Tiger Woods: A Biography for Kids

Customer Reviews:

A splendidly written biography.......2001-10-18

Tiger Woods first came to fame in 1997 when he won a spectacular victory at the Master Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. He went on to be one of the most successful professional golfers the game has ever known and won the admiration of a whole new generation of young men and women for the game. Indeed, because of Tiger Woods, the game of golf has a degree of popularity within minority communities that it has never before held in its entire history. Libby Hughes' Tiger Woods is a splendidly written biography of their remarkable young man's career from when he hit his first golf ball at the age of 9 months, through his days as a junior champion in grad school and high school, on to his years at Stanford University (when Tiger turned pro in his second year of college) and down to the present with a representative sampling drawn from his spectacular pro tournament victories. Tiger Woods is a great biography for young readers and will serve to inspire children with one of the most genuinely praiseworthy young men in professional sports today!

Book Description

Exodus is an international publishing phenomenon--the towering novel of the twentieth century's most dramatic geopolitical event. Leon Uris magnificently portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies--the beginning of an earthshaking struggle for power. Here is the tale that swept the world with its fury: the story of an American nurse, an Israeli freedom fighter caught up in a glorious, heartbreaking, triumphant era. Here is Exodus --one of the great best-selling novels of all time.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Novel.......2007-10-12

This is a powerful novel. You won't be able to put it down. Surely, the author is partisan, but isn't every author? The book is well worth reading. Tom Segev's "One Palestine, Complete" is a non-fictional account of the same topic.

Long and boring.......2007-10-05

I have had this book in my line-up for quite some time. Every time I looked at it as a possible read I just got a sense that it would be uninteresting. Well, I have to say that my fears were warranted. This book is almost as long and arduous as the plight of the Israelites. The story itself would be better off without the huge section of dull history stuck in the middle. I did become involved in the characters to a point, but never got a true feeling of realness in them. They just never completely developed. I do have to say that I came out with a better sense of the problems that the Israelites have had to face and I am sure that was the author's purpose.

Exodus.......2007-08-09

This time I read the book, my 4th to be exact, it was still as amazing as the first time. It was and remains my favorite book.

The Ode to Promise Land.......2007-04-04

One of the most powerful books of the last century, Leon Uris "Exodus" (1960) is an exiting and deeply moving novel which was written by a talented and passionate man. The best, the most inspirational parts of the book are the depictions of the historical events dealing with the origins of ghetto system, pogroms in Russia, the long and fascinating journey of two brothers from a small Russian town to Palestine by foot, the ideas of Theodor Herzl, the birth of kibbutzes in Palestine, and enormous labor of kibbutznicks to make the land fertile, to grow plants and trees where the desert, rocks, and swamps had been. Uris was also able to find the compelling words, images, and characters to reflect on the tragedy of European Holocaust, on the dramatic story of United Nations voting for partition of Palestine in 1947 and on the war of the infant state of Israel against its multiple and hostile neighbors for the right to exist and be an independent country. I took the book with me in my trip to Israel a year and a half ago and reading it while be able to see the places it describes with such passion and love, to see the land that is called "promised land" or "Holy land" WAS one of the most emotional and unforgettable experiences in my life.

Rebirth of a Nation.......2007-01-18

In the same manner that Herman Wouk's "Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" took us through the vast event that was WWII, as seen through the eyes of a family of beloved fictional characters -- so does Leon Uris' "Exodus" carry us through the labor pains and birth of the modern State of Israel, as seen through the eyes of a family of fictional figures in that resurrected nation.

The story is huge in scope and Uris covers a lot of territory within the allotted pages. He takes us from the Jewish displaced persons camps of post war Europe, through the Zionist immigration into Palestine(much of it illegal) under the British mandate, then through the rebuilding of the land and the growing skirmishes leading to all out war for survival as the Britsh withdrew (as prescribed by the UN) and the State of Israel was birthed - and immediately and overwhelmingly attacked by the surrounding Arab nations. Miraculously, Israel overcame their attackers, survived, and even thrived.

