You can tell that the author (Ken O'Donnell's daughter) greatly admired and loved both subjects of her book (Bobby Kennedy and Ken O'Donnell). It's an inspiring tribute to a past era. Helen O'Donnell hardly knew Bobby Kennedy (she was 6 when he was killed). However, she grew up listening to stories about him. Her mother and father both loved Bobby Kennedy, for different reasons. They gave her a discriptive account of Bobby, the man, and RFK, the politician. With rumors that have become accepted and unsubstantiated truths, new books such as "RFK: A Candid Biography" that try to dirty his name, as well as a fading national memory of his contributions; this book is a refreshing change. Ms. O'Donnell mentions that Bobby was her father's hero, and as told by Jackie Kennedy herself, Bobby was Jackie's hero as well. It's nice to read something positive about Bobby Kennedy, my hero.

A Common Good is an enjoyable, fast-paced read. It is a warm portrayl of Bobby, Jack and Kenny O'Donnel as people. There are laughs and poignant moments. It s a must for anyone interested in Robert Kennedy.

Kenny O'Donnell has done an outstanding job of providing insight to a man who figured largely in world history. He has drawn a very real, very strong portrait of a man who set and met many personal goals in his personal and professional life. Robert Kennedy was, in my opinion the most interesting of his brothers. Mr. O'Donnell does an excellent job of describing the aura of sincerity Robert Kennedy exuded. He helps bring a man into focus who has been dead for many years by describing the consistencies of his character. Robert Kennedy was clearly a very driven, very determined and very hard working man. He was also a very caring, very committed and very compassionate as well. He was a central figure in world history and I think the late Senator's works have certainly influenced the world for the better. This book is definitely worth reading.

Benni and Victoria is a story that pulls you in and makes you want to find out what is going to happen next. The main character, Benni, is a foster child who has gone through many hardships. His thoughts and emotions reflect what many other foster children may feel. The story is imaginative and sends the message that each child has something special to offer. -Cynthia Miller Lovell, author of The Star: A story to help young children understand foster care, and Questions & Activities for The Star: A handbook for foster parents

BENNI & VICTORIA: Friends Through Time tells the story that so many abused and neglected children have lived. I was pleasantly surprised by the charm this book held, by my hesitancy to put it down, and by the sensitivity and accuracy with which Patricia Aust wrote of the children's feelings and experiences. I was reminded that children thrive on mystery, magic and intrigue and are much better able to swallow the truth when surrounded by a well-crafted tale. This book can assist children in exploring their thoughts and feelings and further to affirm that a friendship can help soften difficult times. Reviewed in THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER, Fall 1997, by Molly Faulkner, RN, LISW, Clinical Social Worker, Programs for Children and Adolescents at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.

I read this several times and each time found more facets of little Benni, who endures many hardships but emerges a survivor. I read it to my grandchildren and they both -- girl and boy-- enjoyed the story of little Benni and his ghost friend, Victoria. They were delighted with the end. --- Eileen Hehl

I read this book in 9th grade for our Holocaust Unit.
The story is of a Nazi Officer the day before D-day in a little town near the coast of Normandy. He is ordered to kill severla of the townsmen, and does. At the end of the war he is tried for war crimes and convicted. After his lengthy sentence he plays soccer on the german national team. In one game he must face the boy he taught to play soccer in that town, Varin. Varin is also the son of one of men the Nazi officer killed. The game is described greatly and brings a very human nature of crowds when faced with villianous opponents. The game is very encapsulating and takes up 50% of the novel. With the game over the conclusion must come to the book and it will sadden even the hardest of hearts to read the actions of these two men whose lives have been twisted togeher to share a single moment.

I read this book in 9th grade, during our Holocaust unit.
The story is about a Nazi officer in an occupied French town on the coast of Normandy on the day before D-day. He is ordered to kill several of the townsmen that day and does. At the conclusion of the war, he is tried for War crimes and convicted. After his sentence he plays soccer on the German national team. In the big game against France he must face the boy he taught to play soccer in that french town, the conflict comes with the fact he ordered the death of that boy's father the day before D-day. The game itself i would say is about 50% of the novel and a great descriptive of the battle between two men who lives have been twisted together through fate. The end of the novel will shock and sadden even the coldest heart. great book that is all i will say is great book. Very short, you could probably read in one night.

