2 comments about Discombobulated: An Inspiring Journey of Hope Through Mental Illness.

1. Discombomulated is a powerful story of one woman's experience with mental illiness. Commentary by the therapist which parallels the author's perception of therapy is very insightful. This well written book provides a realistic portrait of life with mental illiness.



2. I found "Discombobulated" to be a very heartbreaking and yet inspiring story of the author's experience with mental illness. It was wonderfully written and literally takes a person inside the head of the author. This book should be read by anyone whose life has been touched by mental illness in any way.

5 comments about Catch a Fire: The Autobiography.

1. This a must read for any Spice Girls fan or even just a fan of pop music. This the story of the life of one Melanie Brown aka Scary Spice. It tells from her humble beginnings, or passionate relationship, the love of her family, her rise to fame with the Spice Girls as well as its down fall. Out of all the SG bios, this is the best written of the lot. It had me giggling all through out. It's riveting, fast-paced, ardent, and funny. You won't be disappointed.



2. I really enjoyed reading this book over the summer. Mel B is quite hilarious and entertaining but she also has a softer & sad side. As women we sometimes forget that love and relationships don't discriminate between broken hearts. Her upbringing & how she categorizes her family as White Grandma and Black grandma are entertaining. Her whole shoot to fame with the spice girls was a thrill ride. Mel B is blantanly honest, even discussing her sexual conquest, which were maaaaaaaaaany! I felt sick to my stomach by how Jimmie Gulzar used her for fame & money & how he treated her on their wedding night would have been enough for me to walk out the door. This book was a pretty good read, the fact that pictures were enclosed were also a big plus. Melanie Brown has always been a beautiful woman in my eyes, I truly believe, she has a great future still ahead.
   Much success Mel B........
   Best,
   Marlena Martin/CEO Supernova Films www.supernovafilms.com



3. If you were a Spice Girls fan, this would be good reading. Get to know the facts that you never knew was going on during the Spice Girls' careers, what life was like for Mel B as a child to her mid-20s, her marriage & divorce, solo music, and what she had planned to do after the dwindling spice career.
   
   The only con I can say about this book is that she is too young to have written a truly grasping autobiography. She's only been through 20-odd years of life.



4. This is nonsense. Who really cares to hear every lame ass detail of this "has-been's" life? Not i sir, not i.



5. I haven't completed this book quite yet, but what I'm noticing is something set apart from the other Spice biographies: she will be happy to tell pleasant anecdotes. Sure it starts with a bang, which seems to be what is suppose to draw you in like a teaser on the telly before the opening sequence and more commercials, but as she describes her experience with the girls she lets us know some of the funner times they had rather than the dramatic estrangement that is often so dwelt on. It's also a fascinating history she provides of where her people come from and the whole mixture of her. She was also my least favourite of the five but now I'm finding her more of a fair and friendly personage than the rest. She seems open to life, the mistakes that make us who we are and let us learn the balance of things. I wish she would make another album and write more of her own songs. They're all good at writing pop melodies (yes, they do co-write songs!) and she is no exception.

   Word to the wise: amazon.co.uk is usually easier on the pocket book with some of this british stuff. I got my copies of albums and books from there. (As well as the Harry Potter books, which are an easier print than the ones here.)

3 comments about Prisoner of Love (New York Review Books Classics).

1. If the reader is looking for easy explanations to the Palestinian refugees' war with the nation of Israel, Jean Genet's book is not the place to seek them. And I don't advise readers to pick through the text looking for the succinct sentences in which Genet clearly states why he's on the side of the Palestinians, or if he's anti-Israel, or anti-American. There is no proof of reviewer Tim Keane's conclusion that Genet "seethes with hatred of Israel"; there are no such violent emotions in Prisoner of Love. At 430 pages, be prepared to find subtleties of experience shaded by conflicting responses--nuances completely unavailable via print journalism or network news, CNN, or Al Jazeera. But the very fact that Genet wanted to observe life in the refugee camps shows that he had to make a choice. Nearly all the protagonists of his memoir, this textual "souvenirs," are Palestinians and generally Muslim. Indeed, the compelling force which drives the relatively plotless Prisoner of Love are the individuals to whom Jean attachments himself: the dynamic Lieutenant Mubarak, Dr. Mahjoub and the charismatic female doctor, Dr. Nabila, Khaled Abu Khaled and Abu Omar, and an accomplished woman friend, a blond Lebanese guide and translator, Nidal, and dozens of other people. Genet was particularly attached to Hamza and his mother, who he attempts to find again after his absence from Palestine for nearly 14 years. We cannot forget the common fedayee rebel, the fedayeen as a whole who fought to make the Palestinian plight known.
   