As best I can judge from comparison to other sources, the historical sequence of events as described by Uris is accurate. The information is highly educational. More subjectively, Uris was Jewish and writes from a Zionist perspective. He depicts the Hebrews as noble, resourceful, and courageous. Generally, the Arab elements are portrayed as cruel, deceptive, cowardly, and not given to playing by the rules. The British are painted as anti-Semites. I'll leave it to the reader to root out the truth of the matter.

Uris does not neglect the spiritual aspect and the acknowledgment of the supernatural provisional and protective hand of God . . . the God of the Hebrews. Uris employs this sometimes by intimation and sometimes very directly.

The author did masterful research and presentation relating to the historical facts. However (at least in this early novel), his character development and continuity, and dialogue, is not on par with other 20th century master novelists (use Herman Wouk again for comparison). Some characterizations are overstated, others are fluid and changing, some are borderline silly. Also, Uris could have given us a little better peek at the personalities, quirks, foibles, etc. of the actual historical political and military figures of the era (David Ben Gurion is barely mentioned just a couple of times). He didn't. A shame.

Still - this is an epic piece of modern historical fiction. If you deeply love or hate Israel, this is worth the read and highly recommended.

Exodus 1947: The Ship That Launched a Nation

Average customer rating:

Heartbreaking. Highly Recommended.

Exodus 1947: The Ship That Launched a Nation
Ruth Gruber
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0812931548
Release Date: 1999-10-01

Book Description

With more than 100 photographs by the author

"The ship looked like a matchbox that had been splintered by a nutcracker. In the torn, square hole, as big as an open, blitzed barn, we could see a muddle of bedding, possessions, plumbing, broken pipes, overflowing toilets, half-naked men, women looking for children. Cabins were bashed in; railings were ripped off; the lifesaving rafts were dangling at crazy angles."

On July 18, 1947, Ruth Gruber, an American journalist, waited on a wharf in Haifa as the Exodus 1947 limped into harbor. The evening before, Gruber had learned that this unarmed ship, with more than 4,500 Holocaust survivors crammed into a former tourist vessel designed for 400 passengers, had been rammed and boarded by the British Navy, which was determined to keep her desperate human cargo from finding refuge in Palestine. Now, though soldiers blockaded both exit and entry to the weary vessel, Gruber was determined to meet the refugees and hear their tales. For the next several months she pursued the émigrés' stories, from Haifa to the prison camps on Cyprus (where she was misled by the British to believe the DPs would land, though they never did), to southern France, and, appallingly, back to Hamburg, Germany, where they were ultimately sent by the intractable British authorities.

As the lone journalist covering this story, Gruber sent riveting dispatches and vivid photographs back to the New York and Paris Herald Tribune, which in turn sent them out to the rest of the world press. Gruber's relentless reporting and striking photographs shaped perceptions worldwide as to the situation of postwar Jewish refugees and of the British Mandate in Palestine, and arguably influenced the United Nations decision to finally create the State of Israel in 1948.

In 1948, Gruber assembled her dispatches and thirty of her pictures into Destination Palestine, the book that became the basis for Leon Uris's bestselling novel Exodus and the film of the same name. In this revised and expanded edition, Gruber has included a new opening chapter of never-before-published material on the wretched DP camps of Europe, where the refugees were living before boarding the Exodus 1947; updated the fate of many of the passengers, describing how they smuggled themselves into Palestine--despite the myriad obstacles thrown up by the British authorities--even before the State of Israel was born; and selected seventy additional photographs from her personal archives.

Bartley Crum's introduction to the original edition, retained here, likened Gruber's achievement to John Hersey's Hiroshima for its powerful compression of a momentous event, its vivid reportage, and its capacity to change the way people think about contemporary history. Exodus 1947 is an enormously moving account by one of the twentieth century's most remarkable women, stirring and shocking us more than fifty years after that battered ship entered Haifa harbor.

