Book Description
By the critically acclaimed author of Loverboy, The Border of Truth balances the weight of a Holocaust survivor's life upon his only daughter, as she tries to discover the truth behind his vow of silence.
During the 1940s a seventeen-year-old European Jewish refugee aboard a ship being returned to Nazi-occupied Brussels, after having been denied American port, writes a series of letters to Eleanor Roosevelt. He beseeches her intervention and tells his own story (the girls he's kissed, the movies he's seen). The minutiae of this young boy's life mix with the mortal realities of the time in his communiqués.
Decades later, in contemporary Manhattan, Sara is uncovering the secrets of her parents--secrets in which, through silence, she's been complicit. The Border of Truth is a multi-faceted exploration of the experience of first-generation children of refugees (in this case of the Holocaust), and the ways in which the stories of their parents define their lives. Ultimately, these two very separate timelines converge as Sara can no longer keep her self-made promise not to ask her father what happened to him and his family during the war. When he thwarts her questions, the pieces of his puzzle find their way to her on their own. Fascinating, mesmerizing, and gorgeously told, The Border of Truth is a riveting read--sure to bring Victoria Redel to the wide and appreciative audience she so handsomely earns in these pages.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book.......2007-07-20
I just finished reading this book and was so emotional, I had to wait until I stopped crying to write my review. I can't exactly say why it brought up such deep emotions, but I got so wrapped up in each of the stories. The way the book was written kept me turning the pages, so I could get back to letters or back to the present, and yet, there were times, I would read a letter or a passage over again, just to "listen" to whichever character I was reading at the time. Ms. Redel is a wonderful writer. I read one review where the reviewer said he felt he did not learn about the characters or about their motives, I have to totally disagree. Ms. Redel said more about a character in one sentence than most authors can say in a paragraph. And each letter revealed more and more about Isaac. It is just a wonderful book, that in a very different, quiet, way, tells a story about a holocaust survivor, and a survivor's family, who of course have different issues to deal with. I am not a good writer myself, so I am having a hard time explaining this book and the emotions it stirs....but I highly recommend it.
A Wonderful Novel!.......2007-05-27
One of those rare stories, beautifully written and totally absorbing. What do we really know about our parents, and choices they faced before we were born, in a different world? Victoria Redel's novel works on mulitiple levels, her characters are vibrant and alive. I can't wait for her next book!
Great Read.......2007-05-25
This book is an excellent take on a very different Holocaust story. Taking into account the impact that that time and place had on the future generations of a survivor's family. A hopeful and sorrowful story wrapped into one.
The Border of Truth, Indeed.......2007-05-12
I enjoyed this book, and will recommend it, but with some reservation.
The story is a juxtaposition of two threads: The first is a series of letter written--but not sent--to Eleanor Roosevelt by a teenage refugee on a ship off Virgina from which he hoped to gain entry to the US in 1940. The second is a third person account of his daughter's attempts to penetrate her father's past to provide a family story in anticipation of adopting a daughter forty-three years later. The letters progressively reveal more of the "truth", while in the daughter's story she slowly ferrets out the same facts.
So far, so good. The interplay and pacing of the two parts is excellent, and the general approach works. Only some details bother me. The letters become more adolescent in the middle of the story, although that might be argued to be understandable in terms of the stress the boy was under. Some of the daughter's actions are harder to accept. Professor about to adopt a baby finds happiness with the furniture repair man? Well ...
Ultimately it was a good story, but I finished it not understanding either the father or daughter. The author never provided a sufficiently compelling psychology of either of her protagonists to answer the question "why?". It would have been less of a problem had the novel been less ambitious and the author obviously less talented, but I'm left with the feeling that Redel should be capable of more.
I do think she's an author to watch.
Gripping story, innovative structure.......2007-05-10
Sophisticated and at the same time very approachable, Redel's writing style and the innovative structure of this book make for an easy and yet gripping read. Hard to put down, but also broken into small enough chunks that you can pick it up for just a few minutes of guilty pleasure.
Book Description
Food, televisions, computer equipment, plumbing supplies, clothing. Much of the material foundation of our everyday lives is produced along the U.S./Mexico border in a world largely hidden from our view. Based on gripping firsthand accounts, this book investigates the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on those who labor in the agricultural fields and maquiladora factories on the border. Journalist David Bacon paints a powerful portrait of poverty, repression, and struggle, offering a devastating critique of NAFTA in the most pointed and in-depth examination of border workers published to date.
