Review of In Pursuit of Life [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

So daring and exotic are Erik Hazelhoff's adventures and so strange are some of the coincidences, that if this were fiction, a reader might be excused for finding it "unrealistic." Yet this is the story of a real man who has believed all his life in challenging fate, forging ahead, doing what he had to do, and not looking back. Unwilling to accept "impossibilities," he has constantly challenged the status quo, often in wildly heroic actions. Seemingly fearless, he learned from his earliest childhood in Dutch Java that Fear dwelt in a Black Cave, but "you must defy him, and a pebble in your mouth will protect you." Hazelhoff has spent his entire life with a pebble in his mouth, boldly marching past Black Caves which have swallowed lesser men.

A consummate writer whose first article was published when he was only sixteen, Hazelhoff vividly, often humorously, and always candidly recreates his childhood in Java and his various lives as a ranch hand in Argentina, as a law student in Leiden, as a friend of Queen Wilhelmina during her World War II exile in England, and as a member of the Dutch underground during the German Occupation. Eventually, despite poor eyesight, he became a pilot for the RAF, making many bombing runs over Germany as a Pathfinder pilot. An aide to Queen Wilhelmina after she returned to Holland, he also managed to work in Hollywood, where as Erik Drake, he had some screen roles. As a VP for the fledgling NBC, he worked both in news and in advertising, headed Radio Free Europe, wrote a book about his war experiences, and even engaged in oil exploration off the coast of Israel. In each of these "incarnations," he had adventures galore, always defying fate and accepting whatever happened without complaints and "what-ifs."

Throughout this exciting and beautifully written autobiography, Hazelhoff reveals his belief in core values. He defends his country, honors his word, shows genuine respect for those worthy of it, and refuses to take himself seriously. His autobiography reveals him to be one of the genuine heroes of the 20th century, though he would probably be embarrassed to be considered one, and his notes on his late years, in which he contemplates his own death, are both poignant and memorable for his revelations of what he has learned and the manner in which he will, some day, face the Black Cave. This is a book which has something for everyone, containing personal insights on history, observations about society, and revelations of the personal philosophy which has allowed him to become, over the course of eighty-plus years, an inspiration to men and women of all cultures and all ages. Mary Whipple

Product Description
This compelling autobiography offers a dramatic description of one man's truly extraordinary life. It radiates outwards from the Second World War in which Dutchman Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema served as a secret agent with the Special Operations Executive, a bomber pilot with the RAF's elite Pathfinder Force, and after receiving the Dutch equivalent of the Victoria Cross, as aide and confidante to Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. His adventures after the war were no less turbulent and spanned the globe - from sales clerk and actor in Hollywood to blockade runner off New Guinea; vice-president of NBC to bum in New York's Central Park; Director of Radio Free Europe for the CIA to oil prospector in Israel - and above all, a writer.

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Review of My Mother My Friend Forever (Paperback)

Betty Gonzales' book starts out with a total misrepresentation of the facts.Here is what she says happened "I received a call from my mother who lived out of state, to "come and get me now".Hearing the urgency in her voice I drove to California the very next day.She was waiting on the porch, wearing a flowered duster,looking a little disheveled holding her purse in one hand and a plastic bag of `clothes'with the other."

If Betty is willing to lie about this situation, how many more recounts of what happened could be fictitious?I am not sure.But as someone who actually knows the facts, my grandma was well cared for and loved by many in California, and to suggest otherwise is a complete falsehood.The situation Betty recounts is not at all how it happened.In fact, anyone who knows what happened would be appalled at this mischaracterization.I have no desire to recount the true story, it's too long and complicated, but suffice to say, I feel so strongly about this, I am not worried about liable, because what I am saying is the actual truth.My grandma was well cared for in countless ways.I hope Betty Gonzales, puts out a new edition of this book, which would possibly include what really happened, and how she really treated so many of grandma's loved ones.

Product Description
In the Year 1918 the average price of a home was under five thousand dollars.A new car could be purchased for less then four hundred dollars; a loaf of bread for ten cents and a postage stamp for three cents.World War I was coming to an end and the first woman of a major party ran (unsuccessfully) for a Senate seat but most importantly this was the year my mother was born!Her journey extended for almost eight-eight years.Her last six years became the most profound, soul-searching and inspiring years of my life.Her courage, faith and sense of humor brought us, mother and daughter, full circle.Her disease could not conceal her undying faith and strengthened mine beyond my expectations.This disease that I thought would swallow me up, with its many mysterious twists and turns surprisingly did not.It renewed my spirit.It enabled me to value life; each breath to its fullest extent.Astonishingly, it also brought many years of laughter and joy.As her caregiver I was to embark on my own journey; of the most unimaginable lessons I had yet to learn and we became soul-mates.

