Amazon.com
At the age of 5, Malika Oufkir, eldest daughter of General Oufkir, was adopted by King Muhammad V of Morocco and sent to live in the palace as part of the royal court. There she led a life of unimaginable privilege and luxury alongside the king's own daughter. King Hassan II ascended the throne following Muhammad V's death, and in 1972 General Oufkir was found guilty of treason after staging a coup against the new regime, and was summarily executed. Immediately afterward, Malika, her mother, and her five siblings were arrested and imprisoned, despite having no prior knowledge of the coup attempt.
They were first held in an abandoned fort, where they ate moderately well and were allowed to keep some of their fine clothing and books. Conditions steadily deteriorated, and the family was eventually transferred to a remote desert prison, where they suffered a decade of solitary confinement, torture, starvation, and the complete absence of sunlight. Oufkir's horrifying descriptions of the conditions are mesmerizing, particularly when contrasted with her earlier life in the royal court, and many graphic images will long haunt readers. Finally, teetering on the edge of madness and aware that they had been left to die, Oufkir and her siblings managed to tunnel out using their bare hands and teaspoons, only to be caught days later. Her account of their final flight to freedom makes for breathtaking reading. Stolen Lives is a remarkable book of unfathomable deprivation and the power of the human will to survive.
Book Description
A gripping memoir that reads like a political thriller--the story of Malika Oufkir's turbulent and remarkable life. Born in 1953, Malika Oufkir was the eldest daughter of General Oufkir, the King of Morocco's closest aide. Adopted by the king at the age of five, Malika spent most of her childhood and adolescence in the seclusion of the court harem, one of the most eligible heiresses in the kingdom, surrounded by luxury and extraordinary privilege.
Then, on August 16, 1972, her father was arrested and executed after an attempt to assassinate the king. Malika, her five younger brothers and sisters. and her mother were immediately imprisoned in a desert penal colony. After fifteen years, the last ten of which they spent locked up in solitary cells, the Oufkir children managed to dig a tunnel with their bare hands and make an audacious escape. Recaptured after five days, Malika was finally able to leave Morocco and begin a new life in exile in 1996.
A heartrending account in the face of extreme deprivation and the courage with which one family faced its fate, Stolen Lives is an unforgettable story of one woman's journey to freedom.
Customer Reviews:
Incredible Story - Deserved Better Editor.......2007-09-10
I am very disappointed in some of the reviews that I have read about this book; thank goodness they are the minority. Yes, I agree that it was poorly edited, and the story that was being relayed really could have been told better. It disturbs me that some of the reviewers almost appeared to attack the author. This lady is not an author/writer; she's no Stephen King or Dan Brown. Those authors have the advantage of fiction on their respective sides. Malika Oufkir had no such advantage. She is a survivor who had to actually live the hell that she describes in her book.
Imagine being a political prisoner - your only crime being that you were related to someone who either did something terrible against the country or "allegedly" did so - you are living in conditions of squalor. Your captors want you to die, but don't want to necessarily pull the trigger. You are starved, not allowed outside, not allowed to see or feel the sun, and deprived of the most basic information such as the date and time. You watch your sister pick the rat droppings from pieces of stale bread before "happily" consuming it. You watch your three-year old brother's life as a political prisoner. That's what you lived for most of two decades. Finally, years after being released, you get the courage to tell your story so that the world has a chance to know what you have been through, and that political imprisonment is not the cake walk or country club behind bars that it has been touted through the years. For months, you fight through the tears and the recollections of the circumstances and events that above all, you mostly want to forget. Then, proud that you were able to clear that final hurdle, you read the book reviews on Amazon only to find that one reader finds the book "difficult to believe" and even "boring." The nerve of some people to sit in their air conditioned homes with their refrigerator and freezer full, to sit at their computer with access to the world, to not be able to look past the flaws of the book to see the real story. If this was fiction, I could see the criticism, but given the storyline and the simple fact that it was fact, I simply cannot justify attacking the author about the quality of the book. Her experience has forever changed her and her reaction to life itself.
