5 comments about The Hospital by the River: A Story of Hope.

1. It is said that in some parts of the world the foulest curse that can be uttered is "May you be born again as a woman!" and after reading this story, I now understand why. We in the developed world have no idea what it would be like to be an Ethiopian Woman: betrothed as a toddler, married at nine (the groom promises not to have sex with his bride until she is "old enough." - ha, ha.), pregnant at twelve and left for four or five days, utterly alone, to try and give birth unaided. As in the developed world, many babies are not in a position to be born easily, but unlike here, there is no sterile hospital and a doctor ready to perform a C-section. A girl has no option but to push and push and push until she gives birth to her baby (who has been dead for days by this time) or until she dies.
   
   Death would be the kinder route, once you learn about the mission of the Doctors Reg and Catherine Hamlin. As the poor undeveloped, undernourished girl pushes for days, the corpse of her child causes horrific injuries to the woman's body. She is left leaking urine and often, feces, with no control over her body whatsoever. In a land where water is scarce for drinking and nonexistent for bathing, and where a man wouldn't dream of trying to buy some rags for his wife to keep clean, life becomes a torment that a woman prays would end every day. She is no longer allowed indoors or near other people. Her husband, who has to have at least one son to secure his own future, abandons her and finds another child-bride. Her mother (if she hasn't died in childbirth herself) will probably allow her to return to her home village, but she will be banished to a ragged lean-to that she builds herself with castoffs. Speaking of castoffs, that is all she will be allowed to eat and wear. So she lies completely still, because of an old wives tale (even though there are few old wives) saying that a girl who lies still enough will eventually heal. She may lie this way for twenty years or more, and healing never comes.
   
   If a miracle happens, she hears about the Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa. Her injuries, which we now now are called Fistulas, will be healed and she will be able to return to her people and her village, ready to begin life again. The Doctors Hamlin, devout, old-world Christians, dedicated their lives to these poor, forgotten souls. Once Fistulas were as common in Europe, Australia and the US as they are in Africa today, but minimum marriage ages and proper care during childbirth have so solved this problem that the Hamlins had to develop methods of surgery to cure this condition. In the past sixty or so years, they operated upon and cured at least twenty thousand women, all while the world passed them by.
   
   Dr Catherine Hamlin describes a childhood in an Australia that is long gone, and a life that is as full of hardships as any western doctor has ever lived, but she speaks of her life with joy and a devotion to G-d and the women that have no voice, even in their own homes. Dr. Hamlin, devoted and saintly as she sometimes is, can drive you (me) batty with her old-fashioned ways. She and her husband had a motto: these women want what every woman wants -- a live baby in her arms. They were horrified by the 'free love' of the 1960's, and spoke with great reverence for the last Emperor of Ethiopia, before he was overthrown.
   
   I loved the book, and was moved to tears at the plight of these poor young women. I admired the dedication of the Hamlins, especially during their early years in Ethiopia, operating in the corner of another hospital, with thousands of injured young women coming to them, and their attempts to create a hospital of their own. I admired them even more during the years of war and revolution in Ethiopia, while they tried to get supplies and continue their work while under constant threat of death.
   
   If you want to be touched and discover once again how lucky you are (and if you can read this, you are darned lucky, I guarantee it), then this book will make you feel gratitude and compassion for your fellow human beings, no matter where they live. If you think that this is just some sob story, then read the book anyway -- you need to have your soul touched, and I guarantee that this is the book to do it.



2. I and my friends who have read "Hospital by the River" have all liked
   it very much. It tells about an Australian couple
   trained in obstetrics who went to Ethiopia and established aa hospital
   to help woman in Ethiopia who had suffered the bad effects of early
   child bearing. I believe it shows how the Christian life should be lived.



3. This book tells a remarkable story. It is the autobiography of Dr. Catherine Hamlin and the work she and her husband have done to establish a hospital treating obstetric fistula in Ethiopia. What an amazing story. I had never heard of obstetric fistula till a few days ago. I did not know that so many young women (girls, really) in some parts of the world have child birth complications that cause holes in the vagina through which feces and urine leak constantly, leading to the women becoming abandoned pariahs. And the repair surgery costs only about $300 -- but this was essentially unavailable until the Hamlins came to Ethiopia in 1960. What wonderful work they have done, along with their wonderful, competent Ethiopian staff and colleagues. In addition to that basic theme, Hamlin tells an engrossing story about the overthrow of the emperor, the years of communist regime (many of her friends were murdered), and then the current improved situation. What a story! This book about her faith and her work is well worth reading. I hope many, many people enjoy this book and are inspired to donate to this hospital.



4. Seldom has a missionary painted such a compelling portrait of hope from darkest despair as Dr. Catherine Hamlin in her inspiring memoir, THE HOSPITAL BY THE RIVER. When she and her husband, Reg, embarked on their careers in gynecology in Australia, they never dreamed their work would eventually take them halfway across the globe to the third world country of Ethiopia to establish a teaching hospital.
   
   Ethiopia's insistence on child-brides and the poor obstetric care in that country is responsible for the high incidence of women who suffer from fistula, a childbirth injury that results in constantly running urine and terrible internal injuries. The personal stories of these women as told by Dr. Hamlin will break readers' hearts. Divorced by their husbands and rejected by their families, many of these injured women live out the remainder of their lives ostracized alone in dark rooms --- all for want of an operation costing only a few hundred dollars.
   
