5 comments about Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence.

1. Never in my history lessons have I heard these stories. The struggles of women during the American Revolution were many. I'm embarrassed that I never considered what they went through; partly because we have always been taught only about the hardships on the battlefield. But, in this book, you will read about the many woman who followed the soldiers (camp followers), women who had no other choice but maintain the farms during their husband's absence, women who volunteered in support of the war (spinners, etc), and general's wives who helped boost the soldiers' moral. There are many interesting facts about Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and many other "celebrity" wives contributions during the war. A great book that I will talk about for a very long time.



2. This book captured the time period of the American Revolution and the role women played in it like no other book I have ever read. I appreciated the focus on particular individuals which really helped bring it to life for me. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to know more about what part women played during the American Revolution. I'm sure you will be both surprised and delighted at your findings.



3. I read this book for a class where the author came to speak. The book gives women a place in history and let's us all know that, YES, we did live and contribute back in the day.



4. I enjoy personal stories of the Revolutionary War. This was a good book, but not as detailed about the women's stories as I thought it might be. It was more detail about the state of American and gender roles with personal stories thrown in. What prompted me to look for more Revolutionary times books about women was Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts. Founding Mothers was a wonderful detail of how these women were raised and their roles in the revolution.
   The book Revolutionary Mothers did cover more than the white upper-crust, it covered Native American roles, African American roles, and both sides of the war, patriot and loyalist. Overall, I am glad I read it.



5. Carol Berkin has written a book so interesting that I can cite the women's names and tell their stories to my friends. An outstanding author who has the ability to bring real women of the past into the present by describing the lives and the actions of these women. I've since ordered Berkin's other books. I've recommended this book to all my friends. The creativity and persistence of women to survive and lead productive, heroine lives out of the most extreme of situations amazes me.

5 comments about My Thirteenth Winter: A Memoir.

1. While I was reading this book, I was surprised by how many struggles children with disabilities have to overcome. I learned many things about life by reading this book. If you are a person interested in learning about challenges, life struggles, and happy endings, your in for a treat.



2. Although this book is supposed to be about a girl's struggles with dyscalculia, it focuses far more on her many other psychological issues such as depression, anxiety, and panic disorder. She dramatically describes her daily panic attacks in school, fear of staying overnight at friends' houses as a young teen, fear of going out with friends in college, etc., but almost none of it is related to dyscalculia. Because of this, there isn't much in the book that provides kids or teens with hope that dyscalculia doesn't have to ruin their lives or make them miserable. Dyscalculia is a definitely struggle (and the anecdotes in this book validate that), but the disorder doesn't have to cast such a dark shadow over every aspect of life. I was disappointed to see that the one available book about life with dyscalculia was so negative.



3. I am a third grade teacher and I bought this book because I thought a child in my class might have the same learning disability that is talked about in this book. The book is very enlightening to those who otherwise wouldn't know much about LD's but it is a memoir so it doesn't neccessarily help you deal with a student or person with an LD any differently. It was very inspiring!



4. I almost felt like I was reading my own biography.
   
   This book hit very close to home and is an accessible and easily understood look into what it's like for "smart people" with learning disorders.
   
   The publishers ate a star on this one. I bought the mass market paperback and the print was so tiny it was hard to read.



5. Samantha Abeel has done a great service for kids, parents, and educators by sharing her story about what it means to be twice exceptional, a student with gifts and simultaneous disabilities. We learn of the pain and the triumphs of an individual that was so highly gifted that she published a beautiful book of poetry, "Reach for the Moon," at the age of thirteen, but at the same time needed the support of special education because she couldn't make change, tell time or do basic calculations. She shows us the importance of self acceptance and self-advocacy. We also see the powerful impact that her mother had in tirelessly advocating for attention to both her strengths and her needs. This is a book that should be read by all educators as well as parents of students with special needs and most importantly by the students themselves.

3 comments about Time for Kids: Presidents of the United States (Time For Kids).

1. Very nice book. I bought it for my 10 year old and she loves it. Great price too.



2. My son took this book to show at his Wolves (Cub Scouts) den meeting. Everyone loved it including the parents. It is very informative and it is easy to read. I would recommend this for everyone who is interested in the history of the Presidents of the United States.