Unlike journalists who have made brief excursions into strawberry fields and maquiladoras, Bacon has more than a decade's experience reporting on the ground at the border, and he has developed sustained relationships with scores of workers and organizers who have entrusted him with their stories. He describes harsh conditions of child labor in the Mexicali Valley, the deplorable housing outside factories in cities such as Tijuana, and corporate retaliation faced by union organizers. He finds that, despite the promises of its backers, NAFTA has locked in a harsh neoliberal economic policy that has swept away laws and protections that Mexican workers had established over decades. More than a showcase for NAFTA's victims, this book traces the emergence of a new social consciousness, telling how workers in Mexico, the United States, and Canada are now beginning to join together in a powerful new strategy of cross-border organizing as they search for economic and social justice.
Download Description
Food, televisions, computer equipment, plumbing supplies, clothing. Much of the material foundation of our everyday lives is produced along the U.S./Mexico border in a world largely hidden from our view. Based on gripping firsthand accounts, this book investigates the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on those who labor in the agricultural fields and maquiladora factories on the border. Journalist David Bacon paints a powerful portrait of poverty, repression, and struggle, offering a devastating critique of NAFTA in the most pointed and in-depth examination of border workers published to date. Unlike journalists who have made brief excursions into strawberry fields and maquiladoras, Bacon has more than a decade's experience reporting on the ground at the border, and he has developed sustained relationships with scores of workers and organizers who have entrusted him with their stories. He describes harsh conditions of child labor in the Mexicali Valley, the deplorable housing outside factories in cities such as Tijuana, and corporate retaliation faced by union organizers. He finds that, despite the promises of its backers, NAFTA has locked in a harsh neoliberal economic policy that has swept away laws and protections that Mexican workers had established over decades. More than a showcase for NAFTA's victims, this book traces the emergence of a new social consciousness, telling how workers in Mexico, the United States, and Canada are now beginning to join together in a powerful new strategy of cross-border organizing as they search for economic and social justice.
Customer Reviews:
Great, real deep.......2007-04-15
Struggle and hope. That's what I thought of this May the 1st of 2006, when seemingly millions of people across the US, mainly Latinos, rallied to support so-called illegal immigrants. These immigrants have literally spent a long time struggling both in the nations they came from and here in the US as business people get rich from their labor. But that day there was hope. In this day of globalization where corporations have the ultimate freedom to cross borders at will in the search for higher and higher profits, while workers cannot without becoming "illegals", it was a day that seemed to signify that "Si, se peude!" They stood up to a government punishing its own people trying to escape a poverty created by the economic policies created by that very government.
What exactly is going on at the US-Mexican border? It seems so far away to me, but in a town I grew up near, you can see the backlash and blame on immigrants for US citizens losing jobs to what is really that fault of neo-liberal attacks like NAFTA. In Hazleton, PA (about 45 minutes from my native Carbondale), some of the most draconian laws against immigrants ever passed sailed through recently. But it all comes back to the border. It turns out that Mexican immigrants are not so docile after all,and that they, just like any people who have been wronged over and over, will stand up for themselves. David Bacon, a labor journalist who works for the Nation, illustrates this well in "The Children of NAFTA: Labor Wars on the U. S./Mexico Border".
Bacon looks at what exactly is happening on the border. He starts by exploring the grape pickers of Southern California. Most had come to the US to seek higher wages than they could have possibly gotten in Mexico. But after NAFTA (North American Free Trade Association), the companies at which they had won better wages after decades of fights with the Caesar Chavez's United Farm Workers (UFW), many suddenly found that they lost these jobs as they moved to Mexico's Mexicali Valley where they could pay those workers as much as a third less than the mainly Mexican immigrants in the US. In the Mexicali Valley, farmworkers (who often bring their children to the fields since there is no affordable school or daycare) could barely afford to pay their bills or get groceries, leading to many families sharing homes in order to pool their resources.
Along this same border has risen the infamous Maquiladora (duty-free and union-free factories) industry, which is now a global term but originated as a term for clothing manufacturers along the US-Mexico border. These have swelled since NAFTA, and one of the allures is that it is very hard to form an independent union in Mexico. However, Bacon illustrates that over the past decade of NAFTA Mexico, several independent unions have arisen in the face of a hostile ruling PRI, and then PAN, governments. At the same time, US unions have begun to pull away from their former cold-war, anti-communist sentiment and have slowly recognized that American workers and Mexican workers both lose because of NAFTA and that they must work together in order to survive, The UE, (United Electrical), an independent union, sent the first support to the new independent unions and conducted co-campaigns on the border to organize Maquiladoras into unions to demand better conditions and wages. Interestingly enough, it also began the question of shifting their tactics, since while US unions usually pressure companies until they can win or get some of their goals, Mexican unions usually see the government as their main enemy since the Mexican government maintains industry control over wages and will often not let companies raise wages if it will effect an entire industry (another reason US companies like moving to Mexico).
