5 comments about Don't Block the Blessings.

1. Oh I love this book, couldn't put it down. Mrs. Patti puts her foot in it the good, the bad and the ugly.. but comes out still shining. I can't wait to get another one of her books..



2. I have yet to read this book, but it is in good condition.



3. This book is one of the best autobiographies I've ever read. Not only is it filled with details of Patti's life, it also takes you to the lessons that she's learned from the time when she was a shy little girl, to life as a megastar. This book will truly touch your heart as you cheer on the diva that is Patti LaBelle.



4. Congratulations, A reflective autobiography with some depth and truth. Before reading Patti's, I read Aretha's, which I ultimately felt like tossing in the middle of the street! Great job! I thought the book was very inviting to the personal side of Patti. I have always admired how forthcoming she has been with the public in relation to her late sisters. This book can truly encourage one to live life, as well as love and appreciate life.
   However, there are a few things I would like to clear up, which I found inaccurate or inappropriate. The Jackie Wilson episode I found rather distasteful, particularly since he is not around to defend himself(it was o.k. to slander Al Green). Also, as I had to do with Gladys in her book, I need to clarify a few inaccurate points you raised in your book. In reading your relationship with Atlantic Records in the 1960's, one is left with the impression your group wasn't given a fair shot due to the success of Aretha. Well, that's not totally true, since you were with the label two years before she signed on. It just wasn't your time yet! Now is your time. You sound greater and look more beautiful than ever. You have a wonderful spirit in which people adore you far and near. You are truly a blessing. Wonderful job.



5. Patty LaBelle is amazing. She has an incredible voice, a career full of ups and downs, and can bring down the house in concert. This book is just another triumph for a lady who deserves all the accolades she receives. With absolute honesty, she reveals so much about her life--from sexual abuse to the fear of dying of cancer like her sisters and good friend--you feel that Ms. LaBelle has given you all that she can. Throughout her life, she has faced a good deal of challenges but has emerged with a positive attitude about life and can still entertain with the best of them. I have seen her in concert 3 times and she blew me away each time. This book does the same. After reading the dismal biography of Aretha Franklin (From the Roots), I realized what a gem this is. If you wanna read a really good book about an incredible entertainer, give this one a go. Its worth every penny!

4 comments about Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley: African Princess, Florida Slave, Plantation Slaveowner.

1. Anna Madgigine Jai was a teenager (and possibly a Senegalese princess) when she was captured in her homeland and sold into slavery during a civil war in 1806. She was later purchased in Cuba by Zephaniah Kingsley, Jr., and taken to his St. Johns River plantation in northeast Florida where she became his household manager, his wife, and eventually the mother of four of his children. Her husband emancipated her in 1811, and she became the owner of her own farm and twelve slaves. The latter is not surprising since, under Spanish control, slavery was considered neither a permanent condition nor the God-given role of black people. Slaves had opportunities to buy their freedom, or owners could liberate them without penalty; free black persons were an accepted part of the caste system, able to acquire wealth and property and pass it along to their children.
   
   While Florida was under Spanish control, Anna lived a relatively tranquil life for 25 years as a free black woman. But when Florida came under American control - which brought the racist demand that blacks should only be slaves, not free, and which outlawed interracial marriages - she and her children migrated to a colony in Haiti established by her husband as a refuge for free blacks. Despite spiraling racial tensions of the antebellum period, Anna returned to north Florida where she bought and sold land, sued white people in the courts, and became a central figure in a free black community. Kingsley Plantation at Fort George Island is now undergoing restoration by the National Park Service.
   
   This fascinating history of one remarkable woman provides an eye-opening exploration of larger issues, in particular the complexities of slavery. To reconstruct her story - which meant deconstructing some legends, the author draws upon a wide variety of sources, both in Africa and the New World. This book will be of interest to Florida history buffs as well as African American studies.



2. Every now and then, a history comes along that not only offers a fascinating look at a past era, but also manages to hold the reader's interest and entertain. Books like David McCullough's 1776 urge a reader along much like a good novel will do. Daniel L. Schafer's Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley has the same effect.
   
