4 comments about Don't Let My Mama Read This: A Southern Fried Memoir.

1. Like the reviewer before me. I happened on this book at a book store close out sale - Strand's in NYC. What a lucky find. His humor is right up there with the best. I found myself smiling, laughing a lot and stifiling raucus gaffaws while reading it on my subway commute. I reccommend it as a must read for my book club and for everyone.



2. Unless you want people to look at you because you will be laughing out loud while Hadjii explains what it was what like for him growing up in the South. I picked this up because I am teaching memoir to my students and I wanted a variety of examples. I read a portion of the chapter on school to my students and they loved it. Several asked to borrow the book when I was finished. Don't miss the chapter on Christmas! I am a white girl from California and I can relate to this. So can you!



3. When Hadjii says, "don't let my mama read this," that's exactly what he means. His southern-fried memoir, DON'T LET MY MAMA READ THIS, is bold, at times funny, and not for the faint of heart. He tackles issues like race and growing up in the south candidly and with an "in your face" style I couldn't help but appreciate. I laughed, shook my head and gave silent high-fives. This is definitely one guy who isn't afraid to say what's on his mind and, just in case you don't like what he has to say, he offers his apologies up front - sort of. Reading about his journey to manhood was entertaining, to say the least.
   
   Reviewed by T. Shelly B.
   of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers



4. Recently, the washington DC metro area lost one of our bookstore landmarks. Karibou books closed it doors during January 2008. This store provided books written about and by Black people for over 15 years. Well like most store closings, there was a huge sale and I happened to pick up "Don't let my mama read this". Makes you wonder how many more authors will not have the opportunity to showcase their works to the community before mass release. Now on to the book :-)
   
   I'm in the beginning stages of this book but already know that I will enjoy it. Hilarious, is all I can say. Thus far, I've worn a constant smile while reading this book and thinking, "I know exactly what you mean, Hadjii!"
   
   Even if you can not relate to his story, you are bound to laugh with him as you experience a slither of his life.

5 comments about What Every Mother Should Tell Their Daughters: A Book for Women.

1. I appreciate the author's openness in sharing her story with us. I'm sharing this book with each of my daughters.



2. TheNita has written a very short, but insightful book to be shared between mothers and daughters, and even grandmothers. WHAT EVERY MOTHER SHOULD TELL THEIR DAUGHTERS is packed with encouraging advice dealing with life, love, finances, and even spiritual guidance. In seven short chapters the author shares lessons, such as not letting circumstances control you, not allowing someone else to determine your worth, the importance of chasing dreams, and going after what you want. These, along with several other lessons are used as teaching modules and backed by relevant experiences in the author's life, what she learned from them, and a final mother/daughter lesson placed at the end of each section for reflection.
   
   Though the book was short and could've used a thorough proofreading, I enjoyed the lessons shared by the author; especially about the mother being a daughter's #1 fan. It is perceived by many that the father has this role. But, I tend to agree with TheNita in that the mother plays a very important part of the woman her child grows up to be.
   
   WHAT EVERY MOTHER SHOULD TELL THEIR DAUGHTERS is an encouraging overview of life and how to make the best of it. It is written in an easy to read tone and Christian-based, but not preachy, which will aid in the delivery of the message and assist those who choose to employ the tools in their own family. TheNita concludes the book with an additional chapter reflecting on her own life and an appreciation letter to her own mother.
   
   Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
   of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers



3. This book is very engaging. After initially planning to read a chapter or two, I finished the entire book in one sitting. The author, TheNita, shared many personal moments of her life in which she gained wisdom to share with the reader. It's written in a style which is more reminiscent of a personal journal than a instructive guide or researched material. While it's clear that her perspective is as an African-American woman, the lessons learned are applicable to any woman regardless of racial, ethnic, or soci-economic background. Her honesty about her childhood and her own subsequent mistakes is so compelling that you'll sometimes cringe while reading. However, it may give other women the courage to be honest about their own mistakes as well and to learn the lesson from it. It is the right step to begin the healing process and break generational curses over women in families.