Some of the stuff in this book honestly was shocking how far 1st world companies would go to crush 3rd world workers. There are countless stories in "Children of NAFTA" of brutal beatings of union organizers. They (factory managers) shipped in temps in many stories to vote for the company government-sanctioned union in factory-wide elections, which too seemed many times to galvanize Maquiladora workers against the management. Black-lists, revenge wage-reductions, and brutal attacks on factory workers' pro-union demonstrations almost made reading it unbearable. However, as the labor organizers learned to deal with NAFTA, the one thing I came away from is that the only hope that we human beings fighting for a better future for our children have is that we can never turn our backs on anyone in a struggle. If global corporations can be everywhere, labor unions must be too. While we engage in these struggles locally, our minds must think globally, as the phrase goes.
I guess it depends on what you are looking for.......2005-10-20
If you are looking for a biased account of the human tragedy that is Mexican labor, this might be the book for you.
If you are looking for a analysis of what is happening and WHY. You may be disappointed.
David Bacon clearly wishes that he was the Saul Alinsky of Mexico. If you don't know who Saul Alinsky is, you may have just found your next reading subject.
It's not that its poorly written. It is just not impressive in any way. If you can't get enough of Mexico or if you need something to read between globalization protests, you will love it. But its hard to just jump in with an open mind and not be disappointed.
Book Description
On March 9, 1916, a band of Mexican marauders led by Pancho Villa crossed the border and raided the tiny town of Columbus, New Mexico. A military expedition was hastily organized to go into Mexico and capture Villa, suspects were rounded up, trials were held, and a virulent backlash against persons of Mexican origin erupted on the local and national scenes. General John Black Jack Pershing, once a genuine fan of Villas, accompanied by a young George Patton, was told to assemble a group of soldiers, head into Mexico, and get Villadead or alive. The last hurrah for the U.S. Cavalry, the expedition would be the first time armored tanks, airplanes, and trucks were employed against an enemy. But as they descended into the nightmare of Mexico, the American troops were followed by spies and picked off by snipers, fought violent battles, and suffered in the scorching deserts and snowy mountains. Some would never return home alive. A brutal tale of revenge and violence, Eileen Welsomes richly detailed account is equal parts Sam Peckinpah, Cormac McCarthy, and Stephen Ambrose.
Customer Reviews:
Pancho Villa and Black Jack Pershing.......2007-07-14
As one who fell in love with Mexico in 1964, I continue to read most of what comes out in print with relation to that country. This book has information about Pershing that I knew nothing about, and reveals much of a personal nature about him and about Francisco Villa.
The struggles of the U. S. soldiers as they search for the elusive Villa
make an interesting story-- one that got lost because the incursion into Mexico was followed so quickly by World War I. I wonder, for example, how many of the soldiers who were in Mexico went on to the European war.
I had the great good fortune to hear a lecture by one of Villa's secretaries.
I am still in love with Mexico after all these years!
Norma Williamson
Excellent account of the events in Mexico before WWI.......2007-06-12
The author has done her homework with this fine piece of history. I have read much on this subject and was hoping to find out more details about the Punitive Expedition mounted by America to track down Pancho Villa and his bandit army. She paints Villa and the other leaders of the 'Revolution' as most of them were: brutal killers seeking wealth and power and a few betterment of the people of Mexico. Lots of details about the Villiast raid on Columbus, NM, the numerous skirmishes between US troops and various factions of Mexican forces of all sorts.
Plenty of drama and some good information about Villa's background, experiences during the revolution as well as those of Obregon, Madero, Zapata and many others.
Worth reading as her style is easy to follow and sometimes humerous and insightful.
I give it thumbs up. Enjoy as it might lead the reader to seek more information about this fascinating period of US/Mexican history.
