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Comanche Moon Review

The adventure continues for, now veteran, Texas Rangers Woodrow Call and Augustus (Gus) McCrae on the plains of Texas in the mid-1800's. We follow these two best friends through many adventures and hardships in this second installment of Larry McMurtry's epic Lonesome Dove series.
This book takes place a number of years after Dead Man's Walk left off. At this point Gus and Call are now part of the Ranger troop led by the Infamous Inish Scull. Scull and his troop's sole purpose are to destroy their abhorred enemy: The Comanche Indian and their Great War chief, Buffalo Hump. Both of which are formidable opponents especially the dreaded Buffalo Hump who is known for not only killing incredible amounts of white men but torture as well.
When urgent business calls Captain Scull he (almost haphazardly) assigns Gus and Call to captain of his beloved troop, who then leads their troop to the safety of Austin. This marks the beginning of their new career as captains of the Texas Rangers, a cherished and long sought-after position by many a Texan. But they soon learn it isn't as glamorous as it appears. Between low wages, crooked governors, men and close friends dying, and countless other obstacles Gus and Call start wondering if this is really what they want to do for the rest of their lives and if not what will be the next step for these two men who know nothing but rangering?
Most books over 700 pages can start to feel like a chore and often times make you question if it's worth actually getting to the top of the never-ending mountain. This was not the case for Comanche Moon. At no point did I feel obligated to finish it but rather turned the pages as quickly as if I was looking a word up in the dictionary and was a couple pages away. The characters are extremely well-defined and you are brought to a personal level with nearly a dozen different characters. Some loveable, some likeable, some so venomously evil you couldn't imagine being in the situation where you had to actually face them.
The aforementioned Inish Scull has become one of my favorite literary characters to date. His quick-wittedness and genius will have you laughing and rooting for this complicated man. Especially when he is faced with the most perilous situation one can imagine.
Also we dig much deeper into the lives and heads of our two heroes, along their loves, their pains, their triumphs, and their regrets. Both seem like simple men, neither are.

The point of the book where McMurtry really shine is in the last 50 pages, when he describes the grizzly murder of the now elderly Buffalo Hump by his banished son. I wouldn't have thought possible if the smartest literary minds all told me but McMurtry actually made you sympathize with the aging Indian. Throughout the previous 1000-1100 pages (spanning two different books) he has described this man as such a hated villain and feared individual that his death should be a triumph for the Rangers, but you actually have to hold back a tear. It was that good.
I've yet to read Lonesome Dove and all I hear is that it is such a cornerstone of literary history. If it is actually better than Comanche Moon it must be. Bottom line: read this book. Might be my favorite book ever.

Comanche Moon Overview

Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry, a brilliant and haunting novel richly capable of standing on its own, completes the author's epic four-volume cycle of novels of the American West that began in 1985 with the Pulitzer Prize -- winning masterpiece, Lonesome Dove.

We join Texas Rangers August McCrae and Woodrow F. Call in their middle years, just beginning to deal with the perplexing tensions of adult life -- Gus and his great love, Clara Forsythe; Call and Maggie Tilton, the young whore who loves him -- when they enlist with a Ranger troop in pursuit of Buffalo Hump, the great Comanche war chief; Kicking Wolf, the celebrated Comanche horse thief; and a deadly Mexican bandit king with a penchant for torture. Assisting the Rangers in their wild chase is the renowned Kickapoo tracker, Famous Shoes.

Comanche Moon joins the twenty-year time line between Dead Man's Walk and Lonesome Dove, as we follow beloved heroes Gus and Call and their comrades-in-arms -- Deets, Jake Spoon, and Pea Eye Parker -- in their bitter struggle to protect an advancing Western frontier against the defiant Comanches, courageously determined to defend their territory and their way of life.

