but a very sad story of a race of people that will dissapear ...
342050
Hard read, but a very sad story of a race of people that will dissapear by assimilation.
4135375
This book tells one of Canada's most tragic tales that brought about the near-extinction of a people through ethnic and religious intolerance, the Expulsion of the Acadians. This is the story of that episode through the eyes of the second eldest daughter of a large family. It is a heartbreaking story of loss and shameful, needless relocation of a people who were not wanted where they came from nor where they were sent. Hated either because they were French or Catholic, or both, the story brings to mind that world issues of today are no different than the ones of the past. A well-written, fast-paced story even though one knows ultimately how it will end due to the title, if one isn't familiar with the history. The book has a heavy atmosphere; I felt sad for the most part with the loss and death, and the ending only gives a bittersweet dose of happiness. The historical details are presented well through the emotional story and I'd say this would make a good introduction to the topic, especially with the historical notes included at the back of the book. I thought I didn't know this author, but taking a look at her backlist of titles, I realize I have read one other of her historical fictions a very long time ago. An emotional entry in the series.
2884109
This is a story about an indigenous people living in harmony with nature - an earth-based people experiencing the growing pains of having their own traditions challenged from within.

These stories are important to experience, a point of view that only can expand the myopic mind of so many of those who only have a white man's eye view of the world. Such a view is a very, very limited view indeed.

The Maori are a proud, warrior like people with a history that risks getting lost in this increasingly modern world. Faced with accepting a girl as the potential inheritor of sacred power, the proud grandfather who lost his daughter and twin grandson of the young girl is bereft almost beyond hope. He cannot see the gift he has been given through his grief over the gifts he has lost.

Yes, there are whales - and yes, they need help. And they get it, in an incredible scene that is almost beyond belief. This is a beautiful movie.<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Once-Were-Warriors/dp/B00005JJAU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Once Were Warriors</a>
3694563
Sad reality of many children told through the eyes of someone who cares about the suffering and abuse of innocent children.
3020243
I'm not sure where this book is going, but every time I think about giving up on it, something tugs me back in. I agree with one reader who said she sees the book in black & white. Others say it's depressing, a real downer. As a white woman born in the early '50's, I remember the prejudice and feelings of hatred, suspicion, & superiority. It bothered me as a young girl, and it still bothers me today. Unfortunately, we seem to be sliding backward in this country. This book depicts just a few of the many injustices inflicted during this sad period in the history of our nation. It's a good "wake up" story.
4927223
A very sad story about disrupted lives and a daughter's brave fight for normality and balance and her eventual victory
1185072
I really enjoyed this story and am left with sadness in my heart that these people were not really allowed to return to there life.  I feel the Apache were not allowed to live as a tribe with diginity.
4615428
A sad story about how some people raised with wealth can cling to a semblance of purpose that is skewed.
2513711
This books takes you back to a time young people cannot imagine. The fear, of knowing you could be killed just because and no one of authority will help. There are many with Emmetts blood on their hands.  Anyone who knew, but was too cowardly to warn Mr. Mose Wright. Knew, but refused to testify. Sad. It is shocking that the racist, pot bellied sheriff HC Strider has a portion of a hwy named after him. Carolyn Bryant-Donham will spend an eternity in the pit of hell for her actions. Somethings are unforgivable. I wonder what the Bryant and Milam children must feel knowing their fathers are pathetic, ignorant murderers. The KKK is nothing more than a bunch of cowardly, ignorant, backward morons. They do NOT represent the white race.
3842618
This is such a sad story in so many ways.  Here's a family trying to make it by working hard and buying into the American Dream only to have that dream shattered by racial/religious intolerance.  What a sad commentary on our country's original purpose.  This is also a fascinating read on how the administration both local, county, state and national reacted to the horror that was New Orleans.  I felt I was there with the dogs barking and the people stranded - not a comfortable read by any means but necessary to all of us.
3137532
This is an incredibly depressing story about poor people who lose their homes because rich people decide to build a dam.
The pictures are beautiful.
3196627
A wonderful story about the life and culture in Africa.  It is a great lesson in African beliefs and traditions and the sad history of the white man's destruction and utter disdain for their centuries old way of life!  It's a shameful part of English history.
31686
The story is very sad and hard to keep reading about all of the horrible things that were done to the black people.
1099795
It is hard not to appreciate this book on two levels. It is a literary achievement, but also because it is a story of this indigenous community that has failed because of bad decisions by the federal government over more then 150 years. Possibly, the greatest failure has to do with the terrible state of the education system on the reservations. Continued poverty, alcoholism and drug addiction, and crime and abuse all result from not understanding the value of education as a way out of the failure that seems to be hard wired into the DNA of the Native American. It is a sad book because of our responsibility for the failure.
3518509
This is a book that carries the reader with it, it puts the experiences of the three authors, Andrew, Ken and Heidi right into oneself as the story unfolds. It is so sad to see the atrocities meted out on fellow human beings by other people and to bear witness at the gross failures of those in power, the United Nations and the world international community. The accounts of the Rwanda and Bosnia genocides and the killings in Haiti and Liberia are very disturbing and what is worse, they happened at the watch of the UN or its inaction. Human beings are born equal, they should be treated with equity and dignity whatever skin colour, religion or ethnicity......

