5 comments about The Fox and the Flies: The Secret Life of a Grotesque Master Criminal.

1. The fox and the flies.
   
   An outstanding read, This book is filled with history. The fox and the flies chronicle the life of Joseph Silver. Silver terrorized women in South Africa in the late 18th century and early 19 century. Van Onselen believes that Silver should be a jack the ripper suspect. He points to several coincidences in the book and makes a good case for Silver being Jack the ripper.
   
   The book is filled with maps that detail the time period in which the story takes place. It is rich in content and it's outstanding in it's detail, giving the reader a great vision in the time and surroundings of the era being discussed. He really sets the mood of the time period. The way Van Onselen describes the location you can easily imagine being there.
   
   The book takes you methodically through the life of Joseph Silver and some ancillary characters that Silver has some acquaintance with.
   
   Van Onselen makes several great points and backs them up with facts in this book.
   
   This book is an great read, very well written. I couldn't put it down. The story and the detail in this book are incredible.



2. Van Onselen is articulate and persuasive, and it's a pleasure to read his kind of writing. And he gives a good picture of the underside of South Africa at the time of the Boer War, and after. The book is worth purchase for that.
   
   As for the connection between Lis/Silver and Jack the Ripper, no. All the connections are a stretch, there is nothing, certianly, that would convict him in court or even cause a grand jury, America's own kangaroo court, to convene. And without Jack the Ripper what is there? A nice book about an artful con man who operated in England, South Africa and the Americas at the turn of the 20th century.
   
   If you're a history buff it's well worth the read. If you're a Ripper buff, go to the coffee shop and spend your money on a latte and wait for the next theory.
   
   Anne Olson



3. this book tells a story of a long-forgotten (if ever well-known) criminal, but does so in such a burdensome and long-winded fashion that it's painful to read. The book needed a better editor (if there even was one) or a better writer, such as Erik Larson, who took similar material and created the shimmering Devil in the White City.



4. This is no ordinary gangster tale. It is sophisticated -- yet eminently readable -- transnational history. Van Onselen uses his skills as a social historian to trace Joseph Silver's peripatetic wanderings around the Atlantic World in the late ninteeneth and early twentieth centuries. From his birthplace in Poland, Silver left the world of the shtetl behind and blazed a trail of vice and violence that took him to London, New York, Pittsburgh, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Windhoek. Van Onselen both tells a gripping tale and offers insight into the interplace of sex, race, ethnicity, and class in the making of the modern world. Brilliant.



5. It really is incredible that the author was able to amass this much detail from his research and investigation.
   At the end he declares that the culprit written about in this book, is indeed, jack the Ripper and it all makes sense.
   Read this.

1 comments about King Saul, the Tragic Hero: A Study in Individuation.

1. Sanford's book, though now out of print, was widely enough printed to be easily found at used book stores. For anyone interested in literary analysis of the bible, Sanford presents a fresh perspective through a Jungian lens. By looking at each character's motivations, Sanford finds archetypes that are extremely informative. Moreover, his study serves as fine evidence as to why people have found this text compelling for millennia.

2 comments about Hiding from the Nazis.

1. Hiding from the Nazis

   I don't know how old I was when I first learned of the Nazi death camps; the Holocaust was an unknown word. As an adult, young children come to me asking for books about the Holocaust. I am confronted with the question, how much information to give and what form should it take? In this picture book Hiding from the Nazis, David Adler, in slightly stilted, but in unambiguous words lays out the pivotal moments of Hitler's systematic persecution and murder of the Jews in the Netherlands. This true story centers on Lore Gottschall and highlights the danger, isolation, and deep break of trust suffered by those who hid from the Nazis. This story cannot be told with out bringing to light the courage of Dutch families who bravely hid Jews from Nazi invaders. Lore is separated from her family and hidden on a farm in Holland at great peril to her protectors and shows the sacrifice her family made to survive in a personal way. Mr. Adler also shows how rocky the reunion of the Gottschall family was and shares what happened to the Danish family and the Gottschall's after World War II ended. The illustrations of Karen Ritz clearly show the story with color, facial expressions and movement.




