Howard Street: A Pittsburgh Story

Book Description

Perceiving the Affordances is a personal history and intellectual autobiography of Eleanor Gibson, the groundbreaking research psychologist who was influential in the founding of the theory of perceptual development. It is also a biography of her husband, James J. Gibson, who was a major perceptual theorist and the founder of the ecologically-oriented theory of perception. This is the story of their lives together and how each came to make particular contributions. This book is of interest to people who study perception, perceptual development, infancy, developmental psychology, and the history of psychology.

Customer Reviews:

Readable and charming memoir of two great scientists.......2001-12-04

Eleanor Gibson's little book gives a personal account of her life with her husband, James, as the two of them fashioned careers in perceptual research. The background information on their personal lives is interesting as context for the scientific work they crafted during the 1930's through the 1970's. Eleanor Gibson's own work continued on to this latest book, completed when she was already 90. One hesitates to say it will be her last!

Some few details are perhaps in error; possibly some individuals are juxtaposed more closely than they should be. There may be a bit of disjointedness in some tiny places. One might have hoped for a bit more information than we get about her views on the Gibsons' impact, most particularly through their students across the years.

But the book, on the whole, gives a charming -- and in some ways inspirational -- insight into the life and times of two of our most distinguished contributors to modern thinking in perception. Eleanor Gibson's comments about her struggles to make a career for herself in a climate that was decidedly biased against the success of women is an eye-opener. Her ability to juggle a research career and a successful family life is also worth noting.

One might wish, nevertheless, for a paperback version of this little book. Forty bucks for little more than an evening's reading seems a pretty stiff tariff.

Book Description

World Memory Champion an unprecedented eight times, Dominic O’Brien shows how anyone can improve their memory with this fun and colorful palm-sized book. For just under $5-and just in time for those holiday parties-this essential helpmate reveals the secrets to remembering names and faces. O’Brien, author of the best-selling Learn to Remember, packs this quick-reference book with fun and easy tips for recall know-how geared toward real-life situations. Simple visualization tools, brainpower boosters, and advice on focusing the mind will help turn forgetfulness into a thing of the past. This tiny volume is perfect as a stocking stuffers or not-so-subtle gift for forgetful friends. For anyone who’s ever introduced Susan as Stephanie (or worse), Never Forget gives those memory muscles a much-needed workout.

Customer Reviews:

Not worth what I paid and not a real book........2006-07-23

If you buy it understand it is a tiny 3 inch book with about one or two sentences per page (many pages have no text at all). So little serious content as to be considered a checkout counter toy. Many of the ideas are like take vitamins. Or you've heard it before- make associations, repeat it, etc. Let's face it, it's a bathroom "book" that I would be angry to find in my stocking at Christmas.
Buy a real book instead. There are plenty of fine books on remembering people.

Names You Never Remember, With Faces You Never Forget

Average customer rating:

Names You Never Remember, With Faces You Never Forget
Justin Humphreys
Manufacturer: BearManor Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Actors & Actresses | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Entertainers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1593930410

