5 comments about Raising Fences: A Black Man's Love Story (Today Show Book Club #4).

1. Raising Fences, a memoir, brings you on a tour through the life of an enduring Black man, while staying clear of the pimp-esque bravado. Datcher, born to a single mother who births him after being raped, but is given up for adoption, develops an obsession of being a great husband and father early in his life. Taken through his struggles with self-identity, female relationships, financial hardships, Datcher hides nothing, and tells all. If you are looking for a book that will do away with the Black man "playa" myth, this one is for you. A great poetic read from cover to cover.



2. If like me you are a woman and have always wanted to know about the thought process of a blk man then this is the book for you. M. Datcher does a great job of navigating us through his mind and life. Great read and an important read especially for the women out there playing that trifiling baby daddy game.



3. RAISING FENCES by Michael Datcher is a gripping, realistic tale of a fatherless child's struggle into manhood. Mr. Datcher's writing style is remarkable. His use flashbacks and crisp and clear imagery allows readers to live vicariously through the author.
   
   Readers will be drawn into this story as the author delves into intricate issues of African-American families such as broken homes, adoption, unprotected sex, surviving the streets, loveless relationships, having children out of wedlock and so much more. He does an excellent job of providing a male's prospective on these various issues.
   
   The use of poetry incorporated in the book is an added bonus for poetry lovers, but may not be received well by readers who are not fans of poetry.
   
   In this inspiring book, Mr. Datcher also shows readers that your past doesn't have to dictate your future.
   
   Take a bow Mr. Datcher, for you have penned a masterpiece that not only is enjoyable to read, but educational and informative as well. This autobiography is highly recommended!!!



4. This book was amazing... I could not put it down... How have I went all this time without hearing about this book!?
   Most books I love it is because in some way I can identify with the characters; not in this one... I loved it because it was raw, passionate and based on truth... truth of the relationships of our black men...excellent!



5. This book is great and I hope that it will spur a new line of books in a similar vain by black men.
   
   I can not put into words the feelings reading this book brought out in me. We as black women speak candidly about our emotions daily, but to see a black man, correction a strong black man do it brings such elation. My deepest respect to Michael Datcher for exposing the emotional side of a black man, and lets hope that there will be more powerful but tender works like this from Datcher in the future. I will be waiting.

5 comments about Children of Sanchez.

1. I was fascinated, enthralled and moved by this compelling self portrait of the Sanchez family. As a former resident of Mexico City I found it a revealing look at a side of life there that I was only vaguely familiar with. Even though the life stories being told were compiled fifty years ago, the book is still very relevant today. I'm not sure why Lewis's Culture of Poverty theory was so discredited - maybe it has to do with a sense that he is blaming the victim - but the evidence he presents is quite convincing, even though the reader does wonder how much he edited the data to make it fit his ideas.



2. Closely follows the lives of a family of poor people in 1940s - 50s Mexico. Great insight into the life of the generation that formed modern Mexico. Classic.



3. I received this book as a Christmas gift (Hanukka actually). I really enjoyed this story. You could substitute almost any impoverished (Emerging Nation) group, and their story would be similar. Access to general (compulsory) education and family planning, and low cost birth control, would be a great foundation in facilitating the escape from poverty within one generation. Having said that, poverty is subjective, and often connected with culture.
   
   The Children of Sanchez is definitely worth your time.



4. You know how you hate reading books that are assigned to you, but I could not put this book down. I could hear and smell the good and the evil of Mexico. I decided that I was going to do all I could to help as many families as I could, so every year I went to Mexico and I helped. God helped me to help. These people are the same as all humans in the world. They want decent jobs,housing, food, healthcare and education for their families and friends. They are like us, in that some are super nice and some are criminals. I help both and let God decide the rewards or punishments for those that I have helped with His money. God knows the 360 degree story, and I only know a small part.



