2 comments about Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters.

1. This book captures every aspect of Mary Shelley's life that evolved into her fictive imagination. The readers are introduced to much less popular works such as The Last Man, Lodore and Mathilda which actually give a unique perspective to Frankenstein. For myself there were some places I felt I was given too many examples, I had already figured out Mellor's point several paragraphs before, but the book makes every possible attempt to explain the novels so that everyone understands.



2. This book is an excellent text for the study of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. It will fascinate those interested in the life of Mary Shelley, students studying Frankenstein, and those interested in learning about an 19th Century woman writer, who wrote a novel about a monster that has since become a universal archetype of isolation and societal rejection. In this text, it is demonstrated how events in Mary Shelley's life, her fears of motherhood, and her study of current philosophic and scientific theories all contributed to the development of the novel. Mary Shelley is proven to be an intelligent and complex woman writer of the Romantic Literary tradition

2 comments about Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1929-1932.

1. I had read of the Lindberghs and of the famous kidnapping before reading this book, but wasn't prepared for the poignant and honest writing by Anne. To read about her life as a newlywed who flew with her husband in the early days of aviation was enthralling, and to read of their problems being pursued and photographed reminded me of Princess Diana being hounded by the paparazzi. The Lindberghs were pioneers in aviation, and were public figures without wishing to be ... how sad that their first child was stolen and then found dead. I was moved to tears reading Anne's descriptions of her son while mourning him; I can't imagine living through such a horrible experience. Her writing is true and beautiful and honest ... a rare treasure.



2. This is one of the most wonderful books I've ever read. Being only 23 years old the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby was before my time however, this story is timeless. Beautifully written complete with diary entries and family pictures. This book is a true literary classic to be enjoyed by every generation. An honest journey into the heart of a young girl, wife and mother.

2 comments about A League of Dangerous Women: True Stories from the Road to Redemption.

1. Women's Ministry leader and founder of a recovery program for women, Wellspring Living, author Mary Frances Bowley knows well each person described in A League of Dangerous Women. With compassion rather than condemnation, following the precepts laid down in Scripture, letting her Lord relate to each distressed women He brings her, Bowley has rich experience and deep truths to share. Be prepared to be dynamited out of your rut. Our God is a God of miracles, and this is a book of miracles happening right now in the lives of desperate, terribly abused, totally lost women. Not only does the Lord save, He washes white as snow and sends the washed ones out to witness for Him.
   
   Meet Danielle, physically, verbally, and sexually abused in childhood, as she makes a desperate bid to rise out of the mire of drug addiction and prostitution. How did she find Jesus? One desperate day, after hearing about the Lord, she opened the front door and asked Jesus to come in and be her best friend and walk with her forever. And the miracles began to happen.
   
   Meet Tracy who went to Church yet was betrayed by the parents who took her there. The forces of darkness reached out to claim her and drive her into deathly desperation. She tried suicide, alcohol, drugs, sex, and an abortion. When nothing else helped, she called unto the Lord, and from then on, no matter how dark the way became, God continually reached out until Tracy stumbled into His arms and her miracles.
   
   Including Danielle and Tracy, there are 14 such biographies in A League of Dangerous Women. This volume closes with a special prayer, one useable by all people, written by Tracy
   
   This is a must-read book. If you are desperate or know one chained by desperation, here are answers. If you live in a nice Christian cocoon, here is your wake up call. If the Lord is calling you to ministry, Bowley's memoirs and insights will help you. If you are not a Christian, read and see just how God can work. - Donna Eggett, Christian Book Previews.com



2. People with nothing to lose are dangerous, but not to the extent that those who have everything to give are.
   
   Mary Bowley demonstrates that the most dangerous people "count it all joy" by looking at the bigger picture. They do this with an unshakable faith that all will be well, no matter what circumstances look like at this moment. Such people have come through the fires of hell in one piece and have survived--No, they have prospered. Now they spread the good word of hope, and this is the lesson of A League of Dangerous Women: If we know it, then we can achieve it, and then we will facilitate it for others.
   
   Groups of women have been dangerous in the past, among them America's suffragettes of the19th and 20th centuries. Some men and women alike that opposed their right to vote abused them. Just as disturbingly today, some women are abused in more ways, starting as early as infancy when they are molested, raped, belittled, beaten, burned, neglected, starved, and thrown out. Further, because of peer pressure and spousal abandonment, many American women fall victim to drug addiction, alcoholism, unwed pregnancy, cult lifestyles, homelessness, poverty, prostitution, and suicide.
   