Book Description

Names. compiles ten years' worth of interviews with as many character actors. These are the supporting players who have made generations of moviegoers blurt out "I know that actor- Who is that? I've seen him a million times!" These actors' identities have continually eluded most moviegoers. But their unforgettable faces and personalities are another story. Included are exhaustive interviews with: - R. G. Armstrong- Burly, prolific western star-- A perennial movie sheriff, Sam Peckinpah regular, and, unrecognizably, Dick Tracy's arch-nemesis, Pruneface! - Dick Bakalyan- The pugnacious Crown Prince of the Juvenile Delinquent film, familiar Disney movie player, and co-star of films as disparate as Ray Milland's Panic in Year Zero! and Roman Polanski's Chinatown. - Don Pedro Colley- Imposing, regal co-star of Beneath the Planet of the Apes (as the telepathic mutant inquisitor), THX-1138 (as a hologram), and Sugar Hill (as Baron Samedi, king of the zombies). - Royal Dano- In his last interview, Dano recalls his extensive career, working with Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, Nicholas Ray, Jack Arnold, and dozens of other Hollywood notables. - Jonathan Haze- As part of director Roger Corman's stock company, Haze achieved cinematic immortality as the luckless "Seymour" in Corman's original The Little Shop of Horrors. Besides his multifarious work with Corman, Haze wrote AIP's manic Invasion of the Star Creatures, and worked behind the cameras with the likes of John Wayne. - Bo Hopkins- A cinematic stalwart of the '70s, whose credits include The Wild Bunch (his debut), The Getaway, Monte Walsh, American Graffiti, and The Day of the Locust. Another perennial movie sheriff! - L. Q. Jones- A western, war, and Peckinpah film staple, and director of the cult science fiction classic, A Boy and His Dog. His recent credits include Casino, The Edge, and The Mask of Zorro. (Also, quite possibly, the funniest character actor alive.) - Buck Kartalian- Diminutive former wrestler and body-builder, best remembered as "Julius," the ape jailer of Planet of the Apes. Kartalian's film work ranges from major Hollywood fare (Mr. Roberts, Cool Hand Luke) to some of the wackiest exploitation films ever (The Acid Eaters, Please Don't Eat My Mother!, and Devil's Angels.) - Paul Koslo- Laconic action star of the '70s into the '90s: The Omega Man, Mr. Majestyk, The Losers, Cleopatra Jones, Joe Kidd, ad infinitum. - Marc Lawrence- One of the screen's greatest gangsters, with a career spanning well over 150 feature films and eight decades! Illustrated with over 100 photographs, Names. chronicles the lives of the unsung character men who often outshone the stars that surrounded them. Includes never-before-published interview material.

Average customer rating:

Names and Faces (Never Forget)
Dominic O'Brien
Manufacturer: Duncan Baird Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

Chocaholic Must Have

Chocolate made easy

Good Book, Not as Great as His Others

A Mediocre Chocolate Book

Very disapointed

Chocolate: From Simple Cookies to Extravagant Showstoppers
Nick Malgieri
Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Chocolate | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Desserts | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Perfect Cakes

How to Bake: Complete Guide to Perfect Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Tarts, Breads, Pizzas, Muffins,

A Baker's Tour: Nick Malgieri's Favorite Baking Recipes from Around the World

Cookies Unlimited

Celebrate with Chocolate: Totally Over-the-Top Recipes

ASIN: 0060187115

Amazon.com

Nick Malgieri is one smart cookie. He opens Chocolate with information about all the basics on our favorite sweet's history and production. He then moves right into 360 recipes.

Chocolate provides recipes for every intensity of chocolove and all levels of culinary skills. There are simple mix-bake-cut cakes, a mud-rich fudge sauce that hardens on ice cream, a collection of ice creams to go with it, and a killer Rich Chocolate Mousse.

Any comfortable cook, particularly one who's mastered the techniques in How to Bake, Great Italian Desserts, and Malgieri's other equally clear and precise works, can turn out Cream Puff Truffles, Chocolate Brownie Tart, a French Buche de Noel, and most of the other recipes in this dessert-lover's dream book.

Dedicated amateurs and professional cooks will appreciate Malgieri's explicit guidance for the process of tempering, which is necessary for making certain chocolate confections, and the recipes for European-style molded confections such as liqueur-filled cordials, and hand-dipped masterpieces, including Raspberry Tricolors. Less ambitious chocoholics might attempt the 26 kinds of truffles or play with Chocolate Plastic for making decorations. And no one should miss Chocolate's final chapter, the over-the-top "Showpieces and Decorating Projects."

