5 comments about Unveiled: How an American Woman Found Her Way Through Politics, Love, and Obedience in the Middle East.

1. To anyone who's actually lived in the region and knows some of the people referenced in the book, it is unlikely "Unveiled" will cast any light. The author lived in the region for only three years. She didn't learn Arabic, very much limiting her ability to understand the culture, the events, and the people she was exposed to and, thus, her ability to interpret them for those who haven't traveled to or lived in the region.
   
   It is difficult to have it both ways (i.e., to speak with authority on the people and the issues in the region without learning the language and without having been fully immersed long enough to pick up on enough of the nuances).
   
   I have to admit, I was put off by the "I could've been a princess" chapter. It seemed like something thrown in to enhance the marketability of the book to people who are impressed with but in the dark about such things. Jordan is a small country with a relatively large, accessible royal family. They are regularly out and about and meeting people, so it's difficult to know what really took place there--whether she was just exposed to a prince for a brief while or whether there was a seriousness to whatever relationship was there.
   
   Also, Israel, Jordan, and Palestine aren't countries where veiling is prescribed--some women cover, some don't. It would never be expected that an American woman would veil, unless she was trying to "pass." So I find the title of this book a bit sensational. Again, probably to help with the marketing, but it doesn't really help to understand the region.



2. I am an American Jew. I am also a member of a Middle East Peace Group, whose membership is made up of Israelis and Palestinians working side-by-side in an effort to effect peace in the Middle East for all people. Deborah Kanafani has written an enthralling memoir, and at times a harrowing tale. Deborah is a valiant, courageous, resilient, and trail-blazing American woman of Lebanese descent; her devotion to her two children is truly heart melting - she did everything she possibly could to protect them; sacrificing everything to be nearby and physically with them; breaking through barricades set up to thwart her from having any access to them due to unimaginable and terrifying circumstances; She bore the weight of her burden with her integrity and her personal values intact; for her childrens' own well-being Deborah braved and endured her chilling fate with a determined sense of calm in the eye of this Middle East maelstrom.
   
   My admiration for Deborah as a woman, a mother, a human rights advocate and a writer is boundless. And I extend this admiration to all the brave and notable women whose stories Deborah shares with us; they all embody an indomitable strength and an unwavering will to speak out against human rights violations, at the risk of their own lives. Deborah allows us to see in this beautiful memoir that each of us in our own ordinary way with all our foibles and human weaknesses has within us the extraordinary power to effect necessary change in the way humankind operates in the world.
   
   I applaud Deborah's valor; raising and carrying the torch of true freedom high above her own head, in an effort to guide us, we who share her desire and her vision of bringing a peaceful co-existence out of the darkness into the light of day, where this dream of peace, security and understanding can become a reality in the Middle East and the world over.



3. Deborah Kanafani writes a powerful and touching memoir about loss and identity; feminism and third world politics. With beauty and tenderness she explores her micro family dynamics and how they coincided with macro world politics. A true pleasure to read.



4. Ms. Kanafani is a wonderful storyteller. There are many pretentious and complex books that have been written about the Middle East. This is NOT one of them. But I think that this is not just a book about the Middle East. Ms. Kanafani uses her personal experience and her encounters with fascinating women to bring us a message that is constantly obscured by the media. The message: There are people in the Middle East (and all over the world) that do want PEACE. People from all sides need and want to live a peaceful live. At the end of Ms. Kanafani's book she gives a list of organizations that are actually working to bring peace to the Middle East. But does the media talk about these organizations? Not really. It's not something that networks can sell and can use to scare people on the evening news... Ms. Kanafani's book takes you on a fascinating and very personal trip. It's her unique story that makes this book a must read.



5. I found Deborah Kanafani's "Unveiled" to be not only a gripping personal life adventure, but a highly enlightening book, educating in the current and past realities of life in the Middle East. We tend to imagine all Middle Eastern women to be veiled and silenced in a world where their voices seem to mean very little, so it was interesting to hear the stories of all the brave women fighting for their families, societies, and their political and personal rights and values. It was also absolutely fascinating to see how many prominent political figures seemed to have chosen to marry women who were not at all subdued, but, rather, strong, intelligent, and outspoken. Ms. Kanafani's own personal journey was both intriguing and compelling, and a true testament to her courage and the human spirit in the face of challenge and adversity. It is cinematic in it's scope and begs to be translated to the big screen, which I certainly hope it will be. Kudos to Ms. Kanafani for both her book and her immense courage.

5 comments about Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy.

1. Oh lordy. That book was bad. Really, really bad. It's taken me a week to stop gnashing my teeth over the fact that anyone can get a book deal if they have a semblance of a story in which the mouth-breathing masses will be interested.
   
   She's a *horrible* writer! No amount of repeating that her Harvard professor told her she'd be doing public service by writing will change that. Nuggets of gold that just drove me nuts include lines such as "The singing, dancing, and hugging multicolored creatures were incongruous, not to mention distracting" or "I half expected to find a flask of Jack Daniels in my own butt crack when I went to bed that night." I'd like to point out the use of the word "incongruous" is incongruous in that sentence! (She was talking about Teletubbies.)
   
   But worse than the bad prose was the terrible structure. Granted, memoirs are difficult to write. And I can only guess that writing them about an something that you need to be somewhat circumspect about can be tricky. But there were gaping flaws in the actual structure. Take, for example, the "nemesis" in the book, Jin Suk. "...I became JS's unwilling nemesis, our polar personalities simultaneously drawing us together and pushing us apart."
   