I got personally engrossed in the lives of Heidi, Andrew and Ken and would have wanted to know more as to what happened in their personal lives after leaving the UN. Did Andrew actually settle back in Cambodia with his wife Suzanne? Did Ken ever get married? Did Heidi find new love after losing Marc? Did they ever start families?

Such is the power of this book. It leaves many questions regarding the role of the UN, even right at the end when it was awarded the Nobel peace prize.
4256267
Brigid Howley was eleven years old in 1961 when this story begins. She and her family, are living with an aunt. They are barely surviving on the money that Brigid's mother brings in. I is the bitter cold of a february morning, when Brigid awakens in the bed she shared with her aging Auntie, who was something of a Wise Woman in the small town where they lived.

Dolores was Brigid's mother, and had become bitter and mean after years of struggle with no money, Adrian her husband who had been badly injured in a mine accident, the same accident that took his brothers life. It was no surprise to Adrian or his family. They firmly believed that a curse had been laid on their family many years before by a Catholic priest.

Poverty, family curses and more, all endured by a family with no home of their own, and living with a relative in a town that sat on top of a mine that was burning. A fire, deep underground that affected everything they did. Poisonous gasses seeping into their poor homes. The fire is a huge presence in this book, almost a character in its own right. But the fire, as terrible, as tragic as it is, is not the saddest part of this story. The saddest part of this story is the lack of hope, the loss of love, and the disturbing family secrets that have shredded the very souls of some members of this family.

When it seems that things can't get any worse, they get worse. More for this broken family to endure. But through it all, there is one shining thread. There is one person who seems to find some good where there can be none. And for this shining thread, you should read this book.
628560
It is so hard to imagine the atrocities that people will go to, to satisfy what they believe to be, the will of a whole nation of people- or at least a large segment of a population; who have unwittingly pledged their allegiance to a monster.

When doctors would give up their practice and abandon their Hippocratic oath to "do no harm" and actually kill people that they termed as "subhuman", it is beyond reproachable behavior.  Included in this group were other madmen, and members of society, who would murder a whole populace of people; many of whom were considered intellectuals by their peers.  In many instances a one degree difference in your skull index size would determine if you were of the "master race" or "subhuman".  If you came out on the wrong end of the measurement you were sent to your death in a gas chamber or other form of eradication to satisfy the "German question" and Hitler's "Final Solution".  Even the common citizens of Germany met a terrible fate if they happened to be disabled.  If they were, they were labeled as "worthless" and were either killed or made sterile- to preserve the master race.  Babies were taken and thrown into rivers and told to "boil there, you offspring of the devil!"

Jonathan Maxwell presents another interesting look at the Holocaust- where he looks into the mindset of the murderous intellectuals and attempts to make some sense of it all by examining the behavioral histories of those involved. In this book you will learn that Hitler, as a young boy, was an introvert and a poor student and we are given insight into what may have influenced him to become one of the evilest men in history.

The author also gives us pause to consider that we are still living in times of great human suffering- at the hands of world leaders- and that history, in the case of the Nazi's and the Holocaust, may well someday repeat itself.