This is the story of Patrick Swayze’s struggle with pancreatic cancer. It is a very moving story by his wife of thirty-four years, Lisa Niemi. I promise that this book will make you laugh AND cry.
This was a very good book to read about the demise of the communist regime in Russia and the great rivalry that existed between Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
I have a dear friend who is suffering with pancreatic cancer and so I wanted to read the Swayze’s experience with it even though the end was inevitable. Patrick had a lot of gumption and a lot of fight left him even at the end. It is a beautiful love story and well written story of courage and grit.
In Atlantis and the Silver City, Peter Daughtrey posits that Atlantis was actually the Portuguese city of Silva on the Iberian coast. He basis his hypothesis on the writings of Plato that describe Atlantis and its location. He uses dozens of points from Plato to “proof” that Atlantis once existed in Iberia. His research and claims are extensive and his proof seems pretty plausible. However, there isn’t a whole lot of evidence other than his conjecture to prove his hypothesis. The book is a lot of conjecture and hopeful thinking. Everything he says seems plausible and intriguing. Atlantis could have existed in Spain/Portugal. I have no reason to believe it didn’t just as I have no proof that it did. Daughtrey’s arguments on the location are pretty extensive and interesting. They do make you think and seem entirely possible. Towards the end of the book he brings up a bunch of other things that I think seem less plausible. He tries to tie instances of red-heads, pyramids and the DNA symbol around the world to the migration of the Atlantian people. More intriguing is his argument about Phoenician not being the first written alphabet/language. This book is full of interesting ideas about the beginnings of mankind. It would be really interesting if they were true. Maybe one day archaeological evidence will support Daughtrey’s claims.
I receive a copy of this book from the publishers on Netgalley.
I really enjoyed reading Remnick’s book on the end of communism in Russia.
The bestselling author of “Devil in the White City” turns his hand to a remarkable story set during Hitler’s rise to power. The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.
A good piece of well-known history from a different perspective.
Pearl is a young lady who lives with her mom and grandma as a group of three. At school, she believes that she is a group of one, but through a series of events she realizes that her group of one has expanded to include classmates. This is a heart wrenching story written in verse through Pearl’s viewpoint as she struggles with rhyming in school when her grandma taught her that free unrhymed verse can tell a story much more effectively, sometimes. This story really touched my heart as the little girl has to deal with her grandma’s decline. I recommend reading it with a kleenax ready!
This is a true story about the theft of a very expensive pearl necklace. This happened during the Edwardian era in London and it amazed me how easy it was to steal this necklace. After the crime the thieves had a much harder time selling it. Scotland Yard was starting to use more modern investigating tools like finger printing. But it was just the old reliable stake out plan that caught the guilty men.
I have always admired John Steinbeck’s writing. He takes a trip across America and you feel like you are right there in the truck beside him!
The author, the style savant cohost of TLC’s What Not to Wear examines the universal obstacles all women, including herself, put in their way. With her unique talent for seeing past disastrous wardrobes to the core emotional issues that caused these sartorial crises, she has transformed not only the looks but also the lives of hundreds of guests who have appeared on What Not to Wear. Now for the first time in print, she not only shares the principles of how to dress well, and why you should, but also examines the reasons why so many women don’t. She moves beyond the often intimidating seasonal trends of fashion, which so often leave women feeling inadequate and judgmental about their own bodies, to the more valuable and enduring concept of style: a way to dress that enhances and celebrates who they really are. And she turns that expert X-ray insight on herself. Like the women she’s transformed, she has plenty of emotional baggage. At eleven, she suffered from severe psoriasis that left her with permanent physical and mental scars. During college, she became anorexic on a misguided quest for perfection. By the time she joined the staff at Vogue, her weight had doubled from binge eating. Although self-esteem and self-consciousness nearly sabotaged a promising career, she learned the hard way that we wear our insecurities every day. It wasn’t until she found the self-confidence to develop a strong personal style that she finally became comfortable in her skin. In this book she shares her own often painful history and her philosophy of the healing power of personal style, illustrating it with a series of detailed “start-overs” with eight real women, demonstrating how personal style helps them overcome the emotional obstacles we all face. For anyone who has ever despaired of finding the right clothes, or even taking an objective assessment in a full-length mirror, this book is a guide to finding the expression of your truest self.
Immigration and the growing Latino population of the United States have become such contentious issues that it can be hard to have a civil conversation about how Latinoization is changing the face of America. So in the summer of 2007, Louis Mendoza set out to do just that. Starting from Santa Cruz, California, he bicycled 8,500 miles around the entire perimeter of the country, talking to people in large cities and small towns about their experiences either as immigrants or as residents who have welcomed–or not–Latino immigrants into their communities. He presented their enlightening, sometimes surprising, firsthand accounts in Conversations Across Our America: Talking About Immigration and the Latinoization of the United States.
Now, in A Journey Around Our America, Mendoza offers his own account of the visceral, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions of traveling the country in search of a deeper, broader understanding of what it means to be Latino in the United States in the twenty-first century. With a blend of first- and second-person narratives, blog entries, poetry, and excerpts from conversations he had along the way, Mendoza presents his own aspirations for and critique of social relations, political ruminations, personal experiences, and emotional vulnerability alongside the stories of people from all walks of life, including students, activists, manual laborers, and intellectuals. His conversations and his experiences as a Latino on the road reveal the multilayered complexity of Latino life today as no academic study or newspaper report ever could.
