The Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews *Review*

Forty-six year old David Ponder feels like a total failure. Once a high-flying executive in a Fortune 500 company, he now works a part-time, minimum wage job. His wife makes more money than he does by cleaning houses, and he drives an old car with a mismatched fender and a heater that no longer works.

Then an even greater crisis hits: his daughter becomes ill, and he can't afford to get her the medical help she needs. When his car skids on an icy road, he wonders if he even cares to survive the crash.

But an extraordinary experience awaits David Ponder. He finds himself traveling back in time, meeting leaders and heroes at crucial moments in their lives. From the European theater of World War II to an ancient Middle Eastern king's throne room, from a Civil War battlefield to a warehouse in heaven, David encounters some of the wisest people who ever lived. Abraham Lincoln, King Solomon, Anne Frank, Harry Truman, and others teach him unforgettable life lessons. By the time his amazing journey is over, he has received seven secrets for success- and a second chance to create a life worth living, no matter what opposition or obstacles he might face.

I checked this book out from the library last Saturday and was so excited to open it up I could hardly wait until I finished the book I was currently reading. I mean, just read the description! A novel about a formerly successful person who is down on his luck meets successful or inspirational people from the past, learns life secrets from them and turns his life around.

At least that's what I thought I was getting. A novel. A fiction novel. I guess it could be considered a fiction novel since it's about a made up person who travels back in time. That wouldn't happen in real life. Instead, I felt like I had stumbled into the wrong section in the library and checked out a self-help book.

As a self-help book it wasn't half bad. It did give some very simplistic, yet good advice. The Seven Decisions for Success that David Ponder collects as he travels from person to person in the story are doable suggestions to put into practice in your day to day life- not just in the business world.

This was a quick and easy read. The storyline, if given more depth, could have been a really good one. It just wasn't what I was looking for at the time.

Author Andy Andrews is a public speaker and entertainer who has performed live for four different U.S Presidents.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford *Review*

There are not many love stories that would qualify for a "G" rating but this novel would be one of them. When I say it rates a "G", I don't mean that in a negative sense at all. This book was a breath of fresh air, a story of friendship and young love that spans decades.

In 1986, Henry Lee joins a crowd outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has discovered the belongings of Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. As the owner displays and unfurls a Japanese parasol, Henry, a Chinese American, remembers a young Japanese American girl from his childhood in the 1940s- Keiko Okabe, with whom he forged a bond of friendship and innocent love that transcended the prejudices of their Old World ancestors. After Keiko and her family were evacuated to the internment camps, she and Henry could only hope that their promise to each other would be kept. Now, forty years later, Henry explores the hotel's basement for the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot even begin to measure. His search will take him on a journey to revisit the sacrifices he has made for family, for love, for country.

This novel follows Henry throughout the years, alternating between young Henry in the 1940s and the adult Henry in 1986. The simple one or two word chapter titles give you a peek at what's ahead for you in the chapter. Sometimes when a book alternates between two different times in a person's life it feeels disjointed and hard to follow. That is not the case with this book. The chapters from the 40's were dependent on the chapters from the 80's and vice versa.

Henry meets Keiko when they are both 12 at a special school they have earned scholarships to. Being the only two Asians in an all white school they form a special bond and it matters to neither of them that one of them is Chinese and one of them is Japanese. It matters to Henry's father though, who insists that Henry wear an "I am Chinese" button to distinguish him from the Japanese people who live in Japantown just a few blocks from them. Henry's father forbids him to have anything to do with the Japanese who are declared the mortal enemy. Henry however, defies his father and Keiko and him not only work together after school but meet in the park on Saturdays and walk the streets of forbidden Japantown. From a school friendship to a tender love Henry and Keiko vow to wait for each other always.

What follows is a story of love and loss, waiting and moving on, disappointment and hope, and a beautifully written novel that transcends time.

Library Loot

Welcome to my first edition of Library Loot. Library Loot hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at ReadingAdventures is a way to peek into everybody's book bag and see what they brought home from the library in the last week.

