5 comments about Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets.

1. i read this book on a beach in Jamaica. Very quick read, easy to get into and out of. It kept my attention and was very interesting. I could recommend to anyone interested in sociology in general or to learn more of the gang culture of Chicago. Amazing work, I hope to see more from the author in the future.



2. Awesome read. Dont think there are that many books that give you an opportunity to se this side of gang life



3. I loved this book. When we think of the poor/working-poor African American experience, the curious have few options. We have BET, the radio, and obviously television. I like how the reader gets a product that's obviously not to the benefit of the gangster or police officer.
   
   Simply put, you get the experience of what goes on behind the scenes. I feel like many questions I had were answered, but I did have so many more after the read. Sudhir Venkatesh will be the next author I buy ever book for. Much like many others, I learned of this author from Freakonomics (another important read), but this book really goes further than the numbers of Freakonomics.
   
   Sudhir really goes beyond to explain the dynamics of living with a crack distribution syndacate. If my promise to you the reader of being informed is not good enough, allow me to say this: Sudhir Venkatesh is more entertaining as a sociologist than most comedians as comedians. BUY THIS BOOK AND YOU WON'T REGRET IT!



4. This book would make an interesting 100 page book, but drags on a bit and can be overly preachy. Alex Kolowitz's there are no children here...a far better read.



5. Excellent, scary, thought provoking, intriguing! This was an excellent sociological study of urban gang relationships and structure.

5 comments about Down These Mean Streets.

1. I read this book when I was maybe 12 years old, in 1967. I had to get "special permission" from the Philadelphia public library to check it out. I recall the librarian advising me that the content was "rather rough," and asking if I was sure I could handle it. I was sure, and I loved it.
   
   In his memoir, Piri Thomas makes personal his experience growing up in the barrio in Harlem. His mean streets jump to life for the reader. Sights and sounds are real. You see what he sees, feel what he feels: streets shining in the rain--sometimes dark and empty, dangerous; sometimes alive with neighbors and kids. You suffer with him as he untangles the threads of his relationship with his father, and as he learns to differentiate between machismo and manhood. And you live in prison with him, struggling to survive in a system built to destroy him.
   
   The descriptive form of the writing, the music in the narrative, the beat and cadence, all make this the most readable of books. You will live in it for days, maybe years, after you finish, and you will likely read it again.
   
   While the language in "Down These Mean Streets" may at times seem dated, the message is not. (Junot Diaz describes in more current vernacular the Dominican experience in New York and New Jersey.) In fact, any American immigrant from today or past decades could tell a similar story about surviving in a new place. Few, though, can tell it with the same impact as Piri Thomas.



2. My boyfriend love this book. I glad I was able to get it for his birthday...Thanks



3. Bill Cosby once said "in the old days you couldn't skip school, because there was an eye behind every drawn curtain, and when your mother got off the bus she'd hear where you'd been."
   
   Cosby wasn't entirely right. In the old days, there were kids in the poor Black neighborhoods who skipped school, stole, got in fights, sold/used drugs, etc. Piri Thomas was one of them, and his story is very disturbing. His family, Puerto Rican and Cuban, has a problem with race (I won't spoil it by elaborating) and his father settles every disagreement with a slap. He leaves home for the streets, drifting through the poor and unhealthy underground of the Puerto Rican and Black worlds in Harlem.
   
   I had no idea there was a Puerto Rican community in NYC back in the 1930's and 40's. This book tells you a lot about the sleazy and dangerous side of urban life in the old days. Like today, kids went to the streets, not because it was fun, but because it was a substitute for the family love that the kids weren't getting.
   
   It's like my grandfather used to, there never were any "good old days."



4. This book is written so well that you can feel the streets and his life as he felt them, it is as if you were living through that era and through his experiences with him. If you lived through that era or have experienced some of the things he did in your life it brings you back to your own childhood with a nostalgic feeling. It does have some curses which I don't really care for, it is the way he expresses specific feelings, or things he or others specifically expressed at that time, but fortunately is not that much. It has that NYC streets authenticity; the story was written decades ago but certain parts feel as if they were written yesterday. It is an excellent book that is straight forward and hard to put down once you get into it; by the time you know it, you're done.



5. Down These Mean Streets was a breakthrough book for Latinos. For a Chicano like me, it was like the Autobiography of Malcolm X was for African Americans. Even though Thomas was writing about an East coast that I have never known, I felt like this was the first book to make me aware that there were experiences that were like mine that weren't only mine. Like the Chicano poet Ricardo Sanchez, anger was something political but dealt with best through poetic words and language.

2 comments about Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society (Heritage of Sociology Series).