   With nothing left to lose, these women come to Wellspring and its way station home, where the staff and residents show that God is still in the healing business. Wellspring Living's motto is: "Changing Our World by Changing Hers."
   
   The staff members are in recovery as well, or at least have a calling to help, but they all receive more than they invest. Friends, family, church, and the legal system refer young broken women. Any of their stories, recorded as chapters, could stand alone as an important film. Together, they make a formidable team that cannot stop what God has started, but only help to finish it: growth, independence, and blessings.
   
   These women progressed from broken vessels, to women dangerous to themselves and others, to heroes boldly dangerous for God and His promises for healing, deliverance, and truth through salvation in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. They won't settle for less, and it's all real.
   
   This book is for any woman--middle school girls to senior citizen. I hope that women everywhere can become so dangerous.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: Those wonderful "dangerous" women get a lot done.

3 comments about Catherine the Great: A Short History.

1. This book is so dry...very hard to finish. It tells very little about Catherine. Way too much about Russian history leading up to her rule.



2. A tad dry but a good history of a very complex woman who moved Russia into the modern era. If you want to know Russian history this is a must read.



3. Catherine is one of history's most complex, intelligent, strong-willed and resourceful women. de Mariaga's account is accurate and straightforward. Though she lacks the rhetorical flourish and eye-for-drama that makes Troyat's bio such a joy to read, de Mariaga pays closer attention to historical detail and gives the reader a keener sense of the political atmosphere Catherine faced and then recreated in her image.

   de Mariaga doesn't dwell long on Catherine's formative years, dealing with the entire period from German childhood to ascension to the Russian throne in the prologue. She does mention the effect that Plutarch, Tacitus and Montesquieu had on the fifteen year Catherine. When the Swede, Count Gyllenborg urged her to read these authors, Catherine acted on the suggestion by ordering the library of the Academy of Sciences and its bookshop be sent to her. The books, when they came, were over the head of a fifteen-year old, but she turned to them later in life. de Mariaga tells us that years later, while awaiting news from Potemkin during the second Turkish campaign, Catherine (along with her newest consort, Zubov) distracts herself by translating Plutarch' Lives.

   Catherine had to deal with many powerful factions when she came to power, following Peter II's secret assassination by the Orlov's. Some of the aristocratic members of her early cabinet, especially Panin, were hoping for a parliamentarian form of government, with a select few advisors wielding the majority of the power. Catherine, with the backing of the Orlovs, displayed her mettle early on in circumventing such notions. As far as she was concerned, Russia would remain an an autocrcy. Yet she was diplomatic enough not to appear heavy-handed in her decision-making and gave the impression, even to those she disagreed with strongly, that she was considering their proposals. She gave into Panin on his idea of a councl, but it was to be fashioned by her, so the old idea of service to the sovereign was reinforced. Even so it took her a good five years to consolidate her authority and spoil the ambitions of those who wanted to keep her a figurehead regent serving only until the czarevich Paul reached his majority.

   de Mariaga stresses the importance of the assembly of 1767 in helping validate Catherine's rule and cementing her government. The assembly was important in that it allowed Catherine to come in contact with a wide cross-section of the Empire, and allowed her to confer new status on previously disenfranchised segments of the population (except the serfs, of course), at the expense of the nobility. The nobility found itself unable to resist Catherine's power-grab, for she was now speaking directly to "her children" with the divine voice of the Enlightenment. To have denounced her plan before a national assembly would have been tantamount to denouncing providence itself.

   Catherine epitomized the "enlightened despot." She combined the "enlightened" political model of Montesqieu with her own brand of absolute power. A case could be made that she wasn't so much power-hungry as unwilling to share policy-making with those less-enlightened than she; namely, the Russian nobility whom she saw (correctly) as interested primarily in maintaining their wealth and status.

   Catherine corresponded frquently with Voltaire. She brought Diderot to Russia. She wrote voluminously on subjects ranging from political science to drama. She was a Rennaissance Man in woman's garb in an Age of Enlightenment. Her diplomatic skills were exemplary. She could be ruthless and iron-fisted when the occasion dictated it. She, like Peter the Great before her, forged a new Russia, less dependent on old superstitions and the whip, more attuned to education and the new humanism. While her sexual proclivities have been vastly over-sensationalized, it could well be stated that in the area of bedroom-diplomacy Cleopatra was her only rival.