   Ah ha! I thought when I read this sentence. Now, finally, the conflict will begin. There will be some interesting dialog. Some descriptive language about the psyche of other people. A give and take between two characters. However, the payout never comes. In order for the author to be the unwilling nemesis, she must be someone who cannot be bested or overcome. That would assume that JS is trying to overcome the author. I expect to see fierce competition, hand-to-hand combat, girl fights in the middle of the night in the bathroom. But JS isn't like this. And the relationship, if there even is one, isn't such that even a nasty comment is made.
   
   The author reference's JS driving off the road into a ditch, but not trying to drive the author off the road. She describes JS as going into a meditative state under a tree, another time. Doesn't seem too awful to me. In the end, the author doesn't best JS--she finishes second to her. And later, JS sends a friendly letter to the author, who treats it with sarcasm and disdain.
   
   In the end, the author can only describe JS as "sitting as though she has a teacup on her head." I misread it, however, and thought she said that JS *HAD* a teacup on her head. "Now that's just going too far!" I thought to myself, "It's ridiculous that this perfectly normal person would have a teacup on her head!"
   
   The author sets us up to believe she's going to be someone who can't help excelling beyond her classmate, and that the classmate will be nasty and snarly about it. In all truth, JS is the author's unwilling nemesis. JS seems not to notice the author's jealousy--or, if she does, she doesn't respond to it.
   
   Throughout the book we see just how immature the author is. "I have a hard job and I miss my private life of boozing and carousing, wah!" she seems to complain throughout. Instead of behaving like a mature adult learning how to seriously work towards securing knowledge, she whines about not being able to do what most kids did during their college years. Seriously--she sounds like I did when I was 22!
   
   Anyway, it was a rotten book. It was only because I was sick in bed that I finished it. I figured if I was throwing up anyway, I might as well read it.



2. The reason I bought this book was for the supposed insight on the hiring process and training that DO officers have to endure. In that end, the book does a fine job of detailing it all but with it come the annoying and childish rants of Lindsay Moran. It is clear that her state of mind was not to serve her country but more geared towards "scratching her itch of becoming a spy" as she states so many times. She manages to belittle basically everyone in her class while constantly reinforcing her Harvard greatness. At one point, she even analogizes the work of espionage to "a little boys game" all the while constantly crying over her choice to break up with "Sasho", her loverboy from Bulgaria, and her inability to take drugs like all her friends. It was so obvious from the get go that she was not dedicated but merely exploring a fascination she had. Her degree from Harvard might have gotten her through the hiring process but after about 5 years, it's clear that she's not what legends are made of. You don't apply for the cladestine service and ask the start date of employment to be pushed back 1.5 years so you can go explore yourself. This book actually made me angry.



3. This book is a quick read and very interesting. Some reviewers marked the book down because she did too well in tests and was very physically fit. They should probably lighten up. After all, she never would have made it into the CIA if she were a stupid sloth.
   
   The author has a good sense of humor. Because of the humorous and entertaining writing one hardly notices that lower level spying is really sort of dull. And I notice folks have given the book some really weird tags. Perhaps they didn't read it.



4. Lindsay gives an honest view of training and life undercover - I can hardly believe that the censors let her write this. It's funny, human, and real, and so much more interesting than the usual blow-em-up spy novels that you know are pure fiction. She is one smart - and brave -cookie.



5. I was very excited to read this book, and I did learn some interesting things about the workings of the CIA. As complete outsider, I knew very little about the recruitment process and training, and I appreciated Moran's descriptions. However, her personality was so repellent and her writing so juvenile that I had a difficult time focusing on the message.
   
   As a 20-something who has spent several years working and studying abroad, I am sorry to report that Moran's attitudes and lifestyle are pretty characteristic of young expatriates. Moran constantly references her altruistic motivations, yet she constantly belittles and berates almost everyone she comes in contact with. How can she be as open minded as she claims to be when she feels comfortable generalizing about groups of people such as Mormons? She describes herself as cultured and educated, yet her biggest extra-curricular interests are partying and sleeping with unkempt drug abusers. Why does she like being someone's meal ticket?
   
   After reading this book, there are some questions that I would like to ask the author:
   
   Have you ever dated someone with stable employment?
   Aren't you a little old for recreational drug use?
   Did you use the GRE vocab list to randomly pick words that you obviously don't know how to use?
   After reading your memoir/hagiography, why was I so surprised to see how unattractive you really are? I know that is irrelevant, but it does make me question her grip on reality. How scary are these foreign operatives if they want to hook up with that??
   
   I admit that this review probably wasn't very mature, but I'm way younger than Moran, so at least I have an excuse!

No comments about Anne Sexton: Teacher of Weird Abundance (Suny Series, Feminist Theory in Education).

5 comments about Bad Blood: A Memoir.

1. I read through this book in a long afternoon, finding it totally engrossing. The story is about a young girl growing up under the roof of her grandfather, an intellectual vicar who led a double life of sex and booze, and her grandmother, an angry, disappointed anti-intellectual diabetic who lived for the treats of going to movies, candy, and scented soaps. The two detested each other, and their daughter wore herself out and sacrificed her personality to keep the household going in a very marginal way. The daughter had a daughter of her own, the author of this memoir, Lorna Sage. I don't think the point of this story is that her life was a nightmare, though it was hardly happy. It was about how, as humans, we all just keep making messes of our lives, generation after generation, and we all have our own family history and genetics which determine our strengths and our devastating flaws. Lorna inherited her grandfather's "bad blood", along with his use of books to escape both the place he was in (an isolated, wet, postwar depressed backwater), and the mess he was actively making of his life. In the middle of this mess, Lorna used this gift to survive, and even to struggle out of the quagmire by getting an advanced education.



2. This finely written memoir of her childhood as an Anglican minister's granddaughter. Today, or recently, [she died in 2001] Sage is an English literary critic and her memoir is both appreciably granular and endowed with a coherent overview. Highly recommended. Won the Whitbread Biography Award.



