Stopped

What does it take for some people to stop their harried pace and take a look at their lives and then, to put a better perspective on what is important and what can wait? In this case it takes a blizzard to force people's lives to a slow crawl and give them the precious gift of time, to clearly see what is taking place in their lives that needs to be re-examined and fine tuned. This is a beautiful, thoughtful tale that encourages you to adjust your priorities to those with real value before something "big" or even tragic has to happen to force you to do so. Phyllis Theroux wisely shows that time is a priceless gift and that to live a fuller, richer life, time should be spent wisely, not nickled and dimed away.

Leaving my cold weather roots with the outside temperature at 70, I never dreamed I'd be able to be deliciously snowed in for the holidays cozying up for a fresh winter storm so vividly brought back to life in "Giovanni's Light". Holed up with me, to my delight, were Ms. Theroux's richly endearing cast of characters who one by one are given the chance to revisit the essence of the holiday spirit. I was at home in Ryland Falls eagerly awaiting each turn of events. A great solo read but just as much a wonderful family read-a-loud. It allowed my sun-bathed clan to experience the magic and wonder of a Christmas where nature's snowy blanket sets the town residents on a new course. A warm glow of a book I have continued to buy more copies to pass on to frenzied, frazzled friends who are all begging to find a way to slow down and experience the true gifts of the holidays. "Giovanni's Light" is just the answer.

When I finished reading this absolute gem of a book, I was astonished to find myself sitting there, feeling my heart chakra open, and on the verge of shedding tears of joy. This is one of those small rare treasures of literature that quietly opens the readerÕs heart and lets in a gentle flood of light and warmth and love. A short story written with a deft touch and without a shred of pretense or saccarine embellishment, GiovianniÕs Light displays the effortless mastery of the craft, evoking Guy DeMaupassantÕs classic explorations of life and the human heart. Take time to savour every word. Phyllis Theroux has truly written one for the ages.

As a person who was also diagnosed with schizophrenia, (though I never heard voices), I found this a fascinating account of another person's journey from breakdown to recovery. The greatest strength of this book is the way in which the authors interwove the tyranny of the voices Ken Steele heard with the events of his life. The book gave me a clear understanding of how nightmarish it must be to live with a constant chorus of psychotic voices harassing you and insulting you from morning until night. Next, what struck me powerfully was the completely inhumane treatment Mr. Steele received from the mental health establishment. During the initial months of his first hospitalization Mr. Steele was locked up in isolation and given so much medication he couldn't move, not even to go to the bathroom. He peed and pooped where he was and attendants hosed him off to get him clean. Subsequently, in other hospitalizations he continued to be subjected to serious overdoses of medication. He was locked in seclusion rooms for extended periods of time, threatened and ultimately gang raped by other patients, and at one point locked in a closet for days on end. During the course of this book Ken Steele speculates that the cause of his illness was entirely biochemical and that his recovery took place solely as a consequence of the new medications he took later on in his life. But I felt that there was no way that his family life could not have had some influence on the outbreak and course of his illness. From the beginning it is clear that his parents have little interest in him, and that he is largely being brought up by his grandmother. When it became clear that he was suffering from a severe mental illness, his parents did nothing about it. And when he later ran into trouble and ended up hospitalized, his parents didn't even bother to visit him or concern themselves with his situation even though they were fully informed of what was happenening to him. When it came to Ken Steele's recovery, medication may have been a part of it, but it is indisputable that before he decided to take the medication, he had come to the point where he made the choice to be responsible for himself, to stop playing games and lying to himself and other people. In other accounts of people with mental illness, this moment of decision, the decision to take personal responsibility for oneself, is pivotal to any meaningful kind of recovery. And Ken made that recovery, and more than just recoverying, he went on to advocate for psychiatric patients such as himself and play a significant role in improving the lives of others. Suffering greatly, struggling greatly, recovering heroically, Ken Steele is without self pity, and through this book, continuing to give to others, even after his death.

I have schizoaffective dissorder and this book demonstrates just how bad this illness is. It's real and almost too real for me. The story is very moving. I could not put it down. Luckly today there are better meds then the ones Mr. Steele started with. I'm glad he had some peace in his life before he passed away.

