No comments about My Life as a Fan: A Memoir.

4 comments about A Girl from the Home.

1. A GIRL FROM THE HOME is a remarkable memoir which tells the story of a precocious seven year old who, against all convention, preferred the orphanage to the several foster homes she was sent to. It is also remarkable for how the now mature author manages to maintain the voice of her childhood experience throughout the narrative.

   This was a child wise beyond her years with a mind of her own and a strong will that would not accept anything that was thrust at her unless she was able to think it through and found it intelligible. The opening chapter is a humdinger and is followed by one memorable scene after another. This is a book to warm the hearts of all readers, men and women, as well as children.




2. This book was very special to me.Muriel and I were considered "sisters" as we lived in the 'Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum".She writes through the mind of achild.Her style is most engaging.She illustrates so intmately her harrowing experiencs in foster homes and the joys of the orphan home.Because I was a fellow inmate I can attest to the TRUTH of her narritive. It's a "Can't put it down book".Her tale is quite dramatic and VERY unusual.I opine this is a MUST read book.Esther Gerber



3. This book was very special to me.Muriel and I were considered "sisters" as we lived in the 'Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum".She writes through the mind of achild.Her style is most engaging.She illustrates so intmately her harrowing experiencs in foster homes and the joys of the orphan home.Because I was a fellow inmate I can attest to the TRUTH of her narritive. It's a "Can't put it down book".Her tale is quite dramatic and VERY unusual.I opine this is a MUST read book.Esther Gerber



4. I cannot be objective about this book. From the moment that I held it in my hands, I knew it would be one of the most important books I would ever read. A Girl From The Home, written by Muriel Fox, is about her childhood in the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the same orphanage that my mother lived in. With a few changes, my mother could have written this book. The situations, events, names, and details are so recognizable, as though I have heard them before. I have heard them in my mother's telling of the story.
   Muriel writes from the perspective of a child. She doesn't editorialize or judge, but rather tells her story the way she remembers experiencing it. I had the wonderful good fortune of meeting Muriel. She told me that her research for the book revealed facts that, of course, she was not aware of as a child. Because those facts were not part of her childhood awareness, she left them out of her memoirs. This writing device creates a profound and engaging experience for the reader. We are drawn a simple picture, like a child's line drawing, and from that we are compelled to feel so deeply, protectively, and sympathetically for that child.
   Muriel describes in detail the orphanage, the people who ran it, the children she was friends with, and what life was like for her. Each short chapter depicts with clarity and simplicity an aspect of life in the home. Each aspect helped to shape Muriel's life, and illuminate my mother's.
   A heart wrenching section of the book deals with Muriel's experiences in foster homes. Muriel is placed with eight different families in a two-year period. The quality of care in these homes is varied: some good, some very bad. At age twelve, Muriel is brought back to the orphanage and allowed to present her case for her permanent return. She proceeds to present one of the clearest, most thought provoking, and compelling arguments for the orphanage system versus foster care. It is an impassioned plea from a child desperate for the sense of belonging and family that the orphanage offers. After speaking with Muriel at some length on this issue, it is clear that she feels our children could be better served if we revisit the potential benefits of the orphanage.
   I didn't want this book to end. I wanted to keep reading until I got every detail of everyday of life in the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum. In a sense, I got my wish when I met Muriel in Brooklyn. Her vivid first hand accounts of a world seven decades old brought that world to life for me. Reading A Girl from the Home helped to bring my mother's childhood into clearer focus. I will always be grateful to Muriel Fox for that precious gift.

No comments about In Their Own Words: The Class of '59.

2 comments about The Stories of Our Lives: A Story of Healing Through Dreams and Intuition.

1. This is the story of how the writer has used his dreams to journey from a tortured past to a peaceful present. You won't find Freudian and Jungian interpretations and a lot of psychoanalysis just his clear and clean story of recovery. Well written and to the point "The Stories of Our Lives" is a good example of how paying attention to the images & messages that manifest in our dreams can give us clues as to which direction to go in life.



