Book Description

Osama bin Laden's formersister-in-law provides a penetrating, unusually inti- mate look into Saudi soci-ety and the bin Laden family's role within it, aswell as the treatment of Saudi women.On September 11th, 2001,Carmen bin Ladin heard the news that the Twin Towers had been struck. She instinctively knew that her ex-brother-in-law was involved in these hor-rifying acts of terrorism, and her heart went out to America. She also knew that her life and the lives of her family would never be the same again.Carmen bin Ladin, half Swiss and half Persian, married into-and later divorced from-the bin Laden family and found herself inside a complex and vast clan, part of a society that she neither knew nor understood. Her story takes us inside the bin Laden family and one of the most powerful, secretive, and repressed kingdoms in the world. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

answers many questions
Have you ever wondered how on earth a Western woman could marry a man from a culture that is totally alien to hers? In Inside the Kingdom, Carmen Bin Laden tells the story of how she went from being a free spirited Swiss schoolgirl to the wife of one of the members of the Saudi Arabian Bin Laden clan. It was easy. She was young, he was charming, handsome, rich and seemingly easy going. They fell in love. She thought they were going to live in America and Europe. She was wrong.

Imagine living in a place where it's against the law for you to show your face in public. Imagine not being able to go shopping even for your own clothes or personal items. Imagine shocking your in-laws becuase you want to go for a walk.

One of the most vivid and sad scenes from the book describes how Carmen's husband had to make special arrangements in order for her to go to a grocery store to buy baby formula. While she rushed to the baby section the customers (all male) left the store and the staff turned their backs to her.

Carmen quickly discovered to her horror that listening to music was considered sinful, reading books was considered odd and having a thought in one's pretty head was seen as completely unnatural.

Eventually, the marriage soured and Carmen decided to leave Saudi for the sake of her daughters. The book will attract attention of course because of the author's infamous brother-in-law, Osama (he was apparently a foreboding figure even as a young man) but it's more than a tragi-comic look into the Bin Laden home. This book is a clear eyed look at Saudi life.

Carmen Bin Laden went to Saudi thinking that modernity would prevail and that in a few years Saudi women would have more rights. She was wrong then and things don't look any better now. Since Saudi Arabia is ostensibly an American ally taking an honest look at it makes sense. Can such a culture really change? Are we fools to it expect to?

Inside the Kingdom is a very good book.I'm glad I bought it.

A Must Read for all women
Normally I don't read biographies. Usually they focus on rags to riches stories that I can't relate to. This book was the exception.
This bio starts normally: boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl get married. But this is where the normality ends. Carmen marries into the Bin Ladin family,which back then were not synominous with terrorism. Carmen, who is foreign to Saudi life, is forced to live in isolation. She cannot come and go as she pleases without being completly veiled. She is forced to live in a world where women are property of the men; she is viewed as a foreigner by the other women because she was not born Saudi. Women,imagine going in a time machine from 2004 to the mid 19th century. At least that is the closest analogy I can think of.
This book made me appreciate the simple freedoms that we Americans take advantage of. I couldn't imagine living a life where I felt so powerless as a woman. I admire Carmen for being strong enough to get away from Saudi Arabia once and for all. Every female should read this book. It is an eye opener how far we women have come in America. ... Read more

Book Description

When Samuel G. Freedman was nearing fifty, the same age at which his mother died of breast cancer, he realized that he did not know who she was. Of course, he knew that Eleanor had been his mother, a mother he kept at an emotional distance both in life and after death. He had never thought about the entire life she lived before him, a life of her own dreams and disappointments. And now, that ignorance haunted him.

So Freedman set out to discover the past, and Who She Was is the story of what he found. It is the story of a young woman's ambitions and yearnings, of the struggles of her impoverished immigrant parents, and of the ravages of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Holocaust.

It is also the story of a middle-aged son wracked with regret over the disregard he had shown as a teenage boy for a terminally ill mother, and as an adult incapable for decades of visiting her grave. It is the story of how he healed that wound by asking all the questions he had not asked when his mother was alive.

Whom did she love? Who broke her heart? What lifted her spirits? What crushed her hopes? What did she long to become? And did she get to become that woman in her brief time on earth?

Who She Was brings a compassionate yet unflinching eye to the American Jewish experience. It recaptures the working-class borough of the Bronx with its tenements and pushcarts, its union halls and storefront synagogues and rooftop-tar beaches. It remembers a time when husbands searched hundreds of miles for steady work and wives sent packages and prayers to their European relatives in the desperate hope they might survive the Nazis. In such a world, Eleanor Hatkin came of age, striving for education, for love, for a way out.

Researched as a history, written like a novel, Who She Was stands in the tradition of such classics as Call It Sleep and The Assistant. In bringing to life his mother, Samuel G. Freedman has given all readers a memorable heroine. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

When we reach the age when our first parent died ....
When we reach the age when our first parent died we have to come to a kind of realization that they didn't have any more than we're already had. Somewhere about then many of us start to reflect a bit on the life that that parent lived.

In my case it was a father who lived very poor in rural Arkansas.His father ... well this is not my family's story. It was later that I realized what he had gone through working in the hot Louisiana sun to give me a couple of college degrees.

I wish that I had the way with words Mr. Freedman has to put down the story of his mother's life. Indeed I'd like to have even researched my father's life as extensively as he has his mothers.

It was certainly a different life in the East Bronx than it was in the Arkansas Ozarks. I don't think better, or worse, just different. Mr. Freedman's grandmother had a major and not necessarily beneficial impact on his mother's life. My father's mother had died when he was six (childbirth).

Mr. Freedman has taken this story beyond just the story of one lady, it's a tale of the life of new immigrants living the Depression Era American Jewish experience. It's a good tribute to Eleanor Freeman. It's also a good tribute to Samuel Freedman.

He, like I, think of the casual cruelty we caused our parents. We'd like to go back and fix a few things, say a few things. But we can't. Instead, we smile and think of the things our kids have done, and we don't mind.

Mr. Freedman, your mother is, I think, looking down on you with pride, as I think my father is with me -- even though we know we don't deserve it. ... Read more

Book Description

A young Iranian-American journalist returns to Tehran and discovers not only the oppressive and decadent life of her Iranian counterparts who have grown up since the revolution, but the pain of searching for a homeland that may not exist.

As far back as she can remember, Azadeh Moaveni has felt at odds with her tangled identity as an Iranian-American. In suburban America, Azadeh lived in two worlds. At home, she was the daughter of the Iranian exile community, serving tea, clinging to tradition, and dreaming of Tehran. Outside, she was a California girl who practiced yoga and listened to Madonna. For years, she ignored the tense stand off between her two cultures. But college magnified the clash between Iran and America, and after graduating, she moved to Iran as a journalist. This is the story of her search for identity, between two cultures cleaved apart by a violent history. It is also the story of Iran, a restive land lost in the twilight of its revolution.