As a natural voyeur, I have to check out these weekly finds. I feed my book obsession by adding new titles to my list of books to check out at the library. Sometimes they have them, sometimes they don't but I never run out of list to check.

One of the books I checked out this week I read about first on One Person's Journey Through a World of Books. I was so intrigued I put it on the list. I haven't heard from Sheila to see if she's read it yet, but when I saw it on the shelf at the library I was so excited!

Anyways, on to the books!

Louisiana state veterinarian Lorna Polk stumbles upon a shipwrecked fishing trawler carrying a caged group of exotic animals. Yet, something is wrong with these beasts: a parrot with no feathers, a pair of Capuchin monkeys conjoined at the hip, a jaguar cub with the dentition of a saber-tooth tiger. They also share one uncanny trait- a disturbingly heightened intelligence. To uncover the truth, Lorna must team up with a man who shares a dark and bloody past with her, U.S. Border Patrol Agent, Jack Menard. Together the two must hunt for a beast that escaped the shipwreck while uncovering a mystery tied to fractal science and genetic engineering, all to expose a horrifying secret that traces back to mankind's earliest roots.

(I don't know what I was thinking when I checked this one out. It sounded better in the library!)

When Susan Tate's seventeen-year-old daughter, Lily, announces she is pregnant, Susan is stunned. A single mother, she has struggled to do everything right. She sees the pregnancy as an unimaginable tragedy for both Lily and herself.

Then comes word of two more pregnancies involving high school juniors who happen to be Lily's best friends- and the town turns to talk of a pact. As fingers start pointing, the most ardent criticism is directed at Susan. As principal of the high school, her detractors accuse her of being a lax mother, perhaps not worthy of the job of shepherding impressionable students. Susan struggles with the implications of her daughter's pregnancy, her job, financial independence, and long-fought-for dreams. The emotional ties between mothers and daughters are stretched to breaking in this emotionally wrenching story of love and forgiveness.

The hottest summer of the twentieth century. In a tiny community of five houses enclosed by wheat fields, the adults shelter indoors, while six children venture out on their bikes across the scorched, deserted countryside. Exploring a dilapidated

and uninhabited farmhouse, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano discovers a secret so momentous, so terrible, that he dare not tell anyone about it. To come to terms with what he has found, Michele has to draw strength from his own sense of humanity...

This book is a masterpiece of coming of age; a compelling portrait of losing one's innocence and a powerful reflection on the complexities and compromises inherent in growing up.

(This is the one I read about on One Person's Journey)

One terrible night. One outraged act. What price will people pay to hold their homes and dreams together? When Kate and Stuart Kinzler buy a run-down historic house in Ann Arbor, Michigan, they're looking for a decent remodeling investment and a little space in which to rekindle their troubled marriage. Instead they discover that their home was the scene of a terrible crime many years ago- a revelation that tips the balance of their precarious union. When a mysterious man begins lurking around her yard, Kate- now alone- is forced to confront her home's dangerous past. Hers is not the only life that has crumbled under this roof. But the stranger who has returned to this house- once his own childhood home- is in search of something Kate may never really understand.

Forty-six-year old David Ponder feels like a total failure. Once a high-flying executive in a Fortune 500 company, he now works a part-time, minimum wage job. His wife makes more money then he does by cleaning houses, and he drives an old car with a mismatched fender and a heater that no longer works. Then an even greater crisis hits: his daughter becomes ill, and he can't afford to get her the medical help she needs. When his car skids on an icy road, he wonders if he even cares to survive the crash. But an extraordinary experience awaits David Ponder. He finds himself traveling back in time, meeting leaders and heroes at crucial moments in their lives. From the European theater of World War II to an ancient middle eastern king's throne room, from a civil war battlefield to a warehouse in heaven, David encounters some of the wisest people who ever lived. Abraham Lincoln, King Solomon, Anne Frank, Harry Truman, and others teaching him unforgettable life lessons. By the time his amazing journey is over, he has received seven secrets for success- and a second chance to create a life worth living, no matter what opposition or obstacle he might face. (This one looks really fun. I can't wait to see what advice he gets!)