Bottom line - this was a riveting story that could have been a riveting book. I give the story itself 5+ stars. I hope Ms. Oufkir and her family are proud that they survived such an incredulous nightmare. I was left wanting more information, but I personally feel fortunate to have received what information I got; Ms. Oufkir didn't have to put her ordeal in writing. The editing gets one star. The editor and publisher failed Ms. Oufkir and should be ashamed that her story was not given the very best attention to detail. It almost seems as though the book was rushed to go to print, and Ms. Oufkir's story suffered the consequences. And that is a real travesty.
Survival Story.......2007-08-30
Because of her father's treachery in attempting to assassinate the king of Morocco, Malika, her mother, her siblings and two family friends are imprisoned in the desert. For years they live in tiny cells infested with bugs and mice who battle them for their near-starvation rations. Finally they make a desperate move to tunnel out of their prison and alert the international news media of their imprisonment, which puts sufficient pressure on the king to free them.
Malika's life wasn't always so bad, though. In fact, when she was five, the king adopted her to live in the palace as a companion to his daughter. Although she missed her family and felt trapped in her life as royalty, Malika was well fed and well brought up and had all of the luxuries life could hand out to a child. This makes her subsequent imprisonment all the more shocking, especially as it is at the hands of her adopted family.
I found this book a bit scattered. The author would state in passing something she would then address later, which gave me the feeling of a great deal of jumping around. She also tries a bit too hard to make a connection between life in the palace and life in prison, which I thought was more than a small stretch. Although the author argues that she was never really "free" to do what she wanted while living with the royals, what child ever is free to do what he or she wants? There were few incidents of her being treated cruelly while growing up, and she wanted for nothing, yet she tried to paint herself as a poor sad little child. This tended to make me feel less sorry for her, rather than more.
The part of the book dealing with the family's prison life was horrifying almost beyond belief, yet was dealt with in such a casual tone of voice that I found it hard to get as outraged and sad as I felt I should have been. Something about the tone of the book just didn't strike the right note with me.
Boring Beyond Belief.......2007-07-04
There is nothing "gripping" about this book. The beginning of the book, the tale of life with the King, is interesting. Once the family is arrested and incarcerated, it becomes boring beyond belief - and this is the part of the book that should be riveting! Instead, I found the narration totally self-centered and the "story" absolutely colorless. I quit reading about page 138 (just after the escape) because at that point I could have cared less what happened to this family. The travesty is that these events were real and I should feel outrage and compassion for this family. Instead, I'm annoyed I spent money on this horribly written/edited/translated book!
Stolen Lives.......2007-05-28
I found this story to be an inspirational account of a young girl's struggle from the palace to a jail cell. The orginial controversy of punnishing children for their father's actions developed the story into a thrilling drama. It was a compelling and gripping story, but they way it was written was a little off. Some of the sentances were difficult to read because of the way the words were written. I did not like how the writer kept jumping to the past and present to explain events. This made it confusing to determine what details were current and which already occured.
Disliked.......2007-05-18
I read the book for a book club. I was disappointed. The story was very self-centered. Also,difficult to believe, but a bit boring.
Average customer rating:
- excellent reflections on a New Mexico desert
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Tales from the Journey of the Dead: Ten Thousand Years on an American Desert
Alan Boye
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
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ASIN: 0803213581 |
Book Description
One hundred miles south of Albuquerque, two parallel chains of mountains isolate a 120-mile jumble of black rock, dry lake beds, flesh-colored sand, and desolation. This is the Jornada del Muerto, the Journey of the Dead.
