5 comments about Daughter of the Saints: Growing Up In Polygamy.

1. This is the same book as "Predators, Prey, and Other Kinfolk: Growing up in Polgamy" by the same author. I didn't know that and bought both of them.
   
   Ms. Solomon is telling her story here and I do recommend you read it. I found the book boring and tedious in places and found myself wanting to skip ahead to get to the "meat" of the story. However, I read every page. It's good though to read her experience in polygamy.
   
   I found myself asking questions about the underpinnings of Mormonism and it's relation to polygamy, (and in a general way the notion of religious beliefs around the world.) Reading through the writings of Joseph Smith, Mormonism's founder, I got a definite idea of what he thought about polygamy. About 50 or so years later the Mormon church, under state and federal pressure, made certain declarations regarding polygamy. In light of the several (now) books on polygamy by ex-members of various splinter groups, and with events regarding the FLDS in Texas, it does make one wonder who is following the true, revealed, laws of Mormonism. If you find this an interesting question, you may wish to read some of those original writings on your own and come to your own conclusion.



2. This has been an excellent book to read. I was looking for material to inform myself better about polygamy. I found "Daughter of the Saints" and could hardly put it down until I finished. The author is so real, and has such a beautiful way of writing her feelings that it really got to me. I love the balance that comes out of all the narrative--the good and the bad. I admire the courage to tell these experiences, and to be so honest about it to us the readers. I learned a lot from this book, and really enjoyed it. It was a memoir that made me live the scenes. I found a deeper understanding for polygamy without having to read scandalous material, or a document biased completely towards the negative or positive aspects of it. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about polygamy--what better way than to read a book by someone who has lived it.



3. This is the second book I have read about polygamy. This is completely foreign to my Protestant upbringing. I have seen people caught in a cult situation before. My neighbors when I was a young child were not allowed to celebrate Christmas, salute the flag, or celebrate any other holidays.
   I will not mention there religion. Inside their home terrible things were happening to their children. I didn't find out about it until I was a grown woman.
   
   This is the type of thing that Dorothy Solomon is talking about. She had a good mother. She was aware that the other children called them names. She knew other children had only one set of parents. Her father was married to 7 women. She believed as she was taught. She believed in polygamy. As she grows older she sees the sorrow in the women around her who are not honored by this state of affairs. Her parents had been arrested and they had to go into hiding as children. She even discusses incest in such an environment. It obviously is not a good environment for a woman to feel any equality with a man in. When more groups form a terrible thing happens to her father. The book is fascinating. A real page turner.
   She horrifies her family by joining the regular Church of the Latter Day Saints. She marries only once and has children. She is a strong person.
   Thank you for showing us a world that most will never see. You have without a doubt helped other women trapped in this situation.



4. The narrative of this work is touchingly honest and entirely realistic. I've read a few books during my Utah vacation, all about polygamy, and this one is the most tasteful and the most relevant as a complete story of how this lifestyle affects one's being. Highly recommended, more compelling and meaningful than the sensationalist Krakour [?] text.



5. I tore through this memoir in a couple of days. I could not put it down. This woman's account of her life as a fugitive and a "trouble maker" is incredible and heartwrenching. It's so much more interesting to me if I know someone actually went through this. I can't imagine ever living in the kind of poverty this family did, or having to share my father or see my mother's hidden tears when her husband went off with another wife (or 6) a few nights a week. Allred does a pretty thorough job going through the genealogy and geographic movements of her family and it only serves to bring the tale even more to life. I'm sure I could go read newspaper articles about all she mentioned, and read the very journal Byron wrote in his travels. It's great to be able to trace everything all over the US and watch the world change around the family and the church and yet nothing ever really changes for them. I very much recommend this book to anyone looking to find out more about this controversial issue. See it from the eyes of a young girl lost in a sea of many.

5 comments about West with the Night.

1. Fantastic! I don't care if Beryl Markham wrote this or not (it is rumored that her third husband, a Hollywood ghostwriter, wrote the book). Beryl Markham's story is fascinating: from growing up in East Africa on her father's horse farm, to training race horses, to her time in Africa as a pilot tracking wild game from the air ... all culminating in her historic solo flight across the Atlantic from east to west. This book brings the ultimate forms of praise from me: (1) I could not put it down; and (2) I am now seeking out anything I can find out about this amazing, daring woman. No matter who wrote the book, the use of imagery is astounding. Highly recommended.



2. The hardcover is the illustrated (with photos) edition of one of my favorite re-reads. Hemingway loved it, too. It is memoir that reads like fiction and it doesn't matter to me who wrote it (Beryl or her husband, as the scuttlebut goes). As a bookseller, I sell this one with a guarantee that if my customer doesn't like it they can return it for a full trade credit. None have been returned but many customers have dropped by to say that they have shared their copy with family or friends.



3. This a wonderful, mostly true, story about the early years and astonishing adventures of a young woman who grew up as one of the real "Out of Africa" characters. The other reviews do a good job of describing the story line of the book, so I won't repeat that.
   
   At the time I read the book, I knew little about Beryl, and was so fascinated by this beautifully written, "Hemmingway-esque" book and its heroine that I wanted to know more. First, I read Mary Lovell's autobiography. I thought it was surely a "negative" biography and wanted to try to understand Beryl in a positive light. Then I read the much more impartial and well-researched autobiography by Errol Trzebinski, and realized that as a human being, there was little to like or admire about Beryl; Lovell's book turned about to be sugar-coated!
   