2. Hiding from the Nazis

   I don't know how old I was when I first learned of the Nazi death camps; the Holocaust was an unknown word. As an adult, young children come to me asking for books about the Holocaust. I am confronted with the question, how much information to give and what form should it take? In this picture book Hiding from the Nazis, David Adler, in slightly stilted, but in unambiguous words lays out the pivotal moments of Hitler's systematic persecution and murder of the Jews in the Netherlands. This true story centers on Lore Gottschall and highlights the danger, isolation, and deep break of trust suffered by those who hid from the Nazis. This story cannot be told with out bringing to light the courage of Dutch families who bravely hid Jews from Nazi invaders. Lore is separated from her family and hidden on a farm in Holland at great peril to her protectors and shows the sacrifice her family made to survive in a personal way. Mr. Adler also shows how rocky the reunion of the Gottschall family was and shares what happened to the Danish family and the Gottschall's after World War II ended. The illustrations of Karen Ritz clearly show the story with color, facial expressions and movement.

4 comments about My Fathers' Houses: Memoir of a Family.

1. Steve Roberts has written a charming memoir that celebrates his family and an era gone by. Roberts grew up in Jersey City, an area usually reserved for punch-lines of stupid jokes, but Roberts captures all that is to be valued in his hometown. It is refreshing to read a memoir that is not so much motivated by anger and discontent. MY FATHER'S HOUSES is a memoir written to give credit where it is due.



2. First: I'm a big fan of Team Roberts. But I was not expecting the depth of emotion and connection this book evoked in me. I'm a bit younger than Steve, grew up on the West Coast in a WonderBread world, but his descriptions of his background and growing up, full of all the anguish of the less-than-perfect teenager, were astonishingly affirming. I have passed the volume on to another, and expect it will continue to make the rounds. I'm hoping for volume two that picks up at the time they were married and carries on, since there are surely many more stories!



3. I cannot imagine wasting nearly a year of ones life to write a silly and superficial book about a very small and plain vanilla family. Like millions of immigrant families, Roberts' family came to the US, set up shop, had kids, worked hard and passed on their genes. For Steve Roberts, his very ordinary and undistinguished career as a writer for The New York Times and other publications was only made significant by his marriage to Cokie Boggs, whose only claim to fame was being the daughter of a big time pol from the south before he died. She then spent a lot of time at ABC as the classic liberal reporter before she got dumped for George Stepyounopulous, Clinton's mouthpiece.
   Luckily this book won't take long to read if you want to, but I keep asking myself why I wasted an hour of my life to read it. I guess the high point of the book is that Barney Frank is his good buddy and got him to apply to Harvard. That's about it. Oh, and he was a bag boy for Scotty Reston. Wow. To think some poor tree died for this.



4. I am not Jewish, I did not grow up in New Jersey, and I was born the year the author graduated from Harvard. How can I explain the reasons I loved this book? Perhaps the reviewer below summed it up best: it IS refreshing to read a memoir that is not fueled by anger, contempt, or confession. This is a very pleasant visit to a time and place that, while not my own, echo a love of family connections and triumphs. I hope there will be a sequel and I applaud Mr. Roberts for taking the time to reflect upon and share his childhood. We need more books that aren't someone else's therapy.

1 comments about Leo Melamed: Escape to the Futures.

1. Commodity Futures have been called "The Last Great Frontier of Capitalism". A characteristic of frontiers is that they produce interesting people. But while we know a good deal about the interesting people in other industries - Bill Gates in software, for example, or Peter Drucker in management consulting - until recently the public has heard little of the human side of the futures business.

