5 comments about The Fortune Hunters: Dazzling Women and the Men They Married.

1. 
   the title is a kinder, glossier euphemism for 'the gold diggers' of course. it basically gives a little biographical backstory to the great gold diggers of our age, yawn, and the message remains the same - women who marry for money end up earning every penny, just not on a 9-5 basis and perhaps not standing upright...
   
   a travesty of feminism.



2. The Fortune Hunters has the unique qualaity of being both entertaining AND informative. If 'all is fair in love and war' then this book illustrates the strategies and characteristics of the greatest conquerors of the battle of the sexes. You learn how each of the 'generals' won the skirmishes, battles, and wars that made them famous while also learning the motivations that drove them into battle. Each of the women profiled could command a 400 page biography of their own but this book isn't about detailing their ENTIRE lives but, rather,their LOVE lives. Though these women are all one-of-a-kind personalities they share a specific cocktail of traits that makes for successful big-game hunting. Whether it is Wallis Simpson or Marla Maples Ms. Hays confirms that you can get more money during a 5 minute wedding ceremony than you could get from a lifetimes hard work. The text is witty and easy to read while the boil-plate approach to the fortune-huntress tactics provides high nutritional value. I have seen many 'fortune huntresses'(South Florida boasts a large population of 'old men with even older money') toiling away at their craft with dissapointing results but now that Ms. Hays has written this primer on marrying money their fortunes might just change for the better.
   I read this book the first night - couldn't put it down.



3. Very simply, THE FORTUNE HUNTERS should have been better. Author Charlotte Hays, presumably in concert with her editor and publisher, has cheated her readers.
   
   Most importantly, the book simply is too short. At less than 300 pages, it should have been at least 50% longer. Had it been longer, it might have included sufficient examples of fortune hunters -- and examples abound -- to do justice to the theme.
   
   The writing has a rushed quality, with some sentences so run-on that they could have been broken up into full paragraphs.
   
   Author Hays draws some conclusions that are just plain wrong. Diana, the late Princess of Wales, was not a fortune hunter. Coming from an old noble family, a rich family, she was a misguided teenager who thought that she was marrying her Prince Charming -- and who, at the same time, assumed that when he became king, she would be queen.
   
   Neither was socialite Nan Kempner a fortune hunter, though Hays opens AND closes the book with the EXACT SAME anecdote about her. Kempner married young and stayed married for about 50 years, to a boy of her own social class. The author is confusing making a "suitable" marriage with hunting for a rich husband.
   
   At the same time, the author never even mentions Princess Grace of Monaco. Admittedly, Grace was not a fortune hunter, being a member of a rich family and having made serious money on her own as a movie star. Yet she did marry a virtual stranger in her quest to become royal.
   
   As for those fortune hunters the author does include in her book, she omits most of the more compelling anecdotes about them. Anyone who was in New York during some of these ladies' heydays will find it difficult to understand how Hays could neglect to reference the details of the notorious party which caused the Steinbergs to retire from polite society, or how she could give only one example of Mrs. Gutfreund's hilarious social gaffes.
   
   As the expression goes, the omissions also are glaring. Pat Kluge is cited only in a single aside. The marriages of Mort Zuckerman and Henry Kravis and all of the later Mrs. Perelmans are not mentioned at all, nor is Brooke Astor. Denise Minelli Hale was so laser-focused on the man that she succeeded in wedding that her step-daughter wrote an entire book about their marriage; shouldn't Hays have included the last Mrs. Hale in her summation?
   
   THE FORTUNE HUNTERS is fascinating in concept, but the book is so short and so sloppy that it cheats its readers.



4. Did expect more of this book. The subject sure has enough substance... However, it is neither a gossip book nor a social anthropological study but a mish-mash of tidbits of information, some seems to come from a relatively close proximity other from far, far away from the objects studied. Not a book that really grabs you.



5. This book is a wonderful backgrounder on what a fortune hunter is truly made of. I'm surrounded by them--we all are, no matter which social class we live in. But this book is a fantastic backgrounder on how all of these women think and behave.
   
   Hays is not cutting or cruel about these women; she simply tells their stories. And the stories are really something. Interesting, though: The fortune hunters of yesteryear are cut from exactly the same cloth as those we hear and see so much about today.
   
   A fun read.

5 comments about The Loveliest Woman in America: A Tragic Actress, Her Lost Diaries, and Her Granddaughter's Search for Home.

