1 comments about Growing Up Harley-Davidson: Memoirs of a Motorcycle Dynasty.

1. This book proves that dreams due come true. The book Growing Up Harley Davidson is about the life of a family whos dream came true one day. It also shows that dreams come true even if the odds of doing so aren't so great. The book proves that if two minds are working together that anything is possible. However, this book showed along with this is a lot of time and money. This book first caught my eye because it envolved a family environment. It talked about in great detail about each generation of the family receiving it and the changes they made to make it better. The most interesting part of this book was at the ending chapters. It discussed the selling and of the buyback of the Harley Davidson Company. This was interesting to me because during that time of the selling the qualtiy of the motorcycles were going dowm along with the families dreams. I would recomend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about Harley Davidson Motorcycles.

5 comments about A Tuscan Childhood.

1. Prior to her death, Kinta Beevor wrote only one book -- A TUSCAN CHILDHOOD -- which would have been better titled "My Life in Tuscany" as it really is the tale of her connection to Tuscany over period of 40 years that included her childhood. Beevor, whose maiden name was Waterfield, was the daughter Aubrey the artist and his wife Lina Gordon, both British ex-pats who lived and worked in Italy during the first half of the 20th Century. The family owned the fabulous 15th Century Fortezza della Brunella which the family called "the castle" and Lina inherited Poggio Gherardo which was almost as old. Both properties came with extensive farm lands. As a result the Waterfields lived lives of comfort -- socializing with the rich and famous (D.H.Lawrence for one) and feeding them to-die-for meals and sending their much neglected children back to England for schooling.

   Though I became weary of name-dropping, I found Beevor's book an enjoyable read. Her mention of various rich and famous folks is as natural as can be--just tiresome in the same way a story told over and over by an older person can be. She says her son encouraged her to write down what she could remember, and I suspect he did so after he heard her stories several times. Fortunately, someone had the good sense to publish the book for a wider audience.

   Ms. Beevor obviously loved Tuscany--her father's castle where the family restored and maintained a beautiful garden on the roof, her mother's house which Beevor's mother gained the use of on the death of her Aunt Janet, and the beautiful Tuscan countryside. Beevor's description of the sea as the train approached Aulla for her summer vacations from school in England is as well written as anything Lawrence ever wrote, and no doubt she was quite knowledgeable of his works given he was a family friend.

   After WWII, faced with death duties on the Poggio Gherardo following the death of Beevor's brother John, and huge expenses owing to the damage inflicted on both properties during the war (the retreating Nazis and the encroaching Allies made a mess, the latter found an autographed photo of Mussolini in the castle and wrecked havoc) the family was forced to sell up and return to England.

   Beevor's book contains passages that reminded me of bitter-sweet scenes in "The English Patient", the "Jewel in the Crown", "Tea With Mussolini", "Out of Africa", "Room With a View" and other works written by European ex-pats returned to their home of origin. Ms Beevor was undoubtedly well read and understood the withdrawal of the British Empire following WWII, and in her closing chapters she shares her thoughts about the effect of that withdrawal on Italy. Italy of course was not a colony, but the British had truly made themselves at home in Italy before the war (and may have done so once again).




2. The only book Kinta Beevor ever wrote, it was perhaps the only book she could have written. Her obvious love for her magical childhood in Tuscany (esp the years before she was shipped off to England for school) shines forth from every paragraph as she recounts her life as one of the benignly-neglected children of a pair of English aristocrats who owned a 15th century castle, the Fortezza della Brunella, as well as a villa above Florence.
   Centered around two very different periods of the author's life, the rural castle and the more urban villa, A Tuscan Childhood is full of famous people (her parents were part of the literati), beloved peasant farm workers, nursemaids, and Aunt Janet, upon whose death the villa falls into the hands of Ms. Beevor's mother.
   Toward the end, in diatribes against Mussolini, the Allies, death taxes, and everything and everyone else, an old lady's peevishness with changing times mars what is otherwise a lovely and evocative piece of writing.



