Saturday Biography: Seasons: the Real Story of an Amish Girl

Title: Seasons: A Real Story of an Amish Girl

Author: Elizabeth Byler Younts

Self-Published. Available on Kindle for $0.99

Story Summary: This memoir is based on the stories told by the author’s grandmother who was raised in an Amish community in Pennsylvania among the most difficult of conditions. The narrative is centered on the young life of Lydia Lee who was raised as the oldest of eleven children in extreme poverty, but in a family that was loving and faith-filled. Lydia’s childhood was one of frequent re-location, hunger, hard work and commitment to her Amish roots.

There is not much of a story arc, as the same scene repeats itself in many locations as the father moves his brood in search of a living. Lydia assists him in working the fields and eventually assumes responsibility for her siblings. It is a simple, but inspiring narrative, which culminates in her acceptance of hard luck and eventual discovery of the man she will marry.

The positive aspects of the book include the writer’s smooth, descriptive writing style and her ability to portray the reality of the Amish lifestyle, often seen by those of us on the “outside” as a bit distant from reality.

Recommendation: This is a quick and easy read, and I recommend it for those who are interested in learning about alternate ways of living in a faith-based community. The lack of story arc  may disappoint those who are looking for a bit of adventure.

For Bluebell Books, I'm Victoria C. Slotto, happy to bring you this week's biography review.

Payne Stewart: the Authorized Biography

Title: Payne Stewart: the Authorized Biography

Author: Tracey Stewart, Ken Abraham, Mike Hicks

About the Authors:  Recounted by Tracey Stewart, the wife of the world famous professional golfer, Payne Stewart, along with Mike Hicks, Stewart’s caddie, this biography was penned by Ken Abraham, an author known for his collaborative works with celebrity figures such as Paul Azinger and Lisa Beamer.

In 1999, PGA golfer Payne Stewart won the US Open Championship at Pinehurst, North Carolina. Months later he was dead in a plane crash that took his life and that of several companions—an event that struck the heart of the golfing community: professional golfers and fans alike.

Even if you do not follow golf, you may remember Stewart by his signature knickers and tam. A man known for his practical jokes, his occasional arrogance, a sporadic misspoken or misunderstood press interview, Stewart was also a man whose family and faith were the center of his life.

This well-written biography is a quick read. Those who are not golf aficionados may want to skip over the ample details of some of the tournaments, but throughout the narrative you will discover a character who loved life and lived it fully. Tracey, his wife, does not gloss over his short-comings and strengths which give a balanced picture of a whole human being and the struggles, the joys, the growth and successes he enjoyed.

I recommend this book to those who enjoy sports, in particular golf and to those who look for inspiration in a life that was short but well-lived.

Submitted by Victoria Ceretto-Slotto, http://liv2write2day.wordpress.com/

Biography Review 10-Helen Keller

What would be the worst thing ever happen to a child? 

Being both deaf and blind, Helen’s world is dark and silent. She was mad like a cow, and she had shed her anger on her family at first. Nothing can change the facts of being unable to “see” and “speak”.

Helen loves life, the way any child does, and she is loved by her family. Education would be the cure to her unsettled mind.

“Water” is the first words she had learned, with her hands splashed by running water under a faucet sink, she “feels” the word “Water” and comes to comprehension of the remark written on her palm by her private tutor…What a discovery for this poor girl! Later in her life, “touch”, “smell”, “feel”, these senses would pave her way to her college degree in English, and she was honored by the president of her time in the U. S….

The story of Helen Keller is inspiring, there are a dozen biographies/auto-biographies under her name online, reading Helen Keller would be fruitful for all of those book worms this summer…I have read about her and have fallen in love with her spirits.

To learn more on Helen Keller and related topics, 

check out books at your locale library or phrase a copy of the book online: 

Happy Reading! 

Happy Summer!

Helen Keller: http://www.amazon.com/Helen-Keller-Tragedy-Childhood-Americans/dp/0020419805/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310218284&sr=1-1

Biography on Helen Keller: http://www.amazon.com/LIGHT-MY-DARKNESS-HELEN-KELLER/dp/0877853983/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1310217697&sr=8-11

Auto-biography by Helen Keller: http://www.amazon.com/Story-My-Life-Restored-Classics/dp/0812968867/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1310217697&sr=8-2

She Touched the World on Laura Bridgman: http://www.amazon.com/She-Touched-World-Bridgman-Deaf-Blind/dp/0618852999/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310218021&sr=1-17

Roverandom

Wednesday, June 29
[Hey guys, I'm sorry I was absent for the last two weeks. Things to do, places to be...and that's enough excuses for now. The book I review today has long been a personal favourite of mine, I hope you guys give it a chance.]