1. The loveliest woman kept me up late for several evenings.... Two accomplished young women, two generations apart. Neither with much luck in romantic relationships but each laying claim to her own story. As a devourer of biographies, the new historical tidbits were rewarding by themselves - a new Eleanor Roosevelt letter (who, according to Rosamond's diaries, planted kisses on her lips) - the role of a 28 year old socialite in FDR's 1932 depression campaign - good natured gossip about the personalities and affairs of the household names of the 1920s and 30s (including the author of "Goodnight Moon"). The Pinchots and the Gastons appear to be real life examples of the American Dream gone awry as a result of a focus on material and (sometimes quirky) social success - see Fitzgerald and Wharton for the fictional examples. Since Rosamond Pinchot was a suicide at age 33, the author's search for a psychological framework for Ms. Pinchot's personality is a big part of the tale. Spontaneous nude sunbathing (as an anti-depressant?) is only one of Rosamond's impulses. In sum - thorough research combined with loving empathy. Two unfinished stories, but a satisfying artistic whole. What's not to like about this book?



2. What an amazing story written so beautifully, you'll find yourself re-reading passages and pages & making notes of Bibi's profound sentiments,& descriptions. How she managed to weave the tale of 2 famous families, 3 generations & their non stop travels & re-locating has me in awe. Because Bibi is also a remarkable landscape architect the reader learns about tress, flowers, landscape and also about the rehabilitation of the land and heart. This book is written without judgement, a lesson many can learn from Bibi because what fuels the engine that drives the author is LOVE & a desire to know her roots, history, lineage, & the all the people in her family, who were kept secret from her. Hats off to Bibi!!! This book should be required reading and what a joy students would have being allowed the luxury of participating in this wonderful book.



3. "The Loveliest Woman in America" is perhaps the best book I've read in a decade. It is beautifully written and tells the generational story of two notable families. All the familial history is pulled together by the ostensible subject's granddaughter, with the starting point being her beautiful actress grandmother's suicide before she reached the age of 40. The author's search for family information reveals great sadness, missed opportunities, lost love, famous friends, accomplished family members, and emotional double-crosses that break one's heart. A big player in this book, oddly enough, is the land and remembered places ... forests, waterfalls, pools, paths, and islands in Maine. This book and the people in it will stay with you for a long time. I think Bibi Gaston
   is a gifted storyteller and a brave heart.



4. Bibi Gaston is a wonderful storyteller; a careful historian; a passionate liver and lover of the natural world. She dances with words and has the guts of a burglar. The courage it took to take this journey through her family's past and across oceans, as well as generations is stunning. Her compassion and candor moved me throughout, and add to all of the above a delicious, often wry sense of humor. I learned and learned the more I read...about other eras; ; other places; about things I already knew quite a bit about; about other families and their styles and choices, and about a very contemporary, brave, vulnerable, fascinating woman, the author herself. As in so much of art, the more specific you become in your depictions, the more universal your outreach. Many, many times I thought she was writing about me...just as when you're positive the singer up on that stage is absolutely singing your story. I don't believe the devil is in the details; I think angels are...and I was personally touched by a slew of them as I read this book from cover to cover. As a landscape architect (her day job), Gaston works to bring balance back to the natural scenes where it has been disrupted. She restores a beautiful balance to a series of disrupted human scenes, by her skills of seeing, feeling and telling.



5. Have you ever been captivated by the old photograph of a long-dead stranger? Did you want to know her story, yet---even in this information-saturated internet age---find yourself quickly at a dead end?
   That was my experience after seeing the bewitching photo of Rosamond Pinchot in the book "Edie: An American Tragedy" when I first read it 20 years ago. Thankfully, Bibi Gaston has fleshed out the portrait of her elusive grandmother and, in doing so, has tied together the threads of her family history: charisma and depression, great wealth and petty greed, being given great advantages as a child yet lacking loving parents and suffocating under secrets.
   In the "Edie" book, the brief mention of Rosamond was almost dismissive and seemed to imply her suicide was inevitable. Yet Gaston shows us a vibrant, loving woman whose death surprised all who knew her.
   Suicide can so color the entire history of someone's life, and people can be easily erased by someone else's tossed-off description.
   Bibi Gaston has brought her grandmother back to life in her quest to understand her and unravel the mystery of her family and she has done so in the loveliest way.

5 comments about American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans.

1. American Jezebel, a scholarly work about the life of Anne Hutchinson, told through an examination of the primary sources of documentation about her life, is a well written and compelling biography of one of the true founders of what became the United States. That our educational system does not give the same attention to Anne Hutchinson's life, as is afforded to the "founding fathers", is compelling proof of the sexist nature of recorded history. Eve LaPlante, though a direct descendant of Anne Hutchinson, handles this work with both objectivity and thoroughness. Her book filled in a large gap in my knowledge of early New England. After reading this book, you will never again think of Massachusetts as that charming land of happy pilgrims and may develop, as I have, a deep antipathy for John Winthrop, a man revered in our history books, largely as a consequence of ignoring his cruelty to greater persons such as Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer.



2. I'm mystified by the rave reviews here. Hutchinson is indeed a fascinating figure, but LaPlante's oddly-arranged book obscures more than it illuminates. LaPlante presents Hutchinson as a proto-feminist rather than a zealous religious dissident. Although LaPlante acknowledges that Hutchinson exhibited as much moral certitude as her prosecutors -- she believed, for example, that she could personally identify those chosen for salvation by God -- the majority of the book either downplays the significance of theological dispute in favor of gender politics (John Winthrop was primarily motivated by a desire to keep women in their place, etc.), or twists itself into knots trying to recast arch-Calvinist Antinomianism as a progressive movement. Incredibly, there is no serious discussion of theology until 50 pages into the book.
   
