5 comments about Hard Candy.

1. Hard Candy is an incredible novel that invades your thoughts and emotions as you read it, and long after you complete it. Mr. Carroll refuses to "sugar coat" any of his disturbing and heart-wrenching experiences in an attempt to enlighten the reader of the horrors that still exist in state mental institutions and foster systems alike. Simply reading this book will immediately encourage the reader to join the author in his quest to enlighten those who are uninformed of these tragedies. I personally was able to complete this novel from cover to cover in less than 48 hours as each page takes the reader deeper into Mr. Carroll's amazing story. If one should decide to purchase this book, they will find themselves honored that the author was willing to share his experiences to bring these problems to light. Truly a "must read!"



2. Carroll's book is hard to put down once you start reading it. I was shocked at how easily institutional workers could abuse and neglect patients without adequate care and supervision. This book is truly a must read for all teachers or anyone involved with youth care. Hard Candy helps one to actualize that physical and sexual abuses inflicted upon children is something which has happened and still is happening in staggering numbers in our country; however, it does not seem to be a topic which one is comfortable to talk about. Carroll makes light of the history of institutional abuse and neglect towards children by discussing the traumas which he and his brother experienced. Carroll's message is to encourage readers to help prevent these harms from occurring again. Hard Candy is well documented and Carroll has done excellent research in tracing how institutions for youths have taken advantage of and abused their patients, in particular youth, because they receive no support nor are taken seriously in their accusations. Carroll makes the reader wonder how thousands of children have been abused (like he was) and were unable to ever speak out or represent themselves or other victims. Carroll has great courage for speaking about the childhood traumas of himself and his brother Bobby. No child should ever have to go through the abuses and fear which these boys suffered. The readers and youth developers of today should really take light of Carroll's book. Hard Candy substantiates that physical, sexual, and mental abuses have take place on a wide-scale towards the youth of yesterday and TODAY. Carroll's book is provoking in that the conscientious reader cannot help but call into question the state and national standards for supervising institutions for youths. Certainly changes and closer supervision of any and all institutions need to be maintained more thoroughly. I think Carroll's book says that the time is to make changes is NOW. If more standards, investigations and outlets for youth to talk confidentially are not established then these horrors will keep occurring at drastically high levels. It is shameful that in a country as great as ours that these abuses and neglects have been able to take place at the levels they have. Carroll provides an understanding of these abuses and perpetrators of these abuses have been able to get away with their assaults. Therefore, as people concerned with our nation's youth, we need to realize that immediate changes in institutional and youth care are safe-guarded immediately. Furthermore,we need to reflect upon Carroll's book to helps us realize these facts do indeed exist and that we are challenged as adults and caring people to protect our youth today. Hard Candy is certainly a cornerstone for arguing that youth care and institutional care certainly need reform and need to be maintained with higher levels of professionalism, protection, and human decency which they properly deserve. Hard Candy will surely be reflected upon in the near future as a stirring for insitituional reform movements to take place.



3. When I first opened the book Hard Candy, little did I realize it would first be one of the better books I have read in a long time, yet with out a doubt the saddest I have ever read. But in this sadness is revealed the cruel, harsh tactics used by institutional staff to "control" the "patients." Mr. Carroll has dedicated his life to sharing his story of pain, anguish, dispair, and brutality. His first offering "Hard Candy: Nobody Ever Flies Over the Cuckoos Nest" goes into extreme depth of his life as a youth- being tossed around like a ragdoll from one foster family to another and from one institution to another. The stories of abuse from both staff and other "patients" is at times unbearable, yet one cannot seem to put the book down. From the dark cellar of Birch Cottage to a day trip to New York, you are right along side Mr. Carroll through the scraps of his childhood. This is a book that should be on everybodys bookshelf, and close attention should be payed to the harsh techniques that are still being used in institutions today. This book has been extremly influential upon me, helping me decide to become a social worker hopefully to one day work in such an institution. This book must be read. Period.