   Again, if you are a reader interested in good story-as-bio, stick to Troyat. If you are interested in the political panorama of 18th c. Russia, de Mariaga is the best guide I know of.

1 comments about Frida Kahlo (Best Seller Edivision).

1. The life of Frida Kahlo, one of the world's greatest women artists, is excellently portrayed in this book. Rauda Jamis manages to give us a unique insight of the pain, anguish and passion that fill the world of Frida. From her birth to her death, the book captures us and invites us to travel with Frida, as we identify ourselves more and more as we read, with this fascinating woman.

1 comments about Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy.

1. This is a book about a woman who made a difference. It is also the story of a woman's triumph over Victorian ideas about a woman's place and over personal uncrtainties. Jane Addams became a leading humanitarian and spokesperson for women but she also led struggles which enhanced the notion of democracy in this country and the world. Ms. Addams did not see democracy as neoconservatives see it today. She was not a fighter for capitalism or Republican values but rather for participation and inclusion. She was also a crusader for world peace.
   
   Jane Addams and her colleagues were not like 21st century Americans. She was practically humorless and was moved by moral imperatives almost unknown to us. However, she, aside from being the "real thing", was famous for her kindness to immigrants and children.
   
   This book deals with her early life and her humanitarian efforts in the United States. It discusses the founding of Hull House, one of the first settlement houses in this country, and relates the operation of Hull House to the awakening of Addams' interest in many important causes.
   
   The book is a good read for those who are interested in women's history or in the history of reform and, indeed, radicalism in this country (for she was a radical). It is well researched and written and does not try to turn Addams into a midwestern Mother Teresa.

4 comments about Hildegard of Bingen.

1. This book was well written and readable. I have 2 problems: not enough information was given about life in convents at that time, and the author assumes the reader knows as much as she does about her subject. Both of these are probably due to the author's enthusiasm and depth of knowledge about her subject. But I need the Intro to Hildegard, not the advanced version.



2. Sabina Flanagan's book provides a clear, coherent, and interesting account of Hildegard's life, without veering toward excessive speculation or sensationalism - always a temptation when dealing with topics like "vision" or "prophecy" or "faith healing." The book opens with a biographical overview of Hildegard's life, and of the context in which she lived. Succeeding chapters deal with the various dimensions of Hildegard's ministry. For the most part, the material is well-chosen; my only complaint would be the amount of attention given to her role as "healer." This chapter of the book has a certain arcane interest insofar as it reflects the culture and beliefs of the Middle Ages, but it is not an edifying or relevant discourse. For the most part, it is a somewhat belabored description of Hildegard's very non-scientific advice for healing various disorders. This was decidedly not her major contribution to human history. Other chapters deal with more significant and/or inspiring topics: Hildegard's role as administrator and pastoral theologian of sorts; her considerable contributions to the field of music; her writings and preaching; and her role as spiritual counselor.
   The book takes a bit of a downturn in the final chapter, when the author, albeit somewhat cautiously, hazards an interpretation of Hildegard's visionary experiences as being rooted in migraine headaches. Granted, the author admits that it is a major step from visionary to prophet, and that Hildegard's status as prophet cannot be reduced to neuro-physiological phenomena. Nevertheless, the thesis is forced, and highly speculative, since there is no objective evidence to indicate that Hildegard even suffered from migraines, much less that she confused them with divinely inspired visions. I personally suffer from migraines - and believe me, I'm in no danger of confusing them with divine revelations.
   Overall, it is a well-written book, although clearly intended for an educated audience. It is not an academic treatise, but neither does it fall into the genre of what we might call "popular biography." For motivated readers, it is a solid investment of time and energy - but read the last chapter with a few grains of salt.



3. This is a very insightful book written from the perspective of a historian. Each chapter breaks down Hildegard's legacy in several given areas: her music, writings, medicinal and healing abilities, art, etc. This book is very useful as a well thought out introduction to the life of this intriguing saint.



4. Hildegard certainly was a fascinating person, and this is a very informative book about her life and works. The book is written in a scholarly manner, and is very clear and readable. The author speculates a bit on why Hildegard was as she was, but never in an unreasonable way, and the argumentation is never gets absurd.

5 comments about Dancing in the Dharma: The Life and Teachings of Ruth Denison.

