5 comments about Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper.

1. I loved this book! Not only was it hilarious, it also gave an interesting look into a world I knew nothing about. I laughed out loud at many parts of this book--Cody is truly talented at getting humor on paper! I have passed this book on to others, both men and women, and they have all also enjoyed it. Highly recommended for summer reading!



2. Wow, so you are saying that the sex industry doesn't treat women well, that they make more money off of the women than the women do...and that one becomes a hollow shell stripped (Ha! -pun) of dignity and self worth? Really? Huh - that is like the frst time I have ever heard that. Never could have figured that out.
   
   Did this author not get enough attention as a child? Lookit me, lookit lookit...you're not looooooking! This is girls gone wild (with a brain, I'll give her that) written down - someone who flashes her goods because she is just so, like WILD and free man! Everyone knows this girl - upper middle class family and self styled rebel who is just so "real". The one you lose touch with after college because you are tired of hearing about it -you know, a self perpetuating drama queen. We all have one in our lives at some point. The dirge like forced "wildness" gets tiresome pretty quickly.A bit of self examination as to WHY would have saved this book, but apparently lifting rocks and looking under them is too much work. Instead we get a daily diary of..and then this happened...etc....No hint of any reasoning behind any of it.
   
   It has it's moments, but the material is stretched so thin it gets tedious. This would have been a great essay - novel/memoir length = no. There is no payoff for reading this book - there is no structure...it's just random items slapped together. A memoir does require an arc, not just writing it down. It doesn't string together in the end. Kind of reminded me of Gloria Steinem's Bunny expose - which covered similar ground...but which was much more incisive.



3. This book has become one of my favorites and Diablo Cody has become one of my favorite authors. Witty and relatable, she writes an informative and honest account of her experiences in the sex work industry. Although the reviews and book descriptions are frustrating/patronizing ("Whats a good girl like Cody doing in a place like this?") the book itself presents a fair look at the industry from the inside. Definitely reccomend if you're looking for a new take on sex work or an intelligent and hilarious and witty read.



4. A great summer read. I breezed through it in a few hours. Funny and super interesting. Everything you ever wanted to know about being a stripper and everything you didn't want to know, too. I loved it.



5. 224 pages of one-liners.
   
   Don't waste your time if it's depth you're looking for.

5 comments about West with the Night.

1. I read this book because someone suggested my family might have been related to Beryl Markham, which is not the case, but...
   What a woman - this is a true account of one of the first bush pilots in Africa, Beryl Markham, who was the first pilot to fly westward across the Atlantic from England. Although there is some dispute whether she actually wrote this autobiographical account (some say that her paramour, who edited the book, actually wrote it - she never confirmed or denied it), the stories are true and fascinating, encouraging the reader to learn more about her. The writing style is wonderful and interesting - no wonder Hemingway loved it. You wouldn't know this book was first published so many years ago.



2. I agree with Hemingway that this is a piece of high literature that reads like fiction and spreads itself before the reader like a well-produced film. It drove me to learn more about the author and her life.



3. Absolutely captivating personal account of times and places long gone. As a fan of "Heat of the Sun," this book was a treasure.



4. As a child growing up with her father in Africa, Beryl Markham faced down lions and wild boar. As an adult she trained race horses before learning to fly airplanes and becoming a bush pilot. Eventually she became the first pilot, female or male, to fly west with the night and cross the Atlantic ocean solo from Europe to North America. Markham brings the African bush to life with stories of boar hunts and elephant hunts. Of horse races and airplane flights over desert terrain. She lived a courageous life in a time when girls were only supposed to wear dresses and play with dolls and flying airplanes was a man's job. Highly inspirational to read!
   
   There's so much to talk about in mother-daughter book clubs or any book club. How was Markham's life different from so many of the girls in her time? How would her life have been different if her mother was also in Africa raising her?
   
   This book is beautifully written; I've read it three times and each reading I glean more and more from it. I highly recommend it for anyone in high school or older.



5. Much more than a memoir, Beryl Markham's work is a means of transport, not dissimilar to her beloved plane. It took me back to the Africa I lived in as a young bride, to its stark beauty, its dignified and desparate people, the language of its silences. Her tale of matter-of-fact mercies, and of cruelty equally unremarkable, is the stuff of life, as full of hope as of despair, for its millions of people. Her sensitivity instructs us in things as disparate as a young zebra's personal quirks, or the way the setting sun reflects off a downed plane creating an illusory lake in the dry Serenghettti. We learn of the hunger of a dying man for news from the city, and of the joy of friendship restored, but mostly, we learn of the heart and mind of a brave, independent woman for whom Africa is, eternally, home.