4. Sometimes the truth isn't so pretty. It was hard for me to read about such horrible blunt truths of the injustices... that occurred for young Charles and his brother Bobby. It was just plain shocking and very sad. Maybe that's what we need to hear and see... to make changes occur within our medical systems and laws. We need people like Charles to speakout for themselves and others.
   It's a wonderful book by this author & advocate of our civil rights.
   GREAT JOB!!!



5. hard, not at all sweet and an altogether riveting read. Vivid, difficult to take at times but ultimately an inspirational tale of the resiliency of the human spirit against all odds, and a painful yet important reminder of how we are all complicit in abuse when we do not choose to take action

No comments about You're Going to a Home!: A Shocking True Story About Life in a Catholic Home for Children.

4 comments about Lost and Found: A Daughter's Tale of Violence and Redemption.

1. A very delicate story that comes from deep within. Well thought out, and very well written. Babette shares her life, which was a secret for a long time, with the readers. Not many of us can reveal these secrets with the world. After reading this book I was inspired to write my own memoir titled "The Sitting Swing" which will be published fall 2005. Lost and Found is a definate read for anyone that loves memiors like I do.



2. Hughes has written a compelling book that explores how family history influences us throughout our lives. In her book she not only tells the particular story of her own family, she evokes a time & place in this country when the sons & daughters of immigrants tried to find their place in America. The book tells a colorful story of a small time crook & dandy - one of the foot soldiers in the Cleveland bootlegging rackets. His violent life & death continues to affect the wife & 2 small children he left behind throughout their lives. Hughes manages to convey a child's sense of bewilderment as she tries to piece together just who this father was & what his legacy to her will be.

   The book is also the story of Hughes relationship with her mother, a difficult & complex woman who emotionally victimizes her young daughter throughout her childhood. How she is able to break the bonds that tie her to her mother & learns to live a productive & happy life is the real story of this memoir.

   This is an interesting read for anyone who's taken the journey through their own family history. Although it's filled with the pain of a lonely & emotionally abandoned child, the woman Hughes becomes is able to triumph in the end.




3. 
   The reconstruction of an evidently miserable childhood and equally miserable marriage results in a rather tedious memoir, Lost and Found: A Daughter's Tale of Violence and Redemption.
   
   Adding to the current spate of dysfunctional family tell-alls, Ms. Hughes weaves the story of her life to date by alternating imagination enhanced childhood scenes with psychiatric sessions.
   
   We learn that her father, Lou Rosen, a bootlegger was murdered by the Cleveland Mafia when the author was two. Her mother told her that he had died of pneumonia, but to Ms. Hughes's child's mind he had simply disappeared.
   
   A young widow, 27-years-of-age, her mother "has been a bootlegger's wife long enough to understand the code": no one will harm her if she does not speak. She retreats behind a wall of silence, emerging only in fits and starts - fits of uninhibited vituperation and starts of moving from job to job and apartment to apartment.
   
   A negligent mother at best, she had been so misused by her own mother that she had spent 12 years of her young life in an orphanage. For Ms. Hughes and her older brother Kenny home becomes a series of rooms where they subsisted on Chinese take-out in cardboard boxes and feared that their mother would suffer another asthma attack.
   
   Ms. Hughes pretty much went wherever she pleased and to school whenever she pleased before dropping out of high school to model in local department stores. Eventually she visits the public library and consults old newspapers where she learns the truth about her father's death.
   
   Kenny does not return home after college but for Ms. Hughes there is only one escape from her mother's diatribes and unrelenting possession - marriage. At the age of 18 she weds Nate, "a well known prosperous businessman, a catch.......Nate was Prince Charming in a red convertible come to save me."
   
   Despite a lavish home, servants, travel, a 55 foot yacht, and all the accouterment of wealth that Nate showers upon her, this is still not a Cinderella story. Ms. Hughes has no kind words for her husband, instead finding him boorish and cruel.
   
   Finally, she is driven to despair and begins the lengthy ritual of analysis. She seems to have had a love-hate relationship with her psychiatrist, Dr. Herman, yet credits him with helping her find the courage to continue her education and divorce Nate.
   
   She buys her doctor a gift, writing, "I wanted to give Dr. Herman something for helping me stop the steam roller that my father had started, my mother had fueled, and Nate had damn near driven over me."
   