Moaveni's homecoming falls in the heady days of the country's reform movement, when young people demonstrated in the streets and shouted for the Islamic regime to end. In these tumultuous times, she struggles to build a life in a dark country, wholly unlike the luminous, saffron and turquoise-tinted Iran of her imagination. As she leads us through the drug-soaked, underground parties of Tehran, into the hedonistic lives of young people desperate for change, Moaveni paints a rare portrait of Iran's rebellious next generation. The landscape of her Tehran-ski slopes, fashion shows, malls and cafes-is populated by a cast of young people whose exuberance and despair brings the modern reality of Iran to vivid life. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Fascinating but a little flawed
Very interesting look at everyday life in Iran, pre-"axis of evil."I especially enjoyed her chapter on the veil and the effect it had upon women in Iran.Very incisive analysis of American vs. Iranian ideals & values.I wish that she had discussed gender relations more; she was most interested in politics, reform, the revolution.
Problem: Moaveni comes from a wealthy, secular family.This has apparently rendered her incapable of understanding how a person can truly believe in a religion, how a person's religion can profoundly and meaningfully affect a person's worldview.She portrays Iran as a country in the grips of a very few fundamentalist clerics, populated by closet secularists just waiting for their chance to shed pesky Islam.This I highly doubt.I noticed this same problem with religion in Carl Sagan's "Contact."He tried to write a religious character, the preacher Palmer Joss, who was totally flat and unconvincing.I feel this is because Sagan did not really believe that a person could be intelligent and religious.Moaveni has a similar issue.She cannot fathom that people would actually *believe* in Islam, would truly believe that Mohammed is a prophet.In Iran, she hangs out with journalists and corrupt clerics who shed their veils and grab beers as soon as they are out of the country.Perhaps if she had done something really brave, like mingle with the middle class, she would have found people devoted to Islam yet still unhappy with the anarchy of the country.People who view the veil as something other than repressive and the cause of constant bad hair days.
Now, I am just joshing when I mock Moaveni's bravery.Some of her experiences are horrifying.I have great respect for someone who voluntarily moves from California to a third-world country to confront head-on her questions about her ethnicity and cultural history.I just think she is young and doesn't even realize she has this religion perception issue.Another reviewer said she is wise beyond her years, and that makes me laugh out loud.No, sorry, she is not.Someone is confusing intelligence with maturity.Silly, silly.She is very intelligent.Her analysis is often razor-sharp and insightful.Is she mature?Not particularly.She tattles to her daddy when an auntie is mean, she hangs out with her teenaged cousin because adult Iranian women are "mean" to her.
Also, towards the end of the book Moaveni complains bitterly about casual American prejudice against Islam.Which, by the way, she doesn't even believe in.This I found incredibly hard to stomach, because earlier in the book she portrays Mormon women as cultish.She asks in the last chapter, anguish in her words, (paraphrasing) What other religion can you slander so completely and get away with it?The answer, Miss Moaveni, is apparently Mormonism.I might take you a little more seriously if you shed the religious hypocrisy.
I know I've ragged on this book a lot, and yet still given it four stars.I did really enjoy the book and highly recommend it.It made me think about things from a new perspective, especially America's actions in the Middle East, and I love being made to do that.

Same Old Story
Although this book is slightly superior to that of Afschineh Latifi (Miss "Persian Privileged Princess" herself!)'s book of the same genre ("After all this time:A story of..."), it is still of the same kind of bleeding heart memoir books of recent publication by Iranian so called women authors which have been sprouting like mushrooms (fungi live in the dark).This book also, like others of its kind, lacks depth, and is totally void of any vision of history:a superficial "Remember When" story at best.
Iran needs concrete action towards Democracy right now, not reminiscence and lamentation for a fun-filled, decadent life style that only "Persian Marie Antoinettes" led back under the Shah.
(Read my review of Latifi's book here on Amazon for more).

Hands-down the most beautiful book I've EVER read.
I cannot praise this book enough. The book's stated objective is to portray the life of a Middle Easterner growing up in America, and then attempting to integrate themselves back into the society of their home country. In my opinion, she does both rather well, although the latter is lacking only because she does not embrace what constitutes as the current Iranian culture, and thus does not attempt to integrate herself with it. The former objective is unbelievably well done, and as I've stated before, the book offers the portrait of a girl of Middle Eastern descent growing up in a culture vastly different from what she knows. Readers everywhere are lucky that its author is such a gifted writer.

My own back round is one very similar to Azadeh's. My parent's are from Israel, having migrated to America when they had an arranged marriage. Unlike Azadeh, I was actually born here in America, though I have also lived in Israel for extended periods of time, and having been a girl who attempted to integrate herself in with a seemingly foreign culture, I can really relate to Azadeh's experiences, especially her experience as an Iranian in America. I too tried to erase my "Arabness" from my life as a young girl, from the awkwardness of your friends hearing the weird language your mother speaks at home, to the funny smells that emanated from your kitchen (standardly the fruitions of my mother's laborious hours in the kitchen). And like Azadeh, I too have learned to embrace my distinction as I got older.

The strongest point in the book was most definitely the author's writing style. Reading Azadeh's own personal tale of her life in Iran has inspired me to travel there at some point, as well. I've been a huge reader since I was a little girl, and this is hands -down the most beautiful book I have EVER read, and I cannot emphasize that enough. I seriously cannot praise such a work of art enough. I would highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone, as I feel that it deals with some particularly important topics for being able to truly understand the perspectives of a Middle Easterner, especially one in America.

memories of home & madness
Rebeccasreads highly recommends LIPSTICK JIHAD as a deeply disturbing, astonishingly enlightening & unflinching look into a world in upheaval, when a young journalist returns to Iran, the land of her birth, and falls headlong into a revolution where the young people explore drugs & hedonism under an oppressive Islamic regime, often with tragic results.

The old saying: "you can never go home" is fully realized as this American Iranian struggles with her dreams, memories & illusions in a very different world, where a free, modern American woman clashes with the violence of a moralistic, past-obsessed male-dominated society.

Outstanding!

Poignant narrative !
The author has an excellent command of English; further, she is a gifted writer. This book is far superior to SAFFRON SKY by Gelareh Asayesh and TO SEE AND SEE AGAIN by Tara Bahrampour.Ms. Moaveni is a trained journalist unlike these other two authors. A glossary of Persian terms and personalitiescited in the book would have aided the reader.The book would have benefited from an index.Perhaps, in a future book the author could visit the Iranian Shahrestan.She did cite a trip to Kermanshah on p. 72 placing it in 'a Kurdish province of northwestern Tehran'.Tehran should be replaced by Iran.This is the only error that I could find in the book. ... Read more

Book Description

They grew up on the streets of Newark, facing city life's temptations, pitfalls, even jail. But one day these three young men made a pact. They promised each other they would all become doctors, and stick it out together through the long, difficult journey to attain that dream. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt are not only friends to this day-they are all doctors.

This is a story about the power of friendship. Of joining forces and beating the odds. A story about changing your life, and the lives of those you love most...together. ... Read more

Reviews (31)

The Power of Friendship and Positive Competitiveness Display
"The Pact" is an incredible book! I just finished reading the remarkable journey completed by Drs. Sam Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt. It's an easy, quick read ~250 pages.