   Schafer establishes the time period based on narratives and first hand research. Documents such as an emancipation notice for a plantation owner's slave Flora Hannahan provide an unvarnished look at the perception of African-Americans in the decades before the civil war: "On the emancipation notice, she is described as 'a mulatto-colored woman of twenty years of age, a native of Florida...about five feet high.'" (pg. 59)
   
   These descriptives are enhanced by photographs of slave quarters as well as descendants of Anna Kingsley.
   
   This book is a solid addition to the personal library, and it would be an excellent classroom resource for teachers of history or language arts. Author Schafer writes with an objective, even-handed approach, and accurately depicts the slave trade in all its characteristics and nuances, including the African natives who colluded with Spanish and English traders and also the elite American plantation owners who enjoyed the benefits of low-cost captive labor.
   
   Aside from its educational value, the book is a good read for anyone interested in Southern culture or Florida history. I don't know Dr. Schafer, but I certainly admire his scholarship and his ability to tell a fascinating story.



3. Can't recommend more highly. This is fascinating history which is well-written and meticulously researched.



4. Dr. Daniel Schafer, the preeminent scholar of the Kingsley's of Northeast Florida, has written a riveting book exploring Anna, the African Princess turned Slave turned Plantation Owner. Anna is without a doubt one of the most interesting people of Florida's history. She has long been overlooked by historians, but now her story is told. Anna's story sounds like a movie script. Schafer has filled in one of the important blanks of Florida's history.

2 comments about Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow: The Courtship and Marriage of Paul Lawrence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore.

1. I think that this book was excellent in that it provides a foundation for finding new ways to analyze history, seeing as how the history we are generally taught excludes people who were not members of mainstream society. A history that only focuses on mainstream society does not represent all of society and almost behaves as if other people did not exist or play major roles. Eleanor Alexander acknowledged that while there was not much documentation on the courtship and relations of the African American middle class, she was trying to start from the limited sources that were available to provide a new perspective. In addition, this novel touched upon some very real issues that are known but underplayed, including the racism and self-hatred that was very prevalent among black people and the fact that the patriarchal society was the primary basis for sexism that degraded the value of women.
   
   Dr. Alexander never once claimed that her ideas were facts, but she provided valid reasons to support her claims. For example, she explained the fact that Alice's history is undocumented but she allowed room for the possibility that Alice may have unofficially told of her own history in her short stories. She also presented proof in Alice's own words that Alice disliked darker-skinned blacks and that Paul, a dark-skinned black who exhibited self-hatred because of his color, disliked yet desired light-skinned women, the closest to the American definition of beauty, a white woman. Alexander posed questions that would make the reader think "Was this a possible factor?" If she was critical in her analysis, her criticism was matched by objectivity. In a way, learning negative truths about someone as famous as Paul Laurence Dunbar or his wife is unpleasing, but I appreciate her honesty. Another magnificent thing about this book is its analysis of gender relations and some of the practices that still exist today. The past does shape the present, and an excellent example she used was of rape and how society attributed more blame to the woman, as if the woman somehow did something to deserve it, and that is still a widespread problem today. Therefore, this book demonstrates how essential it is that we are provided with an encompassing presentation of history that allows us to see how many problems arose in the past and why they are still perpetuated today. The ideas that she presents in her novel are accompanied by documented primary sources that urge us to consider at the very least the possible validity of her claims.
   
   It is possible that some may say that she touched upon certain areas but then failed to explore further, but it is important to keep in mind that she stated repeatedly that there was limited documentation and that she was merely trying to provide new possibilies that would stir more people to follow her lead and delve deeper.



2. How do two African-Americans, who are uncomfortable in the skin they are born in, forge a successful union in the early 1900s if the relationship is doomed from the beginning? Eleanor Alexander depicts the courtship and marriage of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore, African-American pioneers in the literary arena.
   
   Paul Dunbar is born in Dayton, Ohio on June 27, 1872 to a doting mother and an abusive father. A sickly child, Paul has an unusually close relationship with his mother, Matilda. He writes his first poem about a problematic marriage at the age of eleven probably based on his parent's relationship. Paul hits it big on the literary scene with tales of plantation Negroes who speak with broken English and are a source of amusement to his white audience. He grows to loathe the tales as his more serious work goes unnoticed. 
   
