Average customer rating:
- A look at war through a deeply personal, fascinating window
- A Corporal's War
- a fine biography & tribute
|
A Corporal's War: World War II Adventures of a Royal Engineer
Pauline Hayton
Manufacturer: iUniverse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Historical
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Military & Spies
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Military
| Leaders & Notable People
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World War II
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0595290523 |
Book Description
It's 1939. Norman, twenty years old, married, and father of a young child, struggles to make ends meet. To improve the familyÂ's finances, he enlists in the army, figuring that when his six months' National Service ends he will be twenty-one and entitled to earn adult wages, a good plan until foiled by BritainÂ's declaration of war against Nazi Germany.
NormanÂ's world is turned upside down. His six months of army life stretches to seven years, where he forges friendships that sustain him throughout the war years. Norman and his comrades survive the German war machine's devastating defeat of the British army at Dunkirk. When his company is posted overseas for four years, the men overcome homesickness in the killing heat of India, a country Norman grows to love. They build airfields in Assam and battle monsoon mud and rain during mopping up operations against the Japanese in north BurmaÂ's steamy jungles.
Finally, the atomic bomb brings the war in the Far East to an end, and Norman is able to return home. After a four-year absence, he worries: how much has the war changed him? Will his wife recognise him? Will she welcome him home with open arms?
Customer Reviews:
A look at war through a deeply personal, fascinating window .......2004-10-30
A Corporal's War: World War II Adventures of a Royal Engineer is not only a deeply personal and wonderful account of one young British soldier's wartime experience, it is also an illuminating look at an overlooked theatre of the war. According to the author, Pauline Hayton, this book began as a family memoir based on the memories of her father, Corporal Norman Wickman. Then, in addition to information from personal interviews, she began researching the historical events of the war. Despite the fact that she, by her own admission, did not know the difference between bombing and shelling when she started this project, she has succeeded in writing an illuminating account steeped in both the history and personal recollections of her father's experience. Technically, A Corporal's War is historical fiction, but the events and experiences recounted in these pages really tell her father's story.
Norman Wickman was an ordinary young man who, in 1940, signed up for a six-month stint in the army in order to better provide for his family - his wife Ivy and his little girl Joan. At the time, Chamberlain had supposedly achieved "peace in our time" with the Germans, but it was only a few months later than Hitler invaded Poland and Britain declared war. Norman (and, having read this account, I feel as if I know the man well enough to call him by his first name) was a Royal Engineer, but he experienced the frightful bombing raids on England before shipping out to France. He saw his first enemy action in the days of the British retreat to the shores of Dunkirk. In the chaos of those days, he played an integral part in blowing up bridges to slow down the German advance, and he got his first combat experience (and killed his first enemy soldier) defending a strategic hill while thousands more of his fellow soldiers found the time they needed to make it to the beaches. We are all familiar with the significance of Dunkirk, but the story of Norman's Dunkirk experience brings the drama to life in a way no history book ever could. Not only did Norman make it to the beaches and survive to fight another day, he was instrumental in maintaining the harbor's eastern mole, the primary pickup point for his comrades in arms.
The rest of the story paints a vivid portrait of a part of the war virtually ignored in the history books. Norman and his buddies were sent to India, and they would remain in the southwest Asian theater for four long years. As a Royal Engineer, a lot of Norman's duty involved transporting water and other supplies, and parts of the stay were somewhat idyllic - pictures shows in Bombay, time spent enjoying the sands and sea, and even - for Norman - the forging of a personal friendship with a wealthy Indian citizen. Of course, life was no bed of roses - there was unbearable heat, pests and snakes to deal with, tensions revolving around the efforts of India to win its independence from Britain, and the miseries resulting from the totality of the war. A vast explosion aboard a vessel docked in Bombay virtually destroyed the entire harbor, and we learn how Norman and other soldiers like him dealt with the cleanup and began rebuilding what had been lost. One of the more poignant parts of Norman's experience revolves around a local hospital. One can certainly understand the development of Norman's hatred for the Japanese soldiers after reading about the sadistic crimes they perpetrated on the nurses at this hospital.
Military service didn't get any easier, as Norman and his Company ended up serving in Burma under some of the worst conditions imaginable - unbearable heat, thick jungles, monsoons that turned roads into muddy quagmires, and - of course - the enemy. The men played an important role in retaking Burmese territory from the Japanese and building the all-important Ledo Road, over which necessary supplies were transported to the Chinese army. Here, Wickman saw combat action against the Japanese, and he witnessed many atrocities committed by the enemy. He also proved himself a true hero on numerous occasions - as humble as he was brave. I was fascinated by the description of the India and Burma campaign, largely because I basically knew nothing about this aspect of the war. Norman's observations and opinions about foreign soldiers such as the Americans and the Gurkhins were also of great interest to me.
