Book Description
My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life.
“Why did you leave Sierra Leone?”
“Because there is a war.”
“You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?”
“Yes, all the time.”
“Cool.”
I smile a little.
“You should tell us about it sometime.”
“Yes, sometime.”
This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.
What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.
In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.
This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.
Customer Reviews:
Enlightening........2007-10-03
I think this is a wonderful book, so moving and beautifully written that you wonder how a person can manage to lead a "normal" life after experiencing what he has been through. The author tells the story matter-of-factly without whining or complaining about the hand he's been dealt. Because of this, it makes the story even more impressive.
Not just a good read, a book that enlightens is a must-read.
Fantastic book. Recommend for all ages!.......2007-10-02
This book is truly amazing. It is almost unbelievable to read about the lives of people like Ishmael, but it's true, and it's happening today. Yes, in some parts it is certainly hard to read, but it's worth it. It is better to be shocked and scarred by this book than ignorant to it. Ishmael is a wonderfully optimistic person, and I think we can all learn a lot from his courage. In his own words, Ishmael is not an expert on the history of Sierra Lione, but by putting a face and name to this story, you will still learn a lot from him! I recommend this book to anyone and everyone!
Easy to read, hard to digest.......2007-10-02
I read this book on my flight to D.C. a couple of months ago. It was probably the fastest I have ever read a book. It was very easy to understand and painted an incredibly vivid picture in my mind. The content is important and the way Beah wrote his story makes it accessible to all.
Painful but Poignant.......2007-09-27
This book is not for the fainthearted who wants a feel good story; this is tough book to read, however, it is an important book to read as well. So often us here in the west are isolated from the fact that there are tough places to live on this planet, places where people are forced to do unspeakable acts and are exposed to unimaginable acts of violence.
This book takes on the voyage of a young man named Ishmael, who lived in the war torn country of Sierra Leone. His life is completely turned upside down by the civil war in that country. Ishmaels story is first a story of losing his family, than of losing his innocence as he is forced to fight for the Countries Army that's fighting the "rebels". After that the story focuses on his rehabilitation in a place called Freetown and eventually his new life in the United States (although I would like to know more about how he is today).
The most amazing part of this story as an American who simply didn't understand the truth, is that this Ishmael was 12 years old and was killing people, not because he was an animal, but because he was drugged and forced to become one merely to survive. This is a concept that as westerners we look on and go oh that's too bad, but do we really take the time to understand that this happens all the time in the same world we live in? Do we take the time to understand that there is big world out there and for the most part it isn't that safe little havens we take for granted? I challenge anyone who reads this book to be able to look at the world the same again.
A must read.......2007-09-26
This book is very graphic in its detail of events. It will put you right there on the front line and in the eyes of danger. I felt as though I was there experiencing all that he had. Then again I could never imagine experiencing all that he did. Its a touching story that will bring back to reality on the issues that have been going on for ages.
Book Description
In this, his first major book, Mark Steyn--probably the most widely read, and wittiest, columnist in the English-speaking world--takes on the great poison of the twenty-first century: the anti-Americanism that fuels both Old Europe and radical Islam. America, Steyn argues, will have to stand alone. The world will be divided between America and the rest; and for our sake America had better win.
Customer Reviews:
What a sad worldview.......2007-10-01
I can't even begin to describe the serious flaws in this book...
But I gave it one star instead of zero because, if you want to study logic and how to detect subtly and not so subtly flawed arguments, buy this book.
What's sad is he's done actual research (but distorts everything to fit his way of thinking), and some muslims, like some christians, some jews, some whatever, really are dangerous and want to hurt America, but he makes his side of the controversy look like a bunch of, what's a nice word... 'baffoons'.
I think he seriously believes the things he writes in his book, which means he's stressing himselfand others out for nothing, and ultimately, pushing away the moderates that might listen to a more logical argument against religious extremism
Excellent.......2007-09-21
With the many positive reviews already posted, there isn't much more for me to say, so I will just say, "Read a few of the reviews, then, most definitely, read this book."
great wake up!!!!!!!.......2007-09-20
This a wake up to the world. Got to hang in through the beginning, but after that try to get all the details.
An interesting, powerful book.......2007-09-18
I found the book to be well written, even light enough in spots to be humorous. It presents a point of view for
Americans to consider
"FEED ME!" says the Federal Beast..........2007-09-18
Directed by the mainstream media and the assault on the senses known as political punditry, it is particularly daunting to find a voice of reason in this chaos. There are a few that I believe are capable of striking the nail with a truthful hammer who are still left among us: Coulter, Buchanan, Schlafly, Farah, and Congressman Ron Paul, to name a few. I know of no other commentator that can condense weighty issues of national, or indeed global, importance into a joyous, witty manner better than P.J. O'Rourke, but I think I can direct columnist Mark Steyn onto the stage and have both men stand side by side as equal titans. "America Alone" is a small book, but pierces like a sword of many truths. It brought to me topics of concern that I didn't bother to even imagine could be beaten back into the American electorate, with much humor; it gave me more insight into modern Europe than any formal, leftist class managed to do. Finally, in an age that Steyn chides and ridicules for letting its willpower contract and shrink like a scared puppy from his owner, it gave me my own willpower, reinforced what I suspected was the truth, and encouraged me to stay strong facing the "opiate of the masses", meaning the book in fact actually gave me some hope for the Western World, because of people like Steyn, and for those readers who will take this work as a rallying cry to save the West not from radical Islam, but from itself.
What is the gist of this book (I listened on CD with a brilliant narration from Brian Emerson)? Well, to put it mildly, we in the West are killing ourselves through forced extermination and utter laziness, and as our guts get larger and our treasure dwindles to rudimentary amounts, there are youthful and strong-willed members of an inherently intolerant, crazed sect of the religion Islam who are multiplying and seizing our civilization right from under our collectively fat butts. If there is one thing you cannot do against Islamic radicals, it is that you cannot blame them, at least for their audacity. You actually should admire it. Radical Islam, more notoriously observed in the Saudi Kingdom under the guise called Wahabism, has much more ideological strength than Western civilization will ever hope to return to, not counting of course the small number of patriotic individuals who do have willpower of a similar strength (they're all reading this book!). But they're too much a minority to be any help, and because of our nationally-enforced doctrines of rabid multiculturalism (all cultures are equal), low birth rates (through abortion), and abandonment from moral absolutes and personal responsibility (philosophies ushered in by the government schools and the welfare bureaucracy), we are losing our blood in a slowly pronounced way, while the Islamic radicals are both out-birthing us and gaining significant political power around the globe.
The flag in the distance, which Steyn barely sees because it is clouded by dust and smoke and fog, belongs to the United States, the only country in the West with at least SOME shred of ideological and military strength, and with few noticeable flirtations with unsustainable statism (although the end of that era draws ever nearer to 2009). In essence, it truly is America Alone, the last to fight for its life against both the European social-democratic state and radical Islam.
