Amazon.com

"What is it about interviews that attracts us?" Margaret Atwood asks inher introduction to this collection of 16 interviews from The Paris Review. "Specifically, what is it about interviews with writers?" Women Writers at Work may not answer that question, but it raises many, many more--and allows the writers included in this volume to speak for themselves. For decades the Paris Review has been interviewing authors of both genders and every literary stripe, and many of these interviews have been collected together in volumes like this one. This, however, is the first time the Writers at Work series has dedicated itself to one gender only. In this volume readers will find insightful interviews with Marianne Moore, Katherine Anne Porter, Rebecca West, Dorothy Parker, P.L. Travers, Simone de Beauvoir, Eudora Welty, Elizabeth Bishop, Mary McCarthy, Nadine Gordimer, Maya Angelou, Anne Sexton, Toni Morrison, Susan Sontag, Joan Didion and Joyce Carol Oates.

The Paris Review is famous for getting authors to open up. The subjects here offer honest, often provocative opinions about themselves (Dorothy Parker on her humorous verses: "I read my verses now and I ain't funny. I haven't been funny for twenty years"); each other (Mary McCarthy on "women writers": "Katherine Anne Porter? Don't think she really is--I mean her writing is certainly very feminine, but I would say that there wasn't the 'WW' business in Katherine Anne Porter"); and writing itself (Toni Morrison: "What makes me feel I belong here, out in this world, is not the teacher, not the mother, not the lover but what goes on in my mind when I'm writing"). The end result is a fascinating glimpse into these writers' minds and works. --Margaret Prior ... Read more

Reviews (1)

This is a first-rate book.
This book of interviews with women writers, originally done for the Paris Review, is the finest book I have ever encountered on women writing or doing any committed creative work. There's really nothing like it out there. It is a prize in itself. ... Read more

Book Description

Chiura Obata was one of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans forcefully relocated in 1942 from their homes and communities to the stark barracks of desert internment camps. As an artist faithfully recording the world around him, Obatas work from this period gives us a view into the camps that is at once honest in the details of austerity and hardship, and strikingly lyrical in its portrayal of hope and beauty even in incarceration.

Topaz Moon presents more than 100 of Obatas sketches, sumi paintings, and watercolors from the internment period. Lovingly collected and edited by his granddaughter, Obatas work gives testament to his artistic genius and a spirit undefeated by adversity. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great art and great social history
This is a wonderful book. I bought it for the artwork which is fresh, inventive, and very skillful but the social history is equally engrossing. The text is clearly written and generous with quotes.

At 8.25" square it's smaller than your average coffee table book, but the pages are rich with intelligence, beauty and invention.

Great for educating children about Executive Order 9066.
Most of the artwork are done in black ink on white paper. It makes for a stark and bleak testament to the difficulties faced and endured by the internees. The book is a great teaching tool for children and adults, not only to learn about the internment, but to study the artwork.

A compelling and fascinating work
Topaz Moon is a testament to the power of art, not simply as a mechanism for creating beauty, but also as a method of documenting history. Faced with the social disruption and indignity of relocation and internment in WWII, Professor Chiura Obata of the University of California at Berkeley chose to use his considerable artistic gifts to create what amounts to a visual diary of his internment experience. Seemingly hundreds of drawings, pen and ink paintings and watercolors (too many to count) document Professor Obata and his families experiences from the start of the war, through relocation to Tanforan, internment at Topaz, and beyond, in stark terms, quiet dignity and haunting beauty.

Unlike photography which can only memorialize the actual events of a moment, painting and sketching allows the artist to document his or her own emotional reaction to those events. Dorothea Lange, herself an admirer of Professor Obata, took photographs of the Tanforan relocation center, including Professor Obata's art classes, some of which are reproduced in Topaz Moon. However, compared to Professor Obata's own first hand sketches of the internment process, Lange's photos appear emotionless. This is because Professor Obata infuses his documentary sketches, which are remeniscent of Van Gogh's figural drawings, with the powerful emotional reactions he felt in witnessing scenes in which he too was a victim.

But Topaz Moon is a text which is more about creating community than casting blame. Kimi Kodani Hill, Professor Obata's granddaughter, has framed her grandfather's art with an insightful, succinct and compelling history of Professor Obata's life and the events of the time. The anectdotes relayed by Ms. Hill emphasize the support, assistance and sympathy given to the Obata's by their many freinds outside of the camps. I was struck by the fact the President of U.C. Berkeley, Robert Gordon Sproul, who himself was vocally opposed to the internment, personally rescued Professor Obata's life's work of art and stored that art in his official U.C. residence for the duration of the war.

While Topaz Moon is more than an art book, the art itself is more than merely documentary. Professor Obata's finished paintings and sumi-e works represent some of the best American artwork of the 20th Century. Works such as Moonlight Over Topaz (commissioned by Eleanor Roosevelt while Professor Obata was still interred), Hospital Topaz, and Silent Moonlight at Tanforan Relocation Center would stand out in any museum. In their own way, these images are every bit as beautiful as his earlier Yosemite woodblock prints.

I highly recommend this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Believers have known for centuries that prayer to the saints is a powerful thing. But finding the perfect saint to pray to for whatever problem or challenge you face just got a whole lot easier with Saints for Every Occasion - a new guide to the saints focusing on heavenly patrons especially relevant for our times.

Among the 101 saints profiled are patrons for parents facing divorce, single parenthood, troublesome in-laws, and disappointing kids; saints to watch over children at play and at school, as they watch TV or surf the web; saints for students and sports lovers; and patrons for many contemporary social issues, from homelessness to racial discrimination to AIDS.

Author Thomas J. Craughwell profiles patrons from five continents and many time periods. His saints range from contemporaries of Christ to more modern patrons like Padre Pio ("For a Good Confession"), Pier Giorgio Frassati ("For All Lovers of Sport"), and Faustina Kowalska ("For Confidence in Divine Mercy").

