No comments about The Diva Principle: Divine Inspiration for Victorious Attitude.

5 comments about Somebody to Love?: A Rock-and-Roll Memoir.

1. The first two thirds of the book are pretty good, although it's obvious that she keeps many secrets untold. Not as much detail about her early life as I would have liked. It's obvious that she has lead a very interesting life, but I got the impression that she's not ready to tell the whole story yet. The final third of the book can be skipped unless you want to hear about her political (extremely left) views, which more or less reads like any other left wing ranting.



2. I have been a Grace Slick fan when I first heard Jefferson Aiplane. To me, I don't think there's a better female vocalist than her. Just my opinion here. I wanted to know more about her and what makes her tick so what better way than to read her autobiography?
   Grace is an honest woman at least in her book, she isn't afraid to tell how she feels about everything from the government to sex to the guys in the band. It's a very fun read, and I looked forward to reading it each night after I went to bed. You become aware after a little reading that there's a hell of a lot more to Grace Slick than just her beautiful voice and goregous looks. She is a very intelligent woman has her own ideas about everything and doesn't just follow the crowd. If she thinks something is stupid, emabarassing she won't do it.
   I came away from the book feeling like Grace was my next door neighbor. I also felt like I had a heart to heart talk with her for hours. I think she's a great woman, totally beautiful with a voice to match. I really liked this book. If you feel like I do and would like to get to know Gracie a little better buy this book. There's nothing boring in it at all. A very good read, and written by a woman with a great vocabulary as well. If you are just curios about her buy the book.



3. Grace is still driving my magic bus through wonderland. This is a lesson on how to live and get the most out of the lives we are lucky to be blessed with. The best line is about Jim Morrison (about how through all the drugs, he could still f**k through the fog). The honesty here is unlike most autobiographies, especially where she laments on the drawbacks of recording a solo album when the process is so much better with the already assembled band that made her a star.



4. Ah, those misanthropic hippies, The Jefferson Airplane, slapped together one discombobulated hotrod. Meandering riffs, Arabian exotica, distorto guitar, open-mike sci-fi and degenerated jazz - plus the mighty yowl of Woodstock's pissiest broad! Impossible, irascible and insincere, Grace Slick - like contemporary Frank Zappa - plonked the love song.
   
   Asked about her singular role and attendant recognition as a chick in an otherwise guys' band, Slick quipped, "Well, if you had five cows and a pig, you'd look at the pig, right?" Dig that genderf00cking analogy! Even when Slick exploited the sexist trip (lifting her skirt in concert, waving an exposed boob for the cover of Creem), she always exuded a macabre disembodiment of oohlala. Such coarse pranks fell in line with her other alcoholic misbehaviors, such wearing blackface for a power salute on TV (in '68!) or going onstage in Berlin wearing a Nazi uniform. (Was she drawing upon childhood recollections of her crossdressing father?)
   
   Unlike poor, weapy Janis Joplin, stentorian Slick never put out. Her most sensitive performance, David Crosby's slippery free-love meditation, "Triad," turns male hedonism on it's gooey head, while her most rocking self-penned number, "Lawman," posits a grassed-up Slick kapowing a (male) cop to smithereens. Top that, Tania! Last but not least, the pornographic "Across The Board" has Slick caterwauling about "seven inches of pleasure" with all the powdered muliebrity of Evel Knievel.
   
   In grammatically correct prose, Slick has another twisted ditty to sing, and here's it is.



5. 
   
   
   
