5 comments about Through the Narrow Gate, Revised: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery.

1. Honest and interesting perspective from someone who has "been there." I would also recommend "The Spiral Staircase" which she wrote after this book.



2. Older book with new foreword. Personal discription of life in convent by well-known religious author.



3. I thought that this book was very honest, while at the same time providing a captivating and enticing read. I have read many of Karen Armstrong's later books on religion; however, I read this wanting to know more about her past life as a nun. The book details her seven years in a religious order in which she endures the pains of pre-Vatican Council II styled religious life. On the outside world, to which she was oblivious, things such as the sexual revolution and the Vietnam war were occurring. I could identify with some of her stumbling blocks to cultivating a spiritual life, including emotional and intellectual barriers. I now have the deepest respect for such a profound woman, not only in her writing ability but also in her courage and willingness to be so transparent in telling her story. This is a wonderful autobiography.



4. Karen Armstrong has written a most marvelous account of her life within a very strict order of English Catholic nuns of the 1960's. Her description of the torments she endured has caused me to regard with renewed respect and affection the nuns who taught me in the 1950's. How odd that we boys who were in class with the nuns for hours each day really had no idea of what kind of lives some of them led in the hours before and after school. The moral, spiritual, and intellectual gifts they bestowed on us daily are inestimable, even though at the time we were probably more interested in whether or not they actually had hair under their wimples!
   
   I've noticed some confusion in these reviews about several aspects of Catholic religious orders of those days. First, despite having no contact for long periods of time with "seculars" - i.e., civilians - Karen was not in a order of "cloistered" nuns. Cloistered sisters do truly cut themselves off completely from the world and, if I can be so bold as to describe them, they live a life governed by "ora et labora" - work and prayer. In fact, though, as strict as they were, Karen's order was primarily an order of teaching sisters.
   
   But there is a much more important concept that many people seem not quite to grasp, and that is that all Catholic youth of those days - at least in my experience - were taught that the most perfect way to be a true follower of Christ was to share in his suffering. That is why those nuns were treated - and treated themselves - as harshly as any Marine Corps recruits would ever be treated - only the nun's harsh treatment was to continue all her life. Certainly, most youth who took Catholicism very seriously must have given thought at one time or another to entering the religious life. We were always told to examine ourselves to determine if we had a religious vocation, but we were also warned that it was not a calling for everyone. In any event, to decide at a young age to become a nun, brother, or priest - to dedicate one's life to doing good - was not understood by many of us to be the same as dedicating one's whole existence to God. When young people make the decision to enter the religious life they often do not know what that really entails. Some religious communities are extraordinarily strict, others less so. The particularly strict order to which Karen belonged was obviously intent on making sure those young girls found out immediately that the religious life was not a game, that sharing in Christ's suffering was not to be an abstract concept but a concrete reality. Those young nuns were to put up with the sadism of some of their superiors in the same way as Christ had to endure the sadism of his tormenters. They were not only to tolerate it but to welcome it and even seek out even more spiritual pain and physical hardship. (As the British often jokingly say about the paddlings they endured in school, "Please sir may I have another?") This concept of self-denial is probably not well understood in our modern climate of "personal fulfillment."
   
   The total abnegation of self, of one's personal desires, of pride, of the hope for friendship and love, was the goal of the harshness they inflicted upon themselves. Their goal was to die to themselves in order to reach God. If you do not grasp this concept I think you'll miss the heroism inherent in the story of Karen and her fellow nuns. Naturally, that kind of life is not for very many of us, as Karen eventually found out for herself. It may be totally misguided or, by modern standards, even pathological, but it's the way some people have reached true holiness.
   
   I'm very happy for myself and for all her readers that Karen Armstrong eventually chose to leave the convent and to follow another path in life. This book is not only a gift from her but, through her, a gift to us from all those other nuns who took - and take - the road less traveled. A truly wonderful and enlightening gift.



5. As this is a book relating to Catholicism, it is fitting for me to start the review with a confession. I bought this book not because I was interested in it, but because I wanted to read its sequel - The Spiral Staircase - and felt I should read this book first. I was not interested all that much in the story of becoming a nun and my only curiosity was how Miss Armstrong would find anything interesting to say about it.
   
   Well, I was off the mark. Karen Armstrong's recounting of her 2 years in the convent (and subsequent disenchantment with the process) are fascinating. Most of the action in this story takes place inside the subject's head as she tries to wrestle with being human in a place where humanness is to be shed (as one must renounce worldy desires, thoughts, and feelings to be close to God).
   