Steyn popularizes these fundamental concerns in a format that is just as clever as Coulter and O'Rourke, while maintaining intellectual heft on the scale of Thomas Sowell. His insights about Europe, which is a topic that most ordinary Americans do not give particular thought to, are the most important of the book. We already know about radical Islamists and the threats that they pose to the country. It's a frightening portrait of unchecked fundamentalist Islam which Steyn paints, no doubt, but what is scarier to this American is his description of the modern European social-democratic state, and how the United States of America is creeping towards this kind of vast socialist utopia. As Americans, we can see the modern European model of government and quickly and easily (compared to Europeans) discern why things go so astoundingly wrong: government benefits that decrease productivity and innovation with increased laziness and lack of initiative, high taxation to fund these benefits which in the end will turn out to be completely unsustainable, and a universal socialist health care system that allows recipients to receive an MRI after a six month wait and provides a total of zero available beds in a maternity ward to those who urgently require them. So then, how about a little game? Now, with all those points in your mind, go to one of the many Democrat presidential candidate web sites and play some "Spot the Dog." Try skimming through their various `promises' and 'pledges' to constituents, which they claim they plan to fulfill if elected to the presidency. See how many matches you get, and tally your score, because I guarantee that the number will be high.
Of course, this doesn't let Republicans off the hook, either. We only need to discover that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney enacted a universal health care system by working hand-in-glove with the liberal state legislature and Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy. It's really a terrific little system that will completely and effortlessly cripple small businesses, seeing as though the state government requires under threat of a severe monetary penalty that these businesses provide health insurance to their workers. How long will it take for these places to necessarily have to "lay off" a few people in order to pay for each worker's insurance? The consumer's choice is also severely threatened, because the Massachusetts government is actually mandating a certain policy to be purchased when you sign up for the program starting in 2007. Yes, smaller government is what the Republican Party truly stands for, just don't count the ones in Congress or the candidates running for the presidency (besides Ron Paul).
Radical Islam, on the other hand, is a threat to America too, but as Steyn points out, there are millions upon millions of moderate Muslims, and the fact that these radical imams and crazy Wahabists who have nowhere near, nor will they ever, a military power to rival the U.S., seems to me a point in America's favor. What'll really finish us of is when (and said `when,' not `if') the U.S. descends into the wasteland of European statism, with monstrous but unsustainable welfare and government benefits that are taken out from your paycheck to fund, after Hillary Clinton is elected in 2008 (save your breath, conservatives! Only a fool cannot see the inevitable). The doctrines of far leftism, from multiculturalism to abortion-on-demand to socialist health care to beastly federal power, will ensure our destruction more than any IED or suicide bomber will, regardless of how many we have to deal with. After that, it won't be America Alone, but One World Alone.
Book Description
By the early l940s, when Ukrainian-born Irène Némirovsky began working on what would become Suite Française—the first two parts of a planned five-part novel—she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz: a month later she was dead at the age of thirty-nine. Two years earlier, living in a small village in central France—where she, her husband, and their two small daughters had fled in a vain attempt to elude the Nazis
—she’d begun her novel, a luminous portrayal of a human drama in which she herself would become a victim. When she was arrested, she had completed two parts of the epic, the handwritten manuscripts of which were hidden in a suitcase that her daughters would take with them into hiding and eventually into freedom. Sixty-four years later, at long last, we can read Némirovsky’s literary masterpiece
The first part, “A Storm in June,” opens in the chaos of the massive 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion during which several families and individuals are thrown together under circumstances beyond their control. They share nothing but the harsh demands of survival—some trying to maintain lives of privilege, others struggling simply to preserve their lives—but soon, all together, they will be forced to face the awful exigencies of physical and emotional displacement, and the annihilation of the world they know. In the second part, “Dolce,” we enter the increasingly complex life of a German-occupied provincial village. Coexisting uneasily with the soldiers billeted among them, the villagers—from aristocrats to shopkeepers to peasants—cope as best they can. Some choose resistance, others collaboration, and as their community is transformed by these acts, the lives of these these men and women reveal nothing less than the very essence of humanity.
Suite Française is a singularly piercing evocation—at once subtle and severe, deeply compassionate and fiercely ironic—of life and death in occupied France, and a brilliant, profoundly moving work of art.
Download Description
Irène Némirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903 into a wealthy banking family and emigrated to France during the Russian Revolution. After attending the Sorbonne, she began to write and swiftly achieved success with her first novel, David Golder, which was followed by The Ball, The Flies of Autumn, Dogs and Wolves and The Courilof Affair. She died in 1942.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
A magnificent, tragic fragment........2007-09-29
Irene Nemirovsky's "Suite Francaise" will stand with "The Diary of Anne Frank" as one of the most poignant literary monuments of World War II and the insanity of the Holocaust. But whereas Anne Frank was a young girl whose hopes and dreams ended forever at Belsen, Irene Nemirovsky was a novelist of enormous talent who would have been recognized as one of the greatest European writers of the 20th century had her life not been extinguished at Auschwitz. Considering all she suffered during the war, and how she was murdered in the very middle of it, it is amazing that Nemrovsky completed as much of it as she did, and that what she completed is of such a high order. "Suite Francaise" consists of the first two parts of a projected five-part novel depicting the fall of France to the Nazis, the panicked flight of Parisians and the return to something vaguely resembling normalcy under German military rule. The first section, "Storm in June," gives readers a panoramic view of several groups of fleeing Parisians, representing every class of society and every conceivable moral and mental attitude; the second, "Dolce," depicts life in a French village under the Germans, bringing back some of the characters from the first book and making it plain that Nemirovsky planned to reintroduce more of them in the following three books. Superbly translated by Sandra Smith, "Suite Francaise" is a swift and graceful read, depicting the characters and action with breathtaking clarity and excitement. Many of the characters are presented only in a few sentences, yet all live and breathe with total realism. What is really astonishing about "Suite Francaise," however, is Nemirovsky's authorial impartiality and clear-eyed sympathy for all her characters. There are no saints and no monsters in Nemirovsky's universe, just people--some more likable than others, but even the most despicable among them are given sharp moments of deep and moving humanity. Even the Germans are human--they have their faults, but also their virtues. To be able to write such panoramic fiction in the midst of war, with such a detached and pragmatic yet sympathetic eye, is truly amazing, even more so from an author who rightly feared she would be arrested and deported to the death camps at any moment. A Russian-Jewish emigree to France who moved in the highest literary and societal circles, Nemirovsky was an exceptionally keen observer of the French class system and how it warps individuals, in that sense (and in others) the equal of Balzac, Flaubert and Proust. The argument in Chapter 16 of "Dolce" between the snobbish, sickly-sentimental Vicomtesse de Montmort and the brutish peasant Benoit Sabarie stands out: both are sympathetic, as people and as representatives of their social classes, and both are utterly despicable. Nemirovsky sums up their fight neatly: "What separates or unites people is not their language, their laws, their customs, their principles, but the way they hold a salad fork." This argument has repercussions that promise to ripple across the rest of the story, except that Nemirovsky, alas, never had a chance to show us how. Appendices to the book include Nemirovsky's copious notes on how she planned to continue the story; correspondence to, from, and about her; and the preface to the French addition, included as an afterword here, which tells the poignant story of Nemirovsky's life and death, and of how Nemirovsky's daughter discovered the manuscript of "Suite Francaise" more than sixty years after her mother's death. "Suite Francaise" is a magnificent fragment and an eternal testimonial to the genius of its author. We can only mourn that the book, like her life, will remain unfinished.
