5 comments about The Glass Castle: A Memoir.

1. I borrowed this book from a friend's bookshelf and could not put it down. Yes, even with 11 month old twin daughters, I was still able to read the entire book in 3 days -- it's that good! Fascinating story that would have made great fiction. The fact that it's a memoir makes it truly amazing. Loved it!



2. This is one of my new favorite books and has introduced me to one of my new favorite types of reading: memoirs. There is not a second during this novel that I was bored. I finished it over 24 hours and I would have finished it in a consecutive amount of time if I wasn't purposely trying to extend my enjoyment of the process. Ms. Walls' writing style was impeccable. Though this memoir was one of a traumatic childhood, it never made it hard to read and, as a self-proclaimed cry-er, I rarely shed tears. That may sound negative, but in fact, it was what gave the reader hope for Jeannette and her siblings. They never gave up and nor did I as the reader.
   
   I found this story inspirational and it has truly shed new light on the way I look at life. I watched some videos of Jeannette Walls speaking on youtube (which I recommend) and the expectation of her character was fulfilled and then some. This book does not make you hate her parents, though at times I was very angry with them. After reading it anyone with family bitterness should probably think again.
   
   Thank you for writing such an inspirational and courageous memoir!



3. Heart-wrenching, beautiful, inspiring, funny , and disturbing... "The Glass Castle" is a wonderful memoir. As surprising as the failures of the Walls parents are, even more extraordinary are the ways in which they succeed. I will remember the 'demon hunting' trick for the day when I have a child of my own. A great book that will keep you engaged from start to finish.



4. I just finished this book on Friday.I had it for a while but i heard that its about a sad story so I waited. I must say i was surprised by how well written this book is. It kept me interested and locked and i could not believe that there are parents who would do something like that. Especially her mother freaked me out with her art supplies.Unbeleavable. SHe is very brave and she tells the story without trying to make people feel sorry for her situation.It must have been hard to write this in the first place. I can say*applause* Jeannette Walls did a great job.



5. This is one of the best stories I have ever read. Amazing. Inspiring. Tragic. Comic. Heartwarming.

5 comments about Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression.

1. i think the book could have gone through one more review period/editing, but for the most part it was full of entertaining stories. i dont want to pick it apart for its redundancies, but sometimes the author got carried away with using certain manners of speech, puns, etc. over and over again. also, there was a random chapter full of recipes that didnt seem to fit in with the rest of the narratives.
   
   i dont know if this book would make my top 10 list for the year, but maybe the new york times looks for qualities that i dont appreciate as much.



2. Mildred Armstrong Kalish describes herself on her excellent website:
   
   "I was born on St. Patrick's Day in 1922, on a farm near Garrison, Iowa, in Benton County. My growing-up was influenced by the Great Depression and by the self-reliance and work ethic of my mother's parents -- themselves descendants of pioneers who never quite made it into the 20th Century. Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression details the remarkable challenges and the inestimable rewards of living a rural life where children were expected to accept responsibilities beyond the ordinary."
   
   She tells her story with grace and charm, describing a number of personalities and memories: a spinster aunt shooting tin cans with her .22, hanging May baskets, and learning to swear in her family of "hearty-handshake Methodists." Example:
   
   "But, Grandpa, even Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding!" "Well, I know He did! And that's the only thing I ever held against Him!"
   
   Ms. Kalish provides recipes; two I particularly liked (and made with success): Aunt Belle's horehound candy & cough syrup and corn oysters. As a farm boy, her ability to boil a hog's head or remove a wart without making a big deal of it rang true to the girls and women I knew in our Wisconsin farm community. A great example: take a look at the recipe in the first comment and her views on using a straw from a broom to test pie doneness.
   
   I was raised, as Ms. Kalish was, "in an environment where everyone knew everyone else." It endowed her with "a sense of security, a sense of belonging in the world." That feeling also rings totally true to me. I liked Ms. Kalish immensely, and I'm sure you would too.
   
   Robert C. Ross 2008



3. I grew up on an Iowa farm in the early 60s so I could relate
   to some of the items this author wrote about. Good book.