   This book is like a series of tangents. It must have been nerve-wracking for Andrea Cagan to sit and listen to all this. The thing reads like Grace was hopped up on caffeine throughout. Her export of information to the pages is eratic; for example, no clear statement of her ancestry, but she makes a comment about her parent's "Edwardian Background" (does she mean they were from Britain? Two Brits who graduated from U of W in Seattle and had babies in Chicago and the Bay Area?) and suddenly, several lines down, mid-paragraph drops this: that her folks had neither the Italian or Jewish cultural/social stamp. So, what does this particular non-sequitur mean? Where her folks Italian and Jewish? In another part of the book she says part of her mother's clan came over on the Mayflower. Italian Jewish Separatists? In another bio source, her dad's side is described as Norwegian-Scandinavian- Grace makes no mention of that either. She does make is clear that she had nothing but disdain (and apparently still nothing but) for her folk's middle-class, quesi-elitist background (father worked hard, got ahead in a career as a white collar worker with a respected firm, was able to keep his family in nice homes and circumstances his whole life) well, at least Grace didn't have to grow up in a ghetto or impoverished farm like Ottis Redding or somebody like that. And in this vein, she can really sound like a 58-year old brat. She also still harbors the tired cliche political views of her time, like we live in an "F-'d up" country, she refers to Nixon as Tricky-Dick, etc. And reveals that back in high school and college, she slept through American history classes. Well, that figures! `Cause it show in her book! And oh, we are treated to the description of how she ended up in bed with Jim Morrison and Airplane bassist Jack Cassidy: like we really need that as revelatory material, anyone who knows anything about this broad already knows before picking up this book that Grace was the most promiscous Rock babe this side of Angie Bowie. She also seems to love to drop names- and in silly, pretentious ways; like she claims to have been listening to the Miles Davis album Sketches of Spain four dozen consecutive times before writing her song "White Rabbit" and this just smacks to me of status-glomming in this age of yuppies refering to their jazz album collection like they'd refer to the Mercedes and BMW sitting in their garage.
   
   The illustration package does make the book worth the price of admission- some good vintage photos and a few samples of Grace's own gook often spooky art work.
   
   
   
   
   

No comments about Judith Sargent Murray: A Brief Biography with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture).

5 comments about A Strong West Wind: A Memoir.

1. Judging a book from the cover, I expected a story about a little girl feeding chickens and helping Ma and Pa. What I got was a beautifully written account of someone who grew up in Texas, now in her 50's looking back on the settling smoke and dust of her years as a rebellious child. (I rightfully did get some chickens in the latter part of the book as she became more mature, so the book was not a disappointment to me.)
   
   This book is "required reading" for anyone who is in their 50's. I was born in 1948 in California - I can relate to this fellow time traveler. I am father of a daughter of similar temperament. Gail's lucid thoughts about her father are insightful for this father in understanding myself and my daughter. I judge the best part of the book was about her father.
   
   I appreciate how carefully written this book is. She writes of the years from the perspective of what was important to her at the time. She glosses over her family in the early years as "annoying people" - but later in her account she goes back to them with the maturity of years to seek them out and treasure them, not as care-givers but as links to who she is and to appreciate them for who they are and what struggles they had to endure. The book shifts from "me" to "them".
   
   Any book that makes me cry real tears gets 5 stars.



2. A Strong West Wind: A Memoir. By Gail Caldwell. 228 pp. Random House. Caldwell has been in the northeast for some decades now, along with her Pulitzer Prize for book reviews in the Boston Globe. Her own words are the most compelling invitation to read her volume on her life, especially her Texas home. She writes that "my want for Texas was so veiled in guilt and ambiguity that I couldn't claim it for the sadness it was. I missed the people and the land and the sky -- my God I missed the sky -- but most of all I missed the sense of placid mystery the place evoked, endemic there as heat is to thunder. You can be gone for years from Texas, I now believe, and still be felled by such memories." Then there's "Mine is a story that begins with the fragments of dreams on the most desolate of prairies, where a child came of age listening to the keening of dust storms drown out the strains of Protestant hymns." Listen to this one, "The past has no compass. I know this now as surely as I know that the land itself has a voice, capable of keening. Anyone who finds this a pathetic fallacy has never lain on a rock in high wind. It's hard listening, God in the vortex and all that, because the answers there usually have nothing to do with the questions posed. You have to walk out into it to learn anything."
   Further on, while unloading her father's shotgun for his protection she "realized how I must look -- a barefoot woman in the yard with a rifle in her arms -- and I remembered where I was and thought, Oh hell, it's Texas, no one would even care." Place this one on the shelf for literature.