This book is lavish with color photos. The chapter openings, shot with the artistry of Irving Penn still lifes, are so breathtaking you can taste them. --Dana Jacobi

Book Description

Nick Malgieri, who taught us everything we need to know about baking in How to Bake, takes on chocolate, the world's favorite food. With the authoritative accessibility he brings to his teaching, Nick bridges the gap between the professional baker and the home cook. He knows techniques and ingredients and he teaches them with hand-holding efficiency. In ten chapters, Nick offers a primer on basics and every kind of chocolate from coca to chips and white chocolate (and why it isn't really chocolate in the strictest sense) to big dark slabs of the world's favorite luxury food and the many, many ways to enjoy it.

Information on storage, handling, and the fundamentals needed to create chocolate confections is clear and concise. Recipe sections include everything you need to know to turn the food of the gods into desserts for us mortals: cakes and cookies, creams and custards, ice creams, pies and pastries, sauces and beverages, truffles and pralines, dipped and molded chocolates, all adapted for the home cook.

Illustrated with four-color photographs throughout, all 380 luscious recipes will send a shiver of delight down the spine of every chocolate lover. Chocolate is definitive without being intimidating; it is a true home companion for anyone who wants to cook with chocolate.

Customer Reviews:

Chocaholic Must Have.......2006-05-08

Its the most expensive book that I've got in by collection, well.. glad to say that I think I used my peso(Philippine Money) wisely coz I haven't regretted this purchase. So far since last christmas season when I first got it, I tried 3 recipes all successful. Its the first time I made brownies where the middle isn't raw which is a good thing, coz that has been my problem ever since. Not any more! The pictures are fantastic but I with there could be more, I mean who gets tired of looking at chocolates? Nobody that I know :)

Chocolate made easy.......2005-07-25

I bought this book for two reasons: first, I am a chocophile. Second, Malgieri's reputation. I have his book "How to Bake," which is excellent and all the recipes I've tried work. That is one of his fortes. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to plunk down a chunk of money for a cookbook with recipes that don't work. These do.

My one an only criticism is that he's not a chocolate fanatic in the true sense. His information and recipes are good not great. If you want the definitive work on Chocolate by a true connoisseur get "Death by Chocolate" by Marcel Desaulniers...exquisite! Malgeiri's book, however, is good in it's own right and deserves a spot on your book shelf.

Good Book, Not as Great as His Others.......2005-03-24

I have tried several recipes from this book. All have turned out well or excellent(just by following his detailed recipes), but none have produced to-die-for results. Which is disappointing with a chocolate book. And considering I am a big fan of his other books, this is a double disappointment. I do find his recipes helpful, there are many tips on getting a good result in the intructions, and lots of pictures. The first chapter does a crash course in chocolate, which is limited, but is all one, who does not work in culinary arts, needs to know. The recipes range from cakes, cookies, breads, ice cream, drinks and candies. If you are looking for a good, all-around chocolate book, this one should be considered.

A Mediocre Chocolate Book.......2004-07-30

The author is famous and comes with quite a pedigree. In the introductory material, he festoons the reader with stories of working in Europe with the finest confectioners and chocolatiers; unfortunately, this experience does not seem to be reflected in the recipes of this rather ordinary book on chocolate. In the end, I suggest that you forget this book and instead pick up one of the many fine chocolate cookbooks put out by Hershey's.

The first dozen or so pages cover equipment, chocolate, ingredients, tempering, etc. It is brief, declamatory, and useless. The instructions for Buche de Noel were extensive, imprecise, and confusing. Some of the cake assembly requires professional techniques, none of which is explained. I laughed when the author expects people to have an oven big enough to accommodate 4 cookie sheets at the same time (in the recipe for his recreation of LeNotre's Concorde Cake). Molded cakes are no easy matter, and the instructions in this book are woefully inadequate. For Rigotorte, the author casually tosses off the recipe for a chocolate pate sucree in 3 sentences; properly treated, this basic but not easy recipe should take 3 pages. The instructions for tempering chocolate are sufficient only for someone who has done it before. The last chapter has several worthwhile showpieces (suitable only for those with some experience), but it could use a few more pictures.