4. This book was a veryveryvery good summer read. Mildred Armstrong Kalish recounts her years on an Iowa farm, when times were hard and money was scarce. The joy of hard work on a farm. The descriptions of the food for large family dinners makes your mouth water. The work to make the meal is amazing. I could feel the hot summer nights, reminding me of my own childhood. Filled with stories of a large country family that has grown close out of the Depression, this book is filled with cousins, aunts, uncles, grampas and grammas, the rural community is splendidly interwoven.



5. I loved this book. The account of life on an Iowa farm in the depression 1930s was both stunning and compelling. It's a way of life unknown to so many people in our country today, yet not far in the past at all. I know only vestiges of it, such as seeing my mother use a wringer washing machine, but mostly from hearing my parents tell about the way they grew up. While reading it, I was torn between wishing I could go back and live in that time and place, and being so very glad I can go to a supermarket and get excellent chicken without having to behead, gut, and singe the feathers off, then cut it all up myself! But the thread running through is the learning of self-sufficiency, pulling together, rising above, the building of good character, all of which is a huge help to one through life's hills and valleys. It's well worth going back to have a look at this way of life and what we've gained and lost.

5 comments about Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood.

1. I feel I learned more about the history of Iran through the eyes of a little girl who was practically forced to become an adult by the age of 14 than most textbooks. Marjane Satrapi, or "Marji" captured my attention, thanks to the successful marriage of her "crudely-drawn" panels and approachable narrative. While I have yet to read the sequel, I feel I know this individual on a personal level as the book fills us in on her deepest fears and hopes and conflicts.



2. Although this book is written like a comic book, don't take it lightly. The story is a deep and meaningful one. It is a pretty fast read but not as fast as you'd think...I highly recommend it!



3. This book was a very easy read. Unfortunately, the plot was a little too easy to follow, and certain parts have nothing to do with the rest of the book. The illustrations, however, have a quirky charm, and the story telling is sweet and entertaining.



4. Our local community college is using this book as a common book experience for all incoming freshmen. It's a good choice for three reasons: 1) the subject matter (a young girl's experiences in revolutionary Iran) is timely and meaningful for coming-of-age college freshmen trying "to find themselves" 2) the graphic novel format is immediately engaging and easy to digest, and 3) the protagonist's story lends itself to myriad thematic explorations. In all, I was interested in and satisfied with this book. In fact, I couldn't put it down--I read it in an hour and a half. Apparently, there's a movie, too. That's next on my list.



5. Authentic childhood story. The emotions ring true. Brings back to life the tragedy of a great civilization torn apart, first by the Shah, and then by the Islamic madmen.

5 comments about The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir.

1. A laugh out loud look at a boy growing up in Iowa in the 1950s. A wonderful nostalgic look at life through a boy's eyes. For anyone who grew up in the fifties this is the ticket for a trip down memory lane. This is a wonderful get well gift as laughter aids in healing and relieving pain. I challenge anyone to read this and not laugh out loud. This is Bill Bryson at his best and who could ask for more.



2. Approximately normal, but at times excessively disgusting, Bryson gives us the frog's perspective to Halberstam's magnificent bird's eye view of the Fifties.
   Bryson's specific kind of humour, the exaggeration to absurdity of nearly everything, can be very funny, but also trying. Boys will be boys, so they do odd things, but when you exaggerate them, they go a bit out of their normal frame. Some of his stories are plain yukki. (eating buttered popcorn in a cinema while peeling something soft away from underneath the chair? crawling underneath the toilet partitions to lock all doors from the inside? watching the man with the hole in his throat while he eats and speaks? etc ad nauseam, literally)
   So the fun is there but not always.
   Apart from that, my main reason to read the book is the fact that Bryson grew up with a dad who was a sports reporter, and in Bryson's surely not exaggerated recollection the greatest American baseball reporter ever. Now that I have resigned from my less than promising career as a reviewer at Amazon.de to focus fully on Amazon.com, I realized that I have no clue why you guys like baseball so much.
   After Bryson, I still don't have a clue, but I learned one thing: it must help to have grown up with it. I guess I will never make it even to the outer circles of the half-initiated.