5. This book for me is one of the most unbiased approaches to anthropogy I have ever read. It shocked me that he chose to take their interviews and turn them into stories using their own language. It is as if the people were talking to the reader. The conflicts are so real and believable that I do not think that Oscar Lewis allowed his own thoughts to even be part of his work. This is not a liberals approach to changing peoples positions on an issue. It is allowing people to see what it was like to be a struggling lower class family in the 1950s.
   
   We a given a window into a family of 4 children and their struggles from early childhood to becoming adults. We also are given a small snipet of the Father's perspective of his childrens accomplishments.
   
   This family's life is definately not the most glamorous look into their lives but it is very honest. We get to see them go through the struggles of poverty and being parents in a country that the only way to survive was to overcome the struggles that were given to them.
   
   I disagree with anyone who thinks Lewis is some how trying to make us simpathize with this Family. I feel he is trying to let us discover the Sanchez family for who they are and what is important to them. I have made a point to read more of his work and I have found only an honest acessment of people and the conditions they live in.
   
   Be warned this book tells the story through a Mexican perspective and their morals do follow western views so tightly. The content that is discussed is hard and should be read with maturity.

No comments about Curandero: A Life in Mexican Folk Healing.

5 comments about Twice As Good: Condoleezza Rice and Her Path to Power.

1. This really helped me to understand our Secretary of State. The book also provided a good review of what was happening in Birmingham during the 60's.



2. This is an interesting look at Rice, her work and her life. But it leaves a lot of unanswered questions. I didn't feel as if I knew her any better after reading the book than I did before.
   
   At times she seems cold and uncaring. At other times, she seems warm and interesting. But I guess that could be said for all of us.
   
   This is a book worth reading. But don't expect to understand the subject. Perhaps she won't let anyone understand her. But this author certainly did not.



3. This is the first time I have ever reviewed a book. I felt compelled to
   compliment Mr. Mabry on the thorough research he so painstakingly did for
   this book. The book is easy to read and it keeps the reader interested in
   the subject without getting bogged down in minutiae.



4. The author describes the life and times of Dr. Condoleezza Rice with
   both personal stories and historical events. Many of the childhood
   personal stories and recitations are quite moving. For instance, the Secretary's assimilation into Stanford University was discussed . The historic contention between the State and Defense Departments was highlighted. This inter-agency competition may limit the Secretary's
   options-particularly during times of war. A strength of the work highlights
   areas where the organizational design of the cabinet itself could be
   reconfigured or enhanced to benefit future presidencies.
   
   Several great crises presented early in the current Administration.
   For instance, Hurricane Katrina left thousands homeless in the USA.
   The Asian Tsunami left thousands dead with billions of dollars in
   property claims.
   
   The aftermath of terrorist attacks in New York City cost many lives and displaced people and businesses . Sunni insurgents destroyed the Golden Dome of the Askariya Mosque- one of the holiest places of Sh'ia Islam. The Hezbollah kidnapped an Israeli soldier and the Hamas prevailed in open elections to become a voting majority.
   
   Add to this the current Iraqi difficulties in coordinating internal security with an iterative withdrawal of the United States at some future time. The current fear centers around control of Baghdad when the United States leaves or withdraws to a position outside of the daily skirmishes between the Sunni, Sh'ia and protagonists outside of Iraq.
   
   The peacekeeping forces (whether American, Iraqi, United Nations or a
   combination of the above) in Iraq must manage historic contentions between warring factions while hoping that the conflict does not spill over into neighboring countries like Turkey or Iran. There have been significant border clashes between the Turks and the Kurds, as well as Iranian involvement in the conflict.
   
   The challenges ahead deal with the role of the United States in the region,
   as well as the transitioning of the American peacekeeping forces to
   Iraqi security forces and possibly United Nations forces for the long term.
   The long term vision involves the mix of security forces.
   
   Preferably, these forces will be Iraqi with a permanent contingent of United Nations forces concurrent with an iterative phasing out of U.S.A. involvement over a rational time horizon. The work could deal in more detail with the future role of the United States in Iraq and the Secretary's current work to re-shape that role.
   