   There's that "me" again which is what Lost and Found is all about. What about the three children she had? They do not even emerge as stick figures in this biography. Do they feel as neglected as she once did or did she reverse the family pattern and nurture them with maternal affection? We hope so.
   
   There are few insights to be gleaned from Ms. Hughes's story. Indeed, many may sympathize with the troubles she endured simply because of the family into which she was born. While others may echo what that famed psychiatrist Lucy once said, "Get over it!"
   
   - Gail Cooke



4. This is a book I couldn't put down. Babette Hughes' story is tragic and devastating, yet redemptive and triumphant. The dichotomy of her relationship with her mother is eloquently depicted; I could just hear and feel her saying, "yes, I love her--no, I don't." It must have taken great courage to overcome her fear and then lay it open for all of us to share. It is the kind of life that should make all of our marginally disfunctional lives seem perfect in comparison. I'm recommending this book for my book group and anyone else I know who reads.

2 comments about From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky.

1. Matthew Spender has something to offer for someone really curious about this artists work. I have been compairing the three biographies. Herrara's book has been much acclained. But, when it comes to getting into the nitty -gritty of an artist's work, Spender is better. Particularly when he writes of his work in the fields of Virginia.None of the other writers have really tackled this important part of Gorky's art. As a sculpture Spender must have wondered would Gorky like me and my work.The Armenian backgound has been covered by quite a few books. None can surpass some of Spenders insight into Gorky's creative process.A shortcomihg of this biography is the lack of color reproductions of the paintings.His choice of photos of the family of Gorky ,give us a glimpse of his background. The paper back (a catalogue ) "the breakthrough years /Arshile Gorky" would be a good companion book of this bio as it has ample repros and an essay by Spender among others ;Aupling for one.



2. Matthew Spender, son of poet Stephen, is a good writer who does a deft job of weaving his research into a lively story. But being the husband of Gorky's oldest daughter limits his interests to the "family" side of the artist's life: to hear Spender tell it, Gorky lived through three decades of New York's modern art revolution dreaming of butterchurns back in Armenia. He never really explains what drove Gorky to become an artist, let alone an abstract modern artist, in the face of family pressures, the trials of being an immigrant, and the burden he carried as a survivor of the Armenian genocide.
   
   Gorky's idyllic memories of childhood clearly played a major role in his life and art, but so did Picasso and Cezanne, whose style he copied until the breakthrough near the end of his life. Spender plays down the endless hours Gorky spent in front of the canvas trying to insert himself into the history of Western art, preferring to read the artist's somewhat restricted interests (he steered clear of the tumultuous politics of Thirties New York, avoided bohemia, and refused to theorize about the inner sources of his art) as a gauge of how deeply Armenia held him. Maybe. But more attention to the exciting world his work unfolded in would have helped to explain Gorky's achievement a little more clearly. Hayden Herrera's more recent "Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work" may have replaced this biography and is probably the better place to turn for learning more about his life.

5 comments about Tarzan, My Father.