3. I have sent Bill Bryson's books to a number of friends & relatives. Truly, he cracks me up.
   
   This was a bit of a disappointment. I was in Nevada, Iowa (age 5), @ the same time he was in Des Moines. We come from the same place.
   
   It was never the best of times, in Iowa.
   
   I left the book with a friend who's a sports writer. She didn't know about Bryson's dad, also a sports writer, a good one, & was intrigued.
   
   Bill Bryson makes me snort my drink out my nose most of the time. This book did tell me who his companion was in A Walk In The Woods was.
   
   A Walk In The Woods was TOO, too funny.



4. Funny, but overall not as entertaining as Bryson's other works like A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail or I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away.
   
   It's hard for me to put my finger on it -- it's definitely still a Bryson book and has his signature style. But it reminds me of when a great baseball player is in a hitting slump -- you know it's still him when he walks to the plate, but the end result just isn't as impressive.
   
   If you're a Bryson devotee, you'll probably read the book anyway. Just know in advance that he isn't bringing his A-game. If you're new to Bryson, go ahead and read "The Thunderbolt Kid" -- Bryson bringing his B-game is still better than most other writers bringing their A-game. And once you read one Bryson book, you'll find you just can't stop.



5. Bill Bryson writes in a way that brings his book to life. I actually see whats going on rather than imagine it. And while he wrote this book with an obvious adult retrospective - he spices it up with a child's perspective also. Everything is "the best", "the biggest", "600 kids on the baseball field" - over-exaggerating things like kids are known to do. I found myself rereading paragraphs simply for the delight of it!

5 comments about The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family.

1. This book helped open my eyes to what children go through in Foster Care. It helped me to relize that you can't judge a book by its cover. That the struggle for acceptance,love acknowledgement or to be recognized can consume & overwhelm a child...to even the point of doing something you know in you heart is wrong. This book makes me want to work hard, so I can buy a big house, Just so I can provide enough love and support and room for not only my three children, but for those children in need of a place to call home & to know that they have someone who care about them.



2. This is a story about a young boy who gets abused and treated unfairly. He doesn't have any clothes besides the ones he caries in a brown paper bag. He runs away from the world he hates. He has no home to go to, then he finds hope. To find out more information about this book find it and venture into it.
   
   In my opinion this book was excellent and amazing.Why? Because it made me cry on the first page, some parts I felt like going in the book, because the suspense never ends. I would recommend it to those who love to read soppy, exciting books that are true.



3. This book, along with another came in on time and for a great price. I Love this book.. I am now waiting to read the two books left that tells the rest of Dave's Story. There are 4 all together!



4. This book will open your eyes to child abuse. You will forever remember and reflect on what you have read. We all have a need to be loved.



5. this is a good book! i love it when dave sees that kid and the kid says what you call my sister? then dave says a horror? then the kid punches dave, makes his nose bleed, and says don't you ever, ever, call my sister a whore again! read it if you liek dave pelzer as much as me!

5 comments about Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood.

1. I certainly enjoyed this book. We will be reading this book as a choice for a book club. There is a lot to discuss-from the family life to the unrest that is pertinent to what was once Rhodesia and is now suddenly thrust into the spotlight as Zimbabwe. Ms. Fuller takes you to a place that few in today's world will experience. She is honest in her depiction of her family and one is caught up in each of their personalities. I wish more books could offer such insight and descriptions that will both educate and entertain at the same time.
   
   Gail Boyd, Washington, Ga.



2. Although mostly well-written, this memoir is very depressing. I was expecting more about Africa from this NF book, but it's largely the tale of a highly dysfunctional family that suffers blow after blow, bringing much of it on itself. And no one seems to learn anything from their mistakes. The Book of Job is uplifting reading by comparison.



3. I found this in audio at an audio rental store. The front intrigued me so I read the back and decided to give it a go. I liked it so much that my husband decided he wanted to listen to it too! What an interesting life to have lead at such a young age!



4. This family is composed mainly of fighters, people who decided to forsake the clotted cream comfort of their native England for the thorny bush country of, what was then known as, Rhodesia.
   
