european Books

This book lives up to all the praise it has received from reviewers such as Paul Fussell. It goes a long way in diminishing the romanticized and fictional idea of war, usually held by those who never go to fight it.

Outstanding first account of Marine Corps actions during WWII. Great to visit that place after so many years.

Over the last decade, I have given several copies of this book to friends who did not know about the horrible fighting that took place at Peleliu. A Marine whose brother died there, first told me about the battle and loaned a copy of this book. I found E. B. Sledge's account of what happened there and at Okinawa to be told with compassion and humility. The Marines who fought there overcame impossible obstacles and paid dearly. We owe them our respect and gratitude.

I was fortunate enough to serve in W. Germany during the "cold war," with the US Army. Although there was the threat of combat, luckily it didn't happen for us. However, what these guys went through was pure man made hell on earth. It's not just the combat, but more so the stresses of unrelenting heat, humidity, decay, exhaustion, fear, etc. I think taking a bullet through the head would have ended up the easy way out, it was those who survived that in some respects had it the toughest. This country can never fully repay these Marines. Hopefully, they all found their peace with God.

Just finished reading and am now circulating to my sympathetic CMP Forum buddies. A must-read for anyone interested in first-hand history.

What a wonderful book! I found it very entertaining as well as informative. The Six Wives of Henry VIII has quickly become one of my favorite books to read.

I love to read, but I am one who has to really concentrate to take in books. Something has to be very interesting for me not to be distracted. I was suprised to find out this book was one that kept me interested no matter what was going on around me. I am very happy I bought this.

This is the second book I have read by Alison Weir. She does a wonderful job of making larger then life historical figures venerable as well as accessible. I highly recommend this well written and deeply researched book to those who are interested. I will soon be on to my third book by her which is about Henry's children and I anticipate I will not be disappointed. For those interested Elizabeth I is great as well.

To be a historical book, this is an easy, interesting read. With so much interest in English history, this is a good book to read.

This book was very informative as to the personal lives of the six queens. Weir was able to tell a story full of facts without reading like a history book. She also addresses some of the rumors circulating during the period about some of the queens and why they may or may not be true. Overall, a satisfying read.

I found myself lost in Massie's descriptions. Never has an historical account held my attention quite like this one. He's very charitable to the royal family - perhaps excessively so. Still, everything is well-documented. He presents a more accurate representation of the tsars than popular accounts.

Although this is not an historical novel, it almost reads like one. It is an in-depth (character analysis?) of the Romanovs, taking the reader step by step to the events that led to the downfall of the Romanovs. As you're reading, you can almost hear yourself say to the Romanovs, "Don't do that! It will lead to your destruction!" But of course you can't and the rest is history. A well written book, logically flowing to tell you the who's, what's and why's of the Romanovs. Anyone who is a Russian hisotry fan will love this book.

This is an all-encompassing authoritative biography of the last ruling Romanovs, and Massie has compiled a thorough and well-researched insight into the lives of Nicholas and Alexandra. Even forty years after its original publication and long after the fall of the Soviet Union, it is a relevant part of Russian history. Massie is very sympathetic in his presentation of the royal family and addresses pertinent questions about the fall of the monarchy. If Alexis, the heir to the throne, had not had hemophilia, would the influence of Rasputin not have been necessary? And if Rasputin were never in the picture, would the monarchy have suffered such a tarnished reputation?

The book painted a very vivid picture of the Royal Family based on hundreds of sources and letters. Nicholas is an incapable Tsar but a warm-hearted, devoted husband and father. Alexandra seems frantic and ill at ease (and often just ill) in her constant concern over the life of her son. And I love that I felt I got to know each of the children, Olga, Tatiana, Marie, Anastasia, and Alexis more individually and personally. This made their demise all the more heartbreaking. This book also gave me a greater understanding of the political climate of the time in Russia and a better comprehension of the revolution and the roles of Lenin, Trotsky, and other important players (although I occasionally found some difficulty keeping the various Russian names straight). Overall, this is a captivating book and the saga is all the more intriguing because it's history. I will definitely be interested to read some of the more recent material that Massie presents in The Romanovs: The Last Chapter.

In 2000, there was much talk about the "most important person of the 20th Century." My choice was always Gavrilo Princip, the young Bosnian assassin who killed Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, igniting World War I, which caused the Russian Revolution, Communism, and the Treaty of Versailles, which led to Naziism, World War II, atomic bombs, and the Cold War.

