5 comments about Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route.

1. I had to read it for college, and honestly, it was quite redundant. I can summarize it in one sentence:
   
   "They did not accept me when I went to Africa to find my family."
   
   Chapter after chapter go on and on about how lonely she feels in Africa, which seems obvious to me because she has nothing in common with Africans besides her skin color. If I go out and buy a tub of paint and change my skin color, will I have anything in common with her? No. They grew up on different sides of the planet, with totally different governments, economic situations, weather conditions, and culture. What she was searching for was family, and she didn't find it in Africa. Skin color doesn't equate familiarity or a connection.
   
   As Whoopi Goldberg said, I am not African-American. I did not live in Africa, I wasn't born there, I visited there, once, but I am as American as anyone else.
   
   That being said, I'm sure she is a nice lady.



2. This is a story of rejection of those of us forced into slavery by force and not by choice, by those who ancestors were in colluson with the eurpeans. This is also a realization that what is the most important is the acceptance of being a stanger in a strange stilen land as european america, but also to know that one cannot go back home as what we were, but how we are now. Knowing that wherever we (Africans) are i n the world, one thing is for sure, we are and will always be part on Mother Africa, and the spirit of our Mother will always accept her lost childrens.,



3. A deeply moving combination of history, personal memoir and deep reflection,particularly on the heroic and aspirational legacy of slavery as seen by this wonderful writer.



4. Saidiya Hartman takes us on a journey that is intense, tough and thoroughly rewarding. Impressively, she learned as much about herself as she did about the past she sought, even more.
   The beauty of going with her on this journey is that the reader has the same magnificent opportunity, hypnotically led by the author, to ponder and to gain personal insight perhaps too long submerged.



5. Lose Your Mother is a story that weaves geneology with African American history. It's intimate and powerful, touching and complex. Universally connecting, it is a story of alienation and hope.

5 comments about A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary.

1. I must admit after reading this woman's diary, I was enlighten by the nature of her situation and the sheer impact of Nazi Germany after the fall of Berlin. The writing style is so "descriptive-of-the-events", it was personal and direct. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is missing their soul as a writer, this woman really speaks about truths in unique way where her words paint a vivid picture of harsh reality.



2. Despite all of my attentions paid to the history of man's cruelty to man,
   (and women), over the course of the past few decades, I have never exper-
   ienced a more poignant accounting of same than that which "A Woman in Berlin" had to offer. The author's physical survival and psychological victory over the most tragic circumstances imaginable is a testament to the power of applied intellect in the face of mindless savagery. Truly, this literary work is a wonderful testament to the strength of the female spirit and the durability of a pure human sole.



3. An intelligent, resilient, compassionate, resourceful woman chose to keep a diary during the dark days of the end of World War II in desolate, bombed-out Berlin, when the Soviet Red Army's `liberation' of the city included the rape of an estimated 100,000 German women, including the author herself. She chose to remain anonymous, and also shielded the identities of most of the fellow Germans around her.
   
   The attitudes of the `Ivans' who arrived in Berlin ranged from the ruthless bullies who gang-raped German women from age 14 to 74 at one extreme, to the older, more senior, more refined Red Army officers who treated the German vanquished with respect and even compassion. Alcohol consumption by the Red Army was a catalyst for rape, pillaging and destruction. The Nazis consciously left behind stores of alcohol, believing that an inebriated Red Army would be a less effective fighting force. The Nazis clearly failed to realize that the alcohol would fuel a wave of revenge and violence against its own female civilians.
   
   The author and most Berliners were without water, electricity and decent food for weeks on end. Red Army soldiers would wander in and out of the Germans' apartments, at all hours of the day and night, stealing whatever they wanted, grabbing and abusing the women, and defecating everywhere, indoors and out.
   
   On the one hand, the Germans realized that they had this abuse coming to them, after the Nazi atrocities. "Our German calamity has a bitter taste - of repulsion, sickness, insanity, unlike anything in history" (page 257). On the other hand, the Germans fear and resent their liberators, who force them to work twelve hour days dismantling factories for shipment to Russia, with the only compensation being meager food rations. Out of hunger, many German women succumbed to the offer of food from the Red Army soldiers, in exchange for sleeping with them.
   
   Despite living amid rubble and a largely hostile occupying army, the Berliners were remarkably calm and organized. Certainly there was looting by locals, and skirmishes in queues for water and food, but by and large the vanquished cooperated with one another. As the author wrote, she wanted to get busy in a constructive way, re-connect with herself spiritually, try to return to a normal life, to whatever extent that was possible. Berliners were mindful that they would no longer be masters of their own realm; rumors flew around that Germany was going to be converted into one huge field of potatoes. Berliners lived with discomfort and uncertainty during this period.
   