5 comments about Save Me from Myself: How I Found God, Quit Korn, Kicked Drugs, and Lived to Tell My Story.

1. Hmmmmmm.....
   
   This was a very weird book for me to read through.
   
   I'm a hugh Korn fan and not a Christian.
   
   The Pros:
   
   This is the first book by a member of Korn which (I hope) tells the story, albeit very briefly, as it was. The best thing about this book is that at least for the first part Head didn't try to use someone else' voice to narrate the story. And it's also nice to know some of the things that went on without the fans knowing them.
   
   The Cons: SPOILER'S ALERT
   
   First, this book is too short for me. His life should not be summed up in 218 pages.
   
   Second, although I'm not a Christian, I don't mind reading about it and having Head talking about all the things and miracles that transformed him. Those are things that make him like this and I fully respect him and the things he decided to do in life, especially the good things he's trying to do to the world.
   
   
   BUT my mood changed at the LAST page before the epilogue (which I didn't read although it's like 3 pages long). On page 218, he used the words "TRUST ME", and went on to say that Jesus Christ is the way. I HAVE NO DISREPECT TOWARDS ANY RELIGION WHATSOEVER. But by doing so well telling interesting story for 217 pages, why would he want to spoil it for the non-Christians by saying 'trust me, Jesus Christ is the only way to happiness'. Well, I'm not a Chirst's follower but I am a very happy man. It's a bit disrespectful to me that he would use the book to try to convert some of the people to become what he became (which is not a bad thing). But I'm a type of person who believes that one should not be forced into anything. Head said it himself that he hated being forced into Christ at first and felt really uncomfortable if someone push him too hard. Well, he's done the same thing he hated to his fans, at least some of them would feel the same way I'm sure.
   
   Head is a great musician and I love him. He shouldn't try to change his fans if they're already happy with life. He just have to accept the fact that not everyone went through what he went through and believe what he believes. I happened to think that if he lived in a different part of the world he would've become a convert to another religion to that culture.
   
   Some other musicians who failed in life and were addicted to a lot of things didn't have to become like him to be clean and good again. Head is very vulnerable and needed something to guide him towards the light. That's all, that's very understandable but please, don't force me.
   
   All religions are good, Head proved that by doing great things to the world. But don't force people into it. Let them find the goodness in whatever they believe in by themselves. BELIEVEING yourselfe IS the only way, TRUST ME.
   
   ***And I agreed with a lot of reviews that he used the word God too much
   
   It's still a good book and Korn fans shouldn't miss it.
   
   One question though, I just looked through his website and found all the things involving MONEY which he said Christ forced him off it. Well, he should be doing it for free or little money then, right? At least charge me something less than 29.99 dollars to become a fan club! That's a bit off for me.



2. This is one of most refreshing books I have read in long time on the Christion faith. The author gives you a snapshot of how the faith is to be lived out, which he draws from His own experince of growing in the Christian faith. He keeps you wanting to read until the very end.
   Brian writes a book from his heart while on this journey of faith that makes life pratical and real without any artificial religion.
   Brian's life and growth as a Christian is so remarkable that it will simulate you to challenge your own personal growth in the Christian walk.
   I know this book speaks to the those who are battling with drugs and alcohol, but it is also great reading for those who call themselves Christians; it allows them to see the simplicity of how life is to be lived. This book reveals the great depth of an individual, who lets go and lets God take over His heart with sincerity and genuineness.



3. At last he is at peace with himself and his God. Wonderful. May this book only be an inspiration and motive for others to seek the same awesome and True God he has!!
   
   However- I cannot understand why when Brian was speaking of God or Jesus, "He" was not capitalized, because it should have been. That bugged me. The publishers should have known better. Brian should have insisted on capitalizing "He" every time it referred to The Lord.
   
   I wished he had elaborated more about this tattoo fetish he has and continues to have, because I for one, do NOT understand why he has all these and what is the purpose or reason for them all, especially on his neck and face and fingers. Geeezzzz. He'll never hold a normal, ordinary job. I guess he's typical for this time and age, but I don't get it.
   
   But what I do get matters most....He found Jesus, the Savior and the True God of this world and has become His child. Hallelujah!!



4. I picked this book up on a whim, never being a Korn fan myself. The book starts with details on the formation of the band and Welch's childhood. This helps with not having the book become too preachy. His interaction with the Lord and introduction to Him is truly a miracle in itself. I encourage anyone and everyone to read this book.



