3 comments about The Vienna Paradox: A Memoir.

1. Marjorie Perloff's memoir was a complete pleasure from start to finish - it was a lucky accident for me that I came upon this gem.
   
   Absolutely delightful - charming in all ways, along with being particularly outstanding in combining the author's areas of professional expertise as a first class literary critic with her memories of an earlier Vienna and the traces that remain. This is not meant to slight at all her sharp remembrances of the events of growing up and the succinct clarity with which she describes them.
   
   Her memoir has many sections that point the reader to new areas for exploration: the Neue Gallery in NYC with its scintillating art collection (Schiele and Klimt), Arnold Schoenberg's writings and music, and the brilliant Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, just to mention a few.
   
   The other reviews do a thorough job of providing more details about this book. I'll add that Ms. Perloff, the complete professional, includes an excellent index, helpful notes to accompany the text, and thoughtful illustrations that augment the memoir. A quote from the book jacket's inside cover is particularly apt: "This is, in other words, an intellectual memoir, both elegant and heartfelt, by one of America's leading thinkers, a narrative in which literary and philosophical reference is as central as the personal."



2. 
   I picked up a copy of The Vienna Paradox: A Memoir, by Marjorie Perloff because the idea of a memoir about Vienna intrigued me, and because I've always been enthralled by the critical mind of this noted and innovative literary scholar. After I'd read it, I ordered some more copies to bestow on friends, most of whom have no particular interest in Vienna whatsoever.
   "Why are you giving me this book?" one of my more suspicious friends asked me. "What is there about this book that sets it apart from all the immigrant narratives, from all the nostalgic recounting of `old Vienna,' from all the other autobiographies that people turn to when they begin to realize that time is passing and whatever they don't set down will be forgotten?" The central distinction is this: Perloff doesn't just record her own experiences or those of her family and friends, she uses those experiences - the experiences of her extended family, experiences of other famous emigrants from Vienna, together with information about books, museums, websites, as well as restaurants, street guides and all kinds of other information - for other purposes than telling about her self. She's not seeking her own `roots,' but draws on those roots to examine some of the important and pressing questions that only a critic of the world with great experience, perspective and expertise can ask.
   What Perloff is exploring with her delineation and examination of the civilization in which her family was nurtured and from which it was expelled is far more complex than just where she comes from, or even what really were the negative effects of the Holocaust. She is asking what are the functions, the potential and the limitations of civilization: what should we value in culture, what should we discard, what can we know, what can we improve, and what are the individual limitations. At one point Perloff quotes Wittgenstein
   if we think of the world's future, we always mean where it will be if it keeps going as we see it going now and it doesn't occur to us that it is not going in a straight line but in a curve, constantly changing direction. (33)
   The lessons from history are not imperatives for the future, and therefore every detail must be examined, and it is the role of the artist and the critic to perform this examination, and to edify . Therefore Perloff delineates the achievements, on all sides, of her family - their successful careers in Austria and elsewhere, their connections, their accomplishment throughout - but she also notes their failure to perceive and/or act within Austrian society to counter or prevent what was to come. Except for some foreign bank accounts that came in handy for the family after their escape in August of 1938, there seems to have been little understanding of the dangers inherent in the historical situation. If Grandfather Schuller was allowed into Italy because of a welcome from Mussolini to his former negotiator, it was not political foresight that made Schuller prepare an escape route for a Jew, but belief in Austria transcending personal considerations that saved him.
   The technique of postmodern pastiche is everywhere, but it is not here an indication of the eradication of values. Perloff is an expert at weaving together associations, websites, museums, biography, memoir, gossip, lunch, poetry and making sense of them all. This pastiche is born from the sensibility of the multicultural, world-wise individual, comfortable everywhere in the universe. Perloff, in opposition to the refugee, the outsider, really believes in a society, but it is an ur society, which incorporates and transcends the differences. Her criticism of European disdain for American society, and American naiveté as to European society, is an attempt to bring the two together.
   More than anything else, there is a love story in this autobiographical account -- it is a love story with America, that country that whatever its cultural limitations in comparison to the hoch kultur of Vienna, gave her and her family shelter and opportunity to thrive to such an extent that politics could be safely and comfortably ignored. Written after September 11, when the US is besieged not only by enemies without but also by the intelligentsia within, this book serves as a reminder of perspective. So that although it begins with the story of Arnold Schoenberg who despite his appreciation for the United States, never found in it a lasting and appreciative audience, it concludes with Adorno, who longed for the taste of European culture and returned there after the War.