3. Kinta Beevor, author of only this book, comes from a family of writers, including her son, the reknown author, Antony Beevor. It must be a genetic feature that families produce wonderful writers.
   She draws you into her world, like a welcoming friend. You will experience historic events and the world as it was in Tuscany in the 19th century and the early 20th century. You will get to know many of the distinguished and famous persons who visited the Waterfields and best of all, you will become acquainted with "Aunt Janet", the famous English writer, Janet Ross.
   I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Tuscany and in warm and inviting family experiences and how they are influenced by world events.



4. This book really takes you to Tuscany, as it was for British ex-patriates between World War I and World War II. Everything is here - the people, the landscape, the food. Highly recommended!



5. What amazed me about this book is that in spite of the author's English silver-spoon upbringing (sometimes it's hard to figure out which castle she's in at the moment) she gives the reader such an intimate portrait of the country, the scenery, the customs and the people of Tuscany. When you read of all the artistic and literary nobility that her parents had entertained, it's hard to fathom how she found the opportunities (and she did find them...) to relate so well to the local people. I have read many books written by authors who lived with and among the rural peasantry that don't give any better or more appealing feel for the country. I would hate to have missed this book!

5 comments about Charred Souls: A Stor of Recreational Child Abuse.

1. I guess I should say "What kids!" because there were seven all together and all were impressive in some way. I had to buy Charred Souls for a class and I can't wait for school to start so I can discuss it with my professor and fellow students. This is an incredible story about constant emotional and verbal abuse of children. I was impressed with the raw emotion Trena Cole emitted with her writing and I was actually impressed with her style. Yes there are grammatical errors but I think this story is important enough to forgive those. I give her enormous credit for sharing her emotions and feelings through her book. It wasn't an easy read but it couldn't have been an easy write either.



2. Ms. Cole's book was recommended to me by Amazon after a search. I found it to be well worth ordering it and worth the read from the moment I started reading. Ms. Cole has taken a terribly horrid childhood and risen above it in order to write a book that could teach all how to see signs of child or recreational abuse of a child(ren). It is very useful for all who deal with, are relative too a child. This book tore at my soul reading, it hurt to read but I could not put it down. I am blessed to have come acrossed it and have recommended it to others as a nurse, a mother and friend.
   Ms. Cole knows of what she speaks and where she came from to be able to look upon her past and learn from it. Cold hearted is the soul that can look at this book and not wish they were on hand to steal this poor children away and give them a better more loving life. Or imagine that they know better what this life was like and what name to call it by. If the name, Recreational Child Abuse fits and helps Ms. Cole and others on their way therapeutically(sp?)all the better. I cannot imagine a person reading word for word in this book and not seeing into the horrors of these young lives.
   These things (any sort of abuse, but the worst being to a child)happen and happen far too often. People do over look warning signs until it is too late. This has happened in our society time and time again. Ms. Cole's book is a fine aid in learning more about abuse. I believe that it has more than likely saved a child somewhere in that someone had knowledge gained from this book.
   I look forward to the next book by Ms. Cole and I am sure I will be recommending to others as well.



3. This is a good book if you are studying child abuse, or familiar with it. I was looking into going back to school for social work and this book is really good at making you aware of what can happen out there to children. Trena tells a good story. Whoever edited it though, didn't do a good job. It can be repetivie , but that didn't bother me as much as the misspelled words (there were only a few)
   The author did a good job at telling the story and if you can overlook some of the spelling errors you've got yourself a pretty darn good book!!



4. This story really moved me. It's told in an honest way, which means the language is graphic at times, but we are dealing with child abuse and child abuse is ugly. The form of child abuse Charred Souls focuses on is recreational child abuse which is basically when a parent abuses a child for fun and entertainment. The fact that Trena survived is amazing and that she survived to become a well balanced adult woman is a tribute to her dynamic spirit. I wish her sibling had been so fortunate. If you were moved by "A child called It" this story will likely move you as well, caution, the language is just as Trena remembers it..but I personally feel it is needed so we can really know what it was like to be a charred soul.



