To read this book is to see Hilda Villaverde from her core. Her honesty is refreshing as she guides the reader through her unique experiences with fear and her overwhelming desire and commitment to live on the "other side", Love. Her inspiration is infectious and inspiring. This jewel of a book offers ideas and affirmations to assist you in transforming your life from fear to love. Living in Arizona, I have been blessed with the honor of meeting and getting to know Hilda as a minister and speaker. She is a remarkable, beautiful woman filled with love, compassion and courage. You will be blessed with wisdom, candor and hope when you step into Hilda's journey. Rich blessings to each of you as you journey along your own unique path.

"Living on the Other Side of Fear", has to be the most incredible book that I have ever read. Hilda's journey through the darkness of fear and pain into the light of love is one that we all can relate to. Her words will make you laugh, cry, and feel. The "Little Bolts of Light" will provide positive thoughts for the day and for your life. My personal journey has been easier because of Hilda's message of love. Those who share in her message will truely be blessed.

P.S. If you thought the book was great, the audiotape of Hilda reading the book is even better!

From a challenging childhood and early adulthood that was filled with crisis, Hilda has shaped a life of love. Her story is an inspiration and definite proof that love conquers fear! It was a privilege to read this book and feel the love that shines in every page!

There are not many classics in the category of war books, but this one is a masterfully written exception. It follows the experiences of the Verhagens, a small close-knit family living in a windmill named "The Winged Watchman" in the Holland countryside, through WWII. The story begins when Leendert Schenderhans, a boy on a neighboring farm, becomes a Nazi landwatcher, causing trouble for the patriotic Verhagens. Tension mounts as the Verhagens become more and more involved in the war, sheltering runaways, participating in crucial events, like undercover weapon droppings, and aiding their anti-Nazi Uncle Cor. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone desiring a different perspective of WWII than just the American side of the story.

The Nazi occupations of neighboring European countries is not a subject that is well addressed in children's literature. here is a chance for young and old alike to face the impact the Nazi occupation had on The Netherlands. It is a fantastic tale of bravery and faith amid the inhumanity of the Nazi mentality and those who cooperated with them. We see how the Nazis courted a young man, known to be bad anyway, for the task of spying and informing on his neighbors. we see how even his own faily was afraid of this youth's power and its abuse. But, we also see the strength of the Dutch character as they sufefred hunger , bombings and loss of life and property. Von Stockum has clearly exposed the evil of the Nazis but she has shown the courage of those who fought them. memorable and so appropiate after Sept. 11th.

Set in Holland during the German occupation of World War II, the story follows the wartime trials, joys and adventures of a Dutch family that lives in a windmill called the "Watchman". Gradually, the children become more and more involved in the Dutch Underground movement, resisting and outwitting German soldiers in several hair-raising episodes. My 8 year old daughter loved this book... it helped us to bond (and she can sometimes be hard to reach). I read it aloud before bedtime; we laughed, held our breath in suspense, cried and rejoiced together. She loved that the children were empowered to take on such a monstrous enemy as the German army. She also loved the characters; each has his or her own well-drawn personality. And who is Kees Kip, the Underground Resistance hero who does such shockingly funny things to the Germans as he frees the "underdivers"? This book differs from other books of this type in that there is an air of innocence that is preserved, innocence and idealism. Although concentration camps and shootings are mentioned, they happen elsewhere and are not graphically portrayed. The children ask several questions about the morality of their enemies and I like that in the end they conclude that to stop war, they must not hate their enemies, but learn to respond with peace. One does not feel a heaviness upon finishing the book; it's not like Schindler's List. It contains everything a child could want: adventure, fun, empowering knowledge... and it slips in quite a lot about the history and culture of Holland during that time. Excellent book!

Hilda Dunn's The Hanged Man is a clever and entertaining mystery that should be read by everyone who admires the novels of Jane Austen and Barbara Pym. With great skill, Dunn presents an exciting story (one that makes unobtrusive references to works by such writers as T.S. Eliot and Graham Greene among others)while presenting a view of post-World War 2 England that is as good as anything in the novels of Pym. The reader needn't have read these earlier writers to enjoy Dunn's novel, but if one has some familiarity with with them, the enjoyment is increased, and the reader sees that Dunn is an extrordinarily clever writer.

But,more important, The Hanged Man is an entertainment. It is fun to read, and the final pages are as exciting as any other mystery story I know. Don't miss out on this treat.