5. I'm not a fan of celebrity self-help books, though I did read Head's book as a fan of Korn and of rock star biographies. The book is actually a bit better than I expected. In the first two-thirds of the book, Head offers a fairly informative and often terrifying biography up to his fame years with Korn. Like the most outrageous of rock bios, Head includes plenty of ugly details (abuse of drugs and loved ones), and it turns out that he's a surprisingly deep-thinking man who often lamented the state of his life as a heavily addicted rock star. His conversion to Christianity and efforts to turn himself around by quitting both Korn and drugs were much more complex and painful than what was reported (and belittled) in the press.
   
   Head provides plenty of stirring details on these very difficult personal transformations and the complex emotional issues that inspired him to make a new start. Head's nearly cold-turkey kicking of meth is a very impressive achievement, and his eventually successful efforts to become a better single dad are definitely worthy of respect. If becoming born again helped him achieve these personal breakthroughs, then his decisions should be accepted by fans, and he gives fans plenty of food for thought here. But the main problem with the book is the final third, dealing with his newfound Christianity. No, I don't wish to argue about the strength or legitimacy of Head's personal beliefs, but he is unable to write about them effectively.
   
   Head's prose on his overwhelming spiritual feelings is not expressive but just repetitive as the tail end of the book stretches on. As a new convert to Christianity his understanding of his conversion is simplistic at best, as he stretches way too far to get his beliefs across. For example, he compares his change of residence to Arizona to the Israelites' 40 years of struggle in the desert, and writes as if this is a great spiritual statement; and open-minded skeptics will wonder about all the help he says he got directly from God, especially with his bank account. Alas, while it reflects the most important aspect of Head's new life, the post-conversion portion of this book could be more inspirational but is just poorly expressed and bordering on pedantic. That's unfortunate, because Head's basic story about kicking drugs and escaping his negative rock star surroundings in order to be a better father is definitely impressive. [~doomsdayer520~]

5 comments about The Liars' Club: A Memoir.

1. I read this book when it was first published; and re-read it this week for a book club discussion of "reader's choice." Mary Karr is a poet with a hard-knock childhood. Is it any wonder she wrote a memoir that is beyond belief in every sense? The sentences jump off the page. Oh, that I could write like this.



2. Mary Karr is that most exceptional of non-fiction writers: one who went through exceptional tragic / comic circumstantial experiences as a child; who absolutely remembers them AND how she felt as if they were yesterday; and who grew up to become a literature professor who can write!! Wow! That's the only word for the book. I have never read an autobiography remotely like it.
   
   In simple terms, Mary, the younger of two sisters, was the daughter of a tough, take-no-prisoners, blue collar oil refinery worker Father and an ethereal, arts and drame culture-oriented Mother with her heart still in New York or Paris but with obligations in backwater southeast Texas. What a situation, and, to my amazement ... she remembers it all, seemingly day-by-day.
   
   The Liar's Club (her small child's view of hew dad and his friends and their times in the bar) is a memoir from her earlest years through late childhood (her later book Cherry carries the story forward through teenage years). You'll both laugh histerically and cry at the heartbreaking situations for the little girl and the family trying to keep it all together. Wow! Highly recommended!



3. This book caught me like a sucker punch. A roller coaster ride for sure.



4. A-1, I am a avid reader, this book "blew me away" and I want to share this book with family and friends. Such brutal honesty.



5. Mary Karr's memoir winds all over the place, beautiful prose, but it's everywhere at once. I found her style tedious, introducing an event and simultaneously introducing another, so the reader is constantly having to shift places, times, feelings. It felt to me like listening to someone who has all kinds of wonderful ideas and stories, gets you interested, then that reminds him of something else and he's off on that story, but you're still wondering what happened with the first story. The entire book reads like this from page one to 320.
   
   I didn't find it as hilarious as was stated, although there were funny moments, black funny moments. You have to be comfortable with the vagaries of life to find her story funny, but she does come off as a kid I would have loved to know. She's strong and smart and has guts. All of her characters are presented in their full light, and I found each major character delightful. I didn't find her mother all that crazy. I thought her father was wonderful. Her grandmother must have been terrible, but even there, Karr was able to present her as not all bad. Karr is able to write events, the dark, sad events, by reporting what happened in minute detail without inserting her current feelings, only the feelings she was having long ago as a child.
   
   I can't give the book more than 3 stars for a couple reasons: the prose, despite its beauty, is simply tedious - as big as the Texas sky, going on and on and on like the telephone poles along the highways, neverending, never changing, sigh, when are we going to get there, anyway?
   