1. I came upon "Dancing in the Dharma", a biography of the Buddhist teacher Ruth Denison, by chance. I read the book because I have been studying Buddhism and meditating for several years, butI had not heard of Ruth Denison. This authorized biography of Denison is written by Sandy Boucher, a long-time student of Denison's who has become an author of books on Buddhism and a well-known teacher in her own right. The book discusses Denison's impact on Boucher. At the time she began her Buddhist practice, Boucher was a social activist devoted to feminist and other causes. She retains her strong social commitments but was able to learn to turn and look within with her commitment to Buddhism. The book is strongly flavored with Boucher's own political activism, feminism, and lesbianism -- traits Ruth Dension does not share -- and the book offers an interesting interplay between Boucher's own story and that of her subject.
   
   
   
   Ruth Schaefer was born in a rural area of East Prussia and came to young adulthood during WWII. As an adolescent and young woman in her early 20s she joined the Nazi party and suppported its efforts while working as a schoolteacher. With the end of WWII and the allied occupation, Denison faced a difficult time and was raped repeatedly by allied soldiers. She secured passage to the United States where she ultimately met and married Henry Denison. Henry Denison was independently wealthy and a spiritual seeker who had been a monk at one time. Denison and Ruth had a difficult marriage, but it lasted for 42 years until Denison's mental illness and death.
   
   
   
   Boucher offers an excellent account of Ruth Denison's introduction to Dharma and of her many teachers. Her first teacher was a woman named Charlotte Selver who did not teach meditation but rather taught Denison a sense of bodily awareness and movement that she ultimately integrated into her meditation teaching. Denison studied with the famous Burmese lay teacher U Ba Khin who was intent on spreading the Buddha's teaching -- the Dharma -- to the West. U Ba Khin taught a form of meditation known as insight meditation or Vipassana. U Ba Khin authorized Denison to teach, but he limited his authorization to women. Denison studied with a variety of Buddhist teachers in Asia and the United States from other traditions giving her Buddhism, with the combination with Charlotte Selver's teachings, an eclectic, unorthodox flavor, consistent with her own personality.
   
   
   
   Denison gradually established a reputation as an gifted, if eccentric teacher and slowly built a meditiation center in the Mohave Desert of California near Joshua Tree known as Dhamma Dena. Although she is not a feminist, she led the first all-women meditiation retreat in the United States and is best-known for her work in bringing meditation and Buddhist teachings to women. But Denison did not limit her teachings to women. She has taught Buddhism and meditation to both sexes.
   
   
   
   Boucher's biography captures well the difficulties she experienced during her years with Denison. She describes Denison as difficult and controling at times and as a person who could be harsh towards others and insensitive to the difficulties that others, particularly Denison's many Jewish students, could feel about her early Nazi past. But Boucher grew to learn to accept her teacher with her eccentricities and her failings. She offers a portrait of a unique, strongly willed woman who combined her talents for bodily movement and dance with a deep understanding of Buddhist teachings of change, impermanence, suffering, and ignorance.
   
   Among the best parts of this book is the next-to-final chapter, "A Teaching" in which Denison shows great insight in teaching Boucher about forgiveness and about the need to let go of grudges.
   
   
   
   Boucher has written a good biography of a complex individual. Denison's life reminded me of another famous German woman who emigrated to the United States and became a Buddhist teacher. Ayya Khema also came to adulthood during the Nazi years when together with her family she fled Germany. Khema came to the United States and after several failed marriages and raising her children she became a Buddhist nun. Khema and Denison knew each other and I would have liked to have learned more about their thoughts of each others work. This book will appeal to readers who are interested in the spread of Buddhism to the West.
   
   
   