3. Holy moly! You wanna talk about a dysfunctional family? Here it is. It's during the years of WWII. The author's father is off fighting for God and country, and her mother is having a delayed adolescence, so author Lorna Sage is shipped to her grandparents house somewhere in rural England. Her grandparents are weird, weird, weird, but it is their very faults that ultimately make Sage, a well-known and powerful literary critic, into the person she becomes.
   Her grandfather is a debauched, intellectual, furious and infuriating vicar whose idiosyncrasies were seemingly limitless. Her grandmother's rage at her lot in life and the man who was responsible for it (and by extension, ALL men) never once abates - and you almost champion her for her constancy.
   Bad Blood reads as wicked fun with a strongly feminist underlying message. I loved it.



4. The story of an unexceptional childhood - mild neglect, some poverty and a very filthy home - neither sordid nor tragic nor eventful enough to be compelling reading. Especially for a person raised in India the dysfunctionality level of childhood/family seems average. The only redeeming feature is Lorna Sage's writing style. Witty and insightful. Normally this should raise a book to atleast 3 and a half stars but somehow this one does not quite make it past "interesting enough to read when there's nothing better to do". To use review cliches since they work so well in describing a book, it is readable but far short of unputdownable.



5. tough childhood, I wish Lorna Sage would write another memoir telling us how she's doing right now.
   I liked the book.

5 comments about Alligators, Old Mink and New Money: One Woman's Adventures in Vintage Clothing.

1. My boyfriend gave me this book for Christmas several years ago and it inspired me to act on my long-time dream of opening my own boutique. Each time I re-read this book, I'm reminded why I love vintage fashion and my new business!



2. This is one of those books I just stumbled across and wasn't sure whether or not to pick it up. After reading just a few pages I was hooked. Alison's adventures in the vintage clothing trade are fearless, funny and totally addictive. Her shopping excursions are a scream -- even when she's hunting down replacement "barn doors" (back doors to her van that were stolen) in the most unlikely places. The author obviously enjoys life to the fullest and generously shares the realities of making a new life for herself far, far from her original course. Go Alison! And give us a sequel while you're at it.



3. After reading this book, I look at vintage with a new eye. I loved reading about her adventures with modeling to running her own business. Couldn't put this book down and definetly recommend it to others!



4. Okay "Alligators, old Mink and new money." by Alison Houtte is one of those books that get the reader's attention by the title. This book tells the story of Alison Houtte a former model who opens a vintage shop, while it was cute it wasn't much more and only took me a day to read it.



5. I loved the title of this book! While there is good information about vintage clothing, I feel there is too much emphasis on the author's personal life. I loved the stories about her family, but didn't care so much to read about her love life or the nuts and bolts of her modeling career. I had hoped for more of a primer on how to shop wisely for vintage, as it seems to be a wonderful way to save money.

1 comments about The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West.

1. I've just finished "The Lady Was a Gambler" and it is a great read! Non-fiction can easily become boring, but this book takes you in right from the start and holds you all the way through. Each chapter is the story of a different lady gambler of the frontier days, and each story is equally captivating. Ms. Enss paints pictures with her words that take you back in time to the degree that you can actually hear the honky-tonk piano playing in the corner and smell the perfume over the cigar smoke. The period artwork and photos add to the adventure. It's a world that's seldom talked or written about, and she leaves the reader wanting even more. If you like the old west, or western stories, this book should be in your library.

5 comments about Dancing Under the Red Star: The Extraordinary Story of Margaret Werner, the Only American Woman to Survive Stalin's Gulag.

1. There are no words in the English language to describe how great this book is. I think it should be required reading in all high schools, but since God is mentioned, forget that ever happening.
   
   Not only tells of one families struggle under Stalin and communist Russia, it tells the truth about Henry Ford as well.
   
   God bless Karl Tobien for paying attention to his mother's stories.



2. Never, in Hollywood's motion picture history, has there been a book and riveting true story more worthy of an epic screen adaptation than DANCING UNDER THE RED STAR.
   
   A 2006 Non-Fiction "Pick" title by the American Booksellers Association, DANCING UNDER THE RED STAR has been adopted by many of America's top libraries, reading groups, book clubs, pro-family and faith-market organizations, home-schooling associations, and high school reading curriculums around the country.
   
   GENRE: Historical & Inspirational Drama / Adventure / War / Political Persecution
   
   Margaret "Maidie" Werner was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1921. The daughter of European immigrants--Carl & Elisabeth Werner, Margaret was your typically ordinary, innocent fun-loving 11-year old American schoolgirl, when--in 1932, during the Great Depression, her entire world was suddenly turned upside down.
   
   In the wake of this radically turbulent time, the Ford Motor Company commissioned an estimated 450 of their employees, and families, to leave America, set sail across the seas and take up residence in Gorky, Russia, in order to operate Ford's manufacturing facility there (though Ford admits to only 114 employees being sent). Margaret, along with her parents--Carl and Elisabeth, were one such family.
   
   Carl Werner was a tool and dye specialist with Detroit's Ford Motor Company, seeking only a good life for his family, and the "temporary economic opportunity" in Gorky that Henry Ford had promised, in the face of Detroit's hard times. Carl soon found more than he had bargained for...
   
   Russia of the late 1930's was an unimaginably brutal place. With the beginning of Stalin's infamous purges and the ensuing "Great Terror"--widespread arrests, political corruption, human torture, and unparalleled malevolent evil was the lay of the land. More than 30 million people had passed through the Gulag system: Russian Civil War prisoners, former aristocrats, businessmen, and large land owners were incarcerated alongside murderers, thieves, and common criminals, plus political opponents, intellectual "enemies of the state," religious dissenters, women, children--and those found "guilty" of simply associations with any of the above. Suddenly and unjustifiably, Margaret's father--Carl Werner, was deemed one such enemy.
   