   Gender roles were turned upside down at the end of the war. Erstwhile pompous Nazi men were now either dead, or emaciated and humiliated prisoners of war, or deserters in hiding, or elderly, hapless and hopeless as they watched or listened to their wives and daughters being raped. By contrast, the women took a lead role in cleaning up the ruined city, forming work crews to remove rubble.
   
   Antony Beevor, author of "The Fall of Berlin 1945", states of "A Woman in Berlin" "... this book is one of the most important personal accounts ever written about the effects of war and defeat." I share his admiration for this book, and recommend it highly.



4. This diary is a chilling first-hand account of a German woman's horrific ordeal under the occupation of the Red Army in 1945 Berlin. The main reality of that occupation was, of course, rape- brutal, nightly gang rape of every German female that could be caught- no matter her age, infirmity or physical appearance. The dustjacket blurb was incorrect when it said that this diary details the "...shameful indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject." The Germans never behaved like this in conquered cities, nor did the Americans or British or French. In its almost unbelievable scale- an estimated 2 million victims- the rape of the eastern German women is an event unprecedented in Western history, even in our modern, crime-ridden hellholes of "diversity". Certainly, the idea of a whole population being violated was something that hadn't been seen since ancient times. That's why those who recorded their experience of the horror, like this anonymous author, can tell us something new and unique about humanity- specifically women: about the depths to which we can sink and the resilience with which we can survive.
   
   The author admits to the expected feelings of shame and uncleanness, but in the jungle existence of defeated Berlin, those feelings paled next to the necessity for survival. Rape was a risk one had to run in the search for food, and shame was a feeling one could suppress when prostituting oneself to a single Russian officer meant protection and sustenance. There was a unique solace found in the collective nature of the violation, which helped the women cope, commiserate and recover. They were able to talk about it openly and matter-of-factly. When the author visited a friend for the first time since the occupation, her first words of greeting were, "How many times were you raped?" Men at the front could easily understand how gallows humor and callousness help a soldier deal with the barbarities of war, but the men couldn't understand the similar way their women were dealing with the experience of rape. When the author let her returning fiance read her diaries, and told him about her and her neighbors' experiences, he exploded: "'You've all turned into a bunch of shameless b*tches, every one of you in this building. Don't you realize?' He grimaced in disgust. 'It's horrible being around you. You've lost all sense of measure.'" The relationship between the sexes was altered. The author writes that the women of Berlin viewed their defeated men with pity and scorn, as the weaker sex which needed protecting since they had so obviously failed at protecting their women. The long term effects can only be imagined.
   
   The attitudes of both men and women were surprising. For fear of antagonizing the Russians, the German men made no attempt to defend their women, and the women were in agreement with that decision, in the interests of everyone's physical survival. I have to admit that, like the author's befuddled fiance, such modern and pragmatic attitudes seem strange to me. It's one thing to cope with life's tragedies stoically; it's another to embrace masochism and submissiveness. I was surprised at some of the self-flagellating and apathetic attitudes expressed by the author and her neighbors in this book. She records her neighbors as saying things like "We can't complain. We brought it on ourselves" and "We shouldn't look at what happened too personally". She reacts with utter equanimity when a German Communist (one of many degenerates who crawled out of the woodwork in the days after the Russian takeover) speculates with glee that the German people will be nationally exterminated and the people scattered to the four corners of the USSR as slave labor.
   
   Maybe such impassivity was just a natural reaction to all the suffering the people had gone through. Maybe the decadence and degeneracy of the Weimar Republic and modern Western society had not been effectively extirpated by 12 years of Nazi propaganda. Maye Goethe (or maybe it was Nietzsche) was right with his metaphor of Germans as pigeons (when they're up they crap on your head; when they're down they eat out of your hand). Maybe Hitler was right when he said, to justify his scorched earth policy in the last days, that only the weak would survive the war. In any case, this diary describes the birth of a new German people: defeated, passive and self-hating. They survived, but only to be colonized, physically and mentally. Perhaps some day nature will take its course and their nation will throw off the spiritual shackles imposed on them in 1945.



5. I'm a history buff and I relish reading history from first hand accounts. And especially when it's a perspective from the other sex. This is a fantastic journal from a first rate, insightful writer. I got this book two days ago and could not put it down until her last journal entry. I immediately gave it to my wife for her to read. Women throughout history have always been the spoils of conquering armys and this is a vivid first hand account. Berlin is the most fasinating city from a continent that dominated the worlds attention through most of the last 300 years. I've visited a good deal of Europe and unlike Paris or London you still feel the embers smoldering. Between the suffering of two World Wars, one being lead by a lunatic Austrian artist, and Russia's Iron curtain dropping down literally acoss thier front yards, it is amazing the people of Berlin have managed to withstand the onslought. And to rise to such an economic and cultural capitol as it is today, is amazing to say the least. Reading this lady's journal is a testiment to why Berliners and Berlin have been so resilient. A must Read.

