5 comments about Still Life with Rice.

1. and this is one of them. This is a good quality book written from an interesting perspective. I highly recommend.



2. This is truly an incredible journey: A true story that reads like a gripping novel: from a mother trying to cast out the worms that gnaw at her daughter's stomach, to trying to cross the shell of a bridge from North Korea to South Korea during the war, with children in tow. It will make you appreciate everything you have: your family, the food on your table, the clothes on your back. It will make you want to read the sequel: In the Absence of Sun, which details the family's struggle to smuggle family out of North Korea--unbelievable! There can't be a more oppressive country on the planet. Helie Lee draws attention to this divided country that is often overlooked.



3. Summer reading doesn't have to be a chore. This book was required summer reading for my 9th grade communications students at an international school in Korea. While "required" might turn some off, I was pleasantly surprised at the novel's readability. It is the poignant memoir of a Korean woman who survived the Japanese occupation and civil war of her country eventually making her way to America to live in California. Her grandaughter tells the story through her grandmother's eyes, and it is truly amazing how provocatively she relates the private wishes, dreams and feelings of this woman of a different era. What is most impressive is the feelings invoked on the reader of the applicability of this woman's story to the nation of Korea as a whole. I hope that the wish related at the end of this fantastic memoir comes true!



4. This book is amazing. It really brings the Korean culture into sharp focus. The North Korea-South Korea divide was tragic and this story is beautifully told tying in the war, family, love, divide and salvation. I recommend that you also purchase In the Absence of Sun.



5. This book was recommended to me, and although I was warned about some of the "weirdness" of the approach, still thought it might be worth reading. I was disappointed on many levels, and would not recommend this book to anyone else.
   
   First off, this is not a biography in the strictest sense. It should be treated as historical fiction. The author takes the voice of her grandmother and is clearly making up a number of details (some slightly disturbing, like grandma's sexual encounters). Some of her history, however, is inaccurate.
   
   As has been mentioned elsewhere, the author isn't the best writer. As an example, at one point she is talking about the U.S.-run refugee camps around Pusan and describes numerous hardships such as being sprayed with DDT, fighting rats, cold showers, and dangerous electricity. And then to finish it off, she writes the line, "The worst hardship, however, was the lack of privacy." What?!?
   
   I think what irritated me the most, however, was what was left unsaid most of the time. I suspect part of this is because the author didn't do her research, and part of it is because of the author's own biases. The grandmother is from the yangban class, so a member of the aristocracy of Korea. The background and connections this entails are somewhat covered in a peripheral way, but not in a conscious way. Through most of her life, the lead character is well off. And when she does suffer hardships, the obvious connection between her background and the experiences and results are stripped out. It didn't come as a shock to me that such a wealthy landowner wasn't happy with land reform.
   
   Another issue here that is important to 20th century Korean history but are completely glossed over is that grandmother collaborated with the Japanese in China. This is skirted around, but there is nothing respectable about selling opium to the Chinese, even before acknowledging that the Japanese are the suppliers. There is mention that this made her a little uncomfortable, but it didn't get in the way of her greed. When they return wealthy to Pyongyang, their neighbors know about what they did in China. Again, no surprise when this comes back to haunt them; the core of the military in the north was formed from people who fought against the Japanese.
   
   All this, taken with the occasional historical inaccuracy and the grandmother's fanatical approach to religion at the end of the book took away all trust I had in the author to tell me a "real" story. Because the grandmother seems to present certain events as "miracles", you have to figure out for yourself how events really played out. When you find out that other male relatives are still around later in the book, you can only guess what role they played during the late 40s.
   
   In the end, the author's search for her Korean identity leaves us with a negative impression of what it means to be Korean. I think that's a disservice to Koreans and Korean-Americans.

4 comments about My Brother's Keeper: A Memoir and a Message.

