I finished this book well over a year ago and still find myself ruminating upon its characters and images. I loved this book.

I read this as a 50+ year old woman and smiled as I heard terms from my youth... ASC office, diverted acres, "they are in the fields and we aren't", the dust the farmers breathed ( and I'm sure led to my dad's cancer), farming well into the winter, the neighbors seeing your crops STILL in the fields, farmers choosing Deere over Internat'l, dress clothes being a seed company's windbreaker, confinement hog operation, etc. Kurtz captured the scene perfectly, tho I did grow weary of the "romance" as Arthur finally labeled it. A very good read for me.

I read this book when it first came out. I loved every part of it. During the days I read it, I actually felt as though I was out in the farmland among these characters. Sadly, I have been trying to find books of similar writing and settings, but it hasn't panned out. Hopefully, more books of equal caliber are on the way from this talented author.

Sallyann Murphey and Chronicle Books should have permitted themselves to believe that such a fluid, well-composed fitionalized history of the American experience from the points-of-view of women could be enjoyed and popularized, and be a commercial success, even if it were acknowledged to be fictional at the outset.
The writer, artists and publisher have done a masterful job of putting together this charming volume. It has flow and momentum, joy and sadness, sentimentality and a love of American life in different historial periods. It would make a wonderful motion picture.
It is certainly a delightful way to teach and illustrate American history through the eyes, sewing stiches and buttons, recipes (receipts) and celebration plans of women family members and the American(ized) woman's experience.

I bought this as a gift, but had to read the entire thing first! It's a really lovely story of generations of women & how they lived. The author speaks from different perspectives, changing with the times the characters live in. It's full of fascinating details about daily life in the past century. You'll get wrapped up in this fictional family's life, & it might inspire you to create your own family album.

This is a great book about the history of one family. It made me wish I had some sort of family journal. This is a great wedding present.

Worth reading as a start to getting historical background on which to base further study.

It has taken me several months to finish off this huge book, but the experience of learning so much has been very rewarding. This is quite simply the best nonfiction book I've ever read, and this on a topic as complex as the Middle East conflict, no less. Tessler's work is completely unbiased and offers an incredibly detailed presentation of the facts up to Fall 1993, after the Oslo accords were announced.

Tessler, an American professor, writes in a straight-forward style that is easily understandable. Although the sheer volume of history covered in the book was considerable, I never found myself bored by the writing. I wish my high school history books were written so well.

Like a good academian (in the very best sense of the term), he presents the facts clearly. For each historical event, he cites several credible sources stating the event, and for retrospective analysis of its importance, he cites opinions from multiple sides. The build-up to the 1967 war, for example, consumes 20 pages and 50 citations. His use of references is so thorough that of the book's 900+ pages, 93 pages are endnotes.

I only have a few minor negative remarks about this book:

1. Obviously, since the book was published in 1994, it is not up to date and does not cover the break-down of the negotiations from the Oslo accords. However, historical facts prior to 1993 have not changed (at least not in the Orwellian sense, thank goodness), and this book does an outstanding job for its time frame as I have said.

2. There are no photos at all, save for the picture on the cover.

3. For a topic so centered on geography, the quality of the maps is surprisingly poor. There are 20 maps showing the important boundaries and such, but these look like they were drawn by a high school art student. A single high-detail, atlas-quality map from 1994 would have been appropriate as well. Instead, I found some colour maps on the web that I printed out and keep folded in the book to use as a quick reference.

A much more recent book that I also highly recommend that covers these three points (recentness, photos, and maps) is _The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Crisis in the Middle East_ by Reuters journalists. That book is filled with beautiful photography, nice maps, and is up-to-date to March 2002. It makes a great companion to this book.

Overall, this book by Tessler is outstanding. Although its size may be a bit daunting, you will thank yourself for reading this book.

I agree with all the 5 star reviews totally. This is one of the few books on the subject that actually deserves to be called "unbiased". That is why I am truly puzzled by the negative review below that says that this book has a strong Pro-Israeli bias. The person obviously never read the book. In reality, Tessler's work paints a rather unpleasant portrait of both sides, so the accusation made by the reader is absolutely absurd. In any case, this book is extremely thorough. All of the arguments made by both sides are presented and discussed. I have no idea why this book is not better known. It is an amazing reference guide to those who want to look beyond the headlines and beyond all those simplistic comments regularly made by Israeli and Palestinian goevernment spokesmen.

I've read many of novel's., but Mr. McNairy's is one of the best that I have seen in awhile.. I read a lot of books., but there are only 2 author's that I will read everything from., well., after reading this novel Mr. McNairy has been added to that list of author's.!! And I am patiently awaiting another novel to come out.!!

I couldn't put it down . . . riveting. McNairy captures the essence of police drama.