   Gender is naturally significant to the story (we are, after all, talking about a woman in seventeenth century Boston who brazenly challenged the city's Cambridge-educated male leadership). But the reason for Hutchinson's banishment -- like that of the more influential and sophisticated Roger Williams a few years earlier -- was theological, and the faith of Hutchinson and her slippery mentor John Cotton (grandfather of Cotton Mather) was no more rational and no less fanatical than that of Winthrop, whose tendency to seek conciliation actually marks him as a rather moderate fellow by Puritan standards. Unlike Williams, whose radical separatism led him to become one of the first notable advocates of religious freedom, Hutchinson was primarily concerned not with political liberty but with denouncing those who she believed to be under a "covenant of works." This category included all the ministers in Massachusetts except for Cotton and her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright.
   
   LaPlante is evidently not an expert on Puritan New England, and she has trouble with theology. To give one example, she employs the word "orthodox" as a general term of abuse -- using it at one point to describe the Puritans' Anglican opponents in England, and at other times to describe the Puritan leadership in Boston. Like Howard Zinn (who blurbs the book), she sympathizes with the underdog to the point where underdog status alone is apparently an indication of righteousness. In retrospect, we can see that Hutchinson's religious views were no more enlightened than those of her enemies; Hutchinson was ahead of her time only in her belief that women are as able to interpret scripture as men, and in her relatively humane views regarding Native Americans (which she shared with Williams and Samuel Sewall, among others).
   
   Of course, historical figures should not be chastised for every transgression against contemporary sensibilities. But as someone with no dog in the fight between between varieties of seventeenth century English Protestantism, I was irritated by LaPlante's verbal gymnastics on behalf of her ancestor -- especially after she declares in the intro that her work will avoid the "exaltation" found elsewhere. While we get a sense of Hutchinson's admirable qualities, including her sparkling intelligence and stubborn bravery, criticism is limited to the occasional throw-away sentence, and there is little in the way of psychological insight. LaPlante's Hutchinson is opaque and two-dimensional -- a symbol rather than a human being. LaPlante is not (thankfully) one of those historians who dismisses all historical figures as benighted and morally backwards, but she makes an equally serious mistake in attempting to transform a proud, complex, and extraordinarily devout woman into a straightforward, easy-to-digest hero for contemporary readers.
   
   Three final points, two negative and one positive: (1) LaPlante has an unfortunate habit of substituting her own language for that of the protagonists, leading to some confusion about who is saying what. Quotes end abruptly, replaced by LaPlante's paraphrasing. I suspected at several points that her summaries were generous to Hutchinson (facilitating her transformation into a Puritan version of Susan B. Anthony) and less than charitable to her opponents. The book is at its best when LaPlante isn't speaking at all, since her commentary adds little to the drama. (2) Although LaPlante does voice some minor criticisms of Hutchinson, the general tenor of the book is hagiographic. Many of the quotes that LaPlante culls from other histories of the era seem to have been included only because they are highly complimentary of Hutchinson. LaPlante defends her subject in an almost lawerly fashion, informing us, for example, that "Harvard University" credits Hutchinson with its founding (actually, one Harvard professor!), and that Hutchinson founded Rhode Island (only very technically true, since Williams had settled Providence a year earlier). These are minor details, but combined with the suspicious paraphrasing, they undermined my trust in the author. An honest defense of Hutchinson would have been fine, but this book attempts to lionize its subject using sleight of hand. (3) I learned some things from "American Jezebel" that I had not found in other books on this period. Particularly interesting were LaPlante's discussions of Lincolnshire and Boston, England.
   
   For better books on pre-Revolutionary New England, I suggest Philbrick's Mayflower, Morgan's Puritan Dilemma (on Winthrop), Gaustad's Roger Williams, and Richard Francis' wonderful book on the admirable Samuel Sewall (another LaPlante ancestor on whom she has apparently written). American Jezebel isn't worthless, but it would be unfortunate if anyone picked up their whole education on the Puritans here -- as many of the other Amazon reviewers seem to have done.



3. The genealogy given in the appendix of this book shows the author thirteen generations directly removed from the book's subject, Anne Marbury Hutchinson. Anne's descendants are also said to include Franklin Delano Roosevelt and George Walker Bush. Other books about Hutchinson have been written, but this one is probably the most thoroughly researched.
   
   Eve LaPlante says she is a journalist; it appears that she has published a couple dozen freelance pieces as well as three other books. She also says that this is a non-fiction book. Although there is quite an extensive bibliography, there are no citations within the text, and one wonders how she knows so precisely that the sky was clear at sunrise on November 8, 1637 (p. 70), to pick an instance of literary embellishment at random.
   
