5 comments about Manchild in the Promised Land.

1. Although this book was written in the 1960s, it is, still, very relevant today. This book was recommended to me back in 1983 or 1984 when I was in the military. I bought it with a number of other books. It took me twenty years to read it. I should have read it alot sooner; but, the rigors of life and the fact that a good many other books I bought kept pushing this one further back on the reading list. I grew up in the streets of NYC and saw his life being played out in a number of guys and gals I hung out with at that time. I didn't get caught up in the drug scene nor in the gangsta scene but, like the author, there was a lot going on outside the walls of the house to keep me outside nearly all day. Yeah this world was much newer for me then rather than now but I had to see what was going on within and without my neighborhood. As a parent looking at my kid, I know this world is new to them, which I can't shelter them from. As my kids look at me as their parent, they are constantly telling me to get out of their way. I want to see what is going out there. This only helps me to keep life real for them with a dose of non-reality here and there. Fortunately for Claude Brown, the street made him wise and through his book some of us can reminesce about those days and explain to others what urban life was like for us and how it made us what we are today. For others who have not experienced this urban lifestyle, take the book for what it is and re-evaluate your own experiences in hopes of passing on a reality check of your own life to your children.



2. This is an awesome book that I highly recommend to all young men trying to find their "way". It can be a little harsh, but it is about life in the inner city and a young man becoming a man.



3. Claude Brown's slightly fictionalized autobiography recounts his childhood and early adulthood throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Manchild in the Promised Land also documents the changing atmosphere of Harlem and the people it affected. Brown tells stories of himself as a hell-raiser, involved in theft and drug dealing, and spending time in juvenile detention centers like Wiltwyck and Warwick. He was able to establish a feared and respected name for himself both among the streetwalkers of Harlem and the inmates of the reform schools. Lacking formal education (resulting from years of playing hooky) and idolizing the criminal elements around him, he seemed to be heading down a short road of vice and danger.
   
   Only after Brown moved to Greenwich Village shortly before turning twenty was he able to begin viewing Harlem with a more objective eye, and see the factors that led him down the downward spiral he had been traveling. One of the main reasons Brown believes he and his friends were wrought with such violence and recklessness is due to the mentality imported by their parents from the South. The thing that mattered most to them was fighting: for one's money, girl/family, and manhood (Brown 260). He feels that that rural mentality had been brought to a crowded city life that was not only incompatible with the setting, but also destructive. He laments, "it seems as though if I had stayed in Harlem all my life, I might have never known that there was anything else to life other than sex, religion, liquor, and violence" (Brown 281).
   
   As a youth, Brown excelled in these very base attributes. It wasn't until the introduction of heroine, or "horse," as it was first introduced in the early 1950s, that he feels Harlem truly became unable to cope with their values. Instead of young men fighting for honor, they were killing and robbing for money to sustain their overwhelming addictions, introducing more guns into the neighborhood with desperate people wielding them. He witnessed his friends begin to fade away into scratching, nodding junkies. However, by this time Brown was able to leave and slowly break away from the crumbling Harlem he once knew, watching from afar many of the individuals he once hustled with fall victim to the crimes they themselves would perpetrate.
   
   Many opted instead to stay in Harlem and live the street life. He attributes this to the attitudes of whites outside Harlem and the racism they encountered. To live a "clean" life usually meant to work for a white man who underpaid, referred to them in a racially derogatory manner, and made them perform the most labor intensive tasks. When it came to these prospects, most understandably chose the life of a self-employed drug dealer in Harlem over the self-effacing menial work elsewhere, despite the danger (Brown 287).
   
   Where some people turned to drugs or religion to deal with these problems, Brown found his calling through more established and secular means. Education and music became outlets for him to express himself, gain a self-pride through non-criminal means, and eventually lead to a promising career as a lawyer and author.
   
   One of the things that make this autobiography interesting is its use of language. Brown writes in a notable street dialect, however, the language itself evolves with the character. For instance, "cat" slowly comes into use around page 67 and is used throughout, though it receives less use towards the end. More notably, on page 109 the young Claude begins idolizing a street pimp named Johnny: "To Johnny, every chick was a b*tch. Even mothers were b*tches." And so on page 114 Brown writes "Jackie was a beautiful black b*tch." From then on women are regularly referred to as "b*tches" until the character matures enough to treat women with more respect, and Johnny's spell seems to have completely worn off by the time Brown falls in love with a fellow student. Likewise, the sentence structures become less erratic and grow in sophistication as the book goes on, using less slang chapter by chapter when he begins to change. This seems to be by design.
   
   Claude Brown's personal accounts are no doubt fictionalized to some degree, for his characters go on exhaustive speeches several times, and he certainly didn't tape record them for every word. However, Brown's intentions are to present Harlem and its difficulties in approachable and creative ways. To allow readers (such as white-suburban-me) an inside look into the ways of urban life it invites an understanding and, hopefully, sympathy for the situations of the junkies, prostitutes, and drug dealers that we pass on the street. He shows them in a way that cannot be easily neglected, in intimate, personal relationships that reveal the influences and regrets that have placed them in those situations. These factors were not unique to the 1940s and 1950s. They existed before and do so today. Brown allows insight into the hardships while telling an encouraging tale of one who made it out. By personal drive and education, through art and self-expression (as this book is), he shows that the situation is not dire, but attitudes must change before the world will follow.



4. I can't believe I didn't write a review for a book I read 10 years ago. This is one of my favorite books. It was this one book that drew me into reading books and becoming a book lover. One of the best books I ever read. Highly Recommended!!



