Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Survival Review

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(More customer reviews)Jungle has Yossi, an Israeli, hooking up with two companions and a guide to experience the jungles of South America. The tale of their survival, particularly Yossi's survival when he becomes lost, is captivating and difficult to put down. The backdrop of human nature adds an emotional element to the story.
It was survival of the fittest, and in this situation, the weakest link became despised. The disappointing factor is that at the time when Kevin and Yossi began to despise Marcus, the journey's difficulty seemed minor.
After the emotional abuse, I found it difficult to care for the author's plight. One can only imagine the suffering and confusion that Marcus felt at the betrayal of his friends during a painful and difficult journey. It must have been painful for Yossi to tell his story honestly.
The book would have benefited from photos, even if they were not photos of the actual journey but of the return trip or group shots before the journey.
ADDED:
I originally gave this book only 3 stars but I've changed it to 5 stars. After all, it was very engrossing, well-written and, above all, honest. At the time I wrote the original review, Yossi's treatment of their companion caused me to deduct 2 stars. However, non-fiction books should not be reviewed based upon whether the reader likes the turn the story takes, right? Life isn't a Hollywood script.

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What begins as a dream adventure for four amicable, if hastily met, muchileros (backpackers) quickly becomes a struggle for survival as they unravel under the duress of the jungle. They are an odd mix to be sure: Marcus, the Swiss mystic; Karl, the shady Austrian geologist; Kevin, the well-intentioned American photographer; and Yossi, the Israeli adventurer.
Jungle is the incredible true story of Yossi Ghinsberg's triumph over the most adverse and frightening of circumstances. It is a tale of survival and human fortitude against the wildest backdrop on the planet.

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Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (The World As Home) Review

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(More customer reviews)this book is a must for any Southerner and for anyone interested in the environment. Though I was born and raised in Georgia I was ignorant of the ecology of the longleaf pine forests. And though I have often drive through the region described in the book I knew nothing about the people there. The book alternates between a memoir of Ray's family and upbringing and lyrical descriptions of the land in which they lived. She also tells the story of the magnificent pine forests which grew from Virginia to Mississippi and which are almost nonexistent today. There are many books today about "my childhood" but this is far superior to any I have read with the exception of Mary Karr's "The Liar's Club." It will be of interest to environmentalists and lovers of good writing alike.

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The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams Review

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(More customer reviews)What a joy it is to read the correspondence between two of America's greatest founding fathers. Through this collection of letters we begin to get into the minds of men who created and shaped this nation. We read of their dreams, expectations and fears for this new nation as well as typical correspondence between friends. That is when they were talking to each other. When the two men weren't, Abigail continued to write Jefferson to try and heal the breach. My favorite letter is from John Adams to Jefferson to tell him to stop writing his wife. This is a book for anyone who loves the human side of history and enjoys getting to know the real people behind the legends. I first read it in college, and then spent ten years trying to find it again. Now that I have, it will never leave my bookshelf.

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An intellectual dialogue of the highest plane achieved in America, the correspondence between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson spanned half a century and embraced government, philosophy, religion, quotidiana, and family griefs and joys. First meeting as delegates to the Continental Congress in 1775, they initiated correspondence in 1777, negotiated jointly as ministers in Europe in the 1780s, and served the early Republic-each, ultimately, in its highest office. At Jefferson's defeat of Adams for the presidency in 1800, they became estranged, and the correspondence lapses from 1801 to 1812, then is renewed until the death of both in 1826, fifty years to the day after the Declaration of Independence.
Lester J. Cappon's edition, first published in 1959 in two volumes, provides the complete correspondence between these two men and includes the correspondence between Abigail Adams and Jefferson. Many of these letters have been published in no other modern edition, nor does any other edition devote itself exclusively to the exchange between Jefferson and the Adamses. Introduction, headnotes, and footnotes inform the reader without interrupting the speakers. This reissue of The Adams-Jefferson Letters in a one-volume unabridged edition brings to a broader audience one of the monuments of American scholarship and, to quote C. Vann Woodward, 'a major treasure of national literature.'

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