3 comments about The Woman That I Am: The Literature and Culture of Contemporary Women of Color.

1. This book is an interesting collection of well-known and lesser-known authors of short stories, plays, poetry and essays. All works of writing portray the lives of colored women. It is a varied group of writers who really, have little in common. However, the book is lacking a cohesive momentum that it was probably trying to achieve. Interesting addition to a book collection.



2. I first came upon this book in a senior seminar in college. At the time I apppreciated it for the varying voices of women. I was able to see women like and unlike myself and be warmed by the fire of this sisterhood. I had no idea that when I wrote my Master's thesis how important this text would be. Unfortunately there are few anthologies like this one that covers so many bases so effectively. Madison has collected well known and lesser known talents into an invaluable research tool. It should be required reading for anyone interested in stepping into the world of writing by women of color.



3. "The Woman That I Am;" an anthology containing such literary geniuses as Gwendolyn Brooks, Jamaica Kincaid, Amy Tan, and poet laureate Rita Dove; seethes with life and vitality. Essentially a collection of poetry, short stories, plays and essays on the lives of colored women, the focus for the anthology lays within the diversity of the writers selected. Synthesized in this collection are the lives of women from all walks of life completely free of judgment. "In loving ourselves for who we are --American women of color-- we can make a vision for the future where we are free to fulfill our human potential. This new framework will not support repression, hatred, exploitation and isolation, but will be a human and beautiful framework, created in a community, bonded not by color, sex or class, but by love and the common goal for the liberation of mind, heart, and spirit." (Merle Woo) A celebration for all womankind, whis book is a must read for colored women, lesbians, conservatives, breast cancer survivors, daughters, mothers, wives, students, mentors, bosses, plebeians, independents, mujeres, lovers, writers, readers... humankind. Buy it now and enjoy it tomorrow.

5 comments about A Necessary Spectacle: Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs, and the Tennis Match That Leveled the Game.

1. she changed the world that nite. read this to know how.



2. Some interesting archaeology about the now nearly forgotten King-Riggs tennis match. Roberts, of the NYT, brings to life how important this thing seemed at the time, even though it all looks decidedly quaint today. Where the author goes off is when she tries to relate this to the federal Title 9 law on equality for women in sports. It's a bit forced, even if valid. Perhaps it's the book's herky-jerky structure that is just not nuanced enough to make this work. She also includes some interesting background about the Williams sisters, the relevance being that they later reaped what Billie Jean King sowed, financially. Maybe so. In the end, Riggs comes off more sympathetic than pathetic, and King is a bit too deified. Still, this is some high quality social history about an episode whose effects still have an echo.



3. The subtitle of this book 'the Tennis Match that Leveled the Game' isn't quite strong enough. This single match, called the 'Battle of the Sexes' was far, far more than a tennis match, and the aftereffect was far, far more than levelling the tennis game.
   
   For a tennis standpoint, before The Match womens tennis was not a serious sport. The women played, but almost by themselves. The money, the sponsors, television, the fame wasn't there. After it was all there.
   
   From a legal standpoint, The Match put power behind Title IX that required equal funding in schools for men and womens atheletic programs. From the overall women's rights viewpoint The Match was in 1973, so was Row v. Wade.
   
   Ms. Roberts is a sports columnist. This training gives her a newspaper like writing style that is very well suited to the subject she is covering here. The book reads almost like a novel, an excellent novel but also conveys the impact of The Match that changed women's sports forever.



4. I'VE FOLLOWED BJK'S CAREER SINCE SHE WON HER 1ST WIMBLEDON TITLE IN 1961! THIS BOOK GIVES YOU A VERY CANDID LOOK INTO THE LIFE OF THIS GREAT TENNIS LEGEND, THE STUGGLES SHE FOUGHT BOTH PERSONAL & PUBLIC.
   INTERSTING DETAILS ON THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES WITH BOBBY RIGGS AND HIS LIFE.
   AN EASY ENJOYABLE READ FOR ANYONE, BUT ESP. FOR TENNIS FANS FROM THE 60'S70'S ON!



5. I loved this book! I'm not a huge tennis fan so as I began reading, I was shocked at how quickly this story pulled me in and kept me fascinated. It's about so much more than tennis. The personalities and motivations of Billie Jean and Bobby were so thoroughly explored that as this spectacle of a match was becoming imminent, I could feel the pressure and the tension that must have been felt not only by them, but by many women and men in the 1970s as gender lines were being tested. This book did a great job of framing the importance of that one event, as circus-like as it was. Billie Jean and Bobby brought discussions of gender roles into people's living rooms that day and the consequences have paved the way for women and for the athletes we cheer on today. "A Necessary Spectacle" gave me new insight. Excellent!