3. Memoirist Gail Caldwell is unable to make up her mind in "A Strong West Wind," her recounting of the Texas panhandle influences that formed her character. A distinguished Pulitzer-Prize winning literary critic, Caldwell repeatedly emphasizes the role of books in childhood. In so doing, however, the author never establishes a relationship with the reader. Instead, Caldwell uses a ham-handed approach by showing off just how many books she has read and how many literary allusions match her life's experiences. Making readers scurry for either a dictionary or a compendium of "Who's Who" in literature, she is little more than a pretentious, self-obsessed show-off in more than half the book. When Caldwell dispenses with her need to prove to the world that she has read every important book ever printed and focuses on the significant events and people in her life, her memoir comes to life. Caldwell's treatment of family, social upheaval and war rings with courage, truth and sensitivity.



4. Ms. Caldwell from the beginning states clearly the purpose of her narrative: "How do we become who we are? What shapes our mind and heart?"
   
   A tough and complex question for sure. One that is reflected in each page of a necessary mosaic that comes together at the end when you stand back and realize there is no pure answer or explanation, for our becoming (I think) never ends. This for me is the beauty of the story. For it leaves, and in a way, exposes us, to our ourselves. And, the strange mystery of who we are, or possibly who are we meant to be.
   
   Enough of us run, or avoid in one way or another as best we can for years, the toughness of that question. We do not stand alone in this world. We are not the masters of our fate. Ms. Caldwell with courage
   confronts the question as honestly as she can, presenting her story. And without imposing any imperatives or final solutions leaves the rest up to us.
   
   The author states she wrote the narrative to 'fill the hole in her heart'for a lost friend. A hole she has filled with love and understanding that can harvest a grain to feed others in their hunger for meaning, beauty and, I think, even with my limited sight, for those who want to see, a purpose in life.



5. I grew up one street over from Gail in Amarillo. She was in my sister's car pool (at Tascosa High) for a while. My strongest recollection is when she would get in the car, although my presence was rare, she always had a big smile for me--as opposed to the usual grimace I got from my sister's other friends as they charmingly asked "what's your little brother doin' here?". Yes, I was a little smitten with Gail--albeit 40 years ago--so my review may carry a certain bias....
   
   This book amazingly evokes the Amarillo of many years ago. Yes, the winds were/are horrific. Yes, the political climate was/is ultraconservative. I could not help but have an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia for many of the feelings, landmarks, and memories she, in my opinion, lovingly conveys. I was taken aback that some of the other reviewers appear somewhat offended by the author's rendition of the city. However, Amarillo is not for everyone. Because Gail chose not make it her permanent home, I viewed this as a testament to her desire and courage to outstandingly succeed (come on, people, we're talking the Pulitzer here) in a world and profession probably unavailable to her in the Texas Panhandle.
   
   Broad strokes rather than brass tacks. For those unacquainted with the northern plains of Texas, the prose is beautifully evocative. I was fascinated with the successful combination of lyricism, southern "down hominess", and, yet, the in-your-face bravado of a Texas Panhandle native. It was very telling to see how her world of books/reading shaped her life/outlook in tandem with the Caldwell family dynamics. Viewing one's youthful world more through a parent's eyes is hardly specific to the South, even if it is, perhaps, more of a mainstay. The fierce independence attributed to most Texas natives comes later in life--bent and shaped by a tribal sense of--if not "us against them", at least "we are unique"--as one begins to formulate views of his/her relationship to the rest of the country and world.
   
   Bravo, Gail. I look forward to another book. Congratulations on your many achievements.

5 comments about Playing for Time.

1. This is the story of a French singer who spent 2± years in a Nazi concentration camp. Saved because of her musical abilities, FF spent her internment as a member of an all-women's orchestra which played for the camp's leaders. It is a strange tale, not especially well or clearly written--essentailly stuff for a holocaust junkey. Compared to Martin Goldsmith's The Unestinquishable Symphony, this book is definitely second tier.



2. The story has been known for many years, but this book puts in focus, by a survivor, the insanity of a lesser known action then the case at Auschwitz. A well told personal experience by someone willing to put down for history something that needed to be said. No matter how many years I've studied, and the many survivors I've known who have shared fragments, this clear telling in print for generations to come is a treasure.



3. This is an absolutely incredible book. An already powerful story it is taken to a new level by the constant reminder that this is first hand experience.