A taste of things to come.......2007-09-26
It's a known fact that this work has gotten much attention due to the circumstances that surrounded Irene Nemirovsky's life. Left in a suitcase as she attempted flight, the author found her demise at the hands of the Nazis before this manuscript could be published.
Who knows what she might have added or excluded or expanded? And I could not help but think this as I read along.
There are two novellas under one umbrella here--depicting day in the life scenes of how things were in these troublesome times. I certainly found this to be gratifying reading, but it did not take me out of myself in that complete way I enjoy when I read truly remarkable fiction.
Will recommend, but for a story that brought me to that special place of compelling fiction, I recommend the lesser-known, SIM0N LAZARUS, a book more should know about.
Remember - Two Novellas.......2007-09-24
It must be remembered that this one book consists of two novellas. With the exception of minor mentions in the second book of a few characters from the first, there is nothing in common between the two. Thus, they really should be evaluated as two books.
The first was about Parisians fleeing Paris before the German occupation in June, 1940. Most are from the upper class and they are forced to "mix" with the lower classes. Almost all the characters are unlikeable and the characterizations almost seem to be caricatures of snooty Frenchmen and women. It is amazing that a French author would draw such scathing portraits.
Although the writing is good, I found the pacing extremely slow and tedious. There was a relentless litany of whining and complaining without corresponding renderings of real suffering. At one point I thought the tedium was by design, to show the relentless hardship. If that were the purpose, it did not work. The first book was simply over-written, slow and tedious. There really was no plot. It consisted of mere accounts of the plight of some atypical Parisian refugees.
The second book, "Dolce" was much much better. I wish I had not been jaded by the first novella. It was the account of the occupation by the Germans of a small rural town. It had tensions between farmers and town people, rich and poor (rich were still lambasted mercilessly), sympathizers and patriots and, best of all, the internal tension of a French woman forced to billet a German officer. This was the heart of Dolce. The woman's husband is a prisoner of war. Despite that, she realizes she is falling love with the German officer and he with her. The plot rotates around this tension and events that effect it.
In sum, I wish I had skipped the first novella but enjoyed the second. Thus, the average to 3 star rating.
An excellent read.......2007-09-22
Do not be concerned that this book is not competed; it is still an excellent read. Her writing is intelligent and entertaining, which is a staggering accomplishment considering she never had a chance to polish her completed chapters. The novel provides insight into an interesting time in history (Vichy France), but what makes the novel great is Nemirovsky's ability to provide insight into human nature through her characters' reactions to hardship. The English translation includes future plans for the novel found with the manuscript and correspondence between Nemirovsky, her publisher, her husband, and others that narrate their difficulties during the war. Do not skip over these powerful, heartbreaking passages.
A major achievement.......2007-09-22
What can I say? It is a miracle that this book was even published and a tragedy that it was never finished. The story behind the book is even more heartbreaking than the story, which is beautiful and moving and sad. I liked Part II better than Part I and think it was more fully realized and more fully finished. As wonderful as the book is, it's certainly just a shadow of what the book could have been and would have been had Nemirovsky lived to complete it. The real tragedy isn't that the book wasn't finished but that Nemirovsky and so many others had to die the way they did.
Book Description
In one of the most anticipated books of the year, Lee Woodruff, along with her husband, Bob Woodruff, share their never-before-told story of romance, resilience, and survival following the tragedy that transformed their lives and gripped a nation.
In January 2006, the Woodruffs seemed to have it all–a happy marriage and four beautiful children. Lee was a public relations executive and Bob had just been named co-anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight. Then, while Bob was embedded with the military in Iraq, an improvised explosive device went off near the tank he was riding in. He and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, were hit, and Bob suffered a traumatic brain injury that nearly killed him.
In an Instant is the frank and compelling account of how Bob and Lee’s lives came together, were blown apart, and then were miraculously put together again–and how they persevered, with grit but also with humor, through intense trauma and fear. Here are Lee’s heartfelt memories of their courtship, their travels as Bob left a law practice behind and pursued his news career and Lee her freelance business, the glorious births of her children and the challenges of motherhood.
Bob in turn recalls the moment he caught the journalism “bug” while covering Tiananmen Square for CBS News, his love of overseas assignments and his guilt about long separations from his family, and his pride at attaining the brass ring of television news–being chosen to fill the seat of the late Peter Jennings.
And, for the first time, the Woodruffs reveal the agonizing details of Bob’s terrible injuries and his remarkable recovery. We learn that Bob’s return home was not an end to the journey but the first step into a future they have learned not to fear but to be grateful for.
In an Instant is much more than the dual memoir of love and courage. It is an important, wise, and inspiring guide to coping with tragedy–and an extraordinary drama of marriage, family, war, and nation.
A percentage of the proceeds from this book will be donated to the Bob Woodruff Family Fund for Traumatic Brain Injury.
Customer Reviews:
Up from the trenches.......2007-09-29
This is a story of remarkable courage and love. Medicine and therapy have come a long way, but the personal strength of one person doing the hard work, and another staying by their side, is (I believe) what brings people back to a life worth living after so tremendous a trajedy. Other books about brain trauma: The Shiloh Renewal and I'll Carry the Fork! Recovering a Life After Brain Injury
One of the best books I've ever read!.......2007-09-26
What a wonderful & informative book. I really enjoyed all of the background information. It was a very touching love story. Having gone through 3 brain surgeries myself and my daughter's brain surgery also, gave me a fraction of knowledge on the recovering brain, but the book certainly gives an abundance of information. I've always thought Bob was absolutely fantastic, but I really enjoyed Lee's side of the story. Bravo and Good bless you both Bob & Lee!!!
Interesting book.......2007-09-09
Interesting book - I read it because I was curious what had happened to Bob Woodruff after his injury, because the of the lack of information regarding his condition. It is interesting to me that insiders in the media can control what information gets out about them personally; however others are not so fortunate - their names, faces and not-so-flattering images are splashed across news screens every day.
