I have been searching for this book for several years and I have finally found it(I forgot the title so it's been a long search)!I read it years ago and was moved to tears many times. Ms. Salamon describes her mothers history in such a way that you feel like you were right there with her. You can feel her joy and her pain. You get to know her before the war touched her life and all the way through her move to America and the start of her family. This was the only book I have ever read that I could not put down! It's unbelievably good!

Julie Salamon is a friend and a person I respect mightily, so I am not exactly objective. Nevertheless, I found her discovery of her family's history--and her trip to the death camps with her mother--remarkable and so compelling that I was unable to put it down. I read the book in 1996 and though I buy, read and donate hundreds of books a year, this one remains in our library. It will be a good resource for our children as they learn of the effects of the Holocaust on us all--and of human ability to overcome horrors. Alyssa A. Lappen

This is the most moving story of Holocaust survivors that I have ever read. While it does a great job describing author's parents' experiences in concentration camps, what makes it unique is its ability to also show how victims of that horror were able to put their lives back together and not be defeated by it. I also was moved by the author's own journey of discovery about her parents and who they were, aside from their identity as Survivors. All of us, I think, would relish the opportunity to really know who their parents are

Julie Salamon is a friend--albeit not a close one, but a person I respect mightily--so I am not exactly objective. Nevertheless, I found her discovery of her family's history--her trip to the death camps with her mother--remarkable, and so compelling that I was unable to put it down. I read the book in 1996, and though I buy and give away hundreds of books a year, this one remains in our library. It will be a good resource for our children as they learn of the effects of the Holocaust on us all--and of human ability to overcome horrors. Alyssa A. Lappen

This is the third Christmas season that I have snuggled with my daughter and experienced this lovely story. Both of us have come to love this tale of "Tree", Sister Anthony and of the little girl named Anna. It is told by the chief gardner from Rockefeller Center, who meets Sister Anthony during one of his annual quests for the perfect Christmas tree for the famous New York landmark. It is with each of Sister Anthony's storytellings that we witness the beautiful tapestry that unfolds, showing us the pure love between a child and a tiny tree and of their journey through life. This is truly a beautiful and heartfelt story that will evoke tears of sadness and joy. I look forward to sharing this treasure with my daughter for many years to come and I know she will always remember it...as will I. THANK YOU JULIE SALAMON!

It is a good book and I enjoyed reading word for word. The story reminds me of the Christmas celebrations with my family in my country. I was deeply moved and brought back good memories as well as sad memories. I will recommend the book to anyone who likes to remember cherished times with family.

As the chief gardener of Rockefeller Center in New York City the narrator of our story has a colossal job ahead of him each year at Christmas Days end. Another year begins and he is already scouting out possibilities for the next years most perfect tree to decorate the prestigious Center for all to take pleasure in.

It is when the perfect tree is found on the Bush Creek Convent grounds that his job gets just a little bit harder. Sister Anthony unfolds a splendid Christmas tale that will leave the reader with a story you will want to share with the whole family. I can see this book easily becoming a family tradition. Heartwarming and wonderful a 5 star Christmas tale for certain. Kelsana@yahoo.com 12/25/01

If you are like me and you like books on the business of Hollywood you will love this one. I do not like books by Hollywood "insiders". They tend to write the books for nothing more than to pump themselves up and trash actors/studios, however books by journalists tend to be more even handed. Hit and Run is probably the best book on Hollywood ever written, The Devil's Cany is now second. What makes this book great is that it explains what the jobs of certain people are. For instance I didn't know what a second unit director was till I read this. Not to mention that the story about the adaptation of Bonfire of the Vanities makes for a great tale.

Julie Salamon was lucky enough to get in at the beginning of what was anticipated to be a great film, and turned out to be one of the biggest critical and financial failures for Warner Bros. The book Bonfire of the Vanities was so popular and written in such a style that taking on the task of adapting it to film was a true challenge and doomed to fail. And fail it did. Salamon also gives a background of the steps it takes to get a picture made from buying the rights of the book to marketing the finished picture. She details the different roles of the movie set, answering the age-old question, "What does a grip do?". You gather a great understanding of how difficult it is to make a picture by studio standards and how the hierarchy on the set works. Fascinating insight from an outsider let into the circus of making a major motion picture. Brian De Palma must curse the day he agreed to let her chronicle the journey.
Also, I have to recommend reading Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities. You can understand why he wanted no part of making the film adaptaton of his infamous book.

