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- The Drama of Desert Intrigue & a Whirling Dervish . . .
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- Exciting chase through Morocco
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Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish
Dorothy Gilman
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Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle
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ASIN: 0449147606
Release Date: 1991-07-30 |
Book Description
Mrs. Pollifax is on hand in Morocco to back up an inept CIA agent, and it's a good thing. Their first informant is killed, and Mrs. Pollifax begins to get the idea that her colleague is not who he says he is. Still, she forges ahead, checking out suspicious informants, and coming to the conclusion that someone is an imposter and someone wants her dead....
Customer Reviews:
The Drama of Desert Intrigue & a Whirling Dervish . . . .......2006-07-18
. . . and the inimitable Mrs. Pollifax of Dorothy Gilman's imagination kept me reading BUT it was not until chapter 15 that the Dervish emerges ~ as a captive. In this 9th *adventure* the wisdom of this Sufi holy man gives pause to the two on a secret mission for the CIA and strengthens their resolve. The reader must also have resolve, to sort out the author's thoughts about international politics & covert machinations.
One sane thought is injected along the way: "Never NEVER underestimate the lust for power - - it makes pawns of most of us . . . ". Emily Pollifax, the Yankee gardener-grandma & sometime undercover agent is paired with "Max" until they become "Alisha" and "Bashir" ~ she is veiled & both are wearing Moslem djellabahs. Their supposedly simple mission to confirm the identity of 7 informants in exotic Morocco has become most intriguing!
An 'unbecoming' thought or two: does a story-line, whether innocent or propagand-ish, inspire a trip (tax write-off) OR vice versa? Do these 'light entertainments' encourage readers to accept too casually the mayhem of undercover operations?
Foreign back-drops draw many readers with braying camels and "the gold & apricot colors of a desert dawn". Long before Mrs. P. is parted from Sidi Tahar and Ahmad ( the young boy so recently attached to them), the holy man tells Emily, "It is said that humility is the wealth of the poor, and that sitting with the rich hardens the heart." SO, mcHAIKU cautions you readers to remember to "Trust in Allah but tether your camel first." "Bismallah."
exciting Moroccon adventure.......2005-12-07
Mrs Pollifax is sent on an assignment to accompany a CIA agent on a mission to verify the identity of 7 foreign agents who are sympathetic to the Western Sahara independence cause. She has photos of the 7, and at least one might end up being an imposter. Along the way, unexpected danger occurs as her fellow CIA agent makes her nervous, and their first foreign contact is murdered. Mrs Pollifax is put into peril and is chased through the desert.
The descriptions of the scenery in Morocco are unusually good in this book. I took special interest in this since I recently read a book about Islam and was curious about Whirling Dervishes. In the book, we get a description of the dance of the Dervish. And of course the general sense of adventure is excellent. I highly recommend this book.
Exciting chase through Morocco.......2005-10-28
Mrs. Pollifax is looking for an adventure and finds one in Morocco. One of the undercover agents helping the CIA is not who he's supposed to be, and we try to guess along with Mrs. Pollifax before it's too late. Great atmosphere and appealing characters.
The holy man.......2003-07-04
Dorothy Gilman writes smoothly and plots excellently. I am certain that others have compared her to Agatha Christie. This story begins as Carstairs determines that a situation requires the presence of Mrs. Pollifax. He thinks that Emily Pollifax would be able to correct whatever lack of tact the CIA man, Max Janko, possessed. He feels that it would be dangerous for Mrs. Pollifax to know too much. The destination is Morocco. Some years ago Mrs. Pollifax volunteered to be spy. Before being called this time she ws beginning to fear that Carstairs felt she was too old to be of any further use. She agreed to go to Morocco the following day. She is successful in her mission to foil the attempts of someone making impersonations of persons promoting the interest of the Polisarios. In the course of her adventures she encounters a small boy, a holy man, the sufi or whirling dervish of the title, and a former superior of Carstairs. The holy man she encounters is someone who saved Carstairs from certain death when he was serving in the OSS during World War II.