   A few years ago a remarkable book was published by the options trader Jack Ritchie called God in the Pits - Confessions of a Commodities Trader. The book had much to say about author's spiritual journey and little about the financial markets in Chicago, but he described his motivation for writing the book as follows: "...the common stereotype is that integrity and commodities trading go together like Al Capone and Mother Teresa. While they are seldom accurate, neither are common sterotypes completely erroneous".

   Escape to the Futures goes a long way towards dispelling that stereotype, and therefore is a most overdue book. It is the memoirs of Leo Melamed, a former Chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (known in the commodities world as simply "the Merc") and one of the more important figures in the Chicago financial markets. As well as being better known than Ritchie, Melamed has more to say about his industry. One comes away from the book with an impression of the heroic qualities of the markets as well as an appreciation for the pioneering men who made this new frontier possible. The book's title refers to Melamed's origins. Like that other well known investment figure, George Soros, Melamed is of European Jewish extraction - he was born in Poland. His family managed to escape the Holocaust by fleeing, first to Lithuania, then, barely escaping the Nazi occupation of that country, emigrating to the United States via Japan (pre Pearl Harbour) after a long train ride across the Soviet Union. The twists and turns of this exciting story hints at the origins of Melamed's succ! ess. As Soros has said, describing his experience in the Budapest of 1944: "I learned the art of survival...that has had a certain relevance to my investment career"

   Like many careers prior to the arrival of post-industrial society, Melamed's began by accident - he answered an advertisement for a "runner" for what he presumed was a law firm but was in fact a member firm of the Merc. He quickly fell in love with the market: " I was enthralled with the open outcry system of buying and selling contracts, with the speed at which things happened, with the colorful players in this arena of capitalistic hope and sweat." (p.88). This appreciation of what Keynes called the "animal spirits" of capitalism seems to be decidedly lacking these days. In the 1990s, if one want's to be a "player" in the financial markets, the correct route seems to be via a bachelor's degree in business followed by some high-priced graduate study, an MBA or something. Contrast this with the advice the young Jimmy Rogers got in the 1960s: "Go short some beans and you'll learn more in just one trade than you would in two years at `B-School.' "

   Now, reading Escape to the Futures will not give you many trading "tips". Great traders are not going to give away their secrets like that. What it will give you an insight into is how an industry gets built. Melamend himself illustrates the phenomenal growth of the futures business in his preface to the book: "In 1971...14.6 million contracts traded on US futures exchanges. Twenty years later, in 1991, the total transactions of futures and options on US futures exchanges was 325 million contracts." How did it happen? Your average B-School guy would attribute the growth to the US dollar de-valuations of 1971 and 1973, to the commodity price booms of the 1970s, and the financial de-regulations of the 1980s. What he is missing is the role played by men like Melamed who had a vision about what they wanted to achieve with thei! r organisations. Reading his book one is struck by how his working days were more those of a politician rather than a trader.

   But I use the word politician to mean "statesman", or "leader". One characteristic of such men is vision. Look, for example, at the Merc's International Monetary Market, the futures market for currencies: "Of one thing I was certain by the mid-1970s: agriculture was never going to be the future. But finance was. If the Chicago Mercentile Exchange had any future, it was on the back of the International Monetary Market. But that was something I couldn't prove in 1975 because the currencies and financial futures still had a long way to go. One had to believe" (p. 242).

   One of the downsides of financial statesmanship is that you don't get to concentrate as much on making money yourself. For instance, Melamed would show delegations of visitors to the Merc how a trade was executed, but the trade lose money! It is no surprise to learn, at the end of the book, that Melamed is now concentrating more of his efforts these days on building up his own firm, Sakura Dellsher.

   In Melamed we get a picture of a man who allied vision with an ability to persuade people of the virtue of his ideas, who knew how to cultivate relationships with people, and who knew how to effectively use his time and resources to achieve his organisation's goals. I commend this book to everyone interested in capitalism as people and not as abstract concepts as taught in the textbooks. Like another great book written by a trader but not about trading - Bernard Baruch's My Own Story - you will get an idea of how one man made things happen..