   When evaluating Prisoner of Love, it's important to remember that Genet is a writer. Throughout his work, Genet tells us how difficult it is to recount his experiences since he's not sure at times what he's seeing, and he must make his writing conform to the necessities of craft. And whatever writing craft decisions Jean made it is clear that the Palestinians "wrote" him as well; Jean was seldom in control of his experience. As I read, I realized that Genet is the ultimate refugee; he seeks to be with people who are like him. My conclusion is this: Palestine chose him.
   
   Only Genet could have written this book. He is a bruised romantic searching for a resting place that will caress both his homeless intellect and his orphaned body: "A little while ago I wrote that though I shall die, nothing else will. And I must make my meaning clear. Wonder at the sight of a corn-flower, at a rock, at the touch of a rough hand--all the millions of emotions of which I'm made--they won't disappear even though I shall. Other men will experience them, and they'll still be there because of them. More and more I believe I exist in order to be the terrain and proof which show other men that life consists in the uninterrupted emotions flowing through all creation" (361). As an orphan with prison experience, and disaffected from France, Genet was willing to try on other peoples' lives; I suspect that without the structure dictated by the craft of writing, and his talent coming to the attention of well-known writers, Genet would have disappeared into the French prison system.
   
   Another conclusion I came to: Genet shows us the difference between terrorism and Arab nationalism. Is there any hope that the U.S., of which I am a native-born citizen, will ever figure out this difference?
   
   Overwhelmingly, the single image I have of Prisoner of Love is that to read it is to travel the land that dwelled *in* Jean Genet, this traveler who was intelligent enough to let his emotions guide him. And only by reading can I share in living a life which speaks so eloquently of rebellion and blood, of life and death.



2. Genet allows you to feel the immediacy of the Palestinian situation with particles from lives,from ill-defined fragments of lives disrupted with no future,he stayed with a family in 1980 a half-day and a whole night where the young son,Hamza a fedayee went off at night to fight. Genet hearing gun fire in the distance inhabited his bed and was brought Turkish coffee and water in the night as a replacement for the young man,by his mother. Genet is a writer/poet,a political thinker,but never a man of politics, a deeply sensitive man,a virtuoso of the sensual image, as the starry-night reflected against the curtain in his room with the small blue table. "Of course it's understood that the words,nights,forests,septet,jubilation desertion and despair are the same words that I have to use to describe the goings on at dawn in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris when the drag queens depart after celebrating their mystery,doing their accounts and smoothing banknotes out of the dew."

   Genet was allowed with special permission to visit the massacre site at the camps at Sabra and Chantila,smelling the rotting flesh, "They happened I was affected by them. I talked about them. But while the act of writing came later, after a period of incubation,nevertheless in a moment like that or those when a single cell departs from its usual metabolism and the original link is created of a future,unsuspected cancer,or a piece of lace, so I decided to write this book."

   Genet has an intense need for passion of any dimension,scouring the vigours of whatever parts of fragments of the lifeworld's complexity presents itself to him. I once thought of this book as a romantic means of portrayel a betrayel of a political situation,one, the only one that excited Genet.It means something that only encounterings lives in struggle,bent into a repressive state that Genet finds the only life worth encountering,sensing and feeling about. This book was completed in 1986 after suffering from throat cancer, he died on the night of 14-15th of April,1986,while correcting proofs.




3. This book is absolutely essential to any understanding of the Palestinian situation. It is also the mostimportant work of Genet's entire career.

1 comments about Truth Comes in Blows: A Memoir.

