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Customer Reviews (18)

Read it and Weep!
I consider myself well-read but had no idea of the scale of abuse at Guantanamo until I read this excellent but harrowing account by former detainee Murat Kurnaz.
Kurnaz manages to maintain a sense of humor despite five years without a decent night's sleep, regular beatings, casual racism and indifferent interrogators. A copy should be sent to Cheney home, for he was the prime motivation behind this grotesque gulag.

Awesome Book
The book I ordered came in quickly and when I received it it was brand spankin new, thanks! A+++

Absolute fantasy
I can only hope that the German version makes more sense. Kernaz and his fellow Muslims praying EAST from Afghanistan? Don't think so. Plus of course the constant beatings at the hands of U.S. Soldiers. Nope. Never happened. Soldiers are required to apply the Five "S"s when dealing with prisoners, one of which is SAFEGUARD. This is at total odds with the description Kernaz provides. Besides, there seems to be no point to the beatings Kernaz allegedly received. The point of this propaganda was that we beat for the sheer joy of beating. Remarkably, U.S. Soldiers are kept too busy doing other things to spend all their time allegedly beating detainees.

He claims he spoke virtually no English when captured but he remembers the insults Americans hurled at him? "We are stronger than you!" Yeah. I can see that. Sure. Maybe he was called a "miscreant" too. Imagine if you were captured by a bunch of Islamofascists yelling at you in Arabic. Months later (assuming no one slowly decapitated you in front of a camera) after you've learned some Arabic in order to function, would you actually remember the strange words said to you the previous season and now be able to translate them?

In truth I don't think our Soldiers have a lot to say to these people.

Kernaz talks about about how fearful Soldiers are of him... even as they're going out of their way to beat him. Yeah, you see people who are afraid of snakes always going out of their way to handle them.

Allegations of torture is a tactice right out of the al-Qaida's propaganda manual. Literally. In fact, lying to the media should be no surprise... people willing to blow themselves up to kill infidels will not hesitate to LIE about their treatment when allowed to communicate with the outside world. Anyone who believes these lies with no INDEPENDENT proof is either naive or complicit.

Kernaz also talks about managing to injure a Soldier despite being "emaciated." I don't believe the emaciated part (detainees get a rather hefty collection of calories) but I do believe the attack from someone who was so into martial arts in Germany. I'm sure he was treated with respect after that... the same kind of respect you show a rattlesnake when you come across one.

In my opinion this one tried to get to Afghanistan to Jihad his butt off and got caught. He attracted a LOT of unwanted attention because he was from Germany (where the 911 terrorists staged their operation before going to the U.S. and where Atta went to school) and was interrogated. Note I say interrogated, NOT tortured. Too bad for him if this wasn't the Holy War he was looking for.

Amazing Truth!!
I am so shocked and moved after reading this book. This is a must read for everyone.. What happens in Guantanamo is inhumane. Not even animals are treated this way.

American disgrace
In this book, translated from German, Murat Kurnaz, a German Turk, tells his tragic story. When only nineteen and an apprentice shipbuilder, while taking time off in Pakistan for religious study, he was hauled off a bus and imprisoned for a short time before being `sold' to the US Administration for $3,000. This was a bargain - the Americans were offering $5,000 - $25,000 to locals for anyone suspected of being Taliban or Al Qaeda. With such tempting offerings, many innocent men - usually foreigners - were gladly exchanged for the money which converted into huge amounts in the local currency.

Murat was sent first to a prison camp in Kandahar, Afghanistan and then later to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In both places he was repeatedly and relentlessly tortured. Among other things he was constantly beaten, often for no reason, he was water boarded, he was electrically shocked on the soles of his feet, he was hung from the ceiling by his arms tied behind him for hours on end, he was deprived of sleep for weeks at a time, he was forced to stand for days, he was starved, he was force fed, he was put in an air-tight metal container and subjected to extreme heat and cold and of course there were the months of solitary confinement. In Guantanamo he came across prisoners as young as 14 and a few even in their 80s and 90s.

Like all the books on Guantanamo, there is almost a shock a page. Besides the main tortures listed above, what I found almost as deplorable was how vindictive, sadistic and cruel the soldiers were to the detainees in little ways, all the time and always there were endless lies. Also appalling were Murat's descriptions of female soldiers in one of the camps, watching while naked male prisoners defecated in a communal bucket in the open pen. And in Guantanamo, scantily dressed young women rubbed themselves against him and made sexual suggestions. One wonders if their male superiors ordered them to do this or if they thought up these little torments themselves. But it should also be said that a few guards treated the detainees with basic decency.

At the end of the book we learn that the Administration knew 6 months into Murat's capture that he was innocent, but kept him on, continued the torture and even made wild accusations against him - presumably to save face. After 5 years when he was finally to be sent back to Germany, on the way out they made a last ditch effort to make him sign a statement saying he was either Taliban or Al Qaeda or he must stay in Cuba. He refused.