THE HANGED MAN offers the enjoyment of meeting a well-furnished mind through an enthralling story, with highly evocative period details that bring daily life in the 1940s to the page. The author's wit and intelligence shine through and ensure the reader's pleasure.

Reading "The Hanged Man" was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for me. The plot has more twists than a Celtic knot, something I usually don't go for since in most twist-and-turn detective novels the cast are not much more than pawns in the author's effort to concoct a surprise-filled puzzle. In this book, however, the players were all alive and interesting, each with its own funny and loveable idiosyncrasies. Every character in this book was vivid and fascinating to me, even the secondary ones. In fact it seemed each one had enough "juice" in it to merit being a protagonist in a book of its own.

The language in the book is rich, sometimes almost too rich for someone like me for whom English is not a native tongue. I'm sure I missed most of the interesting (and funny) homages to (and parodies of) classic works of literature. It comes across very vividly that Ms. Dunn was in love with the English language and literature, and the book is virtually fizzling with this love affair.

With suspense hitting you right on page 1 without relenting till the last chapter, "The Hanged Man" manages a truly unique tight-wire act in my eyes: It somehow manages to be fun and yet deep at the same time. A spoiled reader like me is thus provided with everything he could possibly wish for: Instant gratification AND an intellectually worthwhile adventure...

Isaac Orr, Israel.

The third installment of Living Voices of the Past is another wonderful history lesson!

Hilda Faunce leaves her comfortable Seattle, Washington, home to journey to the Southwest and the Navajo reservation with her husband in 1914. While one may think that everybody had cars back then, the Faunce's made their way in the manner of the original pioneers: by wagon.

Hilda's journey is not so much a journal of her trip as it is her life on the reservation between 1914 and 1918. Hilda's writings are indeed an historical eye-opener.

First, there is the problem with the language; then the protocol; and the normal daily variances of two races trying to live side-by-side. Cultural diversity may be a late-twentieth-century term, but the fact is that many in America were already experiencing this phenomenon.

The entire journal is mesmerizing; Hilda uses very descriptive language to convey the sights and sounds of the unusual customs and landscapes that she encounters that transfers the listener to reservation life during the second decade of the twentieth century.

Two aspects were particularly telling of a different culture: contending with a white-man initiated illness and the onset of World War I.

The Navajo's were forced to face and contend with small pox, a deadly disease they had never known until the white man arrived. Many of Hilda's new friends died, devastating the young woman.

Newspapers were a rarity and treat on the reservation, so Hilda did not know much of what was going on outside her and her husband's little trading post. While the world was trying to blow itself to smithereens, the Faunce's and the Indians were trying to make a living by mainly trading...especially furs and foods.

Desert Wife is an important historical document that from which we can all learn tolerance and the need to just get along!

Ably narrated by Jane Merrifield-Beecher, Desert Wife is the story of Hilda Faunce and her life as a trader's wife on the Navajo reservation before the outbreak of World War I. Hilda faced challenging experiences as she came from Seattle, Washington to live in the bleakness of the southwest desert, learning the Navajo language, and acclimating to an alien territory and a strange new world. Hilda presents the interaction between Navajos and whites in their trading practices and how the Navajo coped with sicknesses transmitted from the white man. She touches on the sweetness of Navajo singing, the misconception of war when they had to register at For Defiance, and a great deal more. Desert Wife is the product of Hilda's four years of reservation life and learning to appreciate the cultural differences between the Navajo world and her own background. Desert Wife is highly recommended listening for students of Native American studies, the twentieth century American west, and Women's studies.

As an avid reader of first-person accounts of the lives of women in the early West, I would call this one of the finest I've seen. It's an absorbing tale of a woman's adjustment to the bleak and initially terrifying emptiness of the desert Southwest where her husband sets up an Indian trading post at the time of World War I. She comes to love the place and to appreciate the culture and manners of her Indian neighbors, which at first seem so alien to her. Hilda Faunce gives us a fascinating direct view of the interaction of Indians and whites, which is only the more interesting from our current vantage point 85 years later. I was struck by her simple, straightforward, but eloquent writing style as well as by her courage and receptiveness in facing a very challenging experience. I felt as if I'd entered her world, and was sorry to leave when the book was over.