   Karen Armstrong does a magnificent job of depicting what this conflict is like. The process of becoming a nun, as Armstrong describes it, is a rigorous program of self-denial. One is not to complain, be tired, be mournful, be happy, be questioning, or let onesself feel any of the things that come with the territory of being human. Rather, it was taught that the pinnacle of the spiritual life was the abillty to shed one's humanness, to think and feel only about one thing - God.
   
   Armstrong also tells of a very hierarchal system where to question one's superiors is to question God (as one's superiors are closer to God than onesself; that is why they are superiors). With accuity of word, Karen Armstrong recounts how she was constantly made to feel insignificant and imbecilic by her superiors. At the same time, feeling bad about this was attributed to her weak spirit and - so it was called - her selfishness.
   
   Armstrong's story ends when she voluntarily leaves the convent after experiencing much too much. Here she tells of the schock of living in a 'regular' world after years of physical and emotional seclusion.
   
   This is much more interesting a book than i had originally thought it would be. Owing to Armstrong's ability to describe the internal struggle between her desire to be human and her desire to devote herself to God, Through the Narrow Gate has an incredible forward motion. As The Spiral Staircase picks up where this book leaves off, I cannot wait to read the latter half of Karen Armstrong's remarkable journey.

5 comments about The Second Nine Months: One Woman Tells the REAL Truth About Becoming a Mom. Finally..

1. When the author's daughter Blair was born she experienced maternal bliss with her new baby, until she began to doubt her skills. THE SECOND NINE MONTHS outlines the truth about her first months with her new baby, covering the common fears new mothers have about motherhood. Any new mother needs THE SECOND NINE MONTHS: it covers all the basics and teaches common areas of confusion and concern.



2. The usual nonsense from a narcissist who suffers attachment difficulties with her child and rationalizes her ineptitude by blaming the child.



3. Possibly the perfect antidote to the Bliss Campaign oozing out of every Johnson & Johnson commercial, every Baby Gap ad, every tabloid cover sporting some headline like "motherhood is just the bestest feeling that ever was!!", and to Babycenter.com. Of the latter, the list below is taken from that website and is as it appears in the book:
   
   1. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.
   
   3. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.
   
   4. You respect your body ... finally.
   
   10. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.
   
   13. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.
   
   14. You become a morning person.
   
   The way she tears it apart, I'm surprised they haven't taken the list down in retreat. In short, this book is a buffer between yourself and the elusive rose garden promised and promoted by various media. Highly recommended.



4. I just finished this book--and I wish i had read it sooner. My daughter is 2 now but it was a lonely first go at motherhood for me. While I did not feel all of what she felt, I absolutely could relate to many of the books' chapters. Especially the part about the PROGRESSION of motherhood for some of us---how we wish we knew then what we know now---it gets easier, and it is a blessing and fun---but it is not like that 100% of the time--and that is OK. What guts it took to write this book. THANK YOU for doing that!!



5. I loved this book, as a mother of a 7 month old I could relate to everything she said. It was so true and hilariously funny. I loved this book and I'm giving a copy to all my friends. I am hoping that she writes a second book, "The First Year". I would definately buy it.

5 comments about Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter.

1. A must-read to get a much bigger picture of the last years and days of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and the fate of their two surviving children. European history buffs will love the details provided from the family's personal letters and from other contemporaries to the Madame Royale. This book was captivating and enlightening, and draws the reader into the heart and mind of Marie-Therese. Truly an inspirational, if not much overlooked historical figure, this book is a wonderful portrait of this courageous and heroic young girl.



2. Nagel has written a splendid biography of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's only surviving child. The author begins by describing Marie-Therese's birth and early childhood in the luxurious world of Versailles. Nagel then guides the reader on an amazing journey from the sickening brutality of the French Revolution and the French people's savage treatment of the monarchs' children, to Marie Therese's escape and never-ending journeys away from and back to the country of her birth. Nagel takes an enormous amount of historic facts and people and places them neatly in a seamless and brilliant fashion in this biography. The reader doesn't learn only about what happened in the life of Marie-Therese; the reader is also treated to a subtle and gradual revelation of the true and noble character of this woman. If one has enjoyed reading about this woman's parents, then it is such a treat to see that the best characteristics of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette lived on in this lady. I was particularly fascinated to read that Louis XVI's judgment was so well placed when he trusted the American, Gouveneur Morris, with a large sum of money to support his surviving family. Morris personally delivered it to Marie-Therese years later. Amazing when one considers the recent news reports of the failed auction of the pearls Marie Antoinette gave to the British ambassador's wife to sneak out of France. Apparently, those pearls never left the ambassador's family's assets in spite of the fact that Marie-Therese LIVED in England for years!
   This is a great biography and I highly recommend it!