4. Reviewed by Kelli Glesige for Reader Views (3/07)
   
   The relationship between a mother and daughter is explored in this book about healthy emotional connections. It discusses giving the very best that life has to offer in the hopes of stopping generational illness that is passed from mother to daughter to granddaughter. The book is all about love; first how to love yourself, and then how to love your daughter while teaching her to love herself. Giving motherly love and wisdom can save a daughter from much heartache and pain that she would, otherwise, eventually learn the hard way and on her own.
   
   Author TheNita overcame life lessons learned the hard way by pulling herself up from difficult circumstances, overcoming adversities and bad decisions, living in far from ideal living conditions, and abuse. Sharing her recollections, TheNita tells what she has learned, hoping to curb others from making the same mistakes. She shares the critical role God has played in her life, encouraging others to seek his strength and guidance also.
   
   At only 58 pages, this book is small, but it offers helpful information that can benefit others immensely. Troubled teens or single moms might find it to their particular advantage. Reading about how the author made changes in her life can motivate others to know they too can change. One has the power to change if the desire and knowledge is present. TheNita provides her method of obtaining both to enable that change.
   
   "What Every Mother Should Tell Their Daughters" was not what I thought it would be: it is more than just an advice book for mothers. Through her counsel, the author has helped her own mother and her sons. She gives guidance because of the love she holds for her mother and because she wants her mother to enjoy the things she is blessed with now. "The goal," states TheNita, "is to stop negative and abusive cycles now--do not carry them to future generations." I recommend this book to anyone, particularly females, hoping to raise well-rounded and emotionally stable daughters or sons.



5. Written by The Nita, an African-American survivor of domestic abuse who has risen above her destructive path through her faith in God and became the first Armed Services Officer in her family, What Every Mother Should Tell Their Daughters: A Book For Women is a guide written especially for mothers and daughters everywhere to avoiding harmful patterns in one's life. Peppered with vignette's from the author's life and her memories of her own mother and grandmother, What Every Mother Should Tell Their Daughters includes such pearls of wisdom as "Don't let circumstances control you", "Never compromise your beliefs or your principles; the results will be pain", "When you want a change in life, do something different", and "Teach your daughters how to manage their finances" . ("For some odd reason we seem to believe that the first sign of growing up and being on our own is to get as many credit cards as we can and max them all out! Completely untrue!") A Best Books Award Finalist at USABookNews.com, What Every Mother Should Tell Their Daughters is a tenderly written, solidly grounded guide especially recommended as a mother's day or daughter's birthday gift.

5 comments about Aaliyah: An R&B Princess in Words and Pictures.

1. This book paid tribute to the late Aaliyah. It wasn't written to talk about her airplane crash or the investigations that the last reviewer talked about. Aaliyah fans get loads and loads of pictures of the singer and get to learn about the person she was. To alot of people she was cinderella! In the Remembering Aaliyah chapter, all the quotes by other famous entertainers make that clear!



2. First of all, I did'nt buy this book--I checked it out of the library. I have to honestly say that I was very disappointed with it. The Author said in her introduction that she had planned to do this book with Aaliyah herself shortly before she died. It's a shame that she did'nt get that chance. The book that the author ended up with after the entertainer's passing was very fairytale-like, almost childish, and very unrealistic. It was almost as bad as reading a modern day version of Cinderella--minus the happy ending. It might as well been written by any one of Aaliyah's fans. The author doesn't even really go into detail about the day of the the plane crash or the investigation. It doesn't even bother to talk about the "Wrongful Death Suit" that Aaliyah's parents filed against her second record label, Virgin, and the (now out of business) airline company that was involved in the crash, Blackhawk. The highlight of this book is the very candid black-and-white photos that the author provides of Aaliyah with her family, friends, and other industry notables. The author also provides nice quotes made by other enterainers about Aaliyah in the last chapter called "Remembering Aaliyah" as well as a short "flimograpy" of her flims and her "discography" of her music. I know that this author wanted to pay tribute to the late entertainer in a loving way, but just because a person is deceased (famous or unknown) , does not mean that we have to put them on a pedestal and pretend that thay were perfect while they were alive--No one is! If you want a more accurate story on Aaliyah's life watch the documentaries: "E! true hollywood story:Aaliyah" or "VH-1's behind the music:Aaliyah" . Bottom line: Check this book out of your local library , but don't buy it!



