5 comments about America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible.

1. It's clear the Thernstroms set out to create a definitive work. Despite the claim that Americans struggle with discussions about race, they argue that race is the focus of our media, entertainment, political discussions, economic policy, education policy, etc. What they believe is missing is the `lack of analytical rigor' applied towards these issues. They believe the discussion has gotten muddled with dogma, clever rhetoric, and unproven assumptions, which has led to tremendous confusion and frustration. Exceptionally well researched and plenty of `analytical rigor', passion and sensitivity, the Thernstroms have produced a work that has cleared the fog on a wide-range of issues including housing, civil rights legislation, education, job discrimination, voting, crime, the black middle class, etc. This work is also highly qualified to stand the test of time.
   
   Some may be put off by the authors right of center analysis. They question the merits of affirmative action, proportional representation, and the degree to which racism continues to hinder blacks. This work is less incendiary than Dinesh D'Souza's `The End of Racism' (which is still very good), however, this work is replete with statistics and hard data that are difficult to dismiss.
   
   America has gone through extraordinary steps to move beyond the sins of its past. There is little doubt that through this work the Thernstroms have a sincere interest in helping America move towards becoming a genuinely color-blind nation.



2. Because I had enjoyed "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning" I read the Thernstrom's previous book. "America in Black and White" provides a well-researched historical, contemporary, albeit conservative perspective on black-white race relations in America. In "No Excuses" they held back their strong opinions at least while presenting the information. However, in this one I thought that the Thernstroms allowed their opinions to interfere with the presentation of the prodigious factual information at their disposal. However, I still recommend the book because the data presented is worth having.



3. Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom's "America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible" charts a different course from many of the scholarly books written about racial relations in the United States today. The authors agree that the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s was a resounding success, opening many doors to African-Americans as a result of the systematic dismantling of Jim Crow laws in the South. This book is necessary, claim the authors, because the ideas that originally drove the civil rights movement have since drifted into dangerous terrain. According to this book, Martin Luther King's message of one nation where all people will be judged by their individual merits and not skin color has become a land where blacks and whites are once again moving into separate camps based on race. The introduction of affirmative action programs and other racial social policies does not solve divisive problems but instead creates new racial barriers. Moreover, media and civil rights proponents today discuss black problems as though that segment of the population has made little progress. The authors insist that there are still nagging difficulties to overcome, but that a "lack of analytic rigor" leads to false perceptions about how far blacks have actually risen in society. Therefore, the authors rely heavily on statistical tables, charts, and polls to prove their arguments.
   
   The first section of "America in Black and White" outlines the history of the odious conditions blacks faced in the American South and the resulting rise of the civil rights movement. The Thernstroms describe southern society in all of its squalor: the crushing poverty faced by both whites and blacks, the lackluster drive towards industrialization that kept many members of the population toiling in fields and small towns, pathetic levels of state spending on education for blacks, and the biases of the criminal justice system. Relying heavily on Gunnar Myrdal's groundbreaking study of race in America, the authors correctly detail the host of social structures aligned against the African-American population. For example, blacks rarely received decent treatment in the legal system because police departments run by whites often failed to protect the black citizenry from criminals. Moreover, the legal system in the South considered crimes committed against blacks secondary to outrages perpetrated against white members of society. Subsequent sections of the book take an in depth look at black progress in various social arenas from the 1970s onward, arenas such as education, politics, law, crime, and many others.

   The absence of job opportunities, poor education, lack of protections in the courts, and segregation policies in the South led African-Americans to increasingly move north. The first migration came during World War I. A second, even larger migration occurred in the 1940s and 1950s. Blacks in the North did not have to deal with segregation, but did experience racism in housing and certain sectors of the job market. Better conditions in the northern states led to an increasing drive for an end to Jim Crow in the South. The authors argue that federal legislation destroying segregation in the 1960s also contained the seeds of future divisions. The Thernstroms see a sinister change of direction with the release of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's report on the black family in 1965. Moynihan's remedy for the problems faced by black citizens, echoed by Lyndon Johnson in a speech at Howard University the same year, moved beyond providing for equal opportunity to call for "equal results" as well. This argument indirectly endorsed the idea of affirmative action and social entitlement programs based specifically on race. For the authors, the problems inherent in this approach are clear: to formulate policy giving special treatment to one race is just as racist as passing laws subjugating specific races.

