One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust—only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the “Freedom Writers” in homage to the civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders.”With funds raised by a “Read-a-thon for Tolerance,” they arranged for Miep Gies, the courageous Dutch woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California, where she declared that Erin Gruwell’s students were “the real heroes.” Their efforts have paid off spectacularly, both in terms of recognition—appearances on “Prime Time Live” and “All Things Considered,” coverage in People magazine, a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley—and educationally. All 150 Freedom Writers have graduated from high school and are now attending college.With powerful entries from the students’ own diaries and a narrative text by Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary is an uplifting, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students. The authors’ proceeds from this book will be donated to The Tolerance Education Foundation, an organization set up to pay for the Freedom Writers’ college tuition. Erin Gruwell is now a visiting professor at California State University, Long Beach, where some of her students are Freedom Writers.

    After the horrors of the war, Victor and Eva’s return to their Dresden home seems like a fairytale. Victor tries to resume his distinguished academic career and joins East Germany’s Communist Party. In 1951, Eva dies; a year later, aged 70, Victor marries a student—an unlikely but successful love match. But with the growing repression of the Communist Party, and the memory of those who did not survive, Victor’s achievements ring hollow. Politics, he comes to believe, is, above all, the choice of "the lesser evil." A masterpiece both of Holocaust literature and memoir.

    It provides a depiction of American spirit and life in war-time England. The author's love story (and the love stories of her friends) illuminates war-time relationships, showing with sensitivity how they developed and how they were understood and accepted at the time.

     Gunslingers rubbed shoulders with Mexican outlaws in this rough and rugged country where there were “men with money looking to become millionaires, land-grabbers, experienced and inexperienced miners, quacks, professional deceivers, publicity men lauding gold mines that do not exist.” In the midst of all these dangerous and scheming men were the black-robed Sisters of Charity, one of whom was Sister Blandina Segale. Born in northern Italy she had moved with her family to Cincinnati at the age of four. Twelve years later she took her vows and boarded a stagecoach to Trinidad, Colorado, to begin life as a missionary. As the introduction states, this is an inspiring record of educational and charitable work carried on for many years in Colorado and New Mexico for Indian and Mexican, Catholics and non-Catholics, rich and poor, the criminal and law abiding. From 1872 through to 1893 she worked with the communities of Trinidad, Santa Fe and Albuquerque to suppress violence, educate and care for those she could, all the while providing religious council and comfort to the people of these wild lands. Throughout these years she kept a journal and wrote letters that would eventually become the basis for the book At the End of the Santa Fe Trail which provides fascinating insight into one nun’s perspective on life in the far west. Particularly fascinating is the relationships she builds with some of the notorious figures of the Old West, including Billy the Kid. “The story is told for the most part by means of extracts from Sister Blandina's journal and her letters to her sister. They reveal a very human figure, with a well-developed sense of humor and a fine measure of moral courage to buttress her religious faith.” Kirkus Reviews Sister Blandina Segale was an Italian-born American religious sister and missionary. During the course of her life she served as an educator and social worker who worked in Ohio, Colorado and New Mexico, assisting Native Americans, Hispanic settlers and European immigrants. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe has opened a process to canonize Segale, for which it has received the permission of the Holy See. For this, she is honored by the Catholic Church with the title of Servant of God. She is the first individual in New Mexico's 400-year history with the Roman Catholic Church to have a cause opened for their beatification and canonization. Her book At the End of the Santa Fe Trail was first published in 1932 and reprinted in 1948. She passed away in 1941.

    Fisher is to literary prose," wrote the Chicago Sun-Times, "what Laurence Olivier is to acting."  From the Journals of M.F.K. Fisher combines into one volume three acclaimed collections of journals, correspondence, and short stories, the earliest piece written when Fisher was nineteen and the last composed shortly before her death in 1992, at age eighty-three."To Begin Again" gives us a portrait of Fisher's early years, from her family's migration to California in 1912 to her first marriage in 1929. Here she begins to learn about the art of "living well gastronomically" and acquires an appreciation for the nurturance of both body and soul. "Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me" presents a candid portrait of the most traumatic period of Fisher's life -- her divorce from her husband, her marriage to their friend Dillwyn Parrish, and Parrish's tragic illness and death.  "Last House" offers a wry look at an artist grappling with old age and illness, and a poignant remembrance of the experiences that shaped her life's work.Filled with humor, wisdom, and beautifully crafted prose, this collection will introduce to a new generation the life and work of one of the most beloved writers of our era.

    This is the third volume in the Little Sod series about life as seen through the eyes of a toddler.

    Lines of Fire challenges the restrictions of official history and traditional ideas of "war literature, " bringing together a rich and astonishing array of women's journalism, political treatises, diaries, and eyewitness accounts, as well as illustrations, fiction, and poetry written in response to WWI. Lines of Fire is also truly ground breaking in that it is an international anthology, including contributions not only from Great Britain and the United States, but also from France, Germany, Russia, Hungary, Belgium, India, Italy, Turkey, Africa, and the Middle East.

    He was also the poet of the group. Anyone who was enthralled by the recent film Of Gods and Men should find in Brother Christophes Journal ample and deeply moving material for meditation on both the light and the darkness inherent in the human condition. The Journal begins in 1993, four months before the terrorists first visit to the monastery at Tibhirine, and it ends on 19 March 1996, just seven days before the monks abduction. Entry after entry touches readers both by its vivid sincerity and by the fresh and inventive quality of its poetic expression. Through these pages readers become privy to the daily events in the soul of a generous searcher after God under very trying conditions. His style is highly personal, playful, ardent, full of color and whimsy.