Comanche Moon Specifications

In a book that serves as a both a sequel to Dead Man's Walk and a prequel to the beloved Lonesome Dove, McMurtry fills in the missing chapters in the Call and McCrae saga. It is a fantastic read, in many ways the best and gutsiest of the series. We join the Texas Rangers in their waning Indian-fighting years. The Comanches, after one last desperate raid led by the fearsome-but-aging Buffalo Hump, are almost defeated, though Buffalo Hump's son, Blue Duck, still terrorizes the relentless flow of settlers and lawmen. As Augustus and Woodrow follow one-eyed, tobacco-spitting Captain Inish Scull deep into a murderous madman's den in Mexico, their thoughts turn toward the end of their careers and the women they love in remarkably different ways back in Austin. What's amazing about McMurtry's West is that he sees beyond the romance. Neither his Indians, his cowboys, his gunslingers, nor his women act the way they did in either Zane Grey novels or John Wayne movies. Incredible beauty and lightning-quick violence are the bookends of his West, but it is the in-between moments of suffering and boredom where McMurtry shines. The suffering is poignant and heart-rending; the boredom tempered with doses of Augustus McCrae's sharp humor. Don't be surprised if you find yourself crying and laughing on the same page.

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Customer Reviews

I read this before Lonesome Dove - OA - San Francisco, CA
This was an excellent book, a great adventure. Since it chronologically happens before Lonesome Dove, I read it first. I think it made Lonesome Dove even better!



Comanche Moon - Bernard L. Deleo - Oakland, CA
Larry McMurtry's `Comanche Moon' follows the Texas Ranger Captains Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae in their middle years. This is a stand alone book in the series which can be read with enjoyment and understanding by itself. In `Comanche Moon, McMurtry's isolating and development of each character's voice is amazing. Coupled with entrancing detailed descriptions of the Texas badlands interspersed throughout, `Comanche Moon' is McMurtry's best of series. I have never been a fan of novel landscaping minutia. McMurtry writes word pictures with enthralling technique. I know gritty westerns aren't for everyone. If you've ever wanted to try one out, `Comanche Moon' would be my recommendation.






Another classic - Jeffrey Roberts - Long Island, New York United States
NO ONE makes you feel as much a part of the story as larry mcmurtry. when i put one of his books down i generally have to get a glass of water to get the dust out. I enjoyed comanche moon, but felt it just left me hanging, which would be fine, except that i already read the other 3 parts to the series. as i was reading comanche i wondered how the book would have been if read in sequencial order, not knowing the future. GUS AND CALL are probably the two best characters in american fiction, and in comanche moon you can find several reasons not to like CALL. read this if you have read lonesome dove or plan to read it. alone, i am not sure.

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Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse Review

Being greatly interested in anything to do with Abraham Lincoln (easy to do while living in Illinois because there is so much Lincoln history here), I was excited to read "Bloody Crimes". A few years ago, I read James Swanson's previous Lincoln book "Manhunt" and quite enjoyed that one. "Bloody Crimes" focuses on what happens after Lincoln dies and follows his path from Washington D.C. to the tomb in Springfield. A lot of books have been written about the assassination but they don't really focus on what happens after Lincoln dies. The book goes into detail about how the Washington D.C. funeral was put together and what happened on each stop of the funeral train. There were details about Lincoln's funeral that I didn't know about previously. I got immersed in the details and sort of felt like I was there experiencing the mourning back in 1865.

It also follows what happens to Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, in the final days of the Civil War. To be honest, I don't know much about Jefferson Davis and it was interesting to find out about him more. I think as someone from the North and that the North won the war, I've been kind of taught that Confederates were bad and evil but I found out that Jefferson Davis was just a regular man who just happened to be elected as the president of the Confederacy. Yes, the intentions of the confederacy were not right but Jefferson Davis was not evil through and through. He, like Lincoln, was a man with a wife and children. He suffered sorrows just like Lincoln. He was a well-respected man in Washington before the war. The book shows that even though these two men are fighting for two very different causes, they are more alike than what we thought.

I very much enjoyed reading this book. My only gripe is that the author shows his views on Mary Lincoln whenever she is mentioned in the book. Mary Lincoln is a woman that most people seem to love or hate. I'm probably one of the few that see her both ways-she certainly was not perfect and had a lot of bad qualities but I feel sympathy towards her somewhat. But Mr. Swanson seems to have a slight vendetta against Mrs. Lincoln. He mentioned that she should have let Tad Lincoln go on the funeral train back to Springfield but was selfish and made him stay. But Robert Lincoln did not go on the train for the whole trip, so why should Tad? There were other Mary Lincoln mentions that left a slight distaste in my mouth and I felt that perhaps Mr. Swanson should have been a bit more impartial in talking about Mrs. Lincoln. But other than that, I'm proud to have this book on the shelf with my other Lincoln books. "Bloody Crimes" is a must read for any fans of Lincoln (I know there are a lot out there) or anyone interested in reading non-fiction about the Civil War era.

Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse Overview

On the morning of April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, received a telegram from General Robert E. Lee. There is no more time—the Yankees are coming, it warned. Shortly before midnight, Davis boarded a train from Richmond and fled the capital, setting off an intense and thrilling chase in which Union cavalry hunted the Confederate president.

Two weeks later, President Lincoln was assassinated, and the nation was convinced that Davis was involved in the conspiracy that led to the crime. Lincoln's murder, autopsy, and White House funeral transfixed the nation. His final journey began when soldiers placed his corpse aboard a special train that would carry him home on the 1,600-mile trip to Springfield. Along the way, more than a million Americans looked upon their martyr's face, and several million watched the funeral train roll by. It was the largest and most magnificent funeral pageant in American history.

To the Union, Davis was no longer merely a traitor. He became a murderer, a wanted man with a 0,000 bounty on his head. Davis was hunted down and placed in captivity, the beginning of an intense and dramatic odyssey that would transform him into a martyr of the South's Lost Cause.

The saga that began with Manhunt continues with the suspenseful and electrifying Bloody Crimes. James Swanson masterfully weaves together the stories of two fallen leaders as they made their last expeditions through the bloody landscape of a wounded nation.

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Customer Reviews

Not nearly as interesting as Manhunt, but for history buffs, an excellent book! - HardyBoy64 - Rexburg, ID United States
Swanson takes two somewhat obscure elements of the Civil War period and intertwines them into an interesting read. Without the suspense so evident in his early book "Manhunt", "Bloody Crimes" narrates the pilgrimage of Lincoln's body from Washington,DC to his beloved Springfield in relationship with the hunt for confederate ex-president Jefferson Davis. Initially, the relationship of these two events seemed very random to me and honestly, I still feel like the book is a bit awkward at times. However, Swanson creates a beautiful parallel between Lincoln and Davis and is able to connect the historical events into one understandable narrative. While I certainly recommend this book for history buffs, those mildly interested in the time period will find "Manhunt" a much more enjoyable read.






Satisfying Follow-Up To Manhunt - gail powers - Harbor Country, Mi,N. Naples, FL, Chicago area
MANHUNT was author/historian James Swanson's wildly popular history of the search for Lincoln's assasin John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators. This book picks up where MANHUNT left off and covers Lincoln's long last journey back to Springfield IL and the pageantry and security details that accompanied that trip. Counterpointing the Lincoln funeral procession are the last days of the Civil War and the search for Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America.
In direct comparison to MANHUNT, this book is probably a little less exciting because it is less frenetic than a nationwide manhunt for an assassin that is being concealed by his sympathizers. Manhunt is edgy. BLOODY CRIMES has its edge, but is less suspenseful in the sense that the writing is pretty much on the wall. Lincoln is dead and never to be resurected and the Civil War is pretty much over and the Confederacy is broken. The only things needed are closure: get the Confederacy to surrender and get Lincoln to his funeral and burial.
BLOODY CRIMES works because it is deeply based in fact, it is accurate on all counts, and it is interesting. James Swanson pulls all the elements together in a readable text that guarantees that it will not bore his readers while putting forth the happenings on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line during the Civil War's final limping days. As for Lincoln's death march, I'm an Illinois kid. In VA, they school their kids in the state's history and founding fathers. In Illinois we know about Lincoln. I've read a lot about the funeral and tomb and have been to the Lincoln Library, but I still found this interesting. Swanson managed to pull this together for me and greatly enhanced my knowledge on that front. If you like this period in american history, you will most likely enjoy this book.