3. What a great book!! My seven year old loves this book - lots of facts and pictures. We read one president a night!!

5 comments about Who Were the Beatles? (Who Was...?).

1. This is the ulutamate book for beatles fans. If i were to choose any beatles book, this would have to be the one I would choose.



2. I bought these to use as a reading book with 4th and 5th graders and they are loving it! I am really enjoying it too....a nice change from the traditional reading book. It is high interest at the right reading level for my kids. I would highly recommend this book for use at school or for finding out more about the Fab Four.



3. My son who is in 2nd grade had to write a biography report. He chose to report on The Beatles. This book was perfect! It gave him all the necessary information and it was just right for his age level. We both learned a lot from reading this book.



4. I am in fourth grade and I enjoyed reading this book. I read this book for a book report for school. It tells about all the Beatles lives. I learned about John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. When they were twenty-something they were asked to go to Germany, but their parents wouldn't let them. They just went and their dressing room was in the bathroom. I felt sad for them. My favorite part was when they played at Shea stadium. There were 50,000 people! The book doesn't talk all about the Beatles. It talks about the Vietnam War and three famous people who got shot. At the end, there is a timeline of the Beatle's lives and one about the world. You should read this book because it's very interesting.



5. I thought it was great because you get to learn about john,paul,george and ringo the should make a book about the rolling stones but the beatles book is sad too thers a lot of ups and downs

5 comments about The Diaries of Franz Kafka (Schocken Classics Series).

1. The Diares of Franz Kafka reveal him to not just be the disturbing and clever author, but a genuine philosopher in his own right. Because he never published huge tomes of philosophy, he is completely overlooked. Kafka tends to address only himself in his diary, but he grapples with universal problems of the human condition. My copy of the Diaries is underlined, highlighted, and circled on almost every page. He puts into words, even in the translation, so many important and elegant ideas that have not been adequately expressed before or after him. If you have even the slightest interest in Kafka or philosophy, or alienation, buy this book. Buy two copies, in case you lose the first one. Once you've read it, you will not want to be without access to it, ever. Incredible.



2. The diaries reveal that Kafka was not only the one-dimensional character of the disturbed, alienated, and melancholic man that contemporary literary analysis presents him as, but a person with a complexity of feeling, humor, and distinct moments of happiness and joy.
   The segment where he vacillates, through an organized list, as to whether he should marry his fiancé or not I found most enjoyable, and it is also fascinating to watch the diaries darken as Kafka ages, and to long for the unfinished fragments of stories and the gaps in narrative as he struggles against tuberculosis.
   History claims that he was the prophetic bearer of images of totalitarianism and social suppression, but it is often forgotten that Kafka was also an ordinary man leading a rather ordinary, if not emotionally tempestuous, life.
   These diaries are indispensable in understanding the underlying philosophy and thought behind his literary works, and in coming to know more intimately the author who created them, rather than relying upon a preconceived notion of Kafka as an isolated, miserable apparition.



3. Franz Kafka's 1910-23 diary entries are essential reading for anyone who seeks a better understanding of the author's literary world. This 1988 printing contains all the surviving Kafka diaries in one comprehensive volume. More revelatory than any biography, the diaries remain as compelling as his fictional work.



4. Franz Kafka's diaries were never meant to be published. Yet his diaries are spread across the internet, the actual published diaries translated into many languages and countless printings. These dairies are very personal, and the gentle Prague Jew would certainly be appalled.
   
   Why do we continue to find these writings so fascinating?
   
   Well, simply, they're terribly honest. Kafka never meant for these diary entries to be published, let alone read by another person. For those interested in the mechanics and soul of writing, Kafka's diaries are a source of true wonder. A confessional of a gentle soul, a man trapped in an insurance job, staying up through the night writing his heart-out, his thoughts, pains and acute observations of a time on the brink of great and terrible change, the death and cruelty of two world wars.
   
   When reading Kafka, there is an overwhelming darkness, loneliness, a strong shadow that continually hovered around him, a "something" he tried to rid himself of through intense self reflection, which the reader of these diaries will discover.
   
   Kafka's life story is, for the most part, a tragedy. A painful experience as one, sometimes, can feel his self consciousness, that subtle pain at the back of the neck, when, you know, you're being stared at...and his continued bad health.
   