An enjoyable Mrs. Pollifax adventure.......2003-04-23
Mrs. Pollifax travels to Morocco in the ninth book of this delightful series. She is asked to pose as the aunt of a crusty agent who needs a little smoothing around the edges. They are to travel around Morocco and ascertain that the seven members of an information chain are all legitimate and match the pictures which have been entrusted to Mrs. Pollifax. She does not enjoy traveling with her companion and soon discovers that he is not who he says he is. Political intrigue and murder rear their ugly heads and Mrs. Pollifax is soon running for her life, while trying to ascertain who she can trust and who is out to eliminate her. This book introduces the reader to some delightful new characters while developing those we've already met, particularly an elusive gentleman who is in the upper echelons of the CIA's administration. This is a delightful read!
Product Description
condensed versions for litsted titles
Customer Reviews:
Interesting Characters.......2002-06-06
Second in the Rulers of Hylor Trilogy, this gives a very interesting characterization, and has wonderful poetic mythological feel to it.
Book Description
Do you have trouble setting goals? Would you like to have greater focus, stronger follow-through, and achieve dramatically better results? Would you like to learn how to get anything you want from life--more money, a new home, a promotion, better relationships, a greater sense of fulfillment, or anything else you can imagine?
If so, then read
The Magic Lamp. This remarkable book describes a simple yet unforgettable process for how to obtain whatever you want from both your personal life and your career.
What's the Secret?
The Magic Lamp is the first goal-setting guide for people who hate setting goals. Goals can take you anywhere you want to go, but they rarely give you the inspiration you need to get there. Wishes are different. They have emotional impact. They give you the freedom to dream and the power to make your dreams come true.
The Magic Lamp transforms the process of setting goals from a dull routine into an exciting adventure because it's the first book to combine the methods of goal setting with the magic of making your wishes come true.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent guide to getting more out of life.......2006-03-27
I've read lots of books on self-help, setting goals, time-management, etc. So I'm often reluctant to read more, feeling that I've learned most of what's our there.
'The Magic Lamp,' however, is an excellent read for anyone who wants to get more out of life. It's a wonderful combination of fresh insights and time-tested wisdom and common sense.
And true to the book's promise, Mr. Ellis does help the reader foster a perspective from which setting goals is not a chore, but rather a pleasure.
'The Magic Lamp' also contains a lengthy, priceless appendix that lists other recommended books. Highly recommended.
If you want only 1 book about goal setting: buy this book.......2006-03-06
"The Magic Lamp" is a very good book to learn how to define your goals, how to do something every day towards your goals, and how to manage your progress.
Things I learned from it:
- the 11 steps to define your goal; I especially like step #7 (Begin your goals with "I choose...") and step #8 (Make it emotional)
- the 7 steps to create an action plan
- to focus on one or maximum two goals at a time
- to schedule a weekly progress report to manage the progress of your goals
- the 30-day plan to create a new habit
- the preference question (e.g. What is more important to me right now? Eat that chocolate cake or loose weight?)
- the FAQ-section at the back of the book
- how to finish what you start
The style of this book is also very different from the success boys like Robbins, Tracy, etc. who promise that you'll double your income, be more successful, blah, blah by setting goals.
If you want only 1 book about goal setting: buy this book. However, I think it is good to compare it with a more traditional goal setting book to appreciate "The Magic Lamp" even more. (e.g. buy also Brian Tracy's book or audio book "Eat That Frog")
This book is a jewel.......2005-04-17
I say this because this is the best book I have ever read on setting goals. Most books that are written on the subject of procrastination and goal setting are usually written in a very dry formulary way of how to set out tasks and a list of things to do, and when you don't fullfill them you think once again I have failed, I will never achieve my goals.
This book is different. This book was written by a man that didn't know how to fullfill his goals. He spent years avoiding them,not even thinking about them, but he taught himself ways that he could achieve them. Some people don't even know what there goals are, but he gives you techniques on how to find them. He shows you really effective ways to find more time. He points out the importance of not trying to work on too many goals at once. And the most beneficial thing I got out of the book was the wake up call that goals take TIME. Sometimes a long time. I have always been a procrastinator, and I realized it was because if I couldn't see a difference with little steps I took , I gave up. He makes you see that it is the long term picture when you see results. It may take months, years a lifetime, but the baby steps count. I see that now! I loved this book and I hope you will too!