1. This is a well-written evocative memoir. Painful to read in places. Someone once said that we read to know that we are not alone. This sums up my feelings about this book. I'd add that we read in order to get enough distance to empathize. "Turth" is an elegant tale about struggling to grow up in sometimes dire emotional circumstances. It's especially refreshing because it is not a mewling, raging therapy session as so many similar stories are today. It's a painting of a time (Depression era America) and place (industrial burgs of NYC) and an attempt to come to terms with great suffering in a dignified manner. And it's so much more.

5 comments about Family Outing: What Happened When I Found Out My Mother Was Gay.

1. Ten year old Troy Johnson was, as usual, late in getting ready for school, when a friend of his mother's (now irrevocably nicknamed "Tattle Dyke") came to the door and abruptly revealed to him that his mother was a lesbian. His father, previously divorced from his mom but still a part of Troy's life, arrived soon thereafter, in order to help Troy cope with the news. Despite an initial crying jag, both thought young Troy took the news rather well, and seemed to put first the need for his mother to be open and honest with Troy and his older sister. He was "all right with it" ... really. Or so he told them.
   
   In reality, Troy inwardly manifested the classic reactions to such news: anger at his mother for not being "normal," denial that this could somehow be changed (if he behaved real well and helped her meet a good man), aprehension that his friends at school would find out and taunt him, but, most of all, that ultimate fear that he somehow would inherit the "gay gene" (a concept that would not have any scientific support for many years) and turn out to be a homosexual himself. The latter was reinforced by later talks with his mother, who revealed that she didn't have an inkling she might be lesbian until after high school, and didn't know for sure until she was well into her 30's. He felt a "time bomb" ticking in himself.
   
   Troy dealt with his fear of "turning" gay by being as aggressively heterosexual as he could. To a preteen, this meant being one of the "cool" kids, a bad boy who got into trouble for acting out in class, and for vandalizing school property and nearby construction sites. In his teen years, he became a heavy "partier", a heavy drinker, and focused his powers of persuasion to have sex with any girl who would have him. Even a month's stay at a teen rehab facility didn't change him, nor did his first year of college. Only after almost being expelled from college, almost a year of hanging around with a group of "born again" Christian students, and being around an unusually liberal group of students in his major did he realize what he had been doing, simultaneously "acting out" to punish his mother for being lesbian, and trying to smother out whatever part of him might be leaning toward being gay. Long talks with a lesbian student made him realize how unfairly he was judging his mother, whose choice to be "out" had already resulted in others - including her own parents, and his sister - judging her harshly as well. It was a revelation that would affect him the rest of his life.
   
   Not your standard-issue "parent comes out, child understand, joins parent in waving rainbow flag in next parade" fictional story, and, as such, an invaluable and realistic commentary for those dealing the reality that they have a gay parent. The story is told realistically and with significant wit and charm by the author, and is much recommended as a great read. Five rainbow stars out of five.



2. I bought this book after I read about it in SPIN Magazine and I absolutely agree with the other reviewers that EVERYONE will like this book. I've shared it with two friends who aren't gay or have gay relatives, and they both said it was one of their favorite books of the year. The topics covered in the memoir are universally applicable, and the book could easily appeal across the board to anyone who's ever experienced divorce, teenage angst, or guilt over what you put your parents through as a kid. The account of his transformation into an adult is deep and introspective without being preachy, and his anecdotes are hilarious and touching without being overly sentimental. There are some memoirs like Sean Wilsey's "Oh the Glory of it All" that, while amazingly well written, leave you with the distinct impression that he doesn't really get along with the family that he wrote about. "Family Outing" doesn't hold anything back but is written in a way that conveys the love and affection that the author no doubt has for his family. That impression comes through, in particular, towards the end of the book where the memoir takes on a more - for lack of a better word - transformative tone. In spite of the high school posturing and bad behavior you end up really liking the guy and imagining that there's life out there beyond those angst filled self-centered years between early adolescence and adulthood. I recommend this book to anyone who's looking for a book that will pull you in after the first page and not let you put it down.



3. Family Outing is one of the best books I've read. It takes a very poignant look at the family's perspective of the coming out process. Troy Johnson is a brilliant writer and puts things in a very real and thought provoking perspective. I hope everyone will read this very well written and thought out story!



4. My son called me to tell me to read this book, I can't thank him enough. I hope this author continues to write, he is amazing. This book is about him finding out , at age 10, that his mom is gay. It is HILARIOUS, moving, honest and impossible to put down once you start to read. I will keep this book because I know I will read it again, it is THAT GOOD!