5. I was able to find this book relatively easy, based on a few keywords. My boyfriend started reading it several years ago and was unable to complete it. The storyline stuck in his memory and I bought it as a surprise for him, because over the years he mentioned it occasionally. Thanks for making the lookup so easy!

2 comments about Out of Egypt: A Memoir.

1. I read these memoirs with strict concentration on all features of the environment that provided the interesting material to this book.
   
   From childhood of elderly relatives that was somewhat unhappy and bordering on deprivation, the family living off charity, in areas where the primary social groups' life revealed a pattern of neglect, moral [...] , and disregard for law.
   
   I watched a collection of things making people of the same feather sharing a common attribute. Perhaps I should say that a small part of these features I lived myself (1952-56). The message Andre Aciman is giving me is also addressed to every member of a clan feeling alien in the environment in which one was found, and resisted to share.
   
   You are taken back in time to the beginning of the twentieth century until the mid fifties. I never felt strange to uncle Vili, Aunt Clara, or Tante Lotte, like these people exist in the annals of many families' chronological account of events in any successive years.
   
   How much true it is when one had become a success story and thus an object of intense jealousy on the part of his less fortunate confreres. One would definitely feel better off to keep ones apart from ones fellows.
   Walking on tight ropes during WWII to keep balance between complete annihilation and survival is not impossible, or unethical, though the uncomplimentary remarks Uncle Vili used to make about the warring parties - about them both - in private, now remained no secret. We all tend to do the same thing when cornered; won't we? This is legitimate quest for survival amid a world run in madness, Uncle Vili appeared uncomplicated enough.
   
   Those were the people we came to know in Egypt in the mid-fifties, their private life, their intimate charm, their gentleness, their direct and affectionate manner, their kindness and modesty which remained unchanged even at the very height of their predicaments.
   
   We knew people like Uncle Vili, their sense of humor, coupled with caustic wit with their servants - Egyptians and/or Sudanese - that their good nature forsook them and their tongue became capable of mordant, wounding remarks. In the company of their intimate friends, they would throw off the habitual reserve they displayed on public occasions and behave like the big boy scouts which they remained in one corner of their personality - Pashas attitudes.
   
   Andre Aciman: I salute you.



2. Out of Egypt, is a very special memoir about growing up in Alexandria before the author and his family were forced to move from Egypt in 1965 . It's a fascinating memoir of a time and place that no longer exists, and a wonderfully written account .

5 comments about Not Without My Daughter.

1. A very boring story about a seemingly very vengeful woman. We all make mistakes in life, and try to learn from it. But Betty Mahmoody is making money out of it but making up a story in which potrayes herself as the victim. I watched this woman complaining on the Dr. Phil show recently, still sobbing and feeling sorry for herself and at the same time promoting her book and trying to squeeze the last couple of bucks out of her story.
   Thanks to the Finish documentary `Without my daughter' which shows us what really happened we now know that this book is just one big lie.
   Maybe they don't show you these documentaries in the US, I'm sure your government would like you to believe that all women are suppressed in countries like Iran.
   Do not buy this book, don't buy the DVD. Dishonesty should not be rewarded.
   
   Herman, Europe



2. There is no doubt in my mind that the experience Mrs. Mahmoody has had, if one can describe that as an ''experience'' has been rather an unpleasant one. As others have pointed it it is also surprising that she has opted to travel to Iran in one of its most shacky moments, during the middle of the war between Iraq-Iran. Also, it seems that Mrs. Mahmoody was not completely out of guard to this, as she herself describes in the book that the trip was made at a moment before which there had been many struggles between her and Mr. Mahmoody, hence it seems their relation was not completely right even before the trip, well... false promises and hopes she accepts to travel to Iran to please her husband.
   
   The experiences she describes must have been very difficult, she is beaten, treated like nothing, nobody helps her or listens to her, as it seems every body is scared and tries to stay away. I completely must disagree with the way she pictures Iran and the society, about the hygiene issue particularly how she describes the food and the people in the family as being completely unclean, yes it's possible that she was not so lucky and the people she had to live with were not clean, but this can not be fitted to the society entirely, neither can it be fitted to any other society, it just seems these particular people seemed rather uncareful in this matter, though when one reads the book with no previous Eastern experience one might think that ''this is how life is over there'' I could not disagree more.
   
   Also, she describes how ''horrible'' the life is in Iran, due to its restrictions and so on. I think this is rather completely another story, and do not take for granted what she says, I have met Iranian people and have had Iranian friends and I think it's better to read further on this matter. The book is nice in my opinion, I admire the courage of Mrs. Mahmoody in her struggle to protect her child, nevertheless I do believe that the descriptions of many things in this book have been emotionally affected by her terrible experience, which may be in a way understandable, had things gone right for her and her husband perhaps she would not have described life as being ''so terrible'' in Iran, I am not sure but a pleasant read in any case.



3. When I was in high school, a friend of mine recommended "Not Without My Daughter." Twenty years later, I finally got around to reading it. I wish that friend were still in my life to discuss the book with. I recall her saying she stayed up all night, unable to put the book down, and I had much the same reaction. It is a riveting tale of domestic abuse and a harrowing escape, occuring in Tehran in 1984. Yes, there were moments that made me squirm because Betty Mahmoody seemed like a spoiled American making sweeping generalizations about a culture she had little time to experience, but the story overall is a compelling one.
   
