Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780743266246ISBN:0743266242
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. ******PLEASE NOTE****** Orders placed after Dec. 7 cannot be guaranteed delivery before Christmas unless you select EXPEDITED shipping! Thank you & Happy Holidays! read more
Edition: First Paperback Edition; Second Printing
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780743266253ISBN:0743266250
Description: Very Good+ 9780743266253. Clean, tight, unmarked book, not ex-lib, no remainder marks; 1 x 8.2 x 5.5 Inches; 384 pages. read more
Edition: First Simon & Schuster Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Riverside, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780743266246ISBN:0743266242
Description: Very Good in Good jacket. DJ has marks, edgewear-Cover has edgewear, few marks & scuffs, bumping-Few marks on endpapers-Light wear very nice copy. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780743266253ISBN:0743266250
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 2008-09-02
ISBN-13:9780743266246ISBN:0743266242
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780743266246. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: SIMON & SCHUSTER Country = UNITED STATES
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780743266253ISBN:0743266250
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 368 pages. A haunting memoir of a war-torn childhood in liberia, a deeply personal story and an examination of a violent and divided country. illustrations (Paperback) read more
Edition: 1ST LARGE PRINT EDITION
Binding: Boards
Publisher: Thorndike Press, Detroit, MI
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781410410382ISBN:1410410382
Description: Very Good. Hardcover. 8vo. ISBN-1410410382, 1ST EDITION, 8VO PAPERBACK, 517 PAGES. LARGE PRINT BOOK. THE BOOK IS IN VERY GOOD CONDITION WITH MINOR SHELF WEAR / BUMPING OF THE EDGES. COVER CREAM/BROWN. LARGE PRINT BOOK. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780743266246ISBN:0743266242
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Spoken Word Compact Disc
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 2008-09-02
ISBN-13:9780743579513ISBN:0743579518
Description: NEW. Spoken Word Compact Disc. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780743579513. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Thorndike Pr
Date Published: 2008-09-02
ISBN-13:9781410410382ISBN:1410410382
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781410410382. read more
"i loved this book, but I have to admit that I listened to an audio edition read by the author and I think that added to the impact of the story. Hope, I have the audio and will lend it to you if you would like. Helene Cooper is a daughter of Liberia. In fact, she is "Congo people"--a privileged member of the ruling elite in Liberia. The Congo people are descendents of the free blacks who were transported back to Africa in the 1820s and 1830s by the American Colonization Society which purchased land for new country of Liberia on the west coast of Africa. And the author's ancestors arrived on the first two ships of free blacks to be transported there. Helene Cooper's family lives outside of Monrovia, the capital, in a 22 room mansion at Sugar Beach. Living with the family is Eunice, who is "Country people" and is a Bassa girl. Fostering a Country people child to live with the family was a common practice of the Congo people and traditionally provided a great deal of upward mobility for the fostered child. On April 12, 1980, a coup was launched against the Congo people, William Tolbert, the president was assassinated, and the government was taken over by an Army enlisted man named Samuel Doe. The Congo people were then subjected to a blood bath and Helene's family fled Liberia and moveed to the United States. Unfortunately, they had to leave Eunice behind. Helene ultimately attends UNC-Chapel Hill, becomes a journalist, and writes for both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. In 2003, she returns to Liberia for the first time in order to find Eunice and confront her past. Helene Cooper tells a fascinating story of starting over in a different culture and recovering from a devastating past. Reading this book made me more aware than ever of the blessings of liberty and the grace of living in this country."
"If you enjoyed this book, you should check out "My Colombian War: A Journey through the Country I Left Behind" by Silvana Paternostro. Their stories are remarkably similar: the narrator is part of the rich, privileged class in predominantly poor country, her ancestors are important founders of her country, she lives a charmed childhood, she flees the country in her teens due to increasing violence - leaving behind the lower-class girl her parents had semi-adopted to be her friend, she immerses herself in the American culture and largely ignores the deteriorating conditions in her birth country, she becomes an journalist covering international stories, she revisits her birth country despite the dangers and rediscovers herself. Yes, it is literally the same story - just change the setting to Colombia instead of Liberia.
