The heroine of the story is coming to terms with her own understanding of adulthood in a vile and destructive society. She had been brought up to distrust everyone and was trying to work out who she could have as a friend. Unfortunately she chooses the wrong person. The fear that everyone in Romania felt under the dictator Ceausescu is well shown in this book. It was a period when even a bar of chocolate was seen as a luxury. Children in the UK and in the US will find it hard to believe much of the story because it is so difficult to imagine not having videos and good music and burgers and milkshakes. Remember the orphans of Romania. Their lives were literally horrific. It was better for the children at home with their parents but not that much better. A good book with a slightly unexpected ending. I wonder did they live happily ever after?

I never liked to read until I read this book. I couldn't put the book down for one second! This book takes place in Romania in 1989.Romania is under ditatorship.
It seems that no one under stands Flora, her best friend is giving her the cold shoulder and her parents are keeping something from her. It seems that the only one who understands her is Danile Gibons, but something seems odd about him.He gets luxuries that other kids don't have such as chocolate,meat,and other goods.
I would recomend this book to any sixth, seventh, and eighth grader who loves historical fiction.I hope you will like this book as much I did.

I'm a person who reads very much. Out of all of the books I have read in the past, this, The voices of Silence has been the most interesting book I have ever read. I particularly love the books that get me caught by surprise and give me a real feeling of what they are experiencing. i actually felt myself as this girl, this lonely girl trapped between the controlling ruling of an inconsiderate...ruler, Ceausescu, and the ever desirable dream of freedom, food, and luxury. There are many parts of this book that were very interesting to me, yet very real. There were parts in this book that also made me realize what kind of life I have lead, and what advantages that some people do not have at all. Chocolate, oranges, and basically just the normal things that we could have at an everyday basis, were things that were not available for people in Romania, like this girl named Flora Popescu. This took place at the time where communism was still at hand in Romania and it was very very difficult to leave the country even if you were just going on vacation. This book is very significant because it shows a sense of true dignity and self assurance. It shows how a person can really be very strong and yet still have their weaknesses. This 13 year old girl, Flora, never knew what freedom or living in luxury was like because ever since she was a small girl, she only knew the life of that under communsim. Despite all of the great things that this book has shown me, it has also put an extremely strong sense of confidence in myself and my country. At times, it may seem as if i do not agree with what our country has to offer, but after reading this book, I'm very glad to have pride in our president and successful country. The plot behind this made the rather short book turn into this book with great meaning. Not only did the characters in this book show silence through all the communism and hate, they also made it positive and clear that this silence they experienced had a very strong meaning. The people of Romania, in the end were almost granted their freedom, but at least they didn't have to face their horrible ruler Ceausescu any longer. What made this book seem so real, was how all of the little symbolic things were mentioned throughout the book. The characters in this book had a very great sense of character, the plot was well written and planned, and the significance behind the story showed very clearly....Silence With a Strong Meaning.

While still not as good as the first book in the series, Secret of the Mezuzah, this is a well-written adventure story that continues the theme of anti-Semitism in present-day Europe and also introduces the poverty of post-communist Romania. Despite some amazing coincidences that keep the plot tidy, the book is highly recommended for mature children and young teens.

This book is a great continuing adventure of Con's. When you find out that Con and Hannah are going to Romania you know that the adventure is not going to be the same as the last two adventures. The book keeps you on the edge of your seat. Every thing is full of suspense.

This is a very well written good book. I really liked it alot. It's a good book for anyone from the ages of 10 to 14.

I am an American student living in Vienna for four months and travelling throughout Central Europe. I've read many travel books during my trip and found Simon's to be one of the best. Simon's walk through Central Europe provides the reader with a better understanding of the region and its people while also challenging the individual to find more in his or her daily experiences.

When travelling in Central Europe at the end of the millenium, you are bound to ask yourself questions about the changes that have taken place over the last decade and how those changes are effecting the people who live in these countries. The Gypsy in Me provides some answers and challenges the reader to stray from the big tourist sites and find some locals to just sit and talk.

I love Ted Simon's writing for his honesty, integrity, his luminous descriptions of people and places, his empathy, revealing of his inner thoughts and his philosophy of life. He makes you wish you were half as good. I'd walk to the Arctic Circle with him tomorrow. Eagerly awaiting more.