1. This book provides a good overview of Durkheim's work, but since it is just excerpts it's hard to get any in depth understanding into any one particular subject. As a reference book, it is practically worthless, as there is no index. So, if you are writing a paper and think, hey, I know Durkheim said this, but I don't know where, it's difficult to figure out. Nevertheless, I suppose it does serve as an adequate introduction to Durkheim.



2. Bellah has gathered Durkheim's most oft-cited writings (including Elementary Forms, Division of Labor, Suicide, and Sociological Method) and arranged them topically in this work. The book begins with Durkheim's review of French social thought, then chapters on "Sociology and Social Action, The Evolution of Morality, The Learning of Morality," and "Social Creativity." A lengthy introduction gives an overview of Durkheim's biography, other writers who influenced his thinking, as well as summaries of the major works whose selections are within. It's an excellent book for both undergraduate and graduate theory courses: most selections are between 10 and 20 pages.

5 comments about Turning Stones: My Days and Nights with Children at Risk: A Caseworker's Story.

1. Having spent the last several years working on foster care cases and dealing with NYC ACS I found this book particularly enlightening. For anyone whose dealt with the system you know how infuriating it can be. This books puts things into perspective and shows the incredible challenges and dangers a caseworker must face on a daily basis. The stories can be hard to handle because you know they are more than just stories; they are a reality for so many youth, not just in NYC but worldwide. Despite some of the horror stories, or maybe because of them, I found this book inspiring. It's a good reminder that not everyone is born into fortunate situations and that we all have the ability to help others.



2. Marc Parent was a case worker in NYC for child protective services, back in the late 1980's. While his experiences with the children and with their families seem to have come from his direct experience, some of the rest of the book reads like fiction. Small inconsistencies and errors also make me question the book's veracity. For example he writes about a mother coming here illegally from Puerto Rico with her children. Puerto Ricans are BORN citizens, so they are NEVER illegal. Missing a factual detail like that makes me wonder what else he missed or fudged or glazed over. It is an interesting read, but I would not necessarily take it as an accurate example of how things are 20+ years later in the child protection field.



3. This book contains vital information for anyone who works in the field of child protection and for those who don't but freely criticize those who do. Marc Parent is able to tell the stories of some of the children he came across during his time in children protection in a way that grabs the readers attention and heart. This book just begins to highlight the awful situations many children in this country must endure everyday and the emotional toll those who choose this line of work. I myself work in the field of child protection and having had to deal with many children in heart breaking situations first hand. Dealing with children who have been abused and neglected on a regular basis takes a toll on who you are and hardens you. Anytime I begin to feel that I can no longer do this job, I get this book out and read it to remind me of why I became a social worker in the first place/



4. After I started reading, I didn't want to put it down. Some sad cases but cases like those are everywhere--not just in New York or the bigger cities, they happen in small towns and little places as well. Wonderful!!



5. I really enjoyed this book. I work for Child Protective Services (investigations) myself and rereading this book recently helped motivate me and remind me why I am in this field. Some cases live in your head forever, and I can relate to some of the feelings and experiences described by the author. Definitely recommended.

5 comments about Manson in His Own Words: The Shocking Confessions of 'The Most Dangerous Man Alive'.

1. I am by no means a Charles Manson fan but I must say after reading this book his life was anything but ordinary and boring. I guess that's what makes the story so compelling is that compared to his life, my life seems very ordinary. I have always found fascination in mentally inbalanced individuals and what drives them. Having said that, one can learn from his childhood and young adult experiences which is why I recommend this to everyone interested in the psychology of criminals. The book in its simplicity can make for good reading that even grade school students can comprehend. Had this book been available in high school I would have loved to have done a book report on it myself. The book is coherent, intelligent and gramatically well written. At times I question the authenticity in a lot of statements and the situations that he had gotten himself into, but one thing to add to that is the fact that he had nothing anymore to gain or loose by lying; the fact can't be overlooked that Manson is a natural born lier and an expert at deceipt and it is and always will be in his blood.



2. Not only would I say that this book provides some lesser known aspects of Manson and his life, I would say it is vital to recognizing how manipulative and dangerous people can succeed. Not even a few chapters into the book, and I could tell that Manson is as distorted in his perceptions of his own actions as he is accurately perceptive of other people's personalities, especially their vulnerabilities. It is little wonder to me that he holds such a fixation on the public mind (for the character of his terribleness), as well as the individual minds of his fanatics (for what they must perceive as something prophetic), and yet it is difficult to pinpoint precisely what it is about him that gives him this ambiance. After reading this, I discredited the opinion that Manson was so manipulative that he could literally control minds and actions of his followers. Were he such a mastermind, I'd say he would never have been caught. What I took away was how his perspective on life can somehow be infectious to those who let themselves listen. What's more, I think he appeals naturally to people who feel helpless, pained, and who are very vulnerable (and I am of the opinion that helplessness and pain are far too common across the population). What appals me more than anything is Manson's ready willingness to justify (to himself) his using other people for his own self-aggrandized objectives. People who have the insight into other's suffering, and who use that insight to take advantage of that suffering is also something I think is far too common across the population.