   I've attempted to read Kafka's diaries many times, and only now, for some reason, can withstand the pain of his perceptions, his precarious relationship with his father, and the few women he loved and the true love he never married.
   
   Kafka is a man that loved writing for writing's sake, an artist who experimented daily, till dawn most nights, to pick up his little brief case and begin his work as an insurance lawyer in a semi-official insurance institute.
   
   A strange yet moving entry:
   
   21 February 1911
   I live my life here as if I were entirely certain of a second life, as if for example I had entirely gotten over the failed time spent in Paris, since I will strive to return soon. Connected to this, the sight of the sharply divided light and shadow on the street paving.
   For a moment I felt myself covered in armour.
   How distant, for example, are the muscles of my arms
   
   Kafka's writing was for the act itself without pretension or grandious dreams, (though his success during his 40 year lifetime was no disappointment) an act of instinct, pure and natural. Kafka is the true writer's writer.
   



5. Yes, yes, I know it's odd to describe Kafka's writing as comic, but he really was one of the funniest writers of the Twentieth Century. His outlook on life reminds me so much of Charlie Chaplin's famous mantra that life is a tragedy in close up, in long shot it's a comedy. Kafka is loved by millions because he is the most universal writer of them all. High on the peaks of Twentieth Century literature features the brilliant stylistic prose of Nabokov, the pyrotechnics of Joyce, the pitch black comedy of Beckett, the sublime little observations of Proust. But right at the summit sits the unlikely figure of the wretched, kvetching tortured sick soul and body of Kafka, the world's greatest underdog. With these diaries chronicling his dreams, his awareness of the fragility of his physical body, his anguished relations with his family and friends, the daily nightmare of his office job and the time it stole from his creative pursuits, Kafka speaks for us all. For instance, a single paragraph sentence from 1913 reads:
   
   I'll shut myself off from everyone to the point of insensibility. Make an enemy of everyone, speak to no one.
   
   Now anyone who has ever been a teenager will feel a burning empathy with that sentiment!
   
   Then some bits are brilliantly, nightmarishly extraordinary, like this musing, also from 1913:
   
   To be pulled in through the ground-floor window of a house by a rope tied around one's neck and to be yanked up, bloody and ragged, through all the ceilings, furniture, walls, and attics, without consideration, as if by a person who is paying no attention, until the empty noose, dropping the last fragments of me when it breaks through the roof tiles, is seen on the roof
   
   I read this part on a train, and snorted with laughter. Kafka is such a lovable tortured genius, carrying the weight of his misery around like an anvil on his back. Such a warped brilliant imagination.
   
   Keep a copy of these diaries on your bedside table for those moments when you are fed up with the wretched pressures of the world, can't stand other people, and want to selfishly wallow like a pig in the mud of your own self pity. Priceless.

5 comments about The Kennedys Amidst the Gathering Storm: A Thousand Days in London, 1938-1940.

1. 
   Dr. Swift has constructed through prodigious research a fascinating composite of information which he presents as a highly engrossing narrative of the role of Joseph P. Kennedy as U.S. ambassador to Great Britain on the eve of World War II.
   Swift's keen appraisal of Ambassador Kennedy's actions and motivations and the reprecussions thereof, along with a fresh look at the challenges and opposition confronting Kennedy from both sides of the Atlantic at the time, serves to cast the controversial father of a future U.S. president in a more appealing and admirable light than he is usually afforded.
   Throughout his intriguing report on Kennedy's endeavors in pre-war diplomacy, Swift skillfully limns artful profiles of the high level players in the saga, including Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, King George VI and Franklin Roosevelt, with their reactions and interactions during their continual assessments of the ambassador's merit vis-a-vis their own agendas. In sum, Dr. Swift's scholarly book, spiced with titilating material on the personal lives of Ambassador Kennedy and his wife and children as well as accounts of the foibles and vagaries of other participating political luminaries of the era constitutes a compelling read.