   A simple operation can alleviate their suffering, and most women are curable. (Hamlin takes payment in everything from live chickens to jewelry.) But although two million women suffer from fistula, less than 7,000 are treated each year. The challenges to create a hospital that serves these women --- and then maintain and finance operations --- are formidable.
   
   Hamlin's descriptions will move even the most jaded readers to tears --- and sometimes to a queasy stomach. In one gruesome anecdote, she tells of a woman mauled by a hyena while giving birth (the hyena ate her baby while she was helpless to protect it). However, Hamlin wants us to understand the depth of this despair so difficult to relate to --- the horrific conditions these women live in --- in order to arouse our deepest compassion for their suffering.
   
   In one memorable passage, she describes the life of one such outcast, discovered in a village by a medical worker:
   
   "...They reluctantly showed her a side room. Inside it was dark, and the smell was almost unbearable. In the far corner, against the wall was a raised platform. Peering through the gloom they made out a woman lying on her side with her legs drawn up in a flexed position. Her bladder and bowel contents were leaking into a pool underneath. Because she had been in this position for five years the joints had become stiff... and she could no longer walk...."
   
   This woman --- like more than 20,000 others --- was cured by Hamlin and her team.
   
   This is a book of contrasts, from the gatherings thrown by royalty to the extreme poverty that most of the people of Ethiopia experience. Although the reader has to mine a bit too much detailed memoir to get to the good storytelling, it is well worth the effort. Her tone throughout is one of gratitude. Hamlin is quick to offer copious amounts of praise for others, even those who have perhaps wronged her in some way. She is vulnerable about her own shortcomings, especially as a parent.
   
   Almost four decades after her work began, it's understandable why Hamlin has been called "The new Mother Teresa for our age" by the New York Times, and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. This fascinating account of Dr. Hamlin's work will break your heart --- and offer hope that even the worst circumstances can be changed if we care enough to help. Keep the Kleenex handy.
   
   (...)



5. I have been writing to publishers and book sellers for over a year begging them to publish this book in the U.S. Dr. Catherine Hamlin tells the story and illustrates how one intelligent, caring woman devoted her time on earth to easing the plight of young mothers in Africa. Don't live another week without reading this story! Also, sales of the book go toward keeping Dr. Hamlin's hospital and refuge open for young mothers in Africa who need reconstructive surgery following the birth of their babies.

5 comments about Condoleezza Rice: An American Life: A Biography.

1. Where's the analysis?
   
   There's not a lot new here about Condi Rice, especially for people involved enough with tracking politics to have formed a basic picture of her already.
   
   That said, there is a fair amount of information from her childhood and pre-NSC adulthood to confirm what became apparent then was not new.
   
   That includes:
   1. A blinkered mindset, not just on things like Iraq issues, either;
   2. A lack of original thought;
   3. A lack of bureaucratic steel at times, especially when limited by blinkered or unoriginal thought.
   
   The first point goes all the way back to segregated Birmingham, Ala., of Rice's childhood. She maintains to this day that segregation wasn't as bad as MLK and other civil rights leaders maintained, and, even more laughably, that more upper-crust black leaders there were making progress.
   
   The lack of originality? The lack of relative depth in her PhD study. Her time as Stanford provost.
   
   Tying some points together, that Bumiller doesn't look at enough:
   1. WHY the blinkered mindset held all the way back to childhood?
   2. WAS Condi's PhD that "derivative"?
   3. DID she get tenure, not just appointment at Stanford, on minority grounds? Or female grounds? Or a combo?
   4. DID she, per a book like Randall Kennedy's "Sellout," "pull the ladder up" after her at Stanford, both vis-à-vis other minorities and vis-à-vis other women?
   5. HOW RESPONSIBLE is she for the federal lawsuit against Stanford for discrimination against women? How responsible is she for that having spread to racial discrimination, too?
   6. PSYCHOLOGY of her attachment to older, "mentorish" men? Effects on her two stints in Washington?
   7. HARD-CORE CONSERVATIVISM after her Bush I service in 1989-91? Everybody at Stanford remarked on the changes, but it doesn't look like Bumiller asked Question No. 1 about this.
   
   Through in the fact that Bumiller swallows the conservative/BushCo talking points about the pre-9/11 "firewall" between domestic and foreign intelligence, calls Wolfowitz a "conservative" and not a "neoconservative" and you see Bumiller in over her head as much as Rice was on Jan. 20, 2001.
   
   How Bumiller got to be a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, or how Random House thought they would get a serious analytical bio (if it wanted one) from an author whose other publishings are all non-analytical women's issues books, is beyond me. And, using that leave of absence from the New York Times to write this book and it STILL being this shallow? That is what got it knocked down from three to two stars.
   
   As for alternatives? Judging by other reviewers, I think Kessler's bio has to be better, and Mabry's possibly worse than this.



2. A good biography should provde interesting personal insights not readily known and engaging examples that show character strengths and flaws. Once an author interjects his or her own political bias, as this "liberal" author clearly does on more than one occassion, then the reader feels as if the biography has turned into political analysis, which is precisely what happens in this book about midway through.
   
