This was the most enjoyable Goldilocks I have ever read. It is short yet tells the whole story, with expression and the sweetest pictures,with wonderful details.

My husband is a nephew of Jesse Benton's and I read this book out of curiousity, but was very pleased to find it a fascinating read. She was a great lady and important to the history of this county and as well as having many amazing adventures. Although the subject matter could have been dry, Pamela Herr makes it interesting while giving you much historical information. You have a feeling of being in the places and at the time she is describing. You will soon realize that in another time, Jesse Benton would have made a far greater mark on history. This book was more satisfying than many novels I have read and will be passed on to all the young women in our family.

...We used this to keep our toddler busy on a recent trip and it was great. There are mazes, hidden objects, connect-the-dots, word scrambles, matching, counting, coloring and word search activities. answers are included. Great deal!

California's 150th anniversary as a state has come and gone with very little fanfare. The reasons for the lack of celebration were vague and sinister. Were the early settlers guilty of such atrocities as to be censored from public record? Were the northern Mexican territories prized for greedy land expansion by the United States? What were the intentions of the other world powers: the English, the French, and the Russians? Or, was discovering and mapping the mythical Buenaventura River the singular goal of Fremont's pathfinder expeditions? Historians cloud over these issues with terms like "Manifest Destiny", "Greed for Land", and "Gold Rush".

The Mexican-American War was fought on four fronts: Texas, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, and in California. Although hostilities didn't officially begin until June 1846, President Polk laid the foundation for expansion to the Pacific in his inaugural address in 1845, and implemented his plan in November. In today's era of instant communications, it must be remembered that communications with the coast of California took up to six months 160 years ago. Ship Captains and Army Commanders were given secret orders well in advance of any planned campaign. Lieutenant Fremont had secret orders in the event of hostilities and many historians have tried to interpret Fremont's previous writings to ascertain these orders during his expeditions in California.

John Charles Fremont was a major figure in the history of the United States. He was the first Republican candidate for the President of the United States. He was a Major General in the Union Army and the first to proclaim the abolition of slavery. He was a wealthy California gold mine owner. And he served public office as Senator for California and Governor for Arizona. This book does not delve on these aspects of his life. These were to be the subjects included in volume two, which was never written. This book does include all of his official explorations as a topographical engineer from his journeys with Nicollet until the cessation of hostilities in California. It leaves out much of the technical information on plants and fossils, which was included in his earlier works. And it adds letters and other public documents to support the decisions he made in California during the Mexican-American War.

California became the 31st state of the United States. Only a handful of men were major contributors to this outcome. John Charles Fremont was one of these men and this is his own record of events.

This peek a boo book is perfect reading for our baby. She loves the game peek a boo at this age and this book is perfect for her. She loves to turn the mirror around and see the "other" baby.

The resplendent writing style is what nourishes the readers' attention in these exploration narratives of John Fremont. His exploring responsibilities were to map and survey the American West, and gather scientific data on geology, botany, zoology, geography and natural resources. In addition to these responsibilities, he was to observe Native American cultures and suggest locations for future military forts for the protection of the soon to be thousands of overland emigrants. These exploration narratives are a total pleasure to read, being very descriptive, vivid and realistic as to their day to day existence. Fremont and his expeditions covered thousands of miles, gathering a plethora of information for future generations and setting the tone for westward migrations. The first one to coin the phrase "Great Basin" because of his exploration efforts; put an end to the mythical Buenaventura River legend which was suppose to be a major waterway connecting the Rockies with the Pacific; and discoverer of Lake Tahoe. He and his men suffered through hunger, thirst, frigid temperatures, snow, Indian confrontations, etc. Should have access to a map however, as this version does not contain one. Excellent book. Highly recommend.

This is a wonderful book about real people and the triumph of the human spirit. It takes one far beyond any experience possible by watching some of the virtual reality efforts on TV to portray the pioneering experience. This is a must read for those who want to experience the triumph of the human spirit over adversity, the formation of a true community and the compassion inherent in the human sole.

John Fremont's life reads like a Shakespearean tragedy. Starting in poverty and successively riding waves of amazing success only to be followed by equally amazing blunders, Fremont's life is a study in how to be one's own worst enemy. One of the subsequent followers of Lewis and Clark in exploring the American West, he makes three separate explorations that in total really puts the original 1803 expedition to shame. First Republican Presidential Candidate, California's first U.S. Senator, a multimillionaire during the California Gold Rush and a ranking Union general at the outbreak of the Civil War, he is also dragged home after the war with Mexico from California in chains, is responsible for the annihilation of one of his Western expeditions, is relieved of command by Lincoln after ignoring a Presidential directive and dies alone in comparative poverty after begging Congress for a pension.

This is a fascinating life and Nevins does a remarkable job of very unbiased research. You will either love Fremont or hate him or, more likely, simply feel sorry for him.

