This great, compelling story of historical drama and is told from many points of view from that horrible time, the 1940's. The book is set all over in Germany and is told by many different characters. I really liked how the authors described in detail what they felt when,they were being taken to a concentration camp or taken away from their loved ones. This book is a collection of many autobiographies of the survivors in the Holocaust. I loved how this author put together these autobiographies in chronological order, so it was easy to follow. Witness does a great job of telling about the memories that the survivor's in the Holocaust have had for many years. It also helps you understand what is was like for the Jewish citizens and the huge impact the Germans had on people around the world. This book is for every person that wants to know what it was like in the life of a Jewish man, woman, or child during that horrible time in history.

This great, compelling story of historical drama and is told from many points of view from that time in history, the 1940's. The book is set all over in Germany and is told by many different characters. I really liked how the authors described in detail what they felt when,they were being taken to a concentration camp or taken away from their loved ones. This book is a collection of many autobiographies of the survivors in the Holocaust. I loved how this author put together these autobiographies in chronological order, so it was easy to follow. Witness does a great job of telling about the memories that the survivor's in the Holocaust have had for many years. It also helps you understand what is was like for the Jewish citizens and the huge impact the Germans had on people around the world. This book is for every person that wants to know what it was like in the life of a Jewish man, woman, or child during that horrible time in history.

I read the book Witness. It was edited by Joshua M. Greene and Shiva Kumar with a forward written by Lawrence L. Langer. Witness is a narrative about the Holocaust. Greene and Kumar wrote the personal stories of people who survived this terrible time in history.

There were twenty- seven witnesses including Jews, Gentiles, Americans, and one member of the Hitler Youth, a Jesuit priest, resistance fighters and child survivors. They each told their story about how the Holocaust effected them and their families and what actually happened.

I really liked the book. I learned some more information about the Holocaust. Everyone had a different perspective towards the Holocaust because they all had something different to say about the Holocaust, the different camps and their experiences trying to survive in the camps.

One of the things I learned from reading this book is how much the Poles hated the Jews. I also learned how the Jews survived and how people risked their lives to help the Jews, like Schindler. I would recommend this book to others because it was good and informative.

Heidi is ranked up there with, "Where the Red Fern Grows" with it's genuine love and care of the hearts of children and adults. I read this book to my children when they were in 1st and K...several times I had to stop to choke back the tears.. or laugh in exhuberance. It's a heart-warming tale of a little girl who didn't understand the "status quo" and sought to make sense of not only her own world, but those around her. Her innocense, genuine love and acceptance is so moving and so inspiring.

Heidi is very exciting. She is very outgoing and adventurous. She gets sent to the Alm Mts. with her grumpy old grandfather. She shows him how to be nice and friendly. She meets a boy named Peter and they become good friends. He then shows her his family. Heidi meets his grandmother and falls in love with her and everything that she does. She then gets sent to a weird house.She soon came home.
This book is recommended for all ages to be read to or read by you!
Why am I telling you this go read it for your self!!!

A while back when I was in my 30's (never mind how long ago that was!) I was sick with the flu, and I found a copy of HEIDI, so I crawled into a nice warm bed and re-read the book -- as an adult.

What insight into human nature! And as an adult I appreciated the dry, understated humor. I also appreciated the spiritual insights -- that God will give us what we desire, but sometims uses circumstances we don't like to teach us truths that we couldn't learn otherwise.

When I was a girl I was often turned off by what was called "good reading," but for some reason, I enjoyed Heidi and it never seemed sappy or corny.

Very much worth reading!

After 17 years I still find this book not only an invaluable reference book, but a thoroughly enjoyable read as well.

Other books may feature a more exhaustive list of herbs, but none present the herbs with the love, care and extensive background as this fine guide does. The author gives life and history to each one, presenting the herbs with the honor, and respect they deserve. (In the same vain the author includes a decent guide to magickal stones with the same loving care given to the details of each.)

