Over All Rating Reviews : Great Deal : $8.51
Date Created : Sep 26, 2010 13:00:52
Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for his radiant novel in stories, Mary and O’Neil, Justin Cronin has already been hailed as a writer of astonishing gifts. Now Cronin’s new novel, The Summer Guest, fulfills that promise—and more. With a rare combination of emotional insight, narrative power, and lyrical grace, Cronin transforms the simple story of a dying man’s last wish into a rich tapestry of family love.
On an evening in late summer, the great financier Harry Wainwright, nearing the end of his life, arrives at a rustic fishing camp in a remote area of Maine. He comes bearing two things: his wish for a day of fishing in a place that has brought him solace for thirty years, and an astonishing bequest that will forever change the lives of those around him.
From the battlefields of Italy to the turbulence of the Vietnam era, to the private battles of love and family, The Summer Guest reveals the full history of this final pilgrimage and its meaning for four people: Jordan Patterson, the haunted young man who will guide Harry on his last voyage out; the camp’s owner Joe Crosby, a Vietnam draft evader who has spent a lifetime “trying to learn what it means to be brave”; Joe’s wife, Lucy, the woman Harry has loved for three decades; and Joe and Lucy’s daughter Kate—the spirited young woman who holds the key to the last unopened door to the past.
As their stories unfold, secrets are revealed, courage is tested, and the bonds of love are strengthened. And always center stage is the place itself—a magical, forgotten corner of New England where the longings of the human heart are mirrored in the wild beauty of the landscape.
Intimate, powerful, and profound, The Summer Guest reveals Justin Cronin as a storyteller of unique and marvelous talent. It is a book to treasure.
From the Hardcover edition.
!1: Best Buy I loved this book, the characters, the setting, and the play of emotions that beset them as they beset us in life. While voices of characters seemed undifferentiated, everything else worked for me. The story moved me to tears, wonder, delight and laughter. Cronin understands the human heart and how we all seek to live heartfelt and heartwarming lives ... and also how failed health slowly blurs vision and erodes courage to carry on. This is a finely crafted work that offers a rich reading experience. on Sale!
!1: Now is the time Horses Like Lightning: A Story of Passage Through the Himalayas Order Today!
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Over All Rating Reviews : Great Deal : $9.81
Date Created : Sep 13, 2010 20:45:27
A tender account – by turns cultural exploration and memoir – of a young woman’s first hand experience of change and continuity in one of the world’s most remote regions, through the lens of the horse
and ‘horse culture’...
At just 19, Sienna Craig made her first venture to Mustang, an ethnically Tibetan area of Nepal, in the rainshadow of the Himalayas. As an equestrian and a budding anthropologist, she sought not only to understand what it was like to rely on horses to navigate through the windswept valleys and plains of High Asia, but also to grasp how horses lent meaning – through myth, ritual, and metaphor – to the lives of the Mustangi people. Through living and working with local Tibetan doctors, veterinarians, and other horse experts, as well as the deep friendships she formed, Sienna began to understand the region’s history, as well as how life in Mustang was being transformed in the face of tremendous social, political, and economic shifts. She also endeavored to learn about herself, and her life’s course, through her year in Mustang – a place that has come to feel, for all its foreignness,
like home.
!1: Best Buy Sienna Craig has a rare combination of gifts: she's an insightful anthropologist, and writes beautifully. Although I've been fortunate enough to visit this part of the world, Dr. Craig illuminates its stark terrain and singular people (not to mention their horses) in a way that makes me feel I'm seeing it for the first time.
But "Horses Like Lightning" is more than informative; it's a terrific read. The narrative is funny, moving, and sometimes painfully honest -- because this is a portrait not just of Nepal's northern frontier, but of Dr. Craig herself. It's a genuine pleasure to travel with this insightful scholar as she finds her balance in an alien culture and landscape. One quickly gains an appreciation for how the rapid pace of globalization is impacting individual lives in this former Himalayan kingdom -- a process by no means transparent to trekkers, or other short-term visitors. "Horses Like Lightning" is a wonderful book. For anyone planning a visit to the Himalaya, it's indispensable. on Sale!
±1±: Now is the time Passage to Union: How the Railroads Transformed American Life, 1829-1929 Order Today!