Unique, but loses steam.......2003-05-09
When you see a book has over 200 pages and it's on a subject like goals, you know it might get repititive. It's not that the last chapters were not important, but they seemed to be reiterating the same idea. After all, having to read too much is keeping you from realizing your goals! The author talks a lot about "wishes" in the beginning and it seems contrary to what we typically call wishes, but after that, he really lays out a plan on how to realize goals that are sound.
I say it is "unique" because the writer is not one of those people who always knew what he wanted to do and did it. I could relate to him, unlike many of the authors of these type of books. Plus, the book was not anecdote after anecdote, which I really liked. If you take one thing away from this book, it should be not to worry about how you didn't accomplish what you wanted previous to reading the book....realize that it's never too late.
Not much new.......2002-11-13
You have to hand it to Keith Ellis. He's created a new hook for the goal-setting self-help book market.
There's not much new here that you won't find in other goal-setting books. Mostly he changes the word 'goals' to 'wishes', but its a fine distinction. And there is a lot more inspirational, 'you can do it' talk. But if you have read other goal setting books, this is about the same.
It's not bad, as goal setting books go, but it's nothing new.
Book Description
Another sure-fire hit from the culinary diva of all 'good things.' This is the third volume to offer a complete collection of recipes from an entire year of Martha Stewart Living magazine. Includes 500 recipes-with tips, techniques, and shortcuts-all triple-indexed for easy reference in this elegantly illustrated hardcover collector's edition.
Book Description
Written with artless simplicity and quiet humor, The Tosa Diary is the story of a fifty-five day journey by ship from Tosa to Kyoto in AD 935.
Customer Reviews:
Are We There Yet?.......2006-08-11
You know, there's always some level of hype about the "latest translation" and all, but this wonderful translation of "The Tosa Diary" by William Porter, originally published in 1912, demonstrates that we are not always so much more clever than those who came before. Porter is carefully faithful to the sense of the original while capturing its tone and mood in English with great talent. And his method of rendering the waka poems scattered throughout the story is inventive and interesting--though sometimes understandably a bit strained; he has taken the original and fashioned it into something that is true both to waka poetics and to the English poetics of his time (before T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and all that jazz), with a rhyming couplet at the end corresponding to the way the last two lines of a waka break off from the first three thereby completing the poem with a flourish. Compare his rendering of a poem by Ariwara Narihira with Helen McCullough's more conservatively literal (though not inferior) rendering, and you'll get a sense of Porter's distinctiveness here:
Porter: "If the cherry trees/Nevermore burst forth in bloom,/'Twould be better far;/For the saddest time of all/Is the spring, when petals fall."
McCullough: "If this were but a world/To which cherry blossoms/Were quite foreign,/Then perhaps in spring/Our hearts would know peace."
As for the story itself, it is a fairly interesting early attempt at prose narrative, though it is pretty uneventful and kind of drags in spots (one almost wishes the much-feared pirates had actually caught up with Tsurayuki's boat). The thing I found most significant about the tale, though, was the manner in which Ki no Tsurayuki here fleshes out in narrative form the principle he elucidates in the first paragraph of his preface to the "Kokinshu" waka anthology, i.e. poetry being the expression of people's emotional reactions to their experiences and sensual perceptions. Here we see that principle in action all along this otherwise rather tedious trip back to the Capital. Certainly, such moments were Tsurayuki's primary focus and interest, not "Pirates of the Inland Sea" per se.
This book also has the original Japanese text on one side with the English translation on the other, so it is really handy for students of Japanese literature.
Book Description
Meet the canine wonder of Japan, the Tosa Inu or Japanese Tosa! Weighing in at up to 200 pounds, this Sumo wrestler of a dog once was the prize fighter in Japan's dog pits, though now he is an esteemed guard dog and protector of home, family and property. Proverbial in his loyalty and fearlessness, the Japanese Tosa requires an experienced owner who understands the breed's unique temperament and who is able to contend with the dog's tremendous strength and determination.