5 comments about Embroideries.

1. Embroideries is a wonderfully funny graphic novel detailing the romantic lives of women in Iran. Each woman's story spans just a few pages, but touching, amusing punchlines are delivered every time. The illustrations are lively and gestural, capturing the personalities of Marjane's family and friends. The book is very relatable. It would be a good discussion starter for a book club or a parent broaching the subject of love, romance and courtship to young women.
   
   One of the more amusing stories is told by a woman who, after noticing that her middle aged husband was being distracted from her middle age self by twenty-something women, had plastic surgery that took fat from her behind and used it to perk up her breasts. He loves her new breasts - but in fact is kissing her rear!



2. I enjoyed this novel, but felt it was more a snack compared to the meaty content of "Persepolis."



3. Funny, heart breaking, insightful look at women in Iran, but could be women anywhere. The author is very good at getting precise meaning and acute issues across with just the right words. My new favorite author.



4. I have read this book several times, it is the funniest Marja Satrapi wrote. If you are a female Middle-Easterner, you will laugh out loud at the stories these ladies share.



5. my purchase of this book was but an afterthought. i only wanted to avail of the free shipping having ordered the two persepolis books. and i was not disappointed. true enough, it gave me a better understanding and appreciation of iranian women. learning a thing or two in the process. yes, their travails are as universal as the other women's. thank you for the endorsement.

5 comments about Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Family in the Heart of Italy.

1. PASSION ON THE VINE is a deeply moving, eloquent and personal expression of his love for the essence of Italian wine and its inextricable, sensual and sacred relationship with the land, its people, its culture and of course it's food. As an accomplished cook, my most surprising discovery on my first trip to Italy (Tuscany) was not the quality of the food - I've had comparable quality in LA - but how the experience of food was imbued with wine and the company of friends at table. Nothing was "segmented", nothing was rushed or regarded as "food as fuel" as in the US. It that moment, my understanding of Italian food at a soul level incarnated. And that was my experience reading Sergio's book: this is a very challenging, profound and intimate concept to communicate and he did it masterfully.



2. Although I don't have even a single corpuscle of Italian blood in me, my wife is 100%. Her grandparents on both sides were immigrants who came to Newark from the town of Avellino, which is about 45 minutes east of Naples, and if known at all in America, it's probably as the alleged hometown of Tony Soprano. Naples, of course, is far more famous for crime, but it's also the ancestral home of Sergio Esposito, author of Passion on the Vine, and it provides the springboard for his worldview and life's work.
   
   So I know a little about life in a Southern Italian family, at least through osmosis. It would also probably constitute full disclosure to add that I have an amateur's abiding interest in Italian wine, as evidenced by a number of Amazon reviews I've written on books that deal with this specific subject.
   
   
   Throw in the fact that I've been to Esposito's Italian Wine Merchant store in Manhattan a number of times, and you'll probably understand why I had certain preconceptions about this book before I ever opened it. In hindsight, I probably would have been better served if I had read it blind (pardon the atrocious mixed metaphor), and like a blind wine tasting, known nothing about it before I tried it. I was kind of hoping for a book that celebrated the true and the beautiful in Italian wine, but also the accessible, in the sense that you shouldn't need to take out a home equity loan before you buy, as would be the case if you were chasing '05 first growth Bordeaux. You certainly can find good, authentic QPR (quality/price ratio) wines in Esposito's store. Unfortunately, you won't find them in the book, but I'll return to this theme later.
   
   Passion on the Vine really isn't a traditional wine expert's memoir (here I lump together the works of intrepid importers like Kermit Lynch and writer/educators like Gerald Asher), because the story of Esposito's Neapolitan family is deeply woven into the narrative. It's a relatively engaging immigrants' tale, and the personalities of his parents, uncles and aunts especially come to life and remind me sharply of my wife's many relatives who still live in Avellino. But if your goal in reading this book is full immersion in the contemporary Italian wine scene, you may be disappointed by the family details that spill across the pages at the expense of more stories about wine. Or maybe you'll love them. You'll also probably find more details about the food he's eaten than the wines he's consumed, but that goes with the territorio.
   
   Accordingly, I'm not going to recount the "portrait of the wine merchant as a young man" story since that's not of real interest to me. For me, the first half of the book seemed to drag on and occasionally frustrated me. There are a few strange things I noted, like how his transplanted family appears to have suddenly gone from near abject poverty in Albany to relative affluence in Scottsdale without explanation, and occasional incomprehensible statements, like when he describes one of his early mentors as a true "scientist," since no one can reproduce his experiments. I also can't for the life of me figure out why he would effectively call the initial investors in The Italian Wine Merchant a bunch of clueless Wall Street boobs who couldn't understand how a store could only sell Italian wines, but then gave him the money anyway. At times the book reminded me of the scene in Animal House when Bluto says "...was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" Otter whispers to Boon, "Germans?" And Boon replies, "Don't stop him, he's rolling."
   