Yet, Helene Cooper's writing is far easier and more enjoyable to read than Silvana Paternostro's. And despite her lavish up-bringing, she miraculously does not come off as a spoiled brat. I also loved that she expanded her book beyond a self-memoir to include the history of Liberia's founding, its political upheaval, and loads of fascinating insights in Liberian culture (including various expressions like "oh, white man can lie, oh" and yummy-sounding foods like palm butter). I was intrigued as she clearly traced her ancestors back to the 1800s - something I would love to do for myself someday. Overall, her book is charming, easy to read, and insightful. I certainly feel like I learned something about Liberia - a country that before I could point out on a map but that's about it.
The book's only perceived drawbacks are as follows: she has a tendency to repeat herself a lot. Not major parts, but details such as "my aunt so-and-so was married to so-and-so" and then one chapter later "I visited my aunt so-and-so, who was the wife of so-and-so". Her cast of characters and such were easy enough to follow and these repetitions were unnecessary. Also, she herself does not play a big role in Liberia's political scene (although members of her extended family certainly did). So her story is mainly focused on her childhood and then her young and limited perspective of the coup as it happened and then as an adult reflecting back and conducting researching. Moreover, she glazed over her career as a globe-trekking journalist. I understand the focus of the book was her reconnection to her birth country. Yet I still would have enjoyed a larger section on her career instead such a superficial treatment. Last, I wrote earlier that her memoir is insightful. Yet she fails to illuminate one big irony: her ancestors, free blacks in slavery-based society, left behind the oppressive U.S. to sail to west Africa only to set up a society where they are now the oppressors.
Side note: I was lucky enough to attend a speech by Helene Cooper at Rice University in September 2009. She was down-to-earth, self-effacing and answered the audience's questions about her personal life with candor. However, she is not the most polished speaker and the majority of her speech consisted of her reading passages from this book. She definitely expresses herself better in writing."
"Gostei! Helene Cooper conta a sua história de uma forma nua e crua, nada romanceada. Ela fala-nos dos seus antepassados, de tudo o que fizeram aquando da abolição da escravatura e como foram para África, formando a Libéria. Na 1º Parte da história ficamos a conhecer os antepassados de Helene e também a familia com quem ela vivia ma Monróvia, ela descreve todos ao pormenor, tem de ser ter atenção redobrada nesta parte pois são muitos e a maioria mantém-se até ao final do seu relato. Na 2º parte já na América ela conta-nos como conseguiu sobreviver çonge das suas origens e daqueles que mais amava, mas sempre voltanto à Libéria, seguindo a guerra como uma Americana. É escolhida para ir para o Iraque como correspondente do Jornal onde na altura trabalhava e aí descobre que apesar da sua cidadania Americana que obteve como forma de fugir ao racismo de que várias vezes foi vitima, não era ali o seu lugar.
"Se eu ia morrer numa guerra, devia fazê-lo no meu próprio país. Eu deveria era morrer num Guerra na Libéria." (pag 314)
Ela faz sobressair das sua palavras o grande orgulho da sua raça, dos seus costumes e crenças de uma forma maravilhosa, pois no meio da guerra tudo se perde. Helene perdeu... mas recuperou:
"Eu estava no meu país e o meu país era o inferno! E no entanto... Havia alguma coisa mais. Orgulho. Não perante aquilo em que a Monróvia se tornara, mas pelo facto de a cidade ainda lá estar, pois isso provava que eu tinha uma origem." (pags. 324/325)
Mais um relato de uma sobrevivente de uma guerra que como em muitas outras quem lutava não sabia porque o fazia..."
"This was a selection for our book club but I didn't get it read in time for our meeting. Too bad because I would have liked to have participated in the conversation.
This memoir is written by a woman descended from the premier founding families of Liberia. She was quite privileged and all around her were signs that the country was ripe for ruin that she was too young to notice. The initial coup was devastating to her family and friends. The following ones even more so.
Cooper moved to the US with her sister and Father and tried her best to leave Liberia, its issues and her issues behind her. However, an accident while reporting in Iraq led her to return to her birthplace and face her demons.
Besides the truly interesting personal issues, this book was a great source of information on Liberia and its history. Not the stuff that the mainstream media chooses to tell you so I didn't know much of it."
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