The Columbus Raid and its aftermath........2007-06-04
A former guerrilla ally of the United States turns his vengence on the U.S. A President who wanted to tend to the domestic ills of the United States is drawn into a foreign conflict. An intervention is attempted which results in native aggravation at the United States. History repeats itself. The time is 1916 and the terrorist act is at Columbus, New Mexico-a sleepy border town. Pancho Villa kills a lot of innocent men. Americans are now his enemy. The Americans intervene in Mexico and try to track him down. They nearly suceed. Time give Villa the punishment he deserves.
This is an interesting book about earlier terrorism. Not much is written about the Columbus raid. Welsome does a good job of describing the killings of Pancho Villa and his Division of the North in the 1916-17 period. This should be read in light of the current war on terror.
a little too much fluff.......2007-06-03
I enjoyed the book, but I thought it could have been shortened considerably if Welsome would have left out the numerous paragraphs about what someone was thinking or might have thought as they rode a horse through the mountains. It had a little too much fluff for me and for a book that has a title that indicates it is about 2 military leaders I was left with the feeling it was a so-so attempt to create a romanticized old west tale. I would have liked to seen more actual military history instead of the speculation fluff that fills so many pages. The book is nice but if you want a military history book, this isn't it.
Good book about Villas' Columbus Raid.......2007-03-19
The book is excellent from a historical perspective. Ms. Welsome thoroughly researched the topic and presented her findings in a very readable manner. The only negative is that it wasn't told as exciting as some other period non-fiction I've read. But this is really nitpicking though, as I thought it was a fine book all things considered.
Book Description
Not only does this book provide full details of the ever changing lands of the Border Princes- with its petty kingdoms, warring princes and knife edge politics, it also provides the GM with all the resource they need to create an intriguing kingdom of their own. Will full guidelines on detailing all aspects of a campaign setting, this book is ideal for groups who want to carve out their own principlality from the treacherous sands of the Border Princes. Packed with background, history, new careers, extra rules and a pre-generated setting to get you started, this book provides hours of gaming and tons of inspiration for Games Masters keen to create their own corner of the Warhammer world.
Customer Reviews:
Great World Builder.......2007-08-03
With a wealth of helpful charts and ideas, and extensive background for running a Border Princes game, this supplement is a must for anyone who wants to create their own Warhammer experience. New careers, insights, and game aids make this book very excellent.
Stake Out Your Own Corner of the Borderlands.......2007-06-29
The Renegade Crows: A Guide to the Border Princes hardbound supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is one of the better supplements available for the roleplaying system - and has a great deal of information useful for any campaign or fantasy setting.
That said, this is not your typical game supplement. While it does focus on a specific region - the Borderlands to the southeast of the Empire - from the begining the book sets the scene that this is a fractious, uncontrolled region, comprised of myriad smaller regions vying for power or looking to secure their niche. As such, the topography, geography and borders are largely irrelevant.
Other than some cursory information about a few standards in the Border Pinces, the bulk of the book focuses on how to create your own region within the tapestry of the Border Princes overall -- using an incredibly robust, detailed step-by-step process to breath life into your very own corder of the Borderlands.
The region creation system helps an enterprising GM create their own vibrant area -- geographical features, towns, villages, riverways, and scores of interesting oddities... an abandoned shrine, a mystic temple, a ruined city from a long lost age. There are rules to further elaborate on and detail each of these features... How was this region ruined? What monsters or threat lurk in the area? Who rules the area?
There is an excellent walkthrough of the creation process, and a fully-developed region ready for use, but it's quite fun to grab some dice and a sheet of graph paper and start plotting your own map. As the region takes shape, ideas for adventures spring to mind. The charts and tables for creating intrigue, rulers, conflicts and the other details are incredibly useful and easily applied to other regions in the Warhammer setting.
My only disappointment is that it is a relatively short book - for the price point, I would have welcomed another 10-16 pages of content detailing existing material I could immediately access rather than generate on my own. Still, a relatively minor quibble given the excellent resources contained inside this tome.
SETTING UP YOUR OWN BORDERLAND.......2007-04-27
The game designers of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay continue to amaze me with their lush detail and beautifully produced supplement books. Renegade Crowns is another gorgeous book featuring outstanding artwork. Renegade Crowns is a campaign supplement that covers the Border Princes or Borderlands as it is also referred to, giving players a richly detailed, yet open-ended region to set-up their own campaigns and adventures. Note that it is not a guide to the Border Lands themselves, but rather a way for the GM to carve out their own region. Within the first few chapters, the GM will find all the information to quickly create their own unique region in the Borderlands through the use of various random tables.