   A little known (or virtually unknown) fact is that AMERICAN WORKERS BY THE THOUSANDS (employees of Henry Ford, and others), perished in Stalinist Russia--like animals, in the dreaded political prisons and malevolent slave-labor camps of Siberia, while both the Ford Motor Company and the U.S. Government, each turning a blind eye, did nothing to intervene or facilitate their rescue. Other Americans then trapped in Russia were not quite as fortunate. They were simply executed by Stalin's henchmen, murdered in the streets.
   
   Of these faithful American pioneers; the men, women, and children who originally made this now historic passage and lost their lives as a result thereof, spending years, nearly lifetimes, in the infamous and dreaded Siberian death camps, purely by the grace of God--there was one American woman who survived the horror and lived to tell of it. Margaret Werner. She is one of only two gulag survivors who eventually made it back home. She was the first. She was an American...
   
   In the end, Margaret "Maidie" Werner would become the only American woman known to have survived the brutal Siberian Gulag of Stalinist Russia, later escaping from East German exile through the Iron Curtain, to engineer a most miraculous eventual return home to the United States, where she would finally, and gratefully, kneel and kiss the pier at New York Harbor!
   
   Spanning nearly 30 years of Margaret Werner's extraordinary life story, "Dancing" is a brutally honest and illuminatingly sensitive record of how one very special woman, through clearly miraculous circumstances and the ever-present hand of a God she didn't fully recognize, managed to live through years of wrongful imprisonment in the Soviet Union, overcoming innumerable hardships while defiantly cheating death in her ultimate journey back home--the fulfillment of her vision and destiny.
   
   Margaret Werner's remarkable journey beyond the Iron Curtain and back is a story of defiance, hope, inspiration, and personal triumph--those often unseen elements rooted in the deeper spiritual realities of the human experience.
   
   When rightly caste and developed for feature film production, this amazing chronicle is sure to captivate and inspire the hearts of moviegoers across the globe--with hope, vision, and other lasting treasures, gifts, priceless "deposits" of eternal consequence...
   
   Historically unprecedented and fascinating beyond words, DANCING UNDER THE RED STAR stands as one of the most compelling and uniquely powerful stories of a woman's survival ever recorded.
   
   
   BOOK SYNOPSIS:
   
   In 1932 Detroit, the depression was "looming large and about to take its toll on everyone." Ford employee CARL WERNER carefully considers the decision of a lifetime--for his entire family, as HENRY FORD finalizes a new contract to begin automotive production in Russia. Despite much, maybe prophetic, steadfast opposition from mother and daughter...the choice is all Carl's, and the reluctant decision is made; the Werner's are bound for Russia.
   
   The story begins in 1938 Gorky, Russia, amid the Stalinist regime, as American 17-year-old high school student and, now, champion Russian swimmer, MARGARET "MAIDIE' WERNER witnesses the brutal arrest of her father, Carl, at the hands of Russia's notorious NKVD, the Soviet secret police. Margaret and her mother, ELISABETH, the family's quiet but confident spiritual leader, are more than devastated as a result of the inexplicable madness they have just witnessed, and are now left with the unanswerable question of "Why?" Margaret, trying hard to recover, ponders her mother's steadfast words of faith, "Everything will be all right; Do not lose hope. God has a plan...and HE will get us through this..."
   
   Carl is now declared a "vrag naroda" (an "enemy of the state") and has been sentenced to an indeterminate term in a labor camp in Siberia's far North. Within one month of Carl's savage arrest, Margaret and her mother are evicted from their tiny apartment, with no savings--no means of support, now having to fend for themselves in the midst of their impoverished surroundings. At an assembly in her high school auditorium, Margaret is appalled as the authorities urge she publicly "denounce her father as a traitor of their country," and, to the absurdity of such a demand, she vehemently speaks out against this ruthless Soviet system that has "murdered the years of her youth," as friends and classmates, including best friend, MARIA, can't believe their ears!
   
   Margaret becomes a champion `Soviet' athlete, highly touted, excelling in both swimming and track. She is quite taken with a handsome young Russia lifeguard--NIKOLAI; as the entire country is in a state of moral, social, and physical collapse, spiritual bankruptcy. Con men abound...trying to take advantage of bereaved families. During a brief vacation at a youth resort near Moscow, Margaret, now age 19, hears the camp loudspeaker suddenly announce that "Finland has just attacked Russia," and the country is officially at war. Everyone knows that the true perpetrator is Russia, but no one dares speak his or her mind on the matter, as Margaret is ordered and mobilized, along with several hundred of the city's youth, to dig anti-tank trenches from there to Moscow. Her life is miraculously spared; she narrowly escapes aerial gunfire from German planes advancing on the Russian capital, as World War II is now in full swing...
   
   She befriends British officers: LESLIE & MAC (serving in Russia as part of the `Allies Lease-Lend Pact'), who willfully offer their assistance to help facilitate Margaret and Elisabeth's hopeful escape. Margaret and Elisabeth manage to survive the war years, selling their blood for money and/or food. Margaret's life is again spared--surely by God's grace--as she is almost caught, by a MILITARY GUARD, stealing small bits of wood for nothing other than personal survival. It is, nonetheless, considered a "crime" punishable by execution. As a necessary means of survival, Elisabeth harvests (the world's worst tasting) potatoes at a kolkhoz, as she and Maidie jokingly make light of them, in an attempt to ease the consuming insanity.
   
   World War II rages on, and Gorky is all but obliterated, primarily by air, by the considerably superior tactics and weaponry of the German army; while Margaret works for a brief time at the People's Court, where foreign and national POLITICAL PRISONERS, and others, are brought to stand trial on various trumped-up charges.
   