   It is perfect for nearly anyone, the musician will relate to the music, the historian to the accuracy and the avid reader will simply latch on and be unable to let go.

   It brought tears to my eyes.




4. Playing for Time, a grade-A book by Fania Fenelon, is a document not only about the Holocaust, but one that goes deeper: it shows how music brought redemption of spirit in the Hell of Hells. When Fania and her friend are brought to the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, she is recognized by a girl in the camp's orchestra as a Parisian caberet singer. She is accepted in to the orchestra, where she is forced to sing the opera Madame Butterfly for the SS. Fania does not let the hardships of the camp take over her spirit, though. She uses music as a weapon, and, as an orchestrator as well as singer for the group, she orchestrates marches by Jews and anti-Nazis right under the noses of her captors, who never catch on. Fania's love of music allows her to survive Auschwitz, and when she is sent with the rest of the "Orchestra Girls" to Bergen-Belsen near the end of the war, her passion for life pulls her through a severe case of typhus. One day she learns that the Nazis are going to shoot the prisoners of Bergen-Belsen at 3:00 that afternoon. The English arrive at the camp at 11:00 that same morning. Fania just barely survived the war, and afterwards she returned to Paris and started again as a caberet singer. She died of cancer in her hometown in 1983. Playing for Time teaches us many things. It teaches us that the human spirit cannot be killed. It teaches us that good always wins over evil. And it teaches us that if you have a love, stick to it. One day it might just save your life.



5. I read this book a number of years ago. It left an indelible mark. It is the story of women survivors in a concentration camp. They literally "played for time," with musical instruments. The movie "Life is Beautiful" brought this book to mind this week. That is why I looked it up. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about courage in the face of adversity. The remarkable will to survive demonstrated by the women portrayed in this book is inspiring and unforgettable.

4 comments about Ladies of Seneca Falls (Studies in the Life of Women).

1. This was an excellent historical account of the early phase of the women's rights movement It provides the background of several of the woman viewed as leaders of the women's movement. It provides a perspective and offers details which other accounts fail to provide. The struggles of the women who were at the forefront of the women's movement in its early years is lucidly presented. It is a well written account and added substantially to my knowledge of the early phases of the movement. I highly recommend the book.



2. Our (usually fiction-reading) book club read this in October, 2004. I avoided starting it for a long time, but as soon as I got past the first chapter, I couldn't put it down. It was amazingly well-written with wonderful stories of the women who only earned a passing mention in our 7th-grade history books. This book made me see how many dedicated and strong women were needed to make a basic change in American culture and made each member appreciate her right to vote so much more in the November 2004 election.



3. An overview of the women's suffrage movement in the United States during the 18th. Century. This was a time when the legislature of Tennessee declared that women could not own property since they had no souls. In the few states where a women could own property, she had no voice over its taxation, a complaint the Founding Fathers had against the English crown. The book begins with a series of sketchy biographies, and then tells the tale very ably. If you know little of the American suffrage movement two centuries ago, this is a good primer. Truly makes you respect Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, giants in the quest for freedom for all. The irony of newly freed black male slaves, totally unbooked, refusing to be taught by an educated person because they were female and therefore beneath them, was an interesting cocktail of prejudice. Even the great Even Frederick Douglass spoke about his concern that black male suffrage should proceed a woman's...either white or black. Susan B. Anthony thought that equal meant just that, equal rights for both women, blacks, and the white males.

   "Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences." -Susan B. Anthony, 1860.




4. A thorough, easily-read, fascinating book about the early American Women's Rights movement. I have read many books on this subject, and rate this as one of the highest in objectivity and appeal. Especially good as a springboard for those not already familar with the subject. Brush up on your HERstory!

5 comments about Beyond All Reason: My Life With Susan Smith.

1. Written by David Smith, who lost his infant and toddler sons when his wife sank her car with their children into a lake and watched it sink - and them drown. She then reported that she had been carjacked, and her children stolen. For nine days there was a media frenzy as the nation looked for those boys. I remember that.
   
   And then, finally, she confessed, and the car, and the boys, were found at the bottom of a lake. I thought his story would be compelling. It certainly is.
   