How do we know all this is true?Having read so many similar accounts from so many prisoners of many different nationalities and languages, from different cell blocks, who could not have collaborated, I am convinced that what is described is essentially what happened. The Epilogue, written by his American attorney, Baher Azmy, a law professor in New Jersey, is excellent.

Murat was robbed of part of his youth with no explanation or apology so it is hardly surprising he felt compelled to tell his story. He finishes with - "We have to tell the world how Abdul lost his legs and how the Moroccan captain lost his fingers. The world needs to know about the prisoners who died in Kandahar. We have to describe how the doctors came only to check whether we were dead or could stand to be tortured for a little longer."


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Product Description
Chapters: Auguries of Innocence, Early Work, Babel, The Coral Sea, Seventh Heaven, Witt, Kodak, Woolgathering, A Useless Death, Ha! Ha! Houdini!, Early Morning Dream,. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 34. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Auguries of Innocence is a poetry collection by Patti Smith, published in 2005. This collection of poetry includes exactly twenty-six recent poems penned by the active, contemporary poet. Drawing on some of her many influences such as William Blake and Arthur Rimbaud, Smith's collection here demonstrates over and over again her knack for detail. Obviously William Blake is a dominant influence on the poet herself, since the title of this collection, Auguries of Innocence, is similar to one of William Blake's most celebrated and recognized collection of poems, Songs of Innocence. Upon reviewing both collections it is clearly obvious that both collections share more commonalities than just similar titles. One commonality between this collection and that by Blake's, in regards to the content, is that the poems collected here exhibit subtle nods to the late, great Blake. For example, in one of her poems, The Long Road, by the end of the very first verse the reader has already been exposed to such suggestive visuals as the speaker of the poem sleeping in chimneys and chewing on bulbs, as well as the speaker "sweeping time". Such visuals of Smith's conjure up recollections in the seasoned and experienced reader's mind of Blake's The Chimney Sweeper and The Blossom. While the majority of the twenty-six collected poems have some type of stanza-like arrangement the poet also incorporates several free-verse style poems into the collection, such as Mummer Love, Eve of All Saints, Our Jargon Muffles The Drum, and Written By A Lake. ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=16381044 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Appears misleading
This is misleading. It appears as if it is a single hardbound collection of all of Patti Smith's published books of poetry, but reading the description, it talks only about Auguries of Innocence. What exactly is one getting when ordering this book? ... Read more

Product Description
Music and lyrics from the classic albums Horses and Radio Ethiopia. Songs: Redondo Beach, Birdland, Free Money, Kimberly, Break It Up, Elegie, Ask the Angels, Ain't It Strange, Poppies, Pissing in a River, Pumping (My Heart), Distant Fingers. Many black-and-white photos. Plus notes and poems, including Oath, Land, and Radio Ethiopia / Abyssinia. Cover photo by Robert Mapplethorpe. ... Read more

Product Description
Rock legend Patti Smith is famed for her powerful onstage presence, depicted by many of photography's own legends. Robert Mapplethorpe's portraits of the young poet/singer were instrumental in defining her groundbreaking persona in 1970s. Still tough and uncompromising, Smith has more recently been captured by Annie Leibovitz. Joining that lineage is this volume of portraits by Italian photographer and painter Fabio Torre, featuring 70 black-and-white images taken of Smith during her concerts from the 1990s to the present. Torre has captured Smith passionately immersed in performance, and she is revealed to us here more intimately than we have seen her before. Different than the Patti Smith we remember from previous portraits, in these dynamic chiaroscuro images Torre projects a new Patti persona, capturing the lifetime of experience revealed by her gestures. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Simply Incomplete!
The photos are cute, but I would have liked more text accompanying them, like when and where they were taken, and also some backstage shots would have been appreciated.Interesting comments from the writers at the front, but some facts should have been checked (like her daughter's correct name!).Still very enjoyable; Patti is always delightful to look at :) ... Read more