Craughwell's exhaustive research makes Saints a fascinating read for history buffs, and entertaining for anyone interested in learning more about the saints and how their different areas of patronage evolved. And the inclusion of 10 original illustrations by celebrated artist Arden von Haeger help show that the saints are not mere plaster figurines but real men and women who struggled with - and overcame - the same problems and challenges we face today.

Beautifully illustrated and entertainingly told, Saints for Every Occasion features 101 patrons you and your family will seek out time and again. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

A thoughtful, serious, expansive reference
Saints For Every Occasion: 101 Of Heaven's Most Powerful Patrons by Catholic commentator and author Thomas J. Craughwell tells the fascinating, compelling, and inspiring stories of Catholicism's patron saints, with special attention to their aspects and relevance today. Each canonized individual is presented with a brief but memorable summary of their lives, to aid those seeking the right words for prayer in the medley of problems faced in this complex world. Highly recommended for personal, seminary, and parish library reference collections, Saints For Every Occasion is a thoughtful, serious, expansive reference that makes for intent browsing in times of inner turmoil.

Saints are for Grown-Ups too
Most of us were introduced to the saints while we were children. As we grew up, our idea of saints has remained on immature level. Thomas Craughwell's book re-introduces us to the saints from an adult person's point of view. The result is refreshing. It is such a relief to know that these 101 saints were not statues in real life. I now feel that Thomas Aquinas is someone I would like to know in real life -- and that Aloysius Gonzaga would be a little scary for his intensity! I left the book by my bed and read two or three capsule biographies each night for over a month. Interestingly, the most moving lives were those of the young saints -- but seen from the adult vantage point of wanting to reach out and protect these youths from harm's way. At the end, I was sorry the book was over. Then on the last page I saw that there is the possibility of a sequel. Let it be!

Saints alive
I am definitely not religious, but I found this book to be so entertaining and enriching that I have to recommend it. It's full of history and culture, and the author's sly style (which sometimes made me laugh out loud) doesn't interfere with the nourishment he gently makes available through the stories of the saints he's selected. It's the kind of book you love to dip into from time to time, to learn something and be amused and maybe feel a bit better about the world.

A Guide to Saints for our Times
I have a few saints guides already, but nothing to match the thoroughness, timeliness, and charm of this one. The book has a lot of fun surprises (such as a saint for rock climbers), and a great deal of truly useful information. Craughwell makes saints more "relevant" by including saints for AIDS sufferers and the environment, but he never trivializes or cheapens his subject. And the entries are wonderful to read, a definite cut above the often dry, over-earnest style of other books. Highly recommended!

Saints of Yesterday for Today
101 Saints for Every Occasion is more than a patron saints book. Choc full of fascinating historical and biographical bits, it makes enjoyable reading for anyone. Those who have read patron saints books will find the contemporary adaptations interesting and first-time patron saints readers will undoubtedly wish to continue reading on this subject. We've recommended 101 Saints to friends and given several copies as gifts. ... Read more

Book Description

A remarkable and moving memoir of growing up poor in a tough place and covering the most brutal-though often inspiring-aspects of the civil rights revolution

Legendary civil rights reporter Karl Fleming was born in North Carolina's flattest, bleakest tobacco landscape. Raised in a Methodist orphanage during the Great Depression, he was isolated from much of the world around him until an early newspaper job introduced him to the era's brutal racial politics and a subsequent posting as Newsweek's lead civil rights reporter took him to the South's hotspots throughout the 1960s: James Meredith's enrollment at the University of Mississipi, the 1963 Birmingham church bombing, the assassination of Medgar Evers, the murders of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and more. On May 17, 1966, Fleming was beaten by black rioters on the streets of Los Angeles. Newsweek covered the incident in their next issue, and here's what they wrote:"That he was beaten by Negroes in the streets of Watts was a cruel irony. Fleming had covered the landmark battles of the Negro revolt from Albany, Ga., to Oxford, Miss., to Birmingham, Ala., and numberless way stations whose names are now all but forgotten..... No journalist was more closely tuned into the Movement; once when a Newsweek Washington correspondent asked the Justice Department to name some Dixie hot spots, the Justice man replied, 'Ask Fleming. That's what we do.'"

In Son of the Rough South, Fleming has delivered a stunning, revealing memoir of all the worlds he knew, black, white, violent, and cloistered-and a deeply moving read for anyone interested in any rough South. ... Read more

Book Description

An unflinching personal story of family, religion, and community that shows the horror of growing up in the shadow of religious fundamentalism. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

BREATH-TAKING!
Truth often lies in the overlooked details -- a look, a touch, a
thought unspoken. Farideh Goldin is a master at capturing these
details, vividly drawing readers into the hearts and minds of Jewish
women in twentieth century Iran. Through first-person narrative, Goldin
also brings to life the historical relationship between Jews and
Muslims in the Middle East, offering a fresh perspective on the
struggles between peoples of the region. Honest, bold, and gripping,
Wedding Song is a must-read for people of all ethnicities. -- Loolwa
Khazzoom

A must read
Goldin's book is a wonderfully bold telling of her life and memories of her childhood in Iran. The reader gains insight about the lives of women and Jews in Shiraz that many will never share. A must read.

Another world another time
Reading this book transports you to another world, another time. Faridah and I are the same age. I grew up in the heart of the Richmond, Virginia's Jewish community while she was in Shiraz. Our adult lives paralled, but our youth was worlds away. I had BBG, USY, and the JCC while she lived in a world not dissimilar to that described in "The Red Tent". I marvel at how she has come to be the woman she is today despite her family and life experiences. Through her text, you can smell the food and feel the pulse of the market. You are with her in the University and feel the terror as she tries to leave Iran. Looking at the family pictures it is hard to imagine the life she led in Iran. I can't imagine what it must be like for women there now. The courage it took to breakaway and leave is hard to imagine. This is a book every American woman should read to understand how lucky we are to have been born in America. I will be giving a copy to all the women in my family. Thank you Faridah for sharing your life and reminding me how lucky we are.

