No comments about Watching Our Crops Come In.

No comments about Flowing Streams: Journeys of a Life Well Lived.

2 comments about On Hashish.

1. Benjamin aptly describes the bipolar nature of his own intoxicated illumination when he writes that, in "the imagination put in thrall to thinking during hashish intoxication," there are two "different sorts of powers: a genius of melancholy gravity, another of Ariel-like spirituality." Here, first, is an illustration of Benjamin's genius for melancholic heaviness: "In the end, things are merely mannequins, and even the great moments of world history are only costumes beneath which they exchange glaces of complicity with nothingness, with the petty and the banal. Such nihilism is the innermost core of bourgeois coziness -- a mood that in hashish intoxication concentrates to satanic contentment, satanic knowing, satanic calm..." Here, next, an example of his more uplifting, "Ariel-like spirituality": "Versailles, for one who has taken hashish, is not too large, nor eternity too long. Against the background of these immense dimensions of inner experience, of absolute duration and immeasurable space, a wonderful, beatific humor dwells all the more fondly on the contingencies of the world of space and time." In the end, sadly, the darkness seems to have won out over the light in Bejamin's own life, but one wonders whether that fate would have been averted had he not lived through such dark days? Still, Benjamin believed in the revolutionary potential of the experiences he describes in this book to lighten the times, and he came to advocate a "profane illumination" that would be capable of recapturing the transformative insights hashish (and also opium and mescaline) afforded without continually requiring the drugs themselves. Such ideas seem to me to be well worth pondering.
   
   This is wonderful, nostalgia-inducing, provocative collection of Benjamin's waking dreams and wandering reflections.



2. I bought this book because it came as a bit of a shock to me that the uptight highbrow metaphysician, Walter Benjamin, had experimented with hashish. I knew, as one does, about his suicide by taking a morphine tablet. But I imagined that this was a one time thing, done as a way of escaping Nazi arrest.
   
   Well, what do we get when a rather tedious, uptight German metaphysician smokes some pot? An uptight, convoluted, ponderous description of it. German philosophers tend to write this way you know, as any reader who has had to plough through Kant and Hegel is well aware.
   
   In today's era, when every other suburban housewife smokes a joint from time to time, all these "insights" cited by the editorials seem more than absurd. They rise to the level of high camp. All this convoluted, philosophical introspection to describe the increase in appetite-You know, getting the "munchies"-almost made me titter aloud, as Benjamin does when he ingests the drug, and acts as if this is some profound revelation about the absurdity of existence. I'm sure we all remember those dorm room giggles.
   
   Yes, one can argue that this is a jaded age and that our familiarity with all these effects does not vitiate a profound philosopher's insights. I wouldn't want to argue it though.
   This age is not any more jaded than the one in which Benjamin took his life rather than be captured by the mass murderers unleashed throughout Europe at the time. And his insights are not profound. They're typical of German metaphysical twaddle, and, as such, excruciatingly tedious and boring.
   
   Maybe there is somebody out there who would appreciate this book, some pale admirer of the German metaphysicians who is still rereading Hegel to unlock his insights. They don't exist - that goes for Benjamin as well as Hegel.

5 comments about Between Heaven and Ground Zero: One Woman's Struggle for Survival and Faith in the Ashes of 9/11.

1. God will get our attention one way or another but it is up to us to listen and Leslie listened. Did God cause 911? No, but He will use circumstances!



2. It's rare that I read a book that is so graphic in its depiction of horror that I feel like I need to set it down and walk away for a while. Between Heaven and GROUND ZERO is such a book. In it, Leslie Haskin, an insurance company executive, pulls no punches in recounting her harrowing escape from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
   
   "More than anything, I wish I could speak of joy that came through all of the suffering on that particular morning, but I cannot. There was none, " she writes. "However, in the greatest moments of desperation and overwhelming sorrow, God's loving and outstretched arms were waiting for my acceptance. I now know that His holy presence and peace called to me at every point of overwhelming despondency and paralyzing trepidation.
   
   I know that the Lord walked with me through that concourse. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...
   
   He held me as my head turned about quickly and my eye scoped every inch of what remained. I will fear no evil.
   
   It was another place entirely. It was surreal, like a 3-D movie; too gigantic and slow to participate in, yet too fast for retreat. I felt vulnerable and very mortal. For thou art with me.
   