3. Coming from a person who never saw AAliyah, never been to her concerts, and never spoke with the woman.... she seems to have still made me one of her numero uno fans! I admire this woman; her beauty, intellect and just every possible thing about her. I was very heartbroken when I heard what happend to her. Everyone knows that I was a diehard fan. Nevertheless, God needs his angels to come home early sometimes and it is not up to us to actually say when that is. I read this book once (my close friend is also an AAliyah fan) and it really touched me. I felt as if I knew her just a little bit more than what I learn from the media. Sometimes people never realize that stars are "people" too and they act goofy and want to have fun. My advice is to read the book-not TOO informative but still worth reading.



4. I love everything about Aaliyah, cause she was trully an entreteiner, a sweet little girl that will always be in our hearts..!
   She was not only beautiful, but a great person with a lot of dreams, some of them came true, but not all...
   Iam sure that she is watching us right now, and that she would love to see us smile whenever we think about her...
   i loved this book, its treasure for me that i will always carry and another way to know that iam alive, and to fight for my dreams because we never know when is our time to go..!



5. Aaliyah was a true inspiration in life and still remains to be in the after-life. This book told Aaliyah's story and the pictures were also a nice addition. The only thing that faltered in this book were the small spelling errors on the picture pages. Other than that, this book should be in all Aaliyah fan collections.

5 comments about Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans: Expanded Edition New Foreword by Elizabeth Burgos.

1. After 10 years of research, Stoll has shown that Menchu's book is an imperfect biography. How shocking! She went to sixth grade! She didn't witness her mother being tortured and murdered (although it did happen)!! There is no record of one of her brothers dying of malnutrition!!! For a time she participated in the unarmed political wing of the Guerrillas!!!!

   As one who has spent several years living and working among Guatemalans who (barely) survived army massacres, tortures and disappearances, and who was in Guatemala when Stoll's book came out, I find these revelations to hardly be capital crimes.

   Rigoberta's book was an attempt to bring international attention to the Guatemalan army's genocide campaign against the indigenous population. To that effect it was successful, although not nearly successful enough.

   Is Menchu's book a perfect account of her life? Apparently not. Is it an accurate portrayal of what happened to millions of other indigenous Guatemalans? The UN-sponsored Truth Commission, and the Catholic Church's REMHI report have definatively answered in the affirmative.

   In the end, you could say that Rigoberta's book is more accurately the story of "all poor Guatemalans" than it is her own. What Stoll sees as a fault is really one of the book's main virtues.

   There are many stories that urgently need to be told about Guatemala. That Stoll would choose to spend his professional career attacking someone who has tirelessly fought for the human and cultural rights of Guatemala's indigenous people is the real mystery here. Instead of focusing on Rigoberta Menchu, a marginal, if noble, figure in Guatemala's sad history, why not undo the country's more dangerous mythic figure, Efrain Rios Montt (killed tens of thousands during his 16 month reign of terror, and now currently runs Guatemala's Congress and ruling party).

   How many as-told-to autobiographies would stand up to 10 years of background checking? Personally, I'm waiting for Stoll's account of his own life story...