The book was interesting, but I felt that Lee Woodruff ends up protraying herself as a selfish wife who is annoyed first at her husband's career and then annoyed at the inconvenience his injury caused their family. She describes herself several times as a "single parent" because Bob travelled so much. As a real-life single parent, this completely offended me. A single parent not only cares for their children alone, they also support them alone. A single parent is not a wife of a guy with a six-figure salary who happens to work a lot. If Lee had left these comments out, the book would have been much more palatable.
In An Instant.......2007-08-23
This book was excellent. I thoughthly enjoyed it. My sister is not reading it.
Excellent reminder to live every day.......2007-08-13
After reading this excellent book, I will be more aware to be thankful for each day with those we love. Our loved ones can be gone in an instant. Part of Bob is gone forever and gone for his children and wife-the idea that nothing bad will happen to me.
I will be interested in learning how Bob progresses in his healing. He is only beginning his recovery.
Unlike some other reviewers I think it is important to learn Bob's story and for him to tell us next the stories of those less famous. We are reminded of what war is really like and the agony of one man and his family.
Average customer rating:
- NIGHT
- Night
- Chilling and Incredible
- A powerful and compelling account of a horrific time
- This book is burned in my memory
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Night (Oprah's Book Club)
Elie Wiesel
Manufacturer: Hill and Wang
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Day: A Novel
ASIN: 0374500010
Release Date: 2006-01-16 |
Amazon.com
In Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, a scholarly, pious teenager is wracked with guilt at having survived the horror of the Holocaust and the genocidal campaign that consumed his family. His memories of the nightmare world of the death camps present him with an intolerable question: how can the God he once so fervently believed in have allowed these monstrous events to occur? There are no easy answers in this harrowing book, which probes life's essential riddles with the lucid anguish only great literature achieves. It marks the crucial first step in Wiesel's lifelong project to bear witness for those who died.
Book Description
A New Translation From The French By Marion Wiesel
Night is Elie Wiesel’s masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie’s wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author’s original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man’s capacity for inhumanity to man.
Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.
Customer Reviews:
NIGHT.......2007-10-03
This new translation of NIGHT is not just a book, it's a gift. A gift of Elie Wiesel's memory, memory of such horrific atrocities committed against him, his family, and other humans. We can use this gift of his memory as a tool to evolve as a human race.
Night.......2007-10-02
This book was both wonderful and disturbing. The translation was smooth and easy to read. The body of the book gives a further glimpse into the terrors of that war, and the suffering people had to endure; especially children. I finished this book in less than a day, and when I was done, I was able to appreciate my life even more, and be grateful for everthing I have.
Chilling and Incredible.......2007-10-01
This book is very scary filled with all of Mr. Wiesel's experiences in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. The book covers from when the man, Moishe, warning them about the coming German soldiers to the undefinable ending.
What Mr. Wiesel saw during this time was what most people don't even dream of seeing. He even saw a father getting killed by his own son for a small crust of bread. What he went through is horrific.
This book may be one of the most touching books you may ever read. It is amazing how this man went through all this without freaking out. This book will deepen your sadness for the Jewish people and it will increase your hate for the man named Hitler.
A powerful and compelling account of a horrific time.......2007-09-29
First of all, let me say that this is the very first book about the Holocaust I've ever read. I've seen documentaries about the holocaust, images, and newspaper articles, but I've never read a first-hand account until now. This book completely blew me away. I read it continuously over 2 days and learned about determination, love, loss, cruelty, compassion, and of the lucky few who survived. Like many, I had some idea that the holocaust was about gas chambers and furnaces used to kill and cremate human beings. I had no idea, however, of the many other hardships imposed on the Jews during the Holocaust, both before, leading up to, and - for the lucky few - after the mass killings. I'd recommend this book without reservation to anyone interested in learning about this horrific, brutal period of human history, as told with great honesty by someone who lived through it. As Elie Wiesel writes, "we must never forget". -5/5
This book is burned in my memory.......2007-09-29
This book is a must read, especially for young people, as we move further away in time from the Holocaust. It is very well written; you almost feel like you are right there beside the author enduring all the emotional and physical pain that he felt. This book chronicles the author's life from a young child until the day he was released from a concentration camp. He describes his living conditions in the camp, the behavior and attitude of the prison camp guards, and his relationship with other prisoners around him. He also recalls how his father died right before his eyes. This book brought tears to my eyes more than once.
Customer Reviews:
A good book for any class........2007-07-07
If it where just a collection of magic items, then this book would still probably be worth it, but it also introduces several new concepts in magic items that can allow DMs and players new avenues to explore.
The first is a new concept of charges-per-day. Magic items with charges, like wands, and use-per-day items, like virtually everything else, have existed since the beginning of DnD. Charges-per-day is an item that gets a specific number of charges per day for use with a special power. What makes it different is that spending more charges simultaneously increases the effect. This is great for little effects you wanted more than once a day, but sometimes wish where a little bit stronger.
Next up is the runestaff. The runestaff is a new must-have for any spell caster with a static spell list, such as sorcerers, warmages and divine souls. They allow these magic users to sacrifice their own spell slots to cast the spells imbedded in the staff, essentially expanding their spell list, almost exactly like a cleric spontaneously casting cure spells. Each spell can only be cast this way a limited number of times per day, but it allows a magic user to increase their flexibility in varying situations.
Augment crystals are next. The easiest way to think of augment crystals are like slotable equipment in video games like Diablo. These relatively cheap crystals give minor bonuses to your weapon or armor and are swappable, allowing you to change them when the situation does. Unfortunately, the requirements for the highest-level crystal are a little over the top, making them for more expensive than their little price tag indicates.
Finally introduced are item sets. If you have ever played World of Warcraft or Diablo, you know what an items set is. Each component of an item set is its own magic item, but if you own more than one piece of the system, you start acquiring extra bonuses as the items resonate with each other. Some of these bonuses are very powerful and useful, some not so much, but it is a nice option for DMs who give their player planned out loot.
Being a compendium, several items in it came form other sources, such as Eberron or Faruen. Many of these items where changed in the transition. Some of the items become more powerful, others cheaper. This makes some items that where nice concepts, but priced out of the range of players that could use them, possible. Monks and spell casters should check out the re-priced DR shirts!
Also included in the book are new options for stat booster placement, item synergies, good art, and a wonderful chart for all magic items from the compendium, and the DMG!
ONE OF THE BEST WIZARDS SUPPLEMENTS IN A LONG TIME!.......2007-07-06
Dunegons & Dragons players today just don't know how good they have it. Back in the ancient days of the late 70's and early 80's, we AD&D players had the DM's guide and that was about it. Sure, the Dragon Magazine always had new magic items or you could create your own but those were not "official". Today, however, Wizards of the Coast is putting out a veritable dragon's horde of new supplements regularly and among the best of the recent releases is The Magic Item Compendium. Over 100, magic items are packed into this gorgeous 286 page, hardcover tome. Everything from minor magical trinkets to artifacts and relics are included in a well organized, and wonderfully written book that is a must have for players and DM's alike.