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Over All Rating Reviews : Great Deal : $11.72
Date Created : Sep 01, 2010 14:17:39
How the railroads transformed American life between 1829 and 1929, and why the cost of their achievements was so damaging tot he social and economic life of the nation.
±1±: Best Buy The author uses a unique view point to combine the various aspects of social impacts that the railroads had on American culture. A great many topics are covered from sweeping social behavioral norms, to the logistics of ticketing, to luggage design. The social and cultural viewpoint dominates the normal railroad book themes of business, economy, technology, and governmental regulation. All of these topics are covered but only as they influenced, dictated, or were demanded by the social trends. A major point made is that much of American urban culture today is an unintended consequence of how the railroad industry evolved. Railroads originally seen as the instrument for growing a community's wealth, end up being the instrument of draining both the wealth and population to the major cities. A second major theme is how the railroads enabled and even forced a transient society for people at all income levels. The local communities on which the country's original culture was founded are lost forever.
The writing style is straight forward and interspersed with a good deal of backup information and supporting stories. Not exactly enjoyment reading, but certainly not boring. There was a great deal of duplication of information from chapter to chapter often using the same phrasing. Once, the same quote is used twice on one page. A better editor could have helped the author present the same information in 2/3 the space.
From a railroad perspective there are a few minor oversights, such as giving credit to the Northern Pacific as the pioneer of promoting rail travel for vacations. I believe more research would show they were only attempting to duplicate the Great Northern's success with the "See America First - Glacier National Park" campaign. Such minor oversights in the examples do not invalidate or even lessen the points being made by the author.
As a reference work its organization is not ideal for finding information, but this is a consequence of the social viewpoint. It does have a fairly complete index. As a reference the strong point is the chapter notes (footnotes) and the notes on the sources. I will be using these frequently. However, it does not include a traditional bibliography listing all the references together sorted by title or author.
In summary, I recommend this book for both the casual and serious student of history and railroads. It could even be used as a basis for a class. I am pretty certain hard core "train" fanatics will not like it. This book will be an eye opener for many, and probably should be a required read for anyone trying to get a complete understanding of the cultural transformation that occurred around the turn of the 20th century. I intend to add a copy of this book to my personal library.
±1±: Best Buy This book is a bout a girl. She is running for school vice presidant and she has a brother named Oscer that is always getting yelled at by his dad because he has bad grades. He starts drinking,gets in fights and he runs away. Reina has a friend named Flavio who's running for school presidant. Reina asked him to look after her brother he does,but her brother doesn't come home for a while. His dad is mad because he thinks Oscer is going to start hanging out in the streets and join a gang. Oscer's mom isn't worried because she has heard from him. I give this book five stars because it was interesting and you didn't know what was going to happen next. on Sale!
±1±: Now is the time The Passage (Becoming Beka Series, Book 3) Order Today!
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Over All Rating Reviews : Great Deal : $3.87
Date Created : Aug 10, 2010 00:51:15
It's springtime in Bragg County and love is in the air. A church retreat allows Beka to get to know Josh better, but she learns that even though she likes him, his college choice may put a wrench in their relationship. Confused about her relationship with Josh, Beka seeks out Mark for solace. When Mark tries getting physical with Beka, she ponders issues of purity.
±1±: Best Buy High school junior Beka Madison has seen a lot of changes throughout the year. Still adjusting to her mother's recent death, Beka struggles with her grief, finding good friends and becoming a Christian. In addition to the hard life lessons she learns along the way, Beka continues to wrestle with some old habits in this third installment of the Becoming Beka series.
Sarah Anne Sumpolec has a pulse on the heart of teens, and her brief, pithy conversational narratives keep the story moving along. Beka's father continues to spend time with Gabby, the kind-hearted woman who allows Beka's sister, Anna, to ride horses at her farm. While the rest of Beka's family relishes these afternoons together, Beka seethes inside. No one can replace her mom. (Except maybe Julie, Beka's counselor.)
In school, Beka's stress levels rise as her former friend turned enemy, Gretchen, gushes with kindness even though Beka turned her in for burning down the school's Snack Shack. Beka knows better than to believe that Gretchen has forgiven her. And then there's boy trouble. Which one to date? Beka can't decide between fellow student Mark, the one with the questionable past, and Josh, the homeschooled senior heading off to college in the fall.