1. I've loved and admired the great Johnny Weissmuller since I was a tiny tot. The Weissmuller Tarzans were a major component of my childhood and had a profound impact on my development; Tarzan's jungle ethics and code of "right triumphs over wrong, good over evil" have always made more sense to me than today's gray-area mish-mosh and the Tarzan series, 50 years later in my case, is still tops for entertainment value. Given my near-fatuousness (which has actually provoked jealousy in some of my male colleagues), I'm delighted to have discovered so much recent material that acquaints fans with the man behind the loincloth.
   The author of this contribution, due to his mother's vitriol, wasn't allowed contact with his father after his parents separated, and was only permitted to pick up the pieces as a young adult. On that basis, he explains that his purpose in writing this book is to introduce readers to the man he came to know, as well as to correct misconceptions and errors that have appeared in previous biographies. He succeeds in spades on both counts and we learn that Johnny was a kind, (too) trusting, uncomplicated man who, unfortunately, endured much sadness in his life, much of it due to his refusal to believe that others aren't always what they seem. Johnny Jr. provides a very even-handed account of his father's life from his perspective, and we learn a lot about him and the other Weissmuller children as well.
   Contrary to some naysayers, this is a very nicely written account; there are a few errors (some of them real bloopers) that should have been caught by fact-checkers while it was in the galleys (identifying Laurel and Hardy as each other comes to mind), otherwise it's stylistically very sound.
   Readers are also treated to a bit of Hollywood dishing; I don't think I can look at Red Skelton in quite the same ever again! And we learn that Esther Williams greatly exaggerated events associated with their introduction and subsequent relationship. Fun stuff, and it's also gratifying to learn that Johnny Jr. and his wife found so much happiness with each other. Sadly, I only recently learned that he died of cancer in 2006. My heartfelt condolences to his survivors.
   I've always regretted that I was unable to meet my hero and this book confirms what I've always known in my heart: that he was a great guy. Bottom line, read David Fury's mostly excellent biography and chase it with this one to correct misinformation Mr. Fury was fed by the last Mrs. Weissmuller, Sr., Maria.
   (Woo hoo PATRIK LEMBERG (and baby bro?)--another review to vote on! How EXCITING! Is "smelly" (your description) Kenneth part of the voting bloc?)



2. In the thirties and forties there was something big film wise to look forward to nearly every year, bigger than the anticipation of the next Star Wars, Bond or Potter film. It was Tarzan and most of those years there was only one Tarzan, Johnny Weissmuller. To many today he is still the only Tarzan.
   
   Tarzan fans in our generation actually embraced a parallel universe in the jungle man's world. There was the long time favorite given us by author Edgar Rice Burroughs, an articulate educated Lord Greystoke who could stow away his tux, put on a loin cloth to lead Tantor and his herd of elephants. Then there was the bigger than life Johnny Weissmuller on the screen who portrayed a Tarzan of few words, gave a battle cry that is more familiar today than most any other sound byte and whose biggest vocabulary word was "Umgawa!" Whether we were first introduced to the book Tarzan or film Tarzan, we could love both. Weissmuller himself was familiar with the concern Burroughs had about the portrayal that first MGM and then RKO required and wished also that he could have a bigger speaking role. However, the money was good and he couldn't object too much. When Burroughs himself made Tarzan films and hand picked Bill Brix with his well spoken vocabulary the films bombed.
   
   In "Tarzan My Father" the author Johnny Weissmuller, Jr. gives a portrayal unlike others in the past. It is not an apology or a "daddy dearest". Johnny Jr. loved his father and admits there were both good and bad things that can be related. However, even in the bad, Johnny Weissmuller is more the innocent taken in by business managers, partying big name friends and two of his five wives, especially the last one who did all she could to trash his name and memorial while making money off of interviews. There is also a rebuttal against Esther Williams's recent book with interviews that reveal she has lied about Johnny Weissmuller as she did other legendary Hollywood heroes.
   
   Johnny Jr. covers the myths behind the legend and uses documentation when needed. When stories conflict he gives both sides as would a true historian. I found myself looking at older books I have on the father and find that in general the son has been forthright in his handling of events. There is also detailed information about his father's sports career which makes him also legendary in that world as well. I had an opportunity to meet Johnny Weismuller briefly in the Roanoke Valley of Virginia and the man I saw was the man described by his son. It was a moment I will always remember. He was both generous and kind.
   
   The book covers the father's friends and cronies, people like Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Red Skelton and others who are icons today. In his own case the author knew well Robert Mitchum, Ricky Nelson, Burt Reynolds and Elvis. There are great pictures in the book that will delight any and all film fans.
   
   Yes, the book is very personal and unlike some, the author does it not to exploit his name but to give honor to one of the great film heroes of the 20th century. The book itself is endorsed by Danton Burroughs, secretary of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. This is a tribute and it shows us a man bigger than life who greatly influenced more than one generation.
   
   Johnny Weissmuller had what some might call a simplistic philosophy that his son paraphrases as "A man should stand where God places him-jungle trails or Hollywood streets-and fight for those things he believes."