Of course, there were other factors which formed the tragedy of the twentieth century, and perhaps some of these historical events would have happened anyway. Almost for certain, the Romanov Monarchy would have fallen or been transformed out of recognition without the help of Gavrilo Princip's bullets.

Although the Ottoman Empire was always referred to as "the sick man of Europe," Robert K. Massie illustrates that Russia was not very well either, despite appearances. An obsolescent autocracy, the Russian Empire was mired in time at the dawn of the twentieth century, the great mass of its people existing much as they had 100 years earlier.

Massie's theory, that the hemophilia of Alexis, the young Tsarevich, had an inordinate influence of Russian and subsequent world history, is well thought-out, though perhaps an oversimplification. Yet, it cannot be discounted. The Romanov Dynasty had ruled Russia then for 300 years, and brought the country, by fits and starts, slowly into the orbit of the modern world. Despite this, there is much truth in the observation that "Lenin inherited a nation playing beside a manure pile and Stalin bequeathed a nation playing with an atomic pile." This is not to defend Stalinism, but only to say how little the Romanovs did overall to modernize their State.

When Nicholas II inherited the throne after his father's untimely death, he was woefully unprepared to rule. Dominated for years by archconservative and anti-modernist members of his family, he did little to educate his people, provide health care, build infrastructure, or lift the heavy cloak of official repression that lay over all but ethnic Russians in his realm, or the cloak of cultural repression that lay over the ethnic Russians.

Yet Massie shows us a man and a family of uncommonly kind nature in Nicholas II and his family. His daughter Olga paid personally for the care of a handicapped subject she spied from her carriage one day. The Tsaritsa, Alexandra, despite a reputation as an uncaring woman, herself nursed sick friends before the war and horribly wounded soldiers during the war. The family built hospitals and schools in and around the various cities wherein lay the royal estates. They acted to ameliorate suffering wherever they saw it, without reservation.

Of course, this was the problem. They acted only on what they saw with their own eyes, never recognizing that these sufferings were endemic throughout the realm. Their myopia was part and parcel of the lives of the citified upper classes, completely divorced from the mass of agrarian peasants in the countryside, magnified by the hermetically sealed nature of being an Imperial Family, aided and abetted by sycophants and the self-serving, who kept the real world at a very long arm's length, in order to maintain their own privileged positions. Living in a bubble within a bubble, they were just not aware of conditions in most of Russia.

Nicholas II ruled over the largest domain on earth. Russia today is still the world's largest nation, even shorn of Finland, Poland, the Baltic States, Belarus, the Ukraine, the Central Asian provinces, and (in 1867) Alaska. Sunset in Vladivostok was dawn in Brest-Litovsk. His hundred million subjects included hundreds of peoples speaking hundreds of languages, linked together by a shockingly small road and rail system. The sensitive Nicholas, had he been really cognizant of the shape of things, could have, by a single order, vastly improved the lives of each and every Russian (of course, as he noted, being an autocrat and giving orders does not ensure that they are carried out properly). His greatest failings, as a ruler, all had to do with his decisions to outwardly maintain his Imperial hautre and his autocracy at all costs in the face of cataclysmic change.

This bubble-within-a-bubble existence however, could not spare them from the fact of the Tsarevich's hemophilia. A genetic disorder inherited through the female line (Alexis' Great-Grandmother was Queen Victoria, whose progeny were ravaged by the disease), it prevents the clotting of the blood. When Alexis was born in 1904, the world was a full lifespan away from the development of a usable clotting factor; most hemophiliacs simply bled out and died. The Tsarevich was protected by a full retinue, but this did not help him, and the boy was often in screaming agony and close to death from what might in another child, be a bad bruise. The Heir, therefore lived in a bubble within a bubble within a bubble.

The Tsaritsa, Alexandra, was a solemn, shy, but deeply emotional and loving woman, nicknamed "Sunny" by her husband. To the world, she presented an aloof exterior, and was extremely unpopular with her subjects. Had they known the sorrows and agonies she suffered through with Alexis, her realm, and history, might have treated her far better. But the Imperial Family decided to keep Alexis' condition a closely guarded secret, fearing the destabilization of the Monarchy and Russia in the face of a physically frail Heir. This may have been the Imperial Family's worst error, as it robbed them of an outpouring of sympathy and support from a passionate populace.

