5 comments about Kabloona in the Yellow Kayak: One Woman's Journey Through the North West Passage.

1. This book was an inspiration for me to buy a kayak and as an humble beginner to get out on the water at the age of 61. The author has the spiritual soul necessary to write such a magical accounting of her travels thru a land of kind people with smiling children. I know that writing is a time consuming task Ms. Jason...but could we have another episode please? I feel sure you will go back to this beautiful region again. Dan Chesser (Chess to my friends) Winston, OR ... In the 1000 valleys of the Umpqua River drainage.



2. I read "Kabloona" several years ago and have reread it again twice. Jason not only could write well and make me experience her trip vicariously, she also had the ability to spur me into new and different experiences of my own. Although I have not braved the Arctic as she did, I have conquered my own little fears and challenges. My mother used to wonder why cancer only got the most wonderful, caring, creative people. My mother was right. Jason may not have lived to write book number two, but her energy and her passion have been a road map to women in at least two countries. Thanks for the trip, Victoria!



3. Victoria Jason makes you feel like you are paddling the kayak. You experience the wind on your cheeks, the cold spray on your face, the pull of the current and strength of the waves on your boat. But even more powerful are the emotions which you share as you glide through the pages like gliding through the water. You sense her anxiety and vulnerability, her regrets and her doubts. She is independent and totally in control of her own destiny in a land where danger lurks in the water, on the land, and in the weather. She misses her family, thinking of her grandkids often. But she also experiences a sense of accomplishment since she is singularly in control. She is one with nature and gains inner peace and tranquility. In the few times she interacts with others, she is met with caring and sincerity, developing friendships and getting to know them better and deeper than one would in a "normal" setting. Unlike her short-time paddling companion, Don Starkell, who seemed to approach the trip as a task--as he against the elements--she embraces the elements and forms a synergy. She doesn't oppose the land, water, weather, or situations, she lets them work for her with finesse. And even when face to face with a grizzly and having a shotgun which could have been a more certain outcome, she chose a flare gun at the grizzly's feet. Maybe she's a paddling grandmother, but she's also an inspiration to all.



4. A friend lended me Victoria's book a few years ago, and I am grateful for that. I found her to be such an inspiration. This book has had a profound influence on my life. Her experiences are fascinating, her inner strength is amazing, and her love for the beauty of man and nature is uplifting.

   Victoria was a terrifically generous woman. In spite of the fact that she was battling a very aggressive brain tumor over the last year, she gave me the pleasure of her company for an afternoon during a recent trip through Winnipeg. She spoke of a second book she was working on about her return to the North. Unfortunately this second book remains unfinished, as Victoria passed away on May 20, 2000. She was a great lady!




5. Dear Victoria Yes, I still believe you are an amazing woman. You have accomplished so much and with such enthusiasm and serenity. Your love of the north is so well reflected in your book that It continues to make me dream of the day I will attempt a Kayaking tour similar to yours. I should mention we met at the Chateau Larier in Ottawa when one of your relatives was getting Married. My name if it has slipped your mind is Mark MacNeil. At that time you mentioned about a project you were working on in reference to kayaking tours starting at Pelly Bay. I hope everthing worked out. I long to meet with you again someday to talk about your adventures. I also will be sending the book I have found that is about Inuit culture, the one you had not in your vast collection. I'm also waiting patiently for you next book.

   Sincerly Mark

5 comments about Meeting Faith: The Forest Journals of A Black Buddhist Nun.

1. I found the title of this book on a fluke, but checked it out of the library. OMG. After three renewals at the library I had to purchase a copy through Amazon. The author's experience in finding hereself in a free, spiritual way with no set rules is overwhelming. It has very good information on how anyone can look at life and find their way to peace of mind and acceptance of life.



2. Having read Adiele's essay in The Best Women's Travel Writing of 2005, I was disappointed in the structure of her book. The side page commentaries were distracting and sometimes didn't match the page they were on. The book contained a lot of factual journal entries but very little depth of insight or application to her life for the future. I found some flashback memories to 'prior to ordination' not attached to the context of that chapter. Some good writing, some good story telling. The book didn't live up to the section chosen for the book mentioned above. Kay Klinkenborg, Springfield, IL



3. Although Buddhism is one of the major world religions, many of us in the Western world are woefully ignorant of even the basic tenants of this faith. Faith Adiele leads us on an insightful journey into Buddhism, sharing both her personal journey and her understanding of Buddhist discipline. This is a well-written, well organized book that should be of interest to those interested in expanding their religious horizons.



4. I recently purchased Faith Adiele's book as a gift for a colleague. The write-up sounded like something that would appeal to him. When it arrived, I thought I would just glance through it to be sure it was appropriate, and found myself immediately hooked. Not only have I become immersed in the writing, but the book arrived at a time of major transition in my life, and Faith's journey has in significant ways come to inform my own. There is also the sense that with the journal notes written in the margins of every page, I have shrewdly gotten two books for the price of one! Highly recommended.



5. Faith Adiele's wonderful book is the kind I wish was on the reading lists in high schools and colleges. It goes to the heart of searching--and what young person isn't a searcher? It addresses the pain and wonder of growing up as part of two races and being initiated spiritually into a third. Ms. Adiele has also written a compelling story of traveling in one of Asia's most fascinating cultures. Bravo!

