Hard to stomach the truth, but definitely worth a read!
358527
Too much crude talk, and too offensive to read cover-to-cover, but I did skim  from beginning to end.

This book sadly, is a very factual and 'on-the-mark' account  of how the American people have allowed the American political process to degenerate to the point that America is now totally corporate-owned, and totally corrupt, and unaccountable to anyone.

To the point, that the most dishonest, vulgar, stupid, unqualified, Narcissist and his foreign agents now inhabit our White House, and he and his mob  family are shafting the taxpayers like no politician in American history has ever done before!

An excellent history of how we reached this point, and includes an interesting view of the role of the MSM in this evolution.
3578802
I use a Kindle reader for iPad. When you finish a book, Amazon always pops in asking for a review. I had to ignore this for this book, because I wasn't ready to write yet, needing time to process what I had just read!

Having taken several days to process, I can say I am certainly glad I read this book. Having read extensively about the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust and other 20th century atrocities, I was shocked at having never heard of this massacre.

It was a hard book to read. Hard, because of the content, and hard because it exploded my preconceptions of the Japanese as being always gentle, kind people. I have always harbored guilt for the internment of the Japanese on American soil. I still feel some shame, having many colleagues of Japanese ancestry whose families were uprooted from there homes and sent away. But this book put that period into more of a context to perhaps understand what a previous generation did, since these crimes were front page news in 1937-1938.

I will not do an extensive review of the content, since others have summarized this very well. But, it is the story about the Japanese Imperial Army taking the Capitol of China, which was then called Nanking (now Nanjing), at the end of 1937, as part of the Sino-Japanese war. They were brutal to the Chinese civilians, slaughtering hundreds of thousands in cruel ways, including beheading, using humans for sword practice spearing infants and adults, and raping tens of thousands of Chinese women. Remember I said civilians, non-combatants. They took few, if any POWs, executing Chinese soldiers, and any male they thought could be a soldier, post haste on entering the city. The Yangtze River was clogged with dead bodies, and blood ran in the streets, as they couldn't bury them as fast as they killed them.

I know, having read some of the writings from the Japanese, that there are deniers among many of that people. I also know that some historians take issue with some of her history telling and facts. Having read extensively about the Armenian Massacre in Turkey that began in April 1915, and killed hundreds of thousands, if not millions of the Armenian people, I know there are many who deny this mostly unknown holocaust as well. I am convinced the Turkish government and the Japanese government just want to deny their horrendous behavior, avoid the shame, and the paying of any reparations. Shame on them!

I am in the medical field, and we have peer review for any medical work which is published, so I understand the need to criticize some facts that may not be correct or strictly confirmed by historical records. But even if some of this is wrong, it would be hard to convince me this never happened. They can argue about the numbers of dead and raped, but this massacre happened.

I am thankful that Iris Chang wrote this history/remembrance. I am saddened that she took her own life after writing it, and before she could finish her book on the Bataan Death March, which would have expanded my knowledge of another atrocity.  I would highly recommend picking up this book. As has been said, we should not ignore where we came from, and we do so at our own peril!

The subject quote above is from George Fitch's diary, a member of the International Committee for the Protection Zone, created by expatriots to try and save as many Chinese as they could! They thus bore witness to the slaughter!
I would give this 4.5 stars.
2555778
When I sat down to read this, I thought I would be easily distracted and would read other books before this.  Not the case - this  book was very well written and so honest I found I could not put it down.

I found several quotes that I loved - one being "If you haven't doubted, you probably have not thought very hard about what you believe."

Whether you liked him or hated him it is a very interesting book.  Keep in mind if you hate him with a rabid fantasism, you won't like it, and I wouldn't expect you to.

If you are a person interested in how he arrived at decisions, be prepared for a raw honesty that is very touching.

I am going to buy this book as Xmas presents - the only downside I saw, was I purchased the ebook and it is to large to download onto droid app, so had to read on my netbook.  I also own the hardcover so my husband can read it.  Went out & bought it for him because the was it was written he would find enjoyable, not too "dry and stale".

Enjoy!
3944112
This was required reading in my Sociology 210 class at my community college, and the author is coming Wednesday to our college to speak about the book. Although from the a novel standpoint, the book had a slower start, I was soon attached and engrossed in this world. There were a few times I had to remind myself "This is not fiction", because some of the content was so graphic and raw. To imagine this goes on is very difficult to swallow as an American. I am half Cuban, and although my grandparents never made such a journey to this country, I have to keep in mind that many, such as millions of people who have made a journey similar to Enrique's, willingly risk their life to be reunited with their mothers. Or, in the mothers' cases, they give the ultimate sacrifice to leave their children, risking to never see them again, in order to send money back home to provide a better life for their children. This is an eye-opening book on the real-life, raw story of immigration from the perspectives of the people who lived through it.

