Helen Keller- The Story of My Life
By: Helen Keller
Reveiwed by: J. Yang
Period: P.4

In the first nineteen months of Helen Keller's life, she is a normal child like us. Suddenly, a high fever gets on Helen Keller and makes her deaf and blind. Forever, she is in a dark, silent world. Anne Sullivan is Helen's teacher. She teaches Helen how to communicate with signs and gestures. Helen Keller also learns to read and write.

What I liked about this book is that it is very deltailed. The story gives details on Helen's feelings, the enviroment, and whatever Helen Keller feels. "On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant." You can actually feel how Helen Keller feels. When I read this book, I always feel how Helen feels. I guess the book is very descriptive!

Another thing I liked in this book was when Helen Keller was learning. Anne Sullivan is a great, loving teacher. Anne loved Helen. "Miss Sullivan put her arm gently round me and spelled into my hand, "I love Helen."" Helen asks about what was love, and Anne Sullivan said to her that love is in your heart. Anne is a very passionate person.

My favorite part of the book was when Helen went to the sea. She went with Anne Sullivan. Helen went into the sea for her first swim. All the waves were splashing on her. Helen Keller drank some of the water up and then she said, "Who put salt in the water?" Finally, Anne Sullivan carried Helen out of the water for a little rest.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) is a revered figure in American popular culture. Struck deaf and blind by illness at the age of 19 months, she still managed to get an education and become a writer and activist. Her story was further popularized by William Gibson's play "The Miracle Worker," which was also adapted for both film and television.

Keller's autobiography, "The Story of My Life," first appeared in installments in "Ladies' Home Journal" in 1902. This book is truly one of the great American autobiographies: an inspiring story of a courageous individual who overcame tremendous odds.

Keller writes about many things: her childhood in Alabama; her relationship with her beloved teacher, Anne Sullivan; her attendance at the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City; and meeting such eminent figures as Mark Twain. She especially stresses her love of literature, which she describes as "my Utopia."

Along the way are some fascinating details and profoundly moving passages. Her tribute to the Homer, the blind poet of ancient Greece, is particularly powerful. I also loved her interpretation of the biblical Book of Ruth: a story of "love which can rise above conflicting creeds and deep-seated racial prejudices."

I think that many will regard Keller's autobiography as a mere historical or sociological document. But I think the book deserves a place as a great work of literature, and moreover as a work of literature in the great American tradition. Keller's poetic, often sensuous words about the natural world are comparable to the work of Emily Dickinson. And her stirring account of her revelatory awareness of language reminds me of Frederick Douglass' account of his first awareness of the power of literacy. The book as a whole is enhanced by Keller's charming, likeable literary style.

"The Story of My Life" is a wonderful book by an amazing individual. Helen Keller still has, I believe, much to say to contemporary audiences.

The Story of My Life by Helen Keller is an autobiography illustrating her insistent desire in learning how to write and read and defeating her deafness and blindness at the same time. This book records her life back from when she was as young as 4. Due to the loss of sight and hearing at the age of 19 months, Helen lived her life in frustration and pain in her early life. She couldn't understand her family because she didn't yet learn how to communicate. To solve that, her parents hired Ms. Anne Sullivan who influenced her the most. Even througt special education with Ms. Sullivan, Helen coulsn't communicate with her family without Ms. Sullivan's translations. Yet, Helen didn't give up. Her passion for learning how to read and write overcame the obstacles. Her improvements on reading, writing, and arithmetic amazed her teachers and family. She has succeeded in many many areas which helped her to get in college. On her way, there were events that made her learn that deafness can be conquered, such as the blind institution, etc. The students in blind institution were one of Helen's inspiration in learning. Since they lived states away, Helen must contact her friends by mail. That motivated Helen's will to write more. The attached letters in the book shows how much she's improved since she first started to write. This book has taught us lessons that we would never learn in everyday life. Helen Keller defeated her disabilities and lived went to college as a result of her hardworks. Her courage and insistence should be admired. Teenagers nowadays worry much more on appearance or etc rather than their future. This book shows the lesson of working hard, and anything would be possible.

In this story Grip is bred from a champ. fighting dog. His master wants to fight him to be just like his father but Grip turns tail everytime. After being set free Grip lives with some childern but they are forced to give Grip up to his rightful owner. On the way room Grip, his master and their new friends are caught in a fight with Grip's father, Madman. Can Grip defeat Madman?