The book is organized into six chapters on Armor, weapons, clothing, tools, magic item sets, and using magic items and is bolstered by two comprehensive appendices listing magic items by price and random treasure. One of the things that I really like about the new magic item system is the infusing of normal armor, shields, swords, with magical properties that don't necessarily make them unique, one-of-a-kind items.
For example, in the Armor/shield category, there are over sixty different magical properties that can be added to the item (as long as it is already at least a +1 item or better) to enhance its qualities. One such property is Healing. This property will heal 2d8+5 points of damage automatically when the wearer is brought down to -1 to -9 hit points...i.e., rescue from death! The Speed property allows the user to produce the effects of a haste spell 3 times per day. All of these properties can be added to armor or shields. Next, there are over 25 unique armors and shields.
The Weapons chapter is similar to armor in that it first lists all of the different properties that can be added to a +1 or better weapon, as well as the price, caster level, aura, and activation required. Again, there are dozens of different properties listed with their full effects leaving it to the DM to decide what they want to create. There are some great unique items in weapons as well. These all include full descriptions of the appearance and powers, and most of them have a drawing that accompanies the weapon as well.
The items in clothing are all unique items and run the gamut of everything from amulets and boots to gloves and rings and everything in between. Chapter four is really a hodgepodge of everything else not included in the first three chapters. Here you'll find items such as bags, orbs, musical instruments, rods, runestaffs, tomes, and more.
Chapter five's subject is magical item sets. These are groups of three to six unique magic items that provide extra bonuses and abilities when worn together. What I love about these is that they will make great items to set about on separate quests to find and locate. And it had better be pretty hard to do so because they will make for some pretty powerful characters should all the items be found.
Finally, chapter six covers the usage of magic items...where to buy them, how to craft them, where to place them in a dungeon, etc...
It felt like the good, old days again just browsing through page after page of this treasure trove. The art is fantastic as usual. One of the best Supplements to come out in a long time.
Reviewed by Tim Janson
A DM's Crowd-Pleaser........2007-07-06
I've been a DM in one capacity or another for 27 years. This product got me excited again to run a game. The pictures are outstanding and plentiful. The people at Wizards of the Coast should be proud of this one. It is obvious from page one that a true gamer oversaw ever aspect of the product. This book, along with the Spell Compendium are like a one-two punch for the same, boring, treasure trove. A few new spells on scrolls, a new item here and there with never before seen effects and the players catch the excitement as well. The only issue I had against was that the beautiful drawing of the item in question was rarely on the same page as the description, but in a way, it added to the experience of flipping through the book to get ideas. Highly recommended!
Great Book.......2007-06-30
As a long time DM I find the quick and dirty method of item levels to be a very nice tool. Plus the full reference to all the items towards the rear of the book is great for quick look ups. All and all a great book for a DM and a pretty decent book for players. The new skills that you can apply to weapons was a nice addition.
I'm a sucker for options..........2007-06-28
This book has more weapon and armor enchantments than you'll ever use! On top of that, they added relics, artifacts and armor sets. All of which are very useful. They have things for all levels of all power levels.
This is a very useful book, because it adds to every aspect of the magical or legendary equipment. If you game has a lot of magic items or even just one or two items, this book will help you expand that.
The only downside is that your next game will have way to many magic items!
Book Description
From ABC White House correspondent Martha Raddatz, the story of a brutal forty-eight-hour firefight that conveys in harrowing detail the effects of war not just on the soldiers but also on the families waiting back at home.
In April 2004, soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division were on a routine patrol in Sadr City, Iraq, when they came under surprise attack. Over the course of the next forty-eight hours, 8 Americans would be killed and more than 70 wounded. Back home, as news of the attack began filtering in, the families of these same men, neighbors in Fort Hood, Texas, feared the worst. In time, some of the women in their circle would receive "the call"-the notification that a husband or brother had been killed in action. So the families banded together in anticipation of the heartbreak that was certain to come.
The firefight in Sadr City marked the beginning of the Iraqi insurgency, and Martha Raddatz has written perhaps the most riveting account of hand-to-hand combat to emerge from the war in Iraq. This intimate portrait of the close-knit community of families Stateside-the unsung heroes of the military -distinguishes The Long Road Home from other stories of modern warfare, showing the horror, terror, bravery, and fortitude not just of the soldiers who were wounded and killed but also of the wives and children whose lives now are forever changed.
Customer Reviews:
Thanks .......2007-09-29
Thank you i got the book today and have read a little bit of it .. it got here before i thought it would so thank you
Long Road Home is a quick read........2007-09-24
Martha Raddatz does a good job of making you experience an episode in Iraq from the viewpoint of the soldiers. She lets them tell the story. Perhaps it would have been good to include more of her viewpoint or some corollary material but it is fine book as it is written and portrays an important story in this horrible war.
PHENOMENAL.......2007-09-20
I don't ever write reviews on here but this is one of the best books I've ever read. Written from many different points of views between Iraq and the United States, it pulls you in and makes you want to keep reading. I have told all of my family and friends (and a few random people in the bookstore) they must read this book. it truely is phenomenal and makes me cry and support the soldiers and their families so much.
'Long Road Home' - remarkable view of War on Terror .......2007-09-03
The 'Long Road Home' captures a side to the War on Terror that Americans, or anyone for that matter, rarely glimpse.
Author and journalist Martha Raddatz takes us into the hearts and minds of some of America's sons (and their families) on one of the toughest days in modern military history. We witness a 'from top to bottom' look at how Soldiers, from the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, respond in a series of deadly desperate circumstances - outmanned, outgunned and surrounded. The day - 4 April 2004, aptly became known as Black Sunday - in Iraq.
This is one of those rare insights, through the eyes of those who fought and died ...those who fought and lived ...and those who still fight each day with their demons. Martha Raddatz honored the Soldiers and families of the 1st Cavalry in this deeply moving record of what happened one day in April 2004.
Clearly, she takes the story telling to a higher plain. She's not one to embrace low-hanging fruit of political ax-grinding and blame-game antics. She keeps faith, in writing this book, with the valor of the Soldiers and families she introduces to us.
A harrowing war story, it is also filled with indelible marks of hope, conviction, compassion, determination and courage. Our family was deeply and forever affected by the events of this day of days. 'The Long Road Homes' signature is the telling of many Soldier's experiences - among them, my own son, Corporal Loren Haller.
Simply excellent.......2007-08-24
This is a wonderfully written and compelling book about a fierce battle in Sadr City, Iraq. One of the best war-time books I've ever read.
