5 comments about Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now.

1. An enthusiastic young activist, Jan Wong left Canada for Beijing in 1972, in hopes of simultaneously aiding Mao's cause and pursuing her ancestral roots. This well-written, enlightening account of her "journey from Mao to now" takes readers through her six years as a student and subsequent six years as a reporter in Red China's capital city.
   
   Wong was uniquely qualified to write this book, which privileges readers with deep insights into why things were the way they were then, and are now, in China. Having Chinese parents, but being raised in the West, rendered Jan part of both worlds. She experienced the Cultural Revolution and post-Mao China as both an insider and a "foreigner," resulting in a perspective on those periods that only a few can claim, and fewer still have written about.
   
   The first part of the book tells the story of the author's Beijing University days. In 1972, armed with only the vocabulary she had acquired in Mandarin 101, Wong left the comfort and security of her Montreal life to spend a summer in China. Inspired by what she observed in Red China, she found it a natural progression to move from worrying about feminist issues to supporting Maoism. So she petitioned and won permission to stay in the country to study at Beijing University for the next two years. Anti-establishmentarianism was "in," and "China was radical-chic" at the time, she explains. Western youth looked to the East for answers and antidotes to racism, "exploitation" of the masses, and materialism. Becoming a journalist seemed like the perfect job for a young woman seeking to change the world, so she decided to remain in China to learn Mandarin, Chinese history, and Maoism. Her goal was to bring knowledge of all that she thought China was doing well to the West.
   
   As a starry-eyed young Maoist, Wong did not realize how miserable people really were. Instead, when she discovered that she and the other foreign students were being given better rooms and special food privileges, they protested until they were allowed to eat the miserable starvation-level rations given to the rest of the students in their dingy canteen. Then she and her foreign friend petitioned to join their Chinese classmates in undertaking the required physical labor projects they had been exempted from. She was finally allowed to dug ditches, haul bricks, and harvest crops with everyone else.
   
   The author's first clue that Communist China might not be the paradise she had dreamed of came when the school asked her to end her friendship with a young Swedish man or be expelled. The school actually played a distressing mind game with her over this issue. From this experience she learned that in China people were not only unable to do what they wanted, but they were also not free to think what they wanted.
   
   Yet, Wong remains zealous in her attempts to prove that she is a good Maoist. In fact, Part One of the book culminates in her informing on two students who asked for her help to leave China for the US. At the time Wong thought she was doing the right thing by turning them in, but now she regrets her decision and feels great remorse for the terrible fate that probably befell these people after that.
   
   In Part Two, Wong returns to Montreal to complete her McGill University degree. Still supportive of Red China, she lectures locally in an effort to muster public support for the country and its political agenda. After graduating in 1974, Wong won a Canadian government scholarship to study at Beijing University, and off she went for more of the same. In addition to learning more about her school experiences and deepening understanding of what was happening on a personal and political level, the author meets and marries Norman Shulman---an American. After her studies end, she takes a job as a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. She finds that her Chinese appearance and fluency with the language give her a unique ability to get the local people to open up to her, when other reporters are unable to get interviews or comments.
   
   Wong reaches a turning point when Madame Mao and the rest of the Gang of Four are arrested. As she watches people rejoice in the streets, it dawns on her that the people hadn't believed in the Cultural Revolution for a long time. She feels betrayed and foolish because of her blind faith.
   
   Wong left China in 1980 to pursue a journalism degree at Columbia University, and then worked at various prestigious publications in the US and Canada for seven years. But in 1988, she was too curious to know what was really happening in China, so she asked her employer, the Toronto Globe, to transfer her. The third section of the book thus covers the late 1980s and early 1990s. The highlight of her career was covering the Tiananmen Square protests, the resulting massacre, and resulting fall out. This event served as the catalyst for shattering the last of Wong's illusions about communism in China. She declares herself no longer naïve and believes that she finally has a clear view of the "real" China.
   
   The last portion of the book presents some of Wong's most interesting interviews and perspectives on life in China, centering on human rights issues and social problems like how to uncover how many people really died in the Tiananmen Square massacre, poverty, the effects of the economic boom, retardation, drugs, prisoners, kidnapping women as brides, and the new robber barons of China.
   
   Wong left China in 1993 with no regrets. She concluded that without having spent 12 years living in and observing Red China, she would not have realized that what she was striving for all along was the socialist life style she enjoyed in Canada.
   
   Filled with interesting stories and well told, this book is a must read addition to your "good books about China" collection. As more and more people with Chinese roots return to this country, hopefully more voices like Wang's will emerge to give us perspective on what's happened between 1993 and the present, picking up where she has left off.



2. This is a beautiful book to read. It's well written and you can hardly put it down. Jan Wong let's us be witnesses of her life choices and their consecuences. It's interesting how and why she decides to go and live in communist China, how she strugles to get adjusted to that kind of political system and way of life. She then turns into a great journalist and let's us see some unknown aspects of modern China. It's a good book to learn more about China's history. I enjoyed it a lot!



3. If you want to understand China, you will need to read a considerable range of titles in order to see the country, its history, people, culture and so on from numerous and unique angles. Jan Wong's RED CHINA BLUES offers a very unique angle. Jan was born in Montreal. Her father owned a popular restaurant in that city and by the time he was thirty, he had made his first million. Jan herself, apparently suffering from an identity crisis, became disenchanted with Canada/Western culture and decided to head to China to find herself and her roots - during the height of Maoism.
   