...and that applies both to the author's style and to the characters she has created. The two sisters that are the center of this novel ceaselessly engage in manipulating each other -- and neither one of them are very likable, which made it difficult for me to like this book any more than I did. One of them is simply mean-spirited, and the other has the sexual appetite (as well as the sensitivity, morality and intelligence) of a gerbil. The author is a skillful writer, no doubt -- but if I find so little redeeming in her characters, it leaves only the suspense inherent in the story to hold my interest. There was some degree of that here -- but the endless goings-on about food and cooking allowed my interest to slide even further, a little like mentally driving on ice.

I felt the need to force myself to pay attention to the more important details -- the result was a not-too-pleasant reading experience. That's too bad -- when I read the jacket description, I had high hopes for this novel. The only real aspect of 'talking to the dead' that I found within it was the brief introduction, a soliloquy by one sister lying on the grave of the other which takes place after all of the events in the story.

I can recommend Sheri Reynolds incredible novel A GRACIOUS PLENTY, or even Rhiann Ellis' AFTER LIFE as more entertaining and true to this novel's alleged subject matter.

There are some lovely elements to this book, not the least of which is the quality of the prose. Dunmore is clearly a talented writer and well-able to spin a moving tale. However.

Despite a promising start, this book about the relationship between two sisters never quite manags to gel. There are elements of a murder mystery, characters that you'd find in a Doris Lessing novel, and a plausible set up to bring the whole cast together. Taken individually, these things are fine, but instead of blending to a harmonious whole, the various aspects undermine each other and I found myself getting irritated by the skeletons in the closet while I was trying to concentrate on the emotional landscape.

Too bad.

I liked this book a lot. I didn't expect everything to be explained, because Nina the narrator doesn't know all the answers (for example, about Edward's role in Isabel's life); I didn't expect to be shocked by plot twists--the whole book moves like a magnet to its climax and conclusion. The interest came for me in the gorgeous writing, and in the author's ability to sustain a terrible tension, a sense of gathering doom, like a summer storm rolling in slowly, but with stunning force. I enjoyed imagining Isabel through the eyes of the various characters; and imagining how Isabel's various mental troubles developed and manifested through life, while she remained (on the surface) a perfectly functional woman. We keep getting new information that changes that imagined course, right up to the end; so maybe it's the unwritten parts of the story that kept me fascinated. I didn't read it very quickly--I spent a couple weeks reading it in short sittings at the gym--maybe that helped me remember it as more attenuated, more impressive in the way its tone is maintained.

Rarely, does one come across a gothic novel written by a modern novelist that is not totally insipid. Helen Dunmore's "A Spell of Winter" is literature and it is beautiful. The writing strikes a fine poetic balance - profoundly evocative without being overly dense or distracting from the story she unwinds. You are, quite simply, there. You smell, taste and feel everything. And, the scenery...ah, the scenes, the odd, strange and staggeringly beautiful scenes you find yourself experiencing (Dunmore is a master of place) - ones you won't forget after you close the book. It is all very confusing and exciting and exquistedly sad. The characters, particularly the female ones, are well-realized and deeply complex (just as people truly are in a life fully-lived). Dunmore has obviously, like many of us, been long haunted by Cathy and Heathcliff. Admittedly, I had a few problems with the novel's conclusion. Toward the end, I found many of the actions of the characters became totally, well, uncharacteristic and seemed manipulated to satisfy to the novel's plot, or lack thereof, toward the ending. I found this highly disappointing since I was so involved with the characters by that point. Much of the novel's trembling intensity seems to just peter out. Still, there did exist that "trembling intensity" and finding that anywhere in a novel is a gift not lightly dismissed.

A Gothic novel that is as dark and atmospheric to the classics it has been compared to. Dunmore's writing it lush and captivating, and this is a total page-turner. Yet, being a devoted fan, I know that she has been better in other works....