Alexandra turned to religion, and ultimately, to Gregory Rasputin, a filthy, degenerate, sexually perverse and personally dissolute monk of peasant extraction. Although derided by most, and called a charlatan by many, Rasputin was perhaps one of the most charismatic men in history, had a devoted following (largely comprised of Society women he'd seduced), did have the power, somehow, to control Alexis' bleeding episodes, and therefore, had the Empress's full and unwavering support in all things.

The feared and hated Rasputin may have indeed been a seer or had mystical powers of some sort, judging from circumstances. Rasputin was not really political, but as his influence over the Romanovs grew, his power expanded commensurately, and he was able to have Ministers dismissed, Generals reassigned to sinecures, and policies changed according to his own whims (expressed as messages from God) or concerns. Capable Russian leaders, who did not know the basis of Rasputin's power, suspected the worst of Alexandra, and in challenging Rasputin found themselves toppled from power. As World War I dawned, Russia was upside-down, its best men in internal exile, and woefully unprepared for war. Rasputin himself counseled against war, stating that Russia would collapse from within. Nonetheless, the British, German and Russian grandsons of Queen Victoria went to war.In that war, millions died, empires fell, nations were born, ideological political systems triumphed, and the stage was set for a darker and yet bloodier future.

The Tsar and his genteel family were consumed, ending their days against a wall before a Bolshevik firing squad, probably not understanding, until the end, that they had been in the eye of a hurricane that remade the world.

I first read Nicholas and Alexandra many years ago as a 14 year old. It was a transformative experience for me, awakening what has been a lifelong passionate interest in royal biography and Russian history. Now that I'm in my early fifties, I recently reread Nicholas and Alexandra for the first time in about twenty years, and it continues to have the same magic.

Robert K. Massie became interested in the last Tsar of Russia because he, like Nicholas, was the father of a hemophiliac boy. Massie spent long hours reading about hemophilia and famous hemophiliacs, and he was fascinated by the way Russian and world twentieth century history turned on a chance genetic defect. Had Tsarevich Alexis not had hemophilia, it is probable that Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra would not have come under the malign influence of Gregory Rasputin, the Siberian faith healer who had a catastrophic effect on the Russian government before and during World War I; leading to the Russian Revolution, the rise of Communism, and the deaths of Nicholas, Alexandra, and their children. Its an interesting thesis that still holds up well, though Massie's focus on the inner tragedy of the Tsar's family tends to make him discount the many other problems from which pre-revolutionary Russia suffered. Massie also has a natural tendency to whitewash Nicholas and Alexandra (parents of hemophiliacs have a special bond with those who share their trauma, after all), by barely mentioning such negative traits as the Tsar's anti-Semitism and the Empress' many neuroses.

The book remains an extraordinary work of art. Massie's descriptions of the Russian landscape and his finely drawn character sketches are wonderfully rich and detailed. He is able to explain the political and social complexities of the era colorfully and wittily, even when dealing with such abstractions as the differences between Social Democrats, Social Revolutionaries, and Bolsheviks. Most of all, Massie is able to make us weep for the Romanovs: a man who was a bad Tsar but a good husband and father, a woman who destroyed her family while trying to keep her son alive, and five innocent young people who never had a chance to lead happy, productive lives. Every time I read Nicholas and Alexandra I tremble again at the thought of their last awful moments, but I am enriched still more by the chance to read such a magnificent work of art and scholarship.

This book is full of millions of details about the people places and events , it can be used as a reference book but it is also interesting for average reader like me. The language is like that of a novel, so it is far from being boring. It arrived in good shape though I had to ruin it by wiping it with liquid soap and alcohol followed by ironing from over a piece of fabric in fear of catching swine flu(The package has arrived from the US so I have a right to be obsessive-compulsive:)))

I BOTH ORDERED THE DVD & THE BOOK. I ENJOYED BOTH, THEY WERE VERY ACCURATE IN SHOWING THE LIFE OF PETER THE GREAT.

Just finished this book and couldn't put it down. The writer masterfully documents the life of Peter and the surrounding events in his world. He gives just enough information about life and times of France, Sweden, Prussia, etc. I found Peter fascinating and a rarity among monarchs who generally don't want to get their hands dirty. I visited St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) back in the 80's and wish I had the background that I have now.

I think it is one of the best biographies ever written, a classic. Helps to a deep understanding of Russia.