These tables include things such as geography and landscapes, types of border princes, inhabitants and communities of the region, characters, encounters, and more. These allow the GM to get their campaign set-up very quickly yet there's so many options and choices provided that you never get the feeling that it comes off as bland and cookie-cutter. You could set-up a campaign a hundred times and never duplicate the exact region because the tables are so diverse. There are also tables for generating all types of random Border princes from Knights to bandits, to priests and merchants, all with their own unique characteristics.
Chapter six covers the hazards of the Borderlands including numerous different types of monster encounter tables and notes on designing monster lairs. A fantastic example of a region called Masserschloss is included and takes the GM on a step-by-step tutorial on creating a region. I highly recommend that every GM read this tutorial as it is extremely well-written and fully explains the entire process from start to finish. This really may be the most important section in the entire book.
The final few chapters deal with becoming a border prince, first by seizing power and then by holding it. This covers everything from internal court intrigue to protecting your region from external attack from rival lands. There are many adventure hooks provided throughout Renegade Crowns to get the campaign off and running.
If your desire is for power, then becoming a border Prince is a great way to go!
Reviewed by Tim Janson
Not really the source book I'd hoped.......2007-01-03
While the book is well put together, and well written. It's not a source book for the border princes area. It's a book for running a campaign where the characters are Princes. There is some material for normal campaigns in the area, but you would need to generate the area yourself, or use the example provided. Personally I was hoping for a source book dealing the major towns, and factions of the area.
Book Description
A twisted adventure set deep in the heart of the ever changing kingdoms of the Border Princes. Players must negotiate both the undead horrors of a long forgotten tomb, and the grasping ambitions of the petty princes who have sent them to recover an item of unsupassed power. Will they play the factions off against each other or simply opt to take the artefact for themselves? Will they survive the traps and tribulations of the adventure? Will they succumb to plague, terror and the guardians of the tomb? And how will they cope with the final twist in the tale- when they discover the issue is not what they have been sent to return from the grave...but who. Not only does Lure of the Lich Lord contain a thrilling adventure, but also extensive appendicies on tombs, traps, treasure and monsters that might all be found when plundering a tomb.
Customer Reviews:
HUGE AND TERRIFYING ADVENTURE.......2007-07-04
Lure of the Liche Lord is a fantastic new adventure for Warhammer Fantasy RPG, and exhaustive 128 page, highly detailed book complete with new curses, traps. Diseases, monsters, and much more. In this book, the players will journey to the tombs of the Liche Lord, and ancient, undead necromancer named Karitamen. The book opens with a chapter detailing Karitamen's life when he was yet flesh and blood. Once a mighty warlord, he rose to power and became known as the Death Scarab because it was said he could kill with a touch or a glance.
After years of his tyrannical rule, the nobles finally fought back and enlisted the aid of a powerful wizard to enchant a dagger named the Dagger of Bound Souls which would cut through even Karitamen's powerful spell protections, killing him and entrapping his soul within his body forever. When the Priest-King raised the dead to aid him, Karitamen found himself turned into an undead Liche.
The second and third chapters reveal some of the important people and places in and around the lands of the Border Princes where the campaign is set. The adventure begins in earnest in chapter four, The Road To Adventure. Several plots are provided to get the PCs on their way, or which the GM can use to devise their own adventures. Several smaller plot hooks are also provided as additional adventure options. The GM can choose to make this a broad, lengthy campaign which will take many game sessions to complete, or make it a fairly straight forward dungeon crawl and get the players headed directly to the Liche's tomb.
The remaining eight chapters cover the lands surrounding the tomb, and each of its seven levels. This is one massive place! Tomb is set within an inverted pyramid and as I read through the book, I couldn't help but wish that I could be the PC rather than the GM, particularly because of my fondness for ancient Egyptian mythology which heavily influences the Tomb of the Liche Lord.
I love the straight forward, and detailed narrative of the description of the tombs locations and rooms. Lots of options are provided to the GM for events and encounters. The maps are eloquently drawn with legends and scales provided. This is not going to be an easy adventure and each level gets progressively harder as it is filled with all manner of diabolical traps, which are more pervasive than creature encounters. Writer Aaron Rosenberg truly knows how to set a mood. I got chills just reading about the tombs.
The book concludes with appendices detailing the new creatures, curses, and traps, along with a set of pre-generated characters that the players can use to jump right into the fray or to be used as NPC's.
Tomb of the Liche Lord is a grand and terrifying adventure. As you would expect from Black industries, the book is filled with top-flight artwork including that fantastic cover by Paul Dainton and Darius Hinks.