2. Edward Bonapartian shares his deepest innermost thoughts and feelings in THE STORIES OF OUR LIVES, as he describes his gradual and triumphant healing from the guilt and shame of growing up in an alcoholic family. The premise of this book is that powerful healing can be found in the power of our dreams, because they help us get in touch with feelings and thoughts that otherwise remain buried deep in our subconscious. Bonapartian demonstrates through his own life experiences how dreams can be accessed even while awake, in order to facilitate soul retrieval and regain a long-lost sense of empowerment and joy in living.
   
   STORIES OF OUR LIVES is told as a narrative which begins in autobiographical form with the death and burial of Bonapartian's alcoholic mother. This death marked a beginning for Bonapartian, in which he began to experience contact with his mother in his visions and dreams. The conflict between wishing to just move on with life and take time learning from powerfully emotional dreams was one that lead Bonapartian to share his dreams and visions in a dream group, so that he could experience complete healing and the full power and truth of his dreams.
   
   STORIES OF OUR LIVES is an inspirational must-read book for all adult children of alcoholics, for it describes one man's success story in confronting and overcoming a lifetime burden of guilt, terror, and grief. Highly recommended!

No comments about Two Tours: Two Years in Vietnam Revisited Through Letters Home.

1 comments about Drawing to an Inside Straight: The Legacy of an Absent Father.

1. Spare and elegant prose, like the dry side of the Cascades, makes this book utterly memorable. Ben Varon is one of those characters, albeit he was a real guy, who stays with you long after the last page has been turned.
   
   I was fortunate enough to read this in early drafts, and reading it now, again, is like rediscovering an old friend. Familiar, yet wonderful, like perfectly broken in riding boots.

No comments about That One Peculiar Year.

No comments about State Kid.

3 comments about Watch out for the Elephants!.

1. Angela and Ann Todd have weaved together a wonderful tale of their family's travels during the 35 years their father worked as a diplomat with the Foreign Service (US State Department). The sisters were born into a lifestyle where they knew nothing but moving from country to country and learning the language and customs wherever they went. Their story is all the more inspiring because it was lived out from 1945 to 1980 amid the social and political climate that impacted all US citizens -- no matter where they lived during those decades. Remember Ann and Angela's family adventures and solo experiences (at camp and boarding school at times) happened as technology was growing too. It will be hard for today's youngsters to imagine not being able to communicate with family members via e-mail and traveling by ship. The book will inspire the young to consider diplomatic careers, embrace foreign languages and learn geography. (Names of countries changed a lot too during their chronicle.) Older readers will be inspired by Angela and Ann's parents' (James and Norma) commitment to their marriage, children and the way they caused Angela and Ann to feel at home wherever they were. They used every move as a chance for the four of them to learn and serve. The journey their daughters share is delightful.



2. This book is informative, exciting and quite a lovely recount of childhood memories. My granddaughter actually met Ms Todd. She came to our school as a substitute teacher. When Kacee told me of the experience and how "neat" this teacher was, I knew we had to find that book. I am glad we did! Although Kacee is 9 years old, she is an avid and literate reader...she still needed some help.
   All and all, this book was worth the price and worth the read. I recommend it to all who want an uplifting and inspirational story.
   Sincerely,
   Kathy Roth



3. REVIEWED BY: Wayne S. Walker
   In 1945, when racial tensions were still fairly high in the United States, James Todd became only the eleventh African-American man accepted into the United States Foreign Service and, with his wife of one year Norma, began a career with the State Department that spanned 35 years, ending with his retirement in 1980. Two daughters, the authors of this book, were born to the Todds, and the book chronicles the family's experiences while living in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Southern Asia. Angela and Ann do not shrink away from describing the prejudice that their family sometimes encountered, both at home and in the field, but that is not the focus of the book. In fact, they say, "The truth of the matter is that Mom and Dad formed many lasting friendships over the years with numerous white American who were kind, decent, honest, and not racist at all." Rather, they use everything that happened to them to encourage young people to be thankful for their blessings, turn life's challenges into learning experiences, approach life with a sense of humor, and enjoy the moment.
   
   This delightful, upbeat book is the daughters' testament to how their parents raised them to "count your blessings" and find "teachable moments" in everyday events of life. I especially liked the attitude expressed in the statement on the back of the book, "If our parents could do it as black Americans living abroad in 1945, you can achieve anything you want to in the 21st century and beyond!" In addition to several entries from Mr. Todd's journals and numerous black and white photographs throughout the text, there are 24 pages of full-color pictures in the back. This highly enjoyable book would make a really good source material to accompany a study of world history and geography during the mid-twentieth century. Since it is written especially for young people, there are elementary and middle school teachers guides available.