3. Excellent book, told me more about the man than i ever knew. my own father is a johnny fan of his era, a swimmer too. I grew up to know the legend of what he was. After reading the book he is more of a man then i could of imagined. What a great read.



4. I have gone about 1/3 of the way through this book and have been very disappointed. The events are told unevenly and there is little insight to this potentially great story or stories behind the man. I thought I would get greater insight from his son but so far very little is revealed. The writing is very choppy and I am surprised that the professional writers helping JR couldn't write more fluently. It is like they took all the notes and forgot how to put them into words. the book is extremely short and is more like a magazine article. There seemed to be so much waiting to be told. Amazon should send half my money back because all I got was half a story.



5. It was a very fascinating read and gave a great insight to the life of Johnny Weissmuller and how the studios treated stars then.
   I would recommend it to anybody that liked the Tarzan movies.
   
   A Great Read

5 comments about The House Where the Hardest Things Happened: A Memoir About Belonging.

1. I am relatively well read in religious memoir, and more often than not, I find they follow either one of two paths. The first can be an "Amazing Grace" path where the person has made several serious errors in life and comes to faith, much like John Newton, the author of the words of the song of the same title who went from being a slave trader to an abolitionist. The other common theme is a person who has faith as a child, looses or abandons the faith, and then rediscovers its richness. I see the validity of both paths, find the stories moving, and usually gain a new insight into the ways in which God works. I assumed that Kate Young Caley's THE HOUSE WHERE THE HARDEST THINGS HAPPENED would follow one of these two well worn paths. It follows neither which gives it a unique flair from the beginning.
   
   The story behind this memoir is distinctively different. Kate Young Caley did not loose or abandon her faith. The Young family belonged to a small, seemingly fundamentalist church that had strict rules about congregants' behavior. When the mother of the family took a job to support her sick husband and three young children, the congregation voted her out because her job involved serving alcohol, which was against church rules. Suddenly, the child Kate, who loved church and Bible lessons, could not understand why church was no longer part of her life. As she grew, she learned the story of what happened, the effect it had on her parents, and learned what it means to be left out of a community that is supposed to be loving and welcoming. Years later, she found a welcome in the Episcopal Church, but still had a longing for the church of her youth and still felt the wounds inflicted by this congregation. Yet it also taught her to be welcoming and non-judgmental.
   
   I've tried to think about who could benefit from this memoir most. My guess is that the book is aimed at people who have been ostracized by faith, either blatantly as this congregation did, or those ostracized in ways that may not be as obvious, but still painful. Kate Young Caley's journey can be an inspiration. Yet I can't help but wonder if the group that this book could help most, would be those active in churches today. The book makes the reader realize the pain of rejection in general, but how that rejection is even more compounded when it happens in the context of faith. The book challenges us to see the Christ in others and remember how hurtful the wrong action can be. Kate Young Caley is happily a member of a congregation. Far too many people have been hurt or have seen loved ones hurt by churches and are not in the pews, perhaps never to return, even though they have so much to give.
   
   My only criticism of the book could be its lack of completeness. I would like to know a bit more about why Kate Young Caley selected the Episcopal Church as well as how her faith helped her when she battled various illnesses. These topics are part of her present book, but I would love to see them fleshed out a bit. The only way this can be remedied would be by another book or two which tells these stories. This would be wonderful since we would once again be exposed to the truthful and beautiful writing of Kate Young Caley.



2. Most of us live out our childhood losses and hurts well into adulthood--some of us until we die. So it's encouraging to see such a healthy engagement with pain as Kate presents in this book. She allows the anger but rejects bitterness; she asks questions but with hope, not cynicism. Anyone who has been wounded by a faith community will find value in this moving story. But Caley's story will offer wisdom and companionship to anyone who simply wants to wrestle with the "ordinary" wounds of life--the grief that visits all of us, the losses we can't avoid or ignore. This is definitely adult reading in the sense that it requires a person to grow up even while in the process of healing.