2. This is the way in which history should be written. Carefully researched and filled with facts(some never before revealed), the book moves at a fast pace keeping the reader intrigued and never bored. Will Swift captures the formidible Kennedy family at a turning point in history that many have forgotten - the prelude to World War II. He portrays the self-made, vastly wealthy, crafty, tenacious and powerful Joseph Kennedy - admired by some and distrusted by others - as a true patriot who worked steadfastly in an attempt to keep his beloved country out of war. It was a war he felt would lead to disaster.
   Living with Ambassador Kennedy during his 1000 days in London, the reader sees an Irish Catholic family capture the attention of the lavish and flamboyant society that flourished at the time and the respect of a Protestant nation. The opinions and attitudes of world leaders during that crucial time are well detailed. There is also time to observe the children of Joseph and Rose Kennedy's tight knit family (among them Jack, Bobby and Ted) mature and take on some of the talents of their accomplished parents - talents that would serve them well in their later careers. It is a book worth every minute of the read.



3. It is hard to go wrong with a book about the Kennedys, and this one is a gem. From the politically naive and inept father, the Ambassador, to chubby Teddy, age 6, writing charming notes to his father, to Jack bedding Marlene Dietrich as a young Harvard student, the stories are all fascinating. I especially enjoyed learning about Kathleen, who shared Jack's wit without his sizable brainpower, and Joe, Jr., a fearless guy who, brought up in the competitiveness Joe, Sr., glorified, but not as bright, witty or successful as a war hero as Jack, blew himself up in a suicide bomb run near the end of World War II. Joe, Jr., like his father suffered from political myopia and lack of vision, and stuck to extreme isolationism long after it was clearly untenable for a successful Democratic politician to do so.
   
   Not to mention seeing Rosemary, the tragic one, attend elegant high society dances in London with her sisters, without any serious problems, and function well as an arts and crafts teacher in England, totally lose it when she returned to the US, causing Joe, Sr., to agree to a lobotomy, which turned her into a vegetable. And mother Rose, who probably spent as much money on fancy French couture as Joe did on his mistresses.
   
   The book also contains lots of wonderful cameos, from King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, to their daughter, the current Queen, to the Lindberghs,
   who, with their own rarified brand of politicial naivete, were about to move permanently to Nazi Germany when the war began (!), to Jack's wonderful gay best friend, Lem Billings, and the gay American Ambassador in Paris, Wlliam Bullitt, who lived openly with his partner.
   
   One persistent theme of the book is to criticize FDR's failure to explain his foreign policy to Joe Kennedy. This criticism is, I believe, misplaced. Joe Kennedy knew next to nothing about foreign policy when he asked for the job as the first American Irish Ambassador to the King, and less when he was forced to quit. FDR rightly did not trust Kennedy, and wanted Kennedy out of the country during the 1940 Presidential election. Joe, Sr., lacked the political sophistication to understand his role, or to adjust to FDR's policies and changing public opinion in the US, which moved towards supporting intervention before Pearl Harbor left people with no other option than to fight. FDR could not have clarified his foreign policy to Kennedy because FDR was hiding his own interventionist views from a public and a Congress (and a London Ambassador) who were stuck on neutrality and isolationism. Kennedy made the additional mistake of befriending Neville Chamberlain, a very small-minded and naive politician like himself, who made the near-fatal mistake of thinking Hitler would keep his promises. Kennedy and Chamberlain were two peas in a pod.
   
   In addition, Joe, Sr., a successful businessman, made the mistake of thinking economics controlled the bloodthirsty ideologues of the Nazi regime.
   
   Joe Sr's reward was to see his political career destroyed; he never held any political office after he left London.
   
   On the other hand, Jack, Bobby, Ted, all of them far better politicians and strategists than their father, never made the mistake of hanging on to extreme positions, or giving disastrously candid interviews to reporters, such as Louis Lyons, who actually and courageously reported the crazy things Joe said after his return to the US. The cosmopolitanism and friends the family developed in England just before the war, however, proved a great benefit, especially to Jack. Without the Kennedys' experiences in England, could Camelot have existed?
   
   The book is also full of witty stories and interesting analogies, such as the fact that FDR, like Obama, had trouble with the Irish Catholic working class voters of his day.
   
   FDR achieved his goal of keeping Joe, Sr. out of the 1940 presidential campaign; at Rose Kennedy's urging, aided by some blarney from FDR, Joe even gave a nationwide radio address before the election endorsing FDR. The important job in the government which FDR, in a staged meeting at the White House, promised Kennedy, of course never materialized.
   