I have read quite a few travel books, and this one is one of the best, by far. When you try to describe to someone a chapter you have just read, you realize that there is not much action to convey, but what he does leave you with is an amazing insight into his and other peoples emotions.

This book reminds me of sitting around and listening to a favorite uncle tell tales of yesteryear. The images are first rate and the storyteller makes it very obvious he was often touched in ways that is almost beyond description. I highly recommend this book.

A stunning expository of an unfamiliar topic. Brennan describes the events in the life of a Romainian fugitive with breathtaking descriptions of a crumbling post-communistic society. This true story piques the interest of the reader in a relm of reality that is often overlooked in our comfortable American lives. Details Romainian dictator, Choukesku, overthrow with clear-cut accruacy. Simply amazing. Truly a high caliber biography for the adventure seeking reader.

Excellent book! I have been to Timisoara, Romania and the surrounding area twice on mission trips, and worked with pastors and others who experienced the hardships described in this book. I have recommended it to everyone else who is planning on visiting Romania, especially on a mission trip. The description of life in Romania both before and after the revolution is dead-on based on my experience and discussions with Romanians. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Romania.

A non-stop thrill ride from start to stop. It's got everything for the whole family! A complex blend of history, adventure, and faith that everyone can enjoy.

Definitely not the best book available about the low level mission;this is an entertaining book which is full of errors,notably the statement that Wongo Wongo {which crashed into the sea}was the lead plane.The lead plane was always Teggie Ann,a fact which can be verified by talking to members of the 376th bomb group.Still of some interest as long as the book is read with a skeptical eye.Black Sunday is better,though still flawed.

I am overjoyed that this great book is once again in print. Dugan and Stewart, both of whom served with the Army Air Forces in World War II and knew many of the participants, were in a unique position that later writers are not. While they were somewhat handicapped in that some of the documents related to World War II were still classified when they were writing, their information was based on knowledge provided by the participants when they were still young men, with the memories fresh in their minds, and less convulted by the effects of the distance of years and their own personal aging. I bought and read the original while on my way to US Air Force basic training in the summer of 1963 and it is still one of favorite books. Although modern enthusiasts attempt to pick it apart, it will always remain the most important book on the Ploesti campaigns.

Sam McGowan, Author "The Cave", a novel of the Vietnam War

The book was well done and accurate as far as I know from the stories of the Tidal wave as told to me by my father who is featured in the book. I was somewhat disappointed by the fewer pictures in this edition. The earlier edditions had more pictures. (ie more pictures of my father JD Palm who was the brave soul that led the first wave to the proper turn point and was the only one of the first wave to turn at the proper place and consequently was the first one in the target area. According to him was able to salvo his bombs in the target in spite of being wounded and on fire. He crash landed and saved all of the crew that was not killed by the initial Direct hit. It took real guts to continue to the target area alone and do the right thing) His exploits were accurately reported in the book with this omission that he salvoed his bombs ON Target and the first to do so! A well written and detailed account with the mention of many brave airmen by name.

A great read about the little known Communist regime in Romania.
After watching the Velvet Revolution in person in Prague, I wondered wheather I should travel to Bucharest to see the effects of another Communist regime. A month later Nicholae Ceausescu and his wife were dead. For those who don't know much about Romania, this book gives a political overview of the country's history.
Ceausescu was a dispictable little man who had an even more wretched wife Elena. Not only did he run the country into the ground, but his politics destroyed whatever trust Romanians had in their government. Both Ceausescus were semi literate who had
a penchant for collecting honors, degrees, and loot.
This book details how a uneducated man wormed his way into a small Communist party, and eventually ran the country. It details not only his rise and fall, but also that of the country. Ceausescu's successors were once his proteges. For more information on Romania after Ceausescu, read A Hole in the Flag.

25 December 1989 may have been notable as the last Christmas of the 1980's, but the people in communist Romania got a much needed Christmas present they're likely never to forget. On that particular St. Nicholas's Day, Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were executed by members of the National Salvation Front. Romania thus became the last of the Communist East bloc countries to fall, albeit violently. That's how the book begins, before going back in time and detailing Ceausescu's rise and fall.