Reviewed by Tim Janson
Good, fun adventure and decent source material........2007-05-07
The adventure in "Lure of the Lich Lord" is very well done, especially if you're a gamemaster looking for a good dungeon crawl to run your players through. It reminded me a lot of an old D&D classic "Tomb of Horrors" but with a better back story behind the tomb and its reason for being. I really liked that the adventure was set up with a pretty open ending, and the players can end up working for or against the lich lord depending on their actions while investigating the tomb.
The source material is decent, though could be fleshed out a bit more. The part on traps was pretty well done though, and can easily be transported out of the book for use in other adventures.
I really liked the book, the only reason I don't really give it 5 stars is because I did notice a ton of typos that some half-way decent editing would've taken care of. No big deal, just a pet peeve of mine, and it certainly didn't ruin the product's over-all value to me. If that sort of thing doesn't bother you, definitely check this one out if you're looking for a good adventure for your WFRP campaign (or even for other games with a little conversion work).
A HUGE AND TERRIFYING WARHAMMER ADVENTURE!.......2007-02-26
Lure of the Liche Lord is a fantastic new adventure for Warhammer Fantasy RPG, and exhaustive 128 page, highly detailed book complete with new curses, traps. Diseases, monsters, and much more. In this book, the players will journey to the tombs of the Liche Lord, and ancient, undead necromancer named Karitamen. The book opens with a chapter detailing Karitamen's life when he was yet flesh and blood. Once a mighty warlord, he rose to power and became known as the Death Scarab because it was said he could kill with a touch or a glance.
After years of his tyrannical rule, the nobles finally fought back and enlisted the aid of a powerful wizard to enchant a dagger named the Dagger of Bound Souls which would cut through even Karitamen's powerful spell protections, killing him and entrapping his soul within his body forever. When the Priest-King raised the dead to aid him, Karitamen found himself turned into an undead Liche.
The second and third chapters reveal some of the important people and places in and around the lands of the Border Princes where the campaign is set. The adventure begins in earnest in chapter four, The Road To Adventure. Several plots are provided to get the PCs on their way, or which the GM can use to devise their own adventures. Several smaller plot hooks are also provided as additional adventure options. The GM can choose to make this a broad, lengthy campaign which will take many game sessions to complete, or make it a fairly straight forward dungeon crawl and get the players headed directly to the Liche's tomb.
The remaining eight chapters cover the lands surrounding the tomb, and each of its seven levels. This is one massive place! Tomb is set within an inverted pyramid and as I read through the book, I couldn't help but wish that I could be the PC rather than the GM, particularly because of my fondness for ancient Egyptian mythology which heavily influences the Tomb of the Liche Lord.
I love the straight forward, and detailed narrative of the description of the tombs locations and rooms. Lots of options are provided to the GM for events and encounters. The maps are eloquently drawn with legends and scales provided. This is not going to be an easy adventure and each level gets progressively harder as it is filled with all manner of diabolical traps, which are more pervasive than creature encounters. Writer Aaron Rosenberg truly knows how to set a mood. I got chills just reading about the tombs.
The book concludes with appendices detailing the new creatures, curses, and traps, along with a set of pre-generated characters that the players can use to jump right into the fray or to be used as NPC's.
Tomb of the Liche Lord is a grand and terrifying adventure. As you would expect from Black industries, the book is filled with top-flight artwork including that fantastic cover by Paul Dainton and Darius Hinks.
Reviewed by Tim Janson
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Tannenberg: Erich Ludendorff and the Defence of the Eastern German Border in 1914 (The Holy Land Revealed Guides)
Perry Pierik
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Book Description
Whatever It Takes is a wide-ranging and highly entertaining read, in which Congressman J. D. Hayworth exposes the ongoing battle where terrorists seek ways to exploit our porous borders and attack our homeland as well as the hypocrisy, greed, and political correctness that could literally destroy our nation.
Customer Reviews:
Nothing new.......2007-07-13
I have read Pat Buchanan's book on the subject and it lays out a better understanding of the immigration and terrorist threat
than this one. This seems to be "same old" and scare tactics.