   The war continues, as Maidie and her FRIENDS have a momentary time out at a dance in a war-torn building in the center of town; a surprise set up! Nikolai, whom Margaret has not seen in 5 years, is now a distinguished Russian aviator, a fighter pilot, who appears out of nowhere to meet her there. Their true love for one another is apparent, and blossoms, as plans are made to wed. Days later, Nikolai has orders to return to Leningrad, where, reportedly, tens of thousands are dying daily. Only a day later his plane is shot down and Nikolai is killed, taking along most of Margaret's heart. She is shattered. Eventually recovering, she later reflects on the fact that, perhaps, God somehow spared her life? The war is declared "over" on May 7, 1945, everyone "spilling out of their apartments, celebrating, and dancing in the streets." The Russian death toll: Military and civilian...27 million lives.
   
   The events of all the mounting years have taken their toll on our heroine. Now, in much the same fashion as with her father some 7 years prior...Margaret, age 24, is arrested, declared a political prisoner, in December 1945, and first detained at Gorky's infamous Vorobyo'vka political prison, where she is the only American detained. Prison conditions are ghastly; and equally so, her demonic cellmate, ANASTASIA. She endures constant interrogations, conducted mainly by FIDOLI, her somewhat compassionate Russian interrogator--a sly fox, but whom she actually likes...and says "could pass for a kindly old English professor."
   
   Margaret is jolted to learn that her filthy, demon possessed witch of a cellmate, Anastasia, has disclosed to her interrogator facts that she has learned about Margaret's life (her relationship with Leslie & Mac), now tainting Margaret's circumstances all the more, and leading to an eventual `spiritual' confrontation between the two. Day after day, almost non-stop, she is interrogated--but remains determined, simply refusing to cooperate with the malevolent Russian agenda. The official charges against her are "Treason," "Espionage" and "Anti-Soviet Propaganda," i.e. spying for the British Secret Service...
   
   Margaret has no choice; from sheer exhaustion, she finally breaks down and signs their bogus confession. She says, "...they simply outwait you and outlast you...leaving you no alternative." She is temporarily transferred to the much-feared Lubyanka prison in Moscow, and then, suddenly, again returned to Gorky, to her interrogator; where she breaks a very serious Russian taboo, by asking Fidoli his thoughts on God? The room is silent, anticipating; Margaret apprehensive and somewhat fearful, but defiant nevertheless.
   
   In April 1946, Maidie Werner, a falsely accused American citizen, stands trial in Moscow--where a former close `FRIEND' has falsely testified against her--for the charges leveled by the NKVD; and is sentenced to "ten years hard labor." Finally, news comes that she will be shipped to a Siberian labor camp. First, she and OTHER PRISONERS are humiliatingly marched through the city streets of Gorky, past the demoralized but sympathetic crowds of ONLOOKERS, then, herded like animals into a railroad cattle car, her trip to the far North begins. Upon arrival, she has a most painful, but surprising encounter with a Blatnoi man, MIKAL--a street thug, at the feared Siberian lumber camp, Burepolom; and also a shockingly strange, most unexpected encounter with another OLD ACQUAINTENANCE from years past.
   
   Maidie works in a log-loading brigade, the most physical, unimaginably demanding work she has ever done. But, as the news about her talent for drawing and tracing blueprints spreads, a quick transfer to a purported `better life' in a construction brigade ensues. She is the only American--man or woman, here...and the only "political prisoner" in the entire Siberian camp.
   
   Perhaps the best news Margaret has heard yet...the camp is auditioning dancers and performers for its dramatic entertainment troupe! She is readily accepted. Then...old and ugly, dormant feelings are stirred up once again: bitterness, resentment, hatred...as she spots Anastasia, the witch--the informer, amongst a column of newly arriving prisoners in the summer of 1948. In the middle of one particular night, Margaret is awakened from a dead sleep, and told, "Pack your things now; you will be leaving in the morning."
   
   Margaret's new `home' and labor camp is at Inta, Komi, A.S.S.R., far north in Siberia, just a few miles south of the Arctic Circle, one of the most notoriously brutal labor camps in all of Siberia. In a climate she describes as "bone-chilling, mind-splitting, devilish cold," she meets political prisoner--LINA PROKOFIEV, Spanish wife of the famous, world-renowned Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. A wonderful friendship begins... "One day," Margaret recalls, "a woman named TAMARA arrived in our camp, and things were never the same again!" -- as Margaret becomes a key member of the camp's Cultural Brigade, the official entertainment, ballet and dance group. It is here that we meet her closest lifelong friends--"SISTERS" all, simply held together in the mutual madness by just a single common thread--the thread of HOPE.
   
   Life continues for Margaret in this perpetually gray and unforgiving Soviet slave labor camp in Northern Siberia. We learn much more about the conditions and factors--indignities and `favors,' effecting camp life for these women. The prevailing thought in Margaret's mind through most of it is simply, "God, when are you going to change all of this?" The writer takes a shockingly truthful and spiritual look at the epidemic reality of suicide in the Russian death camps; the infiltration of hopelessness and despair into the human spirit, and then its devastating results, as Margaret decides, "this is all just too insane; where's the off button?"
   
   Margaret details her natural love for ballet--what physically demanding, exhaustive `work' it truly was; along with the existing jealousies created within the camp, due to the theatrical work of the "privileged" WOMEN in the Cultural Brigade. Russia's malevolent dictator, Joseph Stalin dies in March of 1953; it is practically nationwide jubilation in the hearing that "the master of the house has died, and all of the grateful servants celebrate." Maybe now, for the first time, Margaret begins to see the light at the end of her tunnel of darkness, as her original 10-year sentence nears its close.
   