3. Marjorie Perloff, the noted and prolific literary critic and comparativist, has written a thoughtful introspection about the intersection of her life with the complexities of the fading Vienna of the 20's and thirties. It's a dizzying array of contrasts and passages: not only her (and her family's) adjustment to American society of the 1940;s and 1950's, but the passage of Arnold Schoenberg, and the contrast of John Cage and Schoenberg. Perloff sheds a personal light on the ambivalences towards Jewishness and the imperatives of conversions. The photographs of girls in dirndls and her prestigious grandfather in morning suit are stunning reminders of the power of illustration and the evocation of period. Though this is memoiristic, Perloff remains a literary critic and there are efforts to re-address Adorno and Gombrich (for example)in terms of their own refugee pasts. Marjorie Perloff changed her name from Gabriele to Marjorie, her school from PS 7 to the fashionable Fieldston, her academic address from Catholic University ultimately to Stanford. The book is about what change means, how it reiterates, to someone whose life was abruptly forced, by the Anschluss, into a totally new mode of looking at the world and thinking about it.

5 comments about Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America.

1. A lot of good detail is presented in this biography, a lot of moral force worth bringing to our attention.
   
   Many of us are curently such spoiled and cowardly workers that we need historians like Ellliott J. Gorn to give us a dose of a truth that most of our employers, politicians and media don't want us to be exposed to. Is "American Idol" on? I suppose we do need someone else to shake up.
   
   From the historical record, it may not have been possible to uncover more of what made Mary Jones into Mother Jones: what it seems, as a historian and not a psychologist, Gorn has wisely done is to show how the conditions of Mary Jone's times presented her with challenges which she responded to bravely. You or I may have dodged the same challenges but not Mother Jones. It is well worth Mary Jones and Gorn showing us what is possible.
   
   Mother Jones eschewed religion, socialist parties, and the IWW. If without an answer, she demanded answers of those who we might have thought could help us. She knew what common folk were capable of but she also insisted on leaders being leaders and not servants of the rich.
   
   Hard times are upon us. Globalization and war machinery of unprecended strength and concentrations of wealth threaten all working people, whether in the United States, Mexico, India, China, Uganda, Peru, or Antarctica. Mother Jones did not cater to national or religious boundaries. I hope I can rouse myself from my reading of this book as I suggest you do. We have hope if we don't delay.



2. Elliott J. Gorn has written a well-researched biography of one of Labor's greatest spokesperson. Gorn writes a complete book on Mother Jones, Mary Jones, and even Mary Harris -- the person AND the persona. His objectivity allows him to correct Mother Jones' revisionist history of her own life and her achievements, even as he praises her deep committment and her probable rationale for exaggerating her achievements. One slight criticism is that Gorn on occasion follows one aspect of the Labor movement (or Mother's) struggle, then goes back in time to pick up another thread. In his great favor, though, Gorn details the incorrect details and unfair attacks of other authors, both of her day and later. If you read only one book on Mother Jones, this should be it.



3. This biography recalls early American radicalism and the efforts of one Mary Jones, a force in the early labor movement. She traveled throughout the country lobbying for civil rights, labor laws and basic worker's rights: her career, life, and long-ranging effects on American labor are recounted in a lively coverage.