   I came to realize that while "West with the Night" is an accurate description of Beryl's actions, it is a whitewash of her as a person and very misleading. Also, there is such overwhelming evidence that she did not write this extraordinary book, that I am surprised that she is still given credit for being its author. Even at the time, Hemmingway himself doubted that she could have written it. And he was in a position to know as it was written flawlessly in his style and he, shall we say, knew her "well." She barely had a high school education, rarely read anything, and never wrote another word. She wasn't even a letter writer. However, her naïve, love blinded and ill-fated husband, Raoul Schumacher, an experienced ghost writer, did possess the ability to write the book, and most certainly did; the early drafts of the book that were later found leave no doubt about this. Even in her dotage, Beryl refused to give credit to Raoul.
   
   Beryl Markham grew up near Nairobi, raised by a loving father, and was an acquaintance of the much older and now famous Baroness Karen von Blixen. Karen initially thought of her fondly, but came to understand that Beryl was no friend of any woman. It was Beryl Markham that Karen was referring to in the movie when she was furious with Dennis Finch Hatten for having an affair with a younger woman. In real life, both Karen and Beryl aborted his children; one of the few untruths in "Out of Africa" was that Karen was infertile as the result of syphilis.
   
   Beryl's list of sexual partners is a who's who of the times and includes royalty, and other celebrities. However, Dennis may have been the one man that Beryl actually cared for - probably because he cared so little for her. Even so, it must have been difficult for her to have him die during a period in which they were on again, and while flying an errand on which Beryl had originally planned to join him; and then for Karen to play the role of "widow."
   
   Perhaps that was part of what made her such an unpleasant, moody, selfish, misogynous and promiscuous woman, although she had a pretty good start on that prior to Dennis's death. Also, she was no doubt affected by her mother's abandonment when she was a toddler, only to find out much later in life that the woman she thought was her mother, was not. That does not explain, however, Beryl's immediate and irrevocable rejection of her only child, a son, who was born with a rectal defect that required several surgeries and who was later somewhat sickly. The fact that he was not strong and manly was always an embarrassment to her, and she spent very little time with him.



4. Ernest Hemingway raved about this book - and for good reason. It is a fascinatingly multi-layered story told in a way that makes it very compelling and utterly believable. One of the greatest books I have read. It comes with controversy - maybe Beryl did not write it all herself. Still, she was a remarkable woman.



5. I read this book about 10 years ago so this is not a fresh review and I won't attempt to recall all the book's details.
   
   But I can tell you it was one of the best books I've ever read. Not necessarily for the story itself, although it is quite interesting on it's own.
   
   What made it so memorable for me was the quality of writing and the style of it. She evokes such intense feelings of nostalgia and loss - of an era gone by, youth passed, and people lost. Whenever I put it aside while reading it, I was aching to the point of tears - I compare it to the nostalgia/loss I felt while reading other novels like How Green Was My Valley and Angela's Ashes.
   
   I am not trying to say this is a sad storyline as it is not. But I felt that I was experiencing what the author felt while writing it from her memories.
   
   It's quite a shame the book is not more known in general. Those who have wandered via Amazon to this book, I deeply encourage you to purchase it while it is still in print. The paperback will suffice - it's of the bigger size - and it is not overly long or difficult to read.

5 comments about Bad Girls of the Bible and What We Can Learn from Them.

1. This book tells a real world story similar to the story of each of the "Bad Girls" of the Bible, then tells the actual biblical story for each. This is followed by though-provoking questions for modern-day women to think about how we can apply this to our lives.
   
   For women who wish to stay in a walk with God, and sometimes feel weak in today's world, this book shows that we are not abnormal, but can learn from mistakes that women made in the Bible.



2. I would recommend that all Godly women read this book. It will touch your life in some way. I'm sure there will be many women delivered from this book.



3. I actually liked this book better than I liked Slightly Bad Girls...I feel as if the Biblical characters were easier to identify with than the ones in SBD. Unfortunately, I still do not enjoy Ms. Higgs writing style--I feel as if she over simplifies too many things and the whole "girlfriend talk" just isn't my cup of tea anyway. That said, I would recommend this book to someone looking for a light devotional read.



4. this book is misleading in its title and anti-woman. I purchased it for use at a women's church retreat I was leading. Upon opening it I was dismayed to find it was chock full of fundamentalist mysogenist dogma meant to show how women need to remain in their "place" by exemplifying the "sinful behavior" of these women. I promptly returned the book. Buyer beware before purchasing these books.



5. Used this in an adult Sunday School class. More attendees than normal. Very well presented and received by the class. Thank you Liz!!!

2 comments about Murder of a Medici Princess.

1. This is the fascinating true story of Isabella de Medici, the spunky socialite of Renaissance Florence. She seems like the type of girl you'd want as a friend--independent, interested in the arts, and quite a flirt. The writing is very fluid--you cheer as Isabella runs the show and gasp at her husband's bold violence.



2. Isabella de' Medici (1542-1576) sparkled among the glittering ruling family of Florence, but she was tragically snuffed out in the prime of her life. In a further injustice, her brother Francesco, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, tried to erase her from memory, an injustice that Caroline Murphy has done an admirable job of rectifying in this fascinating biography of Isabella.
   
