Book Description
A stunning literary survival story, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as a "moving, beautifully written account, by turns raw and tender."
Across Sudan, between 1987 and 1989, tens of thousands of young boys took flight from the massacres of Sudan's civil war. They became known as the Lost Boys. With little more than the clothes on their backs, sometimes not even that, they streamed out over Sudan in search of refuge. Their journey led them first to Ethiopia and then, driven back into Sudan, toward Kenya. They walked nearly one thousand miles, sustained only by the sheer will to live.
They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky is three boys' account of that unimaginable journey. With the candor and the purity of their child's-eye-vision, Alephonsion, Benjamin, and Benson recall by turns how they endured hunger and strength-sapping illnesses. How they dodged the life-threatening predators-lions, snakes, crocodiles and soldiers-that dogged their footsteps. How they grappled with a war that threatened continually to overwhelm them. Their story is a lyrical, captivating portrait of a childhood lost to war, and of the perseverance of the human spirit.
Customer Reviews:
A life-changing experience.......2007-10-04
I never thought that a book could move me in the way that this has. It is gripping, inspirational, horrifing, beautiful tear-jerker that will keep your jaw dropped. You will be forever changed by this true account of a tragedy that sadly many Americans do not know about. Amazing book. Make sure to have a box of tissues by your side!
A must read.......2007-09-26
I couldn't put the book down and at the end I cried. It was hard to believe that boys so young had been through so much. If your interested in whats going on in Sudan than I think its a must read.
True, Real, Humbling.......2007-09-26
This book is so powerful, these boys journey is so humbling, there is no way that you could read this book and not look at your life in a different way. The crazy thing about it is that it is ALL TRUE, this is thier account of their lives, this book has encouraged me more to want to fight for social injustices.
Must Read.......2007-08-11
I have a BA in English and taught high school literature courses for seven years before becoming the administrator of an alternative school. I consider myself well read. Therefore, when I say this was the most moving book I have ever read, I do not say so lightly. I had the honor of meeting one of the authors, Benjamin Ajak, at a recent conference. While his English is not articulate, his message is gut wrenchingly moving. This book is not for the faint of heart. It is not a summer beach romance. It is the story of the survival of the human spirit at its most base level. It is both appalling and inspiring. It is a must read. If you are not a humanitarian before you read it, you will be after you read it.
Must Read.......2007-06-27
Amazing!
This sad true account of the lives of the people of Southern Sudan is a must read.
Book Description
Mike Pressler walked into the bottomfloor meeting room of the Murray
Building and, as he had done hundreds of times over a sixteen-year career
at Duke University, prepared to address his men's lacrosse team. Forty-six
players sat in theater-style chairs, all eyes riveted forward.
It was 4:35 P.M. on Wednesday, April 5, 2006. The program's darkest hour
had arrived in an unexpected and explosive announcement.
Pressler, a three-time ACC Coach of the Year, informed his team that its
season was canceled and he had "resigned," effective immediately. While
his words reverberated off the walls, hysteria erupted. Players cried,
confused over a course of events that had spun wildly out of control.
What began as an off-campus team party with two hired strippers had
accelerated into a rape investigation -- one that exposed prosecutorial
misconduct, shoddy police work, an administration's rush to judgment,
and the media's disregard for the facts -- dividing both a prestigious
university and the city of Durham.
Wiping away tears, Pressler demonstrated the steely resolve that helped
him win more than two hundred games. For the next thirty minutes, Pressler
put his personal situation aside and encouraged his players to stick
together. He also made a bold promise: "One day, we will get a chance to
tell the world the truth. One day."
This is that day.
Pressler, who has not done an interview since the saga began, has handed
his private diary from those three weeks to New York Times bestselling
author Don Yaeger, exposing vivid details, including the day Pressler was
fired, when the coach asked Athletic Director Joe Alleva why the school
"wasn't willing to wait for the truth" to come out. "It's not about the
truth anymore," Alleva said to the coach in a signature moment that said
it all. In addition to Pressler, Yaeger interviewed more than seventy-five
key figures intimately involved in the case. The result is a tale that
defies logic.
"It is tough to be one of fifty people who believed a story when fifty
million people believed something else," Pressler said. "This wasn't
about the truth to many of the others involved. My story is all about the
truth."