   Two, I simply cannot believe her ability to remember the little pink nosegays on her nightie or underwear, the soft peanut shell on her fingernail, or her mother's beige silk dress with the Chanel belt. A young kid knows designers and remembers exactly what her mother was wearing? However, like several other reviewers have mentioned, her mother married at 30, her child was 9 when Grandma came home to die at "50," so how could she be so loose with that fact when she's so precise with the others? Perhaps her grandmother was 59, but it seems she exaggerated here for emphasis. What else is exaggerated for emphasis in the book?
   
   Although a major character, I didn't feel the book was specifically about her father, who was in the Liar's Club, so why did Karr use this title? Are all the characters storytellers of some sort? Is Mary Karr the biggest storyteller of them all? I believe her overall story, but I am left with enough questions that never allowed me to feel much about anyone in the book because there were too many specifics where it didn't count (pink flowers emerging from green leave-pattern on her underwear) and not enough where it did count. It was just enough to create a level of underlying suspicion for me that made me not care much about these people. I hate being lied to, you know?

5 comments about Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy.

1. This is a fun escape into a new venture. The author takes the reader along to the new life he and his wife are experiencing as they share the beauty and excitement of living among the Italian olive groves and fig trees with a few sips of wine and great pasta! Learning the language as they live it is as delightful as it is challenging.



2. Michael Tucker is a great story teller and this story will make you want to pack your bag. As with most TV actors you feel you know Tucker and his wife Jill Eikenberry (LA Law). The story of finding and remodeling an italian farm house is every traveler's dream. Tucker's description of the house, the village, and becoming part of the community is engaging. The only problem is the story ends too soon!



3. Basically this book is a diary of Michael Tucker's time in Umbria and the things they ate while they were there. While it is midly entertaining - it's definately not the best travelogue I've ever read. Also I thought author came off as condesending which was a real turn off to read.



4. If you are at all a sensualist, particularly with regard to food, this is a must read. There are other enjoyable aspects to the book - the relationship between Mr. Tucker and his wife, reflections on friendship and celebrity, with a nod to learning to become "unfamous".
   
   But the core of the book is an epicurean approach to life. The story serves, really, as illustration of a way of seeing food, wine and even love.
   
   Nice work. I can't wait for the next book.



5. This is a sweet, entertaining little book I thoroughly enjoyed. If you want a light read and enjoy being exceedingly envious of another's lifestyle, this is the book for you.

5 comments about Istanbul: Memories and the City.

1. I have now read all of Orhan Pamuk books available. I have learned so much about another culture because of this brillian author.



2. I finished this on a flight from Izmir to Istanbul. It's a good thing I did: it provides an excellent preface to visiting that amazing city.
   
   Pamuk has three guiding ideas in this book. First is that all Istanbullus share a sort of melancholy which Turks call huzun. The idea is that they all lament the decline of their city since it was the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and that they lament their servitude to the Western world. Secondly, Pamuk wants to harness this huzun and create an artwork that is distinctively Turkish -- not Western, not Muslim, but a harmonious blend of the two. Thirdly, Pamuk believes that the city inhabits the man just as much as the man inhabits the city: Pamuk feels Istanbul's moods and it feels his. Huzun is thus a strictly collective emotion. One cannot feel this sort of melancholy on one's own; one can only experience it in a collective way along with one's fellow-Istanbullus. (Indeed, it's not clear to me that residents of any other city -- Vienna, maybe? Pittsburgh? -- can feel huzun; it may be a nostalgic melancholy that only Istanbullus are logically entitled to feel.)
   
   I didn't feel the huzun in Istanbul, but then I was only there for a few days; Pamuk doesn't believe that anyone can understand his city without living there for ten years or more. It may also be impossible for a new generation of lifelong Istanbullus to feel the huzun: those born into today's Istanbul may not realize that there's anything other than the Western model to follow.
   
   This is all his perspective as an insider to the culture. As an outsider to it, my perspective says something altogether different. When I visited Istanbul, there was at least one mosque, minaret, and muezzin per quarter square mile. One block off the main drag in Beyolu (Istiklal Caddesi), our cab had to stop to let a flock of sheep and their shepherd pass. One block off on the other side was a warren of little streets filled with conservative Muslims. I felt distinctly foreign there, both in nationality and in culture. If this is "the West," Istanbul-style, then Pamuk has nothing to worry about.
   
