5 comments about Wild Card Quilt: Taking a Chance on Home.

1. What a beautiful testament to the importance of community and place. Wendell Berry must have cheered when he read this book. From the story of working together to save the local school, to the inspiring beginning and growth of the Altamaha Riverkeepers, to the successful Nature Conservancy purchase of the Moody Forest Janisse Ray describes the power of ordinary people working together to save their community and it's gifts of nature.

   In a description of a community that has been torn apart but still has people fighting for it, Berry writes, "Madie now lives not far down the road from the ghost town of Osierfield in the renovated schoolhouse. Milton is in the old depot. A marble column that held up the post office is part of another house nearby. It is as if the residents of the disappearing town are hanging onto pieces of it, because that's what you have left when a community falls apart, pieces, and between all the pieces, you have the ghosts who knew the place when it was less rudimentary and more whole, who are eternally present, inhabiting the town's hollows like wind and weeds. Each morning early Madie drives her old truck to the lone business left operating in Osierfield, Georgia, and opens her doors one more day."

   May we all learn to treasure our small towns and communities.




2. If you are really interested in learning more about rural Southern Georgia, this book might be for you. The author tells individual stories about experiences with the school board, animals, family, and other things that are important to her. I enjoyed the first part of the book best because I could relate to the author's wonderings about what home really means. I think the author's views on community and nature are interesting, but not for everyone. More towards the end, the author complains about all the logging going on, but she doesn't give any advice for what average people can do about it. The author meant well I'm sure, but it was not the kind of book that I had trouble putting down.



3. I read the book straight through after getting it. But did not read it in the same order of the chapters. It is written like a quilt allowing you to read what you want, randomly as you would look at a quilt's intricate details. Yet no matter how read, you end up with a larger perspective and pattern that gives you much greater meaning and understanding.

   It is nice for Janisse to allow the reader the freedom of finding ones own perspective and interests when reading the book. It also makes sharing the experience of the book with friend and family easier.

   My friend read the chapter of the writing group, right after coming from her own writing group. In a stone faced way she put the book down after reading the chapter, and burst out laughing. There was a part I read about Janisse's father and her in a big fight that made me cry at a moment in the interchange.

   It would make good reading for someone contemplating going home to a rural community, or for someone who never dreamed of doing so. It is a poetic story of family and home and geography.

   Janisse weaves very different personal yet universal experiences with family and friends, rural community, and natural and cultural landscapes into a geographic quilt, giving an emergent property of perspective, that is difficult to see without being layed out in full view like a picture - and with the benefit of context in time and space and emotion.

   There are many reasons that a person goes back to their origins.

   Janisse goes back much like a wild animal that has been expatriated from a geographic area. She comes back to rediscover the origins if birth, and fill to fill gaps left in her imagination and community.

   What is nice is that she finds a niche with intelligence, and sensitivity to community and region. I can imagine native species like panther and wolves having a more difficult time rediscovering their original landscapes, even though they might play an equal or more important role. Reintroducing fire to the pineland landscpae is also difficult, but necessary.

   Janisse comes back as quite as she can, and slowly finds a role. Not a dominant role but one which fills a gap. She is more like the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker than a panther or wolve or fire, being sensitive and fragile; and having an infinity for home and old growth and wild romote places. At the same time providing intelligence and energy that those in the rural communities and cities can benefit from.

   Rural communities in the south need natives, especially those that can fill important roles. Too many rural areas export not only there natural resources, but also their most valuable human resources. They become vulnerable to exotics who completely transform and exploit the community without consideration of the integrity of local community or ecology and its needs. They come without understanding place. Much of what remains is remanents of a highly exploited cultural and ecological resources.

   What is nice is that, like the coming home of an Ivory Billed Woodpecker Janisse helps facilitate the rediscovery of interest in rural community assets like schools and remenants of wild places, like pines and rivers that are critical assets of the geography.

   Janisse uses her skills with those of the locals to reclaim geography and recreate the imgination of place. She comes not like a conquering hero, but like wild card pattern in quilt that catches your eye, without dominating your thought. She makes you think about important things. She offers an alternative future senaarios for geography that preserves and rediscover inherient values, while helping to create new values. This is in harsh contrast to to those that exploit rural landscapes without the imagination of cultural and ecological values that have existed, but have been largely surpressed.