5 comments about The Queen of Whale Cay: The Eccentric Story of 'Joe' Carstairs, Fastest Woman on Water.

1. Joe Carstairs comes off as a fascinating study of what it was like to be a moneyed lesbian somewhat outside the usual literary lesbians of the early 20th century. There aren't many stories about these women, and we can certainly use more.
   
   Alas, Carstair's definitive biography is yet to be written. Summerscale uses Freudian analysis-- badly-- and literary allusions-- somewhat better-- to illustrate who and what Carstairs was about. Summerhill basically creates a book that is about 50 years behind the time it was written. It would help if Summerscale had any actual clue about lesbian culture and cultural theory, but it seems she'd rather turn Carstairs into a freak instead of exploring her as an outsider.
   
   The most egregious example of this is early on in the book, in which she talks about how Carstairs "rejects her feminity to reinvent herself." You can't reject what you don't have in the first place. Grounding the biography firmly in the mistaken beleif that a female body will naturally be feminine creates a caricature of Carstairs rather than the fully human characterization she deserves.
   
   This is worth reading, but it's worth reading with a very critical eye on Summerscale's clunky writing and outdated analysis.



2. Kate Summerscale stumbled onto a treasure trove when she was asked in the 12990s to write the obituary for a British daily for M. B. "Joe" Carstairs, an eccentric Standard Oil heiress who had set speedboating records in the 1920s and who literally ruled her own Bahamian island for several decades, not only paying all the inhabitants directly out of her pocket but also establishing their rules and punishments. Carstairs also was one of the great lesbian lovers of the twentieth century, having affairs with dozens of beautiful actresses including Greta Garbo and Tallulah Bankhead--and to top off everything, was obsessed with a small leather manikin she named "Lord Tod Watley" and took with her everywhere, proclaiming him the great love of her life. The material is so terrific that this slim little biography can't help but be a fun read, but the book is held back tremendously by Summerscale's amateurish writing style, which consists of endless flatly declarative sentences and which rarely uses transitions between new ideas. Clearly Summerscale is quite erudite (her allusions to Woolf and Djuna Barnes are not only illuminating but actually quite clever), but the prose was a real drawback to what would have been otherwise a terrific tale.



3. On paper, this book sounds fabulous. A rich, beautiful lesbian lives a scandalous life filled with excitement, traveling around the world, meeting lots of famous people, and making love to dozens of willing female partners. Imagine a Howard Stern sex epic with a sumptuous budget and a Merchant Ivoery feel!
   
   Kay Summerscale does a very professional job as a biographer. Unfortunately, the story is not that exciting. Yes, Joe Carstairs was a rich lesbian, and a rebel, but she was not in any sense a "fun" person. She was apparently some kind of borderline schizophrenic. All she could do to act "manly" was to throw screaming tantrums, smoke, spit and swear. Not an attractive personality. The whole thing with carrying the little doll around for 60 years comes across as sick, not funny or charming.
   
   Read the book for the sumptuous settings and try to imagine someone glamorous, like Gloria Holden (from the lesbian classic DRACULA'S DAUGHTER)having the same adventures, but in a fun way.



4. I saw this slim volume in the store and was fascinated by the picture on the cover - a woman dressed as a man with a little battered doll on her shoulder - "what in the world is this?" So, I started to read. What a surprise. This is the story of Marion "Joe" Carstairs, a Standard Oil heiress, a champion speed boat driver, friend to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, an unrepentant lesbian, owner of the Caribbean isalnd Whale Cay, and the constant companion of Lord Todd Wadley (yes, a funny little doll). This is one of the most immediately engaging books I've ever read. What a character she was, and what a life she led. "The Queen of Whale Cay" is an absolute charmer from start to finish. Looking for a little slice of forgotten history to while a way some time? This is the book for you.



5. Nonconformist is an understatement. Eccentric isn't outre enough. Over-the-top words do not adequately describe Marion "Joe" Carstairs. She was a breakneck ambulance driver in World War I France, a world record-holding speedboat racer, the supreme ruler of her own Bahamian island, and pal to notables such as the Duchess of Windsor, Tallulah Bankhead, and Marlene Dietrich.

   Assigned to write an obituary of "Joe" Carstairs for the London Daily Telegraph, Kate Summerscale soon became fascinated by the woman who held sway in the 1920's as heiress to the Standard Oil fortune. This singular individual wore men's clothing meticulously tailored for her on Saville Row, favored female lovers, was tenaciously devoted to a small leather doll whom she christened Lord Tod Wadley, and managed to thumb her nose at almost every convention.

   As Ms. Summerscale unearthed more and more amazing information about her extraordinary subject, she determined to carry her findings far beyond a terse death notice. The result is The Queen Of Whale Cay, a buoyant, highly readable biography that became a London Times bestseller and nominee for the Whitbread Biography of the Year Prize.

   Estranged from her parents and disliked by a step-father, young "Joe" was sent to boarding school in America. Of this time her diary only records, "Left family aged 11." At the age of 16 she drove ambulances in France, where "Paris was heavily shelled....whole sides of houses fell down and people lay bleeding in the streets."

   Returning to London after the war, "replenished, brimming with vigour and ambition," "Joe" and some friends opened a chauffeuring service, and took on "any driving work, far and near."