   In poetic prose that the reader occasionally stumbles over, Fuller takes us on a dense tour of her life in Africa, thesaurus in hand, and describes the stunning beauty and hopeless squalor of the land with a series of adjectives and adverbs that occasionally seem shoehorned in but rarely off-the-mark. This makes for an occasionally jarring, though still beautiful, journey, much like what the young author must have experienced perched on the spare tire of her family's bucking Land Rover. Some of Fuller's descriptive metaphors, however, are quite luminous; they stay with you.
   
   Still, she hits home with her prose more often than not, and produces a thoroughly readable if somewhat detached report on the life of her family, and how they bear up as trauma eclipses joy after a series of dismal events, including the deaths of small children and runs for the border of several African nations as things (i.e., the political landscape, war) shift and change. These things would loom large in anyone's life, and they are told here with an air of inevitability and acceptance . . . even excitement.
   
   Here's a family who thrives on adventure.
   
   There were several times Fuller had me right there in the back of the Land Rover with her. I was unsettled and awed by what we saw together. She's an amazing writer when she gets going.
   
   Great read.



5. Okay, now as a former and recovering English major I'm going to admit that Ms. Fuller is actually a decent writer, But I do want to point out a few things the other reviews don't cover.
   First, Ms. Fuller is stridently politically correct and distorts the historical facts of the former Rhodesia in an effort to demonize the whites. The distortion does border on reverse racism, however much I hate to trot out the r-word.
   Secondly, this woman is absolutely obsessed with toilet functions and other bodily things and takes any opportunity to describe them--particularly her own. She takes an almost narciscisstic delight in describing herself in these terms.

5 comments about The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir.

1. As a kid growing up in the Midwest in the 1950s, I totally related to Bill Bryson's recounting of his childhood in Iowa. He did all sorts of stuff kids today would never get away with - their mothers would be horrified. Of course, much of his recollections are exaggerated, but not so much so that they don't ring true to those who grew up in that post WWII era.
   
   Bryson's knack for creatively recounting minor incidents from his life - like working on a scab for months, until it was 1 1/2 inches thick and you could stick a thumbtack in it and not feel a thing - had me laughing out loud again and again. His imagination turns a day at the beach, or dinner and a movie with his mom, into one hilarious event after another. His was an era where getting stitches more than once was not only common but a measurement of bravery...or guts.
   
   I highly recommend this entertaining, feel-good, laugh-till-you-cry (complete with tears) experience, a baby boomer's delight and worthy of your time.
   50 Ways to Leave Your Mother



2. Lots of great research (At least I can't remember that many details of my childhood from the same time period.) Not as good as the raving reviews but interesting and easy reading.



3. 50's nostalgia has been done over and over, but Bill Bryson hits a home run with this reminiscence of his childhood years in Des Moines, Iowa. Despite the efforts of modern novelists and Hollywood to cast a dark shadow over the decade of the 50's, it does truly seem like it was the best of times after reading this book.
   
   Being a "late boomer", born almost a decade after Bryson, I grew up with some remnants of this world myself, and I can personally vouch for the mayhem inside those movie theatres that showed Saturday matinees for the kids. If there's one chapter that made me laugh out loud it was the one entitled "Out and About". The theatres, the amusement park, the restaurants, the Iowa State Fair, hanging around a downtown full of stores, all of these places had stories which Bryson delights in sharing with us.
   
   The author describes Iowa as an idyllic place; smack dab in the middle of the country, with deep topsoil, huge stalks of corn, and frugal yet welcoming people who didn't worry too much about things they couldn't control. The world was a much bigger place then, and food items which seem pretty basic to us, such as "pasta, rice, cream cheese, sour cream, garlic, mayonnaise, onions.." etc. were somewhat exotic and to be viewed with suspicion back then.
   
   Those of us who have received a much circulated e-mail about how things were different in our childhood, how we could be outside at all hours of the day and didn't flinch at the cuts and scrapes we acquired on a daily basis, will get more reminding by reading this book. Even childhood mischief is portrayed somewhat benignly as Bryson looks through the haze of nostalgia; chemistry sets setting houses on fire, petty thefts of beer and candy, and dangerous practices like hanging off the back of tailgates of moving cars. Not to mention the threat of the polio epidemic of the time, one wonders in today's age of over-supervised kids how we ever survived our own 50's and 60's childhoods.
   