   Perhaps the most interesting section of "America in Black and White," and probably the most controversial, concerns the authors' claims that African-American social advancement was greatest immediately before the rise of the civil rights movement. During the 1940s and 1950s, the authors write, blacks surged forward in nearly all areas of American society. This growth was far from perfect, but in the arenas of education, economics, politics, and sports blacks saw remarkable gains. Almost half of the African-Americans who lived in poverty moved out of that classification during this period. Education levels for blacks, while lagging behind whites, still grew significantly compared to earlier eras in American history. This period also saw the integration of professional baseball and basketball, opening up an entirely new aspect of society to black advancement. African-Americans showed signs of vigor at the polls, as a court case outlawing white southern primaries and greater movement to the North allowed more blacks to vote than ever before. Obviously, there were still many problems to overcome: black wages still lagged behind white levels, education was still a problem, and the South still practiced vigorous discrimination against its black population. But African-Americans did make progress, and this chapter effectively illustrates that modern day claims about the complete lack of black improvement before the civil rights movements of the 1960s are patently false.

   The greatest problem with this analysis of black gains during the 1940s and 1950s is that it undercuts the need and influence of activism as a force for change. If African-Americans were achieving so much, why did the civil rights movement appear on the scene? It may well be a case of a segment of the population finding some success and quickly wanting more, thereby accelerating the growth and scope of that change. But the Thernstroms spend more time discussing the overarching factors-political, economic, and social-that contributed to two decades of growth instead of focusing on what everyday people were doing on a local level to bring about advancement. Following this argument to its logical conclusion makes a reader suspect that twenty years of gradual progress would have toppled Jim Crow laws without the assistance of any sort of social activism.




4. This book renders a thoughtful and persuasive treatment of the facts of racial divisions in the United States. The problems encountered by the Thernstroms in propounding on this subject can be summed up in what one anti-reveiwer on this page has written in order to smear another reveiwer with whose opinion he apparently disagrees. To wit, the anti-reveiwer does nothing more than cite a case brought by the CFTC against the son of the targeted reveiwer whom he's attempting to marginalize, much as those who don't agree with the Thernstroms' attempt to marginalize them; and with the same type of faulty facts and sloppy research, just as in the instant case I cite.

   It's unfortunate that the debate of such momentous and substantive issues, such as the racial problems addressed by the Thernstroms, cannot take place in more temperate tones. It would also be more helpful if reveiwers would focus on and respond to the facts presented in this book, on the merits, rather than opposing them because they affront the complainants belief system.

   This book reflects some sobering and instructive work. Let's hope the more emotionally balanced among us can use it to further the goal of racial harmony rather than to continue being divisive.




5. Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom's book is the most comprehensive survey of American race relations that I have ever read. The authors present important new information about the positive changes and improvements in the lives of African-Americans as a whole. They go on to argue, with tons of statistics to back them up, that the perception of serious racial divisions in our country are outdated, exaggerated, and dangerous. The reason for this, they show, is political: "it nurtures the mix of black anger and white shame and guilt that sustains the race-based social policies implemented since the late 1960s." Proponents of this status quo are afraid that calling attention, for example, to the rapidly-growing black middle class, "... would invite public complacency and undercut support for the affirmative action regime."

   I was especially enthralled by the authors' analysis of the "War on Poverty" programs of the 1960's, particularly the expansion of welfare, and their horrifically negative effects on generations of black families since. Not only did the "War on Poverty" make things worse for the poor, but the expansion of welfare to include unwed women and children fostered a lifestyle of dependency and irresponsible behavior, and precipitated the downward trend in two-parent black families, that has left three generations of black Americans in dire straits ever since.