If you are new to herbalism or Paganism, I can't say enough about the importance of having this book for your collection.

This is an excellent and very well written book to be used as a reference guide with regards to the remedial and magical use of many common herbs. It also includes information on herbs and astrology as well as detailing the use of herbs in rituals. It is a must have for any Wiccan and anyone with an interest in Magick.

While not as comprehensive in the number of herbs covered as Scott Cunningham's _Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs_, it more than makes up for that lack by his in-depth coverage of the herbs he *does* include. And he still covers plenty of herbs, enough to suit any magical situation. He does go into remedial uses as well, but this is not the focus of the book. If your looking for that sort of herbal info, I'd go elsewhere, although the information he gives is very useful and pretty thorough.

There are also sections on astrological aspects of herbs, how to consecrate herbal preparations and amulets, the use of stones in connection with herbs, methods of preparation for remedial use, classification of remedial herb by effect, correspondances to deities, and lists of herbs appropriate to various ritual observances such as the holidays and handfastings.

This is a book I have turned to, for a wide range of information, so often I have literally worn my copy out. I would like to see future editions with more herbs included, not because the number is insufficient. But because he is so insightful, and with such interesting little "a*ha*!" tidbits of information, I find myself wondering what his comments would be on various herbs he has not written about. He is a Wiccan Priest, so he is in tune with that sort of gentle sensiblility, yet his information crosses all lines of religion, to focus on the herbs themselves. He seems to write from long years of experience, not just of repeating lore found in other books. I highly recommend it, particularly to Neo-Pagan herbalists.

I found Bob's book sound and safe but many of the principles such as 'don't eat after 7 pm', still re-inforce the diet mentality that gets so many stuck in this rut in the first place.
I agree with most of what Greene offers, but where he lacks, Deborah Low's book, "The Quest for Peace, Love & a 24-Inch Waist" goes one step further to nurture the spiritual aspect of getting healthy and losing weight.
I used to be overweight and I now manage a womens gym. I know how many people, women in particular, struggle with body image and diets. Different than Bob, Deborah challenges the reader to re-evaluate their diet mentality while inspiring a whole new perspective on staying motivated and getting fit.
I used to recommend Bob's book, but now I use "Quest" with all of my clients who struggle with their weight and I am having great success. Her website is also content rich at deborahlow.com
In my opinion, use anything that helps you make peace with your body. Bob's book is a good start on the physical and emotional side but what about the spiritual? ...

Let's be clear up front: there are no major breakthroughs or miracles in this book. Most every American alive knows what it would take to get fit (exercise) and lose weight (eat less fat and junk). To a certain extent, therefore, "Get with the Program" is just a re-formulation of the hard facts we all know. What Bob Greene has devised is a realistic and relatively painless way of adopting those healthy practices into your life on a long-term basis. There are 4 incremental stages to the program which are simple and designed for each person to follow at their own pace. This means that you don't have to wake up tomorrow morning, starve yourself and run out the door for 2 hours at the gym. Step 1 is simple: start a minimum of aerobic exercise, basic stretches and some abdominal exercises a couple of times a week. Easy enough. Once you've thoroughly incorporated that into your life, you move on to stage 2 where exercise picks up a little. Not until you reach stage 4 do you begin to actively change your eating habits; that can be months or years later. This is a fitness program that isn't intimidating and isn't going to require you to drastically change your whole lifestyle immediately in order to get results and start feeling better about yourself. This means that a lot of people who haven't been successful in weightloss or exercise programs before are finally going to succeed in making long-term changes to their lives. Again, this isn't a radical fad diet (in fact, the nutritional advice is rather skimpy - follow Greene's principals, but don't hesitate to supplement the nutritional info if you need to)- it's about making gradual changes at a pace you can live with.

