1 comments about The Silent Stars Go by: A True Christmas Story (Isis Large Print Nonfiction).

1. "The Silent Stars Go By" is a Christmas story we all wish we could tell, but don't have a childhood like Williams' to reflect on. Throughout the work, Williams is able to recall the era of the late 1950s and how the fall and early winter of 1959 in particular impacted he and his family. Madison, Georgia at that time was a northeast Georgia village in love with its football team (the local high school won 3-of-4 state championship and many regional titles in and around the late 50s and early 60s)and Williams masterfully gives readers a clear depiction of what the town was like. In a style similar to his "Heart of the Distant Forest," Williams also creates a sense of his love for all things natural and devotion to family. The fact that the story is true, and based on his family's own struggle, is something many should treasure. An additional pleasant aspect of the story is that there is no "angry child syndrome." This is a joyous tale, I love the book and have read it twice.

No comments about Life of John Bunyan (Large Print Edition).

5 comments about Alicia: My Story (Charnwood Large Print Library Series).

1. I read a lot of Holocaust-related stories in middle school. As morbid as it sounds, they were so interesting, and so heartbreaking to read. There are quite a few more still sitting in my closet that I could review, but this was my favorite, and probably the one that got me into the topic. A really great story, particularly because it's a true one.



2. Raised from the age of five in Buczacz, which was roughly a third Jewish at that time, Alicia was sheltered relatively well from the anti-Semitism that plagued her town, as well as the rest of Europe. She had many friends, both Jewish and Christian.
   After the Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939, whereby the two genocidal dictators divided Poland between them, Buczacz fell into the Soviet zone. The Soviets began a forced Sovietization drive, and deported thousands of people to slave labour, or their deaths, who they saw as 'enemies of the Soviet Union'.Alicia recalls being offended and hurt, on behalf of her Christian friends, for whose religion she had deep respect, when the Madonna and Child were removed from their customary spot in the classroom and replaced by scowling portraits of Lenin and Stalin.
   Alicia's second-oldest brother Moshe was shot by the Soviets after returning to Poland, from the harsh conditions in Russia, where he had gone for education.
   In June 1941, the Germans broke their pact with the Soviets and swept through eastern Poland on their way to Russia - Operation Barbarossa had begun. The Germans, however, had an even worse plan than the Soviets had had for Europe's Jews: it was known as Endlosung (aka The Final Solution).
   
   Alicia's father was shot, alongside 600 other Jewish community leaders, shortly after the Nazi invasion.
   Alicia, and her mother and brothers were forced to leave their beautiful home, and to settle in the ghetto.
   They lived under harsh laws whereby Jews were forced to wear armbands with stars of David.
   Jews who tried to leave the ghetto or to enter the synagogue would be executed.
   Alicia's brother Bunion was then executed by the Nazis.
   
   While visiting a Jewish family in the town, 12 year old Alicia was arrested by the Nazis along with thousands of other Jews, but escaped from the train to the death camps, together with a band of other young people.
   After Alicia's brother Zachary was shot by the Nazis She swore on his grave that if she survived she would speak for her silenced family.
   This book is a powerful and unforgettable fulfilment of that oath.
   It keeps us engaged and emotionally involved on every page, as we read of her struggle to survive, her irrepressible spirit, her many brushes with death. She never gave up her will to survive nor her humanity for fellow victims of the Nazis, many of whom she helped to rescue, many of whom died before her eyes.
   She witnessed such horrors as babies being shot in their cribs by the Nazis.
   While many of the Polish and Ukrainian neighbours helped the Nazis and joined in the killings, there were always those few that helped to keep their Jewish fellow humans alive, including a Polish family on whose farm Alicia worked.
   After the war, Alicia's struggle was not over.
   She was imprisoned by the Soviets and took part in the secret operation to smuggle Jews to the Land of Israel, across Europe, at a time when the British were keeping the Holocaust survivors out, often with brutal and violent methods reminiscent of the Nazis themselves.
   Alicia was on the ship Theodor Herzl, carrying young Holocaust survivors to Israel, in 1946, when it was rammed by British frigates, after which British soldiers then boarded the ship and attacked the survivors, beating to death six young Jews and allowing others to drown while trying to escape.
   This courageous girl, had struggled as part of the Jewish nation against three ruthless empires.