The most basic recipe in the book, genoise, is the oddball version that uses a substantial amount of cornstarch; it does work, but is inferior to the standard version using all flour. A good genoise should also use butter which his does not, but he gets a pass; on the other hand, the recipe gives rather fuzzy directions for how long to beat the batter. The other basic cake, chocolate sponge, uses the separated egg sponge method, but also atypically has cornstarch. Inexplicably, the angel food cake uses self rising flour, which has baking powder; the main reason to make angel food cake is to avoid the use of chemical leaveners.

The physical construction of the book is like a college textbook: heavy duty and durable with thick, glossy pages. The graphics and design are exemplary. The beginning of each chapter has a list of all recipes, a welcome convenience; strangely, the page numbers are not listed, so you still have to do some page flipping to find anything. It has: basics, cakes, cookies, custards, frozen, pies, candy, drinks, and decorations. The chapters on cakes, pies, and cookies were disappointing; the ones on frozen desserts and candy were very good. The chocolate decorations were very interesting, but the instructions were not sufficiently detailed for the novice.

On the good side, the author is always careful to specify what type of cocoa powder to use, and all recipes have storage specifications. On the bad side, the flour amounts do not have weight equivalents, and the temperature of the eggs is never specified. Overall, I was more impressed with the quantity rather than the quality of the recipes.

Very disapointed.......2004-04-30

I expected much more from Nick Malgieri, been a teacher and all, at least foolproof recipes!!! I personaly made some and others , been a pastry chef, didn't even try because they were oversimplyfied and they would not achieve the best result. Too bad.

Average customer rating:

Another GREAT book!

2006 Handbook of U. S. Coins Blue Book

2006 Handbook of U.s. Coins Blue: With Premium List (Handbook of United States Coins (Paper))
R. S. Yeoman
Manufacturer: Whitman Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Coins & Medals | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Reference | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Coins & Medals | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
General | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Reference | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

2008 Guide Book of Us Coins Redbook (Guide Book of United States Coins) (Guide Book of United States Coins)

A Guide Book of United States Coins 2006: The Official Red Book (Guide Book of United States Coins (Spiral))

A Guide Book of United States Coins 2007 (60th Edition)

The Official American Numismati Association Grading Standards For United States Coins (Official American Numismatic Association Grading Standards for United States Coins)

The Official Guide to Coin Grading and Counterfeit Detection Edition #2 (Official Guide to Coin Grading and Counterfeit Detection)

ASIN: 0794819532

Customer Reviews:

Another GREAT book!.......2006-07-06

Yet again Kenneth Bressett and R.S. Yeoman have outdone themselves. While not as detailed as the "Red Book", this book tells you, or gives you an idea, of what a dealer would pay for your coin. VERY valuable if your bidding at auction. You'd be suprised at what coins "trend" for then what a dealer will actually BUY them for. Sometimes about 1/4 of the trend. Great book if you don't want to get "suckered" into a bidding war!

2006 Handbook of U. S. Coins Blue Book.......2006-03-20

Very informative and will help me to purcahse coins at the correct price.

Book Description

Featured are over 25 great braid designs to do yourself. The techniques are easily mastered and responsible for an array of new and exciting looks.*For a quick change of style, turn your traditional ponytail into something completely original in just a matter of minutes. Interested in appearing cosmopolitan? The French braid provides elegance and is sure to never go out of fashion. Want to show off your funky side? If so, see how the four-strand and wrapped crown 'do's grab you. These are but a few of the many wonderful styles. Maintenance tips and some gadgets and accessories you might want to check out will be extremely helpful in guaranteeing you the best-looking hair possible. 96 pages (all in color), 7 x 10.

Customer Reviews:

accurate.......2005-09-28

The book is as it is described. Very helpful and illustrative with both the drawings and the photos.

