2 comments about Yes Man - Movie Tie-In.

1. I bought this book because it's featured at every bookstore now with the movie tie-in. And, what a surprise - I thoroughly loved it! It's laugh-out-loud funny.
   
   My only complaint with this book is that this edition has Jim Carrey on the cover. What a stupid idea it was to make it into a movie with an overrated 46 year-old American actor instead of the charming Danny Wallace in the lead role. A lot of the humor in the book is very British and in the viewpoint of a 26 year-old; all of that is lost by using Jim Carrey and a California setting. I know I'm basing my dislike of the movie on just seeing the trailer, but if the hand-picked clips are that bad, you know the movie must be deadly.
   
   So say yes to the book...and no to the movie!



2. Overall I liked this book but thought is was too long, he could have gotten to the point much more quickly and it would have been a better read for me.
   
   This is the movie tie in to the book by the same name written by Danny Wallace, a Londoner who in a funk took the advice of a man on a bus to say yes more. That advice lead to a year of saying yes to virtually everything that anyone asked and lead to many odd and awkward adventures. Some of the activities included writing chalk slogans for peace on the sidewalk to eating bizarre combinations of food because the seller asked if he wanted a long series of items with the food he ordered.
   
   One of the funniest parts of the book is him talking his way into and out of a fight at a nightclub with a guy who asked if he was looking at his girlfriend by saying yes.
   
   Ultimately the book explores what his friends thought about his obsession with yes and how worried they became for him. They even develop elaborate schemes to try and get him to say no.
   
   I really enjoy seeing what happens in books like this where people fixate on a single idea for a year like The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible and this one. There is a strong lesson in the will it takes to do something so thoroughly and a demonstration of how often we give up too soon.
   
   I thought the writing could be tighter but really enjoyed the book none the less.

5 comments about The Lois Wilson Story: When Love Is Not Enough.

1. For all those struggling with loved ones with the disease of alcoholism, this book is excellent.



2. The Lois Wilson Story: When Love is not Enough
   By: William G. Borchert
   Hazelden
   Center City, Minnesota 55012-0176
   
   Lois Wilson was an amazing, wonderful woman and the world is a better place because she and her husband were in it. Author William G. Borchert used his words to express this woman's life, her trials, tribulations, and sanctification. Lois Wilson was the co-founder of the Al-Anon, and Alateen fellowships. Her husband Bill Wilson was one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.
   
   This amazing book about her life starts as a flash back. It begins with introducing you to a very unhappy Lois in the early 1930's. Then it shifts to her beginnings. The book takes your hand and walks you through the entire life of Lois Wilson, her family, and some of her friends. It gives you explicit details about her life, how AA came about, Bill, and Al-Anon.
   
   Lois met her husband Bill, who was four years her junior, in Vermont. This would prove to be a love that stood the test of time and alcohol. They married in January, before he went of to fight in WWI. They had a beautiful wedding in her parent's house in Brooklyn, and they were married for fifty-three years.
   
   Lois's life with Bill was full of ups and downs. He was in the Army, and then an investigator on Wall Street. Bill was a genius. He began his drinking days when he was overseas, and it continued as it was seen as acceptable in his profession. This later carried on into him becoming an alcoholic.
   
   Lois was forced to be the breadwinner of the family as Bill's drinking got worse and cost them everything that they had. Through all the years that she went through with him having this horrible sickness, she began to change and harbor much resentment. To add to her pain she was unable to have children, and when they tried to adopt, a friend put a stop to it because of Bill's drinking. Later Mrs. Wilson came to realize that it was for the best that they did not have children, and she looked at all the alcoholics in AA as her dear children.
   
   As Bill started to recover after many hard years of his illness, Lois was still hurting inside with deep resentment, and anger. Bill formed Alcoholics Anonymous with Dr. Bob Smith, in Akron, Ohio. He found that the only way for him to stay sober was to be with another drunk. This revelation only injured the already wounded heart of Lois even more. She had wanted to be the reason and the one that caused her husband to be sober and to stay that way.
   
   As the fellowship of AA continued to grow, one day Lois went out on the porch and noticed that there were other wives just sitting in the cars that lined the street. She went out to the other women and invited them in. She had a revelation that there were others out there hurting just as badly as she from this horrible alcohol demon. Thus started her little kitchen group. As the years progressed, this kitchen group concept developed into what is now Al-Anon. They followed the same twelve steps that AA did, but they also had their own twelve steps to follow as well.
   