Poignant, compelling account of the end of the Civil War - Bruce Trinque - Amston, CT United States
James Swanson's "Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse" is to to some extent a companion piece for his enthralling "Manhunt", the story of the hunt for John Wilkes Booth after the Lincoln Assassination. But "Bloody Crimes" is painted upon a much broader canvas and becomes a dramatic, illuminating portrait of the end of the American Civil War. The tale is told by intertwining two skeins: the funeral of Abraham Lincoln and elaborate transportation of his body to its grave in Illinois, a lengthy somber journey that did much to raise Lincoln's stature in the American memory; and the efforts of Jefferson Davis not so much as to escape capture as instead to bring the remnants of the Confederate Government to safety in what remained of the Confederacy west of the Mississippi River to continue the war until victory could be achieved, a journey that was probably doomed from the start.

In comparing these journeys of Lincoln and Davis in the immediate aftermath of the fighting of the Civil War, Swanson explores the pasts and personalities of these two men, both similar and yet so different. It perhaps was tempting to make one man a hero and the other a villain, of sorts, but Swanson shows admiration for both leaders, and he does much to restore Davis's place in American history as something more than a hopeless failure. Swanson's page-turning account is an emotionally effective of the weeks when America turned from her most devisive war to the troubled peace beyond.

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An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy Review

Simply put, this is possibly the best WWII book I've ever read, and easily ranks up there as one of the best history books I've ever read, right up there with The Armada by Garrett Mattingly. At the beginning of the book you aren't too familiar with the North Africa Campaign, but by the end of the book you know it so intimately that you feel as though you were there.

Going into this I had read extensively on Europe after D-Day and a little of the Italian Campaign, as well as a lot on the Pacific Theater. The struggle for Algiers and Tunisia was important, I knew that, but it never captured my interest enough to read more. A few pages into An Army at Dawn and I was 100% invested and couldn't believe that I hadn't read more on it sooner. This is where the first allied success with the British in Egypt came about, this was where many a general either sank or swam and, more importantly, where Ike and the US Army grew into a mean fighting machine. Atkinson captures the true essence of the early American Army in not only the officers but in the soldiers as well. He meticulously combed through a plethora of sources that painted a picture that was real and alive.

What he illustrated so beautifully, and came as a complete shock to me, was how the allies weren't too fond of one another. They used one another for their own purpose. The British were so elitist it was almost comical, constantly berating and belittling the American Army and its generals, especially Ike, their supreme commander. They went so far as to scheme to put their three top guys below Ike so as to elevate him in title and yet remove all power from him for England. Quite a shock. And oftentimes they may have been speaking honestly, but most of the time it was the top dog mentality that made them feel so superior. In some cases this was the case. After all, they had been fighting the Axis for 2 years by the time the US got involved and they had already separated the wheat from the chafe as so often combat does. The US did not have this benefit as they had to learn from trial and error who the standout officers were and who had to go home. But the elitist feeling certainly blinded them to the fact that their very own generals and soldiers were having the same problems as the US. I mean the German army in 1942-3 was at the top of its game. They had air superiority and top panzer divisions battling it out. Rommel bloodied the Allies repeatedly before material and soldier superiority in numbers overwhelmed them.

This isn't to say that the American generals didn't have their flaws. They also thumped their chest and played at top dog, especially Patton. They went in to the war thinking of the glory they would obtain and that nobody could best them and their mighty army. This, of course, was the dear lesson that the Allies had to learn through destruction in North Africa before their fighting machine learned what it meant to go to war and began to excel at it. Bradley stood out in the end, although he may have stepped in at just the right time.

Another shocker was that we fought the French in WWII! This blew me away that the French resisted as though they were part of the Axis, which makes sense considering the hostages held by Germany and the threat to invade the rest of France. Nonetheless, the whole Algiers campaign was the US and British against the French! WWII never ceases to amaze me.

Atkinson, too, amazed me. His narrative history is a masterpiece of meticulous research and extensive descriptions. You understood the mentality of all sides and could understand the where, why and how of what was happening. I cannot wait to read the second book in the trilogy and see if he can repeat his performance in the liberation of Italy. A definite recommend for both the author and the book.

5 stars.

An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy Feature

• ISBN13: 9780805087246
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An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy Overview

In the first volume of his monumental trilogy about the liberation of Europe in WW II, Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson tells the riveting story of the war in North Africa

The liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and miscalculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern reader can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. That first year of the Allied war was a pivotal point in American history, the moment when the United States began to act like a great power.