"A Spell of Winter" is an old-fashioned novel, where once again the flow of narration charms us in an instant, and we are carried off into the nineteenth century English countryside, and enter the small world where Catherine's life undergoes a transformation. It's a small world, for the story evolves around the house, a family mansion of the Allens, a dysfunctional family we grow to love as pages turn around and about. The novel is a pleasure to read, bu all accounts. beginning with an old-style clear typeface, beautiful dust jacket, well-bound hardcover, and ending with the characters, the frozen setting and dusty mysterious atmosphere of the storyline. Helen Dunmore is virtually unknown in America, perhaps because only recently the audience had the chance to discover her works. I am happy that I found A Spell of Winter sue to seemingly random book search patterns I have. Having read thousands of books, I have developed a sort of intuition which whispers in my ear: that's the one! I have bought Helen Dunmore's novel trusting my intuition, and having just finished it, I would like to make a heartfelt recommendation for fellow old-fashioned bookworms like yours truly. The novel is engaging, never dull, the writing style is unique, impossiblt to compare with anyone else's, the narration is soft, dreamilke, and even very topics which others would have found difficult, if not impossible to write about, were touched here with infinite gentleness, like a womanly barely audible whisper, a story told intimately, reserved for your ears only, in confidence of an embrace, in a small room of an old house lit only by a weak yet cheerful candle. I am sure some of you have lived through this; listened attentively with love when the dearest significant other opens her heart; slowly and gradually unfolding the most important tale of personal life. Have you? "A Spell of Winter" is the confession, such confession, this particular confession that makes you slightly tremble all along, while you are aware of both the intimacy and the importance of the moment. It might have been a diary. Yes, it might have been, but then it wouldn't have been as good as it is. Brilliant dialogues, where there is no word lost, or added beyond what is needed, devoid of ornaments, and yet beautiful in its simplicity. I have fallen in love with the voice of Catherine, the charming protagonist of the novel. Eccentric and feminine, Catherine unveils the mystery of her spectacular girlhood in the family mansion. One might say that whoever else tried to touch that subject, would definitely fail, having trivialized it, trampled over with some superimposed vision, where we would have no choice but to follow the interpretation served us by the author. Dunmore allowed us to follow the events, as they came, with her exquisite prose carrying us like the dolphin over waves, in a twirl, leaving it for us to ponder about. There is not a single artificial moment in the book, and boy, wasn't that easy to commit! Dunmore has class and grace, and I am sure that whatever she chose to write about, she would do that with her unique, delicate strokes of feather, leaving you amused, sighing, longing to enter her fictional world without a second look back. I didn't want the novel to end, nor did I want any of the chapters to end. Each page is like a lyrical poem; a poem written for you and you only. It's a rare feeling, you know?

"A Spell of Winter" is the most beautiful novel I read in many years, and I will not exaggerate if I claim that it's place is among the notable books of the XX century. I will come back to this book many times in future. Rarely indeed I feel like starting to read all over again when I have just only finished. When a novel ends like this one, you just can't help but sigh and take a long walk. Reality is too much to bear. A tale of passion, tradition, youth, wasted lives, redemption, forgiveness, family ties, abandonment, eternal love, and the unbreakable spirit. I discovered Helen Dunmore and I couldn't have been more happy. I have written this review to share my impressions with you, dear reader. "A Spell of Winter" - a small diamond you will want to keep close to your heart, and take with you everywhere, with that 'specific gravity of smile' on your face...

My Dad gave me this book, which had " Weeks & weeks of NY times best seller". I don't see how. The story is very simplistic. An American is caught up in political intrigue in Spain. It smacks of a very bad James Bond plot. Some of the characters are interesting, but they are never fully developed. You are left with a sense that something is going to happen ...then it never does. There was potential here, but the authors failure to get off the ground make this book a "pass it by".

This was a great suspense/spy thriller that captures the feeling of Spain quite well. The tale reads like a stock spy-thriller from the 60s, complete with pretty boy villains, double cross, murder and mayhem. The action and story are never sacrificed for the pretense of high blown language and useless descriptions. Instead, its a real page turner, highly recommended for Bond and spy fans everywhere! I rented it from my local library, and am sorry that its not available anymore for purchase.

I have been designing Web sites for years, and was a Network Engineer for years before that. This book is well written and talks about great examples, but it doesn't work. I know Flash. I know a bit about Flash Action Scripting, but I have not been able to get one single script to work correctly. You shouldn't have to read a second book just to get the one you bought to work right. Like someone else said, even the finished examples don't work right, so you can't look at that code to see what's wrong.
I expect much more than that from any book, and I would return this book if I still could. I spent too much time thinking I was doing something wrong to be able to return it now, though.
In summary, buy another book. You will probably be happier.

This book is decent...but leaves a lot to be desired. The cd that comes with the book includes source files to work on the different chapter projects...but it does not contain final versions of them....so you'd reason that they would be on the flashmxmagic website for download....that seems to have "magically" disappeared as well. Instead of rushing to publish this book so it would come out close to the release of Flash MX, the publishers should have made sure the website was up and that the cd contained final source files rather than demos of other macromedia software. This book is alright, but if you really want something intuitive, I'd recommend waiting until Phillip Kerman's Actionscripting in Flash comes out in July...or buying his book on Flash 5 actionscripting.

