The book I thought I wanted to read would have been called "Surviving Divorce." Throughout the long years of a failing marriage I often wished my ex-husband had died, and I expect he thought the same about me.
It was a surprise for me to discover how many of Esther's experiences had been like mine. Like her, I found myself living with loss, having to manage on my own, having to rebuild a life for myself and my adult children. I was going to write that I did not go through a period of mourning but that was not true. Recently I heard that there are creative ceremonies and ritual for divorce. Esther, as a widow and a clinical psychologist would understand how these could help.
For me, reading this book was like being taken on a boat trip along a stream of thoughts, memories, reflections and amazingly helpful and appropriate literary and biblical quotations.

I happened upon Esther Goshen-Gottstein's book on widows after two close friends' husbands died. I was searching for a helpful book to suggest. I read SURVIVING WIDOWHOOD before suggesting it and found it most useful. Goshen-Gottstein has a solid social psychology background which allows her to step away from her own experience of widowhood and relate to the larger issue of loss. She always returns to her personal story and in a most human way describes how her life has changed since her husband's death. Although I have never been widowed, I think reading the book has made me more sensitive to what my friends are going through and more able to be helpful to them.

Having sadly joined the ranks of widowhood, I found this book to be much more than a confirming description of my own situation. The book helped me to evaluate my own life at this juncture and to move on in a positive and productive direction. At the same time, Goshen-Gottstein points out pitfalls and validates emotions which only another widow can appreciate. It is an instructive on how to assess one's own reality and how to move on to a rich, fulfilling and independent life while never forgetting the circumstances creating that new reality. "Surviving Widowhood" is a positive "up beat" book which encourages an energetic approach to a new life. The book is a "must read" for a widow who needs to find her way in life devoid of self pity and full of promise for the future.

Compiled by Larry Goshen with the assistance of Mark Shaw, Let The Good Times Roll: An Anthology Of Indiana Music - Rock, Pop, Jazz & Country is a straightforward listing of dozens and dozens of Indiana singers, bands and music teams, offering very brief descriptions and illustrated with black-and-white photographs. Ranging from Michael Jackson; Axl Rose, and Hoagy Carmichael, to Janet Jackson, David Baker, and The Faith Band, Let The Good Times Roll is a simple and "user friendly" reference which is organized by decades from the 50s to the 90s with chapters dedicated to "Country and Western Guys and Gals"; "Jazzmakers"; and "Indiana Notables".

Larry Goshen's historical perspective of Indiana music is terrific. He not only features the knowns such as Michael Jackson, John Mellencamp, Wes Montgomery, and Cystal Gayle, but the unknowns like Dow Jones and the Industrials, P. S. Dump Your Boyfriend and many others. This book is a treasure chest of memories.

I have a feeling this book is going to be hard to get ahold of pretty soon. It's selling like hotcakes at Denny's and for good reason. Bill Goshen served with Company F, 52nd Infantry (LRP)/I Company, 75th Infantry (Ranger) for the Big Red One. It's a miracle this guy is still alive. Grievously wounded in early 1969, Bill spent many months in hospital recovering from wounds. At Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX, Goshen was awarded the silver star. Others weren't so lucky, like Sp4 Bob Law, who threw his body on an enemy grenade to save his comrades in arms. There's plenty of action here, but more significant is how Goshen views the war from the grunt's perspective. Why did our political leaders throw the best of the baby-boom generation into a war in which the enemy was awarded sanctuary bases from which he could attack and to which he could retreat, lick his wounds, and return to fight again? Goshen's anger toward ticket-punching Army higher-ups and the Johnson Administration's ineptitude and disregard for the American soldier serves as biting subtext to Bill's well-written LRRP memoir. By the way, Bill's Postscript is the shortest but most beautiful chapter in the book.

Bill Goshen's new book, War Paint, is well written and comes from the heart. Though I served in Co.F/52nd Inf(LRP) and had DEROS'd before he arrived, I served with and knew many of the men in the stories and have since met others at our unit reunions. I would have proudly served with him as well. Bill does a great job of describing LRP/Ranger tactics, vividly recreates events in which he and others participated, and well describes both the best kind of patrols, and those that went badly. His book also shows how well teams fared when they received great support (which was usually) as well as how lonely 5-6 LRPs/Rangers could be when left entirely without adequate support. In either case, they "carried on with mission". War Paint is an even-handed presentation of the day-to-day lives of our teams, without being macho or macabre. It also depicts the post-war struggles which he has overcome. A good read for those who also enjoyed Gary Linderer's books and the other great LRRP/LRP/Ranger memoirs that have appeared over the past 15 years.

I enjoyed this book for the interesting story line, but also, for the history that is woven into the plot. The novel informs you about the travails of Southerners during the Civil War, and little known facts about Jews in the ante-bellum South. It reminded me of a Michener novel - based so factually on the history of an area, yet, carried by a plot that kept your rapt attention.

