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July 01
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Sandy
installed the Goodreads Facebook Application 
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Sandy
gave  to:
From Baghdad to America - on Playaway (Audio CD)
by
Jay Kopelman
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my rating:
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read in June, 2009
Sandy said:
"Any idea what it's like to come home from the madness, bloodshed, and horror that is Iraq and resume normal American life? Author Jay Kopelman will tell you. This retired lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps will spare you nothing if you open this...more
Any idea what it's like to come home from the madness, bloodshed, and horror that is Iraq and resume normal American life? Author Jay Kopelman will tell you. This retired lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps will spare you nothing if you open this book and take the walk with him.
The book is a beauty, a wonder.(less)
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May 17
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Sandy
gave to:
A Lion Called Christian: The True Story of the Remarkable Bond between Two Friends and a Lion (Hardcover)
by
Anthony Bourke
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my rating:
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read in May, 2009
Sandy said:
"A Lion Called Christian is the true story of a lion whom two young Australian men purchahsed from Harrods Department Store in 1969, kept as a roommate for a while in London, and then rehabilitated and returned to the wild in Kenya in 1971.
...more
A Lion Called Christian is the true story of a lion whom two young Australian men purchahsed from Harrods Department Store in 1969, kept as a roommate for a while in London, and then rehabilitated and returned to the wild in Kenya in 1971.
Young and footloose travelers in 1969, Anthony Bourke and John Rendall bought the lion almost on a lark. The truth is, they gave it some though and spent time visiting the creature in the zoo section of the department store (back in the day when nobody thought twice about trading in exotic animals). They also thought they could give it a better life than it might otherwise have if it were purchased and confined to a cage in a zoo.
For as long as they could, they kept Christian in their home and in Sophisticat, the antiques store where they worked. For quite some time, Christian was good for business. He brought in business as well as gawkers. He was a cheerful, loving, fun animal--almost more dog than cat though he was most supremely a king cat.
As Christian grew and his need for more space and more food and more exercise grew, his friends quite by chance hooked up with George Adamson, who was at the time trying to establish a pride of rehabilitated lions in Kenya. Adamson agreed to take on Christian. Many months would roll by before Christian would touch Kenyan soil, but he would return to the land of his forebears and successfully integrate himself there. He would make friends among his own kind and lose them in the unforgiving wilderness.
In 1971, when Bourke and Rendall returned to Kenya to see their former flatmate, they would be greeted by a thriving lion who learned to live in the wild without forgetting that he had once been a housepet fed a steady diet of teddy bears.
When the men would return a year later, their friend would remember them, though another year in the wild would put him at another remove from his teddy bear days.
Eventually, the men would lose track of Christian. So it goes.
Christians early life and his rehabilitation to the wild made him a much filmed and photographed celebrity. He was the subject of a movie, documentary, news stories, and photographic essays. A Lion Called Christian first appeared in print in 1971; the 2009 version is not a reprint but a revision following the meteoric popularity of an archival film clip recounting the 1971 reunion of man and feline friend. YouTube created the platform for the book.
Christian finds his place in the wildnerness, but so do Bourke and Rendall. This book is a profound statement about the nature of love: it is not exclusively a human feeling or experience. It is also a profound statement about our place in nature: we have a place there if we have a heart for it.
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May 06
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Sandy
gave to:
From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava (Hardcover)
by
Jay Kopelman
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my rating:
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read in May, 2009
Sandy said:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Kopelman's story is set in Fallujah, Iraq, during the 2004 US-led invasion. Though the story advertises its happy ending before it begins, the setting along is enough to tell you getting there is going to be a bumpy, bumpy ride.
When Marines enter an abandoned house, they hear a strange noise and are ready to open fire. Instead, they find a fiesty puppy who makes his home in their hearts and sets Kopelman and his buddies on an obstacle course that doesn't end until Lava--the Marines name the dog after their battalion, the Lava Dogs--settles stateside.
The road from Iraq to California involves a vast network of people from reporters to officers to dog food executives. Ironically, many of them have worked together more than once before to help other soldiers get their adopted pets home--this, despite military regulations that forbid adopting pets on the job. Indeed, despite the very clear rule book, there is even an organization or two set up for this very purpose.
Which you have to love. The irony is beautiful. To be an effective soldier, you have to put aside that warm, fuzzy side of yourself and focus on the task at hand; to survive war at all, you need to cleave to all that is warm, sensitive true and love it well. That network of people pulling together to reunite soldiers with their pets knows that.
We all know that, right?
Maybe not. Kopelman points out that there were soliders available to shoot, bury, or drown dogs in the interest of enforcing policy.
How the hell could you?
But then, how do you worry about stray cats and dogs when there's a war on, when people are injured, sick, hungry, and desperate. Why all this for a dog?
In the final chapter as Kopelman recounts his reunion with his dog at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, he describes embracing a loving, hearty friend, in whose eyes he understood the look. A reporter asked him the very question. "Why wasn't my time spent people instead of a puppy?" Kopelman writes. "I don't know, and I don't care, but at least I saved something."
From Baghdad with Love was for me a way into Iraq. I learned a little about what motivates a Marine to be a Marine, to go to places like Iraq, to serve as they do. Kopelman took me down some pretty horrifying streets and showed me a side of a situation I could not have imagined.
Ultimately, every choice comes down to being human. That's something to think about.