If you're not familiar with their story, they are 3 young, African-American men from Newark that establish a pact at 17-years old to become doctors. Over the years, they run into many obstacles (peer pressure, arrest, finances, and family issues) that tend to dissuade so many young people from pursuing their dream. With the "I got your back" support of each other, mentors they encountered throughout their journey, and God they become doctors despite how many people had presumed their future would turn out.

Dr. George Jenkins, probably the most focused in the group, knew at a very young age that he wanted to be a dentist. In high school, the three friends attend a college presentation offering full scholarships to minority students interested in the medical field. Knowing that neither he nor his friends could afford college THIS OFFER would be their ONLY way to attend college...the formation of the pact.

Surprisingly, after completing college and med school, Sam and Rameck were still unsure if they wanted to be doctors. Sam saw business/management as his future and Rameck wanted to be an actor (he'll settle on being a rapper). (If I didn't know the outcome, I would have been in suspense until the bitter end waiting to learn if they became doctors.) The death of an important person in each of their lives confirmed that medically helping others is what they were meant to do in life.

If you're in the education field or work closely with children in your community this is an excellent book to pick up when you...

- feel like what can I do to get through to this person
- need a testimony that success is not by luck but achieved through faith, perseverance, and support from others
- need a roadmap to better mentor a person in need

"The Pact" is an amazing story of inspiration and motivation to get (primarily) black teens to see beyond their environment, current situation, and look ahead with a plan for tomorrow. "The Pact" also displays the need for adults to begin mentoring children before they reach their teens. The book concludes with the doctors providing the "how-to's" to make a pact work.

Uplifting!
There are times that I think my life was or still is hard. Well, I'm a black female who grew up in a middle-class home with two teachers as parents. College was as automatic as sleeping and eating. But, for these young men in the book "The Pact", college was as uncertain as winning the lottery. I always knew that our young black boys growing up in the inner-city had it super hard, but this book allowed me to see another side of our young brothas. They all have dreams as little kids, even though they don't see anyone in their neighborhood to emulate. Somehow, someway, Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt and George Jenkins all found the determination to succeed and become doctors. Their positive story is proof that just one person can make a difference in a kid's life. Everyone needs someone to look up to; someone to follow.

We all have gifts we can share. Read this book and feel blessed that someone in your life took the time to mentor you and be there for you; not everyone has that in their lives. I am so proud of these young men! Not only are they smart and positive, but they are cute too! What a great combination! God has truly blessed them and their family.

What a refreshing book. Thanks to Tavis Smiley for recommending it on the Tom Joyner Show.

A HAPPY ENDING
This book was very informative. I really loved this book not only because they are from my hometown Newark, New Jersey. But it was an interesting novel. They came from the ghetto and turned out to be very distinguished gentlemen. I am so happy I read a sucess story from my hometown. I recommend this book to people that feel is though there is no way out in the ghetto when there actually is.

Inspiring!
I was pleased to read a book about three African-American men, from disadvantaged backgrounds, who'd beat the odds.They supported each other through thick and thin, and fulfilled their dream of becoming Doctors.They remained humble and are giving back by helping people who are at a disadvantage. They are positive, beautiful, and successful young men. God has truly gave the three Doctors a great annointing. I wish more people would read this book.I was upset when I read the last page. I did not want the book to end! The Doctors are a true inspiration. May God continue to bless them.

OUTSTANDING BOOK ABOUT THE POWER OF A PLAN
I will definitely be giving this book to every young African American male that I know. It's such a powerful testimony of the power of the people that you surround yourself with and a plan. ... Read more

Book Description

"Voyages deep into the frenzied, complex world of LBO transactions."—BusinessWeek.

"Sheds light on an important chapter in both African-American and American business history."—Earl G. Graves, Publisher, Black Enterprise magazine.

When Reginald Lewis was six years old, his grandparents asked his opinion about employment discrimination against blacks. Reg replied simply, "Why should white guys have all the fun?" Why, indeed! Lewis grew up to become the wealthiest black man in history and one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time, reigning over a commercial empire that spanned four continents. At the time of his death in 1993, his personal fortune was estimated at $400 million.

"Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?" traces Lewis's rise from a working- class neighborhood in east Baltimore to Harvard Law School and ultimately into the elite circle of Wall Street deal-makers. Expanding on Lewis's unfinished autobiography, journalist Blair Walker completes a vivid portrait of a proud, fiercely determined man with a razor-sharp tongue—and an intellect to match. He shows how Lewis's lifelong hunger for wealth and personal glory fueled his success on the playing field, in the classroom, and in the boardroom. Walker also provides a rare insider's view of Lewis, the iron-willed negotiator and brilliant business strategist in action as he finesses one phenomenal deal after another.

A moving saga of personal courage and determination as well as a virtual how-to book for those who would like to follow in Lewis's footsteps, "Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?" is every bit as memorable as the man whose story it tells. ... Read more

Reviews (29)

Changed My Life
This book gave me a new sense of understanding on how one African American man can not only change history but do it with style and passion. I never new what Reginald Lewis did during the time frame he did it back in the 80's I was a young kid growing up in the south Bronx area of New York City still trying to find a role model to look up too that looked like me. I first heard of Mr. Lewis in college but still had no idea of what he had accomplished until reading his book and then hearing about untimely death some years later. I have read this book 5 times since I bought it and I get a sense of vigor every time I finish it. Not only is it possible for me as a young black man to become the owner of a billion dollar company like him but do it in a way that will make all the white guys at my former prep school green with envy. My only regret is that I never got to meet Reginald Lewis before he died. It would have been such a great honor to meet such a driven and determined man. To sit and do lunch with him at the Harvard Club in New York and just watch all around us wonder how we got there.

A insightful guide to success
Reading this book has given a whole new meaning to the term of success. The only regret is not being able to see Reginald Lewis in action today. From the onset of the book he describes what it is like to chase success down and conquer it. This book provides a blueprint for breaking the color barriers in the world of finance, mergers and acqusitions and lbo's. For any aspiring character of color who considers entering the world of movers and shakers, trust me this is the book you MUST read.

WOW is all I can say.
This book made me want to work so much harder in life to achieve my business goals. The key is fake it until you make it. No one knows you struggles unless you tell them and you can't make excuses for your life and why you have to work hard. I read it fast and read it again.

The sub-title would have been a better title. Oh well.
I came across this book through the recommendation of an acquaintance. I was initially put off by the title, it seemed arrogant, but my philosophy of learning from everyone helped me get over it.

At the end of the day this is a great book. The format is confusing because Mr.Lewis passed away while still in the process of completing it. Mr.Walker does his best to keep Mr.Lewis's voice, but he fails in many ways.

As for the content, it is riveting. To see the humble beginnings of a man that decided that "No" was not good enough is tremendous.

The lesson that I learned from him is that "acquisition" is just as good, if not better than organic growth.

He pursued McCall Patterns with a tenacity that was both admirable and envious. Who else could see the potential? No one apparently, and is coup landed him a 70x's return on his money in under five years. Then to move into the food industry with the same energy was impressive.