   Everything I saw broke my heart a little more. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me... Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the hour of the Lord for ever.
   
   Amen."
   
   In a note to the reader and at the beginning of the book, Haskin acknowledges that her story is just one fragment of the mosaic of personal stories that make up the truth about what happened on 9/11. Her retelling is flawed insomuch as she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and the factual details of that day continue to be shrouded in a veil of pain. And yet, Haskin provides a brave and powerful testament to the horror perpetrated on 9/11 through her willing to tell us what she remembers, so that we, too, never forget.
   
   The details of Leslie's descent from her top-floor office via a staircase after the planes hit the World Trade Center is like a vision of a descent into hell. Her vivid descriptions of the warped building and suffering people around her are harrowing and disturbing. Even after all the media and cultural attention paid to this event, I gained a new sense of what evil was perpetrated on 9/11.
   
   But more than being a story of collapsed towers, Between Heaven and Ground Zero is the story of a woman undone in a moment of extreme suffering. Leslie freely admits to the pride and hubris she had cultivated and harbored as a result of her successful career. By the morning of 9/11, she had long since strayed from the Christian faith of her childhood, instead worshipping the gods of money and power. And of course, these gods proved fickle during the slow march to safety that started in her office and forced her to continue walking in fear and pain many months after the attacks.
   
   In the years that followed 9/11, Leslie lost her job, her car and her home. Her bout with PTSD has been severe and required intense medication and therapy. Her life as she knew it lay in rubble not unlike Towers 1 and 2. But, very much unlike those towers, Leslie has been rebuilt and stands tall again --- not in her own strength, but in the steadfast love of God.
   
   She writes, "And so I have learned that my life does not belong to me. I understand now how words exhale life, and I will never again hold my breath for so long a time as this. I have relearned to inhale and then to exhale, and as I breathe through Him, the Lord, that is, something wonderful happens --- distance. Space comes between my emotions and me, and it yields an unexpected but welcome gift --- faith. My world broadens until my vision lifts high above the 'soils of despair' and I am soaring. Hallelujah!!"
   
   Hallelujah, indeed.
   
   --- Reviewed by Lisa Ann Cockrel



3. The first half of this story was ....as I had expected......terrifying. Knowing it was all too true made it even more so. However....the second half of the book became repetitious. Perhaps it had to be written that way but I felt it really let down more and more to the finish.



4. Leslie Haskin begins this first-person 9/11 account by stating that she suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder. Given that she barely escaped from the 36th floor of the World Trade Center's Tower One, Haskin's anguish is understandable. In her diary-style memoir, this highly successful businesswoman details the events of that horrific day along with the dramatic changes made to her life - and worldview - following the attacks. Although Haskin's writing tends toward stream of consciousness, which can be difficult to follow, her story is both riveting and inspirational.



5. I am a member of the Book Babes Book Club in Georgia, and we have had the opportunity to read many different books from many different authors. Leslie Haskin's account of what happened on that day moved me. She clearly showed how that horrific day started, normally, as any other. What touched me the most was the horrible aftermath that she endured. She really portrayed the suffering that many people went through and are still going through as a result of 9/11. I have a new respect for the survivors, and I know that God brought Ms. Haskins through this ordeal to share her story and motivate others to focus on what is truly important in life. Even after all that she went through, and all that she lost, Ms. Haskins has found peace and a way to give back to those less fortunate. This is an excellent book.

3 comments about The Bookmaker's Daughter: A Memory Unbound.

1. Originally published in 1991, and now featuring a new introduction by award-winning author Shirley Abbott, The Bookmaker's Daughter: A Memory Unbound is the poignant memoir of a daughter remembering her father, growing up in Arkansas in the 30's and 40's. Her father survived the tough times of the depression not through the trade of physically making books, but rather through the business of gambling and horse racing. Yet The Bookmaker's Daughter is about books in another way; the father who once read to his young daughter and stimulated her imagination saw her outgrow her small home town and head for New York City after graduation, against his wishes. A heartfelt tale of family bonds thicker than water, stronger than time.



2. I read her story when it was first published, also lost it after lending it to a friend. Since I didn't remember the author or title, it was left as a memory of a book I enjoyed both for the story AND the word-craft. I would compare the satisfaction of reading this bood with that of "Daughters and Rebels" (Also published as Hons and Rebels) by Jessica Mitford. Suddenly, last night, the title popped into my head, and here I am, ordering it for myself and several friends and daughters...