   Robin Friedman



2. Sandy Boucher's (author of "Turning the Wheel") biography of her long-time meditation teacher Ruth Denison who initiated women-only Buddhist retreats in America. She presents much background material/context for understanding Denison's roots-especially early life in Germany & later in America with her difficult husband Henry. She provides both the ups & downs including Denison's association with Watts, Govinda, Ram Dass, Trungpa et al & involvement in founding the Insight Meditation Society (IMS). This highlights Denison's experiential, feminine approach vs. her husband's intellectual seeking. Thus, she emphasized Charlotte Selver's "sensory awareness"; bodywork, walking meditation, as well as her teacher U Ba Khin's Burmese Theravada Vipassana (mindfulness) meditation. [Note: "vipassana" differs in meaning in other Buddhist traditions]. As an eclectic innovator true to her "outrageous eccentric personality, she recognized Buddhism's need to adapt to the West but therefore experienced intolerance from the more traditional IMS students & from her teacher's successor (who excommunicated all of his Western heirs). "This woman who we had chosen as our teacher was always inviting us to leave our categories behind, to sink into a wider identification with all that lived" (p. 187). Boucher presents a comprehensive view of her esteemed teacher whose lectures put Boucher to sleep, though, p. 170, "insight might be buried in the river of her words." Further, Denison's micromanagement made, p. 192, "working for Ruth is like being a servant on a feudal estate, where you are entirely at the mercy of the mistress." She remonstrated with Denison on, p. 196, "Ruth's harsh treatment of people" such as her relating positive experiences with Hitler Youth to Jewish students & XMAS decorations at her Dhamma Dena retreat site. Immersed in minute details of her retreats, Denison was oblivious of others' feelings/sensitivities & closed to their ideas [strange for an innovator]. Boucher also describes Henry Denison's spiritual promiscuity & lack of sensitivity to others. She provides a personal, sensitive presentation of Denison's life experiences including highly traumatic ones: multiple rapes following WWII, Henry's disloyalty, dementia & death, & the mental breakdown. It is interesting to note that, p. 156, Ayya Khema (well-known Theravada teacher/author) "thought Henry was off" & that Denison frequently helps the mentally ill. This book could be the basis for a case study by Jeffrey Rubin or another writer (Suler, Katz, or Safran) on "Psychotherapy & Buddhism" where meditation-Buddhist practice, while healthful, is no panacea for mental-emotional problems. Buddhism, IHMO, improves the spiritual immune system as a whole while psychotherapy treats more specific problems. Overall, Boucher's presentation is well-done & balanced (despite her liberal, feminist, lesbian orientation) though she sometimes jumps to conclusions such as: p. 156: saying that Henry was "no doubt grateful." I must agree with her that, p. 186, "a teacher is also a human being with flaws & blind spots" & that professed non-feminist, p. 172, "Ruth Denison's impact on American Buddhism has been wide-ranging." This book is a valuable contribution to many fields of enquiry.



3. Ruth Denison is a teacher who has opened the door of the Dharma to women, particularly to feminists and lesbians and defiant women, who responded happily to her outrageous and eccentric personality. Denison did not consider herself a feminist, but she became the first female teacher to lead all-women Buddhist retreats, and author Sandy Boucher, a leading writer on women and Buddhism who has studied for 25 years with Denison, notes that she will be remembered as much for her groundbreaking work with women as for her innovative and holistic teachings.
   
   Dancing in the Dharma skillfully conveys Ruth Denison's full humanity: her formidable gifts and charm and her puzzling contradictions.



4. I just finished Dancing in the Dharma and loved it. It is such a complete account of such a complicated person. My favorite chapter was "A Teaching," where the author and Ruth Denison talk in depth about the dharma and its practical applications.
   The material about Ruth's life in Nazi Germany and thereafter was riveting.
   Thanks for writing this book, Sandy. It's a wonderful tribute to your teacher and a great resource for us all.



5. Sandy Boucher's book about the life and teachings of Ruth Dennison is a wonderful tale that is incredibly engrossing, moving through Ruth's childhood in Nazi Germany, all the way to Southern California where she emabarks on a spiritual quest that takes her and us, the reader, on amazing adventures. Boucher's writing is both accessible and rich and she allows us to know her, the author and her relationship to Ruth while not getting in the way of this remarkable and inspiring story.

2 comments about Taking the Helm/One of America's Top Sailors Tells Her Story.

1. This book was sitting on the coffee table of a friend. While waiting, I indulged and snagged it for several hours of incredible adventure. Perhaps it was the intrique of Nancy Frank launching from my home town and Dawn saving the day & night for the red bucket syndicate. Dawn Riley and Lyn Brooks are my female heros. Who knows about the milestone Lyn has set in the Hawaiian Ironman?
   Charlie Hunter
   ...



2. I've been a Fan of Dawn and the Whitbread race for as long as I've been racing. This is a wonderful way of getting a birds eye view into the Whitbread and competitive racing.

5 comments about Letters from Prison - Voices of Women Murderers.

1. I personally know Kristine Bunch and she should be out not in prison. Krissy is the most wonderful person I know. She has suffered a great deal because of the crime she was convicted of. She did not do it and she is paying an unfair price. People need to know that she has suffered and lost 6 years of her son's life. She needs to be home not in some prison.