5 comments about Freud: A Life for Our Time.

1. Disagree with two of the reviewers below: Gay is not unbearly biased in favor of Freud, book is not too much for casual dabblers in the subject.
   
   First, one could hardly expect a six hundred page biography of Freud to be authored by someone who hates the man. Important to be realistic about who writes books in the first place.
   
   Second, Freud was a prolific writer, and the book doesn't shy away from in depth analysis, so really it's like two three hundred page books. Now, if that's too much Freud for you, you're probably not that interested in the first place.
   
   I like to read biographies of thinkers who left behind copious amount of published work. That way, it's easier to get a sense of what you want to read (if anything) by the author.
   
   Because much of Freud's work revolves around family life, his family life is more then usually interesting. It's impossible to appreciate the originality of Freud's thought without having a firm context for HIS everyday life.
   
   This book provides a balanced reading of Freud's controverial life. I found the bad to be included as much as the good. Freud's influence on the 20th century has been so profound that even if you completely disagree with the man (over, say, his attitude towards women), it is still rewarding to learn about his thought.



2. May 6 was the 150th birth anniversary of Sigmung Freud; he died in London in 1939. His theories have been changed along the way by other psychologists, but they remain the basis for therapy. He believed that past conflicts cause current emotional problems, the trauma of being born was actually at the root of neurotic anxiety, and that childhood experiences are the crucible of character. He delved into the science of recollection and reflection. Some of his beliefs have been tossed aside as so much feminist bunk, but had he still been alive, he would have agreed that history will never end because it is made by human beings.
   
   Someone acting rashly (out of character) is said to be "frontal" referring to the part of the brain involved in impulse control. They react to slurs in a violent manner to protect their self-integrity. One must confront the parts of himself which are painful and shameful and difficult to face. A philosopher at the University of Chicago identifies a "core idea" on which Freud's reputation must rest, that human life is "essentially conflicted." Today, we have brain-imaging technology which can prove or disprove his mind-boggling ideas.
   
   A person of character always is truthful. Dishonesty by omission (withhold the truth) or commission (telling an untruth) is a byproduct of the change system. Don't tell people what they want to know; that is misleading. When you fail to tell the truth, minor issues escalate into major ones. You usually become angry at perceived psychological threats. Someone threatens your self-esteem, your reputation, your peace of mind, or your sense of well-being, and you explode in anger. There are biological reasons for the way we act or react to this threat to our self-preservation. Empathy helps us to contain and expand our own sense of self-esteem. You have to confront the parts of yourself (your mind) that are painful, shameful, and difficult to face.
   
   Eric Kandel wrote a book about the memory for which he won the Nobel Prize. The future of neuroscience leads us to the biology of the mind. This science is called phrenology -- a science of the mind. Why we act and think the way we do. How we interpret danger from slander. Too much sadness become depression, too much gladness becomes mania, too much fear becomes panic, and too much anger becomes rage. Can virtue be taught? In today's society we constantly search for the pursuit of happiness. One thing to question is "What makes a problem moral."
   
   It's too bad Freud isn't around to see how immoral our society has become with deceit and even by the way they dress in public. Many more humans have psychological problems these days than in the '30s, which are going unresolved. His ideas probably would be considered obsolete, but they have been expanded to include behaviorism, humanistic, mythological, cognitive behavioral therapy, even self psychology. With his sometimes wrong ideas, we can pick and choose which field is best for us to overcome our hurts (caused by others, not being born or ignored as children) and understand that we are not alone.



3. If you have minimal knowledge about the father of psychoanlaysis, or if you hold strong opinions about the "Prof" as his students and colleagues referred to him deferentially and affectionally, this work by Peter Gay will highlight the peaks of Freud's dazzling insights, and provide plenty of background for his all too human failings. Freud is presented as a man struggling with issues of family, career, and the inevitablity of death. Gay is able to condense and summarize key Freudian concepts and place them in the context of the life and cultural time of the father of psychoanalysis. For students of psychology as well as observers of our current cultural and political delusions, Gay neatly captures the details as well as the broad scope of Freud's shadow on the 20th Century and beyond.