   The author does a nice job describing the childhood, adolescence, family, and personal crises of Ms. Rice through and including her appointment as provost as Stanford. But then the author decides to simply discuss in chronological order the various political events that Ms. Rice was involved in as she entered the realm of politics and ultimately became Secretary of State. From that point on the book becomes not biography, but a superficial and biased presentation of various political events into which the author intersperses quotes from Ms. Rice. It sounded more like a series of newspaper articles than a biography.
   
   In short, the first half of the book through the events at Stanford is worth reading. You can simply skim the rest and skip to the Conclusion, which is rather pedestrian.
   
   There are no great insights provided in this book, but in the early chapters there is a wealth of personal and fascinating details that makes this book worth reading at all.



3. For anyone familiar with the story of Condoleeza Rice, Elisabeth Bumiller's tentative (and sometimes maddening) biography, "Condoleeza Rice: An American Life" will impart little that is new or surprising. As a child, Rice was cocooned by fiercely protective parents--whose relative wealth facilitated a degree of separation from the Black "masses" and fed their upper-middle class aspirations for their only daughter. In fact, Condoleeza Rice's most noteworthy brush with American racial polemics came indirectly, in 1963, with the death of a childhood friend, one of three black girls killed in Birmingham's infamous church bombing, an event that helped galvanize the cause of civil rights then spearheaded by Martin Luther King.
   
   In their single-minded drive to mold, harden and polish their daughter, Condi Rice's parents succeeded only too well. By age 26, she had earned her PhD. She was in her early thirties when she was hand-picked for a tenured-track professorship at Stanford, leapfrogging over the objections of others who felt that she had not paid sufficient dues. Later, as the youngest ever Provost of Stanford University, Rice's fiscal policies so antagonized women and minorities (who took umbrage at her [ClarenceThomas-like] tendencies to pull up the drawbridges after she'd had her opportunities) that the justice department opened a long-running investigation into the university over allegations of discrimination.
   
   Rice's real ascendancy began with the first Bush administration and eventually led to her deeply personal relationship with George W., who then made her National Security Advisor. As the NSA, Rice ran afoul of hawks who disdained her lack of experience--namely, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, the latter ousted over the fallout from the Iraqi war. Rice fares slightly better as Secretary of State but, as Bumiller makes clear, her legacy will forever be linked to her disastrous advocacy of the war in Iraq.
   
   Though Bumiller tip-toes around her subject, the facts speak for themselves. Rice's frenetic public and professional life contrasts sharply with her relatively tranquil and, some would say, barren private life--first evidenced by the inordinate amount of free time Rice has spent as a third wheel, of sorts, with the Bush family (Rice's parents are deceased and she has neither a spouse, children nor, apparently, any kind of intimate relationship). But what's most maddening throughout the book is Rice's near-egregious lack of empathy, her general refusal to admit mistakes, and, most of all, her shrill indifference to the suffering and the less fortunate around her, be it the civil rights struggles of the 1960's, the plight of minorities and women, or mounting casualties in Iraq. To be sure, Rice is not without talent or skills (passably fluent in Russian, fairly accomplished in classical piano, skill-tested in negotiation), but, as portrayed in "An American Life," this is a woman who is strangely lacking in intellectual curiosity or insight, rarely if ever given to introspection or self-doubt. But then the fact that she was able to forge such a close friendship with the likes of George W. Bush probably speaks volumes more about her than any biography ever could.



4. a surprisingly astounding life story told in new york times opinion page fashion....not an emotion biography.



5. Bumiller has written a fine biography of Rice. Her style is efficient (concise and clear)and she has obviously done her homework concerning the various phases of Rice's life: her childhood in Birmingham, her adolescent and young adult years in Denver, her successful yet controversial academic years at Stanford and her time working on national security matters culminating, of course, with President George W. Bush, first as his national security adviser and now as secretary of state.
   
   Rice's life story is intriguing: How could a child of the segregated South, who benefited from the civil rights and affirmative action movements, become a staunch Republican? How could a young woman with a passion for piano suddenly embrace an academic career in the male dominated world of military and Soviet studies? Bumiller doesn't provide definitive answers to these questions but she does shed some valuable light.
   
   And, of course, the most immediate historical question concerns what role did Rice play in the defining moments of the Bush Presidency: 9/11 and the Iraq war. Was she just a foot soldier? Was she asleep at the switch as national security adviser? Or did she play an active role in shaping
   Bush national security and foreign policy decisions? Some Bush haters will have no patience for Bumiller's balanced portrait of Rice but Bumilller's restraint actually makes for a compelling case for Rice's shortcomings.
   
   A highlight of this book is extensive interviews Bumiller conducted with Rice, excerpts of which are interwoven throughout the text. Rice naturally always attempts to put her best foot forward but Bumiller sometimes comments critically when she feels Rice is inconsistent or less than forthcoming. Interviews with lots of people who have worked closely with Rice add critical balance as well (too bad George W. and Rummy aren't interviewed for this book).
   