4 comments about Kick the Tin.

1. A true story of one woman's experience of being stolen from her Indigenous roots and culture. An extraordinary story of courage! The Doris Kartinyeris of this world fill me with hope.



2. Imagine your mother has just died after giving birth. You go to the hospital to pick up your sister to find she has been taken by welfare workers and put in a home. Imagine you are that baby, that you grow up never knowing how badly your family missed you. Imagine being an older kid in the home, an 'aunt' to this 'special baby', only to later lose contact with her; yet another separation. This is the story of Doris Kartinyeri who spent the first 14 years of her life in a home for children taken from their Aboriginal families. But it is also the story of her sister Doreen and her 'antie' Lowtja O'Donoghue and the family she only later came to know. The ripples of Kartinyeri's pain can be see spreading through a wide community. Kartinyeri writes simply, directly and movingly of her experiences, her struggle to reconnect with her people and her battle with bi-polar disorder. - Fiona Capp, Age "Kick the tin" was a game Doris Kartinyeri played in the Colebrook Home for Aboriginal children. The aim was to hide from `it' then get back to the tin before being caught. In the middle of Kartinyeri, there is also a tin. This is the story of a courageous journey into the soul of the individual to find meaning and substance after the loss of family, culture and heritage.

   Doris Kartinyeri is a Ngarrindjeri woman stolen from her family and institutionalised in a home for Aboriginal children as an infant. The recent report, Bringing Them Home, on the Stolen Generation documents the consequences of the government policy on the effects of removing children from their families. Doris Kartinyeri was born in 1945 into the Ngarrindjeri community. She was one of thousands of Australian Aboriginals stolen as an infant after her mother's death. Her childhood was spent at Colebrook home with other stolen Aboriginal children. At fourteen she began working as a domestic in a private minister's home for no wages. Her first paid job was as a domestic at Northfield Infectious Diseases Hospital. In her late teens Doris returned to her people, married and had children. She found her cultural Ngarrindjeri heritage and her voice as a advocate for the stolen generation.

   Doris Kartinyeri is well known in public circles. The book includes reproductions of photographic and textual documents.




3. Imagine your mother has just died after giving birth. You go to the hospital to pick up your sister to find she has been taken by welfare workers and put in a home. Imagine you are that baby, that you grow up never knowing how badly your family missed you. Imagine being an older kid in the home, an 'aunt' to this 'special baby', only to later lose contact with her; yet another separation. This is the story of Doris Kartinyeri who spent the first 14 years of her life in a home for children taken from their Aboriginal families. But it is also the story of her sister Doreen and her 'antie' Lowtja O'Donoghue and the family she only later came to know. The ripples of Kartinyeri's pain can be see spreading through a wide community. Kartinyeri writes simply, directly and movingly of her experiences, her struggle to reconnect with her people and her battle with bi-polar disorder.

   - Fiona Capp, Age




4. It must be very sad for a child to use a pillow to cuddle at night for comfort and security but that is what Colebrook children did.

   Doris KarTINyeri wasn't an orphan or a homeless child. She had her own loving family who was waiting for her to return. But when she was only a month old and her mother died, she was stolen from the hospital and placed there... at Colebrook Home with other stolen Aboriginal children.

   'Kick the Tin' is a game Doris KarTINyeri played at the Colebrook Home. It is a story of a life that has been kicked around. It tells of an unforgettable experience about young Doris whose heritage had been taken from her. She was made to lose her culture and language.

   Fourteen years at Colebrook Home, she felt no bond with her true family. She refused even her own sister which caused great pain for her natural family.

   Many of the Stolen Generation didn't have a chance to come back to their loved ones, their families and their homes.

   They missed out on knowing their language, culture, tradition and identity...

   Imagine how upset you and your family would be if you didn't have any meaning for a word such as 'mother'. Doris' life was just like that.

   For me, the real beauty of this book is watching the world through Doris' eyes. The way she appreciates everything that we take for granted is so eye opening! It is simply priceless! I want you to find out how good it is for yourself!