5 comments about The Beast: A Journey Through Depression.

1. Thank you for your story in an honest and insightful manner.
   My hat's off to you...... we need more honesty like this.



2. I have suffered with major depression for over 16 years now, but was officially diagnosed with depression just a couple short weeks ago. The title of this book is what immediately caught my attention. I knew I had to find a way to read it. I decided to check to see if my local library had a copy. It didn't. But I was able to get a copy from a public library in another city through inter-library loan.
   
   I saw myself so often in this pages of this book. It made me feel less alone. Reading Ms. Thompson's book was like having an intense personal conversation. This book is extremely well written. Ms. Thompson has some great insights. I love her brutal honest. She gives an honest and complete disclosure. She talks openly about the good, the bad, and the ugly. I would highly recommend this book to people who suffer with depression themselves. But I would also recommend it to those who are struggling to understand the struggles of a friend or family member who struggles with depression. There are things in this book that caused me to think about my own situation in a new way. Some of her insights are profound. It couldn't have been easy for Ms. Thompson to write this book. After all, she was a well-known journalist. She was risking her career by writing with such brutal honesty. But I am so glad that she was able to overcome her fear of rejection. She has done all of us, especially those of us who suffer with major depression, a great service. I am so thankful for this book.



3. Like other great heroes, Tracy Thompson probably does not consider herself heroic. Nonetheless, she is very much a hero of mine. "The Beast" helped me soldier through the blackest days of my life, for which I will be forever grateful to Ms. Thompson.
   
   "The Beast" is an exceptional and excellently written description of a deeply private, highly accomplished woman's journey out of a dark night of her soul.
   
   If you suffer from depression or if you wish to better understand depression in order to support a loved one, I encourage you to read "The Beast."



4. This is a book from the inside out, meaning the author writes well about the subject because it comes from within. I have read several books about depression, and this is the one that has impressed me the most. Honest, well-written, and it tells it like it is. At times I found myself disagreeing with the author's actions (but who am I to judge) as if she was a character (see, it reads like a good book, a novel even, definitely not self-help and never ever patronizing), but I always appreciated her honesty and "straightford-ness." Somehow I found this book at the time I needed it the most, when I had given up all hope of getting better. I'm still not convinced I will, but this book has me rooting for the author. I am ever grateful and thankful it exists.
   
   If you suffer from depression, just want to know more about it, or someone you love suffers from it, please READ THIS BOOK. Most of the time, in anthologies and even some "memoirs," I think: this person has no idea what they are talking about, I can't relate. Not here. This book is accessible and, I truly believe, helpful to anyone who reads it. Do yourself a favor and read this book. It is an asset to the field. And, subject not withstanding, it's a good book on its own. In other words, as a memoir it is interesting, entertaining, and you'll slow down your reading just to make it last longer (and to me, that's often the mark of a good book and an excellent storyteller). Best of luck to the author. And for anyone who reads this book because they "need" it, I get it. More importantly, so does the author. Good luck, then, to all of us.



5. I read this book shortly after it was released. My first thought was "Wow, someone understands how I feel." It is an excellent book for those around us who do not understand depression and the mental and physical problems that accompany it. I have read this book several times. I have also recommended it to many including my counselor. Tracy Thompson helped remove the stigma associated with mentai illness.

5 comments about The Empty Picture Frame: An Inconceivable Journey Through Infertility.

1. What a wonderful book! Thank you Jenna and Mike for putting words to all of those feelings that are so difficult to express. Being an "infertile" myself, this book had me laughing, crying, and nodding along the whole way through. I feel like running out and buying this book for all those friends and family who are either struggling with infertility themselves or struggling to understand a loved one who is going through a difficult time.



2. Struggling with infertility is challenging all by itself without the added emotional struggles that must be faced. In my personal situation I've found that not many people, even family members, can relate to or understand what I've been going through. Even a relative whose gone through IVF doesn't understand. I found that Jenna wrote this book not just for me, but for those who love me. Both myself and my husband breezed through the book and feel as if the stories are about us. My mom has also read it and developed a greater understanding of what we're going through. Next we'll have the family members who can't understand why we don't attend children's birthday parties or baby showers read it. Jenna gives such wonderful advice on all of these situations that make us feel so irrational...and reminds us we're not! This should be a MUST read for anyone who is just beginning their infertility journey or has been on the journey much too long.