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April 26
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Sandy
gave  to:
The 7 Great Prayers: For a Lifetime of Hope and Blessings (Hardcover)
by
Paul McManus
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my rating:
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read in April, 2009
Sandy said:
"When Connecticut residents Paul & Tracey McManus took a financial dive after the 2000 dot-com bust, they caught themselves mid-tumble, grabbed onto a branch, and thought of all that they had not lost. Their family. Their love for each other. Their he...more
When Connecticut residents Paul & Tracey McManus took a financial dive after the 2000 dot-com bust, they caught themselves mid-tumble, grabbed onto a branch, and thought of all that they had not lost. Their family. Their love for each other. Their health. Their ability to believe that life here and now is beautiful.
Building on this abundance--counting their blessings and embracing the richness of their radically changed lives--the McManus family found themselves helping themselves and others and rebuilding their lives.
Their inspiring story and the practical steps each of us can take to live abundant, rewarding lives this very moment is avaiable in their new book The Seven Great Prayers, for a Lifetime of Hope and Blessings.
Their book, they say, is for people of any faith. Define God as you will or do and go from there.
As a self-published book the popularity of which spread by word of mouth, The Seven Great Prayers traveled to 163 countries to persons of various faiths.
First and last, the book is about accepting the beauty and possibility of life and accepting that each of us has the potential to shape our world as much as our world shapes us. The key is to be positive, affirmative, proactive.
The book includes a 21-day program that the McManuses say will transform the prayers from words on a page to habits of thought that will enrich our lives with countless blessings.
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April 20
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Sandy
gave to:
The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times (Paperback)
by
Jennifer Worth
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my rating:
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recommended for: anyone who was ever a baby.
read in April, 2009
Sandy said:
"Who would ever think a memoir about midwifery could read like an action adventure? Not me. Nevertheless, Jennifer Worth's new book The Midwife, a Memoir of Brith, Joy, and Hard Times, does just that--at the same time it is as personal as journal and ...more
Who would ever think a memoir about midwifery could read like an action adventure? Not me. Nevertheless, Jennifer Worth's new book The Midwife, a Memoir of Brith, Joy, and Hard Times, does just that--at the same time it is as personal as journal and as informative as a social history of everyday life in the East End of London in the 1950s.
Worth writes with wit and insight as she brings to life the challenge of helping women lying at home on sagging beds bring into this world new life. She often did so without the benefits of indoor plumbing, telephones, or maternity technology.
At the age of 22, Worth left home to live with nuns and work as an apprentice midwife. Worth says, "The Work of the Midwives of St. Raymund Nonnatus [a pseudonym:] was based upon a foundation of religious discipline. I have no doubt that this was necessary at the time because the working conditions were so disgusting and the work so relentless that only those with a calling from God would wish to undertake it."
White says even though she could have pursued any number of careers, she felt called to midwifery. Indeed, the work engulfed her and swept her way with joy, pain, fun, and a relentless curiousity that brought her into the homes of the poorest of the poor, climbing around prams and wet laundry, small, diaperless other children, and husbands who stayed well away from their laboring wives until called to see their progeny to do her work. That work involves treating families as families, respecting their authority over their lives, believing in the sanctity of life, and giving with heart--a heart of compassion and grace.
Whether she is writing about a non-English-speaking wife from Spain who is delivering her 25th baby or about a confused runaway Irish prostitute who loses her mind after her baby is taken away for adoption, White brings the reader right into the room and straight into the wonder of birth.
The road to becoming a midwife brings White to a new beginning where she takes the advice the aged Sister Monica Joan: "Her constant phrase, 'Go with God,' had puzzled me a good deal. Suddenly it became clear. It was a revelation--acceptance. It filled me with joy. Accept life, the world, Spirit, God, call it what you will, or at least to come to terms with the meaning of life. These three small words, 'Go with God,' were for me the beginning of faith.
"That evening, I started to read the Gospels."
I delivered my baby 10 years ago with the help of a midwife. I chose a midwife instead of a hospital because I respected my own body and it's ability to do what it was designed to do. I wanted to be in the company of a woman who saw my pregnancy as a fact of life rather than a medical condition. During the hours of waiting, Cathy talked about feeling called to be a midwife. After years of accumulating college credits, the light dawned that she should become a midwife. Without medication, medical equipment, or a doctor, my baby came. I felt that experience over and over as I read White's book. Every night after I read a few chapters, I slept on the though that life is beautiful all by itself.
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March 02
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Sandy
gave to:
The Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues, Book 1)
by
Rick Riordan
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my rating:
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read in March, 2009
Sandy said:
"My daughter got me reading this one. She read it in an afternoon; I took that as a solid recommendation. This is The DaVinci Code</> for kids, and it's loads of fun. Dan and Amy have the choice of accepting $1 million each as an inheritance fro...more
My daughter got me reading this one. She read it in an afternoon; I took that as a solid recommendation. This is The DaVinci Code</> for kids, and it's loads of fun. Dan and Amy have the choice of accepting $1 million each as an inheritance from their grandmother or of solving a riddle that could change the world and give them immeasurable power. They, with several other relatives, accept the challenge, and the race is on. The chase runs through libraries, catacombs, museums and includes the personage of Ben Franklin at center stage. It's a hoot. (less)
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February 21
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Sandy
voted on the book list Recommended Reads
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February 14
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Sandy
gave to:
Night Flight (Paperback)
by
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
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read in February, 2009
Sandy said:
"This reads like a beautiful prose poem. Demanding and worth it.
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Sandy
gave to:
Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)
by
Dan Brown
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my rating:
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read in August, 2008
Sandy said:
"I loved this thing. The murders were crazy and sick, but Dan Brown draws pictures with words like nobody else. He's fun.
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