4 comments about The Nail That Sticks Up: An American Woman in Asia and Africa.

1. As a woman of color, I expected to be offended by Nancy Duncan's book, The Nail That Sticks Up. I expected it to be another story of how an enthusiastic, dedicated teacher rescued some third world students from tribalism and ignorance through sheer force of personality and good intentions. To my surprise, the book exposes the reader to the lessons the teacher learned. Told without the least trace of condescension, this memoir-travelogue leaves the reader wiser and happier. It is full of remarkable people, singular destinations, and wonderful descriptions. Its tone is ironic and witty and there are many places where you can't help but laugh out loud or sigh with frustration. This book is so good, my only question is, when will it be optioned for a movie. It's got it going on--beautiful, fearless blonde on an adventure trek. Pamela Anderson is too old to play the part, but let's not rule out Blanchette.



2. The Nail That Sticks Up is a window into many cultures. Duncan's clear mastery of foreign languages and desire to live among the people whose lives she chronicles allow her to go where few have gone before. Duncan delves into the heart of Asian and African culture. The detail in every description leaves the reader feeling like they are IN the bustling market with her, not curled up at home with the book and a cup of coffee.
   My teacher introduced this book to my class, asking us to read a few chapters relevant to our lesson. None of us could put the book down and most read the whole thing. The book is both insightful and inspiring. It leaves you with a desire to go out and see the world and also a deep sense of connection with all the people Duncan encounters. I recommend this book to people of all ages, but hang on to your seats, The Nail That Sticks Up is quite an adventure.



3. During my recent hospital stay, of the books I was brought to read, The Nail That Sticks Up, is the book I couldn't put down. The reader feels he is: meeting the people the author meets, scalding in a Japanese bath, sweltering in jam-packed, African buses, and freezing in a Chinese university dorm room in the dead of winter, along with the author, all without the discomfort that goes with actual travel. The book was so good, after I had given my copy to a friend leaving to study in China, I felt moved to buy one for her parents and one for another friend whose son has left to work in Japan. (One caveat-I don't necessarily agree with all of the author's perspectives e.g. on Christian Missionaries in China.)



4. The book is interesting and well written with a good deal of humor. It's a very insightful look at some of the important cultural difference to be in found in the areas Nancy Duncan has visited. I teach English to students from Japan and China and find the book valuable for the information it presents and for starting points of discussions I have with my students. I'd recommend it for a general audience and, in particular, to those who teach English language and culture to students from Asia.

No comments about Charles Wells: Pioneer--scout--Apache slave.

1 comments about Hard Knocks: A Life Story Of The Vanishing West.

1. Harry Young's memoir is an evocative description of life at the sharp end of the early West.
   As a young man, Young left New York to see the wild west he had read about in dime novels as a child. His travels took him through infamous towns and brought him into contact with the famed and storied figures of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok. Young's account of Hickok's death is by no means the only highlight in this true-to-life drama, but it certainly offers another perspective and is a true eye-witness version of the demise of one of the West's great characters.
   The book reads very well and is an enjoyable romp through the life of Harry Young.

No comments about Recalling the past of Copan, Dewey, and Wann areas.

5 comments about Big Motorcycle: A Story of Tokyo.

1. This book catches the reader's attention instantly. It is fast paced and exciting, violent and tender. Have you ever driven through a neighborhood at night and caught a glimpse into the homes that has left you wondering what the occupants' lives are like? Reading this book is like that. It's an intimate, almost indecent look into the hearts and minds of its facinating characters. Logan has an innate understanding of Japanese culture and the people who inhabit it. He has managed to weave together a story with people whose lives are interrelated. The result is amazing! This is great book!



2. Reads like a Coen Brothers movie. Humor with razor edges. Inadvertent violence mixed with good intentions. Big City weirdness, where the fringe jaggedly intrudes on the norm. But uniquely Tokyo - a Möbius strip of cute and creepy. Darkly comic. Funny stuff. Except for the villain; Logan doesn't invent a new monster, just chillingly describes the diminutive one that exists among us.



3. Big Motorcycle is at least a half-dozen books: pulse-pounding action, horror, wild humor, crime, social history of Tokyo, love and more love. Logan does on the page what the Cohen brothers do on the screen--in, for example, Fargo: there's slapstick and depravity and nobility all mixed together, but somehow working, as in life. And Logan can plot right alongside Joseph Heller: he's got at least seven stories happening simultaneously, weaving in and out of each other, building on each other. The characters, too, are fine: Americans and Japanese both. One of the early reviewers of this novel wrote that the reader "really cares about the people in this book, cares what happens to them." And it's true. Logan's got Elmore Leonard-grade dialogue too, and the sardonic brilliance of Jonathan Swift. Call him a sort of latter-day Nathaniel West--or, rather, East. Terrific, loved it, a real page-turner--with a whole lot of pages to turn. A classic.



4. Big Motorcycle is a frenetic ride into the weirdness of Tokyo that combines some of the post industrial hipness of William Gibson with the plotting intricacies of Elmore Leonard-all at a pace that makes Run, Lola Run seem like a stroll in the park. F.X. Donner, Viet Nam vet and former P.O.W., now a middle aged gaijin professor of English comp in Tokyo, has his generally sedate, mildly angst ridden life blasted into hyperdrive when he reflexively performs an act of heroism by catching a falling baby. From that point on, Donner finds himself drawn into the Tokyo underbelly of yakuza, religious cults, right wing and left wing revolutionaries, pop culture entrepreneurs, and a very disturbing serial killer. As the action races along, the individual weirdness converges in bang up race to stop a killer. Big Motorcycle is ghastly, cool, fast paced, exciting and...funny.



5. This novel has the slick plotting of John Sandford, the wild humor of Carl Hiassen, the erudition of David Foster Wallace, and the brutal bite of James Ellroy. It's a story of Tokyo, as the sub-title suggests, but Tokyo is a city of foreigners and natives trying to come to terms with each other. So any story of post-WWII Tokyo is a story of the world. Great characters in this book, terrific dialogue. One of the dust jacket reviews said simply, "Ride this Motorcycle." Exactly: this novel is the sleeper of the year.

No comments about The Jali Road.

No comments about Searching for African Prospects: Life as a Mining Engineer in Nigeria and Angola.

No comments about Pioneering in Alaska: A true account.

No comments about I Tell You Like It Happened.

No comments about The real Kit Carson.