5. Sure, Troy Johnon's debut book is about his struggle to accept his mother (and himself) after finding out she is a lesbian. But the L word could be subsituted for any number of parental characteristics that have been the core of teen-parent angst throughout history. Troy's mom was a lesbian, but had she (or his dad) been a drunk, control freak, racist, immigrant, workaholic, or deadbeat, he would've still grown up with painful tales to tell. I'd hate to see this book pigeonholed as a "gay book", because the story and it's lessons are universal. Part of growing up is learning to accept that your parents aren't perfect, and figuring out how their issues relate to you.
   
   Having a gay mom in a conservative town, in a conservative era set the stage for a uniquely difficult adolescence for Johnson. Luckily, he has a knack for telling these painful tales in a way that we can all laugh at them. For overcoming the challenges of growing up with a gay parent, not to mention surviving his own rebellious antics, Johnson has earned the right to have the last laugh.

5 comments about It's Okay to Miss the Bed on the First Jump: And Other Life Lessons I Learned from Dogs.

1. I loved this book. I don't read alot outside of work, but I really enjoyed this endearing book. I highly recommend it for all dog lovers!



2. Mr. O'Hurley is a talented writer and his observations on life through the eyes of dogs are thought-provoking. They made a lot of sense. And it's so funny. I think it's also touching that he wrote about the different dogs he had in his life and what they have taught him. The book is very encouraging and just like the title says, it's okay to miss the bed on the first jump.



3. I started to read the first few chapters, but lost interest in it after that.



4. the book is well written and gives information as to why dogs do what they do and how we can learn from it. reminds us to slow down and enjoy the simple things in life and to be ourself.



5. This is a very funny book with lots of true life experiences as well.
   Plenty of value for the money.

5 comments about What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: A Memoir.

1. This book isn't terrible. If I could I'd give it 2.5 stars.
   
   E Lynn Harris is black, and gay. This fact is stated so many times in the book that it is a wonder the book isn't titled "MY LIFE SUCKED BECAUSE I'M BLACK AND GAY, BUT MOSTLY BECAUSE I'M BLACK!!!! DID I MENTION I'M GAY!???!!!!!!" Seriously, all in caps, just like that, that should be the title of this book.
   
   Lynn Harris is exactly the type of person I have zero interest in knowing. Nothing is ever his fault. He doesn't work hard, fails at everything, gets a second chance due to being the same race as his boss, or is accepted without proper qualifications because of affirmative action in the 70's.
   
   But then... then he starts to succeed. He becomes a salesman, and you know what, he's good at that. Sure he didn't have the qualifications for the job and was initially hired because he was black, but it turns out that he is actually -good- at what he does. So does that success and greatness become a large part of the story? No, of course not, outside of work his entire life is a mess and he goes from closet case guy to closet case guy wondering why they treat him so poorly... while these guys still have girlfriends. Nothing is ever Lynn's fault of course.
   
   Give me a break.
   
   If you want to hear what it's like to be a complete loser, this is the story for you. You'll be fascinated by how self defeating one man can be.
   
   The kicker is that at exactly 7 hours and 30 minutes in Lynn nails it down perfectly "...who would be interested in reading a story about a sexually confused black man who basically wasted ever opportunity given to him." Not me.



2. At some point I felt as if alot of his friends reflected many of his characters which and while after reading you discover they did lend him inspiration.It must have been very difficult to point out his flaws to his readers , and it was done very well at that. Most people prolly wouldnt want to reveal there past so openly to the public but E. Lynn did it and I can respect that.



3. Follow Harris on his journey of revelations about life and love in this well-written, east-to-read memoir. Within the first couple of pages, I burst into laughter, then as the story unfolded, I felt kind of bad for Harris. The abuse he suffered at the hands of his step-father and then the destructive life he led during his adult life makes you wonder how he survived it all, suicide attempts and everything. I think I've read all of E. Lynn's books and this one really shows you from where all of his prior offerings evolve. I'm glad that at the time this was published he had found the love he was searching for. I hope that love continues.