Customer Reviews:
What nonsense........2007-10-09
What nonsense. Lots of people get falsely accused of crimes--both big and little--every day. And lots of people don't have the resources, let alone the public support, to fight it. Coach Pressler, the administration, and the part of the student body that worships athletes on campus are all to blame for letting those boys be so irresponsible. They never spent time in jail, were fully exonerated, and invited back to school. They also all got undisclosed financial settlements from the school, and are suing the city and police department on top of it. GET OVER IT. "Poor boys" doesn;t cut it anymore. You want to talk about hidden agendas? Why are so many epople buying a vocal, hateful Brooklyn professor's interpretation of the events as if they're fact? KC Johnson doesn't know squat about what happened at Duke because he only spoke to a few of the players in the events. He rushed to judgment about the motivations of the 88 faculty members, what the administration should or shouldn't have done, and how we all should have reacted in retrospect. Things were much more complex and subtle than his rantings would have us believe. Personally, I'm sick and tired of these ridiculous one-sided interpretations. You want to help prevent injustice? Then learn about cases where people are actually punished for deeds they didn't commit--people who are still paying for those accusations.
REQUIRED READING ON THE DUKE CASE.......2007-09-29
I am giving this book 5 stars because of its importance. It is not as well written as Stuart Taylor, Jr., and KC Johnson's UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT, but it contains a good chronology of events and contains much more on Mike Pressler and his family. It's awkward at some points to have Don Yeager as the teller instead of Pressler. Some readers will regret Mike Pressler did not have the time and money to expand his own diary of the events in the Duke lacrosse case as a separate book; I would have paid more to have the actual diary printed here. Nevertheless, this is a very important book. It's most valuable for the portrait of the Presslers. Unless Sue Pressler writes her own book, we may never have a more powerful depiction of the splendid American family, the Presslers, including the daughters. One of the treasures of this book is the letter fifteen year old Janet Pressler wrote to Richard Brodhead on 24 March 2007. Poignantly she tells the President of Duke University, "I would have liked this letter to be one in which I described your heroism in your loyalty, leadership, and decisions during the events of last March [2006], but it didn't turn out that way. The lives of my family and the lives of hundreds of others involved in the Duke lacrosse were irrevocably changed because of decisions made by you and your staff. In the end, our sacrifice made no positive difference. No apology or promise can restore the lives we led last year." Any reader will rejoice at the portrait of a great, loving, honorable American family. Mike and Sue Pressler--what a pair!
The Duke case is a great national story of a rogue prosecutor and his minions, of the rogue mainstream media (who can watch Nancy Grace now without loathing her? or trust the New York Times?), of a racist sexist tenured faculty leaping to precisely the wrong conclusions about victimization in the name of political correctness, of a hapless and ultimately conscienceless university president, Richard Brodhead, whose name on Google is linked forever with the words "pandering," "weak-kneed," "cowardly," "craven," "contemptible," and "rush to [the wrong] judgment." As NEWSWEEK said on 10 September 2007, "Brodhead and Nifong had an almost willful disregard for the facts." "Almost" is charitable. Brodhead said that "the facts kept changing" (p. 210); but as a senior, William Wolcott, says, "Hey, facts don't change. The truth doesn't change." What Brodhead and the Gang of 88 did "was bad enough," in Brodhead's memorable words, but the Gang has gained greater power on committees at Duke, and Brodhead seems set to pass his third year review.
The most optimistic news in this book, as in the Taylor-Johnson book, is the potential power for good in a new twenty-first century resource, the bloggers. Blog-hooligans, the politically correct Duke professor Cathy Davidson called them. The bloggers, having not only more brains than the Duke Gang of 88 but a robust capacity for humor, seized on the insult as a badge of honor. Blog-hooligans for the Truth! Finally, what this book celebrates is an old-fashioned American sense of humor, decency, friendship, loyalty, love. It's wonderful to see at least a few people behaving like, well, like heroes, like the Americans Ken Burns is portraying right now on PBS.