Hayton has a very effective writing style. Her descriptions of military actions and strategies, complemented by maps and photographs, paint a vivid picture anyone can understand, she never gets bogged down in minutiae, and the narrative flows like a swift yet peaceful river, never wandering too far afield from Norman's personal experiences. In some ways, Norman is a wide-eyed tourist soaking in the sights of these exotic lands and transferring his wonder into our own hearts and minds. His stories about the different kinds of people he interacted with are insightful and informative; his ideas, fears, and emotional reactions to the realities of war gives you a vivid picture of the complete soldier experience; his bitter feelings for the Japanese soldiers become completely understandable after we see the things he saw; and his descriptions of actual combat are invaluable to one's understanding of the bravery and heroism of young men who left their families behind and accomplished almost unbelievable things on behalf of their countries.
This may be a fictionalized biography, but it is definitely one of the best wartime accounts I've read in a long time. This isn't what you would call a gritty wartime memoir, though. The focus here is truly on the men who served, their mental and emotional reactions to the horrors they encountered, the emotional pain and homesickness of men who just wanted to do their duty, win the bloody war, and get home to their families. I was totally captivated by Norman's story, and his homecoming, after four years of separation from his wife and little girl, left me with a lump in my throat and a renewed admiration for all brave yet unheralded young soldiers then and now.
A Corporal's War.......2004-05-18
I really enjoyed this book. It gave me a wonderful mental picture of the soldier's experience during World War II. The author balances personal stories with the stories of the soldier's company. There are many photos adding to the reading experience.
a fine biography & tribute.......2004-04-21
In 1939, at the end of the Great Depression, in the industrial city of Middlesbrough in the English Midlands, Norman Wickman, a young husband & father enlists to get his 6 month National Service out of the way so when he's back in civvy street he can earn a full wage.
He's assigned to the 62 (Chemical Warfare) Company of the Royal Engineers. Among the many skills he learns is to drive & repair motors. Soon he's made fast friends in his unit as they rattle all over England, preparing for war & possible invasion, until Norman's unit is shipped over to France along with hundreds of thousands of troops in the British Expeditionary Force.
When the Phoney War turns devastatingly real as Germany's vast conquering army overwhelms the French & harries the British back to Dunkirk, Norman survives his baptism by fire.
Recovered from his wound & relishing leave with his wife & daughter, Norman receives orders to ship out to the Far East. This parting, he & Ivy know, will be for a long time. It will last, in fact, for four years. Norman sails for India where 62 Company will help build airfields, & eventually into Burma where Norman will face monsoons & dysentery, jungles & warfare.
RebeccasReads highly recommends Pauline Hayton's biography of her father's military life which she has blended well with the homefront, as too the broader national news of the day. In places the telling could have done with some grooming, although overall A CORPORAL'S WAR is a fascinating journey of a young & likable, responsible & inventive fellow who got to see the world, meet rare people & exotic places, see history in the making, face the destruction & terror of war, stay true to his marriage, & return home a wiser man.
Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1890 edition by Kegan Paul, Trench & Trübner, London.
Average customer rating:
|
Francis Bacon: Poet, Prophet, Philosopher
W. F. C. Wigston
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Authors
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Philosophers
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Aesthetics
| Analytic Philosophy
| Ancient
| Consciousness & Thought
| Criticism
| Eastern
| Epistemology
| Ethics & Morality
| Free Will & Determinism
| General
| Good & Evil
| Greek & Roman
| History & Surveys
| History, 17th & 18th Century
| Islamic
| Logic & Language
| Medieval Thought
| Metaphysics
| Methodology
| Modern
| Modern Renaissance
| Movements
| Ontology
| Philosophy of Religion
| Political
| Reference
| Religious
| Science
| Social Philosophy
| Theism
ASIN: 0766130703 |
Book Description
1891. Versus Phantom Captain Shakespeare The Rosicrucian Mask. History of King Henry the seventh; Bacon's essays applied to the plays; Divination and prediction; Bacon's Georgics of the Mind; Bacon and Seneca; Antitheta in Bacon's writings; History, poetry, philosophy; Verulam and Cymbeline; Temple and Verulam House; Parallels; Bacon and the Rosicrucians; Notes on Rosicrucian literature; Rosicrucian parallels to Bacon's writings; Bacon's holy war; Hermes Stella.