   At times -- certainly over the last fifth of the book -- Pamuk's melodrama about huzun gets to be a bit much. He haunts the miserable streets of a lost empire, collar upturned against the snow, trying to shake off his own desperation at a lost love and make an art form that doesn't just ape the West. On and on he goes, trying to beat us over the head with the idea that the city inhabits the man and the man the city: we cut back and forth between his furious wanderings in the streets and his fight with his mother over what he'll do with his life. Pamuk thinks he is terribly clever. He wants us very much to know how clever it is; earlier in the book he drops hints about its "hidden symmetry." This symmetry, so far as I can tell, is just the symmetry between the man and the city. So now you know. If you were paying attention during the first half of the book, you already knew. I'd rather not be bludgeoned with the Cleverness Stick.
   
   Still, it's a fun read. It's peppered with (deliberately) black-and-white photos of old Stamboul, from an era when people flocked to the shores of the Bosphorous to watch the Ottoman pashas' wooden "yals" (waterfront mansions) burn to the ground one by one. There's great romance in this book, great love for the Bosphorous, and delicious history. Worth reading, but not worth owning.



3. The book is personal, moody, altogether a very lovely snapshot of an enigmatic city which hangs between East and West. Vintage photographs add their atmosphere to the text.
   
   Orhan Pamuk is a master at his craft; for further reading after this, I suggest "My Name is Red."



4. Times gone by. Greater times, present days. A very personal take on the Great City by one of the world's great writers. Not always popular in his home country, his prose transcends borders, showing Istanbul as it truly is: universal. Packed with great black and white pictures.



5. I think book reviews, rather like any similar activity composed of observation, reception and reflection, can be skewed by our personal experiences and knowledge, as well as corrupted by the opinion and speculation that we sometimes try and keep under control. The empathy and sense of understanding that I felt when reading Istanbul, Memories and the City, were very much shaped by my prior experiences, my personal interpretations of what I had seen, and my own frame of mind.
   
   I was going through Istanbul's Ataturk airport last December (2007) and with the prospect of a long and dull journey in front of me, I was looking in the bookstore for something that I could "lose myself in" during the incredibly dull and boring journey back to Alicante. I was doing some idle browsing in the airport bookshop and I came across Orhan Pamuk's book entitled Istanbul, Memories and the City.
   
   After hurrying to the gate to embark on my flight, there was yet another set of security check, another set of the same procedures to go through - belts off, boots off, everything metal through the scanner, mobile phones, MP3 player, pens, coins, I had so much junk; I even put the Pamuk's book into the plastic tray they provide as part of the terror free scanning service.
   
   Actually this book seemed to be of more interest to the security person than all the rest of the modern technology and metal crap I was having scanned. She looked at the book placed in the tray, as if it might contain some thing rather subversive material, she smirked, picked the book up, then she chucked it back into the tray. I pretended not to notice. Again she picked the book up, made some comment to one of her colleagues, and then chucked the book back into the tray, laughing the way people do when actually there is nothing funny to laugh about; a forced laugh. I still pretended not to notice and of this "behaviour", and just walked through the detector and picked my things up at the other end.
   
   Little things like that can really turn me off a place, it can lead to momentarily dislike and antipathy towards places, especially one that I have found to be, on occasions, desperately depressing, grey and miserable, somewhat filthy, frequently anachronistic, and neither comfortably traditional nor fundamentally contemporary; a pessimistically gloomy halfway house, stuck between a densely populated provincial backwater and a peculiar and unauthentic pastiche of modernity.
   
   I boarded the Iberia flight back to Madrid, with the feeling of someone arriving home, to the familiar and friendly. I took my seat, and prepared for the 4 hour flight to Madrid, within 5 minutes I was asleep.
   
   I awoke to the sound of the in-flight service, I was handed a tray, and I also took a bottle of nice red Spanish wine to accompany dinner.
   
   Sufficiently relaxed and replenished, I took out my recent literary acquisition and started to read.
   
   The book, as I read it, focuses on Orhan Pamuk's recollections of the experience and sensations of growing up in Istanbul, from a very young child in the fifties to a young adult in the seventies. Pamuk expresses a wealth of empathy for the memories of his childhood, and for the city that has been his home for most of his life.
   
   In many ways, Pamuk's account of his Istanbul reminds me very much of many aspects of my life in Cardiff and South Wales when I was very young. This idea was reinforced by a review in the English daily newspaper The Telegraph, in which David Flusfeder wrote:
   
   "Europe has its share of melancholy cities: the citizens of Lisbon take each destructive fire as fate's latest grim joke; Warsaw has been regularly ripped apart by foreign invaders; and it's hard to be cheerful in Trieste or, indeed, Cardiff."
   