I read this book ten or more years ago and still remember it well. It changed the way I read history. I get interested in a period a biography ends up suggesting other aspects of the time. My interest is largely in the ways personalities and intellects interact with their times and cultures to propel events. Peter the Great does a wonderful job of illustrating the times, the mindset in Russia and Europe and how this man, with one foot in the nearly tribal habits of Czarist and the other in 'modern' Europe, began to move his gigantic nation from an entirely inward view to a more global perspective. Massie is immensely readable which, for some reason,'serious' historians feel is a flaw. I've never understood the reason for that complaint. (Barbara Tuchman--Guns of August and others-- was criticized for the same trait.)His scholarship is equally huge and his scope is broad enough to understand context and narrow enough to remain a biography.

But that is not what changed my reading of history. As a not particularly crucial portion of the book, Massie describes some battles. I usually avoid military history as tactics and strategy did not appeal to me. (I read Shelby Foote's stunning 3 volumes on the Civil War and nearly collapsed from the details from one battle to the next.) Massie's descriptions not only described pincer movements and troop massing, but illuminated the reasons for military decisions, and the personalities that drove decisions. He describes the battles that make clear the abilities (or lack thereof) of the participants. His description of tactics made it clear to me for the first time the larger meaning of military efforts in the overall results--not simply victory or failure, but the impact on the battlefield and off. For example,a successful military leader can be pushed into a larger more influential political or governmental role, even if the reasons for his success do not bode well for being successful in the evolved role. I don't recall that exact circumstance [excellent general becoming a failed political leader]arising in Peter the Great, but I do remember realizing that it could. It was something I had not thought of before. He does not say "general X could not translate military maneuver into political skill". Instead he describes what happened and its result. The point is made and never a pedantic minute spent. He converted me from reading quickly through the battles of history to considering their larger import, and I am still grateful for the lesson. And, mind you, this is a relatively small element within this book. Massie enlarges your understanding of history.

His treatment of the military action is repeated in his treatment of all of Peter's life. His detail of the competing European aristocracies, the charming and much less than charming aspects of Peter's character (was Peter a humanist as Europe saw it or a man willing to casually torture others..or both?), the limits of the Czar's impulse to the modern explain the man and his time. Massie does not rely on declaring his subject, but allows the life to declare itself.

History is a story, which is part of the reason we read it. It is not a series of facts, but instead the interweaving of many facts, of which perhaps the most important are the characters and capacities of the principal players and the societies they inhabit. Massie is very, very good at keeping one finger on the psyche of the participants, another finger on the social movements, the psychology of the region or country or crowd, another finger on the technology that effects outcomes, and so on, so that when he folds his hands around the tale, you are informed of the aspects that, taken together, made history. Moreover he does it with suspense, never telling the tale too soon while hinting of direction, so that novel like, you are compelled to turn the page.

Peter the Great changed Russia forever and you will better understand that time and this one for reading it. Massie's clear, well written, well paced book and its comprehensive grasp of its subject puts it on the 'must read' list for anyone interested in history of any time or any place.

This is an amazing book. I simply could not put it down. After seeing the movie a few years ago I had to buy this book and as I was reading it I could remember certain things from the movie which made the book so much more interesting to read. As always, the book will go into more detail than the movie. Many things that were written in the book were not included in the movie simply because they were so disturbing. In the book they also include about 15 pages of the diaries of the German officer who helped Wladislav. It was very interesting to read his thoughts on the war and actions of his countrymen. This book is a must read.

I read this excellent book, here in Brazil.This book is amazing.The author, a polish jew is hunted to be exterminated, by nazists.And this happens for more than five years.All his family is murdered.He has famine and even tries the suicide, one time.
About the Warsaw uprising, the author writes on page 186:"I was walking down a broad main road, once busy and full of trafic.There was not a single intact building as far as the eye could see.I kept having to walk round mountains of rubble, and was sometimes obliged to climb ovem tham as if they were scree slopes."
Again, on page 212, this book writes:"Numbers.More numbers.Of all three and a half Jews who once lived in Poland, two hundred and forty thousand survived the Nazi period.Anti-Semithism was flourishing long before the German invasion.Yet some three to four hundred thousand Poles risked their lives to save Jews.Of the sixteen thousand Aryans remembered in Yad Vashem, the central Jewish place of rememberance in Jerusalem, one third were Polish.Why work it out so accurately?Because everyone knows how horribly the infection of anti-semithism traditionally raged among "the Poles",but few know that at the same time no other nation hid so many Jews from he Nazis.If you hid a Jew in France, the penality was prison or a concentration camp, in Germany it cost you your life - but in Poland it cost the lives of your entire family."