This book is a must read for anyone who is related to or works with the mentally ill. It is a story that can help break down the stereotypes that the mentallly ill suffer under. The honesty that the author shares helps us all get a small glipse into the lives of the schizophrenic.

Many have the true notion that Spanish Dictator Francisco Franco craftily prevented his Civil War ally Adolf Hitler from marching 20 divisions through Spain in World War II and occupying British controlled Gibraltar. This prevented the Axis from sealing off the western end of the Mediterranean and made a major contribution to ultimate Allied victory.

What many may, however, learn for the first time in the Jane and Bert Boyars' 2001 documentary novel HITLER STOPPED BY FRANCO is that Franco also got away with provoking Hitler by his bold assistance to Jews.

An introductory quote (p. 104): "The Sephardim, Jews of Spain and Portugal, had not seen Spain since Ferdinand and Isabella had expelled them in 1492 after giving them the opportunity to remain by becoming true Catholics."

Franco's positive attitude towards Jews is at least six years older than Hitler's 1933 rise to power in Germany. As early as 1927 as a fighting Colonel commanding thousands of men in Spanish Morocco, Francisco Franco received permission from Madrid to use his troops to protect from Muslims the local Sephardic Jews. The Sephardic community was grateful and in 1936 supported Franco with money at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

In 1927 Spanish dictator Primo de Rivera had also told Franco that Sephardic Jews might return to Spain, become citizens and worship as they pleased. This invitation was deep in Franco's memory when, in 1940, French Jews began beseeching Spanish authorities in Vichy France for asylum on the basis of Spanish citizenship. (p. 104)

As told by Franco's wife to the authors, Franco then briefly but decisively mulled over what to do. "...I have sworn to give my life protecting Spaniards." (p. 105)

After prayer, Franco authorized issuing Spanish passports to Sephardim as their right under Spanish law. Asked by consular officials how to tell Sephardim from non-Sephardim, Franco ruled, "They are all Sephardim."

By September 1940 Hitler was pressuring Franco to cede to Germany one of the Canary Islands and to allow the Wehrmacht to march on Gibraltar through Spain. (p.106)

By November 1940 Hitler told Serrano Suner, Franco's brother-in-law, that he had at the moment 186 inactive German divisions and he intended to use some of them to take Gibraltar. Nor had he failed to notice Franco's Jewish policy. "Spanish passports are being issued to Jews who have never seen Spain, nor have their ancestors in precisely 448 years. ... Suddenly French are Spanish. And from Poland suddenly Poles are Spaniards. And in Denmark and the Netherlands ... overnight my enemies have Spanish passports and are able to leave my jurisdiction." (p. 159)

And leave they did. Nor did Jews ever forget that Franco was their benefactor. For the rest of this little known story -- and for much more-- read HITLER STOPPED BY FRANCO.

-OOO-

This book is certainly a most amazing and remarkable feat.It reveals quite a number of historical events and facts that demolish many myths and prejudices regarding Francisco Franco.Especially interesting is his protection of the many hundreds,perhaps thousands,of persecuted Jews in the face of Hitler's monstrous nazi death onslaught.Franco's handling of the WWII "Axis of Evil",his retaining Spain out of the war in spite of ominous and overwhelming pressures,his almost unique humanitarian and compassionate assistance to the to- be- murdered Jewish people,his patriotism and devotion to Spain and rock solid serenity in the face of great dangers is well documented and source supported in this book.What a pity that these achievements have received such little attention!Could it have been that Communism enormous propaganda resources did'nt take kindly to Franco's defeat of its attempt to take over Spain?.....Bravo for the Boyars!!!!