   One expects a journalist to understand the difference between an institutional view and something said by a member of that institution. Thus, on page xxi, she says, "According to Harvard University, it is she rather than John Harvard who 'should be credited with the founding of Harvard College.'" She puts things better into context on pages 133f. Harvard Professor Peter Gomes calls Hutchinson the "midwife" to the College, and explains why this is appropriate. (In addition to this unintended and symbolic role, Hutchinson was a midwife in her "normal" life.) Prof. Gomes teaches the history of Harvard and is probably more qualified than any other to offer such an opinion, but to say that "Harvard University" holds this view (indeed, any view) is no more accurate than to say that the New York Times does simply because Ms. LaPlante has published there. And while both Anne Hutchinson, indirectly, and John Harvard, more directly, played important roles in the establishment of the College between 1636 and 1638, the politics are far too complicated to ascribe the title "founder" to any one person.
   
   The book is somewhat uneven; the story of Anne's trials is quite drawn out and interspersed with many flashbacks, while the commentary once she has died seems to be as rapid a recitation of whatever notes and thoughts were left over as can be stitched together. It is evident where the author's heart is.
   
   Because of these mechanical issues, I cannot give the book a full five stars. As a period piece on Massachusetts in the 1630s, it leaves a bit to be desired. But as source material on her subject with enough documentation to be able to read between the lines why she believes what she writes, it is unlikely that any other author will have the same passion for the subject, the wherewithal to carry out the research, and (mostly) the ability to pull off a moving story.



4. It is marvelous to read details about the nation's first feminist,Anne Hutchinson, a woman who ought to make more appearances in classrooms. LaPlante's writing keeps the story moving, although it was disconcerting at the beginning of the book to have her give 1637 as the date when Harvard was founded. The year was 1636, which may change her reference to Hutchinson in that connection. That's minor, however, compared to bringing to life a woman who stood up to the austere and determined men of Boston, founded a place in Rhode Island and then had her life ironically ended in a massacre by Indians when she had been a champion of at least some Native American rights. Few Americans who travel the Hutchinson River Parkway on a daily basis probably know where its name came from, but perhaps LaPlante's book will widen that awareness. Like Abigail Adams, Hutchinson was a powerful woman at a time when women were not supposed to have any power. This book is particularly interesting to me because, like LaPlante, I'm a Hutchinson descendant.



5. I started this book a bit unenthused (required class reading) - after all, how could a whole book be dedicated to one Puritan woman in the 1600's manage to keep the attention of a twenty-first century action junky such as myself?
   
   Once I turned the first few pages, I couldn't put the book down. An excellent read by an author who has a gift for conveying history in an exciting and fluid manner.

4 comments about I'll Fly Away: Further Testimonies from the Women of York Prison.

1. I haven't read anything by Wally Lamb in a while and while this book was not exactly written by Wally; it still captures his spirit. He inspired these women to get to the inner truth and beauty of harch realities and this touches you in the same fashion that Mr. Lamb does. I am very impressed.



2. Wally Lamb is one of those writers that readers wish would write more. But seeing how he spends his time, readers can understand why he isn't pounding away at a keyboard relentlessly. Instead, he is inspiring incarcerated women to reach within themselves, bring forth what they know, and express themselves creatively. The pieces in this second collection are poignant given the circucumstances in which they were written, but hopeful in that they give voice to these neglected women, giving them expression. It is uncertain whether any of them could write as effectively about something outside of their experience or out of their imagination; however, that is not the point. The fact that they are able to be creative with what they do know is enough.



3. I liked most of these stories except for "Prom Queen" which was just the typical day for a druggie - with tedious detail. The rest were very well-written, although lots of them lacked self-insight. Only a few of the writers felt any remorse for their crimes - one of them, Roberta Schwartz, gave an excellent perspective of prison life. One woman killed her husband because he molested her granddaughter. She felt bad and called herself a murderer. She shouldn't feel bad for doing the world a favor. Another girl killed her boyfriend in self-defense, and she felt badly too. It seems either the writers felt badly about themselves, or blamed somebody else for their actions.



4. Excellent anthology of writing by women in prison who took part in Wally Lamb's writingn classes. Several of the most touching pieces are by young women serving long sentences for crimes committed at very young ages. Great reading for anyone interested in social justice issues.

5 comments about Dijiste Que Me Queras: Como Sobrellevar lo Impensable.

1. Este es un gran libro basado en la realidad de los hechos, y que nos hace reflexionar profundamente sobre nuestras relaciones de pareja.
   Se lo recomiendo a todos.



