No comments about Chinese Islanders: Making a Home in the New World (The Island Studies Series).

No comments about One Woman's War: A Canadian Reporter with the Free French.

1 comments about Too Many Men On The Ice.

1. Given that this is virtually the ONLY book in existence concerning women's ice hockey, I'd give this book a 5. The authors and publisher deserve plaudits for writing about this subject. On the downside, this book, when compared to objective standards of quality and editing, stands in need of improvement and could have benefited from further refinement. One example: One entire chapter is devoted to just one woman from the sport (out of many that could have been chosen) who blathers on and on and on about her views of ice hockey. (Who cares?) This chapter of the book reads as if the two writers just set a tape recorder down in front of the person and then typed everything she said verbatim. If I wanted to read a magazine interview, I could have gone elsewhere such as reading women's ice hockey stories and interviews in some of the hockey trade journals. A book is supposed to be a SYNTHESIS of various points of view. I appreciate the two authors showing me their raw interview material but this kind of self-promotion by one individual female ice hockey player belongs in an appendix at the BACK of the book, and NOT in a book chapter. Certainly everyone would agree that this kind of monologue by one single female ice hockey player SHOULD NOT HAVE CONSTITUTED AN ENTIRE BOOK CHAPTER! C'mon! Let's do some of our own writing and research. And what qualifications does this person have to presume to speak for the entire sport anyway? Second point of criticism: While the story of women's ice hockey is in part a story of sexism and the struggle between the sexes, I think the tone of the book and the title could have been less adversarial and resentful toward the existence of men's ice hockey. "Too Many Men on the Ice" makes it seem like a zero sum game. Can't men as well as women play the sport? The title suggests not. In fact, the title and the tone of the book suggest that there are "too many men on the ice" playing the sport to the exclusion of women. This is not what wome! n's ice hockey is about. There should be enough room in the sport for both men and women to play ice hockey. This isn't a war between the sexes. Women just want to be recognized and granted equal rights to train, get appropriate coaching, ice time, etcetera just like the men. Do the authors really believe that there are "too many men on the ice?" If so, I am disappointed in them as people and as female journalists and authors. The authors' book title and their hostile and adversarial tone toward male ice hockey players undercuts what these fine women players stand for: No one should be saying that there are "too many men on the ice!" Nor should anyone ever say that there are "too many women on the ice." There should be enough ice time for everyone who wants to play the sport. The book comes off as a well intentioned but somewhat superficial attempt to cover the sport. I suspect other writers will come along and pick up where these two left off. But nonetheless, hats off to these two young authors for devoting themselves to a worthy subject.

3 comments about A Wolf in the Attic: The Legacy of a Hidden Child of the Holocaust.

1. "A Wolf in the Attic", a memoir by Dr. Sophia Richman adds a valuable perspective to the literature of the Holocaust. Dr. Richman was a hidden child in Poland who survived to tell her story of what it meant to transcend such an ordeal and then go on to try to strive for and fit in with normal life. This work is a unique exposition of a journey to overcome a traumatic past and to engage fully in life under renewed circumstances yet with the past just under the surface. The process of coming to terms with this dicotomy is at the heart of the work and is very moving. Dr. Richman has created a compelling narrative which reveals the two faceted experience of a life of achievement and momentum amidst unconscious symbols of tragedy. The fact that the author was successful in so many ways in overcoming her trauma is an inspiration. Her story is a special one amongst Holocaust memoirs. Dr. Richman's work is highly recommended for its humanity, complexity and poignancy.



2. I thought the book was excellent! I have read dozens of books about the Holocaust and this document certainly offers a different and vital perspective that has not previously been covered in the literature. As you progress through the book, it is quite clear that the after-effects for Holocaust survivors are persistent and nagging, and greatly affect them for the rest of their lives. Sophia Richman's experience demonstrates that tragic events that surround young children can stalk in their minds like "A Wolf in the Attic".



3. "Memoirs, the signature literary form of the 21st century, speak to us
   privately of the most intimate aspects of life. The fact that Sophia Richman is a
   child survivor of the Holocaust as well as a psychoanalyst and applies both of these vantage points to her life narrative, takes this memoir into new territory.
   She writes of the realms of childhood, adolescence and adulthood through the
   prism of someone whose very existence once depended on keeping a
   secret. This is an engaging and very special book in the memoir literature and one that will inspire
   readers as well as writers who have difficulty formulating and then articulating their
   own story."

5 comments about Fearsome Battle: With The Canadian Army In World War II Europe.

1. This author tell his story in third person in order to keep the haunting reality of war at a manageable distance, yet he takes the reader into battle with his poignant tellng of it. Told in vignettes, the reader is not fettered by the minutia of a soldiers life, but feels it, tastes it, smells it nonetheless. Rogge exposes the poetic, celestial soul of humanity in the mundane savagery of war through the experiences of one weary, intrepid man who understands that the horrific and the sublime are complementary.