What to do if you are a German officer and feel compassion for the people whose town the Nazis have occupied? In this skillfully crafted novel for young teens, Tunis tells the story of a man faced with this dilemma. The climax of the story comes after an explosive soccer game. The officer, who often plays soccer with the young boys in the town, must make a momentous decision. This book effectively helped me see two sides of the war.

Broadway playwright and TV producer Lyle Zacharias drops dead at his own birthday party. Amanda's mother Bea becomes the prime suspect after the police realize that Bea made the poisoned tarts which caused Lyle's untimely death. Amanda's big task now is to prove her mother's innocence by solving the case. WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE is a mystery story designed to make the reader feel good.

This is a truly great book. A little bit of mystery and a whole lot of fun. Amanda Pepper and crew are so funny. The whole series is wonderful and this is one of the best.

With Friends Like These is a return to the Amanda Pepper I became enchanted with, the wonderful mystery series, not the heavy handed social commentary of How I Spent My Summer Vacation.

Dr. Buckinghams book is truly outstanding. He has started over 35 hospice programs for people with AIDS. He has won the Ivanosky Prize for his work with AIDS patients.

This book is a must read for all who care for or are involved with the AIDS world.

J. Emery MD

this certainly is the best book on care for the person with aids, who is in the final stages of the disease.

buckingham is a compassionate writer with focus on the scientific issues as well as the holistic approach to this disease.

dr. buckingham is one of the founding fathers of hospice in this country and his work has been utilized and translated in many foreign countries.

i strongly reccomend tis book to anyone who is interested in caring for the person with AIDS.

Several years ago, my former mentor circulated this book in the lab. Until quite recently, my friends still found me quoting from it while talking about scientific ideas. Now, after reading the book for many times, and studying the characteristics of great mentors around me, I conclude that it's a marvelous book. Anyone who plan to have a bright scientific career should read this book. My only dissatisfaction is the book is so old. I demand a new edition or a sequel! And, I want more examples of such lineage of excellent scientists as described in the book.Surely, it's book that I will share with my student.

While seemingly on a mundane and complicated subject (pharmacology and its researchers), it is an easy read for any layman and very, very interesting (especially on the topic of malaria medications and their discovery and problems)... Very interesting how hitching your star to the right person can make your career...and how pettiness and back-stabbing can be so cruel and counterproductive... A very, very good read for anyone even remotely interested in science...

This is a wonderful, wonderful book--and one that appealed to me for many reasons, some personal and some not. First, if you love reading about writers and writing (as I do), you'll love this book. Good writers and brilliant poets open their hearts in their essays and write frankly about the tough times they have gone through--e.g., the times they hated their work, the times they weren't producing anything. And also they write about the troubles and joys of being young, and what it is like to have brilliant and flawed mentors in a very special, challenging academic situation.

At first, I thought the book was meant to be an unabashed hagiography of Paul Engle. Nope. Midway through the book arrive the essays from former workshoppers who, like W.D. Snodgrass, were NOT Engle's favored proteges; those essays give you even more insight into the workshop and Engle himself.

More personally, the book brought me home to Iowa City, where I lived for over 12 happy years. Although most of the book's recollections center on the 1950s and 1960s, some of the places and businesses the writers describe in their essays thrive today.

I had a lovely time reading this book, and I think others will, too.

This is one of the most entertaining collections of essays that I have ever read. It gives a true behind-the-scenes look at the world-renowned Iowa Writer's Workshop. Many of the essays are tremendously funny. This book appeals to a far wider audience than just M.F.A. students. Anyone who is interested in writers and writing will find this book tremendously entertaining, informative and thought-provoking. (However, if you've ever attended an M.F.A. program, you will find this book particularly insightful.) The essays read like little stories of their own. Read this book--you won't regret it!!

What an amazing woman! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Jeanne Foster, and it brought back many memories of my early years in the "north country" before I retired and moved to Florida. The authors winter here in Venice, and they have given many interesting talks in the area about Foster and her famous friends, displaying diaries, actual letters to Foster from people like Ford Madox Ford and Ezra Pound, and drawings of her by William Butler Yeats's father. Recommended for lovers of biography and great stories.