Written by American breeders and Tosa authorities, Steve Ostuni and the staff of DogStar Kennels, this Special Limited Edition is the only book of its kind about this versatile Japanese dog. Illustrated with over 135 photographs of handsome Tosas from around the world, this colorful and comprehensive volume discusses breed history, characteristics and standard as well as health care, obedience training, puppy selection and housebreaking. For every lover of this unique rare breed, this book promises to be an invaluable, vital resource, covering all the information needed to properly raise and train a Japanese Tosa.
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Kokin Wakashu: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry: With `Tosa Nikki' and `Shinsen Waka'
Helen McCullough
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
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ASIN: 0804712581 |
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Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain: The Merchant Origins of Economic Nationalism in 18th-Century Tosa
Luke S. Roberts
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521621313 |
Book Description
This book explores the historical roots of economic nationalism within Japan. In a situation analogous to early modern Germany, Japan in the Edo period (1600-1867) was divided into over 230 realms, many of which developed into competitive states that struggled to reduce the dominance of the shogun's economy. This study of the merchants of one such domain, Tosa, reveals how they developed mercantilist strategies to protect and invigorate their domain's economy, and to support the public value of the merchant in a hostile Confucian world.
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The Tosa diary,
Tsurayuki Ki
Manufacturer: H. Frowde
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Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B00085VXCQ |
Book Description
Here's a fully revised edition of this regional bestseller- considered to be the definitive food gardening manual for the Pacific Northwest. This is the bible of vegetable gardening for anyone turning the soil west of the Cascade Mountains-from Western British Columbia to Northern California. It includes the basics of soil, when best to plant, the art of composting, what varieties grow well here, which seed companies are reliable, information on handling pests, and an extensive section on the cultivation of each vegetable.
Customer Reviews:
Most likely the only vegetable gardening book you'll need........2007-02-03
Most of the previous reviews contained all the information about this book you'll need to make your decision to purchase or not to purchase.
Without a doubt I concider this my best gardening book. And just wanted to get my five stars posted and bow to the author for a great work! Thanks, Steve.
A book that will be referenced over and over again.......2006-04-09
The first time I read this book, I glazed over the section on soils (too involved - I originally thought). The rest of the book was far more interesting since I was more concerned about the best watering techniques, laying out the garden, organic methods, specific instructions for different crops, etc. Since then I've read the soils section at least a half dozen times and am astounded at how simple the formulas are and what a difference it can make. This is a book that will be referenced over and over again.
Recent OSU Master Gardener Graduate.......2006-03-24
I recently completed OSU's Master Gardener course and this title was recommended as supplemental reading. Further enticed by Amazon's low price, I purchased it and found it to be a very comprehensive and informative handbook for our unique maritime climate here in the Northwest. Unfortunately, most books about gardening are written for regions with more cooperative weather than our constant November-March rains and our extended winter periods where we never see the sun. How refreshing to read information that is relevant to where we live, written by someone who has personally compiled data on test gardens and founder of the wonderful Territorial Seed Company (www.territorial-seed.com).
That being said, I will add that while the author's personal asides were occasionally amusing, I found him mostly self-congratulatory and sometimes downright insulting. I also found his extended passages about taking on the 'plant's point of view' and the "magic" of the garden (he suggests that some people are able to make homespun soil amendments work by sheer force of will, much like Dumbo's magic feather) completely irrelevant and frankly quite ridiculous. It was these digressions and others like them throughout the book that has prevented me from giving the book five stars. As has been noted by other reviewers, the author uses a 1000 sq foot garden as his standard, a highly unlikely proposition in a city garden. Obviously the techniques described in the book would be no different if applied to a smaller garden, or could easily be scaled back.
The one essential book for the Northwest vegetable garden........2006-03-23
Steve Solomon, who founded Territorial Seed Company in 1980, is arguably the world's leading authority on non-commercial-scale organic vegetable gardening in the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Solomon has experimented with all of the variables in vegetable gardening, in our mild Maritime climate, and he reports the results with an admirable degree of honesty and integrity. His book - plus the Territorial Seed catalog - is all that's needed to achieve excellent garden results (for the first few years) with the least input of capital and labor.