   Isabella was the third child of Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Florence (second cousin of Catherine de' Medici, the Queen of France) and Eleonora di Toledo (of Spanish nobility). The Duke and Duchess enjoyed a very happy marriage, and Isabella had a happy childhood and particularly an excellent education. In 1558 it was arranged for her to marry Paolo Giordano Orsini, a degenerate profligate from a prominent Roman family. He was created Duke of Bracciano on account of his Medici connections, but Isabella visited his castle only briefly. She opted instead to stay in her beloved Florence, where she lived a luxurious, celebrated life independent of her husband in Rome. (She had an affair, and he had many.) Her independence was possible because of her husband's indebtedness to her father and her father's influence--he was soon elevated to Grand Duke of Tuscany.
   
   After Cosimo's death, his eldest son Francesco became the new Grand Duke and was much less sympathetic to Isabella. He reneged on Cosimo's promise to provide for Isabella's two children (Paolo was busy spending his children's inheritance in Rome), so Isabella stayed in Florence to negotiate the children's affairs. Paolo started asking her to join him in Rome, but she used the negotiations as well as her health as an excuse to refuse. Eventually matters came to a head when Francesco banished Isabella's lover and Paolo went to Florence ostensibly to take Isabella on a hunting trip. Instead, Isabella was cruelly murdered by her husband and a henchman, apparently with Francesco's approval. Her cousin/sister-in-law was similarly killed at this time for the same reason: the Medici family honor. Murphy points out that Francesco sanctioned these honor killings to punish female adultery even though he let much graver crimes go unpunished in Florence--and even though he humiliated his Habsburg wife by keeping his mistress as practically a rival duchess. This is all in sharp contrast to his father Cosimo's having upheld law and order in the city and allowed loose (but not humiliating) morals at court.
   
   Like other powerful and independent Renaissance women--Veronica Franco and Mary Queen of Scots spring to mind--Isabella was both a product and a victim of her time. She enjoyed a degree of autonomy that was rare until the 20th century, and she perished under a medieval system that subjugated women. ("Honor" was an admitted legal defense in Italy until 1981!)
   
   Murphy tells this compelling story well--her writing is fluid if occasionally choppy, and the main characters come to life in the context of local and European politics. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Medici family or the lives of Renaissance women.

5 comments about Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith.

1. I read a lot of memoirs these days. In fact they are probably my favorite literary genre. Maybe I should have been warned by Taylor's subtitle - not simply "a memoir," but "a memoir of faith." Because this is not a memoir in the usual sense. There is precious little of Taylor's childhood, youth or young adulthood - no real concrete stories and examples from her life. Too much of this book remains caught in the abstraction of ideas and beliefs, with not nearly enough examples. The people who show up in the book remain undeveloped vague outlines. And I have a hard time identifying with Brown's spiritual "quest," if that is what it is. I don't think it's because she's a woman either. What few facts that do emerge about her life outside this "quest" do not really serve to make her a sympathetic character. Daughter of a psychotherapist, sister of a lawyer, wife of an engineer - all these tidbits add up to what appears to have been a life of privilege and ease, and continued to be even after her ordination, as she speaks of her Saab and Audi and how they didn't fit into her rural community, and goes on at some length about everything she "wanted" in her custom-built home outside of town (in lieu of a parsonage near her church). What comes through in Barbara Brown Taylor's book is a story of a driven overachiever, who in fact drives herself into a near nervous breakdown, which finally causes her to leave her church and the active priesthood. While I do not doubt the sincerity of her quest for her true vocation and place in God's world, I do wonder about her motives. She became more likeable - more human - in the final section of the book, after she had left the priesthood, when she talks about her crisis of faith and things like her fears of inadequacy and the death of her father. Having said all of this, I still have to say that I'm glad I read the book, which has left me with much to think about in regard to my own role in the Church (Catholic in my case)and my relationship with God and my place in His world. I also think that Taylor is a person I'd like to know, but these 200-plus pages have not given me that opportunity. A memoir of faith? Perhaps. A "memoir"? No. - Tim Bazzett, author of Reed City Boy



2. This book would have been more accurately described in the subtitle as a "Memoir of Personal Experience".
   
   She dismisses orthodox Christian Theology and doctrine as something that the Apostles and Early Church had to "come up with" to explain this or that.
   
   Ultimately it is a story of how the narrow Christian path and Church "didn't work" for her, and many of her thoughts and experiences confirm the fact that women were never meant to be "priests" in the first place (though this fact enrages those who hold to the political language of "equal rights" versus sound apostolic theology).
   
   I found the book pleasant and very readable, but at the same time it was a sad story of how Christ just "wasn't enough". While most in our culture will find it "affirming" or down right "spiritual", it is a disappointment for the orthodox Christian who may wish to read a story about how Christ and the scriptures contain "all things necessary for salvation".
   
   Barbara's approach in later life is gnostic and universalist. In the words of her Presiding Bishopess, "saying Christ is the only way is to put God in too small of a box". Emotions, feelings, and cravings rule the day in the final analysis of her relationship to Christ, and it seems that "leaving" orthodoxy is freeing to her, though I question she was ever there in the first place. Ultimately, God is the final judge of what she has done and what she now teaches.
   