Bridge to a far away land and culture
Farideh Goldin has taken us on a journey to Shiraz, Iran.A journey different from many others, she reveals to us life behind the closed doors of a ghetto.Her use of Farsi expressions such as najess / inpure expose the inner workings of a Shi'te society, and provide us with an authentic exposure to life in non-western society. This book depicts life as lived by a woman who witnesses radical changes in a life time, changes that took a course of centuries in Europe.Goldin's story is the story of a brave woman re-evaluating norms that have been practiced blindly from generation to generation.

Heartbreaking, haunting, truly affecting
Goldin has written a richly evocative portrait of her life growing up in an Iranian Jewish family.Written openly and unabashedly from her perspective as first a young girl and later an adult woman, the complexity of emotion and a vividness of recollection makes the book truly stand out and offer something new in the literature of women's, Jewish and Iranian/Middle Eastern studies.The author clearly communicates both her pain and pride at her life and origins.A must-read for anyone interested in the lives of women in the Muslim Middle East or in the experiences of the Jewish communities there. ... Read more

Book Description

Published for the first time in the U.S.—one of the two diaries on which the movie The Motorcycle Diaries is based—the moving and at times hilarious account of Che Guevara and Alberto Granado's eight-month tour of South America in 1952.

In 1952 Alberto Granado, a young doctor, and his friend Ernesto Guevara, a 23-year-old medical student from a distinguished Buenos Aires family, decided to explore their continent. They set off from Cordoba in Argentina on a Norton 500cc motorbike and traveled through Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. The duo's adventures vary from the suspenseful (stowing away on a cargo ship, exploring Incan ruins) to the comedic (falling in love, drinking, fighting...) to the serious (volunteering as firemen and at a leper colony). They worked as day laborers along the way—as soccer coaches, medical assistants, and furniture movers. The poverty and exploitation of the native population started the process that was to turn Ernesto—the debonair, fun-loving student—into Che, the revolutionary who had a profound impact on the history of several nations.

Originally published in Spanish in Cuba in 1978, the first English translation was published by Random House UK in 2003. The movie, based on Granado's and Che's diaries, directed by Walter Salles (Central Station, Behind the Sun), was produced by Robert Redford and others. Shown at the Sundance Film Festival, it generated great reviews and a frenzied auction for distribution rights, which was won by Focus Features. Granado, now 82, was a consultant to Salles during the production. 10 b/w photos. ... Read more

Book Description

Three days after terrorists slammed airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, David Horowitz, as disoriented as the rest of us by these cataclysmic events, discovered that he had prostate cancer. As America declared war on terror, Horowitz began treatment, emerging months later with a "reprieve" from his disease.He brought back with him this remarkable book of hard-won insights about our country and ourselves--how we get to our ends and what we learn along the way.

An at times heart-catching departure from the polemics and social criticism that have made Horowitz one of our most controversial public intellectuals, THE END OF TIME is a lyrical meditation on subjects ranging from what parents inadvertently teach us in their deaths, to the forbidding realities of the cancer ward, to the way in which figures like Mohammed Atta use death as a strategy in becoming gods of their own mad creation. Hovering protectively over these ruminations is Horowitz's wife, April, whose stubborn love reached into the heart of his medical darkness and led him back toward the light of this work.

If THE END OF TIME is about how the commitments we make in this life steer us toward our fate, it is also about the redemptive power of language and literature. One of the writers who helped Horowitz make sense of what had happened to him and what was happening around him was the 17th century Catholic philosopher and scientist Blaise Pascal, whose PENSEES functions here as a model and guide. THE END OF TIME resembles the PENSEES in its striking combination of sense and sensibility, and in the way that its unflinching search for the truth is elevated by one stunning epiphany after another.Citing Pascal's famous observation that "the heart has its reasons which reason does not know," Horowitz concludes his journey by saying: "I do not have the faith of Pascal, but I know its feeling…. I will be unafraid when death comes. I will feel my way toward the horizon in front of me, and my heart will take me home." ... Read more

Book Description

The ultimate anthology of anecdotes, now revised with over 700 new entries - a must-have reference for every personal library.

From Hank Aaron to King Zog, Mao Tse-Tung to Madonna, Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes is the best source of anecdotes on the market. Featuring more than 2,000 people from around the world, past and present, in all fields, these short anecdotes provide remarkable insight into the human character. Ranging from the humorous to the tearful, they span classical history, recent politics, modern science, and the arts

Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes is a gold mine for anyone who gives speeches, is doing research, or simply likes to browse. As an informal tour of history and human nature at its most entertaining and instructive, this is sure to be a perennial favorite for years to come. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

a thousand good quick reads
I enjoyed this book throughly! It's an excellent resource for speech writing or for creating your own personal fables (to be passed on through conversation and lessons). I also liked how many of the stories were cross referenced when multiple people were involved, and how a few of them were retold in different ways when listed under different people.

My only complaint... (and this is a big one!) is that the list of celebrities and historical figures is extremely westernized. There are only a handful of eastern and middle eastern people represented. Even Eastern Europeans are greatly outnumbered by the British and American figures. And god forbid that we include anyone from the Southern hemisphere. I'd like to see more variety in the next edition, or even a companion book with some 'minority' focus in it.

Good AND terrible
As the other reviewer said, a fabulous book that is absolutely awful as an e-book. I have the hard copy, and use it frequently for speeches and talks. It is brilliant - pick one up, and you will sit down with it. But the e-book is as bad as the other reviewer mentioned - all the portabilitiy in the world can't make up for impossible searches and slowness. If I could get my money back, I would... Maybe it's just Microsoft Reader, but regardless, it makes the book virtually unusable.