   Galvanized by machines and speed, in 1925 Joe used her wealth "to commission the best motorboat money could buy." She was a daredevil on water, competing in races in Britain, Cannes and Detroit, where she vied with the famous Gar Wood.

   Yet, racing was not enough. She sought even greater challenges by leaving England in 1934 to rule and reside on Whale Cay, the Bahamian island she purchased for $40,000. Upon arriving she found the only inhabitants were a black couple who tended the lighthouse. "Joe asked them whether they lit the beacon every night, and they replied, to her amusement, "Only when the weather's good."

   She worked alongside laborers to lay a road from one end of the island to another. A store was built, and a large hole dug then filled with blocks of ice for refrigeration. Her home, the Great House, was constructed with the help of 300 men. It was a "sturdy Spanish villa, white, with red tiles..." From there she had dominion over a colony of 500 Bahamians, and entertained friends from throughout the world.

   During the 1960's, as Bahamians became increasingly independent, the atmosphere on Whale Cay changed, and "Joe" retreated to Miami. In 1975 she sold the island for approximately 1 million dollars. Three years later, deciding she'd had enough of women, she invited a handsome older man to move in with her. Hugh Harrison "stayed with her as a friend and paid companion until she died." In 1993 "Joe" and Wadley were cremated together.

   Generous, outrageous, at times a bold prankster, "Joe" Carstairs defies description. Her life defies fiction. The Queen of Whale Cay is intriguing reading, a candid portrait of a nonpareil, an incorrigible, unconquerable 20th century woman.

   - Gail Cooke

5 comments about Growing Girls: The Mother of All Adventures.

1. Being a mother who also adopted two daughters from China, I was looking forward to reading this book...especially because I enjoyed her previous books.
   
   However, this book was a let-down. I am saddened by the author's dislike of her daughter's birthplace and the people. Many times she comments on her hatred for her daughter's birthmother ("hating her for what she did"). Personally, I am grateful for the difficult choice my daughter's Chinese birthmother made, and that I am given the opportunity to have her as my daughter.
   
   Aside from the author's dislike of China, I simply found the book to be a mish-mash of writing. I honestly can't tell you what this book is supposed to be about. She drones on and on about sheep, goats and chickens which completely bored me. Then all of a sudden she'll switch gears and talk about her family, or religion, or her neighbors. It's really weird. There's nothing to really mesh things together. It's like she had a quote of pages to write, so she just wrote about everything. Very confusing and not entertaining to read.



2. What the heck is "a reader"'s review talking about? Jeanne honestly wrestles with all of the complex emotions that go into adoption--like being angry at the mother for abandoning her daughter by the side of the road to loving the mother for giving Jeanne the chance to have this daughter. To pull out the lines from the book that "a reader" did shows she totally missed the point: this book is not a sugar-coated telling of how everything about adoption is simple or easy or perfect. Instead, it's a real, honest wrestling match between the author and all of her various emotions about her adopted daughters' absent birth mothers or their possibly-negligent caretakers. Of course, it ultimately emphasizes acceptance and love--but getting there isn't an easy journey and Jeanne seems fearless in baring all of her doubts, fears, and wants along the way. That's a huge part of what drew me into the story and made it ring so true and feel so real to watch her go from that to loving her daughters immeasurably, and falling in love with Chinese culture and the people she interacted with.
   
   As the aunt to an adopted girl from China, I appreciated hearing someone give a voice to the not-so-pretty, COMPLICATED things we feel, but when they get attacked like this, it shows why we need more books that get to the truth of adoption and why some people are so terrified of having honest conversations about it. This is a beautiful book, honest to the core, and with a touching message about finding love and acceptance.



3. Fifty Acres and a Poodle: A Story of Love, Livestock, and Finding Myself on a FarmHave found so much enjoyment in these books. It may be because I grew up in that area but I just love her writing style. Although quirky, she is funny, lovable, a worrier and just happy doing the best she can do for her husband, girls,and all of the great animals that she has accumulated over time. I do hope that she writes another!



4. What a great book! Any adoptive mom (or bio mom, for that matter) can relate to Jeanne Marie Laskas as she chronicles daily life - the fun, the nonsense, and the intense emotions - of being a mom to 2 daughters born in China. This book had me laughing out loud sometimes (really!) and shedding tears at others. I recommend this book to moms everywhere!



5. I felt like I was reading the author's diary. She writes so openly and lets us into her world of adoption, motherhood, and farm life. Throughout the book I stopped to read something funny to my husband and he would say, "keep going." He enjoyed this book as much as I did.

5 comments about Dragonslippers: This is What an Abusive Relationship Looks Like.

1. This book should be mandatory reading in high schools. I would love to see it every doctor's and therapist's waiting room. It is simply written with a profound message.



2. Domestic violence is a deep, subtle and largely hidden problem in society; perhaps effecting 25% of all relationships, domestic violence revolves around various kinds of abuse which occur in an intimate or family relationship, and can occur to both men and women in various kinds of relationships.
   
   This graphic novel explores the experiences of one woman at the hand of an abusive partner. The story begins when the protagonist is in her mid 30's, and is divorced, but is a successful businesswoman. She meets a man, her future husband, who seems exuberant, successful, and full of life. But there is a dark side to him which is progressively revealed as the story moves on; manipulative, impulsive, abusive and rather horrible.
   