Ceausescu worked as a cobbler in his father-in-law's shop and was lousy. When asked by his father-in-law what he would do for a living, Ceausescu prophetically replied, "I won't need a trade. I'm going to be Romania's Stalin." Ceausescu did become Romania's Stalin, but the term Conducator comes from the title given to Ion Antonescu, the head of fascist Romania during World War II. Also, readers will learn that Ceausescu was Romania's third Communist leader, the others being Petru Grosz (1946-1948) and Gheorge Gheorgiu-Dej (1948-1965)

There's also the usual historic background behind Romania from World War I, when it was ruled by the ineffectual but tyrannical King Carol. The rise of the RCP under Gheorge Gheorgiu-Dej in the 1930's, and Romania under the Axis-allied Iron Guard is covered. These are important, as Romania's rival communists began jockeying for power when the tide of the war began to turn. But being a high-ranking lackey for Gheorgiu-Dej helped Ceausescu when the former became the second Communist leader of Romania.

There's also an unflattering look at Elena Ceausescu, nee Petrescu, who was a lousy student and whose doctorate in chemistry was gotten by bogus means--she didn't even know the formula for sulfuric acid. And some portion of the book includes the early career of Ion Iliescu, the man who succeeded Ceausescu as leader of Romania.

One critical event that took place was the earthquake in 1977, which stimulated his desire for urban renewal and led him to destroy villages and churches--he was "perceived as an urban rapist, Dracula driving a bulldozer."

I'll say here and now that at high school, I considered Ceausescu a hero, a maverick in the mold of Tito because he told the Soviet Union where to go, he and Tito condemned the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, and he defied the Soviet-sponsored East bloc boycott of the LA Games, sending some hot-looking gymnasts by the way. He was seen as the "good communist" because of that, even when he was starving his own people by exporting food abroad, concentrating on enriching himself--in France, he and his people stole ashtrays, clocks, electric and phone wiring at the residence they had been staying at. This book reveals him to be quite the tyrant.

Behr's book spawned a TV special aired on PBS, which I videotaped. Oh, and as for the title, it's taken from an old Romanian proverb of Turkish origin. Although Ceausescu and his wife are long gone, they left their mark on Romania the same way Stalin did his on the Soviet Union, and it's likely to continue for years to come.

The most chilling aspect of Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus is the small price the couples' sycophants exact for their souls.

Edward Behr chronicles scientists, academicians, party functionaries, intellectuals, physicians, lawyers, and others who gladly que up to kiss the hands and other body parts of the first couple of the communist dictatorship of Romania. In exchange for their blind loyalty, these luminaries get little more than a pat on the head and a grip-and-grin photograph with their semi-literate leaders. As Behr notes, the phrase "banality of evil" applied particularly well to the Ceausescus. Of all the books written since the collapse of the communist bloc, this one best explains why dictators in Eastern Europe so seldom had to use armed force to remain in power. Material goods---and we are talking K-mart liquidation stuff here---bought the best and brightest in Romania, and physical and spiritual starvation kept the general populace weakened and at bay.

By the time the Ceausescus meet their predictable ends, you don't know who to loathe the most, the co-dictators or their willing subjects. Perhaps it is unfair, but the fact that the most abusive elements of the Ceausescus police state remain to govern seems like some sort of Old Testament justice.

Behr gives us what we will have to take in lieu of the equivalence of the de-Nazification of Eastern Europe: naked and ugly truth about the people who comprised the communist system.

The book I read was called Lydia, Queen of Palestine. It's about this Romanian Jewish girl, who's parents are devorst and she doesn't know it! Since German Soldiers were running every where, she went on a train to a community in Palestine. Her mother was going to be smuggled into Palestine later by a boatsman. This community is a fenced in place where everybody doesn't lock their doors or anything.
Before all of this Lydia's father left for another woman. Lydia calls her "That Woman".When he left to go to Palestine he got papers to bring people where he was. He sent them to "That Woman"
There are more important things in this book, but I don't want to give them away.What I liked about this book was that it expressed how she felt. What I didn't like about the book was that the 1st chapter was disgusting. I thought it would be good for 3rd graders, ut as I got into it I thought it would be for my age.