   If this story isn't an argument for abortion, I don't know what is. Of course, Susan Smith didn't choose abortion. She was a "Christian" and "didn't believe in abortion." She sure as hell didn't want to be a mother.
   
   She also had a narcissistic personality, as well as a narcissistic mother. Self-centered to the absolute maximum. No one existed outside of their own little world, no one else mattered.
   
   Susan Smith also had a stepfather who molested her. She may also have been an alcoholic, with very deep roots. This is a woman who desperately needed attention, and she was getting it the only way she knew how. Too bad no one else noticed...until it was too late.
   
   Amy Fisher: Anatomy of a Scandal : The Myth, the Media and the Truth Behind the Long Island Lolita Story



2. This book made me rather emotional. You learn about two teenagers who meet and fall in love. The young couple is David and Susan, and they both have a far from easy life behind them so far. Susan's parents had a violent relationship, and sometimes Susan's dad would threaten to kill Susan's mum. Three weeks after their divorce Susan's dad commits suicide, and a couple of weeks later Susan's mum remarries. Susan's new step-father sexually abuses her, and when her mum finds out, she decides to stay with her new man. Several members of Susan's family have committed or attempted to commit suicide, and some (like her father) have been too fond of alcohol.
   
   Even though David's family background may not be as bad as Susan's, his life hasn't been too easy either. His father tried to commit suicide, while his mother was very religious. In the end David decides to follow his brother and move in with his grandmother. Another blow happens in his life while he is dating Susan: His brother Daniel dies. Because Susan is pregnant, Susan's mother presses on and the young couple marries two weeks later.
   
   After reading the book and some additional information, I am sitting with the impression that these two should never have started a family. They were far too immature and their troubled background made things even worse. They fight a lot and both have extra-marital affairs. David seems to have big problems in sticking to one woman at the time. Susan's second pregnancy is a tough one, and David seems too immature to face it. He finds new love with Tiffany, and instead of staying with his pregnant wife and baby Michael, he spends his time with her. For a short while David splits up with Tiffany, and she becomes crazy and starts to keep David and his family awake at night. My opinion is that David does little to protect his family during this time.
   
   Shortly after Alexander's birth Susan and David parts again, and just over a year later; in a period of six weeks Susan has four lovers: Her boyfriend, her boyfriend's father, Susan's stepfather and David.
   
   In the middle of all this there are two small innocent babies: Michael and Alexander. They are bystanders, while their parents try to figure out their lives. Their lives gets a very cruel and tragic end when their disturbed mother kills them.
   
   It wasn't difficult to get through the book, even though the narrative is of average quality. Still, the picture of these two innocent children and their father's story about their short lives, make this into a book it is very difficult to forget.



3. This is an incredible book. Instead of writing a book and claiming he was the perfect guy and he was the victim, David told it how it was (unlike Susan Smith's mother, who also wrote a book that basically blamed everyone but Susan and the Russell family). He admitted that he was at times a bad husband. Both he and Susan were immature in their marraige. He made mistakes. But, he and Susan were perfect parents. Which makes this case all the more puzzling.

   Why would Susan murder her two boys like this?! I get so angry. At 14, no one my age understands how I feel. All the way through this book, I kept having to stop and ask myself WHY. WHY didn't she give MIchael and Alex to David. WHY didn't she tell anyone that she didn't want those babies anymore. WHY did she drown them? WHY did she let their bodies rot for nine days?!

   I sympathize for David. It's happy to report that he has a new wife and two more kids (Savannah and Nicholas), but imagine that, everytime one of your kids do something, everytime something new in a tabloid or the mail shows up about the case, the facts come hurling back to you.

   David, you are one strong man!!!