Book Description
Castor oil was recommended in the Edgar Cayce readings more than 1000 times. Dr. McGarey recounts case histories in which he succeeded in using castor oil packs as a healing agent for a variety of disorders.
Customer Reviews:
Apple Cider Vinegar, Move Over!.......2006-06-30
Directly from the ancient world, not Vermont, we bring you - Yes! Castor Oil. Not to be taken internally, in general, but applied to the skin, sometimes with wool flannel soaked in it and a heating pad on top for an hour or two. Sometimes just massaged into the skin. Many types of use are outlined in this rare, but fascinating book by an expert on its use.
Describes the many healing uses of castor oil, mostly externally applied, since ancient times as revealed by Edgar Cayce, the late american psychic, in his 'readings' to help people with their health problems. The physician author is an expert in its clinical use. Apple cider vinegar isn't the only thing that's cheap but cures so much!
It was frequently suggested as part of a larger therapy for particular disorders, so it pays the reader to consult the A.R.E.[...]to get a better idea of what his original readings were about - holistic healing, not the 'take a pill and call me in ten days' sort of healing. The human body is a highly integrated life form charged with keeping our consciousness intact as long as possible.
Cayce made a remarkable statement: there is no illness that cannot be cured using what nature has placed on the earth for our benefit. The hard part is to find where and what these healing substances and treatments are. You can join the A.R.E. for a modest contribution and benefit from their enormous knowledge and benevolent intent. They do a lot of good. What does Pfizer do for kids at camp?
Sorry, there are no claims castor oil will cure cancer, bad breath, or a broken heart. But for many of the conditions described in the book, it has promise.
The healing properties of castor packs........1998-05-26
Dr. William McGarey has used castor packs for over 30 years in his medical practice. His book, The Oil that Heals, is a detailed text on McCarey's research on the history of castor packs and their miraculous effect on such diseases as cancer, hepatitis, arthritis, migraines, and digestive disorders. McGarey integrates much of Edgar Cayce's knowledge of the miraculous castor plant and his extraordinary knowledge of the human body and physiology. The book is well researched and filled with case histories from patients and physicians. The Oil that Heals is a must-read for any one serious about healing their body and getting maximum benefits from this ancient oil.
Average customer rating:
- Cooking with Grace changed my life
- Italian Cooking with Heart
- A Complete Course in Italian Cooking for Everyone!!!!
- A Very Decadent Italian Cookbook
- Cooking With Grace
|
Cooking With Grace: A Step-By-Step Course In Authentic Italian Cooking
Grace Pilato
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Italian
| European
| Regional & International
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0312261381 |
Book Description
An extraordinary course in real Italian cooking, from basic Stepping-Stone recipes to more complex dishes for special occasions.Grace Pilato was born in a Sicilian mountain village. From her close knit family, she learned to make the homey, traditional dishes of her mother country-- and the joys of preparing and eating them together. Now a popular cooking instructor and an accomplished potter, Grace brings her talents, knowledge, and love of Italian cooking to this unusually useful, friendly cookbook.Starting with Stepping-Stone recipes for basics you'll use again and again, both on their own and in more complex recipes later in the book, Cooking with Grace progresses to intermediate and more advanced dishes, always taking care to fully explain each technique, as well as inform about the ingredients and special traditions that are essential to great Italian food.Recipes include* Magnificent Stuffed Artichokes* Sunday Tomato Sauce with Meatballs* Lentil and Pumpkin Soup* Onion, Garlic, and Cheese Focaccia* Stuffed Pork Tenderloin* Mama Rosa's Roast Chicken with honey, oranges, and lemon* Lemon Ricotta Drop Cookies* Graziella's Decadent CakeThe recipes are complemented by stunning photography featuring artwork by remarkable American craftspeople.Whether you are an absolute beginner or a lifelong Italian cook, this informative warmhearted book will help you celebrate the traditional foods and timeless pleasures of cooking with love and flair.
Customer Reviews:
Cooking with Grace changed my life.......2001-09-18
I met Grace Pilato at an international cooking class. I was there because I was raised in the Betty Crocker era; I literally did not know how to cook anything but desserts. One time cooking with Grace and I was hooked.
Grace's book is so unlike other cookbooks. Usually I pick up a cookbook, try one recipe, find that it is a dud and never pick up the book again. In Grace's cookbook I can try any recipe and it will be wonderful. Some of the recipes I've made in Grace's classes, but I recently made Rolled Stuffed Salmon, a fairly complex recipe, on my own and it turned out fabulous. Because Grace's recipes have been tested repeatedly by students of her cooking classes, they are easy to follow--not to mention incredibly delicious.