   Here elevation of Native American theology and her fondness of "other paths" leads the committed Christian looking elsewhere for a story of knowing Christ and Him crucified, and following Him in a culture that values personal choice and heterodoxy over all other things.
   
   In the end it is a volume that will find great company with the writings of Spong, Borg, Ehrman, and others who deny the reality of John 14:6 and the authority of Holy Sripture in the name of being on "an authentic journey".
   
   If I have to "put my eggs in one basket" I am going to have to stick with the Apostles and the Church Fathers and leave "other ways" up to Barbara, fine preacher though she is.



3. Over the course of my life I have learned certain things about salad; it has good, nourishing things in it, like spinach, almonds, feta cheese, and olive oil. Sometimes you can add strawberries. With a splash of balsamic vinegar, it sings. Other times it is dressed with slightly less healthy things like mayonnaise or sour cream, but generally its ingredients have a clear line of succession back to something alive; apples, raisins, eggs, potatoes.
   
   Then I moved to South Dakota, where I was introduced to "salad". Unlike what I have just described, this concoction is made of things like Cool Whip and crushed up Oreos. It tastes good in the moment, but by the end of it I am always left slightly nauseous and wondering where it came from.
   
   There's a lot of spiritual "salad" out there. Thankfully, this offering is not in that group. From the moment you crack open the cover, it sings. Her story of earthy, fragrant devotion to God is refreshing and very alive. It breathes the living life of Christ and speaks from the still beating but wounded heart of the church. Thankfully, Taylor veers only briefly into the sordid realm of political hot button issues, and for good reason.
   
   With fifteen years in the pastoral crucible under her belt, and an evident love for all of us, Taylor comes across as someone you can trust. Her words in this precious memoir are nourishing, full of flavor and, like the vegetables in her Georgia garden, entirely organic.



4. This book just "popped" up as an advertised suggestion for me, and after looking at the details on Amazon, I decided to order it. I am doing a lot of soul searching about my own faith journey, and am having a struggle with the Institutional Church not truly following the teachings of Jesus, having gotten enmired in politics and building empire. I felt this book was speaking to me, and is one I could hardly put down. It is well written, and certainly one I would, and have recommended to others.



5. This book is such a good read and truly reflects much of my personal experience- I treasure the author's way of writing about nature and so many of her feelings.

5 comments about Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America.

1. There will be a moment, in reading "Because They Hate," when the force of Brigitte Gabriel's theme hits home. Suppose she's right. Suppose that Hezbolla's takeover of Lebanon truly does reflect the Muslim stranglehold foretold in the Qu'ran and the Hadith. Suppose that the hellish violence which the author endured as a young girl in a Christian town in southern Lebanon is what all of us in Western Civilization can expect when Muslims bring their jihad to our doors. After all, they hate us not because they envy our wealth, or because we are intolerant, or because we support Israel, nor for any of the rationalizations you may have heard. They hate us because we are "dhimmis," non-Muslim. Even if you are Muslim, they can hate you if you are not sufficiently devout for them.
   
   Read "Because They Hate," and you will never again accept the moral equivalence argument. You will never again say or even think that Muslim fundamentalism is no worse than Christian fundamentalism, or Jewish orthodoxy. The fact is that they want to kill you and to destroy your democratic institutions. You are a dhimmi and it is their religious obligation to kill you. Every non-Muslim is an insult to Islam and may be killed with impunity; there is no such thing as an innocent Christian or Jew. If you think you know a moderate Muslim, ask him what motivates suicide bombers, the 911 hijackers, or televised beheadings, and that "moderate" will justify every act of violence one way or another. Here's how Gabriel puts "moral equivalence" into perspective. If a Christian preacher were to take out a contract on someone we'd be outraged. Yet Muslim imams commonly issue fatwas requiring the murder of journalists, politicians, and of course even cartoonists, and where's the moral outrage?
   
   Gabriel watched, through the eyes of a teenage girl, the influx of Palestinian refugees, and the escalation of violence against Lebanese Christians as immigration altered he country's demographics. As long as Muslims were a minority, peace was maintained, but when Muslims became a majority, hellfire erupted around her. She watched her beautiful home destroyed, her father's restaurant destroyed, her friends killed, and the landscape bombarded. She watched the Lebanese civil war through the cracks in the bomb shelter which was her home for six years. She dragged her badly wounded mother back into the shelter after a rocket attack, and saved her life by getting her to a hospital in Israel. She watched as Israeli doctors and nurses cared for injured Christians and Muslims, even ahead of wounded Israeli soldiers, solely based on the severity of the patient's injuries.
   
   Gabriel went on to become a war correspondent, then news anchor, in Israel. She married an American and emigrated to America. She doesn't want what happened to her childhood home happen to her new home. You may believe that the likelihood of widespread Muslim violence in America is a distant threat. The argument that the author makes is that the less we take Muslims at their word, the more conciliatory we are, the more tolerant we are, the more likely that day becomes. Actually, let's try a simple test. Ask a few Christian friends the meaning of "first comes Saturday, then comes Sunday." Then ask a few Muslims. Christians get it wrong every time, but Muslims don't; they know. It means that first we'll overthrow Israel and kill all the Jews (whose Sabbath is on Saturday), then we'll overthrow Western Civilization and kill all the Christians (whose Sabbath is Sunday). It is not Brigitte Gabriel who is warning you; it is the enemy itself who is.