   Alice Moore is the illegitimate daughter of a woman who washes clothes for a living. Her mother educates her and her sister. Their mother seeks the best for them and they grow into cultured young ladies. Alice and her sister are able to pass for white. This causes her not to identify herself as being Negro. Alice's stories often centers on female characters who are referred to as Mulatto or Creole but never Negro. 
   
   Both Paul and Alice hate their African-American heritage. Paul falls in love with Alice when he sees a picture of her in a magazine. He prefers to date light-skinned or Mulatto woman. Although Alice detest Paul's dark skin but she is drawn to his fame in the literary world and what his fame could potentially do for her writing career.
   
   They keep their courtship private, communicating through letters.  Paul suffers from mental issues and alcoholism. He also holds sexist views, handed down from his father, causing him to be abusive. These factors, added with the extra "burden" of being Negro during this time period, adds to the destruction of their marriage.
   
   Eleanor Alexander recounts an excellent part of history regarding the marriage relationship of a prominent African-American couple. The book is repetitious at times but she gave very extensive information regarding the thoughts and feelings on racism, sexism and class status. This was a fascinating yet tragic love story.
   
   Reviewed by Paula Henderson of Loose Leaves Book Review.

5 comments about I Should Be Dead By Now.

1. This is not a book that will fill you with great amounts of unknown knowledge, nor will it require heavy thinking on your part to understand. What you will get out of it is a great deal of amusement. Here are dozens of short, kind of random thoughts, little stories and anecdotes by Dennis Rodman.In summary it is kind of a way to look at his philosophy of life.
   
   It's a life that a lot of us would like to live in a vicarious way, I say vicarious because it appears to be a life that I don't think I could handle. In between the stories of what happened, there's a bit of insight into the way the man thinks. He's lived the life that he says he wanted, yet the desparate urge to get back to the NBA comes through. Born in May of 1961, he's now approaching 45 years old. He has to know that there aren't many players in the NBA that are that old. It will be interested to see what he does in future years.
   
   I found the book a mix of sad, funny, and poignant. All you can say is 'good luck.'



2. This clown said all he could say with his first book, back when it mattered, to some people, because winning basketball teams matter, to some people.
   Note that it wasn't published by one of the big fat publishers. They don't expect it to sell. So don't be one of the few fools who buy it.



3. This is a fairly interesting-ish book about one of the best players to have played the sport. However, I wonder why he wrote another book? Surely he doesn't need the money (unless it all went to alcohol). It's interesting to get inside his mind a little and see what he's all about, but it is all jumbled and mismatched and leads nowhere. I like him, but if I had read this first before buying, maybe I wouldn't have bought it. Only for true Rodman fans. Otherwise, skip it.



4. Dennis Rodman is a Great Basketball Player&truly knows the game inside&out.also a Smarter cat that He often leads on.but this Book is just alot of loose thoughts that never goes anywhere. there are a few interesting moments talking His time in various spots during His Career,but nothing really new.still Dennis Rodman remains one of the most interesting Athletes Ever.



5. What a fun book! Rodman has always been colorful, but this book allows you to step into his mind, and try to understand where he is coming from when he does all his crazy stuff. Very entertaining- you do not have to be a basketball fan to enjoy this book. His "reality checks" are worth the price of the book.

5 comments about Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond.

1. **MILD SPOILERS**
   
   Like many, I was rather disgusted at the posthumous revelation of notorious racist Strom Thurmond's illegitimate daughter.
   Like many I doubted that in Jim Crow South of the 20's & 30's that an underage African American girl financially dependent on the family could actually have a relationship of equals. Like many I assumed there was probably some coercion (finanical if not physical force). I also assumed that he paid the daughter to keep his hypocrisy quiet.
   
   The book taught me not to make assumptions, that the truth is more complex. And the truth was almost sadder and more amazing than my preconceptions. To read that her mother loved Strom hopelessly. To know that she herself felt obligated to keep quiet. I was blown away.
   