5. Wow! While the author's honesty and pure heart-wrenching feelings were wonderfully portrayed, the book could have been shortened by 150 pages. Hearing the same information 2 or 3 times in the same paragraph was irritating to the point of putting the book down many times. It took me over a week to read 'cause I just couldn't deal with the inconsistencies of the "flashbacks" and the constant repetitiveness.

No comments about The Step Child: A True Story of a Broken Childhood.

5 comments about Baltimore Against Enemy Attack: A Boyhood Year During World War II.

1. Osgood's wit and rich tribute to his 1940s boyhood results in an enjoyable, worthwhile read, even better if you get the audio version, read by Charles himself. I did find his criticisms of today's children (and their excessively competitive parents) a bit grating. It made me think of a book that could have been written when he was a child, something like, "Radio?! Who needs that! Why when I was a boy we didn't need all those special effects and people shouting at you from a wooden box! We had books, like Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. And they were never spoiled by silly toothpaste or hair tonic commercials."
   
   The problem with nostalgia is that it can create an abnoral yearning for an irrecoverable past, and is often excessively sentimental. Tempis fugit...



2. This delightful read, one year in the life of a 9-year old boy, may be the most enjoyable book I've read in years. And I read a lot of stuff. The year was 1942 and Charles Osgood describes it magnificently as lived by most of us the same age. I laughed with tears in my eyes on almost very page. This book should be enjoyed by the children and grandchildern of those of us that were children during that incredible year, 1942. Memory lane was never better documented. Enjoy.



3. I was drawn to pick up this book when I saw the cover--the picture of the author as a young boy is irresistible. Although the content was interesting, I found myself quickly becoming annoyed by the author's numerous slurs towards our younger generation. I found his words to be increasingly mean-spirited and I finally put the book down for good when he made light of both children and their parents who are faced with the struggle of bipolar disorder. The author reminds me of many older Americans who can't see that the world has changed greatly since the 1940's and that our younger generation has many redeeming characteristics.



4. I envy Charles Osgood. He saw and experienced a Baltimore I never did. The stork didn't drop me off in B'more until 1955. I had such a good time in seeing things I remembered from a different perspective. If it's possible, I loved my city just a bit more after reading this. Thanks for the memories and insights.



5. I loved this book and I'm sure I smiled all the way through it. Everyone loves nostalgia about the good ole days -- meaning, we ALL have our own good old days. But the times he writes about are especially delightful and innocent. The music was great and something everyone and anyone could sing along with. The movies were dreamy. The radio was great and innovative. And best of all were Mom's final words to the young on summer days: Be home before dark! Yes, we used to go out and play. We didn't have play dates; we just played with whoever was there on that day. Sometimes we played kick the can, or tag, or jump rope, or went on long bike rides, or went to town to the small store to look at magazines and comic books and drool over the candy in the glass counters. We may even have had a nickle in our pockets to buy something.
   
   In any event, I grew up in basically the same circumstances as young Charles describes in this book. The book is short and sweet, something to smile about on each and every page. I wish it was longer -- Both the childhood of the 1940s and this book. Both were great.

3 comments about This is Paradise!: My North Korean Childhood.

1. Kang grew up in the last 80s and 90s in North Korea. Originally, his family was relatively well off because they had chosen to stay in North Korea instead of being repatriated to Japan. In addition to receiving funds from Japanese relatives, they were favored by the North Korean leadership for their patriotism in staying.
   
   The book starts covering general day to day life. By Western standards, the rich Kang family is poor. Kang talks about day to day life-- how he often slept at his grandparents house, what he thought of his teachers, what he learned in school. You learn about the rigid hierarchy imposed on the students and their uniforms and what the different badges mean, both officially and unofficially in the school yard.
   