This book has so many great moments that I cannot list them all here without getting close to rewrite the full book again! FIRST GREAT MOMENT: The authors fictional depiction of how the world could be now. Just imagine this: A svastika flag over the White House! And, you know? If Franco hasn't stopped Hitler we could probably living that nightmare nowadays! SECOND GREAT MOMENT: The very beginning of the book, when you grasp a taste of the narrative style. Just begining to read it you KNOW you are going to enjoy it. THIRD GREAT MOMENT: Of course, the historical meeting at Hitler's train in the Spain's border at Irun-Hendaye. The fact that the authors could interview and tape record directly the only survivor from that reunion (Serrano Suñer) gives this chapter an incredible significance! FOURTH GREAT MOMENT: When you discover that the misterious man helping Franco with information on Germany's most secret moves was, actually, German admiral Canaris. Great scene! FIFTH GREAT MOMENT (AMONG DOZENS OF OTHERS): When the Allies and the Germans seem to be ready to invade Spain, and Franco is, in the middle of all that tension JUST OIL PAINTING!

Another important thing is to read and confirm that PRESS manipulation has always existed. It's incredible how that time media were totally biased and misinforming about the realities of Spain, and about the real character of Franco. This book is not only about a circumstance that did change History. This book could and SHOULD change the perception people have of Franco himself. But go ask the jews: they just call him the GREATEST benefactor of the jews amidst the WWII havoc.

Go read it. At the appendix's part after the end of the book, you can confirm that it is totally and painfully documented. But, besides its factual ground, it is a wonderful novel to read. Oh! And prepare to enjoy the tension, like in any good thriller, even when you know the final outcome of events. Five stars, for this book, absolutely!...

I wish I could have met or spoke with Ken Steele in person. To have survived all that suffering so long, at last finding the medicine that worked for him, and then be able to teach us what life was like for him and how he endured... I am hoping for the best of hope for our own child who suffers with similar problems... This is one of the best books I have read so far... I would love to have been able to talk to him directly get inside information on how to best help our child have the best life he wants and deserves to have inspite of this devastating illness.. This book gives an inside look and so many helpful ideas on ways to cope with this illness for the patient and family.... to become an advocate for people with this illness to help them get the help they need and maybe someday to even speak for themselves as Ken has done so well in this book...

This book is a real-life horror story. It is hard to imagine someone surviving 32 years of the most severe mental illness. I have my own mental illness problem (manic depression), but it's not the everyday nightmare that Ken Steele faced. Even though Steele eventually found the right medication and the voices stopped tormenting him, he didn't have long to enjoy his new life. Autobiographies of mentally ill people don't get much better than this.

On an October night in 1962, the voices had arrived without a warning. Ken Steele was only fourteen years old. The voices told him to kill himself, that the world would be better off without him and that he was no good at all. Ken had been listening to the radio in his home in Connecticut and began to think he was in a nightmare but realized he was not asleep. He knew he could not tell his parents because he was already a big enough disappointment to them. Ken's father wanted him to play baseball and become a professional, Ken wanted to read and write. His parents were in denial and Ken was in and out of hospitals being diagnosed with schizophrenia. When he turned eighteen he moved to New York alone and began a publishing job. Ken was suicidal and had attempted many times to set himself afire, hang himself or jump off of a tall building. Finally Ken had been checked into Manhattan Psychiatric Center, where they evaluated and tried to help Ken Steele with his mental illness. Ken had spent thirty-two years of torture from inner voices demanding him to kill himself. In this inspiring novel, Ken tells the story of his recovery from schizophrenia, his insanity, paranoia and coping with the out-side world with schizophrenia. Ken Steele still had hope despite his insanity and mental illness; he yearned for a state of sanctuary and wanted to be helped. He died from heart failure on October 7th, 2000 and would have been fifty-two on October 9th.

This a memoir of Carlo Levi`s experience as a political exile during the fascist regime, at the outset of the Abyssinian war. The setting is a remote village in Lucania, southern Italy, a region characterized by poverty, malaria, completely forgotten and neglected by the State. Levi's artistic sensitivity describes the people, the landscape, with an acute human feeling. This is the other side of Italy, the reverse of the rich, famous, well-developed North. After reading this book, it is easy to understand why so many Italians were tempted to emigrate to the American continent. Levi's ability to socialize and understand the peasant mentality is outstanding; it's a merit to his personality. The fact that he did not isolate himself from the people around the village, regardless of social and cultural level, enable him, after his realease, to write this book with a deep understanding of the social, political, religious, economical, and cultural problems of Southern Italy. The style is simple, direct, and elegant. Why Christ, why Eboli? the author only wants to say that the "civilized world" of Christianity has not reached this region of Italy, be it in Eboli or any other village of the South. An interesting book, written by someone whose main occupation in life was not be a writer. Levi was trained as a doctor, and as a "social doctor" he brush-stroked his thoughts into this memoir.