4. Elliott Gorn has written an excellent biography of Mary Harris Jones, better known as Mother Jones. Gorn has applied critical analysis to his meticulous and quite impressive research--this was not an easy woman to pin down, and Gorn has managed with limited materials to convey the essence of her life. In doing so, he tells three simultaneous stories, all significant for a broad view of American history. First is the story of Mary Jones herself. Her life was both tragic and triumphant, and Gorn treats it with sensitivity and a light touch, conjecturing at times to what she must have felt, but never presuming to be inside her head or heart. The second story is the story of the American labor movement, particularly that of the United Mine Workers, and their struggle against BIG CAPITAL. Gorn does not overemphasize the uneven nature of this struggle, nor does he dwell on the massive injustices against the mine workers by mine owners, coal interests, and even the Federal Government. He gives it to us straight. The facts speak for themselves. But Gorn presents the facts in the context of Jones's life and her struggle, and never preaches. He lets the history--a history too seldom told--be revealed through the contours of Jones's life. Which leads to the third story: the story of American self-invention. Mary Jones invented herself, and went to great lengths to sustain an identity that would allow her, as a woman and a mother, to become one of the toughest and most feared labor organizers in American history--not a normal or accepted role for women, generally during her lifetime. Throughout these three stories, Gorn engages the notion of gender in late Victorian and early twentieth century US history. This, too, he does with a subtle hand and a light touch, totally without jargon. The book is thoroughly enjoyable, accessible to all readers, and interesting in its own right. Plus it sheds light on important processes in American history. I highly recommend it.



5. Mother Jones was a character of mythic proportions, created by the all-too-human Mary Harris Jones. The author takes the position that while many of the details of her life - as portrayed in Mother's speeches, writings and autobiography - are impossible to verify or demonstrably false, they stood for a larger truth.

   Gorn obviously has sympathy for Jones and does a good job of putting her life in its context, but this book is no easy read. It is written in the dry verbiage and cadences of academia.

   An unequivocally positive addition to the library of labor history, but don't try to read it at night before bed unless your aim is to hasten sleep.

2 comments about The Answer / La Respuesta, Including a Selection of Poems (A Feminist Press Sourcebook).

1. The Answer/La Respuesta by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, is the best answer I have ever read. In the Answer to Sor Filotea de la Cruz, Sor/sister Juana Ines de la Cruz wrote her autobiography, in which she reveals her drive as a woman/human being. Her pursuit of -capital T- Truth gained her close friends and cunning enemies. She was way ahead of her own time. I recommend this book very much. I enjoyed it. WA



2. One of the finest recent translations of Sor Juana's "Response." The authors have done an outstanding job of translating and annotating the text. A "must read" for any Sor Juana scholar.

5 comments about Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx.

1. Breathing Space takes you on an insider's tour of the South Bronx. Heidi Neumark describes the devastation with an unflinching honesty, but unlike purveyors of "urban porn," she also helps us see the hope, beauty and possibility embodied in her neighbors and parishioners. We are introduced to them in their full humanity. And through their stories, Pastor Neumark's readers are invited into a deeper understanding of a world few of us could otherwise imagine or relate to. It's an understanding that doesn't gloss over the outrageous waste and loss, but it's communicated with such warmth, humor, grace, and power that readers can't help but be inspired.



2. This book was absolutely wonderful. I recieved it from a friend of mine who was an intern under Pastor Heidi -- and am very glad that he sent it to me. It is a bold book and a much needed to hear story. She writes in a compelling manner and has rich experiences to share with the reader. I thank her and the congregation at Transfiguration for sharing this blessing.



3. I don't know where to begin in describing my admiration. The book is remarkable, blending bible studies and religion with politics, etymology, and common sense in telling compelling, well written stories. But even more than that is what the book shows about Heidi Neumark- her courage, feeling, and remarkable commitment to justice and humanity. Some people are committed to humanity as a nameless, theoretical mass. Her commitment is far more difficult and meaningful since it is to real people, one person at a time. The world is lucky to have someone like her. I wish that the rich and powerful could all be required to read this book.
   