   Young and impossibly niave, Wong hurtled herself into the Chinese world. She learned the language, demanded not to be given preferential treatment, shoveled manure on a pig farm/re-education camp, and worked in a machine factory. Ever so slowly, her idealism faded, but, as other critics have noted, this took a very long time. At one point, for example, she mentioned how at the machine factory the workers spent half their time going to political meetings as opposed to producing. One of the primary tenets or aims of Marxism (to which Wong subscribed) is to creat a "superabundance" so as to achieve economic surplus over material necessity. Only then will art, politics, philosophy, etc. be able to reach fruition. When factory workers ask Wong about conditions and money re a similar job in the West, she is reluctant to tell them. But such isolated inconsistencies didn't dampen her idealistic fervor; not for something like six years anyway. Wong returned to China in 1988, and from here the book really gears down. Because she looks and can speak Chinese, she is able to to go places and do things that real outsiders never could. Her visit to a labor camp is interesting and her first hand account of "the Tianmen Incident," (people being shot right outside her window) is, as you might imagine, chilling. This was either the first or second China book I read, and it made a lasting impression. I highly recommend it.
   
   Troy Parfitt, author



4. Red China Blues is the story of a woman who, in her youth, idealizes communism. This idealization is partly a lack of understanding about how communism in China really worked, and partly rebellion against her own Canadian culture.
   
   As she goes to China and slowly comes to understand the horror of China under Mao, we too see and understand both the regime itself and the ways in which the people dealt with their lot. She wants so much to believe in the dream-China she's created in her head that it's painful and difficult for her to see reality. This is a sin most humans commit at some point in their lives, and many readers will wince as they're reminded of their own delusional moments.
   
   Ms. Wong does not attempt to censor any of her own sins. From simple arrogance to participation in active thought control, she tells us everything she did and leaves it to us to decide what to think of her. The same is true of the people around her: she honestly talks about the good and bad in all the people she describes to us. This lends a wonderful humanizing touch to the book and turns it from the story of a regime into a story about people *in* the regime, living as best they can. You will not be able to forgive some of them, while others will move you. Mostly, Ms. Wong leaves you to decide for yourself which people fall into which category.
   
   In other words, this is a book that lays out facts and lets you decide your opinion for yourself. She gives you the facts, tells you her opinion, and leaves the rest to you. For a clear, honest look at China's people under Mao and after his death, read this one.



5. Jan Wong,a Canadian journalist of Chinese ancestry, in this illuminating volume writes of her experiences as an ardent young Maoist in the early 1970's who actually went to China to work and study.
   She hauled pig manure in a Chinese re-education farm, and at Beijing University she turned in a fellow student who had begged her help to escape to the West.
   Slowly she realized the evil of the Communist system in China and was repatriated to the West in 1978.
   Wong returned years later as an undercover journalist to China where she covered the Tianmen Square Massacre, in which three thousand pro-democracy students were mowed down in cold blood by Red China's army, on the orders of dictator, Jian Zemin.
   She also covered China's contradictory development into a capitalist state under a Communist dictatorship, or a Communist dictatorship with a capitalist economy...akin to Fascism!
   She covers the Tianmen Square Massacre of 1989, letting the the reader know of some of the lesser known details, and how the Communist army opened fire on the students after they began leaving the square:
   "A [...]girl was killed and they just brought her body back...After the third barrage I counted more than twenty bodies. One cyclist was shot in the back right below our balcony. There were two big puddles of blood on the Avenue of Eternal Peace. People carried the body of a little girl towards the back of the hotel. After twenty three more minutes, a few people gathred up enough courage to aproach the wounded. The soldiers let loose another blast, sending the would be rescuers scurrying for cover. The crowd was enraged. I grimly kept track of the time. An hour later, the wounded were still on the ground, bleeding to death.
   She speaks of the great poverty of the new Red China, with inequalities far greater than anything in the liberal democracies of the world, and crushing poverty in the rural provinces. Despite economic changes, China remains a brutal dictatorship, with no political liberalization or democratization having been allowed by the iron grip of the Communist Party.
   Peeople are still opresed in day-to-day life. People are not allowed to own dogs, and to deal with a fad of people acquiring dogs as pets in the early 1990s, special police squads swept through the neigbourhoods, strangling dogs with steel wire looped at the end of metal poles.
   The author recounts some regret at buying into the Communist lie, with the realization that "The Western world, especially Canada, is far more socialistic than China has ever been, with it's free public education, universal medicare, unemployment insurance, and government funding for television ads against domestic violence. China has made me appreciate my own country, with it's tiny ethnically diverse population of unassuming donut-eaters. I had gone all the way to China to find an idealistic revolutionary society, when I already had it right to home."
   She ends of on a positive note, predicting, in 1997, a great change in China , and the death of the Communist Party, and real democracy.
   Ten years later, this is not close to being realized, with a tightening of political control by the Communist dictatorship having taken place.
   Despite being one of the most brutal dictatorships on this planet, China has gained international acceptibility, without improving democracy or human rights!
   Nobody bats an eyelid at the Olympic Games for 2008 being set in Beijing.
   The worst abuses of the Communist regime has it's apologists in the WEst.
   The Stalinist Workers World Party in North America, (which has praised Stalinism in the Soviet Union, and applauded suicide bombings against Jewish women and chidren in Israel) congratulated the Chinese regime after the Tianmen Square Massacre, for having 'won a battle against imperialist and counter-revolutionary forces."
   The fact that such sentiments can be uttered makes one wonder how far the world has actually come.

5 comments about The Woman Who Watches Over the World: A Native Memoir.

1. As a white 48 year old women I now realize how ignorant I have been to indigenous peoples of America. It left me yearning for more knowledge. This book expanded my mind. It is well written and easy to understand. Very straight forward.



2. I read this book in a class about violence in society. it really brought home the nessesity for violence but a productive way to turn it into a positive thing in your life and still have good energy surround you. this book especially hit home with me because i have experience with foster children that can't bond. it really helped me to understand how to deal with that. Plus Linda Hogan Rocks!!