   The story moves over a period of several years, as the woman endures constant abuse in various from from her husband including verbal, physical and psychological abuse, marital rape, infidelity, psychological manipulation and countless instances of petty and grand cruelty to the ones who love him. Slowly she comes to realise being with the man she loves is no different from being in hell, and she leaves him and begins the long and slow process of recovery.
   
   This work is a painful insight into the trauma and suffering that abusive partners, like drug addicts or psychopaths, cause harm to everyone around them or connected to them. In the end we see the evident evil at the heart of such abuse, even if in the end we still do not understand what could possibly motivate anyone to be so senselessly cruel and heartless to what is most dear and precious to most healthy-minded people.



3. DRAGONSLIPPERS: THIS IS WHAT AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP LOOKS LIKE goes beyond most books to dissolve stereotypes. The author is a competent, middle-aged successful businesswoman and not the meek woman one thinks of as in an abusive relationship. Her romance with a handsome widower seemed idea until a pattern of lies and deception led to physical, mental and sexual abuse. Years later the author shares her story with the world, providing an unusual graphic novel story paired with a pseudonym to protect her identity.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



4. "Dragonslippers" is terrifying. I put the book down feeling completely drained and angry. Angry that the author had to endure what she did and angry for the decisions she made and angry that the man seemed to get away with it. But this, as the subtitle suggests, is what an abusive relationship looks like. People don't always extricate themselves from situations when they should, there isn't always a happy ending of redemption and just desserts.
   
   The spare artwork tells the story perfectly, especially in one terrifying moment when Penfold (not her real name) uses a gray wash to illustrate a dinner table blowup; my heart leaped and I wanted to rush into the story and save Penfold and thwart the evil dragon that was her boyfriend Brian. The lesson of this story, of course, is that there were no heroes and Penfold had to rescue herself; it took an impossibly long time but she does end up in a better place.
   
   I have a few minor issues with the book: one is that the font used is rather ugly. I know this sounds silly but it makes the book look like a clinic hand-out rather than a personal tale. Another quibble is that somehow the first meeting between Penfold and Brian is either deleted or was never drawn. Penfold goes to a party, sits by the pool and this big guy (Brian) grabs her and jumps in the pool as she shouts, "You again?!" Again? When was there a before? I kept looking to see if the pages were misnumbered or stuck together but no, the first glimpse of Brian is never included. That's a curious omission.
   
   Penfold's book should be read by everyone and I hope it is read by people in such situations who will recognize themselves and realize they need to do something before it's too late. A-.



5. Rosalind B. Penfold, Dragonslippers: This Is What an Abusive Relationship Looks Like (Black Cat, 2005)
   
   This is a stunning book.
   
   Rosalind Penfold has created a piece of art that outlines, in the starkest and most blunt terms, domestic abuse. She drew most of it during a ten-year abusive relationship, and drawing in, or just after, the moment lends this book an immediacy, a power that cannot be overstated. Ninety, perhaps ninety-five, percent of it would land it at the top of my year's-best list. Rosalind Penfold's relationship is the stuff nightmares are made of, and she has done a perfect job of translating it into a nightmare that those of us who have thankfully never experienced these horrors can still identify with.
   
   This makes the other five percent of the book-- all of it within the final few pages-- the more puzzling. It is when Penfold is out of the relationship and going through therapy, on the healing journey, where things fall apart. After the brutal, straightforward detail that comprises the bulk of the manuscript, life after the relationship is glossed over at best. Given the target audience, an argument can be made that this is, in fact, the most important section of the book, and it's neglected.
   
   How minor a nit this is to pick depends on how important the reader feels it is that Penfold instruct the abused partner in what to do after getting out of the relationship. While I have to admit that the rather gaping hole in the narrative does nag at me, after mulling it over, it seems to me that the value there is to be found in the rest of the book well outweighs the problems with the end of it. The most important question to ask when judging a book is often "does it effectively get its point across without sacrificing its artistic integrity?" During the depiction of the relationship itself, Penfold succeeds perhaps better than any other writer about abuse ever has. A landmark achievement. It probably won't top my year's-best list, but it's a pretty good chance it will show up in the top ten. **** ½

3 comments about A Romantic Education.

1. Being of eastern European descent, I found Hampl's book revealing and intriguing as it spoke of what my grandparents often alluded to when referring to "the old country."
   I felt myself travelling with her, trying to find out something, anything, about my roots.



2. Elegant, meditative, and special, Patrica Hampl's memoir of growing up in St. Paul and visiting her ancestral home of Prague deservedly won her a Macarthur genius grant, and remains a classic of its genre. When it was published in the early 80s, the gorgeous Bohemian captial of Prague was sheltered from the American line of vision by the Iron Curtain, and much less familiar to American readers than it is today; Hampl's book details her trip in the 70s to that loveliest of cities to visit her family's origins and learn something about her place in the world. But the book is also a beautiful meditation on another exceptionally romantic, and often still neglected, city, Hampl's hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota. Stunningly situated on the high bluffs overlooking a chasmic portion of the Mississippi, the home of F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Empire Builder James J. Hill, St. Paul has declined in cultural significance over the decades, overshadowed by its younger and more prosperous twin city across the river. But Hampl lovingly evokes what it was like to live in this atmospheric city of decaying Victorian mansions overlooking the downtown from the heights of Summit Avenue, both as a grandchild of Czech immigrants working as servants for the enmansed and as a young woman striking out as a student and a writer. It's an unusual, romantically-staurated memoir.



