Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

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At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe, a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who’d been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both were survivors of previous bad divorces. Enough said.) But providence intervened one day in the form of the United States government, which—after unexpectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing—gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again. Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving into this topic completely, trying with all her might to discover through historical research, interviews, and much personal reflection what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is. Told with Gilbert’s trademark wit, intelligence and compassion, Committed attempts to “turn on all the lights” when it comes to matrimony, frankly examining questions of compatibility, infatuation, fidelity, family tradition, social expectations, divorce risks and humbling responsibilities. Gilbert’s memoir is ultimately a clear-eyed celebration of love with all the complexity and consequence that real love, in the real world, actually entails.

• ISBN13: 9780670021659
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Customer Reviews ::

Interesting but kind of a let down after ELP - honolulureader - Oahu, Hawaii
This book was full of interesting factoids about Marriage and what this means in many different cultures. I liked its honest look at marriage instead of glossy view of an idealistic marriage. Towards the end however, I couldn't wait for it to end.. and I was wanted to scream, "Get over it!" Just get married!!! Nothing in life is for sure anyways...

The Split Sky: A Journey of Discovery in Utah's Nine Mile Canyon

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Finding the pathway of life on Utah's historic Nutter Ranch. A true story of inspiration, courage, humor and cowboy ideals.

Customer Reviews ::

Fascinating account, hard to put down! - Bob Foster - Montrose, CO United States
This book is about as entertaining as you get, I had to force myself to put it down once in awhile so I could savor it. A fine story by a fine writer, really takes you there and makes you laugh and cry. This book will stay in my library, it's a keeper.

German Boy: A Child in War

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“I think German Boy has all the qualities of greatness. I love the book.” -- from the Foreword by Stephen Ambrose

As the Third Reich crumbled in 1945, scores of Germans scrambled to flee the advancing Russian troops. Among them was a little boy named Wolfgang Samuel, who left his home with his mother and sister and ended up in war-torn Strasbourg before being forced farther west into a disease-ridden refugee camp. German Boy is the vivid, true story of their fight for survival as the tables of power turned and, for reasons Wolfgang was too young to understand, his broken family suffered arbitrary arrest, rape, hunger, and constant fear.

Because his father was off fighting the war as a Luftwaffe officer, young Wolfgang was forced to become the head of his household, scavenging for provisions and scraps with which to feed his family. Despite his best efforts, his mother still found herself forced to do the unthinkable to survive, and her sacrifices became Wolfgang’s worst nightmares. Somehow, with the resilience only children can muster, he maintained his youth and innocence in little ways–making friends with other young refugees, playing games with shrapnel, delighting in the planes flown by the Americans and the candies the GIs brought. In the end, the Samuels begin life anew in America, and Wolfgang eventually goes on to a thirty-year career in the U.S. Air Force.

Bringing fresh insight to the dark history of Nazi Germany and the horror left in its wake, German Boy records the valuable recollections of an innocent’s incredible journey.

• ISBN13: 9780767908245
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Customer Reviews ::

Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack: A Boyhood Year During WWII

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The year is 1942. Charles Osgood is a nine-year-old living in Baltimore. His idols are Franklin Roosevelt and Babe Ruth, a hometown hero. Charlie spends his days delivering newspapers on his daily route, riding the trolley to the local amusement park, going to Orioles' baseball games, and playing with his younger sister, Mary Ann.

With great attention to detail, Osgood captures the texture of life in a very different era, before anyone had heard of penicillin or the atomic bomb. In his neighborhood of Liberty Heights, gas lights glowed on every corner, milkmen delivered bottles of milk, and a loaf of bread cost nine cents.

Although Osgood had many interests as a child, what captivated him more than anything else was the radio. He would listen huddled under the covers, after his parents had turned off the lights, to Spiderman, Superman, The Lone Ranger, the Shadow - and of course baseball.