3. Life is a journey form fragments to wholeness. Hogan's memoir tries to reveal her steps and processes of having harmony in her life. She divides her memoir into eleven sections with various topics to express her different experience of life. Each part of her personal experience is the part of life journey, though in the journey, no absolutely direction is shown to tell her when to go or what to do. In "Geography: An Introduction," Hogan says there is no maps of direction in life, even she wish to direct her life to others by saying "This way," (14) but she couldn't. From receiving the broken pieces of the clay woman named "The Woman Who Watches over the World" that she bought in the museum, Hogan starts to illustrate her journey of broken past in "Water: A Love Story," which narratives how she falls in love with a sergeant army in German, and how she decides to come back to America by through the sea. Then she says "through our time life-times it is water that sustains us, water that is the human substance, the matter of cells"(31). In her years of falling, Hogan concludes "falling isn't always bad. Sometimes it is better into world" (66). As the topics go, readers seem to have steps to penetrate Hogan's inner floating. From piecing the following topics together, including "Silence is My Mother," "Fire," "Dreams and Visions: The Given-Off Light," "Span: Of Time and Stone,¡¨ ¡§Mystery,¡¨ ¡§Bones, and Other Precious Gem,¡¨ and ¡§Phantom Worlds,¡¨ we gradually finish the journey made by Hogan's personal events by the topic steps she gave us. Reading Hogan's memoir is like playing jigsaw puzzle, which is the game from fragments to wholeness. The process of the play jigsaw puzzle is like the process of facing many events in journey life. As she describes herself from the broken past to the harmony in the living world, Hogan's memoir also reveals the situation of Native American today. Therefore, it is not only a memoir of self, but a reflection of her tribes.



4. Hogan¡¦s memoir is a book not only ¡§about love¡¨ (16), but about ¡§healing, history, and survival¡¨ (16). In this memoir of eleven chapters, the idea of history dominates the whole work in which Hogan retrieves not only her personal history but the communal history. The ¡§space-time¡¨ relationship becomes a unifying force for each chapter to construct a unified whole and present a ¡§a geography of the human spirit, common to all peoples¡¨ (16). For Hogan as a Native American, history, no matter personal or tribal one, is present in geography, no matter a spiritual or spatial one. First of all, Hogan tries to relate her ¡§self-telling¡¨ to the young people on reservations and thus connect her personal history with the history of the continent since ¡§I can lay a human history out before me and hold a light to it, and in that light is the history of a continent¡¨ (14). She then identifies herself and the world with the clay woman, ¡§the Woman who Watch Over the World¡¨ since she, the clay woman and the world/land are all broken. And the historical traumas are revealed and shown in human bodies and the land in itself. Thus, by retrieving the history of her physical pain, emotional suffering, and early inarticulateness inherited from her mothers, she presents us a suffering history of her tribe in this continent. By exploring both the personal and tribal history, she displays a map/path for herself and the young tribal men to pursue after her. It is then a map/path of healing. By healing, she means the power of words and the cure of nature. She offers a history of three generations of women in her family, herself, her mother and her two adopted daughters, who, because ¡§the destruction of the body and land have coincided in history¡¨ (62~63), have been or are, in a way or other, voiceless of their emotional, physical, or spiritual sufferings. Thus, the power of storytelling/words is significant for her to deal with her personal problems and recognition of self-identity in the tribal community. Moreover, after years of experiences with pain, she finds her cure relies on ¡§earth, water, light and air¡¨ (16). Its significance can be seen when several elements in nature are used to entitle six out of the eleven chapters. Finally, what unifies all these treads presented in the memoir into a spider web, separate but of the same direction, is the power of tribal survival through which personal survival is also attained. It is only because of a quest into her haunted past and tribal hardships can she find a power to refresh her spirit and a meaning for her life. Thus, with the presentation of both traumatic histories and ways of healings, she positions herself and establishes her subjectivity in a tribal world that, in turn, survives in face of possible genocide. And it is this urgency of survival, no matter personal or tribal, that makes the memoir and the Naitve American literature extraordinary to the Euroamerican literature.



5. As the title implies, this momoire arises form Linda Hogan her own perspective to tell the history of her tribe, her family and her own self. It is indeed a very impressive work for me. Many details and many depictions attract me very much, and I am going to illustrate some of them that impress me most.
   Drunken is a very serious problem for Hogan¡¦s family and relatives. By the description, we gradually realize that to drink is a way to elude from the painful history. ¡§I was drunk, not an alcoholic,¡¨ their reason is that ¡§the drunk wants to lose the memory of every day.¡¨ ¡§It was an escape from the pain of an American history.¡¨ For them, so many memories are unacceptable and the solution they can do is to escape from it. The Indians are the Natives of the States. But the invaders occupied most of their land and even made law to restrain the Indian territory. It is very ridiculous event.
   One thing that shocks me very much is about ¡§the Sand Creek Masacre.¡¨ It is a very painful thing for the Native people, but the Whites choose to make fun of the deathes. It reveals all the horrible history. Besides the history of the Native and the tribes, Hogan also explores herself and confesses herself to the readers. I believe this book is absolutely a good one to read and you will get more by your own reading.

5 comments about Fatal : The Poisonous Life of a Female Serial Killer.

1. This ranks among Professor Schechter's best books. Though less gory than his books on Fish and Gein, it is just as terrifying. He brings his sterling insight to bear on the psychological workings of the mind of a female serial killer, and shatters the myth that such creatures are less depraved and evil than their male counterparts. As is often the case, he is willing to feel a certain degree of sympathy for the killer in relation to the environmental and/or congenital forces that contributed to her psychopathy, while remaining careful to never exculpate the killer of her crimes (he remains neutral as to whether insanity is an exculpating factor) or mitigate the degree of evil and pain caused to the victims. Schechtermakes it clear he views Jane Toppan as a monster driven by depraved urges and longings.
   