   To obtain a verifiable ceasefire, the Sunni, Sh'ia, Kurds and mixed
   communities must come to believe that they could lead a better life in
   a loosely knit governance with a fair economic resource-sharing
   arrangement. Right now, these parties have not internalized this goal.
   And so, they are jockeying to gain the upper hand.
   
   This process will continue until the Iraqi security apparatus develops with some assistance (preferably) from the United Nations Peacekeeping forces.
   If the country ever gets to the point of a verifiable ceasefire, the next
   step is to deal with governance and the return of thousands of professional
   persons who fled the country for their lives and careers. These people
   need to return in order to reconstitute the country from the present
   disorder and destruction.
   
   All of these events rose and continue to rise in unison to present the Secretary with an unparalleled series of challenges not seen in recent years. The work discusses the Secretary's career in government and
   academia with carefully chosen events which provide a unique profile
   into the experiential domain over the previous decades of service.
   
   The author combines the Secretary's personal dynamic with the job
   of Secretary of State. In these times, the job of Secretary of State
   requires a facilitative persona with considerable practical and academic
   acumen. Dr. Condoleezza Rice is such a person.
   
   The book is highly recommended for students of government, politics,
   journalism and academe everywhere. Events are happening so quickly
   in the Middle East that a sequel to this book could be contemplated .



5. 
   Mabry brings some interesting information to his reader of one of the most despicable, incompetent, false and ruthless atavists ever to occupy the planet earth, moreover public office.
   
   Rice's scheming adoration for saying and doing whatever it took/takes to get on the top dais of a given colosseum, in her continually pathetic and aforementioned ruthless attempt to be the cynosure-at-all-times is beyond legend. Just one glance of her souless and vengeful countenance is all it should take of any observant soul to realize the monster who lies within............ This book delicately refers to same, but, alas, not enough to adequately educate its reader.
   
   Tragically, Rice's plan has worked to her proverbial Joesph Goebbels success and whether it's directing national/internation policy that gives new meaning to the word ignorant and imperious and, as a consequence manifesting the death of thousands and the ruination of a pragmatically imperfect (read : managable) world for the future, suppressing the truth - lying outright before the public or, eternally looking beyond embarassing in the face of various world politicos, starting with her speech impediment and then her eternal practice of obsfucation by using several thousand words to answer a simple yes or no question................, this poster child of an affirmative action poseur dilettante is a study, be it by Marcus Mabry of what "worst case scenario" truly is.

5 comments about W. E. B. Du Bois, 1868-1919: Biography of a Race (Owl Books).

1. What most impressed me about this very detailed biography was the complete treatment that was given to Du Bois' Communist connections. With the end the the Cold War we have learned conclusively that the Communist Party USA was not the possibly misguided, but good-hearted progressive folks of conventional wisdom. Instead, the CPUSA was a conscious and dedicated tool of Soviet foreign policy.

   No one can doubt that Du Bois was a brillant scholar and a careful researcher, at least in his early works. It was a tragedy that the unjust treatment of his race lead him to renounce America just as the Civil Rights movement was about to change it. Ironically, Du Bois exiled himself to newly-independent Ghana - - a country that became a one-party state, then a dictatorship (which Du Bois did not renounce) finally ended by a military coup.

   For all Du Bois' claimed affiliation with the masses, reading this biography one cannot but get the feeling that what really bothered Du Bois was not the rejection of his people, but rather of himself.




2. Prior to reading volume one of David Lewis' "W.E.B. Du Bois:Biography of a Race" I was somewhat puzzled by the subtitle. But the significance of the subtitle becomes clear as one progresses through the book because Lewis does a wonderful job of tying Du Bois' life, thought, personality, and political activity to the evolving fortunes of African Americans as a people. Like all great biographies this one places Du Bois squarely in his social and historical environment. The result is that one gains deep insight into the plight of African America in the Age of Jim Crow as well as the various divisions within that community over strategies for dealing with the greater society.