   Joe's reward, as we all know, was an amazingly talented and fascinating family. Whatever his other faults, Joe seems to have been a genuinely good father, treating his children with respect, discussing issues at the dinner table and providing support when needed. When he was not around he wrote personalized letters to each of the children. Even the tragedies, such as Rosemary's problems, often had wonderful trajectories, such as the Special Olympics which Eunice and others developed following Rosemary's tragedy.



4. A marvelous study of Ambassador Joe Kennedy's complicated personality, diplomatic involvement with Winston Churchill, and multi-faceted relationship with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Dr. Swift has written an elegant study of this critical time in American history, punctuating his story with vivid portrayals and brilliant insights. Highly recommend this work to both professional historians and the interested layman.



5. Unique among historians I have read, is Will Swift, in his latest book, "The Kennedy's Amidst the Gathering Storm." Swift possesses an ability to engross one immediately due to his gift of narrative writing. Historical topics are often a challenge to read yet this work moves incredibly quickly due to the presentation of information, Swift's special wit describing a situation, and the intertwining of historical fact with character development. Every chapter presents familiar historical information concerning the prewar years 1938-1940, yet the wonderfully researched lives of Ambassador Kennedy's family brings new life into the situation. Very complete diary entries with accompanying newspaper clippings by Rose Kennedy, are a source of material that brings to life a critical world situation complete with an accounting of what Kennedy family members were doing at the moment. I often felt I was present as the situation occurred.
   
   The background of Ambassador Joseph Kennedy is well known, but Swift suggests so much more about the character of Kennedy. The deep love for his children and the exposure of life that he and Rose guided and required of each child is worked into the narrative. One senses so much more about Jack, Bobby, and Ted in particular, due to the parenting they experienced especially as a result of these years abroad.
   
   President Roosevelt and Joe Kennedy had a very difficult relationship as did the combination of Chamberlain and Churchill in the mix as well. We know Kennedy's career was destroyed as a result of his ambassadorship yet Swift has his readers take a good look at the character of FDR as well. One feels Kennedy's deep love of country as he tries to maneuver within an incredibly difficult and disasterous political and world situation with much of the pertinent knowledge from Washington never relayed to him by President Roosevelt.
   
   Characters are described in this narrative such as Tyler Kent, a spy, and Unity Mitford, a companion to Hitler, that make the read unique. Fabulous parties, constant escapades of family and friends in prewar London, fascinating photographs, intimate sides of Rose as she eases into the royal family, and a look at beloved Rosemary, made my read of "The Kennedy's Amidst the Gathering Storm A Thousand Days in London, 1938-1940" so special, I read it a second time.

5 comments about King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World to War.

1. I must have misread the discription because I thought the book was going to focus completely on their part of leading the world to war, the war and aftermath but that asside the author presents a very good biography on all three men. Very detailed and in depth on everything from their lives from birth to death. I liked having more background on Wilhelm II who's generally considered military monster and the one most pushed the world into World War I. It was very interesting reading about his childhood, his deformed hand and his love-hate relationship with England. Its interesting that Wilhelm and Nicholas didn't get along better since they both drove their countries to ruin and were forced to abdicate. The bio on George V was very good and I like that the author put in the part of him getting the British government to recend the offer of safe haven for Nicholas and his family and that he allowed the prime minister to take the blame for that. Most George V bios I've read either airbrush that detail or skip over it. I caught the Nikolasha error which is the reason for four stars instead of five its a small error but the author or editor should have caught it.



2. I think the subtitle of this book, "Three Royal Cousins Who Led The World To War" is a bit misleading. We're dealing with three monarchs who happen to be cousins: the King of England, the German Kaiser, and the Russian Tsar. Of these three, the English King was a constitutional monarch, and really had no say on questions of war and peace. The other two, however, were autocrats and controlled the fates of their respective peoples. The book is an excellent family history of how the various royal courts of Europe were related, and everything related back to Queen Victoria. The author places the bulk of the blame for the war directly on the shoulders of the Kaiser and his paranoia. She concludes that, if his English relations had treated him a bit more inclusively, the war might not have happened. I myself do not subscribe to that belief, but it is plausible. The Tsar was a victim of his own timidity and his wife's overbearing control of him. Of the three monarchs, I have the most sympathy for Nicholas, who really didn't deserve to be deserted by his English cousin when he was in need of a place of exile, nor did he and his entire family deserve to be executed. This is a very interesting, and ultimately sad, book, and I recommend it highly.