Very informative and sobering book about the current illegal immigration crisis........2007-06-10
Congressman J.D. Hayworth of Arizona lays out his first hand experiances and views as a Southern Border State Congressman, on the failure of our countries elected and un-elected officials to enforce our laws. He disproves the "politically correct" talking points about illegal immigration. He details with well researched facts, the great expense illegals are actually costing the American tax-payer; disproving that they are a net asset to the American economy and revealing that they are taking roughly $3 out of the system for every $1 that they put in. After reading "What Ever It Takes", you will have an accurate sence of the urgency that the American people must become involved in stopping this very real crisis and threat to our Nation. Excellent book!
probably the most informative book on immigration.......2007-03-29
This book gets right to the point every time. If you want the facts, want them straight and want them now, this is the book to read on the immigration crisis. "We are already at a disadvantage. [The pro-immigration forces] are organized and ready to go." (p. 193).
To those who depend only on mainstream news sources for information, the facts and figures in this book are shocking. If you're only going to read one book specifically on the immigration crisis, this is the book to read.
A lot of Americans wonder why the government doesn't do the sensible things. "The problem with depending on government is that you cannot depend on it." (p. 192). Every book on the immigration problem provides a list of remedies, and these remedies are much the same, and they are all reasonable. What these books do not do is to show why these sensible remedies are not being put into place already and why they will not be put into place. A lot is going on besides a million people a year sneaking across the border. You need to understand what that is and how it operates if you want to help save America. Read While America Sleeps: How Islam, Immigration and Indoctrination Are Destroying America From Within.
Remeber the Alamo.......2007-02-17
A well written book on a topic we should all pay attention to. Why does our gevernment allow illegals more rights then our citizens? Our we losing our culture? Will we fight for independce from Mexico, again, in Texas?
Seal off and militarize the border and crack down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants!.......2006-10-21
That is the call to action by Congressman J.D. Hayworth, representing the 5th Congressional District of Arizona. In his book, Whatever it Takes, Congressman Hayworth sets to the task of explaining why it is so crucially important to finally get control of the Southern border with respect to the flow of illegal immigrants. Not only is the porousness of the border dangerous to the national security of the United States, but it is dangerous to the security of American workers. Focusing on the social problems which accompany unregulated, illegal immigration, the burdens placed on the education and medical systems, the criminal behavior of immigrants during their illegal entry and the threats caused by a fractious multiculturalism, Hayworth lays out his solution to the problem: immigration reform centered on strong enforcement policies. Not only would the author like to see a security wall built from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, but it must be monitored by a significant increase in Border Patrol agents using modern high-tech surveillance devices to stem the flow of human traffic. Moreover, he stresses that interior enforcement of businesses that hire illegal immigrants is the key to any successful immigration reform policy. It is not enough to try and stop the flow of illegal immigrants at the border alone. Through the penalization of businesses that hire illegal immigrants, the magnetic force which pulls illegal immigrants to cross the border in the first place would be reduced. Not only is it necessary to enforce the current immigration laws that the United States already has, but the author elucidates new laws which should be enacted allowing the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service the ability to communicate freely with the Department of Homeland Security to stem the illegal use of forged documents by illegal immigrants to obtain jobs and collect payroll checks.
Congressman Hayworth is unapologetic in his diatribe as he deems the atmosphere of political correctness and race baiting surrounding the illegal immigration debate as disingenuous. The overly sensitive manner in which illegal immigration is discussed is dangerous to our security, insomuch as it disallows serious discussion of the issues. In his dismissive attitude of political correctness, he affords himself the opportunity to also address even more controversial subjects such as ending birthright citizenship laws for children born to illegal immigrants, ending "sanctuary" laws that forbid local and state police from providing information to federal immigration officers, limiting the issue of Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers so that illegal immigrants cannot obtain home loans or other financial services, establishing English as the national language of the United States, ending all bilingual education and denying social services and in-state tuition to illegal immigrants and their children.
Clearly the immigration debate is something which Congressman Hayworth is distinctly familiar with. The 5th District of Arizona, while not directly on Mexico's border, is in the southern half of the state and experiences the migratory effects of illegal immigration directly. First elected in 1994, Congressman Hayworth is solidly a Republican, with a voting record showing his conservative credentials. However, his arguments opposing illegal immigration are nothing new and his book is, at often times, an inflammatory diatribe against the "liberal elite" and the "left-wing groups" who support "amnesty" for illegal immigrants. With the distinct polarization of supporters and opponents of various immigration reform policies, Hayworth's book fits in nicely with Pat Buchanan's "State of Emergency" and Tom Tancredo's "In Mortal Danger," all three of which share the hard-line, strict enforcement approach towards solving the illegal immigration issue.
