True Story--Well Written--Unforgettable
935842
Great book.  Tells a part of history that I had only heard about briefly.  Almost haunting.
3132470
Accident or not?  This true story of an extremely successful, self-made millionaire, his incredible rise and shattering fall is well worth reading for many reasons:  In an engaging, riveting style, it illuminates the successes and excesses of Southern California in the "blazing" 80's.  "Pride comes before a fall" - his life comes crashing down and we observe the inner workings of the justice system as witnessed firsthand by the author.

For the business person, there are many lessons within the book, which are well worth remembering.  For the recreational reader, this gripping account of intrigue, wealth and deceit is very difficult to put down.  Sometimes, you feel you must be reading a fictitious tale but this is indeed a very true story of a very complex man.
2761584
A wonderful, true story and hated it to end.  Knew the whole story, but it was written extremely well.  Loved it.
2132262
This is a story any reader won't soon forget. The writing is wonderfully compelling, forcing the reader to read the next word, the next sentence, the next page. It takes the reader back in time to the 60s, where life was anything but simple, especially since the country is still reeling from the death of President Kennedy. Esther is a strong, formidable character, enduring a lot in her life, and suddenly, she's back working investigations with her former partner. The backstory of both partners and the era lends to the storytelling, and it is filled with twists and unpredictable events. Hold on to this one, you just may want to read it again.
1046074
This is the true story of love, desperation, courage, and relentless hope in a family that overcame tremendous circumstances to make a difference. From the very beginning of the book you can feel the commitment of the author to document the history of a family through researching from original sources. We get to know the background of William Still who gave us an eyewitness account of the Underground Railroad. In a time when keeping records could get people killed, Still carefully recorded the stories of the fugitives he helped in the hopes that families could be reunited. At that time it seemed impossible that slavery would ever be destroyed, but when it was, Still published this priceless piece of history lest we ever forget the price of freedom. One of my favorite stories he told was when a southern lady tried to recapture her slave who had escaped to a free state and was working a job. The townspeople hid him and ran the master out of town. They literally posted Deuteronomy 23:15-16 ("you shall not return an escaping slave to his master.") all over the town and continued harassing the master until she gave up and left the town.

It was such a treat to read this well-researched biography of a true American hero. We also appreciate the extra attention that the author paid to the faith of these characters whose reliance on God helped them keep going through extraordinary circumstances. We hope that this author will continue contributing more superb biographies like this one.
2832691
The writer brings us the story of the times as well as the story of the man, Zamporini, and those he lived among. Amazing times and incredible fortitude. I am so glad to have read this true story. I will never feel upon again.
481387
This is a great, true story that everyone should read. One gets a better understanding of the life of Washington, the frustrations he dealt with and his bravery. You also understand why he realized he never would get anywhere in the English army, so pursued another route in life. He was gone so long the governor thought he was dead. How many people today could walk from Virginia to Pennsylvania and back in the fall/winter and make it, let alone with conditions he had?  Remarkable story. Do read it! Use it as a read aloud before bedtime for your kids. I gained so much respect for him and his traveling companion. Wow!
1759182
I was looking to read this for a long time and finally saw it on the shelf of my public library.  I sped through the story in a few days and just devoured it.  I haven't read anything like this and it's one of those rare stories that is too unbelievable to be fiction.  The story is written by an EX-twin, half of a whole, who lost her sister in a really tragic way.  After her sister's rape, Christa feels her twin slipping away but also feels an incredible amount of guilt.  Cara loses herself in drugs and fear.  Cara becomes a martyr and Christa runs around after her attempting to sew it all back together.

The story is a slightly slow progression and it can be easy to lose the time frame because the author skips around quite a bit.  This doesn't force the memoir to lose any momentum or make it less interesting.  I found the moments after Cara's death to be the most meaningful and painful to read.  The book is well written and very insightful.  RAW is the word I would use to describe Parravani's look back of these years.  She battles her own drug use, but was never pulled down as far as her twin sister.  She battles the guilt she feels for being the "better" half of the sisterhood, reliable, successful, married, etc.  And after her sister dies, Christa embraces her sister's life and almost completely forgets her own.  She becomes her in a way only a twin could be able to do.  She loves her so much and can't let go, that her world stops and she begins to live in Cara's.
4463745
Incredible true story of a local slave/hero.
1187125
Many of us may recall this story, and in particular when the news broke about Jaycee Dugard being found after 18 years lost.  And, then there was the story in People magazine which gave us a few details about her life.  Now, this book written by Jaycee details the life she was forced to lead with Phillip and Nancy Garrido.  What I find quite incredible is how well the story is written by a young woman who had her formal education interrupted at the age of 11.  Especially moving, and showing a level of maturity and thought beyond her years, are the sections of her diary, written during her captivity, which were inserted into the book.  There is wisdom in those sections which many an adult should heed.

The story is difficult.  What this young woman had to endure at the hands of these people is beyond imagination.  And, also, how in some respects there were opportunities for her to be found, but the authorities did not take the oppotunity to search beyond the surface.  Whatever possessed Phillip Garrido to take Jaycee and her daughters to his parole officer's office that day is a mystery.  Perhaps he simply was tired of living the lie and wanted the truth to come out.  But, thankfully it happened so that Jaycee and her daugthers could live a life beyond confinement.  And, Jaycee was also very fortunate in the help provided both she and her family from the authorities, therapists and others to help her reunite with her family and back into the real world.