Even Better than Expected.......2007-09-21
KC Johnson should start his next book immediately and think about a career change. He is too valuable to the truth to limit himself to one classroom at a time.
lightenup
Sympy and biased.......2007-09-21
A quote from the book "this is the worst miscarriage of justice in North Carolina" history. Really? There is no excuse for the terrible injustice done to the Duke students. However, I strongly suspect that North Carolina has lynchings of blacks in its history. The Duke students' harrowing year, financial losses, etc. pale in comparison to losing one's life. Of course, I'm sorry that the coach lost his job. A close friend lost a job to a trumped up charge of sexual harrassment. This kind of thing happens daily. It isn't right. I was bored and sick of chronicles in this book about the day-to-day experiences of the coach and his wife and family during the ordeal. What happened to them was horrible, but not so unusual for people who live in the real world. This shows just how insulated people of privilege are. They don't even know that stuff like this happens to the little person all the time. And, the little person lacks the resources to fight it. For example, my friend could have cleared his name from the fallacious sexual harrassment charges; but, it was cost effective to find a new job rather than spend tens of thousands of dollars to clear his name and get back a job that he no longer wished to have. Wake up guys! People are unfairly charged and unfairly lose their jobs every day. Over 2000 innocent people have lost decades of their life falsely imprisoned, who have been recently exonerated on DNA evidence. How many other innocents die in jail because they aren't so lucky to have an advocate or the evidence to exonerate them? So, why is this a travesty of justice more deserving of symphathy than the others that happen daily? Is it because these were "good boys" or because they are "elite athletes" who only hired strippers, not hookers, this time. There are lots of people who get caught up in the net who are doing things that are much less disreputable than hiring strippers. The real travesty to me is how Mike Nifong was able to string along the media and the country for so long. More checks and balances need to be in place to prevent one bad actor, along with help from a few other individuals, to perpetrate this. And, this book is correct that those who rushed to a conclusion (done all the time) need to retain an open mind and admit when newly presented facts start painting a different picture than initially presented. But, according to this book, it seems as only left wingers rush to a conclusion and fail to correct themselves. It must be nice to always be right, so to speak.
This book is not worth the paper it was printed upon. It was so painful to read that I had to skim the last couple chapters. I couldn't take it any more.
It Should Have Been An Easy Not Guilty/Innocent.......2007-09-01
..... but, as we all know, it was not. There were many students at the party. There were many witnesses to what happened in close proximaty. Good interviews would determine if the claims of innocence were, in fact, true or if there was a cover up going on. There were too many witnesses present for a cover up to be successful. Why wasn't this realized?
Book Description
Conway's The Road from Coorain presents a vivid memoir of coming of age in Australia. In 1960, however, she had reached the limits of that provincial--and irredeemably sexist--society and set off for America. True North--the testament of an extraordinary woman living in an extraordinary time--te lls the profound story of the challenges that confronted Conway, as she sought to establish her public self.
Customer Reviews:
I REALLY LOVE THIS BOOK.......2003-04-04
AND I FELT REALLY CONNECTED TO THE AUTHOR
I really can't explain my feelings in words. Look at the subject first then read on. They are all by Dr. Jill Ker Conway (shes a phd). The titles are The Road from Coorain (also a Exxon Mobil Masterpiece Theater movie as well), True North, and A Women's Education. Is she orginally from New South Wales, Australia. Came to the United States for graduate school, but stayed there after that, but was Canada as well for 6 years. Boys you will also love reading them as well. Thank you.
A thoughtful balance of the personal and the intellectual.......2002-08-09
Since I did not read the first volume of Conway's now-three-part memoir, I have nothing to compare this to. But I liked her light and tasteful touch with personal details. Conway wasn't dealt the easiest hand in life, but here readers will find no self pity. This is not a book for the empty-headed. But as a former history student and current college instructor, I can identify with much of what Conway writes about; I'm nowhere near as intellectual as she is, however. But this is a great book if you want to explore a woman's coming of intellectual age.
truth about academia.......2001-02-04
This "sequel" to Road From Coorain was not a disappointment. It is beautifully written, sensitive and so clearly represents what it was (and still is) like for women in academia. As a young woman in higher education, I know that I will read this book again and again. It affirms the experiences of women who are climbing the tenure ladder in an old boys network that does not welcome women and provides the mentorship that we so desperately need.
How Jill copes with John!.......2000-11-24
Jill Conway's True North did little to answer the question as to how a talented, ambitious, learned female copes with a manic-depressive husband. Actually, I was disappointed in finding out very little about John who must have been an incredible intellect, bon vivant, and wifely challenge. Jill may want to fulfill a need of many spouses dealing with a bipolar mate by writing a sequel.
YOUNG WOMEN, READ THIS! Find out now ..........2000-10-27
I am grateful to Ms. Conway for baring the truth, as a service to those who need to hear it. I can see that her personal rantings have annoyed other readers, but my response was to the contrary. I have had similar experiences in the corporate world as a woman, and am grateful to find someone to back up my observations. Jill Conway proves that she will not back down to anyone who stands in the way of progress when she has a good idea, and those few who interpret it as antagonistic to their agendas, I suggest they re-examine said agendas, and not blame one of the few who actually succeeds in getting things done for the good, in spite of hopeless bureaucracy.