4. This was such a sad bad. Like David Smith said, "Remember who are the true victims in all this, Miicheal and Alex, NOT Susan Smith! It was a good and fast reading and I a book is so much better when it's write by a person who the story concern them and not from a famous writer, is even better when the writer is not a writer, so from people who said this book is good but the editing is bad, I don't see what is bad, I thought the book was very good and it comming from the heart and soul to who that real story had happen, you can feel his pain! Everybody was saying how Susan was too good for David, my God it was the other way around, David was too good for Susan. Susan was picture as like a hot, sexy girl, sorry to me she look like a ordinary house wife and kinda chubby, she come from the South right? Yeah she do look like redneck, the way she dress and wear her hair are out of fashion even in 90th, well I am out of context here but can't help saying that to me see doesn't look hot stuff and one of the book with her glasses and her hair pine up she look like a geek! Like David Smith said, the two persons who love her the most, (their kids), she had killed them, how can a mother do this to her own children and said she love them? Why David Smith want so much the death penalty for Susan, if she got a soul she suffer much more in prison, well if she got one. She seem only to think for herself and feel pity for herself. Killing her children because she was in love with a guy that didn't want a family allready made, so she killed her kids and to have the pity of the man she love she make a a big lie that a man took over her car and push her out put kept the kids. Did she really think she could live with the rest of her life with that story and have back the man she love? She was stupid, he was also having other affair and like I said Susan is no hot thing, why he would go with her? Still a part of me pity her, if she really was having depression it can make you do stupid things, yeah maybe she was really insane!



5. It was fascinating to hear the story from an iside perspective.Its so awful all around.David Smith must be a strong man to have went on with life like he did.I think Susan was seriously crazy, so I do feel a touch of sympathy for her. Its awful what happened to those poor kids.

4 comments about Diana Style: Foreword by Manolo Blahnik.

1. Although I am still reading through this book, I am enjoying reading details about the fashion side of her life. It's a nice change from speculation about the rest of her life. The pictures of her fashion style bring back pleaseant memories of how I would like to remember the princess, as the beautiful woman she was. The commentaries from the designers are also loving written and offer details about the princess that add something to the pictures.



2. This is a great book if you are a fan of Princess Diana or just a fan of her fashion. The book is full of great pictures. I highly recommend this book to any Princess Diana fan!



3. I agree with the review left by "Dressmaker": save your money and buy it used, if buy it you must. There is only one picture, a fashion drawing by Roland Klein, that doesn't appear in lots (and lots!) of other Diana fashion books. The text contains a number of glaring errors of general fact, date, and dress description that could have been easily checked. For a very minor example, the Travolta Gown was described on one page as black, and on the next, as ink blue. Shouldn't a "fashion expert" have known the color of one of Diana's most famous gowns? Many of the designer comments are also available elsewhere, in better books.
   
   That said, the text is an interesting take on Diana's use of clothing to make a statement, and her gradual development of the style associated with her at any given period. You won't see anything new here and shouldn't believe everything you read here, either -- by a long shot. If McDowell can't get his facts right, what weight should a reader give to his opinions?



4. This book, on an ever-popular topic, is not as complete or well-illustrated as other, similar books such as "Dressing Diana," "Diana, Queen of Style," or "Diana: The Secrets of Her Style." However, it is more thoughtful in its analysis of her fashions and how they changed over the years. Most such books just burble about her eternal beauty and perfection; this one acknowledges some missteps and gaucheries from time to time, while appreciating her growth and maturity.
   
   I noticed a couple of mistakes: A reference to a pearl necklace that Diana supposedly wore on her wedding day (she didn't wear a necklace at all) and stating that Fergie's gown was made of satin, just like Diana's (Diana's was taffeta). Odd mistakes, considering all you have to do is look at the photos to check the facts.
   
   Overall, this is a nice little book with some good observations, but if you want lots of photos, buy one of the other Diana fashion books.

4 comments about Memoir of a Race Traitor.

1. Growing up in the so-called 'post civil' rights era with intergrated schooling, myself and other 'white' liberals do not conciously realize what risks our own involvement with this social change entailed for all demographics.
   
   Sure we muse about how we also would have participated in sit-ins...etc if we had been born generations earlier, but would we have actually followed through on those same pronouncements?
   
   Because her own family was involved in segregation activities, Segrest had an involuntary front-seat to the politics of hatred. This same enviroment unintentionally provided the reinforcement that the white Segrest needed to battle racism begining in the 1960's.
   
   Thus, unlike some people who would write this book today only to appear 'politically correct', Segrest has genuine empowerment intentions: She knows that although it is a part of her family's (and the community's past) racisim was not (and is not) right for anybody. It is also possible to love your own family while strongly opposing their politics---and judgements upon yourself.
   