   The Publishers' Weekly review says that the book will "appeal to people of faith across the political spectrum." In fact, as someone at the other end of the faith spectrum, it appealed to me, in both senses of the word "appeal."



4. Heidi Neumark was pastor for many years at the Transfiguration Lutheran Church, in the south Bronx area of New York City. Her congregation was fairly typical of what any lower-income inner-city parish might be -- Hispanic, African-American, people in need, people experienced in poverty and violence. The title comes physically from the idea that, in the midst of one of the wealthier cities on earth, the children have the highest incidence of asthma in the nation. However, beyond this physical description, the daily stress and strain of inner-city living, with gunshots, drugs, crime, poverty and oppression continually surrounding, makes breathing easy a difficult task.

   Neumark recalls some of her difficulties with her own spiritual practices. Drawing on the advice of spiritual masters of the past to incorporate distractions rather than attempting to block them out, she would try to add the stress to her prayer life as a working component -- however, when weapons fire seemed to ricochet every time she went to pray, it became difficult if not impossible.

   In the face of all the difficulties, there was hope and renewal at Transfiguration. Neumark shares the stories of many parishioners, as well as her own internal struggles and personal experiences, that show the way the spirit of God is alive and active even in the worst of conditions. Neumark highlights the irony of the situation at times -- in the South Bronx, there is plenty of money for state-of-the-art prisons, and keeping juveniles in the system is big business, but the money for education and real plans for improvement is non-existent. This kind of societal choice in the face of residents can be demoralising, to say the least. And yet, at Transfiguration, there are elements of hope, determination for outreach and care to address the issues that the governmental powers neglect.

   Quite often, those helped by the church were not church members themsevles. Transfiguration being an urban church, Neumark was frequently approached by those in need, looking for any available help. Milly, a young woman who suffered from the asthma so many bear in the area, was one such person, whose connections with Neumark and the congregation provided a much-needed space for Milly to turn her life in a positive direction. Like many things in the urban church, change was slow and often painful, but Milly (and many others) relied on the church.

   The stories are difficult to read, difficult to understand in a human sense. But the spirit that pervades Neumark's work is a joy to behold. Read with care, and read with prayer.




5. What an incredible piece of work. This is a book written by someone who has learned it by living it. Although I have never met Heidi Neumark, nor even heard of her before stumbling across this book, if she isn't a pastor in the finest sense of the word, then I don't know one. As you read this book, she will take you on a journey, indeed; and you will be the better for it.

5 comments about Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III.

1. The six daughters of King George III have been overlooked by biographers for too many years. Therefore I had high hopes for Princesses. Unfortunately it was one of the most difficult biographies I have ever read. Flora Fraser painstakingly read and researched hundreds of existing letters written by the princesses as well as others involved in their lives, and it seems she made use of each and every one of them - to the point of annoyance. To borrow a line from Shakespeare, Fraser needs to be told "More matter with less art". The writing is dense, arty, and agonisingly slow to read, and too many pages are spent rehashing insignificant details. These pages would have gone to better use going into more depth about the personalities, characters, and personal relationships of the women. For all that, the subject of the princesses' lives is piquant, moving, joyful, and tragic. But is it worth such headache and laborious reading?



2. This was a very detailed and indept biography of the six daughters of George III. Charlotte, Augusta, Elizabeth, Mary, Sophia, and Amelia they were not allowed to marry an unusual step at the time since most kings marry off their daughters for alliences George III decided not to marry his daughters off after witnessing one of his own sister's plight in marriage. Yet that didn't deter them from flirting, illegally marrying or in Sophia's case even giving birth to an illigmate child creating scandles of their own. It was interesting reading about their interests and charities and living with their parents through middle age. Two sisters did end up marrying after well into middle age. A very good bio.