   Since so much has already been written about the Bush Presidency, some of Bumiller's material is repetitive of what we already know. I found the first half of the book about Rice's childhood and years at Stanford the most worthwhile, especially her childhood years in Birmingham. Although the trauma of the Birmingham church bombing in 1963 affected Rice (she was an acquaintance of one of the victims), what is remarkable is how her parents protected her from so many of the indignities of the segregated South. Her mother was a powerful force in contributing to the ambition and remarkable self confidenc Rice has always exhibited.
   
   Bumiller is quite critical of Rice performance as national security adviser, especially regarding her failure to provide Bush with alternative viewpoints in the lead up to war in Iraq. She suggests that Rice's close personal relationship with Bush interfered with her professional responsibilities. She also is critical of Rice breaking longstanding national security adviser precedent and becoming "Karl's Aide-de-Camp" during the 2004 campaign.
   
   My biggest disappointment with the book is that the personal side of the Condoleezza Rice story seems incomplete. In the last chapter the author quotes Laura Bush that because Rice has no close family (no spouse, no children, no living parents) she lacks the emotional support to ever be able to serve as president. One can't help but ask what kind of emotional support Rice had in the high powered positions she has served in with Bush.
   
   Bumiller attempts to penetrate what makes Rice tick emotionally but comes up short. She suggests that Rice's passion for playing classical music provides a valuable respite from the pressure-cooker world of the White House and Foggy Bottom. But is this enough? I wish she had explored further the nature of the relationship between Rice and President Bush.
   
   One other relationship worthy of further examination is Rice's one year relationship with Rick Upchurch, a member of the Denver Broncos. Upchurch's background and interests (except for football) are about as far apart from Rice's as possible. What explains this relationship? Bumiller defers for any serious exploration of Rice and Upchurch.
   
   If journalism is the first draft of history, this biography is a valuable second draft. We need more time for the definitive book on Rice to be written but as the story of Condoleezza Rice continues to unfold, Bumiller has done an admirable job of understanding, especially on the professional side, one of the most intriguing figures of contemporary American politics.
   
   
   

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

1. 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.



2. 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.



3. 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.



4. Elizabeth (Kathryn) Gordon writes of Tahija, Lamarr, and their triplet boys, who for almost two years shared a house with Kathryn and her partner Kaki. We share Kathryn's doubts and reservations, and her spiritual experience that invites Kathryn to provide radical hospitality to Tahija and Lamarr, becoming their major childcare provider and housemate. We observe at close quarters what it's like when the Department of Human Services threatens to take away the boys because Tahija is presumed unfit as a poor, black teen mother. We meet Family Court, doctors, and social service agencies which do not actively encourage fathers who want to be involved with their families. We witness Kathryn's struggle to love and support Tahija when their ideas about childrearing create a cultural divide; Tahija moves out as a heartbreaking result. And, we are there for the healing of the rift. Walk with Us invites the reader to walk with the little family, expanding our hearts and minds and souls along with Kathryn's, to include those who are not so different from ourselves.



5. This is an important book. It is the true story to two white women who provide a home for a pregnant 15 year old black girl, her partner, and their triplet sons after their birth. The author is a published poet, and it shows in the writing. This book is beautifully written, and Ms. Gordon's honesty is so complete that it is sometimes painful to read. This is a true examination of conscience. It is also an examination of the history of race relations in the US and the current state of those relations, not from an observer who visited a ghetto a few times for a story, but from someone who lived it. Make no mistake, there is also much that evokes laughter here. Ms. Gordon has a marvelous sense of humor, and she is not afraid to laugh at herself. I consider this book "a must read" for anyone interested in and concerned about race relations in America. And that should be everyone, shouldn't it?

3 comments about The Measure of My Days.

1. What a pleasure it was to read this book! Dr. Scott-Maxwell's book brings the aging process into consciousness, with seminal thoughts reflecting on Jungian ideas (opposite natures, inner-outer experiences, differentiation, the unconscious and God). The book is written in a format of a personal, meditation essays.

   Noted author Alice Walker said in an NPR interview (April 26th, 2004), that the grandmother spirit, the "cinder grandmother", is missing in our culture. Florida Pier Scott-Maxwell is a voice that should be heard.




2. In attempting to complete an assigment, I purchaced this book. I was pleased to find such positive reviews. After I recieved this book I started to attempt to read and understand this author. I am sorry to say but I should have choose a different author. Much of the book was writen in a form of a women's ponderings with no real frame of referance to work from. I feel that this is because of the education of the author. When the author actually did give framework like when she was with her grandson and how he looked at the world with fresh eyes it was easy to relate and understand where she was comeing from. I found that at the end of the assignment, I did something with a book that I never do and that was throw it away.



3. If there were only one book i could take with me on the last leg of this earthly journey, it would be this one. This is an unflinching view of life from the vantage point of very old age.

5 comments about Eleanor Roosevelt : Volume 2 , The Defining Years, 1933-1938.

1. In the first volume of her series on Eleanor Roosevelt, Blanche Wiesen Cook, a historian and women's studies professor, introduced us to a compelling historical figure who, after years of living in passive submission to her husband and mother-in-law, had finally broken free to create her own "independent life" - a life filled with careers (teacher, writer, public speaker) and fulfilling private friendships. In volume two, Eleanor Roosevelt faces the challenge of keeping her independent life as she assumes the traditionally social (and passive) role of First Lady. "Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume Two, 1933 - 1938" contemplates Eleanor Roosevelt's life during the first five years of her husband's presidency.
   