3. I have read every book on the French Revolution and on Marie Antoinette in particular and so I was eager to learn more about her only surviving child. I was absolutly not disappointed!!! This book is wonderfully written and brings to life an era through the eyes of a truly thoughtful, kind, intelligent Princess. This is not just a biography about any royal daughter- she is an inspiration to all women whose lives ebb and flow through good and bad. Always trustworthy and kind, she is an admirable person, and a good example to anyone going through tough times.



4. I managed to slog through the book, but wasn't anxious to get to the end like I usually am. After Marie-Therese's release from the Temple prison in Paris, the book gets very dull. Although MT's life can be best described as nomadic and full of reversals of fate, it doesn't seem very interesting. Whether this is because Marie Therese herself was uninteresting or because Nagel fails to write compelling prose is hard to decide.
   
   I also found the random passages inserted about the Dark Countess to be out of place and confusing at first. Perhaps Nagel should have devoted a chapter to the Dark Countess instead of putting in a paragraph here and there would've led to a better understanding of the possibility of a switch. As it is, the whole line is confusing and not well played out. It could have added an interesting dimension to the story and instead left me saying, "huh?"
   
   A decent read for any Marie-Antoinette-philes, but otherwise I'd pass. Good thing I love MA, otherwise I wouldn't have ever finished.



5. I was thrilled to read Susan Nagel's wonderful biography of Marie-Therese. I had only read Marie-Therese's slim account of her life during the French Revolution, so this work filled in the "mystery" of her years after her release.
   
   First of all, I can't believe that Nagel has done this! The amount of research is staggering, and she really helps us to fully appreciate Marie-Therese's life that went from from pampered princess to imprisoned pauper in a few short years. Nagel's wonderful writing helps us to see Marie-Therese rushing with her mother to safety while the mob waits outside Versailles in October 1789. The account of her family life with her doomed parents (her father tutored her while they were captive), her concern for her brother (who was brutalized and terribly abused), and her close relations with her Uncle, Louis XVIII are all discussed in vivid detail.
   
   I especially enjoyed reading about Marie-Therese's role as a Bourbon prop and her concern for her brother in law's children. Nagel covers the Napoleonic era and the restoration. In the meanwhile, Marie-Therese carries a box with the shirt worn by her father at his death. She has to also refute the many imposters who travel around Europe proclaiming themselves as the lost Louis XVII.
   
   This is a book to be kept, savored, and read again and again. It fills a "gap" about the fate of the family of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

5 comments about After the Wall: Confessions from an East German Childhood and the Life that Came Next.

1. This book is beautiful.
   
   Having briefly visited East Berlin in 1959, I was impressed with its cleanliness and dullness in contrast to the chaos, colour, mess and joy of life in West Berlin. Hensel explains the difference with skill and personal example: East Germany, the most successful and prosperous of the Soviet satellites, was a collection of industrious, intelligent and obedient ants.
   
   In many ways, her life until the collapse of "The Wall" was marvelous, packed with activities, programs, events and adults intended to uplift, enlighten and motivate youngsters to do good for others. The frightening aspect of her life was the unrelenting pressure to support these organizations to do good for others. East Germany was a cult without charisma, a ritual without religion in a minutely organized system designed to eliminate every element of chaos from the otherwise free human spirit.
   
   She is acutely aware of her parents' and grandparents' generations who lived a rigidly controlled life for almost 60 years, during which even so much as smiling at the wrong event would bring suspicion and possible punishment. When very young, Hensel knew it was dangerous to pick up a discarded Western chocolate bar wrapper from the street; but, she also knew the pure joy of such rebellion. As a teen, she suddenly plunged into a free lifestyle in which almost everything was possible and nothing was unlikely.
   
   This is a beautiful portrait of her astonishment at the democratic freedom -- much the same sense of astonishment I feel, having lived all my life in the luxury of such freedom -- the chaos and pure joy of "leaving people alone". In today's politics, too many talk about creating an inspiring sense of purpose for their country; Hensel deftly and with chilling starkness portrays the cost of such enforced "purpose", and the wondrous freedom and peace of mind that comes from respecting the rights of others.
   
   The happiness of Americans is the ability to celebrate or condemn their consumer culture without restraint; this book is a warm, human and personal memoir of what it is to not have such freedom. This book is everything anyone could want in a good book; it's well written, concise, poignant and utterly relevant to American society and the world at large.
   
   Thank you, Jana Hensel, for a marvelous explanation of what I saw in Berlin almost 50 years ago but didn't fully understand until now.



2. 
   The book is written as an extended essay. There is very little observation of actual events. The author's account of life in the GDR lacks realism and is really quite shallow.