Carlo Levi as a gifted artist wrote about what he saw. It must be objective for its virtual universal acceptance by scholars and other readers. Certainly it is artistically and beautifully presented. It is an example of objective aesthetics.

For Mr. Martino to advise us in his earlier review that Gagliano and its ilk are not the same as in the 1940's and are now nice places with mature, decent, religious people, is a bit superfluous. Who cares? We are only interested in what was contemporary with Carlo Levi's being there, not what it is like now. Apparently Mr. Martino feels that Levi's book competes with his little travel narrative.

Christ Stopped at Eboli is a classic and an educational fun read. Perhaps it will help those in the future fear fascism enough to prevent it from rearing its ugly head.

This book has a distinct sense of place. The remote ,savage landscape and its long suffering inhabitants is depicted with a kind of poetry.The priest given to despair in a pagan land to the peasants who shrug when their goats, even their furniture is taken from them from them by the state is contrasted with the local gentry and their petty feuds. Carlo levi was quite a man. Children followed him,women looked at him and touched their hips, dogs wagged their tails....This book is about a great man, a quiet man of conscience who revealed a hidden land and his soul during terrible times. A book to keep and treasure.

This book should be read by everyone. It is informative, well written, and provides information one one of the true heros in the history of mankind. If you read "Shindlers Ark" (or saw the movie) you'll really enjoy this book.

As a parent, I know how hard it is to find excellent, high-quality nonfiction books for older children who are at an in-between stage - not quite ready for adult books but too old for "juvenile" books. This true account of Raoul Wallenberg, a man who saved more than 100,000 Jewish men, women and children from extinction during the Holocaust, is gripping and well-written. My kids could NOT put it down and one of them is a reluctant reader, so that says a lot right there. Watching my reluctant reader with his eyes glued to the page compelled me to pick up the book myself and I was glad I did. The author has used actual archival materals and even interviewed Wallenberg's family and friends. There are also photographs included, a special touch that brings a sense of immediacy to the past. Perhaps most importantly, the author has not "talked down" to the older children who are most likely to read this book (although it could be read aloud to younger ones). Adults, too, would find this one fascinating to read. A strong recommendation for this one!

Raoul Wallenberg was just one Swede, and that one Swede saved over 100,000 Jewish people from certain death at the merciless hands of Adolf Eichmann. To this day no one knows what the fate of Wallenberg is. This book was wonderfully written and didn't even seem as though it was non-fiction! I loved this book and I recommend this book to anyone.

Rauch's book exposes the sad truth about interest groups and their impact on the federal government.

He makes two basic arguments. First, that each interest group is only concerned about their survival and prosperity. And second, that the federal governemnt in unable to get rid of these groups due to their expansive powers as a whole. The fed he says is unable to fight these groups because there are too many to fight at once and because so many of these groups have powerful friends on the other two rungs of the iron triangle.

The consequences of these actions is that the federal government is forced to fund outdated/ineffective organizations that do no good for the public. Also, worthwhile programs are under-funded. And lastly, the problems that have yet to be addressed have a small chance of being solved because too much of our resources are spent on these entrenched dinosaurs.

I recommend this book to anyone trying to learn about what's really going on in the federal government beneath the non-analytical levels of todays news reports. Rauch provides many examples to back up his claim but doesn't get bogged down in political/economic jargon. The only critique I have abotu the book is that he tends to repeat his sub-arguments a little too much but it may help in underscoring the main points to his claim as a whole.