Julie Salamon's book follows the making of the most anticpated film of 1990 and chronicles the problems, the fights, and the ensuing disppointments. A must read for anyone who wants to know how it really works, Salamon was there every step of the way throughout the pre-production, the filming, and the aftermath. Her descriptions of life on the set are accurate and not glossed over. She was there to give an honest account of a film that was going to be a huge hit but turned into one of the biggest failures Hollywood ever produced. If you are a movie buff, a gossip monger, or a huge fan of Tom Wolfe's book, you must pick this one up...if you can find it

In the writing of this book, the author failed to gain the cooperation of the person who knew Bob Rowe best - his brother, nor does she delve into the relationships Mr. Rowe formed while employed at Allstate, the company where he spent the majority of his professional career. The author skimmed over Mr. Rowe's childhood and the complex relationship he shared with his mother. The reader is left with out a clear understanding of Mr. Rowe's psychiatric diagnosis...Was he Bi-Polar? Was he Schizophrenic? Paranoid? Psychotic? Did he continue to take medications for the psychiatric disorders which allowed him another chance at bat? After all, the above medical conditions do not just go away when the time is right. Mental illness is not that convenient or accommodating. Was Colleen his first romantic relationship after his discharge? The author fills the void of forensic expert opinions with the emotions of the second Mrs. Rowe and the women who loved the very special woman who was Mary Rowe. Ms. Salamon failed in her attempt to tell a tale of redemption. Ultimately Bob Rowe's story is a tale of shame - shame on those people whom he clearly manipulated and the system that allowed him to move on to his better life after depriving the four people he deliberately blugeoned to death to do the same. It is equally a shame that Dominick Dunne did not tell the story of the Rowe family - he might have titled the book, Cheating the Wind.

There is no suspense about the facts of the story that forms the basis of this book. Bob Rowe, a loving husband and father, beat his wife and three children to death with a baseball bat in 1978. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and served approximately three years in a criminal psychiatric ward. Upon his release he remarried and had another child. This book isn't your typical true crime book. Julie Salamon isn't interested in finding out the truth about what happened - that's already widely known. Instead, the book is an invitation to consider some of the most difficult moral issues in our society: when does insanity excuse a crime?, should mentally ill patients be punished as well as treated?, is it possible to forgive the most horrendous crimes? Frustratingly, there are no definite answers and this case doesn't make the debate any clearer.

Salomon clearly did an excellent job of interviewing a wide variety of people who knew Bob Rowe before and after his crime. All points of view are represented, including unforgiving friends and colleagues and Rowe's extremely sympathetic second wife. Because the Rowe's second son, Christopher, was born severely disabled, the original Rowe family was intimately involved with a support group for parents facing similar challenges with their children. This group was the genesis of Salomon's book, and there is a lot of focus on these brave women and their relationship with Bob and Mary Rowe. Given her reliance upon the memories of these women, it is not surprising that one of Salomon's underlying assumptions is that the strain of raising Christopher somehow contributed to Bob Rowe's breakdown and subsequent murder of his family. I personally thought this was off base. It seemed clear to me that Bob's breakdown was precipitated by his professional failures which existed quite apart from his home life. The assistant DA had it right - this was an ego crime. Bob Rowe was so self-centered that he killed his family so they wouldn't have to witness HIS disgrace as a failed professional. All in all, I found Rowe to be a not very sympathetic character, and I think he offers a persuasive example of why criminals who are found not guilty by reason of insanity should be required to serve the same number of years in a psychiatric facility as they would have to serve if they had been convicted and sent to prison. A finding of not guilty by reason of insanity shouldn't be a get-out-of-jail-free card.

An interesting read that raises as many questions as it answers.

How would any of us react if someone we thought we knew well, a respected member of our community, suddenly beat his family to death with a baseball bat? And how would we react if we knew he'd remarried years later and started a new family? As riveting as these questions may be, they are only part of what made this book so fascinating to me. What made it unforgettable was how it made me think about the limits of love and forgiveness and how several families were put to the test in circumstances as horrendous as this. Please be aware that this is NOT your usual true crime book, although it is based on true events and the writer does try to make sense of a crime most of us would consider senseless- the murder of 4 members of a family, the Rowes, by the husband/father of that family, a man considered by friends and neighbors to be a loving and attentive parent and spouse. But it goes beyond the murder to give a riveting, detailed portrait of several families and how they lived both before and after this crime tore apart their community. These families had one thing in common - all of them had children with physical or emotional disabilities and the mothers in those families belonged to a support group. The author of this book, Julie Salamon, shows how each person was affected by the challenge of having a handicapped child and how they turned to the Rowes for guidance and inspiration. While some readers might find this part of the book irrelevant and even tedious, I did not. It not only made me think about the unusual stresses faced by families who have children with special needs but it revealed the Rowe family through the eyes of those closest to them. The Rowes were seen as role models and ideals, a family that was dealing with their disabled son as best they could, even better than many others would. The supposed stability of this family is what makes the murders so much more shocking and the author of this book doesn't hesitate to reveal the events leading up to the murder and the spiraling depression that overwhelms Bob Rowe. But she doesn't stop there. She goes on to show his life after institutionalization, his remarriage and eventual death - and then the meeting of his 2nd wife and the women who'd been close to his first wife. Many of them are still angry, baffled and judgmental. I won't reveal the ending of this book to you but will say if you have the willingness to stick with this one, I think you'll find it will force you to think about grace and forgiveness in even the worst circumstances. I admit I'm not sure I don't understand a man like Bob Rowe but I'll never forget him or his family and I'll be thinking about this book and the issue it raised for a long time.