   I recommend the book highly, with reservations. I also read "Persepolis" recently and that provided a much needed counterpoint to Mahmoody's biases. It is essential to consider more than one person's experiences. Not everyone in Iran is like the family she married into. That said, this is a compelling story and one worth knowing about.



4. Take all the figures in this painting(The Death of Sardanapalus, 1827 Fine Art Stretched Canvas Poster Print by Eugene Delacroix, 22x17) and dress them up as modern Iranians.
   
   You would get this book.



5. Great story but I am going to recommend Detained Differencesby J. Robert Rowe in conjunction with this novel

5 comments about Up from Slavery: an Autobiography (An African American Heritage Book).

1. Up from Slavery, autobiography by Booker T. Washington, is a true classic in African-American literature. Washington opens Chapter 1: "A Slave Among Slaves" with his vivid recollections as a Negro child growing up in the South: a slave on a plantation in Virginia, a white father he never knew, illiterate and living in horrid conditions. After the emancipation of slaves, Washington's family moves to West Virginia where he labors at the salt furnace and in the coal mines. In his precious few moments of spare time, he learns to read and gains enough confidence to leave everything behind to journey to the Hampton Institute. Later, because of his success at Hampton, he is given the opportunity to start Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Tuskegee Institute is successful partly due to Washington's extensive travel to the North to solicit funds for the school. The students at Tuskegee, in addition to the day-to-day traditional class work, are expected to learn an industrious trade and to work at mastering that trade. Based on his own life experience, Washington believes that the most prudent way the Negro race will persevere is through this combination of education, hard work and service to others. He believes that the White race will come to appreciate the Negro race only if the Negro people prove their worth to society. Because of his passive stance, many, such as W.E.B. DuBois, et. al., labeled Washington as "The Great Accomodator." In other words, accommodating those who were the enslavers instead of advocating for the rights of those who were enslaved. You can get a sense of this in Washington's most notable speech, the address to the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895:
   
   "The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than artificial forcing."
   
   This speech brought national acclaim to Booker T. Washington and, at the time, placed him in the forefront as one of the leading authorities of his race.



2. Washington was born into slavery as a result of his mother having been raped by her master. This autobiography is a recounting of his struggle from slavery to freedom and on to getting an education and becoming a teacher and then an educational administrator as well as a "Black politician."
   
   In American culture, this narrative is cast as the quintessential "raise yourself by your boot strap" kind of story. In fact when I was in the First Grade, I can remember my First grade teacher, Mrs. Pogue, singing the praises of "the Great Booker T. Washington."
   
   And while there is a great deal to admire about Mr. Washington, there is also a side that only came to light after hearing the other side of his story. Washington was called an "accommodationist," "or "the great compromiser," which in the context of the times were euphemisms for being an "Uncle Tom," or the HNIC. He was good at maneuvering his way around in a racist white culture thinking that he was doing his people a great deal of good when in fact he was being taken advantage of, or when he was in fact consciously "selling his people out." By making a "virtue, out of personal necessity," Washington always had a good justification for his action and eventually became the prototype of this kind of black politician. Many Black preachers still use the Washington template for handling cross-racial situations. Plus how else were blacks to negotiate the difficult racist political terrain of those difficult times?
   
   In the book, for instance, he eschews and discourages blacks from seeking a liberal arts education and from attending college, as being frivolous. He argued for the more practical area of the "manual arts," and "the trades." While this may have been useful -- even good advice -- in the context of the times, there were others of his contemporaries, such as WEB Dubois, who saw Washington's approach as strictly a formulaic kind of Uncle Tomism. And the embarrassing treatment of him at the 1905 World's Fair, kind of sealed this image of him as a Black Uncle Tom by blacks and a "stooge" by whites.
   
   While the book is a good read, in retrospect, it shows Washington to have been very naïve politically, and too trusting of "the white man," who it seems never quite saw the world as he did and neither had Washington's, nor the black race's best interests in mind. Maybe it is a bit harsh to judge his action after the fact, but all other black leaders are judged by the same criteria and they come out unblemished, while Washington's accommodationist methods do not seem to have held up well over time nor have they bore any fruit.
   
   Three Stars



3. Booker T. Washington never blames slavery for his problems. Instead he looks forward to the future, and works hard to create a school that helps
   black people.
   He has a positive attitude which attracts the help he needs to build his school. We can all learn from Booker T. Washington.
   Very inspiring.
   I loved this book.



4. This book is one in a vast library of African American literary history that I posses. It is academically written, yet very easy to read. The contents of this text continue to inspire my will to be a great humanitarian, world citizen, and advocate for African education, science, medicine, and unity



5. Very interesting perspective on slavery from someone who actually lived through it. All slave tales are not alike.

5 comments about Miles.

1. excellent choice if you want to know the true story. it is amazing how well written (for a musician) it is and how Miles remembered things with an awesome precission.



2. Miles: The Autobiography by Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe *****
   
   
   Miles Davis has always been a fasinating character to me so when I realized that there was an autobiography of him I tracked it down and bought it. While and after I read the book I didn't know what to think. I mean it is not your typical autobiography. It doesn't talk about most of the stuff you would expect him to talk about and when he does talk about it it's very brief and not in depth in the slightest, but at the same time it is still very interesting. The drug addiction, the women, the violence, the racism, everything the man went through is here. Not much is said about his children how ever, I'm not sure if that is purposeful or not but he does say that his sons are "screw ups" so it is all possible that he just didn't give to nothings about them, though when he briefly mentions his daughter he seems very proud of her. So all in all Miles is a great and interesting tale of one of the most important, original, and influential musicians of all time.
   