4. Best compendium of Freud's work by far. And with intelligent commentary by Gay. Yes, some of Siggy's turgid prose is hard going but, it is worth the investment in time and effort. Read it with an open mind and you will see how timeless Freud's message is...and Gay does not sink into sycophancy, as many others did.



5. This book describes Freud`s life with deep insight, and you can review the European history at around late 19th century to the beginning of 20th century through Freud's life. Very well done.

5 comments about Anne Frank Remembered.

1. This book was the most fabulous book that I have ever read! All my friends liked it and so did I. Thats why I am on aol looking for a website on her. If anyone finds one please contact me at my email adress Heatluver33. thank you and if any of you want to look at this book make sure to read it because you will love it out of your mind!



2. Anne Frank rembered captured my heat and it will capture anyone's heart who likes to read about Jewish people in hiding. It tells of the hardships of people trying to stay alive during World War 2. This book is one of the best books I have read in my entire life. I know that millions or all ready millions that has read it will be touched by it.



3. This tape was so captivating I couldn't put it down. I think its the best book I have ever heard of. I think everyone should read it or listen to it on tape. It makes the hardships and danger of World War 2 come alive.



4. This tape was so captivating I couldn't put it down. I think its the best book I have ever heard of. I think everyone should read it or listen to it on tape. It makes the hardships and danger of World War 2 come alive.



5. This is a highly recommended book about Anne Frank and her diary. Miep Gies tells her whole story from start to finish what it really like hiding from the Nazis. She was a friend of the Frank family from the beginning so this is first hand knowledge and a must read for anyone who is interested or has already read the Diary of Anne Frank. It deserves 10 stars but there were only 5 available to give. *****

1 comments about The Hidden Life: Hagiographic Essays, Meditations, Spiritual Texts (Stein, Edith//the Collected Works of Edith Stein).

1. As she converted to Christianity, Edith Stein joined one of the strictes orders-that of Carmelites. That was because she thought that only behind convent walls she could completely detach from the outside world and devote herself to God. So, when we talk about the title of the book:"The hidden life" we do not talk only about the life in a convent but also about the base of Edith Steins life that was contemplation of a hidden life of Good in everything that exist. As the convent itself had its spiritual life, Edith Stein contributed it with her hagiographic essays about Carmelite saints. Therefore here we can find inspired interpretations of lives of some well known or less known Carmelite saints like St. Theresa of Avila or St. Elizabeth. The rest of the book contents some other religious essays and dialogues that deeply marked Edith Steins life during her stay in a Carmelite convent. An inspired and interesting book.

4 comments about The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz: George Mantello, El Salvador, and Switzerland's Finest Hour (Religion, Theology, and the Holocaust).

1. THis is a compelling story written almost in novel form. The history is documented meticulously and represents a herculean effort by the author. This story of rescue on a grand scale is largely unknown and Schindler's efforts pale b comparison. This is a must read for anyone interested in the Holocaust. The author deserves much praise-I would love to hear him speak!



2. After Hungary left WWII, Germans felt free to round up Hungarian Jews for extermination. The book, based on meticulously researched material, reads as an adventure-mystery novel yet is non-fiction. It shows that rescue was possible to an extent when people,with proper leadership, rose up and protested. Credit here goes to the Swiss people, journalists and major Swiss Theologians and Pastors.Under leadership of outstanding Swiss theologians such as Karl Barth, the Swiss people evinced an extraordinary moral leadership in efforts to halt mass murder of Hungarian Jews. The drive for rescue was spearheaded by a Rumanian Jew named Mantello who worked for the El Salvadoran embassy in Switzerland.The facts give the Swiss people the credit they deserve for helping in the rescue of Jews and show that where there was courage and a will, many were rescued. Anyone with the slightest interest in human courage and dignity, not just the holocaust, should read this book.