The books above ar what I came home with this week. Have you read any of them? Will I enjoy this week's Library Loot?

The Sound of Water *Review*

Written with rare literary style by a former director of the Indian Ministry of Coal, The Sound of Water provides an agonizing 360-degree account of an Indian mining disaster as seen from three perspectives: an old miner struggling to save himself and his coworkers hundreds of feet below the surface as water threatens to drown them; the company and government officials charged with managing the rescue efforts; and the miner's families anxiously awaiting word of survival or death.

Last week I checked this book out of the library anxious to read a story of survival. I love stories that show the strength of humans against almost impossible odds. That's what I thought I was getting when I checked this book out. I was looking for someone who defied the odds, became the victor over nature and circumstance, and lived to tell the tale. This book was not like that.

The majority of the story flopped back and forth between the victim's families (who really didn't care if they lived) and the government officials who were only concerned with covering their backsides so they wouldn't take the blame for the mining disaster. There was no happiness in this book, and no hope.

Most of the middle of the book was about Raimoti, the old miner, and his battle and discussion with The Beast and I'm sorry to say this part lost me completely, which at that point made me lose interest in the book. After reading the book I went to Amazon to see what others had thought of the book. Two reviews. Two 5 star reviews. Huh.

Bone Man's Daughters Audio Book *Review*

I finished this audio book on the way to Bible study tonight and all alone in the car I said "Wow." This book has been on my radar for several months now. One of my friends one day told me she doesn't read Christian fiction because it's too "boring." And some of it is. Some of the Christian fiction I have read is too goody-goody, sweetness and nice all tied up in a bow. This is not one of those.

They call him BoneMan, a serial killer who's abducted six young women. He's the perfect father looking for the perfect daughter, and when his victims fail to meet his lofty expectations, he kills them by breaking their bones and leaving them to die. Intelligence officer Ryan Evans, on the other hand, has lost all hope of ever being the perfect father. His daughter and wife have written him out of their lives.Everything changes when BoneMan takes Ryan's estranged daughter, Bethany, as his seventh victim. Ryan goes after BoneMan on his own.But the FBI sees it differently. New evidence points to the suspicion that Ryan is BoneMan. Now the hunter is the hunted, and in the end, only one father will stand.

Author Ted Dekker is a Christian author who likes to explore the struggle between good and evil. BoneMan is definitely evil. Narrator Robert Petkoff does a wonderful job in the voices he uses for each character. You get a sense of the anguish Ryan feels at the possible loss of his daughter to the serial killer and the voice he uses for Bone Man is creepy. Really creepy.

I sat entranced listening to how the story was unfolding and there were many times I found myself holding my breath as I waited to see what would happen next. The story pulled me in right from the beginning as we find Ryan captured by insurgents and forced to come to the conclusion that the collateral damage of war (the innocent women and children who die) are not worth the price. The terrorist who is holding Ryan hostage actually makes us feel sorry for him and what he is going through and makes Ryan come to a new understanding about war.

Back in the states, as Ryan is dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after being made to watch horrific acts the terrorist uses to make his point, we are introduced to Ryan's wife and daughter. Ryan's wife has been left a lonely military wife for too long and has fallen in love with someone else and his daughter Bethany has written off her absent father. Neither particularily care if Ryan comes back into their lives since he has never been a big part of it. But now Ryan realizes how much he loves his daughter and how much he wants to make it all up to them and be the father and husband he's never been.

When Bone Man kidnaps Bethany from her home Ryan does everything in his power to save her from becoming another of this madman's fatalities. The way Bone Man kills his victims is by breaking their bones one by one. This will make you squirm and cringe as you listen to it but otherwise this book is not overly graphic. A highly recommended, non-fluffy Christian read.