   Maidie is an integral member and performer in the Cultural Brigade, also working as draftsman for a small construction group. Brigade member, NATASHA, disgusted with her producers one day (because they can't find her a "suitable role" for an upcoming show) throws a bucket of feces on their heads...as Maidie and others are doubled over in laughter! Though officially outlawed, the women have taken in pets. One day, their loving dog is missing, then soon discovered, as Margaret declares "oh, what evil lies in the hearts of men!" Later, a chilling `secret abortion' is performed in her barracks.
   
   Margaret has been `requested' back in Gorky by the officials of the MVD--Ministry of Internal Affairs, for the purpose of recruiting her mother, Elisabeth, to work for them in Gorky. She describes her mama looking like "a deer caught in 2AM headlights on a dark and lonely road...it was nothing but a set up...honey all over the bear trap," as Elisabeth, sitting at an overflowing mountain of delectable food, uncomfortably awaits her daughter's arrival. Back in Siberia, March 3rd, 1955, the day of Margaret's release has finally arrived. Before exiting, however, as she did once before...many years earlier, she again decides, regardless of the consequences, to defiantly stand up and speak her mind...
   
   Shortly after her eventual release, while dancing for Tamara's group in Inta, Margaret meets and later marries GÜNTER--a former German war prisoner, fellow labor camp survivor, and theatrical stage performer--now exiled to Siberia. Their BABY is soon born...
   
   Although considered `free' to some yet unknown degree, Margaret steadily realizes her increasing dependence upon "the grace, favor, and protection of an unseen God." She examines those spiritual certainties, which have most assuredly surrounded and guarded her life for all of these years, in miraculously inexplicable ways. At Inta, before giving birth, she dances her final dance...as Elisabeth, for the first time ever, witnesses her daughter's last dramatic performance. Still trapped in Russia, however, Maidie visits a former friend, JOHN, in Moscow...and, upon his advice, decides to write a grand and lengthy appeal to the country's Prime Minister, NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV, requesting permission to leave the country (to East Germany)--in accordance with a new "War Prisoner Exchange Agreement" between Germany and Russia.
   
   In December 1957, the good news finally arrives; they are authorized to leave Russia, eventually crossing into the GDR in February 1958 at Fuerstenwalde, not far from Gunter's hometown. Did Nikita "buy" the appeal?
   
   Margaret states, "we knew that we could never survive in the GDR; it was too much like Russia...and I'm an American. This is not my home!" Thus, a clever plan for defection, escape to the "free West," is hatched, as Soviet-controlled East German Border Police, or VOPO's, look upon the developing drama. West Germany was, in fact, the strategic-most place on the globe; the best place imaginable for launching back to the U.S.; also described as Margaret's "private plan within the plan." She recalls, "This would become our instant demise, death, if we blew the scene!"
   
   Nearly 30 years from the day Margaret first left Detroit as an 11-year-old schoolgirl, she returns to America--her country--with mother and son, her destiny finally fulfilled--as she slowly kneels down amid the gathering crowd of onlookers...to kiss the boards of the pier at New York Harbor...as she considers: "Were it not for God, I would have certainly died out there! My life had been stolen from me, but now it was being returned. The forces of evil had destroyed much of my life, yet, if but for a moment, I almost felt as if I hadn't missed a thing. I knew I could just as easily have died out there, given up and folded my hands. Many others had done just that. I knew them. I knew their faces. But now I was free. Here was my life, waiting for me all over again, as if I had just been born..."
   
   
   CLOSING THOUGHTS:
   
   Margaret "Maidie" Werner was the only American woman known to have survived the Siberian slave-labor camps of twentieth-century Stalinist Russia, to have escaped from exile, and to have returned to the United States...
   
   Though Ford insists its American workers returned to the United States in the later part of 1932, Carl Werner was still living in Gorky in 1938, and working at the plant Ford built to manufacture the trucks essential to Stalin's Five-Year Plans.
   
   Just what did Detroit's Ford Company know, and what didn't they know about the affairs going on in Gorky? What did they disclose, and what did they conceal? And why? What was their involvement, their level of support for their people? Why had they abandoned their employees? What, if anything, was their liability? And what was the U.S. government doing about all the innocent Americans who were there in harm's way? Indeed, even today there are many more questions than answers...as we realize that things are not always as they first appear.
   
   There is much documentary evidence that the Ford Motor Company worked for both sides during World War II. While Russia was at war with the Germans, the United States--as official ally to Russia and Britain, was certainly also at war with Germany. And Henry Ford, as history would recount, was doing business simultaneously with the two archrivals--Hitler and Stalin--supplying cars, financing, and political influence, for profit, to each. The Ford story was concealed by Washington, however, like almost everything else of that genre that could touch upon the name and sustenance of the Wall Street elite.
   
   It is said that if the Nazi industrialists brought to trial at Nuremberg were even remotely guilty of so-called "crimes against mankind," then so must be their fellow collaborators in the Ford family, Henry and Edsel Ford.



3. First a note about other reviews:
   Largely ignore the negative comments.
   
   The three greatest negative comments I've read are those referring to:
   1) Proselytizing
   2) Writing style
   3) Historical research/content/details.
   
   At this point, these three types of negative comments seem to run from greatest to least in this order.
   
   First of all, or to cover #1 . . . proselytizing: There really isn't any. The quantity of coverage given specifically and directly to God within these pages seems no more than would be set aside for him in anyone's book. There's no literary "alter call" and the closest you get to a description of a conversion experience is found within the last three or so pages--and no formula is given and no call to the reader extended. It's obvious the author and the subject (if he has been faithful to her memories/recollections) consider God a central figure in the universe and their lives, but because this story is what it is, a true biographical telling of survival in Stalinist Russia, it says little of God directly. Apparently, Margaret Werner knew little of God during these difficult years and so there is little said. What insight she received were tidbits from her mother . . . which were generally meant as encouragement to get through the next day, hour, moment. So, given the little amount of space the book devotes to specifically mentioning God, I will say no more here . . . or run the risk of spending even more space here than there was there!
   