3. One in six couples will experience difficulty conceiving a child, yet the isolation of infertility can be overwhelming. Jenna and Mike's story is uniquely their own; however, any infertile reading this book will be struck with the similarities to their personal journey. Jenna does a fantastic job of bringing to the surface the raw emotions (hope, despair, anger, jealousy, and shame, to name a few) that an infertile struggles with every day. Mike's contributions to the story give a welcome male perspective and show just how important a team effort is to surviving this disease.
   
   For those on the sidelines, this is as real as it gets. Jenna's depiction of a "typical" IVF cycle was dead on - from the Day 2 ultrasound, through the pharmacy of medications and their side-effects, to the longest wait of your life after which you find out if all you've invested (physically, emotionally and financially) has finally paid off.
   
   The list of "dos and don'ts" written for those close to someone dealing with infertility is, perhaps, one of the most important parts of this book. If you read The Empty Picture Frame because you know someone living with infertility, pay close attention to this section and take Jenna's words to heart.
   
   Thank you, Jenna and Mike for having the courage to educate others by putting your story out there for all to see. Best of luck to you both!



4. I first saw Jenna on the Oprah Winfrey show. I immediately felt connected to her because of her struggle with infertility. I could totally understand her pain. She was the first person I had seen that I honestly felt I could relate to.
   
   So when I saw that she had written a book about her story, I just had to buy it. This book is an amazing resource for infertility! It gives the full picture of what it's like to go through all the stages of infertility, from before "trying to conceive" all the way through many IVF attempts. Jenna has given the reader an inside glimpse into the life of an infertile.
   
   The way she tells her story (along with her husband's two cents every so often) is so compelling. It really was hard to put down.
   
   This book is not only a great resource to someone personally struggling with infertility but also to those who who know of someone else who is struggling with it.
   
   After I finished the book I gave it to my mom so she could get a glimpse of what I was going through. And most importantly, so she could read the helpful hints Jenna talks about at the end of the book as to how to best support someone going through infertility. These suggestions are so dead on! I wish I would've given it to her years ago.
   
   Overall, I just can't recommend this book enough!



5. This book tells the truth, the raw, unadulterated truth about what it's like to walk the path of an infertile couple, trying again and again without success. If you're not infertile, you'll realize empathy and compassion in these pages, and learn what not to say. If you're infertile, you will see yourself here. Jenna holds nothing back. She doesn't make it pretty or cute or lighthearted. She invites you to experience the emotions along with her. This book is an invaluable emotional resource for infertiles and those who care about them.

5 comments about I Am the Central Park Jogger: A Story of Hope and Possibility.

1. I bought this book several years ago--and just read it recently. The book kept me up at night reading it. I think Trisha is an excellent example of a truly awesome spirit. The book says on its cover a story of hope and possibility and that sums up how Trisha has decided to live her life. Thank you Trisha for the words I will try to live my life by. :)



2. I hate to sound hardhearted, but this book just didn't move me. Trisha Meili has an incredible and painful story to tell, but I don't think she did a very good job with it. Yes, hands down, she made an amazing recovery through her sheer determination and the help of many others who cared. But the point of the book seems to be to inspire others by her example, those fighting back from a traumatic brain injury. Since I am not in that category, I was interested not only in her personal crusade but also in the historical facts of the case. As the story first emerged, she was savagely beaten, raped, sodomized, and had her left eye knocked out of its socket by five young black and Hispanic teens who subsequently confessed to this "wilding incident" of group violence. They were all convicted, but their convictions were later vacated when a single man implicated by the DNA evidence claimed (after the statute of limitations had run out) that he was her sole attacker that night. The crime created enormous racial tensions when it was reported, with the minority community afraid that their own would be unjustly accused because the victim was a young and ambitious investment banker, white and of slight build (due, incidentally, to anorexia)--overall, a sympathetic figure. But Meili glosses over these compelling issues, only to say that she has no memory of her assault and holds no resentment toward the person or persons who maimed her. Plucky heroine though she may be, I regret that so much was omitted from her story.



3. An inspiring book. Helped to realize you can overcome adversary even if it means adjusting to some changes out of your control. I gave it to my Mom to read bc she was handicapped by an accident to let her know others have had to do what she has and understand.



4. I, too, lived in New York when this happened and we all wondered who this brave girl was. This book is amazing - Trisha writes with skill, humor and deftness. I completely understand her strength and grace. She shows how you can deal with tragedy and still have a powerful voice. She rose above hate, began a dialogue and refused to let those people who blamed her for going running let her down. What a journey and a portrait of courage and strength from such a senseless act of evil.