   In her first volume on Eleanor Roosevelt, Cook took a feminist approach in asking questions about power, relationships, and identity. Unfortunately, volume two falls short of the first volume, in leaving many of these questions not only unanswered, but sometimes even unasked. Whereas the central theme of volume one was Eleanor's struggle to assert herself as an "independent power," in volume two, we are not just reading the story of Eleanor Roosevelt, but also the parallel story of her husband and his presidency, which places Eleanor Roosevelt in a dependent role as she must work her way into her husband's political circle to gain influence. In fact, too often, volume two devolves into a story of FDR's presidency and Eleanor's reaction to it, rather than the story of Eleanor Roosevelt as an individual, independent agent. Eleanor is often portrayed as dependent on FDR for power, her moods uplifted when his speeches reflect her views and depressed and cold when they don't, particularly when she is shut out from the inner circle and has to learn about what is going on from her own son. While she occasionally dissents from the administration's talking points, her writing and speaking career is now primarily aimed at advancing FDR's policies. The most disappointing example of Eleanor's capitulation to her husband is on the subject of the Holocaust, where she remains silent from 1933 to 1938. When a German refugee appeals to Eleanor Roosevelt's sense of justice, asking, "Can you really stand by and watch this? Can you stand and see us more or less all gassed? I should like to have your word, you will do something," Eleanor Roosevelt replies, "Unfortunately, in my present position I am obliged to leave all contacts with foreign governments in the hands of my husband and his advisers." Obviously, Eleanor Roosevelt does gain power within FDR's political circle, but it is never clear what the extent and significance of this power really is.
   
   Another central theme in volume one was how Eleanor Roosevelt's relationship with a new circle of feminist and lesbian friends helped her create her own life apart from FDR. After Eleanor discovered FDR's infidelity with Lucy Mercer, and they began living separately, Eleanor established her own new life at Val-Kill, a residence she shared with Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman. In addition, Eleanor made her first true friend in Lorena Hickok, an established reporter with the Associated Press. In volume two, these relationships all dissolve, as Eleanor acrimoniously splits with Cook and Dickerman and drifts apart from Hickok. Hickok, in fact, is the key figure in volume two, as her relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt is chronicled in painful detail. While their relationship is clearly the most important in Eleanor's life during her time as First Lady, it unfortunately takes a bit of a tragic turn as Hickok gives up her job with the AP, and along with it, her self-respect, becoming dependent on Eleanor Roosevelt for work, in addition to financial and emotional support. As Hickok grows increasingly depressed and resentful of Eleanor's other friends and busy schedule, they continue to drift apart, to the point where, when they do share a vacation alone together, Eleanor is miserable, missing her work and eager to return to her life as First Lady. As Eleanor Roosevelt drifts away from the friends who were so important to her in first creating her own independent life, it is clear that her interests and priorities have changed. Her political life is now the most important thing in her life.
   
   What does this say about Eleanor Roosevelt's identity? This is the final question then left to be answered. Unfortunately, the question is never even posed to readers. Does it matter that Eleanor Roosevelt depends on her husband for power and she no longer has an independent role of her own? What does it say that she pulls Lorena Hickok into a dependent relationship where she retains all the power? Why is her public life more important to her than her private relationships? What, in fact, is her new identity? While in volume one, we are left with the image of Eleanor Roosevelt as an independent woman, pursuing her own career interests and developing her own loyal set of friends apart from FDR, in volume two, we are mostly left with an image of Eleanor Roosevelt not as an independent force, but as the First Lady, a woman who keeps a busy schedule and cares for a lot of causes and people, but none in particular.
   
   In focusing on the day-to-day details of Eleanor Roosevelt's life and FDR's administration, "Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume Two, 1933 - 1938" reads more like a timeline from a boring history text - a list of dates and facts - than a compelling biography of Eleanor Roosevelt the person, her priorities and main accomplishments. In trying to tell two stories - first, of the political movement behind the New Deal and, second, of the role Eleanor Roosevelt carves out for herself within her husband's administration - ultimately Cook fails to tell either story.



2. I have to admit that I gave up on this book. I'm hoping to find a more readable biography of Mrs. Roosevelt. Cook's style and grammar are just too jumbled for me.
   
   Look in the "look inside this book" section here and go to page 14. This is a prime example of Cook's overuse of quotes. I appreciate that she did her research, but if she was going to quote so much, she should have just included one whole article. As it is, the whole page is a mish-mash of sentances and words taken from various sources creating a confusing unreadable mess.



3. I was shocked to discover that volume 2 only covered 5 years, albeit 5 important years. However, that should serve as a caveat for a potential reader.
   
   This volume is a much harder read than volume 1 as this version grinds to a screeching halt in places. While I agree it was important to document ERs long, tortured relationship with Lorena Hickock, too much emphasis (and repetition) was placed on what looks to be a normal parting-of-the-ways as ER ascended.
   
   There are some very intriguing and thoughtful moments in this book (which makes its a worthwhile read), but they are broken up by too many abrupt harbringers of moral/political doom or redemption with sparse or no follow-up.