As to the comment of the previos reviewer the Rambam never went all the way to Syria for the Allepo Codex since it did not get there in Syria to hundred of years later according to most accounts. The Rambam himself never says that he went to Syria but that he checked the Sefer Torah that was in Egypt.

Most of the time students classical Hebrew or Biblical Hebrew have to use the Leningrad Codex. But: the modern issues of this codex do not mention that the first word of the Tenakh is written with a large Beth. This is one of the many omissions. Maybe due to what might be some sort of anti-semitic background of the original editor, some kind of misunderstanding creeps into the mind of the student who makes use of the Leningrad Codex. Better is the Aleppo Codex which contains all the original notes of the Ben Asher School. This is why Maimonides travelled all the way from Spain to Syria to check this codex . When we read the Bible, even when it is not from a Thorah-Scroll, we see the text, the form and place of the Hebrew letters and the makeup of the page. This gives a certain imprint on our mind; let us say, it influences our sub-consciousness for the better. When we make use of what might be called a non-kosher text, it influences our mind for less then the best. For instance the student of Tenakh then even can be made to believe that The Bible is not of Divine origine - G'd forbid. For this reason and for the completeness it is recommended to use the Aleppo codex for study of the Holy Scriptures. D.G.Ouwehand.

The religious right will definitely not be happy, and to be honest they probably aren't as dangerous or sinister as "Land O' Goshen" would have us believe.

Still, McNair effectively captures the language and spirit of the Bible Belt, no doubt drawing on personal experiences as a Dothan, AL native. And, clearly, he understands the problems that come from placing blind faith in ANY body - left OR right - who seek to control the manner in which people live their lives.

Decidedly liberal - but pleasantly so - this 40-ish writer has largely hit the target about the proper balance between self-determination VS society-fitting behavior. Given the age of the protagonist and his young female companion, the suggested sexuality of this piece is troubling, but also easy to believe. Writing in dialect, southern or otherwise, always risks slowing the reader down and pulling the reader out of the book. That's a minor problem with this piece, but not terribly so. If one reads in larger chunks instead of a few pages at a time, the eyes and mind fall into the rhythm easily enough.

Except for shorter works published in the Black Warrior Review and other venues, this is the first published long-form from this author. A friend and dorm-mate of author Mark Childress while in school at the University of Alabama, McNair has not matched the flow of his chum - but he seems well positioned to come back to "pick up the spare."

Rarely does a writer's first effort garner as much acclaim as Charles McNair's Land O' Goshen. McNair's publishing house thought enough to nominate it for the coveted Pulitzer Prize in Literature.

His formula combines a bit of Mark Twain and maybe -- as some have suggested -- Ray Bradbury. I tend to lean more toward Flannery O'Conner.

The humor in McNair's tale is derived from his irreverent and oft over-the-top description of the icons of life in the south. Those who have never supped on fried chicken, steamed cabbage, sweet potato pie and a sweaty glass of iced tea may have a hard time appreciating much of the home spun humor in McNair's work.

The story details the adventures of the Huck Finn-like Buddy. Buddy does battle with the forces of the Christian right whose leader, the Father, has seized control of the country. His army of Christian soldiers romp around the countryside seeking out those partaking of the vices of cigarette smoking, drinking and other less than lily white activities. While the story is somewhat controversial, even by the author's own admission, the off beat and less-than-serious handling of the subject can make even philosophical detractors enjoy the colorful work of McNair. The story does have the underpinning of a serious social subject matter. In fact it is one that the author feared would have many of the Christian right pounding on his door with pitch forks and torches.

Whether McNair's purpose was to write a compelling tall tale or to make a political statement, only he really knows. My conversations with him tend to lead me to the former. Let's hope McNair's next work is up to the same level of descriptive language and tale-telling, but maybe with a more universal story concept. I for one will look forward to it. Maybe something about a baseball player?

Charles McNair's novel Land O'Goshen is one of the most unusually entertaining books I have ever read. I find myself referring to it often as a source of inspiration in the art of creativity for both myself and my students. I have had the great pleasure of hearing Mr. McNair read from his novel and that experience truly brought the book to life. Each year my students beg me to read it to them and I try to emulate his style of "performing" the work. If I could only get him to visit my classroom and share with my students his thoughts on writing, his use of language, and his incredibly entertaining way with words-both written and spoken !

This book (which only covers Isaiah chapters 1-22) tells you everything you could want to know about the accuracy of the published Hebrew text. It prints the text from the 10th century Aleppo codex, plus variants from the Septuagint, Vulgate, Dead Sea Scrolls, Talmud, other Rabbinic sources and several mediaeval manuscripts. Invaluable, but almost impossible for the layman (or laywoman)to decipher.