5. A difficult book to read. I followed this story from day one and found myself feeling the same feelings all over again. Well written with unbelieveable objectivity, the author has overcome so much. It makes me want to meet her and tell her I am proud.

2 comments about Women in Russia, 1700-2000.

1. Engel tackles a vast subject. It sprawls across three centuries of turmoil and revolution. Plus it spans a vast geographic area and a multitude of ethnicities and religions.

   The care she has taken with this book starts in the very title, "Women in Russia". It does not say "Russian Women", for that can be taken to connote ethnic (Christian) Russian. Whereas she includes in her study Muslim women, Jewish women, the women of the Volga Germans, and Finnish women. Probably out of praticality, she omits discussion of the Russian Far East (Siberia), which has enclaves of Korean, Mongolian, Japanese and Chinese.

   The later chapters that deal with Communist rule may owe much of their detail to the fall of Communism, and the subsequent accessibility of many documents. This may have been further eased by these documents undoubtedly being seen as having no military value. Unlike say a history of Soviet rocketry or microbiology.

   I found the most interesting sections to be on the Communist period. They did put the first female astronaut (V. Tereshkova) into orbit, and proudly trumpeted this. But, as Engels makes clear, inside the Soviet Union, women were commonly relegated to traditional family rearing roles, not so different from the US at the time.

   A very commendable survey by Engel. One that an interested reader might then wish for her to write more detailed analyses of the various aspects she discusses here.




2. Engel¡¯s history of women in Russia is a fascinating glimpse at an otherwise overlooked part of Russian history. It is a great addition to any personal library.

5 comments about Shanghai Diary: A Young Girl's Journey from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China.

1. Being impacted by Hitler's regime about the same age as Ursula Bacon, I can easily empathize with her tribulations. I had not been familiar with the events reflected in "The Shanghai Diaries." Ergo, I am grateful to the author for sharing her life story. She is a keen observant; her insight and hindsight are remarkable.
   
   Ursula Bacon's last sentence is "All in all, I have been one lucky girl-child." This conclusive statement is indicative of Ursula's soundness of judgment. Ursula and her parents managed to get out from Germany, In May 1939. As refugees, sheltered in Hongkew, a restricted area in Shanghai, China, Ursula and her parents were living under most primitive conditions. The family was very cognizant of their predicament, but was more concerned and was lamenting the fate of those who were left behind in Germany. Her father said: "This is not a paradise, but we don't have to worry about the Gestapo, the SS. Compared to Hitler's death camps, his butchers, his ovens, his gas chambers - we had merely been inconvenienced!" Ursula's mother believed that complaining: "Dig us deeper into the black hole of despair." Ursula deemed life to be a gift and meaningful, even in times of adversity. She manifested appreciation for the beauty of nature. She often reminisce the creative aura of her childhood. She values greatly any act of human kindness in her new surroundings, in a strange land. Plato (427-347) said "A grateful mind is a great mind; it eventually attracts to itself great things" As the only Holocaust survivor of my immediate family, Ursula's assertion that she is lucky is most appropriate. She and her beloved parents survived the war; they survived Hitler.
   
   I was profoundly impressed by Ursula's husband, Wolf, saying: "I shall never hate anybody ever! Not a group, not an individual!" To hear such a positive statement from a person who was compelled, by Hitler's racist policy, to leave the country of his birth - and had been subjected to unjustifiable hardship - is highly commendable. This is indicative of Wolf's character and prudence. Despite my being dehumanized and tortured under the Nazi yoke, I shall not hate either!
   
   The Shanghai Diaries widens my horizon' it fortifies my adherence to. the values my murdered dear father had instilled in me:"Hate Hatred and shun violence."
   
   Alter Wiener, author "From A Name to A Number"



2. I am not a reader of novels, mostly technical material. Recently I was engaged to direct a video interview with Ursula Bacon. Not familiar with her I went to Powell's Books in Portland and found a copy of her book Shanghai Diary. I had only planned to pick out a few facts to give me an idea of how to shoot the interview. Once I started reading I had to buy it. This is a book I read from cover to cover. But not a book for the weak of heart.
   
   On May 23, 2008 I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Ursula. She is as "sharp as a tack." During the videoing the moderator introduced her and from then on it was all Ursula. She related numerous stories that were almost word for work from the book. What a memory.
   
   After we finished with the video she talked with all the crew and signed a copy of Shanghai Diary for the studio library. Of course I had her sign my copy too. What a gracious lady. I'm looking forward to reading her other works and our next studio session.



3. Between 1938 and 1941, approximately 18,000 to 20,000 Jews found a safe haven from Hitler's havoc in the one city that did not require visas, police certificates, or proof of financial independence: Shanghai.
   