Polish filmaker Roman Polanski who was born and raised in Poland by Catholic parents, was there to see what it was really like, unlike many others who were never there, but make ignorent anti-Polish judgements. It's funny how those who were actually there, like Wladislaw, tell a completely different story that the Hollywood/Media tells. Wladyslaw told the truth. Read the book, and see the movie. Get this book and movie to your schools and libraries - Please. This story has healing qualities that brings people together, and not apart.

This book is an incredible story of survival. I have seen the movie also. I would recommend both!

One of those amazing stories that makes you realize just how much the human spirit can take, and still survive. And just how inhumane we humans can be towards each other. Once you start reading, you won't be able to put this down.

Just when you think the human spirit can endure no more, this story proves that thinking very wrong. Written so long ago, it is a story we must never forget, for as good as the human soul is, it also has the capacity for great evil. We don't ever want something like this to happen again...not to us, to or our children, or to our grandchildren.

I never write reviews for what i buy on amazon but decided I needed to for this book. From the first line in the book I could not put it down. It is so powerful and through Gerda Weissman's words you will be pulled into this book. I have long been interested in WHY the holocaust happened and HOW it happened...how was it possible for something so horrific to happen to people just because of their religious faith? This book helps you to see the war and the nazi takeover of Poland through the eyes of a young girl...you will forever have the images she gives you in your head...I could not put this book down until I finished it about 2 days later..and I have two young children so I was walking and reading...now that is a great book! I am just about to order her other two books and the video made about her life One Survivor remembers...if you are considering reading a great biography..this is your book...

This book is so well-written that one feels as though they are having tea with Mrs. Klein while she tells you her wartime story. I bought this book and read it up to the point of her liberation the night I purchased it (while visiting my sister). I then woke up at about 0500 the following AM (a weekend) and finished it. The ending took my breath away and was almost like a fairy tale, which is a bit jarring given the nature of the work, but ultimately such an unexpected joy. Mrs. Klein's memoir had such an impact on me that I regaled my family with the details of the book for the rest of my visit; two of them have now read it themselves.

Her experiences and losses were immeasurable but her title is succinct. Despite the best efforts of the Reich, Gerda Weissman Klein emerged from her horrendous experiences with her soul intact, along with her integrity and intellect, and best of all - she made a life full of love, respect and purpose.

Does anyone recall a passage in this book about sharing a raspberry.
This episode is a significant part of her current lecture series, but I don't recall it in the book.

This is one of the first Holocaust survival stories that I read. It is by far one that has stayed with me in the most detail.

What a strong girl Gerda is. she was told to never give up her boots and in the end it is one thing that saved her life after marching in a blizzard half frozen to death. How she survived is nothing short of a miracle.

Reading this when you are in a hard time reminds you that you do have the inner strength to survive. If she can do that then I can face my problems. It is quite graphic and tells the truth of really happened in the holocaust.

I'm not going to give the story away I'm just going to say you will cry and rejoyce in this story. It will touch you to core of your very being.

I must read for EVERYONE!

Intruiging, amazing, and really catching. I couldn't set this book down until I finished it. A great book for any ww2 buff, or simply a submarine fan. Amazing writing.

This book really should be made available as a hardback edition. The book is printed unfortunately in paperback. The author's work, pictures, and his story must be better preserved than in this book version. You will get beyond this situation though, in the telling of the story, which is so extremely well done that this book is a must read for those who did not have this experience. The story of the U-boats and the crews that manned them should be remembered by those who enjoy the freedoms that so many in so many contries take for granted today.