So named because of a particular death centuries ago, this desert has witnessed many tales of loss and destruction. Alan Boye takes us on a trek through the beauty and violence of this forbidding land. Traveling the wasteland by foot, Boye visits battle sites from the Mexican-American War, to the Civil War, from the lonely canyon where the Apaches fought to keep their homeland, to the isolated site of the world’s first atomic explosion. In the sand and dust and the ruins of war, Boye discovers stories of sadistic killers, directionless rebels, and gun-toting gauchos—but also tales of poets and dreamers, of ordinary men and women who lived their lives and continue to live under this wide and ruthless desert sky. He introduces us to many travelers who have tested the desert: mysterious ancient people who built cliff-top fortresses, Spanish conquistadors, Mexican farmers, old time cowboys yodeling classical poetry to their cattle, and modern range managers tracking livestock by satellite. This is the story of an American desert told through the eyes of those who knew it best and brought to life through Boye’s own travels across the Journey of the Dead.
Customer Reviews:
excellent reflections on a New Mexico desert.......2007-06-02
Many people have heard of New Mexico's gypsum sand dunes at White Sands National Monument and the enormous flocks of Sandhill Cranes at Bosque del Apache Wildlife Area. But few people, even New Mexicans, know much about the Jornada del Muerto ("Journey of Death"), the vast desert located between the two, except maybe the fact that scientists detonated the world's first atomic bomb at the Trinity Site there in 1945. A landscape bordered by the Rio Grande River and several mountain ranges, it's also the site of Edward Abbey's novel, FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN, about a rancher who refuses to move off of his land when ordered to by the US government during WWII.
Alan Boye is a professor of English from Vermont whose book combines the history of the Jornada, interviews with its rugged inhabitants, and personal reflections on his hikes there. Who would have thought this desolate, beautiful desert had so much fascinating history? Boye recounts tales of ancient peoples, the coming of the first Europeans into what is now the US on the Camino Real (The "Royal Way"); Apache attacks; and even a dramatic Civil War battle (yes, there were not one but two Civil War battles in New Mexico).
The Jornada played a key role in the lives of western legends: Spanish Conquistadores Coronado and Onate; Zebulon Pike, the first Anglo man to see the Jornada; Kit Carson; Eugene Rhodes, the writer; and Victorio, the Apache warrior. But equally interesting are the stories Boye tells about its lesser known people: the ranchers who witnessed the world's first nuclear test and fought the US government to keep their ranches, or the "Wild Man," a legendary recluse who "lived his entire adult life in the outdoor air of the Jornada."
Like David Roberts, whose IN SEARCH OF THE OLD ONES and THE PUEBLO REVOLT also mix history with descriptions of personal treks through the southwest landscape, Boye is also very good at this genre. He's more of a poet than Roberts, but he never lapses into sentimentality.
The Jornada del Muerto is hard to explore these days. Ted Turner currently owns much of the Jornada on one of his ranches, and practically the rest is on the White Sands Missile Range. But this book makes me want to head to the Owl Bar in San Antonio, New Mexico, for one its famous green chile cheeseburgers, and then hike into the vast Jornada del Muerto to see what I can find as well.
Book Description
This beautiful art book tells the story of the "other Southwest," tracing the history of centuries of conflict and resolution between Natives, Hispanics, and Anglos, as well as their respective artistic accomplishments. This far-reaching collection of artifacts invites you to explore the achievements and art of cultures that overcame unfathomable obstacles to build the Southwest that we know today.
Customer Reviews:
OFF THE COFFEE TABLE AND INTO YOUR PSYCHE.......2007-08-07
Was the movie Chinatown fact or fiction? In The Desert Southwest: Four Thousand Years of Life and Art, Allan and Carol Hayes tell you the real story behind the water deal that turned Los Angeles into what it is today -- and about the century after century of history that preceded it.
In school, you were told that the valleys of the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates were the "cradles of
civilization," but did anyone ever tell you that the southern Arizona desert is considered the cradle of civilization in the United States?
Recent excavations indicate that people began living an agriculture-based lifestyle in the Tuscon basin four thousand years ago. Why and how did the dry, hard-edged, hostile desert become the place where millions of Americans want to live today .. a place where, for centuries, talented artists, engineers and craftsmen have created everything from sophisticated irrigation systems to magnificent pottery.