   Liberals, especially black liberals, are terrified of books like this, and rightfully so. This book undercuts the blacks-as-perennial-victims/American-society-as-forever-racist rhetoric that keeps the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons, with support from the liberal media, in business. Along with the works of John McWhorter, Shelby Steele and Thomas Sowell, this books serves as a much-needed wake-up call on the issue of race; a cold dose of reality that no doubt makes most liberals cringe.

5 comments about With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together.

1. Good read for anyone that wants to see what can keep a marriage together for a few decades. Also, great perspective on why they are both of historical significance and should be more praised as icons.



2. I love Ossie and Ruby. Their story is inspirational. They are true survivors. I loved hearing them tell their story in their own words. It was funny, touching and at times heart wrenching what they went through. They are true icons of not only African American history, but American history.



3. I am so glad I read Ruby Dee's biography on the internet or I would have never known that she and her (late) husband, Ossie Davis, had written memoirs together, recounting their 50(+) year relationship. This book is a combination of genuinely warm and humorous passages, as well as insightful, deeply profound and moving chapters. They literally have a dialogue together, at some points of the book, even gently (and not so gently) correcting each other on stories and minute details that the other omitted.
   
   Not only is this book wonderful from an historic point of view (it delves into the Civil Rights Movement and Dee's and Davis' role in that, as well as their experiences with racism, discrimination and the struggle to succeed in their craft, as actors of color--particularly African-American actors), but we also get a sense of how these two great individuals came to be the amazing actors/writers/producers/directors that we know today. While Dee always knew she was going to be on stage, Davis was initially going to become a playwright (though, fate had different plans). Together, they had children, grandchildren, and multitudes of life adventures (with plenty of bumps and u-turns along the way). Some may be surprised (and shocked) by the fact that Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis had an open marriage, when their jobs took them on the road and away from each other. Surprisingly, this brought them closer together. This was unexpected, to me, and it was intriguing to read their take on that (controversial) marriage choice that they made mutually.
   
   I really reccomend this book, and I think more people should know about it. These people are legends in their craft, and they are not only wonderful actors, but very talented writers. I look forward to reading Ruby Dee's "My One Good Nerve" from which she adapted a touring show by the same name, in 1996.



4. Legendary husband and wife actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee tell, with much seriousness, whimsy and candor, their respective humble beginnings, their ultimate meeting and romance in the theater, and the struggles they faced as actors, as well as African-Americans in a time of civil and political change. Though they both sought success on the stage and screen, they were also influential in achieving rights for actors, as well as African-American during the Civil Rights Movement.
   
   The pair mingled with the powerful on the Broadway stage (Howard da Silva, Lorraine Hansbury, etc.), rising stars of the movies (Sidney Poitier, Marlon Brando, John Cassavettes, Richard Widmark, to cite a few), and political powerhouses like Paul Robeson, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Never afraid to voice their political views, the pair even became "persons of interest" during the Communist "witch hunts" of the fifties.
   
   Davis and Dee also reveal interesting tidbits about their married life. Speaking of their "open marriage" is quite a surprise but as one reads on, it is discovered that "infidelity" was not something that was not the norm, just an understanding that should something occur outside the bonds of marriage, it would be honestly admitted.
   
   The book's format allows each of the actors to reveal his/her take on common events in their lives. Both come across as truly unique yet complimentary and complementary of the other.
   
   An informative appendix at the book's end provides the reader with all the theatrical, television, and stage productions, along with audio performances, made by them individually or together. Of course, it is incomplete, considering that that book was published six years ago, and both have had additional performances to add to their lengthy career.
   
   Even though Ossie has since passed on, this reminiscence is a fitting tribute to him, as well as homage to both their marriage and their talents as thespians.