Book Description
Carrine Gafkjen was, as her daughter remembers, at once the most liberated and unliberated of women. If she had considered the subject at all she would have thought it a waste of time. She firmly believed in destiny; what fate planned for her she dealt with head-on.
In the early 1900s the twenty-five-year-old Gafkjen boarded a train from Minneapolis to claim a homestead for herself on the western North Dakota prairies. She lived alone in her claim shack, barred her door at night against the coyotes, existed on potatoes and salt, and walked five miles to the nearest creek to wash her clothes. A decade later she had, by her own ingenuity, doubled her landholdings and became a secure women of property. Then, at an age when most other women would have been declared spinsters, Carrine Gafkjen married Sever Berg and had six children.
Nothing to Do but Stay tells the story of this uncommon woman with warmth and good humor. It gives testimony to the lasting spirit of our pioneer heritage and, in these uncertain times, to the staying power of family and tradition. This book will appeal to all those with an interest in the settlement of the West, the history of the Great Plains, women's studies, and the perseverance of the early-twentieth-century farmers.
Customer Reviews:
Loved it!.......2007-09-19
There's no plot here and certainly no white knuckle drama. The book is a series of essays, each chapter relating an event or way of life experienced by the author as a child growing up on the North Dakota plains during tbe early 1900s. From education to farm life to holidays, each was covered with love and humor. I felt like I was getting to know my own grandmother as a child. My only wish was that there were more photographs, but considering the time period it was wonderful to have a few.
this was a GREAT story.......2003-03-27
I stumbled on this book in a used book store. It is the amazing story of the author's parents and their life in rural North Dakota. The book has adventures, anecdotes, and gives the reader a real sense of how families existed in the early 20th century. This was a very entertaining story, although perhaps you can't tell from this review. None of us who have read it could put it down, from my 78 year old mom to my sister who is reading it to her 7 year old daughter.
An amazing story about a frontier Mom!.......2002-02-16
I loved this book. Its a compendium of short pieces about the author's mother, who was a frontier woman with a wonderful outlook on life. I also loved the descriptions of her husband, who had to drive the children through snow, to get to their respective schools, and the descriptions about how the kids were settled in the schoolhouse overnight, while wild mustangs banged against the door. I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I would send my children to a schoolhouse way far away, with food for a week. Can you imagine what they did after school let out... all by themselves? I wanted to hear more about this. The descriptions of quilting are wonderful.It is a great book if you are in the mood to feel cold, hungry, and in North Dakota with the snow beating down upon you. Also if you enjoy descriptions of sumptuous meals at holidays, replete with Norwegian recipes!
Memorable.......2001-04-10
The author is the youngest of six children of hard-working Norwegian-speaking parents, and the account of the struggles her parents went thru is awesome. Sometimes I thought the author indulged in hyperbole, and I would have appreciated a little more exactitude, but it no doubt is true that life during the twenties and thirties in northwestern North Dakota was a hard and demanding one. The first part of this book is the best, as the author relates the fantastic efforts necessary for the kids to be educated. There is a lot of discussion of Norwegian food, and those of you who are of Norwegian descent will gobble that talk up, but for me I could not get too interested in how her mother went to extraordinary lengths to prepare, under primitive conditions, the food she was so good at concocting. There is less talk of the interesting political events during the time than I would have liked. Appam, North Dakota, which was apparently a home town to the family during these years, has, according to my 1958 atlas, a population of 18. I would like to have learned whether it was a bigger place when the author was a child. But the upbeat attitude to her childhood was a real plus for this book--not the dreary catalog of hardship one sometimes gets from depression sagas. I liked this book.
great - buy it.......1998-04-20
Did you grow up in touch with the sky and reality, but you're afraid your city-kids only know about TV, ads and computer games? Read them this book. Christopher Gray, New York City
Book Description
In the wilderness, one false step can make the difference between a delightful respite and a brush with death.
On a beautiful summer afternoon in 1998, Dan Stephens, a 22-year-old canoeist, was leading a trip deep into Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park. He stepped into a gap among cedar trees to look for the next portageâand did not return. More than four hours later, Dan awakened with a lump on his head from a fall and stumbled deeper into the woods, confused.