It is unfortunate that he passed away so suddenly, his value investing was very much right out of Benjamin Grahams school of thinking, and Mr.Lewis definitely had the potential to become the next Mr.Buffett.

Great book, it really set the tone for how I will grow my own business.

Extremely solid!!
This is a wonderful book that has inspired me to attend law school and to traverse a positive path to success. I recommend to men and women...boyz and girls of all races. A true inspiration! ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (6)

I can't believe I read this garbage
A year ago in my freshman language arts class, I was forced to read The Dark Child. Previously having been assigned garbage such as Nectar in a Sieve and Things Fall Apart, I expected this book would be terrible as well. I was not to be disappointed.
I soon discovered that The Dark Child was a sort of childhood memoirs written by a native of rural Guinea, which is described as a primitive paradise. After choking down five pages of the poorly written (or poorly translated?) prose, I thought to myself, "Could there be a premise less compelling than a boy living an idyllic life in 1920s rural Africa?" I mulled over this thought for a while and decided that there wasn't. This book is plagued by the fundamental problem that the reader knows, doesn't want to know, or doesn't care about what's coming next. Even if you are interested in what life was like for Camara Laye's people, you will be put off by the poor writing and the utter directionlessness of this book - indeed, I constantly found myself dumbfounded by the meandering descriptions, the contrived dialogue, and the pointless vignettes.
In conclusion, I would suggest to the prospective buyer that you spend your money on something better-done and more enjoyable, such as a porn DVD.

Read African Child and Radience Of The King together
Fascinating. A young foreigner in Paris, a young foreigner in Camara Laye's African Kingdom. It doesen't get any better. Read these 20 years ago.

George Pope

beautiful
A beautifully textured, fluid and organic autobiography, Camara Laye offers readers a piece of his life in The Dark Child. As part of the Malinke community in Upper Guinea, Laye captures the layered tradition and culture of his community, deemed, perhaps by most, to be simplistic or primitive compared to today's modern standards. Yet it is exactly from Layes descriptions of the traditions of his community that we can begin to understand the psychology of the author. Each chapter is rich with imagery, and his words smack of sincerity and innocence, bringing about an effortless quality and flow to his work--it is as if we are there with Laye experiencing his many transitions, from boyhood to manhood. His descriptions of the communal lifestyle of his people is remarkable. Laye's works like other modern African authors reveal the realities of colonization, and help readers to appreciate and celebrate indigenous African traditions.

It took me a long time to read this book.
I first got this book in junior high by a family friend but never bothered to read it until I entered high school. Not having anything to read, I took it upon myself to read the book. I found myself intrigued by the author's way of life during colonialism and his upbringing in a village and his graduation from high school. It was sad that one of his classmates died unexpectedly. Wanting to find out some more about this author I looked up a book of African authors. Unfortuately he passed away in 1980. He is a great writer and wished that I had read it soon as it was given to me.

Memoir of an African Childhood
Camara Laye was one of the first sub-saharan writers to become well-known outside of Africa. "L'Enfant Noir" or "The Dark Child" (also titled "The African Child"?) was published in 1953 when the author was twenty-five and living in France. It is a pleasantly nostalgic memoir of a childhood spent in the town of Kouroussa (French Guinea, now Guinea) and the village of Tindican, his mother's birthplace. Chapter by chapter Camara recounts his childhood memories: his father's work as a goldsmith and his position in society, his parent's magic, village life, the rice harvest, elementary Koranic education, circumcision and young men's secret society, secondary education in Conakry, girls and courtship, and his departure to continue his studies in France. After almost half a century in print, this deserves to be called a classic. [Note: some authorities state that his family name is Camara (also spelled Kamara) and his given name is Laye; the text supports this at one point. If using search engines to look for information on this author it may be useful to try both versions of his name.] ... Read more

Amazon.com

Order this book ... and please don't be put off by its pallid subtitle, A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, which doesn't begin to do justice to the utterly unique and moving story contained within. The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man, making her isolation even more profound. The book is a success story, a testament to one woman's true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word, inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable individual. And, perhaps, a little more faith in us all. ... Read more

Reviews (463)

Mommy, what color is God?
This book is an amazing voyage of discovery. McBride unravels a life forgotten and buried by a mother who was born in 1921 to a Jewish Rabbi and his wife in Poland, and found Christianity and love in the arms of a black husband and her 12 children. The book tells two stories. The author tells of growing up in the projects of New York with a white mother and she tells her story of a young Jewish girl growing up in the south and then Harlem, always an outsider wanting only what all girls want, the love of her family and to be accepted.

It was early on in life that Ruth Shilsky realized that this would never happen. She found herself up against some of the greatest odds a person could face in an era of blatant racial prejudice and a family that turned their back on her because she dared to be different. The life she made was a remarkable one and the children she produced are all extraordinary people, to put it in the words of the author. An inspiring read of warm languid prose, I couldn't put it down, nor could I stop rooting for "Mommy" who just never stopped moving forward. 3/2/01

Indomitable spirit and nurturing love
Subtitled, "A Black Man's Tribute to his White Mother", the author, James McBride, a journalist and musician, has written his true and remarkable story.

Ruth McBride Jordan was born in 1921, in Poland, the daughter of Orthodox Jews. As a baby, her family immigrated to the United States where she was raised in Virginia where her father had a grocery store. Her life was harsh and when she married a black man in 1942, her family disowned her.

She raised 12 children, every one of them college educated, her indomitable spirit strong through poverty and the tragic deaths of two husbands. Her color confused her children who lived in a black world and it wasn't until they had grown to adulthood that her true story came out.

James McBride is a good writer, and his lively clear prose reflect a home that might have been lacking in material things, but was extraordinary in its warmth and love and nurturing atmosphere.

Ruth McBride Jordan's story is told in her voice through alternating chapters and her strength comes through in her words. Never once is there a shred of self pity as she tells her story. When she was first married she and her husband lived in a cockroach infested single room in Harlem with the bathroom in the hall. Her first four children were born while they were living in that single room. "It was one of the happiest times of my life," she says. Later they moved to an apartment with their own private bathroom which was quite a luxury.

The reader feels the emotions that James feels as he struggles with his own identity. He is the 8th of the 12 children and watches his older brothers and sisters being influenced by the "black power" movement of the 70s. Often, he's embarrassed by the color of his mother's skin.

Ruth is an active Christian avid churchgoer. James knows little or nothing of Jews. It is fascinating to read his point of view which is told with insight and honesty. And it is perhaps even more fascinating to hear the words of Ruth.

The book is an inspiration, a testament to love, and social exploration through the eyes of a mixed race family. Read it! You'll love it!

Buy this book for your mother!
This is one of the best books i have ever read!

the racial issue between a black man's perception of his white mother is presented equally with the outpouring of love and respect he has for her; simply as a mother of 12 children in Harlem who put all her children through collge and grad school. the stories about trips to church, to camp, riding public tansport, getting homemade haircuts, and how awful a cook his mother was are universal and are presented evenly with the tender moments of love and respect and joy he has with his mother.

the other half of this book is his mother's autobiography; the story of a young polish Jewish immigrant living in Jim Crow Virginia, abused by her father. the thinly veiled pain and anguish of memory that McBride's mother reveals futher illuminates his respect for his mother in his own chapters as he describes his mother founding a Baptist church in Harlem with his father.

this book is a gift to mothers everywhere!