   In the past decade, a number of these refugees have decided to pen their memoirs. One highly readable account of the era between Jewish immigration and expulsion, is Ursula Bacon's Shanghai Diary. She offers an interesting account of her efforts to adjust to her challenging and strange new life and to make sense of the past, present, and future, while living in Shanghai between 1938 and 1946.
   
   At age 11, Bacon, the only child of a Jewish family, arrived from Germany in 1938 to start a new life. Mr. Bacon had been a successful businessman in Germany, but now he eeks out a living in his Shanghai wallpapering business. Mrs. Bacon finds odd jobs using her sewing skills. Despite earning a meager living, Bacon describes the many hardships her family still faces: suffering numerous indignities, food shortages, living in fear of the many rampant diseases and the lack of medicine, difficulties in finding living quarters and their inadequate size, and other daily struggles. Undeniably, young Miss Bacon was learning enough for a lifetime in only a short time. She attends a Catholic school, where most classes were taught in French. At home and on the streets, she learns to speak Mandarin Chinese and befriends a Buddhist monk. Ursula also learns English in school and on the streets. Eventually she too finds a job, as a governess and tutor to three concubines. While they learn from her, she also learns from them: Chinese views of sex, marriage, and women. It is a tender age to be learning why healthy baby girls are left in local trash bins!
   
   Although these difficult years in Shanghai far surpassed what they had imagined, the Bacon family had no idea much worse life in Germany had become in their absence. Ironically, the Bacons also had no way of knowing that life in Shanghai was about to take a turn for the worse and that they would end up in a ghetto even though they were 8,000 miles away from Hitler! The approximately 18,000 to 20,000 Shanghai Jews were forced in a Hong Kew slum in an area that totaled less then one square mile. As with many families, the Bacons lived in a single room, which they divided with a bed sheet and rented the "second room" to a young couple. There is no longer any such thing as privacy, which was difficult for a young lady Ursula's age.
   
   Ghettoization and its new "rules" made it difficult for many men to continue their work, further reducing family incomes. Many Jews died from malnutrition, the horrendous sanitation situation, lack of medicine, shootings, and bombings. The economic pressures and health concerns required people to live by their wits now, more than anything else.
   
   Through all these challenges, the Bacons try to remain optimistic and to view their time in Shanghai as temporary, until they receive their American visas. While her youth is an asset in that regard, the author also receives excellent advice from some wise adult friends. Some of my favorite quotes include: "If you let the past live your life, the present will have no meaning, and the future is impossible." And "after this time comes another." These words will serve expats -or anyone-- well.
   
   While some readers and critics have suggested that there are a number of inaccuracies in Bacon's story--for example, one Shanghai historican claims that Bacon never swam through the filthy Huang Pu river in the dark and actually rescued American airmen-- the book is still a highly readable memoir of an interesting time in a fascinating city. Bacon provides us with an insider's view of WWII-era Jewish Shanghai that makes enjoyable airplane, vacation, or rainy day reading.



4. I loved reading this memoir. It was an easy read that was character driven and suspenseful. The language was not unnecessarily pretentious, and getting into the story was easy. Further, I knew nothing before reading this book about the European Jews who found a haven of sorts in Shanghai during WWII. While they suffered many indignities, shortages of food, medicine, shelter, and clothing, they were much better off than the European Jews who went to their deaths in the camps. Ironically, they also fared better than non-Jewish citizens of countries allied against Hitler and Japan during the Japanese occupation. Non Jewish civilians of the allied countries or captured POWS participated in tragedies like the Bataan death march. They were interred in Japanese prison camps and subjected to grueling forced labor. There they starved, froze, and died of injury and disease probably in greater number than the Shanghai Jews. The Shanghai Jews were subjected to some but not a great deal of forced labor. They were required to police their own ghetto and dig the occassional ditch. Jews did die because of a lack of medicine, sanitation and adequate nutrition. However, many Chinese civilians suffered the same losses even before the war. Still this does not excuse the ghettoization of the Jews into terribly crowded conditions, rules that precluded most of them from earning a living even though they had skills or precluded them from owning property. Luckily aid from Jews in the U.S., Canada, Australia and South Africa could reach them. For some this was their only means of support and they lived wretched lives. However, the narrator and her family arrived a little better off than most, and her father was a well liked industrious and optimistic businessman. Her mother took in mending and used her excellent seamstress skills to earn money. She tolerated her reduced circumstances without complaint and focused on the sunnier future she was sure would follow the war's end. When the author's father could not work much after the Japanese occupation, their circumstances were reduced. Because the ghetto was seriously overcrowded most occupants could afford little more space than 100 sq. ft. for every three people. Sanitation was completely lacking, and the description of the "honeypots" was truly odoriferous. Imagine several people suffering from amebic dysyntary using the same water closet outfitted with a rustic chamber pot. The author could have let her story fall into the trap of excessive sentimentality, but she did not. For this and her family's optimism I give her Kudos. I gave this four stars instead of five, because I don't think it rises to the literary level of a five star book. Still I highly recommend it. It is a great novel to take on an airplane, a vacation, or to read on an inclement afternoon. It can be read in a few hours.