5. I just had the pleasure of reading this marvelous book. This book is done with class and shows celebrities do not have to write memoirs that are full of trash. I have always loved Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. I have always said people who have been married for many years usually have had many ups and downs in their relationships. It just goes to show if you have faith and are not willing to give up easily you can have a relationship of longevity and is an inspiration to others. An excellent book. They may have made mistakes but in the end they are truly role models. My heart and prayers go out to Ruby Dee in the loss of her lover, friend and colleauge Ossie Davies. Ossie Davis and Ruby together were a class act and they have written a celebrity memoir with class.

5 comments about Medal of Honor: One Man's Journey From Poverty and Prejudice (Memories of War).

1. product just as descibed from a very fast and friendly seller. Great book about an American hero that more people should know about. Rambo has nothing on Roy! Duty, Honor and Country were not just a slogan to MSG Benavidez. This man should be a hero to kids, not ego-mad musicians and athletes. Great story!



2. I met MSG Benavidez in 1990 while stationed in NJ. I had the distinct honor of driving him around for 2 days while he was there to speak, and that experience will stay with me for the rest of my life. One thing that I remember is him saying that 22 years later metal fragments were still occasionally working their way out of his body.

   I still have his picture hanging on my wall after 14 years. I have an extremely short list of hero's; Roy Benavidez holds the top slot...




3. MSG Roy Benevidez was an amazing person, and that's putting it mildly. In spite of his fearful wounds from his first tour-of-duty and doctors saying that he would never walk again, he went on to become an elite member of the US Army Special Forces. His actions in combat showed him to be brave, his actions after made him a hero. Roy Benevidez was not out to gain glory and status from his actions, nor did he ever look for pity because of his humble upbringings. Though his ancestry was Mexican-Indian and Hispanic, he always said, "I prefered to think of myself simply as an American." He had a "never say die" attitude, and strong sense of morals. He possesed neither vanity nor false modestly, and he served as an example of what one can accomplish in a lifetime. Sadly, MSG Roy Benevidez died in 1998. He truely was an American Hero! May God bless his soul.



4. I was privileged to know and very fortunate to have served with Roy Benavidez. His entire life was a struggle: from his difficult early years in Texas, to his incredible struggle to remain in the Army after his first tour's devastating wounds, to his amazing jump status qualification after the doctors told him he would never walk again, to his incredible heroism that resulted in the MOH (but only after another long battle with the bureaucracy that refused to acknowledge heroism at a time that the country was trying to "forget" Vietnam) and finally, the redemption that came on the White House steps with the MOH ceremony, the "last" MOH given out for Vietnam service. I am glad that Brassey's has put the book out in paperback so that kids can read about Roy and learn to never give up. God Bless You, Roy.



5. Roy Benevidez must have been an incredible person. The feelings and thoughts he shares through out the book shows that behind "The Medal" there was a very real individual. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what really goes through the mind of a hero.

No comments about When the River Ran Wild! Indian Traditions on the Mid-Columbia and the Warm Springs Reservation.

5 comments about A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (Dover Thrift Editions).

1. I am as big a fan of Thoreau as there is (I've given 5 stars to 3 of his other books), but I am sorry, this one is just a bit too wordy. Thoreau rambles a lot in this book, there are places where a few paragraphs of descriptions of his trip are followed by pages of wandering thoughts. Maybe I am not at the point to truly appreciate his writing yet, but I do think this book does have its weakness. Written before Walden and other volumes, I think at the time Thoreau hadn't yet mastered the craft of seamlessly blending his thoughts and philosophies with narratives and descriptions. If the relative weights of the actual trip narrative and his rambling thoughts were reversed, I think this would have been a much better book (and he would have sold a few more in his lifetime too!)



2. This book is a record of a trip that Thoreau took with his brother, John, on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers in 1839. Although it certainly contains commentary about what the two brothers saw and did during the trip, this is hardly a travelogue. The book was written not immediately after the journey, but 7 years later, following the death of John. Indeed, it was written while Thoreau was living in his cabin on Walden Pond, as a kind of memorial. But even as a memorial, it's a bit odd, in that Thoreau is extremely careful to keep John's identity anonymous throughout the book.
   