2. I have been watching Maria Antonieta Collins on Spanish television for a long time now--first as an anchorwoman for Univision and now as the presenter on Cada Dia, a popular morning variety show on Telemundo. She seems like a very nice person, all smiles and joviality in front of the camera. But no one knew what was hiding behind her smiles and perkiness. As her career skyrocketed, her personal life got worse and worse. She finally revealed everything during a very emotional interview with Maria Celeste Arraras on Telemundo. (Collins, who considers Arraras her friend, reported that she was "hurt" and "dismayed" with some of MC's questions. As a fellow journalist, she should understand that Arraras had to put friendship aside and ask the hard-hitting questions.) She talked about her husband's battle with cancer, and how she'd been his rock and strength throughout his illness. But that was the least of it. She revealed that her husband had been unfaithful and committed bigamy. He was married to a woman in Colombia while he was married to her! In Dijistes Que Me Querías: Como Sobrellevar lo Impensable (You Told Me You Loved Me: How to Survive the Unthinkable), she writes in detail the entire thing she had to go through after she found out, and about her decision to stay with him after he discovered he had cancer. This is one of the most heartbreaking memoirs I have read, but it ends with a hopeful tone. Collins gives advice on what to do after you discover your spouse has been cheating and how to pick up signs of deceit. This is a self-help book as well as a memoir, and it pulls at the heartstrings. I have nothing but respect for this Emmy-award winning journalist, and I wish her the very best. She deserves it.



3. Nunce crei que leer este libro me hubiera abierto los ojos a lo que puede vivir cualquier mujer. El libro esta escrito con tanto dolor que termina uno odiando a tipo y hechandole porras a una excelente mujer. Es de mucho aprendizaje. yo solo lo habia comprado para que mi mama tuviera algo para leer durante su recuperacion y terminamos leyendo mi tia y prima y yo. Bravo por la senora Collins y su leccion a la fortaleza y el perdon. La pregunta que me hago es que si yo me hubiera dado cuenta de una infidelidad Perdonaria?



4. The product arrived before the time that I expected even though it was during the holidays and I thought it would be delayed. The product also arrived in excellent condition. Thank You.



5. La verdad no esperaba aprender mucho de este libro cuando me lo regalo una amistad. Pero, una vez que comenze a leerlo no pude parar hasta llegar al final. Parece sacado de una telenovela, pero es la realidad. Admito que aprendi muchisimo de el, porque cada tragedia incluye lecciones de como sobrevivirlas.
   Encontre varias faltas de cuidado en la edicion, que aunque no quita de la calidad del libro, si se ve feo.

5 comments about Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn.

1. Great book. Good intro for those city dwellers among us thinking about farm life.



2. The worst part of this book is that it ends. I'm not a farmer, nor will I ever be interested in becoming one, but this book is about far more than farming.
   
   Friend manages to convey the lessons of relationship--with her partner, with their animals, with their property, and most importantly, with herself--in a way that is at once humorous and insightful. Nothing gets tied up with a neat little bow, but the book also manages to neglect the angst-filled memoir genre. She combines the humor of David Sedaris and Bill Bryson with the poignancy of Mitch Ablom, while skipping sentimentality and predictability along the way.
   
   Hit By A Farm manages to weave her thematic concern--boundaries and how they can be formed in the context of partnership and self fulfillment--throughout the book without clobbering the reader with her message. Best of all, this book is shake-the-bed-and-wake-up-your-partner funny. It's hard to make a reader cry--but it's a gift to make a reader laugh.
   
   I'm recommending this book to everyone I know, and now, through the magic of the world wide interweb, I can recommend it to people I don't know. After you've finished reading it, don't forget to tell Oprah. She'll thank you for it.



3. I read this book to my partner this summer as we took three day trips from the Twin Cities to small towns in Minnesota - first to Buffalo and St. Cloud; second to Mankato; third to Rochester. It was a fitting book to read as we rode through Minnesota farm country - the setting of this story. Every time we saw sheep or llamas, we laughed and contemplated whether the farmers had experienced any of the trials and tribulations in the book.
   
   This is a great memoir from a skillful author. Not only is she committed to her partner, she also has a great sense of humor and knows how to laugh at herself. The book description, itself, is comical. However, nothing prepares the reader for the emotional highs and lows between the front and back covers. Each chapter is a story in itself. From sheep to chickens, goats, llamas, geese, grapes and writer's block, this is certainly a don't-miss book. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention - the book is full of tragedy (i.e., all living things eventually die), childlike elation (i.e., the sheep actually did have sex and we have lambs!), and very elaborate descriptions of some pretty gross stuff (i.e., sheep placenta and things stuck to the bottoms of shoes). If you're soft of heart or stomach, get prepared for a roller-coaster ride.
   
   Extremely well written by a very likable author, I highly recommend this wonderful book to everyone. It's a book that can be enjoyed by all - gay or straight, farmer or not - and should be on every bookshelf.



4. Writer/bookworm Catherine Friend takes us along as she transforms into a REAL farmer (and still keeps writing and reading). Her writing style is engaging and easy to read, pulling you along for the ride from start to finish. I couldn't put it down.
   