That said, I've gardened in Seattle for 15 years, and Mr. Solomon's book has two serious flaws:
1. As other reviewers have noted, Mr. Solomon is dismissive of city gardening on a 200 or 400-square-foot plot. The city gardener must sift through many chapters of advice that applies only to homestead gardens of 1/2 acre or more.
2. After a few years the organic gardener will begin to experience mysterious crop failures - seeds that fail to germinate. Mr. Solomon attributes this failure to symphylan infestation - I suspect that soil-borne seed pathogens (Pythium, Rhizoctonia, etc.) may also play a part - but in any case, this book does not offer any viable solution for the CITY gardener. We city gardeners can hardly afford to garden on only half of our too-small plot, leaving the other half fallow for 3 or 4 years, waiting for the soil to return to equilibrium. (The Seattle Tilth trial gardens have suffered this fate, with no solution in sight.)
growing vegetables west of the cascades: the complete guide to natural gardening.......2006-03-13
material in excellent condition and sent promptly.
Book Description
Here's the book with everything you need to know about growing vegetables in the mild, wet climate of the maritime Pacific Northwest. Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades explains the basic science behind making plants grow, so that you can understand the daily events in your garden and solve gardening problems as they occur.
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A Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic (Handbook of Oriental Studies/Handbuch Der Orientalistik)
Abraham Tal
Manufacturer: Brill Academic Publishers
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ASIN: 9004116451 |
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Hermann Zapf and His Design Philosophy
Herman Zapf
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
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ASIN: 0941447006 |
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- albert french
- albert french
- Compelling, succinct, insightful, and honest
- a must-read for anyone interested in the Vietnam War
- Out of the Darkness
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Patches of Fire: A Story of War and Redemption
Albert French
Manufacturer: Doubleday
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Binding: Hardcover
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Soul Soldiers: African Americans And the Vietnam Era
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Briar Rose
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Warriors Don't Cry
ASIN: 0385483635
Release Date: 1996-12-01 |
Amazon.com
Albert French's two previous novels Billy and Holly have both received widespread critical acclaim, and French has been hailed as "one of America's most important new novelists." But French's first literary opus was not originally received with such praise, it was rejected by publishers and never before in print. This first book was a memoir of his experience as a soldier in Vietnam, and while it did not result in literary success, it led up to it. Writing his story proved to be a transformative experience for French, unleashing his creative abilities and resulting in a successful pair of novels that he wrote in short order and to great acclaim. In Patches of Fire, French has rewritten his original personal narrative, including the interesting story of how he began to write and the redemptive role writing played in overcoming the despair that threatened to overwhelm his life after Vietnam. The book falls into two parts: the first, the unsentimental story of an infantryman in the jungles of Vietnam; the second, a moving description of how this Vietnam veteran pulled his life together and found his voice and creative impulse. The writing is expert and the book, excellent.
Book Description
Personal, lyrical, and extraordinary, Patches of Fire is a memorable exploration of the black soldier's experience in Vietnam, the plight of the Vietnam veteran, and the redemptive power of writing.
With the same passion for truth and stunning honesty that marks his highly acclaimed fiction, Albert French's remarkable memoir tells the story of a young man's encounter with a war and with deaths beyond his understanding; of his return to a country torn by racial unrest in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and of his painstaking efforts to defeat his inner demons and make a place for himself as a black man in white America.
With a starkness tempered by humor, French brings to life the horrors of Vietnam, and recounts in compelling detail his uneasy tenure as a newspaper photographer, his heady days as publisher of his own magazine, his confrontations with the ghostly images of Vietnam that haunted his dreams--and the sense of renewal and purpose he achieved as a novelist.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
albert french.......2002-01-12
i was reading a book just recently and a part of the book was about the vietnam war. this immidiatly brought me to think about albert french's "patches of fire" which has stayed with me for ever after reading it a few years back. the reason this book is so special to me is that not only is the book so touching and amazing but i had the most unforgettable chance to meet the man himself. i so happened to be working at a restaurant where albert french was being interviewed by an english newspaper. this man was something out of the ordinary and was the kindest to me. we got talking while is was taking their order and i will never forget that moment. alert said he just wanted a simple lunch nothing to fancy, as long as it came with fries. he explained how he had been eating or rather not eating during his time in vietnam and how that had affected him for life. he started telling me a story, which is also in his book, about how his food had bacically been "alive" one day during his servicetime but cause of hunger and no other option had to simply eat it etc and his story could had gone on but i was busy serving other customers. and to cut a long story short, he said he was going to have his book sent to me, so i could sort of hear him out and so it happened.