3. I first read Patricia Hampl's I Could Tell You Stories when I took a 1st person essay writing class, and all of us in the class became instant fans. Her book provoked endless discussions about the reliability (or Unreliability) of memory and the role it plays in memoir writing. Hampl's A Romantic Education allows us to continue following her down her chosen path as she returns to Prague in search of her heritage during the gray pall of socialism. This edition of A Romantic Education is a reissue following the Velvet Revolution and is full of richly nuanced detail that we have come to expect from Hampl. It's an elegant piece of writing that allows us to taste and dabble in the trickling stream of history running beneath the surface of the everlasting riddle of personal memory.

5 comments about A Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman.

1. China always seems to have a veil of mystery around it. This book give a rare glimpse of life at the turn of the 19th century as the empire was dying and the nationalists and communists were gearing up for battle. I read this book for a class on Chinese women and absolutely loved it. I will always remember the part of having her feet bound and how her mother would lay on her legs at night so that she could sleep. Unfortunately I lost the book after many years. It wasn't until now, as I was conducting inventory of our biography collection at the library where I work, that I came across the sequal to this book. For those who could not get enough of Lao Tai-tai, there is a second book by Ida Pruitt titled "Old Madam Yin: a memoir of Peking life 1926-1938." The copyright date is 1979. The Daughter of Han is now a wealthy widow struggling to adapt to the new order. If you can't find it on amazon you can always Inter-library loan the book, I know there's at least one library in the midwest that has it ;).



2. This riveting book details an area of Chinese life seldom touched by written records. The remarkable friendship between Ida Pruitt and Ning Lao Toai-Toai has led to this very readable, and beautifully textured description of Ning Lao Toai-Toai's life in the late 19th and early 20th century. I found it both an enjoyable read and a valuable source of information about my research related to Chinese family life.



3. Ning Lao Ta'i-ta'i. _The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman. Translated and Transcribed by Ida Pruitt. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1967.

   Every now and then I read an entire book in one for one or two reasons a) I have to read a book that I have put off for the time period in which I had to read it b) I become completely engrossed in it. I must say that, in the case of this book, it started off as the former and it ended up being the latter, although I still have to write a paper on it by tuesday.

   This memoir was was orally transcribed by Ida Pruitt over a two year period in which Mrs. Ning visited her from 1936-38. Pruitt was forced to leave Beijing in 1938 when the Japanese invaded the series. In the brief introduction of the book, Pruitt informs the reader that she does not know what happened to Mrs. Ning after she returned to America. The brutallity of the Japanese army was not as great in Beijing as in such areas as Nanjing and Shanghai,but one can not help wondering about Mrs.Ning who the reader, or at least I, becomes quite attached to.

   Mrs. Ning begins her tale by detailing how her family became established in the town of P'englai her family history is both entrenched in history and folklore and makes for a fascinting read. The book continues following her life from her childhood, marriage, hard times, working both for government officials and missionaries, and finally living in Beijing. The greatest thing about this book is the extraordinary detail Mrs. Ning goes into describing her everyday life. One can almost see oneself removing the fourth wall of the past and being able to see late Ching China. One gets to see a good picture of opium addiction and the dealings inside yamen, political offices, that are no longer controlled by skilled officials. A great book.




4. I had to read this book for a core class in college and I thought that I would have hated it. Actually, I really liked it. It told of a Chinese working woman's life. It even gives the reader an insight into her lifestyle and her struggles during this tumuluous time in history. The story even touches on the japanese invasion. I didn't think this biography would be interesting but it was. I would recommended this book to anyone. It is a light read and it is very interesting.



5. Ida Pruitt's biography of Ning Lao T'ai-t'ai (literally "old lady Ning"), a peasant woman of northeast China born in 1867, is a fascinating anecdotal retelling of Ning's personal history as she related it to the author over the course of their two year long friendship. The storyline of Ning's life: childhood, marriage, work, and children, is laid out in a chronological history, broken into separate sections at particular turning points; and yet a cohesive theme of hardship, oppression and poverty, of strong-willed women and weak men is carried throughout not only Ning's tales but also through the stories she relates of her ancestors and neighbors.

   Pruitt writes in the voice of Ning as if she is translating, but what she is really doing is recalling Ning's stories of her life in the first half of the 20th century. Ning was born into an educated middle class family which had fallen on harder times. Her father wants a better situation for her marriage, but the older husband he choses for her becomes addicted to opium driving the family into poverty. To survive and feed her children Ning must become first a beggar, then a servant to various households: military, Muslim, bureaucrat, and finally to Christian missionaries. And Ning's voice does come across clearly; speaking against concubinage and prostitution, about the penury of employers, the need to support and keep family together.

   By using a first person retelling of the stories Pruitt gives the impresssion of accuracy, yet there were 7 years between the conversations with Ning and the writing of the book. Also the apparent bias against Japanese in prologue and last chapter together with the pub. date of the book indicate a hidden agenda on the part of the author. Still, although limited to the view of this one woman's experience, Ning's story is reflective of the hardships of life for Chinese women before the Communist era.