Don't be misled -- this book would look terrific on your coffee table with its stunning photographs by John
Blom. But what's best about it is not what it shows you but what it tells you. This is much more than a coffee table book -- the words and pictures leap off the page and into your psyche.
Read it and you will never feel the same about the desert southwest again.
A wonderful read.......2006-12-05
This is a treasure book for anyone living in Arizona or trying to know it better. What a great read: funny and studious. The authors present their opinions with joy and research and tell you why they ended up where they are.
A great keeper and a great gift.
History that reads like a Tony Hillerman novel, only funnier ...........2006-11-22
This is not a coffee-table book, although it would look good on any coffee table. It's a meticiously researched
history-anthropology-archeology book that reads like a Tony Hillerman novel, only funnier. And it's filled with wonderful photographs (both historical and contemporary),some of which show things like things you could actually buy.
Many people think the history of the Desert Southwest began with the Pueblos and ended with Indian Gaming,
but this book traces its history, art and culture back for more than 4000 years. And it takes the reader far beyond New Mexico and Arizona to amazing sites in Utah, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, Southern California and Northern Mexico.
My husband and I lived in the Southwest for many years and thought we knew a lot about the area -- but this
book opened our eyes. We lent it to Hispanic and Native neighbors, who said the same thing. I reccommend it to anyone as a fresh, readable exploration of a fascinating subject. And as a terrific take-along travel guide
to anyone planning a trip to the Desert Southwest.
By the way, if you're already into Pueblo Pottery, check out the first Hayes-Blom book, Southwestern Pottery: Anasazi to Zuni.
A Gem of a Book.......2006-11-21
A great book with lots of beautiful photos of new and ancient Southwestern pottery. The history of the Southwest's peoples is covered along with some photos. Overall, this book offers useful information for the novice as well as the professional. It is a must for anyone seeking to invest in ancient Southwest pottery.
Product Description
Malika Oufkir has spent virtually her whole life as a prisoner. Born in 1953, the eldest daughter of General Oufkir, the King of Morocco's closest aide, Malika was adopted by the King at the age of five, and was brought up as the companion to his little daughter. Spending most of her childhood and adolescence in the seclusion of the court harem, Malika was one of the most eligible heiresses in the kingdom, surrounded by luxury and extraordinary privilege. Then on August 16th, 1972, her father was arrested and executed after an attempt to assassinate the King. Malika, her five siblings, and her mother were immediately imprisoned in a penal colony. After fifteen years, the last ten of which they spent locked up in solitary cells, the Oufkir children managed to dig a tunnel with their bare hands and make a daring escape... though they were recaptured after only five days of freedom. Malika was finally able to leave Morocco and begin a new life in exile in 1996. Stolen Lives is a heart-rending account of resilience in the face of extreme deprivation, of the courage and even humor with which one family faced their tormented fate. A shocking true story, it is hard to comprehend that it could have happened in our own times.
Customer Reviews:
a sad but true novel..........2006-09-06
i like the realism, the truth about dictatorism, i just wanted to say that i am very sorry, sorry in the name of all the Moroccans, for what happened to this family and these kid.
KIDS SHOULD NEVER BE PART OF A WAR AND POLITICS!!!!!!!
Great novel Malika and thank you for sharing your story with us
you are all women's muse, you are our hero.
i wish you all the happiness in the world and can't wait to read "Freedom"
GOOD STORY...BAD WRITING....BAD EDITING..........2005-01-21
This is a book that on its face held a lot of promise. Any story in which a mother and her children, as well as faithful family retainers, are unjustly imprisoned in squalid conditions for twenty years for an ostensible crime comitted by the familial patriarch would certainly be of interest. Wrong! This is a tepid and disappointing book, poorly written and, most certainly, poorly edited. It is so filled with contraditions and inconsistencies, as to create somewhat of a credibility gap for the reader.