Just got it....not to sure.......2002-11-13

I just got the book last night Great Braids!!! So far just by flipping though it and reading a little bit of it I am not sure about it. I bought the book because my daughter has long hair that is hard to keep fixed for a full day of school. The pictures and diagrams are kind of confusing. I already know how to to the regular french braid but I wanted a little varation. This book does have that. I am just not sure she will be still long enough for me to do these styles for her. One thing I really like about this book though is that the front of the book teaches you to make a few hairbows. Overall the book seems to be what I was looking for.

not the best book ever.......2001-09-23

if you're a beginner and you've never seen a french braid before, you MIGHT want to invest in this book. I didn't. I got it from the library. Had I bought it it would have been a total waste of money. The "open file system" is annoying, not useful, and you definately can't use it to do your own hair. Because of the open file system, I still don't understand how to do a "four strand braid", which was the ONLY braid I didn't already know how to do. ...

Braids and more.......2000-10-02

I bought two braiding books at the same time (the other was Beautiful Braids, by Coen and Maxwell) and this is by far the better of the two. There are upside down and inside out braids, as well as herringbones, twists, and some updos.

The book seems to be written to beauty professionals though, since several of the styles are explained in terms of how to do it on someone else's hair, not your own. I'm having a hard time convincing my husband that braiding my hair is a good use of his time. I'm still glad I bought this book, since there are several ideas I hadn't thought of.

Exciting but not new.......2000-01-17

Hardy's Great Braids! contains interesting and easy-to-do styles for medium-to-long hair. What's disappointing, however, is that the styles - and in some cases, the illustrations! - almost completely duplicate Anne Akers Johnson's Hair: A Book of Braiding and Styles (published two years earlier than Hardy's volume). Buy one or the other, but not both.

Average customer rating:
Fun With Growing Things (Avon Camelot Books (Paperback))
Joan Eckstein , and Joyce Gleit
Manufacturer: Camelot
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0380761203

Average customer rating:
Fun with growing things: A guide to indoor and outdoor gardening for kids
Joan Eckstein
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Agriculture | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0380003449

Average customer rating:

An Excellent Rresource for the Newly Diagnosed

Living With Hepatitis C: Everything You Need to Know (Your Personal Health)
Jenny Heathcote , Colina Yim , and Quynh Thai
Manufacturer: Firefly Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Hepatitis | Disorders & Diseases | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Disorders & Diseases | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Abdominal | Disorders & Diseases | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Allied Health Professions | Medicine | Subjects | Books
General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Winning the Hepatitis C Battle: Understanding the Disease and how to treat it successfully

Living With Hepatitis C For Dummies

Living with Hepatitis C: A Survivor's Guide, Third Revised Edition

The First Year--Hepatitis C: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed

The Hepatitis C Help Book: A Groundbreaking Treatment Program Combining Western and Eastern Medicine for Maximum Wellness and Healing

Accessories:

Braun IRT 4020 ThermoScan Ear Thermometer

ASIN: 1552096122

Book Description

Now that blood donations in the U.S. and Canada are screened for the hepatitis C virus, we hear less about this contagious and potentially deadly disease than we used to. Yet, over three million North Americans are infected with hepatitis C -- and 70 percent are unaware of their condition.

Hepatitis C damages the liver -- an organ that forms essential nutrients, balances our blood sugar, and plays a critical role in removing toxic materials from the blood. As liver damage progresses, the whole body may be infected, by fatigue, nausea, depression, loss of appetite, disturbed sleep, and other symptoms. Sever cases may lead to cirrhosis, internal bleeding, personality changes, liver cancer, even complete liver failure.

This comprehensive addition to the Your Personal Health Series explains what hepatitis C does and how it can be prevented and treated. It discusses the medical aspects of the problem and the practical concerns of living with the disease. Topics include:

The various kinds of hepatitis and how they differ
How the liver is affected and what this causes
What tests and procedures are used to diagnose hepatitis C
What drugs and other treatments are available
Hepatitis C in children and pregnancy
What happens if a liver transplant is necessary

There is also a frank discussion of how drinking and other lifestyle habits affect the course of the disease and how friends and family can help.