3. This eye witness account of the holocaust in Poland is so horrific it would be too depressing to read, if it weren't for the author's lucid, straight forward prose. Alicia Jurman was 13 years old when she fought for survival against literally impossible odds in southeastern Poland and witnessed the destruction of her entire family, friends and neighbors. Her survival was accomplished through truly incredible pluck, strength of character, resourcefulness, and unbelievable good luck.
   We already know (or should know) all about the horrors of the holocaust: the depth of depravity to which the human soul can sink; and we know that to forget this worst of all possible nightmares is to face another genocide in our lifetime (we already have in Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia, and elsewhere).
   What distinguishes "Alicia: My Story" despite the unspeakable horror is this horror as viewed through the eyes of a girl who simply refuses to give in and give up. She is an amazingly strong girl who used everything she had to survive. And she tells the story in a matter of fact way that propels the narrative forward and keeps the reader turning the pages to find out what happens next.
   If one has never been exposed to what went on during World War Two, this excellent book is the perfect place to start.



4. An avid reader of Holocaust memoirs, I found "Alicia" an unforgettable story of survival.
   
   Only a child at the onset of World War II in her native Poland, Alicia Jurman soon lost both her parents and all four brothers -- murdered, in different ways, for one reason, being Jewish. It was only through a strange destiny that young Alicia kept surviving herself -- once being pushed through a gap in a train window, heading for a concentration camp; another time, falling unconscious and being presumed dead by the Nazis, only to be rescued by an astute and caring Jewish gravedigger.
   
   Yet even when a person is at her lowest, she can always find others even worse off. It would have been easy for Alicia to say she had nothing left to give; yet even during the most destitute and desperate of times, she shared food and supplies with other Holocaust survivors.
   
   It was also this loving attitude that made Alicia take action after the war, when she noticed a number of starving orphaned children roaming city streets. Only 15 and an orphan herself, Alicia took it upon herself to establish a Jewish "orphanage," moving some 24 youths aged 10 to 15 into a vacated apartment and securing financial help to get their new lives underway.
   
   Still a teenager, Alicia eventually sought refuge in Israel. But, as always, problems arose...
   
   Alicia Jurman is a modern-day hero, guaranteed to inspire readers for generations to come.



5. I just finished another very painful but interesting and shocking memoirs in "Thanks to my Mother" by Shoshana Rabinovici and started this book. It's absolutely shocking and heroic struggle to do everything possible to survive day-by-day and minute-by-minute the Systematic Nazi Plan to annihilate the Jewish People.
   Highly highly recommend to every one who is interested in Holocaust and to everybody to read and to learn what was really WWII about.

2 comments about The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Large Print Edition).

1. It was 1998, the 150th anniversary of the first Women's Rights Convention, and it was difficult, if not impossible, to purchase a biography on the Mother of us all, Susan B. Anthony. What better way to commemorate the anniversary than to put SBA's first biography back in print. The publisher, Ayer, would re-print this 3 volume set if they received 50 orders. So I found 50 people and it's now available. "Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony" is fascinating and so alive - I feel like I'm in the attic with Ayer and Anthony writing it. Many thanks to amazon.com for liberating the order process and providing access to this wonderful primary source.



2. It was 1998, the 150th anniversary of the first Women's Rights Convention, and it was difficult, if not impossible, to purchase a biography on the Mother of us all, Susan B. Anthony. What better way to commemorate the anniversary than to put SBA's first biography back in print. The publisher, Ayer, would re-print this 3 volume set if they received 50 orders. So I found 50 people and it's now available. "Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony" is fascinating and so alive - I feel like I'm in the attic with Ayer and Anthony writing it. Many thanks to amazon.com for liberating the order process and providing access to this wonderful primary source.

No comments about Louie: An Oxford Lady (Reminiscence).