Customer Reviews:

Heartbreaking. Highly Recommended........2003-10-03

This very moving book covers the story of the "Exodus", the unarmed ship carrying more than 4,500 Holocaust survivors seeking refuge in "British occupied" Palestine during 1947.

The ship, a former tourist vessel designed to carry only 400 passengers, is described as having been rammed and boarded by the British Royal Navy which was determined to prevent the Jewish Holocaust survivors from finding refuge in Palestine. The entry of the "Exodus" into Haifa harbour is further described amidst a British military blockade. But the story in this book is not so much about the ship, but about the individuals on board, their history & personal suffering, together with what faced them following their arrival in "Palestine" and the process outlined with such clarity in this work, which saw them being used as "political pawns" by the British Government.

The book begins with a description of the "Displaced Persons" camps of Europe, where those fortunate to survive the "Concentration Camps" were housed. The book recounts how some 70,000 Holocaust survivors "found their way out" of the "Displaced Persons" camps and made the tortuous journey across land borders, forests, mountain ranges, the Alps until they eventually located "secret" ports in France and Southern Italy where they climbed aboard a motley fleet of virtually obsolete vessels, including cutters, leaky fishing boats, cargo vessels, icebreakers, banana carriers, yachts & steamers (one called Exodus 1947) upon which they embarked upon their desperate journey to reach their ancient homeland of Eretz Israel, the "Promised Land".

The journey on the "Exodus" itself is described as being endured under extremely insanitary and unbelievably cramped conditions, whilst always under the threat of being arrested as "illegal immigrants" during the British blockade.

The book is replete with many photographs documenting the above and the story reaches the night of 17th July 1947 when "Haganah boys" pasted handbills on the shop windows of Netanya, Haifa and Jerusalem depicting the plight of the "Exodus" and describing it's cargo of 4,554 refugees consisting of 1,600 men, 1,282 women, 1,017 young people and 655 children. The posters also advising readers that the ship had been spotted by the British Navy and that five destroyers and a cruiser were closing in on the vessel.

The book documents the subsequent broadcast from the "Exodus" itself, which related how the Royal Navy had attacked the vessel at a distance of "17 miles from the shores of Palestine" in "international waters". The "Exodus" described as having been rammed from three directions and subjected to gas bombs and gunfire which left one Jewish civilian dead, five dying and some twenty wounded. The boarding of the "Exodus" by British troops is also detailed. Photographs of the damage to the vessel and the wounded Jewish civilians are also included. The book then describes the plight of the Jewish refugees as they are then forcibly ejected from the "Exodus". The ensuing public reaction is also described.

As the story proceeds, the book cites the British authorities as describing the prison camps of Cyprus as being "too good" for the Jewish refugees and outlines how the British "decided to make an example of them" by returning the Holocaust survivors upon three ships to Port-de-Bouc in Southern France. A measure portrayed in the book as a deterrent to others who would "dare run the British blockade".

Amidst further British threats to then transfer the Holocaust survivors to Germany the book shows the reaction on board ship as a British flag is painted with a "swastika" below the Union Jack. The described plight of the refugees is heartbreaking as they are disembarked in Germany where the book recounts so many having been murdered by the Nazi regime. (Being British, having served in our military & studied the Holocaust for many years, I feel very uncomfortable at the described behaviour of my "compatriots".)

The book also details how, having been forcibly returned to Europe and incarcerated in these "camps" in Germany, many of these self same Jewish refugees/Holocaust survivors began repeating their individual, tortuous process of escaping. The book depicting how they once more embarked upon their journeys back to their ancestral homeland, with many having reached Israel when their nation was re-born on 15th May 1948. Many described as forming part of the fledgling Jewish forces which met the combined invasion from the surrounding Arab nations immediately after the Jewish nation's declaration of independence.