Three years later, Jason Rasmussen, a third-year medical student who loved the forest’s solitude, walked alone into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on a crisp fall day. After a two-day trek into a remote area of the woods, he stepped away from his campsite and made a series of seemingly trivial mistakes that left him separated from his supplies, wet, and lost, as cold darkness fell.
Enduring days without food or shelter, these men faced the full harsh force of wilderness, the place that they had sought out for tranquil refuge from city life. Lost in the Wild takes readers with them as they enter realms of pain, fear, and courage, as they suffer dizzying confusion and unending frustration, and as they overcome seemingly insurmountable hurdles in a race to survive.
âWith admirable economy and a flair for suspense . . . [Griffith shows] how even well-prepared wilderness travelers can compound an initial blunder until they are in extreme dangerâand what someone in their boots can do to increase his odds of surviving.ââWashington Post Book World
âSimply good reporting, offering an absorbing read and material for thinking about ourselves and the wilderness.ââMinneapolis Star Tribune
Cary J. Griffith is a freelance writer who specializes in writing about the outdoors.
Customer Reviews:
A cautionary tale.......2007-09-16
The book is a riveting retelling of how two young men (independently) became lost in the boundary waters area. The most useful element of the story is the cautionary tale of how simple mistakes, easily made through carelessness or shortsightedness, can lead quickly to life-threatening situations in the wilderness. Alternating between the experiences of the two campers, and jumping between to the rescue efforts mounted on their behalves, the accounts are woven together ably. That said, the author insists upon describing all the events in the present tense rather than the past tense, i.e. he looks up, he sees the light, he wonders, he goes.... It's a personal gripe that some might not share, but rather than creating a breathtaking atmosphere for me as a reader, I found this writing style annoying in an otherwise well told story.
The book is not a survival primer per se, but there are many lessons of the "I never thought of that" variety to be learned here by those with little experience in the wilderness. For those who have "been there and done that," there are sobering reminders of the consequences of lessons forgotten. Keep your map with you and look at it frequently. Don't lose the compass. Never part with your matches if you walk out of camp. Don't wander out of sight of your camp in thick woods. Don't make a jump you don't need to. Avoid needless risks. Insulation is your friend, moisture your enemy. The fact that this isn't rocket science is what makes the book compelling -- simple mistakes that anyone could make can snowball. It is thought provoking to say the least.
Almost unbelievable ... .......2007-07-31
This book follows two unfortunate souls and for one of them, you will find yourself wondering if the story can be true since it is one bad decision after another. But I guess that is how it goes. I found both stories compelling and gave this book as a gift to two of my friends (one of which read each story through to the end instead of alternating them).
An Amazing Tale of Survival.......2007-06-10
I started this book right after a visit to the area where these events took place. I met one of the rescuers and he casually mentioned the book. I bought it based on that comment but I didn't expect the book to be as well-written or as engrossing as it was. I stayed up well past my bedtime the first night and finished it a few days later in one sitting. It's all I could think about during that time. The author did an excellent job of researching the events so that the reader can feel what it was like to be in the wilderness with the lost men and with the rescuers. It's an amazing story and it's very well told. Highly recommended!
The woods are lovely, dark and deep ..........2006-08-31
Easy to get Lost in this Gripping Narrative....
You may find this book hard to put down once you delve into it. Two parallel narratives of fairly savvy backcountry trekkers who make some mistakes for which they almost pay with their lives. We so rarely encounter The Wild in our urban and suburban lives. It helps to remember sometimes just how fragile the membrane is that separates survival from death.
Gripping Account.......2006-06-14
This fascinating book tells two stories, of two men who lost their way on separate journeys into the north woods. Its structure is engaging: it tells the two stories side by side in alternating chapters. It details their peril, their survival efforts, and the search and rescue operations.
This book has some advantages over other books of adventurist survival. The situations are more accessible, something average people can relate to better than tales of mountain climbers and victims of shipwreck. The tales contrast nicely -- one of the men is seemingly well-prepared but makes some grave errors that put him in the jaws of death; the other is an expert outdoorsman who overestimates his abilities in a fleeting moment.
The author balances the themes of the story very nicely: the narrative details that help us understand all the activity surrounding these incidents, the high emotions of the various players, the natural and social milieu in which the incidents occurred. I do wish that the author had provided a "cast list" summarizing the participants in each story and their roles; it would have made it easier to maintain continuity in the alternating stories. The maps are adequate but merely that: they could have been used better to advance the story.