3. I recently spent 2 1/2 months in the former GDR working at a university. My trip was a great experience and I was really struck by the historical remnants and stories of those that had grown up and moved into the former GDR after the fall of the wall. When the wall fell I was only 9 years old and many of my friends there were in my age range and we had few memories of this time. Jana Hensel's book provided me with an in-depth understanding of what life was like for my friends and their siblings during the reunification. It was interesting to hear stories of her childhood that were similar to my friend's stories.
   
   "After the Wall" was fabulous and a must-read for those interested in the real-life of former East Germans.



4. Whereas one of the previous reviewers may not have "gotten" this book, I did. I visited East Germany right after the fall of the wall, and then five years later. What a change there was. Not only could you tell the difference on the outside, but the people changed too. Hensel writes about these changes and how it affected her. Then she relates how it affected the older generations. Hensel is a little flip, but maybe she has a right to be. There were big changes, and the young adapt to change. Older people do not. This is a story about one young lady changing to the new landscape. East Germany no longer exists physically, but does emotionally in millions of Germans.
   
   This is a nice read for those interested in Germany. I found myself laughing at some of Hensel comments. I can relate how she experienced life.



5. When I was born in 1945, my mother, a German armed forces helper on the way from Prague (deep South) up to an isle named "Ruegen" (in the very North), in the middle of her long journey through a breaking down Germany: she came down with me and, after one day in hospital, she stuffed me away into a children's home (in a town called "Wuppertal", West-Germany) - and left me to my fate. So she robbed me (among others) the experience of a childhood in the GDR, German Democratic Republic, "Wuppertal" should be "West-Germany" (American sector), the isle of Ruegen became Russian sector, behind the "Iron Curtain". So I did not learn anything about "Young Pioneer meetings", socialism, communism, STASI (the secret police) or summer camps of young "Pioneers". In the Western hemisphere I grew up, drinking Pepsi Coke, receiving American Care packages, later on: listened to the Beatles, noticed the students movement in 1968, had no Ulbrich or Honecker, but chancellor Willy Brandt and Helmut Kohl. But I tried to find out the place, where the woman could live, who had born me in that dark year 1945. After 40 years of persistent search, 1985, before the Berlin Wall fell (1989), I found out: She was living behind the "Iron Curtain" on the isle of Ruegen. And I started to look at this lost childhood, which I did not enjoy: She showed me her photo album: summer beach near "Kap Arkona" at the north-point of the isle, snowy winters on Hiddensee, flight ducks, cranes - but on the other hand coal heaps on washed-out sidewalks. Color films (Orwo), books, Trabi substitute parts: only hard to get. Nevertheless, I wanted to make up for my life in the GDR - in 1990 when the Berlin Wall was fallen: A schools inspector on the island pointed into a corridor, filled with former Stasi employees (security police) and informed me in this manner in an almost dumb "cadre conversation", he unfortunately (thanks to the "reunification" of East and West-Germany) would have to hide many people in the teaching profession now (in hastiest kind). I should return please to West-Germany, where I just had come from. The direction of my journey seemed to be absolutely atypically, out of character, and not recommendable. No "Ossi" (vs. "Wessi") - no job. As a result my mother, noticing, that all her dreams collapsed, joined an acute epidemic disease at that time: She committed a so-called balance sheets suicide. I was deprived of the chance to become a "zone child" a second time. Did I miss really much? Because the book of Jana Hensel has stimulated me to these thoughts - maybe her sometimes nostalgic "Ossi" writings (of course very different to my "Wessi"-point of view) are not as superficial, simple, banal, as I thought in the first moment? Compare her point of view ...

1 comments about The Cone Sisters of Baltimore: Collecting at Full Tilt.

1. This is a beautiful book that vividly recounts the story of two Baltimore sisters who never got married and who,at the beginning of the XXth century, became two of the foremost modern art collectors in the United States. Following a chronological pattern, it is full of previously unpublished photographs (the authors are the great-niece and great-great-niece of the Cone sisters)and marvelous illustrations of the paintings acquired by Claribel and Etta Cone, paintings which today form the core of the Baltimore Museum of Art collection. The text is lively and replete with anecdotes that give a good idea of the artworld in Paris (Picasso, Matisse,Gertrude Stein, the art dealers, etc) and of the society of a medium-size industrial city in the United States during the first three decades of the XXth century.
   
   Light, but good reading

5 comments about Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women.

1. As a radical feminist, I was pathetically amused and enraged by this book. It does not celebrate women's strength or struggle, instead finding glory in the consolation prizes of temptress roles and the like. As a reader, I was intrigued but confused. It's easy to lose your place - the author is very clever but harder to stay with than a mechanical bull. I don't think any book i've ever read has given my facial muscles such a workout: i'm sure someone watching my expressions as I read would have been the more entertained of the group. Now that i've learned it was written during a drug binge, I understand it better and can get some sleep. We can do better.