   His usual approach towards describing his subject via historical and cultural context as well as a meticulously researched recreation of the killer's career is adhered to fully. You will learn about the appallingly meagre salaries available to most women in the 19th century; the brutally draining workload experienced by most nurses, within both institutions and private homes; the terrible state of medical care available to the public; and the shocking fact that substances such as arsenic were not only sold over-the-counter in huge amounts for household purposes (killing rats, etc.), but appeared as well within patent compounds that claimed to have salubrious cosmetic benefits (young women ingested a beauty compound made with arsenic that promised to remove blackheads, pimples, and all other such facial blemishes).
   
   Everyone has their favorite Schechter books. I cannot guarantee that this will rank with your own personal favorites, but I think I can assume with a fair degree of confidence that, if you have enjoyed other books by the author, you will enjoy this one. The intelligent formula for success you associate with Deranged and Deviant and Bestial, et. al., can be found intact in Fatal.



2. Harold Schechter brings to our attention the fact that there are more female serial killers in history than we actually suspect. In this case, Jane Toppan is revealed to the world in what would otherwise have been nothing more than a footnote in New England history. Schechter presents the history of this murderous poisoner who used morphine and atropine to extinguish upwards of three dozen people, many of the latter were 'dear friends' of hers. She is finally caught and avoids prison on an insanity charge where she spends the next 30+ years of her life. After reading this morbid story, I'm not so sure she was insane by our terms today as much as just off-kilter. I think she truly went insane once her freedom was taken away and her paranoia at being poisoned herself by the asylum staff drove her to quit eating. Schechter shows us the transgressions of Nurse Toppan and how she got away with it for so long. It's truly an interesting story but there were two or three parts where Schechter goes off on a sidenote (history of the asylum for one) where I lost some focus. Otherwise, it's another true crime story that we never would have known about and Schechter does another great job of weaving the events into something nearly unbelievable.



3. After an informative introduction, Schechter sets the mood for Jane Toppan by briefly covering serial murderesses Lydia Sherman and Sarah Jane Robinson, two predecessors to Toppan with affiliations for arsenic. Then along came Jane Toppan with her morphia and atropia cocktails.
   
   Born into the world as Honora Kelley, Jane was indentured to, and adopted by, Mrs. Ann C. Toppan and thus became Jane Toppan. Jane resented growing up as a servant to her family, and especially resented her sister Elizabeth, who would later fall victim to Jane's careful ministrations.
   
   Jane took nursing school, a rigorous training in its day, but never graduated with a certificate before taking herself out of hospital care and into family home care, where her poisonous ways became more noticeable. Still, it was years before Jane was ever suspected and brought to trial, leaving a wake of corpses behind her.
   
   'Fatal' is very well written, although drawn out at times. The prose enchants you back to the era of the murders, specifically pointing out many differences in both medical and courtroom procedures between 1901 and our modern day world. Schechter rounds out the case with Jane's life as a child and the unsavory circumstances of her childhood, to her early years, on through her active killing spree and ending with court proceedings and what happened to Jane afterward. There's a lot of detail on Jane's life, and while there is no bibliography there's an Acknowledgements section that lists Schechter's resources. If you like true crime, you'll like this unique account of one of the first female serial killers ever documented. Enjoy!



4. I'm a psychologist by training. Schechter is the first person I know of to explain a female serial killer's experience during the act of murder. I wanted to gag! Then I spoke to a few female associates, who confirmed what Schechter revealed. OMG! I had no idea women have the capacity to be so....reptilian. 'Reptilian' may be flattering, now that I think about it.
   
   The book features other female serial killers besides Jane Toppan. Theyre bad enough, but Jane is the arch-snake.
   
   The subject is fascinating, the writing is excellent, and it's a wake-up call about the fair sex. Be afraid. be very afraid!



5. "Fatal" tells the story of Jane Toppan, a psychopathic nurse living in the 1890's. Her childhood was a difficult one, and though little is really known about it, what the author tells is points to one filled with abuse and turmoil. At a young age, she was put in an orphange and "adopted" by the Toppan family. Her part in the family was that of a servant, though it seems that the Toppans treated her well.
   
   After she became a nurse, she began poisoning some of her patients as they lay in their hospital beds, with a mixture of morphine and atropine. She did this for pleasure, because she enjoyed it. She murdered her family members and friends, preferring people she knew over strangers. This went on for decades before the police finally caught on. Some estimate the number of people she killed being close to 100.
   
   The author does a good job telling the story. It's amazing that more people haven't heard of her - this was the first time for me. There were some parts that were a little too gory for my taste, and I feel that the author occasionally pontificates. Of course, it's not enough to stop me from reading another one of his books. Those who enjoy true crime and history should enjoy this.

5 comments about Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses.

1. This is one of my favorite biographies about Saint Joan of Arc because it relies so heavily upon the actual quotes of Saint Joan and her contemporaries. Instead of writing a traditional narrative, Régine Pernoud cleverly uses Joan's own words or those of the people around her to give us her history. Tracing Joan's life from beginning to end, Pernoud relies on Joan's quotes as much as she can. She does add just enough narrative to keep the biography coherent but by using Joan's own words, we are able to get a sense of what her personality was like. As the title proclaims, this biography is really written by Saint Joan and her witnesses.



2. This book rocks. The author, Regine Pernoud intertwines the dialog of Joan's condemnation trial with parts of the rehabilitation trial, and offers background and discussion of the events as they happen, from the people who lived during that time, beginning from Joan's childhood until even after the rehabilitation trial. At the end of each chapter, Pernoud gives a commentary that takes certain questions about unclear aspects of Joan's life and discusses them by giving textual evidence and reasoning through them. The result is a very comprehensive, non-fiction biography of Joan that states only the facts, and any speculation is based on facts as well.
   