No comments about Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (EasyRead Large Bold Edition).

No comments about Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, Volume 2 [EasyRead Comfort Edition].

No comments about The Life of the Venerable Mother Mary of the Incarnation (Large Print Edition).

5 comments about Foreign Correspondence.

1. I read this book in one day - it is beautifully, intelligently written with well developed characters and a true story that reads like fiction. It is a rare gem of literature that provides insight into the dreams of a young girl that many people can identify with - male or female. I have read a lot of books lately, but this was one of the finest books I've come across in a while.



2. Australian born Geraldine Brooks spent many years as a foreign correspondent covering the Middle East. I loved her book, "Nine Parts of Desire" which was about Muslim women, and I have followed her life somewhat as she is often mentioned by her husband, Tony Horwitz, in his books "Confederates in the Attic", "Baghdad Without a Map," and "One for the Road." I find her an excellent reporter and in this memoir, "Foreign Correspondence," she turns the spotlight on herself.

   As a child growing up in a lower middle class neighborhood on a street actually called "Bland Street", she yearned for a larger world. And so she developed pen pals. There was a girl from New Jersey, another one from France, and even one from an upper class neighborhood just a few towns away. And then there were two Israeli boys, one an Arab and one a Jew. As an adult, she found these old letters in her father's basement and, now more than twenty years later, she decided to look up each of these people. What follows is the result of her quest and some wonderful insights into world events from a personal one-on-one perspective. It was fascinating.

   As a teenager in the early seventies she was aware of the new consciousness developing, even reaching her in her protective Catholic school. She had an active imagination and the gift of using words well. It's not surprising that she developed pen pals and that they influenced her life so much. Her gift of words certainly reached me too. I shared her sense of wonder and enthusiasm as she looked forward to each letter. I felt her straining to break the bonds of her loving but restrictive world. I felt her hopes and dreams and frustrations. And then, later, I shared her discoveries as she searched out the people who had meant so much to her early life. She writes with a clear voice, painting a picture with details, taking me on her quest to discover the world and eventually to discover herself. The book is short, a mere 210 pages but she sure does pack a lot into it. It's a wonderful read. Highly recommended.




3. I bought this as an "airplane read" but couldn't put it down. Geraldine Brooks has done us a great favor by not only illuminating the process of finding one's long lost penpals, but also by educating many folks about Australia in the process. It's fascinating to see her perceptions of the world, and particularly America, based on the letters that come in her mailbox each month.

   While I read this one on my own, I have since leant this book to several friends and we've engaged in some interesting discussions about our own penpal experiences, so I recommend it for book clubs.




4. I have read several of Brooks' books (both her non-fiction and fiction) and I was excited to rec'e and read Foreign Correspondance. Unfortunately, I was deeply disappointed.

   The book has an outstanding premise---as a child growing up in Australia during the 1960s, Brooks was eager to experience the outside world. An avid letter writer, she found pen-pals in the U.S., Israel and France. As an adult, Brooks set off to meet and re-discover these people. So far so good. But the book peters out---with the exception of the American pen-pal (to whom she was closest), the characters lack enough detail to be interesting.

   Her meeting with her French pen-pal was especially disappointing. This was a girl who chose to remain in her native village (while Brooks became a world-traveler and global correspondant). I hoped for more insights and more discussion of the contrast and why they chose such radically different paths---despite coming from somewhat similar backgrounds (Brooks saw herself as living in a giant provincial village---the village of Australia). But there was little discussion and the meeting simply sounded painful. Her trip to Israel to meet her non-Jewish Israeli pen-pal would also have benefitted from a deeper discussion about one's choices and opportunities (there was some discussion of this but I wanted to know more).

   Had I not read Brooks' other books, I probably would have thought this was a fairly good book. But I know she can write such a better book!




5. Geraldine Brooks has written a book that I can empathise with. I think of how I might have had that life in Australia had my parents not returned to England in the 1930's. I wanted, and still do, very much to talk to the author and ask her questions as she is such a good writer with a warm personality.

No comments about Manager by Appointment.