   Once it was realized that the children were being left out Lois, and some of the volunteers who helped with Al-Anon decided that something needed to be done for them, thus the dawning of Alateen. It was headed by one of the original volunteers, and each group was set up to be fostered by an Al-Anon member. Lois took particular interest and joy over the group for the children.
   
   Because of the will and determination of Bill and Lois wisdom, there is now what is called a "cure" for alcoholics, and their families. Alcoholism is a disease that effects all members of a family, co-workers, and even some people in the community. Monumental steps were made by these two amazing people, and none of it would have happened if Lois had not stayed by Bill's side.
   
   This is a story about heartache, pain, stamina, faith, and above all love. God had both Lois and Bill Wilson here for a reason, and I believe that they fulfilled their calling. Mr. Borchert did a wonderful job of telling the story, and letting the reader feel that they also personally knew Lois Wilson. This was a hard life to read about, but I learned a lot from the experiences in the pages. I hope that God will use this book to expand understanding about alcoholism, and the strong family that it takes to support one.



3. This book should be available through every public library for those who do not have it on their own shelf.



4. This was very well done, and I think illustrated Lois Wilson's personality. One topic I wish the author had added a little more detail on is the issue of co-dependency.



5. Excellent book and tranaction. Received as promised and in excellent shape.
   Thanks you Seller

4 comments about Prescription for Survival: A Doctor's Journey to End Nuclear Madness (BK Currents (Hardcover)).

1. First a disclaimer. More than thirty years ago, Dr. Lown was one of my teachers at the Brigham and Women's Hospital where I was a young, inexperienced fellow in cardiology. And what a privilege it was to watch this master clinician, consummate healer and deeply moral mentor at work.
   
   A few years later, with Russian cardiologist Eugene Chazov, Dr. Lown founded the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which, within a few short years was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. "Prescription for Survival" is Dr. Lown's gripping memoir of that time, an amazing chronicle of how a few committed doctors set out to confront the specter of nuclear holocaust, organized tens of thousands of supporters and helped save civilization from annihilation.
   
   This is a "must read" book. It's message of hope, of the centrality of mass action, of the necessity to speak truth to power, of persistence in the face of daunting challenges, is particularly pertinent at this juncture in the history of our planet. At a time when once again events seem to be spinning out of control, when not only rampant wars, but catastrophic climate change, ecologic degradation and unbridled militarism all menace our survival as a species, the lessons of this book need to be promulgated, adopted and utilized if we are to leave a habitable planet to our children and grandchildren.
   
   Buy "Prescription for Survival," tell your friends to buy it, and take its lessons to heart. As Dr. Lown writes at the close of this absorbing, hard-to-put-down book: "This memoir is ultimately a call to action. Only those who see the invisible can do the impossible. This book makes visible a wide terrain wherein action for another world fit for human beings becomes both challenging and possible."



2. On the eve of this historic presidential election, Dr. Bernard Lown has given us a momentous, lucid, and gripping book.
   
   By all counts, Lown is an extraordinary man: one of the great physicians of the 20th century, a Nobel Laureate, an inventor whose work has saved thousands and thousands of lives. All that is true. What's less well known is that he is a STORYTELLER; a master of narrative. He's a writer in the tradition of Chekhov and the other great physician-writers of the last century. The dude can spin a yarn.
   
   It's rare for so keen and incisive an intellect to convey itself this warmly and skillfully, and with this much humanity. (You don't see Noam Chomsky writing books like this). Lown is keenly aware that one of the first tasks of both a good doctor and a good writer is to compel his subject's attention.
   
   And the book is so timely, so important. As the planet approaches a tipping point the likes of which it hasn't seen, we are facing into the realities of climate change, oil shocks, daunting economic and political instability, resource shortages, a soaring global population, an increase in militarism and state-sponsored violence, and on and on. It's difficult to hold in our minds the magnitude of what we're facing, and its even more difficult to imagine that we can actually do anything about it.
   
   That's why Lown's book is so important. It shows that we--any of us, all of us--can dare to take action, can dare to make a difference. The book tells the story of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nucelar War, from its origin as an idea in 1980, to its recognition by the Nobel committee in 1985, at the height of nuclear tensions between the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. Within that striking story, Lown makes larger points about the ways in which hope can emerge in the darkest hours, and how much is possible when citizens take action within and across national borders.
   