   It's also just an interesting story of growing up black in the 30's, 40's and 50's in the North (Pennsylvania and NYC) where there was more 'freedom'. And her time (and reasons for returning) in South Carolina is also compelling reading.
   
   The descriptions of meetings with her father are fascinating. Her descriptions of her father's views of himself are astounding (he honestly did not think he was racist, he claimed he was tring to "help" the blacks (so long as they kept secret). It's these brief glimpses we get into Strom Thurmon'd personal life and views (mediated through his daughter) that kept me glued to the book in amazement.
   
   I could really empathize with what this woman went through.
   And I applaud her for finally coming foward and sharing her story with others.
   I highly recommend this!



2. MOST INTERESTING READING. READ IT OVER ONE WEEKEND. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
   STROM THRUMOND COULD'VE PLAYED HARDBALL AND THREATENED HER MOTHER, BUT INSTEAD FINANICIALLY SUPPORTED HER THROUGH THE YEARS AND PAID FOR HER COLLEGE EDUCATION. Remember, segregation was well alive down South in those days.



3. It provided a provocative insight into the lives and times before the civil rights movement through the eyes of a publically unrecognized daughter of a prominent man. It also provided a refreshing new slant on their relationship. Although I had held the "racist" senator in much contempt at the time, after reading this book, I found my feelings for him somewhat mitigated and softened.



4. I wasn't sure I wanted to read this book. Was it just another "tell all" book by someone capitalizing on a scandal? But I was curious about this "secret" Black daughter of the notorious Southern Senator, so I opened the book. I'm glad I did because reading it took me back to another time, another era, another mind-set where a man could love a Black woman he had to keep hidden and care about the daughter they made together, care enough to see her regularly and to generously provide for her needs. Yet father and daughter never shared a meal together.
   
   How did Essie Mae Washington-Williams survive such a life and keep Strom Thurmond's secret her whole life, until the Senator finally died at age 100 and she was an old woman? She did it because, despite everything, she loved him and respected him. He was her father.
   
   I found her stories of the South in the late 1930s and 1940s a revelation, as she related the reality of segregation and her father's firm and apparently sincerely-held belief that "separate but equal" was the right way for Black and White to relate to each other. It's an amazing story: Growing up in Coatesville Pennsylvania, thinking her aunt was her mother, meeting her real mother (a beautiful woman, she tells us), taking a trip back to her mother's roots in South Carolina, and meeting her father for the first time, as a shy teen-ager.
   
   Her shyness with her father kept her from challenging him on his public statements, but eventually that timidity broke down as Essie Mae grew to adulthood, got married, and raised a family. Finally she could tell him that black people hated him and considered him their enemy. But by then he had moved away from the "Dixiecrat" creed that had led him to challenge Harry Truman in 1948 in a presidential election in which he carried four Southern states. He insisted it was not about segregation, but about states' rights.
   
   Woven into her story are all the political and cultural events of the 1950s, the 1960s and beyond. We read about having to sit in the balcony at movie theaters, attending the all-black college in South Carolina, riding in the back of the bus (and once, when she was pregnant, refusing to give up her seat, just like Rosa Parks), her cross-country trip with children in the early 50s when there were few motels or even gas stations that would serve "coloreds."
   
   We marvel as we wonder why she kept his secret, why she didn't tell the world she was Strom Thurmond's daughter? Was it the money he generously gave her each time they saw one another? Was this "hush money," as her husband Julius would later say? She insists her father never told her to keep quiet, but she wanted to have a father and in her own way was proud of being the daughter of such a powerful and intelligent man. Could she risk losing what little of him he gave her?
   
   How strange that Strom Thurmond thought the world would think less of him if they knew of his secret daughter! How could he care for Essie Mae's mother, but not want the world to know? How could people have had such values? Essie Mae tells us of the Confederate flags that flew everywhere in South Carolina, the statues to Civil War heroes who fought for the Confederacy, the disdain for the federal government, and the painful aftermath of the Civil War that continued to simmer. It was a different time, and Strom Thurmond was a complicated man. If his own daughter, who he refused to acknowledge in public, could defend him (as she most certainly does in this book), then maybe we all need to consider that nothing is as simple as it seems.