Authoritative and up-to-date, complete with illustrations, case studies, and a resource list, Hepatitis C is a highly readable guide to a serious disease.

Customer Reviews:

An Excellent Rresource for the Newly Diagnosed.......2002-02-27

Living With Hepatitis C: Everything You Need to Know (Your Personal Health) by Jenny Heathcote, et al. This is a very succinct and thorough guide to hepatitis C. It describes everything an HCV-positive individual needs to know about hepatitis C, from prevention to treatment. It contains case studies, illustrations, and an excellent resource guide. From her personal experience, Dr. Heathcote provides an excellent tool for people who are newly diagnosed with hepatitis C. Unlike many of the other books available, this one is concise and not overwhelming for people seeking simple and straightforward answers. It discusses both medical and practical aspects of living with hepatitis C. Subjects include the various types of hepatitis and how they differ, how hepatitis C affects the liver, the tests and procedures that are performed in order to effectively diagnose hepatitis C, an overview of the treatments available, and the medications that are used for treatment. In addition, the book includes a section on hepatitis C in children and during pregnancy, as well as the process an HCV-positive individual will go through if a liver transplant is necessary. The author very effectively covers sensitive areas, including a candid discussion on how drinking and other lifestyle decisions affect the course of the disease. In summary, this is a very comprehensive and to-the-point guide to hepatitis C. It is an excellent tool for people newly diagnosed with HCV and covers all the necessary subject areas with practical tools and suggestions. Highly Recommended.

Customer Reviews:

tarantula on my windowpane.......2000-02-04

when i came across Dylan by Matteo i was reminded of how much (again) i"ve been amazed by Mr Z. When i first saw him on tv (Loyd Thaxton?)it was like who is this guy with the sunglasses pale skin singing so soulful.in '71 i befriended ginsburg in an attempt to meet him sang a concert with him in wmsburg va (the hills are echoing) he wanted to party and sleep over (no go) just tell me about bobby, allen ! i enjoyed the barbed memories (the velvet alley?)Matteo's book seduced me...gvb va

I bought two copies!.......1999-04-03

Stephen Matteo's Bob Dylan takes us on a wonderful adventure through time with one of the last true legends of our time. Comprehensive without getting mired down in detail, the book provides a retrospective of Dylan's career and is peppered with enough anecdotal info to give us the real flavor of having been there. Most importantly, the book is respectful in tone and content towards Dylan's life and work, both of which he has had to fight to protect from censure. Matteo's book enables us to enjoy Dylan's work and his triumphant career without the reader feeling like we're invading his privacy.

excellent photos, but not much else is happening here..........1999-01-28

this book is full of great and rare photos of bob dylan in the studio, performing on stage, lounging about, and just being cool. but i was disapointed in the text- it lacked inspiration and enthusiasm. this is a biography meant to be read by dylan novices, and hardcore fans will be disapointed. what saves the book from being a total rip off is the collection of photographs- the pictures tell the story in this book, not the author. which, in a way, is fine- like the man said, "nobody does dylan like dylan..."

GREAT PICTURES!.......Text is cursory and inadequate........1999-01-01

This book has many great photos which is a good thing because the text is cursory, shallow and somewhat inaccurate. Appears to be written by someone who looked up Dylan in the encyclopaedia but knows little about the music or the man. The accolades on the back cover are a joke. It would be funny if it were not insulting to reasonably informed Bobcats. Informative (if sometimes misleading) only to the Dylan neophyte. Take with a grain of salt. But as I said...GREAT PICTURES!

The Best Dylan Biography Every!.......1998-11-21

This book is amazing, you can find facts you had know idea about, but it's also not filled with useless facts that nobody cares about. It's filled with great pictures, and you can see Dylan as he grows up. The only problem with this book is that I couldn't put it down and I finished it in two days. You can tell that Matteo is a big Dylan fan and not some guy tring to make money. Great Job Steve Matteo!