   This magisterial work is not a book for the casual reader who wants little more than a few facts about the life of W.E.B. Du Bois. It is a complex tapestry of a troubled man who saw himself as "the avatar of a race whose troubled fate he was predestined to interpret and direct." Lewis clearly wishes to show how Du Bois was "the incomparable mediator of the wounded souls of black people." This is a very rich and full biography. There are many asides and digressions as Lewis takes the reader into the troubled world of the educated African American at the end of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth. The conflicts and turmoil among Du Bois' "Talented Tenth" are vividly brought to the fore as the struggle between the Tuskegee Machine of Booker Washington and the more "radical" Du Bois faction takes center stage.

   Du Bois' development and personal history are thoroughly covered as are all his important writings. He is shown to be a high-energy, brilliant man who was terribly frustrated and somewhat warped by the lack of intellectual and professional respect afforded him by the dominant white society. Du Bois is revealed to be a very human, if rather arrogant, and at times, hypocritical individual. He never outgrew, for instance, the racial stereotyping he learned at the German universities. Throughout his life he retained a deep ambivalence about Western civilization, almost a love-hate relationship that eventually fed his Afro-centrist delusions. Beneath it all one senses a degree of racial self-hatred at work. At times Du Bois waxes between practical political proposals for the United States and a quite utopian or mystical view of the possibilities of the colored people around the world. Along the way the reader is introduced to an amazing number of fascinating people involved in philanthropy and the early civil rights movement. John and Lugenia Hope, the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, early founders of the N.A.A.C.P. like Oswald Villard, Joel Spingarn, and Mary Ovington, and the irrepressible William Monroe Trotter are just a few of the individuals who rightly have their lives celebrated in this eye-opening account.

   Lewis is especially strong in depicting the limitations of the viewpoint and the activity of the white philanthropists and the developing conflicts between white organized labor and the poor black migrants moving to the northern cities during the "Great Migration." Throughout Lewis demonstrates total command of the material as well as a comprehension of philosophy, history, and the issues of the day. Overall, this is a marvelous look at the life of an important and complicated man as well as the evolving fortunes of the African American community. Lewis has given us a balanced and fair assessment of Du Bois the man and scholar. And, along the way, he provides a ringing indictment of much of American life in the one hundred years following the Civil War. This Pulitzer Prize winning work is a book for the patient and learned reader, but a book that returns great rewards. There are few, if any, books that so thoroughly document the struggle for civil rights in this country from the perspective of America's educated black community.




3. I wanted to learn about W.E. B. Dubois and I did --the book is thoroughly researched --but at times there is too much detail; as an example, sometimes DuBois the man seemed hidden in digressions which covered his writings in what seemed to me excessive detail. I admired the work and analysis required to reach this level of specificity but regretted that there was relatively little about his day to day life and that there was not tighter editing and crisper prose.



4. i was floored upon finishing this book.this Man was a pure GENIUS.his IDeas&Structures were Years ahead of the pack.his words were Forerunners for the same problems we face today that he faced back when he was Growing up.his Challenges&Debates were Legendairy.his vision of the world far exceeded any President then or now.his only SIn was his SKin.were if he were WHite he WOuld on a Dollar Bill.his Impact on the world will last till the end of time.



5. I read this book to suppliment a biographical sketch I was doing on DuBois. This was although one of the most helpful, one of the dryest and most boring books I've ever read. If your going to read this, make sure it's totally of your own free will.

4 comments about When the Birds Stopped Singing: Life in Ramallah Under Siege.

1. This book should be read by all of the Western world to gain a perspective on the ordinary citizen living in the Occupied territory of Palestine. So often, I don't think we actually realize what "Occupation" means and how much power remains in Israel's hands even when there is not an actual occupation of a specific city. The author helped me understand the Oslo Accord and how it failed to bring justice to the region.
   This account ( using a diary format) really brings home what curfew means to daily life and the fear which comes when soldiers invade without regard to human feelings. Although written in 2003, I'm sure this holds true in 2006, and certainly makes me more attentive to news coming out of their continued struggle.