4. Beautifully written book that appeals to a wide range of people--so it would be a great gift for Father's Day or for anyone's birthday. I laughed out loud many times.



5. Janisse Ray is passionate about the environment, most specifically that part of it in southeast Georgia. Her environment is mostly the natural world--the longleaf pine forest (the remnants thereof), the Altamaha River--but also the human world in the small town of Baxley, her family farmstead, her father's junkyard. She left these surroundings to go to college, first in north Georgia and then in Montana. She "took a chance on home" (the book's subtitle) when she returned to Baxley with her young son, determined to make a life for them both. She demonstrates that ability to observe, think, and then put into words those observations and thoughts is a far greater treasure than glitz and glamour.

5 comments about The Original Marvelettes: Motown's Mystery Girl Group.

1. If you love those fabulous girl groups of the 60's, then you must read this one. Really fun and informative from one of the great Girl Groups that very little is known about. Very well written.
   By the way, when are we going to see a book about the SHANGRI-LAS??
   Again, another wonderful act that very little is known about.



2. The Golden Marvelettes are still in the hearts of die hard Motown Fans...move over Diana, Martha... Gladys Wanda and Katherine still reign...



3. ( Cover photo: Clockwise from top center, Katherine Anderson Schaffner, Gladys Horton Coleman, Georgeanna Tillman Gordon, Wanda Young Rogers )
   At long last, in March 2004, the Marvelettes finally got their own story told, so late after the biographies of many other Motown colleagues had come and gone. Author Marc Taylor faced a daunting task asking Motowners entering their 60s to remember in the early 21st century, events of the 1960s. An early member of the group ( originally a quintet), Wynetta Cowart Motley, had left in 1962 when the group's success had only gotten under way. Georgeanna was forced from the group by illness in 1965; she died of lupus in 1980. Gladys offered only limited participation, saying she was working on a book of her own, and Wanda had fallen far from the groups heyday and had known many years of alcohol and substance abuse.
   
   That left Katherine to primarily tell the story of the Marvelettes tenure at Motown, but it didn't hobble at all the success of Mr. Taylor's finished work.
   Ms. Anderson-Schaffner is scrupulously honest in her recall giving her group their due without overstating their talent. In particular, when it comes to the later 60s and the group's unceremonious disbanding, she is just as quick to place appropriate blame on the group's internal dissention as much as Motown's by-then corporate indifference.
   
   Nothing can change the fact that the Marvelettes were the first artists to give Motown a No. 1 pop single ( "Please Mr. Postman," December 1961 ), and their string of subsequent and pleasing hits are as integral to the Motown story as the more known successes of the Supremes, Four Tops, Temptations, Stevie Wonder & Marvin Gaye.
   
   Gladys was the groups lead singer on early successes like "Please Mr. Postman," "Playboy," "Beechwood 4-5789," and "Too Many Fish In The Sea." It was later on, when producer-composer Smokey Robinson turned his interest toward the group, that Wanda Young Rogers was brought forth to sing lead. The petite Wanda, giving breathy and seductive readings to Robinson's more adult styled compositions, gave the group something they hadn't had till then: sex appeal. Wanda's 'little sexy-country voice', as Robinson termed it, exists on immortal later Marvelettes songs like 'The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game,' 'My Baby Must Be A Magician' and, especially, 'Don't Mess With Bill.'
   
   This book is highly recommended to anyone who loves 60s Motown music. And now, perhaps, may we have the life and career stories of Mary Wells and Junior Walker, for instance?