   Then, the famine starts. Kang's family's wealth is slowly drained away. His disillusionment grows-- he starts writing alternate lyrics to patriotic songs. Lyrics that, if found out, would get him and his family killed. School stops being about learning and starts being about farming government fields with food that they will never see unless the steal it in the dead of night (which Kang does). They hunt rats and eat tree bark and grass. Hanging out with your friends involves going to their house to say your final goodbyes as they slowly and horribly starve to death. (Kang estimates around 75% of his classmates died during these years.)
   
   Executions are common place. Bodies are padded so the blood doesn't spray the crowd. During the winter, the bodies steam. People are eating the dead in order to survive-- people are killing each other in order to eat them.
   
   In 1998, the family escapes to China. You know things are bad when China is a rich paradise. Kang couldn't believe that, in China, people at rice every day. Being in China doesn't help-- they constantly fear the police who will deport them back to North Korea where they will all face execution.
   
   They eventually escape to South Korea, where the full effect of the lies Kang had been fed came to the surface. His anger at being brainwashed, his not wanting to believe the South Korean truth, even though he knew it was right, is the most striking part of this book.
   
   I can hear you say right now: What?! It's his anger that moved you? Not the cannibalism? All I can say is that I am a student of twentieth-century Chinese history. Kang's experiences during the famine didn't surprise me. They were tragic and awful and turned my stomach, but they weren't new. It was the horror I was expecting. The difficulties of coming to grips with the lies you believed and fitting in with a "modern" culture was shocking and heartbreaking.
   
   I was struck by an odd sense of detachment Kang seemed to have throughout this book. It could be that it was his story as told to someone. It could be the translation either from Kang's Korean to Grangereau's French or from the French to the English. What I think though is it's because that this was his life and he didn't know anything different or he can't emotionally involve himself for the sake of mental health-- this boy lived through Hell.
   
   What really brings this book alive, however, is Kang's illustrations. He's an extraordinarily gifted artist and his drawings of his life bring the story to life in a very real way.
   
   This is not an easy, nor pleasant read, but there are very few first-hand accounts coming out of North Korea, and I think this is an important book that should be read by anyone who can stomach it. It's real life, so hopefully you will all make the effort.



2. This is an extremely frank account of the lies and duplicities that corrupt every aspect of North Korean life. The famine (which is ongoing and where overseas aid is just siphoned off by the party cadres) has been devastating to both the poplution and the environment - which in turn creates more problems for future food production. The harsh regime and brutality of life is appalling. An excellent book to read to gain an insight into the most insular nation on the planet.



3. As one of the few Northern Koreans who escaped their fake lives under Kim Jong Il, Hyok Kang chose to write a memoir of this North Korean childhood.
   This Is Paradise! tells a story that is important to read. Hyok Kang writes about how he grew up in a complete lie while witnessing monthly executions, living through extreme poverty and famine, and almost losing his father. He describes his eerily uniform town and educational system where learning about the Party and the Great Leader's lives were more important than finding food and clean clothes or even water.
   Kang's book illustrates a lifestyle that is truly stranger than fiction, one that is so abstract and not even comparable to ours that it's hard to believe it can exist. Ironically, that's how millions of Northern Koreans would view our lives after growing up in a delusion created by Kim Jong Il and his family. Growing up in North Korea entitles each person to a notion that life elsewhere is much worse, that poverty is more extreme and all other governments are corrupt. This such notion is meant to give the people a sense of pride and nationalism, as well as prevent them from every leaving their country. Hyok Kang's book opens up a world of extreme clientalism where people have to bribe officials for extra food, work, clothes, or money, a world where civil rights and liberties don't exist.
   
   Although it is dark, I strongly recommend This Is Paradise!, as it will open you up into a whole new world, both literally and figuratively.