   I find it curious that quite a few "western" travellers, writers and artists have sough to represent Istanbul, to recall memories of Istanbul, even modern Istanbul, as a somewhat some what exotic eastern place, full of mystery, harems, intrigue and promise; interesting for its cute differences and it's perceived quaint traditions, for it's ancient history, for its old buildings and even older dirt, for the perceived charm, permissible decadence and cultural diversity. As an aside, I find some of the reviews of Pamuk's work to be bizarre and only vaguely byzantine in their intricate expressions of misplaced and arrant nonsense, and far more so than authors are typically exposed to.
   
   However, I do not find it so strange that many of Pamuk's compatriots are as quick to dismiss and deride him as others in Europe are as quick to laud him, and both doing so on the basis of scant knowledge of the author or their work, and are frequently seasoned with oppressively recondite forms of anachronistic nationalism, by people both in Pamuk's home lands and elsewhere in Europe.
   
   But in his book of memories, Pamuk talks to us about his family, his father, his mother, his friends, desires, the Black Rose, as well as the city; the quarters, districts and neighbourhoods; The Pamuk apartments; Cihangir, Beyoðlu and Niþantaþi; flavoured gin, stuffed mussels, sweets and puddings; the peoples, the Turks, the Italians, the Armenians, the Germans, the French, the Greeks, the Jews, the Persians, and others; art and literature; the necessity of the cosmopolis and the importance of authenticity; the ever present Bosphorus; books, bookshops and booksellers; the cities pizza eating dogs; the trams, buses, shared taxis and metro; the calming and relaxing nature of act of painting; simit sellers and unmentioned fish sandwiches; the changes in life; shared experiences; schools and colleges; books; fishermen, fantasies and murder; art, artists and the artist as seen by the bourgeoisie; the collisions between ships on the Bosphorus, crumbling buildings, the effect of neglect on wooden buildings and the burning of palaces of Ottoman Pashas; the end of empire, the decay that follows and also the new opportunities; family apartments, change and movement; the other self; walking the streets at night; black and white; the taste of a little goats cheese held in the mouth and a sip of tea; ships and ferries; big American limousines; quarrels and complications; the westernised, ornate and hardly used lounges in many apartments; Istanbul Modern; life and death; the writers, poems and novels; the humorous anecdotes culled from articles written during more than 100 years of Istanbul journalism; of architecture, and, of course, writing.
   
   Throughout the book Pamuk comes back to the theme of melancholy (hüzün, in Turkish) which I think he strongly identifies with a depressing spectre that haunts certain abstractions of what can be seen and felt as being Istanbul. I am not so sure exactly where this melancholy stems from, but I would bet that much of it comes down to a deep sense of deception and loss, that goes way beyond the passing of innocence and has been allowed to grow into a monster of nightmares that threatens to cast asunder any modern senses of education, culture and civility; the sad and avoidable debasement of hope and the defeatist crushing of the promises of a better future.
   
   Pamuk seems to have used the writing of this book as one might use a mirror, to reflect his states of mind - his moods, and to project his desires and dislikes, his hopes and fears, into the world. It is a truth that I find compellingly attractive, authentic and very contemporary. Of course, it might not be to everyone's liking, but if you want to truly understand Istanbul then it really is a "must read".
   
   Thinking again about the insignificant incident at the airport, I suspect that the behaviour of the security guard was just another example of the petty, provincial and anachronistic spirit that has created such a depressingly and melancholic place for people who have made Istanbul their home, and yet who desperately want to live in the global "here and now", in their own interpretation of a cosmopolitan, comfortable, modern, cultured and civil society, and unsurprisingly, they do not want to be dragged back into the distant past, into the dark ages; those times that most of us have fortunately never experienced; a return to times, backwardness and conduct, that none of us in our right minds, would ever desire.
   
   Orhan Pamuk, very much like Immanuel Kant who never ventured outside of Königsberg,, has lived virtually all of his life the city of his birth. The following words written about Kant by the critical philosopher Ursula Reitemeyer, in "The History of Mankind between Nature and Reason" strike a chord of relevance and similarity:
   
   "So criticism is the core of Kant's metaphysics of history and the reason, why his metaphysics outlasted his epoch and made him to the very first global philosopher. Kant, that is to say, identified "world" not with a coincidental and necessarily limited perspective of the world but with the whole history of mankind as a morally evolving process. On this theoretical basis every human being is a citizen of the world by birth. This message contains Kant's lasting merit for the modernity - and is probably its only chance."

5 comments about Manic: A Memoir.