   Bryson looks at the 50's in the greater world as well, sometimes in a way that works, sometimes not. Bryson is at his best when talking about phenomena like comic books and TV becoming so big, and about publications of all kinds predicting various Doomsday scenarios (much like today actually). The chapter on the Red Scare doesn't fit too well into this book though, a bit of liberal preachiness creeps in that seems out of place here.
   
   There are parts where it seems as if Bryson might be trying too hard to amuse us, but overall I enjoyed this book very much. His affection for his sportswriter father and absent-minded yet cheery mother are quite heartwarming. The chapter about his rural grandparent's home was drawn very nicely as well. Bryson does the inevitable comparison between the Des Moines of his childhood and today and sees all that was lost, never to return. Was the world a better place back then? Bryson implies strongly that it was, and I won't disagree.
   
   For those fans of Bryson's books, or for those who are drawn to nostalgic remembrances, you will enjoy this.



4. I was very fortunate to grow up in this period in a small town. It was amazing that the kids in Iowa were doing the SAME dumb stuff as we did in Texas. I had the electric football game and never could figure out how to have fun with it. We went to the local fair and got into the stripper tent at age 15 (true). The stripper in Texas was probably on a circuit that went to Iowa. All in all, a fun book to read for anyone of that era. All the buildings are now gone, but the memories still remain. Bill did a great job bringing those back to life.



5. As I finished this amazing book Des Moines made the news by flooding today. Even though I have never been to Iowa, I felt sad due to having just read this memoir of Bill Bryson's who is from Des Moines. This is a wonderful valentine to Iowa and to Bill's childhood growing up in Des Moines. It is so funny that you will find yourself laughing so hard and so loud. I was born the same year as Bryson and could relate to everything he recalls while growing up in the strange world of the 1950's. He brings back what a very strange time the 50's were. How did we ever become such an interesting generation after a decade of jello,black and white westerns on TV,Dick and Jane books, sci-fi badly made movies and a long list of ridiculousness that our parents and government held up as rules for the good life in America. Bryson's talent of looking at things that at first seem funny(ha-ha) but underneath those events or things lie a lurking dark side of reality that is anything but funny.

5 comments about A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana (Today Show Book Club #3).

1. In the first 75 pages of this warm and fuzzy book, the following happens (and not much else): a piglet dies, a dog dies of worms, a hen and rooster are dragged off by dogs, the dogs get shot, a cat is stolen and starved in a basement, oh, and a rabbit has its ears stapled to a fence and its head chopped off. One would expect plenty of death on a farm but there's no farm in this story. Just a backyard.



2. Well written memoir. I think most people who read this book get the fact that though she was loved by her parents, her childhood was far less than perfect. I for one did not read this book and think "wow, what a refreshing a wonderful memoir of a lovely and decent childhood". It was cleverly written from a child's perspective so that we adult readers would read enough into what she was writing to understand that though her childhood was, in many ways, quite dysfunctional and disturbing at times, the author herself saw life from a different perspective. This could have easily been written as a 'woe is me' kind of memoir but it would have been far less interesting and real. I appreciate her humor and positive light. There were many times when I related entirely to what she was writing (I too grew up in a dysfunctional family in a very small town in Indiana) and many times I laughed right out loud. I really enjoyed this book.



3. I concur with much of the praise that precedes me: "Zippy" is a lyrically written, thoughtful, engaging memoir that I read with great pleasure.
   
   And yet, in the end, it was the very pleasure of my reading experience that troubled me. A reviewer below notes, "It is refreshing every once in a while to read a story that doesn't have murder, major drama, or psychological problems." Yet the book is chock full of every one of those things, and then some: those themes are just so sugar-coated, the reader is hypnotized into overlooking them.
   
   A short list of thematic elements touched on by the book includes: depression, alcoholism, birth defects, child-neglect, child sexual abuse, murder, teenage pregnancy, animal cruelty (in abundance), mental illness, religious fanatacism, grinding poverty, gambling addiction, and the Mi Lai Massacre, for goodness' sake!
   