3. A book so unique & rarely seen., 30 Aug 2009
   
   
   The best study of mankind, is man (it's said)
   Charles Manson is here being exposed naked almost.
   Readable and coherent, yet abstract thoughts make a lot of sense, when taking everything into consideration here.
   It's often wrongly assumed by some reviewers that his always rationalising his crimes, I bet you would too?
   Extremely open as he is, we hear the tales of Manson here revealed. Just study all material of TV conducted interviews, his drawing obvious parallels with a smear of sardonic wrath along his words; it's both pure and tragic at the same time.
   
   There is nothing much to gain for him no more, except maintaining him self to certain ambivalent point, a valid point indeed! (a Supernatural cult leader) a typical stigma he was dubbed by the media, who afterwards call every word of his ``INSANE``
   
   No hoax, but told to people who might have lived another life and does not cope with the moral of such diversity. His not even trying to paint a heroic picture of him self. I can recommend this book to anyone without conform and corrupted values from society, anyone who can think for them selves!
   It's obvious this is a part of the American experience to me. Or the uncontrolled chaos this world thus possess!
   
   What are you waiting for? Buy.
   
   I can recommend - The Gates of Janus (Serial killing and its analysis, by the Moors Murderer `Ian Brady`
   
   If you want to read a perhaps more sophisticated view from another point of view.
   
   But I highly appreciate Manson for putting it straight in an excellent way.
   Don't worry Charlie, I can handle it. It all makes sense this more you talk openly about it.
   What really bother me are peoples libel moral always has to attack people for standing up, even behind bars till they die, we shall only hear the truth from others? I would assume that the best entangled goodies are staying with the murder and his persona. Unfortunately this purchase of books is rarely seen. Despite the police and society trying to act out all normal and best sheltered from what they really produce and enhance mentally unto people.



4. MANSON IN HIS OWN WORDS - BEWARE , 'DREAMS YE CONQUER CARE!'
   
   Hello there fans of amazon.com Manson litterature - just to let everyone know , Manson in His Own Word isn't by Manson himself.
   Ask yourself; why should a man who has got all the time in the whole wide world to leave his body and go anywhere he wants , go spend some time write a book he didn't even announce , seemingly on any interview that he was gonna write?
   Let's never underestimate the fact that Charles Manson is Charles Manson , and that like the wolf , scorpion and black panther , Charles Manson is so unpredicteable that I sound like a dammer when I say to all the five and four star viewers here that this book wasn't written by him. I trusted my source and made a decision in advance since , that from then on I'd write a critical review on Manson In His Own Words that'd expose the myth that the book had in fact been written or compiled by Charles Manson , number two , that it was a good book , and number three , that Manson would be likely to spend vast amounts of time to pin down some words in some script instead of doing the soul of the world thing - which is his music.
   After having seen the white and red covered , now internationally acclaimed Manson movie , I feel I have somewhat more of an understanding of Manson's mind than many others. As a teenager I felt I understood Manson to the point that I drew a picture of myself , bald headed with a nazi swastika between my eyes to emphasize the concept of what we felt then to be holy or sheer terror. I was obsessed with exorcicing any fear inside of myself at that time - that is during my teenagehood years , and I was thus seriously sinister as a teenager and I enjoyed that reputation. But just because I may feel so on what I feel to be my understanding of how Charles Manson's mind works or operates , that's just me - no need to take seriously any content in a statement I make on such an issue , because everyone is free to have their own opinions - the people of the world are entitled to free speech.
   Manson could utter all he needed to utter and why should he have had any need to put that down on a few pages? A book compiled by Manson would in my view be a gigantic volume filled with all kinds of psychedelic imagery which not even the author of this book would be finding himself or herself in a position to comprehend fully.
   On atwa.be. Charles Manson said that God is air - and that without air , we cannot be. So this gives in my view a whole different meaning the concept of our ideas and beliefs being sort of air - without them , we can't forge the years ahead in our societies. No matter how many or few Charlie may have killed or how he may have behaved , no matter how sane or less than sane he may appear , because we're all one and we're all manifestations of the Infinite , the more we lie to ourselves and cheat on ourselves and beat our little ones before we put them to bed , the harder we are on ourselves and the less we are really saying , and everything we are saying becomes a kind of chit chat - thus , we're lying to Charlie.
   That is , we are lying to him when we're lying to ourselves , and encouraging ourselves to be more violent than is necessary by being more violent than is necessary. Once peoples'seemingly ceaseless desire to lie to themselves so much ceases to be , it becomes easier to rise above that need and move on. In Charlie's world , Charlie can be a racist one moment and a humanist the other - but that's his path - and anyone around or near him has to make their choises on what path to follow - and those beyoud.
   So I say to anyone who wishes to give this book a try - I felt I was somehow obliged to leave a warning in advance stating this book is no good. I might wanna own a copy in the far future but I seeeeeeriously doupt if that copy'll do me any good at all. The study of Charles Manson is a direct look at our own innermost self reflection - and it depends upon each one of us whom it is being reflected in the mirror. That's why beauty is truly in the eyes of the beholder when it comes to do a serious analysis of the meaning behind the concept of the persona who is Charles Manson.



