3 comments about The Pull of Moving Water (Washington State University Press Memoirs Series).

1. I thoroughly enjoyed this graceful, sweet, honest and sometimes heart wrenching memoir. As the illustrator, I was honored to be a part of it.



2. Okay, so she's one of my best friends BUT EVEN SO, I never knew she could write this well. Her memory is sharp, her observations hard and clear, and her insights are not for the polite or faint of heart. Koskela's early life in the harsh world of Idaho farming country is told with wit and clarity. It may not be gracious but it is REAL and you will find yourself laughing, tsk, tsking and looking back with a new vision on your own childhood. I've known Alice for over 20 years--she's incapable of telling even the most innocent of white lies and so understandably she has written a book of truths. This will by MY Christmas gift this year!



3. A beautiful intimate story of a young girl growing up in rugged Idaho.This is not a story full of sweetness, but of the tough life small farmers and their family encoutered in their fight for survival. I loved it from beginning to end

No comments about The Little Tin Roof House.

4 comments about ...By Reason of Childhood.

1. This book is a must for fans of memoirs, old-time Brooklyn stories, and stories of the Irish experience in America. I really got sucked into the story. He had a tough life, his father was an alcoholic and never around, his mother had grown up in an orphanage, they had no money-but somehow he was able to have a sense of humor about it all and grow up with a real sense of right and wrong, aware of the joy that's possible in life. Even though his childhood wasn't all roses he could look back on it with affection and new understanding. I highly recommend this book, it was truly inspiring. The way he wrote with such an honest, unaffected voice was so refreshing too.



2. Once you get started reading this book, you won't want to put it down! This is the story of what it was like for a young Irish boy growing up in old time Brooklyn. You'll share in his triumphs and sorrows. The author has a certain charming wit that just about everyone can identify with. If you're a fan of true life stories - you must add ...by Reason of Childhood to your reading list.



3. I just finished reading this book, and spent as much time crying as I did laughing. It's basically a really engaging collection of episodes from an Irish youth spent making the most of a situation marked with the sadness of an absent, alcohholic father. I read Angela's Ashes several years ago, but found this memoir to be so much more refreshing because it's so much less "literary" and so much more personable. The voice with which the stories are told is more common than McCourt's (in my opinion almost contrived) loftiness, and the image I most often had in mind was Connelly as my own father, telling random stories from memory as they occurred to him, and as he remembered them. In spite of the hardships he was faced with, this guy was a champ at finding the fun and wonder in the simple things he had before him. I live in Brooklyn today, but Connelly made me wish for some of the Brooklyn of yesterday.



4. Francis Connelly's BY REASON OF CHILDHOOD is a frank remembrance of a youth spent on Brooklyn's sidewalks. While reading it, I was struck by how Mr. Connelly's book was a sort of male version of Betty Smith's A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. The impossible task of coping with an alcoholic father, the toughing it out in the streets, the quick allies and enemies of childhood, all come together in this open and, often times, funny narrative. Qualities you don't find very frequently these days. The fact is, you have to learn to laugh at life, especially when it tends to frown at you; this is the subtext of BY REASON OF CHILDHOOD. It is a powerfully taught lesson which, to Mr. Connelly's credit, is conveyed to us through this wonderful book.

4 comments about 100 Cigarettes and a Bottle of Vodka: A Memoir.

1. I read this book the summer i was fourteen. I had just begin to become interested in the Holocaust and WWII. Well, it's a year later, and I still vividly remember how interesting this book was. This is an incredible memoir. I won't spoil it or say too much, but Schaller tells us of the events of his young life as a Jew in Warsaw when the war broke out. I found myself marveling at the fact that when the story begins, he is around my age, and how courageous he is stunned me. This book really set off my fascination for what happened to those 6+ million during that dark time for humanity. Well, it's a great book, just see for yourself.



2. 100 Cigarettes And A Bottle Of Vodka: A Memoir is the true story of the life of a young Jewish boy in Nazi-occupied Poland, when the reward for turning in a Jew was indeed 100 cigarettes and a bottle of vodka. Arthur Schaller lost his mother to the Nazi extermination camps, and was forced to embark on a long odyssey, hiding and passing as a Catholic orphan, to escape annihilation. A powerful story of faith in dark times, and coming of age in a world no child should ever have to live in, 100 Cigarettes And A Bottle Of Vodka is a singularly compelling life remembrance and a welcome contribution to the growing library of eye-witness Holocaust Studies.



