5 comments about Alice Waters and Chez Panisse.

1. alice waters is truly an inspiration because she lives life with a passion for making a difference - a rare commodity in today's world.
   
   i'm not sure how i found out about chez panisse but a friend and i went to the bay area a couple of years ago for a culinary weekend and we started our tour at chez panisse's cafe. it remains as one of my most memorable meals ever - relatively simple yet the tastes and textures were absolutely sublime!
   
   the food alone makes chez panisse one of the world's greatest restaurants. but when you add in her commitment to sustainability and social justice, alice waters get the big picture!
   
   when i look at tv (i.e. the food network) and its easy-on-the-eyes celebrity chefs, i absolutely cringe because 99% of them can't hold a candle to alice waters, a real revolutionary who is still thinking outside the box 40 years later.
   
   like alice waters, eric tucker - the mastermind behind the world-class vegan restaurant millenium in san francisco - is also an inspiration as well. not only for the incredibly inventive food he turns out consistently at millenium but for taking sustainability to a whole another level!



2. This is living proof that if we would only eat what is fresh and in season, we would experience flavor and taste, and "better for you" foods, as the food is FRESHER---this remarkable chef has treated food with respect-no contrivance here. Read and eat!



3. I enjoyed reading this because of the subject's devotion to fresh, local, sustainable food, but was disappointed in the writing. The book is mainly a compilation of quotes from Alice Waters and her friends and people she's worked with - there's no synthesis provided by the author, no insight. It seems on the surface to be giving an honest portrait of the woman and her restaurant, but I just felt that there was a lot left unrevealed and unanalyzed. Instead of giving a clear-eyed assessment, this book fit into the mold of every project Alice has embarked on: She handpicked her biographer and gave him full access to sources so that it feels like a community effort, but she also made sure the book only carried the tone she desired - the tone she envisioned it should have - and was too impatient to provide or allow any introspection.



4. ...book about a woman and her restaurant - constantly on the verge of going broke in the early days but went on to become the most influential and inspirational person in the American restaurant business. A must for all foodies (although Alice doesn't like the word!)



5. I just finished the book and although I was engaged in the story the first half of the book, the 2nd half really dragged. Maybe if you have had the great pleasure to dine at Alice's restaurant, perhaps the story would have kept your attention better than mine. It's interesting to learn about the evolution of fine dining in this country and the recent movement for slow food. Alice Waters is a hero for her work way beyond the walls of her restaurant. However, the writing was inconsistent.

5 comments about When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams.

1. Do you remember "Jan and Dean"? Do you remember those "surf songs" that were/are so much fun to dance to and sing along with? Do your kids remember these songs? This book, so easy to read, gives us one man's remembrance of what it was like to tour and sing/play with the various and ever-changing group inspired by the original Jan and Dean. What a wild and wonderful ride they all had...
   
   This was a fascinating read for me and I was amazed about so many details of "life on the tour" that Bob Greene remembered. For all I know, he may still be on tour...
   
   You might also like reading one of Bob's other recent books, And You Know You Should Be Glad. He has a gift for being able to write about how it felt growing up in a (fairly) small town in the 50's/60's and has a way about explaining feelings that he had as a teenager and those feelings of his friends. Things were sure different then and young people today might enjoy seeing how one particular guy saw things. When I have read his books, I have said to myself, "yeah, I know what you mean," but have not been able to put it into words. He talks about the importance of sustaining friendships and not all of us have been able to keep such long relationships. His recounting of those times also kept me laughing, it was not all seriousness. In fact, I think the humour is what kept the whole thing going in both of these books.
   
   Sincerely,
   Diane Commendatore
   loudotcomm@comcast.net



2. Bob Greene takes fans of 60's music through an insightful story from behind the scenes as he tells of his travels with Jan and Dean. His observations as one of the back up musicians reveal little known things about musicians and how concerts work. He also has many anecdotes about Jan and Dean after Jan's "recovery" from his terrible accident. Some of them are humorous and some rather sad. Reading this book led me to buy other books by Greene that I hadn't read so far in addition to buying another book about Jan and Dean. A good read.



3. This is a great book. I especially enjoy reading about Gary Griffin....he's a real cutie. It's interesting to find out that life on the road isn't all glamor. A wonderful inside view of the people and songs that we all remember.