3. Caley's book is a beautiful memoir with an arresting title and a melancholic cover. Within five pages, I was entranced by her lean, effective prose. I can relate to her church scars, and I anguished with her telling of the tale. To see her young mother and cancer-weary father ousted by well-meaning Christians...it's a sad and not uncommon story. Along life's path, Caley shows us that she has found some sense of peace regarding those years. She never sugarcoats the pain or misdeeds, but she chooses wisely to hold back the bitter words of revenge.

   "The House Where the Hardest Things Happened" starts with such clarity of vision, proceeds smoothly through defining moments in Caley's life, then closes with a scene or two that bring redemption full circle via her own daughters and her new church home. Somehow, though, in conclusion, the book loses the steam that it builds. This may be a reflection of Caley's own slow release of anger. Or a symbol of her forgiveness at work. For me, having come through similar frustrations in a religious upbringing, it seems that she holds back on facing those final, deepest anguishes. She only brushes up against the subject of her gay brother. She sheds little light on her siblings' reactions to the same mistreatment. She shows so much grace--and for that I can only commend her--but she helps expose wounds many of us have faced, then leaves us only partially soothed.

   Hey, Caley's writing can serve unapologetically as a balm. You will appreciate every word. If, however, you're hoping for soul-surgery, you'll still seek the aid of a Physician.

   And maybe, just maybe, that's Caley's intent.




4. What, exactly, was the point of this book? While I can appreciate the difficulties the author faced, the book felt like sitting through a bad therapy session.



5. Anyone who has been around the church (regardless of denomination) for most of their lives will appreciate Kate Young Caley's experiences and journey through the pitfalls of man trying to do God's work man's way. Young-Caley presents her own story of a young girl in a very harsh world, who tries to make sense of wrongs and hurts from those whom she trusts and admires.

   Male or female, this is a book that you must read and take to heart. Young-Caley's story is easy to read and easy to internalize. You will laugh and cry at the gripping presentation of how to see life, and God's place in it. I could not put this book down. What a refreshing story of hope and how Jesus can once again help us claim victory.

   Please do not miss out on this most excellent work! Thanks Kate for helping me.

5 comments about The Book of Sarahs: A Family in Parts.

1. This book touched me to the core! Catherine's story is searingly honest, human, passionate and moving. Inspite of being extremely busy I could not put it down from the time it was delivered until 3am when I had finished it. This tour de force not only addresses issues of adoption, identity, race and prejudice but also how one's environment and circumstances affect one's own perception of events and experiences. It is the best book I have read in years!



2. Catherine went searching for the truth and she found it. It was reality and not a made up story with a happy ending. I believe that she was very self serving in telling the story. I felt she did not really appreciate the parents who raised her, until the very end. I wondered how they felt after reading this book. She certainly laid out all her complaints about them. I personally could relate to her mother, who was doing the very best she could for a rather unappreciative daughter.
   On the other hand, I think I gained some insight to what it was like to grow up black in a white world, not easy at all. I'm glad she was able to tell this story with as much depth and clarity as she did.
   This story also brings to light the plight of the children of a middle class woman who had several children and didn't choose to acknowledge or care for them. What about birth control? Yes, she was mentally ill, but I wonder if we can excuse her for that.
   
   In the last several years I have done the research that reunited my husband (in his 60's) with the birth mother who gave him up. The search was very interesting and it was a miracle how it all came together. The story has a bittersweet ending, since his birth mother passed away within a year of their reunion.
   
   This is a great story and I couldn't put it down.



3. It can be hard enough to come to terms with family and identity when one is not adopted. Imagine growing up the transracial adoptee of a white family in a tiny working class town in rural Massachusetts (read: all white). Moreover, you are biracial and subject to putdowns and jibes by "full-blooded" members of your race. This background makes up the first part of Catherine McKinley's compulsively readable memoir. The second part is her search for her roots, and her reckoning when she finds those roots and they are not quite what she expected.

   McKinley has a superb ear for dialogue and mood. Moreover, The Book of Sarahs is so full of suprises that sometimes it's like reading a thriller. McKinley starts out by giving us her fantasy of her birth mother that carried her through her youth (most adoptees have one)...and part of the fun of the book is seeing just how different reality is from her fantasy, again and again. McKinley also writes with wonderful humor and subtle characterizations that make it difficult to dislike anyone in her book despite their foibles. Finally, I can't agree with other reviewers that McKinley was cruel to her adoptive family. Her adoptive parents clearly understood her journey, and by the end of the book she intimated that she had resolved her issues with them.