   My only complaints are that Miles comes across as an ego maniac though he claims he is not several times in the book. The other one is that Miles Davis is one of the biggest and most racist men in all of history. Everything he says about being treated like nothing because he is black is the same way they he treated white people and the saddest part was that he couldn't even see that he was doing it. He claimed that blacks did everything better and white people stole everything. I will admit white people steal a lot, whites are essentially the `vultures of culture' but blacks did not invent everything, whites, Mexicans, and every other race invented things, and just because some one was influenced by it doesn't mean they copied it like he claims. Also just because someone invented something does not mean they do it the best, to even say that applies prejudice. It depends on the person not what color they are. As a musician Miles is killer, but as a person he really just sucked.
   
   So if you can get past this then Miles is a great and interesting read.



3. Although conventional wisdom may indicate a pathway to genius as a strait line, point A (prodigy) to point B (fame and renown), it's actually one motherf****er of a zigzag. It ain't a matter of black and white neither, although Miles Davis would have you believe that he was in the middle of a race war conducted at his expense where his climb to glory was clouded behind a storm of white critics, corporate America and the perceptions of white Americans (he became the highest paid jazz performer in history). The picture that does come to focus is one of focused dedication, unique intelligence and an astonishing series of musical visions which carry a young dentist's son from East St. Louis to worldwide fame.
   
   Miles takes us on his journey in his own colorful vernacular from day one to the year before his death, a rare, delectible treat in an autobio. Redacted are specific musical methods and cumbursome jazz theory, but the discussion is generous in his crediting others who have come in and out of his bands and contributed to the music he made: Gil Evans, John Coltrane, Dizzy, Bird, Shorter, Hancock, even his own nephew, who he eventually fires. The man is not the loner one might think and thrives in the company of musicians and artists but sadly succombs to the artist's best friend: drug dealers.
   
   His mistrust of the world around him was exacerbated by prodigious drug use and sad realizations of who got what for the art form he helped create. Elvis is tossed aside, "lazy white musicians" performing crap, but he's at his most loquacious when describing his visions of a musical chart for his art and his heartfelt recollection of collaborators gone by, many lost to the same drugs in which he wallowed, many white. The language goes into full bloom as he recounts the many women he either married, had children with or simply bedded. He claims to have never gone after another band member's lady, but anyone else was fair game.
   
   What makes Miles, the book, most appealing is his humanity, his stark feelings on his fellow man and the insight one gets from hearing a smart guy tell his tale of an artist's circuitous journey to legend. Not once do you hear a dishonest note and we're party to a vibrant blueprint that now, after his passing, makes me Kind of Blue.



4. Not enough can be said about the Music of Miles Davis and it's impact for the rest of time. This book will give any Jazz fan an insight into a fabulous era in Jazz as well as it's evolution. I absolutely love all of his music, the Bands that he put together over the years, and the Musicians that he literally discovered who went on to infamy. But I have to be honest, I just wish that there was a little more to the man in regards to human qualities.



5. MILES reads like a discography with transcribed, unedited interviews; however, a few fantastic observations manage to show up. For example:
   
   "'Bird of the Cool' became a collector's item, I think, out of a reaction to Bird and Dizzy's music. Bird and Diz play this hip, real fast thing, and if you weren't a fast listener, you couldn't catch the humor or the feeling in their music. Their musical sound wasn't sweet, and it didn't have harmonic lines that you could easily hum out on the street with your girlfriend trying to get over with a kiss. Bebop didn't have the humanity of Duke Ellington. It didn't even have that recognizable thing. Bird and Diz were great, fantastic, challenging--but they weren't sweet. But 'Birth of the Cool' was different because you could hear everything and hum it also."
   
   MILES could have been 200 pages shorter and only focused on Davis' thoughts about music--perhaps as a musical memoir?--and it would have said a whole lot more.

5 comments about Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out.

1. Visionaire - to follow your vision to become a millionaire (at any age) - now that's real. Farrah is an inspiration and I can directly relate to the story. Great book, it's not all about the money but being the best person you can be, learning and growing along the way. Motivation gets you going but Determination see's you thru...
   Highly Recommended...!



2. Say this kid speak at a Conference. He is a nice guy and appears to be pretty well grounded.
   However, this book stinks. I bought it thinking I could share it with the youth group I'm involved with. Thought it may be interesting. The book is a major bore. A Sleepeer. Picked it up several time thinking it would get better and more interesting, but no substance ever evolved in the chapters. Do not waste your energy or time on this book!



3. OK, I'm not tryin' to hate but it seems that if you are not a cute, very ambitious 8-year old who happens upon a mentor with the desire and the resources to help you out, then this book is just a heart-warming, rags-to-riches story, period. This is more of a "how it happened to me" than a "how to" book. I am pleased to see what can happen when intense, focused desire is aimed in a positive direction...and glad that he is reaching back to help others.



4. I purchased this book for my son after seeing Farrah on TV a while back. He was very impressive during the interview. I bought the book in hopes that my son who was 11 at the time would actually read it. To my surprise, he blew threw it and told me that it was his favorite book. With that endorsement, I would recommend other young men to read the book as well. Good food for the soul.



5. I was truly inspired by this young man. I was intrigued, as my youngest son displays a lot of these attributes and has been telling me since age 5 or 6 that he's going to be rich. After reading this young mans story I just had to pass it along to my son, just to remind him that his goals and dreams are reachable, that no idea is a bad idea. Thank you Farrah for bringing the message home.

5 comments about Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo.