Beginning with the daring amphibious invasion in November 1942, An Army at Dawn follows the American and British armies as they fight the French in Morocco and Algeria, and then take on the Germans and Italians in Tunisia. Battle by battle, an inexperienced and sometimes poorly led army gradually becomes a superb fighting force. Central to the tale are the extraordinary but fallible commanders who come to dominate the battlefield: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, and Rommel.

Brilliantly researched, rich with new material and vivid insights, Atkinson's narrative provides the definitive history of the war in North Africa.

An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy Specifications

In An Army at Dawn,, a comprehensive look at the 1942-1943 Allied invasion of North Africa, author Rick Atkinson posits that the campaign was, along with the battles of Stalingrad and Midway, where the "Axis ... forever lost the initiative" and the "fable of 3rd Reich invincibility was dissolved." Additionally, it forestalled a premature and potentially disastrous cross-channel invasion of France and served as a grueling "testing ground" for an as-yet inexperienced American army. Lastly, by relegating Great Britain to what Atkinson calls the status of "junior partner" in the war effort, North Africa marked the beginning of American geopolitical hegemony. Although his prose is occasionally overwrought, Atkinson's account is a superior one, an agile, well-informed mix of informed strategic overview and intimate battlefield-and-barracks anecdotes. (Tobacco-starved soldiers took to smoking cigarettes made of toilet paper and eucalyptus leaves.) Especially interesting are Atkinson's straightforward accounts of the many "feuds, tiffs and spats" among British and American commanders, politicians, and strategists and his honest assessments of their--and their soldiers'--performance and behavior, for better and for worse. This is an engrossing, extremely accessible account of a grim and too-often overlooked military campaign. --H. O'Billovich

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Customer Reviews

Confusing and Irritating - Brenda C. Meade -
I wanted to know the history of our country's involvement in North Africa so I purchased this book w/o reading others' reviews. BIG MISTAKE. 188 pages in I am extremely fed up with the constant, negative commentary about Eisenhower, Clark, Patton, our Navy, Army, etc. So much negativity in fact, that I began to wonder what Atkinson's agenda was? He wasn't supposed to whitewash the truth but he could have been more objective. We were new at this game and had a lot to learn. We made tons of mistakes and learned the hard way.

The book was so confusing that it was hard to understand where "I was" in any given moment. One moment you're with Patton, the next Terry Allen and it's not clear how you got there. I would not have minded those tidbits of info regarding the humanity of those men, even the comments regarding their weaknesses, to a point. But, this book is a constant put down of everything American.

So, Atkinson won a Pulitzer Prize. I don't know what he won for, nor do I care, but I do know that if it hadn't been for Eisenhower, Patton, our Army and Navy, he wouldn't have had the right to make a comment much less write a book criticizing his country.

I will never touch another one of his books.






Army At Dawn-Best Trilogy - tski52 -
I have read Army At Dawn along with the sister book, The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson and was greatly pleased with both selections. Through the excellent story-telling of Mr. Atkinson, I was able to follow my own father's war adventure from Casablanca to Tunisia, to Sicily, and up through the Italian boot. Don't be put off by the volume of the works, as both books are fast and easy reading. Mr. Atkinson has included many valuable stories of heroism, mistakes, and interesting characters of World War 2. I cannot wait for the third installment of this trilogy to be published, as it too will be an addition to my collection.



Fantastically written, throughly engrossing - bobk26 -
Other commenters did a great job of reviewing this book. Just wanted to put my two cents in for a very well written book that impressively captured both broad strategic strokes and personal vignettes that made the battles real. Highly recommended, and I will be buying more of Mr. Atkinson's books after reading this one.

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History Is Wrong Review

It has been my main interest for a very long time to find out about what is wrong with the way history is being presented by the orthodox part of science and von Dänichen's book confirm my view
that he is wright and history is wrong. I recommend this book to everybody searching for facts and I give it top rating.

History Is Wrong Feature

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History Is Wrong Overview

Erich von Daniken again shows his flair for revealing the truths that his contemporaries have missed. After closely analyzing hundreds of ancient and apparently unrelated texts, he is now ready to proclaim that human history is nothing like the world religions claim and he has the proof!

In History Is Wrong, Erich von Daniken takes a closer look at the fascinating Voynich manuscript, which has defied all attempts at decryption since its discovery, and makes some intriguing revelations about the equally incredible Book of Enoch.