Escape Into McBride's Plight
I read this biography over the summer during camp, when I wanted to escape from the heat (not to mention the annoyance of the little campers!). It's very easy to lose yourself in this book because of McBride's straight-to-the-point, action-packed writing style. His own autobiography and his mother's biography are brilliantly intertwined in alternating chapters, keeping readers immersed in the various parallels and general comparisons of both lives.

The search for self-identity is so rich, so apparant, that almost everyone can relate to it. It also shows that the rise of poverty is possible, but also requires an endurance of obsticles along the way. Read this.

A question of identity
James McBride, the author, knew very little about his mother's heritage before he began writing this book. One thing he did know was that she was different. Different from his father, his siblings, himself, his friends, and his neighbors. When he would ask her if she was white, she would avoid the question or answer that she was "light-skinned". When he once asked her what color God was she replied, "He's the color of water. He has no color". This is the way Ruth McBride looked at the world. When her Jewish family acted in an unloving manner towards her, she turned to black friends, who were more accepting of her. James loved his white mother, whom he calls "Mommy" in the book but was also embarrassed by her racial differences and was confused by a lack of knowledge of her roots. This book seemed to be a catharsis for him as it allowed him to contact some of his mother's relatives and old friends whom he had never met. Ruth McBride considered her greatest achievement to be the many college degrees which her 12 children earned and their professional occupations. This is an interesting story of a woman who did not ever let life defeat her and who held high educational and behavioral standards for her racially-mixed children. It is also the story of a search for identity. ... Read more

Book Description

Nic Rips"s son had always known him as a conservative midwesterner, dedicated, affable, bland to the point of invisibility. Upon his father"s death, however, Michael Rips returned to his Omaha family home to discover a hidden portfolio of paintings — all done by his father, all of a naked black woman. So begins Michael Rips"s exquisitely humane second work of memoir, a gloriously funny yet deeply serious gem of a book that offers more than a little redemption in our cynical times.
Rips is a magical storyteller, with a keen eye for the absurd, even in a place like Omaha, which, like his father, is not what it first appears to be. His solid Republican father, he discovers, had been raised in one
of Omaha"s most famous brothels, had insisted on hiring a collection of social misfits to work in his eyeglass factory, and had once showed up in his son"s high school principal"s office in pajamas. As Rips searches for the woman of the paintings, he meets, among others, an African American detective who swears by the clairvoyant powers of a Mind Machine, a homeless man with five million dollars in the bank, an underwear auctioneer, and a flying trapeze artist on her last sublime ride. Ultimately, Rips finds the woman, a father he never knew, and a profound sense that all around us the miraculous permeates the
everyday. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A Search For One Man's Father
Rips' father was there for his upbringing, and yet somehow he wasn't. So when Rips discovers a dark secret behind a bureau, he begins to ask if he ever knew his father at all. I don't know if anyone else has thought to blend magical realism with memoir before, (even Garcia Marquez's bio was pretty down to earth), but that seems to be Rips' objective. Part philosophical meditation, he transform Omaha into a place where people fly, millionaires haunt abandoned buildings, and even the everyday seems strange. Definitely worth your time.

A Beautiful Read
I LOVED this book!!!There islightness and humour on the surface of a complex and deeply philosophical book.I read it twice. Highly recommended.

NYC ... Read more

Reviews (59)

A must-read for teachers of immigrant and minority students
I just finished reading Hunger of Memory as an assignment for a Language and Literacy class I'm taking in my teacher training program. I recommend this book to all teachers or to people like myself who are planning to be teachers. Rodriguez does a outstanding job of capturing the feelings of confusion and separation one feels when learning English. I liked how Rodriguez corelates language with intimacy. He talks a lot about how Spanish was for him a language of intimacy and family. When he learned English in school, however, he lost a lot of that intimacy in the home when he began to lose his language. One particularly sad part was when his grandmother died and he wasn't able to speak to her or say goodbye beforehand because his Spanish was so limited and his grandmother spoke only Spanish. Towards the end of the book, Rodriguez exhibits a lot of honesty and courage in writing about his feelings on affirmative action. As a result of assimilation and studying in England, Rodriguez no longer felt like he could be an effective role model for minority students. However, because he was a Mexican-American with a Phd in Renaissance Literature and because he was a "minority professor", he was expected by Berkley administrators (and students) to be such a role model. When some hispanic students ask him to teach a minority literature class at a community center, he declines. As a result, they treat him like a sell-out. All in all, I admire how Rodriguez is not afraid to take stances on issues like affirmative action and bilingual education that go against what is expected, considering his race. One would expect him to be in support of both programs, but he is not. Though I do not agree on his stances on these issues, I truly admire his ability to be true to his convictions in spite of being called a sell-out.

Still Controversial--After All These Years
I'm an author of a mystery novel in current release that features a Stanford-educated detective of Latino heritage as its protagonist, an American government/economics teacher (for over twenty years) in a rural California high school with a student population that is over 98% Latino, and I have attended several lectures/discussions by Richard Rodriguez over the years. His HUNGER OF MEMORY remains one of the most controversial books in the community in which I work for a significant portion of every year. HUNGER OF MEMORY is viciously hated by some of the most gifted students I have ever had. Others love it. My fellow professionals argue over Mr. Rodriguez and his positions on assimilation and bilingual education. I respect this book and this man. I don't necessarily agree with all he writes, but I do agree he writes what he writes well. I admire what Richard Rodriguez has gone through in life, and I admire the courage of his positions. HUNGER OF MEMORY is an excellent book that anyone interested in the contemporary American Southwest should read. It is extremely educational.

SELLOUT
I wont purchase a book by Rodriguez because he is a sellout to himself and his people. The man has consistently come out against affairmative action when he himself is a product of it, and owes his success to it. We all make choices in life and Rodriguez chose to distance himself from his Mexican roots and wants us to validate his choices. Rodriguez is a sucess in the Anglo world but nothing is worth the cost of selling your soul to achieve success at such a high cost. The man is not Mexican he is best described as a pitiful soul that wrote a book trying to find redemption, but you cant have it both ways. Be what you are, take pride in your difference and you can still succeed in this country. I feel contempt not pity for the man.