Good book, terrible e-book
I purchased the Adobe e-book version of this book assuming it would be easier to use for reference than the print version. I was wrong. The Find feature is slow, cumbersome, and doesn't support Boolean searches. You can't copy or print even the smallest portions of the text. You cannot jump to a reference from its listing in the index. And when you click on the highlighting tool, you'll accidentally hit a link that periodically pops up for Amazon.com, opening your browser whether you want to or not. You cannot return this e-book, though you will be tempted to. Save yourself the money and buy a used copy and some sticky notes.

geat aid for trivia buffs & students
BARTLETT'S BOOK OF ANECDOTES is not this reviewer's normal work having mostly stayed with fiction. In fact, I had no plans to write a review, but my spouse was leafing through the book and started laughing. Motivated to take a look and not let it be a coffee table piece, I started to read some of the quotes from famous, not so famous (at least in my circle) and infamous people throughout history. I found myself intrigued, enjoying the comments that are often serious and obtaining additional pleasure from a brief biography of the contributor. In fairness, I have not finished the anecdotes, but read a few each night to simply relax as the book reminds me of A&E's "Biography for the Millennium" even though there are contributors from before 1000 AD. However, though entertaining and a remarkable research book, readers need to consider the price vs. the value before purchasing this tome.

Harriet Klausner ... Read more

Book Description

Genre authors, like genre fiction, are often ignored by traditional biographical dictionaries. Yet genre fans hunger for information about their favorite writers. This compilation focuses exclusively on 100 genre fiction authors--specifically today's most popular genre authors. It profiles representatives from all major genres including mystery/detective, crime, adventure/suspense, thriller, horror, fantasy, science fiction, western, historical, women's, and romance. While focusing on such contemporary authors as Julia Alvarez, Maeve Binchy, Tony Hillerman, Dean Koontz, Robert Ludlum, and others, a few mainstays whose works are still in print and widely read (e.g., J.R.R. Tolkien), are included. In addition to information about the personal and writing lives of this fascinating and diverse group, users will find a complete list of their published works--fiction and nonfiction. Black-and-white author photos accompany many of the profiles. ... Read more

Amazon.com

From Pietro Aaron to Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Don Randel compiles 1,013 pages of thumbnail sketches describing the life and music of 5,500 individuals who figure significantly in the world of music. Intended for "the musically inclined, the curious, the informed, and the expert," this is a beautiful, intelligent, and comprehensive volume that wants only its companion, The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, to feel complete. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Comprehensive and Inexpensive
One word. Wow! This book, combined with The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, makes a great resource for serious musicians, amateurs, and students alike. The near 6000 entries make this reference the best for its price. I've used the Baker on several occasions. While the Baker is certainly more comprehensive, a glance at its price (~$90) is enough to make one think twice. The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music, with its bargain price, is a must buy. Couple it with The New Harvard Dictionary of Music (which is the same price as the Biographical Dictionary), and you will have an unbeatable musical resource at your disposal. If you are REALLY tight on budget, then perhaps you may want to check out the Oxford Dictionary of Music. It accomplishes in 1 volume (and ~$34 compared to the Harvards' $54 combined) what the Harvard Dictionaries do in 2, though (understandably) to a much lesser extent. Nevertheless, the Harvard music references are still great buys, especially if you have a little extra cash to expend.

Excellent refereence.
Written by over 70 top musicologists, this splendid reference focuses on composers but also includes a generous selection of performers, theorists, and instrument makers, of all eras and genres, in nearly 6,000 entries.
Biographical details are of course provided, with a brief professional resume, (with longer entries for composers of greater significance), an accounting of major works, and a discerning bibliography where appropriate. The authors mention lifestyle issues when they bear heavily on the career of the subject (e.g., Chet Baker's heroin addiction), but the emphasis is on music, as it should be.
Coverage runs from Edouard Lalo to Little Richard, Johann Friedrich Fasch to Johnny Rotten, so whatever the musical taste, this dictionary will be useful. Highly recommended for music lovers of all persuasions.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.) ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Offensive and insulting
It is hard to tell what is truth and what is fiction in this book. In its attempt to be lighthearted and amusing, more often the tone appeared to be mocking the Catholic Church. If I were trying to learn about the lives of those holy men and women whose examples we try to copy in our walk with Jesus - well, I most definitely would not use this book or let anyone I knew read it.

Better than others of its type
I liked this book better than The Everything Lives of the Saints. The "Everything" series contained a lot of fabrication presented as fact.

This book includes a lot of legend, that's true, but the acknowledges in the book that there's no real way to separate what is fact and what is fiction. Even though a lot is mired in legend of a millenia or more, I found this book very accessible and enjoyable to read.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Lives of the Saints
My first impression is that this book is a joke. Granted there is a lot of truth to what is stated but there is so much fabrication intertwined with this truth that a person who is not grounded in the reality about the saints would leave this book with a complete misunderstanding of "the lives of the saints". I don't understand what Mr. Williams' goal was in writing this book. His hang up on sex that is entangled with these holy people makes me really wonder. Please do not read this book. There are many books out there that tell the true story of the lives of the saints. ... Read more

Book Description

This is a unique and conclusive reference work about the 6,000 individual men and women known to us from China’s formative first empires.Over decennia Michael Loewe (Cambridge, UK) has painstakingly collected all biographical information available. Not only those are dealt with who set the literary forms and intellectual background of traditional China, such as writers, scholars, historians and philosophers, but also those officials who administered the empire, and the military leaders who fought in civil warfare or with China’s neighbours.

The work draws on primary historical sources as interpreted by Chinese, Japanese and Western scholars and as supplemented by archaeological finds and inscriptions. By devoting extensive entries to each of the emperors the author provides the reader with the necessary historical context and gives insight into the dynastic disputes and their far-reaching consequences.