   Esposito seems to believe he alone invented the idea that a store dedicated to Italian wine could succeed in the US, although he didn't get around to opening the store until 1998. I recall shopping in a wonderful Italian food and wine store in Chicago in the early `80's called Convito Italiano, at a time when Esposito was still in knickers. The profiled producers (see next paragraph) were mostly all well established when Victor Hazan wrote his wonderful guide simply called Italian Wine, published in 1982.
   
   When we finally get to Italy on business, the chapters are mostly arranged around visits to iconic, world-renowned properties (Bartolo Mascarello, Biondi Santi, Soldera, Josko Gravner), each singled out I presume for their respect for the land and what I might term modern traditionalism, where the best of the past is effectively preserved and enhanced by application of non-interventionist technical advances. Like I said before, these are fiendishly expensive wines that all sell for $100 a bottle or more, so don't come looking for bargains here. But Esposito has a real gift for letting the winemakers tell their own stories. The chapter on biodynamics, for example, unfolds as a Socratic dialog between a Serbian winemaker and the author's wife. It is unquestionably the best and most entertaining introduction to the how's and why's of biodynamics I've encountered, and should be required reading for anyone who wants a primer on biodynamic theory and practice. The wines you read about here are mostly true vini di meditazione, so much so in fact that when visiting legendary Barolo producer Bartolo Mascarello, the winemaker sits mute for an hour smelling the wine and smiling to himself. Except for the fact that's he's confined to a wheelchair, all that's missing is the lotus position.
   
   Esposito isn't afraid to reveal his personal foibles to the reader. He's impatient, petulant, self-absorbed, and even downright mean at times, particularly when he openly baits the effeminate son of one of his wine producers with a string of female names like Coco Chanel and Ursula Andress. Is he a homophobe? Well, that's passion of a different kind.
   
   I recognize this review is getting a little off topic, not unlike the way my initial expectations wandered from where they started. Read this book as a cultural history based on Italian family, food and wine in that order and you'll probably love it. Despite my grape gripes, I enjoyed a lot of it, and I don't think anyone could have summed it up better than Gianfranco Soldera, quoted after another prodigious Italian meal recounted by the author: "La storia, la famiglia, il cibo, il vino. Questa e la vita dell'uomo. History, family, food, wine. This is the life of man." A bottle of the wine they drank that afternoon, the '99 Casse Basse Soldera Brunello, isn't available at the Italian Wine Merchant, but you can get the '01 on pre-arrival for a little less than three hundred smackers a bottle if you inquire now.



3. Esposito write with a real zest for wine and the food that accompanies it.He provides the reader with a large amount of historical information about the origin and development of the Italian wine industry. However he gives the reader little insight in how he got to where he is and how he made his business a success - if in fact it is. Finally one has to ask the question - how does he survive so much food and drink in a day only to get up and start all over? Yeah, yeah I am Italian American and I couldn't come close to what he says he does.



4. Sergio Esposito, Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich started Italian Wine Merchants in 1999, a retail shop that sells fine Italian wines. There are many interesting wines on offer, the staff is knowledgeable and helpful, and the weekly and monthly emails provide a wonderful education on Italian wines and wine in general.
   
   The emails are written by Esposito, and this wonderful book is a perfect example of Esposito's warm and educational style of writing. He starts his memoir with a description of an idyllic childhood in the slums of Naples: he remembers that "women lowered baskets from their balconies to buy the fish straight from the sea and grapes straight from the vine."
   
   When he was a child, his family moved from Naples to Albany, New York. Esposito writes movingly about the transition: The pasta they ate in Italy had been laid in the middle of the street, "so that the unique combination of Mediterranean and mountain winds would dry it in just the right way, to produce the perfect texture when it was boiled." His first pasta in Albany was "mushy ...like glue in my throat."
   
   Esposito describes his travels as a student and as a wine merchant with great enthusiasm. Wine geeks will love passages like these, this one about Friulian winemaker Josko Gravner:
   
   "Gravner is a proponent in the use of open-top wood vats, extended maceration on the grape skins, no added yeasts, no sulphur dioxide, and no temperature control--purely natural winemaking. This is Josko's current position, and he employs both amphorae and large oak barrels to make his three wines; Collio Breg, Ribolla Gialla, and Rosso Gravner. The grapes for these wines come from his 18 hectares of vineyards in Gorizia (Oslavia) that straddle the Italian-Slovenian border. It is here that he exercises his current approach to wine: 'I am convinced that wine is a product of Nature, not of Man, whose role therefore is to accompany its maturation process while avoiding any artificial intervention.'"
   