Tio Tomas
Richard shed himself to become a white man. He defines himself by the success standards set by white people. Although I don't disagree with him on everything, he clearly has been white washed and it's really sad. HE rants about himself like his 'ethnic' look is so mesmerizing to people. He's got a big head that I really can't empathize with. He made a choice many people of color make, assimilation in most extreme way. If you need a reason to feel pride in your cultural, read this book and see how you cold turn out if you have no pride in your culture

Makes some good points but boring as hell
Indeed Richard makes some good points about bilingual education and affirmative action - and they ARE well worth noting (how affirmative action doesn't benefit those who need it the most)....but everything else about this book [is bad]. His writing style is very self-absorbed. His opinions are inserted after just about EVERY comment and EVERY action ANYONE (his family or the outside world) commits, it's like he's trying to beat his own opinion into your head. There's also very stuck-up tone lurking under his writing; he VERY often notes his own accomplishments endlessly (...at a cocktail party in Bel Air...entered high school having read 100s of books...), it's all fabulous but reading about his greatness gets very tedious after awhile (especially when he's describing how he started making lists of books he read...that alone is 6 pages - go look yourself: p.59-64.

Many advocates of this book say that they like it because of how he becomes "aware of his assimilation" and "recognizes that with all gain comes some loss." Well, unfortunetely, even though Ricahrd becomes AWARE and RECOGNIZES all these things - he lets everyone know he knows by portraying himself as a suffering hero and a "cosmic victim." By saying he's a "cosmic victim" implies some divinity "choose" him to suffer - as if! He chose to separate himself from his family the minute he decided he repected his teachers more.

And yes, Mr. Rodriguez dedicated his book to his parents - but it's funny how he wrote "For him and her-to honor them." To me, if he hadn't written the "to honor them", I would have though he was writing this book as almsot a cruel parody of them - of what they never could be anything else but what they already were in his world, that they are not as great as he because of their lack of education.

Overall, this book is nothing remarkable, if not very boring. Read for an opinion of affirmative action and biligual education (but ignore the fact HE frequently benefited from both, even he admits that!). Yes, he is educated, intelligent, and perhaps (I wouldn't know) a "provocative speaker"....but his image at the end is not of a strong, modest, "manly" man, but a pathetic figure of a person who wants to comfort himself in the glory of his accomplishments. The overall taste you walk away with this book is not respect for Richard Rodriguez, but pity. ... Read more

Book Description

Finding Mañana is a vibrant, moving memoir of one family's life in Cuba and their wrenching departure. Mirta Ojito was born in Havana and raised there until the unprecedented events of the Mariel boatlift brought her to Miami, one teenager among more than a hundred thousand fellow refugees. Now a reporter for The New York Times, Ojito goes back to reckon with her past and to find the people who set this exodus in motion and brought her to her new home. She tells their stories and hers in superb and poignant detail-chronicling both individual lives and a major historical event.

Growing up, Ojito was eager to excel and fit in, but her parents'-and eventually her own-incomplete devotion to the revolution held her back. As a schoolgirl, she yearned to join Castro's Young Pioneers, but as a teenager in the 1970s, when she understood the darker side of the Cuban revolution and learned more about life in el norte from relatives living abroad, she began to wonder if she and her parents would be safer and happier elsewhere. By the time Castro announced that he was opening Cuba's borders for those who wanted to leave, she was ready to go; her parents were more than ready: They had been waiting for this opportunity since they married, twenty years before.

Finding Mañana gives us Ojito's own story, with all of the determination and intelligence-and the will to confront darkness-that carried her through the boatlift and made her a prizewinning journalist. Putting her reporting skills to work on the events closest to her heart, she finds the boatlift's key players twenty-five years later, from the exiles who negotiated with Castro to the Vietnam vet on whose boat, Mañana, she finally crossed the treacherous Florida Strait. Finding Mañana is the engrossing and enduring story of a family caught in the midst of the tumultuous politics of the twentieth century.

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Mariel boatlift, a Pulitzer Prize winner's extraordinary memoir of her childhood in Cuba and her historic journey to America ... Read more

Reviews (11)

One of the Best in a Long Time, and We Read Them All!
This is definitely the best Cuban memoir book of the year!If you liked "Waiting for Snow in Havana," you'll also love Mirta and her great story.The writing in this book is excellent.Her chronicle of the exodus from Mariel was of particular interest to Jorge, as he shares some of the same memories.This book gets THREE THUMBS UP -- the ultimate Three Guys From Miami seal of approval!

Best to you Mirta!

Three Guys From Miami
(Authors of the book, "Three Guys From Miami Cook Cuban.")

Finding Manana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus
Finding Manana is a page turner I could hardly set down.I was a television reporter in Miami during the Mariel Boatlift.I was in Key West every week covering the plight of the refugees and the politics that created the situation.I followed the first group of Cubans to their tent city in Lima, Peru.I thought I knew this story inside out but Mirta Ojito has filled in many gaps.I read the book to my teenage children who were shocked and amazed by this piece of history.This book is a gem and should be read by anyone interested in Cuba, Cubans or just the remarkable story of a young girl.

A MUST READ FOR ALL
Mirta has been able to capture the essence of what is was like growing up in Communist Cuba, the painful episode of the Peruvian Embassy and subsequently, the Mariel boatlift. With no false pretenses, and in the most elocuent, objective and descriptive style, Mirta, ever the accurate reporter, is able to convey and transfer the facts alongside her feelings. Kudos to Ms.Ojito. This book is a must read for all generations of Cubans and for those interested in our own pursuit of Freedom. Carlos L. Eguaras Miami FL

Great Read
I read the final chapters of this book in flight from Miami to Havana. I could not put this book down. I absolutely loved every word. Thanks.

a rare success in historical writing
Mirta Ojito attempts a very unusual kind of history-writing and pulls it off to an uncommonly successful degree. Cuba under Castro is a difficult, contentious subject. Many journalists have lost their bearings and produced works that are superficial at best and self-absorbed at worst. Ojito herself took part in the Mariel exodus and treats her own experience in a manner that's dignified as well as personable. In addition, she analyzes the events and provides a genuine historical context. Ojito's dual approach to history avoids the pitfalls of first-person journalism and is replete with insights that will stand the test of time. ... Read more

Book Description

... Read more

Reviews (75)

An exquisitely told tale!
When I was an English Literature major in college in the early 1990s, I wrote my senior thesis on the significance of Chicano literature. "Rain of Gold" was included in my study. It is a beautifully written book and a tremendously valuable contribution to American literature.

In Victor Villasenor's "Rain of Gold," the dominant theme or metaphor is the struggle for survival. The mythic structure provides a rich and meaningful context for the characters and their inner struggle for identity and survival. "Rain of Gold" is the story of two parallel lives -- those of Juan Salvador and Lupe Gomez, characters delineated from Villasenor's real-life mother and father, who grow up with their respective families in two distant towns in Mexico and meet as young adults in California.

The novel can be divided into three parts: the families trying to survive in Mexico, but opting to find a better life in the U.S.; their harsh and harrowing journeys through the rough terrain of the Mexican deserts; and finally, their miraculous arrival and struggle in the U.S. The novel challenges the reader to experience the harsh realities of the characters' hardships and triumphs. Their struggle is internal and personal. Villasenor's adherence to myth, religion and a little of the magical paints a vivid image of a people -- survivors not only of physical challenges, but spiritual ones as well. His story is well detailed and well developed. It is truly an epic in every sense of the word.