THis is the first U-Boat memoir written in English and the first to reach a mass audience. It was originally published in 1972. Herbert Werner immigrated to America after the war and became an American citizen. As of this writing, he is still alive. While researching my novel, AN HONORABLE GERMAN, which is available for presale on Amazon and is being released in May, I read almost every U-Boat memoir ever written. THis is one of the best because of the detailed way in whih the author recounts both his life in the UBoatwaffe and life in the Third Reich during WW II. I first read this book in 1972, when I was high school and was fascinated with it. Werner says in his memoirs that he was ordered by his Flotilla Commander, who had received the order from Doenitz, to ram any Allied ship in the English Channel on D-Day thus sending the men on a suicide mission. The men of the U-Boatwaffe who survived the war, quickly divided into pro-Doenitz and anti-Doenitz factions. Many claimed this order was never given but Werner was in the room and received the order and those who said he never could have received such an order weren't there. So Werner became persona non gratia among the veterans of the UBoat fleet for both that accusation and for his condemnation of how Doenitz had sent all of his friends and himself to die, knowing full well that their UBoats were obsolete. It is hard not to agree with Werner's conclusion. In spite of the image created by so many that Doenitz was a good guy he was actually a vicious anti-Semite, an ardent Nazi and, according to Professor Peter Padfield's biography of him, Doernitz was present at the conference in Poland in 1943 where Himmler briefed the highest ehechelons of the party and the government and the armed forces about the murder of European Jewry. Doenitz should have been hanged at Nuremberg. This memoir has a bitter edge to it because the author's family and almost all of his classmates and friends died in the war. After learning about the death camps, the idea that he and others had fought for such a criminal regieme made him ill. The edge of bitterness gives this memoir a much stronger and more forceful tone than any other of the memoirs and I think Werner is one of the most credible sources of life in the UBoatwaffe. Given that he was so bitterly critisized by many of his fellows when the book was published, one can only think that he was right in what he said. If you are going to read one U-Boat memoir, this is the one to read. I would add the caveat which is useful when reading all memoirs: this is a book about what the author remembers as true and not exactly what was true.

Revolutions of religious faith excepted, no set of events ever resulted in greater changes to human civilization than did those of the Second World War. Within the context of the war, the Battle of the Atlantic was among the most important of those events. Had the allies lost that campaign, the very outcome of the war might have been different.

That battle was waged primarily by the German U-boat (submarine) fleet against Allied freighters, carrying men and materiel to Britain, and their protective escort ships and planes.

Mr. Werner, a mid-level German field officer for most of the events described in the book, offers an historical perspective of that conflict that no academic could hope to match or even approximate. The most remarkable part of the book to me was not the numerous descriptions of sea battles, (although these certainly were riveting) but of the social dynamics between Werner and those around him as he does what he can to prevail in the War. Some of his activities described strike a 21st century person such as myself as mildly ignoble and inappropriate. Later in the story, however, insights are discovered as to how the impossible pressures of combat danger make these proclivities understandable, even admirable. I was initially critical of Mr. Werner because I had no conception of the life he faced during the years chronicled here. Coming to even a limited understanding of this man via his book was a remarkable epiphany, and I was well rebuked in hindsight.

Most of the WWII veterans have passed on now. My own father, who fought in the Pacific theater, is now 87. We often see surveys that show younger Americans cannot identify the USA's allies and enemies during the conflict, nor when it was fought. For any parents concerned about this trend, put this book in your children's hands. Once they start, they'll want to finish, and maybe a generation's grasp of a vital history will endure at least a little longer.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

And there are alot out there. This is superb, I could not put it down. I will read it again someday. Sledge's "With the Old Breed" is slightly better, but that is splitting hairs. If you have to buy 2 books on WW2, get these 2.

This book literally changed my life. As someone with a deep interest in Anne Frank and the Holocaust, I began reading it with some concern. I have read several books involving time travel and there is nothing that irks me more than a romanticized version of Anne Frank's life. However, this is a book that brings her and other victims of the Final Solution to life for me, and it is one of the best books I have ever read. I can clearly see how easily it could have been me and my family in the Holocaust, instead of someone else. The story also does a brilliant job of linking everyday events with those of the Holocaust. I can only imagine how survivors view modern life after what they went through. It makes you think about what is really important in life. I literally began thinking about how materialistic and selfish I can be, and how little that I really worry about is of any importance.
The title is misleading however; Anne Frank does spark the story and end it, but she is really not the driving force behind the book. She appears in the Holocaust flashback for only a few pages, though those pages are tearjerking.
Nevertheless, there is a great deal of information about the Holocaust in this book. It is extremely well-written, an incredible page-turner. I almost find it difficult to believe that it is a work of fiction, it seems so real. It is a slightly more mature book, recommend at least for teenagers. Aside from the age issue, this is a story that comes highly recommended. It will alter your life forever.

I loved this book! As i was readig it i thought what does it have to do with Anne Frank but as i kept reading the book got more interesting and i found out what it had to do with her.

This was the best book I ever read and i plan on reading it again. i recomend it to everyone.