   The second objection I've seen in reviews of this book: Writing Style. The book is well written. I read an Advanced Reading Copy and noted only a couple of typographical or print errors--these may have been corrected in the final printing. The writing style itself, while a little wordy perhaps, does an excellent job of portraying the words of the subject as if they are being delivered in person, one on one, from an eloquent, down to earth individual. There are no literarily elaborate phrases and you don't need a Harvard education to grasp the vocabulary. The story is delivered in a direct and straightforward fashion and the entire read, I found, was pleasant. It was certainly good enough to "forget" I was reading and fall into the story.
   
   Finally, the last negative comment I've seen in reviews of this book are its attention to historical content/detail/research. This is not an historical treatise. There are not a lot of historical details given in the text. We are given details, but they are those directly related to the story, by the subject, in the first-person. Most of the historical information we receive is that which the subject was familiar with at the time and not what would have become available after-the-fact through research. This book is a retelling of events that befell Margaret and the struggles she endured. Indeed, the reader learns a lot of things about death camps in Stalinist Russia during this time frame--but these details are those which are relevant to the telling of the story and nothing more.
   
   I have attempted to cover what seem to be the main negative parts of the reviews I have read of this book. I will not spend a lot of time reviewing the positive aspects because that has already been done amply by others. As I began this review with the suggestion to largely ignore the negative comments of others regarding this book, I will now suggest that you give credence to the positive comments others have given. Take the most glowing comments you read with a grain of salt and realize that everyone will have his or her own bent--specific reasons they liked this or that which are personal to them. But as you should largely ignore the negative comments given, I suggest you largely consider the positive.
   
   This is a wonderful read and a good solid book and it has earned its place in my library--and as suggested reading to others.



4. What should have been an amazing story - a young woman goes to Russia because her father is a Ford worker on an exchange program, then her and her father end up being tried for treason and imprisoned, although not together, and only she makes it out of the prison system alive - fails to be a page turner in Karl Tobien's recitation of his mother's story. The main problems are Karl's confusing writing style (I had to read the book several times before every scene made sense, also I think he claims that his grandparents were "waiting out the Depression" on a beet farm in 1921, which differs a little from the dates I was taught in school) and his incessant proselytizing.
   
   It would be understandable if Mrs Werner had given her son a whitewashed vision of the camps. She had lived quietly for years after returning to America and was careful to avoid publicity or attention, and even though she seemed to lead as charmed a life as a gulag prisoner can, there was probably a lot she didn't care to dwell on. But Karl doesn't do any of his own research to supplement her story, leading the reader with a lot of questions especially about the Ford-Gorky exchange and Carl Werner, who despite his daughter's obvious worship, might have dug his own hole in Soviet Russia.
   
   The second problem is that Karl is clearly a born-again Christian, and possibly his mother also was by the end of her life. This really shouldn't be that obvious halfway through the book, but there we are. While a gulag-as-a-spiritual-discovery-journey is explicitly stated, right off the bat young Maidie is crediting a benevolent God with every possible stroke of good luck and never once does she seriously question him about the bad. In fact, there is a surprisingly small amount of conflict in the whole book, both in her heart and in her environment, considering she's in a freaking gulag. By the epilogue, where Karl exclaims that we need truth! need it now! in our schools! without ever once stating what truth he's talking about because to him it's totally obvious, I have to wonder how much of the story is really Margaret Werner's, and how much was Karl.



5. Dancing under the Red Star was a good book but not what I would call a "page turner." The beginning was a little slow and confusing because the author went back and forth changing time sequences...but once I got past the beginning, everything was in chronological order. Also, the author tended to go a little too much into detail about Margret's personal thoughts...sometimes pages were spent with her thoughts just going and going. I wanted the storyline to continue...not drone on and on. However, overall, this is a good book with a great deal of details on what life must have been like for millions under Stalin. I would recommend this book for high schoolers and above.

4 comments about Dark Lady: Winston Churchill's Mother and Her World.

1. This biography reads like a quickie rush to the market insant book written about some pop singer or two bit actress. In it, Jenny Jerome comes off as a truly horrible creature. How such a monster managed to attract so many men seems impossible. Plus, the bit about Catholics apparently not eating during Lent (it's 40 days long) made me laugh and this is not a comedy.



2. This book appears to have been written in haste and not edited. It contains so many glaring factual errors, such as identifying Queen Alexandra's sister as the Duchess of Tech (definitely not, her sister was the Empress of Russia) that I came to doubt the rest of the book. At one point he seems to indicate that Catholics do not eat during Lent (that would be an extraordinary accomplishment). There is, literally, an error on every page, many of which could have been avoided by very simple and basic editing. Very annoying. I couldn't finish it.



3. Rich in detail. Remarkable insight into a complex character in a remarkably important family, in Victorian and Edwardian Britain.
   Politics,Monarchy and Aristocracy interwoven with sex and scandal.
   A great read for anyone interested in the Churchills.



4. While this biography deals with a fascinating (and, from all we can tell from the record, bewitching) woman, the author barely does her justice. The book seems cramped and telegraphic in approach--it presumes the reader may know more about people and events than he or she really does. There are far better books (including the two-volume Ralph Martin biography published in 1969 and 1971 and readily available) to better understand "Jennie" and the swath she cut through late Victorian and early 20th century society. That she was the mother of Sir Winston Churchill was merely icing on the cake--she had plenty going for her on her own.