4. If you are a fan of 50s and 60s music you will love this book. If you are a fan of Jan and Dean you MUST HAVE THIS BOOK. It is beyond a doubt the best book I have ever read on the subject of rock and roll.But it is so much more than that-it is the story of undying friendship and the search for eternal youth.I found my own Surf City last year when I met Dean Torrence in an Oklahoma Casino where he and the Surf City All Stars were playing.That meeting made reading the book that much better,because it proved to me that Bob Greenes views were right on the mark, and that if you are lucky you too can find Surf City.Rock and Roll will never die.



5. Greene's newest is fun if you are from that era of music. I wish it had more about the encounters of other musicians, and less of his musings. Since he toured with Alice Cooper and wrote a book about that, it would have been fun to hear some kind of comparison of those experiences.

5 comments about God's Smuggler.

1. This book by Brother Andrew was Excellent. The story of a European Christian and his attempts to smuggle Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. Plenty of action and suspense, combined with a motivating personal story. Since its the story of a mans life its also a fairly easy read.



2. This book is gripping. I started reading it one night and finished it the next afternoon. This is a great story and testimony.



3. This is the true story of Brother Andrew and his work in smuggling Bibles to those Christians oppressed by communism. There are many moments of miraculous interventions by God and Brother Andrew's touchingly transparent story will bring a tear to your eye and inspire you to appreaciate the freedoms we have and to help those who do not, even if only in prayer. This is one book that will not dissappoint!



4. This book was hard to put down. I first learned of Brother Andrew by listening to a CD of the life of Corrie TenBoom. He was a friend of hers and introduced the CD.
   
   The book God's Smuggler is, (and I hate to use this word loosely as it is overused) awesome in the respect that God answered him so many times directly. His answers were direct miracles from God. It is also amazing to read how he managed to get in and out of Russia so many times unscathed. Great reading.



5. I read this book atleast once a year. It is the most exciting and inspirational book in my library.

5 comments about Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (World As Home, The).

1. We noticed when we moved south to Georgia some twenty-five years ago that in many ways we'd dropped back in time. Janisse Ray was born in 1962; it may as well have been 1932. I thank her for sharing her knowledge of the flora and critters around her - many now gone forever. Whenever I see a long-leaf pine from now on, I will treasure the sight.



2. All of Janisse's work, but most especially Cracker Childhood, is so very much a snapshot of South Georgia. She grabs you, her reader, by the hand and transports you to her South -- a South where Gone with the Wind is just another goofy movie starring a British actress, a South where Faulkner defied and defined a culture, a South where loggers are systematically erasing the long-leaf pines that once embraced elemental hard-scrabble lives. If you are game for an adventurous romp through dismal swamps, junk yards, and back woods then this is the read for you. Once you take it up you will be loathe to put it down.
   Thank you, Janisse, for a wonderful trip!



3. This book combines a nostalgic autobiographical look at the author's childhood in the 1960s and 70s in Baxley, a small town located in the coastal plains of Georgia, with an examination of the deteriorating ecosystem of the region, in particular longleaf pine forests. The flow of the book is decidedly non-chronological as she interleaves various family vignettes with commentary on a range of environmental concerns, often focusing on the huge reduction in various animals of the region such as the red-cockaded woodpecker, the gopher tortoise, or the indigo snake and the relationship to the loss of longleaf pines. Ultimately, it is left to the reader to draw the connection between cracker culture and the ecosystem.
   
   The author traces her roots to Borderlanders, of English-Scottish origin, who settled the region in the early 19th century. They were known as "crackers" which has become synonymous with "redneck." She grew up on the side of US-1, the main North-South highway of the time, in a clapboard house situated in the midst of her father's junkyard. That was the playground and learning environment for the author and her siblings, seldom having much interaction with others.
   
   The author holds her father Franklin, named after Pres Roosevelt, in great esteem. As were many in rural areas, he was a tinkerer and seat-of-the-pants mechanic and a supplier of used parts to similar persons. He was also a religious fundamentalist, driving his family many miles to attend services of a small, predominately black sect. He enforced rigid standards of dress and behavior on the entire family. However, he also was inclined to aid the downtrodden and hurt, either man or animal. Though the family seemed rather poor, a contradiction is that on at least two occasions her father bought tracts of land.
   