   I think the way Pernoud arranged the book works very well, as I couldn't put the book down. I was amazed by this because I pretty much dislike most non-fiction books. This one is so comprehensive yet incredibly interesting as well. Even though it is non-fiction, you can tell the author was very passionate about what she was writing. As a result, the reader becomes excited as well. Anybody wants to learn about the true facts of Joan's life and the time she lived in should read this book. It'll definitely make you admire her even more.



3. Regine Pernoud is an expert on Joan of Arc, and makes you feel almost like YOU know her too. I laughed. I cried. The telling of the story from Joan's own words and the testimony of those who knew her puts this book on the top of my list.

   I liked it better than Pernoud's book, "Joan of Arc: Her Story," but it's not quite as comprehensive. Both are excellent books, but I rate this title a little higher.

   If you really want to feel like you walked with Joan, read Mark Twain's fictional diary, "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc," told from the point of view of her childhood friend-later-scribe. One of the greatest reads of my life! A Book that really changed my perspective on a lot of things.




4. Joan of Arc was a book about a series of wars between France and England over the feud for the Crown of France. Saved by a women warrior the crown was awarded to it's proper owner, but then the military and nobility backstabbed her and accused her of being a witch. I thought the book was really interesting because of all the action and discrimination against women.



5. Joan of Arc was a book about a series of wars between France and England over the feud for the Crown of France. Saved by a women warrior the crown was awarded to it's proper owner, but then the military and nobility backstabbed her and accused her of being a witch. I thought the book was really interesting because of all the action and discrimination against women.

5 comments about Grace Kelly: A Life in Pictures.

1. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed in the size of this addition to the "Life in Pictures" series (my own fault for not reading the dimensions before buying). The other "Life in Pictures" books I have purchased have been large, oversized productions that bring to life the lives of their subjects by way of extravagantly sized photos with captions in a comfortable font. The print in this book is literally 1/16th of an inch tall. Also, it is very oddly arranged. The photos skip around the Princess' life in a haphazard manner. The arrangement made no sense to me, and I would have preferred a chronological order.
   
   That said, the scope of the photos is expansive in its inclusion of many private photos of the Princess and her family, as well as gorgeous portraits, unposed snapshots, and film stills. As a result of this book, I feel as though I know Princess Grace more intimately than ever before. The biographical section at the beginning of the book is a good overview of many of the important events of her life, and there are many quotes included, both by Princess Grace and about her. But the main story here is the pictures, which encompass so many of the moments, both private and public, of her life.
   
   Overall, this comprehensive collection is a wonderful look at the life of Princess Grace. Although it is a bit small in size for a book primarily telling a story through pictures, I believe most will be satisfied with the scope of the photos included.



2. This is one of my favorite books. A must have for all Grace Kelly fans. The pictures are beautiful and it tells the story of Grace and Rainer. This is ONE GREAT BOOK!



3. My wife is a Grace Kelly fan. I tend to buy her any book I come across about Princess Grace. I feel that this is a good book to add to a collection of Princess Grace books but it is not the definitive book on Grace Kelly.
   
   This book is authorized by the Grimaldi family and as compared to other books it has the feel of prior restraint. The closeness with the family gives us pictures cannot be found in other books; however the text adds nothing to the life of the Princess. It feels that the authors had censored themselves. I was not looking for a tabloid account but perhaps a more realistic account would have been better.
   
   A lot has been said about inaccurate facts, typographical errors, and editorial gaffes. I still believe despite all of its shortcomings that this is a book worth buying.



4. Best image selection, best layout, moving foreword by Prince Albert.



5. This is a beautiful book. It begins with a brief (and fairly shallow) biography. The majority of the book features over 180 photographs from Grace Kelly's life, from infancy through to her funeral, in both colour and black and white, interspersed with quotations by or about Grace. The reproduction and layout of the photographs and the quality of the paper stock are both high and the result is a lovely coffee table book. Most of the photos are stunning and many are ones that I have not seen before.
   
   Having said that, my impression was that the book had been compiled hastily and without care. Some quibbles:
   - Some dates are incorrect. For example there is a photograph of
   Princess Grace meeting John F Kennedy dated May 24, 1964 - which seems unlikely given that it was 6 months after his assassination! Elsewhere there are two photographs of the same event (Grace's arrival in Monaco for her wedding) one of which is dated April 12 1956 and the other April 14 1956.
   - The photographs are not always displayed in chronological order. For example, midway through a number of photos from the height of her film career in the mid-fifties comes a shot of Her Serene Highness attending a party in 1977. I found this annoying and detrimental to the idea that we were following the span of her life - especially as the majority ARE chronologically arranged.
   - While most of the photos are gorgeous, some appeared to have been chosen simply because they were previously unseen rather than because of any photographic merit - photographs that were out of focus or badly composed. Others were colour photographs reproduced in black and white, probably to sit better alongside other black and white images, but I would have preferred to see them as originally taken.
   
   This is still a lovely book and would be a great gift for a Grace Kelly fan. It is just a shame that more care was not put into its compilation and it is for this reason that I give it only 3 stars.

5 comments about Marathon Woman: Running the Race to Revolutionize Women's Sports.

1. Wow, I loved this book. I remember reading an excerpt from it somewhere online several months ago and I was so engrossed in it that I finally had to buy the book recently. And I was not disappointed - the entire book was incredibly easy and engaging to read. The only minor exception was that the last third of the book kind of got away from what made the book so interesting the first 2/3, but overall I would still give the book five stars without a thought. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed reading a book as much as I did this one.