3. In my opinion this is one of those books that it is well researched,well organized and the story is pretty much well told.But at the end of the day i asked myself why i bought this book, because when i finished reading the book i realized that the lives of these ladies wasnt interesting at all.I mean the thing is that, basically, nothing happened to this ladies.They were completely separated from the outside world and they really didnt had that much to contribute or much to get involved with the world.The narrative is not bad because the author makes a great effort in trying to make the story interesting.The problem is that the story is boring and dull.The author also just takes too many pages to tell a story that doesnt need that many pages.I've could have done without a least 100 to a 150 pages.The only parts that were interesting were the ones that talked about the English etiquette in Court.I got to learn a lot about what's the etiquette when someone died and the proper order in which to enter a room or signed a document.Again good effort by the author but there's no story to tell



4. I have seen occasional references to the children of George III, apart from George IV and William IV, usually in biographies of Queen Victoria, but this is the first in-depth treatment that I have read of his daughters. They usually don't even rank a mention in the oft-told tale of the race to provide an heir to the throne after the death of Princess Charlotte (George IV's daughter) since, due to the rules of primogeniture and their father's reluctance to allow them to marry before middle age, they didn't even have a shot at it.
   
   Continuing in the family tradition of writing absorbing biographies of figures in English history, Flora Fraser provides a sympathetic, if sometimes a bit too minutely detailed, picture of these six very different sisters: Charlotte, Princess Royal (known as Royal), always conscious of her rank and position, as she could hardly fail to be with such a nickname; Augusta, the family correspondent; Elizabeth, artistic and charitable; Mary, the beauty of the family, who survived all her siblings and lived well into Victoria's reign; Sophia, who "disgraced" herself by bearing an illegitimate son; and Amelia, the headstrong youngest child who was passionately in love with a man whom she could not marry. These are only thumbnail descriptions and do not do justice to Fraser's portrayal of the loving and occasionally acrimonious relationship that the princesses had with each other, their brothers, and their parents.
   
   We often read about the political repercussions of George III's mental disability and the deterioration of the relationship between the Regent and his parents, but I found Fraser's description of the effect that it had on the Queen and their daughters to be particularly moving. However, three of them did find happiness in marriage, if not children, late in life, and with the others, were able to build satisfying lives around nieces and nephews, as well as artistic, intellectual and charitable pursuits. We can only speculate on what they might have done with their lives had more opportunities been open to them.



5. After THE UNRULY QUEEN I was already an admirer of this author but now I am in awe of her. Knowing the mountain of original sources Fraser used I find her selections, editing and writing of the overall narrative simply wonderful. It is a very complicated landscape The Princesses lived in and yet the author has succeeded in not only turning up the volume on each Princess as an individual, but portrays the dynamics of that huge family within one of the most turbulent periods of modern history. Also, explanations of the manners and mores of the times are seamlessly interwoven, which in turn nicely contrasts public propriety with the daily private reality. I have a large George III library and this is a valuable addition to it.

5 comments about Confessions Of an Art Addict.

1. I became curious about Peggy Guggenheim, when last year, I visited her former home - Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal in Venice. Now a beautiful and exciting museum, made up of a great collection of paintings and sculptures.
   I was very impressed by the famous artists I found there - Dali, Picasso, Max Ernst, Brancusi are just a few names. So I thought that such a woman must have had an interesting life.
   
   But I have to say that the autobigraphy she wrote has no literary value whatsoever. Instead, it is a very honest, uninhibited story of a life dedicated to collecting pieces of art and their authors. Her motto was "buy one paiting per day" and she got much of the fame for her many affairs with artists. However, the efforts she made to promote XXth century art, by organizing exhibitions and art galleries can only be laudable.
   
   A definite non conformist, she decided to quit college and left for Europe, where most of the American literary "nomads" of the time were going. Bohemian life style suited her perfectly. The vivid literary and artistic life in London and Paris, made her fall in love with these places.
   
   I can only say "chapeau" to such a woman who was neither an artist, nor a critic, but loved art and artists, and who spent all her fortune to create what is today the most important museum in Italy for European and American art of the first half of the 20th century.
   
   The story flows nicely and I also got the chance to find out a lot of interesting details about famous artists. The book can only be a pleasant and light reading on an intercontinental flight or on your coming soon vacation.