If you're trying to understand why the federal government is deaf to the needs of its citizens, this book will tell you why. Further, if there is any question why John McCain strikes such a chord with the American people, the answer will be found in here. Yes, the economy is doing great (and the polls say Americans agree). Yes, our position in the world is dominant (and Americans agree). But when it comes to the performance of the government, you can see the vein bulging on the average American's forehead. Washington has "stopped working," in Mr. Rauch's words and in his book, he explains why. The culprit is an explosion of special interests who seek to exploit political and finiancial gain from our nation's capital. The myth of the "national interest" has been quietly put to rest. In its place is the roar of special interests who sap the nation's economy, stifle legislation, and stir public cynicism. Mr. Rauch is a bit too cynical about the prospects for reform; I do not share his belief that government has "ended." Hopefully, the next generation of political leaders, heeding Rauch's warning, will prove him wrong.

It is hard to express how good a job Rauch does at putting forward his view of Wahington. He paints a vivid, believeable, coherent picture; he is fair-minded and nonjudgmental to a fault (truly - he is much too kind to many people); his pronouncements on, and advice for the future are measured and realistic, and not completely unconvincing; and on top of this the book reads very quickly. Greider's "Who Will Tell the People" is comparable in message, but, while very well done, that much larger book fails to present as clear a testament to what has happened to Washington in the last 40 years. Though people who are interested in politics should already have come to grips with Rauch's thesis, the fact is that most have not, while the average, relatively apolitical American would no doubt find this book quite an eye-opener. As the other reviewers note, Rauch is a consistently fine writer; here is a good place place to start reading.

"Stopped at Stalingrad" is one of those genuine surprises. Just when you think you have read everything you need to read or want to read about a given subject, along comes a book that forever alters your view of that subject.

This book's principle focus is on the Luftwaffe's role on the Eastern Front. It may, indeed, be the only book length treatment of the subject. Joel Hayward demonstrates with great care that the German's use of air power as a tactical, and not strategic, weapon in close support of ground forces was perhaps THE key factor in the German army's early successes in the East. Patton and the Allied Generals could only DREAM of tactical air-ground support on this level. Writes Hayward, "The Luftwaffe, together with the army meticulously co-ordinated their operations and created joint "Schwerpunkte"(points of main efforts)." I may be demonstrating my own woeful lack of knowledge, but this is the first time in all my reading about the German war effort that I encountered a discussion of the critical doctrine of Schwerpunkte.

But one of this book's best offerings, comes at the very beginning where Hayward outlines in detail the crucial role that oil, or the lack thereof, played in the entire German war effort. From the outset, the German's were running at a critical deficit. And even with the Rumanian oil fields running at full capacity, the German's were in terrible trouble. And every time they absorbed a new chunk of territory, their situation became all the more desperate.

So great was Germany's reliance upon the Rumanian oil fields that Hitler became obsessed with the potential for Russian bombers to turn them in to what he called, "an expanse of smoking debris." The fear proved, of course groundless, the Russians were never able to mount an effective long-range bomber command. But this fear led to a costly, Quixotic "cleansing of the Crimea" -- the so-called "Operation Bustard Hunt".

When the German's launched Operation Barbarossa, their requirements for oil became critical. And this chronic problem led Hitler to focus on the oil fields of the Caucasus. Indeed from this point on much of the German strategic war effort was geared towards securing a reliable oil supply (or developing alternatives).

The effort to reach the Caucasus proved, in many respects, to be Germany's undoing. And it was a fruitless effort to begin with. It assumed that: (A) they could reach the fields at all; (B) that if they reached them the oil fields were not so badly sabotaged that they could be put into production in time to make a difference; and (c) the oil supply once secured could be actually brought back to German over a SINGLE rail line of varying gauges that crossed thousands of miles of terrain open to sabotage and air attack. But Hitler was blind to all of this.

Hayward writes with great passion and precision. At times one feels a little overwhelmed by details. But his portraits of the individual German pilots and commanders, as well of the shocking conditions under which they fought and died, is truly memorable.

This is a book that is not only for the specialist. Anyone with an interest in the Second World War needs to read this book. It makes a brilliant companion to Antony Beevor's book, "Stalingrad".