2. Stoll doggedly and biasly challenges Mechu's authenticity. By focusing on discrepancies within her testimony as told to Elisabeth Burgos-DeBray and drawing minimal attention to Menchu's actual and substantial political work on the behalf of indigenous people world wide, he paints the picture of an alternately manipulative and naïve puppet of the left. Furthermore, he suggests teachers who use Menchu in the classroom have bought into a romantic myth about virtuous Latin American rebels.

   Stoll's argument is three-fold: Firstly, he balks at the
   Postmodern notion that view "truth" is subjective, and, through a laundry list of discrepancies, aims at exposing Menchu's truths as false. Secondly, he frets that teachers present I, Rigoberta Menchu, an Indian Woman in Guatemala as a stable, simplistic, and de-contextualized account of the massacres of Guatemalan indigenous persons. Most significantly, Stoll argues that in fetishizing Menchu we not supporting the cause of "all poor Guatemalans," as Menchu suggests in the opening lines of her testimonio, but the cause of Marxist-indoctrinated guerillas. Stoll even goes so far as to assert that the testimony of the Nobel Peace Prizewinner may have extended the violence in the Guatemalan highlands, prolonging "an unpopular war" (p.278).

   Like Dinesh d'Souza's extreme right-wing book Illiberal Education, Stoll's poses a critique of the academic left. Unlike d'Souza's rant, Stoll's book is in turn a fascinating, but infuriating read, but ultimately mean-spirited, academically disingenuous and far from "objective."

   For example, when Stoll points to debatable discrepancies within the testimony, he offers other voices and political contexts. He interviews people from Menchu's village El Chimel; he interviews I Rigoberta Menchu editor Elisabeth Burgos-Debray and the ambassador who survived the army-induced embassy fire in which Menchu's father ---who along with protesters had taken the ambassador hostage---dies. A chapter is devoted to fragmented interviews with women who allegedly attended a convent school with Menchu. Stoll relishs each detail that invalidates Menchu's claim that, like many other Mayan children, she did not attend formal school and only learned Spanish as she became an activist.

   In many respects, Stoll's fieldwork seems exhaustive. It starts to pay off when Stoll deviates from his from his attack on Menchu's authenticity to historicize Guatemalan politics and trace the alliances of peasant and indigenous organizations. However, these discussions tend to break down as condemnations --- and conflations --- of Menchu and Marxism. Stoll's motives appear particularly ominous when it is revealed that, despite ten years of work in Guatemala, he listens to a mere two-and-a-half-hours of the eighteen hours of recorded testimony Rigoberta Menchu gives Elisabeth Burgos-Debray. And Stoll was right there in Burgos-Debray's apartment.

   Many years have passed since the week in 1982 when Menchu, a political refugee, gave oral testimony to the Argentine anthropologist. Until recently, that week long meeting represented most of what the public gleaned about Rigoberta Menchu. Since the testimony concludes at the point of exile, it does not reveal Menchu's constant lobbying for indigenous rights and Guatemalan peace treaties at the UN, prior to winning the Nobel Peaceprize. It is fortunate that months before the Stoll hatchet job, Menchu's own account of her political work, including life after the Peaceprize, and episodes that were obscured in the first work, was published. Stoll's self-serving book should only be read along with its source material and her second book. Considered together, the three books fashion an intriguing matrix of truth-making, of interpretations and re-interpretations that shift based on political circumstance and personal positioning.

   Still, my fundamental feeling is that Stoll was out to frame Menchu at any cost. It saddens me to see so many people jumping on his bandwagon, serving the purpose of further empowering the wealthy and privileged, and casting doubt on one of the rare voices of Central American indigenous people to reach us. Her story of oppression, resistence and survival is more important than any minor discrepencies Stoll so relishes. Stoll's book is pure careerism and is nasty to the core. Menchu's meaningful life work speaks louder. It inspires while Stoll's knarled intentions digust.