5. Several months ago I saw the author, Ursula Bacon, on BookTv (C-Span 2). I was very impressed with her; her lecture was excellent; and the true story of her life from the age of 10 to 18 was compelling. So, I immediately ordered her book. But the book sat on my desk for weeks making me feel guilty about not reading it. I too am a writer. So, finally after completing one book and revising another one, I took a break. And what a break that was--when I was transported to the CHINA of 1938-1946! Ms. Bacon, an only child of a Jewish family, left Germany with her parents as Hitler and his cohorts were rounding up Jews and transporting them to Death Camps.
   
   By the time Vati, Dad, and Mutti, Mom, were looking for countries to immigrate to, every country had closed its doors to German Jews except Shanghai, China. And Shanghai was a total mess, worse than anything most Americans would ever see. But Ursula's family lived in the filthy disease-ridden slums and survived by bartering their few possessions for food. Ursula, up until then a very sheltered child, attended a Catholic school where most classes were taught in French. And most of the time she remained optimistic, made many European and Chinese friends of all ages, learned to speak Mandarin Chinese, encouraged her Mutti, and helped Vati with his business endeavors.
   
   Ursula became an adult before becoming a teen! And she encountered many bizarre situations which she handled better than most adults. The worst was when she was 12 or 13 and killed a drunken Japanese soldier with her bare hands when he attacked her as she walked home from a friend's house late at night. She didn't tell her parents, though, because she didn't want to burden them with additional worries.
   
   This intriguing and inspiring survival tale is about Jewish refuges in China during WW II, though it depicts the color of Shanghai and the many nationalities struggling to survive their wartorn world. I didn't want SHANGHAI DIARY to end! However, I couldn't wait to finish it, so I could pass it on to an friend whose daughter adopted the most delightful Chinese girl who I predict will someday be an important leader in some capacity.
   
   The world has grown so small today that every American should go out of his or her way to become acquainted with other cultures and religions. And every American teenager should be given the opportunity to live in a foreign country to learn new languages and cultures. I give this wonderful book MORE than FIVE STARS! And I hope parents will share it with their teens and high school teachers will use it in their classes. Thanks, Ursula! K.J. McWilliams, book reviewer as well as author of Pirates, The Journal of Leroy Jeremiah Jones, a Fugitive Slave, The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo, and The Journal of Darien Dexter Duff, an Emancipated Slave, winner of the Young Adult Fiction 2003 Royal Palm Literary Award.

1 comments about Pretty Good for a Girl: An Athlete's Story.

1. Ms. Heywood has written a compelling story of a female athlete (runner) coming of age. She presents her memoir in a straight forward manner and does not hold back. She had a sexual relationship with her high school coach. She presents her story with all the emotional ambiguity I'm sure it carried. Ms. Heywood later struggled with an eating disorder. Again, this is presented in a very real manner. Ms. Heywood is also a very gifted writer. I found this book a compelling read and it should have a wide audience.

5 comments about Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis.

1. With two new books being released this week about Merian (one a bio, the other a collection of her art), many will have their interest piqued to read further about this brilliant, pioneering natural historian/artist. Kim Todd writes well, has mastered her subject, and seamlessly weaves interesting asides about slavery and abolitionism, Darwin and Linnaeus, birds of paradise and peacock flowers, Peter the Great and the aftermath of the Thirty Years War, and more into one of those fascinating works that compel you to scour the bibliography and notes for more to delve into. How Merian is left out of most, if not all, general history books is baffling (sexism, misogyny, and the old-boy-network yet again)? A fascinating life story, and Kim Todd's considerable gift with prose narrative make this a book that even those with no prior interest in the subjects of metamorphosis or 16th/17th century exploration will enjoy. It has made me want to read more about the early years of natural history, pre-Darwin.(Todd's earlier book, TINKERING WITH EDEN, is also excellent).



2. What possesses a European woman to pack up her life and move across the ocean to study the natural world? Did I mention that it was 1699?
   
