"The Truth Trap" is one of the best young adult novels of the last decade. A hard-hitting look at the pain and suffering of Matt McKendrick, the novel shows his attempt to survive the murder of his sister. Adding to that difficulty is the fact that he is the police's primary suspect! Having taught this book for a number of years, I can tell you that the scene in jail is enough to convince any male teenager not to commit a crime; it's unforgettable. Matt is a survivor, however, and he fights back against the loss of his sister and his reputation. An excellent page-turner, "The Truth Trap" will keep you up at night until you finish. My sole warning to the reader: there are three sequels, and the murder mystery is not solved at the end of the first novel (which sometimes angers my students, until I tell them that the sequels are in our school library!).

The Truth Trap is about a sad family. Two kids are on thier own. This book shows how Matt, the teenager in the book, is really dedicated to his family. His younger sister, Katie is deaf. Matt took care of Katie after their parents dies in a car accident. People tried to separate them so they run away to stay together. I wish that Katie had lived. Matt went to a lot of struggles to get the family that he is with now to trust him. All in all this is a good book.

I first read this book about five or six years ago and loved it. My friends bought me the sequels, and they're great, too. ("Aren't You the One Who...?", "Losers and Winners", and "Cutting Loose"). I've reread "The Truth Trap" a few times, always looking in the library for it, and I'm finally going to buy it now. Amazingly, each time I read it I find something new: another nuance, another aspect of emotion. Miller is a great author, giving the reader deep looks into the characters' personalities and emotions. Her plots are unbeatable for excitement and interest. Having read each of the four books about Matt McKendrick a few times, I still find myself getting teary-eyed. Sometimes I just skim the book, looking for all the good parts (many per book). I strongly recommend these books!

Although Miller's books are largely autobiographical, it is sometimes difficult to discern "Henry Miller" from "Henry Miller's world". In reading this book by Brassai, we learn some of the methods Miller used to construct his world-- thus providing a deeper understanding of the man. While this book is by no means exhaustive, it does provide a glimpse into the man. There are numerous descriptions of Henry Miller available, but to get an insider's view, it is essential to read this book written by a man who knew Miller as well as any person can know another.

This book is a must-read for Henry Miller devotees who want to understand the genesis of this great writer. Written by his close friend Brassai a fascinating story is told about Miller's down and out days in Paris during the 1930's and how his vision of writing developed. It is replete with personal anecdotes about Miller's views of Paris, his hatred (ambivalent as it was) of his homeland and his relations with the women in his life. It more than anything shows Miller as the writer refusing to sell-out by having the essence of his writing edited away by the censorius literary status quo of his day.

Anyone who's ever suffered at the hands of their classmates in high school can relate to the story of Matt McKendrick, whose experience is ten times worse. Forced to brave people who believe that he murdered his little sister Katie, Matt struggles to regain some kind of life, and to regain his position as a winning runner. His friends, Meg and Will Schuyler, and their younger siblings Lew and Carey, provide a wonderfully comedic and supportive outlet to Matt's insecurities and pain. Matt's foster family is also very realistic, providing more humor and dimension to Matt's life. You'll definitely want to read the other three books in this series!

This is the fourth of in the series about Matthew Mckendrick. It is a wonderful story that is very well written. I have read it several times and never get tired of reading it. It is a nice ending for this series to see the changes in the main character and some resolution to the cries in his life.

Men and machine were combined to form one of the most awesome military operations the world has ever seen. On 6 June 1944, this power was unleashed upon Nazi Germany in such a manner that books, stories and documentaries are still being written as if the battle had just been fought.

This book goes even deeper, using accounts from both sides of the war to portray the feelings of those in battle. Statistics on the projected wounded, killed and missing meant nothing to the men on that day. Their sole purpose was to carry out their orders and survive to someday make it home to their loved ones.

In Mr. Miller's foreword he relates of trying to get those he interviewed to tell of what if felt like to be at Normandy, and what was going through their heads as they approached the beaches.

This book is refereshing in that the author hits his mark and works to portray both sides of the struggle by detailing what the men felt, and not just their reflections on the battle or military strategy. As you progress through the book you will find that the author has done just that and more. It's a "riveting soldier's-eye view of the deadly confusion of battle . . . a significant contribution to military and D-Day literature."

"Nothing Less than Vistory" is quite moving and comes highly recommended to those interested in first hand accounts detailing the leadup and subsequent invasion of Normandy.