The story revolves around the Oufkir family, who were, at one time, a prominent, highly respected, and well known Moroccan family. Their story is told by Malika Oufkir, who is the eldest daughter of the late General Oufkir, who was executed in August 1972, immediately following an aborted attempt to assassinate King Hassan II of Morocco, for whom he was the Minister of Defense. General's Oufkir's treasonous action was the catalyst for the tragic turn of events that were to engulf his family.
After the aborted coup, the General's immediate family was placed under house arrest and four months later, along with two loyal family retainers who volunteered to share their fate, were whisked away to the first of several desert prisons that were to house them for the next fifteen years.
As Malika tells it, hers was initially almost a fairy tale story. Brought up in luxurious surroundings, she suffered early heartbreak when, at the age of five, she was separated from her family and "adopted" by then King Muhammad V, so as to be a live in playmate for the King's daughter. This adoption is never really explained, and one has no idea what her parents' thoughts were on this issue. Malika lived in the Palace in the lap of luxury for many years. As a teenager, however, she moved back with her family, where, there too, she continued to live a very privileged life, steeped in luxury and money.
After the Oufkirs' circumstances changed, theirs is truly a tragic story. There is little doubt that the conditions in their desert prisons were deplorable and squalid. With inadequate sanitation, insufficient food, no medical care, or educational provisions, the family was truly living a life of privation. Cutoff from the outside world, as they were, they truly were disenfranchised.
Their escape from their last desert prison, an escape that brought their plight to the consciousness of the public, was amazing. But for their escape, there is no doubt in my mind that they would still be languishing in a desert prison today, barely alive, if not already dead. I salute their determination and ingenuity in making a deperate break for freedom.
The problem lies in the telling of the story, which is so poorly told. Many things are left unexplained. No effort is made to ground the events that led to their family's downfall in a historical context. Whatever Malika said seems to have been what went into the final draft of this book, even if she contradicted herself a page or two later, which is the main problem with the book. There are so many inconsistencies with what Malika herself says, that the discerning reader is left to question much of what she represents.
Malika comes across as a somewhat self-absorbed, vapid woman to whom fate dealt a harsh and unusually cruel hand. Her self-absorption is most evident in that she barely acknowledges the sacrifice of the two faithful family retainers, who voluntarily shared their fate, nor does she discuss the impact that this had on them. It is also a little disconcerting that more does not come through about the perceptions the other family members had about this hellish experience. Their insight might have provided a little more balance and interest to the narrative. In the hands of a good writer and and excellent editor, this book might have withstood scrutiny and met expectations.
Sorry, Oprah, your book club selections are usually excellent. This one fails to make the grade.
Customer Reviews:
GREAT BOOK ON THE BONEYARD.......2003-04-02
Having lived around the boneyard for a number of years this book helped me remember some of it. My father would and still passes by alot of the airplanes today on his way to work or what ever. It was interesting to read it from an Englishman's point of view.
Great Book on the Boneyard.......2001-08-16
This is a worthy successor to Philip D. Chinnery's previous pictorial essays on the Boneyard (1987's "Desert Boneyard", and 1989's "Desert Airforce"...both out-of-print). The format is larger, and the quality of the photos is excellent. There's also a tantalizing mix of aircraft...you can hardly wait to turn the page and see what glorious old bird is baking in the hot desert sun on the next page. You really get a feel for the place, and you see more on these pages than you'd ever get to see in real life; mostly because the tours don't take you everywhere Chinnery was able to go. You'll see F-105s, F-102s, F-100s, F-4s, A-7s, F-111s, B-52s, even A-10s, C-141s, F-14s, F-15s and F-16s. Plus other, much older aircraft, helicopters, utility aircraft and aircraft types too numerous to mention. There's a fine section on the early history of the base, and descriptions of the storage process, too. I think you'll like it.