   The brothers took their leave of Concord one Saturday afternoon in 1839, in a small rowboat. They rowed down the Concord River to Lowell, then turned up the Merrimack, where they commenced to row up river as far as Hookset. Upon reaching Hookset, they visited for a week (a week whose events are not discussed in this book), then turned around and retraced their route to Concord. Thoreau provides a detailed account of how they spent their days. However, since much of the days were spent rowing, they had plenty of time for silent contemplation, so much of Thoreau's material presented here are the thoughts that came into his head as they rowed. The topics covered were quite varied, ranging from fishes, literature, poetry, the Bhagavad Gita, philosophy of history, King Philip's War, climbing expeditions in the Berkshires, New Hampshire geography and history, morality, natural philosophy, Goethe, and Chaucer. There are also extensive essays on friendship and religion.
   
   This is the most explicitly philosophical of Thoreau's books. Nevertheless, naturalists and those interested in local New Hampshire history will also find material of interest. I found Thoreau's excursis on his personal religious beliefs (which he presents as a quasi-Sunday sermon) to be highly engaging.



3. Thoreau sought the seclusion of the pond to write *this* book, not _Walden_. In 19th-century terms, this treatise is a modified travelogue based on a 13-day boat trip that Henry and his brother John took in 1839. By today's standards, contemporary editors and many an English teacher would decorate this manuscript with red ink and admonish the author that he strays too often and too far from the main subject. Bill Bryson's essays wander too, but he doesn't usually reach back and quote the Bhagavad-Gita, Homer, Chaucer, or Shakespeare. But whenever Henry takes in his surroundings, he is reminded of something else, and before you know it a serious discourse is off and running, and it has nothing to do with floating upstream or down. He expresses his opinions or offers his knowledge about fish, mythology, religion, poetry, reading, writing, history, government, traveling, waterfalls, friendship, love, life, nature, art, dreams, and science. He reminisces about a previous trip to the Berkshires and a sail down the Connecticut River. He breaks into poetry at whim -- sometimes his own words, more often someone else's. Along the way, the brothers paddle from Concord, Massachusetts, to the area around Concord, New Hampshire, and then turn around and go home. We meet some of the people they encounter along the way and get a glimpse of New England life during that time period. In some respects, the people and the land haven't changed much at all. We can see Thoreau's environmentalism when he talks about dams and their effects on the habits and habitats of fish -- concerns that are still with us today. We can laugh at his puns and enjoy his wordplay (i.e., "The shallowest still water is unfathomable" and Man needs "not only to be spiritualized, but *naturalized*, on the soil of earth.") Above all, we can explore these rivers and shorelines during a time period that we will never see personally, with the aid of a native naturalist who's in the habit of sharing his observations and thoughts.

   Read _Walden_ first. And if you find you enjoy Henry's take on nature and civilization and life and living, pick up _A Week_. There are a few gems lurking in here that you might connect with.




4. [From Boating on the Catawba...in the
   "Musketaquid"]

   I will take the definite role of the
   Nay-Sayer in the long line of aficianados
   and idolators who insist that *Walden* is
   Henry David Thoreau's masterpiece...
   I will simply state that this work and
   "Life Without Principle" are his great
   contributions to literature, thought, and
   value...

   Take this quote from "Life Without Principle"
   (before I get to 'A Week...'):
   "To speak impartially, the best men that
   I know are not serene, a world in themselves.
   For the most part, they dwell in forms, and
   flatter and study effect only more finely
   than the rest. We select granite for the
   underpinning of our houses and barns; we
   build fences of stone; but we do not ourselves
   rest on an underpinning of granite.
   we do not teach one another the lessons of
   honesty and sincerity that the brutes do, or
   of steadiness and solidity that the rocks
   do. The fault is commonly mutual, however;
   for we do not habitually demand any more of
   each other."

   If that is not "preaching," but in the
   sense of a prophet, not a mere sermonizer,
   then there hasn't been any in a long time.
   But Father Mapple's sermon in 'Moby-Dick' is
   right up there with it.
   