2 comments about Savage Summit: The Life and Death of the First Women of K2.

1. Savage Summit by Jennifer Jordan is a must read for those who appreciate true-life adventure stories. As a non-climber who lives vicariously through the adventures of others as told in their books, I can't attest to what really goes on during an expedition or the ins and outs of the social-politics of the climbing community, especially high altitude climbers. I can say that Jordan's book seems to be well researched and recounts the adventures of the five subjects in the manner that made me feel a part of their lives and their climbs.
   As a collection of adventure stories the book did not disappoint me in the least. I will admit that I was expecting a book about the first five women who climbed K2 that was written by a woman would be heavily slanted with a sexiest bias against the mostly male community of mountain climbers. Instead I found the book to be about 5 people who have that special inner drive to climb who also happened to be women. In telling the stories of these special people, Jordan also describes the bias and prejudice that some were faced with as they joined expeditions led by experienced men. This is especially true in the telling of Polish climber Wanda Rutkiewicz's adventures when women were a rare sight in climbing and as Jordan tells Wanda's stories and the stories of the other women she acknowledges that each was a person in her own right with their own strengths and weaknesses. Putting gender aside, Wanda Rutkiewicz had a personality that alienated many outside of a handful of people who understood her and even those closest to Wanda admit she could be difficult on an inter-personal level.
   In telling the story of Chantal Mauduit Jordan clearly acknowledges that Mauduit, a happy-go-lucky sort who enjoy much luck climbing 8,000 meters peaks, used her feminine and sexual attributes to her advantage and thus enjoyed an advantage as she manipulated the males on her teams to carry the heavy loads and break routes that she could easily follow on her summit attempts.
   The stories of Liliane Barrard, Julie Tullis and Alison Hargreaves were all exciting recounts of their climbing careers and their ultimate climbs to the summit of K2. Each of these women were beloved by friends and family, each recognized the dangers in high altitude climbing and each of them struggled with the pull of their loved one against the pull of the mountains. Ultimately, the mountains won and each died as accomplished climbers, not women, doing what they were drawn to do.
   Bottom Line: Savage Summit is a great adventure read about 5 people who loved climbing and were eventually drawn to the attraction of solving a problem that is much greater than the well worn routes of Mt. Everest on the world's second highest peak, K2.



2. Easy read. Gives an interesting insight into the lives of these women, however it does not always paint a good picture of them. It does show how sexism plays a large part in mountaineering. Heartbreaking to read about the way they lived and died and the choices that they made.

5 comments about Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words.

1. This is quite simply an amazing story told by a human being who lived by faith alone.



2. "Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words" relays the powerful, uplifting message of the "silver-haired woman dressed in navy blue slacks and shirt" who devoted 28 years of her life praying for world peace in a very avant-garde fashion. She went by the name Peace Pilgrim, an alias she chose because, similar to a pilgrim, she was a "wanderer with a purpose:" world peace. Peace Pilgrim envisaged a world without war and suffering, and sought to make this vision a reality by walking over 25,000 miles, across each state, "as a prayer" to inspire others to pray and to promote world peace. Though details about Peace Pilgrim's life before the Pilgrimage are scarce in this book (as the compilers wanted to focus solely on presenting the pilgrimage in her own words), we get a glimpse of who Peace Pilgrim was before her pilgrimage and a strong image of who she was during those 28 years. In chapter 2, titled "Growing Up," we find that Pilgrim was raised on a small farm, and did not live a life of luxury, yet knew how to appreciate what she had including her closeness with nature. We can perceive that Pilgrim is quite humble and serene through the stories she shares throughout the book, but it is most apparent in the struggle she articulates at the end of chapter 2: "I was trained to be generous and unselfish and at the same time trained to believe that if I wanted to be successful I must get out there and grab more than my share of this world's goods...these conflicting philosophies confused me for some time..." This inner conflict culminates in a plea to God, "Please use me!" Fed up with having too much while other's had too little, Pilgrim started out on her 28-year journey without money, food, or transportation. She traveled by herself, and depended on the generosity of others for food, transportation, and housing. Pilgrim spoke at universities, appeared in newspapers and on television, delivered messages from the mayor to Tijuana Mexico to the mayor of New York City, and had many interesting encounters, including run-ins with the law who jailed her for vagrancy on several occasions. With her she carried three peace petitions: one for peace in Korea, the second for the implementation of a Peace Department in the US government, and the final one for world disarmament and reconstruction. Whether good or bad occurred on her pilgrimage, she used her experiences to inspire others to find inner peace and to allow that peace to pour outwardly onto the world through dialogue and giving.
   
   Pilgrim died in 1981 in a head on collision in route to her to an event in Indiana, yet her words live on in this book compiled by her close friends. The book comprises interviews, news articles, poetry, and other literature that serve as remnants of Pilgrim's message. Her friends hoped that through using Pilgrim's own words, readers could understand her mission as she understood it, and that "her words and spirit will continue to inspire." Indeed, we get a sense of Pilgrim's character and what her vision was as she explains to us exactly how she prepared for her pilgrimage through spiritual purification and discovering inner peace. While relaying her story, Pilgrim simultaneously teaches us how to find inner peace as well. This aspect of the book makes it both a memoir and an inspirational guide. Quotes from people who had met and were touched by Pilgrim's life are included at the end of the book, which makes the book more compelling because it shows the positive responses people had to her pilgrimage. Unfortunately, the book does not focus much on Pilgrim's life before her journey, nor does it tell us if her petitions were successful. But, as the compilers state, "these specifics...can be found elsewhere." We are not left with biographical facts, but a lesson on spiritual growth.