1. I applaud Terri Cheney for the courage she has shown in living and surviving a personal nightmare of a life with manic-depression. By the end of the book, she seems to have found medications that keep her mostly stable, and I hope that continues. Ms. Cheney's prose is vivid and powerful. It makes me wince to think she actually went through all of this mental and physical turmoil. Hopefully, this book will increase public understanding of mental illness and encourage the medical field to keep working for more effective treatments. Another excellent book I read about manic depression is "His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina" by Danielle Steel - the famous author. It is Ms. Steel's eulogy and toast to her son Nick, who was manic depressive, and tragically took his life when he was only in his teens. Warning -- Ms Steel's memoir is a real tear jerker. But attention needs to be given to mental illness, so we can better help and suppport the many who are afflicted. I hope Ms. Cheney continues to write and publish, and am so glad she escaped the horrible plastic lawyer life she was subjected to for so long.



2. Here's what I got from this book: if you're really, really beautiful, you can make enough money and friends during the manic phase to carry you through the depressive one, where even if you call in sick for weeks at a time and refuse to answer your phone, you won't lose your high-paying, highly competitive job. Yeah, right. I was left with so many unanswered questions from the many disjointed and confusing episodes. This book is a frustrating read and hard to believe.



3. I was not aware of this book, but a friend of mine read it and recommended it highly to me , and that was good enough reason for me to pick this up. I would not be disappointed.
   
   In "Manic: A Memoir" (246 pages), author Terri Cheney brings the vivid tale of what it's like to live with bipolar disorder, the highs of mania and the lows of depression all compressed in one body and person. It is simply astonishing what the author goes through, all the while holding down what appears to be a very successful legal career for a number of years. The author struggles with various medications and treatments (and that's putting it mildly). Towards the end of the book, through trial and error, she comes to the conclusion that what was wrong with her was "a strange place on the bipolar spectrum called mixed state. It's the most dangerous condition possible, the one in which the most suicides occur".
   
   From what I can make out, the author (who appears to be in her early 40s now) has found some middle ground, although I imagine that it is not possible to be ever completely cured from bipolar disorder. In all, this is a fantastic book, which you cannot put down once you are reading it. Be aware that there are several pretty graphic scenes in the book, even if they are described tastefully by the author.



4. Cheney's book elicits a catharsis of emotions, similarly to the effect "Blues" music has--kinda like.



5. In reading this memoir I saw a lot of my wife in the pages of torment and in the roller coaster ride of mania and depression. My wife committed suicide in 2006 and Terri Cheney offers loved ones and other lay persons an insight into the mind of a person suffering from bi-polar disease.
   
   Thanks Terri.

1 comments about Origins: A Memoir.

1. I am amazed with the speed and proffesionalism of delivering and quality of the transaction.
   
   thanks a million
   
   alexs

5 comments about Lopsided: How Having Breast Cancer Can Be Really Distracting.

1. I picked up this book because I had heard it was hilarious. In addition, as a retired M.D. and former practicing radiologist, I was particularly interested in a patient's story of her ordeal with cancer. Though I have read thousands of mammograms in my day and have diagnosed thousands of cancers of various types, I have rarely viewed cancer through a patient's perspective. Radiologists, as you may know, have limited patient contact.
   
   This book is light summer reading. Despite the fact that it is nonfiction and deals with a rather gruesome topic, the author has written a page-turner. The main reasons, it seems to me, is that she is an extremely funny and very talented writer, and an unusually pithy observer of human nature.
   
   I had recommended the book to my wife, who said she had no interest in a cancer memoir. But once a number of our friends had also started raving about the book and she stumbled across a great review of it, she bowed to the pressure and started reading it. Now she's interrupting my writing with gales of laughter and exceptionally positive commentary.
   
   So that's my bottom-line recommendation to you--if you're not interested in cancer, fine. Forget this book is about cancer. It's really about the human condition and will keep you in stitches from the moment you pick it up until it allows you to put it down, which won't be until you've finished it.



2. I bought this for a friend who was scheduled for surgery. Advised her to read it first so she would have some snappy answers for the idiotic things people say when you have cancer. She enjoyed it and has been ready for the remarks!



3. There is light at the end of the tunnel... even if it means laughing, crying and struggling along the way. Lopsided was an opportunity to hear from someone just like me (although I am not nearly as funny)a 30 something, wife, mother and lover of life. When the author describes what she goes through, from strong denial to acceptance to treatment-- while constantly thinking about her son, who would raise him and how she would deal with his French/American upbringing-- that hit home. Thanks to Meredith Norton for allowing us to peek into her life, her memories and all of her thoughts as she figured out how to deal with a sharp turn in her life that came without a manual or a clear logical answer.