5 comments about All the Fishes Come Home to Roost: An American Misfit in India.

1. I heard about this book from a friend and read it out of curiosity. Brown really has a way with words and a gift for evocative description. However, from the very first, I was struck by her deep-seated resentment and bitterness, and the impression that as a child she wasn't much fun to be around. Although Brown tries to be funny, I find it hard to forget that she is vilifying real flesh-and-blood human beings, not her own imaginary characters. True, she changes their names, but I doubt this makes them hard to recognize by the people who know (or knew) them.
   
   This is not a story, but a series of episodes that are linked together by Brown's need to condemn her parents for taking her to India to live in an ashram with a collection of oddball spiritual seekers. When it comes to plot in the Aristotelian sense, there is no "there" there.
   
   In this work, Brown is critical and derisive towards everyone, while portraying herself as a special, heroic, and misunderstood victim. Reading between the lines, she needs to rationalize her own bratty and hostile behavior towards everyone around her except, I think, one kid named Walter. I can understand a child being self-centered, and utterly devoid of compassion or tolerance, but it's hard to understand these traits in an adult looking back on her life.
   
   Given what's happening in today's world, I was especially disappointed by Brown's gross insensitivity to the principles of religious tolerance. I'm not a religious person myself, but I respect the beliefs of others, and especially their Constitutional right to religious freedom in America. There may be abusive nuns and priests, but that doesn't give anyone the right to abuse a religion that encompasses millions of sincere Catholics. It's just plain wrong to make fun of people -- even those who follow the teachings of an obscure Indian guru -- based on their religious or spiritual convictions.
   
   In addition, I was quite disturbed by Brown's veiled implication that one of Meher Baba's disciples touched her with sexual intentions. If the disciple touched Mani inappropriately, then this is a very serious charge that should be addressed by her parents and the entire Meher Baba community. If he didn't touch her inappropriately, then it's very wrong of Brown to make this implication. Brown is honest to the point of cruelty throughout the book, so why the sudden coy ambiguity surrounding such a serious issue?
   
   This book was not a page-turner for me, but I kept hoping for the kind of insight that often arrives to people who make an inquiry into their own lives and behavior through the medium of writing. I'm very sorry for the suffering that Brown went through as a child and hope that writing and publishing this book was a way for her to find personal healing. It's just too bad she had to hurt so many other people in the process. In some cases this was revenge, but in other cases she was exposing innocent people who never meant her any harm to contempt and ridicule.



2. I hate to disagree with my Fellow Readers, but I found this to be an insufferable diatribe about how intelligent the author is. Yes, we know she was an early reader. Yes, we know she had a terrific vocabulary by the age of 7. I was so tired of hearing how bright this child was that I found it hard to finish the book. As an American Educator, I found her mother's quote insulting as well; "American schools don't know how to deal with kids as bright as you are." Give me a break; we are trained to enrich as we are trained to remediate~her experience shouldn't be fodder for such an unfair generalization. Maybe she should have elected to edit her mother's comment or leave it out altogether. At any rate, I have better things to do with my summer vacation than finish this essay. I did enjoy some of the snippets into Indian and ashram life so if you can get by this author's attempt to hit you over the head with her brilliance, it may be worth your while.



3. Rachel Manija Brown, All the Fishes Come Home to Roost: An American Misfit in India (Rodale, 2005)
   
   I'm not a big fan of memoirs, but I have to admit, once this one gets rolling, it's a great deal of fun. Brown, who grew up on a backwater ashram in India among what Nicholas Basbanes has called (referring to book collectors) the gently mad, writes of her formative years with an incisive wit and a truly twisted sense of humor. Any book that makes one chuckle and cringe simultaneously is doing something right. This book does it all too often.
   