reading "patches of fire" had an enormos impact on me, and i must admit that i truly cried finishing the book.
i give my highest recommandations for this book.
albert french.......2002-01-12
i was reading a book just recently and a part of the book was about the vietnam war. this immidiatly brought me to think about albert french's "patches of fire" which has stayed with me for ever after reading it a few years back. the reason this book is so special to me is that not only is the book so touching and amazing but i had the most unforgettable chance to meet the man himself. i so happened to be working at a restaurant where albert french was being interviewed by an english newspaper. this man was something out of the ordinary and was the kindest to me. we got talking while is was taking their order and i will never forget that moment. alert said he just wanted a simple lunch nothing to fancy, as long as it came with fries. he explained how he had been eating or rather not eating during his time in vietnam and how that had affected him for life. he started telling me a story, which is also in his book, about how his food had bacically been "alive" one day during his servicetime but cause of hunger and no other option had to simply eat it etc and his story could had gone on but i was busy serving other customers. and to cut a long story short, he said he was going to have his book sent to me, so i could sort of hear him out and so it happened.
reading "patches of fire" had an enormos impact on me, and i must admit that i truly cried finishing the book.
i give my highest recommandations for this book.
Compelling, succinct, insightful, and honest.......1998-10-02
French gives the reader real insights into what war is like, and what Viet Nam did to the men that fought there. I have struggled to find books about Viet Nam and other wars from the point of view of real soldiers, not generals and journalists. This one does the job terrifically well.
French, as an African American gives us insight into what race meant before, during, and after the war. But the book does much more than that. What is remarkable and compelling for the reader is to see how much the black and white soldier had in common in the foxholes and rice paddies in Viet Nam, and then, as deeply troubled psyches, in the decades of recovery that our soldiers have gone through.
Finally, French's book is a fascinating book about writers and writing. Here is a man that first had to write to heal. In that he discovered his remarkable talents as an unschooled, but brilliant writer.
a must-read for anyone interested in the Vietnam War.......1998-06-25
Albert French writes not only from the perspective of an American fighting in Vietnam, but also as an African-American, a view which is often neglected. I read this book for a college history course, and never before has an assigned text moved me to the point of tears. This book brings to life a time and place that many of us know little about. Though French obviously cannot, nor does he attempt, to speak for all Vietnam veterans, his story does offer an example of the long term effects of that period of time.
Out of the Darkness.......1997-09-11
I fell in love with "Billy" and with "Holly" and French continues his exciting work with "Patches of Fire." I was expecting a story similar to his earlier work, and soon realized that this was going to be something different. A man who has found the strength and the means to share not only his horrific experiences of war but also his fellow soldiers. French's raw and at times conflicting narrative grip the reader with the same pain and torment with which he has been living with since the war. French has let us into a world that few can ever imagine. His story has allowed him to share his burdened conscience with his readers. The one that won't let him forget the smiles and the hopes and dreams of all these young men that perished needlessly. "Patches of Fire" is not simply a story of redemption for French, he is also redeeming the memory of his fallen comrades
Books:
- Murder by Magic: Twenty Tales of Crime and the Supernatural
- Murder Can Botch Up Your Birthday (Desiree Shapiro Mystery)
- Murder in Belleville (Aimee Leduc Investigation)
- Murder in Clichy (Soho Crime)
- Murder in the Forum (Libertus Mystery Series)
- Murder is a Girl's Best Friend (Paige Turner Mysteries)
- Nobody Runs Forever
- P.I. on a Hot Tin Roof: A Talba Wallis Novel (Talba Wallis)
- Pale as the Dead: A Genealogical Mystery (Signet Mystery)
- Petty Treason: A Sarah Tolerance Mystery (Sarah Tolerance)
Books Index
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