A great coffee table book.......2001-04-17
This book has much detailed information on the history of the storage yard at Davis-Monthan AFB, in Tucson Arizona. Seeing has to how I am an aircraft nut (Mostly military), I got a kick out of the fact that all the pictures were color! And the photos are almost all of aircraft. Rare aircraft included are the XB-19, B-36, RA-5C, C-133 and the NB-52E. The only problem is that just one photo of each of the above aircraft is in the book. In addition, the book also has details about how the aircraft are preserved in storage and what uses they have at the yard. Not all are scrapped or salvaged of parts, but some go on to civilian lives as firebombers or transports and some are sold to warbird collectors. For example, The Pima Air-Space Museum has many aircraft that are on loan from D-M (Then again, it is very near the base). This has to be the best book ever on the place that is mistakenly called "The Boneyard".
Excellent but sad pictures of retired aircraft.......1998-03-03
This book is a valuable resource for aircraft modelers and aviation enthusiasts. It contains many excellent pictures of aircraft, often in service paint schemes, preserved at Davis-Montham AFB in Tucson, AZ. Each plane is a moment of history frozen in time, poised at the end of a valuable service career but not yet broken up for scrap. Many of the pictures make you sad to think of once-proud aircraft, now cast off unwanted. Although this book does not puport to be anything but a documentation of the career of the Boneyard at Davis-Montham, I would have appreciated more detail on the aircraft themselves. However, I highly recommend this book for modelers as it provides color pictures of many aircraft not often seen in other publications.
Book Description
Outrageous, hilarious, and absolutely candid, Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green is Johnny Rico’s firsthand account of fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, a memoir that also reveals the universal truths about the madness of war.
No one would have picked Johnny Rico for a soldier. The son of an aging hippie father, Johnny was overeducated and hostile to all authority. But when 9/11 happened, the twenty-six-year-old probation officer dropped everything to become an “infantry combat killer.”
But if he’d thought that serving his country would be the kind of authentic experience a reader of The Catcher in the Rye would love, he quickly realized he had another thing coming. In Afghanistan he found himself living a Lord of the Flies existence among soldiers who feared civilian life more than they feared the Taliban–guys like Private Cox, a musical prodigy busy “planning his future poverty,” and Private Mulbeck, who didn’t know precisely which country he was in. Life in a combat zone meant carnage and courage–but it also meant tedious hours standing guard, punctuated with thoughtful arguments about whether Bea Arthur was still alive.
Utterly uncensored and full of dark wit, Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green is a poignant, frightening, and heartfelt view of life in this and every man’s army.
Customer Reviews:
A window into the mind of a soldier.......2007-08-27
My boyfriend who is a Sgt in th USMC bought the book about a month ago and after reading it begged me to read it so I could have a better understanding of what his tour in Iraq had been like. I have to say I'm not a fan of military themed books, but this book was amazing. As a civilian it gave been better perspective of war, the action and the duldrums.
If he's lying..........2007-08-06
I was trapped in a DC airport this week for 12 hours. While I was wondering aimlessly through airport shops, I saw this book. The Author's name gave me a quick chuckle so I picked it up.
First, I am a college educated, U.S. Marine, who enlisted at 26 much like Rico with a desire to do something great for my country after 911. Whether it is Marines or Army, the experience is the same.
But, with 4 months to go on my contract before I return to my old life I can attest to the accuracy and humor in this book. I laughed out loud at the description of his time overseas. Anyone who says this dishonors our men in uniform has never served or is completely delusional. This is dead on...
If he's lying then it is the most truthful lie I have ever read.
Beyond Wit and Absurdity: A Perspective on Modern Warfare.......2007-07-17
Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green sheds a tremendous amount of light on the front lines of today's modern Army. Neither a well-oiled machine nor a complete bureaucratic disaster the Army described by Mr. Rico possesses both tremendous potential and mind numbing ineptness. He describes his fellow infantrymen with sincerity and honesty. Most are good men - hardworking, sincere, patriotic but, like all of us, they are not without faults - some lack of basic education, an inability to keep their lives in order, or a desire to understand their enemy. Others are so violent that their desire to kill something, anything, overrides all other logic. They share their time in Afghanistan firebases as if they are a large extended family while the Army underutilizes their skills and desire to succeed by sending them on useless and ineffective missions. Months of misuse and isolation wear on the soldiers to surprising, sometimes absurd, effects. The portraits of the soldiers drawn from this memoir are more accurate than anything pushed by the mainstream "support our troops" media - this honesty in no way detracts from these men's sacrifices but rather humanizes them to the point of greater understanding and empathy (something the media façade rarely provides).