3. My wife is Guatemalan, so I have a special interest in the case of R. Menchu.

   Long before this book appeared I found it odd that I couldn't find a single Guatemalan who believed the popularized story of Menchu. I had doubts myself since the historic highway of leftism is paved with the remains of frauds and tyrants.

   This book lays my doubts to rest. Menchu is a fraud. She has been used by the Left to bash the U.S., and she used them and a gullible international media to become a star. Menchu is to the misty eyed utopian dreamers what Fabio is to lonely, yearning readers of romance novels, or what Miss February is to adolescent men. Rigoberta is the socialist pin-up girl.

   But the fantasy of the left always turns violent and ugly. In the Guatemalan case the author also demonstrates that the indians were used as pawns to further the objectives of the Left and their guerilla surrogates. The Left pushed the mostly uninterested indians into the face of the repressive right-wing government while shouting, "they say you are fascists murderers." Wedged between the bloodthirsty Left and Right, the indians got slaughtered.

   Menchu, like Lenin, Castro, Foucault, and so many before her, is a symbol of the moral corruption of the Left. People drawn to utopian reformism are also ideal candidates for the cult of personality. Menchu became (and still is) a useful invention of those who build castles in sand saturated with the blood of innocents.

   One thing is certain, this book will cause no general reassessment by the Left. Few leftists will ask themselves, "How did I get taken in by the myth of Menchu?" The Left merely steps over the bodies and havoc it precipitates, moving on to the next big religious crusade. After all, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, can you? The thousands of innocent Guatemalan eggs cracked in the leftist guerilla war merely join the millions of others around the world. Yet very few leftists have found that mass murders associated with their beliefs are reason to rethink. Even one prior reviewer of this book reduces his rating because one of the rare leftists who rethought his views has given support to the conclusions of David Stoll.

   Several thousand people were sadly murdered during the Pinochet regime in Chile, and the Left pursues this relentlessly. Millions were killed in the name of socialism in the USSR and China, and the countries they subjugated, yet the Left demands no trials, no accountability. Why?

   Have you ever heard one leftist suggest that Castro should be tried for torturing, murdering, and filling his prisons with dissidents, homosexuals, etc.? Castro is merely making socialist omelets, thus he remains a hero.

   The reaction to this book by the Left has mostly been to repudiate it as rightist disinformation (despite the fact that the author is on the Left), or to ignore it. Menchu remains a useful myth for those who detest the U.S. and still harbor utopian dreams that require more broken eggs.

   If your teacher makes you read "I, Rigoberta," read this book as well and ask some hard questions. You will be branded a racist, anti-third world, anti-multicultural, reactionary, but you will at least know the truth and it will set you free . . . especially when you flunk the course!




4. David Stoll's book makes important points. To what extent can the testimony of a single person represent the situation faced by a larger community? What happens when a single figure comes to embody a movement, and that figure has conveyed misrepresentations of the truth?
   Stoll does not claim that many poor Guatemalans did not face unbearable oppression, or that they were not massacred by para-military death squads. However, he does note that, like 1980s and early 1990s Peru, the indigenous sometimes felt trapped. He suggests that both the military and leftist guerrillas would use murder as a means to coerce the indigenous into subordination.
   Although Stoll pats himself on the back for having waited until Guatemala's lengthy civil war ended, one must question whether his timing was appropriate. His book provided ammunition for the military government to negate claims of torture and disappearances at a time when United Nations Truth Commissions were investigating military abuses.
   The issues brought up by Stoll are important, but could be addressed in a less slanderous manner. As Victor Montejo points out, the picture of Rigoberta Menchu on the cover is inappropriate. If Stoll is in fact claiming not to be an iconoclast, why is the photograph on the cover? Why is Rigoberta's name in the title?
   Let there be no doubt that Rigoberta did have a political agenda. However, if there are several exaggerations, the story should not be discredited. Consider the genre: testimony. Rigoberta was interviewed for hours a day, for about a week (I believe). Rigoberta did not edit the text. Also, we do not know what questions were asked, and how they influenced Rigoberta's responses. We do know that Burgos-Debray has marxist connections. An interviewer can have a profound effect upon the interviewee, in this case a young twenty-three year-old.