2. Every United States citizen should read this
   book, "Because They Hate," by Brigitte Gabriel.
   
   It's written so well that it commands you not
   to put it down! You get all involved in it,
   as you might with a good mystery novel.
   
   But the main message is one of serious warning.
   This is a first hand, factual account, of the
   way Islam works to take over the world, and I
   do mean that they intend USA to be a part of
   their dictatorship.
   
   If you still have doubts as to the danger of
   Islam to your way of life, then read this book.



3. Brigitte Gabriel has no doubt gone through some powerful experiences as a Christian Lebanese woman. There is little doubt some of the atrocious stories she shares in her book, "Because They Hate," did and continue to take place in some corners of the world. But the impact of her message is lost when she herself resorts to a hateful dogma essentially calling for World War 3. Gabriel is almost like the Cuban exiles in Florida who denounce the repression of the Castro regime but fully back terrorist attacks on the island and civilians as long as it's "fighting Communism." Gabriel takes the same tone in her book, calling for even more disastrous military campaigns into possibly Iran. It is no wonder she is a featured speaker at many radical right-wing Christian events including CUFI, the notorious John Hagee cash cow used to promote Israeli aggression and expansion.
   
   Gabriel frames her book around traumatic childhood experiences involving her family and persecution by Muslims of local Christian communities. She describes the horrific practice of mothers who's wombs are ripped open by militias, the fetuses taken out (a practice very common among U.S.-trained forces in El Salvador during the 1980s by the way). Gabriel is no doubt throwing meat to the lions of the Christian right, who believe we are in some cosmic battle against the Satanic forces of Islam. The main problem is that "Because They Hate" ironically makes you wonder about the deep-rooted hatred among those who celebrate Gabriel and her book.
   
   The book essentially calls for fighting hate with more hate, read some of the reviews on this page and you'll find fans smashing Islam as "incompatable with Western values." Gabriel fails in her efforts to inform readers on the dangers of radicalist Islamic groups by creating a dangerous, toxic scenario of us (civilized Western Christians) against them (barbaric Muslim hordes). She quickly dismisses Israeli atrocities in the occupied territories or the fact that U.S. interventionism has played a great part in encouraging the rise of radical dogmas in the region. Consider that we overthrew Iran's only democratic government in the 1950s because it nationalized the nation's oil, or that Hezbollah gained strength in Lebanon after Israel basically destroyed the nation's infrastructure. Ronald Reagan didn't help much when he funded and armed the radical Islamic groups that later morphed into the Taliban and Al Qaeda in order to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan (Reagan's CIA Director said he preferred Koran wavers to Communist atheists any day). These are crucial moments in history that the reader should know in order to understand "why they hate."
   
   The sections where Gabriel touches on domestic policy are frightening fantasies taken from Mussolini's favorite daydreams. Gabriel encourages citizens to "report terrorist activities" or other suspicious going ons and that we must fight to promote "patriotic education" in our schools. Gabriel apparently believes that any form independent thinking is simply too dangerous and opens the door for Islamic radicalism to rush in (ironically, both Gabriel and Islamic radicals have a lot in common when it comes to these topics). She pretty much tells anyone who disagrees with the war in Iraq to shut up and "support the troops." Gabriel also promotes some bizarre fantasy that if we don't act soon, Muslim hordes will overtake America and destroy our democracy (eventhough George Bush has done quite a fine job at that thank you). Gabriel's evidence for this hypothesis is flimsy and uses some immigration data from Europe. So lock your doors and bolt the basement shut because the Muslims are coming!
   
   So what are Gabriel's solutions? Basically more war, the U.S., Israel or both need to destroy Iran (why not Pakistan? They actually HAVE NUKES) and try to impose Western values on the region. How the U.S. could handle a third conflict she doesn't explain, or what happens if Islamic radicalism is even more inflamed from greater imperial interference?
   
   There are some positive aspects to Gabriel's book, mostly when she condemns hateful practices by Muslim extremists, but she never feels compelled to condemn our own violence (starting with the invasion of Iraq which Gabriel praises). She champions the struggle of women to fight for more freedom in Islamic societies, which is also admirable. Of course she fails to mention that activist women's groups, such as in Iran, are desperately calling for an end to threats against the Islamic Republic considering outside interventionism never helps domestic groups calling for change.
   
   Gabriel's book suffers from the same handicap of her good friend John Hagee's books, they make some valid points (Hagee denouncing anti-semitism for example), but then lose any real credibility when they detach themselves from reality and start trying to sell the reader this apocalyptic vision of good vs. evil. The political, cultural realities are much more complex and Gabriel fails to grasp that and instead resorts to hateful preaching against a particular religious group that caused her family harm. There is a creepy, ironically for a Middle Easter woman, colonial bent to the book in the way it tries to show the reader how OUR way, no matter how equally violent, is much better and should be adopted by the East if it wishes to progress. "Because They Hate" lacks any valuable scholarship, and instead just delivers more hate.



4. Brigitte is a great story teller, I couldn't put the book down. I love how the story is told simply and in matter-of-fact fashion. I admire her courage. There were many times I cringed and almost was brought to tears. The time is finished for being politically correct. I've been following these things the past few years, it is so obvious. All has been written down in the Bible so for those who have ears...
   