2. Guggenheim doesn't seem to gilt her "Confessions" in velvet (or gold); she comes across as an honest soul wanting to relate her experiences--an influences--in the art world. Some of the things mentioned are her childhood, her marriages, Max Ernst, Brancusi, Kandinsky, Pollock, and Motherwell (to name but a few). Worth a read... and another read.



3. Undoubtedly, Miss Guggenheim led a colourful and interesting life. She had either great artistic insight and intigrity or a bratish desire to boost of her wealth.
   I didn't reach a conclusion having read this book, but then maybe she was doing a bit of both and wanted to keep us guessing? I found the book enormously entertaining and informative if a little disrespectful of it's subject.
   One cannot help but to consider that this disrespect and the virtual anonymous space she occupies in history, might be very different had she been Peter and not Peggy.
   A great read for modern art lovers, a fairly good one for anyone else.
   Though it cannot be helped nor altered, it is a book very heavy on characters, plot, and at times, weighty information; which can be very offputting and confusing.



4. Here's the story of a woman that knew them all, felt the earth move under her feet with many of them, and bought their art for pretty much nothing. She recognized them when they were starting, and this makes her a Princess. This book is her equivalent to Gore Vidal's "Palimpsest" and Lillian Hellman's "Pentimento". This is one of those books that almost transports you to a long gone era, and makes you wish you could have been there to see it all.



5. Peggy was a trip. She also apparently had no editor, or so it seems, which adds to the air of entitlement and oblique charm that permeates this book. Her accounts are interesting historically, though PG's slant on history is sometimes its own beast. This is a quick read and some of her observations will make you laugh out loud ("I was worried about my virginity--I was twenty-three and I found it burdensome..."), while others are chilling, especially the question of which Jews she deemed worthy of her efforts to help them get to the States. This may be more entertaining than informative, but it's both.

5 comments about Letters Home.

1. Letter Home contains all of the letters that Sylvia wrote to her Mother, Warren and Mrs Prouty from 1950-1963 and span her university life, up to her marriage to Ted Hughes and beyond.
   The best thing about this book is the enthusiasm for study, success and a family that Plath shows in the letters.
   As a fan I often imagine her as a moody person like her poems sometimes suggests but Plath appears happy and full of life and love in each letter.
   I particularly enjoyed the letters from the time she met Ted and started a family with him as their plans and gaining success were so well deserved and interesting.
   Letters Home comes with an introduction by Plath's Mother who also adds a few bits of context throughout.
   I stopped reading after the birth of her second child as the letters became quite sad and as a fan I knew what was going to happen and didn't want to ruin the way the book showed a very happy side of Plath.
   I particularly liked the following passage that Plath wrote advising a boy suffering a breakdown similar to hers:
   `When he dies, his marks will not be written on his gravestone. If he loved a book, been kind to someone, enjoyed a certain colour in the sea - that is the thing that show whether he has lived.'
   I recommend this to all Plath fans.



2. From Aurelia Plath's intimate introduction and comments throughout to Sylvia's personal words and insights, I can't praise this book enough. Sylvia's growth as a writer and a woman are charted here. Her relationship with Mrs. Prouty is more intimately revealed as well. A must!



3. This book gives an great insight into the mind of one the most incredible writers ever. All her thoughts and feelings are expressed so wonderfully. Even in her letters she keeps the same dry wit and rage that draws so many people to her. She was an incredible writer and this is just another example of her fine work.



4. Honestly, I don't know how to review this book. Sylvia Plath has inspired a lot of curiosity about her life since she committed suicide and left a mass of interesting poetry and bad prose in her wake. I will admit that she has intrigued, and still intrigues me. I just have to wonder about a few things: why would her mother publish this book of correspondence during her lifetime? Perhaps she was seeking to establish a view of her daughter as a real, breathing, doubting human being, not just as some kind of feminist icon (and if you believe Plath was a feminist in the modern, PC version of the word, just read her journals). I wouldn't doubt that; the bond between Aurelia Plath and her daughter was undoubtedly strong, though imperfect (as are all parental relationships). But these letters. . .perhaps they will be of interest to scholars in the future, excavating the mines of a minor 20th-century poet seeking motivations for some of her more famous poems. . .I don't know. I don't mean to belittle either Sylvia or her mother, but I don't know why this uninteresting book was published.