3. Their era of kingship is long gone but their legacy remains. British historian Catrine Clay has told their fascinating story in this new triple biography of the rulers and the world they lost in the guns of August, 1914. It was in that fateful autumn that the long 19th century of peace in Europe ended with the horrific beginning of the Great War which would claim 10 million lives and over 20 million casualties. Clay's purpose is not to retell that story oft told but to look at the remarkable lives of three ordinary men who led their nations in this dark and dangerous time. The chief players in this drama are:
   1. Queen Victoria-She was the formidable grandmother of all three of the cousins profiled in the book. Victoria ruled the greatest military power on earth whose navy ruled the waves. Despite the Afghan, Zulu and Boer wars Britain was surpreme in its rulership over a vast empire and a democratic society in which the monarch had no real power.
   2. George V-George was the second son of Edward VII (who ruled from 1901-1910 forging the Entente Cordial treaty with France and Russia pledging them to come to the aid of their allies in time of war). The oldest son Edward died in 1892 so George became king in 1910 following the death of Edward VII. George was a momma's boy and was tied to the apron strings of his beautiul mother Alexandra the Danish born queen. She suffered from deafness and putting up with her husband's constant philandering (most notable of Edward's mistresses as Alice Keppel). Alexandra hated Germany following the ravishment of her native Denmark by the Germans in the 1862 war. George is sometimes known as the sailor king due to his long service in the Royal Navy. He was a faithful husband to his wife May Teck and was a good father. He loved his stamp collection and was a good friend to his cousin Nicky the Russian Tsar. George was the only one of the three rulers who emerged unscathed and popular at the end of World War I. He would die in 1936 beloved of his nation. During World War I he left the fighting to professional soldiers encouraging the troops by frequent visits to them.
   3. Kaiser Wilhelm II-He was born to Vicky (the favorite daughter of Queen Victoria) and his father Frederick. Wilhelm was born with a deformed left arm and a severe hearing problem. He had difficulty with the arm throughout his life compensating for it by becoming a militarist. Wilhelm grew to despise the views of his mother the liberally minded Vicky and his father whom he deemed weak. Wilhelm married Dona who supported him and was not very bright. In 1888 old Kaiser Wilhelm I died to be replaced by Frederick who also died that year succumbing to throat cancer. 1888 became known as the year of the three emperors for that is when Wilhelm II got his chance to rule Germany with a strong hand. He favored the extreme right wing views of Chancellor Bulow and his good friend Prince Eulenburgh and his circle of homosexual cronies, Wilhelm fired Bismarck and desired to make Germany a military powerhouse as he built up the navy and strengthened the army. Wilhelm believed that he was surrounded by enemies knowing of the alliance of France, England and Russia. He was emotionaly unstable suffering mood swings and fits of anger. He was virulently anti-semitic and favored the Junker class. Wilhelm would see his dreams turn into nightmares when Germany was crushed in World War I. The defeated Kaiser would die in Holland as an exile in 1941.
   3. Tsar Nicholas II is a tragic figure. His father Alexander III died in 1894 making Nicholas the Tsar. His mother was Minnie the Danish sister of Britain's Queen Alexandra. This formidable woman hated Germany and taught this lesson to Nicholas. He was a small man with an ordinary brain. He was dominated by his German born wife Alexandra who was a favorite of Queen Victoria. Their son Alexi had hemophilia and the couple relied on faith healers like Rasputin to give them hope that the heir to the throne would triumph over the disease inherited through the mother's blood. Many Russians wrongly thought Alexandra was a German spy!Rasputin would be murdered and so would the Tsar, Alexandria and their 4 daughters and Alexis in July, 1917. The Bolsheviks under Lenin ruled supreme as Tsarist Russia and the Romanov dynasty became a casualty of war.
   Clay tells us the story of these men dealing with a new modern age they were unable to deal with. Both Nicholas and Wilhelm believed in absolute monarchy which was doomed. George was guided by his advisors who believed strongly in the British constitutional monarchy the only one of the three systems that worked then and now.
   The book is well illustrated including a family tree evincing just how close were the blood ties uniting the royalty of Europe prior to the holocaust of World War I. The book is recommended as a fine historical account.