Anne Frank and Me was an emotional story about a girl in present day and in the time of the Holocaust. If you do not like books that will make you cry, then do not read this one. The author uses very realistic details about the Holocaust so that you feel like you are really there in the story. Anne Frank and Me is exciting from the very beginning. You do not have to read for hours just to get to an exciting point in the book. I highly recommend Anne Frank and Me because it is an emotional book, and it is based on a horrible but real event that happened not too long ago.

Anne Frank and Me was an exceptional book and I enjoyed it very much. I can't imagine how anyone wouldn't love following Nicole through her journey starting in the 90's and ending up in year of 1942. I've read it twice and I know I'll set it down for a few months, then read it again! I recommend this to anyone with a heart! Enjoy Anne Frank and Me.
Stephanie A.
Tustin, CA

I would have to say that Anne Frank and Me is a very well written book about a modern girl trapped in a world shattered by the Nazis. Very realistic, I must say. Cherie Bennett makes it feel as if you are actually THERE. The characters are very original. The ending is very shocking and also well written.

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When Purple House Press reprinted this book, I recalled it as one of the memorable reads of my childhood, but for the life of me I could not remember why. I remembered the basic outlines of the story, but they didn't seem to add up to something that would have stuck in my memory so. (Since I never owned it, I had never reread it.) However, trusting that there must have been SOME good reason, I went ahead and purchased it. Now at long last I finally know why it stuck in the back of my mind for all those years:

The Phoenix.

David is a nice enough boy, easy to identify with, but in the Phoenix Mr. Ormondroyd has given us one of the most memorable characters in all of children's literature. Wise and all-knowing, but not quite as wise and all-knowing as he thinks he is, he exudes an exquisite sense of pomp and dignity... right before he trips over a windowsill and pratfalls into the bushes below or traps himself in his own snare or nearly electrocutes himself demonstrating his (less than complete) knowledge of electricity. A true rock of courage, unless something frightens him, he can be counted on to fully concentrate on the problem at hand, unless he is distracted by something...

like cookies.

I would love to know the people in Mr. Ormondroyd's life who inspired this character!

A surprisingly evil Scientist rounds out the major characters in this story of a boy receiving an unconventional education that will remind the reader a bit of Harry Potter's early education and an unforgettable ending.

Not to be missed. I am now greatly looking forward to reading his Time at the Top.

A longtime favorite - I think I first read my birthday copy in 1980 - I finally bought a newer copy that wasn't falling apart - re-read it again - and passed it along to my sister & her kids. I have loved this book and re-read this book so many times over the years. The adult language - the mature but child-like relationship of David to the Phoenix. The slow but steady buildup of adventures, learning each other - and the final understanding that you have to love something/set it free - even if it hurts bad (and it does) - this book should remain a standard for children's reading.

I read this book as a child and wanted to share it with my grandchildren.

I loved this book when I was a junior high teen, and at 57 I find I love it still. I have chortled for 40+ years over the mental image of the Irish Wail (tied up in a cardboard box, sealed with a bit of wax)voraciously devouring cabbages and growing in size, volume, and, of course, degrees of harmony.

THIS BOOK IS AN A++++ WINNER. Buy it for your kids, and if you can pry it away from them, read it for your own pleasure. Your life will change--for the better--after you meet David and the Phoenix.

Hallelujah!!! This book was in desperate need of a reprint. I just bought it, again, and let my children read it. With the original artwork included, this is a must have. People say if you like Harry Potter, but that doesn't do the book justice. This is the Holy Grail here. You will laugh and cry and fear for the characters and fall in love with them too. And sadly, you won't want the book to end, but it will. When will we see David and the Phoenix again?

I was very happy with the book I ordered. It came within a few days of ordering and was in perfect condition. Can't beat the price either. I will definately be ordering books this way again.

The education director at the National World War II Museum suggested this book to me as a great place to start with understanding Market-Garden. Great tip!

The bookseller gave me a book in great condition and shipped it fast. Thank you!

Great introduction to Operation Market-Garden. Good overview, with lots of anecdotes from participants. Included maps are appropriate/good. I quite enjoyed the writing style. This is a top recommendation for anyone interested in the setting.

The story of Operation Market Garden is one that is often overshadowed by other World War II operations like Overlord (D-Day) and The Battle of the Bulge. Yet, had its outcome been different, the whole history of World War II may have been different. What if the allies had been able to invade Germany though the Ruhr Valley and captured Berlin in 1944?