   Any reader with the least interest in Italy will love his descriptions of the food and vintages he consumes on his adventures. For example, in one Roman restaurant, a white wine "smelled of apricots, white flowers, dried honey, nuts ... [I] got the sensation that I was being seduced in a Pompeii brothel before the volcano erupted."
   
   Bill Buford is glowing in his praise: "Without qualification, the best book about Italian wine today, if only because Sergio Esposito understands that its mysterious greatness is in its poetry--the earth, its diurnal magic, the ghosts of great-grandfathers. A beautiful, boldly sentimental memoir."
   
   As a long time reader of Esposito's prose, I couldn't agree more. Wine, of course, food, family, travel, more -- an absolute delight.
   
   
   Robert C. Ross 2008



5. I loved this book. Wine, food, gossip, history - who could ask for more. Page 128 has a story of a wedding that will have you rolling on the floor with glee. The only drawback is trying to find a bottle of Vestini Campagnano Pallagrello Bianco - which Mr. Esposito describes as, '..being seduced in a Pompeii brothel before the volcano erupted.'

5 comments about The Tracker.

1. This book reads like a young boy's fantasy of living free, unencumbered by parental supervision, in a dense forest wilderness. In this case, that wilderness is the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. This is an incredible tale of a boy, his friend and the old Apache wiseman who teaches the two boys how to survive in the wild without modern conveniences, how to interpret the patterns of nature, and how to read the tracks, signs and traces that animals and men leave as they move within nature.
   
   I don't doubt that Tom Brown is a wilderness survival expert (they are not that rare) or that he has extraordinary tracking skills. These achievements only require time and dedication. The level of skill Tom Brown displays as an adult could certainly be achieved by adulthood by any young boy with the intensity of obsession with wilderness survival and tracking and with the opportunities and freedom it appears Brown may have had as a child.
   
   Stalking Wolf (the old Apache), if he existed, gave Brown a pre-scientific, mystical point of view towards nature, and Brown never misses an opportunity to show himself superior to those who don't share his viewpoint. A tone of arrogance and contempt for those outside his religion pervades the book, and he has fashioned his biography in a way to suggest his life has transcendent meaning that the more mundane lives of others cannot have. There are so many things wrong with this as a biographical memoir, a full discussion would extend this review beyond the length amazon accepts.
   
   Brown has had 30 years to answer skeptical objections to the details of the narrative (first published in 1978), and I don't know that he hasn't already done so. It wouldn't be difficult for him to satisfy some of the doubts. The boyhood friend, Rick, certainly has a full name and attended schools in the same district as Brown. If he has died, he is buried somewhere. Stalking Wolf is Rick's grandfather (p. 5) so he is traceable in conjunction with Rick. And so on and so forth.
   
   I would have loved this book as a boy. As an adult I distrust the simplicty and tone of it.



2. Tom Brown, Jr. is the greatest nature writer, outdoorsman, environmentalist of all time, bar none!
   
   Move over Henry David and Ralph Waldo, Brown's insights into the Earth and our connection to it are destined to become classics of American literature (presuming, of course, that human society lasts long enough, a highly dubious proposition). What Emerson and Thoreau only dreamed of, Brown accomplished, and lucky for us all, Brown is willing to teach. Welcome to the incredible world of Tom Brown, Jr. where every day is an exicting journey of adventure, discovery and insight.
   
   By now, Brown's story is familiar: at the age of seven he met an Apache Elder named Stalking Wolf (a psuedonym used by Brown for legal and personal reasons), who spent sixty years wandering the entire Western Hemisphere. Along the way, Grandfather, as Brown affectionately refers to Stalking Wolf, gathered an incredible fount of physical and spiritual knowledge that remains unequaled in either Western, or Eastern writings (Yes, move over Yoga and Buddhism, for which I have great respect, but Grandfather blows them all away). To Brown, Stalking Wolf imparted this incredible knowledge.
   
   This book takes us through the years Tom spent learning from Grandfather. Tom illustrates and explains Grandfather's teaching method known as "Coyote Teaching" - something akin to the Socratic Method, but worse! He shows us how Grandfather used Coyote Teaching to inspire and prod Tom and his friend Rick, into seeking deeper and deeper insights into life, and also to impart the physical skills of tracking, stalking and survival for which the Apaches were unequaled. Concepts introduced include the "concentric rings", i.e. being able to read the actions and reactions people and animals generate as they travel through the forest, stalking, the ability to travel silently and unseen through the landscape, and a hint of the spirituality to come (no, there is no religion here, or anywhere else for that matter in Brown's books. Just practical techniques for going further in your beliefs whatever they may be). This book is chock full of stories of adventure, discovery and learning.
   
