history

We were about to take our first foreign trip to Germany with our young children. We knew we wanted and needed a "home base" but had no idea where! Then we read this --- we ended up booking two weeks in an Apartment in Oberammergau from someone Don mentioned in the book. We found that reading this before we went gave us a different perspective on living, even temporarily, in a foreign country --- from the "Barvarian Pudding" produced by the town's cows to the friendly people of Oberammergau, this book helped make our vacation into an unforgettable adventure. It really helped to make us feel like Oberammergau was our home. We can't wait to return. Thank you for helping us discover this special place!

You have done a wonderful job with your book on Oberammergau. I have been lucky enough to have taken lessons from a Master Carver who lived in Unterammergau. I stayed at the Hotel Turmwirt while over there. They were very nice to me and treated me like family.

The sign to the Cafe Neu also brought back pleasant memories of my afternoon coffee and cake that I took after my lessons. Thank you.

I loved reading this book so much that I didn't want to put it down! It was very exciting to learn about this family's experiences in this quaint German village. I really felt as though I was in Oberammergau with them because the experiences and descriptions of this charming town are so real and so honest. Oberammergau is definitely on my list of places to visit the next time I travel to Europe!

I've taken a delighful ramble through Annerino's handiwork, THE WILD COUNTRY OF MEXICO/La tierra salvaje de Mexico. As a consequence, I have a powerful urge to see what the author wrote about and photographed. The book uses wonderful color photographs and Spanish/English essays and captions to take us from mountainous Chiapas, where the indigenous people speak pre-Hispanic languages, to Yucatan, where Mayan ruins poke out of beach-bound jungles...It's the Sierra Madre that produced my favorite photograph, the eerie, wind-eroded ruins of the ancient city of Paquime.

En THE WILD COUNTRY OF MEXICO/La tierra salvaje de Mexico el fotoperiodista John Annerino captura a bellezo y el espiritu de la gente nativa y de la tierra salvaje que ellos habitan por medio de imagenes vivas e imponentes con texto en ingles y espanol. Viajamos a troves de seis regiones distintas de Mexico: las remotas selvas de Chiapas; las ruins maya de Quintana Roo; la Sierra Volcanica Transversal, una meseta hobitada que es la tercera mas alto del mundo; la Sierra Madre Occidental, el hogar legendario Canon de Cobre; la rica bioregion de Baja California, y el Desierto Sonorense, uno de los grandes desiertos del Nuevo Mundo. Aqui esta una evococion brillante de la gente y de los lugares en las areas de Mexico que son poco conocidos y rara vez visitodas. -La Casa del Libro

John Annerino's odyssey through Mexico is recounted in THE WILD COUNTRY OF MEXICO, a photo book with extensive text in English and Spanish. Annerino skips the cities and concentrates on lesser-known areas. The scenery, of course, is a knockout, but Annerino's photos of the people are the ones you will remember. -Union-Tribune

There are a few personal accounts of war and its impact on a man that stand out in the sea of such literature -- works such as "Goodbye to All That," "Homage to Catalonia," and "The Men I Killed." "Quartered Safe Out Here" has now joined that short list. MacDonald Fraser is the acclaimed author of the Flashman series of historical fiction, but here he reveals his own experience as an infantryman in merciless combat against the Japanese in Burma. Here is an all-too-vivid recollection of the fear, pain, discomfort and -- yes -- the pleasure of comradeship among the common soldiers who win or lose ALL wars. MacDonald Fraser reminds us that wars are not just "politics by other means," wars are about young men -- their lives, their deaths, and their friendships. As one reviewer said, MacDonald Fraser "has raised a memorial" with this book. Read it!

This is one of the best personal memoirs of any war. Fraser's experience as a young man fighting in Burma during World War II is recalled in wonderful detail. He manages somehow to bring out all the horrors, oddities, laughter, and comaraderie that characterize many similar military units, and we get to know each member of the small band with all their strengths and failings. Particularly striking is Fraser's occasional use of official historical accounts of the Burmese campaign as preface pieces to his own descriptions; the cold eye of the historian paints a very different picture compared to one who was there, when every shot fired could end in the death of yourself or a comrade. Fraser's introduction alone is a gem, and his brief discussions of the ordinary soldier's view of the Nazi concentration camps and the Hiroshima bombing provide a stark contrast to the moralizing that surround these subjects today. Fraser's book reminds us that at bottom, all wars are characterized by the men who fought in the lowest ranks: men whose efforts make them stand out and who deserve our admiration, thanks and respect.

