No comments about Recovery from Cancer: The Remarkable Story of One Woman's Struggle With Cancer and What She Did to Beat the Odds.

3 comments about Fresh Water: Women Writing on the Great Lakes.

1. I love the Great Lakes. My great-great-grandparents were pioneers in Manistee. I live close to the lake in Chicago. Our family is tied to water from the 1600s of the West coast of France. Fresh Water was on my wish list for a long time. I asked for it for Christmas. Now I can't give it away. The Notes on the Contributors has too many references to other literature the authors have written and ecological societies around the Great Lakes. The stories vary from personal to purposeful.



2. Having grown up on Lake Ontario, living now in high desert country, I was longing for the big vista of "my lake". Fresh Water is full of well written strong experiences and images that vividly recalled my years on the lake. I could almost smell and feel that big body of fresh water, remember the intensity of storms and forgotten mystery, as well as the joy of quiet early morning swims. Gifts from Alison Swan and all the contributors!



3. Edited by award-winning environmentalist Alison Swan, Fresh Water: Women Writing on the Great Lakes is an anthology of brief yet contemplative reflections upon the Great Lakes, all written by women. The essays are contemplative rather than scholarly in nature, dwelling upon emotion, history, the beauty of the Lakes and the need to preserve them. A deeply moving compilation filled with passion and respect for the spiritual bounty of nature.

1 comments about Songs at the River's Edge: Stories from a Bangladeshi Village.

1. Katy Gardner has done a wonderful job in packaging her research as a secular anthropologist into a format that is both entertaining to read and intensely informative. While living with a Muslim family in Bangladesh she gained valuable insights that should be read by any outsider who is serious about understanding Bangladeshi village culture.

No comments about Going Hungry: Writers on Desire, Self-Denial, and Overcoming Anorexia.

2 comments about St. Rose of Lima : Patroness of the Americas.

1. This is a beautiful and inspiring book! Read this book and you will change your life!! Saint Rose of Lima is a holy saint who will help us all in our daily lives in order that we may one day attain Heaven as she does now!! Please read!!!!!!



2. Read this book this saint is a very good saint

5 comments about Dr. Frau: A Woman Doctor Among the Amish.

1. I read this book with great interest; I find the Amish and Mennonite to be beacons of true Christianity in this era of materialism and hedonism, and am always seeking to gain a better understanding of them. That, of course, leads me to seek out books like Dr. Frau, yet at the same time it places me in the unfortunate position of creating the demand for books that pry into their personal lives.
   
   This book deals with one of the most guarded aspects of Old Order Amish and Mennonite life--the birth of children. The author of course understands this fully and deals with the actual births in a brief and respectful manner; the stories focus primarily on the circumstances surrounding particular births, such as driving through heavy rain or blizzards, having to hurry between several births on the same day, etc. There are also some stories about her medical practice in general, attending to non-Amish/Mennonites, and rural life.
   
   Unfortunately, I can't say that the author is a particularly good writer, or a natural storyteller. The stories were inconsistant, at times somewhat mundane, and in the end I was left with the sense that this book wasn't entirely complete.



2. This is one of my absolute favorite books. The stories are a fascinating look both at the life of Amish people and human nature. These chapters will make you laugh, feel and think. You can't go wrong with this book and Dr. Kaiser's second book, "Detour" if you have any interest in Amish life and culture.



3. It's been awhile since I've read this book, but I really enjoyed it. Dr Kaiser's book takes you inside Amish homes where she delivers their babies. What really struck me was the fact that many Amish women keep working...canning food...sewing...cooking... right up until the time they are ready to lay down and push the baby out! Dr Kaiser fights her way through snow storms, battles attacking farm dogs and deals with some quirky Amish people which makes for some very entertaining reading!



4. Dr. Kaiser was a no-nonsense country doctor for many years in the Pennsylvania Dutch country. She delivered babies at home for the Old-Order Amish and Mennonites, sometimes arriving at the farmhouse by sleigh, if necessary. She writes with astonishing detail about her patients, their humor and lifestyle. Dr. Kaiser got stuck in mud, snow, was sometimes unavoidably to late to get the baby delivered, but she always treated her patients with deep respect and loving care.



5. A truly educational experience in the first person. Grace Kaiser has done an excellent job of documenting her many years of experience as a Practicing Physician living amongst the Amish people. She leaves nothing to the imagination on her birthing experiences. Learned much from reading this book of short stories.

5 comments about Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman---and the First Great Scandal of Eighteenth-Century America.