5. Can you really love and respect a person whose ethics and moral principles you abhor? Well, after reading "Dear Senator," I believe Essie Mae, did. This was quite a revealing read about the relationship between Essie Mae and her father, Strom Thurmond. Imagine for 16 years living with the people who you think are your parents, then finding out that the woman you think is your mother really isn't your birth mother and that your birth father is really Strom Thurmond.
   
   So, what do you do? Do you run out and tell the world that this man who is a political god in the state of South Carolina is your father or do you keep the secret for decades - only revealing it after the man dies? Do you continue to long to be accepted by your father and your father's family or just accept that "it is what it is?" Do you justify keeping your father's secret as a sign of respect for him? Do you continue to accept his "child support" payments and convince yourself that it's his way of showing that he cares? Do you keep the secret of your parentage from your husband and children until "the time is right to tell them?"
   
   Oh, such are the dilemmas for Ms. Washington-Williams. Her journey is one that makes for a noteworthy read as she moves through life carrying this remarkable secret that, if told, could have ruined the political career of a man who made his mark as a staunch opponent of Black civil rights.
   
   I'm glad Ms. Washington-Williams was finally able to have this burden lifted.
   
   3.5 Stars - the .5 for the mention of my alma mater, NCA&T!

5 comments about Black Maestro: The Epic Life of an American Legend.

1. The story of Jimmy Winkfield is an amazing one, and honestly told. I say the latter because, although the author obviously wants to inform us about this great unknown athlete, he's honest enough to tell us the man's faults, too. Overall, he wasn't a very honorable man yet you can't help but root for him.
   
   His story will leave you shaking your head in amazement. I think it's safe to say no American athlete ever led a stranger life, and that includes Babe Ruth. Winkfield was one of the best jockeys in American history, but he had his color going against him at that time. He went to Europe and.....well, the stories are incredible!
   
   As of my review, this hardcover book is on sale here for five bucks. You have to be kidding! What a bargain. This is great reading if you any interest in people, not just horse racing.



2. the sport of horseracing owes much to the African Americans who have nutured its athletes. Rarely, however, are those unsung heros shared with the public.
   
   This well written and very well researched book shares the life of one of the sport's more colorful participants and gifted partners to equine athletes - Jimmy Winkfield.
   
   The pages kept turning, the story was fascinating, and the author did a lovely job in both pace and content.
   
   If you have any interest in the "sport of kings" and those who make it come to life, this book is an important read. For those who just want to read the story of a gifted athlete whose genetic makeup destroyed his promise on American soil, this will inspire you as to Jimmy's fortitude and once again bewilder you at the mindset that eventually took his craft out of his home country.
   
   put it on your read list.



3. This book is so well written that it got me hooked on it right away and I am not a racing fan. The author, Joe Drape really captured the essence of Jimmy Winkfield and brought his story to life in this book. After reading this book I was left with the firm understanding that man can accomplish so much in a lifetime; it is up to us to make something of our lives regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in. It is a truly amazing account of one man's life. Jimmy Winkfield is a legend and I would not have heard about him if it were not for this book.



4. The media sometimes works in very strange ways. Several years ago, middle-distance running star Steve Prefontaine had two movies on his life released literally simultaneously.
   
   And with forgotten jockey legend Jimmy Winkfield, two of the best turf scribes going - Ed Hotaling and Joe Drape - end up publishing biographies within several months of each other, with Drape's being the second to reach the bookstores.
   
   Winkfield's story is one for the ages, as this black jockey battled racism on and off the track in the United States & financial ruin caused by two world wars while forging a racing and training career in Europe. Winkfield was aboard the winning mounts in the 1901 and 1902 Kentucky Derbies - the last black jockey to win the renowned race - and rode in the 1903 event, before Jim Crow destroyed the remaining careers of black riders.
   
   Born into a family of sharecroppers, Winkfield initially pursued his racing dream at Latonia Ractetrack, grooming horses and as an exercise rider before getting the opportunity as a jockey.
   