The book is full of both decadent recipes as well as numerous recipes for people trying to eat more healthfully. Grace says Italians eat vegetables not because they're good for them but because they love them. You'll love them too if you try Grace's way of cooking them! Asparagus, salad dressings, marinated roasted peppers--the list goes on! I especially love the Lentil Pumpkin Soup.
I highly recommend Cooking with Grace to everyone, from experienced cooks to Betty Crocker types like me. You'll be addicted, trust me.
Italian Cooking with Heart.......2001-07-27
Ms. Pilato's cookbook is simply a must-have for anyone who appreciates the art of fine Italian cooking and who is interested in learning both basic Italian techniques as well as the most experienced cooks! Her book not only includes comprehensive Italian cooking methods and recipes, but it does so with heart. Her heart-warming stories that are a prelude to many recipes from her own experience in cooking only add to the food she so throughly guides the reader in preparing. She delivers a power-packed guide to cooking Italian with gusto and verve. It is a true favorite of mine to which I continually turn when cooking for guests as well as for my family. This book, like a fine Italian meal, just gets better with time.
A Complete Course in Italian Cooking for Everyone!!!!.......2001-07-17
If you are an experienced Italian cook as many members of my family are, you will find a wealth of information most pleasantly presented in Grace Pilato's book. Beginning with her introduction, it is clear that she truly loves cooking as she reverently describes the experience of cooking for family and friends. Then it is apparent that she really hopes to impart this knowledge by presenting the reader with a highly readable and easily followed vehicle for creating fine Italian food. This book is so much more than the usual compilation of recipes. It is truly an instructional vehicle.
My daughte received this book for a gift and hs been working her way through the "stepping stones" section which provides very helpful techniques for making the basic recipes like marinara, roasted peppers, and pesto which are used in other recipes throughout the book.
Although I have been cooking for 35 years, I am amazed by some of the tips with which this book is filled about selecting the best ingredients, storing food, and detailed information about utensils and the basic pantry. I believe that if I cook these recipes and follow the advice given, that I will really have a chance of becoming a very good Italian cook.
I have rarely seen a book cross referenced so thoroughly. For example, after the Ricotta Fresca recipe, a list of eleven other recipes which use the Ricotta and their page numbers is presented. Notes after each recipe include storage suggestions and ideas for use of leftovers or excess made in other recipes.
I intend to make this my main Italian Cookbook and though I have only had it in my possession for a few weeks, I am using it a great deal. The author's thorough descriptions, directions, are clear and easy to follow.
The Seafood Lasagna and the Stuffed Artichokes are the best I have ever had anywhere. My enjoyment of eating this food is surpassed only by the fun of watching the recipes unfold, appreciating the gentle style in which this cookbook is written and my appreciation for the plethora of practical information it offers.
I am recommending it most highly to all of my family and friends.
A Very Decadent Italian Cookbook.......2001-06-05
I have always like the author Grace Pilato's pottery works and I was amazed to see that she's also a chef! I didn't need another Italian cookbook in my collection but I gave that book an exception...How pleased I am now to have that book because I have been using it nonstop for 2 weeks! Her recipes are easy and straight-forward. I have made: homemade ricotta! (shockingly simple), manicotti (the best.. never thought of serving it with a tomato-pesto cream sauce), roasted chicken with oregano (awesome sweet-sour flavor made with peach & vinegar), marinara sauce (tasted exactly like my Sicilian grandmother's), salad dressing (for 20 years, I kept searching for the perfect Italian salad dressing and now the search is over), biscotti (very nice, dough is somewhat sticky, use the spoon to shape it into loaves right on the baking sheet), and the Decadent cake (to die for, it's like an Italian rum cake, I gave all the slices to my neighbors, relatives, friends...not one bad word!). The only unfortunate thing about the book is the price - whopping 35 dollars! I'm afraid that many people are going to avoid buying the book due to the cost...since I think it's one of the best Italian cookbooks in a very very very long time. Maybe the best since Marcella Hazan.
Cooking With Grace.......2001-05-31
I have more than 600 cookbooks (it's like a disease!). The majority of them are Italian. I read them from cover-to-cover, not only for recipes but for the ethnic flavor of Italy, and of Italian-Americans who carry on our traditions. Rating a new Italian cookbook against my library is a daunting test for the book and its author. Unfortunaly, while there are some good recipes in this book, it is over-simplified and does not compare with what I consider to be the top books of this genre recently published, i.e. Biba Caggiano's Taste of Italy or Fred Plotkin's La Terra Fortuna. Ms. Pilato cooks with grace, but she needs to add a pinch more meat in her pages.