   This is a powerful book. It radiates a kind of moral gravitas that's palpable. Lown writes out of a deep sense of urgency, but he does so beautifully, with a feel for language and image and rhythm, and a sense of the importance of these things. After a lifetime of clinical practice as a cardiologist, attending to the rhythms of the human heart, Lown has learned his way around it. He writes from that heart and to it--about matters of great consequence, with great wisdom.



3. One doesn't expect an eminent cardiologist to speak out on nuclear war, to organize a global network of physicians to confront the issue, and to make its enormous risks clear to the world; and ultimately to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. This wonderful book by that very cardiologist, Dr. Bernard Lown, recounts this compelling saga. It is a powerful book by any standard, made even more so by the grace, fluidity, and richness of his prose, surely the equal of our nation's finest writers (further enriched by apt quotations from the great poets and playwrights of the ages). Every caring, concerned citizen of the globe will want this book at the top of his or her reading list. (Full disclosure: I was a patient of Dr. Lown's for some 20 years; I give him credit for the fact that I'm here today to praise not only his idealism but his skill as a physician.)



4. I'm someone who often purchases important books, skims them quickly and then shelves them, with every intention of getting back to the task of educating myself about the subject. Somehow, I never manage to open the book again, so it sits there among other such volumes, while I turn to literary efforts that may be more trivial, but promise to be more fun. So I was surprised when I started flipping pages to find that the author had turned this critical issue into a detective story. Instead of being bored by didactic lessons that I agreed with, I found myself reading until 2AM to follow the story of these brave doctors who wouldn't take no for an answer. I thought I knew a lot about the subject, but this story surprised and fascinated me, made me laugh and made me angry too.

5 comments about Paula: A Memoir (P.S.).

1. Isabel Allende writes about the relationships of women to their men and their children also including womens' related emotions. She wraps this book around how we live and come to accept death. The book is written using a past, present and future construct which tested my memory. It touches the senses and emotions.
   
   cassandra jennings hall



2. Fabuloso libro de Isabel Allende, escrito con talento unico, sin hacer menos a su generosidad de compartir con nosotros sus lectores su autobiografia, donde nos describe hasta los mas intimos rincones de sus memorias, tales como su experiencia a sus escasos 8 anos, cuando escapo a madrid a reunirse con "el amante" como ella le llama, su honestidad su palpa en cada palabra. Paula fue un gran placer conocerte al igual que a tu mama y a toda su tribu!! Dios las bendice! Gracias!!!



3. A writer who can make you laugh, smile, and cry in the same chapter is indeed a writer to be cherished. Such is the case with Allende's Paula. As a mother, I suffered with Allende's description of her struggle to keep her comatose daughter alive, yet amid the tragedy she could digress and recall earlier periods of laughter and funny irony. Even in the midst of the anguish of trying to find a way to communicate with her inert daughter, she found comic relief in the drama of the lives of other patients in the hospital. The author provides compelling stories of her early childhood, great loves, and introduces a parade of interesting characters. All these are gently interwoven with a description of historical events and political turmoil in Chile creating a provocative glimpse of an era which I suspect most US readers were probably unaware. A tender and sensitive description of loss, tragedy, and of finding peace, Paula is indeed one of my more revered reads for this year.



4. In this book, Isabel Allende downplays her first two traumatic experiences. The central focus is her third trauma, her daughter's illness.
   
   The first trauma is a predator who's incomplete seduction is enough to scar a child; moreover, she sees the man's death. The second trauma is that of her uncle forced from office in an air bombardment and dies (perhaps at his own hand) along with many supporters, precipitating a military coup in which thousands die, flee and/or are tortured. She is not numbed by these, but she is by her third trauma, her daughter's coma.
   
   It took about 100 pages for me to get into it. I almost put it down. After about 100 pages, the breezy language and cryptic metaphors seemed to stop and Allende opened up. She became frank about about her married and extramarital life, but continued to restrain the prose relating the first two traumas. For instance, the childhood predator story is told like it was someone else's. Her uncle is like a stranger, and if how she is related to him is mentioned, I don't remember it. There is some discussion of family members who oppose the uncle, but nothing about their actually knowing him.
   
   There is some of the language of magical realism present in her novels. This book is worth reading for it's description of letting go. There are some vague descriptions (admittedly not the focus of the book) of life in Chile after the coup and life as an exile. I think there is a bigger memoir inside of Isabel Allende yet to be written.