John Charles Fremont (1813-1890) was an American explorere, soldier and first Republican presidential candidate. This book is the classic biography and encyclopedia reference for "further reading," originally published in 1939 as a two-volume set. It is excelled only by Fremont's actual journals and maps, available in four volumes from large city and college libraries: Spence, Mary Lee & David Jackson, "The Expeditions of John Charles Fremont." Nevins tells of a 1926 interview with Major Frank P. Fremont and his experience extracting notes from the few remaining original journals that weren't destroyed by a warehouse fire. I've researched Fremont histories since 1980 and have visited many of the sites that are accurately described in this book. This is the best. Steve Stumph, Salt Lake City, 9-Jan-1999

Miguel Torga is the pseudonym of Adolfo Correia da Rocha, a Portuguese writer born in Trás-os-Montes, a remote, desolate, poor region of the country, a place from which many natives were to emigrate in search of a better future. Miguel Torga became known first through the transcendent beauty of his poems, but his literary work also includes diaries and short stories. The last is the case of "Tales from the Mountain," a collection of short stories focused on the way of life and the people of his native land. Miguel Torga remained throughout his life sentimentally rooted to this region, he created a myth of Trás-os-Montes, a lost paradise of his early childhood, a place he was forced to leave but whose prints remained forever embedded in his mind.

These short stories have a "universal regionalism" which becomes more poignant if the reader has been to "Trás-os-Montes." Narration is in the third person, and in a tragic tone the author laments for the life of those who have been left alone to face their relentless destiny.

Far from embracing the cute multicultural stories of a elizabeth vasconcelos or a nino ricci, Torga writes about a remote area of Portugal, Tras os Montes with an unflinching, bitter view point. The lives of these people lead are hard and very rarely does he poeticize their hard labours. A rugged landscape which is difficult to grow anything, makes for a harsh people. However, Torga does imbue many stories with wonderful history and culture which transcend the mundane existence of his characters. Alma Grande is an especially beautiful and painful story of a cryptic community of Jews who hide their religion from the other community of Catholics. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read not only good fiction, but to anyone who would benefit by knowing some of the customs and attitudes of a people who leave in a remote area of a beautiful country.

The writing of Torga, in this book as in many others, is geographically confined to Tras-os-Montes, a rough and unyielding region of Portugal, if one of the two most awe inspiring ones (along with Alentejo); and it takes place during the times of the dictatorship in Portugal. However, the content of the tales is transcendent, both of time and space, as it delivers, with its situations and characters, an earthly portrayal of the human being, a rough sketch of the human condition, somewhat like the portraits of Rembrandt can also be regarded as an analysis of the human face.

It's not until Helen Fremont is an adult that she discovers that her Polish parents, whom she always believed were Catholic, were in fact both Jewish by birth. Because surviving World War II had been so difficult for them, neither wanted to share details of their past with Helen or her sister Lara until the daughters started researching family history for themselves.

AFTER LONG SILENCE is a fascinating story of survival against great odds, yet the focus of the story keeps coming back to the author and her sister. Throughout the heartbreaking story of Helen's family, it somehow seems as if it's told through the eyes of the author instead the mother. Much of the historical context is missing, such as a thorough description of the town in which her parents lived, a closer look at extended family and friends, and a clearer picture of wartime atrocities. It's agonizing to realize the extent to which Helen's parents, at first very unwillingly, had to open up to share their

painful past with her. It's also disturbing for the reader to learn that the book is about family secrets rather than a clear picture of one family's history. Nevertheless, as a gripping saga of survival in World War II Poland, this book should be read to learn of yet another way one particular family was able to get through a most gruesome time in recent history.

As the son of a survivor, I read this book differently than most. I understand the author's parents need for silence. I also understand the destructiveness of it on the survivors and their children. Ms. Fremont has created a wonderful framework for the telling of HER story.

Those who read this just for the story of her parents are missing the point of writing the book. The silence of her parents - like many survivors of the Shoa - cannot be completely broken, so admittedly the author 'fills in' or 'imagines' details so painful that her parents are unable or unwilling to remember.

This novel is an exploration into the author's movement OUT OF SILENCE. She skillfully represents this personal growth by sharing with the reader her journey into her family's and her own past. It is during this journey as she questions why her parents kept so silent that she puts herself to the ultimate test and breaks her own conspiracy of silence to her parents and family about her sexual orientation. Bravely she works to stop all the silences of her family - silence of Shoa experiences, silences of avoiding one's true identity - so that they may no longer live in the shadow that silence casts.

The book is to be applauded as a journey to self truth. A journey we are always on and must always work at.

Read the book as a tool to remove your own silences.

This is a fascinating book. As for accuracy, this book is creative non-fiction and does not matter if it is accurate according to history-- but rather what does a person remember happening?

The silence surrounding the whole idea of who the author is devastating, and how it ties into her own identity of how she is a lesbian is even more interesting. The parent's silence about who they are is sadly enough, understandable, if not damaging to their children who suspect for years that something is not right.

As one person wrote previously, why did the author write this? This subject of silence and suppresion of one's own identity is certainly a far-reaching theme and one that most everyone could relate to. Why does anyone write, for that matter? She tells a fascinating, tragic, and beautiful story and I certainly don't think she needs a reason to share it.