No comments about Schneider on Schneider: The Conversion of the Jews and Other Anthropological Stories.

5 comments about Very Special People: The Struggles, Loves and Triumphs of Human Oddities.

1. I found Very Special People when I was browsing through a book store.....I had to stop and pick it up to look at it. Low and behold one of my ancestors was listed in the book!!!!! What we knew about Matthew Buchinger, was that he was my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great (yes 6 greats) Grandfather, was that he was born without arms, was an excellent draftsman, had a coat of arms, had a daughter named Anne ( who married John Poole), that he was called the 'little man without arms' and that he lived and in Ireland, and died in 1739. Very Special People has a picture of a drawing of Matthew Buchinger on the seventh page from the end of the picture section. It says the he was also legless! (he was called the little man!), married four times and that he had 11 children! I need to learn more about Matthew Buchinger! Where can I find more information? Please e-mail me If you know where or how I could search to locate more.



2. I stumbled across this title secondhand somewhere, and what a find it is! It covers, with lots of photos, the lives of many famous and lesser-known people. Because it does such a good job of satisfying ordinary human curiosity, I would not recommend it to the very young and/or impressionable, as it could be haunting -- a small caveat, as most young folks who are able to read the engaging and straightforward text will probably be mature enough for the subject matter. There is also an interesting introduction, covering the language and background of the field of "special people" ("Odd Man Out," "The Comprachicos," "Motives for Wonder," "Ugly Words," etc.). The chapter headings include: "Chained for Life," [conjoined twins]; "Armless and Legless Wonders"; "The Hairy People"; "The Little People" [including Tom Thumb & Lavinia Warren]; "There Were Giants in the Earth"; "Fat and Skinny"; "An Odd Lot" [including Zip the Pinhead]; and "Very, Very Special People" [including the Elephant Man]. Truly a fascinating book about real people.



3. For all its faults, "Very Special People" is still a very readable, personable book. Cloyingly sentimental, it still has its charming moments.
   
   Each section gives background on how being very tall, very short, very hairy, or otherwise possessed of an unusual body happens and what it tends to mean to the owner of said body. Drimmer then gives profiles of famous folks who shared that unusual trait.
   
   A good book for youngsters, but able to appeal to adults as well.



4. First reading this book in the '70s, this was my introduction to Joseph Merrick; the "Elephant Man". Giants and dwarfs, siamese twins and bearded women, some of the most unique group of individuals you'll ever read about. And what may be surprising to many, is the normal lives most of them led. Romance, marriage and children are the evidence for most. Wonderful biographies reveal the very human side of these "Very Special People". My favorites were those surrounding America's first great showman, P.T. Barnum. Especially Tom Thumb. A fascinating read.



5. I bought my paperback in 1976 or thereabouts, and have re-read it several times over the years. I teach middle school science and believe several of the chapters would make appropriate reading for youngsters especially since they address the issue of being different and still finding happiness and success.
   
   I was a kid myself when I first read this. And it's still good reading even though I'm now in my 40s.

No comments about Reading Benedict / Reading Mead: Feminism, Race, and Imperial Visions (New Studies in American Intellectual and Cultural History).

5 comments about Streets: A Memoir of the Lower East Side (The Helen Rose Scheuer Jewish Women's Series).

1. This book was written by a very eloquent author in 1922. At 23years of age, she carefully details her struggles of growing up inpoverty on the lower east side of Manhattan. This is one of a few books that deals with the difficulties faced by immigrants of to New York around the turn of the century. Her battles are those of a poor, Jewish girl growing up without a father in tenement housing. I thouroughly recommend this book to Jews, feminists and historians.



2. This is a coming of age story depicting the harrowing early life of an extraordinary talent. Told with an amazing eye for detail and a highly developed sense of humor, this is one of the most moving autobiographies I have read. Bella Spewack writes of her thirst for knowledge and determination. In later life Bella invented the Girl Scout cookie, became a noted journalist and wrote successful plays and movies. Streets tells of the difficult circumstances of her childhood.



3. Streets: Memoir Of The Lower East Side was written in 1922 and published for the first time in 1955. This remarkable memoir of a young Jewish girl's coming of age in the tenement slums of New York's Lower East Side is gritty, candid, vivid, engaging, sensitive, and streetsmart. Bella Spewack overcame obstacles of gender, background, and religious discriminations to succeed as a celebrated journalist, playwright, and screenwriter. Streets is highly recommended, articulate reading and will prove of special interest to students of American Jewish history, Women's Studies, and biographies reflecting the triumph of the human spirit over social and cultural barriers.