Book Description
Heyday is a brilliantly imagined, wildly entertaining tale of America’s boisterous coming of age–a sweeping panorama of madcap rebellion and overnight fortunes, palaces and brothels, murder and revenge–as well as the story of a handful of unforgettable characters discovering the nature of freedom, loyalty, friendship, and true love.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, modern life is being born: the mind-boggling marvels of photography, the telegraph, and railroads; a flood of show business spectacles and newspapers; rampant sex and drugs and drink (and moral crusades against all three); Wall Street awash with money; and giddy utopian visions everywhere. Then, during a single amazing month at the beginning of 1848, history lurches: America wins its war of manifest destiny against Mexico, gold is discovered in northern California, and revolutions sweep across Europe–sending one eager English gentleman off on an epic transatlantic adventure. . . .
Amid the tumult, aristocratic Benjamin Knowles impulsively abandons the Old World to reinvent himself in New York, where he finds himself embraced by three restless young Americans: Timothy Skaggs, muckraking journalist, daguerreotypist, pleasure-seeker, stargazer; the fireman Duff Lucking, a sweet but dangerously damaged veteran of the Mexican War; and Duff’s dazzling sister Polly Lucking, a strong-minded, free thinking actress (and discreet part-time prostitute) with whom Ben falls hopelessly in love.
Beckoned by the frontier, new beginnings, and the prospects of the California Gold Rush, all four set out on a transcontinental race west–relentlessly tracked, unbeknownst to them,
by a cold-blooded killer bent on revenge.
A fresh, impeccable portrait of an era startlingly reminiscent of our own times, Heyday is by turns tragic and funny and sublime, filled with bona fide heroes and lost souls, visionaries (Walt Whitman, Charles Darwin, Alexis de Tocqueville) and monsters, expanding horizons and narrow escapes. It is also an affecting story of four people passionately chasing their American dreams at a time when America herself was still being dreamed up–an enthralling, old-fashioned yarn interwoven with a bracingly modern novel of ideas.
"In this utterly engaging novel, the author of Turn of the Century brings 19th-century America vividly to life . . . While this is a long book, it moves quickly, with historical detail that's involving but never a drag on the action; the characters are beautifully drawn. A terrific book; highly recommended."
–Library Journal
"Heyday is fuled by manic energy, fanatical research, and a wicked sense of humor.... It's a joyful, wild gallop through a joyful, wild time to be an American."
-Vanity Fair
Customer Reviews:
A Phenomenal Read!.......2007-09-20
This novel is educational, exciting and well-written. Kurt Andersen is a talented author who has certainly done his research, and beautifully combines history with fiction. Read this book!
Great adventure from east to west coast........2007-09-03
This is a long book but worth it. Be prepared to commit yourself to this. You won't want to miss the ending. Great characters, interesting history. Books written in this era are always so fun to read. You won't be disappointed if you enjoy epic, romantic adventure filled stories.
A fun ride, but lots of negatives.......2007-08-21
I was torn between giving this book 4 stars or only 3. There are lots of negatives that distracted me from really enjoying this book, but, when I got to the end, I realized that it was worth the read.
I won't describe the plot - plenty of others have done that, and the book's summary is sufficient. Suffice it to say that the plot itself is one of the book's weaknesses: other reviewers mentioned the coincidences that forced me to suspend disbelief over and over again, but I think, as the book progresses, you get so used to these coincidences that it doesn't matter. In the end, the book is a kind of fairy tale, and coincidence is essential for such stories.
What bothered me most, however, is the author's need to flex his historical muscles at every turn. He clearly did lots of research, and wants to make sure you know it. He almost uses Tom Swifties - bits of exposition that go overboard to explain what he's presented - when tossing around "authentic" elements from the time. Inventions, clothing, food, and anything else he can present, Andersen keeps reminding us that he did his homework. Yet this ends up more distracting than if he simply mentioned these things in passing, or, rather, _didn't_ mention them all.
I read a lot of 19th century fiction, and Heyday does fit well into that style (though clearly it is contemporary, ie 21st century, 19th century fiction.) It's a fun read, full of interesting characters, and only a few tics mar its overall effect.
A slow start grows into an engrossing, richly detailed book.......2007-08-02
This is a loooong novel (640 pages), and as the editorial review from Publishers Weekly notes, one with a "slowish" beginning. The book opens in April 1948 with young Englishman Ben Knowles' arrival in America. On his first day in the new world, he encounters two of the other main characters, the beautiful actress Polly Lucking and her firefighting brother, Duff (the fourth main character, Timothy Skaggs, is introduced a bit later). However, the timeline then reverts back to six months before, when Ben has traveled to Paris to visit a friend. Although the events that occur in Paris are integral to the story that follows (including the introduction of another major character, Sergeant Drumont), I think that the author's use of a flashback here is the reason the first 100 pages or so of this novel tend to drag somewhat.
Once the book returns to the present time, however, the story begins to pick up. Author Andersen provides a fascinating glimpse of life in the mid-1800s, from dietary staples to the newspaper boom to brothels and bathroom habits. He's clearly done his research--for example, he often makes a point of incorporating more colloquial terms in describing "modern" life at that time. Andersen also uses several major historical events as vehicles for his plot, such as France's "February Revolution" and the California gold rush. Major historical figures appear as well--Charles Darwin, Walt Whitman, and others are actual characters in the book, while Abraham Lincoln and similar famous personage receive prominent mentions.
Each of the four main characters--Ben, Polly, Duff, and Skaggs--is afforded with plenty of time and a point of view voice. Early on, the focus is more on Ben's experiences in France and Polly's checkered history, but as the novel progresses, we learn more of Duff's secret past and Skaggs' aspirations; Drumont's perspective is given as well. Heyday is a book is full of both tragedy and humor, although with more of an emphasis on the latter. At the novel's conclusion, I felt that my extended stay in the nineteenth century was time well-spent, and I believe that you will too.
Appealingly impossible novel.......2007-07-30
"Heyday" presents the reader with a totally impossible plot, in the sense of one filled with outrageous coincidences plus main characters that somehow manage to meet almost every prominent figure and participate in every major event or historical movement on two continents in the middle of the 19th century. The resulting incredulity almost turns the story, despite the intense violence and mayhem, into a comedy.
Then there are the characters themselves, as flat and static as can be. They move around a lot, but they do not evolve, regardless of the monumental challenges with which are are constantly faced.
The book's sole strength--and it's a good one--is in the details of everyday life of the time. The author has done his homework! What luxurious descriptions of life in Paris, London, New York City, the Midwest, and California during the Gold Rush, including numerous titillating details about sexual habits and instruments!
But in the end, the book is just too long to sustain interest in detail alone
Book Description
Twenty-five years ago, when Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists first spoke of the United States becoming a Christian nation that would build a global Christian empire, it was hard to take such hyperbolic rhetoric seriously. Today, such language no longer sounds like hyperbole but poses, instead, a very real threat to our freedom and our way of life. In American Fascists, Chris Hedges, veteran journalist and author of the National Book Award finalist War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, challenges the Christian Right's religious legitimacy and argues that at its core it is a mass movement fueled by unbridled nationalism and a hatred for the open society.