Greene's concept of physical fitness and health is simple: eat less, move more, and you'll lose weight and feel healthier. It's time to throw away stupid fad diets which cannot be maintained for life. Greene is candid and honest about what it takes to lose weight and increase fitness. This is not a diet, nor a strict exercise plan. Rather, the phased approach to gradually increasing health and fitness makes it easy for even a sedentary individual to make a positive lifestyle change.

Although my level of cardiovascular fitness is decent (I already do the amount that Greene suggests for the final phase), I have always struggled with emotional eating. So much of this book is devoted to simple, easy-to-understand discussion of why people are emotional eaters, and what can be done to change. It has been so helpful; I have completely curbed my emotional binge eating. It hasn't been easy, but Greene's recommendations on a healthy diet have really made a difference.

This book is intended primarily for those who are looking to begin a lifestyle change, but I believe it is appropriate even for those who are already working towards their fitness goals.

Graham Greene writes crisply, and the colours and textures with which he paints an inter-war Brighton are vivid, if uniformly gray and brutal. The story is simple enough: I don't think it's what the characters do as much as what they stand for which interests Greene - for this reason the protagonists are not especially lifelike: Pinky is all brooding, anti-social and violent; absent even a hint of redemption (Greene uses the word 'poisoned' a lot in relation to Pinky), whereas Ida is drawn as a libertine Dickensian harlot whose only motivating moral is the pursuit of fun ' and, somewhat incongruously, really ' justice, for the forsaken Hale. The opposing forces or good and evil are far too contrary to have been meant to be taken at face value.

For all the solemnity of Greene's main object, at times he pulls some surprises: just when the going begins to get truly rough, there is a delightfully comic scene involving a lecherous but repressed lawyer that had me laugh out loud. I haven't seen the film version, but the lawyer, Prewitt would be a peach of a part for some hammy old Shakespearean actor fancying a break into the big time.

The narrative didn't really rivet me; Greene's writing is a bit too artful to be truly exciting, and in places I found Brighton Rock rather too easy to put down. Having said that, what I really admired were the backlights and figurative plays with which Greene makes his point - they exist alongside the plot, so that Greene can say his piece without having to shoehorn it into the story as bluntly as a lesser author might.

This is the second book by Graham Greene that I have read, and found it to be a wonderful book. The symbolism, while at times a bit too obvious, aids Greene in communicating his message - that being, as other's have said, the struggle between "good and evil". While the character's of Pinky, the 17 year old gangster, and Rose, the 16 year old girl who becomes embroiled in Pinky's life, are used to contrast good and evil, Rose and Ida Arnold are utilised by Greene to juxtapose innocence and experience, another of the novel's central themes. I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates the talent's of Greene, and for those who search for more than just a "story" when they read.

I have said it before, and shall say it again - Graham Greene was incapable of writing a bad novel! "Brighton Rock" is yet another miraculous triumph of setting, plot, characterization, thematic unity and everything that makes novels worth reading. In addition, Greene's use of Catholicism and common-sense ethics as coexistent ideologies behind the story, guiding the main characters, gives the novel considerable philosophical weight. One great thing about "Brighton Rock" is that the characters' internal struggles are not simply reducible to good v. evil or right v. wrong, but are asked to distinguish between these two systems.

"Brighton Rock" has two protagonists - Pinkie Brown is a teenage gangster, trying to prove his manhood and establish himself as a serious force in the Brighton underworld. Ida Arnold is a healthy, flirtatious, and determined woman who cannot be dissuaded from any purpose. When corrupt newspaperman Charles Hale is killed by Pinkie's gang, Ida's momentary acquaintance with Hale on a Bank Holiday leads her to pursue the truth surrounding his death. The conflict between Pinkie, who falls into a Calvinist-Catholic defeatism, and Ida, who believes in right and Hammurabian justice(an eye for an eye) shapes the rest of the novel.

Human sexuality and relationships are important facets of "Brighton Rock." Pinkie and Rose, two young Catholics raised in a run-down, predominantly 'Roman' housing project - constantly struggle with maturity, responsibility, and human physicality. While they view sex as 'mortal sin,' Ida, their pursuer, sees it as 'natural,' and celebratory of life. The complex relationship between Pinkie and the equally young and innocent Rose adds further purpose to Ida's mission.