1. I bought this book after re-watching the movie taken largely from this exhaustive biography. As someone who has read many bios, let me say that this is a refreshing and encouraging alternative to the fawning and excessive grocery store drivel and/or the dull and fact-filled dissertations that describe most biographies. Hayden Herrera manages to combine a staggeringly comprehensive detailing of Kahlo's life with an easy prose that makes for an engaging read. I know far more about this artist than I could've imagined and it is largely first-hand accounts either from the pages of Frida's own diaries and numerous letters or the people who were there. Herrera keeps her personal opinions regarding the events to a minimum and allows the events to speak for themselves. The life of Frida Kahlo needs no additional padding or maudlin tricks to engender a connection to anyone with a heart and soul. When the author does speculate, it comes from someone who has clearly studied her subject thoroughly and backs up her theories with a wealth of compelling evidence and sensible arguments. While her appreciation for Kahlo is obvious, Herrera does not stop short of being critical, questioning Kahlo's motives, and revealing the stark humanity and insecurity that Kahlo tried to obscure with her public persona as the confident, outspoken, provocative enchantress sporting her exotic Tehuana finery.
   However, the best use of Herrera's research and the clear compassion and empathy she has for this incredible woman is when she analyses Frida's paintings. I found myself continuously turning back and forth from the detailed observations and interpretation to the paintings and trying to understand what the author is talking about. It was fascinating reading and a wonderful exploration that shed light into the depths of Frida's intensely personal art.
   Two last notes: First, the version I bought does not sport Salma Hayek on the cover but instead one of Frida's many self-portraits. Apparently the publishers corrected this unfortunate decision based on movie marketing. Second, I was fortunate enough to take in the amazing exhibit of Frida Kahlo at the Philadelphia Museum just a few weeks ago and it was a moving and special day. Seeing the actual frames dripping blood, the size and grandeur of some of the works juxtaposed with the smaller works, and the sheer emotionally gravity of her art was something I'll never forget. Having read much of this biography by that time, I was able to bring that much more to that exhilarating opportunity.
   Frida Kahlo was not just an extraordinary artist but was moreover an extraordinary person. Herrera's heartfelt, deeply researched, and brilliantly written biography allows those of us who never knew her to feel as if we have and to share in the universal quality of her painful work. That alone makes us better people for having experienced it.



2. This is a paintakingly detailed biography, yet rather than making for tedious reading, it flows smoothly from the pages...Hayden Herrera has done an incredible job with the story of Frida Kahlo, the most famous Mexican artist in history.
   
   Written in the late 1970s' (when many of Frida's friends and intimates were still alive to interview), this excellent book combines letters (to and from Kahlo), first person anecdotes and historical records (along with a decent selection of photos and paintings), to create a sweeping portrait of a very, very interesting life.
   
   Everything you ever wanted to know about Frida (and maybe some stuff you didn't), is in this book.
   
   "Frida" is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys Frida's work or just wants to know more about a very interesting, opinionated, talented, brutally honest (especially with herself), yet very vulnerable) woman.



3. I learned about Frida when I took art history in college. I always wanted to know more about her because of her art work. She was so passionate! Although she was considered an abstract artist. Her art was very REAL. You can feel what she feels by looking at her art. This book really helps you understand what happened in her life and attached the painting that went along with that specific period in her life. Very well written.



4. Since her death, Frida Kahlo has become something of an exalted icon, representing for millions of people the alegría of a life fully lived. Hayden Herrera's insightful book both supports the artist's status, and provides devotees who never met Frida the chance to know their idol in depth, to familiarize themselves with her happiness and suffering, to experience her highs and lows.
   
   The book's mixture of intimate biographical details (a thorough chronology and evocative descriptions of events), psychological analysis and art criticism create an intensely vivid picture of Frida Kahlo, the world in which she lived, and the means by which her art conveyed her mind and body's pain. Objectivity is retained throughout; unflattering and negative aspects of Frida's personality are discussed with attention equal to that devoted to the subject's positive traits.
   
   As Hayden Herrera's biography shows, the benefits to Frida of putting brush to easel - with her deliberate, small strokes - were manifold: not only was painting a solace and diversion, it was also a visual expression of the pain resulting from a terrible bus accident in which she was involved when she was 18, miscarriages, and the hurt of her husband Diego Rivera's infidelities. She also used painting as a means of earning money and limiting her financial dependence on Diego after they married for a second time. (While during her lifetime one of Frida's paintings might fetch $200 from a private buyer, nowadays even small-scale works have sold for over $1,000,000 at auction.)
   
   To me, an appealing aspect of Herrera's bio is its lack of pretense (appropriately, as pretension is something Frida disliked in any form): you won't find any flowery, purple prose here, nor do the author's analyses and assertions smack of arrogance. It is quite apparent that Hayden Herrera knows her subject top to bottom, but I never felt as if facts and dates were crammed into the text superfluously, simply as proof that she knew them.
   
   If it happens at all, it will be many years before Hayden Herrera's "Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo" is replaced as the definitive biography on the subject. Having read it cover to cover three times, I can't imagine a better-written or more stimulating study of this truly unique, truly gifted person.



5. An inspiring Biography of famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. It was comprehensive, read like a documentary and at some points was long and boring with gory details. Frida was such an interesting person it was worth the struggle to get to the end. I now understand her and her works so much better. I think she was an odd and eccentric person that was gifted with natural artistic talent. I recommend looking at her paintings at the same time you listen to the audio since the audio is so descriptive almost like a narrative from a museum. It doesn't make sense unless you see the works at the same time. I found them on a website dedicated to her. There is nothing like her art, she is truly original!