   As perceptive as the author undoubtedly is, she turns a mostly accepting eye to a culture that was most assuredly ignorant. Her father and grandfather, Charlie, were men of violence, Charlie having a reputation of having beaten any number of men half to death. Frank was quick with the strap, seeing fit to administer whippings for the mere observance of a boy killing a turtle that had clamped down on his shoe. The author had to hide from her father the reading of books or the watching of television at her grandmother's. Both her father and grandfather were admitted to the hospital in Millegeville, GA for the insane for a relatively short period. One wonders if cracker culture itself contributes to unstable behavior.
   
   In addition, for a book concerning the culture of 1960's rural Georgia, there is a puzzling absence of any commentary on race relations, other than attending church. There is little in the author's recall of her childhood that suggests how she managed to end up at a small college in north Georgia on scholarship - was it because of her childhood environment or despite it?
   
   The environmental destruction of the coastal plains predated the author's birth by several generations. Like many from rural areas, the author was comfortable with plants and animals. But neither she, her father, or their neighbors were in any sense environmentalists. Undoubtedly, her past made her gravitation to the subject in college a not unnatural development. But her growth to environmental activist is absent in this book. It seems to be assumed that the reader will understand such a trajectory.
   
   The book is spotty, vague, and even at times seems like a fairy tale. The author's recall of climbing trees and laying on the ground communing with nature as a child is undoubtedly now viewed through poetic license. In a not untypical approach, she chooses to discuss the ecosystem by having lightning, clouds, and trees hold a discussion about their roles. It's difficult to pinpoint what the author is attempting to convey in her reminisces about her childhood with good-natured, yet violent and ignorant, people and her focus on ecology. Her discussions of clear-cutting old-growth forests and replacing them with tightly packed, quickly growing, and environment-killing tree farms is not well tied to "cracker" culture. Nor is she inclined to search for culprits.
   
   Does cracker culture exist today? Should the reader be alarmed or appreciative? Is cracker culture a hazard to our environment? The author seems to be leaving the answer to questions like these to the reader. Some might well expect more from the author.



4. "Ecology of a Cracker Childhood" is probably the most moving autobiography I've ever read. By turns heartbreaking, inspirational, and motivational, Ray's story is one of an outsider in every respect; the daughter of a junkyard owner in rural Georgia, she faces a number of obstacles including her father's precarious mental stability. Looking back with a mix of fondness and acceptance rather than anger, Ray looks at how her environment (built and natural, as well as home) shaped who she became. Ray intersperses the book with chapters on long-leaf pines, gopher tortoises, and other uniquely Southern flora and fauna that is endangered and rapidly disappearing. While it may be jarring to the reader, Ray is making a larger point; we are forcing the environment to adapt or die to suit our needs rather than adapting to the environment. Ray writes lovingly of how nature slowly reclaims the wrecked hulks of cars in her father's junkyard; nature slowly, steadily winning over man and man's folly. Along the way she recounts unusual tales of her difficult path to adulthood that are profoundly moving. In some respects the chapters are by turns explanations and a badge of honor rather than excuses. Her recounting of a rare visit to the North will likely register profoundly with any Southerner who has ventured there. Perhaps it is because Ray and I are the same age or perhaps because our backgrounds are eerily similar, but I feel a connection and a deeper understanding and appreciation for where she's coming from and who she is. Ray is unabashedly unapologetic and "Ecology" will alternately move you to fits of laughter and sometimes nearly to tears, but it will not leave you unmoved.



5. "Write about what you know," is an old axiom for would-be authors. Janisse Ray takes this to heart in "Ecology of a Cracker Childhood." Part autobiography and childhood memoir and part an ecology of plants and animals, this is a wonderful tale that successfully blends both.
   
   Janisse Ray is writing about what she knows best. The human dimension to her tale is a tale of growing up with her family in the natural world. The family home sits in the middle of a junkyard along old Route 1 in southeastern Georgia in a forest of longleaf pine. It is a coming of age story, where she is clearly destined for a horizon beyond the junkyard in the pines.
   
   She is solidly grounded in her childhood environment, low on the affluence scale, but one which has prepared her well for life. "Ecology of a Cracker Childhood" conveys a great sense of place and will give the reader a newfound respect for a forest of longleaf pine.
   