I enjoyed getting to know both of the protagonists as they developed through the storytelling. The author does not overemphasize their lapses in judgment. Sure, one could berate the one hiker for not checking his map and compass until well into the second day; and the canoe trip leader for the bravado that made him think he could achieve a leap that needn't have been attempted. But pointing out lessons is not the point of the tale. Rather, this book presents a tale of the human spirit in extreme situations, and offers travelog of the north woods into the bargain. He draws their characters vividly, and the reader cheers on their ingenuity in surviving, their inner struggles and breakthroughs. Tears of relief and delight meet their rescues.
Product Description
In 1929, at the age of 24, Elliott Merrick left his position as an advertising executive in New Jersey and headed up to Labrador to work as an unpaid volunteer for the Grenfell Mission. In 1933 he wrote True North about his experiences in the northern wilderness, living and working with trappers, Indians and with the nurse he met and married in a remote community. The book describes the hard work and severe conditions, along with the joy and friendship he and his wife experienced.
Merricks account of life in a harsh and unforgiving land is a tribute to the hardiness and generosity of the people whose life he shared. His vividly evocative prose stimulates the imagination such that the reader becomes a participant in the exhausting struggles and profound joys of the trail. An absolute masterpiece.
Herb Pohl, retired history professor and solo canoeist who has paddled extensively in the Canadian North.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent tale..........2007-03-19
I read some of the previous reviews before getting this and some were positive and some negative...I have to say I was very much pleased with the book, excellent story and tale with local dialogue to add an element of adventure and flair. I just really enjoyed the story and to see the hardships people faced...
If only I had lived then.......2006-08-29
This book will transcend you to a time and place that makes you feel at peace with nature. Merrick's writing is like poetry in motion. You will wish you could have been there to experience the times when he is at one with the universe. The people and places he is writing about no longer exist, which is the greatest pity of all.
A great read for lovers of the Canadian North.......2006-07-23
A fascinating book! A well written account by a man who traveled extensively in the Canadian North in the 1930s, just as the traditional remoteness that had characterized that world was ending with the introduction of planes and other technologies. Merrick was a keen and sympathetic friend of the North, its history and its Native peoples.
Book Description
This is the book that in hardcover won unanimous praise from reviewers, who called it "beautiful and transcendent" (The Boston Globe), a book that "measures the arc of a culture's mortality in small, personal increments" (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), is written "in a poker-faced style that always seems on the verge of exploding into manic laughter or howls of pain" (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
They're right. Tony Earley is a writer so good at his craft that you don't read his words so much as inhale them. His first book of nonfiction is one of those unexpected classics, like Ann Lamott's Traveling Mercies, in which a great writer rips open his/her heart and takes the reader inside for a no-holds-barred tour.
In a prose style that is deceptively simple, Earley confronts the big things-God, death, civilization, family, his own clinical depression-with wit and grace, without looking away or smirking.
Customer Reviews:
A solid and dependable author of nascent southern literature..........2007-07-31
At least that's what I tell myself when I sit down to drink up the words and prose that Tony Earley puts on paper when he's writing and not teaching over at Vanderbilt University! (I'm just playing, of course.) Earley's works, two short collections of short stories and the stupendously written "Jim the Boy" evoke a deft blend of early Ernest Hemingway with the Southern traditions and common sense of Flannery O'Connor and Carson McCullers, among others. This collection "Somehow Form a Family: Stores That Are Mostly True" is merely another solid example of his work ethos and ability to spin a good yarn. I've read it several times and it becomes more enjoyable, as familiar and comfortable as a worn pair of shoes, each and every time. You should treat yourself to the experience, too.
Somehow Form A Good Book.......2006-11-03
Tony Earley's third book consists of ten previously published pieces that in his introduction he says he hesitates to call essays but rather stories "mostly true because memory, like imagination, is largely a function of individual perception." So there you have it. At least, unlike the plethora of recently published writers who either don't seem to understand the difference between fiction and nonfiction or choose to ignore it, Mr. Earley acknowledges the difficulty of keeping the two completely separate. The "pieces" cover a variety of topics and for the most part have little in common with each other except the fine writing of the author.