5. To start from the proverbial beginning, Rigoberta Menchu, the Mayan Guatemalan who graced the world with her autobiographical account of the terror of the countryside of that land during its lengthy civil war, lied. The author was curious how one person could have done all that Menchu claimed to have done. It turned out she hadn't. She wasn't the eyewitness at her brother's murder; her father wasn't the organizer of various rebel groups. Indeed, witnesses who knew him claimed to have known a very different personality from the one described by Rigoberta. Further, while Rigoberta was allegedly forming various political organizations in her home village--wherein she claimed she was illiterate and monolingual--she was really the scholarship student at a girls' school and quite fluent in Spanish as well as in her native, Mayan tongue.

   The consequences of that myth? romanticism? are among the analyses of Stoll's work. And I must commend him on the depth of his analysis. But...

   The Guatemalans have gone through a devestating civil war in which hundreds of thousands of civilians, most of them poor, have "been disappeared"--for which that new use of those verbs was created. It means, simply, that they don't exist any more (and that they're buried in one of those body dumps in which most were thrown and are now the subject of exhumations by forensic anthropologists). Stoll agrees that the Guatemalan army, civil patrols, and vigilantes have an inexcusable history. He doesn't seem to evade that. But...

   Contemporary American and European leftists have made that war a battle between the victimized Mayan indigenas, and the nasty, unscrupulous, and, of course, wealthier ladinos (known elsewhere in Central America as Mestizos). Stoll points out that Rigoberta's father's major conflict was not with ladinos--with many of whom he got along just fine, thank you--but with his in- laws who were, like him, Mayan. But...

   A number of guerilla groups infiltrated the countryside. Stoll examines that the bulk of Mayan and other poor were not supporters of the guerillas. Rather, they saw the guerillas as just another faction with arms. But...

   I had some struggles with the book. I, like the author, am critical of white middle and upper middle class analyses of armed struggles--as if those doing the analyzing could tell the difference between a trigger and a plate of Brie cheese. At the same time, as one who is fairly well-versed in the history of the war there and is familiar with many who've suffered as a result of it--and who has been there and stopped by the army for no reason--I find it difficult to so easily exonerate the army. Sure the guerillas were not saints, despite what some of their supporters would have us believe. But desperation leads to armed conflict when there is no hope but to fight. That strikes me as common sense, and has provided the basis for any "revolution" including the American, French, Russian, etc. It's not necessarily "right" let alone "good," but simply fact.

   In short, Stoll acknowledges that the Guatemalan army has, in a relative way, rivaled the Nazis (my comparison rather than his). But he clearly--and repeatedly--implies that the army's brutality was instigated by the actions of the guerillas. For instance, a couple of ladinos were killed by guerillas therefore the army became vioent and wiped out villages. Doubtless there was some guerilla activity that stimulated a violent response. But the extent of the army's violence--the formal, objective report issued less than two years ago says that of the violence, the army was responsible for 97 percent leaving little to blame on the guerillas--so overshadowed that of the rebels that the latter's is negligible, barely exists in a statistical sense.

   Further, I was turned off by Stoll's overuse of the word "Marxist." Whether Stoll is a right wing activist, I don't know. (As he claims to be a scholar, I hope not.) But the words "the right" came up seldom while nearly everyone, from Allende in Chile to most of the guerilla groups came up as "Marxist." And that's all too often a devil term used to classify as "enemy" rather than to examine one's political or economic policies.

   Still, I recommend the book's analyses. I agree with Stoll that even the human rights movement is compelled to draw a good vs. evil distinction rather than examining the complexities of an issue; the academy these days has too much influence of the post-modernists who love to designate others as victims (thereby often freeing those who've done the designating from amending their own comfortable lifestyles to do anything about it).