5 comments about Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High.

1. Warrior's Don't Cry is about a young girl faced with challenges larger than life. At the age of 15, she is chosen to be one of the 9 students to integrate Central High in Little Rock Arkansas. It is the true story of Melba and her 8 African American classmates as they face all of the challenges of being placed in the all white classrooms of Central High.
   The book starts off with Melba's first day at school. We all know how stressful it is to start our first day in High School. These 9 students were never able to have a successful first day because of the hundreds of angry people surrounding the school, yelling "2-4-6-8 We don't want to integrate!" Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, takes the bus to school. As she gets off of the bus, she is faced with an angry white mob. She tries to circumvent them but they move along with her, creating a human barricade preventing her from going to school. This was during the times when people were hung from a noose by angry white mobs. Throughout the ordeal, Elizabeth keeps her head up and tries to get away. Melba and her mom concoct a plan to distract the hundreds of people and create an escape route for Elizabeth. Finally, she escapes and returns home safely.
   
   Don't let the non-fiction genre intimidate you. This book is full of all the drama of a teenagers' life. This true story shows us how scary and difficult it was to be the only black students in a gigantic school. Every chapter gives you a look to the obstacles the Little Rock Nine had to face. On Melba's first day of school, she is called out of her name on numerous occasions. Even her teachers encourage her classmates' racist behavior. Students yell the N word at her in the middle of class and the unnamed teacher ignores it and just kept on teaching. During P.E., Melba is tripped and falls to the ground. A group of her own classmates attack her and kick her while she is down. Her clothes are in tatters and she is slightly bruised.
   
   Melba's school experience is far from a normal, boring one. After her first days of school, the state militia is called in to mediate the transition. Each one of the Little Rock Nine are assigned a state militiaman to guard them and escort them from class to class during the day. This might seem to ameliorate the situation, but we know that it's not the solution when Melba is choked during a school pep rally.
   What would you do if your classmates were out to hurt you and your teachers and principal and vice-principal could not properly protect you? Would you give up or would you keep trekking on? Read Warrior's Don't Cry to find out how Melba fares out in the end.
   
   



2. Excellent book. So hard to read though - people can be horrible. I hope we have come a long way since this.



3. I read Warriors Don't Cry for school, and when I began reading it, I knew I would enjoy it. Yes, I enjoyed it, but it is actually very terrifying to read. Everything that Beals writes is based on fact, and it is very terrifying to imagine that this is what she and the other young black students faced when segregating into an all-white school.
   
   This is a must-read, and is a well-written, terrifying look into the world before blacks and whites could be as one in a school. It's a must read!



4. Title: Warriors Don't Cry
   Author: Melba Pattillo Beals
   Summary: Warriors Don't Cry is a book about a young African American girl named Melba integrating into an all white high school. It describes her journey through segregation and the hard times that Melba and her family had to go through. She enters Central High with 8 other African American students, not knowing the physical and mental abuse that they were about to endure. Melba sticks through it and fights like a warrior to make it though an entire year.
   We enjoyed reading about all the exciting events that happened to Melba , and the 9 other African Americans. It was really interesting learning about integration and knowing it was all a true story made it even more impacting. Having it written by her was empowering because she was there to witness these events. We wished that some of the more exciting events were described more in detail because it would have made the book more suspenseful to see what would happen next. If you want to learn about historical event we would recommend this book to you. Its not the kinda of book that you get a good laugh out of or a good unrealistic story.



5. I ordered this book as required reading for my 8th graders during a study of the civil rights movement. It was perfect...in every way. Students studied the book in their literature class while talking about civil rights in social studies. It was an easy read and most students were hooked from the first pages. The extent of the brutality with which the members of the Little Rock Nine were treated during the year long integration of Central High School both horrified and moved my students. I highly recommend this first hand account for its effectiveness in communicating what the events of the civil rights movement had to do with the lives of the individuals involved. Very powerful..catalyzed great class discussions. Also loved the 4 for 3 deal through Amazon which made this affordable for my kids.

5 comments about Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life.

1. The writer knows a country we know very little about. I loved learning about the people of Palestine and their culture from a non-politicized source.



2. This book forms part of a larger group of first person memoirs by wealthy Palestinians (Out of Place: A Memoir andPalestine: A Personal History andThis Side of Peace: A Personal Account and Strangers in the House: Coming of Age in Occupied Palestine). Sari Nusseibeh was born in 1949 in Demascus, and was descended from one of the wealthiest and most aristocratic Jerusalemite family (along with the Hussaynis, Nasashibis, Khalidis and Dajanis). He studied at Oxford and received a Phd in Islamic Philosophy from Harvard and moved to the West Bank in 1978 to teach as Bir Zeit University. Later he would be President of Al Quds ('the Holy') University.
   
   He has lived a life devoted to being anti-Israeli and at the same time a 'peace' activist. His memoir is one long diatribe about his reighteousness, his love of Islam("How could a civilized nation rooted in palestine for welel over a thousand yeats be so easily plucked out and chased away at gunpoint"-surely the Jews wondered the same of the Romans and the Byzantines of the Arabs).
   
   He speaks frequently of his "love for Jersualem" a city he did not grow up in, nor was he born in. For Nusseibeh the 'peace' activist Abdel Khader Husseini, who was a terrorist and ambusher of civilian busses, is "the great Abdel Kader el-Husseini". Nusseibeh, despite his obsession with Islam, marries a western woman named Lucy who he then converts to Islam.
   