3. She's got a beautiful message to pass along, one for our modern age. It's the same wisdom and insight of Buddha and Jesus as well as all the others. I gotta tell you though, this book is offered, free of charge, on the website.



4. From 1953 until 1981, this lady walked more than 25,000 miles carrying in her blue tunic her only possessions. For nearly three decades she crossed America bearing the simplest of messages: this is the way of peace--overcome evil with good, and falsehood with truth, and hatred with love. Peace Pilgrim talked about peace among nations, between people and the most important, inner peace. "I talk to groups studying the most advanced spiritual teachings and sometimes these people wonder why nothing is happening in their lives," said Peace Pilgrim. "Their motive is the attainment of inner peace for themselves--which of course is a selfish motive. You will not find it with this motive. The motive, if you are to find inner peace, must be an outgoing motive. Service, of course, service. Giving, not getting. Your motive must be good if you work is to have good effect. The secret of life is being of service. ... I've met a few people who had to change their jobs in order to change their lives, but I've met many more people who merely had to change their motive to service in order to change their lives." She talks of purification of thought, motive and desire and relinquishment of self will, the feeling of separateness and the attachment of material things. She says, "No one is truly free who is still attached to material things, or to places, or to people. ... It's all right to use them, that's what they are for. But when they've outlived their usefulness, be ready to relinquish them and perhaps pass them on to someone who does need them. Anything that you cannot relinquish when it has outlived it's usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions. We are not free." And about trying to control people she says," Anything that you strive to hold captive will hold you captive--and if you desire freedom you must give freedom." Peace Pilgrim speaks of relinquishment of negative feelings. She says of worry, "Worry is not concern, which would motivate you to do everything possible in a situation. Worry is a useless mulling over of things we cannot change." She says no one can hurt you psychologically unless you let them. It is a choice. She says of her steps toward inner peace, "There is nothing new about this. This is universal truth." She says she speaks of them in everyday words in terms of her own personal experience with them. She speaks of living in the highest light you have and you will receive more light. She said the higher self and the lower self war against one another. The higher self has been given names by religious leaders as inner light or the indwelling Christ. When Jesus said, the Kingdom of God is within you, he was referring to the higher self. She said Jesus was called the Christ because his life was governed by this higher governing power. She speaks of the oneness of all creation and oneness with that which many call God. She states that the struggle is over when you will to always do the right thing. She says if your life is overcrowded, you are doing more than is your job to do in the total scheme of things.
   She says if your life is overcrowded, you are doing more than is your job to do in the total scheme of things. Submission to good is to be plugged in to the source of universal energy. Peace Pilgrim states that she took no money for speaking and if money was mailed it was used for printing materials that were given away to people seeking the truth. She says you cannot obtain truth by buying it. Nor should it be sold. "Those who have the truth would not be packaging it and selling it, so anyone who is selling it, really does not possess it," she says. I suspect many of the later gurus like made themselves rich from reiterating her concepts with a more sophisticated twist. Friends of Peace Pilgrim give this book away free of charge.
   Trish New, author of The Thrill of Hope and South State Street Journal.



5. A good read and a handy source of both inspiration and wisdom.
   namaste!

5 comments about Finding My Voice.

1. I think Diane Rehm is a talented radio host. I appreciate that she has had a long and interesting career, however, being a radio host and being an author are definitely not one and the same. Ms. Rehm's revelations of insecurity, marital discord, marital sex, and the rest, felt just too embarassing. Her perspective is whiny and immature and completely uninspiring. I kept wishing I could have been a wise and dear friend that stopped her from writing this book.I shudder each time I think of her (literary) indiscretion.



2. Even more incredible and galling than her first "literary masterpiece" is volume two of "My Life for Sale." While I am not near retirement age, I can only hope that I can continue to write, challenge and generally annoy media and ruling class types like Diane Rehm who don't know when to quit. Despite the fact that I am in my mid-50s, I play drums in a rock and rock band and hope to have the manual dexterity to continue. Yet, I hope I have the grace and sense to bow out when it becomes medically necessary. Instead of gracefully bowing off the air, Diane Rehm prefers a regimen of shots to the throat at Johns Hopkins.

   "Towards Commitment" sounds like someone who has been married for a long time but is still unsure. I remember listening to a segment of Diane's show in which she interviewed an author of a book on infidelity. On the air, she stated that if she ever caught her husband cheating, she would ...If I was married to her (heaven forbid), and she said something like that about me, I would have divorced her immediately.

   "Towards Commitment" sounds like someone still struggling with whether or not they want to be manacled together with another person when there are so many nubile 18 years old about the land.

   It is difficult to imagine that anyone could stoop so low as to think that their life is of such enormous interest to anyone else that one would pay good money to read about their trials and tribulations. Selling one's life in the pages of a book means that with everything happening in the world, with all of one's life, having lived through momentous events, that the only subject worthy of literary attention is your sorry life and how your struggling "Toward Commitment."