Minor characters like the anemic Spicer, the loyal Dallow, the brusque Cubitt, and the literary lawyer Prewitt, along with Rose's 'moody' parents and his own eternally copulating parents, all complicate Pinkie's inner turmoil - and reveal that Pinkie's supposed manhood is a veil for his inherent weakness and inexperience.

Greene's wealth of literary knowledge also adds texture to the novel as a whole. References to Shakespeare, the 18th century actor and Poet Laureate Colley Cibber, Romantic-era poets like Keats and Wordsworth, Victorian literature (Dickens' "David Copperfield"), and modern magazines and motion pictures casts the novel against a history of British literature. Overall, "Brighton Rock" is typical Greene - expertly written and philosophically provocative.

It was a great book, I think it read the entire book in at least three sittings. It was great, and all I wasnted to do was read it, and then when I got down I was sad!!! I cried over the death of the girl, wouldn't anyone, it's just so sad. The only thing that disappointed me was that I wish it would've been longer, and went on to tell how the sister delt with the death in later years, other that that...perfect.----13-yr-old from WI

I remember reading this book in the 6th grade, I was in my bedroom and when it came to the sad part I was crying so uncontrollably that I needed my mom to hold me! I felt like a close friend had died. It touched me so deeply, in fact I think I will purchase it and read it again. I better get a box of tissues, too. I loved this book. I get misty eyed just thinking about it and I read it over 20 years ago! Excellent book for a young person to help them in dealing with the death of a loved one.

I can't remember whether I saw the TV movie before I read this book, or vice versa. It matters not, because they're both excellent.

I always remembered this book and recently decided to order it from Amazon so I could re-read it. (I found my old childhood copy in my father's basement a month later, so now I have two).

The story is a magificent portrayal of a relationship between two loving, but very different sisters, Kate and Joss. Joss is somewhat of a "free spirit" and Kate clearly envies her that.

It is sweet, soft, gentle and heartbreaking at times, but I highly recommend that this book be in any young girl's (or 36-year-old girl's) book collection.

And, if you ever have the unlikely opportunity to see the TV version starting Melissa Sue Anderson ("Little House on the Prairie" and beautiful Katy Kurtzman (2-time guest-star on "Little House"), you must!

More successful than most of Greene's "entertainments," this comic spy tale set in pre-Castro Cuba concerns an insignificant little man-a vacuum cleaner salesman to be precise-who, against his better judgment, becomes MI6's "man in Havana." A longtime Havana resident, Englishman Jim Wormold is divorced, but the custodian of his beautiful, Catholic teenage daughter, Millie. One day he is approached by Hawthorne-a hilariously daft MI6 agent, whose speech is littered with upper crust slang-who shanghais him into becoming a spy. Although he is resistant to the whole notion, his best friend (a German named Hasselbacher), suggests he simply manufacture his sources and intelligence and take the ample money. Millie's expensive tastes and his own devotion to her result in his succumbing to this temptation, and he spends a few happy weeks inventing subagents and fake intelligence. For the first time in years he's doing something interesting, and no longer has money worries-in the funniest bit, he submits drawings of vacuum cleaner parts as sketches of a new Cuban weapons installation.

Of course, this being Greene, complications arise. He is sent reinforcements from the London office, and must scramble to keep them in the dark as to his deception. At the same time, his inventions seem to be taking on a life of their own as people start dying around him, and somebody seems to think he's a real spy. Integral to all this is the ever-present Captain Seguras, a policeman of some renown as a sadist who seeks Millie's hand in marriage. Although a deep melancholy and tragedy lurks in the background, and there's a rather lame love injected, it remains a delightfully absurd tale, one of Greene's better efforts. One is rather reminded of Joseph Conrad's classic, The Secret Agent, in which an ordinary shopkeeper receives payment as a spy for doing nothing-payments which allow him to keep the company of a beautiful woman-and whose misguided scheme ultimately crumbles around him.