   Nusseibeh's life is one of wealth and privilidge. While he was sipping tea as a young boy the Millions of Jewish refugees of the Holocaust and the other million tossed out of Islamic countries were living in cramped apartments in Israel. While he was as Harvard, Israelis were working in the fields and the factories. His was a classic life of a Bourgeoisie and like the children of White Russians who spoke of exotic 'mother Russia' and their desire to return, he too shares the yearning for a time gone by, for a new 1939, for a different outcome to the Second World War and the 1948 war. But his father, Anwar Nusseibeh, helped seal the fate of the Palestinians in 1948, Sari's account would have been more honest if, despite all the other factual errors, he at least noted the truth about his family's role.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman
   



3. If you want to understand the immense gulf between Israel and Palestine even among moderates, read this book.



4. This is a truly important book for anyone wishing to understand fully the Arab / Palestinian - Israeli conflict. It sheds tremendous light on very important events, thus far not fully presented from the Palestinian side, especially that of the non rejectionist Palestinian camp. Sari Nusseibeh is a truly visionary man with tremendous courage and is a highly gifted activist and indeed very clever politician despite his own denials.
   
   I have thoroughly enjoyed, and was often moved by, the first half of the book which dealt with the history of Nusseibeh's family and contained his even handed description of the events leading to 1948 and all the way through the 1967 war and his subsequent return to live in Palestine with his British wife. Nusseibeh's portrayal of the lives of the Palestinians between the wars of 1948 and 1967 was very helpful.
   
   In the second half of the book Nusseibeh hammers in, over and over again, on the tacit unspoken alliance of the extremists on both sides and shows how Israel supported the creation of Hamas as a counter weight to the Fateh and PLO. He coherently and very persuasively presents the thought process that he went through to move from the one state solution to the two state solution and demonstrates very effectively the threats that prolonging the conflict would cause to it.
   
   Nusseibeh was often right at the center of things or at least presents himself as such; we see him as a leading figure in standing up to the Israelis and to the Islamists, we see him as the key engine behind the first intefada, or uprising, and we see him winning the respect and approval of Yasir Arafat. In this, second, half, this book moves from being a truly exceptional account of the personal and family history more into an aggrandizing politician's memoir. This should not reduce nor detract from the tremendous personal sacrifice and commitment Nusseibeh made to his cause.
   
   I have heard of the peace work of Dr. Nusseibeh and read some of his articles and interview for some years and while I admire him more than any other Palestinian public figure, this book troubled me in a number of ways. Unlike the other three Palestinian memoirs, originally written in English, that I have read (Gada Karami, Fay Kenfani & Edward Said) Nusseibeh sought to justify every action he has ever taken, to defend his various historic positions and to settle the scores with those of differing views. Most unlike the other three biographies, the book contained virtually no retrospective sole searching whatsoever and important topics such as his obvious passion and skill for politics vs. his academic eccentric persona were packaged for the purpose rather than thought through. Nusseibeh repeatedly simply presented himself as the reluctant professor, yet left us wondering about his very savvy organizational, political and survival skills. He seemed to know exactly how to deal with wily old Arafat, Hamas, the Israeli intelligence and the various factions of the PLO yet retain the freedom to advance his own agenda as well as build important relationships with Israelis.
   
   The tremendous heights, in which, Nusseibeh holds his father, a former Governor of Jerusalem, ambassador and member of cabinet gives the feeling of an immature biography lacking in the distance to be objective. Indeed the first half of the book contains rework of the some of the father's own unpublished memoirs. Obvious points such as the father's commitment to an idealistic form of pan Arabism, albeit non Bathist and non Nasserist, and Nusseibeh own movement into being Palestinian nationalist, seeing Palestine being in natural alliance with Israel did not cause him to reflect further on the role and thinking of his father. A respectful critique and contrast of the views would have enhanced and not hindered the understanding of his father and need not be disloyal to his memory.
   
   Most grating perhaps is the competitiveness displayed with other Palestinian peace advocates and the various attempts at discrediting them. This was particularly evident in describing the efforts that led to the Geneva Accord, which Nusseibeh referred as the plan by the name of the Israeli negotiator, thus marginalizing the Palestinian partner. At some point Nusseibeh clearly fell out with Hanan Ashrawi and Dr. Barghouti, both articulate advocates of the Palestinian cause and for peace and coexistence with Israel, he made his disdain of them very obvious and has not troubled himself to analyze their positions even in retrospect.



5. In the Palestinian struggle against an apartheid, territorially hungry (manifest-Zioinst-destiny) Israel, there has been a shortage of local leaders of wisdom, character, and good fortune. This shortage has been partially circumstantial and partially managed by Israel who has been "sowing the wind" for decades by imprisoning moderates and secretly cultivating Islamist extremists. That Nusseibeh has managed to be spared assasination by Israel or others is fortunate for everyone. We may hope that just as modern Israel has risen from the ashes left in the ovens of the shoah, a viable modern Palestine will emerge from the ordeal of Israeli presecution and imprisonment, and Nusseibeh's voice might be revered as both prophetic and instrumental. Otherwise, we might well see a second shoah (of the sort for which, unfortunately, many end-times enthusiasts seem to hanker). We must hope, indeed we should pray, that Nusseibeh's humanitarian good will and good sense are not too late and that his voice, now seemingly crying in the wilderness, will not have been a waste of breath.

5 comments about Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia.