   The Tracker is mainly autobiographical and only forms an introduction to Brown and Grandtather's teachings. This is not my personal favorite, but don't get me wrong, it is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to everyone. However, it's only the beginning. To obtain a true sense of Grandfather's teachings one must go further and read Brown's other books. I hope The Tracker inspires you to do so.
   
   One final word: for lovers of mystery and detective novels this is the book for you! Brown introduces you to the arts that enable one to become a real life Sherlock Holmes, something even Conan Doyle couldn't do. Welcome to a lifetime of learning, discovery, and insight!



3. Wildernes survival tales... super exciting. It does read like a movie but maybe it's all true. I've heard some people say Tom Brown is a tall tale teller, but his tales sure are fun and he has a school in NJ so....



4. I liked this book. It's about being invisible in nature--like the rest of nature, people can blend in to the point of being invisible enough to be able to reach out and touch a wild animal. It's also about special relationships with a grandfather. It would be a great book to read to kids.



5. This is a "don't miss" book for anyone who wants to observe anything in nature. Tom Brown is a legend in the worlds of search and rescue, tracking, and survival. Brown is one with nature and he brings you along on his exhilerating journey from boy to man of nature. In this, his first of many outstanding books, you accompany him as he learns his skills from his Indian grandfather.
   FYI. Brown continues to share his skills with new through advanced students at workshops. A friend who has attended his classes, swears Brown is everthing you will see here and much more. It is a fascinating story.

4 comments about Come, reza, ama / Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.

1. This book is amazing. I bought it cause one person in my family is going through something similar and it has really helped me to give her advice. I haven't finish the book but i can't stop reading it. Definitely something that happens to many women.



2. El relato de Elizabeth, permite no solo acompañarla en su viaje a través de Europa, Africa e Indonesia por un año, sino ser además testigo de lo que suele acontecer dentro de la cabeza y en el espiritu de mujeres de este tiempo. Nos vamos formando para ser exitosas, para vivir vidas emocionantes. La falta de propósitos más profundos nos llevan a decisiones cortoplacistas y descentradas. Sublevarnos entonces contra nosotras mismas y decidirnos a cambiar nuestro rumbo se convierte en una travesía como la de Elizabeth, dolorosa y larga, en la que el verdadero propósito es alejarnos de la persona que nos fuímos convirtiendo y dejar que aflore un ser, con un centro mejor establecido que nos permita empezar de nuevo y ser capaces de tomar decisiones y caminos diferentes.



3. Este libro es para cualquier mujer, de cualquier edad y condición, porque todas encontrarán en él algo con lo que identificarse.
   Gilbert aborda con cierto humor y con inteligencia temas como el amor y el desamor, la vida, el éxito, el fracaso, la espiritualidad, el auto-conocimiento y mucho más.



4. Con humor y realismo Elizabeth Gilbert explora su esencia espiritual llevando al lector a encontrarse con ella cara a cara en su camino. Cada mujer que lee este libro puede identificarse con muchas de las experiencias de crecimiento personal y espiritual. Esta es una comedia divina que todas vivimos y pocas podemos articular.

5 comments about Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House.

1. Plame got shafted over and over...
   Every american must know this story
   billincie



2. Once again when universal lies prevail, telling the truth becomes the revolutionary act. I appreciate this book for the type of exposure it brought to how dangerous partisan politics can be and how close to home it can get when "revenge" is served from the Big Freezer. The book was in redacted form, but it still allowed for a efficient view of her story. Remember that she is telling this story for your benefit and not her own, even though a book deal soon followed. Understand that anyone is "fair game" when a specific agenda is to be reached. I know it will be thoroughly tough and confusing to vote this November. Ah, for want of a nail.



3. This item arrived fast and in excellent condition--just as the seller stated--and the price was excellent!! Thanks!



4. Interesting read. Just goes to show you what lengths the CIA and our political leaders are willing to go to even for revenge.



5. Another recorded book..and another comment that it's not my favorite medium as I have too few specfics to refer to.
   
   The first portion of the book is autobiographicalesqe. (!) Val talks about her time in the "Farm," her early tenure in the CIA, etc. It's interesting, and she does include items of dubious ethicality of the Bush administration. (You'll recall that's what put her on the map, that someone had exposed her role with the agency, as a vendetta for her husband's revealing that the Niger uranium scare was a bad hoax.)
   
   That part of the book was okay. But, frankly, there's a little too much name dropping to make me comfortable. Might I do the same if I were in such a position? Maybe. But that she's met Tim Robbins is inconsequential, and I'd rather the author not include what could be construed as tabloid news.
   