   Early in his riding career he got caught in the middle of the turf wars by mobsters at the Chicago racetracks, where it wasn't good for business - or health - for a jockey to ride races honestly.
   
   After racism slammed the sport's doors, Winkfield forged an outstanding career in pre-revolutionary Russia. But World War I and the Communist Revolution found Winkfield leading an expedition of individuals and Thoroughbreds out of the war-torn nation. The escape alone is worthy of a book or movie.
   
   Settling in Paris, Winkfield again picked up the pieces at the track as a trainer and jockey. But the opening salvos of World War II forced Winkfield to flee France before the Nazi occupation and return to America.
   
   A telling and tragic scene is his invitation by Churchill Downs officials to be honored in a ceremony before the 1961 Kentucky Derby and the ugly racism he faced in trying to walk through the front doors to the banquet.
   
   Buried in France with a plain gravestone that - in Russian - says, "Moscow," sums up the feelings Winkfield felt about where he was most comfortable and accepted as an athlete and - importantly - as a human being.
   
   Winkfield is arguably the greatest jockey ever to ride in this country. And maybe having two biographies published in rapid-fire fashion will finally help him gain the recognition he truly deserved after all these years.



5. I read Black Maestro this summer. It was a great read so I'm buying several more copies to give as Christmas presents. The book works on several levels. It is first and foremost a book that details the triumphs of a black man at the turn of the century and his subsequent quest to do what he loves to do - race horses. The book also describes the trials that the black athelete faced in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. It would take 50 years before atheletes such as Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron were able to break the "color barrier". Finally, Black Maestro is a great adventure across two continents and through two world wars - I imagine Hollywood is already chomping at the bit to get this story on the silver screen.

1 comments about Gale Library Of Daily Life: American Civil War.

1. A new two-volume, 600 page set, titled - Gale Library of Daily Life: American Civil War - has just been published and it is a vital addition for the serious student of the American Civil War. The Gale Group sought submission from scholars and historians to complete this excellent resource with over 200 articles included in the set. The publisher is Gale Cenage Learning.
   
   The two-volume set focuses on the daily life of soldiers and civilians, North and South, during the Civil War.
   
   A key feature of the essays will be excerpts from first-person accounts to illustrate the lives of men, women, and children, including slaves and their families, during the epic conflict that shaped America.
   
   The writers were able to access Gale Group's proprietary database of primary resources including "memoirs, letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, excerpts from other published works." Professor and prolific author-historian Steven E. Woodworth at Texas Christian University was the senior editor for the work and also wrote a few of the articles.
   
   The set breaks down into nine major areas, with numerous sub-areas under these major headings. Volume 1 is broken down into four major categories: A Soldier's Life, Family and Community, Religion, and Popular Culture. Volume 2 breaks down into five major categories: Health & Medicine, Work & Economy, Politics, Effects of the War on Slaves and Freedpeople.
   
   The articles are well-written, readable and accessible, and expertly edited by Woodworth and the editorial team. Each article also lists 4-10 recommended reading sources at the end. There is also a very nice 10-page annotated bibliography in volume two.
   
   There are a generous selection of original pictures or photos but not too many. There is also an eight-page chronology of the Civil War.
   
   This two-volume set is a MUST for public libraries and should be a top priority for individuals who are serious about studying the Civil War. Subscribers to North & South Magazine or Civil War Times would be ideal readers of Gale Library of Daily Life: American Civil War.

5 comments about Baseball's First Indian, Louis Sockalexis: Penobscot Legend, Cleveland Indian.

1. This new book by Ed Rice has everything--stats, rare photos of Louis Sockalexis and Hall-of-Famers such as "Cy" Young and Jesse Burkett, and game-by-game summaries. We learn about "Sock's" short, brilliant career as an outfielder with an arm like a rifle and the fastest feet in the league. But too much drinking and an ankle injury ruined Louis's speed and fielding. He was let go after 3 seasons and drifted around the minor leagues. Occasionally he played well but he never regained his former brilliance.

   Sockalexis went home to Maine and worked as a logger and ferry operator. He also stopped drinking, and earned respect as an umpire for the rough Maine leagues. "Coach Sockalexis" taught young Penobscots the game and proudly sent five of them to the New England League.