   If I had only known of Thoreau [and I had
   not read much of him (and little then)except
   at the University] and had to believe that
   Thoreau was just what he seems to be in
   'Walden,' then I would have given the man
   short shrift...because there is not enough
   of any sort of heart or soul in that work
   to believe that he is even human. But
   fortunately, a Thoreau worshipper (or rather,
   *Walden* worshipper) forced me, by his own
   imperious egotism, to try to understand this
   man Thoreau and his views. It is fortunate
   that I did, for I discovered 'A Week....'
   
   This Penguin Classics edition is excellent
   in a number of ways -- the two most important
   being the notes in the back which explain the
   allusions, and ancient Latin and Greek sources
   and excerpts(for those who might not know them)
   which Thoreau quotes and sometimes translates;
   and the incredible "Introduction" by the editor,
   H. Daniel Peck.
   He can say his wondrous words himself:

   "There is good reason for 'A Week's open
   acknowledgment of the attritions of time
   and loss. Conceived initially as a travel
   book, 'A Week' was immeasurably deepened into
   an elegiac account of experience by a tragic
   event that occurrred in Thoreau's life in
   the period following the 1839 voyage. In
   1842, Thoreau's companion on that voyage,
   his brother John, died suddenly, and in
   agonizing pain, from lockjaw.
   Without question this was the greatest loss
   that Thoreau ever was to suffer. (He seems
   to have undergone, in the aftermath of his
   brother's death, a sympathetic case of the
   illness that caused John's death, and the few
   entries that appear in his journal in this
   period are desperately mournful.) Interestingly,
   though the pronoun 'we' characterizes the
   narrator often in the book, the brother's
   name is never mentioned -- an indication perhaps
   of Thoreau's enduring need to distance himself
   from this loss. there is nothing in 'A Week'
   that directly refers to the death of John Thoreau.
   Instead, his memory is evoked through various
   symbolic strategies. For example, the long
   digression on friendship in the chaper
   'Wednesday' surely is intended to reflect the
   intimacy Thoreau shared with his brother. Even
   the ubiquitious 'we' of the narrator's voice
   speaks to this intimacy. So intertwined are
   the two brothers' identities in this pronoun
   that it is often difficult to tell whether a
   given action has been taken by Henry or John,
   or both at once."
   
   "To emphasize the elegiac aspects of 'A Week'
   is to remind ourselves that throughout Western
   history, rivers -- and voyages upon them --
   have served as metaphors of transience and
   mortality. Yet, as I indicated earlier,
   'A Week' is not solely a mournful book. Its
   rivers also support a spiritual buoyancy, and
   provide the setting for exploration and adventure.
   Most important, however, the book's larger
   structure enables it to 'transcend and redeem'
   the individual losses that it recounts."
   
   [wonderful writing here!]
   "In general, the outward-bound voyage of 'A Week'
   dramatizes the writer's encounter with time and
   its losses; on that voyage, he pays close
   attention to the shore -- which, in its discreet
   scenes of spoliation and historical change,
   symbolizes the passage of time. The homeward
   voyage, on the other hand, suggests assimilation,
   resolution, and renewal. If the primary mode of
   perception on the outward voyage had been
   observation (of the shore), then the primary
   mode of the return voyage is contemplation.
   Now we are involved in an inward exploration,
   and, symbolically, our vision leaves the shore
   and returns to the river and the flow of
   consciousness that it represents."
   -- H. Daniel Peck; "Introduction."
   




5. Lately, I've come to really like the writings of Thoreau. It has taken me several years to return to this author...after being forced to read excerpts from Thoreau at a ridiculously fast pace during high school. Little time to read and less time for reflection left a bad impression of Thoreau in my mind that has, as I said, only recently been overcome.

   But now, upon my return, I have found "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" by Henry David Thoreau to be a very invigorating book...one to be savored and not read too quickly. Taken at a good pace, it has been a joy.