4. This is a very well-researched and meticulously written book. However, I never felt I got to know Eleanor Roosevelt. I found the reference to Mrs. Roosevelt throughout the book as "ER" off-putting. It put an emotional distance between the reader and the subject. While we are treated to many details of Mrs. Roosevelt's life, we are never really let in to her emotional life. BWC (the author) goes into such detail about everyone else around Mrs. Roosevelt and she tells us what happened, but she doesn't let us see things through Mrs. Roosevelt's eyes. I still have no idea what the relationship between FDR and his wife was. Nor do I really understand why she remained with Lorena Hick so long. This book really amounts to a laundry list of who, what, where. A really effective biography will let us into the personal lives of the subject and let us feel as they feel as the story of their life unfolds. I never found that emotional resonance in this account. Eleanor Roosevelt left behind copious amounts of source material. I think that the author could have done a much better job of letting us experience Mrs. Roosevelt more fully as a person and not just as a public figure with a lot on her agenda.



5. Although not being an American, I'm aware that there are many in the States who are not too fond of ER and who are very critical of her. This second volume of Blanche Wiesen Cook's series on America's former First Lady is as remarkable and absorbing as was the first. There is no doubt FDR was a man of character,courage and great personal charm and warmth, there is equally no doubt that his wife suffered great personal trauma (and embarrassment) at his refusal (doubtless for political reasons)to speak out against the racial problems (in particular lyching in the South) and the Hitlerites treament of Jews in prewar Germany and Austria whilst the US continued to trade with the Germans. The same could be said of his stance during the Spanish Civil War. Eleanor was a nag (as was mentioned here in other summaries of this book) but never without good reason.
   And all of her dire predictions came true. ER's passion for life, her beliefs, her love and respect of her husband, come through over and over again. Her ability to manipulate people, a less attractive aspect of her character - is also here for all to see (as her relationship with Lorena Hickock so aptly demonstrates).
   Was there too much of Hick in this book ? I didn't think so. The relationship was a long term, on going one. The letters were not destroyed by ER, who I believe must have realised they'd become public after her death. Finally, ER's energy levels must have been extraordinary - her ability to criss cross the country seemingly non stop was remarkable considering that travel and the mode of travel was nothing like it is today. What an absolute bonus such a partner was to FDR's re electibility !
   I look forward to the next "installment" with great anticipation.

1 comments about Women of the Bible: 52 Stories for Prayer and Reflection.

1. I have been going to Bible Study for a lot of years, and I am finding that I absolutely LOVE the stories in this book. We read the story, and then the corresponding message from the bible. Then we discuss the story and it is so informative! I love this book!

5 comments about Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild in the Twenties.

1. An engaging, entertaining read by a skillful writer. . .but if you want a thorough, complex picture of these four women (Parker, Ferber, Z. Fitzgerald, Millay) and their circles, you'll be better off reading a full-scale biography of each, one that places them in historical and literary context. This book's final paragraph sums up both its strengths and its shortcomings -- the ending is crisp and breezy, but it offers no thoughtful conclusions. Instead, it basically says (and I'm paraphrasing), "and so the 1920s ended and passed into history and the people described here went on and lived the rest of their lives." What we have overall is a well-phrased and smoothly-organized collection of largely unanalyzed details.
   
   If you knew nothing about these writers beyond what you read here, you'd conclude that most of leading artistic lights of 1920s New York were shallow, self-centered, silly sots, and you'd wonder how on earth they managed to write anything at all, let alone stuff that is held up decades later as examples of significant art. (The only person who doesn't seem to have been an exasperating wastrel is Ferber, and you could easily come away from "Bobbed Hair" believing that her work is the least worth reading.) If it's really true that these largely despicable, aimless people are nonetheless artists worth our continued time and attention, then I wish "Bobbed Hair" had spent more time examining and explicating this paradox. As it is, we end up with details, details everywhere and not a point to make.
   
   But then again, perhaps I'm trying to turn this book into something it's not: it's not a scholarly biography, never claimed to be, and doesn't have to be. On its own terms, it's quite fun. So if you want a dishy tiptoe through the 1920s tulips, buy this book. If you want context and in-depth analysis, buy something else.



2. With BOBBED HAIR AND BATHTUB GIN writer Marion Meade takes the reader on a decade-long tour of the lives of four women who helped make the 1920s roar: Edna Ferber (1895-1968); Zelda Sayer Fitzgerald (1900-1948); Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950); and Dorothy Parker (1893-1967.) Although all four were distinctly different, all four shared certain traits. They were of a generation of women who considered themselves "emancipated." Generally based in New York City, all four proved globetrotters to at least some extent. And all four were writers, and their work was shaped by the decade just as it shaped the decade in turn.
   
   The 1920s saw Edna Ferber rise from the status of a commercial hack to the critically lauded author of such novels as SO BIG and SHOW BOAT and co-author of such plays as THE ROYAL FAMILY. Determinedly independent, Ferber's character would cast an even longer shadow than her works, setting a pattern for single, hard-working, career women that would last decades. Zelda Sayer Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, was Ferber's polar opposite: a woman whose career was marriage but who didn't feel it should crimp her style. Along with husband Scott, she would party her way into self-destruction--and provide significant inspiration to Fitzgerald's novels as well. As the 1920s passed, Zelda would discover a gift for prose and publish several short works, but mental illness began to claim her as the decade came to a close.
   