   Chrysalis tells the story of Maria Sibylla Merian, a woman living in the late 1600s and early 1700s, who is fascinated by the process in which a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. She cultivates them as one might cultivate roses. More, she studies them in their own habitat. But how did she do it in a time when women were subject to their men, when witch trials were the norm, and dabbling in insect life was more than suspect?
   
   But Chrysalis is more than a biography. It is a study in entomology. What is the process from caterpillar to butterfly? And why do the chrysalises sometimes produce flies rather than butterflies? Remember this is the time of "spontaneous generation" when scientists thought frogs came from rain and meat produced flies.
   
   Chrysalis is more than entomology. It is religious history. What made the Pietist sects split off from the Lutheran church? What was the call of the Labidists for Merian? And how did she slide by the rules of stripping off worldly trappings in order to continue to paint and study?
   
   And still that is not all. There is her study across the ocean in Surinam. Her return. Her art. The study of microbiology with the invention of the microscope. This book is a comprehensive study of much that was going on in the world. It is fascinating and the art is beautiful. If I have any complaint, it is that the author references pieces that aren't pictured in the book and when the pieces are pictured, there is nothing to note that. I spent a lot of time flipping to the grouped photos in an often fruitless search.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: This is an overall fascinating book that could be improved by better referencing and picturing of the art.



3. [...]
   
   Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, a nonfiction book by Missoula writer Kim Todd, sounds like a Victorian adventure novel: a fifty-two-year-old woman abandons her husband and European continent to study the metamorphosis of caterpillars in Surinam. But this was before the Victorians. In 1699, more than a century before Darwin, sixty-five years after Galileo's prosecution, and a time when witch hunts were part of the recent past, Maria Sibylla Merian embarked on a journey of scientific discovery in the dangerous New World with only her daughter for company. While the male colonists grew sugar cane on their plantations, Merian's slaves and servants helped her locate insects, reptiles, and plants for her to study and depict in her captivating watercolors. She trusted the natives' knowledge to assist her research, something that would be used against her reputation in the decades after her death.
   
   By the time Merian stepped on that boat to Surinam, she was a mother of two, had published two books about the metamorphosis of caterpillars in her native Germany, and spent five years living with a Pietist religious sect in a castle in Amsterdam, where she argued successfully for a separation from her husband using the sect's beliefs. At the time, a woman's husband was her legal representative and the court ordered numerous women to return to their abusive husbands. But after Merian's successful separation, she lived in Amsterdam and financially supported herself and her youngest daughter. Watercolors were her tool because "guild rules banned women from painting with oils." To get on that boat and to fund her scientific and artistic expedition, Merian sold her paintings and any unnecessary belongings.
   
   Kim Todd who received the PEN/Jerard Fund Award and the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing for her previous book, Tinkering with Eden, vividly describes the cultural, religious, and political time Merian lived in, as well as her artwork and scientific contributions, without overwhelming the reader. Todd also introduces other fascinating, accomplished women of the seventeenth century, and the new, exciting time of natural philosophers (the term scientist hadn't been created yet, neither had biology, ecology, or any of the other -ologies). Spontaneous generation, the idea that creatures could be born from non-living sources, was a common belief during Merian's time. Todd includes some of the recipes. My favorite is:
   
   To get a bee -
   Find a sunny space roofed with tile
   Beat a three year old bull to death
   Put poplar and willow branches under the body
   Cover it with thyme and serpellium
   The bees will emerge
   
   In language as colorful as Merian's paintings, Todd also describes the intricacies of metamorphosis and some of the insects that befuddled Merian and other natural philosophers. Through Todd's gripping prose, I became excited about the tricky metamorphosis of the large blue butterfly (Maculinea arion). Trust me, that's an accomplishment. If you don't believe insects and metamorphosis are interesting, you will feel differently after this book. To experience Merian's life and what happened to her work and reputation after her death, you will need, and want, to read Chrysalis. One hint: Peter the Great is involved.



4. You may have seen the artwork of Maria Sibylla Merian, as it is a staple for pretty but accurate pictures of butterflies, caterpillars, moths, and flowers, and can be found on china or stationery. She was more than a painter or engraver, though. Her life was unique. She had artistic talent, but she was also a keen scientific observer, who advanced the study of insects immeasurably. She was a teenaged bride who left her husband who divorced her, and she had to care for their two children. She was so enthralled with the study of moths and butterflies that at age 52 she traveled to a mysterious and largely unknown land to see more of them, and to bring back pictures and scientific descriptions of their behavior. And she did this more than three centuries ago. _Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis_ (Harcourt) by Kim Todd is a thoughtful examination of what we can know about Merian's life from the few personal documents that remain about her, and a proper reevaluation of her place in the world's scientific effort. It also is a fine resource about the biological controversies that were brewing in the seventeenth century, controversies that had to be settled in order for a basic understanding of insect life to take hold.
   