The Friday 56

Rules:

* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.

* Turn to page 56.*

Find the fifth sentence.

* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of Storytime with Tonya and Friends.*Post a link along with your post back to Storytime with Tonya and Friends.* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Keiko looked at Henry like he'd woken her from a wonderful dream.

A Bookstore is a Dangerous Place for a Book Blogger to use the WiFi

Still stuck with dial up internet at home (I live in the boonies and I will NOT pay the price for satellite internet) I sometimes have to travel to places that have WiFi in order to update my family blog on Wordpress, my troop's Boy Scout website or By Book or By Crook.

There is an excellent pizza place I go to for a mini pizza on my lunchbreak that's relatively close to work that works well. If I have a lot of time I will pop over to the library but it's way across town so I don't do that all too often. My favorite- and most dangerous- place to haunt lately has been our local bookstore with WiFi and a coffee shop.

I try to get a lot of work done there, really I do but the shelves speak to me. I hear whispers and I swear sometimes the pictures on the book covers glow because I will catch a book out of the corner of my eye that would no way be in my field of vision if it would not glow.

I'll be updating our Boy Scout website about an upcoming hike we need to start preparing for and a whisper from the Regional section behind me will "psst" me that there's an excellent book on Hiking Trails in Minnesota.

I'll be updating my family blog and thinking of conversations I've had with my grandparents when a hum will come from the author coffee mugs they have sitting on a shelf near the coffee shop counter.

And when I'm visiting other book blogs or trying to write one of my own you might as well just forget it! The covers of books you have never heard of until a day or two ago all of a sudden just jump out at you from the shelves! I'll be walking through the fiction aisle looking for an Audrey Niffeneggar when a Kate Morton pushes her aside and then you know the gift card you got for Christmas will not even begin to cover the tax of what you'll be walking out with today.

The Imperial Cruise *Review* + Audio Book Giveaway!

In the summer of 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt dispatched the largest diplomatic mission in American history. Led by Secretary of War (and future president) William Howard Taft, the group traveled thousands of miles across the Pacific, docking in Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, China and Korea. Along for the ride was Teddy's daughter, Alice, a media darling known for her wild behavior. She was not there by accident: her father knew that Alice would be an effective distraction for the reporters covering the journey. And Roosevelt had very good reason to keep his true motives concealed.

During this trip, Taft on Roosevelt's behalf, would negotiate a series of secret- and wholly unconstitutional- agreements that would lay the groundwork for America's Pacific engagement. These invisable treatises- brokered with the sliver of Asians that Roosevelt deemed "civilized" by virtue of their adoption of Western ways- would lead to World War II in the Pacific, the triumph of communism in China, the Korean War, and, within decades, tens of millions dead. The full details and implications of Roosevelt's illicit pacts would remain largely unknown until his own death, and then be effectively erased from the textbooks.

A century later, James Bradley, traveled in the wake of Roosevelt's imperial cruise, finally rediscovering what had actually transpired in Honolulu, Tokyo, Manila, Beijing, and Seoul. What he found will forever change the way you think about American history and the origins of war and empire in Asia.

Before reading this book all I really could tell you about President Roosevelt was what I learned from watching A Night at the Museum. As I'm sure I've said before- history, or rather recent history, is not my thing. But even being up on the history books would not have taught me that President Roosevelt was considered the "war" president, that he created a public persona that was totally different then who he really was, and that he was sharply biased when it came to race.

I find it amazing on how far we have come in the last 100 years on the race issue. I know many would argue that we haven't come far enough (and we haven't) and we still have a long way to go (which we do). But the myths and lies that Roosevelt and the group on his diplomatic mission perpetuated were unbelievable. President Roosevelt thought of the Philipino peoples as "dog eaters" and set up a recreated village at the World's Fair to help the American people "understand" how barbaric these aboriginals were. He believed they were stupid, illiterate, and unable to be educated because they could not read, write, or speak English. In his mind this justified the killing of countless people in the Phillipines in a few short years.