I reread most of the articles and found myself liking them better the second time. I attribute that to Mr. Earley's attempt at honesty and his expertise with words and finally my seeing myself and members of my family in many of his pieces. (He also in his introduction hopes that his readers recognize themselves here.) How many writers would admit to something so politically incorrect as trying to kill a sick cat to put it out of its misery? ["Shooting The Cat"] His language is impeccable. On an autumn morning in North Carolina, a window was "intricately jeweled with frost." Dan Ledbetter (Earley's grandfather) at 6'4" was "so skinny that he seemed to have been constructed from spare parts." And the above-mentioned cat, in healthier days "had come to Granny's house in the usual way: it showed up on the back steps freshly weaned and mewed solicitiously, as if seeking work." I recognize the author's blue Carolina mountains, the Tennessee sighting of which always takes my breath away. Also, in the title piece, Mr. Earley remembers the bad reception of his family's Admiral television built in the 1950's and understood that his family was poor because they owned a black and white set too heavy for Hoss on "Bonanza" (my dad's favorite TV program) to pick up by himself. Mr. Earley also includes a thoughtful chapter on the uniqueness of words he heard in his childhood and is saddened that in only a generation these "colorful" expressions will die. ["The Quare Gene"] In a moving passage he remembers visiting his maternal greatgrandfather "well into his nineties" and being asked by the family patriarch, "Who are you?" The youngster replied, "I'm Reba's boy. Clara Mae's grandson." (At family reunions in East Tennessee, although I'm fairly sure my past is longer than my future, I am always referred to simply as "Frank's boy" and will remain forever nameless.)
In "A Worn Path," Mr. Earley traces his religious upbringing as a child at Rock Springs Baptist Church, his later flirtation with the Episcopal Church because he "loved the smell of incense as much as. . . the smell of beer," his attempts at atheism and finally his peace, (sort of) believing that he is watched over by a loving God and that "as we walk through the world, even along the dangerous paths we have chosen for ourselves, God worries about where we put our feet."
Regardless of who you are, where you are from, whether or not you believe in God or think you should kill sick cats, you will marvel at Mr. Earley's beautifully burnished prose. We can all be thankful that in spite of the fact that as a youngster, he seems to have watched television day in and day out, he still grew up to be a fine writer.
A bit of a come down for Earley.......2006-05-28
I've read Earley's other two books--both of which were truly excellent--and I had high expectations for this effort, but was somewhat disappointed.
The trademark gentleness that marks Early's other work isn't as deftly handled here. Some of the stories don't really amount to much. Because the book is largely autobiographical I get the sense the material constrained the writer in ways fiction wouldn't.
Actually, to my mind the best writing in the book is the introduction where Early explains the "Mostly True" aspect of the title, wherein he muses about the clarity of memory and the ways in which it changes over time.
This isn't a bad little book. It just pales in comparisons to both Tony's other book of short stories or his Jim the Boy novel. Try one of those if you liked this one--you're in for a treat if you do.
Somehow Form a Family (Stories That Are Mostly True).......2005-09-10
This book rekindled a flame in me to write some of my memoirs for our children and grandchildren. Written with heart and humor. Evokes many childhood memories.
Really good book!.......2003-10-12
Tony Earley is a really great writer and this is a outstanding book! I first encountered Tony Earley in the pages of The Oxford American and his essay, "A Worn Path", which is included in this book. He is a wonderful writer and reading his essays brought back countless memories of my own life. I can't say enough about this book!
Average customer rating:
- Highly recommended memoir.
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Combat Reporter: Don Whitehead's World War II Diary And Memoirs
Manufacturer: Fordham University Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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Beachhead Don: Reporting The War From the European Theater, 1942-1945
ASIN: 0823226751
Release Date: 2006-09-15 |
Book Description
Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, Don Whitehead is one of the legendary reporters of World War II. For the Associated Press he covered almost every important Allied invasion and campaign in Europe—from North Africa to landings in Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, and Normandy, and to the drive into Germany. His dispatches, published in the recent Beachhead Don, are treasures of wartime journalism.
John Romeiser has woven both the North African diary and Whitehead's memoir of the subsequent landings in Sicily into a vivid, unvarnished, and completely riveting story of eight months during some of the most brutal combat of the war. Here, Whitehead captures the fierce fighting in the African desert and Sicilian mountains, as well as rare insights into the daily grind of reporting from a war zone, where tedium alternated with terror. In the tradition of cartoonist Bill Mauldin's memoir Up Front, Don Whitehead's powerful self-portrait is destined to become an American classic.