   Real humor, real struggles, real "back to the land" mentality without the moral pontificating of some authors. The dream of farming wasn't hers to begin with (it was her partner's), but she has made peace with it and maintained her sense of self while maintaining a long term relationship. Farming is a stressful business, and she addresses this aspect of it very well while sharing how she managed to work through her concerns and evolve into a better person.
   
   The author's sense of humor was my favorite part. I will never look at soft serve the same way again after reading about the peacocks leaving "grayish swirls of poop the size of a Dairy Queen ice cream cone" which, well, you'll have to read the book to find out what happened, but the result had me rolling with laughter. Definitely a five star read.



5. No one was more surprised than Catherine Friend when her long-time partner informed her that she'd always dreamed of being a farmer. Early on in this hilarious memoir, the author writes, "Farming had never been my dream. My dream was to grow my writing career into something I could call 'successful,' whatever that was. I'd already sold two children's books and a handful of magazine stories. I was hungry for more" (p. 6).
   
   But Melissa's dream had merit, and Catherine believed she could help the dream come true. And so, "The classic face of farming in Grant Wood's American Gothic was about to get a facelift: two thirty-something women in bib overalls holding pitchforks" (p. 6).
   
   Devoting a great deal of time, energy, and work to their project, the two women researched farming, bought land in southern Minnesota, built a house, and settled in to raise sheep, chickens, and grapes for wine. Apparently that was the easy part. From auspicious beginnings, the road they embark upon is filled with a learning curve so steep that shoveling manure and mucking horse stalls might have been easier. While Melissa's dream ascended, the livestock, crops, and natural disasters seem to conspire to make Catherine's life miserable. Living off the land wasn't at all the romantic idyll so often put forth.
   
   By turns hilarious and sobering, touching and surprising, Catherine Friend's memoir tells the tale of two thirty-somethings who not only have to learn to love the barn, but also to find their way back to one another after such a huge life-change nearly sideswipes them for good. It's a terrific story, very well-told, and is cram-packed full of humor, insight, and a zest for life that can't be vanquished. If you only read one memoir this year, make this be the one. I give it my highest recommendation.

5 comments about Love, Janis.

1. once i started to read this book i couldn't put it down until it was finished, was sad to see it end. it gives alot of detail into janis joplin's early family life as well as school and friends and the start and finish of her music career. would recommend this to any joplin fan, a must have!!



2. Laura is no Balzac. She doesn't share the reality of her sister's life in a way that makes it as important and real the way a master would. But, what can a person expect? She does share and reveal much. It's way too much to ask that she (Laura) could write a book that truly reveals the depths of Janis' life and times such that it will influence people for ages to come. I would like such a work because I feel that Janis' life should not be forgotten. If you have feelings for Janis like I do then this book is a must read. If someone someday takes what Laura has written and makes it into a book that captures all of the emotion and reality of Janis' life and times so that even a casual reader will be amazed then that will be an amazing book. I think Laura would agree.



3. I WAS PLEASANTLY surprised at the way this book showed us the real Janis. I was expecting a glossed over version of her life, but Janis's sister told the good and the bad. Through it all you can sense the love and affection her family had for her. Laura Joplin is an excellant writer and her insights on why Janis did the things she did was very refreshing. I was 13 years old when Janis died and had already begun to be a part of the rejected "hippie" crowd. My crowd was the first in our school to be a part of that culture. I identified with alot of what Janis went through and I remember buying her albums and listening over and over. I loved her. I remember the days of pot and LSD and speed, and my personal favorite, quaaludes. The drug culture was much different then and much safer. I thank God for a praying Grandmother and for a fear of needles, or I could have gone further and ended up like Janis. Few of our group ever experimented with injecting, but I could understand how Janis got caught up in it. This book showed a side of Janis that was so much like us and showed that she was really an insecure girl wanting acceptance like the rest of us.
   Thank you Laura, for giving us insight to the real person your sister was.



4. I thought this book was outstanding. Not only does it give good insight on what made Janis tick, it gave a very indepth history of the hippie movement from it's earliest conception. I found it fascinating.



5. Janis' sister, Dr. Laura Joplin, provides the reader with special insight to many core concepts of Janis, such as Janis' mission of encouraging freedom of expression for all, on every subject, as well as her passion for ending racial and all other forms of discrimination. Janis so humorously exposed hypocracy and so wonderfully raised questions that many are afraid to ask. What irony that her gifts to the human race were cut off so prematurely by some of the traps of life.

5 comments about Madame Curie: A Biography.

1. This book should be on every Mother's list of gifts for her daughter. What a beautiful portrait of a mother by her daughter. In this age of "feminism" this should also be a must read for women in general. Madame Curie was in a class of intellectual genius by herself. She is one of the most outstanding woman scientists ever - and she was Polish!
   She is a great example as a human being, a woman, a mother, a "Polack", a scientist, a wife. Needless to say I was very impressed by the book. The thought that this was written so beautifully by this woman's daughter never left my awareness. This book certainly made this half-Polack extremely proud of his heritage.