To achieve this deep understanding in an entertaining memoir rich with wit, humor, and, at times, excruciating self-depreciation is a tremendous feat.
war mismanagement.......2007-07-14
looking at specifics in the book is not useful because the author pretty much admits to fictionalizing many aspects.
to me the book sums up the sad intersection of the twenty or thirty -something mentality and a huge mismanaged organization. i think this is the essence of the story.
they owned the night..........2007-07-12
anything I say which could be derogatory is actually, I think, a necessary part of the book and experience which the author is trying to relate.
I have- and would- recommend it. Especially to other folks in the military- especially infantry.
enough said, I think....
(except, perhaps... former bobcat and still in 25th...)
Average customer rating:
- WOW!
- Suprising comedy of life and agriculture
- soso
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Green Sands: My Five Years in the Saudi Desert
Martha Kirk
Manufacturer: Texas Tech University Press
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ASIN: 0896723372 |
Customer Reviews:
WOW!.......2002-12-04
I have so much more respect for the Islamic religion and culture now. This book gave me a deep understanding of that as well as an insight to the country of Saudi Arabia-something I previously knew nothing about. This book is fantastic. I would describe it as a page turner with an excellent author. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone. It gave me a new appreciation for being an American.
Suprising comedy of life and agriculture.......2001-11-08
I learned so much about how similar and how different it is in the middle east. The happenstance that a woman from West Texas could end up living, for five years, in a country where she must keep a driver handy makes the book worth the money.
soso.......1999-09-26
i got this book because i was really interested in the middle east, but didn't know a thing about it. that's pretty much what this book is good for. i was really happy with the information i got out of it, but between the author's sappy, (not to mention DUMB) commentary and the appalling editing job i got pretty annoyed with the book by the time i was half way through. so that's my opinion. it's good if you just want some of the basic interesting info about Saudi Arabia, but steer clear of it if you have ever read anything about the subject before. My main feeling was that i just wanted the info and for the author to BUTT OUT.
Average customer rating:
- Another Keeper for Tracie Peterson
- Great
- Sharing the Struggle of Finding Faith in God
- Winslow, AZ holds both security and a shock.
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Across the Years (Desert Roses #2)
Tracie Peterson
Manufacturer: Bethany House Publishers
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ASIN: 0764225189
Release Date: 2003-01-01 |
Book Description
Book 2 of DESERT ROSES. The last ten years have been difficult for Ashley Reynolds-first her parents disowned her because of her choice of spouse, war tragically took his life, then she discovered she would bear his child. Living with her grandfather and raising her daughter, Ashley Reynolds has finally found an element of peace while working as a Harvey Girl in Winslow, Arizona. When a crew of architects come to build a massive resort hotel, bringing a mysterious man into her life, her world unexpectedly changes.
Customer Reviews:
Another Keeper for Tracie Peterson.......2004-04-17
This book for me started a little slow but the more I read, the more it captivated me. I cried, laughed, and was on the edge of my seat several times.
Your heart aches when you hear of the troubles that have befallen Ashley and you are so happy for her when things start to come together. I was enraged when her mother comes back into her life and tries to take over and I cheered when she wouldn't let her.
This book shows us that God is always looking out for us and that He always has a plan. If you believe in happy endings, this is the book for you.
Great.......2003-09-01
This one started a little slowly but picked up momentum as it went on. I went through many emotions as you read this story of lovers kept apart by parents who didn't understand that love goes past social standing.