A Fantastic fictional story. Mr. McNairy uses his police background and his imagination to devize a great novel. It's a book you can not put down once you begin. This diffently is a must read novel.

The reader from Indianapolis may be interested to know that there has been a book written about Steven Judy called "Burn Judy Burn." Pretty good but hard to find. Some former child actor optioned it but it was never made into a movie. I have friend whose brother-in-law spent the night in the same Indianapolis apartment as the Goodbar Killer when he was on the lam from New York. Brush With Murder, would make a good book. This book on the Likens case is easier to follow that The Basement. The mother was paroled from prison about a decade ago. I think she may have died since then.

I have read this book on several occasions and have found it to be one that was both bold and accurate in an account of a crime that should not have happen. I would recommend this book to those wishing to try an understand "how" crimes of this nature could actually occur and "why" they occur. I have researched this drama for years and found only one thing that I did question. I thought the note that was written by Sylvia to her parents was signed "Your daughter, Sylvia Likens". This book, says the note was unsigned. I have found it the best book written on this case.

A riveting, and very well-written book, about a horrifying story, that makes you want to puke about how low humans can sink. The book has a construction-paper cover, and is very home-made looking, so it was a surprise to crack it open and find the contents are so much better than your average Random House or Simon and Schuster slick volume. I'd put this book up there with Truman Capote's IN COLD BLOOD, which is a true-crime classic. This book shows how cruelty by some, mixed with apathy by others, can have horrendous consequences.

what do you get when you take murder, visions of the virgin mary, and a reporter who refuses to shrug off these events as coincidence? you get Second Advent, featuring nick bertetto as a stay-at-home dad/reporter who, while trying to keep his marriage intact, is also trying to solve the string of murders in small town clinton, indiana and their connection to sightings of mary.

if you like your men of mystery sensitive, caring, and damn smart, then you'll love nick! tony perona is an up and coming author in the genre - i know we'll be seeing more of him.

When protagonist Nick Bertetto isn't out solving mysteries, he's a stay-at-home dad. Remember when Nora Ephron wrote about "a sensitive, intelligent man who doesn't mind a little cellulite"? Well, I don't know about the cellulite, but Nick is sensitive and intelligent and manly without being macho. In other words, you'll enjoy being in his company, you'll enjoy the other characters you meet along the way, and you'll enjoy the tour of Indianapolis and environs that Nick takes you on. I hope this turns into a series!

I'm ordinarily not a fan of this genre, and I'd never have read this one by some unheralded author if it weren't for a twist of fate that made me do it.
But I was surprised, no, shocked that I was presented with a character that was both smart and likeable, palpaply real and just quirky enough. The humor was gentle and well-timed. The narrative voice was developed, sure, and invisible. And the story was ...well, I won't spoil it for you.
If you like mysteries, gobble this one up. If you don't, just read it anyway.

Because of my name, many have asked me over the years if I was familiar with Gene Stratton-Porter's book, "Michael O'Halloran". As a boy, I was given a copy containing the pen and ink drawings and stills from the "photoplay" and have treasured it since (I do not know if modern editions contain either set of illustrations). Re-reading it as an adult, I am still charmed by this tale of an orphaned newspaper seller who asks nothing of the world except to "be square". It is easy to overlook major holes in the plot (for example, we never do know what is wrong with Peaches other than she is sick and can't walk), when we are presented with such a vivid description of American life in 1914 - even if some of the city scenes don't quite ring true. Though the characters suffer many hardships, the overall tone is so upbeat that it's easy to see why this book outsold "Pollyanna" in 1916. Stratton-Porter's skill as a naturalist make the country scenes especially vibrant. Her ear for dialog is unsurpassed showing the reader that, if life in America wasn't like this, it should have been. Having read this book, I am ready to believe that children and adults did speak this nicely to each other once upon a time. You, too, will wonder if the world wouldn't be a lot better off if everyone could just "be square".

Because of my name, many have asked me over the years if I was familiar with Gene Stratton-Porter's book, "Michael O'Halloran". As a boy, I was given a copy containing photo stills from the movie and have treasured it since. Re-reading it as an adult, I am still charmed by this tale of a young newspaper seller who asks the world to "be square". It is easy to overlook major holes in the plot (for example, we never do know what is wrong with Peaches other than she is sick and can't walk) when we are presented with such a vivid description of American life in 1914 - even if some of the city scenes don't quite ring true. Through many hardships, the tone is so upbeat that it's easy to see why this book outsold "Pollyanna" in 1916. Stratton-Porter's skill as a naturalist make the country scenes especially vibrant. Her ear for dialog is unsurpassed showing the reader that, if life in America wasn't like this, it should have been. Having read this book, I am ready to believe that children and adults did speak this nicely to each other once upon a time. You, too, will wonder if the world wouldn't be a lot better off if everyone could just "be square".