4. What a book! Marc Taylor goes way underground to come out with the 60s story that could only have happened in Detroit, the saga of the marvelous Marvelettes. Somehow he got the cooperation of the "tall one," Katherine Anderson, and so at every turn we hear Katherine's version of events, always a little bitter and skewed, although she always prefaces her remarks with something like, "Oh, I didn't really mind, BUT--" We take the whole tumultuous roller coaster ride from sleepy little Inkster, Michigan (remember on American Bandstand when an addled Marvelette claimed that "Detroit is a suburb of Inkster" and then she got laughed right out of the group?) to the disastrous final move of Motown to LA during the course of which the Marvelettes just got forgotten about and had to disband. In the face of what seems like extensive drug, drink and mental problems of their lead singer, the "wanda-ful" Wanda Young, it's surprising they stayed afloat so long, not to mention being able to record such masterworks of the human spirit as "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game," "My Baby Must be a Magician," "Don't Mess with Bill" (all written and produced by Smokey Robinson) and the divinely inspired cover remake of "When You're Young And In Love." Taylor takes us there every step of the way.
   
   Others have criticized him for relying too heavily on Katherine's jaundiced memories. But what was the guy supposed to do? She has a good and extensive memory and she seems to recall every slight and every hurt ever dealt to her, all under a cover of pretended indifference. Besides, most of her stories get corroborated by others Taylor interviews, whether they be members of the Vandellas, or Brenda Holloway, or perhaps some of the mysterious Aldantes--the backup girl singers who wound up singing on 75 percent of the later Motown releases. I wish there were a movie of this book. It out does "Dreamgirls" the musical.



5. Many people think the Supremes are what put Motown on the map. The startling truth is, the Supremes probably never would have happened if it weren't for the Marvelettes. In 1961, "Please Mr. Postman," by the Marvelettes, was the hit that kept Motown Records from sinking.
   
   This and other startling revelations are found in "The Original Marvelettes: Motown's Mystery Girl Group" by Marc Taylor. The good and the bad are there in a tantalizing dichotomy. This is a book that will please the reader who has a casual interest in girl groups, yet has the depth that a die-hard girl-group fan wants.
   
   The girls in the Marvelettes were thrilled and shocked that what started as informal high-school singing had instantly launched them into national fame. But they weren't ready for what was to come next. Motown execs asked them to quit high school. They were put on a grueling tour, riding a bus with no bathrooms stopping in towns that wouldn't let blacks use their bathrooms. In fact, shocking incidents like these are the best part of the story.
   
   The book was created mostly by input from Katherine Anderson Schaffner, "the tall one," who was also the only member of the group from the beginning to the end. The story includes quotes from other group members and other girl-group icons. Not only is the story about the girl-group days, but also the events, sometimes bittersweet, that happened to the women after their years of fame. The photos are good ones, not the usual seen-them-everywhere shots. Marc Taylor has been writing about soul music for more than a decade and deftly handles the amazing story of this well-loved group.

3 comments about Preacher's Girl: The Life and Crimes of Blanche Taylor Moore.

1. This woman really was a wounded, sick individual and Schutze tells her bone-chilling story with grace and wit.



2. Jim Schutze, the book's author, takes you inside the crimes committed by Taylor-Moore against lovers, husbands, and family members. In horrifying detail, Schutze describes how the poison used, arsenic, destroys the body from the inside, and the pain and torture it creates. At times, the descriptions may seem almost too graphic, particularly if someone leans towards being a "visual" person to begin with. Not for shock value, however. I am convinced that Schutze uses the graphic detail to take the reader into the victim or his (her? as suggested in the death of Isla Taylor) family, allowing the reader to "see" and feel what those around the victim felt and experienced. Horribly real in every way, but it's not easy to put this book down either.



3. I got this book out of my local library after seeing the TV movie starring Elizabeth Montgomery. The TV movie was based on this book. However, the movie did not even begin to scratch the surface of what Blanche Taylor Moore was really like. I was horrified to think that one human being could be this evil, yet appear perfectly normal. Her father was a terrible man, there was no question about that. He forced Blanche to do things that no child should have to endure. That is why Blanche probably turned out the way she did. It does not, however, excuse the terrible things she did to the people she supposedly "loved." It's a fascinating book.

5 comments about The Limits of Hope: An Adoptive Mother's Story.

1. This book was very interesting. The author seems ot have a big heart, yet is very weeary about the girls she adopts. They came from a disturbing background. But sometimes love isn't enough. The trials and tribulations that this family went through ,according to the author, were tough. However, she is very honest and tells the story of how much she has tried to do all that she can to help these girls in their life.
   It is a great read for those considering adoption or foster parenting.