There was a rather ill tempered little dog once upon a time and he bit a passing wizard who turned out to be even more ill tempered than him. This wizard turned our Rover into a toy, and then the toy had a somewhat bad time of it trying to get back to his own self again. 

He got bought by a little boy, then lost by the little boy, rescued by yet another wizard and then had to travel all the way to the moon and then even under the sea to meet very odd people and two more dogs who were called Rover. He did finally find that irritable wizard and he did once again become a dog, but his journeys were really something wonderful to read about and they certainly taught the young Rover much.

Written much before the Hobbit and hidden away from us till some time after Mr Tolkein passed away, Roverandom is an immensely satisfying read for children. It was written with his customary wit and fluidity, and although Tolkein, if he had been alive at the time of its publication, might have revised it several times more, as was his wont, I have a difficult time imagining how any one could make his book any better. 

 It is said that Roverandom had first been created by Tolkein on a holiday long ago to console a distraught Michael Tolkein on losing his favourite toy. Some years later, with new interest from his youngest son, Christopher, the author decided to put the story on paper. Like many of his stories which, although wonderful, are still considered secondary to his middle-earth novels and novellas, this little morsel may have gone completely unnoticed by the public if there hadn't been, for a rather brief spell, a revival of interest in his other works. 

There is a certain kind of magic in a pen that brings to life all kinds of unimaginable wonders. In this story it brings to life the adventures of a young toy dog.

[My blog: http://fantasiesandfairytales.blogspot.com/2011/06/roverandom.html]

Saturday Biography Review: Hitler, the Pathology of Evil

Title: Hitler: The Pathology of Evil

Author: Dr. George Victor

About the Author: Dr. George Victor, a practicing psychotherapist specializes in evaluation of personality disorders. He lives in New Jersey, USA

Publisher: Potomac Books Inc. 1998

Summary: This unique biography may be termed a psychological history of Adolf Hitler, a leader who turned the history of the world upside down. Dr. Victor explores the psychogenesis of Hitler’s hatred of Jews, rooted in his own self-loathing and rejection of that fact that in all probability, his grandfather was sired by a man of Jewish origins. Sickly at birth, his mother overprotected him and doted upon him while his father, a strict disciplinarian was abusive toward him. Hitler was never able to meet the man’s expectations. Dealing with a country that suffered terribly after its defeat in World War I, the leader of the new Nazi party set out to change the economic and ethnic character of Germany. A charismatic speaker, Hitler was able to entice his followers to accept programs designed to create a perfect race through genocide, involuntary sterilization programs and other practices the we deem to be atrocious in hindsight. Few people, even among his closest followers, we aware of the extent of the plans he had carried out. Hitler's obsession with attaining racial purity led to strategic decisions that resulted in Germany's defeat. The author also explores elements of his personal life such as his bizarre sexual practices, his inability to relate closely to others and his low sense of self-worth.

While not a “quick, easy read” this biography gives an overview of the war in Europe and the psychology of the man behind it. The author avoids highly clinical terminology and his material is organized and presented in a logical manner. The work is well-written and well-documented.

Recommendation: I give this biography ***1/2 and recommend it to those who have interest in World War II, in the psychology of evil or in the roots of Hitler’s choices. I did not in anyway feel that Dr. Victor was trying to defend Hitler’s behavior. He rather presented an objective analysis of the man’s character.

I’m off to read something light and fluffy now!

Review submitted by Victoria Ceretto-Slotto, http://liv2write2day.wordpress.com/

Saturday Biography: Maya Angelou--"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"

Title: “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”

Author: Maya Angelou

About the Author:

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has to; it sings because it has a song.”

Maya Angelou.

http://mayaangelou.com/

I find it a humbling affair to attempt to present the work of poet, educator, historian, educator, playwright, director, producer, actress Maya Angelou. An African American, Dr. Angelou was born in 1928 in Missouri and raised there and in Stamps, Arkansas. She studied dance and drama in San Francisco and became a significant force in the civil rights movement in the United States. Her participation in so many aspects of the artistic life earned her the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000. She wrote and presented a poem for the occasion of President Bill Clinton’s Inauguration in 1993.