With a potential romance brewing for her dad, the unresolved tension heightening with Gretchen, and being torn between Mark and Josh, Beka's mind is spinning. Through it all, she tries to trust God and discover His will; thankfully, she has the input of her good friend Lori to help challenge her thinking and actions at every juncture. Beka makes headway and then blunders, losing her dad's trust again. She resorts to lying, only to repent and confess before making even more serious mistakes.
By book's end, Beka realizes that being a Christian isn't at all easy and that developing a daily faith and trust in God is non-negotiable in the grand scheme of life.
±1±: Now is the time Rite of Passage: A Teenager's Chronicle of Combat and Captivity in Nazi Germany Order Today!
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Over All Rating Reviews : Great Deal : $11.69
Date Created : Jul 17, 2010 06:17:06
Drawing on a vast array of original source material that has survived for decades and previously classified information, this thrilling narrative history documents a young soldier’s miraculous survival in war-torn Europe during World War II. Soon after joining the U.S. Army Corps, a wiry, baby-faced 17-year-old found himself a seasoned warrior desperately battling head-to-head against the Luftwaffe’s best fighter pilots over Nazi Germany. Having amazingly escaped the fiery wreckage of his B-17, he relied on his ingenuity and determination to get him through two bitter winters in confinement as a POW in the infamous Stalag 17. Along with other American prisoners, he was coerced to flee the rapidly advancing Red Army as the European war came to a close and endure a brutal 18-day march where he witnessed firsthand the horrors of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Weighing an emaciated 110 pounds, he was finally rescued by Patton’s Third Army just days before Germany surrendered.
I took Matheny's book, "Right of Passage" to read on a trip to fish in Canada. I am a retired airline pilot and am attracted to stories involving planes. "Rite of Passage" is about planes to a point, but what it is really about is a young man, who at the age of seventeen years answered his country's call for warriors. Shortly after December seventh, Ray Matheny, along with others lined up at the recruiting office to sign-up to go to war. Matheny was too young to sign-up at that time but was able to do so when he reached the age of seventeen, with his parents' permission. Matheny had a strong background in planes and flying, so the Air Force was his choice. So beginning in the late Spring of 1942, this young man from the Watts, a part of Los Angeles, left home and began an adventure beyond his wildest dreams. An adventure that took him to the rigors of pre-flight training, to training missions in the B-17, heavy bomber, to a hazardous flight from America to England, to death defying missions over.Europe, to the perilous escape from a plane that exploded in mid-air, to the stark and dreadful prison, Stalag Luft 17B, to liberation and back to Watts. Thus, a young idealistic boy left Watts in1942 and eventually returned to Watts, tempered, tested, and seasoned, by a series of horrid events of war, a tough young man, the product of his "Rite of Passage". As I read this book, I was made aware of several critical facets of those who were warriors in the air war over Europe. From my perspective as a pilot, I am amazed at the manner these young men were able to master flying a plane as complex as the B-17 and to do so in such a short expanse of time. Then as I read the events that occurred on both training and combat missions and the way that they handled serious, life threatening situations, I found myself in awe. What did these young men possess? What drove them to overcome all of the fear that proceeded each combat mission and the terror that happened on such missions? It was from Matheny's description of these flights into the horrific arena of air combat, that I drew a glimpse of how bad it was and how brave these warriors were. They knew that the danger and risk were there, for they had felt it on prior missions, often in very heavy proportions, Yet, they prepared for the next mission, checked over the plane, climbed aboard, and roared down the runway, armed with determined sense of duty and love of country. In Stalag 17B, the battle was still there, a battle to survive in an environ most foreign to those who were now "Krieges". These warriors of the sky now vied with the elements of weather, sessions of doubt, illness, a tortuous forced march, all under the guns of the prison guards. Matheny's account of these events are the most detailed and complete that I have ever read. He tells of the adjustments and coping mechanisms employed by a wide variety of personalities thrown together, enclosed by prison barbed wire in body, but the wire could never imprison their American spirit. As I read this book, it caused me to reflect that these young men were driven by the best of what America can offer, the knowledge of what it means to be free. And gave me clearer vision as to what it means to promote, protect, and preserve that freedom. These young men did that, millions of them did that, for us, and we should be forever grateful for what and how they accomplished this noble task. I recommend wholeheartedly Matheny's book. "Rite of Passage". By reading it and thinking about what it says you can do what I did. I am a better person and a better American as my rite of passage is more complete. Thanks to reading Matheny's book.