2. This is one of the books that will remain closest to me...the kind of book I would definitely have on my own children's bookshelf. I unfortunately had to stop reading the book midway because the library wanted it back, and I was also going to be out of town. Three months later, I still felt compelled to go back to the library and finish off the remaining two or three chapters.
   
   The book is a detailed account of Marie Curie's personal and professional life. And who better to tell this story than Eve, her own daughter. The genius in Mme. Curie was a direct result of her dedication to hard work and an amazing work ethic. From a peasant Polish family, she faced many challenges and postponed her own education and worked for a wealthy family to help pay for her older sister's education. Such was Marie's spirit and selflessness - which extended to her research and her work in science.
   
   Her creation, radium, was the ultimate criminal that led to her untimely death, when she felt she still had a lot to accomplish. The lady was indeed a noble gift to the science world.



3. I say that for a biography was pretty good. There was a few boring parts that made me want to put the book. I wouldn't have read this book for pleasure. I had to read it for a physics project. I gave the book 3 stars because I did not necessary enjoy this because it was for school.



4. Madame Curie is a touching and honest biography. It tells the perserving story of Marie Curie, a native Pole who would seem out of place in France and--being a woman in a more prejudice timeframe--in the scientific community in general. Although this was the case, it did not stop her from becoming one of the most prolific and important scientists in the realm of physics and chemistry.

   Within this book is held the tale of a woman who worked almost every single minute of her life in either the laboratory, the classroom, or her own home. But she never faltered under pressure and endured inhospitable laboratory conditions (she was originally working in a shed to help discover radium, the element that created the field of radiation cancer treatment and spurred the field of nuclear science.

   As a biographer, Eve Curie remains factual in content, allowing the reader to form an unbiased opinion of her mother. She buttresses the book with personally letters to and from Marie Curie, which add a first hand account of certain aspects of her mother's life.

   A must read for anyone looking for a heartwarming story.




5. The book is a reprint of the biography written by Marie Curie's daughter, Eve Curie in 1937. It is a book which should be read by all - especially aspiring scientists. Marie Curie was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in France, the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize and the first person to receive two Nobel prizes. The work she accomplished under the most difficult situations for a scientist is truly inspiring. When asked why she and her husband, Pierre Curie did not patent the procedure for extraction and purification of radium, something which would have made them very wealthy, she said "No, It would be contrary to the scientific spirit." How refreshing, since in today's world the first thought of scientists is patenting their discoveries.

5 comments about Testament of Youth (Penguin Classics).

1. Vera Brittain (1893-1970) was raised as the daughter of a mill owner in the north of England. She was an intellectual who dreamed of majoring in English Literature at Oxford University's Somerville College for Women. In the post-World War I period Vera would return to Oxford taking a second in History and later winning a Master's degree.
   The first third of this book deals with Vera's autobiographical description of her raising in a conservative Edwardian home. She was close to her brother Edward; fell in love with poet Roland Leighton and enjoyed poetry. She and her generation were not ready for the horrific reality of the war which would kill over 10 million people.
   During the war Vera temporarily dropped out of Oxford to serve as a
   V.A.D. (a volunteer nurse). She would serve in London, Malta and France.
   She would minster to German Prisoners of War as well as serving with distinction. Vera's beloved Roland was killed in battle as was her brother Edward who fell in the last summer of the war. Vera was seared by these overwhelming tragedies. And yet she went on with her life serving with bravery.
   As the war ended she returned to Oxford becoming a feminist and pacifist. She lectured all over England on behalf of the League of Nations Union. Vera married a World War I veteran who became an academic.
   Vera would write over 25 books becoming a beloved and popular author in her native England.
   This is a long book over 600 densely printed pages. It is also one of the best books about non-combat, civilian life ever written about the war. Many of the scenes in which Vera is serving as a nurse are graphic and touch the human heart with the sadness and tragic loss of a bright generation of young Europeans. This book has become a modern classic which should be required reading in any course on World War I. Several years ago it was broadcast in a miniseries by BBC appearing on Masterpiece Theatre on PBS. This is a book which will remain lodged in your memory. Do your self a favor and purchase a copy soon!



2. I clearly am in a minority here but I did not like this book. A peer of other notable young British writers like Robert Graves and Wilfred Owen, Britton's book stands out among the male writers of the period as giving a woman's view of the war. The problem, at least for me, is that Britton is so over come with bitterness that she flogs the reader with it from the start.
   
   An early feminist Britton had strong views and supported her male friends and family going off to the First World War but as they fell to the german guns she, like many of her generation, became disillusioned. This is understandable but in writing her book, Britton cannot set aside her bitterness and it makes the reading ponderous and heavy. For example noting a fete in her early childhood and the bunting and flags put out she says "If only I knew then it was all meaningless." we are taken from a little girl's views to a bitter adult in the blink of an eye and it just gets too much.
   