2. In many ways the authors eperiences are scary in their simularity to mine. My wife and I adopted two little girls, age 4-5 at the time, from the county after taking months of parenting classes and being given access to all the information that the county had available.... Still we had no realistic idea of how difficult it was going to be and how radically our lives would change. It was like trying to heard cats, they were extreamly impulsive, rebellous and raged at us for everything wrong in their lives, often including physical abuse of us and our house. A few years later we had an unexpected biological child who is in most ways just the opposite of J n L and things really got lively, runnaway, theft, drug and alchol use. At about age 14 we borrowed enough to send the eldest from a mental hospital to a behavior modification program in Utah. She spent about 1.5 years there, it did not make her a "model Child" but did change the direction of her life. Upon her return she made a serious suicide attempt and my wife, declaring she had had enough, took the youngest child and left me with the two adoptive teenagers.
   At about this time my mother in law loaned us a copy of "The Limits of Hope", it was a real eye opener for me because her eperiences were so simular to ours. I did not reach the conclusion that a group home would be better for them, we had tried that with the oldest, she just ran away at will from them like she did us, but it did help me to understand that it is not realistic to expect them to be like their younger sister and to try a different direction. I lifted the thousand and one rules, complete with rewards and punishments, that we had imposed in a failed attempt to provide "structure" and just settled for open communication and letting them suffer the consiaquences of their own actions. I have had to bail both of them out at one time or another, wound up home schooling them both but the anger level has gradually subsided as they learn to take charge of their own lives. The eldest is now a sophmore in college and the youngest.....I still have hope, limited of course.
   So, while I reached some different conclusions than the author, the book came to me at a critical time in my life and helped me understand that I needed to see my adoptive children as they are, not as I/we wished them to be. And, it helped me admit to myself and them that I did feel differently about them than I do about their sister and give up the romatic notion that we can treat all of them the same and expect the same results.



3. The girls who were adopted were not yet 3 and 4 years old, so it is easy to see how optimistic the author was being to readily adopt them. I can't see how the mother giving up a career to sit at home with her kids would be any more helpful to these girls. (She had 3 biological children in the same age range who faired well with her working part time). If anything, it enlightens readers to just much the first few years of life can impact the character and psyche of a child. In this case, the differences between the biological children and the adopted girls were huge. However, in my personal experience, children being reared from birth by the same parents can also have have huge differences in their behaviors.
   I feel that the author was just being brutally honest in her assessments of these two girls. I would recommend this book to anyone, but would hope it didn't dissuade anyone from pursuing adopting an older child. Just remember that, unlike many wards of the court who have physical limitations clearly outlined, some children have suffered abuse that may not be clear for months or even years. It is a commitment, to say the least. Also, the time frame is relevant. In current times, these children are studied and tested, and their histories are reported openly before adoption is considered. I know this, because I have looked into adopting an older child.



4. It is impossible not to be disturbed and deeply moved by the inescapable trauma the two abused girls caused the author's family (and the inescapable trauma the children had been exposed to prior to adoption). Those of us who have not experienced such a situation think it harsh for the author to challenge the notion that a stable home environment is always the best answer for abused or neglected children. Not having walked in the author's shoes, we may be quick to say that Ms. Loux's family wasn't the right family to cope with the two seemingly incorrigible girls. I am unwilling to make that judgment, but I do wonder whether Ms. Loux and her husband, who had full time careers, should have ventured into adopting older children who can be presumed to have suffered damage. The children must, in essence, have been raised by babysitters or other caretakers rather than by Ms. Loux. I am also wondering how much time Ms. Loux spent with her children's school teachers and whether there was adequate therapeutic intervention for the children and the family as a whole. All this would have required ongoing attention by Ms. Loux, and it is difficult to see whether a dual career family can meet the needs of abused children. Yet, I observed a neighbor who had adopted a seven-year old girl from a severely abusive home, and the adoptive parents did everything imaginable, including full-time care by the adoptive mother, to rescue this little girl. We tried to help too. Still, the girl went down an unstoppable path of self-destruction that included pregnancies, drug use, prostitution and ultimately lingering in prison with AIDS. This adoptive mother does not go so far as Ms. Loux in saying that 'her daughters have earned respect for their lifestyles and choices...She (Margey) keeps all the money she makes from prostitution to buy drugs.' To respect this life style must surely be the limits of hope for this adoptive couple. It is sad all the way around, but this book should not keep other prospective parents from adopting older children. Each situation is different.
   Gisela Gasper Fitzgerald, ADOPTION: An Open, Semi-Open or Closed Practice?