Congressman Hayworth falls victim, in a significant way, to just what he disparages in his book; the absolutism of his ideology and brusque manner of communicating his ideas leads to a diminution of articulate debate. As such, the book is more of a duplicitous reactionary rant than it is a well thought-out and researched appeal to tighten the U.S.-Mexico border. Through his use of oversimplified sloganeering, most of his arguments are based on the fact that because an illegal immigrant has broken the law to enter the United States, it does not matter what the immigrant may do for work, or in what ways immigrants may contribute to American society; the fact that they broke the law is tantamount and needs to be punished. As much as I can appreciate his passionate appeal to "do something," Hayworth's approach to the problem, and more importantly, his disdain for liberalism in general, leads me to believe that a serious discussion of the relevant issues involved in the immigration debate would be lost in the rhetoric of his ideology.
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One More Border: The True Story of One Family's Escape from War-Torn Europe
William Kaplan , and
Shelley Tanaka
Manufacturer: Groundwood Books
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ASIN: 0888996381 |
Book Description
It's 1939, and Memel, Lithuania, is no longer safe for Jewish families like the Kaplans. Nazi troops have overtaken much of Europe, and hundreds of thousands of Jews have tried to flee Hitler's advance. Most do not succeed. The Kaplans — Igor, his little sister, Nomi, and their parents, Bernard and Nadja — are determined to survive. Staying one small step ahead of the German troops, they encounter the legendary Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara, who manages to finagle exit visas for the entire family — everyone, that is, except for the Russian-born Mrs. Kaplan, who must somehow secure her own papers. Can she succeed where so many have failed, and find refuge with her family, or will she meet the grim fate of millions of other Jews? The Kaplans' desperate attempts to obtain safe passage, and their harrowing journey three-quarters of the way around the world, on ship and on the Trans-Siberian Express, form a riveting narrative that puts a personal face on the often-overwhelming human tragedy that is the Holocaust.
Customer Reviews:
Great book!.......2000-09-01
In One More Border--escape from war-torn Europe, William Kaplan tells the story of his father, Igor's, escape from Europe during World War II. Igor Kaplan was a young boy when he and his family decided to leave their country for a safer place. With the help of the wonderful author, Shelley Tanaka, William Kaplan's story will intrigue readers. A few pages in the book even give detailed history of World War II. I would highly recommend this book for 9-12 year olds. Although the book isn't overly scary, children under eight may find the subject of World War II too intense, and people over 12 probably won't find the story exciting enough and may become easily bored.
If you enjoy this book, you'll probably love some of Shelley Tanaka's books!
Book Description
"When I tell friends at home in Canada abut the things I have seen, they often say, 'It must be so depressing.' But my work has never felt depressing. Doctors Without Borders is an organization built to act, to make things better. Together with other volunteers and the support of millions of people around the world, we don't have to sit by helplessly and see a disaster unfold before us, wondering what on earth we can do. The gift of action is ours."
When children are caught in civil wars, when earthquakes destroy homes and villages, when AIDS and other diseases shatter families and communities - the volunteers of Doctors Without Borders are there. Their mission is simple - to bring life-saving care to the world's neediest people and to speak out when the rights of the people in their care are abused or violated.
Médecins Sans Frontières, known in English as Doctors Without Borders and by its volunteers as MSF, is the world's largest independent medical humanitarian relief organization. Every year, more than 3,000 MSF volunteers and 12,000 local men and women bring medical aid to people in more than 70 countries.
In Healing Our World, David Morley presents his own story and the stories of other MSFers who have volunteered in some of the most dangerous and forgotten corners of the world - the Congo, El Salvador, Chechnya, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Afghanistan, southern Africa. These are stories about healing and helping people, about making the world a better place - stories filled with sorrow and hope, anger and idealism, determination and passion.
- The words and experiences - good and bad - of MSF volunteers who come from all over the world and every walk of life.
- Information about MSF's history, how it selects its volunteers and decides where to send them.
- Includes photographs from the field.
Book Description
Efforts to tighten homeland security have challenged the Untied States' traditional approach to immigration and border control. This book explores the dramatic changes to the country's borders and coasts, and offers valuable insight into the changing face of immigration.
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- The Fifth Sacred Thing
- The God Delusion
- The Joy of Being Wrong
- The Nature of Consciousness : The Structure of Reality: Theory of Everything Equation Revealed : Scientific Verification and Proof of Logic God Is
- The Power of the Blood Covenant: Uncover the Secret Strength of God's Eternal Oath
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