1. Amitai Etzioni is the founder of the communitarian movement in the US today. He has lead one really interesting life. In his memoirs he reveals himself to be a reflective and honest man who is able to put his own life into perspective and put the interests of others before his own. At the same time he is painfully self-critical. From the days when he was growing up in Israel before it became a state in 1947, to his years at Columbia University during the student protests of the 1960's, to his role as an advisor to the President, he tells it as it happened. Included are some never told stories of his conflicts with the FBI. "My Brother's Keeper" does far more however: it is also about how an academic finds his way from the culture of books to a life of activism and civic responsibility. It offers the history of his intellectual evolution along with his personal development. I found it absolutely fascinating.



2. My Brother's Keeper. A Memoir and a Message by Amitai Etzioni is an exciting intellectual biography. It may also be entitled: "An Active Intellectual as a Young and as a Mature Man". But this book is much more than an interesting personal memoir. In addition to a fascinating life story and an intellectual biography, it leads us along the pitfalls and dilemmas of modern society during the second half of the 20th century and points out the directions of a moral life in a "good society". Etzioni's ideas as expressed in this book, and in his previous ones, are not unrealizable utopian longings. They are firmly based on contemporary reality. He piercingly analyzes present dangerous trends and forces in social, political and economic developments on one hand and the values and morality of the communitarian movement, which he founded, on the other.
   Born in Germany, fleeing from the Nazi regime, raised in Israel and taking part in its War of Independence, educated and maturing in the United States, Prof. Etzioni was influence by the richness of his three cultural backgrounds. Yet, the dominant features of his personality were present from an early age, opposing his disciplinary mother, posing difficult questions to his teachers, daring to express new ideas and criticize accepted norms, despite the high price he sometime had to pay. His inclination towared activism, to shape social policies, and the strong inner feeling of a mission, a calling, as he labeled it, are present in his life from the very beginning. Etzioni applies the same rules towards himself too and does not shy from criticizing himself and expressing his frustrations and mistakes. He feels strongly committed and ready to pay the price for voicing his mind and being an active intellectual in order to bring about a moral regeneration.
   I strongly recommend this book.
   Rachel Elboim-Dror (author of CLEAN DEATH IN TEL AVIV, 2003)
   The Hebrew University of Jerusalem



3. This is the story of a professor and his passionate sense of calling to serve others. It is a window into a life that combines academics, public affairs and service to society. A still humble man, he has risen to the status of advisor to several national leaders, advocating a vision of public policy that is guided by intense intellectual energy, personal responsibility and compassion. His "third way" perspective may be the the right solution to many pressing question facing democracies in our time.



4. Amitai Etzioni calls himself the father of the communitarian movement. When you reduce his philosophy to its kernel, it can be stated thusly: Serving the community is the highest good, but self interest is evil. What he is really saying is that individual freedom is evil. The truth is that self-interest propels a free society. Productivity is motivated by self-interest. Socialism robs people of the desire to produce. Why should anyone work harder than the next when they all get paid the same? That is why socialist countries are poor. You ban self-interest (individual freedom) and you kill productivity. Then the elite ruling class have to threaten the people to produce. When that happens you get a bare minimum effort, just enough to get by. The society is not free. If the individual is not free, the community is not free.
   In fact, a critical thinker realizes that in a Global Governance under this ideal of Socialism or Communism or Collectivism or Communitarianism (whatever you want to call it), the sheer logistics of ruling the world demands very tight controls, and that means totalitarianism with a bureaucratic network. Nazi Germany was that way. So was the USSR. The ideal always sounds great, but the reality of it always leads to dictatorship. Under this system, we are not allowed to benefit personally from our labors. We only benefit collectively. The individual ceases to have value intrinsically. The individual only has value as he is valuable to the community. Under communitarianism all individual rights cease. All creeds must be approved. No dissension allowed.
   Amitai Etzioni is very influential, and very commited to making communitarianism accepted. He has succeeded. Our politicians and rulers of the free world have bought into his philosophy. This is the New World Order.

No comments about Technology, Literacy, and the Evolution of Society: Implications of the Work of Jack Goody.

