What refreshing, unique book! Although nonfiction, this reads like a thoroughly enjoyable, can't-put-it-down novel. The author's letters home and journal entries during her tour of duty in the American Red Cross tell her story in an engaging manner; yet Mrs. Norwalk also gives one a deep appreciation for the amazing sacrifices made by the WWII generation.

Settle in with some coffee and donuts and get ready to enjoy this book. The letters Rosie sent home are fascinating, but her insightful journal entries really make this story outstanding. Her descriptions of her Red Cross co-workers are wonderful; you really feel that you know them. And her adventures in England are also well described: you'll learn how to wangle an invitation to a private tour of a castle, and how to behave when meeting the royal family. But it's more than just light-hearted adventure: Rosie has moving encounters with young GI's and a disturbing encounter with Leavenworth prisoners. And the section of her book dealing with her time in Germany will haunt you. This is a funny, insightful, and moving book.

What a wonderful book! Rosie's letters and journal entries transport the reader to the 1940s like no other book I have read. This book offers a keen insight, as well, into the American Red Cross, an organization that is what it is because of people like Rosie. Bravo!

I've been thinking about this, and I've decided this is my favorite book, at least my favorite that I have read in the past 5 or 10 years.

It's pretty hard to say why, but let me give it a shot: the way his writing conveys his affection for his near family and his ancestors without losing his sense of humour about them. (Ian Frazier started out as a humor writer.) His beautiful descriptions of the countryside he travels through, country you might otherwise think was much worth looking at. His wonderful details about his family history make you feel like everyone's family is important.

Since I first read this book, I have developed a true genealogy fixation, trying to recapture the feeling Frazier invokes in this wonderful book. I wish he would write more.

This is a remarkable book. Frazier did a monumental job of researching his family history and produced an eloquent family history that parallels the country's history as well. The book can be read as a beautiful and fascinating family history, a meditation on the role of religion in U.S. history, and as a portrait of many memorable figures both within and without the author's family. His descriptions of his brother, father and mother brought tears to my eyes.

In "Family," Ian Frazier manages a literary coup seldom attempted, much less achieved:the telling of a personal tale with such sensitivity and imagination that the personal is transcended to become, quite possibly, the universal. The story -- of his family's migration, settlement and flourishing in America -- is at once both epic and allegorical. Equal parts history, autobiography, and geneaology, the story takes us from Frazier's family's early haunts in colonial Connecticut (and a host of other places) all the way into the contemporary interior lives of his parents, siblings, and of course, himself. Along the way, we are treated not just to stories of family life, but to grand meditations upon the meanings of history, family, and the ever-longed-for (in our time) "community." A generous book from a brilliant writer ("Great Plains," "Dating Your Mom") and regular "New Yorker"contributor, "Family" is a work of American narrative that should take its place alongside other masterworks such as Alex Haley's "Roots"and Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It"as an offering of passion and insight on the notion of belonging -- to our own families, and to the often fractious and ever elusive "American family." --Bronson Hilliard Boulder, CO May, 1996

This book teaches facts about the Hammerhead shark in a storybook format. The Hammerhead is born, swims away, then begins her life's work : searching for food. We learn why it is practical for Hammerhead to have such widely spaced eyes. Facts about other ocean creatures are included when they fit the story. The illustrations are realistic, including blood when Hammerhead scores dinner. I estimate this book is best for ages 4 - 8; short but informative.