The Best I've Read!
Rain of Gold is a book written by Victor Villaseñor an author of Mexican Heritage. Villaseñor wrote this book when he felt the urge to pas down to his children the history behind their name. Villaseñor traveled to Mexico and after years of hard work and several conflicts he published "Rain of Gold", the biography of his family. In "Rain of Gold" Villaseñor describes with full detail the lives of his ancestors in Mexico and later in the United States. More than just a story, Villaseñor gives a vivid image of life during the Mexican Revolution {the times of Pancho Villa}. He explains how his family was forced as well as other families to abandon their beloved country because of the violence and danger the Mexican Revolution brought to its citizens. Villaseñor also explains the hardships his family had to got through to adapt and survive prejudice, hunger and unfair work in the states. Not only does Villaseñor capture the struggles of his family but also the exciting and glorious moments his ancestors lived. This book has a vivid message to everybody of Mexican background. Especially to teenagers who usually don't get the chance to be taught their history with out somebody making fun or putting down their culture. This is the first book that I have truly related to, because of my Mexican background and hardships I've faced in this country. This is a book you just can't stop reading because you get so close to the characters. By the end of the book I assure you that not only will you know all of the people in the book but you will also respect and consider them part of your family! More importantly, I recommend this book to everybody who has parents or somebody who has immigrated to this country in search of opportunities and better life.

This book needs an editor
This book deserves 1 star, not the 5-star rating it receives on Amazon. I can open up to any place in this 562-page novel that is 500 pages too long and find a poorly crafted paragraph. Jeez -- ever hear of an editor? The writing is so bad at times it's unintentionally funny ("Love was in the air, choking the atmosphere" -- "Their home was leaping in flames").

This is NOT a great book. It's not even a good book. It's an OK book, an historical account of one man's family history. The characters are colorful but not especially deep. The book jumps back and forth from believable family saga to trite Mexican soap opera stocked with cliched characters. Men are weak but lovable, women stoic and boundlessly loving, and gringos are all greedy, untrustworthy SOBs. The narrative has big wide seams that disrupt the flow. The author has an annoying way of jumping between past and present without any skill.

If Villasenor was trying to evoke the magical realism of Garcia Marquez' 100 Years of Solitude when he wrote this, he failed miserably. There's no magical realism here, just absurd realism. Anyone who gives this book five stars needs to read more.

Sadly, this book is required reading in some high schools
Political correctness has actually fooled people into thinking that this work is on par with Dickens.

This book is great literature like the participants in the Special Olympics are great athletes.

A Fun Thrilling Novel
Rain of Gold by Victor Villasenor is an excellent novel. Being an eleventh grader, I found this novel to be quite different from what I had expected. My first thought was that it would be boring because of course all non-fiction books are boring. It turned out to be fast paced with dramatic situations of starvation and the battle for life. Rain of Gold is truly an inspirational story and is worth the time to read. Looking at the novel itself is intimidating- the width is at least four inches long- but Villasenor has created an exciting historical vision, forcing audiences to be glued to the pages, desperately yearning for his words. At first the novel may push away some readers for the first chapteris focused on the provety of a little girl(Lupe) and boy(Juan/Salvador), but as they grow older danger seems to lurk in EVERY corner while death and rape stare down at them. ... Read more

Amazon.com

When he was but 10 years old, Tim Tyson heard one of his boyhood friends in Oxford, N.C. excitedly blurt the words that were to forever change his life: "Daddy and Roger and 'em shot 'em a nigger!" The cold-blooded street murder of young Henry Marrow by an ambitious, hot-tempered local businessman and his kin in the Spring of 1970 would quickly fan the long-flickering flames of racial discord in the proud, insular tobacco town into explosions of rage and street violence. It would also turn the white Tyson down a long, troubled reconciliation with his Southern roots that eventually led to a professorship in African-American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison--and this profoundly moving, if deeply troubling personal meditation on the true costs of America's historical racial divide. Taking its title from a traditional African-American spiritual, Tyson skillfully interweaves insightful autobiography (his father was the town's anti-segregationist Methodist minister, and a man whose conscience and human decency greatly informs the son) with a painstakingly nuanced historical analysis that underscores how little really changed in the years and decades after the Civil Rights Act of 1965 supposedly ended racial segregation. The details are often chilling: Oxford simply closed its public recreation facilities rather than integrate them; Marrow's accused murderers were publicly condemned, yet acquitted; the very town's newspaper records of the events--and indeed the author's later account for his graduate thesis--mysteriously removed from local public records. But Tyson's own impassioned personal history lessons here won't be denied; they're painful, yet necessary reminders of a poisonous American racial legacy that's so often been casually rewritten--and too easily carried forward into yet another century by politicians eagerly employing the cynical, so-called "Southern Strategy." --Jerry McCulley ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Excellent Book
I am from Oxford, and I still live there. This is an excellent book. It opened my eyes to what happened here in the past.

An important book, well written, researched and documented
If only all history could be told by the voices of those who lived it, maybe those voices could tell truth to power.Except on sources like "Democracy Now", those authentic voices seem to be missing in the media's telling of the stories of today.I think therefore this book is important for what it tells us about the history of race relations in this country but also for what it can tell us about our decisions and view of present reality.

I live in Madison, Wisconsin and this quote from "Blood done Sign My Name" is sometimes pretty applicable today in my town."Black Southerners forcibly altered that narrative in the 1950's and 1960's by stepping outside their assigned roles - and compelling a reluctant federal government to intercede on their behalf.As often as not, they had to be prepared to defend themselves physically from terrorism by white reactionaries.White liberals, with their hesitancy and quibbling, were sometimes very little help.In North Carolina, white liberal paternalists did not stand in the schoolhouse door as George Wallace had in Alabama.Instead, journalist Osha Gray Davidson observes,they 'would quietly appoint a committee to deliberate for eternity over exactly which door, and of what dimensions, would best facilitate the ingress and egress of all students.The style of a Wallace was different, but the result was the same.'And so sometimes it was necessary to escape from an endless and pointless conversation with white paternalism by striking hard and sometimes violently against the architecture of their oppression-Oxford's tobacco warehouses being only the local example."

Timothy Tyson delves into his personal history with an open mind and eye to find the truth about his family and his town during a difficult time and era.But he is also making the point that times are still difficult and the way to work on problems is to face them head on with a knowledge of what came before.

"There it should stay, many people seem to think - why dredge this stuff up?Why linger on the past, which we cannot change?We must move toward a brighter future and leave all that horror behind.It's true that we must make a new world.But we can't make it out of whole cloth.We have to weave the future from the fabric of the past, from the patterns of aspiration and belonging - broken dreams and anguished rejections - that have made us.What the advocates of our dangerous and deepening social amnesia don't understand is how deeply the past holds the future in its grip - even, and perhaps especially, when it remains unacknowledged.We are runaway slaves from our own past, and only by turning to face the hounds can we find our freedom beyond them."