This is a great tale of a life in the British Theatre during its mid-20th century Golden Era. Terry Knapp starts his story with his audition for the legendary actor-director,Sir Laurence Oliver when he created the inaugural company of the Chichester Festival Theatre and continues with a rare insider's view of the founding of the Royal National Theatre when its home was the historic Old Vic Theatre in London's Waterloo Road. Like a born story-teller Terry tells, in a well paced and charmingly informal way, the saga of the birth of what is now the theatrical pride of Great Britain. Terry traces its development during the first three years of artistic feuds and back-stage infighting and its Everestian peak of Olivier's magnificent OTHELLO in Moscow in the very heart of the Kremlin. Terry goes on to tell of being on tour in South East Asia, and his remarkable first visit to Japan which coincided with the visit of the Beatles to Tokyo. Awarded the first ever Churchill Fellowship to an actor Terry later returned to Japan to study its tradional performance arts encountering some remarkable theatre artists.His account makes informative reading about some of the world's most exotic Acting traditions which date back several centuries. He shares his experiences of working with Sir Yehudi Menuhin in Mozart's THE IMPRESSARIO and Dame Cleo Laine in a musical about the amours of George Bernard Shaw. These memoires have been praised for their style and content by the distinguished theatre biographer and critic, Sheridan Morley and by Gavan Daws, author oF HOLY MAN, the outstanding biography of Father Damien of Molokai. Terry was acclaimed internationally for his TV portrait of DAMIEN in a one man play by Aldyth Morris, (the title bestowed on him by the Hawaii State Legislature also being the title of his book.) This is first class, highly informative and very entertaining reading.

This is a truly remarkable book and a delight to read. You feel as though you are right there as Terence Knapp reminisces about his life. In conversational detail Knapp tells of his intimate relationships with Britain's theater geniuses--from Sirs Laurence Olivier, Derek Jacobi, Michael Redgrave, the irrepressible Judi Dench, and Lynn Redgrave and so many others.

But it is more than a book about stars. It is about a man's odyssey. He takes the reader from the hard times and poverty of wartime London, through the trials and triumphs of becoming an Actor; he shifts to the exotic orient in a quest to broaden his knowledge by learning about and contributing to theater in Japan. Finally, he realizes his second calling--teaching aspiring actors and bringing his love of Shakespeare and the theater to Hawaii.

In the Hawaiian Islands he has become a beloved and revered figure not only for his stunning Peabody award-winning portrayal of the leper priest, Father Damien, but for the countless other performances he has given for more than 30 years.

Knapp candidly reveals that although the dream of great stardom and great financial reward may have eluded him, he has found peace and satisfaction in touching the lives of so many in his beloved three islands--Britain, Japan and Hawaii. It is a story that helps us all in understanding and appreciating our own personal quest for peace and achievement.

Terence Knapp has lead a fascinating and truly inspiring life...and writes all about it with panache and style. The Farmer review gives you the details on the books contents, so just let me add that this breezy, lively read is a must for any theatre-lover, aspiring actor, Anglophile, or anyone who just wants to sit down and read something entertaining.

I heard about this tradgy on court tv's Forensic Files it broke my heart about the letter and how he murdered her it was a bad storie to hear.only 17 not ever getting to have a kid or ever graduate that was not very kind to murder someone for no reason.

The first time I remember reading about this horrific crime was in a Reader's Digest magazine in 1989. I can still remember the shock I felt when I read how something as innocent as checking the mail in your own driveway could turn into such a tragedy. My heart broke as I turned each page and read Hilda's story about the brutal kidnapping and murder of her beautiful daughter. Her courage and faith is an inspirational to anyone that reads this book. I highly recommend it.

I've never read a book written with such beautiful simplicity about faith -- the horrors that were experienced in this family's life are transformed so that we can all read a very real tragedy without the glamor of the way tragedy is portrayed today. There is so much respect to Shari, Mrs. Smith's family, friends, people that were involved, and to the readers that we are able to walk into a new way to believe in and have faith in the Lord. Mrs. Smith's faith is beautiful -- the way she would pray so that she could sit through a grueling period of time facing such devastation - she'd simply ask God to help her get through it with grace -- and, by Mrs. Smith's portrayal of her own faith - it helped grow mine. Why? Because the Lord is very interested in the details of our lives -- Mrs. Smith & her family's tragedy is an example of the Lord using what satan meant for evil for good. Shari is in heaven - the best place to be -- and, Mrs. Smith and her family's going through the ordeal they went through, coming out of the other side in tact and in faith have undoubtedly increased the Kingdom -- the Smith family has awesome hearts - thank you, Mrs. Smith for your faithfulness to Him and for growing my own faith. I am sorry for the heartaches of your life, but I praise God that He is in control! Thank you.