   The devil, once called the Morning Star (Lucifer), the "carrier of the light," was the one who appeared as Gabriel to Muhammad. I pray for the lost souls. We are taught to love our enemies. There is no greater law than that. They have no such teaching. This train is on a crash course. Buckle up.
   
   P.S. I originally rated the review having read only half of the book. I now think the book deserves closer to 3 STARS because the author is heavily biased. I was really pissed off by her blindness to the other half of the truth. I agree with the first 60% of the book but not the latter. I wholly agree with her view on Islam but completely disagree with her blind submission (pun intended) to all things American.
   
   How is it not obvious that the U.S. gov't had some type of involvement in 9/11? One thing she doesn't realize is that people are being "anti-American" because our gov't has been hijacked and criticism and dissidence is bloody patriotic!! We are being "anti-American" because the morals and all we stood for are all but vanished! How can she blindly support the wicked, God-less, post-modernist culture that is now in development?! Quakers and Puritans, hello?! Do you see any? Look around. She's living in a fairytale land.
   
   She also comes off as strongly anti-Arab. Love your enemies, remember. While I agree with her points, that they may revel in their un- and mis-education, she hadn't mentioned their previous contributions of science and mathematics. She could have gone at it a little differently. While I am definitely on the side of Israel, pro-Israel if you will for my fear of God, it is fair to also mention that they have a strong lobby in the U.S. as perhaps Norman Finkelstein and such describe. Fact is fact.
   
   She can have well driven home her points as well as have told more of the truth and been objective. Bush & co. speak half-truths as silly as it sounds. They are right that Iran, Syria & Co. are a dire threat, but the Bush Regime's actions completely support the beast of Islam and the Middle East. "Terrorism" and Islam are at the gate with a bloody sword, but we also face a brewing insane tyrannical gov't in our backyards, which seems to be spreading to other parts of the globe as well. She could have had her cake and eaten it as well.



5. This is a great book written by a very courageous lady. It will make you aware of the horrors in the world of Islam.

5 comments about Without a Map: A Memoir.

1. This sad, yet inspirational memoir is moving and beautifully written. You won't be able to put it down and it will make you think long and hard about teenage pregnancy, abortion,and adoption. Meredith Hall tells her dysfunctional story with emotion and a small amount of well deserved self-pity. Some memoirs of late are written with such little emotion despite their sadness that I have felt the author was removed from their own story. Not so with Hall, she lets you feel her profound sadness and range of emotions and you will be so grateful that she included you in this amazing story.



2. Unless you were an unwed, pregnant 16 year old in the 1960's you would not understand, but having been there myself, I consider this the best book on the market about the subject. Meredith Hall is extremely talented, she steps out of the box with this book and takes it up a notch. Being an unwed teen in the 1960's brought shame on your whole family, not just you and I think Meredith Hall got that message across directly and accurately. This is a book I will read again.



3. Reading Without A Map made me recall Roger Ebert's comments that the stories of Frank McCourt's memoir Angela's Ashes were honed over years and decades. Certainly Meredith Hall's history, in which a 55 year old recounts her life from age 16 on, is to be read not as a straight out version of events, but a carefully crafted tale that allows the reader, through highlights and specific focusing, to walk with Hall through tumultuous decades of disconnection and the loss and partial return of hope. Where the events end and her interpretation of them begins is uncertain, which is what makes memoirs both true and fictionally interpretive. It is probable that her ex-husband, the only major person in her pained community not to be discussed in her book, would have written a differently slanted book. Nevertheless, Hall gives a powerful memoir, and displays a dexterous use of creative non-fiction to tell her tale.
   The book tempts me to critique Hall; she has, after all, opened herself up. Is she too generous of her own faults? Does her father get off too lightly, her mother too harshly? Is she the victim of disconnected wandering, or a protagonist who made poor choices yet overly blames the decisions of other's conditional love rather than herself?
   However, at the end of my appraisal, I'd still be thankful that she was able to poignantly write about her life. Her decisions to reconnect with her mother and try to do the same with her father are inspiring.
   Over all, the book shows me things I know and try to put in practice: to give unconditional love to my children, to not blame others for decisions caused by my own weakness (i.e. Hall's father), and to see myself as part of a community, rather than naively believing that disassociation heals ancient wounds. But I think that Meredith Hall writes too much about her life without providing an analysis of where she went wrong by her own hand. Her lack of spiritual faith (she mentions going to an Easter service only to celebrate the rebirth of the Earth, p. xvii) allows us to see her life as a sequence of events, rather than an overarching theme of failure, anger, forgiveness and recovery. Her ongoing bitterness with her mother, even as caretaker while her mother died of MS, and her fear of a student's knowing about her long ago pregnancy ("I could not have a student knowing my dark and secret past", p. xiv) show a woman still recovering. It is this painful absence of the spiritual that leads her, in the end, to solitude in a Maine cabin, still searching ("This is an ordinary story, the story of a search for a steady course." p. 220).
   Reading Hall makes me want more of her works, and a visit to her website revealed that she has a novel and a short story collection in the works. Yet her prose, while haunting and yearning, can't change an unresolved journey that results from her interpretations and decisions, and not from fate.



