Category Archives: Nonfiction

323E: Creating the story of one’s life

Around 1996 I bought my dad a book of questions about one’s life. In the end of answering these questions came a lovely little story about one’s entire life. My dad died without completing it and I couldn’t find the book again. I would like to know the name and author of this book. Thank you for all your help. I’ve looked on Amazon and have not found anything like it.

323A: Man meets gurus in India, is healed of blindness

A man finds healing for near blindness by examining gurus in India who told him to talk to his father. A man disrupted contact with his father, and later suffered from near blindness on a real physical basis. He traveled all over the world and stayed for longer in India, but 2 gurus in a line told him he just should go back and talk with his father. He found unbelievable healing that way, and talked about it on youtube or TED, and wrote a book with which he became famous. He has a website as well and holds presentations. It must have been around 5-10 years ago, I assume. I cannot find it anywhere I search. I think he suffered from a kind of retina disease and small vessels in it.

322Q: Daily Life In Ancient Civilizations

When I was in the 3rd grade, my language teacher would take the class to the library to check out books we wanted to read. My favorite were a series of children’s books which taught daily lives of people from ancient civilizations: who they were, what they did, what they were known for, & the tools and weapons they used in warfare. It was from these books which I developed a passion for arts & crafts and also the value of history at a young age.
I am 44 years old now and I would like to find these books to have them as part of my knife and weapons collection. It was those books which sparked my interest for this hobby.
I can’t recall the author but do remember the titles:
1. The Stone Age
2. The Aztecs
3. The Romans
4. The Vikings
5. The Egyptians
6. The Phonecians
7. The Greeks
8. The Celtics
It was around 1984-1985 was when I discovered these books. I was wondering if you can offer assistance in helping me find them or a publisher that can reprint them.
Any assistance you can offer is greatly appreciated.

319I: Mid-1800’s Mystery Girl’s Biography

This book is a biography.  I thought it was a Discovery book, but looking at the available titles from that series, I cannot figure out which one it is.  It is a biography of a woman.  She was either a niece of Henry Clay, or the Senator was family friend, so she might have been a child in the 1830s or 40s.  One of the chapters in the books describes her and a friend getting into trouble, because they wanted to be fancy and they made hoop skirts out of willow branches.  Also, maybe a chapter about playing at her father’s flour mill making cakes and pies – but maybe they were mud pies?

Thanks for any leads you can offer!

318X: Child’s Introduction to Holland

I am looking for a children’s book I memorized at age 3 in 1945.  I believe the title is: The Land of the Dutch, Dutch, Dutch.  I do not know the author or illustrator.  It is a child’s introduction to Holland.  As a child, I recited the book to any guests in our home.  As a teenager, I was an exchange student in Holland.

309O: Historic Jesus by two anthropologists

Sited on NPR with interview of authors between 10 and 15 years ago (?).  They describe Jesus in he context of the Roman political power and the strain on the economies via taxes etc. and how Jesus was a counter culture.  Also, I remember they assert that it was highly unlikely that anyone was allowed to remove his body from the cross and they describe the sect of Christians who lived in Jerusalem who saw Jesus not as divine but as a prophet and how they were all killed off in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

309N: Warsaw Ghetto and Auschwitz Survivalist

True story about a young (12-14 year old) Jewish boy who uses his wit, street-wise and athletic abilities to keep one step ahead of his Nazi captors in the Warsaw, Poland ghetto.  For a while he is able to secure items for people trapped in that prison-like environment by sneaking out of the ghetto and returning unnoticed.   Eventually he is sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.  He escapes by hiding in a railway car leaving the site with packed clothing.  He goes back to Warsaw to warn others about conditions at Auschwitz and joins the Jewish fighters in the ghetto uprising against the occupying German army.  He again is sent to Auschwitz and escapes a second time by hiding under a truck leaving the prison.  He survives World War II and ultimately publishes the book about his exploits only after his wife perishes in a house fire.  I do not know the name of the book or the date of publication.

307O: Children’s book about tornadoes

I’m looking for a children’s book about tornadoes.  Tornado may have been in the title.  It was likely published sometime in the 80s.

It was possibly from a book club or a book fair at an elementary school.  When I was in elementary school in Arkansas in the 80s, the teacher gave us paper catalogs about 4 pages long, I think.  We could order books from the catalogs and they were delivered to the school many weeks later.  It may have come from one of those.

It seems like the catalogs were associated with Weekly Reader or maybe a company called Owl (my bad memory may be remembering that completely wrong).

The book was paperback.  It had only had a few photos.  I think it taught kids the basics of understanding weather and weather forecasting.

 

306J: Funny Practical Retelling of Fairy Tales

I am looking for a small hilariously funny book in which the author goes and analyses or re-tells several famous fairy tales using common sense and pointing out the truly ridiculous bits.

I remember in the pulling apart of “Little Red Riding Hood” he ponders why in the world everyone would name a kid after an article of clothing and wonders what if she had been “Little Dirty Tee Shirt” instead.

In “Snow White” he points out that the mirror is essentially creating the whole problem by maliciously or cluelessly making the queen wildly jealous. He also thinks that “Snow White living in the glen, with the seven little men” rather suggests they are getting up to something and is further evidence of the mirror’s troublemaking.

In Rapunzel he comments upon the whole idea of naming your child after a root vegetable and the wisdom of robbing witches.

In Rumpelstiltskin he thinks everyone is rather hard on the poor guy, and wonders why when she knows what his name is, and her baby is on the line, the queen decides it is funny to play around and wind him up by giving the wrong names at first.

The book was (I think) a half-sized hard back (half height but same length as a hardback book? Size of say an Edward Gorey single story like The Doubtful Guest.)  I think it had a black and white drawn illustration on the cover.

I know I gave my copy to a friend around 1983-1985 so it was in print before then. I am thinking it was probably published after 1972 as I think I would have been over 13 when I first received it. My vague memory is that my mother bought several copies as gifts and it was being sold fairly prominently one Christmas season in NYC possibly at Barnes and Noble.

I have tried searching for it but only ever get Fractured Fairy Tales back and that is not it.

I would really enjoy finding this book again!