1. ....though 215 years later we still have a reasonable doubt as to who was guilty of unwisdom [I know that's not really a word, but it works]. This fine book is available at the John Marshall House, in Richmond, as it should be, sheved with its direct competition, "Scandal at Bizarre", by Cynthia Kierner.
   
   The basic facts are simple, though the implications are still in debate...on October 1, 1792, Richard Randolph, his wife Judith, and wife's sister Nancy, travelled to the home of their cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Randolph Harrison. Nancy had been gaining weight, and not feeling well. Further, it had been said that she and Richard had been showing more affection for each other than was proper. Anyway, during the night, Nancy screamed in pain, footsteps were heard on the steps, and, the next morning, the Harrison slaves started telling stories of a dead white baby in the woodpile, though no body was ever produced.....Richard was accused, first merely thru gossip, of having impregnated Nancy, and aborted the child....in April, 1793, Richard was put on trial for murder....somehow he managed to hire a "dream team" defense of John Marshall, Patrick Henry, and Alexander Campbell, and got off. But, his reputation, as well as Nancy's, was ruined....
   
   Nancy stayed on at Bizarre, even after Richard died in 1796. Judith, and Richard's brother Jack, later known as "John Randolph of Roanoke" made her life hell. After she left Bizarre, no decent person, especially the other Randolphs, would associate with her...she moved to New York, and found redemption in the person of legendary financier and Federalist politician Gouverneur Morris. She bore Morris a son, was a fine wife and mother, and withstood every challenge from Morris' family, and the ever present, ever evil, John Randolph of Roanoke.
   
   This is a great story, well told. [Could have used an index, though]. I've reviewed Dr. Crawford before ["Twilight at Monticello"], and he was five stars there, too. Super portrait of Jack--a drunken, dope addict, insane, brilliant, evil, eloquent, master user of people. Dr. Crawford does not find Jefferson guilty by association---thank you. Two small holes could easily have been filled in...Nancy and Judith's stepmother married Dr. John Brockenbrough...we are not told that he built a mansion on Clay street that in time was known as the "Gray House", but is now and forever some of the most sacred ground on earth..."The White House of the Confederacy". We are told that Mollie and David Meade built a house and combined their names to call it "Moldavia"---we might have liked to know that John Allan raised his stepson there---Edgar Allan Poe. All in all, an excellent book...superb glimpse of Virginia history, and social conditions. Along with Dr. Kierner's telling of the same tale, highly recommended.



2. I read a lot of biography and historical fiction and I was intrigued by the reviews of this book so I bought it. The print is large, there are many reproductions of paintings, and it's a rather quick read, but it's "pretty good" as far as historical biography goes. It was interesting to read a thumbnail sketch of the rise and fall of the Virginia tobacco farmers, and it was also a fun task to try and keep track of all of the Randalph's as they inter-married! The main problem that keeps the book from being truly wonderful is that the scandal and the main characters aren't very compelling to begin with and the author doesn't do much to infuse the story with any urgency. There a few points where I found myself wondering what would happen next, but for the most part I was simply mildly entertained and when I was finished I felt I'd read a decent book that further illuminated a period in American history for a me and also educated me about Nancy Randolph and her kinsmen.



3. I enjoy historical fiction and historical fact, but I found this book to be quite dull. The writing was not engaging, as the style seemed antiquated to me. I think I was expecting more of a modern interpretation of the story. Instead, this book reads like a Victorian gossip column. In short, neither the story nor the "scandal" was intriguing to me, not even as simple history. Apparently enjoyable by some, but it just wasn't what I expected.



4. The title is a little misleading, but this is still a great biography of Anne Cary Morris. The "scandal" is dealt with in several chapters and the remaining story tells of the disfunctional family of which she was a part of. It left me looking for more information about the remaining "cast of characters."



5. I got the book at my local library and just completed it. Mr. Crawford is good writer. I like that the chapters are short and the story line keeps moving.
   
   I see that he has a new book coming out on Jefferson's last years. The research from this book probably helped on the new one since the Randolph and Jefferson familes were related (cousins married cousins) and Jefferson's son-in-laws were also politicians. I really appreciated the family tree even though the larger family lines aren't complete.
   
   The main story line was not really resolved for me unless we are to believe Nancy's response to Jack in their later years. Did Nancy deliberately abort with her cousin's "medicine" or did she really miscarry? Was Nancy really pregnant by Theodorick who died before she delivered and not his brother Richard? How could Nancy go about in society as she "increased" without any censorship and why didn't any of her relatives, especially her sister who lived in the same house, know about the pregnancy?
   