Confronting the painful history of race in America
Author Timothy B. Tyson has carved out a rather unique role for himself.Believe it or not, he is a white man from North Carolina teaching Black History in Wisconsin."Blood Done Sign My Name" is the compelling, personal and brutally honest story of how this all came to be.
Tyson was 10 years old back in 1970 and living with his family in the small rural town of Oxford, N.C.His dad was the Methodist minister and his mom a schoolteacher in town.One day in May, his 10 year old playmate Gerald Teel casually remarked that "Daddy and Roger and 'em shot 'em a nigger."Indeed, his daddy and two of this brothers had brutally shot and killed a 23 year old black man, Henry Marrow, for very dubious reasons.This single event would have profound implications for the little town of Oxford and would play a major role in shaping the life of one Tim Tyson.
"Blood Done Sign My Name" is a remarkable book on many levels.If you are interested in learning more about the arrest and subsequent trial of Robert Teel then you will certainly find it here. It is not a pretty story.
Likewise, if you would like to learn more about the painful history of race relations in this country then this is your book as well. Tyson believes with all his heart that most of us have an extremely distorted and somewhat sugar-coated view of what really went on in this country during the 1960's and 1970's. For example, as a fairly well read white man in his 50's I had never even heard about two incidents that Tyson contends are key to understanding what really happened in those years.When you read about the case of the Wilmington Ten you begin to understand the rage black people felt back in the early 1970's. And when you read the grisly and heartbreaking story of what happened to some slaves who dared to rebel at the Destrehen Plantation in Louisiana way back in 1811, you again begin to appreciate the reasons why blacks in this country feel and react the way they do. The history books that most of us read in school never mention incidents like these.So how are we to know?And if we don't know, how can we possibly understand?
And finally, "Blood Done Sign My Name" is an intimate account of one man's personal struggle with the issue of race. Tim Tyson has presented us with an exceptionally well written book that offers the reader an awful lot to chew on.Highly recommended.

Indictment of America
I just finished reading Blood Done Sign My Name.I found it to be a very powerful indictment of America.I have basically shunned my German heritage based upon their complicity in Hitler's genocide of the Jews and other "misfits."This book made me re-think my own prejudices. Especially where the author's African-American friend, whose parents were a mixed-race couple, found it safer to live in Germany than in the U.S. It hit me like a 2x4 to realize that America has treated not just one or two groups this way but many. To name a few: African-Americans, American Indians, Japanese Americans, Chinese-Americans and most recently Arab-Americans.Just when I was despairing of our country and it's people who are leaning ever to the right, just as I was contemplating moving to Canada, I turned the page and Tyson began writing about hope and redemption.He wrote about facing the past and teaching it to our children.Teaching the truth, not the sanitized, re-written version.

I have felt that as individuals, we have to face our individual pasts or we will repeat the past and visit it upon our children.It is clear from reading Tyson's book that we must do so as a people/country as well.We have a long way to go considering that people don't even want to face violence and abuse that happens in our own homes.Until women and children are safe in their homes and we face these issues, I don't have a lot of hope that our treatment of groups of people will change.

I will pass this book around and recommend it to my friends and acquaintances not just because of the wonderful writing style but because this is a very important work that hopefully will hasten this country facing it's past and moving toward a better future.I am also very impressed that Tyson took a tragedy that impacted his life and turned it into a positive, not only for himself but others as well.

Thank you Timothy Tyson for writing such a powerful important book.

Easily One of the Best Books I've Read
Part civil rights history and part autobiography, this book deals with a little known 1970 lynching in Oxford, NC, its root causes and aftermath.I will allow the other reviewers and amazon.com to detail the story, but suffice it to say that it reads like a novel and is both heartbreaking and uplifting. A very personal and spiritual look at race relations and the impact it had on the author's life.A truly great book. ... Read more

Book Description

Jesse Jackson is a modern day highway robber who uses cries of racism to steal from individuals, corporations, and government, to give to himself, says veteran investigative reporter Kenneth R. Timmerman.

Until now, however, no one has been brave enough to say it and diligent enough to prove it. But Ken Timmerman has cracked Jackson's machine, found Jackson cronies willing to break ranks, and uncovered a sordid tale of greed, ambition, and corruption from a self-proclaimed minister who has no qualms about poisoning American race relations for personal gain.

Shakedown reveals:

* Jackson's massive defrauding of the federal government - and how both Republican and Democratic administrations have chosen to ignore it.

* Jackson's financial ties to Third World dictators - including Mohammar Qaddafi of Libya.

* Jackson's shocking private life - and his even more shocking public lies, including about his relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King

Other details must remain embargoed until publication, but one thing is for certain, Shakedown finally bursts the carefully constructed myths around Jesse Jackson and subject him to the critical scrutiny he's long deserved.

Kenneth R. Timmerman, a reporter with more than two decades of experience, has written for many magazines and newspapers including Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Reader's Digest, and The American Spectator, and has appeared on Nightline, Sixty Minutes, and many other television programs. He lives in Kensington, Maryland, with his wife and five children. ... Read more

Reviews (121)

The dude do get over
The author has previously written for such unusally reliable sources as Time, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. There are 1,078 references in this book in 426 pages of text covering an introduction, a prologue, and 18 chapters. The references are from such sources as memoranda and reports from U.S. government agencies, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and the New Republic, to name only a few. The author, therefore, cannot be dismissed as some sort of right wing crackpot. What Timmerman does is document Jackson's unashamed schemes to line his own pockets and those of his friends and family in the name of racial diversity, economic opportunity, and other buzzwords popular with income redistribution leftists. But Jesse is the quintessential capitalist. He doesn't do anything he can't get paid for, to include NOT speaking up in favor of minority groups who have sought his assistance in the past but didn't have the money to pay his fee! SHAKEDOWN is an appropriate title for this work, as Jackson has managed to get governments and businesses to pony up for his schemes in order to keep from being branded as racist by Jackson. This book could have been subtitled "Show Me the Money!" He has definitely helped himself, and made himself rich in the process. Whether he has helped others is truly open to question, as the author has convincingly documented.

Excellent book, brilliantly researched and well written
It was very tough to put this book down. Timmerman has done an excellent job in researching this book, and backs up his research with copious notes.

If even one tenth of the book is accurate, Jesse Jackson is a very dangerous, dishonest, and evil character. I suspect that the overwhelming majority of the book is accurate, however, and that fact makes my blood boil at the thought of Jackson and his shakedown scheme.

This book should be required reading for every young liberal- Black, White, Brown-it doesn't matter. Jackson's evil tactics transcend race, religion, and creed. His hucksterism is a danger to this nation, a danger to the advancing civil rights of minorities, and a danger to honest people trying to make a living in America.

I highly recommend this book, I think that anyone who reads it with an open mind will thoroughly enjoy it.

Do Not Blame the Author - Blame Jackson
This book states the obvious. Most people half awake can see his scam a mile away. This is not a race issue; it is a scam that uses the race issue. It might not be PC to attack a black man, but when he uses the weakness in his fellow man black and white to enrich himself one needs to blow the whistle.

Let us give Jackson a small benefit of doubt. Years ago when he worked for King he was an idealistic young man. But that has long passed. We now have a man milking the system and taking what he can - it is as simple as that. And blame the people and corporations that support his habit.