While Britain was ingloriously kicked out of SE Asia in 1941, their soldiers seemed to exemplify the worst effects of years of defeat and despair. The debacle of Burma and Singapore and the debilitating effects of defeat infected both the British, Indian and Commonwealth armies. After the defeats and the long road back is where George Mac Fraser comes in.

The British and Indian Armies has been integrated trained and tested in the rugged battles of Imphal and Kohima. The Black Cat Division full of men from mostly Cumbria, are ready to be tested in the long road back to Rangoon. Fraser recounts his role in the big push to capture most of Burma and then the mop-up operations with British Special Forces in the closing weeks of the war.

Fraser's autobiographical writing is characteristically wry and at times cynically humourous. At other times he evinces what one may call the "ugly" side of the racist feeling of the enemy that filled the heads of both sides in this conflict. Like a lot of authors of the same era, Japanese are "Japs" and they are a lesser form of humanity. Lesser because they kill, rape and murder and kill British POWs to a degree that the British soldier (and any normal human being) finds shocking. What happens is, in turn, a dehumanisation of the British/ Indian soldier and any notion of him being a gentlemanly warrior. Quarter is neither asked nor given. Killing Japs and more Japs becomes the end in itself. When the initial offence breaks the backs of the main line of Japanese defence, the Gurkhas hunt Japanese with their long Kukris, Indian troops kill Japanese wounded, and the British go for vengence.

At the end of the book Fraser is aware of the mentality engendered on him and his men. He makes no apologies for it. In one of his more famous quotes he asks if the British soldier fully cognizent of what the A Bomb would do the Japanese women and children would withhold bombing if giving the choice. He answers that if it could in some way end the suffering on the Burma Front by shortening the hell they faced, then the British Soldier would join in a single chorus that "yes use the damned thing...."

It is chilling in the sense what this war in the jungle did to them. Fighting far from home in a jungle with sparse rations, rotting clothes, little rest, constant wet of the monsoons or constant dryness of the central plains --- the wasting of the body and the mind is much in evidence in this book.

Fraser also loved his mates and the times he spent with them. Those days around fires on the Central Plains the intial rush to capture Rangoon before the Monsoon rains is very poetically detailed by this warrior Scot. Seven years after reading this book I can still remember his description of when the chase ends and the first drops of the monsoon rains come as they rest on the road to Burma.

The British Warrior poet is a much more developed genre than its American counterpart. In this war there are many good British haunting memoirs about the Burma Front and the "Fogotten War."
But this is still one of the best and stays with you a very long time.

... to being the consummate jungle fighters, unparalleled, is where Japane

One wouldn't think of a book like this to be the life-changing kind. But it can be. I read this books a few years ago, getting a copy in the strangest of ways. I read the first book and loved it. But this one is something else. Little I would know that I'd find myself on a trip to India and learning japanese fencing and solving Zen koans inspired partly by it. A very impressive close to the story, and I certainly regret there is no third installment on the series, for it would make a hell of a story. Historic timeline is sharply set aside, but it takes a history freak to check all the details out, so most people won't notice. Even better than the first, and the emphasis on spiritual experiences and growth is more marked in this book. The end is majestic and adequate to a marvelous saga. I almost hope to find a reference to a wandering japanese monk in Shea's next series: Saracen. It wouldn't be too hard.

This is a story that takes us through the lives of two young people. One is a fearsome warrior from a secretive monk caste who is born from a Mongolian father and a Japanese mother. His growth throughout the story, with having to deal with the struggles of not fitting into a discriminating Japanese culture, allows us to readily identify with him. The other character is a very young girl who is to be sent away from home to meet her husband, prior to her prearranged marriage. From there on it is a tale of Combat, Love, and Friendship against the backdrop of Feudal Japan during a war of the clans. The tides of war and betrayal then take our subjects to China during the invasion of the Mongols, and then back to Japan under the newly proclaimed Shogun, preparing to face the Mongol Hordes. If you are considering reading this series, stop considering and get it. You will want to reread them over and over. Monks, Samurai, and Mongols ... what else is there to say.