Von Daniken also unearths the astounding story of a lost subterranean labyrinth in Ecuador that is said to be home to an extensive library of thousands of gold panels. He supplies evidence that the metal library has links not only to the Book of Enoch but also to the Mormons, who have spent decades searching for it, believing it to contain the history of their forefathers.

And what about the mysterious lines in the desert of Nazca that resemble landing strips when viewed from the air? Archeologists claim they are ancient procession routes. Think again! cries von Daniken, as he reveals the data that the archeologists never even thought to check.


History Is Wrong will challenge your intellect...and maybe a few long-held beliefs. This is Erich von Daniken's best book in years!

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Customer Reviews

Best Yet - Gary D. Payne -
Love the book. Erich once again questions all in his own special way. This will make you think. Not for the narrow minded.



Such Remarkable Nonsense - Reader0111 - Anaheim, California
The first few pages kind of caught my curiosity so I bought the Kindle version of this story. But reading a little further it becomes obvious that the writer is just grasping at straws and the whole premise is so full of nonsense that it's embarrassing to admit I bought the book in the first place.

An awful waste of money.



Great Book - Mathias -
Great book if you enjoy mysteries and questioning the standard. Erich von Daniken does it again.




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Check Out The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother for $7.35

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother Review

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. James McBride tells us the touching story of his white Jewish mother, black preacher father and how life was for himself and his eleven siblings growing up in a housing project of Brooklyn. When you read how he pulled his mother's history from her, bit by reluctant bit, you're heart will soar at her determined spirit to raise her kids alone. Her struggles as a Jewish girl coming of age in Virginia, her life as a lone white woman in a black neighborhood with 12 children of color, being widowed not once, but twice will have you rooted to the pages of this book to see how she coped and survived. All of her children went on to finish college and pursue professional careers. She went to college herself and received her degree in her sixties. This is a book of what love and a determined spirit can accomplish. I'd like to share a couple of passages in the book that stood out from all the rest; these words really touched me and made me think we should ALL teach and preach this truth:


James asks his mother, "Am I black or white?"


"You're a human being," she snapped.
...


"What's a spirit?"
"A spirit's a spirit."
"What color is God's spirit?"
"...God is the color of water..."


I wish we would all remember this.


This is a book I highly recommend. You will broaden your horizons with this book, and learn.

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother Overview

A young African-American man describes growing up in an all-black Brooklyn housing project, one of twelve children of a white mother and black father, and discusses his mother's contributions to his life and coming to terms with his confusion over his own identity. 75,000 first printing. ,000 ad/promo. Tour.

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother Specifications

Order this book ... and please don't be put off by its pallid subtitle, A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, which doesn't begin to do justice to the utterly unique and moving story contained within. The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man, making her isolation even more profound. The book is a success story, a testament to one woman's true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word, inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable individual. And, perhaps, a little more faith in us all.

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Customer Reviews

the color of water.... james mcbride - James Mitchell - toronto ontario
a well written true story of an american life that is full of inspiration and challenges. i enjoyed every chapter and was especially motivated to see how this story ended. a victory for hardwork, dedication, values and overcoming a past that could have caused others to simply give up. loved it... jim mitchell



Sooooo slooooow - -
Ugh. This book had a good message but I had to trudge through it. I'm actually surprised I finished it. The best part of the book was the last page because I knew it was almost over! Overall, if you like biographies about a person you've never heard of that matters nothing to you, you'll love it. :(



Puts alot of things into perspective - Ayla87 - Connecticut
You hear alot of people complain about how hard thier lives are, especially now in these economic times. You especially hear alot of people complain about how hard it is to raise children these days, with the rise in college tuition and cost of living.

Then you read "The Color of Water" and the story of Ruth McBride; A white jewish woman who raised 12(!) inter-racial children in inner city NYC during the civil rights movement. Born in eastern europe, she immigrated to the US as a toddler just before WWII. She grew up in the segregated south, where her father abused her. Then she ran away to NYC where she married her husbands and raised her children.

Not only did she raise her children largely on her own (Both her husbands died) but they all stayed out of trouble and all but one completed a college degree. Two even became doctors.