On the other hand, the Japanese people were considered to be more like the American people then any other race he encountered because they so readily embraced the American culture.

Author James Bradley spent years researching the Teddy Roosevelt that nobody knew about. he read over 300 books and traveled to multiple countries to uncover what really happened on what the author has deemed The Imperial Cruise.

Because of all the dates and geographical locations this audio book encompasses I sometimes had a hard time following it. I am more of a visual person so seeing the dates and facts printed on a page would have stuck with me better. This book would make an excellent PBS miniseries or special and the narrator Richard Poe would be the just the person to bring it to life on the screen.

I did enjoy this audio book although I felt it was a bit long and I feel like I have a lot better understanding of this period of our nation's history. Anybody interested in history, Roosevelt, or wars would appreciate this book and that is why I'm giving one lucky reader a chance to win this audio book!

To enter the giveaway leave a comment below with which President you find most intriguing or one you would like to learn more about.

+1 entry for following By Book or By Crook (let me know in a seperate comment)

Open to U.S. and Canada only.

Please include an email address in your comment and you will be entered to win- it's that easy! Winners will be randomly selected February 6th. Good luck!

The Pearl *Review*

Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the Gulf beds that once brought wealth to the kings of Spain and now provide Kino, Juana, and their infant son with meager subsistence. Then, on a day like any other, Kino emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a sea gull's egg, as "perfect as the moon." With the pearl comes hope, the promise of comfort and of security...

A story of classic simplicity, based on a Mexican folk tale, The Pearl explores the secrets of man's nature, the darkest depths of evil, and the luminous possibilities of love.

This classic novel by John Steinbeck was mentioned in my Bible study class last Thursday. Jeff Cavins, in his Adventures in Matthew 24-part study, was explaining some of the parables of Jesus in Matthew 13.

"Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it." Matthew 13:45-46

Kino, instead, gets overcome by greed and dreams of all the things he can buy after selling his pearl. He hides it in different areas of his hut. Men, jealous and greedy as well after seeing the size of the pearl, try to break in and steal it. Kino starts to get paranoid that his every movement is being followed and starts across the mountains to go to the capital to try to sell it where he can get more money from it. Kino's wife Juana sees the evil this pearl has brought into their lives and begs Kino to get rid of it. This tragic folk story shows what can happen when wealth comes before everything else in our lives.

The Kingdom of Heaven is worth more than any pearl in the ocean and all other notions should be set aside as we strive to become a part of it.

I enjoyed this book very much and have recommended my son read it as well. It's a short book at 90 pages but it's message is very powerful.

My Son, Tourette's and the *Review* of Jerk, California

Twitch, Jerk, Freak

Sam Carrier has been called them all. Because of his Tourette Syndrome, Sam is in near constant motion with tics and twitches and verbal outbursts. So, of course, high school is nothing but torment. Forget friends; forget even hoping that beautiful, perfect Naomi will look his way. And home isn't much better with his domineering stepfather reminding him that the only person who was more useless than Sam was his dead father, James. But then an unexpected turn of events unearths the truth about his father. And suddenly Sam doesn't know who he is, or even where he'll go next. What he does know is that the only girl in the world who can make him happy and nervous all at the same time is everywhere he turns and he'd give anything to just be still.

Zachary: Jerk, California was a book that I could somewhat relate to. Even though the character had Tourette's worse then me I still know how he felt. I liked all the turn of events, the struggles he faced every day, and some of the funniness of the book. It was a very good book until the ending which ticked me off. The ending didn't fulfill my wishes for the characters. My favorite part of the book was when Jack moved in with Coot. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone who likes adventure books, and death, and cats, and butter.