I've been using Flash since version 3 and remember buying this particular book for version 4. I buy this particular book because it has specific projects that I can implement now. It speeds up my development time. Do I tweak the code and break it so that I can learn more from it? YES Is this book for an absolute beginner in actionscript? NO This book assumes a certain level of knowledge. If you don't know actionscript and can't recognize the different constructs and where to put them then go find a different book that will teach you that aspect of actionscript. This book is for the pro who wants to work through some projects using MX to quickly get up to speed with AS in Flash MX. Its also for the learner who learns through working through projects. I'm a software trainer and believe me, lots of people learn via working through preexisting projects (I do). You still need to understand the Actionscript constructs before doing this but it complements that by showing you specific examples of actionscript use. Buy this book with another book that will teach you Actionscript like Moock's book or Sham Bhengal's book. Read them together or the AS book then this for specfic examples of implementing code.
Congrats, nicely written and to the point for me.

This book was a compilation of anecdotes from 40 years of working in the White House. Although I found some stories to be humorous, I enjoyed very little of the book. Although the cute stories humanize our nations presidents, knocking down their "God like" image, I believe that there was no reason behind writing this book besides the fact that she could.
I found some stories interesting, and I even cracked a smile on a rare occasion, but for the most part, this was just a silly way for Ms. Thomas to get money for a whole lot of who cares. Maybe if I had grown up during the past 40 years she was referring to, I might appreciate it more, but for the younger reader, it offers very little in entertainment.

Much to my chagrin, most of the "memories" within the book are NOT those of Helen Thomas. She compiled various anecdotes from various members of the White House staff and the press corps and threw them together with no overall sense of cohesion (save the chapter division by president).

I have a beautifully autographed copy of the book and cherish it because I know Helen Thomas has been capable of a lot more "wit and wisdom" in her many years as a journalist than what this book reflects. If you are looking for and endearing memoir of Helen`s time in the White House, this isn`t it. One does not get a feel for how Mrs. Thomas` job has affected her (aside from her usual cantankerous quips which are readily available from other sources), and the "writing" can`t be evaluated as it is simply a bunch of secondary source material strung together by lengthy quotations. In a word, disappointing.

Helen Thomas shares the lighter side of nine presidents and their wives with the people whom do not know them so well. She re-tells jokes and conversations held between herself and nine presidents in her time of being "dean of the White House Press Corps".
She implies that not all presidents are alike. Every one of them is different. While the chapter on Kennedy was quite humorous, that of Reagan's was less humorous and more about how he handled the press. There are many examples of humor in chpt 1. On page 19 it tells of how on the way to one of the campaign trials, Kennedy had to wear a dark blue suit with brown shoes because black shoes were not packed. After finding out that nobody had an extra pair to lend him and he would have to attend like so, he took it very lightly. He laughed when made a joke out of and found it quite amusing himself.
Helen Thomas also implies that no matter how serious the job of being president is, they are just regular human beings. Just because they are president does not mean they do not have characteristics of an average man. By giving each and every president a sense of humor with their own little edge added to it, we see that they are regular people who like to laugh and make others laugh here and there. It makes the president's more familiar and relatable to the average man. Everyone can appreciate a little humor and by showing this average man quality in every one of these nine presidents the people find them to be more real, more life-like. Humans are the only animals who can be humorous or have a sense of humor. Dogs cannot laugh at your jokes, and kangaroos do not tell them. Therefore when this trait is put in the spotlight as the defining traits of people whom appear to be larger than life, it humanizes them.
The author's thesis can be argued. One could easily argue that the presidents are nothing like an average human being and they deserve to be held up to a high standard, and are to be considered the very highest of flawless humans. A big deal was made of President Clinton's flaw, therefore showing that as average people, we have much higher standards for presidents and do not see them as being capable of having characteristics of our friends. Therefore it can be argued that Presidents are not like the rest of us.It can also be argued that maybe the humor that is portrayed is a tool in trying to convince the people that they are their friends. Like the method of campaigning, "I am just like you", they might be trying to make themselves seem to have the same characteristics as the people, but in reality do not. It may be a ploy for support.
I would recommend this book for the humor and the side of a president's life that we as people critiquing the government hardly ever see. The book was fast paced and very entertaining.

A poor-to-average attempt at a murder mystery. The main characters are too cute, the murderer too obvious, and the entire story is too dull. I read this simply out of curiousity to see if the author, who is a nun, could bring an interesting perspective. Alas.

It's not terrible, but neither is it good.

Sorry, Sister.