3. I read this book several years ago.I lent it to a co-worker who moved away from this area.Unfortunately,we lost touch & I lost my book.Recently,I purchased a new copy for myself & am just now getting around to rereading it.I strongly identify with the writer,even though our lives are very different.Her love for her father touches me deeply.I will always prefer to read a biography or autobiography to fiction any day.

No comments about Signs and Wonders.

4 comments about Vertigo: A Memoir (The Cross-Cultural Memoir Series).

1. I found this memoir in one of my favorite bookstores and thought it would be good. The copy I found was very creased in the spine and the jacket looked worn as well. Inside I found pink highlighting, blue ink underlining and some handwritten notes in the margins. I thought the cover looked interesting..covers can (sometimes) tell you a lot about the book..and in this case that is very true. The author, Louise, captured my interest in the author Virginia Wolff--so that author goes on my list of authors and books to read. As memoirs are so good at doing I have gotten another whole set of books to read from reading just this one memoir. Memoirs have a way of doing that. :)



2. I have read a great many books on writing, and written a few myself. But Writing as a Way of Healing has gone straight to the top of my list of favorites, and I suspect that it will stay there for a very long time--perhaps for all time. But in the process of reading this book, I discovered I had to read the book that went before it, and now I want to tell you about both.
   
   Louise DeSalvo has been teaching English and creative writing for nearly twenty years. The first in her working-class Italian family to graduate from college, she escaped a soul-deadening home life--a depressed mother, an angry father--by reading, going to the movies, and dating, dating, dating. It wasn't until the late 1980's, when she wrote a scholarly book about the impact of childhood sexual abuse on the life and work of Virginia Woolf that she began to come to terms with her own childhood traumas and the lingering shadows of her mother's death and her sister's suicide. She dealt with her pain, anxiety, and depression in a memoir called Vertigo (now available in paperback, published by Plume), in which she explored her own story. Vertigo isn't a pleasant book, or easy--it's about hidden pain and the depression and despair into which a woman can fall when she attempts to avoid self-knowledge. But it is a necessary book, for through it, DeSalvo learns that the process of life-writing is also the process of healing. What she discovered in Vertigo, and what she subsequently put to use in her own teaching, is the subject and object of Writing As a Way of Healing.
   
   DeSalvo's section and chapter titles, by themselves, are helpful clues to the book's significance. The first section is called "Writing as a Way of Healing," and contains four chapters: Why Write, How Writing Can Help Us Heal, Writing as a Therapeutic Process, and Writing Pain, Writing Loss. Section Two is called "The Process/The Program," and has four chapters: The Healing Power of the Writing Process, Caring for Ourselves as We Write; and Stages of Growth I and II. The third section, "From Woundedness to Wholeness Through Writing" contains two chapters: Writing the Wounded Psyche and Writing the Wounded Body. The Epilogue is called "From Silence to Testimony." Each of the chapters contains suggestions for writing, examples (from such writers as Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid, Isabel Allende, Djuna Barnes), discussion, and ideas--lots of ideas, so many ideas that you'll find yourself wanting to stop reading and start writing (something that DeSalvo herself, no doubt, would applaud).
   
   DeSalvo refers extensively to a favorite researcher of mine--Dr. James Pennebaker--whose book Opening Up has been an important influence on my own understanding of the healing power of the writing process. When we use writing to explore traumatic or anxiety-provoking events in detail, together with the feelings that arise from those events, the writing process can help us to understand more clearly, cope in a more balanced way, and even feel better physically. Seen from this point of view, life-writing becomes a lifetime project, as we unravel the meanings of events and explore our responses to them. When we commit ourselves to this very important lifelong project--recognizing that we don't write our story once and for all and forget it!--we commit ourselves to a lifetime of learning, growing and healing.
   
   by Susan Wittig Albert
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



3. I got into this novel right away and couldn't put it down. I loved how the story kept jumping back and forth but that it all came together so well. Totally inspirational read in so many ways.



4. Louise DeSalvo's memoir captivates the reader. It offers an honest portrayal of depression's effects on her life, as well as the lives of her more clinically depressed mother and sister.

   DeSalvo transforms the pain of her life into art. This is an inspirational story that will allow you a deeper look into the effect depression has had on this brilliant Virginia Woolf scholar.

