event.

This book has everyone involved. The US, Christians, Arabs, Jews, Atheist, and the rest of the world are all in trouble. The Arabs are after the US again. This time they are trying to capture one of their nuclear weapons. They are shown as experts in black mail as they "recruit" the people they need to complete their mission. They plan to use it to destroy all the religions that oppose them. They infiltrate the supercarrier USS United States. Jake Grafton is losing his vision and his pilots as problems start to occur on the planes. Still the problem falls on him. The Arabs make it into the carrier and take hostage the Admiral using him they get 7 nukes in to the coppers and fly away. It is now Jake's job to catch and destroy the Arabs before they can use the nukes. The ending is one of a kind.

Say it isn't so! Jake Grafton, Stephen Coonts' hero of at least two other novels, has reached the pinnacle of naval aviation by becoming the CAG on the "United States" . . . and now age is catching up with him? He's a career navy officer, has a terrific wife, but he may have to quit flying because of a silly little problem with night vision? With all of the problems that Stephen Coonts weaves in the Middle-East, it doesn't take much imagination on the part of the reader to guess that we haven't yet seen Jake's final flight.

Stephen Coonts has outdone himself in "Final Flight." The character and plot development are superb. Jake and his wife Callie are again at the center of the story, but there are plenty of other interesting people. I'd like to read more about Toad, one of the F-14 weapons officers who flies with Jake - and that Judith! -- wow!

If you only read one Stephen Coonts book, this is the one to read. The book easily stands on its own for readers of all interests. (If you're into aviation, you'll want to read "Flight of the Intruder" and "Intruders" before reading "Final Flight." These two books will give you some very good lead-in information about Jake.

Once again Max Lucado uses seemingly bland every day events - forgetting the alarm code, misplacing a contact lens, or just reaching out to family during long and strenuous trips - to communicate how God works in seemingly hopeless or hope draining situations. He divides the book into three different subjects of conversation (and reading Max Lucado feels very much like you are having a conversation with him) - Stress of Demands, Storms of Doubt, and Sting of Failure - offering up plenty of Scriptural backed up anecdotes on how to better understand God in action, even when he seems the most distant. Some examples touched on matters that are very important to me, others just seemed quaint and diverting, but little more. Fans of the preacher who writes or the writer that preaches will need no encouraging to give this book a look, others unfamiliar with him should give it a look as well. Recommended.

I am glad to say that I am yet another Max Lucado fan and this was the first book of his that I read. Even at 16, I could easily relate to things that he talked about. Great book.

I loved this book. I could not wait to turn to the next page. This was the first book I have read by Max Lucado and it defintly was not, and will not be the last. I recommend this to anyone who loves an inspirational book about how Jesus at one time walked with us. Great stuff!

The sixth book of the Hornblower series opens in May 1810, 17 years into the Napoleonic Wars. The 39 year old Horatio Hornblower is given command of the 74 gun HMS Sutherland, 'the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy list.' Also, being 250 men short of a crew, he must enlist and train new members. Will this ship and crew be able to handle BOTH the French navy and army? Is this the end of Hornblower? Of course not, otherwise there wouldn't be more books after this, but don't you want to know how he handles a blockaded Spanish coast AND four French warships?

In 'Ship of the Line' daring British sea capatin Horatio Hornblower fights not only the French under the tyrant Napoleon, but his own heart as well. After falling in love with Lady Pamela Wellesley his hopes are shattered when she marries an admiral whose ego considerably outweighs his talents. What is worse Hornblower's conscience is racked with guilt over his disloyalty to his own wife, Maria. But before this becomes too much of a soap opera Forester plunges Hornblower into the dangerous swashbuckling sea where he uses every trick in the book to ensnare his French opponents. The ending is perhaps the greatest cliff hanger in all the series which leads into the next novel, 'Flying Colours.' Only a writer of Forester's genius can create so well both the moving human story and great adventure that is 'Ship of the Line.'

After returning home from a very successful voyage to the Americas Captain Hornblower is assigned to a larger ship of the line with two gun decks, the Sutherland. He is assigned to the fleet blockading the Mediterranean coast of Spain where Napoleon's French fleet and the Spanish navy are prevented from supplying Napoleon's armies. In classic Hornblower style Hornblower isn't content to sail idly back and forth, so he finds ways to attack harbors, canals, and a French army near the shore. After several courageous engagements Hornblower becomes the only English ship between 4 enemy vessels and their safe harbor. The remainder of the English fleet is over the horizon, several hours away under sail in light winds. Following orders from the fleet Admiral Hornblower attacks all four, severely damaging three of them before the superior weight of the more numerous enemy fleet renders his ship useless. The wreckage drifts down current into the lee shore and a Spanish harbor where Hornblower is captured. As usual, Hornblower is filled with self doubts. If he ever escapes will he be stripped of his rank or even hanged for losing his ship? Will he ever see his beloved Barbara, wife of the Admiral, again? The detail of ships and sailing in the early 19th century make the Hornblower series must reading for any man who loves the sea.

I Don't Have To Make Everything All Better, the title caught my eye as I browsed through an airport bookstore. The first thought that came to my mind was, "I wish that were true." At the time I was heavy with personal and relationship issues and the title made me curious so I bought the book. As I read this book over the next couple of days issues in my relationships became amazingly clear. I kept thinking, "Yes, yes, this is it! This is what I need to be applying in my marriage and in all my relationships!" Each page seemed incredibly simple and practical and, at the same time, profound and powerful. As I took in the content, I first thought about myself and my relationships, especially my relationship with my wife and kids. Then I thought about everyone I knew and worked with. I have worked with people one on one and in small groups for the past 18 years, and I kept thinking, "Everyone needs this book!" The principles in this book hit right at the heart of relationships. The Lundbergs insightfully reveal that all of us need to know that we are of worth, that we matter to those around us. We all want to be valued and listened to. However most people don't feel listened to. Most of us don't listen well to others, even the people we love the most. Instead of listening most of us tend to think about our own situation or problems, or we begin to formulate well meaning "advice" we can give to "fix" that person. In so doing we inevitably invalidate that person and begin a process of negative relating for everyone involved. In contrast, the Lundbergs present 6 very simple, practical principles that, when applied, will empower the people and relationships we care about. In a nutshell they practically demonstrate that when we listen - when we truely listen to those we care about, without becoming defensive or thinking about how to "fix" them, we in essence validate them. When people feel validated they are empowered to solve their own struggles and problems with you walking beside them. My wife had told me for years that I did not "validate" her experience, her emotions, her opinions. After reading this book I finally knew what she meant. I meant well by trying to encourage and give advice, but I had never truely listened to her. Once I began applying the principles in this book I felt freed up from always trying to "fix" her and she felt empowered and respected more fully by me. In the work that I do I have literally read 100's of books in the past 18 years - most of them dealing with relationships and leadership. This is the best book I have read on either topic! Get this book, read it, apply it, and share it with others! Dan Christensen

The principles in this book are applicable to any and all relationships in your life. It is very well written, easy to read and the real-life examples used are very relevant and illuminating. You will think twice before using the words 'should' and 'ought' in communicating with people after reading this, and will undoubtedly become a much better listener!

This book is great.
Easy to read, practical, with very concrete advice that WORKS immediately!
You can start applying the suggestions right away and reap the benefits.
It worked with my 3 year old son and my 60 year old father. It's going to really enhance the relationship I have with my son.

No kidding! Depending on your personality type, if you are experiencing some stress & communication problems in your relationships, buy this book right away. It could do miracles for you too.