4. The first chapter of this memoir did not grab me; it rang a little hollow. But I kept reading, and it is a very powerful story. Without preaching or being sticky-sweet, she describes coming to terms with her feelings about her parents and being able to love her mother -- who had rejected her as a young woman -- and find forgiveness by simply letting go of her anger and being able to take care of her mother when she became ill. Her other relationships are very powerful also -- with her children particularly. I was very moved by the book.



5. Five Stars for Meridith Hall who not only tells it like it was, but also tells it like it is. The human race is not, "generally good" and this book proves that fact. Shunning is one of the most animalistic behavior acts there is-and humans do it better than animals.
   
   I praise Meridith for being open with the truth, and exposing people for what they can (and can't) be.
   
   I am looking forward to the sequel.
   
   Soni

5 comments about Drinking: A Love Story.

1. While I read the book I felt hollow, like I was taking in the words but I felt nothing. It's not that I didn't understand what she was saying, the words just seemed devoid of the human aspect of dependency. I could have done without the first half of the book completely. It was tedious and I never connected with the author's plight. The second half was a little better for me. I saw a friend of mine in the second half and that helped a little...because I could put a human experience with the narrative. And that's what the book lacked. A feeling that someone, a caring human with feelings, was writing it. I never connected with the author no matter how much I wanted to understand her story. I felt like I was reading a weak story about someone written by a third person. It would have been a one-star if not for the second half.



2. What a powerful story! And according to the NIH (National Institutes of Health), half of all American families "have at least 1 or 2 active alcoholics in them". My family is one of them. And over 75% of the caseloads of therapists are problems that arise from living with alcoholism. Most of the people in A.A. have still-drinking alcoholics they go home to. The book that I use over and over, with my counseling clients is "Getting Them Sober". Getting Them Sober: You Can Help! (Getting Them Sober) It's sold over a million copies and endorsed by 'dear Abby' and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Harvard University's employee assistance program.....and has literally hundreds of effective solutions for sobriety and recovery. Most of my clients report that their family lives change for the better within days of reading this book.



3. Her words inspired me to quit drinking, then her death inspired me to quit smoking. I hope her loved ones know, there is one person out here who is alive because of Carolyn. She is my hero. Thank You.



4. This was a very interesting account into the world of alcoholism. I thought I may have a problem with alcohol (drinking 2 to 3 glases of wine @ night) until I read this book! Good read.



5. I was really disappointed in this book for a number of reasons, and it took me a while to sort them out. The first problem stemmed from the expectations set by both the title and the beginning of the book - that the book would essentially be the story of a relationship gone bad, and how the author escaped and recovered from it. For a book like that, whether the relationship is with an abusive partner or alcohol, I would expect that somewhere along the way a good writer would give some understanding of the appeal of that relationship. Why did she drink? When was it good, and why? What did she get out of it, ever? I never got the sense of that.
   
   Related to this is the whole idea of an emotional response to drinking. The book is incredibly analytical, descriptive of emotion rather than expressive. And yet, one of the things the author discusses as a key part of recovery was the ability to recognize and understand one's own emotions. She may understand them, but doesn't present them emotively. Sorry, this is a tough concept to express, but I basically felt that the book could have been written by her therapist, rather than the protaganist.
   
   Another major problem with the book was the paradox behind the causes of alcoholism. Is it predestined, either by genetics or circumstances, or is it due to free will? She implies different answers to that question throughout the book, somewhat depending on whom she is talking about, and places blame accordingly. Of course, my understanding is that it's a bit of both, as is most of human life. But since it's an issue that's implicitly important in much of the book, it would have helped a lot to address it directly, even if only to say that it's an inevitable paradox.
   
   Finally, of course, having high expectations at the start can diminish one's actual view of a book. My expectations were set quite high by all the great reviews.

5 comments about I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie.

1. Reading this book reminded me of that enervating feeling I once felt, circa 1979 or so, during a midnight viewing of Led Zeppelin's "The Song Remains the Same." It was a flash of horror in which my excitement over the rock n' roll life (I was in a band at that time, my head filled with ambitions and pretensions) gave way to a feeling of aimlessness: What is with all this cheesy medeival imagery? How come these guys don't look cool, but just scrawny and strung-out? Do I really need to hear an eight-minute drum solo? What the hell have I been doing wasting my time with all this?
   
   Des Barres' book left me with a similar feeling of the blahs: some books make it seem like there was more to the 1960s-70s rock culture than previously realized. This book makes one feel like there was a lot less.
   
   I picked up the book hoping that it would bring the sights, sounds, and philosophy of a unique time back to life. It didn't. Despite having had dalliances with titanic figures ranging from Mick Jagger to Jimmy Page to Gram Parsons to Don Johnson, the author conveys very little of their artistry. In fact, she rarely tries to discuss or describe their music at all: passages on what makes a Mick Jagger or a Jim Morrison sexy sound as though they could have been written about any high school bad boy, musician or no.
   
   And indeed, that adolescent attitude pervades this book. The book begins with the author entering a boy-crazy period in high school, and is related largely through excerpts from her diary, replete with CAPITAL LETTERS and exclamation marks(!!!!!!) about how COOL this guy is and how WHEN HE KISSED ME I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO FAINT!! Blecch. Most of the remainder of the book has a similar tone, merely transplanted to a larger stage.
   