I found this book to be very interesting. I was very amused with what i read. I couldn't put it down and this meant i read it in one day. I wanted to keep reading though. If you like to read books about life and adventures and children. You'll like to read this one!! The author did a great job. The best part about it was that it was based on a real person, and me to think a person had that much flare and compasion was very amazing. She seemed to be very unique. I would recommend this to anyone who likes to read.

The Best Book of the 21st Century!
I really liked this book for several reasons:
1.) My name is shared with that of the herione of this story. 2.) It was very funny :-D. Example- Lydia loves making up soapopras with her dolls. And ever uses them a a jury when she declares people to be her 'ememy/ies'. 3.) This book is historically acturate. 4.) It has a happy ending I'd give this book 100000000000 stars if I could!!!!!

Brilliant satire. This is NOT JUST a vampire novel, in the same way that "Animal Farm" is NOT JUST a funny animal book. This gothic tale has our two vampire hunters (think of Zander and a really grown-up Buffy) taking on real-life dictator Nikolai Ceaucescu, here portrayed as the head bloodsucker of Roumania. Of course, the vampire tale is just the proverbial "spoonful of sugar" for the politics in the book, and occasionally, things begin to get a little heavy-handed. But Sipos doesn't let a reader's attention flag very long, because he knows people expect lots of vampires in a genre novel. In this, he doesn't disappoint -- the heroine doesn't get much time for speeches before the two of them are under attack again. The passages describing vampire depravity are made doubly chilling when set among the ruins of Roumania, which are described with an almost documentary flair. Part of the reason the two disparate elements of Vampire Nation work together so well is that Roumania is both a Communist wasteland and the homeland of Vlad Tepes, the real-life inspiration for Dracula. Author Thomas Sipos drew on his own childhood memory of the devastation of Roumania and turned it into a metaphor; in so doing he has created a vampire novel entirely on his own terms.

Henry Willoughby is a young American who travels to Transylvania on business during the closing years of the Cold War when that remote and legend-haunted Eastern European nation was firmly under the dominance of the communists. There he discovers to his sudden horror that Communism is vampirism, and a man is better dead than undead! Inspired by author Thomas Sipos' childhood memories of Transylvania under communist control, Vampire Nation is a riveting, unique, superbly written horror novel which is very highly recommended for all fans of the vampire genre.

For whatever reason, it often seems that literary talent seems to go hand-in-hand with left-of-center politics. Hence, for a political conservative such as myself, it is often difficult to find novels that are enthralling, enjoyable reads that don't require one to gnash his teeth whenever the author decides to mix a little political propaganda into the mix. However, occasionally, the intrepid right-wing reader is lucky enough to come across an exception to the rule and Thomas Sipos' often frightening, frequently hilarious, and -- in the end -- disturbingly haunting Vampire Nation is one such beautiful exception.

Set in the late '80s, Vampire Nation follows Henry, intrepid American screenwriter, into Romania where he discovers that the decaying communist regime is actually made up of decadent vampires. Somewhat forcefully recruited by an enigmatic woman, Henry is soon part of a violent conspiracy to assassinate Romania's ruler, Nicolae Ceausescu. Over the course of one night, Henry is forced into a netherworld where communist vampires live off the blood of the "common man" and where the country side is haunted by the ghosts of innocent men, women, and children sacrificed in the name of "the people."

The analogy between vampirism and communism is very explicit but also very believable. As a writer, Sipos has a definite knack for creating dark images and many of the book's sequences will remain in the reader's head long after the final page has been turned. However, what makes this political book work is the fact that Sipos doesn't simply rest on his politics. Instead, the book's anti-communist message is mixed in with a thrilling, fast-moving story that will capture the interest and imagination of any reader, regardless of that reader's ideology. As scary as Sipos' vampires are, this is also, at-times, a laugh out loud novel and Sipos shows a wit that would make several better known writers envious. He has created a truly likeable and sympathetic everyman in his protaganist and its hard not to get caught up in Henry's adventures and his unlikely romance with a woman who might save his life or kill him, depending on the circumstances. All-in-all, this is an impressive, intelligent tour-de-force and truly both one of the best horror novels and one of the best books period that I've had the pleasure to read in a long time.