If Ruth McBride can suffer and survive through all of that, then people today can manage thier own affairs, including thier two or three children.



The Color of Water - Kathleen S. Vaccaro -
Thank you! This book arived timely & in great shape.

Kathleen S Vaccaro

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Check Out The War in the Air

The War in the Air Review

Bert Smallways is a rather backward sort, trying (but not too hard) to make a living in England, and watching the advance of technology. But, technology is moving on in directions that he might never have guessed. With the advent of the airship, a secret arms race has broken out among the world's powers, and a new type of war is about to break out.

When Bert is accidentally scooped up by a German fleet, on its way to launch a surprise attack on the United states, he finds himself with a front row seat to the greatest war that has ever been - the war in the air! This new war is to be a different sort of war than all the wars that came before it, unprecedented in its ferocity and destructiveness. When everything can be smashed, what will be left? A good deal less than you might hope.

This now largely forgotten work was written by H.G. Wells (1866-1946) in 1907, and is a masterpiece of forward thinking. While Wells missed the true course of the development of military aviation, his grasp of what a major war, involving fleets of aircraft, would mean was spot on. In fact, this book is quite spooky in its prediction of the destruction of cities and modern infrastructure, and in its portrayal of fleets of warships destroyed from the air! As a prediction of the future, this book is nothing short of amazing.

Well, if the book is so good, why is it now forgotten? In fact, while Wells' portrayal of aerial warfare is right on target, the book, as a novel, is not as good as it should be. The story starts out quite slowly, wasting too much time on the development of the character of Bert Smallways. And, there are many places throughout the narrative where the book could have benefited from some pruning and tightening of the narrative.

So, if you are a fan of H.G. Wells, or are interested in how correct a man of 1907 could have been about modern warfare, then this is the book for you. However, if you are looking for a good science-fiction story, you might be disappointed. Overall, I found this to be an interesting story, one that I am glad that I read. It's almost frightening how close to reality Mr. Wells was. I just wish that he had had a better editor.

The War in the Air Overview

H.G. Wells classic work

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Customer Reviews

Better than The War of the Worlds - Steven C. Bennett -
Easily the best book I have read in several years. It has a very compelling storyline, with as much action as any teenage boy could hope for. It also presents arguments about society, progress, morals, and government that are incredibly edifying and persuasive.



The century of total war - wiredweird - Earth, or somewhere nearby
Written in 1908, Wells predicted warfare as we know it now. He foresaw pushbutton wars, "cold-blooded slaughters ... in which men who were neither excited nor ... in any danger, poured death and destruction on homes and crowds..." Paradoxically, Wells also predicted it to be "a universal guerilla war, a war involving civilians and homes and all the apparatus of social life." He predicted weapons "ineffectual for any large expedition or conclusive attack, [but] horribly convenient for guerilla warfare, rapidly and cheaply made, easily used, easily hidden." Specifics of the story needed to be credible to Wells's 1908 reader, but major points could have been drawn from today's headlines.

Wells's war encircled the globe, years before WWI showed how widespread a war could become. Rather than narrate global destruction, though, Wells told his story through the viewpoint of Bert Smallways, an everyman of modest means, achievement, and intellect. In fact, Bert's only real skill was a knack for being in the wrong place when world-shattering events came to pass. Starting from his bicycle shop in England, Bert's involuntary travels made him witness to the destruction of whole blocks and rows of blocks in New York City, then to the rise of Eastern armies that over-ran the Western world. Then, somehow, he made it back to his sleepy village to settle into a post-war agrarian life without technology - easy enough, since the village had slept through the technology of the time anyway.

Despite the zeppelins used as warcraft, Wells's forecasts hit the bullseye of many targets. He predicted the worldwide caches of hidden weaponry, not too far from what we saw in the Cold War. He also predicted the bafflement of the common civilian, who really just wanted to settle down with a spouse, a house, and food on the table. Headlines aside, that's still the case today.

-- wiredweird






Stunning, disturbing prophecy - Ryan Harvey - Los Angeles, CA USA
H.G. Wells-what a genius. He foresaw the future better than any supposed "psychic." This novel, little known but available again, is the proof.