   While transcendentalism still strikes me as a rather facile and egotistical philosophy, I have really come to see and appreciate the mystical quality in Thoreau's works. Like most mystical authors, Thoreau is not always engrossing--he is actually rather tedious in points, but his work is punctuated by passages of sheer brilliance.

   Seeing nature through Henry's eyes has been a wake up call to me personally. This book breathes excitement and lust for life upon the reader. Even his long winded discussions of different kinds of fish serve to alert me to my own lack of wonder. This world, even in its current subjection to futility , is still a wonderful creation. Nature (and Thoreau's picture of these rivers especially) echo the declaration of the Psalmist: "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands" (Psalm 19:1).

   I highly recommend this wonderful book.

5 comments about Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival (Women Writing Africa).

1. The horrors of female circumcision - something long since banned in the Western world, it is still practiced in many African Countries. "Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival" is author and feminist Fadumo Korn's story of nearly dying to the barbaric practice and her rise to becoming a spokesman against the practice. A harsh and much needed criticism against the atrocity of female genital mutilation, "Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival" has the highest recommendation to community library women's studies collections as a bastion against this cruelty that far too many young girls in the world have been exposed to.



2. The first portion of this book follows the young nomad Fadumo as she travels and wanders with her family in Somalia. The descriptive writing of Somalia and the scenes laid before the reader are simply breathtaking.
   Then we follow the young girl as she undergoes FGM (female genital mutilation), becomes ill and travels to Germany for medical treatment. Eventually she marries and becomes a fighter against FGM.
   A must-read for those wanting to see a woman's life in Africa and how FGM affects the young woman's life.
   It is also an interesting read about the choices she takes in her life and the other women in her family who remain subservient and stuck.
   Although how much of this is determined by her father who let her live with one uncle who was very giving and caring ---while her sister Khadija ended up with another uncle who was abusive and cruel.
   In closing, this book is a quick read and you won't be disappointed.



3. This book is very well written. It makes the reader aware of female circumcision and the problems associated with it.



4. Excellent - very enlightening to a women's crisis and so well written.



5. Can you imagine being born into a Somalian nomad family, and then, because of illness and the luck
   of the tribe, being transported first, to a life of relative luxury, in the capitol city and ultimately to
   Germany? The transition from one distinct culture to another in Europe reminds all of us of the need
   to respect those aspects of traditions which bind people together and try to alter, as humanely as possible,
   those traditional practices that do injury, particularly to women. This is a wonderful, courageous story.

2 comments about Harvest Son: Planting Roots in American Soil.

1. A third generation Japanese-American, agriculturist David Masumoto farms peaches and raisins. He celebrates nature, savoring seasons when "The air is filled with the smell of drying grapes - a caramel fragrance mixed with an earthy aroma."

   He is a champion of hard work, viewing calluses as "badges of honor earned only after years in the fields,...The hands tell a story of worth..."

   And, as evidenced in his affecting memoir, Harvest Son, he is an author whose fluid pen scrolls as gracefully as kanji, the ancient Japanese script in which each word is a picture. Evocative descriptions of abundant harvests and the delicately limned shade of a near-ripe peach are lyric testimony that farming is not only his occupation, it is his modus vivendi.

   Writing with spare yet lustrous precision, Mr. Masumoto traces his life's journey in flashbacks, exploring the past to chart his future. Having learned that in 1942 his grandparents, along with some 16,000 Japanese-Americans were relocated to internment camps, Mr. Masumoto embarked on a painful quest, searching the Arizona desert for traces of the Gila River Relocation Center, his family's four-year home. "A few low cement pillars sunken into the ground" and "a pile of broken thick white dishes" were the only remnants of those interrupted lives.

   Another pilgrimage was to Japan, where he found his grandmother's brother. Held hostage by rice paddies, his uncle's farmhouse "looked like the face of an old man with wrinkles and age spots." The floor was of packed earth..." But, blessings of all blessings, there was the "ofuro" or Japanese hot tub, which "Following a day in the fields, ...tempered worn and broken spirits. The soothing water fostered a benevolence and a feeling of optimism."