   Indeed, to his credit, Stoll, in at least four places in the text, tries to examine why Rigoberta would have manufactured her story. He asks others too why they think she would do so. He niether frees her from the fallacy nor indicts her for perjury but examines. That attempt to understand her is particularly well-taken.

   I must confess too that, despite my appreciation for his analyses, I can give him at best three stars due to guilt by association. That right wing demagog David Horowitz in one of his tracts uses Rigoberta's fabrication as an excuse to refute human rights causes in general. Perhaps--again, ideally--Stoll did not intend that with his examination. But I can't help thinking of Horowitz's reference which I read before reading this work. And that doesn't help Stoll's credibility.

   If nothing else, if you read this volume, learn from the technique that the author uses to investigate a story, who he talks with and how he reaches a conclusion. If you come to different conclusions, as I have, more power to you.

5 comments about A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman.

1. I had the opportunity to read this book. From the moment of the first word to the very last word, the book draws you in to read more. The graphic descriptions can take you to the other side of the world and stand next to the author on his travels. You know what it was like be black during the "Jim Crow" days on the trains in the south. Granted that my 25 years never saw the ugly side of America, his visual imagery is just so vivid that I seriously think they should dump "Scarlett Letter" and place this book on the reading lists of High School Students.



2. Charles Dryden's book forces people to see the trials and tribulations encountered by black servicemen and women during WWII. I was shocked to read about the different encounters with 'Jim Crow' that Dryden and his peers waded through during their service years. A must for anybody curious about WWII, the Tuskegee Airmen or about the fight for civil rights in America.



3. I meet Col. Dryden when he gave a talk about his experiences and his book. I then read the book a felt a tremendous respect for the author and all the Tuskeegee Airmen. Col. Dryden tells his personal story in a way that made me feel as though I was there with him the whole time. The challanges of blacks in America in his story left a powerful impact on me, the courage the author displayed is an insperation. A-Train is very well written and reads easily. It is an powerful story that left me feeling inadequate and ashamed to be white. I had the oportunity to meet Col. Dryden again and sought him out just to shake his hand again, knowing him from his book, it was hard to hide my emotions.



4. Every young African American boy should read this book. It is an inspiration.



5. I initially bought this book expecting it to be similar to the other slew of WWII books out there ( The ME-109 dove at me out of the sun with guns blazing...). Instead I got an honest account of a man who wanted to fly for his country and be treated with the same respect as any other pilot. Dryden's memories and descriptions of his voyage through training to be a pilot as well as the segregated and de-segregated Air Force are interesting and honest. Dryden't narrative is not the heart-pounding, can't-put-the-book down type but rather the story of a man who, faced with tremendous adversity from his own society and country, persevered. There is no bitterness in Dryden's story, and I put the book down tremendously impressed by his belief in himself, in his religion and his friend. It's a good book

1 comments about My Lord, What a Morning: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Music in American Life).

1. This was a completely personal and revealing work. If you are a fan of Anderson's voice this book will soon become one of your favourites. I couldn't put it down (I know that statement is cliche-ed but it's the truth). Anderson had an incredible struggle establishing a career as an African American opera singer, but throughout her life she treated everyone she encoountered (despite the cruelty and racism of many) with dignity and grace. Her autobiography is indicative of her supreme modesty and love of music and the human voice as the most divine instrument. If you buy it, you will be enchanted. I particularily recommend it for people studying voice.

No comments about Black Women Scientists in the United States (Race, Gender, and Science).

No comments about Summer Snow.

3 comments about In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South (New Narratives in American History) (New Narratives in American History).

1. _Promised Land_ does indeed cover an interesting family. The true tales of the Thomas clan, descendents of a "semi-free" entrepreneuring slave in mid-ninteenth-century Nashville, have the potential to enlarge the boundaries of our imagination of American history. The telling is another matter: far less imaginative. Much of what one learns in _Promised Land_ one could get more amusingly and emotionally wrenchingly from Edward Jones's _The Known World_. If one prefers history in non-fiction, though, _Promised Land_ is a good bet.