2. I was eager to read Bitch after having read Prozac Nation years before. I was sorely disappointed. Wurtzel rants and expounds on various maligned women throughout history. Her rambling can be hard to follow and I soon lost interest. This book had a lot of potential but Wurtzel just wasn't able to deliver.
   
   I later read her memoir of drug addiction and recovery, More, Now, and Again which explained Bitch's dismal failure. It turns out that during the time Wurtzel was writing Bitch she was heavily using a myriad of drugs.
   
   I suggest reading Prozac Nation and More, Now and Again (which are fabulous)and skipping Bitch. Read Manifesta and Grassroots for a modern perspective on feminism.



3. I have rarely been as disappointed with a book as I have been this one. In many ways Elizabeth Wurtzel is a brilliant writer, gifted with the ability to construct a memorable sentence or a brilliant image. Moreover, as a bit of a rebel and a very intelligent woman I would have imagined that this would have been a book bristling with insight. Besides, I liked the subtitle: In Praise of Difficult Women. My own thought has long been that the way our society is constructed, brilliant, independent women would often be taken by society at large as "difficult." I had imagined that this was going to have multiple overlaps with third wave feminism and perhaps the riot girrrls and all kinds of wonderful new ways of women asserting their rights to be whoever it is they want to be. Besides, she and I share very similar tastes in music and pop culture. I imagined a brilliant effort in gonzo feminism.
   
   But I was disappointed. Yes, there were the brilliant turns of phrase and startling paragraphs. But like other reviewers, when I finished I really couldn't say what the book was about. The details were often marvelously expressed, but to what overall end? The book ended up being brilliant on the micro level, but dense and opaque on the macro. The result was a book that was fun to read from beginning to end, but frustrating because I was never able to grasp what it was all about.
   
   The book is structured around five themes, each one with several women evoked to stand as icons, but in each case one woman above all others. The first part deals with sexual sirens who can also be conceived as man eaters, with Delilah, Samson's seductress/betrayal as the great example. The second part deals with under aged temptresses, with Amy Fisher as the great exemplar. The third section deals with women who died either by their own hand or by the kinds of lives they had come to live. Here several women are presented as icons, including Margaux Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Anne Sexton. The fourth section, written at the height of Monica-gate, skewers Hillary Clinton for being a wife instead of achieving great things herself (a secton that seems hopelessly out of touch with reality as she in 2006 looks poised to run for president--for the record, a move that I am passionately opposed to, since despite the hype she is extremely conservative on most issues, especially economics, and I think she would keep America on the right wing course upon which it began under Jimmy Carter--another person perceived to be liberal who was actually quite conservative on economic issues--and has continued under all successive presidents). The final section deals with women who are the victims of extreme violence and centers on Nicole Brown Simpson. The problem is that the book simply never coalesces around any substantive ideas.
   
   In the end, the women she chooses to write about are women that are as difficult for feminism as for men or society or the public at large. Feminism simply can't absorb Amy Fisher and claim her for one of their own. The story is too tawdry and messy for that. But after three hundred pages of writing about these women, it still isn't clear what she is writing about. The big pay off never comes. It is a book that promises great--or even just pretty good--things but never delivers. This truly is a book that is far less than the sum of its parts. I think the fact that one can love many individual pages while hating it as a whole is reflected in the weirdly schizoid reviews that my Anchor Books edition contains (I have as of today the latest printing, so this may not be true of previous editions). The blurbs are divided into "The Good," "the Bad," "the Bitchy," and "The Bottom Line." The attempt on the part of the publishers almost seems an admission that it is a deeply flawed book, but they want to portray it as one of those ultra-controversial books that you have to read so that you can discuss.
   
   I stil think there are some great books to be written about truly difficult women, about women that society has trouble absorbing or that it resists. I just in the end did not feel that this was one of them. This despite the fact that she writes well, that she is obviously a smart woman, and--let's admit it--very hot. Yes, that is her on the cover. Not many writers could pull that off.



4. Everything that Elizabeth Wurtzel wrote in this book is true. The truth about how males can be so sexist, and how men are 'allowed' or supposed to do certian things, while women aren't. Elizabeth uses many examples of 'difficult women' in this book such as Dilea, Madonna, Amy Fisher and so on.
   
   I am pretty sure that everyone has heard of phrases like, "Men can sleep with 10 women and thats fine. But if a women would sleep with 10 men she is a whore or a slut." And thats what many people believe to be true.
   
   When guys are difficult and speak there mind they are 'just being a guy' but when a woman is difficlut or speaks her mind she gets classified as a bitch. And those are some of the things that she points out in her book. This is a very good book, but I wouldn't recommend it to people that have the minds set to the old fashioned ways or people that believe 'women are better off seen than heard'.