4. What Becomes of a Broken Heart. In it, E Lynn Harris offers a tough and tender glimpse of the man between the covers of more than a few literary sensations. The raw emotional honesty is heartbreaking at times, yet redeeming at others. Through some of the roughest storms, he blooms, beautiful and strong.



5. I really enjoyed this book. I have read all of E. Lynn's work and by far this was the best. I cried, laughed and got upset several while reading this book. Truly it was remarkable.

No comments about Don't Mind If I Do.

5 comments about Working Stiff: The Misadventures of an Accidental Sexpert (P.S.).

1. "... virginal, desperate, bucktoothed, acne-ridden, problem-haired, and prone to wearing his heart on his sleeve ..." - Grant Stoddard, self-described
   
   In July 1998, the 21-year old nerdish, awkward, and sexually unawakened Brit, Grant Stoddard, arrived in the United States in the self-delusional, romantic pursuit of an otherwise platonic female friend. Eighteen months and multiple temporary visas later, the economic viability of Stoddard's continuing residence in America was pretty much moribund. Then, after winning a contest that awarded him a coital coupling with a prominent former prostitute and sexual performance artist then currently engaged as a bi-weekly columnist for Nerve.com, Grant eventually became employed by the same website to have bizarre sex with strangers and write about it in his own column entitled "I Did It for Science". Thus, over a period of three years, as related by the author:
   
   "... I'd just about exhausted every conceivable sexual kink and proclivity known to man."
   
   Indeed, going to orgies, sex parties, porn sets, and BDSM retreats only scratched the surface of Stoddard's experience-based writing assignments, which ultimately totaled thirty. WORKING STIFF is Grant's narrative summary of his life beginning as a student at London's Thames Valley University up to the last installment, with the emphasis on his time writing for Nerve.
   
   Despite the book's superficial appeal to casual prurient interest, it's never "sexy" and only erratically raunchy and/or humorous. Since the author readily admits that his forays into twisted sex mostly left him with a diminished feeling of self-worth, WORKING STIFF is more a mundane illustration of what one will do for grocery money. (What this infers about the non-sexual daily grind endured by any of us is perhaps grist for a whole separate volume by a learned psychologist.) Grant himself comes across, at least to this reader, as a likeably harmless chap with an engaging talent for self-depreciation but, well, somewhat pathetic. (No offense intended!)
   
   Mind you, WORKING STIFF is occasionally above average, e.g. the chapter "Hate Mail", in which Grant describes his weekend stay at Leather Camp, an anything-goes gathering of hedonists-in-heat in the New Jersey woods. Also, in the chapter "Talent", the author's recounting of his abortive attempt to be the host/foil of a reality-TV series is illustrative of Hollywood's capricious shallowness in such ventures. However, in the aggregate, the book is only worthwhile if you've temporarily nothing left on the shelf to read.



2. It is the classic story. A young man with no hopes in his own land comes to America's friendly shores, unknown but with an intent to make something of himself. Partially by pluck and partially by luck, he finds just the niche that no one else has filled, or could have filled, and by working hard, he gains all the fame and fortune he never could have anticipated. There is a variation, however, in Grant Stoddard's case. His memoir _Working Stiff: The Misadventures of an Accidental Sexpert_ (Harper Perennial) tells how the immigrant, a wallflower in his own land, came to be a renowned writer about sexual topics and an appointed sexual experimenter in his adopted country. It is a hopeful, funny story, not the least of whose attractions is Stoddard's love for America, and for New York City in particular. We have the land of opportunity, but Stoddard has had opportunities of which the rest of the world's wallflowers would be glad for just a fraction.
   
   Stoddard grew up in the working-class Essex village of Corringham. From university, he followed his one girlfriend to America, and fell in love with the country and out of love with the girl. He won a contest with the prize of sex with Nerve writer Lisa Carver, and from this got hired into customer service at Nerve, and then was invited to write about experiments in kink. Stoddard would be assigned the experiment and would write up his lab report, and Nerve would feature his column "I Did It for Science." It was a brilliant idea. For three years, Stoddard did odd sexual things, sometimes things the readers suggested. He made out with a guy. He went to clothing-optional bridge lessons. He sploshed (that's throwing food at a naked person). He dressed as a woman. He went to an orgy. He tried Aneros, the ergonomically-designed prostate massager. He went to Leather Camp. He was an extra in a porn film. He was the recipient of penetrative, restrictive, dominating, or otherwise freaky sex. His lab reports were hilarious, the reflections of a shy fellow confronting some of the strangest things that people do for fun.
   