5. Letters Home offers a great look at the unseen side of Plath--the side her mother was allowed into. Here, one can see the woman behind her works, and is allowed to travel with her during her scholastic years until her death. A very moving and personal view from in own words.

5 comments about Water Cooler Diaries: Women across America Share Their Day at Work.

1. Water Cooler Diaries: Women Across America Share Their Day at Work
   
   I have been taking my time reading this book.
   
   Why?
   
   Because I am savoring every entry.
   
   Water Cooler Diaries provides a sneak peek behind the private lives of women; What we do on a typical day and what we think.
   
   The reader discovers that when the "typical working day" is explored in detail, there is humor, frustrations and a myriad of emotions that are evoked by exploring the inner thoughts women have throughout the day.
   
   And in reading each woman's day diary entries, we look into the mirror and see a reflection of ourselves in the surgeon, the mechanic, the blogger, the mother, the janitor and so many more.
   
   Well, okay... this reader didn't have that much in common with the sexy magician and her albino snake... but, boy haven't you ever wondered what it must be like to have a job like that? Never thought about the fact that she also has to clean up snake poop out of water bowls every morning.
   
   
   There are 35 full day entries with hundreds of excerpts from women from all walks of life.
   
   ENJOY!



2. This book is hard to put down!
   - Laugh out loud moments is the truth.
   - Amazed at those who were brave enough to be honest & wrote about their boss from 'he double-hockey-sticks'.
   - Fascinated going behind the scenes of the 'not your everyday' type of jobs.
   - Shocked some were sad by the end of their day, while they are on their road to success
   - Cried & deeply touched by those who were going through very personal and hard times in their life (I still think of them)
   - Then laughed again...
   
   This book has such a variety of true everyday stories Great reading.



3. These women share their joys, worries, triumphs, fears, hopes and dreams...a day in their lives...from mundane to magnificent. It's a book you don't have to read from cover to cover in one sitting, but it's hard to put down once you start. And although it sounds hokey, I laughed, I cried and I related to every one of these women on some level.



4. . . . and I'm not just saying that because I wrote the last chapter. (smile)
   
   These witty and often moving diary entries from women of all walks of life offer a broad perspective of the triumphs, trials, stressors, struggles and small moments of joy that people everywhere are dealing with at any given time. The book's candid, inspirational accounts let us briefly walk a mile in someone else's shoes and remind us that, no matter what we're dealing with, we are not alone.
   
   I got turned on to Joni B. Cole's day diary compilations when I hastily grabbed her previous book -- "This Day in the Life" -- in an airport bookstore as I was dashing to catch a four-hour flight. Once I opened it, I was hooked and couldn't put it down.
   
   Like that book, "Water Cooler Diaries" is another fast, fun and delightfully voyeuristic read. It's an honor to be featured in it.



5. This book is great! Every woman's story is fascinating. It's also loaded with hysterical excerpts from womens' lives. Full of insight, tenderness, comedy, and just plain truth.

3 comments about Every Other Thursday: Stories and Strategies from Successful Women Scientists.