I thought Ryan presented a well rounded history that was well researched. He lays out the story from beginning to end through the perspective of all sides. He shows the story unfolding from the eyes of all the allies (American, British, and Polish), the defending Germans, as well as the civilians directly involved. The great part is that a large portion of personal interviews are used in the writing of the story and researched to document their accuracy. Ryan does an excellent job of detailing the actual Operation itself, but he doesn't stop there. He also imparts to the reader the background leading up to the planning of the Operation, the politics behind its conception, and the critical errors that allowed the mission to proceed despite the high chance of failure. You will be inspired by the heroism displayed against insurmountable odds. Anyone with any interest in World War II will love this book.

My first introduction to Operation Market Garden was the game Microsoft Close Combat 2.0: A Bridge Too Far. It is a little dated now, but if the story intrigues you, take command of the forces in Operation Market Garden and determine the outcome of the battle yourself.

I shall assume that everyone reading this review has seen the movie made of this book: with an all-star cast including Sean Connery, Michael Caine and Robert Redford among many others, it's rather hard to miss. I was expecting to find all sorts of inaccuracies in the movie exposed in this book. But while there indeed were a few inaccuracies, the movie is surprisingly true to the book, down to verbatim accounts herein, such as Major Cook (played by Redford in the movie) and his 82nd airborne troopers crossing the Waal to seize the other side of the bridge at Nijmegen with rifles as oars, under heavy Jerry mortar fire, synchronising the rowing to "Hail Mary-full of Grace-Hail Mary-full of Grace."- One might add that it's the only fully successful Allied action one finds here. More importantly, the movie does capture the spirit of the operation as a whole, especially the valiant tenacity of the airborne troops. And, if you thought the movie was too bloody, you will only be convinced that it didn't show the gore and confusion of war as fully as it might have.

Despite some reservations - to which I shall get around in due course - this book is a sorely needed one. Market-Garden is carefully swept under the carpet in both British and American accounts of the war, as is the "hedgerow war" fought after D-Day. In fact, when I first saw the movie (at age 11 or 12), I thought it was some sort of fiction!

As one born and educated in England, I can't help but seeing Monty's fiasco here as an act in what the Brits at the time (Monty and Churchill especially) saw as a tragedy: The crumbling British Empire. Also, there's Monty's peculiar situation. It's very hard to convey to Americans. But Eisenhower understood it, and put it better than I can in a taped interview with Ryan:

" Look, people have told me about his boyhood, and when you have a contest between Eton and Harrow on one side and some of the lesser schools on the other, some of the juniors coming into the army felt sort of inferior. The man, all his life, had been trying to prove that he was somebody."

American readers are likely to have skimmed this section relating to Monty's upbringing. Simply put, he was not - in the rigid class system of the day, and of this day to a lesser extent - what was considered "top-drawer." He had not attended Eton or Harrow or even Winchester (where I attended) but as a junior officer of the Army from the (borderline lower) middle-class who had not been at university at all but had come straight out of Sandhurst - something like Westpoint, without the prestige - he was up against it from the start. By "it" I mean the whole structure of British society. Thus, a second lieutenant with the right pedigree might say something like this to an old school chum, "A brilliant military man, Monty, but not really our sort." Still, I am not a Monty apologist. And Eisenhower was indubitably spot-on in calling Monty a "psychopath" by the time this truly psychopathic operation was concocted.

My reservations about the book concern a bit of dishonest sensationalism in the book - the comparison with Stephen Ambrose made by other reviewers is apt, but at least Ryan carefully documented his sources and didn't plagiarise. For one, the subtitle of the book is absurd -"The Greatest Battle of WWII"- Come now, we have Midway, Stalingrad, Monty's own El Alamein and The Battle of the Bulge to consider. Also, Ryan mentions time and again the greater Allied losses during Market Garden - around 20,000 - than those on D-Day - he's careful to specify "the 24-hour period"- of around 12,000. He casually neglects to mention the 60,000 Allied troops lost in the hedgerow country of Normandy between the establishment of beachheads and the breakout into open countryside.

The most riveting section of Ryan's book is the last, Part Five, "Der Hexenkessel" (The Witches' Cauldron) - which speaks for itself, and I won't harry the reader who has persevered in reading the review thus far with any more of my own words. Instead, these spoken by the almost unbelievably valiant Captain Mackay as he watched the troops withdraw should suffice:

"As I continued to watch I hated everyone. I hated whoever was responsible for this and I hated the army for its indecision and I thought of the waste of life and of a fine division dumped down the drain. And for what?"

One can see why the operation is kept out of the history books.