   And yet these themes are all presented in a filmy, dreamlike way that removes their sting and horror. One could argue that that is the theme of the book: the triumph of one child's powerful sense of self over adversity.
   
   However, as I turned the final page, I began to feel that I had been tricked into approving, even admiring, the "good old days" that never were. I believe the author could have and should have demanded more of the reader to connect the dots between events as seen from the child's point of view and the more stark light of adult reality. This book makes it all too easy for the reader to condone a world in which very serious issues are treated as light afternoon reading on the front porch swing.



4. This is the story of Zippy, an imaginative, precocious girl who grew up in the small town of Mooreland, Indiana during the 1960's and 1970's. She tells stories about her family members, childhood friends, eccentric neighbors, and various pets. Through it all, Zippy has a resilience of spirit and a positive attitude that shine through, even in situations that otherwise may not be ideal.
   
   This book is unusual in that it is written with a child's voice, but is interesting and humorous to adults. Haven Kimmel is really able to capture the feeling of being a child, and how even the most minor of events can have major importance. It was refreshing to read a memoir about a happy childhood, and I found myself reciting several sweet and funny passages out loud to various family members. I loved how Zippy shared the stories of the first memory she ever had, the first time she thought about family genes, and the first time she thought about the passage of time. The book is written in very simple prose, but has depth to it as well.
   
   I highly, highly recommend this book. It was an absolute joy, and I loved every minute of it. Do not miss this one!!!!



5. This was a light hearted and hilariously funny book. It is refreshing every once in a while to read a story that doesn't have murder, major drama, or psychological problems. Zippy's story is from a small town where something you and I take for granted every day is described in a way to make you laugh and appreciate the small things in life. I bought the next Zippy book afterwards and loved it just as much.

5 comments about Hope's Boy: A Memoir.

1. This is not a book to miss. All too often, it falls to a teacher to recognize and act on the needs of a child. It can be a responsibility of a parent to make their children aware of the meaning of "foster children" and how to treat and include these children into their activities. Andy's story is repeated in every court system in this country. So many children fall through the cracks. Despite her own mental illness, Hope finds a way to assure Andy that she loves him and later realize she did what she could do under the circumstances. Without this, Andy could have ended up the way the majority of children in the system do. A simple act of kindness could change a child's life.



2. Hope's Boy is a profoundly important book for all of us to read. Though other books about foster care have been written, few ever go into the inner life of child and what that child feels, thinks, and misses after enduring a devasting loss and the most tragic conditions. Equally refreshing is that Mr. Bridge shows not a bit of self-pity, acknowledging and describing the children that he saw and still remembers who suffered even great losses than he did. This is a story about a boy who loved a deeply flawed mother -- one struck down with a horrific mental illness through no fault of her own.
   
   Bridge reminds the reader that simply warehousing a child in foster care -- giving him bed and food -- is not enough. We take these children into all of our care and we owe them the love and the nuturing needed to care and to tend for them.
   
   Apart from an extraordinary story, the book is a beautiful read. It is tenderly written account about love and children who endure more than they ought to and often need to have endured.
   
   Mr. Bridge has commited his life to helping these children. He has never forgotten or turned his back on them. As a Harvard Law School graduate, he could have done that. He did not. We should all remember these children as he does. We live in a society where hundreds of thousands of children wait for hope.



3. *Minor spoilers*
   
   The beginning of Andy's story, first with Grandma Kate and then with Hope, is very compelling. It is clear that he has taken pains to recall everything he could about a brief but influential window in his life.
   
   However, after the first year or two in foster care, the details start to become few and far between, and it felt somewhat empty to me. Like some of the other reviewers, I found his perspective on his foster family to be skewed. I wanted to believe him, but I simply found the Cinderella-esque description of his life in this setting to be a bit flimsy. Oh my God, Mrs. Leonard made terrible snacks and wore garage-sale clothes! And did I mention she was FAT??
   
   This family shared a home with him for a decade and did more for him than Hope did. When a social worker tells the adult Andy that Hope came close to winning him back several times but sabotaged the reunion at the last minute, why didn't he consider that maybe Hope DIDN'T want him back? He shows more generosity in his memory of a woman who seriously endangered him and reduced him to living in a closet and stealing cat food than he does for a family that provided him with a home and some semblance of security, if not love, for 11 years. He admits that he stayed in touch with the Leonards even into his years with the law firm, but he doesn't fully explain why beyond grudgingly saying it was a place to go to at Christmas or on school breaks.
   