5. Great, more caterwalling from this self-obsessed, immature, indignant egomaniac. Do us all a favor Lizzy, and throw in the towel. You're schtick is overtired. You're pushing 40. Would you finally grow up and stop torturing the nation with your whining?
   
   That's right, your depression was real. But you were 19. You were nothing but a scared little girl. It doesn't take a Harvard education to figure that out.
   
   And this book, I yie yie. Please go on another bender and never ever take pen to paper again. You'll be doing us all a huge favor.

5 comments about Walk with Us: Triplet Boys, Their Teen Parents & Two White Women Who Tagged Along.

1. "Walk with Us" by Elizabeth K. Gordon is an important true story about what happens when two middle-aged white women, two inner-city African-American teenagers, along with their triplet sons, all come together as one big family. Kathryn (Elizabeth), Kaki, Tahija, Lamarr and the triplets, along with many other people, learn how to get along with each other despite obstacles and challenges that could easily separate them. There are many obvious differences between the individuals -- race, religion, age, economic class, sexual orientation, etc. -- but there are also many commonalities. Rather than just emphasizing "otherness," the author addresses issues that motivate readers from all backgrounds to make connections between their own experiences and the issues that are presented in the book. In telling her own story, the author establishes the universality of the human experience. Because the United States today is a nation composed of people from all over the world, with diverse religious, racial and ethnic backgrounds, it would be impossible to describe a "typical American." It would also be unrealistic to stereotype a single, homeless, Muslim, African-American, teenage mother like Tahija. She is an independent young woman who is determined to make a life for herself and her family, despite her troubled background. In this book the reader is encouraged to explore -- from different points of view -- issues common to many different people who live in the United States and beyond. The stories from the book also remind us of the diversity in American society. It reminds us to be sensitive to the experiences of all Americans. As a transplanted Philadelphian, Kathryn learns that the experience of growing up can differ from one part of the country to another, from one ethnic/racial group to another, and from one era to another. Tahija and Lamarr's experiences growing up are dramatically different from Kathyrn and Kaki's experiences. Kathryn discusses her awareness of these differences and how she is shaped by it. The idea of family and identity is also explored by the author. The traditional nuclear family is getting harder to find today. Instead, new patterns are developing -- patterns which reflect changing attitudes about what defines a "family." Gordon also discusses the use of language and how it not only gives us the means to express our thoughts, but it also shapes the way we think and the way we look at the world around us. Kathryn and Tahija both speak English but they don't always speak the same language. That's what happens in a family sometimes, isn't it?



2. Elizabeth Gordon invites readers into a world of self examination, the kind needed to recognize and solve problems in human relationships, especially those tainted by racial stereotypes and cultural divide. Walking with Gordon and her make-shift family is a trip to a literary candy shop set on the deteriorating concrete steps of despair. I really enjoyed agonizing, laughing, and learning and yearning with this family. The book is a first course offering for young, old, Black, White, blessed and cursed. Don't pass it up!



3. This is an inspiring and compelling story of two women, Elizabeth and Kaki, who moved into a multiracial community in Philadelphia in order to improve the lives of those living there. As they embarked on this unique and moving journey, they were forced to confront their own personal issues, motivations and philosophies.
   The author, Elizabeth, has constructed a beautifully written memoir detailing the joys and difficulties of meshing two cultures in on household. Tahija and Lamar, both young teenagers from dysfunctional families were invited to live with Elizabeth and Kaki before and after they gave birth to triplet boys. However, the author and her partner soon found themselves dealing with young parents whose entire methods and beliefs about parenting were vastly different and foreign from theirs. Only by learning to understand, confront and accept these difference while establishing necessary boundaries, were Elizabeth and Kaki able to hold the household together. It is a tale of love, and the accompanying compromises that has much to teach us all. The book also brings the reader into a world of racism, poverty, drugs, alcohol addiction and mental illness detailing both the harsh realities and the desire of all to protect the young, vulnerable boys. Although the families eventually separated and moved on, their mutual love, concern and support continues to evolve and grow.
   This book is a must read for anyone in our everchanging culuture, particularly for those who have or care for children of any age. It has challenged me to relfect on and question my own attitides and judgements. Although I consider myself a liberal, it has forced me to think about how much I truly understand about other cultures or other people who hold different beliefs and engage in different life-styles,and how I would handle myself in a similar situation. The two women mentored this family deserve tremendous credit for their devotion and persistence in helping Tahija, Lamar and their three boys survive, develop and grow. I thank Elizabeth for sharing her story.