Book Description

An NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies.

A sequel to Upon the Head of the Goat, a Newbery Honor Book.

Customer Reviews:

Crummy ending.......2007-02-20

This book begins with the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the end of the Holocaust. Fifteen-year-old Piri and her older sister Iboya have managed to stay alive and together throughout the war, and now they are free. Unfortunately, they have no home. They don't think any of their family members have survived, and they don't even try to go home to their old house, afraid of what they would find.

Instead, the girls are taken by members of the Swedish Red Cross to Sweden, where they are placed in a boarding school until they grow old enough to work. Piri begins to feel like a real person again, going to school and making friends and even falling in love with a young man who has decided to go to Palestine to find a new life for himself.

When the boarding school closes and Piri's love has left for his new homeland, Piri and Iboya start working in a factory, but Piri is a daydreamer who can't seem to keep her machine under control. When a Swedish couple touring the factory take pity on her and invite her to live with them as a daughter, she reluctantly agrees.

To her surprise, Piri fits in with this family. She even begins thinking of them as her own true family, and she is happy with them. She falls in love again with a nice young man, but she is torn. Piri had promised Iboya that they would travel to America to live with their relatives there and begin a new and better life for themselves. Is Piri strong enough to leave her love behind? Is she strong enough to refuse to travel to America with her sister?

It was interesting to get to read about the sorts of things Jews did after the war. It was good to read a story about people being able to get on with their lives. However, the ending of the story was pretty crummy. It didn't really resolve anything, and I thought Piri should have been stronger.

Good, but missing something.......2004-05-17

(Actually, this is a 4.5 star rating.)

This is a very memorable book, like the first book 'Upon the Head of the Goat' (I read them both at age fifteen, in the spring of 1995, haven't reread them yet, and yet can still vividly rememeber a lot of names, details, and events from both as though I'd only finished reading them yesterday). However, in hindsight it seems as though something is missing, and not just all of the friends and family members who were killed by the Nazis. A lot of sequels to books that were about the Shoah, whether fiction or memoir, or whether the characters were in camps, ghettos, in hiding, or just continually on the run, are kind of a letdown. A lot of intense things happened before, what with daily deprivations, increasing regulations, friends, neighbours, and relatives murdered, taken into ghettos, camps, prisons, and death marches, but the sequels to such books seem more like a routine tale of life after the War, no constant "What's going to happen next?" now that the danger is past and the Allies have assumed protective control of the European nations. Though this book, while being guilty of being mundane in comparison with what went before, is one of the better sequels.

The early part of the book is the most compelling, during the final days Piri and her older sister Iboya spend at Bergen-Belsen before the liberation. Piri is very sick and has to spend a long time in the makeshift hospital the Allies set up, and then she and Iboya are off to Sweden to begin new lives, along with their friend Dora (who lost her mother about six months after they were taken to the camp they were in, and is now an einer allen, or one alone in the world) and the two Berger girls, the daughters of the woman who pulled Piri into line with them after she had been selected to stay behind in the camp since she was so weak. Mrs. Berger switched Piri with another woman who had been marching with them in the fünfferreihe (row of five prisoners). They meet a lot of fellow survivors in Sweden, including Herschel, who becomes Dora's boyfriend, and David, who becomes Piri's boyfriend for a short time. Piri and Iboya also discover that one of their four sisters, Etu, has survived too. Etu was living in their old house in Hungary, along with her new husband Geza, but now she wants to go to Palestine, where David and several of his friends are also going.