Our Man in Havana takes place in the late fifties, during the Cold War. It tells the story of Wormold, an English, divorced vacuum cleaner salesman in Cuba.

Sales are not very good these days, and when his 17-year-old daughter's latest caprice turns out to be a horse, he knows he can't afford it. That's when he's accosted in the toilets of a local bar by Hawthorne, a cryptic man with an interesting offer: 300$ a month, to become a secret agent. All he has to do is recruit sub-agents and send regular reports to London.

Wormold uses the money to buy presents for his daughter, sending fake reports and sketches of an imaginary war machine from vacuum cleaner designs. Very pleased with his work, the MI6 decide to send him a secretary...

This was my first encounter with Graham Greene's work. I read this book as a background preparation for the Cambridge Proficiency exam, and even though it's not a genre I am used to (I usually read fantasy), I must say I enjoyed it thoroughly. The story is timeless and could as well have happened nowadays, it's funny and sarcastic, and the characters are extremely human. A great experience!

In this novel, set in Cuba in the days before Castro, Mr Greene is at his most ironic. He tells the tale of Jim Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman who lives quietly in Havana and worries about his devoutly Catholic teenage daughter whom he is raising as a single parent. He is unexpectedly recruited, in a public toilet, by the British Secret Service to "keep an eye on things" in Cuba. When no obvious "things" present themselves, Wormold decides to invent agents and situations to pad his reports. But then things start to go wrong and reality begins to mirror fiction.
Graham Greene captures the sleepy, sensual heat of the Caribbean perfectly. His characters are extraordinarily vividly painted and the book lurches wildly from comedy to tragedy to farce, damning the bureaucrats, the police and the sinister, grey men of the secret services along the way. With The Comedians and Brighton Rock this must surely rank as one of Mr Greene's best entertainments.

I am an avid audio book listener. Granted, I'm spoiled by George Guidall's excellent reading of the vast majority of Braun's "Cat Who" series. But Van Patten is a sad failure. Apparently Dove's editorial staff feared correcting him. He pronounces everything wrong: "Klingen-shone" instead of "Klingen-shane," for instance. He pronounces Nick and Laurie's last name "BAMba." The first syllable rhymes with "Tom," not "Pam." Twice he calls Euphonia Gage "Euphoria." He says Qwill will do his one-man Pickax history show for the Senior Care Faculty! He misread "Facility," and no one stopped the tape for another take. He inflects all wrong! He said Qwill "carried the cat coop-out" (meaningless) instead of "carried the cat coop out." What a disappointment for a Braun audio fan!

Qwilleran and the cats rent a house with a lot of closets. Koko is finding skelatons in the closets. An exciting story of murder and crime for unobvious reasons. Qwilleran is burdened with office tasks already, and a few surprise tasks, and now it seems there was a murder. Find out who did it when you read, "The Cat Who Went Into A Closet".

This is the 15th book in the series. I've read them in order and they get better every time. In this one, Qwilleran (and his cats) are looking into two deaths, one of which took place far away in Florida. Of course by the end everything is solved. With some mysteries you can figure out what happened early on but this keeps you guessing and you're solving it right along with Qwill. (Sometimes I pay more attention to Koko's clues than he does, though!) Good light mystery reading for those of us who DON'T like thrills and chills.

This book is about a boy and a girl (main characters). Their names are Beth Lambert and Philip Hall. Beth likes Philip and she wants to find out if Philip really likes her but he won't say anything . Philip beats her in classwork , conniving and just about anything . The story also talks about Beth wanting to go to Philip's birthday but she found out that she can't because he is inviting a lot of boys and he doesn't want to get embarrassed or anything. I liked this book because... I like the relationships between Philp and Beth. I think that you might even like this book because it talks about interesting things like relationships and liking people.