I couldn't believe how wonderful this book was. A friend actually GAVE THEM TO ME. She didn't think they would be any good. Wonderful writing, adventure and romance. I only wish shea wrote more books

As the other reviewers have already stated, this is an action packed adventure of a young man fleeing the Nazis. Leo fled from his native Vienna, to Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France,and Switzerland. In this book, he describes the Austrians as welcome participants in the Holocaust and not as the victims. Austrians treat themselves as the first victims of Hitler's aggression rather than the willing helpers of Hitler. As he fled, other nations tried to avoid Hitler's refugees. No one welcomed the outcasts from the Hitler regime.
One comment about the nature of this book. Most of the victims did not know what was going to happen when they embarked on the train journey to the camps. Leo states it in the narrative. I don't think even he knew, other than the future was bleak. It lessens the story narrative as he pictures the death that awaits these people. This should have been told at the end.
This is a great book to read. It shows the suffering of the Jews and those who opposed Hitler.

A fantastic story told by the man for whom it was a reality Leo Bretholz set out to write a book, not because he is a bookwriter, but because he has a story to tell. His childhood in Vienna, living the holocaust as a life event, loss, danger and the exhileration of escape and survival unfold with the suspense one usually expects from a fictional thriller. The thing that makes this book important it that it is the truth. Highly recommended for those interested in this period of history, and equally as a good read for for everybody.

I just finished this book, I coulnt beleive the outcome of it.It was so shocking to hear all of this. I couldn't put it down. Im very interested in the Holocaust, even though im not a surviver, but it is so interesting on how people were back in WWII, it amazes me that people had to go through all of this..I would diffently reccommend this. Thanks to Leo and Michael, to share such a tragic story and a big and unhumian peice of your life, a peice of history..Best Wishes

Presenting an authentic and comprehensive picture of the mammoth civil rights movement in the United States in the post WWII era is a daunting task, yet noted author and journalist Taylor Branch has succeeded masterfully with this, the first of a two-volume history of the struggle of blacks in America to find justice, equality and parity with the mainstream white society. Tracing the rise of the singular leader personified in the young Rev. Martin Luther King, Branch sets the stage for a wide range of events, personalities, and public issues. This is truly a wonderful read, fascinating, entertaining, and endlessly detailed in its description of people and events, and quite insightful in its chronicling of the fortune of those social forces that created, sustained, and accomplished the single most momentous feat of meaningful social action in our nation's contemporary history.

His range of subjects is necessarily wide and deep, and we find coverage of every aspect of the tumultuous struggle beginning in the deep South, and gradually working its way north and west until most of the urban northeast also surrendered to the battle cry for civil rights and justice under the law. In many respects this borders on being a biography of Martin Luther King and his times, yet Branch so extends his coverage of the eddies and currents of the movement itself that it appears to be by far the most comprehensive and fair-minded treatment of the civil rights movement published to date. Whether covering the issue of Martin Luther King's own personal life, his internal philosophical concerns, or his appetite for young white women, the reader is engaged with every element of this and a thousand other personalities, issues, and events that carved out the history of our country for almost twenty years.

One finds a very detailed of the Kennedy involvement in the movement, first as a purely political ploy to help to win the black vote in the extremely tight race for the Presidency in 1960, and then as an administration struggling to do what was right in the face of enormous social, political, and even economic opposition. Here too we find an absorbing account of how the FBI attempted to infiltrate and influence the movement, with J. Edgar Hoover's adroit political savvy and deep-seated racism causing great difficulty and a number of tribulations for the civil rights cause. The names and places and events described here are legion, and one gets the sense that anyone who had a conscience was involved, and many of the names mentioned later went on to greater accomplishment and further noteworthy contribution in their public lives and careers.

This, then, is a stupendous first volume of a wonderful two-volume history of the civil rights movement in the United States, and covers the period from the late 1950s when the first rumblings of the movement were sounded until just after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas in November of 1963. The second volume picks up the thread thereafter, extending out through the Johnson years and including aspects of the coalescence of the movement with the Vietnam anti-war protest. This is a wonderful book, and one I would consider essential reading for anyone with an interest in American history in the 20th century. I highly recommend both books, and I hope you appreciate reading them as much as I did. Enjoy!