   Don't miss this one...one of the best I've read this year!




4. This book tells the tale of Catherine McKinley's search for her birth parents. McKinley, who is biracial, was adopted at birth. Brought up in a White family, she found herself drawn towards African American culture in her search for building her own identity. As an adult, questions about who she was and how she came to be gradually took over the focus of her life. In this book, she details how she searched for her birth parents and eventually found them, as well as other family members.

   From reading the blurb on the back cover of the book, I had expected the book to focus more on McKinley's experiences of growing up as an adopted biracial child. I have very little experience myself with issues relating to adoption, and I had no idea how consuming the questions of identity and family can be for an adopted child. Prospective adoptive parents might learn quite a bit from this book about how adopted children may have an unquenchable thirst for knowing their birth parents, a thirst that can taint relationships between them and their adopted family members if not handled appropriately. Adoptees, on the other hand, may be quite interested to read how McKinley proceeded in her search, and how the results of her search compared with her dreams. The emotional issues concerning adoption are never easy to reconcile; after all, every adoption starts with a tragedy that has resulted in parents having to give up their children. The children and all of their parents, both adopted and birth, must spend the remainder of their lives putting the pieces back together.




5. I beg to differ with some of the other customer reviews posted for The Book of Sarahs. Reality is messy. Members of the adoption triad--birthparents, adoptees, and adoptive parents--share a complicated, emotionally charged relationship from the moment the adoptee is born. There are one thousand and one reasons why birthmothers feel that relinquishment is the best possible choice for their child; there are just as many reasons why adoptive parents choose to raise a non-biological child. But the adoptee has the most to gain or lose. In my twenty-six years as a birthmother, I am continually amazed by the infinite variety of paths triad members have traveled, yet we're all connected by the same feelings of uncertainty, wistfulness, and longing for what might have been. Thankfully, adoption today is much more open, kinder, gentler; many studies have documented the impact of adoption on all triad members, and there are fewer black holes than there were a generation or more ago. Catherine McKinley's personal story of life as an adopted Black child raised in a white family and predominately white community will captivate readers. One does not have to a member of the adoption community to appreciate her search for self. Ms. McKinley's prose is a pleasure to read, a beautifully, richly written story of relationships that readers will find hard to put down.

2 comments about Growing Up True: Lessons from a Western Boyhood.

1. The whole time I was reading this book, I was thinking about who I could pass it on to. Warm, funny, sad. A colorful writer, sharing a bit of his soul. Thank you Craig!



2. Craig Barnes has crafted a beautiful, evocative book. This vivid reminiscence of family life in the rural West explains--better than any general work I have read--the beliefs and values and personal strengths that enabled the so-called "greatest generation" to surmount the challenges presented by the Great Depression and the world's first global war. As a story of family life in America, GROWING UP TRUE is a boyhood classic which belongs on the special shelf that holds Russell Baker's book about GROWING UP in Baltimore.

2 comments about South to a Very Old Place.

1. If Langston Huges is the poet laureate of Jazz, then Albert Murray is its scribe. Murray's indelible style continues in this wonderful trip down South. Murray grew up in Mobile, Alabama, after high school he went to Tuskegee Institute then on to the military where he was the first black to become an officer in US Air Force history. After retiring from the Air Force Murray settled in New York City where he lives today. A number of years ago Murray's publisher suggested that he go home and write about the differences in Mobile before WWII and Mobile now. Murray takes the reader along with him on his trip through his own personal history with remarkable rhythm. There are any number of notable sequences including the first paragraph which destined to join the ranks of "Call me Ishmael" and "It was the best of times it was the worst of times..." Another striking point in the novel is when Murray checks into a celebrated hotel in his hometown and his bags are carried by a young white boy who calls him sir and mister. It is contrast against Murray's memories of this same hotel that he was not allowed to enter when he was a boy because he was black. The book also includes plenty of the rhythmic writing that has made Murray one of America's most cherished authors.



