5 comments about Any Given Day: The Life and Times of Jessie Lee Brown Foveaux.

1. I have mixed feelings about this book, because on one hand you can learn some neat stuff about the way things were in the early part of the XX century. On the other hand, this book would have greatly improved if an editor had removed the extra weight included in the story. I can see this being a very fascinating memoir for her family members, but once you take this to the general public, the array of names and places and the personal messages to all grandchildren at the end of the book become too much. Nonetheless, it was interesting to read about the trials and tribulations of this woman, married at 20 to an alcoholic. Why she continued having children (eight in total) after she discovered her husband was a drunk i'd never be able to comprehend. She tries to explain how she felt during those years, and at times she is successful and at times she cuts her thoughts short and does not go any further with her analyses. It's a pity because she does have some engaging, albeit sometimes bland, perspective on issues like alcohol, politics, the military, war, family, sex, etc. Don't expect big depths on this book, which by the way is a very easy and fast read.



2. Nobody who reads this book will ever feel overworked or under appreciated, in quite the same way again. We have it so much easier today; and complain MORE !! My Mother is nearing the age of this remarkable woman, and we are hoping to get her to write her memories for us too; before they fade from her mind. She has been reluctant to start, due to the fact that she is not a professional writer. For her birthday this year, Mom is getting a copy of this book; and an audio tape, to listen to, and hopefully get inspired. My Mother has been a Nanny, earned a Master's Degree in Education, driven a Taxi and Limos for Official at United States Steel(during WW II), made bombs in a munitions plant, ridden Harley-Davison motorcycles, served as a Missionary for her church (where she met and married my Father), taught elementary school, raised two daughters, and still babysits their various off spring, while making beautiful quilts. Please God, let Jessie Lee Brown Foveaux give her the courage to tell us all about her adventurous life, too!!



3. Jessie Lee has, in the simplest of prose, given us a glimpse into the life of an "average" woman. Her life is not filled with exotic trips or dinners with Presidents, but with the struggles of everyday life. Her rocky marriage to an alcoholic will give inspiration to many young women of today. Her memory is incredible and details abound of a life that began at the beginning of this century...this is an interesting book to read as this century comes to an end.



4. Jessie Lee's incredible memory and stoically poingnant style take us all back in time, beginning with her childhood which was poor in material possessions but rich in love. Through her eyes, we see not only her family history but the history of a burgeoning nation unfold. She meets life's difficulties head on, from the untimely death of her mother to a difficult marriage and single parenthood. Her words do not plead for sympathy, just straightforwardly relate her amazing life and times. This is a must read for scholars of the 20th century and for those with a bent for human interest stories. Jessie Lee's voice is one of the precious few left from her generation.



5. I really enjoyed this book. I'm from Kansas and she talked about areas that I'm familiar with. I felt she did a very good job telling her story about the hell she went through with her alcoholic husband while raising her many children virtually by herself. I would like the opportunity to meet this wonderful woman.

No comments about A Curate for All Seasons (Ulverscroft Large Print).

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5 comments about The Jew Store.

1. A wonderful story, thoroughly enjoyed, and similar to my family history. The book was not, however, well written.



2. The Jew Store was both charming and telling. The author was insightful, but always kind and her humor was gentle.



3. This is an exquisitely written memoir that reads like fiction. What a talent to take what is true and create a story! In the 1920's, my grandparents ran a "Jew store" in Lawrenceville, Virgina, but left after a year during which the KKK made it known they were unwelcome. My grandfather became a "Jew peddler" in North Carolina, and much of this story rang true with the tales I was told as a child. Residents looked on the "Jew peddler" with suspicion, but also with awe because he brought the big city with him. He was expected to be sophisticated; his opinions were taken seriously. During the Great Depression, one North Caroina farmer gave his daughter to my grandfather because she was starving. He took her home to Norfolk, Virginia, to raise with his own five children, and a life-long relationship ensued.
   
   My book club enjoyed this book and had a lively discussion.