   Ed Rice gives us a nice glimpse into "Sock's" later years when he was much admired by friends and colleagues. His fellow tribesmen honor him to this day as a great athlete. Enjoy this interesting bio as you count the days to spring training!




2. This is the story of Louis Sockalexis, the first Indian ballplayer who had a great college career but fizzled out in the majors. Maine author Ed Rice tells us all about this player who became a national sensation in one short season. This exciting bio is crammed with baseball lore and play-by plays of Sockalexis's games with Holy Cross and the early Cleveland Indians. Without TV or radio, the fans had to imagine Sock's sizzling throws to the plate from deep right field and hot line drives. He was so fast he could steal bases at will. He had to face war whoops and taunting crowds, but like Jackie Robinson, he just quietly played the game. Sadly, drinking cut his career short but he holds a special place in baseball history as a pioneer and great player who could have become a champion if he'd lasted long enough. This book makes great reading during baseball season!



3. This has been a remarkable year for books about Louis Sockalexis, the long-forgotten nineteenth century Penobscot outfielder. When he was signed with the Cleveland national team, he became the first Indian to play in the major leagues.

   This book by Maine author Ed Rice tells Sock's story from a local point of view as well as extensively covering his outstanding career at Holy Cross and games with Cleveland, before drink and injury destroyed his career. Sockalexis broke the color barrier fifty years before Jackie Robinson, but his love of the high life and the overwhelming pressures of racism led him astray.

   Mr. Rice's book is lavishly illustrated and vividly recreates the rough-and-tumble world of nineteenth-century baseball. The author also describes Sock's career in the minors, where he played better than people think, and his final years on Indian Island as a well-respected baseball coach and umpire.
   This is a great piece of Americana and a must-read for baseball fans everywhere!




4. For years, Louis Sockalexis wasn't much more than a trivia question: who were the Cleveland Indians named for? Now there are THREE new books about him.

   "Sock" was an outstanding athlete in his time and showed great promise. If drink hadn't ruined his major league career, he could have ranked as one of the all-time greats. Still, he deserves to be remembered as a baseball pioneer, the first Native American player not long after the Wild West was still killing off Indians. He had to put up with rough treatment from the crowds, but it didn't seem to bother him. In fact, he was well-liked by nearly everyone--too much, sad to say. Everyone wanted to buy him a round, and he loved to party. Finally, a foot injury wrecked his playing for good.

   Ed Rice, a Maine author, includes a nice local view of Sockalexis's later life and interviews with people who knew him. There are fond memories and funny anecdotes about Sock, who never lost his ability to throw like a cannon or hit the ball out of the park. He coached a Penobscot team and sent five players to the New England leagues. He was such a good umpire you didn't dare argue with him. His last years were quiet but he always kept up with the latest news on baseball. They say when he died, he had clippings from his magical rookie year in his pocket. He's buried on Indian Island near Bangor, Maine, where fellow Mainers and visitors from all over can pay their respects to "Baseball's First Indian."

   This is an outstanding book--I give it two thumbs up!




5. For part of one magical season in 1897, Louis Sockalexis, "Baseball's First Indian," had wings on his feet in the outfield. The fastest runner in the country, he ran down line drives and made spectacular diving catches followed by bullet-like throws to the plate. He went on a hot hitting streak that seemed unstoppable. Though he was showered with racial abuse at first, he soon won over the crowds with his calm demeanor and easy smile. It helped that he was rugged and handsome. If only the magic had lasted!

   Louis had an alcohol addiction that soon made itself known. It wrecked his career when he injured himself and lost his lightning-quick speed and reflexes. The Cleveland Spiders (now Indians) gave him several chances to shape up, but he couldn't stop drinking. Finally they let him go in 1899. He drank himself off several minor league teams as well but occasionally showed flashes of his former brilliance. He played one complete season with the Lowell Tigers, posting a .288 average. In 1902 he went home to Indian Island for good. He quit drinking and won respect as an umpire and coach for Penobscot youths who were proud to learn from the best.