In the early 20th century, the invention of aerial vehicles precipitates the outbreak of a worldwide war that had brewed for hundreds of years. The aircrafts' ability to wreck unlimited destruction lays waste to civilization, reducing it to pre-Industrial revolution levels. That is the basis of this incredible piece of political and scientific prophesy. Wells unleashes his full understanding of human "progress" and the fraility of political systems, and with every page hits truths about war and technology even more applicable today than during World War I, the combat that Wells envisioned here. He even saw 9/11 and the Iraq War, pegging Western European complaceny so accurately that I felt my jaw drop to the floor on a few occasions.

Honestly, this H. G. guy was one in a billion. He was utterly, incalculably brilliant. He was also a helluva writer, expressing ideas with flashes of humor, irony, and passion. Wells uses a countryside Englishman as witness to the fall of civilization, and manages to effortlessly switch between the epic canvas of war and the cameo portrait of a normal man seeing everything he ever understood about the world fray apart before his eyes.

In a terrific last stroke, Wells writes the final chapter that sums up the possibility that "progess" may be an illusion. This novel deserves to be considered amongst Wells finest, and this new edition with Duncan's insightful introduction, may be the firest step in getting it the wide audience it deserves.

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Second Treatise of Government: An Essay Concering the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government (Crofts Classics Series) Review

John Locke presents in "Second Treatise on Government," his theory of government which he believes is essential to promulgate "lest men fall into the dangerous belief that all government in the world is merely the product of force and violence."

Locke defines political power as, "a right of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defense of the common-wealth from foreign injury; and all this only for the public good." In order to explain political power, Locke presents his theory of the state of nature. To better explain his thoughts on the state of nature, he argues that, basically, in a state of nature there is also a state of equality. Locke asserts that all men are created equal, and therefore, no person should violate another person's rights. Further, Locke argues that if a person should ever harm another, since as we are all equal doing so would essentially be harming ones self.

Liberty is a reccuring theme and prominently featured in Locke's writings. Locke asserts that liberty is the freedom to be governed exclusively by the laws of nature and by nothing and no one else. After reading this book, one might wonder what Locke's personal feelings were regarding such issues as the European slave trade and/ or the displacement and subsequent genocide of Native Americans Indians, which occurred during his lifetime.

Second Treatise of Government: An Essay Concering the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government (Crofts Classics Series) Overview

Library of Liberal Arts title.

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Customer Reviews

At issue - M. Williams - Clemmons, NC United States
John Locke, a political 'liberal' by definition in his day in the 17th century would be considered a 'constitutional libertarian' by today's standard. To call him a 'liberal' by today's standard vocabulary would invite a feast of historical revisionism to the table. Having read most every sentence written by Locke, More, Erasmus, most Tudorian Humanists, and Empiricists, I would say John Locke is easily the most profound influence on Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. Given that I also have an original copy of his translation and commentary of the Greek New Testament is also a grave contradiction to the mysterious 'Description' here on Amazon. I will quote:

"Some maintain that religious fundamentalism, 'post-modernism', and socialism are today the only remaining ideological threats to liberalism.".

The only thing to be said for this is poppycock. Locke never said nor would he have ever stated such a phrase. It is rabid historical revisionist flotsam. Locke was no anti-religious bigot as most liberals are today. Not only was he well educated, he was a first hand respecter and translator of the Greek text of the Bible. Most liberals today have a near-impossible task of telling you what dialect of the Greek text Locke translated much less have they ever read so much as an English translation of the New Testament. A far cry from the intellectual superiority of ages past when faith was well-understood amoung the many universal subjects of importance to life and liberty.






A foundation for future political philosophies - David Craig - United States
In contrast to what was being claimed by the rulers of the time, John Locke taught that the purpose of government is to serve and benefit the people and that it should be controlled by the people for which the government was made. Although Locke's ideas are taken for granted in the United States as a basic right of the people today, and are virtually written into the Declaration of Independence, Locke's claim that people have the right to rebel against government was controversial when he wrote it. Second Treatise of Government served as a foundation for future political philosophies which are widely accepted today.



An important book in colonial times--and today - C. McPherson - U.S.A.
Any student of American history, particularly of the revolution and the formation of the Constitution, should read this book. It is a book that the revolutionaries themselves were well acquainted with, and formed the rational basis for justifying both the Revolution and the establishment of the Constitution.

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