   Merian was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1647. She could not have a formal apprenticeship like a male artist in training, and she could not even paint in oils, because the rules of the guild forbade women from doing so. She was, however, able to use watercolors and engraving with beauty and utility to bring her objects of study almost to life upon the page. When Merian studied or painted insects, she included what foods they ate, and how they proceeded from egg to larva to pupa and to the adult, and it was all part of her contribution to science and to the branch that later was to be known as ecology. In doing so, she was working against scientific currents of the time, since it was held that insects could spontaneously generate from rotting meat, dew, or wool. She also was taking a risk in showing interest in possibly satanic insects, especially since she kept them alive, fed them, and kept their cocoons in her kitchen. Women were accused of witchcraft for less. Dutch curiosity cabinets did contain spectacular specimens from the colony of Surinam, but Merian wanted to see the insects as they lived, and used the money she made from her books and her paintings to finance her two-year trip there. She relied on the natives to tell her about the plants and their uses, and she got the first rudimentary understandings of the rainforest as a complex ecosystem; she observed, for instance, that butterflies at the tops of the trees were different from the ones nearer the ground.
   
   Merian left Surinam after only two years because of illness, probably malaria. After she returned to the Netherlands, she published _Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium_ in 1705, full of pictures and descriptions of the colorful insects she had seen on her travel. The beauty of the pictures was praised, but only succeeding generations could appreciate the ecological innovations of her insect portraits. Her reputation suffered after her death; if she were discussed at all, it was to ridicule her picture of a spider capturing a hummingbird. After all, she had no formal education, she accepted the reports of natives who lived among the insects she depicted, and she was a woman. It was only in the twentieth century that her reputation was restored, not just as an artist but as a scientist who insisted on direct observation of the insects she described, and who realized how their cycles linked within a larger natural system. Todd's book has to have a great deal of speculation in it; she includes many sentences beginning with "perhaps" or "probably". This is because the sources are scant. There are Merian's books and paintings, of course, but beyond that are a couple of her legal documents and less than twenty letters she wrote. Nonetheless, Merian's contributions to biology were considerable, and Todd's well-illustrated and thoughtful book helps in the restoration of her reputation.



5. Today Maria Merian is mostly known for her lovely butterfly prints, but back in 1699 she sailed from Amsterdam to South America on an expedition to study metamorphosis - a rare journey for any naturalist of the times, much less a woman over fifty - and spent two years in the tropical jungle seeking out caterpillars and studying butterflies. Her accomplishments were largely dismissed and forgotten but come to life here in a gorgeous biography surveying her life and achievements.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

4 comments about Walking With the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas.

1. This is a tender, touching, love story of epic proportions. The love and feminine worship of the Trimates by the author, Sy Montgomery is apparent and the loves both human and primate of each woman is so masterfully told by Montgomery. We can't help but feel a kinship to the three wonderful women who are celebrated in this Leakey led sisterhood of Montgomery's biographical tale of primatologists Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Berute Galdikas. Not unlike her other works, Montgomery has allowed us to follow her...NO! This time, walk along side of her throughout her journey to tell the stories of these three women scientists who spent their lives in the service of Louis Leakey until his death in 1972, and the primates they each chose to bravely live among and almost change into their respective Animagus form. Montgomery has taken three biographies and woven them poetically together like the intertwining lives they each lead, without gossip, but of obvious sincere heroine worship.



2. An astonishing writer named Sy Montgomery thoughtfull wrote Walking With The Great Apes. Montgomery's captivating novel portrays three women who are fasinated about how primates live and care for one another. In a dire world of poaching and murder, these three scientists attempt to protect and preserve the world and nature of humanity's closest cousins. All together Walking With The Great Apes is a thought-provoking book and a must read for anyone interested in the Great Apes.



3. A very well written book and a great introduction to those who want to know more about the lives and studies of these 3 extremely remarkable woman Jane Goodall, Birutas Galdikas and last but not least for me THE woman of the 20th century Dian Fossey.



4. Sy Montgoemry writes extremely well, and as a consequence, her book is compulsively readable. Not only that, but the subject matter is pure fascination, as she sheds light on each of these great apes, their extraordinary environments, and the daring women scientists who study them - their unique approach to science, their trials and tribulations. A great book.