After reading this I found this book was to be classified under "CAN'T PUT DOWN" catagory.This book is a personal favorite of mine.Bette Green deffenitly has a talent for writting juvinile books.The way she places every verb,ajective and noun is amazing,for you feel that you are standing presicilly next to Beth,her friends,Phill and his friends.I will now end my review with one of my favorite paragraphs: 'Ester followed me out on the porch,where there was a rock the size of a crow's nest and sticking to this rock was a sheet of wide-lined paper.I pulled off the paper,which had been stuck on with a wad of gum, and read aloud: 'Dear Pretty Pennies, You ain't pretty! You ain't pennies! And you ain't never going to beat us neither! President Phillip Hall Bravest of all the brave Tiger Hunters and Lt. Gorden Jennings(also Brave) P.S Why wait for the church picnic to relay race? Meet us at the schoolyard on Saturday and we'll win!'

I read and reread this book in the 5th grade -- Beth Lambert was the spunkiest heroine I had ever found. Despite liking Philip Hall, the cutest boy in school, she didn't let him win at comeptitions she was in for the sake of having him like her back.

Not all chapters focused on the charms of Philip Hall. I liked when Beth kept looking to adopt a puppy and was allergic to almost every breed they brought home.

Beth Lambert is an inspiration to all girls, whether they know it or not while they read about her adventures.

Morison was both a true sailor and a true writer. This, his pre-war masterpiece (his WW2 history of the U.S. Navy being his other) was intended for the 450th anniversary of the First Voyage which, sadly, was overshadowed by other events. It remains the standard English-language work on the four voyages of the Admiral (as Morison likes to call him), and it reigns supreme over all other Great Explorer books as the one tome which is doubly literate - both well written and fully conversant in sailing lore. The first point Morison makes is that Columbus did, after all, discover America: Africans, Chinese, Vikings and (obviously) the Indians had encountered it before 1492, but only Columbus got back home to spread the word. Discovery is not just finding something, it's telling everyone else about it. The other early point debunked is that Columbus never "proved" the world was round, as no-one ever doubted it was: his thesis was that the world was not as big as everyone said - therefore China was only a month's sail away. In this, he was utterly, utterly wrong, but the by-product of his error was the unfolding of the New World. Finally, Morison comes to Columbus the man. He was no saint - his treatment of the Carib peoples is a terrible stain on his and his masters' reputations - but as a navigator, few approach his skill, and none his achievements.

What other Author on Columbus was also an Admiral? ... and sailed the same pathways on a clipper ship?... Morison has written many books on Cristobal... and this one is the cadaliac. I have a slip-covered collectors edition, but have bought many used copies to give to friends as gifts (plus a few for myself). If you like truthful history written with style and professionalism... this in a book to own.

This remains the definitive biography of Columbus. Morison was one of the greatest historians ever to practice the craft--his scholarship still holds up today. He was also a master of the written word, unlike most professional historians today.

Morison enumerates the reasons why he admires Columbus, but he also catalogs the man's misdeeds--for example, Morison uses the word "genocide" to describe Columbus's treatment of the Indians as governor of Hispaniola. Morison gives his readers the facts they need to form their own opinion of Columbus. (I do not share Morison's admiration for the man.)

I must correct the astonishingly ignorant remarks of the reviewer who identified himself as "A reader from New York City" and entitled his review "So much ignorance my God..."

Here goes:

1) The reviewer asserted that Morison was not, in fact, an admiral. Actually, Morison did receive the title. FDR made Morison an honorary admiral when he commissioned the scholar to write the naval history of the US role in WWII. (Morison produced a 12-volume epic. It's still in print.)

2) The reviewer regurgitates a number of questions about Columbus's origins that he apparently drew from another book by a revisionist historian (Kirkpatrick Sale?). The questions the reviewer repeats are good ones, but they are questions that remain open because the evidence to answer them conclusively probably does not exist. If the reviewer were a trained historian, he might understand that.