   Edna St. Vincent Millay was a critic's darling who--when she wasn't writing poetry--spent much of the decade sleeping with any one, male or female, who appealed to her. As well known for her personal charm and eccentricity as for her work, Millay endured numerous difficulties in the decade before emerging as America's most highly regarded poet and then, rather perversely, find critical reaction began to turn against her in the face of works by the likes of T.S. Eliot. And then, of course, there is the truly legendary Dorothy Parker, who began the decade as a drama critic and slowly rose to fame through her remarkably funny and acid poetry. A truly dark figure, like Zelda Fitzgerald and Millay she too would struggle with a host of inner demons ranging from alcohol to drugs to bad relationships.
   
   These four women, their lovers, husbands, publishers, and associates crisscross throughout the book in an interesting counterpoint. The result is always readable, always entertaining, but it does contain certain flaws. Although Meade does provide background and does give notes as to what became of them in later years, her story begins with 1920 and stops with 1930; there is little context. That said, the portraits involved are somewhat superficial; all four of these women are worthy of stand-alone biographies, and indeed all but Ferber have received major, widely available, and well-received biographies.
   
   That said, however, BOBBED HAIR AND BATHTUB GIN is an enjoyable book that does indeed seem to capture a feel for the 1920s, a decade in which the sky seemed the limit for women, the arts, society, and indeed the entire nation. Although they were hardly the only noted women of the era, Edna Ferber, Zelda Fitzgerald, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Dorothy Parker were in many ways indicative of the decade--and this is a wild and very entertaining romp through their early successes and failures. Recommended.
   
   GFT, Amazon Reviewer



3. A wonderful view into the lives of women writers in the 1920's focusing mainly on Edna Ferber, Zelda Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker and Edna St. Vincent Millay. The writing is wonderful, easy to follow, and it almost reads like a novel itself. A great introduction to the biographies of these ladies, Meade doesn't weight the account down with esoteric references to peripheral literary characters. Her focus is sharp and vivid, and I liked that she organized events chronologically, breaking up the chapters by year. She paints these women so multi-dimensionally that I found myself missing them, like characters in a great novel, once I had finished the book.



4. A breezy, fast read which skims the surface of Prohibition Days. If you enjoy learning about that crazy time before Wall Street "laid an egg" you will like this book.



5. Extremely well written, as is all Meade's stuff, and you'll walk away considerably wider of eye over these lives of recently enfranchised famous flappers learning how to deal with their new status as full members of society. Some of them did not deal well.
   
   Meade also wrote a great bio of Eleanor of Aquitaine.

5 comments about Memoirs of Glueckel of Hameln.

1. It is a privilege to read a personal memoir of an inhabitant of 17th-century Germany. I have read "history books" about this period, but Glueckel's memoir tells me how it felt to be actually present. Glueckel is a good writer, although I'm sure the translator also deserves some of the credit.



2. Gluckel of Hameln is the diary of a frum woman from the 1600's. We don't have any real information from this period except from some unavailable books of Rabbi Yaakov Emden. In her diary, she speaks of events of life, death, the Plague, Shabsai Tzvi, and how she raised her family during this hard time in Jewish History.
   This version of the book come in paperback and is annotated. The translation from the original version is pretty good considering that some words don't translate well from one language to another. The introduction gives some of her story away but important to read to understand her approach in writing this diary.
   I bought this book and have given it to my best friends for motivational and historical reading. BUY THIS BOOK!



3. Anyone wanting to get a profound insight into the life of Jews in Germany during the 17th Century as told with true life experiences by an outstanding mother, wife and businesswoman of the time, must read this book. My wife and I bought two so that we could read and discuss every paragraph together, and we really got caught up in the emotions and life experiences of this era in Jewish and German history. Told in simple language and with profound true life experiences and deep religious belief, as only this extraordinary Jewess could have transposed us to this era and the every day life and the hardships and tribulations of German Jews already then.



4. Fascinating description of an educated Jewish woman's life in the 1600's with an amazing amount of travel in Northern Europe pertaining to family matters and business. It was not a small world by any means. She was a bit effusive in her thanks and acceptance of her life with moralising, but her description of her life is outstanding.



5. Almost all of the human beings who have lived on this earth have left behind no name or story. This is also true about the vast majority of Jews even when the Jews are a people for whom remembrance is a sacred act. The great great majority of Jews who have lived on this planet too have no names and no stories.
   Thus the memoir of Gluckel of Hameln is so welcome .In it she tells the story of her family, her struggling as a widow to make a living , to marry off the eleven surviving of her fourteen children. She tells too something of the incredibly difficult and limited world she lived in, and of the special difficulties Jews had to contend with to remain alive. Gluckel may go into too much detail and not be the greatest writer in the world but she certainly is a person of tremendous moxie, courageous, dedication , insight . How wonderful it would be if we could have the stories of many others of great value who lived, gave to the world and then passed from it as if they were not here at all. This is a well- worth reading document of both historical and human significance

5 comments about Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran.

1. The author was incredibly adept at using a well written snapshot of an event in her life to give the reader an overall sense of what was going on in the country during the Iranian revolution. This author can write!