The story shows Jaycee to be a woman of very strong character and determination.  She is a remarkable young woman to have endured and survived what was forced upon her.

Read this book to learn about a remarkable young woman with a will to survive.  There are lessons for all contained within this story.
3901010
This is an amazing true story that I just couldn't put down.  Do yourself a favor and READ IT!
3549477
When my sister gave me this book for Christmas I picked it up ahead of all the books in my "get to" stack, maybe because it's written in such simple language that I knew it would be a quick read, and it was.  It's the true story of the unlikely friendship between Ron Hall, a rich white international art dealer, and Denver Moore, an uneducated homeless black man who grew up as a share-cropper in the deep south.  And Ron's wife Deborah who brought the two together.

The story is well-written, told in alternating voices of the two men, who don't meet until almost halfway through the book.  One of those books that will likely stay with you forever, as its raw treatment of homelessness, terminal cancer, racial discrimination, and questions of faith are sure to broaden the reader's world view.  Not a pleasant read though.  A painful one, because it so well portrays the depths of pain that human reality can bring.

A New York Times bestseller, and deservedly so.  That said, I don't recommend it for those in the midst of deep grief, or for anyone's bedtime reading.  It will disturb you.  It will challenge you.  It will expand you.

"I used to spend a lotta time worryin that I was different from other people," says Denver looking back on his life, "even from other homeless folks.  Then after I met Miss Debbie and Mr. Ron, I worried that I was so different from them that we wadn't ever gon' have no kind a' future.  But I found out everybody's different - the same kind of different as me.  We all just regular folks walkin down the road God done set in front of us."
2155373
This book is a about an unforgettable story of life involving love, passion, adventures, rape, and obsession. There was not a moment where I was bored. Each time I read it, I kept wanting more and more. It is as realistic as it gets. A story of loving, caring God-fearing family and friends. It's a book everyone should read.  It's a story of life's up and downs and getting back unto your feet to live again. Loved it.
3527917
Last Wish is at once a beautifully-written, loving tribute to the author's mother, a harsh critique of the medical system (as it existed in the 1980's, in any case), and an unflinching expos on assisted suicide. This uplifting and heartrending story should be required reading for young and old alike.

I did notice a certain "datedness" in Rollin's depiction of race relations that some might find offensive--for example, the fact that the in-home care nurses were all Black, and one of them (a Jamaican nurse named Belva) felt uncomfortable addressing her white employer by her first name. Nonetheless, this story is as relevant today as when it was published in 1985. Whatever one's religious persuasion, we cannot know how we will feel about our life until faced with a debilitating, terminal, and tortuously painful final illness.

I am a firm believer in the right of each individual to make his or her own end-of-life decisions, including suicide if circumstances are dire enough to warrant such extreme action. I take comfort in knowing that choice is available to me-as a practical if not legal matter, and hope I am never in a position to seriously contemplate exercising it. Despite the fact that only three states (Montana, Oregon and Washington) have adopted statutes permitting physician-assisted suicide, and 36 states (including New York and California) have laws expressly criminalizing it, I assume that with the advent of the Internet, it would not be anywhere near as risky or difficult to accomplish as it was for the Rollin family.

On that score, Rollin was nothing short of phenomenal in her handling of this touchy aspect. She does not shy away from offering unsentimental, nuts-and-bolts facts, yet veers just shy of turning her book into a gory sideshow. All the while, she unabashedly handles her own misgivings and emotional torment with sensitivity and grace. I commend both her touching and delicate treatment of her mother's final wish and her courage in sharing this very important story with the public at a time when it was a far more taboo subject than one might imagine.
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3476718
Let me start by saying that I am NOT a non-fiction book reader in any way shape or form. BUT, this book was so amazing that (unfortunately) it read like fiction. You were mesmerizied by the drama, gripped by the human emotion and sorrowed by the resulting tragady. It is really the truth when we say that "true life is stanger than fiction". Richard Alan White can testify to it. He lived it. He suffered through it with the Filartiga family and we feel it in his words. DO NOT MISS READING THIS BOOK BECAUSE OF IT'S CATEGORIZATION; A WORTHWHILE BOOK CAN BE FOUND ANYWHERE! AND THIS IS ONE OF THEM.
3514592
Many years ago, the Pride of Baltimore visited us here in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and as a history buff, so began my fascination for this beautiful, unforgettable ship.  I will always remember the sight of her masts soaring above the parking lot and the trees, her pennants and topmasts looking down on our little city as though she was above us all.  In many ways, she was.

I'm going to be yet another person who gives this incredible book a 5-star rating, and if I could give it 50 stars, I would.  It takes a lot for a book to make me cry, but this one did.  Indeed, there were times that I had to actually put it down because the tears were rolling down my face.  This is an unforgettable story, and one that stays with you, indeed, even haunts you, long after you turn the last page.

Pride of Baltimore lives once again through the author's gripping account of this beautiful vessel and those who loved her.  Thank you, Mr. Waldron, for what, for me, has been the best read of the year.
2989424
I loved this book- what an incredible true story, well researched and well written.