Book Description

Hailed by The New York Times as "one of the most innovative, brilliant novelists in the Western world," internationally renowned Israeli writer Yoram Kaniuk turns his hand to nonfiction to bring us his most important work yet. Commander of the Exodus animates the story of Yossi Harel, a modern-day Moses who defied the blockade of the British Mandate to deliver more than 24,000 displaced Holocaust survivors to Palestine while the rest of the world closed its doors. Of the four expeditions commanded by Harel between 1946 and 1948, the voyage of the Exodus left the deepest impression on public consciousness, quickly becoming a beacon for Zionism and a symbol to all that neither guns, cannons, nor warships could stand in the way of the human need for a home. With grace and sensitivity, Kaniuk shows the human face of history. He pays homage to the young Israeli who was motivated not by politics or personal glory but by the pleading eyes of the orphaned children languishing on the shores of Europe. Commander of the Exodus is both an unforgettable tribute to the heroism of the dispossessed and a rich evocation of the vision and daring of a man who took it upon himself to reverse the course of history.

Customer Reviews:

"Exodus" shines with a passion.......2000-05-06

World War II has always been a comforting war for Americans to reflect upon. After all, the United States stood proudly, along with Britain and the other Allies, against the menace of the Axis Powers. We fought the good fight, and won.

But a story that we hear less often is how American bombers were never sent to bomb the Zyklon-B gas tanks and railway shipping stations that kept the death camps running.

We also rarely hear about British warships ramming hulking old freighters crammed with Jewish refugees trying to emmigrate to Palestine, or America's unwillingness to let more than a few Jews (primarily scientists and well-connected members of the intelligentsia) come to America at a time of dark and terrible peril for the Jewish people of Europe.

Another rarely-told tale is the struggle to establish the State of Israel, a battle the Palmach and Haganah fought in equal parts against hostile Arabs and a British Mandate determined to prevent further Jewish settlement.

"Commander of the Exodus," a history book enhanced by the literary gifts of a novelist, tells this handful of rarely-heard tales by exploring the life of Yossi Harel, a young native of Palestine who brought over 20,000 displaced Holocaust survivors to what would soon become Israel, braving rough seas, mines and a vicious British blockade.

Harel, who is molded by Kaniuk into the deeply passionate and level-headed hero of "Commander of the Exodus," is clearly a man of substance. The staggering dangers involved in smuggling thousands of refugees across a hostile Mediterranean are explored thoroughly by the author, who paints a grim picture of the ships that failed to make it, and the refugees who died while trying to find a better life in the desert that would become Israel.

Unfortunately, Kaniuk's passionate narrative doesn't make much of an attempt to approach Palestine from an Arab, or even British, perspective. While Kaniuk's exodus narrative is stirring and sometimes devastating in its anger against a "civilized world" that helped to finish a dirty job begun by the Nazis, it's clearly a work of passion. This makes it less reliable as a history, but considerably more human and engaging.

Customer Reviews:

The REAL story.......2007-01-04

This is a very well researched historical account of the Exodus affair. It focuses on the immigrants themselves, thereby giving us an almost inside look on their lives and the difficulties they faced.

After reading Leon Uris' book Exodus, this book will give you the real story in all its complexity, which is perhaps even more fascinating than the fictional account. It is the most complete study of Exodus that has been published to date.

A note to "MDK", the previous reviewer, on the issue of calling the Hagana terrorists. To decide which acts should be considered terrorism and which should not, you would have to decide on a definition of terrorism. The definitions used by most countries, organizations and scholars, all include both the Hagana's operations and the Hamas' (try Googling "define:terror"). It is unreasonable to just decide that all Arab attacks should be considered terror and all Jewish attacks not, as you seem to believe.

Historical revisionism?.......2003-08-17

I must confess that I only read the first 60 pages of this book. I was bored with irrelevant details and could not finish.