2. I've never examined the Iranian Revolution, and this book provided great insight. By reading Roya's story, I witnessed how passion for and support of the revolution turned into horror when things got out of control. Revolutions often turn out this way; let the mistakes of the past be warnings for all of us today! Sometimes what looks good doesn't really turn out to be so great! This book, however, looks good and IS good. Journey from the Land of No is a must-read as it provides excellent insight.



3. I truly enjoy reading memoirs, but this one did not grab me at all. I couldn't wait until I was done, and regret wasting my time. There are numerous other books on this topic much more interesting!



4. This is an excellent book; I highly recommend it. I learned a lot, and Ms. Hakakian is a great author. One word of warning; she does not claim to be completely unbiased about what occured in and before 1979 in Iran; and she stays true to this claim. So, the book is a bit one-sided, I suppose; but it tells the side of the story that I also had never heard, which is important.



5. This book is a treasure for those interested in enhancing their understading of religious minorities' "Nationalist" mindset in Iran, particularly during the Pahlavi period. One has to take into cosideration that a large number of Jews in Iran converted to Islam for pragmatic reasons prior to the pahlavi dynasty. The brand of pre-Islamic nationanist secularism promoted by the Pahlavi shahs in Iran is ever present throughout this book. Personally, I believe the author is an Iranian patriot. She does, to some degree, have an undesrstanding of an "Iranian consciousness" regardless of religious inclination. She is very sympathetic toward "martyrs" of Iran-Iraq war, to the extend to which she modestly discredits herself as a moral authority on the subject due to the fact that she did not pay a physical price for defending Iran. I am very glad that I read this book. It reaffirmed my belief that many Iranian Jews consider themselves Iranians first and then perhaps Jewish, quite similar to their secular Muslim Iranian cousins.

2 comments about The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber: Weimar Berlin's Priestess of Depravity.

1. The Seven Addictions And Five Professions Of Anita Berber: Weimar Berlin's Priestess Of Depravity is the career story of actor, dancer, poet, and sex culture icon Anita Berber, who scandalized Weimar Berlin by appearing naked in nightclubs and casinos save for a sable wrap. Her performance in Expressionist films, her disregard of all taboos and her drug habits all contributed to a life devoted to casting off restraints. Dozens of black-and-white photographs and drawings recreating Anita's "Repertoire of the Damned" illustrate this one-of-a-kind tell-all of Europe's first postmodern woman.



2. Author Mel Gordon details a glittering, decadent Weimar Berlin in the book, "The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber: Weimer Berlin's Priestess of Depravity." Post WWI Berlin "became the world showcase of nude dance and the erotic revue-sketch", and with the catastrophic devaluation of the German Mark, "moral degeneration" reigned in a city that rapidly became a metropolis of exotic, erotic cabaret performances. During her brief, explosive career Anita Berber was Weimar Berlin's "most widely discussed female personality." She performed to packed theatres, outraging her audiences, sharply dividing critics, and shocking society with the scandals that surrounded her both on and off stage. With her perfect, lithe body, dancer and performance artist Anita Berber reigned supreme.
   
   Gordon charts the meteoric rise and tragic fall of the notorious dancer. During her short, brilliant, and self-destructive life, she earned many names, and was called a "totally perverted woman", the "Madonna of Dresden", the "Countess of Sin", "a living embodiment of sin", and "an incarnation of the perverse." Gordon offers the reader a portrait of a difficult life--fraught with public scandal, private demons, and an avant-garde approach to dance that brought Berber the wrong sort of audience. Gordon argues that the very audience who flocked to Berber for her scandalous naked dances could not appreciate the artistic relevance of her performances, and thus heckled--and ultimately abused her.
   
   Gordon tracks Berlin's long-standing tradition with Naked Dance as an art form and traces Berber's career from her early dance training to German Expressionist Richard-Oswald films. But it was Berber's ability to dance that brought Berlin--at least temporarily--to her feet.
   
   The book examines Berber's disastrous relationship with petty criminal, con man, and fellow dancer--Sebastian Droste. Included are details of Droste's post-Berber career in America and his membership in a notorious New York sex cult. The major scandals in Berber's life are examined--her three husbands, her affairs with the sexually obsessed Gerda and her daughter Elsa, and the "lovesick" Baroness Leonie Puttkamer-Gessmann. Berber's health steadily declined as her various addictions grew uncontrollable, and she rapidly became a "creative liability" on stage--even whacking a businessman over the head with a bottle of champagne one evening.
   
   The book also serves as a glimpse into artistic life of Weimar Berlin--and there are mentions here of many notables--including Leni Riefenstahl (she was Berber's understudy for one engagement), Conrad Veidt, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, Marlene Dietrich, and Fritz Lang. The text is peppered with marvelous photographs, posters and graphics depicting various Berber routines (including the Dances of Depravity, Horror, and Ecstasy). Additional materials follow the text--including poems by Berber and Droste, synopses of Berber's dance performances, and a bibliography. It's sadly ironic that Anita Berber--who once was so infamous--has now almost disappeared, and it is a particular joy for those interested in Berber (me) that Mel Gordon wrote this work on a much-neglected artist. For more on the life of Anita Berber, I recommend the film "Anita: Dances of Vice" by Rosa von Praunheim--displacedhuman