Taylor Branch has written a magnificent history of the early civil rights movement, using the life and career of Martin Luther King, Jr. as a framework. Although there is a great deal of information about King's life both public and private, other key players in this great drama also receive extensive treatment. Some, such as John & Robert Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover, are well-known. Others have received far less recognition: Vernon Johns, the powerful itinerant country preacher who was a kind of grandfather to the movement; Bayard Rustin, whose unconventional lifestyle clashed with political reality in a way that caused much pain to King; Stanley Levison, one of King's closest confidante's and advisors, from whom King was pressured to distance himself because of alleged communist ties; Bob Moses, a tireless, courageous worker who toiled for years in the Deep South to register Negroes for the vote.

Branch also narrates events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Freedom Rides with the you-are-there immediacy of an eyewitness reporter and the eye for detail of a novelist. This book is a very satisfying and informative read.

Parting the Waters is an eye-opening look at the incredible drama of the Civil Rights movement, told through the prism of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Branch is a fantastic writer, weaving together stories from the King home to the Oval Office.

As someone to young to have lived through the Civil Rights era, I found the revelations of this book to be shocking and enlightening. I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in Civil Rights and American History.

Angela Hunt does a wonderful job telling the story of the first English colony in America. This is great historical christian fiction. I especially liked how she integrated the Native Americans and the English into one thriving community. Also of interest to me was the idea of some of the colonists attempt to return to England after many many years of being left to fend for themselves.
The main characters in this story are Jocelyn and Thomas. Thomas is a Protestant minister seeking a new life in a new land and Jocelyn, the cousin of Eleanor Dare, seeking escape from the grief of the death of her beloved father. Unbeknownst to Jocelyn her uncle has secretly arranged for Rev. Thomas to marry her or he must become her Uncle's indentured servant.
The relationship between Jocelyn and Thomas was very frustrating to me. I kept wanting and expecting them to have the deeply expressive love that Jocelyn so longingly desires, but never really attains until the end of the story when their world becomes torn apart.
I have been intrigued by the Roanoke Colony and Virginia Dare since in middle school and this story to me is a truly believable concept to the ultimate demise of the Roanoke colony.
I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series with great anticipation.

I thought this was a wonderful book. Ms. Hunt does a great job of bring the people and places to life. Jocelyn is a young woman who is forced to go to America with her uncle & cousin's family. Her father forces her to go because he does not want her to watch him die. Thomas is a preacher who is going on the voyage to get away from his life. However, the only way he can go is to agree to either marry Jocelyn or spend 15 years as an indentured servant to Jocelyn's uncle.

Thomas & Jocelyn meet on board and they get married on board. However, Jocelyn has a tendency to misread Thomas' feelings and words throughout the book. This leads to some heartbreaking moments on both character's parts. You just think "If they would only just sit down and talk it out" but it never happens the way you want it to.

The book follows the adventures of the colonists to Raleigh and offers a view into why they may have disappeared. There are the inevitable fights about religion and interaction with the Indians, and how to get word to England. One thing I liked about this book was how the characters were portrayed. I saw the characters change from their time in England to once they were settled in America. It seemed that even the common people got a new voice in a new land.

The love story between Thomas & Jocelyn is touching and frustrating. Expect to be in tears at various times throughout the book. On to book 2 in the series.

Angela Elwell Hunt has done it again. Another story of actual people, done convincingly and as close to fact as possible. She leaves no time for fantasy, this is real life, along with the pain and joy. What a blessing this book was to me, in that Jocelyn was the wife God called her to be, even through the hurt and pain of rejection...I can't wait to read the next one in the series.

Sandra Gulland is amazing! Until I picked up the first of her Josephine books, my interest in (and knowledge of) Napoleon, Josephine, and French history was minimal. I'm now enthralled! This final book in her trilogy was anxiously awaited, and I could not have been more pleased (unless, of course, history had allowed Ms. Gulland and Josephine a happier ending). The diary-style writing makes it a quick page-turner, and it truly seems as if you are reading Josephine's thoughts. Ms. Gulland blends historical fact with passionate emotion to give the reader a wonderful, personal look at two of history's most intriguing individuals, as well as a "first-hand" tale of life during that tumultuous era in France. I can't stop telling everyone about these books and my new fascination with Josephine - and I'm giving the trilogy as Christmas gifts to several people this year!