5 comments about No Mountain High Enough: Raising Lance, Raising Me.

1. Reading Linda's story I instantly knew I'd want to lend this book to my Mum after I'd finished it. Are high achievers born or made? You won't find the answer in reading this book, but you'll see how a determined young woman who had every reason to fail succeeded and raised a champion. More importantly I feel - this story isn't just about Lance. It's definitely hers, it's quirky and charming, easy to read and definitely gives you a feel for her character. I preferred It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life - but I definitely recommend this as a great follow up read.
   Kirsty Dunphey, Author Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can



2. Linda Armstrong started out with enough strikes to doom most to a mediocre life - daughter of divorced parents and a drunkard father (stopped drinking when Lance was born), married at 16, mother at 17, expelled from high school for being pregnant, and abused by husband whom she eventually left. Instead, she raised (inspired, cheered, protected, funded, and assisted his early development and becoming a champion, and then added her inner strength to Lance's during a devastating cancer encounter) a world renowned bicycling champion and major force in cancer research and support.
   
   At the same time Linda went on to complete her GED and worked her way up to a high-level position within a large communications firm. It was not all success for Linda, however - she also had to go through two additional failed marriages (a philanderer, and a drunkard), before finally finding her "true love."
   
   After reading the book it is clear that both Lance Armstrong AND his mother, Linda, are very exceptional and inspirational individuals. I wish I had read this book myself before becoming a parent - my approach and perspectives would hopefully have greatly improved.



3. I am glad Lance's Mom decided to write her story. After I read It's Not About the Bike, I was inspired and eager to learn how a seemingly super-human came to be. Now I know: his Mom exudes energy, enthusiasm, and optimism without bounds: who could lose with such incredible and selfless support screaming in your ear on each lap of the race.
   
   This is a book that focuses primarily on Linda Armstrong Kelly. Lance plays a pivotal but supporting role in the story. She is honest and forthright about the men in her life; other women have just shriveled and become bitter. She is unabashedly supportive of her son, in spite of his adolescent fixation with speeding and dangerous shenanagans with his pals. And... she raised a smart son who loves and respects his mother, especially shielding her from some of the pranks that would drive many parents to pack their son off to some military academy. The fireballs come to mind as I write this.
   
   She is a mom that celebrates Mother's Day, everyday. Now, if she can figure out a way to bottle and sell her optimism and energy! Enjoy the read.



4. A very well written book bringing the reader the life of an adoring Mother and her son. Neither would give up on their individual dreams in their respective pursuits of happiness in their lives. Enjoyable, insightful reading start to finish. Many congrats to both, and a special congratualtion to Lance for winning his seventh Tour deFrance.



5. Funny, sad, interesting, well-written, inspirational. I have great respect and admiration for Linda Armstrong Kelly. She is a remarkable woman with an incredible ability to adapt to any situation life throws her way. What a great woman!

5 comments about Queen Victoria: A Personal History.

1. As a self described Anglophile, I have read countless royal biographies and histories, mainly focusing on the Tudor and Stuart eras. I decided to dive into Queen Victoria with this book and it did not disappoint!
   
   Although a long book, Hibbert traces the life of Victoria in an engrossing and interesting way that keeps you turning the pages. Victoria comes to life in all of her capriciousness. Her mercurial personality, painted so vividly through the observations of others and through her own diary entries, makes you alternatively detest her, think her mad, then go to loving or pitying her.
   
   The only thing that prevents this from being a five star review is that the organization of the book sometimes threw me off. While generally a chronological account of Victoria's life, some chapters, such as one covering the Price of Wales, leap ahead. It is not too jarring, but sometimes irritating.
   
   Overall, a wonderful read that gives real insight into a woman whose myth and spectre looms so large. My true rating is 4.5 stars.



2. i guess growing up knowing you will rule england make you believe the world around you was there to please you.growing up her mother keep her away from other kids,turning into a grown up without being a child.when she finally broke away she was queen.then she married albert and nine kids later .after albert death she was in mourning that she wanting all around to share .she in later year became a very selfcenter woman who couldn't see other's point of view.



3. I really enjoyed the book, but it gets so wordy, that it has literally put my daughters to sleep. My only wish is that he would have relied less on letting us know who people were (titles, positions, etc.) and more on Victoria's personality and life. I did enjoy her love affair with her husband!