No comparable work exists for this important period of Chinese history. Without exaggeration a real must for historians of both China and other cultures. ... Read more

Book Description

During the last years of his violent life, Pablo Acosta smuggled a staggering 60 tons of cocaine a year into the United States-one third of the total U.S. consumption. Set only miles from the Texas border, Drug Lord is an extraordinary inside look at how drug trafficking really works in Mexico. Based on interviews with Acosta and other insiders, Poppa weaves a tale of the smuggler's rise from humble beginnings, his violent struggle to maintain control over his empire, the treachery and over-indulgence that fostered his downfall, and his grisly death at the hands of the judiciales, the Mexican federal police he had been paying off for years and who turned against him when he was no longer of use. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

A magazine atricle
Drug Lord is a series of news releases tacked together in story form. With a few interesting side trips. Terrene Poppa comes across as a journalist on a quest, but the ending is preordained and the life--drugs-ect.-- (the focus of his book) repititious. Pablo Acosta (drug lord) comes from humble beginnings and rises to power with violence and violence. A lot of people get killed, then more people get killed, and everybody is smuggling or taking drugs and then Pablo gets killed. The Mexican government in corrupt, as are an assortment of Amercan agents, but the two groups play the game, bad guys and good guys. What the book lacks is the first person power when something is written by somebody who actually experienced the life. Poppa is telling this tale from the outside, and while that suffices it leaves the reader with a hazy vision of what really was happening. Amazon thinks my reviews are partial and unfair. They're probably right, I'm too much of a critic. If though you are interested in the subject (drugs, mexico, trailer park violence) you can read this book. It's not bad, just didn't go the distance. I think.

A fascinating look at the Mexican drug cartel
Drug Lord is a pleasure to read even though its message is quite disturbing. Terrence Pappa's journalistic talents are obvious; by focusing primarily on the biography of the Mexican drug lord, Pablo Acosta, rather than directly on the issue of drug smuggling, he immediately engages the reader's interest. Acosta is a fascinating character, reminiscent in some ways of Chicago's Al Capone. However, there is one huge difference: Pappa provides convincing evidence that even most powerful drug lords, such as Acosta, are only pawns in a drug trade that involves the highest levels of the Mexico's ruling party including the brother of the former President and possibly even former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, himself. The rampant corruption in the PRI - the political party that has ruled Mexico over 70 years - illustrates how difficult it will be for Mexico to get its social and economic house in order. This means that we can expect the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs (and they are related) will end no time soon.

Excellent
Great story that exposes the ugly corrupt symbiotic elationship between the mexican drug dealers and the corrupt police and army officials. It also carefullly documents the inevitable, reccurring results...Still, with all the access to Pablo Agosta you still feel you really don't know him -perhaps there really wasn't any 'there' there--it was all about power and getting high,and killing the opposition.. There are no heroes in this story, just a grim reality which leads you to the conclusion that the more things supposedly change, the more they remain the same---no solutions offered for that part of the mexican/ american economy living on fumes. . . Oddly enough,legalization (with appropriate controls/education/treament) might offer a long term solution-these stories will inevitably get worse, more violent, and corrupt the very institutions created to suppress the drug lords GOOD Story that should have been told long ago The end was foretold early in the book so there is little suspense at the end--not great writing, but great story

GREAT READ
This is an awesome read for true crime lovers. I could not put it down.

Druglord
Druglord is the best biography that I have ever read. Poppa did a very good job describing the life of a Mexican drug dealer. This book was very sophisticated; it was hard for me to understand what he was trying to say. Poppa used very descriptive words and phrases such as Malice aforethought, and audacious. After reading this book, I realized that the audience is mainly adults. I never imagined drug trafficking being as big as it was or as big as Acosta was. When I read this book, I was surprised when the book revealed that Pablo moved over sixty tons of just cocaine alone every year that he was in business. Then it he said that he also dealt with Marijuana and Heroin. Another thing that just blew my mind was that he paid the Mexican Federal Police (The Judicials) for protection. Poppa was so well descriptive, I had pictures and scenes playing in my head about some of the drug deals and when the American Police were constantly chasing him when he was dealing here. Overall, this was a very good book. Nobody knows how often drug trafficking happened and how much money they used to make off of it. A month ago, there was a drug bust in Iowa and it sounded just like the way Pablo Acosta ran his faction. The man used planes just like Acosta, and was dealing the same amount that Acosta was but he was making more money because the price has gone up now. I would recommend this book to anyone that like challenging books. ... Read more

Book Description

How did you first learn about sex? If you grew up in the 1970s, it may have been from a gleefully lusty tour guide named Xaviera Hollander

In the late 1960s -- that era of sexual chaos, when Playboy Clubs and love-ins were competing for national attention -- a beautiful, intelligent young Dutch secretary named Xaviera de Vries moved to New York, grew swiftly tired of her desk job . . . and soon became the most visible and glamorous madam the city had ever seen. As Xaviera Hollander, she published a shockingly candid account of her life behind the brothel door. The Happy Hooker shot straight to the top of the bestseller lists, sold more than fifteen million copies, and made this enterprising young woman an international phenomenon.

Thirty years later, these delightfully explicit tales of the '60s and '70s swingers' scene -- including countless jaw-dropping stories of lesbianism, bondage, fetishism, and more -- remain as titillating as ever, charged with the mix of shrewd observation and uninhibited appetite that made Hollander an irresistible storyteller. The Happy Hooker is a classic: the world's greatest book on the world's oldest profession.

Reviews (4)

Very Interesting Read
I recently purchased Xaviera's book and found it to be enlightening in some areas, though terribly exaggerated in other areas. As someone with experience in the sex industry, I'd have to say that some of her experiences just don't add up. That's not to say that she isn't a wonderful writer. She is indeed. But I would have been more pleased with an honest, straight-forward account of her life as a hooker and madame, versus an embellished rendition of what actually took place. All in all, it was worth purchasing used.

Amazingly Candid!
A friend ordered this book and I laughed, then when my used bookstore recieved a copy I decided to check it out. I am glad I did.

The first few chapters are very explicit as Xaviera details her blossoming as a young nymphomaniac and describes many lurid sexual activities. Then the writing describes more or less her transformation into a prostitute high priced call girl (considering the times) and madam. Xaviera Hollander may be the happy hooker but she smashes the sterotypes by being an educated, intelligent and artitulate narrator.