   The effect is more trivializing than anything else. I had hoped this book would reveal something about this woman and her ability to connect with these creative figures. Instead, this book made it sound like her life was nothing more than a series of hedonistic distractions, draped over a nothingness. The book makes the reader feel not as though her generation was liberated from the hidebound ways of the previous ones, having moved on to higher, more exciting pleasures, but rather that no more original ideas existed in her life or in her head than finding the next naughty guy to sleep with.
   
   That's perhaps a bit harsh: she does deliver a couple of winning passages in the book, one on the excitement of a Led Zeppelin performance, another on her less-than-stellar acting debut. She also managed to convince me that she had an aesthetic value or two, specifically in advocating for the Burrito Brothers' injection of folk/country influences into the psychadelic scene.
   
   But the lingering images of the book are the downers: the poor three-year-old son of irresponsible substance-abusing-party-addicts who let him plummet to his death through a skylight -- barely interrupting their partying lifestyle for a few months. The look of scorn and contempt on John Lennon's face, when witnessing the author's pathetic attempts to put meaning in her life by flinging herself at the band. I didn't find myself judging the author so much as feeling badly for her. Well, I *did* judge her writing, I suppose, and not favorably.
   
   It's not a terrible book; it's too light a read to be that. But if you are looking for a book to make you feel that the 1960s were a time fraught with meaning and revolutionary philosophy, you'd be well advised to avoid this one.



2. I got this book for Christmas from my mother, who knows that I have a great love for classic rock and roll. I couldn't wait to read it, and it did not disappoint in the least. This book wasn't a tell all, but a look into what it was like to be part of the "scene".
   There were parts I would have liked to have heard a little more about...she seems to skim over being on the road with a simple, "I spent the next five days on the road with Zeppelin." Kind of would liked to have heard a little more about that. But the stories that she does share are amazing.
   She gives us great insight into some of the most amazing artists of our time. This is a must read for anyone with a love of rock and roll and the 60's. I can't wait to read her other books.



3. I was disappointed with this book by Pamela Des Barres. It was predictable and quite boring. I managed halfway through the novel already and have lost interest.
   Even though she was able to meet many famous musicians throughout her life, you already knew she would use sex to get attention from them and then they would just move on to the next groupie. Nothing new.



4. Okay, so I'm a late bloomer! I wanted to read this book *years* ago, but never got the chance. Now I'm older and couldn't get backstage if I wanted to- so I can't exactly use the book for 'helpful tips and hints' as I would have as a teenager. *smirk*
   
   Anyway, it's a great read and very tasteful. If there are any nay sayers about that, they need to stop and think about what the subject matter is about. Considering what Ms. Des Barres is writing about I think she did so very eloquently.
   
   After all, how tactfully *can* you write about Mick Jagger's testicles?



5. This was a gift for my best friend. She said this book was not very good. The stories were not thought out very well it seemed. She liked the concept but it should've been written by someone besides the author who did write it.

5 comments about Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic.

1. An absolutely brilliant, hard to put down and very moving story. I go back to it often and think about it always. Beautiful, witty, hilarious.



2. Perhaps it is inevitable that I'd fall for this book, given that I'm a fan of comics --Art Speigelman, Chris Ware, Lynda Barry, Megan Kelso, Gilbert & Jamie Hernandez... and of course Alison Bechdel, whose Dykes to Watch Out For strip I've followed for a long time. Compared to that strip, this book has a more gentle pace and wry wit. It says as much as written biographies in a surprisingly compact way. The ending disappointed some, but surely real life is harder than fiction to tie up in a tidy bow.



3. I cannot praise this graphic novel enough. I was so impressed with way Bechdel wove her memoir together, building from one memory into the next. At first I found some of her writing potentially pretentious, something I have seen in the writings of other memoirs where the author wants the reader to know how much they know, to be impressed with the use of precise vocubulary, and the manipulation of time to unfold a story. Usually, these don't work because they are not used effectively so much as for effect. Bechdel, however, has no pretense. Vulnerable and transparent, how she tells her personal story is so powerful it breaks your heart and inspires you soul all at the same time. Her use of the same image, with a slightly different perspective, is not merely clever but perfection. If I could beg her to write about her relationship with her mother, I would. But what would be the point? Then I would want to know more about her relationships with her siblings, with her lovers, with her neighbors. I could never have enough. It is enough to hope for more.



4. this is a GLORIOUS book, with wonderful drawings, elegant English, and a story which--no matter how different it is from your own---you will immediately identify with. What are you waiting for?



5. Fun Home is an autobiographical comic written in a nuanced, literary style, intermingling the stories of the author's coming to grips with her sexual identity and her closeted father's untimely death. Bechdel, author of Dykes to Watch Out For, draws in a style that meshes comfortably with her narrative, neither outshining nor underwhelming it. To consider this comic simple autobiography, however, would be a disservice. Through its pages one sees the trials and tribulations suffered by generations of queer America, both in the cities and in the small towns of America.
   
   This novel will appeal to all readers who enjoy thoughtful literature. Bechdel's work is clever, emotionally gripping in a way that moves beyond simple feelings such as joy or anger and into the strange sensations (or lack thereof) that arise at life's crossroads. She includes many snippets of other authors' works when the characters are reading, using the texts to replicate their various epiphanies, from Camus' The Stranger to Pauline Reage's The Story of O.