2. I picked this up because I am studying forensic psychology and it looked good from the outside. I am disappointed however, in the lack of confirmation of the "facts" in the book. I can spot one bad mistake in the book- in the Hope Rippey/Toni Lawrence letters bio, she names Mary Tackett as the instigator, when the actual instigator was Melinda Loveless. There are numerous books on this murder case, and it is a well known fact Loveless was the instigator. With a grandiose mistake like this, it leaves one to wonder how many other mistakes Ms. Furio makes? Since she leaves her letters to the women out of the book (as she does in her other book about male serial killers) one has to wonder just what she says to the killers and in the case of the male book, whether or not she's leading them on. I wasn't satisfied after I finished reading it, but it was interesting to at least hear a different side and hear from the killers themselves. -J



3. I am up close and personal with the Yates case...I choose to remain anonymous. I was looking for sources that might explain why she did what she did; her husband seems to not understand, but want to and want to forgive. As a Christian, I get this, but my heart feels a grief and a loss which creates anger. I don't read "true crime." I had to find something about this subject. This IS THE BOOK. Jennifer has a conversation with a few other women who had done similar, familial killings, as she describes them in her book of letters. It is so weird, I've read books of letters, diaries, but never did I think I'd read one about killers, and more important, walk away with a sense I'd learned something about the women, and my own ability to hold compassion in this seemingly sinister world. I felt it was a God send: the stories, some weren't like the Yate's case, some were harder to understand, but I got the message: the point is, there exists something underlying that first was misunderstood or ignored, which is what really should be addressed. To a degree, the writer does this, but so do the criminals. Yet, these aren't like women who have no regrets. How is it that they committed such acts and than feel remorse, or a need to get in touch with their anger? It seems for many, it took isolation of prison to get to a place where their minds finally were still, a place where thier only responsibilities were to introspect...but now, where before I saw prison as a "last stop," I feel certain that execution can't be sure fire "solutiion" and nor can be endless, terminal lock up. These were very isolated, very sick women. Now I understand. I wish the best for these women, for the writer, and for the Yates family. I will make certain I yell it from the mountains. Anonymous



4. Having read the previous reviews, I decided I had to put in my opinions on the book. I have had significant contact with women in prison while doing prison reform work and I am also working with an inmate on her case. Therefore, I think I have a pretty good idea of what Ms. Furio went through to get the information for this book and how difficult it was for her to communicate with these women. Although female inmates are easier to get through to than men, they still are extremely cautious with writers and reporters, even with member of their legal team...and with good reason. It takes quite a bit of time to gain the trust needed, and then you only get the basics. Very few inmates of either sex are going to open up for ANY reason, as it might hurt appeals, etc. I think Ms. Furio did an admirable job of getting these women to allow us into their private forms of hell...their thoughts and feelings about the crimes of which they have been convicted. And, for many inmates, living with their thought is a private hell. The woman I am working with is profiled in the book, and I know how hard it was for her to decide to allow Ms. Furio to use her information and very private thoughts. She asked me for my opinion several times and I had to tell her it was her choice; no one could make it for her. The writing is somewhat simple, but this is not a PhD thesis and these women are, for the most part, not well educated, so you have to bring your writing down to their level. That said, I think the book is very worthwhile as it allows us a view of women prisoners rarely seen or heard, and removes the sensationalism from the crimes. Maybe that is why some of the other reviewers are so down on the book...they wanted the "gory details" and were denied them. Finally, I think the book allows a rare glimpse of the strange and bizarre rules and regulations of prison life. (As an aside, 1,000 copies of the book were printed by mistake before the proof reading was completed...the reason for the typos. It has since been corrected)



5. How ironic; we had to read the book for extra credit in my sociology class (Chico State). I guess because I'm a "sophomoric thinker," I had to respond to the last review. Too bad this can't be a chat line. First, I'm glad to know there's another book out there by Furio. I thought her perceptions of the entire issue of women in prison, prison, the judicial process regarding women...it had to be stated. The women's voices are certainly allowed, and we learn alot, but it helped to be...guided. I doubt without her references and slight bio's leading to the letters, I'd of gained the same type of window into their personalities. I hope to become a criminologist. I sometimes think such poor reviews come from frustrated people who could never have the courage for such endeavors -- think about it, which I did, as I turned EVERY page: she actually got close to these women, found some common ground where trust developed and stories could be told. Isn't that what this should be about, if we're to learn anything? If we just listen to a professors' perspective on issues he or she has never been anything but figuratively close to, we gain far less. So too bad it felt choppy -- I didn't know inmates were to be educated, PhD's...and what was Furio to do? Respond as if she were their superior? Oh that would've really ignited a desire to bond...S. Morgan, Chico, Ca