Customer Reviews ::

Gathering Blue

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Approx. 5 hours, 4 cassettes

In her strongest work to date, Lois Lowry once again creates a mysterious but plausible future world. It is a society ruled by savagery and deceit that shuns and discards the weak. Left orphaned and physically flawed, young Kira faces a frightening, uncertain future. Blessed with an almost magical talent that keeps her alive, she struggles with ever broadening responsibilities in her quest for truth, discovering things that will change her life forever.

As she did in The Giver, Lowry challenges readers to imagine what our world could become, how people could evolve, and what will be considered valuable. Every reader will be taken by Kira's plight and will long ponder her haunting world and the hope for the future.







Lois Lowry's magnificent novel of the distant future, The Giver, is set in a highly technical and emotionally repressed society. This eagerly awaited companion volume, by contrast, takes place in a village with only the most rudimentary technology, where anger, greed, envy, and casual cruelty make ordinary people's lives short and brutish. This society, like the one portrayed in The Giver, is controlled by merciless authorities with their own complex agendas and secrets. And at the center of both stories there is a young person who is given the responsibility of preserving the memory of the culture--and who finds the vision to transform it.

Kira, newly orphaned and lame from birth, is taken from the turmoil of the village to live in the grand Council Edifice because of her skill at embroidery. There she is given the task of restoring the historical pictures sewn on the robe worn at the annual Ruin Song Gathering, a solemn day-long performance of the story of their world's past. Down the hall lives Thomas the Carver, a young boy who works on the intricate symbols carved on the Singer's staff, and a tiny girl who is being trained as the next Singer. Over the three artists hovers the menace of authority, seemingly kind but suffocating to their creativity, and the dark secret at the heart of the Ruin Song.

With the help of a cheerful waif called Matt and his little dog, Kira at last finds the way to the plant that will allow her to create the missing color--blue--and, symbolically, to find the courage to shape the future by following her art wherever it may lead. With astonishing originality, Lowry has again created a vivid and unforgettable setting for this thrilling story that raises profound questions about the mystery of art, the importance of memory, and the centrality of love. (Ages 10 and older) --Patty Campbell

Customer Reviews ::

I EXPECTED TO GATHER MORE INSIGHT FROM LOWRY - IGUANAE CHIC -
Perhaps it is because I haven't read the Giver in awhile, but I was hoping for the companion novel to be just as exciting and captivated as I remembered the Giver to be. I did not feel captivated by this book, I felt it was very predictable and the ending was very abrupt and unfinished. I think this book has a good plot and overall good storyline, however, I do not think it was developed as brilliantly by Lowry as she had developed Jonas's world. Don't get me wrong, the book was fairly entertaining, just not very insightful and not very captivating.

21: Every Day Was New Year's Eve

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The story of New York's 21 Club is the story of American glamour in the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews ::

The great place to eat in NY. - Edward Walters - Las Vegas, NV
I have eaten here many times. The book is so good.It reminds you all the history of this wonderful place.

An Uncommon Friendship: From Opposite Sides of the Holocaust

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In 1944, 13-year-old Fritz Tubach was almost old enough to join the Hitler Youth in his German village of Kleinheubach. That same year in Tab, Hungary, 12-year-old Bernie Rosner was loaded onto a train with the rest of the village's Jewish inhabitants and taken to Auschwitz, where his whole family was murdered. Many years later, after enjoying successful lives in California, they met, became friends, and decided to share their intimate story--that of two boys trapped in evil and destructive times, who became men with the freedom to construct their own future, with each other and the world. In a new epilogue, the authors share how the publication of the book changed their lives and the lives of the countless people they have met as a result of publishing their story.

• ISBN13: 9780520261310
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Customer Reviews ::

Wonderful story... - Jill Meyer - New Mexico
Friendship comes in many forms, and that relationship between Bernie and Fritz, from different sides, Jewish and Christian, of the deep divide of WW2, is a marvelous testimony to "friendship". The only bitter-sweet moment was when I realized that Bernie had given up his religious beliefs in his "americanization". His children were not raised as Jews; another generation lost to the Holocaust, as much as the six million were.

I first saw this book when a seat mate on a flight was reading it. He praised it, so I ordered it. The book was well worth the praise.