4. For anyone who wants to understand cultural differences, who wants to understand the roots of poverty, ignorance and bigotry, Elizabeth Gordon has given us a window into that world. She shares her acquired wisdom (and continuing feeling of insufficiency) with palpable honesty and elegant metaphor. She sees second graders "whirled away like leaves in a gust to decorate the playground with their happy cries." She describes her young charge as "caught by accident under the bell jar of her misery" and, later, as "a nail head under the hammer of minimum wage." She is a writer who thinks visually and paints with her pen.
   The blurb on the back cover of Walk With Us and the subtitle, Triplet Boys, Their Teen Parents, & Two White Women Who Tagged Along, did not prepare me for the world in which Elizabeth Gordon immersed me. For nearly 50 pages, I colored my comprehension with the hidden impression that I was reading the story of a couple of middle-class do-gooders who were proving that homosexuals can be as socially conscious as heterosexuals (a credit to their gender, my inner bigot whispered), while happily bringing ghetto-living have-nots into the illuminated world of haves.
   And then the raw reality of it finally penetrated my shield of self-congratulatory liberal smugness. The gender of two privileged whites is beside the point, though perhaps their backgrounds are not. They represent two classic caricatures of white society - the middle-class, well-fed American from a prosperous family and the working-class, first-in-the-family-to-have-a-college-degree American from a stretched-thin family plagued with alcoholism and abuse.
   Elizabeth and her partner Kaki plunge themselves into a culture about which they know nothing. This is not a simple tale. It is not the story of someone given the gift of enough to eat or a college education and living happily ever after.
   Tahija is fifteen years old, pregnant with triplets, drifting from one relative's home to the next while her mother completes a stay in drug rehab. Her friends and relatives live in subsidized housing, where someone can be evicted by having a guest who stays longer than a few days. Enter Elizabeth and Kaki, who create a safe haven for Tahija, including a room of her own, a nursery for the babies and a healthy, balanced diet. It is Tahija's seventeen-year-old boyfriend, Lamarr (father of her babies), who makes the connection through Kaki, whom he met while attending an AVP (Alternatives to Violence Project) workshop that she was leading.
   In the course of their association with the young black couple, Elizabeth and Kaki get a first-hand appreciation of a world where people expect to spend more time standing in queue for services than receiving services, where people expect to be treated with bored disregard, where people expect to be defined by what they don't have and can't do. Like most family groups bound together by mutual need and caring, the serendipitous family of two middle-aged white women, two black teenagers and three growing babies explodes into pieces of hurt and misunderstanding, suffers the pain of humility learned, then reassembles in a form more supportive of the people they have become through the experience. Gordon quotes Hannah Arendt: "The only power we can have over the past is forgiveness."
   One of the themes that colour this narrative is that long-term racism does not remain one-sided, but bifurcates into a two-way mistrust, creating a balance that erects a wall between human beings. These seven people lay themselves bare to show us how this works and point us in a better direction. I had expected a story about the difficulties of being lesbian and the problems of cultural differences. I was blind-sided by a story of love and hope and excruciating, debilitating racism. Elizabeth Gordon has produced a classic work about the personal face of racism. It should be required reading in every secondary and tertiary classroom that touches on the subject.



5. At a time when we are inundated daily with reports of violence, heartbreak and tragedy, it is gratifying to read of people who not only go out of their way to help each other, but willingly perform sacrifices most of us would never dream of. However, don't assume this is a smarmy tale of saintliness - Ms. Gordon portrays everyone honestly and realistically (herself included), warts and all. These are people who struggle and make mistakes, but because of their love for each other, their tenacity and their wish to do what is right and good, they manage to overcome obstacles that would daunt and defeat 99% of the population. They are ordinary people who chose to step up in exceptional circumstances. By the end of the book, I felt I had witnessed true heroism.

5 comments about Fat Girl: A True Story.

1. I have never been slim and so picked up this book with interest, but the endless descriptions of fat were disgusting and the stories about Judith's childhood were horribly sad. I cannot imagine what possessed her to write this book except perhaps a serious mental health crisis (to which she is certainly entitled based on the contents of this book).



2. I listened to the audiobook and had to force myself to finish all five CD's because I wanted to see how it ended. Four and a half CD's full of lists of all the food she ate growing up and an abrupt, unsatisfying end. It's like she wrote down everything she possibly remembered from her childhood, whether it was relevent or not, and then had to finish the book to meet a deadline. Did she learn any lessons from her bad childhood? Does she try to treat her daughters better than she was treated? Has her self esteem improved any as an adult? What was the point of writing this book? To tell us that fat children are doomed to be sweaty, stinky, and unlovable the rest of their lives?



3. It was sooo boring for me. I only got 50 pages in and decided I wasn't gonna waste anymore of my time. She just names off foods and rambles. There's no plot line or anything and it's impossible to stay focused in my opinion. Not worth the money.