4. This book has a great premise to it. To inform us of the three cousins and leaders of the major players in the first great war. One that has read about the subject though will find that this book takes on too many tasks and leaves things unsaid. Although it does tell the early history of each king well, when they get older and the story needs to be told in some detail, many events are left out.
   
   First of, as is with many books on this era, this is an anti German book. Laying the blame of the entire war, its continuation and practices on the German side. It lays all the blame on the Kaiser when it was know that they generals were the ones who ran the country towards the end of the war. Plus it fails to prove that one of the major reason of the war was the declining British trade to that of Germany. One thing this books does explain well though is one of the reasons why both Russia and Britain were allies was because the wives of each of the kings hated Germany since it had invaded thier country back in the 1860's. They influenced the kings and made the Kaiser feel even more uneasy than he already was because of his handicap, since he always felt as an outsider to his cousins.
   
   This book does a fair job in both detailing the Tsar and Kaiser but does not say much about England's king. Again this book details a lot on the Kaiser and his follies and hadicaps, both physical and mental. If you are looking for a starter book on the war with an enphasis on the Kings this is a good book for you. But if you are looking into more backround on the war this is not it as this books does not touch much on the war and when it does it does not do a good job at it, even the assasination of the Tsar and why it happened is not clearly explained. So if you want an out the subject book on the Great War this is a good book but not great if you already know a lot about the War.



5. Other reviews have pretty much covered the content and general scope of the book -- a very interesting, fairly detailed (as much as the broad subject matter and limited page count will allow) biography of 3 rulers and the way they were influenced by their world, and influenced the world around them. While very critical of Wilhelm, she is also fairly sympathetic, portraying him as a man who was often 'left out', due to factors largely beyond his control.
   
   While overall it was very well written, the structure of the text led to a few minor issues.
   
   a) Because it covers three people, the content isn't always chronological, leading to some confusion, and occassional repetition of facts and incidents.
   
   b)Some of the repetition got rather annoying. (The author reminds us about 20 times that George was a constitutional monarch [and therefore required to follow the demands of parliament], while Nicky and Willie were absolute monarchs.
   
   c) More pictures would have been nice, as well as a more detailed family-tree. (Many people mentioned in the text are not included in the tree. The extremely complex interrationship between the various royal families would have made a more detailed chart very helpful.)

1 comments about The Lady in the Palazzo: An Umbrian Love Story.

1. Some people may enjoy this book. But I found the author self-indulgent
   and sentimental. I should add that I am an Italophile and have spent a couple of years in Italy--both for work and pleasure.
   
   I cold not recommend this to anyone.

5 comments about Loyola Kids Book of Heroes: Stories of Catholic Heroes and Saints Throughout History.

1. The writing style in this book is one in which the author has a conversation about the who's and why's of the saints with the reader. Solidly Catholic and different enough in style to make it appealing to even reluctant readers. We read a lot of saint stories, but this book is in my son's room being read each night-and without force I may add. He's enjoying it as much as I did.



2. This book is very well written and geared toward relating our beautiful Catholic saints to the lives of kids today. Amy Welborn knows children and manages to draw connections between decisions the saints had to make in standing up for their faith within the culture they lived, and how this same problem would present today. So the book helps to show how the virtues of the saints are attainable for us within the 21st century context. I love the book and I also learned a lot in reading it to my son.



3. I would actually rate this 4.5 stars if Amazon had that option. The reason I can't give the book 5 stars are as follows: (1) the author does not use proper capitalization for pronouns referring to God (i.e. she uses "his" when it should be "His") and (2) the saints' feast days are not listed under the chapter title for easy liturgical year reference.
   
   I really like how this book is organized by the 7 cardinal virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity, Temperance, Prudence, Fortitude, and Justice. I also think it includes a good mix of saints, blesseds, Biblical people, and other Catholics from throughout the ages. Some are very familiar such as Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Pope John XXIII, St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Patrick, St. Francis of Assisi, and so on. Others were unfamiliar to me having been raised in the post-Vatican II era and it's nice to learn their stories. The text is engaging and the author does a good job at presenting the stories in an age-appropriate manner (always a concern when dealing with the violence many of the saints had to endure).