Product Description
The St. Louis Arena Memories is the history of the Arena - told through memories. The Arena, originally built in 1929 to host the National Dairy Show, became the major exhibition building in the St. Louis, Missouri, area. The story of the Arena is told in chronological order and is supplemented with pictures from conception to implosion. The book also contains remembrances from people who lived near the building, who worked in the building, who owned the building, who performed in the building and, most of all, from people who were entertained in the building. The St. Louis Arena Memories tells the history of the Arena and a part of the social history of the city of St. Louis from 1929 to 1999. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The Arena - The Memories Live On!
In the 1940s I can recall walking from our house on Cates, down DeBaliviere, through Forest Park and seeing that magnificant structure, The Arena.It featured a sign, "The Arena - Where the Big Events are held" along with the BAA Basketball sign for the Bombers and the AHL sign for the Flyers.Patti Smith Jackson's book, resplendith with photographs, allows those affectionados of this marvelous structure to keep memories such as this by putting her work in your hands whilst the building itself is now gone.Being over 65 I would have enjoyed more information about the earlier tennents of the building such as the Flyers of the American Hockey Association from 1928 to 1942 and then in the American Hockey League from 1944 to 1953.I can remember Neil Norman announcing the last period of the games starting at 9:45 PM on WIL in the 40s and Harry Caray doing same in the 50s. I would have liked more info on Tom Pack's wrestling matches at the Arena.I would have liked more information on the Bombers basketball team that started in the Basketball Association of America in 1946 and were one of the teams in the first season of the National Basketball Association in the 1949-50 season before folding. What I found missing in the Arena book was any mention of the Wirtz's moving some of the Chicago Blackhawks games to the Arena in 1953/54 to test the St. Louis market.It allowed a lot of us to see the greats, Gordie Howe, Maurice "Rocket" Richard, terrible Ted Lindsay.Also they had little coverage about the Bombers BAA/NBA team.Attendance was so bad that last season and I remember going to basketball doubleheaders with my Dad in the 49-50 season where he paid $1.25 for general admission and I got a ticket for a penny (on penny nights).Also after the Bombers folded after their first season, 49-50, the New York Knickerbockers wanted ex-St. Louis University star Easy Ed Macauley so badly that they offered to purchase the entire Bombers team but the NBA put the nix to that and Easy Ed went to the Boston Celtics instead.Harry broadcast the last half of the Bombers games on WIL also.But then it is really interesting how the folks responsible for the Big Events kept it all together with scotch tape and glue.This book is a MUST for anyone who loved the Arena and certainly will help the memories live on!

Great memory book, but lacking on real information
This book is a great coffee table item...I have been a Blues fan since 1986, that's right, the Monday Night Miracle.I loved the building.I played an inline hockey game with friends before a Vipers game as a promotion for the rink we played at locally.Just being behind the scenes in a "locker room" was amazing.I received this book for Christmas and read it before noon Christmas Day.I found the pictures and stories great, but it certainly lacked real information.I was very interested in the design of the building, the architechure, and stories about the tunnels and hidden walkways that this book hints at, but never dives into telling you.How about a volume two???

Oh , thememories
The Arenawasbuiltin 1929fordairycows, anditwasinthatbuildingthatthe firstpowerplayinthehistoryoftheNHL happened in1934.Mygrandmothercouldtellyouaboutmy cousin,Larry Finch, who played against mighty UCLAin1973,for Memphis State. ItwasalsowherePennyHardawayhitoneofthemost dramatic shotsinMemphisState historyin1992.Icriedwhen theplacewasimploded, becausemyfriend , KevinHolowchik, isa Bluesfanandhewasborntherein St.Louis. Youcantear the buildingdown,but youcannotteardownthememories.

That building is beautiful -- LETS GO BLUES!
Well, being a season ticket holder for 28 years for the Blues, all's I have to say is that is the most colorful, bold, outstanding, lifelike, most entertaining structure on the planet!

Lots of pictures, short on info.
I loved this book, but I wish it had more details about the Arena itself.For example the book twice mentions the basement in the Arena, but nowhere does it describe this basement.I would have liked to see more details. Overall the best (and only) book dedicated to the great St. Louis Arenathat is near to many hearts. ... Read more

Product Description
John Penor was born 1910 in Bison, South Dakota and he spent all of his life in the same sod house on his homestead where he tended to his horses and cattle. In the 1940s and 50s he photographed the world around him--horses, bison, rodeos, baseball games, town fairs, family picnics, and parades down Main Street. He put the photos in a box where they sat for 50 years, until discovered by his grand-nephew, New York-based photographer, Steven Sebring. Sebring retrieved the negatives and had the images printed--letting them breathe for the first time in half a century.John Penor never pursued photography as an artform, nor a way of making a living. But it is certain that for a time, taking pictures was a way of life that he pursued with confidence and a sense of style. He was no buckaroo with a Brownie. He recognized moments for what they were. A man of few words, he offers little about his process. When asked why he took up photography, he simply answers, "because I fancied it." --Patti SmithPhotography by John Penor.Edited by Steven Sebring and patti Smith.Forewardby Patti Smith.Hardcover, 14.75 x 10.75 in./168 pgs / 185 duotones. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Bygone Days: 1907-1957
Wonderful photographs that give one some insight on what it was like to live in a small rural community in those days.Would love to be able to ask those people in the pictures more about their lives and to be able to be there to share the experiences with them - not necessarily the bronc rides, but definitely the social gatherings.Great time travel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Beautiful!
This is just awesome; I'd been looking for it for the longest time and was so glad to finally find it.Patti is such a wonderful writer, conjuring up such vivid images with her words.She shares so many childhood memories here, its so interesting to hear from whence she came :)