   More than anything, I find it unfortunate that I found nothing here hard to swallow. Religious wingnuts worshipping a dead guy in a diaper? Check. Pervasive physical and emotional abuse at a Catholic school? Check. Rampant prejudice? Check. Crazy drivers? Check. (Though it is tough to believe that there are worse drivers than those in and around Boston.) Adults who treat kids like they're idiots? I remember that one all too well. Brown reminds me of me as a kid, in many ways. Early and voracious reader, picked on a lot, much preferred being alone to the company of others. My parents were less crazy, but it's not too hard to extrapolate.
   
   Because of this, and because of some of the less glowing reviews of the book I've seen, I wonder if there isn't more of a vertical market for this book than one might expect in our current memoir-crazy society. If you, too, are that kid, then I can't recommend this book highly enough. If you were the person who picked on that kid... eh, maybe not for you. *** ½



4. As I read Rachel Brown's book it reminded me of how we took apart novels in college. If this had been discussed we would discuss how her abused mother felt drawn to, felt the need for a father figure. Is it remarkable Baba becomes her God? (A name meaning father in various languages). The mother drives away husband and daughter searching for the good father she didn't have. Religion then becomes the search for all of our inadequacies. Such high concepts in an autobiography make me feel all that discussion in school was not just BS. Overall great read, and great fun on any level.



5. I wish this author would write MY memoirs someday, because I really love her voice. The "plot" of her life is quirky, to be sure, but she tells it with such warmth and grace, I could not put this book down.

1 comments about Truth Comes in Blows: A Memoir.

1. This is a well-written evocative memoir. Painful to read in places. Someone once said that we read to know that we are not alone. This sums up my feelings about this book. I'd add that we read in order to get enough distance to empathize. "Turth" is an elegant tale about struggling to grow up in sometimes dire emotional circumstances. It's especially refreshing because it is not a mewling, raging therapy session as so many similar stories are today. It's a painting of a time (Depression era America) and place (industrial burgs of NYC) and an attempt to come to terms with great suffering in a dignified manner. And it's so much more.

2 comments about Apricots on the Nile: A Memoir with Recipes.

1. I really enjoyed reading this book - even though I will probably never try the recipes. I read the whole book through in one sitting (although, to be truthful, it's a small book.) Besides being an interesting memoir of the author's childhood in Egypt during WWII, in a wealthy Jewish family, it's also an honest account of her alienation from her mother, which really spoke to me. The author is a good writer, which makes the book easy and rewarding to read.



2. This was one of my favorite all-time books. I purchased one as a gift for my sister also. I love to read about other cultures, and this was an enjoyable read.

5 comments about A Bag of Marbles.

1. this book made me want to read more. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. You are really rooting for the boys to come out of this entire oredeal alright.+



2. This is a beautiful book that tells the true story of two young Jewish boys on the run from the Gestapo in war-torn France. The author, Joseph Joffo is never nostalgic about the ordeal he and his brother went through in their bid to escape the Death Camps of Nazi Germany. He writes from the heart but he writes with purpose. His story is a warning to future generations never to take their lives for granted. A Bag of Marbles is a fantastic book that should be on the shelves of every school in the world, just to remind future generations that life is not always a bed of roses...



3. Kudos to the translator for keeping the author's words & spirit in tact in this heroic and moving testimonial about what it took to survive the Holocaust & what we all must do to keep other holocausts from happening again. In his own words, "be brave, know how to take care of yourself, don't rely on others, don't let your emotions get the better of you, take responsibility." Clearly, this title is a story that will encourage & remind young readers to always remember and to take responsibility.



4. The story is about two young boys : Joe and Maurice, they are French and Jews, it's in Paris during world War 2. So they must avoid. they went to the south, near the Italian border.
   The story is touching and well writing, but sometimes it's very boring, because there isn't a lot of action.



5. A bag of marbles was pretty good. If you are looking for an educational book about wwII and want to escape the gore, this is the book for you. It gets a little slow, but you really do find yourself caring for theses two boys. Plus, it is non-fiction.