   Of the three new books on Sockalexis, this one by Ed Rice is the most complete, covering each game of "Sock's" career and giving us a close look at his last years among his tribesmen, who honor his memory to this day. Mr. Rice grew up in Maine with the legend of Sockalexis close by, and decided many years ago his story was worth telling. This book is a remarkable portrait of a gifted ballplayer who's finally getting the attention he deserves.

No comments about Stealing Buddha's Dinner.

5 comments about Feather in the Storm: A Childhood Lost in Chaos.

1. I loved this story. I hope Emily Wu writes more about her life and what led her to America. This was a beautiful story about how the cultural revolution in China robbed people of there childhoods and destroyed families. I intend to read more from this author.



2. Feather in the Storm is a heart-wrenching and deeply moving story of a childhood lost in the terrors of Communist China. The story opens as three-year-old Mao, as she is known by family and friends, meets her father for the first time - in a concentration camp. Moved from family to family and from city to village, little Mao finds herself striving to learn who she is and where she belongs. Fed by her starving grandmother and protected by her outcast parents, Mao attends school and performs her daily chores at home without complaint, maintaining her hope for a brighter future.
   
   Mao's father, a university professor who studied in America, has been labeled as an extreme rightist by the communist party in China. Cast out of the university apartments, Mao's family is sentenced to live in a tiny village so that they can "learn from the peasants," becoming better citizens. Here, Mao and her family live in a tiny mud house which melts away in storms, leaving the family exposed to the elements. Forced to leave home as a teenager after high school, Mao is sent to live in a remote village on the top of a mountain where she falls in love with a young man she is forbidden to marry.
   
   Throughout all of the trials and tribulations Mao faces growing up, and in every village and town she lives in, she is able to make friends and gain the respect of her teachers and neighbors. With an undaunted courage to survive, Mao teaches the reader that hope can be found no matter what the circumstances. Surrounded by death and destruction, Mao creates a life for herself and embraces those who struggle by her side.
   
   Author Emily Wu expertly captures the essence of what life was like during this tremulous age, and helps the reader experience the drama from a firsthand point-of-view.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: Stunning read.



3. Emily Wu and Larry Engelmann book "Feather in the Storm", an amazing openess of Emily Wu's life and history of China during the Cultural Revolution. The events that unfold carries the reader from youth to adulthood during a time of hardship and struggle which reminds us why hope and love is so neccessary and reasons to allow history to not repeat itself...



4. My wife and I met Emily Wu at SIUE while on her book tour. Her story was amazing, so we had to buy the book to get the details.
   
   It normally takes me about a year to read a book, but this one I devoured in a matter of days. The perspective of the book grows as she grows. In the beginning it is written as though you are only a couple feet tall - the details are in the words she hears, people's feet and the underside of cribs and tables. Later on she gets taller and you start to experience more of the people around her. But, like the limitations put on a pre-teen, she can only see so much and know so much, therefore her story is limited to just what she could see and understand. You feel as though you are a child right alongside her.
   
   Often I found myself trying to figure out what things meant (names of Mao's movements and doctrine), but that just muddled the story. At times you feel like more should be written about the backstory of the Red Guard, but if you think about the fact that she didn't know much about them at the time it leaves it all in that child-like perspective. She writes about what she saw and read and experienced as a child, especially her reactions to how it changed the people around her.
   
   The tempo is well-paced and manages to catch you off-guard. It covers issues like capping and de-capping, the invasion of the Red Guard at the Anhui University campus in Hefei, book burning, cleansing of the "Old" ways, living conditions, food, suicide, female infanticide, arranged marriage, bound feet, class struggles, child-on-child violence and much more.
   
   When you are finished, you will view your life through a new pair of glasses. You won't be able to go 5 feet without finding 100 things to be truly thankful for.



5. "Feather in the Storm" is a fantastic book. It is well written, and enthralling. I rarely get attached to a story, but I read it through cover to cover with only one break. I couldn't put it down. I am looking forward to the sequel! It is depressing but enlightening. People are really terrible to one another. There is a whole generation lost to the policies of Chairman Mao in the chaos. This comes to light in this true life story of Emily Wu's struggle to survive.