   Mr. Masumoto eventually returned to the California valley of his childhood, where he found satisfaction and a connectedness in tending the vines planted by his grandfathers. From the author we learn a Japanese word "shoganai" meaning "it can't be helped." This is a word borne of forbearance, we are told, as despite their painful past Japanese-Americans accepted their new country "with a bow of humility. Not weakness but silent strength."

   When a surprise hailstorm destroyed what promised to be a bumper crop, Mr. Masumoto asked himself why he continued to farm. His answer may be "shoganai."

   Today, Mr. Masumoto is a leader in his local Buddhist community, one of the few sansei or third generation Japanese-Americans who remain in the farmland that nurtured them. It is left to him to serve as chairman at many funerals, as one generation honors another. Harvest Son is a joyful, poignant reminder that it is both duty and privilege to do so.




2. After reading EPITAPH FOR A PEACH, I hungrily hunted down HARVEST SON. This is nature writing at it's finest! At once a touching and poetic account of family life on an organic peach farm and vineyard. The reader is likely to run the gamut of emotions as Masumoto describes losing a crop of peaches to a damaging and wicked storm, makes a pilgrimmage to Japan to learn of his family's history and culture, or has a blast while fertilizing young peach trees "by hand" - his wife and son riding with him on the back of a wagon throwing organic fertilizer at the trees with old coffee cans. His 10 year old daughter jerks them along as she learns to drive the tractor. HARVEST SON is a warm, funny and insightful book that will not disappoint!

2 comments about The Making of "Mammy Pleasant": A Black Entrepreneur in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco (Women in American History).

1. One can only criticize this book for the word "Mammy" in the title if one has not read the book. Note the quotation marks. A central theme in the book is the racial stereotypes and misperceptions of Mary Ellen Pleasant. Actually the book needs to focus on the racial context because of Pleasant's struggles for equality and because of her need to keep opaque many details of her life, personality and business affairs. Despite the somewhat sketchy nature of what we know of these matters, the topic is still fascinating and the book is pleasantly written.



2. I've done a little research on this powerful black woman who wanted to help black people become free of slavery and I came across her writings that she never wanted to be called Mammy. That's what the white mind saw her as and called her in those times. Why would someone want to call her Mammy in this day and age???
   
   This is a reflection of the unconscious racism that exist in the minds of some white people today.;

5 comments about Souls Of My Sisters: Black Women Break Their Silence, Tell Their Stories and Heal Their Spirits.

1. This book was the best, motivational sista to sista book I have EVER read! This will be my Christmas gift to all my family and friends! This book moved me to become a better oriented adult in my life and marriage! I LOVE IT!!



2. beautiful work to compliment "Black Women For Beginners"
   it was one of a kind.



3. I'm a 21 year old African American woman and I picked up this book at my campus bookstore. I started reading it and could not put it down. I had been looking for something that I could relate to and this was exactly the book. It took me through a range of emotions and eventually brought me to a better place. It was like I had lots of aunts, cousins, grandmas, and moms giving me advice. I'm buying one for all of my friends this Christmas.



4. A beautiful, oftentimes tear-jerking compilation of some of the most poignant personal essays of black women's triumphs over life's tragedies and the things that make them appreciate life and give them a reason for living. This book will definitely encourage all of us to believe that things will only get better with time for no pain lasts forever if we truly believe.

   I highly recommend it!




5. This book include essays from all types of women, about everyday problems that women go through. You can learn something from each of the ladies included in this book. The two essays that most stand out for me is To a Son of a Dear friend by jean Buchanan, it's the sad letter to the author's late best friend's son about growing up with his mom. I am just tryin to live Holy by Pamela Shine is about a 40 year old virgin tryin to find love. I think everyone will love this collection of essay, and relate.

No comments about Black Like Me: The Definitive Griffin Estate Edition.