Hedges, who grew up in rural parishes in upstate New York where his father was a Presbyterian pastor, attacks the movement as someone steeped in the Bible and Christian tradition. He points to the hundreds of senators and members of Congress who have earned between 80 and 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian Right advocacy groups as one of many signs that the movement is burrowing deep inside the American government to subvert it. The movement's call to dismantle the wall between church and state and the intolerance it preaches against all who do not conform to its warped vision of a Christian America are pumped into tens of millions of American homes through Christian television and radio stations, as well as reinforced through the curriculum in Christian schools. The movement's yearning for apocalyptic violence and its assault on dispassionate, intellectual inquiry are laying the foundation for a new, frightening America.
American Fascists, which includes interviews and coverage of events such as pro-life rallies and weeklong classes on conversion techniques, examines the movement's origins, its driving motivations and its dark ideological underpinnings. Hedges argues that the movement currently resembles the young fascist movements in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and '30s, movements that often masked the full extent of their drive for totalitarianism and were willing to make concessions until they achieved unrivaled power. The Christian Right, like these early fascist movements, does not openly call for dictatorship, nor does it use
physical violence to suppress opposition. In short, the movement is not yet revolutionary. But the ideological architecture of a Christian fascism is being cemented in place. The movement has roused its followers to a fever pitch of despair and fury. All it will take, Hedges writes, is one more national crisis on the order of September 11 for the Christian Right to make a concerted drive to destroy American democracy. The movement awaits a crisis. At that moment they will reveal themselves for what they truly are -- the American heirs to fascism. Hedges issues a potent, impassioned warning. We face an imminent threat. His book reminds us of the dangers liberal, democratic societies face when they tolerate the intolerant.
Customer Reviews:
TEST QUESTIONS.......2007-10-03
What created the Fundamentalist Movement, and from where did it derive it followers?
What created the NRA, and to what Christian sects do its members belong?
Why did a government "by the people and for the people" give itself a Constitutional Right to Bear Arms"? And who will decide when and where those arms will be used?
Can now extinct religious strife be incited among the American Christian sects, or will they turn on those who are inciting them to religious strife?
To what ideological categories do those who have progressively secularlized the laws and schools belong?
Did the Christian God ever give His followers the right to practice Human sacrifice?
Why do authors sometime confuse fantasies with realities?
Why is the Human the only species that is religious?
Who is afraid of Christian cultures?
Why do scary books sell more copies?
What turns cultural wars into violent wars?
Corporate Christo-Fascism's minds (and able-bodies) snatching.......2007-10-02
Upon finishing authoritative Chris Hedges's book (it's true: his credentials are impeccable), I think of a vision: arson fire set to a huge cinema theatre crowded with people distraught with sitcoms and "American Idol" and the like. Someone cries "Fire! Get out of here! but nobody seem to move, or grasp the full significance of the words, or the menace that now is full real. I sincerely hope the audience wakes up in time, that they render this a mere fantasy of the WASP Fundamentalists, and the American Christian right is not snatching minds and wills to such an alarming extent through false prophets and a false warrior Christ.
I knew W. Bush was their born-again Christian. I didn't know he had created by decree... (well, you'll see in the notes). From the innards Hedges exposes the connivance between corporate America and the powerful Dominionist leaders who in turn have their people's hands into the US Constitution to accommodate it to their own ends. For decades they've had the Economic and Political means. Now they're bent on really winning the hearts and minds of an intellectually challenged population so they'll be useful in the war against nonbelievers, who are us all who do not, and will not, share their distorted views or approve their robbing reality from under the feet of so many unwitting people.
Among the impressive images there is the gathering in a desert resort of the New Class, the rich who will be raptured into Heaven (the poor are condemned, they're nonbelievers), and how they consort with the Catholic right and especially with Israeli representatives. Of course they have a racist hatred of Arabs, who they count as the main nonbelievers to righteously destroy. Really, if they read their Bibles literally, they would see that Arabs are descended from Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar, both of them thrown into the desert by Sarah's hurt pride so Isaac will be the heir. They will read also that God talks to Hagar, pledges protection for them and Ishmael's descendants. Therefore per the Bible and other sources, both peoples -Jews and Arabs- are semitic, having Abraham as their ultimate father, and anyone hating Arabs is also being anti-semitic. It woudl seem that Jews -who've had their huge portion of suffering themselves, especially poor Jews- have appropriated the name "semite" for themselves. Especially in "The New Class" is evident the upside down reality the American Fascists have created for their followers to live in, as compared to what the authentic Jesus Christ really taught as His doctrine. Never mind that the true Jesus, though a rabbi by right, made Himself one of the poorest in his homeland, and never had the refinement to pronounce "thou" or "thine", surely speaking in Aramaic as the language of the fishermen and peasants in Judea. Never mind that what Jesus taught in Judea was "A new commandment I give unto thee, that thou lovest..." (aw shucks). Again: "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love your neighbor just as you love yourselves." Christ never qualified what kind of neighbor, whether they should be white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, Black, yellow, brown, whatever. He just said the word translated into Latin and Spanish as "the one right next to you", i.e., "próximo" or "prójimo".
Using the tactics of a refined Scientology (I know, I lost a friend to that greedy "church" here in Mexico), only now taking advantage of deeper religious roots, the American Christian Right aspire to resurrect Lord God of Hosts in the mind of anyone having the disgrace to be approached in a moment of despair, and aspire to prepare them to aide in the ultimate Apocalypse, which they will have one way or the other. Unlike Scientology, darker and more evil goals are at play. They masterly bide their time in accordance to US's rulers' bellicous schemes, say an attack on the Middle East, and uncannily coordinate it with the race toward nuclear war. For this purpose they use every resource, even "museums" that, lacking sound scientific bases, are more like childish theme parks so that followers can feel they've had a spiritual "coming-of-age".
As for Mr. D. James Kenndy totally false notion (which I doubt even he believes) that Catholicism is no more than a "cult", please note that the true Christ taught first to the Jews to fulfill the prophecies, then to the Gentiles so that salvation could reach the most hidden corners of the Earth. Upon the creation of Christianity the Catholic church became its visible representative, it is from Catholicism's mother lode that Protestantism was born, and it is both faiths' teachings that now Messrs. Kennedy, Dobson, Robertson and the like take unashamed advantage of to create their lying, lucrative dogmas. Then they seek total war on unbelievers to boot. Having never witnessed war, I think how stupidly glib must be comments on war from people who've never been in a battlefield or a massacre, never have seen or touched dead bodies, felt or smelled fresh blood, or witnessed the authentic despair of the survivors, who for the rest of their lives will be encroached by the most extreme post-traumatic stress which will go untreated for as long as Empire-minded Christian right persists in their dreams of Rapture and Political and Religious supremacy. Has anyone reader even have a war nightmare? Being under sniper fire in Oaxaca? Being in the middle of the nastiest massacre in a hospital-school in a field in a Central-American impoverished country? May God wake up decent Americans that they may join forces of reason to revive the true prestige of the United States of America, that is, not being the Ultimate Imperialist Force, but the Philosophical and Ethical Beacon the US was once considered to be. Keep in mind that the authentic Christ came as a watershed separating Israeli primitive tribes' Lord God of Hosts from the Authentic Superior God of Love; love to your neighbor: the one right next to you, anyplace, anytime.