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Review of My Life Closed Twice: Surviving a Double Loss (Paperback)

"My Life Closed Twice" is one of the best books I have read dealing with the anguish of loss of loved ones.In Ms. Schocket's case, the loss was a double one: husband and son within 24 hours.How anyone could cope with such a one-two punch is almost beyond comprehension.But Ms. Schocket does it superbly well - with courage, honesty, candor and completely devoid of self pity.What she has achieved is a book that provides great comfort to those who need both support and inspiration as they, too, travel a simliar road.There is very little in grief literature on double loss.Ms. Schocket's book is an important and essential contribution on that subject.
It is a "must" read for anyone who seeks a path to a meaningful life without their loved one.Having lost my own 36 year old son, I felt that someone had taken me by the hand and put a comforting arm around my shoulder after reading "My Life Closed Twice".Life goes on, albeit differently.Ms. Schocket's book shows us how and somehow puts it all in perspective.

Marcia T. Seifert, CLU
Director, Corporate Services
Society of Financial Service Professionals

Product Description
My Life Closed Twice is a non-fiction work of great depth and emotion chronicling the life of one woman following the deaths of her husband and son within 24 hours of each other. Told with hope and humor, this inspirational story says something about how an ordinary person survives extraordinary tragedy-without drugs, psychiatry, or a nervous breakdown. Interweaving episodes from her past, author Sandra Klamkin Schocket speaks to readers who must build new lives, not just in response to death, but after divorce, illness, or loss of job or home.

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Review of Once I Was a Princess: A Mother's Worst Nightmare (Paperback)

WOW! This is one amazing true life story!
Jacqueline takes you through her childhood full of abuse, into her teen years of peace, and then into a nightmare marriage to a Malaysian prince who abused her both physically and mentally.
There is so much to this book that I could go on and on and on... All I can say is this is not a book to passed by if you like to read good books!


Product Description
Can you imagine what it would be like to be swept off your feet by a royal prince to live a charmed life in the marble palaces of an oil-rich nation - and then to watch your fairy-tale romance turn into a nightmare of Islamic superstition, isolation, betrayal and abuse? What would you do if you managed to escape your life of torment - and then your children were kidnapped by their own father? This is what happened to Jacqueline Pascarl. In "Once I Was a Princess", Jacqueline recounts her part in this controversial, headline-grabbing international drama with heart-rending honesty.

About the Author
After many years of working and commuting between war zones, Jacqueline Pascarl has now settled in her home town of Melbourne, Australia, with her new husband.

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Review of The Family Silver: A Memoir of Depression and Inheritance (Hardcover)

I LOVED this book.Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down.

I grew up in the same Boston suburb as the author, in a family spiraling in similar downward economic mobility, and I'm about the same age as the author, so many of her experiences mirrored my own.Her mirror brought me surprising clarity and compassion with regard to my parents' struggles and the impact their struggles had on my own growing up.

I'm a psychologist now.When I look at this book from my professional viewpoint, as someone who treats and writes about depression, I also feel that it's a terrific resource.I will be recommending it to adults I treat for recurrent depressive episodes.

The author's depressions started when she was an adolescent, and continued intermittently through much of her adult life.Watching her gain understanding and mastery over this depressive tendency gave me a deeper understanding of how I can help the depressed individuals with whom I work.

BRAVO to the author, and thanks!

Product Description
Finding herself struggling with depression ("like a rude houseguest, coming and going of its own accord"), Sharon O'Brien set out to understand its origins beyond the biochemical explanations and emotional narratives prevailing in contemporary American culture. Her quest for her inheritance took her straight into the pressures and possibilities of American culture, and then to the heart of her family-the generations who shaped and were shaped by one another and their moment in history. In The Family Silver, as O'Brien travels into her family's past, she goes beyond depression to discover courage, poetry, and grace.

A compassionate and engaging writer, O'Brien uses the biographer's methods to understand her family history, weaving the scattered pieces of the past-her mother's memo books, her father's reading journal, family photographs, tombstones, dance cards, hospital records, the family silver-into a compelling narrative. In the lives of her Irish-American relatives she finds that the American values of upward mobility, progress, and the pressure to achieve sparked both desire and depression, following her family through generations, across the sea, from the Irish famine of the 1840s to Harvard Yard in the late 1960s.