This book is one of the most powerful historical accounts I have read relating to D-day. The accounts come from a wide range of sources, from German soldiers manning the bunkers to French civilians caught in the crossfire. This book gives a vivid account of what it was like to be involved in the D-day invasion from all sides. It depicts the boredom pre-invasion to the sheer horror of the invasion itself. I highly reccomend it!!!

This is one of Mrs. Miller's best, the fourth and final book in the McKendrick series. Matt exorcises his demons and returns to work on his parents ranch. Meg and Will tag along, and Matt learns some very valuable lessons about life and having faith in other people. This is an awesome read on it's own, but it is better if you read "The Truth Trap", "Aren't you the one who..?" and "Losers and Winners" first. All of these books are wonderful stories that make you laugh and cry. Mrs. Miller is such an awesome writer; you can feel Matt's heartache, confusion and elation as if you are living it.

Everyone likes flipping through good photography books but this one you'll have to read. Aside from superb photography, Miller captures the soul of Paris in a way pictures of monuments never can. These Parisians look right into your soul -- and vice versa -- even before you read Miller's commentary. If you love Paris (particularly pre-McDonald's) you have to check out this book. Plus there's Miller's own poignant, amusing, self-revelatory look at an American GI in the postwar City of Light. Life is really about people, not monuments, and Paris is no exception.

Some photo-essays have a cinematic effect. You start to forget that you are leafing through the pages of a book and fall into a world that is at once unfamiliar yet somehow known. As the images pass by you keep hoping that the show will get even better and if you are lucky, sometimes it does. As with French Farmhouses And Cottages which reads like a great movie and kept me surprised with its eccentricity and charm right to the last page. Cottages and out-buildings like these are each absolutely unique and all are situated in settings that epitomise the notion of living in creative harmony with your surroundings. If for no other reason than the structures are always built of the materials that comprise the land of occupancy.

The photo captions in French Farmhouses And Cottages are superb and highlight the type of construction in evidence, the purpose of each building economically in the life of the community, and the building materials that were used and why. A lengthy section of text which is entitled 'Introduction' would better be described as a comprehensive review of rural life in France during an era when the horse provided the defining reality for all economic activity in agricultural areas of the country. Extensive discussion in this well-written and highly informative essay focuses specifically on building practises on farm steads as well as planning strategies for setting up the working farm. Materials which were readily available for building and roofing are given consideration as well since local stone, clay and wood were utilised for French farmhouse construction as represented in this volume. But the setting for the creative labours which made use of those materials, rural France a hundred years ago, produced the inspiration. The synthesis of the two frequently defies imagination.

Don't let the title mislead, discourage or intimidate you: the interest and importance of Felicia Miller Frank's The Mechanical Song: Women, Voice, and the Artificial in Nineteenth-Century French Narrative (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1995) lies not merely in its brilliant revivication of negelcted works by Balzac, du Maurier, Nerval, Sand and Villiers de L'Isle-Adam. Given the fetishization of the female voice in the age of electronic reproduction, Miller Frank's archaeology of the modernist confluence (Baudelaire being the crucial figure) of the feminine and the artificial, of the inhuman and the sublime, and the encoding of the female voice as a carrier thereof is as relevant to fans of such "ethereal," "angelic" pop divas as Julee Cruise and Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser as it is to scholars of, say, Villiers' L'Eve future (see Marie Lathers' The Aesthetics of Artificialty for a discussion influenced by Miller Frank). Perfectly complemented by Michel Poizat's The Angel's Cry: Beyond the Pleasure Principle in Opera (Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1992); Kaja Silverman's The Acoustic Mirror: The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988); and the collection of essays, Embodied Voices: Representing Female Vocality in Western Culture, edited by Nancy Jones and Leslie Dunn (New York: Cambridge UP, 1997). The recent, long-overdue English translation of Michel Chion's La Voix au cinema (The Voice in Cinema (NY: Columbia UP, 1999)) upon which most recent critical work on vocality draws is a bonus; now if only The University of Illinois Press would reprint their too-long-unavailable translation of Villiers' Tomorrow's Eve ...

Once again, William Miller has put together an excellent volume regarding the history of ocean liners, this time those of the CGT. This latest release contains extraordinary b&w photographs and text thoroughly covering the history of every magor CGT liner and most secondary ships from the Washington to the France (1961). Each article includes the specifications of each ship, construction locations, and major birth dates. Where available the current status of each ship is also included.