Although The Rough Guide must be praised for their devotion in writing up-to-date guides, this book is offending for most Romanians. It seems that the authors tried to present Romania from a subjective Hungarian point of view. Ideas like "the great Magyar cities of Targu Mures, Cluj and Oradea" or "the largely Hungarian Csango and Szekelyfold regions" not only that should have been avoided but the historic true must have been presented. These ideas basically question the Romanian authority over this land. There are cities/regions in Romania inhabited by Magyars or hungarians minorities but that does not mean that you can label a city/region as being Magyar. The Magyars or Huns did not build these cities or originally own the land. They migrated here. Can you name Leeds as "the great Pakistani city? What about Marseilles: "the great Moroccan city"? Can you call Los Angeles "the great Hispanic city"? No.

Try Blue Guide or Lonely Planet: Romania and Moldova;

Thanks.

Having lived in Romania for six years, we hardly considered ourselves tourists. It wasn't until a couple years into our stay that we came across the Rough Guide to Romania. What a great tool for getting around the country AND finding out the history of the cities and regions we traveled through. Only one word of caution: with things changing in Romania so rapidly, you have to keep the most current edition handy.

I constantly used this book throughout the 3 months I lived in Romania. I highly recommend it! The reviews were right on, and experience proved I could trust what the authors said.

Halivni's book will not satisfy those looking for a Holocaust memoir. He is not a professional Holocaust survivor or bad novelist like Elie Wiesel. Rather he is a scholar. He started out as a child prodigy in Talmud, but never had a chance to attend a real yeshiva. After the war he turned down such opportunities to get a doctorate in philosophy and develop academic textual criticism of the Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He was a very big fish at JTS, but the water turned rancid when they abandoned Jewish law in favor of feminist correctness. He then went to Columbia University, but now every major university offers doctorates in Talmud.

He makes a heartbreaking admission to us at one point. He says he cannot transmit the highest level of his methodology to his students. I would like to be charitable to so long-suffering a man, but doesn't it mean he has failed? What use is a method that exists only in his own head?

Although he never says so, I'm afraid Halivni realized at some point he was not an adult prodigy. If he went to Lakewood with Rav Kotler or Yeshiva University with Rav Soloveitchik he would never have been among the first rank of scholars. He admits to the sin of envy, and that shortcoming drove him to isolation and failure. That, not Auschwitz, is the true tragedy of his life.

As another reviewer wrote, this is not just a Holocaust memoir. Halivni writes about his Holocuast experiences, but many others have done the same at greater length. What I got out of this book was:

1. His discussion of pre-Holocuast shtetl life: its scholarship, its isolation, its sheer backwardness in many areas (for example, when one relative told the author's grandfather that the boy was "turning modern" because he ate with a fork instead of with his hands, and read secular newspapers). Unless you eat with your hands and avoid newspapers, you will find it much harder after reading this book to believe that Jews should be bound by every custom of their ancestors.

2. His attempt to describe his own ideological position: more respectful of traditional halakhah than modern Conservatives, more critical of traditional interpretations than some Orthodox commentators. You can find plenty of books by commentators to Halivni's right, and plenty by commentators to his left, but I would be surprised if you could find any by people who think exactly what he thinks (assuming there are any). As a result, his book is unique or nearly so - and for this reason alone, his book is worth reading and will probably challenge you whatever your views.

Another reviewer said that Halivni is not among the "first rank" of scholars. (I am not enough of a scholar to intelligently agree or disagree). But even if this were the case, I would recommend this book. I've learned quite a bit from people who weren't in the "first rank" of scholars - many of whom, I suspect, are not of Halivni's rank.

This small book covers an enormous range of subjects. Chasidic life in a shtetyl, the Holocaust, conflict within the Jewish institutions of higher learning in post war America, the personal psychological impact of being a Holocaust survivor, and the various modes of Talmudic scholarship - Halivin's great accomplishment is to bring meaning to this wide spectrum of topics in few words. This is a book by a serious thinker who is not afraid to risk revealing his innermost feelings and conflicts. A courageous work