Now, when someone says "Oh, we just need to deport them all. Send them back to their country." I will tell them to read this book. If you are someone that thinks like that, please, do yourself a favor - read this book...

This book will stick with me for quite some time. Required reading as a college student, but impacting to say the least. I highly look forward to getting to hear from the author in real life and participate in the Q&A.
2086248
A very honest viewpoint, interesting read in today's world!
4794632
I previously wrote a review for this book when I had only read half of it. At that point, I thought I wouldn't be able to finish it because of the somewhat juvenile writing style. I did, however, truck on through, and am writing now to give it the credit it deserves. If I could, I would edit my star-rating and give this one more star, but unfortunately, that can't be changed.

While the writing is a bit dull at parts, and the editing and ghost writing could be vastly improved, the story itself makes the book absolutely worth reading. The horror that Carolyn and her children underwent is heartbreaking, and a real call-to-arms about this dire situation in our own country. This book will undoubtedly prove valuable in the months and years to come, as we analyze the FLDS situation, the realities of systemic religious abuse, and the difficulties of prosecuting a religious group. Jessop tells her story with heart, and even if you're nit-picky like me, if you have persistence, you'll be glad you finished this amazing story.
1084045
Dr. Don Boys tells the hard truth about Islaam and how America has been blind sighted by it in many ways.  He explains how political correctness in dealing with this Islaamic terror issue may very well be America's downfall as they plot their attack from within!  Not for the squeamish in heart or closed minded reader!
564205
I've generally found Matt Taibbi mildly annoying, as he comes off a bit smug.  He tends to overstate things and then rely on excessive profanity for its comedic effect.  This book has lots of that, plus lots of contempt, but he fortunately doesn't spare himself, and the end result is definitely worthwhile reading.  It was unfair of him to play around with/exploit the clearly troubled people (his descriptions of them, brutally succinct, are one of a kind) who came to Pastor Hagee's church for help, but that may be what was needed to reveal the more grossly unfair way people like Pastor Hagee manipulate the facts and the tendency of so many to follow any leader that can establish even a small beach head of trust.  Taking on members of a church like Hagee's is like shooting fish in a barrel; the number of reasoned arguments and wise life decisions you will find in that subset of the population are microscopically small.  Still, if you are to understand why America is the way it is, you need to know there are people out there like that, and unfortunately for the reasonable and thoughtful, they are close to the majority!  Traveling the country as a family doctor, I have tried to calculate what percentage of Americans live in quiet despair (I've settled on about 30%).  Their lives would appear to be so unsatisfying: watching hours of TV a day, barely understanding any complicated notions, rarely making a good decision, constantly betrayed by their leaders who only care about how much money is being donated to them, and despite all the propaganda about the "American Dream," failing to ever make any progress.  The high abuse rates of prescription drugs, popularity of all "illegal" drugs and alcohol, and high rates of imprisonment and mental illness are all notions the people in power gloss over (except when their donors can make money off them).  Taibbi has tapped into that and compellingly portrays it and the effects it has on him.  I wish he had focused more on Iraq, where his writing is remarkably fresh, and on Congress, where he had the patience and diligence that few have to lift the veil on some of what is sordid about how our government functions.  If only we had more objective (?) looks at the crap our Congresspersons were up to and all their conflicts of interest and hypocrisy, I think at least some of the games they play would stop (The Republicans in particular seem to be almost wanting to get caught, so brazen are they).  If you have the money and the time, it is worth it to spend it on this book.  I think anyone who reads it will have a better idea of what is going on, though they most likely won't like it.
3093112
It's amazing to me that prior to even reading this book, there are folks out there raising their noses and pooh-poohing the "truth" according to Hillary Clinton. This frank and somewhat painful story about a life still being lived was riveting and I finished it within one afternoon. I must confess, I had never been a Hillary fan over the past years, due to her press. I now admit to being guilty of not paying enough attention. Mea cupla, Senator. I was riveted in her story. As for her claim that she did not realize the truth of her husband's dalliances? Ask any woman who has ever been cheated on how long it took for the obvious to sink in. You'll notice the bulk of Hill's literary detractors seem to be men, looking for any avenue to tear apart this interesting and honest retelling of international events by the only woman who actually had to live through it. Chicks know how it is. You believe because you want to believe, until, as any good screenwriter knows, it becomes impossible to "suspend disbelief" any longer.
The early history of the Clinton partnership, their life together coupled with Hillary's rise to political power and personal wholeness is quite worth the cost of the book.
"Why did she write it?" someone asked on cable news today. Easy answer. Because we have been feeding off it for the past ten years, I for one am interested in the other side of the Clinton story as opposed to those who just want to continue the bashing.
Read it and give yourself a chance to know someone you may have overlooked and may very well grow to admire.
She's a mother, a healing wife, and a US Senator, but when it is all said and done...she's just another chick walking the planet and trying to hang on.
Brave job, Hillary.
3592842
Wow . . . This explosive psychological dive into the dirty side of Christianity is hard to put down! It reads like a cautionary tale about the crazed megalomania of hard-right evangelicals who mix politics and power with religion and "righteousness." With wit and imagination, the author gradually exposes in full color the danger of false prophets wielding dangerous "truths." Seems like it's ripped out of today's headlines -- you could argue probably taken to an extreme . . .  or maybe not. For anyone who worries about the growing influence of the far right Christian movement, this is an important read. Though dark in many places, and lurid in it's brutal honesty, it has enough frank humor and subtle ironies to make it one of the best books I've read in a very long time.
834505
Have you ever said or done something, and then said or thought, "I didn't mean that," or "I don't know where that came from" ? Then, this book will hit you between the eyes with uncomfortable truth.