   The second half of the book, the "afterward," is actually of more substance. It's simply a narrative of the whole experience, including the CIA's activities--and what one may infer as their negative influence on our foreign policy. I remember a little about the US relationship with Greece, for example, only because many years ago I spent some time with some Greek expatriots. They told me of the what purported to be a democracy there, in reality a military junta with a ghastly human rights record. What a surprise, they were a US ally.
   
   In short, if you have time, you might want to read the book, and learn a little. But it's not one I'd put on the top of my list.

5 comments about Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story.

1. One thing I've learned from this book is that despite the fact that individual Amazon reviews are often opinions I don't even remotely agree with, I certainly value the overall score. This Klosterman book probably has the lowest score of all of his books on Amazon, and after reading it, I certainly understand why.
   
   It seems like he wrote this book to pass time by, or maybe to earn some extra cash on the side, as opposed to his other books, which aren't as forced. There are times when I read his essays and I burst out laughing to the extent that I have to read passages multiple times. This book just isn't really funny. It's not as sarcastic, it's not as cynical, and it's not as smart. His investigation, overall, is boring, and that means he did something wrong: writing a book about tragic deaths of rock icons is actually a really interesting topic. I don't mind that he spends so much time rambling about his ex girlfriends (and, well, current girlfriends) because it ends up making sense in the end, but he's too much in his own head and has little venom for the pop culture he is such an excellent critic of.
   
   That said, while I'd read anything he wrote, this is the least interesting of all of them. This may have to do with age (I'm 12 years younger than he is, and sometimes he goes back further in rock history than I can identify with). He's also a better essay writer than an actual novelist: Klosterman is a columnist, a reporter, not really an author. His other books (particularly IV and Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs) are collections of essays/columns. So, all in all, worth the read, if you can find it for a few bucks on Amazon or [...], it's worth it, but overall this is the least interesting of his books.



2. This "journalist" is not qualified to comment on the multitude of musical artists he bashes; this fact is obvious by the evidence that the book wanders through his boyish experiences with women--which are, pathetic.
   
   Aside from his boring, self-indulgent babble regarding first-time female experiences and pointless encounters with drugs and new-found friends, he blatantly insults some of the most legendary artists of all time, downplaying their careers and success (ie, relates the career of Waylon Jennings to the Dukes of Hazzard theme song). As the book progressed (if you want to call it that), the author continues to demonstrate his lack of research and/or knowledge about any of the individuals he speaks of, showing his lack of interest and his own immaturity in being able to draw any meaningful takeaways.
   
   The author, for instance, goes to the Skynyrd plane wreck site, but does nothing once he gets there. Thanks for sharing. Profound. Do you have any first-hand experiences with members of this band? Then you just aren't qualified to say a word.
   
   I couldn't endure the last few chapters. It went in the trashcan. Don't bother. It's the worst book I've ever encountered. And by the way, love how it is plastered with positive quotes from the press on the inside cover. I'd love to read the full reviews, because I am certain these blurbs are nothing but cherrypicking. A young, uninformed egomaniac who needs to go back to writing single newspaper paragraphs about local talent.



3. JUST SHUT UP AND BUY IT. I've read this and a Decade of Dangerous and they are both highly entertaining and very addicting if you are into music, obsessive habits and cosmic ideas. If you do not have a sense of humor, do not buy this book. If laughing out loud in quiet public settings is not your forte, then maybe you should pass on this one. I've bought many copies for that special kind of friend and the ones I haven't met yet. -amen



4. Overall, I guess you could say I kind of enjoyed it...
   
   However, I was really suprised to see how he wrote endlessly about himself. This book is completely lacking an insightful, charming, and inspiring voice - like I thought it would have. There were very few "laugh out loud" moments and I just found that I couldn't wait to finish reading it. This book didn't have any realism; any soul. I felt like he was just talking out of his butt, so I found him hard to fathom, hard to grasp, and hard to relate to. Whether this is 85% of a real story or not, he didn't give enough analysis or honesty for me to believe any of it.



5. 
   I flipped through the book in the bookstore and thought, "oh, this sounds kind of cool" when I got to the part about cocaine people and pot people, because it was funny and ironic and pathetic and he knew it. Some of the book was really interesting; specifically, I liked when he talked to strangers. His boring romances are boring. Why are you wasting my time? I finished the book hoping he'd say something worth reading. The only thing I'm going to remember--of any worth, anyway--was his description of intelligence as "knowing what to do without being told," which was actually quoting Nixon about Kissinger. Nice.
   
   I just wish he were a little smarter. Then it could have been a good book. Until then, stick with Spin, Mr. Klosterman.

No comments about Learning to Breathe: One Woman's Journey of Spirit and Survival.

5 comments about Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife.