4. This book is a really good example, where you can really open up a can of worms with the subject matter (Oh my g-d women and weight!). If you want to start a firestorm and make yourself a target, then go and write a book on a super sensitive subject like this. Lets see, words like; objective and perspective are not going to happen for a lot of the people who read this book. I read this book in one day, not because I wanted to, but because the book grabbed me and wouldn't let go (Similar to say: A roller coaster ride, a big ugly monster, or let's just say the truth). Lighten up people! it's a great read !



5. Judith Moore can write! I read it, cried, laughed, and then I read it again. It's a powerful book if you're fat, have been fat, have ever considered being fat, or been friends with fat. It's not just about how she was abused - it's a statement about how we treat each other in this country. This book is guaranteed to bring about strong emotion, which one will depend on your background and your spirit. Read it.

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 The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism.

1. The author attempts to run the three biographies in parallel but what really happens is that she jumps from one place to the other, so none of the biographies unfold properly. I found it utterly unreadable. On top of it to add to my frustration, there are generalities, like Elizabeth fought with her mother "like all adolescent girls do" or romantic creations "like on this day if you didn't watch out a dog might have showered you with water". I wanted to read a proper biography and not a society novel. I had read "Eden's Outcasts" by John Matteson before and came away with a more lively picture of Elizabeth Peabody and her involvment in the Temple School then from this book. If you are interested in the transcendentalist movement, the time, or women I highly recommend "Eden's Outcasts: The story of Louisa May Alcott and her father".



2. The Peabody Sisters is a wonderful book. It was so interesting and fast-paced, it reads like a novel. The women of the Transcendentalist Movement have been so poorly remembered it is possible to learn something new on every page. Megan Marshall's writing style is relaxed and conversational, a good balance to the 19th century melodrama, angst, sentimentality, and lofty philosophies of the sisters and their circle. Although Marshall quotes letters, sermons, poetry, reviews, journals, reports, and literature from many sources, it is done sparingly and logically integrated.
   
   The Peabody sisters were extraordinary women living in extraordinary times. A case can be made that Elizabeth Peabody, the oldest sister, is one of the most important figures in Transcendentalism. Barred from college and commerce by poverty and sex, she still managed to be more educated than many of the men she befriended and promoted. Many of the relationships we take for granted in Boston and Concord of the era can be directly linked to Elizabeth Peabody's tireless efforts to intellectually support interesting, creative individuals, make introductions, even find people jobs and students, housing, mentors - all while she is shut out and struggling to support her parents and five younger siblings while teaching herself Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish. Also: teaching children and adults, writing articles, editing and publishing, and keeping up a lively correspondence with teachers, philosophers, artists, poets of the era. Her sisters Sophia and Mary are hardly less accomplished.
   
   And yet Megan Marshall always keeps things grounded. The sisters are always real people who display very normal sibling rivalries manifested in jealousy, competition, ambition, despair, frustration and anger. There was also commitment, love, affection, support, delight and generosity.
   
   What is most amazing is the strength of the women in this group. They are creative, adaptable, intelligent, extraordinary in many ways. They are continually held back by the convention of the time that women were somehow frail and that ambition and accomplishment were unseemly in the "fairer sex." Considering what hothouse flowers many of the men in this group proved to be, it's all the more unreasonable that the inequality of the sexes persisted.
   
   Megan Marshall never harangues - the rant is purely my own. Marshall simply gives us the benefit of her prodigious research in the most straightforward and appealing manner. Don't be scared off by the length of the book: the last 100 pages or so are notes and index. The book itself speeds by and the reader is left at the point when the sisters are taking up their own separate lives.



3. Somehow I overlooked this book when it was released, but thank goodness I discovered it later. The author takes readers back in time to share the amazing lives of these sisters. In the process, acquaintances of the Peabody family, that readers already know as historical figures, are brought to life as real, flawed but remarkable people. Readers will identify with these women as they strive to achieve and practice their own talents in a society that shares possibilities and limitations not so different from our own.



4. I only get to read on the train to and from work. This book makes my daily trip a real treat. I'm only half through, but hooked from page one. Not only does Marshall make a fascinating biographical and historical account of the Peabody sisters, but she provides answers as to why strong, ambitious, smart women have been so frustrated for so long. Society supressed gifted women in the 1800's so much so that women either became outcasts because they had to find expression, which in itself was restricted to motherhood, housewife or teacher, or they retreated into themselves in the form of illness or depression. Indeed, the contributions to romanticism by the Peabody sisters came at a very high cost to them. And now I can read about them and think "How strange that society was so close-minded back then!"



5. Megan Marshall has done superb work in this carefully researched account of the amazing Peabody sisters.