4. This book has seven sections, each based on a virtue--faith, hope, charity, temperance, prudence, fortitude and justice. Of the 37 heroes who excelled in these virtues, some are from the 20th century--St. Mary Faustina, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, and Maria Goretti. Each story is 3-4 pages long, and is introduced and written in a kid-friendly way. Good way to introduce children to real heroes!



5. This looks like a great resource, and we will continue to use it. I recommend you look over the material first. Be aware that the introduction includes the phrase, "They remembered how Jesus had been created by God in a special way inside Mary...." I do not think this was intentionally heretical, but one should be careful when speaking about Jesus, who was not created in any way whatsoever.

5 comments about In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam.

1. McNamara never got to the point his role in the Vietnam disaster. Instead we get to feel that his introduction of stastical control in Pentagon was a triumpth. McNamara to his credit did acknowledge some of his errors in questioning the decisions made, but he was not critical enough on himself not to have put his foot down firmer afterall he did openly agreed in more than once that there was no military solutions to Vietnam. If that was agreed why did he continued to pursue the military strategy? However McNamara continued to push the blame to the hardliners (conservatives faction) within the LBJ administration and the Bumbling generals in Saigon.
   
   However the book did paint a picture how our leaders made decisions, major decisions that have great impacts on our lives without due debate and clear analysis. Its really scary if that is how supposely clever people make decsions!



2. This should be read by every person who has to make decisions, whether private decisions or those affecting the public.
   McNamara illustrates how bad decisions were made, what questions were not asked and how consequences were not fully considered.
   One can learn much from their mistakes.



3. I gave this book 5 stars because I believe it is an important historical document. Robert McNamara explains some of his beliefs and reasoning that helped to shape our country's position in Vietnam in the 60's.
   There is also information here that may be new to many people , for example, he gives convincing evidence that president Kennedy had decided to begin withdrawal of our personnel by the end of 1963, and have everyone out by 1965.
   In chapter 11 , he gives a brief list of our failures in Vietnam and the lessons we can learn from them. I thought his advice in this chapter was excellent, but I fear it will fall on deaf ears. McNamara may well be considered a relic of a bygone age , with nothing to offer the decision makers of today. Too bad.
   I also highly recommend the essays , reviews (pro and con) and excerpts in the substantial appendix to the Vintage edition. For example, a surprisingly plausible defense of our country's involvement in Vietnam is given in the article "The Case for War" by W.W. Rostow.
   Anyone interested in the Vietnam war should own this book



4. We, my wife and I, listened to an abridged audio version discarded by our local public library. Vietnam seems to be ancient history.
   
   We were relieved to learn from Mr. McNamara that killing and mutilating all those Americans and Vietnamese was due to shortcomings in the U.S. Imperial Standard Practice Handbook. That is, another memorandum with just the right distribution list or another meeting with the right agenda would have set everything straight.
   
   We had become concerned over the last half century that our leaders had lost their ethical and moral compasses and had become two-bit chislers after reneging on elecions in Vietnam in the mid 1950s.
   
   There are a couple of things that Mr. McNamara could help us understand. Where do we find a copy of the oil lease assignment maps for Vietnam's South China Sea coast of the early 1960s? The samizdat copies have become unusable. We would also like to know whether the flat earth conservatives gave warning before they struck John?



5. I give this book five stars because the writing was good and the revelations of historical import and like they used to say on American Bandstand - It had a good beat and was easy to dance to.
   In many ways I find Mr. McNamara's exposures rather unbelievable. I believe that he is sincere - but that's the scary part.
   Mr. McNamara in just speaking frankly, reveals the big problems with our executive class and it rulership of America. Some of his explanations (excuses) are scary. Not that there was something clandestine going on but that this is how our intelligentsia and ruling class actually think. I have always known as F. Scott Fitzgerald said that the wealthy aren't like the rest of us but wow! This is really something to read.
   At the end of the book he list what we should have learned from VietNam and some cogent thoughts on nuclear proliferation.
   The book is worth the price to read just these conclusions. It is more than obvious that the present administration did not read this book.