No comments about Jurgen Habermas (Key Sociologists Series).

2 comments about I'm Going to Have a Little House: The Second Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus (Engendering Latin America).

1. Many readers know Carolina de Jesus's memior "Child of the Dark" but few knew that she wrote a second book about her bitter journey from her favela shack to the brick house of her dreams. There, she was treated just as badly as she had been when she was a scavenger for garbage in the favela. As a former Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil (too many years ago!!) I loved this book. It is riveting, unexpected, and filled with insights about how Carolina de Jesus saw the world. The editor's background description and analysis is excellent, too.



2. This is the second book of Carolina Maria De Jesus's life. She was a black woman writer living in the slums of Brazil in the 1950's. A reporter discovered her & made her famous. You really need to read the first book, "Child of the Dark" to enjoy & understand this one. The book is written like a diary; I devoured the pages in this book, eager to learn more about her life. After Carolina becomes famous & moves out of the slums she encounters different problems but all & all she's much happier. It was great to read about her eating in restaurants, buying & cooking food for her children, not having to be hungry anymore. I cheered for her as she took her first shower, her first car ride, plane ride, her first stay in a hotel. She buys clothes & jewelry for herself & I'm so happy for her I could burst. This woman went from being a scavenger to being a guest at governor's mansions, appearing on TV shows, and doing tons of book signings all across Brazil and many other South American countries. The relationship between Carolina & Audolio Dantes (the reporter who discovered her & made her famous) is also explored and adds interesting aspects to the story. For example, she can't cash checks or withdraw money without him. This diary only covers one year of her life so be sure to read the "Afterword". It explains what happened to Carolina after this book was written. She is an amazing, amazing woman who deserves much admiration.

4 comments about Cows Are Freaky When They Look at You: An Oral History of the Kaw Valley Hemp Pickers.

1. What was it like in the sixties? Have you ever wondered this? Even if you lived through the sixties. A collection of stories, some sad, some weird, some gross, and some crazy. This book will take you back. The stories are anywhere from a few lines long to a few pages. A truly amazing book, that not only will you enjoy, but will force on your friends to enjoy



2. this is an excellent compilation of stories about hippies and their adventures. i highly recommend it.



3. love it! when i read this book i feel transported back to the 60s/70s. this would have been a time when i was a baby and i wonder if my parents have similar stories.
   i love reading names of places i have visited or am fondly familiar with. my mind wanders to these places and gives me the sensation of an out of body experience.
   are the storytellers someone i may know now, incognito? this will always be a wonder....



4. "Cows Are Freaky" is an amazing chronicle of people and events that represent a defined era in American culture. The fact that these stories are true gives the book a foundation of history to stand on. To say that this work could seem like fiction is an understatement. When reality is more bazaar than fiction, one has to wonder what kind of drugs were these people traking that made them into storybook characters. Where do you find a Prop. a Chervil, a Buzzy Flashback but in comic books and works of fiction, not totally in the world we inhabit.
   "Cows Are Freaky" is a book of an odyssy that comes full circle, like birth and death, and in the middle, leads us on a wondrous tale of the times, maybe even a "flashback."
   Besides, you can pick it up and start reading anywhere as there's no set beginning or end, no consistent story, just dope crazed heroes rushing up to the edge of consciousness and peering into a void they did not understand, but that led them to take risks with there lives and act with abandon, like only youth can.
   This record of that time stands as a marker, a benchmark of freedom of action and fearlessness that led to a loss of innocence which, to this day, has kept some from becoming part of the community and who still hold themselves apart with this badge that says, "I was there." If reality is for people who can't handle drugs, then "Cows Are Freaky" is "unreal" as we used to say. Far out!

1 comments about Hoyt Street: An Autobiography.

1. I dont think we've ever met but my dad said I should tell you I am part of your family.My name is Rachel Marie Ponce daughter of Steven Tomas Ponce.I would like to meet you some day. bye, Rachie

No comments about Ruth Landes: A Life in Anthropology (Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology).

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