5. This book is very disturbing. It is certainly disturbing in the way it was intended to be, as it details the problems experienced by a fatally idealistic family and their two adopted daughters who came from a background of abuse and neglect. One must, of course, condemn the fact that the family was kept in ignorance of the girls' problems. This is explained as a product of the time, in which everyone involved in adoption is described as believing that a loving family is all that is needed to heal even the most severely abused. Now such secrecy would be criminal; 30 years ago it is still an indication of inexcusable ignorance on the part of all the adults involved in the process. The truly disturbing aspect of the book for me, however, is the attitude of its author, the girls' adoptive mother. Although she claims her daughters and the rest of the family were abused by the system, she seems not to see the significance of her own failures. She admits much that must be painful to admit; for example, she sees in retrospect that the two newcomers were always seen as separate in important ways from her already-formed family of two parents and three children. Does she understand how truly awful that must have been for the girls, how lonely it must have been always on the outside, how terrifying to encounter expectations they couldn't possibly live up to? The insensitivity of the mother to her daughters' problems is mind-boggling, never mind that it happened 30 years ago. With all allowances for the difficulties she encountered trying to parent these troubled children--and I would not try to minimize that--she still falls short in understanding that they are the true victims. Instead one has a sense that too much of her rage is on her own behalf: rage that *she* didn't get the support she needed, rage that the girls turned out to be much for difficult for *her* than she expected. It is quite painful to read her monotonous detailing of the girls' delinquent and self-destructive behavior, not only for the obvious reasons, but especially because of the eager tone in which she recounts the outrages and how difficult it was for her to deal with them. She has yet to reach the point where she understands that, whatever her sufferings, those of the girls have been worse, because the destruction is of them, because they entered the family with various handicaps and with no resources to deal with these, and because they were the children and she was the adult. I guess I cannot contradict her claim to love them deeply, but I would like to see her gain a better understanding of their pain and see how her own must take a back seat to theirs. Of course she has been cheated of a normal mother-daughter relationship with them, but life has cheated them of much, much more.

1 comments about Lights of Madness: In Search of Joan of Arc.

1. Joan of Arc has been a hero of mine for more than fifty years. Over those years I have read every book on her I could find. Many of these carry with them, naturally enough, the point of view of the author(s). Joan is one of those very rare personalities in history who seem to arrive out of thin air and turn the times on their head. Her short life is one of the most documented of her age, yet for many she remains an enigma. If one accepts the Roman Catholic view, there is a faith-based explanation. Other approaches to come to grips with this all too human teenage woman may reflect a gamut of ideas that cover the entire human experience, from romance to science.
   
   Doctor Russell's thoroughness in exploring the various possibilites take on an intriguing trek. He first recounts Joan's life as it is documented, without dwelling on any certain aspect, such as military. His purpose seems to be "let's agree on what is undisputed" as we begin to search for any non faith-based explanation as to how a previously unknown teenage woman, who had no education, could motivate first a knight, then a baron, then the French prince and most remarkedly, his dismal army and it's commanders. I believe it is a fair statement that without Joan, France as we know it today, would not exist.
   
   Modern researchers have a new arena to debate Joan's behavior, that of medical science. This is where Dr. Russell's work has it's greatest strength. He probes all of the modern theories that medical science has provided yet makes it understanble to the non-medical mind (like mine). I found the book a real page-turner, as if I was on a road to uncover a mystery, which I was. It has opened up some new possibilites I had not really considered. What better success can an author seek other than he made his readers think?
   