   Segrest's innate ability to interconnect various social justice struggles with each other is another strength of this work. Racism, sexism, and homophobia are all different facets of the same bigotry. Preventing full community potential from being realized, all forms of discrimination must be abolished without exception. There is no such thing as 'acceptable' bigotry.
   
   Segrest can get too self-righteous at times for some readers(she is hardly the only person in the world who has worked against her own family's politics!), but this book stil expertly explores a VERY personal and political issue not fully addressed in our supposedly more enlightened times.



2. I write this review to praise Mab Segrest's brilliant, beautiful writing: stylistically lovely, deeply insightful, politically powerful. This book is a must read for anyone invested in US cultural politics from the perspective of a passionate activist and incredibly talented writer (and speaker -- I had the privilege of seeing Mab live and she's FABULOUS).



3. This book showcases the filthy ravings of a truly degenerate "human being." Read it for insight into the mind of a truly depraved individual.



4. This diary is fast moving and entertaining, yet it doesn't lose it's impact. Mab Segrest is an activist who has been working against the fascist right for many years. Her focus has been primarily on issues related to race, but she also touches on issues related to being a lesbian. Mab was raised in a family who actively worked to prevent the desegregation of schools, so her diary includes some interesting insights into what it's like to be actively working on political and social fronts that are opposite to those held by your immediate family. She also clearly and completely describes some heartbreaking work she did in the 80s - work that involved investigating the murders of several people, some of which were her friends and mentors. The events and the governmental abuses that led to these deaths are disturbing, yet described without a hint of sensationalism or propaganda - just honesty, and sorrow. The book ends with a 100 page history of the USA in in the past few decades, with an emphasis being placed on race relations and gay and lesbian issues. There's a lot of information in this little biography, and all of it's extremely well written. I highly recommend it.

3 comments about The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband from Atheist to Priest.

1. There are many excellent books written about Catholic Christian spirituality by saints who were priests, monks or religious sisters. "The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur" is unique because it is the spiritual diary writings of a married woman. There are many married women today seeking holiness in their lives as wives and mothers. This is a book for them! They will find profound and useful spiritual direction in the words of Elisabeth Leseur, whose love for God gave her a steadfast, faithful and fruitful love for her husband. I can't recommend this book highly enough to women who are seeking holiness in their vocation of marriage.



2. The joy and hope that many evidently find in atheism is a puzzle to believers. For such, the In Memoriam written by Elisabeth Leseur's husband is worth the price of this book. He was a militant atheist for most of their 25-year marriage, while she grew in her faith and from love for him kept her prayers for him secret. Both were highly educated; Felix had lost his faith in studying medicine, was later a journalist and an insurance executive. They were childless, due probably to Elisabeth's many health problems. However, she was able to travel and to entertain until stricken with cancer and dying at the age of 53. The Elisabeth Leseurs of the world are usually unsung. But this diary, rescued by her sister from the burnpile, converted her husband Felix not only to Christianity but to the priesthood. It is a true love story.



3. 'My Spirit Rejoices'& 'Light in the Darkness'
   or 'The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur' - Sophia Institute Press

   It is not often that one finds a book of such vital import that it changes one's life. But the journal kept by Elisabeth Leseur is surely one of the most compelling books I have read in many years. It ranks with the great works of the Carmelite Saints: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Therese of Lisieux.

   For many years now I have kept Elisabeth as my companion during Lent; a great Spiritual Director in an age of darkness. She holds the light of Eternal Truth and points out the way with calm assurance.

   Elisabeth experienced an extreme degree of spiritual isolation owing to the timbre of her times in Paris high society. Her husband was aggressively atheist, as were many of his friends and associates. She kept the love of God deep in her heart, and it was to the Heart of Jesus to whom she turned for daily solace.

   At Elisabeth's death her husband, Felix, found her secret journal; and as he read the pages of the journal, his heart turning to remorse, the last vestige of his hatred for the Catholic Church was swept away in the tide of his beloved wife's counsel. Reconciling to the Church, Felix Leseur entered a seminary and became a Catholic priest. Elisabeth's cause for Canonization is now open at the Vatican.