   I think in the end he has a very important point to make, that he would have preferred what he perceives was his mother's love and transient life over the relative stability but frigid conditions in foster care. But I'm not sure how that translates into reality for the thousands of children who are removed from their families each year. Bridge raises many questions, but he doesn't offer realistic answers. He hints that someone should have told him Hope wanted him back, or that someone should have helped Hope reunite with him. But how could this be achieved? Hope battled a serious mental illness, and he does a valiant job of defending her, but realistically, what can the state do to help a schizophrenic woman maintain ties to her child? If he has ideas -- and he may very well might -- they aren't noted here in any detail.



4. A friend of my wife's recommended Hope's Boy. It drew me in immediately. Bridge tells his story in such a way that I kept reading, wanting to find out more about what would happen to him and Hope. His writing style is poignant, yet without self-pity. I was struck by the profound loneliness he felt - being taken from his mother, and then living in a foster home where he was treated indifferently, at best, and abusively, at worst. Yet, despite all of those obtacles, he relied on his strengths and belief in Hope's love for him to persevere and excel in the ways that the "outside" world valued and rewarded, while keeping his "inside" world hidden. High school honors, college scholarship to Wesleyan University, Harvard Law School, Fulbright Scholar, legal advocate for kids in foster care. What a great take-away message of the power of hope!



5. Andrew Bridge has written an extraordinary memoir about our country's most vulnerable women and children. Anyone who works with children and families or cares about what we need to do to help them should read this book.

5 comments about First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (P.S.).

1. I read all but a couple chapters of this book on a flight across the US. It is easy reading and I could not put it down. The horrors this author went through will make the reader pause to count his blessings. I think this is a must read for anyone who is unfamiliar with Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.



2. When I started to read the memoir, it was very hard to put down. It is written in first person tense through the eyes of a young girl struggling through the Khmer Rouge insurgency in Cambodia. I am a 1st generation American whose mother grew up in war torn Vietnam, so I had an interest in the Southeast Asian set memoir. Now I am trying to find ones as good as this one, but set in with my mother's experiences. This book was an in depth way to learn about the people & the recent history of struggle which many Cambodian Americans no doubt have also lived through but not spoken of. It really reinforces that family and love are the most important things in life. It's a must read.



3. The book is very well-written. Loung Ung wrote with compassion,spirtual, and horrenic activities growing up under the Khmer Rogue regime. She experiences tortues,stravation, and execution of her parents. This book is very interesting to learn what the author went through live under a horrendous communist movement. The author wrote this book in a sense to give the reader an image on the conflict of war that is going in Cambodia. Readers would not be able to put this book down since it give the readers a hint of life growing up in the Khmer Rouge. Ung had to move from different works camps at a young age, and she experienced a hardship growing up in Cambodia during the 1974 to 1979. Between these two years, she watch baby brother died of stravation and the loss of his parent by the Khmer Rogue. Having to travel a large distance to Vietnam, Loung experience the execution of her people. The book will change your prespective of life and the mistery of what the cambodia people been through during the killing field years. Highly recommened to any type of readers.



4. Some people have criticized this book because they believe some small historical detail might be wrong. I say, who cares about that? The horrors that are described in this book eclipse any small misconceptions or tiny errors in fact. Cambodia's people were starved, enslaved, murdered, and robbed by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. It's a most outrageous and horrific story, but it was the truth for millions. Miss Ung did an impressive job pulling the story together into book form. My heart breaks for her family and hundreds of thousands of other families there.
   
   This should be required reading for high school students everywhere.



5. Loung Ung does an excellent job of describing what happened to her family growing up in the killing fields of Cambodia under the Pol Pot regime. She is an excellent writer. Although her story is very tragic, it is one that we all should hear. God is truly using Loung's tragic life to create something good and meaningful. Loung is a fascinating person that I feel honored to have met within the pages of her book. Thank you for sharing your story Loung. Your book has changed my life.