1. I was drawn to Carmen Bin Laden's memoir, Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia when I was doing research about the country of Saudi Arabia. I was pleased to find a fascinating story of a woman trying to protect her children from the fall-out after the tragic events of September 11, 2001 and raise them to be educated free-thinkers instead of grooming them to become chattel in a severe culture.
   
   Young and deeply in love, this half-Swiss and half-Persian girl married into the vast Bin Laden family. With her European upbringing, she was not prepared for her several years of married life in the male-dominated Muslim world, where "women are no more than house pets." The harsh treatment of Saudi women seems almost criminal, and Carmen doesn't hide the fact that money, status, and location all play an important role in determining how a woman is treated treated. In Saudi Arabia, sequestered Muslim wives are oppressed and treated like second class citizens. It's not only the men who expect women to stay "under wraps," uneducated, and out of the public eye; the older Saudi women often force young women to adopt codes of behavior that turn them into pieces of property. Money, on the other hand, can buy a woman a temporary reprieve, a trip to Europe and America, where an almost unfettered life can be led, but when she returns behind the veil, life becomes frightening.
   
   Not wanting her three young children to be subjected to this upbringing, Carmen fights her way out of a painful marriage and makes a life for her family in Europe and America. Just when things seem to be leveling out, the horror of 9/11 occurs and Carmen has to fight the stigma attached to her married name of Bin Laden.
   
   This painful memoir will be quick to read and difficult to put down, but you may find yourself returning to read again about life Inside the Kingdom.
   
   by Rhonda Esakov
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



2. In this book, Osama Bin Laden's sister-in-law Carmen Bin Laden gets a final word in edgewise, and it is quite a word indeed. It exposes what she describes as the crude opulence, emotionally shallow, debauched, harsh and often ignorance, overly rich Saudi royal family. According to her description, the desert kingdom drips in waste, gaudiness, opaqueness, mean-spiritedness, internecine snipping and betrayal, and is grounded in utter and base religious hypocrisy. In short, Saudi Arabia, like the Taliban, is a cult-like religiously based state -- only richer.
   
   The book is about the author's plight to save her three daughters from a life of a slow "death by religious constriction." She succeeds in painting a graphic picture of a society that values appearances over its own pious beliefs, one still rooted in the nomadic desert tribal mentalities and still driven by primordial desert tribal fears.
   
   As one would expect, there is very little here about Osama that we did not already know: For instance, that he is a very tall, not particularly intelligent, but very pious, a very wealthy religious warrior and the "nth" son of one of the richest and most powerful construction company magnates in Saudi Arabia. During the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, the U.S supported him and his cause, and a large majority of Saudis still support his extremist views. Even in the post-911 world, he remains an iconic, a very much revered and protected religious hero in a nation where being a successful religious warrior amounts to a lot.
   
   The book shows that Osama Bin Laden and those like him do not spring, fully formed, from the desert sand. But that they are carefully nurtured by the workings of an opaque and intolerant medieval society, that, until this day remains very much closed to the outside world.
   
   In its essential outline it is not unlike Harsi Ali's "The Caged Virgin," for it too is as much an exposé on how religion becomes a self-enforcing form of mental enslavement on women, even as it is used as the foundation for a decadent, oppressive and a rigidly inhuman social order. Saudi women never become legal adults in Saudi society. They have few meaningful legal rights. The Bin Laden women were kept shut in their homes like pets kept by their husbands. The certainty of their inferiority and subservient status is bred into their bones as it is done to blacks in America.
   
   The intelligence and energy of women in Saudi Arabia can only be expressed through religion. They live only through, and for, their faith, which as it turns out is also the primary instrument of their oppression. Yet, most lack the courage or the will to resist the oppressive social order religion imposes upon them. The result is that their personalities are completely annihilated. They become dependent for their survival on their ability to manipulate their husbands. A disobedient woman dishonors her family and can be killed legally. Yet, because Islam is their way of life, these women do not chafe at the restrictions they live under: They embrace them. It is a willing form of self-enslavement. While there is little new here, it does come with a personal touch and much passion. Four stars
   
   Four Stars



3. Carmen Bin Laben's book is an insightful look at life for women in Saudi Arabia. The book provides an insider's view of life in this Arab nation beyond what the news media or other reports might disclose. Carmen narrates just how much in conflict the thoughts, traditions, and religious life of Saudi Arabia are with those held in Europe or the United States. As a male reader, the book was slow in parts because of the ongoing references to her motherhood and attachment to her children. The book also enticed the reader with a glimpse of her infamous brother-in-law, Osama, but never fully delivered any insights beyond what might be gleaned from other writing about him. Overall, a worthwhile read for understanding the life of women in this Arab nation. The reader will find Bin Laden's book of more value if they have read an Introduction to Islam prior to undertaking her story.



4. This is a very interesting, well written book that will give you a lot of insight into what it's like be a female living in Saudi Arabia. In spite of wealth, it is definitely not much fun to be a woman in that society. This is the story of an attractive, intelligent young woman who was raised in Western Europe, who then met, fell in love with and married one of Bin Laden's many brothers who was also living in Western Europe. This of course happened before 9-11. At first they lived in Europe and then the US and all went well until he took her back to his home in Saudi Arabia to live. As it turns out, the Saudis are almost as repressive as the Taliban. Very revealing! I recommend it.



5. Interesting and fast read. Carmen goes over what it was like to live in Saudi Arabia and how opressive it is for women to live there. She tells it like it is neither overdoing it or glamourizing it. In a way, she tells it like an outside observer might without playing herself to be a victim.
   
   I definitely reccomend this book. It is not too in depth and is suitable for teenagers to read.