   I bought this book at the Visitor Center at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, not all that far from Baxley, Georgia. I am glad they stocked it in the store. Reading this put me on to "Pinhook," her next work which I also recommend.

5 comments about Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther.

1. This book is written with intense, muscular prose, and oversees the life of a mighty thinker going through rough times for decades. Like the 16th century woodcuts that are depicted in illustrations throughout the work, the words seem to have a power that is more like an engraving or sculpture than passive tableau. The prose and mastery of complex theological, interpersonal, and historical issues gave me a reading experience I had not had since reading Allan Bullock's book on Hitler years ago.
   One feels profoundly immersed in the realities of Luther's struggles, yet at the same time, feels the imponderable weight of God's Providence. How did he wrestle with so many deep issues yet have time to marry, have six children, have meetings with friends and students, survive debilitating ailments, rebound from intense persecutions, and maintain a vibrant -- though sometimes coarse -- perspective? As I read the volume, I marched with Bainton through the intense and densely troubled waters of theological and liturgical disputes.
   Although I already in part knew the outcome;yet, at the same time, I was breathless: what would happen next? It was like watching those serial shows on TV years ago...what would happen to Flash Gordon in the next episode? So, I asked myself: how will Martin L. fare in the debate with Eck? How will he hold up before the Holy Roman Emperor? Will he survive the attacks on his life? What attitudes will he take towards other dissenting "Protestants?" It is a tribute to Prof. Bainton's narrative genius that I was brought into the "reality" of the times. In real life, we wonder: what will happen next -- especially with controversial actions that stir our deepest feelings.
   This book is more than a biography. As I said above, it's also a woodcut and a memorable personal experience where we get to participate in Prof. Bainton's great exposition of the life of the irascible but beloved Doktor Luther.



2. This edition of an otherwise wonderful book is terrible! The margins between the lines are so tight and the print so small and dense that one practically needs a magnifying glass to read it! We bought this as a Christmas gift for my husband's grandfather and were unable to give it to him because of its physical unreadability.



3. Good information on an important historical figure, but the reader has to tolerate far too much of the inane. For example, "...radio, television, and not even the internet were during John Calvin's time." Good to know.



4. This book was a great research source and a pretty easy read. I recommend this to anyone starting to study Martin Luther or the Reformation.



5. "Here I Stand" is both the keystone of Roland Bainton's series of Reformation studies, including
   his life of Sebastian Casellio, "The Travail of Religius Liberty" on Ochino, and the more condensed "Reformation of the Sixteenth Century"; it was in the years of my visits to Germany, the "1950's and 60's", regarded there as the best Luther biobgraphy ever written. All Bainton's books were enlivened by numerous rreproductions of contemporary woodcuts, few of them published anywhere else, and more accessible than even the usually shown, vividly first-hand Cranach portraits, but this biography includes the cream of the crop, whose originals were often set up on the bookshelves of his Yale Divinity School office.
   Hugh Barbour, Earlham College & School of Religion emeritus

5 comments about The Art of Expressing the Human Body.

1. Get inspired to get moving. Bruce Lee shares his workout secrets. Now you can have a Bruce Lee body too.



2. The first time I saw Bruce was at the now famous 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships. Were at the at the invitation of Ed Parker, A good friend of mine, I witness an extraordinary human being.
   At this tournament Bruce demonstrated 2 finger push ups, one inch punch and fighting skills.
   
   The second time I saw Bruce was at the 1967 Long Beach International Karate Championships. The last time I saw Bruce in person was a gathering of martial artist at a school in LA were he stood in front of about 25 students and taught and showed of his skills. I've seen Bruce ability close up and I would not fight Bruce Lee if he spat in my face. He was that good. If you fought Bruce lee he would probable overwhelm you with intense vigor trying to intentionally destroy you. This really doesn't matter unless you have the skill, he did. Now The Art of Expressing the Human Body is a compilation of Bruce lee's hand written work out routine from early sixties until his untimely death in 1973. This book is well organized and carefully compiled to preserve Bruce Lee's true intension. This covers all aspects of Bruce lees work out from nutrient to isometrics.
   