2. If Langston Huges is the poet laureate of Jazz, then Albert Murray is its scribe. Murray's indelible style continues in this wonderful trip down South. Murray grew up in Mobile, Alabama, after high school he went to Tuskegee Institute then on to the military where he was the first black to become an officer in US Air Force history. After retiring from the Air Force Murray settled in New York City where he lives today. A number of years ago Murray's publisher suggested that he go home and write about the differences in Mobile before WWII and Mobile now. Murray takes the reader along with him on his trip through his own personal history with remarkable rhythm. There are any number of notable sequences including the first paragraph which is destined to join the ranks of "Call me Ishmael" and "It was the best of times it was the worst of times..." Another striking point in the novel is when Murray checks into a celebrated hotel in his hometown and his bags are carried by a young white boy who calls him sir and mister. It is contrast against Murray's memories of this same hotel that he was not allowed to enter when he was a boy because he was black. The book also includes plenty of the rhythmic writing that has made Murray one of America's most cherished authors.

5 comments about Jep's Place: Hope, Faith and Other Disasters.

1. Jep's Place is a fascinating look at growing up in a large, country family during the early and later years of the Great Depression. Although the author jumps around in time unexpectedly, the story holds the reader's interest because of its intimate, frank, often humorous details of family life as seen through the eyes of a young boy. I love it!



2. joseph r parzych i really like the book jep's place
   and it feels like going backing time in old days and i recommend the book
   to middle schools and 8 graders too . i world rate the book 999 stars
   i am grandson to joseph a parzych



3. Joey Parzych parents are immigrants from Poland. His father was given 50 cents and a pair of boots when he was young and told to make his way to America. At the end of a visit to Poland to see her family, Maria (Ma) traveled on foot through enemy lines to reach the docks in Holland to make the trip back to `Ameryka' and her first husband. They were strong people who had goals and worked hard to obtain them.
   
   After the deaths of their respective spouses, a date was arranged for them by a friend. Their marriage was a marriage of convenience. Both had children from their previous marriages. Due to the death of their spouses and hard times, they needed each other.
   
   This book is about real life on a small farm during the depression.
   
   Joey's Pa was very strict and did not show emotions other than anger to his children, ever. He truly believed if you `spared the rod you spoiled the child'. Joey was an inquisitive child, always asking questions, getting into mischief and constantly getting into trouble. When he was young he was sure he was unloved because if anything went wrong it seemed to fall at Joey''s feet.
   
   There was lots of hard work but also special times. Like when the family sat together around the table stripping turkey feathers for quilts and Ma told stories of her younger days in Poland or when Pa would bring them a special treat out of the blue - just because. As busy as Ma was she would walk the kids out to the outhouse after dark when they were scared. Of course, poor Joey - when he was real young - was scared to go to the outhouse because one time he decided that he was going to sit on the big seat. After all, he was a big boy. Unfortunately, he wasn't that big and fell in. There are all kinds of glimpses of humorous times, tragic times, and good times throughout the book.
   
   I could relate so much to this story because my great grandparents were immigrants from Poland and were exactly like Ma and Pa. For that matter, my grandparents were a lot like them. It was almost like reading part of my history. They were stoic, hard working people that had very high standards for their children. Life was tough but it made Joey into a very diligent, gritty young man who wasn't' afraid to work in order to succeed in life.
   
   Stories from your parents that we all heard as children like "I had to walk 10 miles to school in 3 feet of snow with no boots" - might not have been true in our parent's time but there is a good chance they were true of our grandparents or great grandparents. Jep's Place is that sort of true story.



4. Humorous and sincere memoir of a first generation American growing up in the mid 1900s. The struggles of those times help build courage for those who would live, love, sing, dance and go to war in our great USA. An enjoyable read, people who touch your heart, a life style endured, and strength of spirt not to be matched.



5. A heartwarming memoir, filled with humor and love. Joey lived in a family of thirteen children at a difficult time in our history. Sometimes painful and honest but always real. An enjoyable, easy read that moved along rapidly. I felt like I was right there at the dinner table.