Angie: I had to chuckle at Zach's last rambling line. He would have kept going had I not laughed at him! First, I have to explain how we came to read this book that I had never heard of before. We were in the library last week and Zach was struggling to find a book that looked interesting to him. I was walking up and down the rows trying to help him pick one out when up ahead I saw a red book hanging half off the shelf. I walked ahead to push it back in so it wouldn't fall when the title caught my eye- Jerk, California. I pulled it off the shelf instead and when I read the inside front cover I knew I had the book. Zachary my 14 year-old son has Tourette Syndrome. I knew a book about a character that also had Tourette's would interest him. I was right. After reading it in a day and a half he insisted I read it as well. I looked at my own large stack of books on the coffee table that I was itching to read, looked back at my son and immediately said yes.

Zach read this book faster then I did- and liked it more. But I could relate to it as well. I could see some of the motions that Sam/Jack had were the same ones I saw in my son. I could understand how someone could hate the disease so much, but I definitely could not relate to the stepfather who hated the person because of the disease. Tourette's tics and vocal bursts are not something that can be controlled. I would never look upon my son with anger or embarassment like Old Bill. Zach's twitches and little noises are a part of who he is and I love him all the more because of them.

The author, Jonathan Friesen, lives in Minnesota and this is where the book is set. Jonathan also has Tourette's and is available for speaking at schools or groups about a number of topics, including A Life with Tourette Syndrome, Journaling, and several on writing. You can contact him at http://www.jonathanfriesen.com/ .

The Friday 56

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of Storytime with Tonya and Friends.
*Post a link along with your post back to Storytime with Tonya and Friends.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Jerks, like popcorn, explode every muscle on my left side, but it no longer matters. Poor Mom. Having to watch the thing I've become.

A Matter of Class *Review*

Reginald Mason is wealthy, refined, and, by all accounts, a gentleman. However, he is not a gentleman by birth, a factor that pains him and his father, Bernard Mason, within the Regency society that upholds station over all else. That is, until an opportunity for social advancement arises, namely Lady Annabelle Ashton. Daughter of the Earl of Havercroft, a neighbor and enemy of the Mason family. Annabelle finds herself disgraced by a scandal, one that has left her branded as damaged goods. Besmirched by shame, the earl is only too happy to marry Annabelle off to anyone willing to have her.

Though Bernard wished to use Annabelle to propel his family up the social ladder, his son does not wish to marry her, preferring instead to live the wild, single life he is accustomed to. With this, Bernard serves his son an ultimatum: marry Annabelle, or make do without family funds. Having no choice, Reginald consents, and enters into a hostile engagement in which the prospective bride and groom are openly antagonistic, each one resenting the other for their current state of affairs while their respective fathers revel in the suffering.

So begins an intoxicating tale rife with dark secrets, deception, and the trials of love- a story in which very little is as it seems.

I have to say I enjoyed this book and I wasn't really expecting to. It's not that I hate romances, in fact, I love them if they are done well and woven within a mystery or suspense or fantasy novel- pretty much anything but a straight romance. Too me, a lot of romances are too predictable and fluffy. Nothing that really grips you and sucks you in.

And even though this book was not particularily gripping it had a different kind of plot twist that as obtuse as I am did NOT see coming. (Probably everybody else is now chuckling at my denseness because they saw it coming a mile away!)

I really can't tell you any more about the plot of the book other than the synopsis above because telling you more then that would give away more then I want to. I'm not good at keeping secrets.This was my first Mary Balogh novel and I enjoyed it enough I would want to try another.

Are you a romance reader? What authors would you recommend reading that mix romance with a really good story?

Cleaving *Review*

Riding on the heels of her first book, author Julie Powell's Cleaving: A Story of Meat, Marraige and Obsession was ripe to be a best seller. Turning in her kitchen apron for a butcherhouse cleaver seemed a natural progression. But instead of a fairly good book, which I was hoping for, I encountered a car wreck from the very beginning.

Julie's profanity laced, self indulgent, embarrassingly over honest memoir is not good at all. If Ms. Powell had stuck with the "meat" of the story there might be some redeeming qualities about it. On this topic, meat, Julie is passionate. She sees a slab of animal flesh as a work of art just ready to be sectioned, deboned, and frenched. And she seems to be good at it.