2. This book left me horrified at what is going on in the Middle East. It is even worse than I thought - and I thought I knew a lot about the situation already. Raja's day to day account, written in the form of a diary, gives a first hand account of what it is like to live under Occupation.
   This is hell on earth; and we in America are financing it all, with our 3 billion dollars a year that we send to Israel in military aid.
   The greatest threat to World Peace lies here, and we are paying for it.



3. (...)I purchased "When the Birds Stopped Singing" without hesitation as I looked forward to his unique human rights and legal perspective as an adult during the intifada. While his writing style is still engaging, the content is not as strong. This small book is simply a collection of short diary entries that depict his daily experiences during the difficult times. While the situation itself is heart breaking, the entries become redunant with several descriptions of outrageous Israeli soldier behavior, Palestinian subjugation and rebellion, and the difficulties of living some semblance of a normal life under such circumstances. I did not find anything new or compelling in this book, rather I felt I was perusing a random personal journal that was likely never meant to be published. Shehadeh's human rights and legal perspective never seemed to emerge in his entries which left this as an average book that will likely only appeal to those who have not heard many personal accounts of Palestinian life during the intifiada.



4. This book is about the siege of Ramallah and Shehadeh tells a heartbreaking story, with plenty of villians to go around. I expected that. To my surprise, what makes the book worth reading are the heroes. Not the Isreali soldiers. Not the PLO. Not Islamic Jihad or Hamas. The heroes of this book are the everyday people who actually try to live a normal life in the West Bank.

5 comments about Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration.

1. This is indeed a glorious coffee table book. At present I've got a copy on my night table, on my kitchen counter, one in each of my bathrooms, and one for my patio table. The book store has ordered me a copy of the new water proof dust jacket so I can keep a copy down by the pool. I had been looking for a good picture book of my other favorite poets, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot, and William Carlos Williams, but theirs were all out of print. I would keep my newest copy on my living room coffee table were it not for my copies of Hillary and Bill Clinton's autobiographies. This is really as extraordinary a book as one could wish for. Happy birthday, Maya. I hope to see you you at Barack's inauguration, again behind the podium, reciting another beautiful poem in that mellifluous voice.



2. A Glorious Celebration makes a wonderful coffee table book. Everyone who comes to my house gravitates to the book. Also makes a great gift for book lovers. May Angelou is just phenomenal in her writings. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.



3. I assumed that this book would include some of Maya Angelou's writings. It didn't. I enjoyed looking at the photos and reading about her, but I intended this as a gift to someone who had never read her writings.



4. I've never read anything about or by Maya Angelou that I didn't love.
   This book is the feature on my bookshelf.... I need another copy to keep next to my nightstand!



5. The latest testimony to the life of a gifted writer. Includes many historic pictures.

1 comments about Latina Legacies: Identity, Biography, and Community (Viewpoints on American Culture).

1. amazon let me know when my package was mailed out and when it was expected to get here. it felt like the book took forever to get here because i needed it this semester but i got before we used it in class. everything was great.

5 comments about Inner City Miracle.

1. Very good book. Nothing held back. the real truth about Judge Mathis's
   life story. A very compelling book if your feeling sorry for yourself.
   It shows you what a mothers influence on a child can acomplish.
   This is an amazingly frank and in your face book.If you like Judge
   Mathis's court show of honesty,humor,fairness,tough love,and the
   justice system as it should be,you'll love reading this book.
   Mike J.



2. The book was alright, I just prefer to watch him on tv.



3. This book should be required reading in schools. Judge Mathis started out on the wrong foot but he turned his life around and made something of himself. If you watch his show, you'll see that he is a good man and very fair.