Maybe it's shellshock or denial, but in hindsight I don't really recall some of the strong emotions displayed in other after-the-war narratives present in Piri or Iboya, at least not for long stretches of time, just an occasional moment of reflection that they almost didn't have one another, or remembering back to something awful that happened, like how Piri lost her best friend Judi. I know that no news was usually bad news, and the longer there was no news, the worse it probably was, but where is the frantic searching for their other relatives that I see so often in other memoirs of this sort, even denying that they died and that maybe the Red Cross got it wrong? Other survivors even hold out hope for decades that that other person miraculously survived and is alive somewhere, constantly wondering, placing ads, asking everyone they see in refugee centers or walking by on the road after liberation. When do they even attempt to look for Rózsi, Lilli, Lájos, Manci, even their stepfather, or try to find out what happened to them if they're pretty sure they're dead? Piri suggests looking for their stepfather, but Iboya says if he survived the Russian pow camp, he knew what happened and wouldn't think any of them survived. So they won't even look for him so that if he DID survive, he'd know at least Piri, Etu, and Iboya are all still alive? Only towards the end does Piri finally seem to be hit by the full emotional impact of what has happened. I also, in hindsight, don't agree with how they decided to go to America to be with some aunt they've never met, over staying in their new haven in Sweden, among all of their friends and surrogate family, or going to Palestine with Etu. Etu hasn't been in any camps, but at least she has more of a shared sense of what they had to suffer through, far more than some relative they've never met in America will ever! And why wouldn't they want to be reunited with their only sibling left, the way Etu wanted it to be? Also, Piri and Iboya obviously went through a lot together, yet Piri is content to live with a childless older couple who adopts her, while Iboya is away living in some type of workers' dormitory? In other narratives I've read, the friends or siblings who went through that sort of thing together were inseparable; they wouldn't have been okay with going in different directions so soon after that intense bonding experience. They came so close to losing one another before, so why live apart instead of sticking extremely close together? The other survivors I've read postwar books by want to be close together for comfort and reassurance that they're still there and together; they wouldn't be fine with splitting up!

I also would have liked to have had at least one chapter dealing with their new life in America, or maybe just one devoted to the emotional turmoil within. It is one of the better postwar books out there, but still leaves something lacking, both in emotions and in the rather bland life they lead in Sweden after getting used to their new home.

:( a book for young ppl read by a young person.......2003-12-05

I personally did not like this book.It was supposed to be a historical fiction but instead was mostly fiction and fantasy.It wasnt realalistic and put to much weight on the non important things and shruged off the important things.The author had the main character walking around in a daze and had her made unreal desicions and the book barley had deatail.It was like the author streched out the non important stuff and tried to squeeze the important stuff in a few pages.She had the main character liking 5 guys and thinking she was in love but gave it up in a minute for something not important to her.she befriends someone who lies to her and helped destory her family in a few sentences and had her suddenly decide to forgive without nothing to help nut a sentence the first mention of it.Dont waste you time with this book i'v read many historical fictions and this not a good one the author reapeats everything in this book over and over again.

A fascinating story. What happens next?.......2002-06-06

I just finished reading this book and enjoyed, though I did skim some parts that moved a little slowly. Overall, it is an excellent, intimate portrait of a young womans thoughts and concerns after leaving a concentration camp in WWII. It has issues universal to all-- growing up, loyalty yet resentment of an older siblings care, letting go, beginning again, love vs attraction. It also has some thoughts about being a surviver and a Jew and what it would mean to leave her Jewish life behind now that she survived the Nazis...

powerful stuff.......2000-05-04

Other reviews by young adults suggest there is no action and that it is boring, but they are missing the true meaning. This book stirs up emotion that makes you want to reach into the pages to help Piri. It makes you want to help like the Rantzows, and you hope there are more people like the Rantzows in our own society. Very moving.

Grace in the Wilderness - After the Liberation 1945-1948

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Grace in the Wilderness - After the Liberation 1945-1948

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Grace in the Wilderness After the Liberation 1945-1948
Aranka Siegal
Manufacturer: Signet
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GRACE IN THE WILDERNESS: After the Liberation 1945-1948
Aranka Siegal
Manufacturer: Puffin
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Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ95YE

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Grace in the Wilderness - After the Liberation 1945-1948
Recorded Books
Manufacturer: Recorded Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: B000VER8EQ

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