While this book stands out on it's own merits, you would be doing yourself a huge disservice if you didn't read the first two books in the trilogy first ('The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.' and 'Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe'). This is probably my favorite group of books and everyone I have let borrow them feels the same. All are well-written and easy reading (as well as interesting history). I am only sorry that Sandra Gulland hasn't written any other books...yet. I keep hoping.

Bravo, Bravo, Bravo!! Oh, how I hated to come to the end of this series. A caution to would-be readers: Do NOT shortchange yourself and skip either of the first two books (Many Lives/Secret Sorrows, and Tales of Passion) - they all flow together seamlessly and offer an indescribable wealth of passion and intellect. Wonderfully written, deeply researched - this trilogy by Ms. Gulland is truly a treasure.

The book summarizes the Magic Flute very well (suitable for children). The CD has highlights (complete arias) from the opera.
Here is the track listing:
1. Overture ............ 2. Der Vogerlfanger bin ich ja
3. Dies Bildnis ........ 4. Hm hm hm hm!
5. Bei Mannern ......... 6. Wie stark ist nicht dein Zauberton
7. Schnelle Fusse ...... 8. Marsch der Priester
9. O Isis und Osiris ... 10. Die Holle Rache
11. Ach, ich fuhl's .... 12. Ein Madchen oder Weibchen
13. Tamino mein ........ 14. Papagena!
15. Pa-pa-papagena ..... 16. Die Strahlen der Sonne
Highly recommended!!!

I've seen Der Zauberflote performed two or three times and do not intend to miss any performances that I hear about. The opera itself is marvelous. This book/CD set manages to do it justice. Mozart is well performed, the CD is well made, you even get to read along with the book. Finally, the extra notes are a pleasure to read. What I am waiting for is a Black Dog DVD Opera series. However, until then, I really really like this set and I think that you will too.

P. Craig Russell's drawing style seems especially apt for stories of enchanted lands and beings. His lines are light and airy, and he sets a mood nicely with color. In other words, he is ideally suited to illustrate this story.

He does a delightful job of it, too. He amplifies all of the characters theatrically beyond the believable, and has one small advantage over true opera - he is never at the mercy of the set designers, costumers, or other effects.

I am very glad to see this classic of western culture (and the others coming soon) made available in this format. I confess, I have not fully acquired the taste for opera, or the ability to derive the story from the way it is sung. I do, however, want to know at least a bit of the story, and this is a very digestible form. Russell's drawing makes it more than digestible, it's a real confection. I also appreciate the fact that Russell has adapted the story, and not created a new one from fragments of the classic.

Opera buffs - I hope you can accept this for what it is. One way to look at this is opera appreciation on training wheels, a painless entry into part of the operatic art. It's also a way to spread some knowledge of this classic across a generation that might not have been exposed to the story otherwise - certainly a good thing.

If nothing else, it's a well-drawn comic by a very capable artist. It's that "else" that makes this comic stand out. I'm looking forward to the next Russell operas.

(This reviews the book without the CD.)

Mr. Tucker has written a highly readable account of one of the great killers of human history. Starting with background on smallpox: the course of the disease, its effect on humnan history, its use as a biological weapon, and moving through to the early work of Jenner in the field of vaccination, and the awe-inspiring triumph of the campaign to eradicate this terrible disease, this riveting account paints a portrait of one the great public health achievements of the 20th, or any, century. From that high point, the author then goes on to describe the hideous betrayal of that achievement by the very people who had first proposed undertaking the eradication of smallpox: the former Soviet Union. He lays out the Soviet bioweapons program that secretly kept the virus alive and kicking, and the Soviets' attempts to combine the virus with other viruses to create an even more powerful bug. Given recent events, this book's timing and message could not be better. Scourge is not an alarmist book, rather, a sobering one.