This book makes excellent reading material, and is perfect for referencing. The photographs included, unlike those in many "typical" compilations, are rather rare- I don't believe I saw any of them until I read this work. In future, I hope Mr. Miller will continue writing these types of books, for their value to the ocean liner wnthusiast far exceeds that of the paper on which they are printed. What's next? Only he knows. (But I would like to see "Picture History of Norddeutscher Lloyd" or "Picture History of HAPAG" soon)

There is no better short book available on the mind and thoughts of Albert Schweitzer than this book. His theology on Jesus and Paul, his thoughts on Bach and organ building, his philosophy on Reverence for Life are all laid out here.

George Marshall (see my review of Marshall's excellent biography: Schweitzer) once asked Dr. Schweitzer what professors would best provide him an education on Schweitzer's thoughts. He replied that Marshall should not go to professors but "read my books! No one can express the ideas of a man as well as he has expressed them himself.... read my books".

Bob Frost of "Biography Magazine" once wrote, "Albert Schweitzer is not exactly forgotten today, but his name won't crop up in daily conversation. Fifty years ago, though, people talked about Schweitzer all the time. An American magazine selected him, ahead of Albert Einstein, as the "world's greatest living nonpolitical person." He was the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary, won the Nobel Peace Prize, and appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Fueled by idealism and burning spiritual passion, this medical missionary led one of the most intense lives of the 20th century."

Be apprized that "Out of my Life and Thoughts" is not an easy read. Dr. Schweitzer's theology and philosophy, though dense, is not incomprehensible. And due to the translation from French to English, you many find yourself reading a passage multiple times to get the gist his thoughts.

That said, for students of this great mind, this is a must read. Strongly recommended. 4.5 stars.

"Since my first years at the university I had grown increasingly to doubt the idea that mankind is steadily moving toward improvement. My impression was that the fire of its ideas was burning out without anyone noticing or worrying about it. ... What was just and equitable seemed to be pursued with only lukewarm zeal. I noticed a number of symptoms of intellectual and spiritual fatigue in this generation that is so proud of its achievements."
Albert Schweitzer was a man of action -- humanitarian, theologian, historian, musician, musical technologist, medical doctor, author, philosopher, missionary, professor, environmentalist, prisoner of war, recipient of the Nobel Prize. He writes an interesting autobiography, which is not surprising when one considers the breadth of his interests and of his achievements in science, the humanities and the arts. In his later years he was perhaps the most widely admired and respected person in the Western world.
Jimmy Carter offers a foreword in this volume; it is economical, a mere six sentences. Schweitzer's philosophical work may be well studied, but does not particularly distinguish itself in this volume (with some notable exceptions). His theological work (i.e., Christology) is generally questionable -- bound to Enlightenment fallacies of a "historical Jesus." I was happy to be concurrently reading the thoughts of a far better theologian, CS Lewis, on the idea of "discovering" a "historical" Jesus. While some of Schweitzer's ideas are [rightly] not highly regarded, his "life and thought" makes for unusually interesting biography. His "reverence for life" precept certainly has great value, but seems to be a less profoundly unique idea than he held it to be. Perhaps my view here is merely ignorant of the world in which Schweitzer lived.
He considered this book to be his best, or at least his preferred, writing, but if you are going to read only one book considering theological and historical exegetics, this is probably the wrong book. On the other hand, Schweitzer makes many observations cleanly and powerfully: "Our world rots in deceit. Our very attempt to manipulate truth itself brings us to ... [a truth] based on a skepticism that has become belief... It is superficial and inflexible." Kant had observed the intellectual paralysis of such "a skepticism that has become belief," but Schweitzer goes further, recognizing it as an even deeper spiritual paralysis.
While Schweitzer's Christology is, at the least, arguable, his firm commitment to Christ's commandment of love is a strong example of the Christian life led in the light of its Teacher's example. The author is [rightly] given to referring to Christianity as "the religion of love." In this aspect, Schweitzer at once offers the non-Christian a true image of Christianity and offers the Christian an important, if gentle, reminder. "[God] announces Himself in us as the will to love. The First Cause of Being, as He manifests Himself in nature, is to us always impersonal. To the First Cause of Being that is revealed to us in the will to love, however, we relate as to an ethical personality." And quoting Paul: "Love never faileth: but where there be knowledge it shall be done away."

Albert Schweitzer was an acclaimed organist, a world authority on Bach, a church pastor and principal of a theological seminary, a university professor with a doctorate in philosophy, and above all a humanitarian. This book gives a stunning account of how he grew into his ideals and I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in ethics or philosophy. I was left with an urge to read more about this true human, who believed and practiced the basic principle of goodness, as I finished reading the book. Schweitzer's faith in what he believes in and how he transforms it to the needy is absolutely inspiring. The epilogue of the book is very thought provoking as it gives a clear idea of his vision and the relevance of it in the world we live in.