This book is written with two other people, and that I confess is main reason I didn't give it five stars. While it is no doubt in Xaviera's own words reading it sub-consciously I did wonder how edited the text was. At times I felt her collaboraters did an almost too fine a job polishing the narrative much like some songs can be over-produced my over-all impression of this work was one of over-production.

That said it is a honest memoir that does not glorify the profession or gloss over life's uglier incidents and sides, in short a detailed life of a lady suited to be a madam due to her love of sex and the circumstances of life. An entertaining and yes informative book.

How much do I love this book?
I can't even say how fabulous this book is! I can barely think of why its so fabulous! You so have to read it to believe it! I was in love with the book by page 1 when it opened with the story of the author, a madam, and her girls in jail for not the first time being harrassed by street hookers ratting their wigs and doing their nails. But this isn't some sad HBO documentary! It really is...a celibration almost of human sexuality and the people who cater to its needs. An amazingly honest, unapologetic, upbeat look at the world of the sex worker I recommend it wholeheartedly as a thoroughly entertaining and liberating read!

Retro Perhaps, But Revised Throughout
"How did YOU first learn about sex?" the reviews ask. Even more importantly, when? I'll confess that I learned about it in the 1970s, and that "a gleefully lusty tour guide named Xaviera Hollander" was responsible. The volume that started it all, "The Happy Hooker: My Own Story" is now titillating a new generation of readers who cut their teeth on matter-of-fact sex guides like "Savage Love" or Dr. Ruth Westheimer's preachy "Sex for Dummies." While many may wonder what all the fuss was about, the truth is that today's twenty-somethings can't begin to imagine how shocking this book was when it first appeared in February 1972, when most of us still gasped after hearing the word "damn" on TV.

Reared in the liberal Netherlands, the author discovers early on that she is bisexual -- and ultimately, it seems, sexually insatiable as well. Relating her own personal experiences in vivid detail, Xaviera chronicles how the sexual revolution of the 1960s hit full stride at the beginning of the 1970s. In the days before AIDS, she would regularly meet people of either sex, engage in small talk with them, and take them to bed before the night was over. Many ships pass in the night this way throughout the book, yet the author's first sexual encounter with a man is strangely given short shrift. Presumably it wasn't as memorable as her many other adventures and escapades. Entering adulthood, she migrates to South Africa at a time when apartheid and other repressive laws are still in force. Bored within a matter of days, she seduces her brother-in-law and spices up his previously boring marriage to her half-sister before moving on to the staid Johannesburg club scene, where she promptly makes a name for herself. In no time she meets an American globetrotter who seems to bring her the satisfaction she craves, and he proposes marriage to her. She accepts, and he invites her to New York, where tension breaks out almost immediately between her and his youth-obsessed, and possibly alcoholic, mother. While subtly exposing the sexual hypocrisy that was part and parcel of our society at the time, Xaviera nonetheless tries to make her relationship with her fiancé work. Secret affairs on both their parts, however, hers always with women, eventually drive them apart.

Frustrated, Xaviera begins sleeping her way across Manhattan and is initially shocked when she is first offered money in exchange for what she thought was just good clean fun. Never the type to say no, she quickly quashes her misgivings and, in what some critics see as a parody of the traditional American work ethic, begins working her way up from meeting her clients in seedy tenements in Greenwich Village to setting her own hours at more chic "houses of pleasure" in the fashionable East Fifties. She climbs the proverbial ladder of success by working for two competing madams and then, in spite of police harassment, setting up a service of her own when one of her former bosses retires to get married. Along the way we're introduced to a gallery of eccentrics, some harmless, many menacing, who populate the demimonde of prostitution, a profession society at large still condemns as a crime that warrants punishment. You'll learn, among other things, why Greek men are her favorite lovers, and why she left Swinging Amsterdam during its heyday.

This "30th Anniversary Edition" actually tones down a lot of the material found in the original. Xaviera's former "fag" friends, whom she sometimes patronizes, are now "gay," for instance, and her encounter with a German shepherd in South Africa, of which she once wrote, "I'd be a moral fraud if I ignored it," is eliminated completely. One chapter, originally entitled "Biff-Bam-Thank-You-Ma'am," has been completely rewritten as "Whipped (S)cream," with its seamier elements considerably softened. Almost ten pages of material have been snipped in all, including much of the moralizing the author once did to justify her lifestyle, which, owing to the occupational hazards she describes in detail, she quickly abandoned after her book became a bestseller. Translated into a dozen languages, "The Happy Hooker" may indeed have changed the way the world regards prostitutes and their trade, and maybe even sex in general, but this expurgated edition proves that our present attitudes toward the subject aren't as liberal as they might have been. The book is thus a window on the past, reframed with modern-day sensibilities. If you can find it, read the original first, to gauge for yourself how far we've come in three decades. ... Read more

Book Description

The publication of the first volumes of Notable American Women in 1971 was a watershed event in women�s history. By uncovering and documenting the enormous contributions that women had made�previously overlooked or underappreciated�this important reference work changed the way historians thought and wrote about American history.This latest volume brings the project up to date, with entries on almost 500 women whose death dates fall between January 1, 1976, and December 31, 1999. The era they shared coincides with the great expansion of opportunities for women in the twentieth century. You will find here stars of the golden ages of radio, film, dance, and television; scientists and scholars; politicians and entrepreneurs; authors and aviators; civil rights activists and religious leaders; Native American craftspeople and world-renowned artists. Women from a broad spectrum of ethnic, class, political, religious, and sexual identities are all acknowledged.For each subject, Notable American Women offers a substantial interpretive biographical essay by a distinguished authority that integrates the woman�s personal life with her professional achievements set in the context of larger historical developments.This volume will be an indispensable reference for students and scholars of women�s history and for anyone interested in the rich and varied lives led by distinguished American women. ... Read more

Book Description

Wine into Words, 2nd edition, contains nearly 8000 entries, thousands of annotations covering everything wine has touched: art, literature, music, history, food, winemaking, grape growing, poetry, politics, religion, and war, and hundreds of biographical sketches of the men and women who pioneered wine's development and recorded its history. ... Read more

Book Description

From a rediscovered collection of priceless autobiographical accounts written by hundreds of pioneer women, Joanna Stratton has made a remarkable and widely celebrated book. Never before has there been such a detailed record of women's courage, such a living portrait of the women who civilized the American frontier. Here are their stories: wilderness mothers, schoolmarms, Indian squaws, immigrants, homesteaders, and circuit riders. Their personal recollections of prairie fires, locust plagues, cowboy shootouts, Indian raids, and blizzards on the plains vividly reveal the drama, danger and excitement of the pioneer experience.