You can listen to her recitation of “On the Pulse of the Morning” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDtw62Ah2zY

Publisher: Random House, 1969

Story Summary: The author’s rich life lent itself, not to a single autobiography, but to a series, of which this book is the first installation, covering her childhood and early teenage years. The victims of a failed marriage, Angelou and her brother, Bailey, were foisted upon her paternal grandmother at ages 3 and 4 respectively. Raised primarily in Stamps, Arkansas she experienced the significant hardships of being raised Negro in the American deep south in the years prior to the Civil Right’s Movement. For a short period of time, she was reunited with her mother in Saint Louis where she experienced the guilt that accompanies sexual molestation and the death of her abuser shortly after his trial. After this horror, she was returned to the care of her grandmother until age thirteen when she and Bailey once again joined their mother (a prostitute) in San Francisco. The story is one of survival…no, excellence, in the face of the utmost adversity.

Comments: Reading this memoir was a feast of words, descriptions, story, metaphor. A poet writing prose, Angelou has spoiled my taste for the banal. (The lyrical quality of her work makes me want to incinerate my own manuscripts!) This book has had and will have appeal for people all over the globe, especially those facing discrimination of any type. The characters are living, breathing, strong, flawed human beings.

Read more about this remarkable woman on her blog, referenced above and at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou

Biography Book Review: The Paris Wife: A Novel

Saturday June 4: Biography Book Review

Review done by Victoria Ceretto-Slotto. Visit her blog: http://liv2write2day.wordpress.com

Title: The Paris Wife: A Novel

Author: Paula McClain

About the Author:

 Paula McLain, born in California in 1965, raised in foster homes. Overcoming many difficulties, she obtained an MFA in Poetry from the University of Michigan in 1996. Has received numerous fellowships, including one from the National Endowment for the Arts. She has published two books of poetry, a memoir, and a novel, A Ticket to Ride. She teaches in the MFA Program in Poetry at New England College, and lives with her family in Cleveland.

Check out this 3-minute Interview with Paula McLain: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m1O175XPXRL6C9/ref=ent_fb_link

Publisher: Ballantine Books, a Division of Random House, 2011

Story Summary: The Paris Wife is a fictional account of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage and early years in 1920's Paris, as told from the point of view of his wife, Hadley. Though written as fiction, the author did thorough research into the biographies and letters of Hemingway and Hadley Richardson Hemingway, as well as in the author’s novels, to develop the material which became the story of their charmed and devastated marriage in Paris, from 1921-1926. The story is true to details as far as the unfolding of Ernest and Hadley’s years together. What McLain has done is to imbue the characters with emotion and interject dialogue. Therein lies the fiction.

  

Comments: McLain excels in transporting the reader to a place and time inhabited by modernist artists and authors: Paris in the 1920’s. You will experience the joie de vivre of this epoch, but also the vacuous quality of the subjects’ lives—marked by alcoholism and rampant infidelity.

Hadley emerges as a romantic, traditional wife and mother in spite of her tumultuous life style with Ernest. It is easy to empathize with her. At the same time you are introduced to the troubled and insecure persona of Ernest. His self doubts about his ability as a writer and his moodiness diminish over the course of the novel as he achieves success. At the same time, his need for affirmation and encouragement that Hadley provided wanes. He then betrays not only Hadley but those who supported his early efforts: Sherwood Anderson and Gertrude Stein among others.

McLain’s ability as a writer is showcased by natural dialogue, crisp descriptions and readability. This novel made me want to read her poetry, memoir and first novel.

My one small critique with the novel was that Ernest and Hadley used multiple nicknames for each other, as well as for acquaintances. At times I got lost trying to figure out who was who, especially when reading dialogue. It took me a while to figure out that the couple shared a nickname: Tatie.

Recommendation: *****—very highly recommended. Especially if you are a fan of Hemingway or a writer who grapples with insecurity, as Hemmingway does.

Excerpts:

“Nearly anyone might feel like a painter walking the streets of Paris then because the light brought it out in you, and the shadows alongside the buildings, and the bridges which seemed to want to break your heart…”

“’I want to write one true sentence,” he said. “If I can write one sentence, simple and true, everyday, I’ll be satisfied.”

This is Victoria at http://liv2write2day.wordpress.com

and I’m happy to bring this review to you.

Links to Images:

Cover:

http://www.amazon.com/Paris-Wife-Novel-Paula-McLain/dp/0345521307/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307053480&sr=1-1#reader_0345521307