Customer Reviews:
Love it! My only afghan / crochet book........2007-05-27
I'm a casual crocheter. I love this book! It's got a great instruction section at the back and lots of variety in the afghans. I like that there's a full color of each item and the instructions right next to it. No searching to find what you need. You can lay the book open and see the instructions and the picture at the same time.
This is my only crochet book. I actually use the patterns to springboard ideas for dish clothes.
Great book........2007-02-15
This is a replacement for myself and I bought extra copies for my daughters. The book is very well done with easy instructions and even beginners can follow and get a fabulous finished product.
Good collection of beautiful afghans!.......2005-11-02
Another wonderful Leisure Arts collection! This book really does offer something for everyone. Many Afghans are worked while holding 2 strands, which always makes for quick rewarding projects. There are also several strip/motif patterns that are good choices for working on the go. Sophisticated Swirl on page 66 is especially stunning, it will impress your friends and you because it looks very complicated but is actually very simple!
You'll Love this Choice.......2005-08-02
Delightful book, lots of large hook with 2 strands of yarn patterns, as well as mile-a-minute patterns. Easy to follow directions, and quite a few standard type patterns for the traditionalists among us. You won't be sorry if you purchase this one. All crochet.
Easy to follow instructions, great variety.......2005-06-20
I really enjoy this book. There is a variety of styles, sizes and pattern types to try out. Also, the book tells you the yarn weight and gauge, not the brand of yarn, so substitutions are easy. The only draw back is that there isn't any rating system as to the difficulty of each pattern - a careful reading is necessary before starting any project.
Book Description
North American Range Plants has established itself as an essential source in the identification of important range plants. The fifth edition, which includes fifteen new plants, reflects increased interest in wetland plants as well as changes in nomenclature and refinement of distribution information. The two hundred plants described were selected on the basis of their abundance, desirability, or poisonous properties. These plants comprise the Master Plant List for the International Range Plant Identification contest, sponsored by the Society for Range Management.
Each plant description includes characteristics for identification, an illustration of the plant with enlarged plant parts, and a general distribution map for North America. Each species description includes nomenclature, life span, origin, season of growth, inflorescence, flower or other reproductive parts, vegetative parts, and habitat.
Customer Reviews:
make a plant person happy.......2002-12-07
I gave this book to my husband. He is a rangeland management major and he is in love with the book. I do not know anything about plants, but he seems to love it and find it extremely useful. Compare to the expensive "weeds of the west" this book is relatively cheap for the amount of plants it has.
North America Range Plants.......2001-11-15
As a Range Conservationist in WA State a great book for all range mgrs, range techs., however, I was surprised to see Thurber needlegrass taken out of the most recent issue.
Great Field Guide.......2001-07-22
North American Range Plants is a great book for any beginer, taxonomy student, layman, and expert alike. It is easy for the novice, because it's not in a key format, which may disappoint some more serious plant collectors. It contains 200 of the most common, and important plants found in the United States, Canada and Mexico. I have had this book for sometime now, and it has become an invaluable resource in my studies at Texas A&M University, where I have come to know one of the co-authors, Stephan Hatch. He has an unparralled knowledge of plants and a dedication like no other to put forth a good product, so i know from experience that this book was written by folks who are the top in their field of study. Being from Texas, i have worked internships in the plains of central North Dakota and the desert "outback" of eastern Oregon and have found the book to most useful, oftentimes referring to it before trying to "key out" a plant in a more technical publication. It just doesn't get any better than this.
Excellent Resource for Students.......2001-02-27
This book contains 200 of the most common range plants in North America. Each entry contains a detailed illustration, range maps, scientific and common names, complete written description, growth habit, origin, livestock value, and medicinal uses of the plant. I found the illustrations to be the best I've ever seen, especially the detail included in the grass spikelets. This is an excellent reference for anyone trying to familiarize themselves with common range plants.
Excellent Reference Book.......2000-12-06
This is a great reference book for North American Range plants. It includes a detailed description of each plant along with sketchs and a maps to show distribution. Grasses, forbs and shrubs are included. This book also closely follows the lists for university range plant identification team contests. An excellent reference or study book for North American plants.