   Joan is still a hero of mine. Dr. Russell has not tarnished her memory, but revived it in a modern light. Make sure your personal library contains Dr. Russell's book. Mine does.

2 comments about Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes From the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women Over Forty.

1. This compilation of stories is not as good as suggested. There are a few gems hidden within but for the most part, these tales mean far more to the authors than they did to this reader.



2. This is an great anthology with a nice variety of pieces by some excellent women authors. I found it to be thought provoking, moving, and fun to read. I think many ( most, all) women over 40 would like this book. It is not a "self help" book in the style of articles you see in women's magazines although the title sounds like it might be. It is however very helpful to hear the articulate voices of intellegent women who are facing many the same issues. I liked being introduced to new writers that I had not read before and will now look for other things they have written. Many of the writers are from western states and liked that as I am too. If you are an intelligent woman over 40 years old who likes good writing. I would say- buy this book

1 comments about American Women Stage Directors of the Twentieth Century.

1. It's hard to say this these days, but this book is a first. No one has ever written a book solely on women theater directors before, and it's about time! From Minnie Maddern Fiske (b. 1865) to Tina Landau (b. 1962), Vierow and Fliotsos have written fascinating essays on fifty women's careers in directing for the stage. What is unique about these accounts is that they focus on the subjects' accomplishments as a director rather than on some of their other better-known achievements. For example, much has been written about Ellen Stewart as the founder of La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, but never before has anyone explored in-depth her innovative skill as a stage director. In each essay, the authors describe not only the subject's career history, but also her individual approach to the craft. Reading through the lives and accomplishments of these diverse women is not only interesting, but also inspiring. American Women Stage Directors is a must-have for anyone interested in theater, women's studies, or the creative process.

5 comments about Forever Young : The Life, Loves, and Enduring Faith of a Hollywood Legend ; The Authorized Biography of Loretta Young.

1. This book is pretty straight forward. Like the title says this is a book about Loretta Youngs life; loves, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracey, Tom Lewis, etc, etc.; and faith one of the mainstays in her life threw all the good and bad times she experienced.
   
   All in all a very good book about Loretta Young. The best part about it is that finally Loretta admitted that Judy Lewis was her biological child with Clark Gable.



2. The book was interesting and I learned more about Loretta Young's life. I agree, it was a bit "candy coated", but I think it explains the "sign of the times" and that is where she was in her life. I think it is great that she had such a strong faith in God and that her religion played a very important part of her life. Her life is a good example for others. In this day and time, we let too much just "hang out there". It would be nice if our world was a little more "reserved".



3. Whilst Loretta Young unquestionably lead an interesting life, you would not know it from this whitewashed, saintly version. This book would have been far better promoted as a commentary on Loretta Young and her relationship with god. Certainly those readers wanting to know about her experiences in Hollywood in the 1930s would be disappointed. Her screen career was largely glossed over - we are talking about a woman who worked with pioneers such as Lon Chaney - you'd barely know it from this book. Similarly, there was little on her relationship with her sisters or any comments of substance about their lives or careers. Even the more 'scandalous' elements of her life were only worth a couple of pages - the rest of the book was more like a conversion exercise. Whilst the religious element was obviously something that influenced who she was as a person, the author did not delve beyond this. It is an injustice if this is the best that can be offered in her memory.



4. She is not like you would have imagined from the TV Show. She had a lot more going on than the glamour that she displayed with her swirling entries each week.
   She was not the angel one might think either but she was human and she faced it, or not, within the pages of this book. She sometimes came off as a saint and sometimes as naive but you did not always believe she could be THAT naive. Other times she came of as competent and adult, which, in my book makes her as real as a Hollywood siren can be.



5. This book is written through Ms. Young's eyes and appears to be her somewhat romanticized and (more importantly)spiritualized take on life. She tends to gloss over the tawdry or questionable aspects while dwelling on the spiritual aspects. Having read her daughter Judy's book, I can clearly see that there was a lot of moral conflict in her mind and this book was clearly a good way to absolve herself of most of the negatives in her life. That said, the book is an o.k. read once you begin to differentiate the truth from the romantic fiction.

4 comments about Walking With the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas.