1. I could not even finish this ridiculous book and I cannot figure out why it is a best seller? Irene needs a deprogrammer or a psychiatrist. When I came to the part where she marries a man who already has a wife when she had a chance with a NORMAL man who treated her well, I knew I could not finish this silly book. Her soon to be husband who has a wife and kid tells her he would 'love to see her milking his cow' and she takes this as a marriage proposal? Ummm,,,, something is dreadfully wrong here. Definitely two sandwiches short of a picnic. Sounds so backwards. Hogwash and actually I find it disgusting that these men get away with child molesting.. No wonder they have to hide from everyone. YUK! Irene, I hope you get some help! And all those poor kids that the government (us taxpayers) supports on welfare! I would rate this negative 5 stars if possible.



2. Shattered Dreams was a story so well written that I couldn't put it down.
   
   Irene was a child who was reared in Pologamy. Her mother left the order when she was a young teen, and begged Irene not to become involved in the order. As a teen, Irene was torn between marrying a young man who professed his dying love for her or agreeing to be a second wife to her cousin's husband, entering the life of pologamy.
   
   Irene felt God telling her to enter the world of Pologamy. Against her mother's wishes, she secretly married, believing she would have a wonderful life.
   
   Irene shares her hearaches without loosing her sensitivity towards her sister-wives. She tells the story of how they were expected to birth a child a year, and share a husband with many wives. There were times they all were thrown into the same house with all of their children, and lived in horrible poverty. For many reasons, the family moved multiple times, and were often left alone for months on end while their husband was off on mission trips or working for the church. When he was around, they each had their assigned night with him, which of course leaving each sister wife feeling horribly lonely at times. The purpose of having so many children was to build up a beginning family that would receive their own Godhead in the here-after.
   
   How she was able to keep her cool as long as she did is beyond me. At one point she was responsible for the 24 hour day to day care of 24 children while two of her sister wives were living in other towns working. After months of caring for the children in a tiny house, she finally told her husband she could no longer continue. She was exhausted beyond belief, but instead of receiving understanding from her husband, was reprimanded for not being stronger.
   
   I was happy that she did not make her husband out to be a demon as other books on the subject have. Rather, she shared many tender moments with him, and it appeared he did everything humanly possible to care for his huge family. Irene's tale took place long before food stamps and public assistance for "single" mothers.
   
   I recommend this book highly to those interested in trying to understand polgamy for it explains in detail why they choose this lifestyle, and helps readers learn the dynamics of this lifestyle while preserving the dignity of the family.



3. This is the fourth book I have recently read by women who have left polygamy behind, and I found it to be the best of the bunch. Although it is frightening to realize that this lifestyle is still endured in the 21st century and in America, I try to read up on the subject so that I can try to gain some understanding. Each book I read just makes me wonder all the more how these women can stand these husbands who ignore them and their children so shamefully. Not just stand them, actually, but yearn for them.
   Irene's book was, in my opinion, the most well-crafted of the books I have read by these women. In some of the others I found the wives to be a little less candid than Irene is, and they seem to try to make more excuses for themselves than Irene does. The most puzzling thing to me, especially after reading another book about the same husband by one of Irene's "sister-wives," is how they all go crazy trying to get their husband's attention and affection when he so clearly only cares about himself and "the Principle." The wives are starved for affection and the children are just plain starving. I understand that they are brought up to believe that this lifestyle is divinely ordained, yet the men involved are such total creeps that you wonder how any woman can yearn for them.
   Irene gives a very vivid and clear portrait of the years she spent in polygamy, and how she finally emerged to enter into a happy marriage with one man who cherished only her. It is heartbreaking to see how she threw away so many good years, but her (13)! children seem to be a blessing to her. I am so happy that she has found peace and joy at last.



4. This is a wonderful book. I couldn't put it down. Irene is a great example for others. She tried to stay true to her religion and endured many trials. She lived in many horrid conditions that many of us could never handle. She was one of many wives and felt so physically neglected. She finally learns to "deal with" being one of many wives. She couldn't have made it thru many of the trials without them. The Mormon way of life and the rules that they follow are so inriguing. I couldn't put it down because I kept wanting to know what would happen next and how many more trials she would endure before she finally left. I really enjoyed her perspective and her writing style.
   She ultimately becomes a born again Christian and figured out that she didn't have to DO anything to earn God's Love. He offers it Freely to those who believe.
   I was raised Catholic and now I attend a non denominational "Christian Rock Church".



5. This book is not necessarily one you would want to read before going to sleep for a couple of reasons: 1) it is so engaging it is hard to put it down, and 2) it makes you feel angry with the way the author was treated. The author lived in deep proverty. She was torn because of her devotion to her husband and religion, yet experienced extreme angony because of this devotion.