After repeatedly hearing what a great book this is from several people, and most importantly my 10 year old son, I decided to read it out loud to my 8 year old daughter. Neither of were prepared for the emotional impact his book would have on us and for me, it lingers in my mind to this day. Meet Melody. She is a 5th grader who suffers from cerebral palsy. Although Melody has never spoken a single word or walked one step, she is one brillant young girl. Her mind is always working overtime! This book is about assumptions….the ones we make about people who are different than us, especially people with disabilites. Everyone in Melody’s world assumes just because her body doesn’t work that her brain doesn’t either. This book is told in Melody’s unsentimental voice, and she tells it exactly how it is! With the exception of her parents and another caregiver, she is considered invisible and incapable of interaction, let alone actually being able to learn something or contribute in a classroom setting. She is literally going “out of her mind” from boredom and frustration and the inability ot express herself. She is wasting away in school classes that don’t even begin to quench her thirst for learning….until a special teacher sees her potential. Soon after, with the help of her devoted after-school care giver, Melody acquires a medi-talker (a machine that gives her a voice) and a whole new world is opens up to her….but it isn’t necessarily an accepting one. Melody still struggles against preconceived notions about her and her disability….even from teachers! This book is a must read for 3-6 graders, and is a Mark Twain nominee with a strong chance of winning this year’s award. My money is on Sharon Draper! This is a great book with a tough, but realistic ending.
If you were wondering what it would be like to open a used book store, this book is for you. Wendy and her husband Jack found a house for sale in Big Stone Gap Virginia and they both thought it was perfect for a used book store. A lot of the townspeople thought they were crazy but it turned out to be a good location. With big chain book stores and on line retailers as competition they found that a used book store is still in demand. I agree.
If you spend a lot of time at flea markets and antique malls this book might interest you. Maureen followed an expert on antiques and how to make money buying and reselling. You also learn a lot about
the people who are hooked and those who go to auctions. It’s a hobby for me but a life style for many. Every object has a use and a history. It may not mean a lot to you but it did to the previous owner. A lot of people are experts in certain areas like china or tools. Before you head out to a swap meet read this book and it might help your buying skills.
Rosie Schaap’s second home is a neighborhood bar. Or maybe it’s her first home since she spends a lot of time drinking and socializing at bars mostly with men. Each chapter is devoted to a bar she became a regular at. She says she isn’t an alcoholic, just likes to be with other people in a bar where everybody knows your name, as the Cheers song goes. She even got married and tried to settle down but it didn’t last. It’s a very honest and tell all book. I couldn’t imagine drinking the amount she says she drinks and not have an alcohol problem.
I read this for book club or I would never have chosen it, but that’s one reason I’m in a book club–to make myself read outside of my comfort zone. It was interesting as far as it goes but I had to make myself pick it up in order to finish it because it just wasn’t that compelling.
This is the story of the spiritual journey of G. Willow Wilson, raised by atheist parents, who in her early twenties, decides to convert to Islam. A fact she doesn’t fully admit even to herself until she has traveled to Cairo, Egypt to teach in an English-language school in order to make use of the Arabic she has been studying at Boston University.
Even for a newly converted Sunni Muslim, life in Egypt is difficult. It’s a very dirty, loud, harsh city, under strict government control. (9/11 happens while she is still studying in Boston and the story takes place throughout the early to mid-2000′s).
Thanks to her friend Ben, who left Egypt just before Willow and her roommate Jo arrive, they have a place to live but they don’t eat much beyond olives for the first several weeks because they can’t figure out how and where to shop for food. Help arrives in the form of Omar, a friend of Ben’s who had promised to check up on the two women. He teaches them many important things about living in Egypt.
Although Willow eventually falls in love with Cairo, (as well as Omar, whom she marries), it was difficult for me to understand her love for such a difficult city. From a purely historical point of view, of course it has to be amazing, but to live there day-to-day, as she describes it, is incredibly difficult.
I did enjoy getting glimpses of a very different way of life and society. I also enjoyed the interactions between Willow and the very large extended family she marries into. But in the end, perhaps because the book is the story of her very personal spiritual journey, and I’m a religious skeptic,or perhaps because the story felt somehow shallow and superficial, her story did not resonate with me.
This is mainly a photo collection of the history of theme park, Silver Dollar City and Marvel Cave starting with the cave’s discovery. The photos also feature the theme park’s festivals, craftsman and visitors having fun in the park. It was a fun read for me, since I first went to Silver Dollar City as a sophomore in high school with my aunt and uncle, then when in college Branson was only an hour away so it was a great get-away spot for a day of fun with friends. So, the area holds lots of good memories for me.
A very nice collection of Christmas crafts. I’m Not sure that the projects are all that different from other Christmas craft books. But the projects look much classier than a lot of others, I couldn’t tell if this was mainly due to the color choice (lots of creams, beige, neutrals) or because of the high quality craftpersonship. It is inspiring – but I have enough knitting projects at the moment, not to have been tempted to carry out any projects. 
Since I live in Missouri and enjoy bluegrass and old-time music this book was very interesting. Also nice that it has a cd with samples of different styles of fiddling. I also found a cd on Spotify with Howard Marshall playing. Lots of photos. Missouri is full of talented fiddlers.
Not only is this a good source for the history of Jazz but it also discusses the record industry. How and why the 78 record evolved into the 45 and 33 long playing albums. Why ASCAP was started and how World War II helped musicians learn more and find jobs. The economy and geography of America had a lot to do with Jazz and still does.