4. I THINK JUDGE IS A POSITIVE PERSON ,AND HIS STORY SPEAKS FOR IT SELF, IT IS UPTO YOU TO MAKE A DIFFERENT IN YOUR LIFE. YOU CAN DO IF YOU WANT IT BAD ENOUGH. AND I FEEL IT IS ALL WANT YOU WANT OUT OF LIFE. WITH PRAY, AND WITH GOOD PEOPLE BEHIND YOU WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENT. AND IT GOES TO SHOW AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT JUDGE MATHIS DIDWITH GODS HELP. BECAUSE HE HAD TO HAVE GOD IN HIS LIFE IN OTHER TO GET AS FAR AS HE GOTTEN. I LOVE THE MAN, HE MAKES MY DAY. AND MAY GOD CON'T TO BLESS HIM AND HIS FAMILY. AND FROM WHAT I HAVE READ SO FAR I LOVE THE BOOK. HE IS A ROLL MODEL I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO MEET HIM . ONE DAY
   AND I LOVE HIS SHOW KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.BECAUSE HE IS A COMDEIAN ALSO HE COULD BE ONE



5. The courage Greg Mathis exhibited in turning his life around is phenomenal! This book not only serves as inspiration for inner-city young people but anyone who has taken a wrong turn in life. This wrong turn could be criminal in nature or it could be a mistake in choosing a mate or career. Whatever the mistake or wrong turn, Greg Mathis' life proves you can "turn it around." I know Greg on a personal basis and met him through my friendship with his aunt Eva and her son, Walter. I can truly say Greg is a compassionate and down to earth man who freely shares his blessings with family and friends.

5 comments about All God's Children.

1. This book does a very good job in trying to explain some of the causes of violence and some of the systemic failures in our society. It also provides an interesting narrative of the people involved in the story.



2. I am a descendant of James Butler. For the record, that family is not Scotch-Irish, they were English and had been for hundreds of years. They went to Virginia from England in the 1600's not because they were poor or down trodden but because they were wealthy and well connected with the intentions of making more money.
   
   Shoddy research just makes me cringe.



3. On a cold wintry day in March 1978, Willie Bosket, a 15-year-old boy with an extensive juvenile record, shot and killed a middle-aged hospital worker in a New York City subway robbery. Eight days later, Willie robbed and killed another man under similar circumstances. Shortly thereafter, he was arrested, confessed, and was found guilty of these two homicides. He was given the maximum sentence for a juvenile of five years for the two murders. He felt not a whit of remorse for his actions, and was quoted as such in the papers.
   
   A few days later, New York Governor Hugh Carey, reading about the trial in the New York newspapers, became so incensed that he immediately called a special session of the state legislature in Albany. He proposed and was successful in passing a new law in record time, the Juvenile Offender Act of 1978. This law allowed kids as young as 13 to be tried in adult criminal courts for murder and receive the same penalties as adults. This law was a sharp reversal of 150 years of American tradition. New York became the first of many states to make this watershed change in juvenile justice policy. Willie Bosket had made history.
   
   If All God's Children were merely a harrowing recitation of the criminal life of Willie Bosket, it would be a fascinating chronicle of the "most dangerous prisoner in the history of the state of New York." But it is much more than that. It is also a multi-generational tale of the Bosket family dating back to 1834 in South Carolina. It in particular traces the interweaving stories of Willie Bosket and that of his father, Butch Bosket, with all that they held in common-genius-level IQs, a history of explosive anger, psychopathic tendencies and a conviction for two homicide.
   
   In telling this saga of the Bosket family, Butterfield has successfully woven together a sociological treatise on violence in America, a cautionary tale of the pernicious effects of slavery, and a genealogical study of a truly tragic family.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: A stunning read.



4. This book was indeed an eye-opener. I encourage all who are concerned about our society as a whole to study this book, and especially those who are in social services. Mr. Butterfield should be applauded for this work.



5. I'm not A reader of books. I was refered this one and I can't stop referencing it in everyday conversations. This book is not only a great history lesson of Racial tensions but also a great look into the history of violence in our Black Youth....