Average customer rating:
|
Forage management in the north
Dale Smith
Manufacturer: W.C. Brown Book Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
General
| Plants
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: B0007F3NAM |
Average customer rating:
|
Planning guide for grazing and forage needs (Circular R-581)
Duaine L Dodds
Manufacturer: Cooperative Extension Service, North Dakota State University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
General
| Plants
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Natural Resources
| Nature & Ecology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
| Fisheries & Aquaculture
| Forests & Forestry
| General
| Hydrology
General
| Agricultural Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: B00072Z25O |
Book Description
This edition discusses current research on the relationship between breast implants and disease; hardening, leaking, and rupture of implants; and relevant court decisions. The author also discusses the newest implant techniques and guidelines for having implants removed or replaced.
Customer Reviews:
Breast Implants: Everything you need to know.......2004-03-27
I found this book to be the most comprehensive, current, and unbiased information on the subject of breast implants. I helped me make some very important decisions regarding my health and impending surgery.
I thank the author for her continued research on this subject. Many of us were sold untruthful information regarding implants years ago, and made decisions based on that. Many of us have had health issues since then.
Nancy keeps updating her books, adding any new information. She is one of the very few that empathizes with women who have found themselves in this health-threatening delemma. She stresses both the pros and cons of these surgeries.
I recommend this book to anyone who is considering having breast implant surgery, and also, to those who already have, and who will be needing removal or replacement.
Book Description
Dr. Carol Kornmehl guides patients through this intimidating process, explaining each step of the therapy and the results they can expect from there treatment.
Customer Reviews:
A Picture Paints a Thousand Words.......2003-12-11
Besides being easy to read and understand, the virtual tour of radiation therapy via the clear photos in the book rendered "Best News" an asset. There are no boring graphs or tables, just reader friendly information.
A people's book.......2003-11-20
Dr. Kornmehl uses lots of clinical vignettes througout The Best News, to which people can relate and derive a sense of light through the darkness.
The Bible for Radiation Therapy Patients.......2003-11-13
Dr. Kornmehl's book exudes compassion and hope along with comprehensive information. I'm so glad it was available in my doctor's office and easy to acquire on my own.
A Must Read.......2003-11-01
Excellent Book
This book is written so a non-medical person can comprehend this difficult subject. The book is one of a kind. A must for anyone who needs radiation therapy. A great motivator for hope in a world of dispair.
The epitome of health books.......2003-10-28
The Best News About Radiation Therapy takes a very open, personal approach to making its readers feel comfortable. The author affirms the anxieties that the reader confronts, thus making the reader realize that it is normal to be so scared. That alone makes the reader feel better.
By methodically and humanistically going through the entire sequence of events a person encounters in a radiation therapy environment, the author demystifies and destigmatizes radiation treatment. The author's upbeat approach is infectious! The inspirational quotes that accompany each chapter cheer the reader. I salute the author for writing this informative book.
Average customer rating:
- Poetic, heartbreaking, and fascinating
- Mommie Dressing
- Touching, but superficial
- Further proof that real life is the stuff of novels
- Unsurpassed poignancy
|
Mommy Dressing: A love story, after a fashion
Lois Gould
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Artists, Architects & Photographers
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Authors
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Women
| Specific Groups
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Crafts & Hobbies
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Textile Arts
| Crafts & Hobbies
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Designers
| Fashion
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Home & Garden Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family
-
My Name Is Red
-
The Namesake: A Novel
-
The History of Love: A Novel
-
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
ASIN: 0385490534
Release Date: 1998-09-15 |
Amazon.com
Novelist Lois Gould pulls off an impressive balancing act in her memoir of life as the daughter of pioneering American fashion designer Jo Copeland. She unsparingly depicts Copeland as a distant, self-involved, critical parent ("I never perspire," she tells Lois. "Why must you?"), yet Gould is also sympathetic to her mother's point of view. The daughter of a garment jobber who nurtured her gifts but appropriated her earnings to pay for her brother's education, Copeland could escape only through marriage to a handsome cigar manufacturer. Unfortunately, Ed Regensburg found the talent and ambition he had admired in his fiancée irksome in a wife. He saddled Copeland with two children she didn't want, then moved out, leaving her to support them. Gould conveys the black humor implicit in her mother's horror of having her glamorous life spoiled by childish messiness--in one hilarious scene, Lois and her brother, sent to visit a friend's equally neglected son in the country so they won't spoil a fancy party, erupt into the living room, bedraggled from a long train ride, to announce indignantly, "Stevie Sondheim cheats!" She also appreciates Copeland's importance as one of America's first and best female designers (active from the 1920s through the mid-'60s). She was a pioneering career woman out of necessity and desire doing her best in a society that neither appreciated nor offered any help to working mothers. Gould's memoir is all the more poignant because it is clear-sighted and unsentimental. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
There is a photograph of her wearing my favorite of all her costumes: a long, shining robe that rippled with light when she moved...What I knew about her was only the dressing. Nothing of the rest of her life was visible to me. Unless the dressing was, in fact, the life.