I loved this story! I read it first when I was 17 or so and had already read many of the author's works. Michael has such an appreciation for life, and his "squareness" and determination to keep his family together in the face of poverty, illness, and wellmeaning interference really brings home how important family is. This story contrasts city life and country life--and makes you long for the country! The fresh, homegrown food, the clean breezes, the room to stretch and grow, the creeks with gravelly bottoms and nibbling minnows! This book will appeal to anyone who yearns for the simple life.

Penrod Schofield is a very bad little boy. Well it is not even that he is a bad child it is just that he gets blamed for every thing that happens; for instance when his sisters dress disappears and ends up in dukes dog house and Penrod got blamed for it even though duke took it. He enjoys writing, and playing with his dog Duke who is almost always with him. Penrod thinks of himself as the class clown and tends not to be very truthful. Penrod has an unimportant role in the school production of The Round Table, but do not tell him that because he thinks if he dose not go the show will not go on with out him. Through out the book Penrod grows up a lot in my opinion for example he tell his father the truth at the end of the book which I did not think would happen. He does get in a lot of trouble whether it's eating too much candy or squealing on his sister.

I did not like Penrod because it was in my opinion aimed more for boys and not as much towards girls or maybe it was just me but I was not entertained through out the whole book. There were most definitely parts I liked for example parts were Penrod is in conversation; one part I did not like was the excerpts from Penrod's book about how Mr. Wilson is killed. I liked the conversational parts because through out the book you are kind of in Penrod's head, and I did not like that. But in conversation you sort of get both views from both people not just what Penrod thinks. Don't lie because no one will believe you even if you are right, that is the moral of this story. I hope my review helped.

The Penrod series of novels is one of the most effective evocations of the experience of being a child ever written. They deal with the daily life and trials of a boy of eleven and twelve in turn of the century (1900) Indiana. The humor is found in the petty hypocrisies of the adults and the naivete of the children and how those two things intertwine. If you have ever day-dreamed in school or yearned for the favor of the prettiest girl in your class, you will appreciate these stories. NB. They are period pieces of the purest kind, so you should expect terms and attitudes to reflect the age from which they come.

"Penrod" is a great novel -- interesting, enlightening, profound, grandiloquent and one of the most hilarious books ever written.

Aspects of the subject matter, however, while generally accepted in the early 1900s and treated kindly herein by the author, would simply not fly under today's political-correctness coercion. As far as popular literature is concerned, it is effectively a banned book. Consequently, "Penrod" eventually will fade from general literary consciousness, and linger only in the memories of those who truly appreciate a fine novel.

Not quite up to "Penrod," but still a lot of fun. The ending lacks the satisfaction of that of its predecessor--but there's no way it could match THAT.

Another collection of tales about Penrod Schofield and his playmate Sam. Together, the two of them get into more trouble than Dennis the Menace and the Little Rascals combined.

The tales contained weren't as interesting as the original Penrod however I was laughing out loud a time or two. Tarkington has the mannerisms down pat for a twelve year-old boy living around the WW1 area.

This book is listed as a juvenile book, however, I wouldn't recommend it for children unless they weren't afraid of dictionaries and some politically incorrect references to African-Americans. There is also a chilling tale about Penrod and Sam finding an old gun in Sam's father's drawer and what occurred with it. Too real in today's world, however the result of the tale was sobering.

This is a fine story about young boys growing up. There is a great deal of humor in it, much that is common to little boys. I think that is what makes a book like this so funny. I can relate to it.
However, the electronic version needs to be proofread to remove the countless spelling and punctuation errors. It is a shame that nowadays with all the tools available that editing of this kind is done. Whoever put the e-book together should be ashamed of their lousy work.

What can I say? This book is all right; It has an interesting plot and it's worth reading. However, it comes up a bit short when you consider that it's about the one, the only, Indiana Jones. I mean, there just isn't enough action on his part. The book seems to be centered on confusedly wandering around the desert, and there's too much talking. The main detail that makes this book worth reading is the alicorn. It is probably my favorite artifact yet, because of how it can bring both good and evil, and how it's owner's usually die of...but that would be telling.

. . . it just started into some weird ideas, even for an Indy book. I liked the stuff about the ancient cavern and all that. Is there a pattern? It seems like a lot of OTHER archeologists are nothing but grave-robbing crooks. Oh well. Still a good read. Keeps you interested.

Wow, I am amazed at this novel. Rob MacGregor did a fine job at capturing the entire man that is Indiana Jones in this book. Not only adventure, romance, and entrigue (which it had all three), but also the man behind the whip and hat. This is the book that made me decide to read the entire Indy novel series by MacGregor, Caidin, and McCoy. It truly was a helluva ride!