The author, Jonathan Tucker is an expert on biological and chemical weapons. He studied biology at Yale University, received his Ph.D. in political science from MIT, and served in the State Department, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. So, although his descriptions of past epidemics are horrible enough, it's the present and future threat of smallpox---the second half of this book---where Tucker really scared the bejabbers out of me. I had no idea that the Soviet bioweapons program, Vector, had gone as far as it did in developing viral weapons. According to the author, "Some 4,500 people, including about 250 Ph.D.-level scientists, worked at Vector in the late 1980s...One goal of the...program was to develop a smallpox-based biological weapon containing virulence genes from Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus. At least theoretically, such a viral chimera would combine the hardiness and transmissibility of smallpox with the lethality of Ebola, which was between 90 percent and 100 percent fatal, resulting in an 'absolute' biological weapon."

The real irony of the Vector bioweapons program was that the Soviet Union (along with the United States) was a major factor in eradicating the scourge of smallpox from the world in the 1970s.

Where are those 4,500 people who worked at Vector, now? Where is the twenty tons of smallpox virus formulation that was stocked at the Center of Virology in Zagorsk? The Soviets supposedly destroyed the stockpile in the late 1980s, but the smallpox seed cultures and the expertise to manufacture biological weapons from them still remain.

The author clearly presents the arguments for and against retaining the known remaining smallpox virus stocks in Atlanta and Moscow. However, I believe he sides with the 'destructionists' rather than the 'retentionists': "From a practical standpoint, now that the DNA sequences of representative strains of variola virus hade been determined, the live virus was no longer needed to identify smallpox if it were to reappear in the future. Nor would live variola [smallpox] virus be required to protect against a future outbreak of smallpox, since the small pox vaccine--based on the distinct vaccinia virus--could be retained and stockpiled for insurance purposes."

The long, difficult task of eliminating smallpox from the world (as thrillingly described in "Scourge") will not be complete until all known and rogue virus stocks (believed held by North Korea, Iran, Iraq, and possibly China) are destroyed. The world's population has grown increasingly vulnerable to the disease since the last official vaccination programs were eliminated in 1984, as the protective immunity induced by the vaccine lasts only about seven to ten years. Nor is there an effective medical treatment for smallpox.

As Tucker states in his closing sentence: "Until humanity's legal and moral restraints catch up with its scientific and technological achievements, the eradication of smallpox will remain as much a cautionary tale as an inspirational one."

I just recently finish Preston's book 'The Demon in the Freezer'. You would think that would fulfill my appetite for knowledge concerning smallpox, right? But that particular book and this one, Scourge, are very different. While Preston writes for the masses, often in a very novelistic, suspenseful way to bring information concerning microbial dangers to everyone, this particular book is more for those whose interests and avocations and jobs lie in these fields. This does not mean the book is written boringly. Both books deserved the five stars for different reasons. 'Demon...' was exciting and horrifying in it's details concerning smallpox, this book brings to life the unfortunate politics played behind the scenes by physicians, by government entities such as the Defense Department, by politicians who do not understand the full implications of most biological and bioethical discussions, by entire countries (U.S. and Russia the worst as per usual).

Though Tucker and Preston mention a few names and incidents in common in their books, their writing is very different. Tucker is deeply involved in bioweapons development as a member of an elite group that monitors this type of problem internationally. Preston writes like a journalist. So the impact of their writing is completely different and I personally think anyone interested in this problem is well-served by reading both books.

Scourge tells the story of the political problems not only in eradicating the smallpox worldwide, but the current problem concerning the existence of stocks at the CDC and VEctor, and whether they should be destroyed. Tucker goes into far more detail concerning the problems in India and Bangladesh that made that country one of the last to contain smallpox (and bodes ill should smallpox ever raises its head there again). He also goes into much more detail concerning Russia's two-faced behavior in supplying the world with the vaccine that led to eradication, but in secret continuing to work on smallpox and genetic variations in order to have them for biological weaponry.

Tucker also gives a good warning at the end chapter, that while the ability to use smallpox as a weapon is more difficult then imagined, the possibility of using it still exists. He emphasizes that panic does not contribute anything useful, but awareness and preparation for the possibility does. I am glad that the smallpox vaccinations are there, and I think more physicians and other medical personnel should be prepared for seeing these cases, and being able to differentiate between smallpox, flu, and chickenpox.

Karen Sadler,
Science Education