   If you watch Bruce lee movies then you should know the lengths of Bruce lee's abilities. However there is a such thing as camera tricks that may make people want to dispute Bruce's unbelievable abilities .However this is not the case because if you look at him in demonstration on Honk Kong Television you will see some amazing feat of strength occurring. For example breaking 1 inch thick boards with a punch delivered from only a few cm's away. Or breaking 5 daggling 1 inch boards with a side kick. This, my friend, is very hard to do. This book shows you through Bruce's hand written work out routine how he accomplished it. Bruce lee started his martial arts training at the age of 13 first by his farther then by the now legendary Master Yip Man. This training lasted to the age of 18 when he moved to the United States. On his arrival in the states he drastically started looking into the development of the body for martial arts and not just the development of the skill for martial arts. His hungry for the knowledge of all things regarding to physical development lead him to amass a colossal library of over 3,500 (My listamania on books Bruce Lee read) . Over 140 of those books had to do with body building weight training, physiology and kinesiology ,wear he just absorb what he needed and dismissed what he did not. Over years of research Bruce had compiled from different resources a multitude of journals describing different exercises and workouts which increased his power, strength ,flexibility. Bruce lee was in tune with what exact muscle groups he wanted. and how he could do it. He soon realized that conventional exercise machine could not work all the muscle groups which he wanted to work. So he created several original designs of his own training equipment and had his friend George Lee build them to his specifications.



3. Excellent service and received within a week. Product in excellent condition as advertised.Happy to trade again. Highly recommended



4. Bought the book for my husband and he loves it! Recommend it to any martial artist!



5. everything you need to buid your body like bruce lee aka. the man of steel

5 comments about Personal History.

1. Fantastic, gripping book, though it bogged down for me near the end with the minutia of labor/management disputes at the Washington Post. Still recommend highly.



2. My only regret is that I did not pay more attention to Katharine Graham and the Washington Post while she was alive. Through unveiling her own insecurities and illustrating how she moved into one of the most powerful women in the world, I learned US History and the trials of a CEO woman in the 1960s and forward.
   
   Ms. Graham reveals much about "inside Washington" and does a particularly good job of making the "players" come to life. I really hated to see the book end. Yet, Ms. Graham did what she set out to do -- documented a time in our history. Kathy Condon Executive Coach



3. This is a great book about a great woman! Interesting to see how even the privileged have difficult experiences in life and how it all only depend on us. We are very capable of achieving our goals and this book shows that even though it might not be easy, in the end, it can be very rewarding. This book shows a great insight in the history of newspaper business and politics.



4. It is long (642 pages), and the print is small. Why would anyone want to read it? Because every page has something of interest in it. And because this is not only the personal history of Katharine Graham, but a view of the United States from a woman reluctantly thrust into power by the death of her Washington Post husband. The time covered is from the early 1900s, when her parents met, through the early 1990s. Think of how life changed during that time.
   
   Mrs. Graham was raised by nannies in New York while her parents were busy helping out in Washington. She showed her independence by attending the radical University of Chicago and working before she married. When Katherine's father stepped down from management of the Washington Post, her husband, Phil, took his place. When Phil became ill and died, it was she who became president of the Washington Post Company.
   
   Constantly during this sweep through politics, labor relations, corporate management, the rise of feminism, the importance of communications, and much more, Graham weaves her personal growing consciousness of where she and other women stand in relationship to it all. She writes of the help she received and downplays her own acumen in becoming the only woman in the Fortune 500. Never does she flaunt who she was, who she became, and the power she held.
   
   Every page brings not only her personal insights about the (mostly) maturing of America, but also explains how she gains confidence while remaining concerned with and involved in her own family as well. An excellent read, but don't expect to finish it in one reading.
   
   by Judith Helburn
   for StorycircleBookReviews
   www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



5. Absolutely perfect biography. Graham's book is frank in ways few would care to be. Her leadership of the Washington Post has been much talked about, and I'm a big fan of the paper, so it was a fascinating story. When she took over the Post in the 1960s, women could not be found in too many positions of power. She honestly discusses her difficulties, self doubts, and mistakes in ways one is not likely to find in many other places. Since I find politics interesting, I appreciated Graham's insights into the development of media over the twentieth century and her candid insider thoughts on some of the most important and powerful leaders of the 20th century.

5 comments about My Cousin the Saint: A Search for Faith, Family, and Miracles.