Andy Stanley does a great job of describing four common heart issues -- guilt, anger, greed and jealousy -- in a way that pierces the very area talked about (your heart). Just when you find yourself thinking of someone who fits the profile of the person he's describing, he turns the tables on you and tells you not to play the victim, because you've got issues too.

He addresses how we tend, as a society (secular and Christian), to work on behavior modification rather than dealing with the root--a heart problem.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV).

The author discusses the four heart problems as "debts" that are owed, whether to others (guilt) or to ourselves (greed), or from others --you owe me (anger) or God owes me (jealousy).

Andy Stanley boils everything down to us not getting what we want, and our reaction to that. This is an intriguing read that will make you examine your motives and actions, and the discussion questions in the back of the book make this an excellent tool for a small group or home Bible study.

Thanks to the publisher for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review of this book. I wrote it this way because I liked it! :)
2753279
This book was a difficult read. Although I would initially complain it was because I felt the message was clear from the first fifty or so accounts of women who gave up their children to adoption, I would be terribly wrong to think that there might be five to ten million more women who were just as uninformed, misled, lacking any voice by their inherent times they lived in, or made to keep quiet lest they lose all familiar ties to the people they called family.

This book was a strong dose of knowledge and wisdom played out in the pain and suffering of so many women I lost track. I found I had to often put the book down and do something else just to come up for air. I am an adoptee and could not help but feel compassion for the birth mother I know nothing about. This book was one of many I have read to help sensitize myself to the reality of the times, the decisions, and my place herein. Although I would stress that it is not an easy book to digest, it certainly is filled with necessary history and perspective no adoptee should be without on their journey toward finding their roots.
3668231
From the author's accounts of her father's abuse to the accounts of her mother's purposeful indifference, the journey she describes in Saved from Silence is a difficult one to read.  Brutally honest yet mercifully sparse on prurient details, the reader gets a full sense of the hopelessness of the author's childhood.  Yet woven through her life story are glimpses of her true worth in God's eyes - the worth she seems to live in today.  Anyone struggling with a sense of worth, and certainly anyone struggling with the effects of abuse, can find hope in Ms. Richardson's story.
3458745
This book is a hard read, not because it is difficult to understand, but because it is hard to hear!  Mike Evans' heart is engaging on each page, and sometimes the pain of his words have more reality than comfort.  It was an engaging read!
2240204
Amazingly good read if for no other reason than this woman lays out the human condition so pure that, as a reader, I feel ashamed to be privy of the information. It's just that good.
Perhaps I realized "who dunnit" early on, but I read the book in a single day which is delicious to have something so engrossing, as they don't come by often.
Brutally honest book that still haunts me. Bravo! More! Thank God she's young....lots left in her. :)
515487
Overall I enjoyed reading this book, but in many ways it also was very disturbing. I think many Christians feel they know when they are saved, but at the same time we can only hope that all we've read about what God expects is as it's described. I, for one, put a lot of faith in other's interpretations of the scriptures.
But the book does a great job of telling us what the author's journey showed him. And I can definitely say, Hell is no place anyone should ever have to go for a second, much less an eternity. I definitely recommend this book to anyone.
1036295
It must be very hard to tell the entire story, yet this feels like the hard truth.  The stories of winning made me want to cheer out loud; the stories of disappointment made me cry.  The music business is brutal, and Don Tolle shares wisdom that would benefit musicians and songwriters, those interested in the business and those just interested in a good read.  I could not put it down.