4. I thoroughly recommend this book. Meredith Norton is an incredible writer, and her story is inspirational and also very funny. A great read, highly recommended.



5. I was drawn to this book because it says "wickedly funny in the style of Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris." I did find the book to be funny and entertaining, but I also found it harrowing and definitely not a pretty picture of what one goes through in the course of cancer treatment. At the end of the book, Meredith says that her experience with cancer was pretty normal or that it wasn't as bad as she expected. However, reading the book from the viewpoint of someone who has never had cancer or chemotherapy, I thought what she went through was gut-wrenching and certainly not something that I would think of as no big deal. And while I did find a significant amount of humor in her stories of her family and friends, the parts that were about her disease and treatment were not fun to read or funny or even entertaining. They made me very sad for her and for all of those around her during that horrible period of time. I originally bought the book to give to a fried of mine who is currently battling cancer, but I don't think she would find one bit of solace in the story, with the exception of the fact that Meredith is still alive to tell the tale.

5 comments about Paula Deen: It Ain't All About the Cookin'.

1. Very, very interesting book. It will make you experience every emotion. She will have you laughing, crying and sometimes both at the same time. I already read the book. I got this one as a gift for my mother.



2. Paula Deen, I just love you girl. You are amazing. I love your family too, and I am so glad you found your "neighbor." Thanks for writing your story. You are a living inspiration to anyone down on their luck. Just look how things can turn around if you keep a positive outlook and aren't afraid of hard work. (You did have a lot of luck too, I might add, and that really keeps the reader hooked.) Thanks for sharing all the pictures, too.



3. Honestly, this is one heck of a book! Paula Deen is obviously human, full of mistakes and regrets, but ultimately, more than all of that, she is a woman full of strength, loyalty and sheer determination! Reading this book was at times, tough, few people are as candidly honest as Paula is, but truthfully, it just made me respect her more! Her truthfullness is un-apologetic and real, and very hard to find now a days! She makes it clear that she's far from perfect, a risk-taker and not always so nice; she cusses and demands a lot of herself and those around her, a shrewd business woman she is! However, after reading this book, I admire her more; for her strength, her honesty, her genuine regrets about her life (we ALL have them) and her love of food and family! She is an inspiration for any of us who have not always done or said the right thing, but risen above it all in the long run! I think the success and happiness she has today was well-earned and very deserved! I would reccomend this book most definately, just keep an open mind and don't expect a water-downed, sugar coated version of her life...but hey, honesty from the any star themselves is like a breath of fresh air! I'm glad Paula shared her story and it's one I'll reccomend and remmeber for a long time to come!



4. Paula Deen Is One Of My Absolute Favorites On The Food Network.I Have Several Of Her Cook Books,And I Enjoy Watching Her Show.Her Personality Is One In A Million. So Down Home & Warm.Her Openness,Being Frank,Along With Having Fun Cooking A Recipe,She's Always Laughing,And Her Southern Draw,i Love It !! She Opens Up About Her Life & Family In It Aint All About The Cookin.She's Definately One I'd Give Anything To Meet,And Share A Recipe Or 2 And Cook With In The Kitchen.It Aint All About The Cookin Is A Great Read And Well Worth Your Time Reading It.



5. I am not the type of person who enjoys biographies/autobiographies. I bought this book because I am a fan of Paula Deen's and thought that it would be an interesting read.
   
   I love this book. I cannot help but smile at her honesty and wit. The book is written in the true Paula style- you can almost hear that gorgeous Southern accent shine through the words on the page. She includes recipes at the end of every chapter and simply reading them will make your mouth water!
   
   What I enjoy most about this book is that she is so human. She did not come from a rich family who gave her everything. She had to work, really work, for what she has today. She has strength, determination, and a will that accomplished her and brought her to where she is today. Life was not always peaches and roses for her and she reflects upon the bad times with humor. While she has certainly done things in the past that she regrets (we could all right a book on our own experiences!) anyone reading this book will be inspired. What is your dream? What is holding you back? Read this book and you will learn that your only boundaries are the ones you are placing on yourself.
   
   I highly recommend this book. She notes in the beginning that she thought people would not like her or not respect her as much. After reading this book, I like her and respect her even more. She becomes more of a person vs a TV icon.
   
   By the way, there are some juicy parts in this book, but told with the honesty and hint of naughtiness that Ms. Deen is know for!
   
   Viva la Paula!