4. This was a definite surprise me novel. I picked it up for no other reason than the shocking title. This has become one of my favorite books, and she, a favored writer. I love how she brings the people from her childhood to life in the reader's mind, the language, the sayings, a delightful Southern Yiddish flavor. This book has been passed among friends and allowed us to have an interesting discussion with 3 generations of Southern women.



5. The authenticity of detail hit me over and again, describing not only how it felt to be Jewish in white anglo-saxon Prodestant Tennessee, but the way everyone was: open armed but not altogether open minded, graciously phrasing back-talk, helpful when you least expected it, back-stabbing the same way, and sugar-coating every topic but money. When it came to money, you didn't pay protection after the fact, like industrial cities; you first worked for permission. Fabulously The Jew Store tells this tale! True to my own memory is the white woman whose lemon merangue pie was acclaimed, only it was her cook's. The cook, called that but doing cleaning, gardening, child rearing, and everyting else. Learning to listen backwards if you wanted to know what someone was actually saying, as in "we're so glad you came over and didn't even call!" The sugar-coated talk from mean, angry men. The social standing that harked to who-knew-where... This was the small mill town I grew up in in NC, too. It produced the fragile sounding Southern-belle diction that was good for date bait 'up north,' as her daughter found out; but that belied the resolve of strong, smart women with wonderful senses of humor, as shown in her characters. Anyone who grew up in a small mill town in the South prior to -- say 1970 --- met plenty of folks just like these. How glorious to have this touching volume of remembrances.

No comments about Neil Kinnock: Biography of the Former Leader of the Labour Party (ISIS Large Print).

3 comments about A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison (Large Print Edition).

1. This book is an incredible account of the life and times of Mary Jemison, a white woman taken captive during the French and Indian War and adopted into the Seneca tribe of the Iroquois in western New York. This tale covers her more than 70 years living among them through many of the most vital years of the long history of the Iroquois Confederacy.

   In November 1823, when she was in her 80s, Mary Jemison, at the urging of many of the friendly local inhabitants, gave her amazing life story to James Seaver to publish for posterity. Though his truthfulness in some details of that account has often been called into question, this book is one of the most important and complete of any of the Indian captivity narratives to come out of the period between the French and Indian War and the War of 1812, which most historians mark as the end of the period of influence of the Eastern Woodland tribes. This account gives unequalled insight into the Seneca Indians and their ways including religion, food, hunting, warfare, culture, etc.

   Mary had many opportunities to leave the Indians and return to white civilization but chose not to do so and thus was witness to some of the most amazing events in the history of her adopted people. Her tale is important to not only historians and ethnologists, but to the general public itself as it is a truly amazing story of triumph and tragedy for a proud people struggling to survive in the face of overwhelming odds as a young United States continued to expand, forever extinguishing their way of life.




2. The narrative is fascinating reading, both in terms of the history revealed in the words of Mary Jemison and in terms of James Seaver who gives us his own version of her story. The effect is a layering of historical periods. With the help of the editing, you can peer through and see not only the period of Mary Jemison's captivity, but also the prejudices of the following time. An interesting example of the simultaneous respect and loathing with which the early settlers viewed the native inhabitants. I first read the narrative in high school, and would recommend it for young and old readers alike.



3. They say if you visit New York State you will find her descendants; many native-americans have her last name. Taken captive; her parents killed - Mary becomes part of a native-american family. She married a Delaware (Lenape) warrior, with whom she was very content and has many children. This is a dramatic, true story, told in her own words. She is in her 80's, and reminisces about her unusual life.

1 comments about The Music of Light: The Extraordinary Story of Hikari and Kenzaburo Oe.

1. This is the best book I've read this year. It covers so much: a family's love for their brain damaged child and their commitment to the grueling, challenging years raising him in a society that wants him to just disappear. It is at once literary criticism, classical music criticism, cultural commentary, biography, pschology, psychiatry, medicine and a touchingly told love story between man and son. By the end of this book you will have fallen in love with Hikari the sweet savant from Kobe and his wonderful father, Kenzaburo.

No comments about Stitch in Time.

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No comments about The Last Year of the Gang (Ulverscroft Nonfiction).