It's when she moves to the marraige and obsession parts of her book, which is the vast majority of pages, that this reader wishes it would qualify as a short story. Julie shares way too much of her failing marraige and subsequent affair with her lover D. Much more than I, or anyone else needs to know. When Julie tries to come across as honest and clever in her confessions she comes across more like pathetic and desperately in need of a therapist.

The only redeeming quality of the book was reading about the author's travels to Argentina, the Ukraine and Tanzania. Here we meet some likable characters and learn a little about their culture. If you could excise the rest of the fat out of this book you might have a grade A cut of a book. Since you can't, I would recommend you not even bother with this porker.

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain *Review*

He was born in the middle of Europe in the middle of the twentieth century at the start of the Cold War. In his graphic memoir, Peter Sis tells what life was like for a boy who loved to draw and make music, who joined the Young Pioneers, stood guard at the giant statue of Stalin, passed Louis Armstrong in a snowstorm, longed for blue jeans and Beatles-style boots, let his hair grow long, secretly read banned books, listened to jammed radio, and traveled with the Beach Boys when they toured Czechoslavakia. Peter Sis's story of growing up under a totalitarian regime proves that creativity can be discouraged but not easily killed, and that the desire to be free came naturally to a generation of young people behind the Iron Curtain.

Author Peter Sis draws us into life, both literally and figuratively, in Czechoslavakia during the Cold War in this compelling graphic novel of his childhood and adolescence. So many public displays of loyalty were compulsory and children were encouraged to spy on their families and classmates for actions and opinions that were contrary to Communist party beliefs.

I didn't realize the extent to which their lives and creativity were stifled. Czech teens had to resort to making their own electric guitars and hiding them in basements and attics. Long hair was considered a sign of Western decadence and if caught the police had orders to cut it.

In 1968 when censorship was slowly starting to lift, Western influence began to filter in. They heard about a "wild woman named Elvis Presley" only to find out the she was a he! Western music became more readily available and blue jeans were allowed (although no one could afford them) and the Harlem Globetrotters visited Prague. It was a time of freedom and euphoria albeit short lived.

The author's illustrations are mostly pen and ink, but Communist red stands out in almost every drawing. In just a few short lines on each page this book gave me a deeper understanding about life behind the Iron Curtain before perestroika and glasnost were introduced to the Soviet Union.

Housed in the juvenile section of our library, though easy enough to read, I feel this book is better suited to young adults.

The Concise King *Review*

The Concise King is a compilation of featured recordings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. edited by Clayborn Carson, Peter Holloran and Kris Shepard. Eight speeches of Dr. King were chosen including of course two of his most recognized: I Have a Dream and I've Been to the Mountaintop.

Both of these speeches I have heard throughout the years in bits and pieces and TV clips. Never have I actually sat down and listened to them in their entirety. Not one for listening to political ramblings I didn't know if I would enjoy listening to this 3 hour CD or even finish it. But I was entranced.

Dr. King has a passion for his message and an overpowering love for the poeple to whom he is speaking. His speeches start out slow. Not dull slow, but in thoughtfully articulated words and carefully organized sentences. Soon the pace picks up and by the end of the speech Dr. King's voice is raised in volume, quickening in tempo and tremoring with excitement and the importance of the message.

I was totally captivated not only by the sound of his voice but the strength of his message. A couple of lines in particular that really stood out for me and I found to be most eloquent were from his Where Do We Go from Here speech:

"Let us be dissatisfied until men recognize that out of one blood God made all men that dwell upon the face of the earth. Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout white power, when nobody will shout black power, but everybody will talk about God's power and human power!"

Though that speech was given August 16th, 1967, less than 2 months before I was born, it is sadly still relevant today. Let none of us be satisfied until Dr. King's message of love and acceptance is written upon the hearts of our children and imprinted in the minds of the next generation.