However, Ms. Halamish does refer to the Irgun as "...the terrorists." She does not even credit them with being a legitimate opposition ("...this would put an end to the process of conciliation between the organized Jewish community and the terrorists.")

She also minimizes some of the heroic acts committed, for example in stating that some of the American volunteer crew members of the Exodus 1947 were motivated "...not by humanitarian or patriotic considerations alone, but also by a zest for adventure and a quest for meaning to their lives... an act of youthful rebellion." This is liberal slander; Some of those American "volunteers" rotted in DP camps in Cyprus while they could have been home in the USA.

Ms. Halamish trivializes heroic acts in other areas as well. She states "Obviously it was an exaggeration to believe that a handful of young people from Palestine, no matter how talented and devoted, were able to accomplish..." This comment refers to her "obvious" notion that the Haganah alone, being only a "handful" of young people, could have united the refugees in their devotion to the cause of Aliyah to the land of Israel, a group often rowdy and disobedient on their arrival to the ship.

Ms. Halamish does not seem to understand the definition of the word 'terrorist.' She must be using Yasser Arafat's definition. When an Arab blows up women and childeren, civilians, indiscriminately, in pizza parlors and buses, THAT IS TERRORISM. When Arafat's cronies murder schoolchildren in Northern Israel (remember the 1970's?) and hijack civilian jetliners from the civilized world, THAT IS TERRORISM.

When the British Govt. is illegally preventing Jewish survivors of the Holocaust from entering Palestine, a land lawfully promised to the Jews based on international law (remember the League of Nations and the British Mandate granted to Britain with the understanding that they would partition the land, originally including for the Jews what today is ALL of Jordan as well as the disputed territories), and the British reverse the blame and call Jewish immigration to Palestine "illegal," and the heroic Irgun and Stern gang attack British MILITARY targets, that is NOT terrorism.

When the Irgun attacked British MILITARY installations because of the monumentally illegal acts of the British, and warned their targets ahead of time, that is not terrorism.

Perhaps Ms. Halamish should have also mentioned ILLEGAL Arab immigration to Palestine, outlined in Joan Peters' FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL, instead of focusing on "illegal Jewish immigration." That might shed light on where the majority of todays "oppressed" Palestinians really came from.

May I recommend Ruth Gruber's far more readable EXODUS 1947: THE SHIP THAT LAUNCHED A NATION

Average customer rating:

a good oral history of Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel

Exodus calling
Nissan Degani
Manufacturer: Herzl Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006QX8D4

Customer Reviews:

a good oral history of Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel.......1998-01-28

The story of the clandestine immigration ship, Exodus, is known to most people due to the best selling novel by Leon Uris. Many other books have tried to present more complete and historically accurate descriptions of the Exodus and the other clandestine Jewish immigrations to Palestine but none are as compelling or riveting as the recent publication, Exodus Calling, by Nissan Degani. This is the definitive book on the Exodus 1947.

It is the only oral history on this important aspect of Jewish history. Mr. Degani has interviewed many of the people who were on board the ship, including former Palyam colleagues who made up the crew and many of the refugees who sought a new start in their ancestral homeland. He has also spoken with several of the British sailors who were ordered to attack the ship. The English text is not always as polished as we might be accustomed to, but this only increases the sense of authenticity of what the people are saying. It is obvious that the people speak for themselves. This is their story as it has never been told before and it is as thrilling as it is heartbreaking.

As Nissan Degani has said, "The Exodus is the bridge that unites the founding of Zionism (1897) and the establishment of the modern State of Israel (1948). The Exodus demonstrates what the Zionist ideology can lead to -- a dynamic Jewish State."

Average customer rating:
Eyewitness to Exodus (A hardcover paperback original)
Beatrice Levin
Manufacturer: Chicago Paperback House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007FF5CG

Average customer rating:
Exodus 1947: Revised Edition
David Holly
Manufacturer: Naval Institute Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LBUBA2

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