1. This is a tender, touching, love story of epic proportions. The love and feminine worship of the Trimates by the author, Sy Montgomery is apparent and the loves both human and primate of each woman is so masterfully told by Montgomery. We can't help but feel a kinship to the three wonderful women who are celebrated in this Leakey led sisterhood of Montgomery's biographical tale of primatologists Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Berute Galdikas. Not unlike her other works, Montgomery has allowed us to follow her...NO! This time, walk along side of her throughout her journey to tell the stories of these three women scientists who spent their lives in the service of Louis Leakey until his death in 1972, and the primates they each chose to bravely live among and almost change into their respective Animagus form. Montgomery has taken three biographies and woven them poetically together like the intertwining lives they each lead, without gossip, but of obvious sincere heroine worship.



2. An astonishing writer named Sy Montgomery thoughtfull wrote Walking With The Great Apes. Montgomery's captivating novel portrays three women who are fasinated about how primates live and care for one another. In a dire world of poaching and murder, these three scientists attempt to protect and preserve the world and nature of humanity's closest cousins. All together Walking With The Great Apes is a thought-provoking book and a must read for anyone interested in the Great Apes.



3. A very well written book and a great introduction to those who want to know more about the lives and studies of these 3 extremely remarkable woman Jane Goodall, Birutas Galdikas and last but not least for me THE woman of the 20th century Dian Fossey.



4. Sy Montgoemry writes extremely well, and as a consequence, her book is compulsively readable. Not only that, but the subject matter is pure fascination, as she sheds light on each of these great apes, their extraordinary environments, and the daring women scientists who study them - their unique approach to science, their trials and tribulations. A great book.

4 comments about Ghosts in the Garden: Reflections on Endings, Beginnings, and the Unearthing of Self.

1. The author of this small book, that would so easily fit the hands while walking a garden, ready to open while perhaps sitting on a fallen log or stump or among flowerbeds, is a poet in prose. Kephart has written an ongoing essay, covering the seasons of a garden as she covers the changing seasons of her own life. On her 41st birthday, she has a sobering moment of realization. She is about to enter midlife with all its reassessments and transformation and growth, all the realizations of changing roles as wife, mother, woman, writer. Discovering the garden called Chanticleer near her Philadelphia home gives her contemplations a beautiful backdrop, if not a solid grounding to view herself as she views the natural world around her.
   
   Kephart walks the paths of the public garden and observes, then translates poetically to us, her readers, how she gradually learns to accept the changes inevitable in life. She observes nature as she observes the gardeners themselves. On occasion, she takes with her on her walks her young son, other times her husband, who captures Chanticleer in his own art medium - photography - adding his black and white images to Kephart's text.
   
   Perhaps one moment so captured that might sum up Kephart's process of midlife transformation is a short essay about the garden after a storm:
   
   "The garden had been put in its place by weather, and so had the rest of us; we are so entirely miniscule in comparison to wind and rain and hail. We were aware of how everything was angled newly. Made jagged or raw. Thinned out. We were reminded of other storms that had blown in, then turned and vanished.
   
   "On that day only the gardeners seem brave - hauling broken branches and clumps of errant leaves from wherever they had gotten to, straightening the stakes and invisible ties, suggesting, by the way they carried things, that the world would be made right again. The gardeners were muddy and burdened and resilient because love is the only chance a garden's got. For the moment, and in the moment. Now because of then."
   
   The walk through Kephart's garden of words is a path well worth taking.



2. I am always worried where I send for little reflective books that the writing will be flat and the thoughts dull. This one shimmers on the page and the simple, wise writing is pure poetry. I also walked in the garden through the pages and found that, as the author learned and grew with the seasons and her brief encounters with others, so did I. I am keeping this one on my night table to dip into often.



3. Kephart again uses her beautiful gift of prose to bring us these reflections from Chanticleer. I deliberately took my time with this book, for I wanted to savor each page. The accompanying images add to the peaceful feeling of the book. I highly recommend this book.



4. This book is lovely. It is beautifully written, reflective - you want to take your time and savor it. The photos are a wonderful complement to the book. I think it would be a perfect Mothers Day gift. Make a cup of tea and read this book. I loved it.