5. When Isabel Allende's daughter suffered a calamatous illness, Allende did what came naturally. She wrote a story. On its most basic level, this book is about a mother who is losing her child. She goes through the stages of grieving, sometimes even arguing with herself on the pages about what might come next. It goes much deeper, though. There is a point in the book when it seems she has discovered she is no longer writing the book for her daughter. A seer told Allende that her daughter would be known throughout the world. At some point in the writing, Allende discovered it would be through her own efforts, not her daughter's.
   Allende has so many fascinating pieces in the story of her life, not the least of which is the fact that she is an extremely famous author. She is also a historical figure, being the niece of the Chilean president ousted by a military coup. She witnessed this and talks about it in the book. She was also raised by a man in the Foreign Service of Chile. She has traveled around the world and experienced what it is like to be accepted and what it is like to be rejected. She has been an exile as well. She wonders in the book whether her life has been very interesting. To her, it seemed normal and boring.
   This is really one of the best books I have read. The vulnerability with which Allende writes is devastatingly beautiful. In her sorrow, she chooses to share her story and the story of her daughter with us. I feel honored.

No comments about The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons in Love, Death, and Happiness.

5 comments about Going Gray: What I Learned about Beauty, Sex, Work, Motherhood, Authenticity, and Everything Else That Really Matters.

1. Some reviewers seem to be reviewing the concept of going gray rather than this book. What is called going gray is really much more--it is about going gray elegantly, beautifully. It is how you can go gray and still be current.
   
   Although I like the concept of going gray in general, I don't like this book, Going Gray. I thought the author made too much of her decision to go gray and how she would be perceived by others. This will sound harsh, but she seemed so shallowly focused on herself! It wasn't quite a memoir, it wasn't quite a psychological experiment in measuring some of the reactions (and in fairness to the author, it didn't claim to be) and it wasn't that interesting. Further, I was really put off by the author pretending to be single to see what men's reaction to her gray hair would be. She didn't lead them on too far and she had her husband's blessing, but it seemed wrong to me.
   
   I think she asked some good questions, but I also think she gave the questions and answers too much weight. She cared too much. Going gray is a decision that a woman will probably think about seriously, but really, life is just so full of too many things to devote this much energy to it. Or this much energy to yourself.
   
   There have been several books written by authors who did something for a year and then wrote about it: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, The Know-It-All, The Year of Living Bibically, Not Buying It, Nickeled and Dimed. It occurred to me that the author, a journalist, wondered if she could turn her decision to give up the (haircolor) bottle into a best-seller.
   
   The book with a similar name, Going Gray, Looking Great did work. It also tells about going gray, while giving encouragement and practical advice so that the woman can still look great.



2. Going gray has its own issues: for many women, gray hairs grow all over the place AND one's own natural gray color may not always look great, so one winds up having to "color" the gray a nicer gray color so it does not appear too yellow for instance. Some people look washed out in gray. Color is a very personal decision.



3. I am ordering this book regardless of the fact that I do not see an under 40 review. I am 37 and have been going gray for at least 5 years now - not just the occasional one or two grays along your part - an all over gray especially the halo area. I hope this book offers some insight as I have been dying my hair for 8+ years in an attempt to cover my gray. I started early trying to cover the single gray strands. I feel I can no longer keep dying my hair as it is gray at the roots in a week after dying it and I feel untrue to myselfas I am somewhat of an athletic/outdoorsey woman. I like to hike and ride my bike and ski and natural light shows all.



4. I'm 53 and stopped dying my hair around 6 years ago - it's become much thicker than when I was dying it, and is for the most part white. It's not uncommon for me to be stopped by strangers - men and women - who comment on how beautiful my hair is, and sometimes - most often men - will tell me how beautiful I am. Believe me, that never happened when I was coloring my hair! The process of embracing who we truly are allows our natural beauty to bloom.



5. Going Gray (What I learned about beauty, sex, work, motherhood, authenticity and everything else that really matters), by Anne Kreamer, Little Brown, New York, is the sort of book title that the average man would pass on as probably girlish fluff. If a bald man is seen perusing this volume in a bookstore, chances are he's read Nora Ephron and has recently had a pedicure.
   