   The column was popular, and he was popular. "PR reps for hundreds of pleasure-enhancing creams, pills, hardware, software, and products began calling my work phone at an astonishing rate." (When he eventually cleans out his desk at Nerve, the inventory is hilarious.) He was quickly asked to be a guest on a late-night chat show and billed as a sexpert only one year after thinking himself "a sexual nonstarter". "The idea of Grant Stoddard the sexpert seemed absolutely surreal to me, and positively ludicrous to anyone I'd slept with." Nonetheless, for the duration of the column "girls who were fans of the column were making it extremely easy for me to have sex with them." _Working Stiff_ is not a collection of Stoddard's columns; it contains only one, as an example, but many of the pages are devoted to descriptions of what he had to go through to make his experiments happen. Other pages have to do with his non-experimental love affairs. It was a sexual initiation like no one else has ever had, and his recollections are sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, but also tender at times. He is a nice guy and genuinely amused by his good fortune and strange adventures. He is also genuinely grateful. "If an anglophile," he writes near the beginning of the book, "is a lover of all things English and a Francophile is an admirer of the French, I think it's odd that there's no snappy equivalent for people like me: people who are enamored with the people and culture of these United States." One expects enthusiasm in a book by a sexpert, but not necessarily for our country. America has gotten bigger tributes than this book, but none so heartfelt. It is an appealing part of a fine comic memoir of one of the strangest coming-of-age stories ever.



3. From the opening of the book, you know you're in for a real treat with this one. I don't want to give too much away, but imagine being a young, heterosexual male in the strange position of literally "f*cking yourself" ... all in a day's work of course.
   
   Stoddard's book details the time he spent as a sex columnist for [...]. The book goes beyond the columns, however, and shows how this young lad from England came to the city of all cities (NYC!!!) and kind of randomly ended up becoming a sexual guinea pig. Some of the situations young Stoddard finds himself in are just amazingly bizarre - and entertaining of course.
   
   For such a young author, this book is especially impressive. I am sure Stoddard has much more up his sleeve for future literary projects.



4. I'm having a hard time getting through this book. It was reviewed well in the Advocate magazine so I bought it. It's quite boring, actually.



5. WORKING STIFF is a fantastic read! Stoddard's provocative account of the various assignments he was sent to report on had me laughing, cringing, and often gasping in disbelief. Even though I've never experienced most of the adventures the author had to try, I still found that I could identify with him on so many different levels. If you have ever been in a situation, and found yourself asking "how did I possibly get myself into this?" you will really appreciate WORKING STIFF. It is cleaver, humorous, and an absolute page turner. I can not wait to see what he will come out with next.

3 comments about The Maine Woods: (Writings of Henry D. Thoreau).

1. In 1848, 1853,and 1857, Henry David Thoreau travelled to the wilderness -- forests, lakes, rivers, and mountains in the northwest part of Maine. He wrote three lengthy essays describing each of his journeys, and they were gathered together, as Thoreau had wished, and published after his death, together with an appendix, as "The Maine Woods." It is a moving book, a classic work of American literature, and the founder of a genre of descriptive travel writing.
   
   Readers coming to "The Maine Woods" after "Walden" or "A Walk on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" may be in for a surprise. These earlier books do include extensive descriptions of nature and of plants and animals, but their focus is much more internalized and philosophical. Both books are full of discussions of themes that have little direct connection with nature. They show Thoreau as a Transcendentalist, an American philosopher akin to Emerson and others.
   
   "The Maine Woods", in contrast, shows Thoreau as much more of a naturalist interested in describing the wilderness in great detail for its own sake. I think the book articulates a philosophical temperament akin to Thoreau's earlier books, but it is for the most part implicit rather than stated at length.
   