1. What is it like to have a saint in the family? Go on - you can answer that. If you don't know already, you will discover, after reading Justin Catanoso's book about his cousin, that our families are full of saints, and that we, too, are on the same path. It's just that Justin's cousin won an Academy Award - so to speak--for his journey.
   You don't have to be Catholic to enjoy this book, it is not about religion, it is about God manifest in the family - Love, something common to us all. And, it's loaded with every-day miracles, prayers answered and petitions declined. Daniela, a Calabrese cousin and self-described miracle herself, has an answer to why not all requests for miracles are granted. I'll not reveal it here.
   Take the book to the beach - it's not heavy reading--and about two thirds of the way through the book and the day, when you have an inexplicable hunger for swordfish, gather the family together for dinner and your own little communion of saints. Can it be any wonder why Jesus chose a meal to share Himself with us?
   Reading My Cousin The Saint after finishing Passion on the Vine by Sergio Esposito, another satisfying book about family, food, love, and more than a little wine, I think these Italians are on to something. Or is it up to something? Either way we are no longer strangers but pilgrims heading for the same place. What a pleasure to encounter Justin and his family on this path.



2. This will be short and to the point. This accounting of Saint Gaetano Catanoso's life is a compelling read. It makes a wonderful gift to believers and unbelievers alike.
   
   Pati Sparks



3. I picked this book up because the premise was kind of interesting -- what's it like to find out you are related to a saint (close enough that the family resemblance to your father is obvious)? The writer is kind of sleep walking spiritually through life but awakens to find that he has a cousin who is in line to become a saint -- an honest-to-goodness, pope-approved, picture-on-the-Vatican-walls saint. The journey that opens to him takes him back to his family's roots in Italy and the contrast between his grandfather's decision to leave home for America and his grandfather's cousin's decision to become a humble priest in a land that everyone (and sometimes God) seems to have forgot. The present intrudes when an older brother develops terminal cancer and the search for the miracles that will lead to Father Gaetano's canonization becomes desperately personal. Ultimately, the journey reveals to the author the hold that faith and family have on him.



4. I loved this book. I cried because it was sad or because it was happy. The book is a delight and I am buying it for my Catholic friends and family. Justin has captured so much of what Italy and Italians are while giving us a view of what it is to be a saint and to be recognized as one. It is a story of faith and seeking faith. It is a story of family split by time and an ocean and a family rejoined by email, travel, and the Vatican. This book is well written. I did not edit one word! I hope Justin writes another book!



5. My Cousin the Saint is provocative--it's impossible to read this book and not contemplate your own faith and the meaning of family. I consider myself far too practical and rational to be religious. So it was interesting reading about how someone with the same self-image started believing. Or at least trying to.
   
   Furthermore Catanoso's vivid descriptions of his family in the United States and in Italy provides an interesting contrast of the social norms in those two countries.
   
   Growing up outside of Boston, I was jealous of my many Italian-American classmates and their large, boisterous families. This book confirms that my envy was well founded.

5 comments about Forget Me Not: A Memoir.

1. Jennifer Lowe-Anker tells many women's story in telling her own: a remarkably capable person who falls in love with one of the world's best athletes--and allows him to pursue his passion to its fullest while raising 3 boys and "keeping the home fires burning". Her experience of the compromises and rewards of a loving marriage--carry her through the intense grief that follows her husband's death. Her narrative is well-told and unpretentious, yet masterfully done. Though she lives a remarkable life, she has experienced more than her share of death-and has crafted a memoir that weaves it all together gorgeously. This book will stay with you for a long time.



2. I loved this book. I could really relate to it, as my husband spent time with Alex Lowe on one of his climbs. Small world. What an amazing climber and man Alex Lowe was. May his spirit live on in all of us. Jennifer is such a strong woman and I can relate to her, being the mother of boys also. I also met Jennifer at Mountain Film in Telluride, CO and had my books signed. It was an honor to meet such a respectable woman, then to read her story, was even more impressionable!



3. I devoured this book!! I really enjoyed it, and would recommend it to anyone. It was a nice read, and it surprisingly did not make me cry as much as I was afraid it would (Maria Coffey's Where the Mountain Cast Its Shadow made me pretty much cry through the entire book). Very interesting, touching story. I really enjoyed hearing about how they met, fell in love and all of the adventures they shared together, and how she handled her life while her husband was away doing what he loved while she continued to do what she loved (she is an accomplished artist). It was sad knowing how he died and how hard it must have been for her to break the news to her children, that part really got to me. Overall I think it shows just how strong of a woman Lowe-Anker is - how she almost lost it all but was able to keep going forward and putting one foot in front of the other and was able to find love again. Great story, you should really check it out!