3. I'm not a reader, and I was working one day and started reading this book. If it's not a good book, I'll put it down and never pick it up again. That wasn't the case with this book. I couldn't put it down and finised reading it within 2 days. WWII and the Holocaust have always interested me, and this book really made me understand more about it and what times were like for the Jews having to endure that horrible time. I strongly recommend this book to anyone.



4. I have read this twice now, and its power has not diminished. I give it four, not five, stars only because the writing does not quite match that power. The title comes from the fact that the reward in German occupied Poland for turning in a Jew was just that - 100 cigarettes and a bottle of vodka. Absolutely marvelous memoir of a young teenage boy who managed to survive, all on his own, by smarts, courage and sometimes, sheer luck. His music saved him more than once, and I was astonished, that once he reached Canada, he did not continue in that vein. The kindness of strangers, and the fact that he was blond, helped him many times. And the facts he learned about cows are amusing and interesting. They are not so dumb as we think, it seems.

No comments about Growing Up in the City: A Boy's Tale.

2 comments about The Sweetest Stories Ever Told.

1. This baby boomer's vivid recollections of childhood in the 50's and the pranks done by his three brothers and himself pale against the parent-controlled childhood of the current generation. Yes, while the everyday experiences of these children created dangerous situations (which should certainly not be practiced today), they all escaped unscathed (at least physically, that is). This story is told in very humorous tones and takes one back to the "good old days" when organized play, video games, and hi-tech television was non existent. Someone should write a screenplay for this book. It would make an excellent play and/or movie!



2. I was really disappointed that someone who has such a rich set of experiences in the industry would write such a mediocre book. I didn't really learn anything new or gain any unexpected insights. Haphazard and poorly translated thoughts. Two thumbs down. :-(

No comments about The Price We Paid: A Life Experience in the Khmer Rouge Regime, Cambodia.

1 comments about Life of a Country Boy.

1. An excellent early biography of a great American. This book tells the story of France Bozeman's early years, growing up in rural Georgia. I particularly enjoyed his detailed description of the painstaking, time consuming and labor intensive process of tobacco farming. Great material on doing laundry by hand. Very funny comments on party line telephones. This book is a very enjoyable read. I highly recommend all of France's books.

No comments about The Horse and Buggy Days.

4 comments about Golden Afternoon: Being the Second Part of "Share of Summer," Her Autobiography.

1. At long last, the sequel to Sun in the Morning -- and as always, M.M. Kaye's writing is evocative, sumptuous, and addictive. (The Far Pavilions is one of the two books I always travel with -- the other is Gone With the Wind -- because I can start reading anywhere and become totally immersed, no matter how many times I've read it.) No one is better at evoking that time-lost period before the Second World War; the details are not only fascinating but reveal to us moderns what the world once was like (which in British India in many cases seems rather closely to resemble E.F. Benson's town of Tilling...). Since I owe not only my interest in, but my several-hundred-volume library on, India to reading The Far Pavilions, I must admit a certain partiality here -- and a burning desire to read the sequel to Golden Afternoon.



2. Ms. Kaye has the most wonderful way of describing scenes, colors, and events of an era never to be seen again. Her family led a story-book life of adventure and she makes it look so easy to overcome the forces of nature that were part of living there with very few, if any, modern conveniences. It was a delicious read and I hope Ms. Kaye is busily at work on the next book of her travels in China! I am grateful for this journey back into a gentler, quieter time.



3. This book is thoroughly enjoyable, with M. M. Kaye describing her idlyic days in India in a wonderfully interesting, humorous way, which makes this book a pleasure to read and a must own!



4. What a terrific book--nostalgic, romantic, funnny, poignant. I was utterly charmed once again by Ms. Kaye's writing. Her descriptions of visits to the Taj Mahal and spring in Kashmir are beautiful. I can't wait to read "Enchanted Evening."