   The three essays describe Thoreau's journeys at widely separated times to Mount Ktaadn, the Chesuncook River, and the Allegash and East Branch Rivers, journeys that overlapped to some degree. Thoreau travelled with a companion and with Indian guides. He gives the reader pictures of what was still largely a pristine wilderness even though it was, at that early time, already being subject to logging, the growth of towns, and despoilation. We see Thoreau and his companions travelling in canoes or batteaus on the interconnected rivers and lakes of northwest Maine, carrying and portaging their vessels around falls, camping in the woods, observing the vegetation and animals, getting lost, finding shelter from the rain, visiting lumber camps and the hardy residents of the woods, gathering berries, hunting, and much else. The narrative is filled with detail of Thoreau's experiences and thoughts.
   
   I found the most moving part of the book was Thoreau's description of his climb up Mount Ktaadn in the first essay. We see this journey in detail, described with ancient Greek and American Indian symbolism. It concludes with a long peroration of the value of wilderness -- of land not controlled or under the disposition of people. Thoreau observes that "the country is virtually unmapped and unexplored, and there still waves the virgin forest of the New World." The "Chesuncook" essay includes a vivid description of the stalking and killing of a moose and Thoreau's resultant sense of discomfort. It closes with a call for the creation of national preserves for wilderness. The final essay describes a broad spectrum of adventures and places on a day-to-day basis. There are many passages that describe Thoreau's Indian guide, Joe Polis. Although Thoreau was deeply fascinated with the Indian heritage of Maine, some of his treatment of Polis will sound stereotyped to modern readers.
   
   Thoreau's book was the first in a long line of American works devoted to nature. But I was reminded most of the Beat writers in some of their moments, of Jack Kerouac, (a native of Lowell, Massachusetts) in "The Dharma Bums" describing rucksacking and the climbing of a mountain and of the poetry of Gary Snyder.
   
   This book is about the need to leave the beaten path and follow one's star. There are some fine websites in which the interested reader can get more information about the places Thoreau visited. [...]
   
   Robin Friedman



2. This book chronicles the adventures of Thoreau as he encounters wilderness in the guise of backwoods Maine. The book covers 3 separate expeditions that Thoreau made in 1846, 1853 and 1857. On each trip, Thoreau was accompanied by one or more companions, as well as an Indian guide.
   
   Of all of Thoreau's books, this one sticks most closely to nature and travel writing, with little explicit philosophizing. Although Thoreau was accustomed to taking long walks off the beaten track in Massachusetts, it was in Maine where he first encountered genuine wilderness. He found the wild surroundings quite inspiring, and far from being overwhelmed by them, he seemed to want even more. In this book, he presents detailed accounts of the flora and fauna that observed on his Maine journeys. In addition to his observations of the natural world, Thoreau also describes many of the people and tiny communities that he found on his trips through Maine. While he follows his custom of never naming his traveling companions or providing personal information about them, he seems to feel no similar compunction about the privacy of his Indian guides, and describes them and their behavior in detail as if they were suitable subjects of his travel studies rather than co-travelers. One aspect that makes this book timeless is the fact that so much of the natural world that Thoreau describes has remained unchanged in the 150 years since his journeys.



3. Most people are familiar with Thoreau through his Walden. Few know perhaps that he didn't stay put in Concord but journeyed to the Maine Woods and elsewhere, and that these travels were formative of his philosophy and ideas. Thoreau believed the Maine wilderness north of Bangor was every bit as wild as the west and other far flung corners of the continent in the 1850s, and here he shows us an incredible panorama of beauty and wonder. You will gain insight into how Native Americans hunted Moose in the mid-19th Century and why Thoreau, a vegetarian, disdained the killing of animals for meat. One of the most sriking passages is his description of the sound of a huge tree falling in the forest in the distance at night.
   
   In Ktaadn, Thoreau defines the essence of wilderness:
   
   "Nature was here something savage and awful, though beautiful. I looked with awe at the ground I trod on, to see what the Powers had made there, the form and fashion and material of their work. This was that Earth of which we have heard, made out of Chaos and Old Night. Here was no man's garden, but the unhandselled globe. It was not lawn, nor pasture, nor mead, nor woodland, nor lea, nor arable, nor wast-land. It was the fresh and natural surface of the planet Earth as it was made forever and ever."
   
   You do not need to read The Maine Woods on a wooded island in Maine (as I did) to be captivated and transported by it to a higher and greater sense of wilderness than you may ever have imagined.