2. I was taken back by the small size of this book and then taken back again by how much history it contains. Not the stuff of dry history textbooks, this book illuminates this era with detail you won't find elsewhere and engages the reader with its intensely personal story.



3. Drs. Schweninger and Franklin have written an excellent history of the remarkable slave woman Sally Thomas and her three sons, James and Henry Thomas and John H. Rapier, Sr.
   
   The book chronicles the fortunes of a "quasi-free" slave woman and her efforts to secure freedom and financial security for her three mulatto sons in Nashville, Tennessee. The authors deftly describe the often contradictory attitudes of while Nahvillians to African-Americans, both slaves and free people of color. For example, though techincally still a slave, Sally Thomas nevertheless, as a "quasi-free" slave was able to buy property, own her own home, and become a successful and respected businesswoman (opening her own laundry on Deadrick Street), as did her sons James, Henry and John (who were all three successful barbers). The authors describe a further contradiction in white attitudes to Antebellum blacks as, after much hard work and thriftiness Sally saved up enough money to buy her son James' freedom. After being granted their freedom free blacks were required by Tennessee law to leave the state, However James (and several other free persons of color), based upon exemplary moral character, successfully petitioned the court to be allowed to remain in Nashville.
   
   The book also chronicles the lives and adventures of Sally's three sons, James and Henry Thomas and John H. Rapier, Sr.. One of Rapier's sons, James Thomas, was elected to the US Congress from Alabama in 1873.
   
   The book does a great job of putting the Thomas-Rapier family into the context of the times in which they lived, vividly describing the social, political and religious life of Nashvile residents, both white and black, slave and free in the 1820s, 30s, 40s and 50s. As stated above, the book also demonstrates the often contradictory views of African-Americans taken by whites and portrays the ways in which slaves like Sally Thomas enjoyed relationships with whites, artfully maneuvered within the system of slavery to gain a large measure of autonomy, and were in the end respected by whites. This book may serve to overturn some long-held assumptions regarding Antebellum slavery. The authors do a masterful job of describing just how "peculiar" the institution of slavery was in actual fact.
   
   As a resident of the Rapiers' home town of Florence, Alabama, as well as a genealogist and historian at our public library, "In Search of the Promised Land," along with Schweninger's earlier "James T. Rapier and Reconstruction," and his publication of the autobiography of James P. Thomas, "From Tennessee Slave to St. Louis Entrepeneur," is a valubale addition to our Rapier family record collection. The authors are to be commended on their impeccable research and scholarship, while at the same time, weaving this scholarship into a genuinely readable and enjoyable narrative. I highly recommend this book. My only criticism would be the hardback's small size. Still, at 280 pages, a great book!

1 comments about The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

1. Malcolm X, along with Dr. King and Huey Newton, were essential to the Movement of civil rights in America. Although his message was viewed by some as rather hostile, was it really? Compared to the treatment of Negroes up until the 1960's,and even into today with the Klu Klux Klan and other ignorant white supremacist leagues, was anything but hostile.
   Malcolm X, in his autobiography, exploits the occurances and treatment from whites that shape his character into the person that he came to be. Through a detailed account of his life, X portrays several issues in light of racism and its existence in not only the South, but as well, the North. Yes, Northerners, as truthfully portrayed by X, were racist - however subtle and 'unmeaningly.' His developement into 'Malcolm X' from 'Malcolm Little' is a catalytic event unfortunately unknown to most high school curriculums, yet is AS ESSENTIAL to the Movement as Dr. M.L. King. He held as charged, vociferous, and legitimate message as King, Newton and many others; and, the entire light of this 'spectrum' of characters was essential to the shaping Civil Rights in America.