   Maybe the authors ought to be committed and this ridiculous effort committed to the bargain basement.




3. "Finding My Voice" is one of those books whose content is intimately intertwined with the author. I cannot review such a book without commenting on the author. Such a book proves that "celebrity" authors, such as Ms. Rehm, make it that much more difficult for those of us struggling for the attention of publishers and "Rick Reynolds, Super Hollywood Power Agents" and trying to put important words on paper.

   I am sorry that Ms. Rehm had a terrible childhood and has seen fit to forsake her Lebanese heritage in favor of entertaining Zionists on her radio program as they justify the slaughter of Palestinian men, women and children for the continuation of the Zionist entity and for the dubious and questionable Biblical justifications allowing such slaughter.

   A stroke of luck brought Ms. Rehm's now trembly voice to NPR (National Police Radio) and Washington, D.C.'s WAMU. Ms. Rehm, a high school graduate, took the place of a volunteer for an on-air slot leaving listeners to suffer with her apologetic, non-confrontational, Larry King-type program where she, as former station manager Kim Hodgson remarked engages in "positive, unconditional regard" for guests. This means that when she entertains guests such as war criminal Henry Kissinger and former national security advisor Sandy Berger she allows them to lie on the air unchallenged by her, who refuses to do so, or callers, whom she cuts off the air. I have been the victim of such terminations, despite the fact the WAMU, which is subsidized by American University student tuition and the American taxpayer through NPR, a U.S. government controlled entity. Despite this policy, Ms. Rehm attacked a guest, Gore Vidal, for being homosexual, hardly a fitting policy when your a supposed liberal. When Noam Chomsky appeared on AU's campus, Ms. Rehm, who at first refused, then was forced to allow Mr. Chomsky to appear on her program. She was unable to attack him because of his superior intellect and cogent arguments.

   I believe that the American reading public should stop subsidizing the lifestyles of the rich and ridiculous by refusing to buy such claptrap as "Finding My Voice." I believe that writing should say something to the reader. it is a literary and social contract whereby the author agrees to provide something new and original that will educate and entertain. "Finding My Voice" is not a retirement program for the already wealthy living in a two story, red brick colonial home in Bethesda, Maryland and counting members of Washington's ruling and media elite as friends. How about Knopf giving real writers a chance for a change?




4. Believe me, I am a devoted fan of Diane Rehm's. She is the most articulate, knowledgable, talented talk show host in the country. Thus I was disappointed by her autobiography. Of course, because her outstanding talent is interviewing, I guess I can't expect her to be a brilliant writer as well.

   I thought she harped on her sad childhood too much. Over and over again she blames her mother--and her father less so--for emotionally crippling her entire life. Many of us have had less than happy childhoods, and many of us have suffered some type of abuse, but most of us get over it--or at least don't go around continually blaming our flaws on our parents and/or childhood. I certainly didn't expect Diane Rehm to do so. She seems much too mature and wise for that.

   The other disappointment I have is the writing itself, which is not as smooth and polished as it should be. (Where was the editor?) There's also some repetition of passages from one chapter to another, as if the author had forgotten she had said this same thing earlier in the book.




5. As a big fan of "The Diane Rehm Show," I guess I'm somewhat biased, but I truly think this is an excellent, honest, heartfelt book. In "Finding My Voice," Diane comes across as the same admirable person we all know from her radio talk show --honest, direct, curious (about ideas and above all about people), down-to-earth, warm, caring, determined (even stubborn) and - despite her lack of a college degree (who cares?!?) - highly intelligent. In my opinion, the really interesting parts of the book deal less with Spasmodic Dysphonia than with: 1) Diane growing up as a girl in a traditional Arab-American family in the 1940s and early 1950s with a depressed, anxious, abusive mother; 2) the obstacles (professional, personal) which Diane -- and many talented young women -- were forced to overcome to achieve something for themselves in the male-dominated society of the 1950s and 1960s; 3) Diane "finding her voice" in a growing radio career, and in a broader sense the overall growth of talk radio - for better ("The Diane Rehm Show" and others where people can have a civilized discussion and actually are encouraged to think for themselves) and for worse (Rush Limbaugh and "Dr. Laura" - blech - where people berate each other, preach to each other, or mindlessly "ditto" the host); and 4) Diane's constant struggles to overcome deepseated feelings of insecurity and of not being worthy, despite (or even fueled by) her growing outward success.

   Besides that, there are also some memorable moments with some really bizarre/obnoxious guests - Tony Randall and Tom Clancy stand out in particular - and some really excellent ones - Race Hoss and Jimmy Carter, for instance. And unlike many celebrity autobiographies, in "Finding My Voice" this does not come across -- at least to me -- like mere gratuitous name dropping. Instead, they are an integral part of Diane's story, illustrating some of the best and worst which she has faced in her radio career.

   Finally, "Finding my Voice" shows us that -- whatever she may feel about herself (and whether or not she'll ever truly believe it) -- Diane Rehm IS an amazing person who deserves every bit of success and happiness she has achieved in her life. I'm just thankful that Diane finally DID manage to "find her voice," and hope that she doesn't lose it for years and years to come! P.S. Thank goodness for public radio -- and for everyone who supports it!