1. "...Thursday" is a very useful, encouraging and illuminating book for women pursuing non-traditional career goals, particularly in science. The experience of the Berkeley group shows what can happen when women come together, share their progress and their frustrations and build strong supportive bonds with and for each other. Bonds that became even stronger through one group member's traumatic experience of being turned down for tenure.
   In short, creating a mentoring environment for all group members. Congratulations, Berkeley women!
   Lu Ann W. Darling, author of DISCOVER YOUR MENTORING MOSAIC, A GUIDE TO ENHANCED MENTORING



2. Let's say you have problems at work. You have an unreasonable deadline. You're up for promotion. Your boss seems intent on attacking you. You are going to have a baby and that's not welcome news at work. You feel excluded from important conversations. No one will go to lunch with you. Ellen Daniell tells us all a great way to handle these work-related emergencies and bad vibes: form a weekly discussion group focused on professional issues.
   In addition to providing friendships, now at a premium in this society, the group can say how strategies worked (or didn't work) for them, support the stressed worker, and keep her/him from giving in to the pressures of work. Daniell's own group includes members of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers and professors and industry scientists. Most have been women historically (over the 25 years this group has functioned). She was invited to join by a prominent male molecular biologist 25 years ago. She gives us the history of the group, lots of detailed anecdotes of its functioning, and then turns to how to form and run such a group for your own sanity.
   I found this book both inspiring and disquieting: Daniell herself describes how she was denied tenure at a prestigious university, fought the decision, and was denied anyway. Then she became an administrator in the biotech industry, and today she's a full time writer. Her self esteem came through thanks to the group process. But as a woman in science, who took the trouble to read Daniell's pre tenure publications, I am appalled that she was denied. What were they thinking? But don't get the idea that this book is full of rage. That's my own, not Ellen Daniell's. Through her group, she has dealt successfully with the decision and put it behind her comfortably.
   I recommend this book very highly; get it for your mental health and well being. I agree with Rita Colwell (former director of the National Science Foundation) who is quoted on the back cover saying that she wished she could have read it back at the start of her career.



3. Life is tough. Scientist or nonscientist, man or woman, we go up against great odds to make progress, teach and inspire others, and pave the way for the future. So why does the world make this process so hard? In this book, Ellen Daniell describes the support network of young scientists, mostly women, that helped its Bay Area members overcome family troubles, deal with the whims of fate, and face despair in academic and institutional settings. Along the way she describes the psychological approach to success that we can provide for one another. Read this book, and make friends, and be happy that we get this great chance in life!

2 comments about Magda Goebbels.

1. Very few people, even WWII expert, know a lot about this woman, Magda Goebbels. I was astounded to learn about her background, her relationship with Arloseroff during her youth, her flirtation with conversion to Judaism and her relationship/admiration with Hitler. The book seems to be thouroughly researched although I guess that there are quite a few "artistic" addition to make the book more readable. It flows very smoothly and you often have the feeling that you are reading a novel. A lot about Magda's life cannot be explained rationally although the author tries to make some sense of her actions. The fact that she murdered six of her seven children because "life is not worht living without the Fuehrer" cannot be explained by any rational person.
   I found this book fascinationg and frightening. It did give me an insight however into the mindset of the people who followed Hitler: empty, unfullfilled lives without any values, morals or goals, drifters who were looking for a "guru" to fill their empty shells.



2. And producing 6 beautiful children! This is indeed one of the strangest biographies you'll ever read, not to mention fascinating thruout! Magda was educated at a Catholic school, had charm, beauty, and polish in abundance, and was the stepdaughter to a Jewish father..Friedlander was her maiden name.She fell for a leading German Zionest in early 1920's, then married a leading German industrialist, and divorced him to marry one of the three most infamous Nazis (along with Hitler and Himmler). Traveling in the highest of social circles, she became the ideal German mother, producing a child about every year with Goebbels, who was known for his incredible infidelities, not to mention anti-semitism, and general nastiness. Even so, obviously he had charm and personality. Anyway, just look at the family photo Mr. and Mrs. Goebbels, and you may agree a more beautiful set of children, including 5 girls, is a true rarity. Also, do not miss the photo of the 1943 audience of Goebbel's "Total War" speech. The entire audience, including Magda and her 2 daughters, is completely bewildered, possibly scared, during this "Total War" speech. This book is about perfect in showing how a German woman could sell her soul to the devil, her hubbie and Hitler. WE all know the horrifying ending, but this is still a truly fascinating, unique, if sometimes repellent read throughout!