5. I would definetly suggest this book to everyone. I couldn't put it down and Nuel Emmons is an excellent writer.

2 comments about With a Daughter's Eye: Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, A.

1. Margaret Mead was one of my heroines when I was growing up. How fascinating to read this biography which is a blend of intellectual and up close and personal history of her. To have her husband, Gregory Bateson included is icing on the cake. Mary Catherine has done an extremely creditble job. For example, she writes, "Margaret always emphasized the importance of recording first impressions . . . for . . . the informed eye has its own blindness as it begins to take for granted things that were initially bizarre." As I read of Margaret's reaction to Mary Catherine's wedding -- that it must be a format that reflected Margaret and Gregory's place in the world, rather than just the personal joy and celebration of a daughter, I had to wonder if Mary Catherine ever connected the above passage to her own children. This daughter writes with a fairly clear eye about her parents. They are neither great untouchable icons, nor are they flawed little humans. I suspect she did a great deal of balancing in her own emotions to come up with the portraits she painted because, in truth, we have three portraits here, all interconnected and somehow, ongoing. Not a superficial book.



2. I enjoyed the careful description of two legendary lives observed by the author as a daughter and an anthropologist. As a piece of anthropological writing, a certain distance is maintained when the author tells of her memories of growing up with her parents and the relationship between them. Yet, I can still detect her sadness and love in the seemingly unemotional and impersonal writing style. Often, significant feelings are embedded in the scientific explaination of her parents' theories and ideas. I not only gained a better understanding of the field of anthropology, but also find the "differences" (such as different kinds of families, marriages, choices, ideas, personalities) that we encounter in life as descriped by the author enriching.

No comments about Classical Sociological Theory: Rediscovering the Promise of Sociology.

1 comments about First Fieldwork: The Misadventures of an Anthropologist.

1. This book offer alot of details on the anthro field and it was not just the techinical details but actually personal experiences that added a life-view to the profession. Even though I may not be an anthro major I have a higher respect for it and its accomplishments from this book and the class I had on anthro.

5 comments about Mama's Girl.

1. I loved this book - gobbled it up. V. Chambers is very clever at encapsulating a feeling or a mood in few words. It was like reading parts of my own life story and I'm SO glad she wrote this book and that I found it.



2. An incredibly moving, REAL memoir. Veronica takes you right beside her as she grows-- through every bit of ugliness and hardship growing up in her family all the way to seeing a dream come true. I could read this again and again. I first read it in college when I was 24. Hard to put down. Very compelling and sincere-- made me want to jump in and be her friend. If you are a high school age girl, I suspect you will really enjoy this book.



3. This book was very good, it wasn't excellent but it was good.Although the beginning of the book might not get your full attention keep reading.This book talks about the trials and errors of the life of Veronica Chambers.One of the main issues of this book is domestic violence, and how she and her mother deal with it.I'm sure the title might not seen interesting but give it a chance.You will see that not everyone has a perfect life and that you can succeed in many things and accomplish many goals.



4. Mama's Girl was a great book. I really liked how Veronica explained everything and said everything correct. She had struggles almost everyday of her life and she overcame them almost every time.I loved that. I also like how the story was detailed; it was like you are Veronica. I learned from this book not to be selfish because it will come back. I think my friend Lee should read it because he has struggles everyday and he needs to know how to deal with them.



5. I liked this book because it reminds me of my mother. Whenever my mom was around 13 years-old her dad would go to clubs. This book should be read by teenagers because it has bad words and little kids should not be reading this kind of book. If I was Vickie I would put my stepmom in jail for beating me up. By reading this book I feel how she felt because of all the beating and cursing of her dad. I wouldn't like to be in her spot because I would probably run away from home. I think she shouldn't forgive her mom because her mom really didn't pay attention to her. I learned to have patience before doing something that you would regret later in life. Veronica had lots of patience because she never argued with her parents instead she kept things to herself.

1 comments about Around the World in 30 Years: Life as a Cultural Anthropologist.

1. The author is amazing. Having travelled all around the world and to write a brilliant book about each county's culture. Great learning tool