"Many people who write stories of depression or other chronic illnesses tell tales of recovery in the upward-mobility sense, the 'once I was ill, but now I am well' formula that we may find appealing, but doesn't match the messiness of our lives," she writes. "Mine is not such a tale. But it is a recovery tale in another sense-a story of salvage, of rescuing stories from silence." Told with humor and honesty, O'Brien's story will captivate all readers who want to know how they, and their families, have been shaped by the past.

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Review of Fables: Babrius and Phaedrus (Loeb Classical Library No. 436) (Hardcover)

B. E. Perry devoted his long career to the study of fables, culminating in his monumental AESOPICA.His edition of Babrius and Phaedrus was his last major work and he put in it every volt of his high-energy intelligence.His volume has a superb introduction that provides a history of the fable in the ancient world, a far longer and more detailed introduction than can be found in most Loeb editions.The translations are clear and Perry's annotations are invaluable.The fables come through very well, with deeply grounded scholarship but no drag of pedantry.Simply the best edition and translation in English.

Product Description

Babrius is the reputed author of a collection (discovered in the 19th century) of more than 125 fables based on those called Aesop's, in Greek verse. He may have been a hellenised Roman living in Asia Minor during the late 1st century of our era. The fables are all in one metre and in very good style, humorous and pointed. Some are original.

Phaedrus, born in Macedonia, flourished in the early half of the 1st century of our era. Apparently a slave set free by the emperor Augustus, he lived in Italy and began to write Aesopian fables. When he offended Sejanus, a powerful official of the emperor Tiberius, he was punished but not silenced. The fables, in five books, are in lively terse and simple Latin verse not lacking in dignity. They not only amuse and teach but also satirise social and political life in Rome.

This edition includes a comprehensive analytical Survey of Greek and Latin fables in the Aesopic tradition, as well as a historical introduction.

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Review of Arrazat's Aubergines: Inside a Languedoc Kitchen (Paperback)

A narrative of a year spent inside the kitchen of an ambitious young chef in the Languedoc region of France. This is not a cookbook, it is a story of one man's dream as he follows a year of working in the kitchen, visiting suppliers, investigation that region of France (on the Med, not too far from the Spanish border). It's a story of love. Mr. Moon has clearly discovered where he wants to be and has been able to arrange his life so that he can be there.

He reports that all of these stories are true, well, if not exactly true, they are inspired by real experience. It's a fun book

Product Description
How, exactly, does a young restaurateur set up business in rural France? In his delightful sequel to Virgile's Vineyard, about Languedoc's winemakers, Patrick Moon offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of life in a serious French kitchen.

Rich in truffles, oysters, olives, and eggplants, the Languedoc region of France is a gourmet's paradise. It's also full of wonders to explore: the secrets of olive oil and salt production, the Roquefort caves, the miracle of the sparkling Perrier Springs. But is it the perfect place for an ambitious young chef to open a restaurant? Intrigued by Laurent Arrazat's determination to achieve perfection on a shoestring, Patrick Moon rolls up his sleeves and pitches in. For a year, he shares in the triumphs, disasters, and sheer hard work of restaurant life. By turns informative and funny, this is a captivating tale of culinary ambition, mishap, and discovery.

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Review of Invisible Sisters (Hardcover)

I enjoyed Invisible Sisters.It was a touching story, and kept me riveted throughout.



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Review of Mother's Day (Hardcover)

I read this book years and years ago. It's still one of my favorite true crime books. I can't believe the horror the kids had to go through just to live in Teressa's twisted world and the scars it left on her children into adulthood. Upon reading it, I had nightmares for a while. This is the only book that has had that much of an impact on me, I still find it amazing. The author, I think, does a fantastic job with detailing scenery, dialogue, etc. It's a wonderful book. Too bad it's true...

Product Description
A MODERN MURDEROUS MEDEA...
In June of l985, while her teenage sons held their half-sister down, Theresa Cross beat her l9-year-old daughter Sheila unconscious and then stuffed her into a 2' X 2' storage locker. After three days, the knocking, kicking, and cries stopped. Theresa and her sons dumped the girl's body in the desolate High Sierras....
The summer before, Theresa had dug a bullet out of her daughter Suesan's chest with a paring knife. When Suesan failed to recover (without benefit of doctors or hospital), Theresa and her two sons drove the delirious girl to the mountains , doused her with gasoline, and set her on fire....
For nearly nine years, Theresa Cross Knorr got away with murder, until her youngest daughter, Terry Knorr Graves, finally found a cop who believed the incredible story of her two murdered sisters.
That story is all here, the shocking life of a woman whose violence, jealousy, rage, and domination led to a brutally heinous crime of ruthless ferocity.


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