Compelling and multilayered, Mommy Dressing recounts the author's bittersweet girlhood as the daughter of one of America's first star designers. In the exquisite, focused prose that distinguishes Lois Gould's acclaimed novels, she now offers a memoir that is at once a personal history of her family and a fascinating portrayal of New York's emergence as the world's fashion and glamour capital.
Both stories revolve around the central figure of Jo Copeland, a brilliant artist and working mother whose career spanned four decades, from the birth of New York fashion in the 1920s to the close of her own design studio in the 1960s. Lois Gould paints a mesmerizing and vivid portrait of the kingdom of movie stars, fashion shows, and steamer trunks her mother ruled, but always as she witnessed it: a lonely girl as painfully observant of her mother's world as she was painfully aware she could never enter it herself.
The story of Jo Copeland's rise to success--in the company of other such early designers as Hattie Carnegie, Claire McCardell, and Vera Maxwell--is also the story of the headstrong, difficult rise of American fashion. And through the lens of Lois Gould's childhood, an interior world as remote and complex as the mother she strove to understand, readers are given a glimpse of the distant landscape of beautiful exteriors that her mother both created and inspired. Featuring twenty-four period illustrations, including original sketches and designs by Jo Copeland, Mommy Dressing is as captivating and provocative as the women whose lives it portrays.
Customer Reviews:
Poetic, heartbreaking, and fascinating.......2006-03-24
Lois Gould's memoir of growing up as the daughter of American designer Jo Copeland strikes a rare balance. Gould's childhood was often harsh, lonely, and bewildering, yet also thrilling, if only in the looking-back on it. The creative juices flowing all around her were abundant, and must have informed her own artistic bent. Gould is a poetic writer, and while she doesn't flinch from revealing the nastier aspects of her childhood, she also doesn't fall into the oh-woe-is-me psychobabble so popular today. She comes to a hard-won understanding of and compassion for her beautiful, brittle, dazzlingly talented mother. The book is also a rich history of American social and political life in the first half of the 20th century. Highly recommended.
Mommie Dressing.......2000-02-08
This was a Christmas present last year that I just re-read and loved even more for the texture of Lois Gould's rarified existence and the terror and mystery of her mother's unbelievable life. All my favorite topics are combined in this remarkably dry-eyed memoir: fashion, mother-daughter relations, Park Avenue life, how to pack a steamer trunk when going off to the Paris collections...
Touching, but superficial.......1999-11-02
I was so looking orward to this book, but was sadly disappointed with it. The author had emotionally charged and complex family relationships. She related heart-wrenching accounts of her family history. Yet the emotional foundation for those stories was poorly developed. The book would have ben enthralling if the author had helped me to know her characters more. Instead it left me a bit flat.
Further proof that real life is the stuff of novels.......1999-07-15
Lois Gould's biography of her mother, and in no small part her own autobiography, is written with the novelist's touch. The prose is spare but evocative; the observations through a child's eyes clear but heartbreaking. It's a beautiful "read" although a sad, sad story. Lois Gould, however, bears no malice and allows us to judge Jo Copeland, which we do ultimately with compassion.
Unsurpassed poignancy.......1999-02-18
Gould's flawless memoir captures the complexities of a family, an era and a place beautifully, and anyone who reads her book is richer for it. As with the autobiography Angela's Ashes, Gould is able to recreate her personal history with fascinating detail. The fashion sketches and photos of her mother enhance the text. The book is a captivating armchair journey. I admire Gould for her ability to write of her parents with unblinking perception, conveying her compassion despite their tremendous shortcomings.
Book Description
New York Newsday called this memoir of a warhood childhood in Japan "one of the saddest and yet most uplifting books about childhood you will ever encounter."
Separated from her family in the confusion and horror of World War II, seven-year-old Tomiko Higa struggles to survive on the battlefield of Okinawa, Japan. There, as some of the fiercest fighting of the war rages around her, she must live alone, with nothing to fall back on but her own wits and
daring. Fleeing from encroaching enemy forces, searching desperately for her lost sisters, taking scraps of food from the knapsacks of dead soldiers, risking death at every turn, Tomiko somehow finds the strength and courage to survive.