These were women of relentless determination, whose tenacity helped them to conquer loneliness and privation. Their work was the work of survival, it demanded as much from them as from their men -- and at last that partnership has been recognized. "These voices are haunting" (New York Times Book Review), and they reveal the special heroism and industriousness of pioneer women as never before. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Pioneer Women
I had never heard of the book until I started doing research on my honeys family. One of the women that Ms. Stratton talks about was my honeys ggrandmother. Her name was Katharine Dunsworth. It help so much to bring their lifes into the furture. So, now our children and grandchildren can really see what it took for these women to go through, that we might be born. I wish that all the history classes in kansas or even other part of the country would have to read this kind of story so they might thank their lucky stars that we live in this time and not then. I do really what to thank people like joanna who take their time to do these books so that the rest of us can enjoy them.

It was women like these that made this country strong!
A fast, facinating read. The courage these women had to have just to live day to day, brought tears to my eyes! Without their strength, courage, and resourcefulness the frontier would never have been tamed! This should be required reading for every woman from these United States!

Thank you Pioneer Women and thank you Joanna Stratton for sharing these incredible stories!

Haunting
I read this book when it was first published, and then recommended it to friends and, ultimately, passed it on and it has never been returned. Year after year the story comes back to me as one of the finest I have every read. J. Stratton wrote this novel after finding a stash of letters in a family attic, and there's nothing like true life for gripping drama. A gem.

Great book!
Stratton is great at combining research done by the author and first-hand accounts from written diaries and letters. It also has great pictures that give the reader a clear idea of what life was like in the pioneer days. This book makes you want to read and learn more about the little-know lives of pioneer women.

Gritty, eye-opening look at lives on the frontier.
I read this book many years ago and still revisit the memories of how women and children lived during those frontier years.I'm ordering another copy to pass on. I have recommended this book to many, including adolescent students in my classrooms. Rather than the romantic, Hollywood views of these times, this book offers raw images of the harshness of life from the actual women who struggled on the frontier. The book is a compilation of letters the author's grandmother requested and received from these women. If you want to validate how fortunate we are to live in these times, read this book! ... Read more

Book Description

An American legend rewrites a remarkably contemporary Adam and Eve. In tackling the first three chapters of Genesis, Twain creates a story of The First Couple who are psychologically familiar to even 21st Century Americans.He wrote the Diaries as a tribute to his own marriage, so they are also his most heartfelt and personal work.Between 1893 and 1906, he attempted six versions; only these satisfied him and were published in his lifetime.

This expanded edition is • beautifully illustrated • faithful to Twain's final rewrites • faithful to Twain's wish that the two tales be "bound together" • and includes passages published for the first time. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

A tender, moving love story!
Although Mark Twain uses the story of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis as the framework for these "diaries," the biblical couple and his are two entirely different stories. Having said that, Twain's version is such a touching love story, especially as it is rendered in this recording, it is worth hearing (or reading) without making any comparisons to the first Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

I mention this because a high school student recently inquired with me about Twain's views on religion, and thought that these diaries might shed some light in his beliefs. While I encouraged her to read or listen to Twain's account, simply because of the beauty of the story, I don't think they shed much light on Twain's religious views.

I did find it interesting that Twain's Adam and Eve barely mention God at all. Perhaps that is a notable observation on his views of religion after all.

Twain's tender observations on the nature of men, women and love is what makes this a moving tale. Walter Cronkite's commentary at the end makes one appreciate the story even more.

A loving good heart
Twain long had an interest in Adam and Eve. His renewed focus on Adam and Eve in 1893 was touched off by his writing calendar maxims for Pudd'nhead Wilson, in which the Edenic couple appear. After that novel, he began Extracts from Adam's Diary, and followed that with Eve's Diary. Now Don E. Roberts has collected these writings along with four others by Twain that concern the Edenic pair in one narrative. For many readers familiar only with Twain's tales about mischievous boys or cranky characters, this work, one of the great love stories of all time, will come as a real surprise. Whether you're interested in Twain or not, if your heart hasn't atrophied, you will love The Diaries of Adam and Eve. Roberts's profound love of the art of the book is evident in every detail, from the illustrated dust jacket, which features a rare 1902 Thomas Marr photograph of Twain at Quarry Farm on the back; to the Smythe sewn binding in gold-stamped Kennett cloth; to the high-quality printing on acid-free paper; to the eight beautiful illustrations commissioned specifically for this volume. I have the book and the CD. If you are just going to get one I would suggest the CD because of Betty Buckley's superb performance reading Eve's part. Twain translated Eve as saying "a loving good heart is riches, and riches enough". After reading this fine volume I'm inclined to agree with her.

Had me laughing out loud.
This book is so funny! Put yourself in Adam's shoes: you have been alone on Paradise for some time, and suddenly appears this talking creature that follows you around. Adam's thoughts on Eve and the world are hillarious. And then comes the tale from Eve - who loves Adam very much-, which is tender and still fun.

I read this book with my wife and she was laughing too. Then I lent it to a friend. He read it and passed it on to his wife.

I read Mark Twain on high school, and time only makes it better.

Now I'm after "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".

Lovely book!
The Diaries of Adam and Eve is one of my favorite books. It's so gentle, funny, and deeply true I find myself loaning it to friends and giving it as a gift whenever I can. If you've not read Twain since Huckleberry Finn was forced upon you in junior high, this is a wonderful way to start reading Mark Twain's work again. If you've been looking for something to restore your faith in the worth of that whole man-woman thing, treat yourself to this book.