Jo

The Wonders Of Woolgathering: Patti's Peak
This little book is the very essence of all that I love most about Patti Smith, and I think, her greatest piece of writing, period. For me she is a bridge between my past(Rock 'N' Roll obsessions)and present(totally Shamanically immersed)with the way that she set out to be a throughy modern Western, Rock 'N' Roll even, Shamanita. At her least sucessful she is a self-obsessed ultra modern poser, set in a pose of the perpetual rocker tough gal outsider...and it feels like such a pose, or show, because of how it contrasts with her when she's not shucking & jiving...you see at her best...she is a free form channeler of the muse of the great mystery itself, and rarely have anyone written as gracefully about such impossible subjects. Her work here is heartbreakingly beautiful and rates with the best of Rumi or e.e. cummings; to name two others who tackled such subjects with both their writings and the living of their very lives as well. I know the price is usually very high on this, & it is a small book...but only in size, & length...it is absolutely enormous in all it aspires to, and priceless in how it ascends towards it's tasks !

A mysterious and charming little book
It fits in the palm of your hand and unfolds mysterious narrative & lyric threads interspersed with black & white photos, some taken by the author's sister. A must for the die-hard-dyed-in-the wool Patti fan. ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer?songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses.[1] Called the "Godmother of Punk", she integrated the beat poetry performance style with three-chord rock. Smith's most widely known song is "Because the Night", which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978. In 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Simonida Raj?evi? (born April 2, 1974) is a Serbian painter and artist. She has had more than 10 individual and 20 group exhibitions. Raj?evi? was born on April 2, 1974 in Belgrade, in what was then Yugoslavia. After finishing her primary and secondary education, she enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1992. She received her bachelor's degree in 1997. She won a DAAD (the German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship and attended post-graduate studies in Berlin. She became a member of Association of Visual Artists of Serbia in the same year. In 1999, she received her master's degree. She became an assistant to Professor Cedomir Vasic at the Academy of Fine Arts in 2000. As of 2009, she was completing her doctoral degree and working as junior professor at the same university. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Patti Smith, Roscoe Lee Browne, Kyle Cassidy, John M. Whitall, James Lawrence, Dave Budd, H. Browning Ross, Tim O'shea, Bryant Mckinnie, Paul Owens, Dan Meyer, Chris Pressley, Mike Mcbath, Joe Colone, Robert C. Hendrickson, John Boyd Avis, George Gill Green, J. Hampton Moore, George Knapp, Donald J. Farish, Francis F. Patterson, Jr., Ann Cooper Whitall, Franklin Davenport, Donald Holmes, Jack Pierce, David Ogden Watkins, Oscar Fraley, Boardwalk Brown, Dave Calloway, D. K. Ulrich, Joe Fields, Ken Albers, Eli Ayers, Heather Spytek, Don Amendolia, John Cooper. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 127. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 début album Horses. Called the "Godmother of Punk", she integrated the beat poetry performance style with three-chord rock. Smith's most widely known song is "Because the Night", which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978. In 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Patricia Smith was born in Chicago on December 30, 1946. Her mother, Beverly, was a waitress and her father, Grant, worked at the Honeywell plant. She spent her entire childhood in Deptford Township, New Jersey. raised the daughter of a Jehovah's Witness, she claims she had a strong religious education and a very good Bible education, but left organized religion as a teenager because she felt it was too confining and much later wrote the opening line ("Jesus died for somebody's sins, but no...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=22995 ... Read more

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Word count: 3122. ... Read more

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Chapters: Patti Smith Discography, Suddenly I See, Patti Smith: Dream of Life. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 36. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 début album Horses. Called the "Godmother of Punk", she integrated the beat poetry performance style with three-chord rock. Smith's most widely known song is "Because the Night", which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1978. In 2005, Patti Smith was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Patricia Smith was born in Chicago on December 30, 1946. Her mother, Beverly, was a waitress and her father, Grant, worked at the Honeywell plant. She spent her entire childhood in Deptford Township, New Jersey. raised the daughter of a Jehovah's Witness, she claims she had a strong religious education and a very good Bible education, but left organized religion as a teenager because she felt it was too confining and much later wrote the opening line ("Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine") of her cover version of Them's "Gloria" in response to this experience. Smith graduated from Deptford Township High School in 1964. The family was not well-off, and Smith went to work in a factory. Patti Smith was voted "Class Clown" in her senior year. She gave birth to a son on April 26, 1965, but she put him up for adoption. In 1967, she left Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and moved to New York City. She met photographer Robert Mapplethorpe there while working at ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=22995 ... Read more