Judy

Suspense, Romance, Historical part-Fiction, part-Truth, WWII, Survival, Pain, Loss, Victory...it is all there, and mixed with powerful narration, what more is there?

Earlier in Americana a carrot-topped 4-yr-old girl was immigrating with her parents from Ireland, when she found herself with a family who had perished and taken in by a wonderful family of "colored folk" all the way to a plantation, and all the twists & turns you could expect to find.

The book was well-read and a very easy listen, in the fashion of The Help, where several members told their own version of events.

Everything was going along just fine until the last 5 minutes, it seemed, when the story line was wrapped up in a tight bow, one, which, if unraveled, could have lasted another 14 hours without tiring the reader.

This reeks of a sequel...

...the stench, the fire & brimstone... We pshaw today at how those ignorant people of the turn of the century, 18th that is, just a mere 300 years ago could have believed so fervently in Witches & Devils roaming the land, not to mention the then-peaceful redskins. My God! Have things changed so radically in so short a time!

You will travel down a "road" in a horse-drawn wagon, with barely a path to navigate, come upon a tavern! A TAVERN?? Well, just a shack that sells spirits and will bunk you on a straw mat with no "facilities"... so you have to traipse out into the wind, rain, and slosh mud to your ankles, well, one could only HOPE they were trudging in only MUD!

And so it goes, page after page, entrancing you, enticing you into the pages of a very believable tale long before the colonies, into a "town" of maybe 15 homes, more or less, then known as the city of Fount Royal, with very believable characters; a doctor who probably kills more than he saves with his blood-letting, while using smoked "hemp" as one of his better medicines, a jail with rats probably as big as today's house cat, and a rat-killing former circus performer who comes around to keep them as much at bay as possible...

I must say, the reader is excellent, but I could not give him his 5 stars because of the almost imperceptible gum chewing....RATS! (no pun intended...well...)

A wonderful piece of American History done here in a character study of an imperfect man and the woman who loved him. A scant 80 to 100 years ago life was fraught with unspeakable hardships. This is a very interesting, thoughtful and engaging tale of a family doing what they must to endure in the hard life of the American Northwest.

I recommend this book very highly; you will not be able to put it down.

This is one of the best page turners I have ever read. Every chapter a sit-on-the-edge-of -your-seat thriller. You cannot even guess at the ending! What more can I say? Read this book if you are looking for a nail-biting fast paced book...you can't put it down! Scott Brick is a very talented reader capturing all the characters perfectly!!

Although the movie was spellbinding, the book is like another story. In the book Scarlet has more children, the politics and history of the day are more extreme in its depth and the book is brought to a more illuminating life with more detailed character development. In the book we see a more in-depth relationship with the "Darkies" and their masters. All the forbidden politically incorrect words of today's society are included, and, as a result, the book is more authentic. I think it is so important to preserve the language of the day; and I hope historians today and in the future keep this book and others like it as it was written. The characters are so well developed and understood. Margaret Mitchell was indeed a brilliant writer. At the beginning, I found it very hard to bear the narrator's style. She had a habit of a long pause between sentences which I found very distracting. I kept thinking if I just push through the first hour or two, I will get used to it. I am so glad I did. This gives an in-depth illustration of not only the political scene, but the thoughts and mores of the day, of how the men were men and women were expected to be unable to think or do for themselves, and how this practice was accepted by all Southerners. I think this book is a very important picture of how and why the South was taken. It made me painfully aware that those who settled America had so very many hardships to deal with, many life-threatening, due to the lack of instant communication we enjoy today. Please read this book; it is a picture in contrast to today's fast pace, and how just six short generations ago the times and moral expectations were so very different.

This book should be mandatory for every school child around the 9th grade. The main reason, of course is to learn of the plight of those proud people who were forcibly brought from Africa to be sold as slaves, and how their children, many times were ripped from their mother's arms, how entire families were separated from each other, and how the African woman, after enduring even all these atrocities, were raped by their "Massas" and forced to have their children.

The main focus is on Kunta Kinte, a proud African from a long blood-line, who refused to give up his name, his very identity, his heritage, and how he suffered at the whip, then gradually, over time, having to give in, after half his foot was cut off preventing him from ever being able to run away again.

Another reason school children should read this is so that they may know how their contemporaries were treated, how their upbringing was to instill respect for their elders, where they were silent unless spoken to, a respect that will be a hard lesson for the children of today, growing up in a world that is not their oyster.

Of the book itself, from the first page to the last I was held hostage, ignoring all but my basic chores and responsibilities to read of these proud people who were so wrongly treated! Of course I watched the mini-series years ago, but the reader paints a picture even more vivid than the movie.

The blemish is still here today; it cannot be ignored! I have lived 7 decades and have witnessed great leaps in our education of the equality of man. But, still, we have a lot to do. As you can see, I highly recommend this book; you will not be disappointed, no matter what your background.

I know F Scott Fitzgerald is touted as one of the great American writers, and that this book is a classic, but even though I had seen the movie years ago (with few remembrances) I had still thought I should give this book a good read to see what all the hullabaloo was about... but I didn't find anything, nothing but the colorful ladies & true gentlemen of the times. However, that is not enough excuse to read this boring book.

I could not put this book down; even the movie could never do justice to the book. It is a work of art, both from the Author and the Narrator. What a Masterpiece!

This book is very disappointing. I am one of the first to buy a Grisham novel the first week it is released, however, I think John is now in the business of cranking out a novel every year instead of giving us the soul-satisfying courtroom thriller of which he is tremendously capable. I will keep buying his books, just in case he has an inspired year, but I am going to save you time & money by not recommending this one.