For first time mothers, this book gave me what I needed. You will find everything you need in this book. I really enjoyed reading every page, and it has been passed along to other sisters out there who are having a baby. ONCE AGAIN EXCELLENT.

This book was given to me by a good friend, and it is the best thing she could have given to me. I found the book to be very informative and answered ALL questions I could ever ask about being pregnant. I even found myself referring back to the book with my second child, pregnant again about a year and a half later. I am here today writing this review, because I want to email this page to my cousin who is now pregnant. I promised her I would find it online and told her to make sure she purchase and read this book....Excellent

I really liked the book. It was informative where the others where not. I just don't understand why it is focused on black women. Everything I read applies to any expected mother.

a book read and reread as a growing boy [1st read age 11] a book whose story, characters and wisdom remain bright, after 30 years.

our young english hero finds a magic ship, and "must pay all he has, plus a bit more". it takes him his brother and sister to different countries, and cultures. when he learns its secrets, the ship flys them through time and to the land of its owner, Loki.

this voyage of discovery was so real to me.

this story is written in full sentences and paragrpahs, with a vocabulary that will stretch a young mind. it might even provoke a request for help with the words.

Like the other reviewer, I read and reread this as a child; first read it when I was a girl of 8. It's a wonderful book that I look forward to rereading again as an adult. The book is filled with wisdom and adventures and will be a delightful challenge for any child to read.

This is a wonderful book, which I've read dozens of times, and it still moves me. I first read it 40 or more years ago, and when I found it again recently, I was just as enchanted by it, and now appreciate it on other levels. I still want to wander a tiny English seaside town and find my own magic ship.
I recommend it to anyone-children, teens, adults, seniors. It has something for everyone.

This wonderful little book offers many choices for mealtime blessings that are especially appropriate to thank our Provider and Source for the daily bread that graces our tables. As we increase our connection to the Divine Spirit, one will find blessings to suit any and all occasions whether eating alone, with others, or in a restaurant. This collection of blessings is a gift of love!

Hilda Villaverde has a winner here. This book is perfect for anyone who has ever tried to make a commitment to eat a more healthy diet. It's short, it's simple, and it's to the point. Even the act of eating - and maybe more importantly the act of eating, which we tend to do on the run and without thought these days - can be "a sacred time of honoring ourselves." I've shared it with friends and they have each come back wanting to know where to get more copies to share with their friends. Regardless of your religion, outlook, or relationship with food, you will find her concept of Conscious Eating inspiring and helpful on a day-to-day basis.

Hilda Villaverde, expresses herself with a freedom and honesty that makes the reader feel loved. Her passion and enthusiasm for her truth glows from the pages. I was drawn to the beauty and simplicity of the cover at first sight. When I began reading and absorbing the intention of "Conscious Eating", I felt I had been given a gift. A gift of power. Power through prayer, through consciousness and self-respect. Hilda reminds us that, "Eating is a sacred time of honoring ourselves and the Source of all nourishment.". In a world that runs from task to task and diet to diet this book encourages us to slow down, become fully present, enjoy, savor, smell, touch and let the moment last. There are prayers and affirmations for everyone. Before a meal or just when I need a boost I randomly open to a page and find it is the truth I need to hear and practice. For a book that is small in size its value cannot be measured. It brings me focus, pleasure and peace everytime I read from it. "Conscious Eating" is a treasure to give anyone you love, including yourself. My thanks to Hilda for gathering her love and respect for life and sharing it with all of us!

The color micrographs are excellent, portraying algae at their most beautiful. The other half of the book contains some basic information about algae that is at the undergraduate college level. Note that this is book is not an identification manual, which is sorely needed, but a coffee-table book and elementary textbook. Excellent for amateur naturalists.

I had to order this book from the UK Amazon site, but it was well worth it! This is a really well done exposition of a broad range of organisms called "fresh water algae" and their enemies, as well as the alga-fungus community known as a lichen.

The excellent photography of Hilda Canter-Lund and the expert writing of her husband, the algologist J. W. Lund, have combined to make up a book that is both textbook and work of art- an unusual combination to say the least! The photos are clear and detailed. It is hard to find any major fault with this book because it is essentially unique. I have seen nothing quite like it on fresh water microscopic organisms.

The price ... and the difficulty of getting it in the United States probably precludes it from being generally read, but to the professional or amateur fresh water biologist this book is a treasure.

The Lunds put together an incredibly easy text to read with incredible pictures. The best algae text book out there for fresh water