4 comments about Learning to Walk Again: How Guillain Barre Taught Me to Walk a Different Path.

1. I became engrossed with the book 'Learning to Walk Again' as soon as I began reading it. I read it in one sitting. I learned about the difficulty of getting a correct diagonosis when dealing with various doctors and hospitals.And how you have to be persistant. It was a nightmare for Ann because of the pain she felt, until a diagonosis was found.Patients must not be seduced in believing that they just need therapy, and that it's all in their head! This book is on the cutting edge when it comes to information about Guillain Barre disease. Ann's first hand experience with the disease will help patients and families struggling with similar issues. It will act like a road map for them. It will help them to push and ask questions of their doctors. The book is well-researched about this little-known disease.
   In addition to the excellent information this book shares, it also delves into the important relationship between family members and how supportive and helpful they were to each other. Caregivers carry a heavy burden, and this book discusses the give and take that is necessary between partners and other family members.
   I also liked the writing style. Although the topic was difficult, the writing style was easy and conversational and even touched on humor. I visualized many of the scenes, a great indication of a good book, which this certainly was.
   I recommend this book to anyone who has a family member or friend suffering with this disease or other challening body problems.



2. Ann's personal story is an an amazing meld of
   knowledge of Guillain Barre and the painful (and
   humorous)process of her Recovery. A good read
   for anyone seeking hope and progress through a
   chronic illness, whether patient or caregiver.



3. As a fellow GBS survivor, I was eager to read Ms. Brandt's account of her experience. This disease does not discriminate when it strikes, and every person has a different journey. I suppose when you've been struck with such a life-altering experience, from out of nowhere, you seek connection and explanation.

   The book touches upon the elementary aspects of GBS, and poses some important questions. Like Ms. Brandt, I spent a good deal of time while in my recovery stage trying to prevent what had happened to me from happening to others. She reaches out to others who are in the acute phase of the disease through patient visitation, to other survivors through meetings and symposiums, and to the medical community through this book.

   Why had we been promised that we'd "get it all back"? Why isn't post-rehabilitation fatigue addressed as a separate phase of the syndrome?

   This book asks some important questions, and I hope that its publication will serve as a catalyst to get them answered.




4. I am going through recovery from GBS. Reading this book has been a great experience for me; once a received it, I couldn't put it down until I finished it. Ann's experience is very similar to mine and her book helped me in a therapeutic way; I re-lived many emotions, situations, funny moments, etc., and learned a little bit more about this syndrome. I recommend this book for people who are going through recovery as well as for those caregivers around them.

5 comments about Monster: My True Story.

1. I APPEAR IN THIS BOOK, BUT WHAT IS STATED ABOUT ME IS NOT TRUE; NOR DID THIS WRITER TRY TO VERIFY ANY TRUTH WITH ME.
   
   AT FIRST BLUSH, IT ALSO APPEARS THIS WRITER SIMPLY COPIED "QUOTES" FROM COURT DOCUMENTS, AND PARROTED "THOSE" AS "AILEEN WUORNOS' WORDS"; AS I SEE STATEMENTS (SUPPOSEDLY OUT OF MS. WURONOS' MOUTH) THAT WERE TAKEN (OUT OF MY MOUTH) FROM MY LEGAL DEPOSITIONS!
   
   TOO BAD THERE IS NO LEGAL RAMIFICATION FOR PLAGERISM FROM DEPOSITIONS, OR THIS WRITER WOULD BE OUT OF A JOB. AND, IN MY OPINION, DESERVINGLY SO, AS THE ONLY TRUTH IN THIS BOOK IS THE SPELLING OF THE AILEEN WUORNOS NAME.
   
   JACKELYN GIROUX



2. I actually met Corky Reid, who thought it strange, that Aileen Wuornos should take the rap for his death, when he was very much alive. Corky turned himself into the police and back to his family, very much alive and NOT THE EIGHTH VICTIM BY WUORNOS!
   How could THIS so called WRITER state he is writing a TRUE STORY, plus from the mouth of Aileen Wuornos (who obviously knew she did not kill Corky Reid!) and have such a BLUNDER as this?! The book should be taken off the shelf, or retitled, in my opinion, as it is not truthful! PLUS, I have read all the BOOKS written about Aileen Wuornos and the only one that makes any REAL STATEMENTS is LETHAL INTENT by Sue Russell, who actually met the people she writes about and QUOTES THEM!



3. i purchased this book written by christopher berry dee,i was very very disappointed as it said on the cover aileen in her own words,there were the odd one or two quotes,as ive read sue russells book lethal intent,i could see alot of similarities in berry dee's book.as for the one of the main topics being corky reid,maybe he should have studied the case more,and not blamed aileen for his disapperance/murder,as he went into hiding to avoid large debts he had incurred.if you want a book given both sides of aileen i would not go for this book,i would purchase sue russells book



4. It seems that the author (and I'm not talking about Aileen here, since she didn't write this book, no matter what Berry-Dee is trying to convince you) has taken lots of newspaper clippings and put this book together in a quick way to make money. Although it's not badly written there is something missing. There is hardly any references to her childhood and very much about her being interviewed. Lots of stuff I believe is taken from Nick Broomfield's Aileen documentaries. It's an ok read and I'm glad I got this one from the library and didn't buy it!



5. I had a great time reading this book. Having seen the movie a few months back I decided to purchase 'Monster' to see what else went on with this story. What a tale! So much more to be known about Wournos and written by a man who has clearly had a lot of experience talking with this woman. Using his extensive interview experience with other serial killers he has created the definitive portrait Aileen Wournos. Those who enjoy reading about this kind of crime should check out 'Talking With Serial Killers' by the same author. Again, using masses of interview material Christopher Berry-Dee has produced an absolutely chilling document. And whats more, this guy can write!