Wonderful and enchanting.
The Diaries of Adam & Eve is an incredible representation of both sides of Mark Twain. The cynical side that most people seem to know, as well as a softer side that has largely been kept hidden.

From the unflinching stubborn "maleness" of Adam to the innocent yet knowing Eve, this book is an amazing testement of Twain's love for his ailing wife. It was her persuasion that led him to write the sweetly naive character of Eve. The gentleness of the work is very touching and may be a surprise for people who think that Twain was just a tetchy grown-up Tom Sawyer. Adam and Eve both have equal say in various "experiments" in their new world and their wonderful differing interpretations of shared events make the characters pop off of the page and into your soul.

I would also recommend the audio version of this book as read by Mandy Patinkin, Betty Buckley, and Walter Cronkite. The true musical nature of the text and the spirit of Twain's words really come to life in a spoken format and may move you to tears. ... Read more

Book Description

“I think Ralph fell in love with the uphillness in me. I could keep up with him on windy passes and minor climbing peaks. But I never stayed with him on the downhill. He was always too fast. He’d wait patiently for me at the bottom of a black diamond run, at the end of a long, winding mountain road, or at the foot of a crag. He was happy when I could get to the bottom of anything. I wasn’t with him the day he had the accident that left him a C-4 quadriplegic. Perhaps it’s the uphillness in me that is keeping me with him now. It’s all uphill from here. No more downhills to carve through gracefully or sail down safely; only up, up, up.” —from the Introduction

Suzy Parker and her husband, Ralph Hager, spent every free moment together biking, skiing, and hiking. All that changed in a split second when a freak cycling accident left Ralph permanently paralyzed below the shoulders. In that moment, Suzy’s old life fell away and her new one began. In Tumbling After, Suzy chronicles her transformation from carefree outdoorswoman to full-time caregiver, and paints a loving portrait of the impromptu, oddball family of concerned neighbors and friends who become her new lifeline. With Jerry, the tender ex-con; Momma Scott, a guardian angel and force of nature in a feather boa; and Harka, the culture-shocked Nepalese, at their side, Suzy and Ralph weather the loss of old friends and learn to embrace a new way of life with hope and a healing dose of the absurd.

This astonishing memoir, devoid of self-pity and told with breathtaking candor and a wry sense of humor, is an inspiring journey that is ultimately a story of survival and second chances—and the unexpected joy and love that can grow out of grief if given the slightest encouragement. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

A must-read for all human beings
Tumbling After is the story of how a woman copes after her husband suffers a devastating injury. But it's also the story of a remarkable woman who builds a remarkable family and not only lives on, but thrives. This book is proof: we all have strength and creativity within us that may not make itself evident until we need it. It's also proof that Susan Parker is a gifted writer. The pages sing with laughter as well as pathos. The book will make you rejoice in Susan's humanity, and your own.

Susan, keep up the good work please.
I am sorry it took me so long to discover this book. I have been a fan of Ms. Parker since I first began reading her columns in the SF Chronicle. This book is one of those you want to read slowly so that it lasts longer but find you can't put it down. Susan has a wonderful knack for untainted honesty as she reports on the universal joys and sorrows of human life. She guides the reader into her world without trying to assign blame or seek justification, a truly refreshing approach in this day and age. Can't wait for the sequel! -Cindy

Another Quad Wife Speaks
As the wife of a quadriplegic I was very interested to see what Susan Parker had to say about her life. The description of the devastation, hopelessness and helplessness women feel when they come into this situation was excellent. The potrayal of the feeling of being totally overwhelmed and burned out by the intensity of it all was very real to me.

This is where the excellence of the book ended. It was extremely redundant, telling almost the same story over and over with a slightly different twist. I was quickly bored. It was obvious that it was a collection of short antecdotes written for her newspaper column and not a cohesive book. I was determined to finish it and was only able to tough it out to the end because of the perseverence I've learned from being a Quad Wife.

It was appalling to read that her husband is kept a virtual prisoner in the living room of the house they live in. No adaptations have been made since 1994 to make the rest of the home accessible to him? He has a life of watching TV? What is that all about?

I am also wondering why a woman who says she is intelligent did not seek out the available programs which provide excellent, in home assistance to people with disabilities. Had she taken advantage of such programs, both she and her husband would have much improved lives.

Worldview Changing and Hilarious
I picked this book up with about 15 others from the new non-fiction section at my library in preparation vacation reading. I got through my entire selection, but this is the one book that, in a truly meaningful way, became part of my consciousness. I then had the opportunity to choose a book for my bookclub, and it was a no-brainer: Tumbling After. I think the book just speaks to a place in one's heart.

Although at times I wanted to shake Suzy Parker, there was never a time in the book where I couldn't relate in some way to her. Since none of us know what lies ahead in life, we can all imagine ourselves in Suzy Parker's shoes, and I would hope that I would handle any situation of the same magnitude with similar grace, honesty, and humanity. When white, middle class Suzy finds herself in the position of forming a "new family" with folks whose background and lifestyle were formerly not even on her radar, it proves beyond doubt that "love is thicker than blood". She faces up to her biases very bravely, and finds true friendship and camraderie.

Lastly, but just as importantly, I laughed hysterically throughout, which was hard to explain to family members who inquired of the subject matter of such an apparently funny book (quadraplegia? - huh?). But I just loved Suzy Parker's soul.

The Real Deal
I saw Suzy Parker at a book reading in Seattle and she said, "One thing you learn being in the disabled community is that there is always someone worse off than you." And she shows us some of these people--with a clear eye and a sense of humor. What I really love about her story is its truth. There is no self-pity. Even when she says "this [stinks], I wonder if I can make," she just plows ahead.

The story is accessible and never maudlin even when it is grim. And there is plenty of humor and adventure to pull the reader through the tight little chapters.

This story is the real deal--a great read, a compelling story, and a few lessons along the way. ... Read more