3. This question always fascinated me when watching westerns and their modern analogs: can one man take on overwhelming odds and win against indifference and bare evil? A common wisdom tells us that such a win is just a wishful fantasy. It is a bright ray of inspiration to find an unlikely cross of the “High Noon”, “Dirty Harry” and “A Frisco Kid” in a story of lonely and smart orthodox Jew winning against the huge murderous system beyond the worst nightmares of the heroes of Gary Cooper, Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford. How big a “Gold Life Saving Medal” should be awarded to a person who saved 100,000 innocent lives from the gas chambers in 1944? Is there any monument that would give him his due? However, this man, George Mantello, was not only forgotten but maligned. The “delicate” reason for this lack of appreciation was that “all [organizations involved in the rescue effort] were of the opinion that any efforts they were not involved in were not valid” according to a witness testimony quoted in the book. The author provides mountains of testimony confirming Montello’s selfless dedication to the rescue work beyond a common comprehension. The book is thoroughly researched and documented but its subdued narrative reads really well. It is a rebuke to those who did little or nothing, an inspiration for lonely enthusiasts, and a glimpse of hope for the rest of us. Jews did have lonely heroes - Samson, David, before the spotlight shifted to leaders of large groups. Now, thanks to David Kranzler, we know one more such hero â€" George Mantello.



4. After read this book i must say ¡ I am proud to be a citizen from El Salvador ¡ ¿why? I didn't know that my country make such big contribution to save the live of thousand of Jews.
   GOD Bless and follow Blessing our country EL SALVADOR because that.

4 comments about Along the Tracks (Sandpiper Paperbacks).

1. This heartwarming story is about a Jewish boy who loses his family during an air raid on a train. His father is in the war, and he must learn to survive "along the tracks" by stealing and sleeping in coal piles (for warmth) until he finds his family. Setting: Poland



2. In my opinion, Along the Tracks is a good book. You find yourself on the edge of your seat numerous times, not to mention not being able to put the book down. Along the Tracks also has a very happy ending, which I happen to like.



3. I loved this book! It totally sucked me in from the moment I opened it. It's about a young boy's experiences being separated from his family during the Holocaust. His adventures are amazing! He has to overcome his friends dying, hunger, disease, poverty, separation, and even love. And I can't believe it all really happened to a real person!!!



4. Along the Tracks is a book about a boy named Yankele, and he also is called Yasha through the second half of the book. It starts out Yankele and his family living in Lodz, where the German army had invaded after conquering Poland. Yankele's family started moving on, trying to get to Russia. When they finally got to the border, the Nazis wouldn't let them in, so they had to stay outside for a while. Soon, all of the Jewish people there had flooded the Nazi guards, and Yankele's family got inside Russia. They lived there for a while, and Yankele's father joined the Red Army, and he fought in the war against the Germans. Soon Russia was taken over and Yankele's family was forced to leave, taking a train to Warsaw. After they got there they had to take yet another train out, and Yankele and his mother and sister got separated when someone bombed the train. A man helped Yankele for a while, until the next train station, then they left each other. Yankele was on his own for a very long time, staying with a group of thieves and stealing to live.
   After a while, Yankele was helping an old lady who couldn't get certain things, like coal from coal piles at the train tracks. Soon, the old lady told him of a lady who lost a boy - one that would be thirteen, which Yankele was. Yankele was thirteen years old, and he looked like he was seven. That was his mom in the black market, and he stayed with her for a while. Eventually, he would get tired of staying in one place and would wander, then come back and stay with his mother. This was a very good book, I liked it a lot and it went by very fast. It was by Tamar Bergman, and translated from the Hebrew by Michael Swirsky.
   Nick, Madison OH.