2. the only few words i can use to describe this book is that it was a truly....inspirational and fantastic read. great book, i was so engrossed in it that i finished it in two days. runners and non runners alike can enjoy it. running for women has come a long way. i have read it once and will read it again. go ahead people buy it....you will never regret having this book in your collection.



3. As a woman born in 1980, I really had never grasped the concept of what the generation before my birth had done. I never really understood what the world believed about the abilities of women. Katherine Switzer's story is powerful and amazing. I'm so glad I could grow up believing that I could do anything. The book is well written and powerful.



4. This was hands down one of the most inspiring running books I've ever read. Kathrine's foresight into the sport of running amazes me - we can thank her not only for bringing the women's marathon to the 1984 Olympic games but also for today's modern marathon "comforts" that didn't exist when she first hit the streets of Boston.
   I read this while training for a marathon and her story kept me going during those long and painful runs. This book is a must-read for any runner, male or female.



5. If ever there was a real-life Wonder Woman, it's Kathrine Switzer...whose brave pursuit and promotion of running events have benefitted countless millions who want to similarly express their joy for the sport. This fun-to-read, fascinating autobiography beautifully communicates the voice of its author: enthusiastic, funny, passionate. It's a must-read for marathoners and entertaining for anyone else who's ever shared in the excitement of witnessing and/or participating in a sporting event.

5 comments about Having Faith.

1. This is a wonderful book for any woman pregnant for the first time - with firsthand experiences I can relate to, and scientific data that I might not otherwise seek out. I'm really enjoying reading about each month as I approach it.



2. Sandra Steingraber is a scientist and writer whose early cancer has led her to explore the possible environmental causes of cancer and teratogens in our chemically laced environment. In this book, she talks about her own pregnancy and what happens to the developing life within in a very thorough, and beautiful, way.



3. This book starts out as very scientific and a bit dull, but picks up and keeps you reading. I admire the author for doing so much detailed research and yet being very happy and optimistic towards her own childbearing. An inspirational and eye-opening book that I would recommend to all my friends, especially young women.



4. This book is FASCINATING. If you pick it up you won't put it down. Everyone should read this book, but especially those considering having children. (I do not recommend this book to pregnant women, it could be very upsetting)
   
   The book is beautifully written, personal, scientific, and life changing. I particularly appreciate the author's perspective that the onis to protect children from toxic chemicals that cause birth defects should be societal, not personal. It is insane that we have accepted that due to mercury pollution as a result of coal burning women and children should have to stop eating nutritious fish.



5. I loved this story, both as a scientific narrative and a touching personal story. I'm thinking about pregnancy, and this book awakened me to many of the dangers of toxins in the environment I hadn't even contemplated before. I'm so glad that Steingraber told the full story of fish in the diets of pregnant women, for example: that a food with such healthy fats and potential for fetal brain development has instead been rendered toxic by not just mercury pollution, but POPs like DDT as well. And anyone who wants to breastfeed should be aware of how toxins are magnified not just over the course of fetal development, but within the content of mother's milk as well. Steingraber seeks to educate us not to make us take action indiviually, but collectively: healthy food and a healthy environment should be the right of every pregnant woman, mother, father and child. It should be ours for the taking, because we adults deserve the right to have children, and those children deserve the healthiest world possible, starting in the microcosm of the womb. As an adopted child, a pregnant woman, a nursing mother and a biologist, Steingraber tells every woman's story of conception and birth to inspire all humans with a vision of taking action to create a healthier world. It's a lovely telling that everyone - not just mothers-to-be - should read.

5 comments about Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall.

1. The author, a direct descendant of Samuel Sewall, provides a much-needed full assessment of the life of her notorious ancestor. The most important fact in this book is provided in the frontispiece illustration--a portrait of Sewell's apology before his congregation for his role in the witch trials and executions, known by few, if any, readers outside Massachusetts' students of history. Sewell was the only judge to apologize for his role in this horrific episode in American history.
   More fascinating, though, are the other extraordinary acts of repentance enacted by the judge over his long life. And his writings are nothing less than astounding--including examinations of experiences of various groups and even a piece on women - making him an equalitarian of the first order centuries ahead of his time. At the least, official historical accounts of what happened at Salem need to include information about Sewall's apology and repentance.



2. Author Eve LaPlante, who is a descendant of witchcraft judge Samuel Sewall, covers her subject well in this book. Life was difficult in Puritan New England with death being a common visitor to families with many children lucky to live beyond the age of five. Puritans came to America for land and religious freedom, but were not accepting to those whose beliefs differed from their own. People often questioned their salvation and figured that hard times such as diseases and death among family members was due to having angered God in some way. Prayer was the most accepted method of dealing with a sick individual. A vaccination for smallpox was viewed by many as unacceptable. Surprisingly enough, Cotton Mather was open to the idea. Women certainly took a back seat in Puritan New England with their job being the bearing of children. Puritans even questioned whether or not women would be in God's heavenly kingdom. Approximately half of the book deals with the witchcraft craze of 1692, a belief they brought over from Europe. The question of whether or not the girls believed they were afflicted will never be settled. If they did it to spice up their otherwise humdrum lives they could be charged with murder. Judge Samuel Sewall had the courage to own up to his mistake while the other judges did not. Author Nathaniel Hawthorne added a "w" to his last name to disassociate himself from his ancestor John Hathorne who was an unrepentant judge at the trials. It seems difficult to believe that judges could convict people based on spectral evidence whereby you could prove where you were at a certain time, but you couldn't prove where your "shape" was. The final section of the book relates the latter part of Judge Samuel Sewall's life and others who were influential during this time period. The author also provides us with directions to visit sites mentioned in the book. I have done previous reading on this subject during my college days, and this is one of the best sources I have come across.