Customer Reviews:
Highly recommended memoir........2007-02-04
Edited by University of Tennessee-Knoxville teacher John B. Romeiser, Combat Reporter: Don Whitehead's World War II Diary and Memoirs is the true story of two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Don Whitehead, who served the Associated Press in 1942 by covering the Allied drive against Erwin Rommel's tanks in North Africa, in Whitehead's own words. Collecting and organizing Whitehead's personal journal and unfinished memoir with the rare editor's note in brackets for clarity, Combat Reporter covers events that Whitehead witnessed from 1942-1943 in Cairo, Libya, Tunisia, and Sicily. Combat Reporter offers an evenhanded, front-lines view of the European Theater and an unforgettable self-portrait of a one-of-a-kind reporter. A foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Rick Atkinson and an afterword by Whitehead's colleague Command Sergeant Major Benjamin Franklin (U.S. Army, Ret.) round out this highly recommended memoir.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent Collection of Stories that Cover the Emotional Range
- EXCELLENT!
- Charming tales of the North Woods of Minnesota
- A tale of love from Minnesota
- Sickness, compassion, feuds, dangers, births and deaths
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A Country Doctor's Casebook: Tales from the North Woods (Midwest Reflections)
Roger Allan Macdonald
Manufacturer: Minnesota Historical Society Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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A Country Doctor's Chronicle: Further Tales From The North Woods
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A Measure of My Days: The Journal of a Country Doctor
ASIN: 0873514300 |
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Collection of Stories that Cover the Emotional Range.......2007-03-13
As the daughter of a semi-country doctor, I grew up with the experience of having a father who always seemed to be on call. Dr. Macdonald's anthology of cases was an excellent read, and after the first story I immediately called my mom to share it with her. We both had a laugh over it, and I am going to recommend that she buy it, along with my 2 older sisters. I enjoyed reading the stories, and they are set up such that you can read for as long or as short a time as you want. A must-buy for any child or spouse of a physician!
EXCELLENT!.......2006-01-11
I thought this book was excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed this book... you'll laugh out loud and you'll cry as you see everything through the eyes of one rural Minnesota doctor. I'm couldn't wait until his second one came out! Read it!!
Charming tales of the North Woods of Minnesota.......2003-11-11
I got this book because I too come from Minnesota and work in health care, but once started on Dr. MacDonald's A Country Doctor's Casebook Tales from the North Woods, I was hooked. The author was what we would now refer to as a family practitioner who worked in a small rural community near Duluth from 1947 to 1980. His charming collection of stories is a delight to read, and I literally read the book from cover to cover over about three hours without putting it down. The tales of the doctor and his patients pull the reader through the pages without tricks of style, just the author's natural talent for telling a simple story: the life and death struggles of members of his community, the happiness of new lives begun, the suddenness of unexpected death, incredible courage in the face of adversity, acceptance of the setbacks of life, amusing vignettes of simple people living life among their neighbors.
FOR THOSE WRITING PAPERS in English, creative writing, journaling, journalism, history, and sociology, this would make a nice format to follow or a good bibliography entry. The author has used his own life experiences to create a history of his practice, community, and time.
A tale of love from Minnesota.......2003-01-29
Dr. MacDonald's book is a welcome remembrance to those who lived in Northern Minnesota in the 40's & 50's. His stories of survival (and sometimes not surviving) are very descriptive and detailed. When he tells of a trip through a swamp he carried his wife through to help a patient, you almost feel as though you are sloshing through the mud with him. His stories are NOT about heroics that he performed on helpless rural Minnesota residents, although he certainly could do that as well. They are about the heroics of those people he cared for. This story has it's humorous parts as well as parts that make you cry for the brave and futile attempts at life of his patients. I am grateful to Dr. MacDonald for this book, and I hope to see more from him in the future.
Sickness, compassion, feuds, dangers, births and deaths.......2002-10-07
A Country Doctor's Casebook: Tales From The North Woods is an anthology of autobiographical stories by Dr. Roger A. MacDonald, a physician who has served the people living in a remote region of northern Minnesota during the years after World War II. Vignettes of sickness, compassion, feuds, dangers, births and deaths make A Country Doctor's Casebook unforgettable and very highly recommended reading.
Books:
- Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
- Travels With Cole Porter
- Ulysses Annotated
- Ulysses S. Grant : Memoirs and Selected Letters : Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant / Selected Letters, 1839-1865 (Library of America)
- V for Vendetta
- When Somebody Loves You Back
- When We're In Public, Pretend You Don't Know Me: Surviving Your Daughter's Adolescence so You Don't Look like an Idiot and She Still Talks to You
- Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (Modern Library Paperbacks)
- Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
- Who Was Albert Einstein?
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