4. Twenty eight October 1996 Alex Lowe speaks in Houston, Doug Scott in Sante Fe. Sante Fe a more enticing destination especially with a stop in the Guadalupe Mountain on the way I drove to Sante Fe enjoyed Doug's "Seven Summits" presentation and had a few beers with him and others at the Cowgirl Bar. In 1982 Doug and another Alex, Alex MacIntyre, climbed Shishapagma and collaborated on a book about it, THE SHISHAPANGMA EXPEDITION. The book would be published posthumously in Alex's case as this Alex was to die soon on Annapurna. Doug Scott who had survived a high altitude bivouac on the west face of Everest with Dougal Haston and climbed within a few feet [honoring the sacredness of the mountain] of the summit of Kangchenjungna with Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker. Dougal, Peter, and Joe would soon all die in the mountains. And on K-2 Doug would see his ropemate Nick Estcourt swept to death in an avalanche which would no doubt have killed him to if not the 5mm rope connecting them not have broken. Doug Scott who I understand prepares for every expedition as not to come back but somehow always has. Alex Lowe who promised to come back and finally could not. Alex Lowe would never write a book but thanks to Jennifer we have many of his letters. Poignant letters bimming with hope and love of Jennifer and people and mountains and his three young sons. From the Trango Tower he writes of the little Alpine Forget-Me-Nots imploring Jennifer to come up with an idea of a painting typing together the flowers and their Love. One wonders if Jennifer could bare to create such a painting. She, thankfully, has created the took and in FORGET ME NOT she writes of the 18 years Alex and she were together although because of Alex's involvements in expedition months adding up to years they were apart. She tells of the early years when she joined Alex on climbs and of their itinerant life working on a seismic crew: of times spent at Camp 4 in Yosemite, climibing in Alaska, climbing in Europe. She also writes of her development as an Artist, visiting the Lourve while Alex put up hard routes in the Chamonix. And she remembers soloing the Skyladder and going on the summit on Andromeda experiencing the risk, serenity and joy of climbing before finally becoming more like Hector's wife and devoted mother Andromechea in the book of Hectors death, the Iliad. Alex not unlike Hector tragically compelled to risk [duty] and adventure but albeit more so equally tied to Jennifer, Max, Sam and Isaac. An imaginative and impulsive father who engaged his sons in everything from tadpoles to homework. A world class climber who claimed his greatest climb was summiting the Grand Teton with his son Max. How could it be otherwise than through tears we read of Jennifer receiving words from Shishapangma that Alex was missing under tons of ice and snow. Alex, David Bridges, and Corad Anker had been crossing a face, the slope above avalanched, Alex and David had run down the mountain, Corad across. Alex and David were buried, Conrad although injured survived. We read of Jennifer being comforted by her mother and the monumental strength of her sister Jan, both of whom were to die and the next few years. Especially poignant is the picture Jennifer gives us of picking 3 year old Isaac up wishing to join him in the imaginative world of his sandbox. Later as Jennifer we learn more of the depth of Conrad. Alex had written of Conrad as one would imagine Enkidu would have written of Gilgamesh in that book of friendship and death, possibly the oldest story in world. Conrad who would become the tender and compassionate husband of Jennifer and father for Max, Sam and Isaac. Jennifer had written of seeing snow geese giving her a sense of Alex and of the affirmation of life which came of it, of continuing to fly, now with the companionship of Conrad, Max, Sam, and Isaac.



5. I loved this book, I couldn't put it down! Jennifer's story of adventure and being in love with such a dynamic man is a wonderfully written book.
   It is a very personal, descriptive and objective memoir. I think that both men and women would enjoy this book, it is about adventure and risk and love and lessons and hope and being strong. I think Jennifer's writing was wonderful, the way she described the travels and the personalities were so well done. I would highly recommend this to anyone that loves adventure and that has been in love and knows what it is like to support someone in what they want to do.....no matter the risk. The cover is a little off putting, it doesn't say adventure so look past the pretty cover and know this will have you on the edge of your seat as you read this amazing story of love and adventure and loss...........
   Please pick this one up!

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