   And yet, stereotyping aside, Anne Kreamer has, almost inadvertently, written a book that, through the lens of its thesis, offers social and psychological insights into aging Americans of the demographic widely known as Baby Boomers. Today's fifty-somethings grew up in a culture that celebrated youth. With prescription medications now available to restore rosy optimism and sexual potency, what magic elixir might restore the appearance of youth? The elixir is hair color. The question Ms. Kreamer asks is existential: how does the magic in it work? And if there is no magic, what does that mean?
   
   The answer is not immediately apparent; we take our belief systems for granted as valid, and hair color has evolved as a mainstay of middle age. It was not until the author saw a photograph of her dark-haired self next to her teenage daughter that the white lie of hair color began to resound larger implications for her. What is truth and what is illusion, and does one wear the other as a mask in this case? If truth is beauty, then untruth moves us closer on the reality grid to the locus of ugliness, but what person, especially in their fifties, wants to go there? Anne Kreamer pushes that query, hoping to discover new legitimacy for "nature's changing course untrimmed." What does she learn?
   
   Many things: "How we choose to grow old is deeply idiosyncratic, a matter of individual taste and circumstance." Fair enough. But what about other people? How do they see us, how much should it matter, and is it ever valid to make assumptions about what is attractive? To finds answers, this (happily married) author makes excursions through the wilderness of dating web sites, meeting with single men, even contacting contemporary "image consultants," the first of whom was "Ginger, who wore a leopard-print cashmere sweater with caribou feathers trimming the deep V-neck and cuffs, slim black wool pants, and black suede Manolo Blahnik boots--an outfit that would have been less surprising to me if I'd made an appointment with a dominatrix."
   Going Gray is an antic but thoughtful account of her adventures, a report to the rest of us that beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder and, past a certain age, it's probably better to look to what wisdom we've earned than in the mirror. Finally, Anne Kreamer's book is about telling "more of the plain truth in small ways, then maybe we as a society and a culture will find it easier to recognize and reward the truth in bigger ways."

5 comments about The Place to Be: Washington, CBS, and the Glory Days of Television News.

1. Roger Mudd writes that he came across as `glowering and grim' on TV. Having lived in Ireland during the so-called "glory days of television news," I can't comment on that, but this book does lack personality which is its biggest weakness. Mudd worked in a massively interesting news era, ranging from Vietnam, the assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy and Watergate, but he fails to bring any of them alive or present any interesting insights into them.
   
   Mudd's comments about some of his co-workers are often less than complimentary especially Dan Rather who beat the author out to replace Walter Cronkite. I read the book because I wanted a better understanding of the US during these turbulent years. Not sure if I got that, but if you were a fan of Mudd, CBS or Cronkite during the 60's and 70's, this is a book you might enjoy as it is more about CBS and inside politics than anything else. In fairness, this is what the title suggests.



2. Back when television news was about news and not entertainment, Roger Mudd was one of the very best correspondents, and this is one of the very best books about television when it took its responsibility seriously.



3. This book takes me back to the time when watching the evening news was a big deal. It was something you did before dinner every night. Roger Mudd was always one of my favorites, with his seemingly casual and calm manner. Hearing about the news business from his perspective was interesting and revealing. Reading his book was a pleasure and I recommend it.



4. From the late 1950s to 1980 I, like countless Americans, was a devoted fan of CBS News. Anchored by Walter Cronkite, CBS News boasted a galaxy of gifted correspondents who covered those exciting, horrifying, puzzling years with unrivaled professionalism. To my mind, Roger Mudd was first among equals as regards a CBS team that included Dan Rather, Marvin and Bernard Kalb, Daniel Schoor, Eric Sevareid, George Herman, Bob Peirpoint, Bob Schieffer and so many other talented individuals. THE PLACE TO BE is Mudd's informative, witty and entertaining memoir of those glory years.
   
   As with 'Uncle Walter,' Roger Mudd always impressed me as an insightful, unflappable and discerning newsman. Beyond that he seemed to possess a touch of irreverence that sometimes revealed itself in a 'Do you believe this?' twinkle in his eye when he was reporting on the latest Congressional boondoggle. Those same qualities are in evidence throughout Mudd's book, most of which is devoted to the period from May 1961, when he became a CBS correspondent, to February 1980, when he walked because of the boneheaded decision to give Dan Rather the anchor position.
   