2. Fearsome Battle: With The Canadian Army In World War II Europe is the gripping true memoir of Robert Rogge, a 22-year-old American volunteer who served with the Canadian Army during the perilous era of the second world war. Robert personally participated in the assault on Normandy on D-Day, and survived eleven months in the thick of battle until the war's end. Vividly graphic (almost to the point of disturbing) in portraying hand-to-hand combat, artillery bombardment, and the sad, sometimes gruesome job of picking up the dead after the fighting settled, Fearsome Battle is a candid and informative picture of the horrors the Greatest Generation endured to protect the world against Nazi ambitions and fascist intentions. Highly recommended reading and a welcome addition to the growing library of World War II memoirs and autobiographies.



3. Using his considerable skills as a writer, Rogge drops the reader into the cage of war and unleashes its terrors and hardships on us. This book is the real deal. Its images linger and affect me still. I read it with horrible fascination and a growing appreciation for what these men endured to win the war.



4. A realistic and grabbing account of war in the European Theater. As the Editor of the newsletter of the National Museum of the Pacific War, I read many accounts of combat on both the European and Pacific fronts. This extremely well written book gives an unflinching view into the shattering of boyhood ideals and the horrors and sacrifices of war. The book is notable because it gives the unique view of an American volunteer serving with the Canadian Army in Europe; in addition, the author's use of the third person allows him to talk about things that otherwise might have been too painful to share openly with others. I highly recommend this narrative which goes a long way to dispell any of the so-called glories and glamour associated with the waging of war.



5.      "Fearsome Battle tells the story of a young American who enlisted in the Canadian Army before America went to war. The writing of Mr. Robert Rogge unceremoniously grabs the reader from the onset. An unusual aspect of Fearsome Battle is that this account has been written in the third person. Mr. Rogge had considerable difficulty writing of the horrors of war he had experienced first hand, from the first person or as seen through his eyes. However, he manages to capture the mind and attention of the reader by describing each account in the short memoir as if from a disinterested bystander reporting the chilling events as they unfolded.
   
        This World War II personal account narrates small snippets of horrific battlefield action as witnessed firsthand by Mr. Rogge. It delivers a masterful portrayal of a young man's innocent entry into combat and the fulfillment of his coming to age as a seasoned veteran. The war finally ends with his felling a German soldier just prior to hearing that the war has finally ended. The soldier was but a boy, maybe fourteen years of age, but one who would have killed his adversary had he been given the chance.
   
        Fearsome Battle keeps the reader on the edge of anticipation from the first page to the last.
   
        I highly recommend this book for any person interested in reading what is in the mind of a combat soldier who fully expects that the next moment in time will be his last.
   
        Mr. Rogge, Thank You, for an excellent observer's narrative of the brutality of war."
   
        Joe Richard, web master, World War II Stories -- In Their Own Words.

No comments about So Much to Do, So Little Time: The Writings of Hilda Neatby.

No comments about Forgotten Highways: Wilderness Journeys Down the Historic Trails of the Canadian Rockies.

No comments about Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists.

2 comments about 100 Days in the Jungle.

1. I do not doubt that the individuals characterized in this book had a harrowing and dangerous experience, but the accuracy of their adventure is brought into question by the obvious inacuracies of their discription of life in Ecuador. I found their description of the airport almost laughable. Airport Security Guards beating poor destitute locals with a stick!! I have lived in Quito for the last 5 years and have traveled through the airport many many times and have NEVER seen anything like what was described. I have also worked in the area they were captured. I agree that a certain danger exists in this area and one needs to be very careful. However, I have a hard time believing everything else when I found so many obvoiusly incorrect details. I think that the naritive would have been just as good and even more interesting had there not been inserted all the incorrect details to supposedly make the story more interesting. There a enough interesting stories here in Ecuador without all the literary license.

   Reader: Please take with a grain of salt all the violence and "agressively" poor people. I sincerely hope that the rest of the books narritive of the 100 days in the jungle is much more accurate that thier description of Quito. Despite all of this I found the book interesting and recommend it.




2. The airport at Quito is not that wild...does it need some order, yes? Are people getting hit by police? NO! That is absurd.

   I find the story intriguing, but craziness like the airport story, locals not telling the police about guerrillas, and the mere fact that the spanish used in the book is atrocious. Vamos means "Let's (we) go." Not "Vamoose" like Yosimite Sam. Also, Joto is called Hoto many times...where was the editor? There are other ridiculous translations and misuse of Spanish. It did not seem to be intentional because when the oil workers used their spanish it fit the situation...the other misuses did not fit.

   If you want to read a kidnap tail...read this. If you want to read about the real Ecuador...go to another source.

No comments about Buster: A Canadian Patriot and Imperialist - The Life and Times of Brigadier James Sutherland Brown..