This book is a great story of a truly "American" woman who was a friend to the world or at least to the world of artists,writers, and politicians. The biography has everything to keep a reader reading: beauty, poetry, intrigue, sex, passion mysticism, and sweetness. I wish I could have known this person called Jeanne Robert Foster.

What an incredible family! This book is not a biography, nor is it a book about running a business. It is a look at the life of an extraordinary man, John Tigrett, and his business and personal dealings with people from Glenn Miller to Winston Churchill, from Jimmy Hoffa to Fred Smith It is a success story filled with everything you would want in a novel. It is filled with stories of passionate lovers, great tragedies, and incredible successes. He was raised in a small town in Tennessee yet John played a part in changing the world in so many ways.

If we could view the world without John's influence over the past 50 years, how different would it be? From the leaders of World War II to the business world of the 1990's, from the toys we played with as a child to the skyline of Memphis, TN, John played a role in each of these.

However, this book is not about John only. It is about his family, his friends, and the many people he met along the way.
He speaks with such pride about his mother who struggled to raise her son after his father left. He talks about his uncle and aunt who helped his mother. The same uncle that changed the way the South traveled through the development of the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio railroad. He speaks about his children; two of whom died tragically and much too young. He writes with great pride about his son Issac and the hospital he build in India with the proceeds from the sale of the Hard Rock Cafe's. And his passion for his two wives and his youngest son Kerr let's you know that he was truly a blessed man....What a wonderfil life!

How did a toy maker from a town in West Tennessee become an international financier and the colleague of some of the world's most wealthy and powerful men? Read this fascinating book and find out! The stories of John Burton Tigrett's many friends are the stories of modern history: Churchill, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Howard Hughes, Jimmy Hoffa, Armand Hammer, Sir James Goldsmith, J. Paul Getty, Bunker Hunt, Brezhnev, Ross Perot, Ronald Reagan, Federal Express, the Hard Rock Cafe, and many more! This collection of vignettes and tales could also be sub-titled "A Life Well Spent." The reader sees not only well crafted word pictures of the many interesting people that Mr. Tigrett has known over the years, but also a picture of the author himself, as someone that YOU would wish to count among your friends. He appears as the type of man that you could call from a jail in some banana republic, knowing that he would move heaven and earth to get you out speedily! The! author of this most interesting book is the father of Isaac Tigrett, who founded the Hard Rock Cafes and House of Blues Restaurants. This reviewer knew the author when he (the reviewer) was a child, and was a friend of the author's late son, Hewitt. If you are interested in seeing the very human side of some of the movers and shakers of the post- World War II twentieth century, read this book!

I found this book to explain many of the wonderful (and not so wonderful) thoughts and feelings that I, as a straight woman, have had in dealing with my close friend, who is a gay man. I had felt alone, and that perhaps our relationship was not "normal"-how relieved to find out that it is!

My only suggestion would be to include the group of gay men that AREN'T as mature as those in the book. I frequently have problems with my friend for his apparently immature behavior that I have witnessed among him and his other gay friends--I would like to understand better the immature, party-all-the-time behavior of this sect of gay men.

I got this book on a whim one day and couldn't help thumbing through it. Needless to say, I was still sitting in the same place an hour later, giggling and nodding as I turned each page.

The best part about this book is that it lends legitimacy to this relationship I have that's a HUGE part of my life. And if you have a gay man/straight woman relationship in your life, you know that it's not always the most respected relationship in the eyes of the general public. This book will give you confidence and your relationship will be the better for it.

The authors are dead-on in almost everything they say. And even though my best friend disagrees with me about how great this book is, I think he's just in denial!

It's about time.

Finally someone has addressed this subject which has bothered many straight women I have spoken to for years. What is it that attracts straight women to gay men? As the book points out, we get to know the femine side of men, which they all have, but straight men won't always show. I think the authors told the story with good taste and assured us that we are enjoying a "normal" relationship with our gay friends. Brova & Brovo to them for addressing this sensitive subject.