Sharing the Struggle of Finding Faith in God.......2003-04-25
This is the second volume in the Desert Roses series. Ashley Reynolds was a "Harvey Girl," working in a Harvey's restaurant in Arizona. She lived with her grandfather and little daughter. She enjoyed her work and was regarded as one of Harvey's best. Her husband had been killed in WWI. She felt she could never find anyone who would measure up to the man she lost. Her daughter met an architect working on a Harvey project who was willing to share his interest in architecture with the little girl. Natalie encouraged this friendship. About the same time Ashley's grandfather was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.
Throughout the story another struggle was raging - Grandfather and Natalie felt a firm faith in God but Ashley had questions which kept her from faith and church. How could God take her husband as he did? How could God let her grandfather have cancer? The mystery of the bearded architect was solved in an interesting and surprising way. This is a really good story and it shows a small section of history in the west as the Great Depression was spreading over the country. It also shares the struggle several people in the story experienced in finding faith in God.
Winslow, AZ holds both security and a shock........2003-02-03
Tracie Peterson has captured the era just before the beginning of the great depression, circa 1930. A young widowed mom is working - supporting her 10 yr. old daughter while sharing a home with a grandfather who is estranged from the rest of his family.
When hurt and bitterness have built up a wall, it is very unlikely that a newcomer to town, a construction worker, will have a chance to court her, even though her daughter is playing matchmaker.
The central figure is a young, independent but sad woman who has decided that fate and God have chosen her lot of single mom. In spite of the faith of both her daugher and her grandfather, she will not attend church or believe. Her family has turned their backs on her, never even knowing that she has a child, so she determines to be single, sad and alone. Her daughter is determined to change all that.
Lies, deception, danger and tremendous intrigue are played out it this second book of Peterson's "Desert Roses" series.
Including lots of other people and circumstances, Tracie builds a tremendous plot that will hold a reader spellbound and unable to lay the book down.
Customer Reviews:
A Connecticut Yankee in Arizona.......2003-06-08
Written over 50 years ago, this classic book of nature writing captures the near timelessness of the southern Arizona desert in a series of essays describing the author's fifteen-month sojourn there. While Krutch harks back to Thoreau, his perspective, turns of thought, and style of expression are similar to the reflective essays of E. B. White. They begin with observations of plant and animal life and evolve into ruminations on the nature of human life.
Krutch writes of birds, the night sky, bats, saguaro cactus, ocotillo, and desert flowers. Considering them, he rediscovers the truth in ideas he has so long held as true that they've become near platitudes. Where there is plentitude in some things, for instance, there is no need for it in others. Nature cares for the species but not individuals, while human values tend toward the opposite. While every rose has its thorn, the blooming cactus shows us that the reverse is also true. A visit to the vastness and forbidding desert monuments of Cathedral Valley in south central Utah reminds him of the precariousness of human life.
The desert leads Krutch to contemplation of its paradoxes, as well. For instance, the struggle for life here where conditions for survival are more restrictive actually create an uncrowded and more serene ecosystem by comparison with the tropics. The varieties of bird life are vastly greater here than in more temperate climates. A species of toads can live unseen and unheard for 363 days of the year, emerging after a rain fall to sing and reproduce, then disappear and survive somehow in the waterless months between. Finally, there's one question he's never able to answer: why bats fly clockwise from Carlsbad cave.
You can't really know a place, he believes, until you have seen it both as novel and as familiar. A landscape is no more than a picture postcard until you have spent time there and discover yourself in the midst of it. "The Desert Year" is a wonderful account of that process and a celebration of the joy that can be found in settling down for a while in a place that gradually comes to feel like home.
romantic to the core.......2002-01-05
Here is a converted desert romantic with an interest in not only nature but man. Krutch writes and hits the mark like Thoreau and Eiseley and you won't want to miss him or this book if you're looking for a little sanity in a world gone mad.
The most extraordinary insight into the magic of Tucson........1999-07-14
If you have an interest in the desert and why we live here with JOY you must read this book. Krutch was an extraordinary man and he lived an extraordinary life his first year here. This book is the story of why he stayed instead of returning to New York. It is perhaps the most admired book about Tucson that has ever been written.
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