Many years later she decided to tell this story. Originally intended for juvenile readers, it is sure to move adults as well, because it is such a vivid portrait of the unintended civilian casualties of any war.
Customer Reviews:
Not Great.......2007-06-12
I thought this book was okay. You would like it if you liked learning about Japan during WWII, but I found it badly written. The end is unsatisfactory and the way it was written, even though it was non-fiction was boring to me.
Hope and Miracles.......2007-06-06
This book with its unadorned account of survival through the terrible battle of Okinawa is an important reminder of just how cruel war is, especially to those caught in the middle. Little Tomiko struggles against all odds and lives to tell this amazing story of desperation and courage. Not for sensitive kids; I would recommend this to middle schoolers and older - this is the real thing, not just a video game. Heartbreaking and horrifying, but with beautiful moments and miracles.
traumatized me in 4th grade.......2007-02-01
I just googled this book to show to my friend becasue its recommended as a childrens book and when i read it in 4th grade (im 24 now) this book scared the poop out of me. I dont think its a ppropriate for young children. I still cringe thinking about some of the chapters where she is forced to squezze puss from her amputated friends limbs. Ewwww! Amazing story but i think you should be a bit older before you absorb the ferocious atrtocities of war.
Great for all.......2007-01-15
Title: The Girl with the White Flag: An Inspiring Story of Love and Courage in War Time
Author: Tomiko Higa
Genre: Memoir
Synopsis: Tomiko Hiko was seven years old on the island of Okinawa when Allied forces land. Decades later, she discovers a picture of herself as a child, carrying a white flag and surrendering to enemy forces, with a line of Japanese soldiers behind her. Finding the picture triggered repressed memories, which were compiled in this short memoir of the war years, particularly the invasion. Separated from her family, she faced the enemy alone.
Quote: "Remembering Father's words to die with a brave smile, the author waves at the camera."
Grade: B+
Review: I first read this book in high school, and it is one of the few I picked up at that time that I remember vividly. I have to come back to it every few years to see if it is as moving as I remember it. OF course, it always is. It's a great book the other side of Okinawa, family, love, war.
A great book.......2006-12-27
I fell in love with this book. I'm currently stationed on Okinawa and I can't imagine how a girl so young could wander around the island and survive for so long.
This book is translated so some of the English is broken. However if you're interested in a different perspective of WWII in the Pacific, it's a nice read. It gives you a better understanding of how the Okinawans got thrown into a war they never wanted to fight in.
I love this book, even mailed a copy to my sister.
Average customer rating:
|
AUNT JANE'S NIECES in Red Cross By ( Van Dyne, Edith ) AKA Pseudonymn Baum, L. Frank , Who Wrote Wizard of Oz Books,Most Uncommon in Color DustJacket Showing 3 Beautiful Girls , Standing In Nurses White Hat & Brown Cloak wiTH RED CROSS on Front . SERIES
Edith ) AKA Baum, L. Frank , Who Wrote Wizard of Oz Books, Blank Endpapers LIGHT FoX Wear, InNer Flap DJ Price Clipped, B/W Frontispiece of 3 Men in Miltary Uniform Holding Flag with 3 Nurses in Background, Foreword Pg. With FoX Stain, BY ( Van Dyne
Manufacturer: REillY & bRittoN Chicago
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JD9ZMC |
Books:
- A Corridor of Mirrors
- A Crystal Goblet & the Dragon
- A Ramble Through My War: Anzio and Other Joys
- A Soldier of Manhattan:: And His Adventures at Ticonderoga and Quebec
- A Soldier's Story : The Double Life of a Confederate Spy (Civil War Chronicles)
- A Teen's War... Training, Combat, Capture
- A Thousand Cups of Rice: Surviving the Death Railway
- A Time for Breaking Hearts: I Don't Accuse, I Don't Defend, I Don't Apologize, I Report
- A Union Soldier in the Land of the Vanquished The Diary of Sergeant Mathew Woodruff, June-December, 1865
- Absence in the Palms of My Hands: & Other Poems
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Betrayal
- Masterpieces of Art Nouveau Stained Glass Design: 91 Motifs in Full Color
- Straightforward Guide To Living And Working Abroad
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Police Officers Report
- Rationalizing Culture: IRCAM, Boulez, and the Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde
- Ship of Fools
- Noodle
- Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman
- How To Pay Zero Estate Taxes: Your Guide to Every Estate Tax Break the IRS Allows
- Leningrad Oblast Regional Investment and Business Guide