3. The note I wrote on the inside page of this book reads as follows:"Absolutely fascinating!" How come? Because Ms. LaPlante presents us with a character who lived as a giant in his own time. But more, she offers a clear picture of the potent religious world view and powerful lens of faith through which citizens of Puritan New England perceived the world and their place in it. The reader will find this approach not only interesting but, as the author describes Sewall's engagement with life and with his God, both existentially and theologcally terrifying. The witch trials arise from the nexus of life's uncertainty in 17th century Massachusetts and a fierce and unpredictable God through whom the likes of Samuel Sewall try to discern the "realities" of good and evil. He,his neighbors and colleagues can discern wrongly . . . as Sewall himself confessed some five years after the trials he oversaw as judge.
   But enough of this. Ms LaPlante mines Sewall's diaries and public writings for - yes - romance! In addition, she finds him a humane and civil defender of Native Americans amid local, social contempt.Sewall wrote the first Anti-slavery tract in North America, a touching and compassionate piece. He testified from a vivid Biblical perspective in behalf of gender equality when such thinking brought widespread disdain. His personal and public presence as described by the author represent a monumental figure in early American history. You will find the book clearly written and every effort made to explain to ignorant moderns 17th century language and cultural nuances. The title tags Sewall as "Witch Judge." OK. But really, so much more. Indeed, absolutely fascinating!



4. This fascinating account of an early American leader's
   public and private life is the story of a good man who
   was guilty of a terrible mistake. Seeing he did wrong,
   Samuel Sewall had the courage to say so, and repent.
   Eve LaPlante paints a vivid portrait of life in early
   New England, especially the world of the educated
   elite. Religion and the Bible were the dominant
   intellectual features of a world ruled by fears and
   disagreements only too comprehensible to us now.
   Sewall and his peers worried about foreign relations
   and governmental debt, and lived in constant fear of
   attacks by Indians, pirates, and the French. "Salem
   Witch Judge" offers an intriguing journey into a world
   as far away as colonial America, yet at the same time
   as close as the human heart.



5. Eve LaPlante's book on Samuel Sewell, one of the judges in the Salem Witch Trials (and her distant ancestor) is extraordinarily well researched, and her prose is easy to follow. Those not intimately familiar with the history of the time will appreciate her care in explaining details that many have now forgotten.
   
   Ms. LaPlante's style is worthy of comparison to Claire Tomalin's (the author of the great biography of Sewell's contemporary, Samuel Pepys). She well explains the beliefs and folkways of the times, i.e., Massachusetts in the last half of the 17th century. She reminds us of the extraordinary "dangers, toils and snares" (to quote a later hymn) that the New England colonies had gone through after the first, pleasant, and peaceful foundation of the colonies at Boston and Plymouth, exacerbated by the sudden war with France that followed the accession of William and Mary in 1688. All these people could do was to ascribe to witchcraft the disasters that in reality were the inevitable result of our ancestor's struggle to make their homes in a world that had finally become hostile to them.
   
   Remarkably, Sewell was semi-ostracized by his pastor, who came to feel the witch trials were unjust, and in response, he made a public confession of the sinfulness of his Court's proceedings -- the only judge to do so.
   
   The book should be read along with the great book about the era, "Manitou and Providence", with the sermons of Cotton Mather and his father, Increase (some of them, at least) and of course with Arthur Miller's play, "The Crucible", which takes some license with historical fact, in the service of a very good story.

5 comments about Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol.

1. This book is an excellent review and account of this great woman's life. Although it is rather disjointed in areas--there is a basic sense of the many challenges that Ms. Truth encountered. I found that it gave me a basic sense of her sojourn and it helped fill in the gaps left with other books. It was the basic information for an academic presentation I needed to prepare for one of my doctoral courses.



2. For some reason, most Americans know, or think they know, quite a bit about the Civil War. But somehow the decades before the great drama of the 1860's are little known to most of us. It's almost as if everything between the Revolutionary War and the American Civil War happened under a cloud or in some shadowed universe that sends out very few signals to modern Americans. In reality, the country went through a time of near-chaos as competing political and religious movements battled for the minds and hearts of the American public.
   
   Sojourner Truth, the subject of this biography, experienced a good bit of this social ferment, and the story of her life gives readers a good opportunity to get a grip on this very strange and fascinating period. The author starts with the odd fact that the name and face of Sojourner Truth became very well-known, yet the real story of her life was obscured by her status as a symbol of the Abolitionist movement. The real woman led a surpringly adventurous life, and she did it in the context of a society that supposedly kept slaves, women and rural poor people firmly in their pre-ordained place. The story of how a courageous girl named Katherine, born in slavery and poverty on a Dutch farm in rural New York state, became the free woman and independent thinker called Sojourner Truth, is worth reading for its own sake. But the book also sheds light on the wild side of American religious and intellectual life during her lifetime. While reading this book, I felt like I was really getting two books in one-I highly recommend this book!!



3. Painter's biography is excellent. She puts Truth in perspective with the challenges of her time. She sheds light on complicated relationships with noteable Abolishionists and with her own children. This book clearly presents the difficult life of one incredible woman who struggles to do her part to free all slaves, gain respect as a woman and be accepted as a human being.



4. I THINK THIS BOOK IS VERY EDUCATIONAL. I REALLY ENJOYED READING IT. I LEARNED A LOT ABOUT TRUTH. PAINTER WAS A WONDERFUL WRITER. SHE DESCRIBED EVERYTHING TO THE MAX.



5. When I read a book, I want to get a lot out of it, as I enjoy the reading of it. On the second point: this book is engagingly written. The author questions her own motives and information as she constructs a biography of a difficult life to document. We see Painter confront the challenges of performing biography. I found it a compelling literary device. On the first point, the book mixes biography with history and feminist criticism. This interdisciplinary focus produces a highly inviting book. Among other topics, we find out about the details of slavery in the North, 19th century religious cults, and the ways in which feminists and abolitionists of the time exploited Truth for their own gain, as well as how this appropriation of "Truth" continues to the present. On this point, we learn much about contemporary feminism and culture and its need for heroes-especially African American female heroes.