   By comparrison the autobiography of Robert Graves, Goodby to All That, starts out with the childish illusions being enjoyed as a child and slowly the bitterness slips into the writer's world view as he matures and is exposed to the horrors of the war. this is far more subtle and easier to read, meaning you are guided to the ponit he wants you to reach, instead of trying to bludgeon you into the mindset as Britton does.



3. The word "classic" gets thrown around a lot these days. Many so-called "modern classics" are not that important, but "Testament of Youth" deserves this reprint as a Penguin Classic. Brittain tells of her early life in the north of England between 1893 and the start of World War I in 1914 in beautifully clear prose, and her clarity of thought and powers of observation make the bulk of the book, dealing with the war's impact on her, painfully vivid without ever lapsing into self-pity. Like too many others of her generation (and the next and the next) Vera Brittain learned almost unimaginable lessons about life and her own inner strength. To that extent, "Testament of Youth" can serve as both example and inspiration.
   
   Vera Brittain came from an upper-middle-class background shared by millions of young women in late Victorian England. One thing that made her different was her great intellectual curiosity and determination to escape a truly suffocating existence that few of today's Western women can easily imagine. What made her like most citizens of the time (and of later times)was her complete ignorance of the meaning of "war." Patriotism, her social conscience, and a desire to take part in the bigger world led her to volunteer as a nursing sister with the British Army. Her grueling hospital experiences were a revelation to her. Her personal losses are even more powerfully revealing of the human condition. Brittain was a "survivor" in every sense of the word.
   
   "Testament of Youth" is just as fresh and moving today as it was when it was written 75 years ago and Vera Brittain tells a story that must be told and retold to each generation. For every reader who finds the book "too long" by current standards (its almost 700 pages), there will be two who wish they could follow the author even further. But even if you find yourself skipping ahead, particularly in the early part, you will not be able to forget Vera Brittain or her story. "Testament of Youth" is one of the great autobiographies of the past 100 years.



4. This is a fascinating, insightful book that it would behoove many of us modern folk to read. Learn about the harder times of the past, while sipping latte in a comfy chair. You'll be thankful for today's comforts -- and today's modern attitudes towards the capabilities and intelligence of women -- after you read what it was like for one woman early in the 20th century. Simply a great book.



5. Vera Brittain enrolled in Summerville College, Oxford, in a time before degrees were granted to women. This was just before The First World War changed almost everything for almost everyone. When it was over, her best friends, her fiance and her brother had all been killed. She also personally witnessed the agony of thousands in the surgical wards where she worked as a volunteer nurse.
   
   In response, she became a suffragette, a feminist and a liberal writer and lecturer. She sought to prevent such tragedy from reoccurring.
   
   The answers to the political and social questions with which she struggled elude us still. But Vera Brittain's autobiographical account of her generation's trials, Testament of Youth, remains both a stunningly-honest portrait of a courageous young woman and a vivid chronicle of a time almost out of living memory. Through her words we see what we might have thought, felt and believed, had we been born into her era.

5 comments about No Disrespect.

1. I PURCHASED THIS BOOK BECAUSE THIS IS THE 2ND PART OF HER 1ST BOOK THE COLDEST WINTER EVER I LIKED THAT BOOK AND I FEEL THAT SISTA SOULJA LIFE EXPERIENCES ARE OF VALUE FOR BOOK READERS TO READ ....



2. This book was not that bad,There are things that agree with Sister Souljah on and things that I disagree with.But for her to be so intelligent and have alot of book sense...She lacks a great deal of common sense and I honestly think and feel that she has alot of issues within herself to deal with by judging of her actions in this book.



3. This book will hit you smack between the eye sockets as Sister Souljah describes her own upbringing in the projects, in the grips of a welfare system designed to convey feelings of inferiority, an educational system in which black children were given no reason to take pride in their colour, their origins or their past, life in college and as an activist. She discovers a class beneath the underclass where she grew up. Souljah writes of the desperation that gripped not only adults but children and the complete death of love between black folks (235). She calls welfare hotels urban hellholes where "African children were doomed. It was a recipe for extinction of my people. It was genocide." This story brings to mind an activist called Geoffrey Canada who tried to convey the urgency of the problem. Souljah nailed it beautifully. Man/woman relationships play a significant role in this story. Be prepared to be jolted out of your seat.



4. I decided to read this book after I learned that my favorite artist and a person I look up to read it, Tupac. This book was a eye opener. I loved how she went into a lot of the issues we as black people deal with on the daily basis and she didnt sugarcoat anything. She was so raw with everything she said and I loved it. I think every young black male and female should read this book. I agreed, disagreed, laughed, cried, and smiled while i read this book it got so many emotions out of me and a book has never done that before. I definitely recommend this book to anyone.



5. This is a good book, Sister Souljah has been through a lot in her life and this book explain everyone who had an influence on her life. And reading her autobiography has made me understand her books a little bit more, now that I read No Disrespect.