4. Once again, Christopher Hibbert has spun a wonderful biography that makes his subject come alive before you're eyes, and at times to allow the reader's imagination into the very shoes of Queen Victoria!



5. Christopher Hibbert has the marvelous ability to make historical subjects come alive. He succeeds again in this biography of Queen Victoria,
   
   This book is titled a Personal History, and that's really the focus. He turns the venerable monarch into a human being, with hopes, fears, heartaches, heartbreaks, a sense of humor, mood swings, petulance and even (gasp!) desires.
   
   Victoria's image (at least to Americans) is of the stuffy old monarch, unsmiling, and always dressed in black. Hibbert portrays quite a different picture - of a young woman who loved parties, dancing, and the affection of men. He also makes clear Victoria's physical passion for her husband, Albert. This is evident in the passage where, after giving birth to eight children, she is advised by her doctor not to have anymore. Her response was "You mean I can't have any more fun in bed?" Not what we expect from a Victorian!
   
   The portrait of a post-Albert Victoria is of a woman devasted by the death of her lover. Clearly the modern picture of Victoria comes from this stage of her life. However, this image is based on incorrect assumptions. Where we assume the stolid, frumpy queen arises from her belief in Victorian morals, in this book the picture is of a woman who lost her most precious soulmate, and whose last 40 years were a struggle against loneliness and depression, while bearing the heavy responsibility of being the most powerful monarch in the world.
   
   The book also vividly portrays the numerous characters in this remarkable woman's life, including Lord Liverpool, the Duke of Wellington, Disraeli, and Kaiser Wilhelm.
   
   Recommended to anyone with an interest in English history.

5 comments about Legion of the Lost: The True Experience of An American in the French Foreign Legion.

1. This book was a disappointment. Over and over again, Salazar tells us how much tedium is involved with the Foreign Legion. If transferring an event to the page in a way in which the reader experiences it, Salazar is a master writer--I was just as bored as he was. One wonders as he recounts the endless tedium, why it was an experience he thought worthy of writing a book about. He also seems to have a great attraction to the Legion he can't escape. The reason for that was lost. There must be far better books on the French Foreign Legion than this one.



2. An amusing study in narcissism and delusional self-flattery. Jaime Salazar is absurd. He seems to fancy himself a cultured, intellectual, gentleman soldier but the bullsh** in this book is so shamefully thick that instead he comes across as a rather pitiful, self-conscious and insecure man-child. Seriously, this book is a farce.



3. This is the story of a bored, Generation X-er, who after reading too many adventure novels, decides to test his manhood and seek adventure in the military. Lacking military experience, he had not yet developed the healthy skepticism necessary for assessing military recruiters' promises of excitement and adventure. But instead of making a small mistake by enlisting in the U.S. Army and ending up peeling potatoes at Ft. Benning, he makes a bigger mistake and joins the French Foreign Legion for a five year tour.
   The book is at its best when it describes the sadistic treatment of new recruits. Drunken NCOs savagely beat the recruits on a whim. Training is Spartan, equipment third-rate, and the rations kept near the starvation level. The other aspirants of the kepis blancs, unlike the author, have few opportunities in life. Some are refugees of Eastern Europe or North Africa, some veterans of other countries' military units. To them even the meager pay of a legionnaire is welcome. The author finds himself at a disadvantage with his civility and pampered upbringing. Those readers with military experience will find themselves comparing and contrasting their own basic training to this tortuous ordeal.
   The author writes well and does a fine job inserting historical anecdotes about the Legion Etrangere. However, the publisher could have done a better job catching the many typos throughout the book. The author is obvious proud that he earned his kepi blanc. The book is at its worse in the latter phases when he describes, with obvious pride, his female conquests while on leave. The Paris bistros serve as the only battlefield for the drunken bravado he has acquired in his few months of training. In the end the author deserts before his first year is out. No tales of adventure or combat here. One wonders what took him so long.



4. Salazar could'nt finish what he started and appears to have written a book with the hopes of turning it into a movie. Much of what is written is not necessary to the story and serves no purpose other than to prop up Salazar's ego after he failed to serve with Honor and Fidelity. Every other book about the Legion is better reading. Buy Simon Murray's book instead.



5. I wouldn't go so far as to place blame upon the author; however, the story telling is heavy skewed in the writers favor. Please do not consider this book to be representative of life in the Legion or the 2°REG.