   Reading through THE PLACE TO BE is akin to revisiting all the important - and a few not-so-important - news events and personalities that shaped the American experience. We are immersed once again in the Civil rights struggle, the years of JFK, the Cuban Missile Crisis, LBJ and the Great Society, Vietnam, various political conventions, Congressional doings, etc.; the difference being an incisive, knowledgeable guide who helped cover and explain those momentous events to us then...and now.
   
   Obviously part of the delight in Mudd's book is the insider's view of the CBS newsroom and finding out what happened when and who did what. Given how poorly Mudd was handled as regarded Cronkite's succession, I think he did an evenhanded job in relating life at CBS News and in discussing the many people he's worked with over the years.
   
   THE PLACE TO BE is an easy read, funny and affectionate and sometimes surprising. All those men and women were a part of our lives - friends almost - and it's fascinating to see them in action and also find out what was happening behind the camera as well. And it is sad in reading through the 'Where Are They Now?' section to discover so many are gone.
   
   I'd give THE PLACE TO BE six stars if possible. It's a first-class memoir of some exciting times and talented people by one of the best correspondents to work for CBS. I can't remember when I've enjoyed a book as much!



5. Roger Mudd confirms what many print journalists have known for years...Television is filled with egomaniacal back-stabbers who are more concerned about 10 seconds of airtime than journalism, proving once again what the print media has known for years. American's who depend on television as their only source for news are sadly lacking in their knowledge of current events. His revelations about corporate headquarters being more concerned about politics and the financial bottom line than facts, shouldn't surprise anyone.
   I would however strongly recommend the book for an insider's view of how television news networks actually operate.
   Art Giberson
   Pensacola, FL

No comments about Napa Valley Vets: A Balance of Lives.

5 comments about Q's Legacy.

1. I've always been happy with Amazon and this experience was no exception. I had been looking for the wonderful book by Helene Hanff for some time. I found it (and others) on Amazon. I was delighted with the price, so I ordered it. It arrived promptly, in perfect condition. So, I remain a satisfied Amazon customer.



2. Yes, I'm one of the cult-followers of Helene Hanff's mighty Charing Cross Road books. They are charming, indeed. Q'S LEGACY, however, is the book that tells why. It is the perfect culmination to the story of Helene's trans-atlantic love affair with Marks & Co, the antiquarian booksellers.
   
   If you've loved 84 et al., you must read Q. It's as simple as that.



3. Every book lover who has read the 97 pages of "84, Charing Cross Road" about Helene Hanff's wonderful correspondence with a London bookseller, ended with a tear in their eye and a longing for more. "Q's Legacy" is the more. It tells how "84" came to be published and how, after years of yearning, she finally gets to visit England. "Q's Legacy" has little meaning without reading "84" first. I've given many copies of both to friends over the years and they treasure them both. You will, too.



4. The author's account of her life in fiction, particularly related to her writing 84 Charing Cross Road and the Dutchess of Bloomsbury Street. An absolute must for Helene Hanff fans.



5. Recently, I saw a movie based on a Helene Hanff book. I enjoyed the movie so much I bought "Q's Legacy". I love it and was sorry to reach the end. So few writers can express life as Miss Hanff does, and what a wit!!! I am sending the book to my granddaughter to read with instructions to return it so I may re-read it.

5 comments about Daughter of the Saints: Growing Up In Polygamy.

1. This is a great book if you like this type of book. It was one that you want to stay up all night to finish.



2. This was a book I could not put down. I really enjoyed learning about growing up in a polygamist family - from a "middle child" point of view. I learned so much about how lonely the wives were and how they struggled to raise their children.



3. This book represents a beautiful literary memoir of growing up in polygamy. The story is told beautifully unlike other books on this topic. Her voice is strong and contains beautiful imagery that often contrasts the gorgeous southwestern scenery, with the poverty and difficulty living conditions associated with living polygamy.



4. I didn't like this book very well. It gave too much history and not enough current events. I have read the history of polygamy over & over & over and would like to read current events. There wasn't too much to read about current events in this book. If you want the history, this book's for you. She's a good writer but I've had their history crammed down by throat enough. I get it!



5. This is a good read on a subject that is very controversial at the moment. It gives great insight into the daily lives of polygamists and sheds light on their beliefs. The author talks about her childhood and her relationship with her numerous siblings and mothers. Her father is a huge influence on her life and it is clear he was an influential member of their religious group. This book is definitely worth reading.