   Some characters appear for only a few paragraphs yet interest me to find out more about them in other biographies or histories. I was surprised to see that President Adams was not liked and Jefferson was extremely political. Crawford shows the political parties switched platforms over time so current parties cannot claim ownership of ideas. I will be interested in reading more books about the early founders, politicians and other Americans. This taste of early years in congress was very interesting.

5 comments about Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan.

1. A riveting story, well-written, revealing mores and traditions which we have no idea of in America. The author was very brave to reveal what goes on in her native land between family members. Hopefully, this will lead to some reforms in Jordan.



2. I am pleased that somebody has finally started casting light on the reality of the Islamic world, which political correctists make out to be some kind of place full of flowers, pink fluffy bunnies etc. It seems that the BNP is right. This is essential reading for anyone involved in formulating immigration policy and highlights the dangers of allowing Muslims into our society. After having read this, it is clear that we will have to make some hard decisions: - let in Muslims and have everyone say "oh, how cosmopolitan you are!" and hear in the newspapers about this sort of crime all the time, or keep all Muslims out of the country and live in peace.



3. Norma Khouri had me fooled as well. I'm just sorry to see a profiteering huckster steer the spotlight away from the seriousness of domestic violence. I live in the US where about 5,000 women a year are murdered by angry ex-boyfriends, husbands, etc, and murder is the leading cause of death among pregnant women. In fact on the same day of the infamous murder of Nicole Brown Simpson another Nicole was also murdered by an angry ex-husband. Please don't let a dramatic hoax make you cynical. By the way I've come to believe that a lot of so called autobiographies contain varying amounts of fiction.



4. This was very interesting and I enjoyed it. I passed it on to my neighbor and she thought it was excellent also.



5. I lived in Amman, and I am familiar with every little detail of the area this so called author mentioned in her hoax. When I read the book, it was clear to me she was making the whole thing up. The place she worked did not exist. The streets and the places she mentioned are just that, fiction. It turns out she is a sought after criminal from Chicago. What compels people like her to write such a story, are simple: greed and hate.
   
   The story can be very moving to the naive who is not familiar with Jordan and the Middle East in general.
   This book is not worth the ink it is printed with. Don't waste you time.

2 comments about The Book of Margery Kempe: The Autobiography of the Madwoman of God (Triumph Classic).

1. Margery Kempe was an extraordinary and driven woman who lived in a time (1373~1440s) when that was nearly unheard of, and certainly not recorded for the present generation. Her book is generally accorded to be the first autobiography written in English, an amazing feat considering she was a woman, and that she could neither read nor write. In her narration to a scribe, she described her spiritual journey through life and her love of God, and in the process gives us a glimpse of the historical world that she lived in. It is translated from old english and is broken into many small, loosely-chronological chapters, each describing an aspect of some incident or journey.

   If you are interested in medieval history, Christianity, mysticism or feminism, this is a great book to try. Its format might be a little hard to get into at first, because it is written in the third person and jumps about from topic to topic, but the introduction should fill you in on most aspects - the only problem is that this introduction is more geared towards sensationalizing Margery's experience, rather than celebrating it. Some readers do feel that Margery was mentally ill because of her wild devotional behaviors and her abnormal lifestyle, but it is equally regarded that her panache, courage and true love of her deity that made her so different.

   Margery Kempe was an eccentric wandering pilgrim for most of the time covered in the book, and she shares her exploits such as being tried for heresy before powerful men like the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, fighting and winning the right to a chaste marriage from her husband, going on Pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome with a group that despised her, getting chased out of towns and made fun of by monks. It also includes the spiritual side, which include Margery's direct conversations with God, her explanations of her loud, uncontrollable crying fits, her passionate love of Jesus and her knowledge of Catholic and Biblical doctrine.

   The Book of Margery Kempe has been translated and introduced by many different authors, and it would be my suggestion to find one other than this if you're interested in Margery - such as the one by Penguin Classics translated by B.A. Windeatt - ones that use research and scholarship rather than sensationalism to bolster the amazing story of this historical figure.




2. This book manages to be of interest to anyone who wishes a travelogue of medieval pilgrimages, a humble recognition that even the oddest among us can have their minds very occupied with the divine, a look at the first autobiography of an English woman, or a case study in obsessive compulsive behaviour. Margery's disjointed recollections, coupled with her constant references to her revelations and retroactive "virginity," admittedly are not a fun pursuit, but her extreme case does seem to place much of the deficiencies inherited from the worst in medieval spirituality (a legacy of the Plague ... even if the best of the era was the finest in history) into perspective. I guarantee that, while one may find Margery as troublesome as did those of her time and place, one will never find her recollections dull.

No comments about Far More Precious Than Jewels: Perspectives on Biblical Women (Gender and the Biblical Tradition).