What's my vested interest in this as a Mexican and an American (as I live in the American continent)? With Benedict XVI as Pope, Catholicism is grossly regressing into the right with all the resulting injustice. The American Christian Right use Catholics as allies and despise them. As a semi-preserved Catholic who read her Bible since she was ten, I knew of the massacres that the people of Israel justified as mandated by the God Lord of Hosts, I witnessed how Christ sent His Apostles to go and teach; he didn't specify who to teach or not. He just said Go and Teach. Poor (nonbelievers) in my country are poorer than ever in large part due to US-advocated policies; foreign priests are sent our way to urge the poor to accept their plight and wait for Heaven. I'm sure they'll go right into Heaven as they have lived for so long in Hell. Even the richer classes should see the convenience of not letting the lower classes (in their own country or otherwise) fall lower. The former slave Frederick Douglass once said, " Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." I doubt Bush know who Douglass was, but any USAmerican who dares go out of his/her bubble will see this is a reality wherever the American supremacists have trodden on justice on this Earth.
I for one would argue that religions divide; if the true Christ is one with God, then only the authentic God unites. And that is precisely what Fascists do not want.
Very interesting reading........2007-09-27
I heard Mr. Hedges on C-Span the first time I ever heard of him. I cannot remember if it was a review or reading of the book. But what he said made me interested enough to read the book. I found it was very interesting and solid writing.
STORM WARNING RED.......2007-09-22
Everyone concerned with the rising tide of fascism in America under the guise of Christian religious fervor should read this book. People who kill in the name of Jesus Christ are beyond the pale -- devoid of truth and reason. Hedges nails them to the cross they burden others with. The only caveat is that Hedges seems to be as befuddled about Christianity as the ersatz Christians he excoriates. Perhaps he spent too much time in theological cemeteries. Nonetheless, his warning is timely and should be well heeded.
Scary.......2007-09-12
The connection between the far religious right and the spector of authoritarian rule is made very clear in this book. The possibility of a "Christian" takeover in the name of God should be on everyone's list of worries, and yet it seems hard to imagine. At least before you read this book.
Mr. Hedges paints a picture of congregations that are well meaning, but manipulated politically by preachers and pastors who have a very strong committment to destroying any plurality of culture in America. By using their own words and appearances, the author presents us with the very real possibility that these people could take over the government and, by extention, our lives. Many of his examples of calls for a more authoratarian, Christian rule are from direct contacts at meetings and rallies.
Strident and seemingly angry, Hedges can be repetitive in places. But the theme of the book is too important to worry about these minor stylistic issues. They certainly didn't get in the way of my reading of the book.
If you believe the conservative movement could be taken over by the religious right or not, this is an important book to read. It presents a truely scary image of what might be and what we might do to protect our liberties, Christian or otherwise.
Book Description
Version 3.5 editions of the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and
Dungeon Master's Guide are now offered in one slip-covered gift set.
In the 30-year history of the
Dungeons & Dragons game, this type of boxed set has never been available -- until now. Enjoy the foundation of the
Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game in one product that is a great gift for someone you want to introduce to the hobby or as a gift to yourself.
With these three books in one case, the entire world of
Dungeons & Dragons is yours to explore and share with others.
Customer Reviews:
Good Stuff.......2007-09-29
The core rule book set is a nice addition for any D&D gamer. They are nice books and the box holder is a nice addition. It keeps the books together so you can grab them quickly. I would suggest this pack for those of you who want to start gaming or need new books. The price was reasonable and we would recommend them to others happily.
The books are colorful and the paper highquality. These books last through years and years of reference and play. They are must have for all gamers.
Dungeons & Dragons.......2007-09-28
The book came on time and in good condidtion.
My son was thrilled with the books and could not wait for them to come. The minute they showed up he disappeared into his room and didn't come out for hours.
Fantastic game for a fantastic price.......2007-08-24
D&D is a fantastic game, and for this price, it would have been a sin to miss. This three book was design to be definitely enough if you do not want to be invest more into the game -- magnificent tips to the dungeon masters to desing your own monsters, magic items, adventures and worlds, tons of spells, weapons and everything you can imagine. I can hardly put them aside.
D&D Core Rulebook Review.......2007-08-24
These books were purchased for my son who is 17 and just got into D&D. He actually asked for only the first book. When realizing there were other core books and the great price on the 3 book set, I had to get it for him. He was thrilled receiving extra books and had indicated that this is a great started set for persons new to D&D as well as experienced players.
This product is being outdated.......2007-08-20
The company that produces this game, Wizards of the Coast, has announced that it will be releasing the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons in May 2008. This means that 3.5 products will be become out-of-print and will be very hard to come by shortly. If you want to play a game that no longer receives product support, that is fine; but otherwise, I would recommend against investing in this product.
Instead, I would recommend one of two choices: you can either wait until 4th edition D&D comes out, or you can try out a different RPG instead. Wizards of the Coast's RPG games tend to be very complex and highly action-oriented, which makes them lack in simplicity and roleplaying values. If you want a detailed game of hack n slash, I'm sure that D&D 4e will be the game for you; however, if you place more emphasis on storylines and RP immersion, you may find it difficult to maintain them while keeping track of the millions of little rules scattered amongst the numerous rulebooks. You will also find little support for such a playstyle, since Wizards of the Coast's books focus more on stats and options, but less on plot elements.
The reason I gave this product 1 star is because I am more interested in storytelling and portraying a role in a fantasy setting, two things that are more difficult in Wizards of the Coast's D&D game. I also rated it lower because it is soon to be made "obsolete" by a new version of the game. I prefer a game that does not "update" every few years, invalidating all the purchases you made for the previous version since they are no longer compatible.
Now, onto the products that I do recommend. Castles & Crusades is a simpler game that is much easier on my style of gaming. The simpler rules make things a lot easier and more fun for Game Masters; prep work for the game is not nearly as burdensome as it is for D&D. C&C also has greater support for adventures and settings, instead of releasing endless supplements of even more rules. The game has been described as having a feel more like the earlier editions of Dungeons and Dragons, before Wizards of the Coast acquired the D&D license. Moreover, the C&C system is flexible enough to allow easy conversion of material from any of the editions of D&D: players of Castles & Crusades often make use of D&D 1st, 2nd, and 3rd edition material in their games.
Besides D&D and C&C, there are many other roleplaying games that you can choose from. Before jumping in, I recommend scouting around and seeing what game is right for you. Otherwise, you may end up wasting your money on a game you can't enjoy.
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