This is a detailed book with a strong analytical component, great new photographs, and a good bilingual bibliography. The author begins in March 1942 and takes the Stalingrad campaign through to its death in February 1942. Both air force and ground operations get good coverage, but the real strength of this book is its explanation of how the two branches (and even the German navy in the Black Sea) cooperated together. The account is based on a careful reading of scores of unpublished war diaries and other rare documents, and is therefore a nice surprise after reading countless previous Stalingrad books which all quote the same, readily available sources (Lost Victories, Chuikov's book, etc). The book is stronger overall than Beevor's book, even if the latter is faster paced and has more on the Soviets.

Put plainly: you can't understand the Battle of Stalingrad without this book. It is the only analysis of air and joint components of that hell on earth battle. Its author did a huge amount of work in archives and relies on unpublished diaries, notebooks, situation reports, squadron records, afteraction assessments and so on. The argument is clear and persuasive: that much of the credit for German successes during the eastern battles of 1942 must go to the Luftwaffe. Whereas many enthusiasts and some scholars have always presented the Luftwaffe as the secondary, supportive arm, with the army dominant, Dr Hayward makes clear that that view is out of date and unsupportable. The Luftwaffe led and dominated during the entire 1942 campaign. That doesn't mean that it could perform the impossible task Goering and Jeschonnek gave to it: supply of Sixth Army. Hayward's analysis of the airlift is the only authoritative account. The book is superbly crafted and compellingly written. It is one of three or four books that every Stalingrad reader MUST own.

A sensitive subject to be sure, I was compelled by what an intensely personal trauma this must have been and by the fact that I know someone who had this very experience at the age of fourteen. What stands out in my mind about the impact of the book is that it made time stand still for me while I read of Ms. Ramsey's experience and left an indelible image of how life experiences can alter us psychologically when we least expect it and in profoundly troubling ways. The most troubling of all is the nature of the criminal mind and how our society leaves us at all times in vulnerable positions because criminals do reside among us, prey at their convenience, and do great damage. That a thirteen year old went through a hell of sorts provides a sobering glimpse at the nasty underbelly of the social morass.

Martha Ramsey's account of her rape at the age of thirteen is a remarkably honest and beautifully written memoir of a very bright child caught up in an incomprehensible crime at the tender age when she was just becoming aware of her own body and sexuality. Her adolescent self-consciousness about the sexual nature of the crime, and her parents' and siblings' reactions to the rape, and the perceived lack of support she received from them, were something she had to reconcile later in life, when she began to suspect that she may never have adequately coped with what had happened to her. This is her story of returning to her past, and trying to understand how being raped at the age of thirteen by a stranger in the woods, may have shaped some of the decisions she made, both in her academic life and in her personal life.

I slept through my alarm after staying up all night reading this book in one sitting. Thank you, Martha Ramsey! Your story extends far beyond the physicality of rape and brings readers to the fresh, poetic voice that is yourself recounting your relationship with your family and others. Your shock value poem at 14 is not written by a precocious girl smugly knowing her teacher and classmates will know it's seering but instead by a girl who doesn't really know she's saying "listen." I did. Next stop: Blood Stories.

I have been searching for this book for over 25 years after it was inadvertantly sold at a garage sale one summer. A truly engaging story that brought to life the incredible advances of the past 100 years in medicine and culture around diseases such as epilepsy. The tale is spun in a vivid historical style which moved me in much the same way as Elizabeth George Speare's books "Calico Captive" and "The Witch of Blackbird Pond." A very worthwhile read.

Years after reading this book I searched every used bookstore until I found a copy! There are many out of print books that I read as a child that I would enjoy reading again, but this was my number one priority. It is a masterpeice of mystical time travel.

This book was a favorite of mine when I was a teen-ager. I now have a daughter, and would love for her to read this book. It is about a young girl who is epileptic. She goes on a class trip. She loses her medication and has a seizure. When she awakens, she is now her great-grandmother. This book was exciting and intriguing. I am sorry it is out of print. I hope to find a copy soon!