5 comments about Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller.

1. A very interesting and thoroughly researched book on Isak Dinesen a/k/a Karen Blixen. A must read for any "Out of Africa" fan. Lots of great photos too!



2. Ah, so I finally finished this biography last night. I had fallen in love with Out of Africa and Seven Gothic Tales, and in reading her biography, I had hoped to fall in love with Isak Dinesen, the Pellegrina. Sadly, I fell out of it.
   
   The fault is not in the biography. It's a fascinating life, and it was good to have the blanks filled in as far as her childhood, and what happened in Africa, the continent to which she spoke, and which spoke back to her. The popularity of her work, the American reaction to it, I found this all good reading. But you know, eventually, she turned into quite the old megalomaniac. Thurman shows us where it all came from. (spoilers ahead) Dinesen had always believed that she was special, and was infuriated by her family's insistence on equality, fairness and calm. She felt restrained by it. stifled, dismissed. She felt that the loss of her father was uniquely hers, that it mattered less in the lives of her siblings that their father killed himself. She wanted to somehow own or claim that.
   
   And sadly, the circumstances of her erotic life seem to have warped her terribly. She had syphilis, and had to live carefully and chastely even while madly in love (though therre is a question regarding this as far as her relationship with Finch-Hatten). I can see how this would do a woman in, I really can. She spoke of syphilis as both the price and the source of her gift, a horrible bargain with the devil that made her a genius at telling tales. But the cost was high, and the damage was deep.
   
   The warping took various ugly shapes as she aged. She tried to usurp her sisters and brothers in the eyes of their children, found her nieces and nephews disappointing in their love of their parents. She berated and belittled her most faithful secretary and companion, Clara. She asked for and received constant adoration from younger men, letting them bask in the glow of her admiration and incouragement in exchange for a strict kind of allegiance. She manipulated, bored, dominated, demanded, and through it all, she suffered the humilation of syphilis and aging. While young, she wanted to be the thinnest in the room. She died of anorexia, unable and unwilling to eat, addicted to amphetamine.
   
   That's what I get for reading a biography. I should have just stuck to her work, because, in truth, that's all any writer owes the reader; the work. And that aspect of this life, the story of her writing, is well-covered and interesting. I don't regret reading Thurman's biography, and I think it's extremely well-written and full of specific, interesting information and theories. I just feel personally disappointed in who Isak Dinesen turned out to be.



3. Isak Dinesen will always be remembered for her farm in Africa, although she had much more than that, not the least of which was a talent for writing and an appetite for life. Why dames like this are not admired by the feminists , I'll never know. She had it all: dough, looks, energy, courage. Doris Duke here in the States is a possible American version of this kind of gal; maybe Katherine Hepburn succeeded in creating the film persona of this sort of aristocratic "liberated" women, with family money backing her all the way. It's easy to be brash when you've got a sugar daddy who happens to be a Baron. Still, while many of her class were happy to do nothing with their lives in style, this one had the guts to make an extraordinary life. Thurman has written a thoroughly researched, beautifully edited appreciation of this woman. She tells the story well, but also provides a very convincing analysis of Dinesen's lifelong commitment to the art of fiction. A fascinating biography.



4. First captivated, despite the miscasting of Robert Redford, by the film "Out of Africa", I read on to find out who this woman was. I discovered she died the same year I was born, and lived through those marvellous decades that include WW1, the roaring 20's, the Depression, the boiling 60's and through to the 70's. What changes in the world she saw, and what stories she had to tell. I thought there was nothing left for me to learn about her; I've read her books & her letters, have visited her home in Rungstedlund, Denmark, watched documentaries about her, seen the films ("Babette's Feast", in addition to "Out of Africa", are based on her books). However, this biography is a revelation on every page. Minutely researched (obviously), Ms Thurman leads us through the details that explain why she did what she did, where she obtained her passion, and her compassion, and how she went from a sheltered Danish aristocratic life, to colonial Africa, and then to becoming a world-renowned author. Excellent read for all who love stories of the grand figures of the 20th century.



5. This is a thoroughly researched and beautifully written biography of the life of a great storyteller. Thurman in telling the story of Dinesen's life, also presents a miniature guide to her work. She does an excellent job of portraying the character of Dinesen, the complex aristocratic independent mind, the romantic nature, the connection with a fairytale world of storytelling, the great courage and determination in making herself into a story when all appeared lost in her life. Thurman tells of Dinesen's childhood , her special connection with her father , the division between two families one wealthy mercantile, and the other more wild and adventurous. Thurman tells the story of Dinesen's long African adventure, the story of her marriage and its sad ending in divorce, and too the story of Dinesen's great love , Denys Finch- Hatton. The story of that love that plays a central part in what is arguably Dinesen's most memorable book , " Out of Africa" is a story of the man as hunter, adventurer, coming home to be feasted and entertained by his lover- storyteller Dinesen. This story which too ends with Finch- Hatton's death in a plane crash is at the heart of the first part of Dinesen's life. The second part after the African adventure is when she returns home and begins to make that writing life which would make her world- famous. The second -half of the story sees Dinesen more and more playing the part she has created for herself , as storyteller and personnage. It too however has its great human interest, especially in her relation to her mother ,her brother and her extended family. There is of course a vast world of detail I cannot begin to mention in this review. But Thurman tells the story with taste and a beauty as befits a true reader and lover of the work of Dinesen.
   I believe it really does justice to the spirit of Isak Dinesen's life and work.