4. this is my favorite book. if anyone has similar taste to me then i highly recommend them to read it. i was getting so into reading it that i never wanted it to end. to last forever. so i tried to do so by reading a limit of pages each day. i live in NYC and by reading the book i had grown a stronger love for the city and thats another reason i loved the book. the down fall of the book? well, it was and made me sad. it was kinda a depressing book. you now. like a heart-acher.

   it was indeed a pleasure to read and in the future, if you do read it, i hope you injoy.

   thats my review! i hope i helped!




5. this is my favorite book. if anyone has similar taste to me then i highly recommend them to read it.

   i'm going to describe it as a story of a girl growing into a women on the streets of the lower east side of manhattan. she tells of different jobs and the boarders that her and her mother board to help pay the rent. its very hard for me to describe becuase of 2 reasons 1) you can't describe it you have to read it 2)i read it a year ago.

   i was getting so into reading it that i never wanted it to end. to last forever. so i tried to do so by reading a limit of pages each day. i live in NYC and by reading the book i had grown a stronger love for the city and thats another reason i loved the book. i also loved the stories she has of her childhood. the down fall of the book? well, it was and made me sad. it was kinda a depressing book. you now. like a heart-acher.

   it was indeed a pleasure to read and in the future, if you do read it, i hope you enjoy.

   thats my review! i hope i helped!

1 comments about Max Weber and Karl Marx (Routledge Sociology Classics).

1. Lowith's 1932 essay on Marx and Weber remains the definitive statement of the deep commonalities between these two thinkers. That is, it argues that Weber's central concern is to develop a fundamental theory of capitalism, as with Marx. For decades, it was "necessary" to attempt to parry Marx with Weber. Lowith's stood as an accusation of "bad faith" with regard to all such attempts, especially those who would evacuate Weber of all critique, even if only existential. Derek Sayer's "Capitalism and Modernity" is perhaps most in the spirit of this minor masterpiece.

5 comments about NEXT YEAR IN CUBA-P348546/2 (NXT REP).

1. This book made me come to terms with what being a Cuban born American means to me. Perez Firmat shares his own personal and sometimes painful experiences with the readers. In doing so he made it easier to define and understand my own experience as a Cuban-American who loves the United States yet has a yearning to gain a deeper understanding of his own Cuban roots.



2. That we Cubans and Cuban-Americans can find humor in any situation--even the most tragic and overwhelming--is a testament to our strength. This book is a poignant, funny, and sometimes sad tale of one man's struggle to find his identity. It is a very personal self-examination, but one that most of us (all us "hyphenated" people) can relate to. Are you Cuban? Are you American? Are you "of Cuban descent"? Are you Cuban-American? Are you one person at home and another at work? These are difficult questions, and he walks us through the even more difficult process of trying to find an answer. Does he have an answer? Yes and no. The author also explores the Cuban community's rise from its initial status as an underprivileged, immigrant, "exile" community, to its present role as an assimilated, politically active, financially powerful ethinic force. All of this adds more depth to his own personal identity issues. The book is fascinating, thoughful, and full of relatives we can all look at and say "I have an aunt/uncle/mother/father/etc. just like that!"

   In the wake of the Elian Gonzalez saga, I just hope everyone reads this and remembers how and why we got here. Thank you, Professor Firmat.




3. That is the question that has echoed throughout the Cuban exile community for over 40 years. As the older generation fades, the new generation continues to ask, to wonder, if the next year will finally be the year when Cuba will be free and Castro will be, and there's no other way to say it, dead.

   Perez Firmat and I stand a generation apart, yet reading this book, there really was no difference. The Cuban-American experience has much to do with yearning, an emotion that this book succeeded in evoking. We yearn for the Cuba we hear our relatives talk about. We yearn for the freedom of this never-seen homeland, to see the end of the tyranny. And we also yearn for this America, for the apple pie and Coca-Cola life we see and hear all around us, yet can never fully belong to.

   Being Cuban-American is not only complex, it is two extremes thrown together. Finding our identity as we straddle two nations is a challenge even now, 40 years later, and even to people like me, first-generation Cuban-Americans. You are forced to ask over and over again, What am I? I am not Cuban, I was born here in the U.S. But I am not American, my "Cuban-ness" is such a strong, obvious part of me it cannot be denied.

   Next Year in Cuba does a great job of giving an eloquent, humorous voice to this complexity. It's a great read on the Cuban-American culture, sure to give a better insight and appreciation to those wanting to know more.




4. As a young person who was born in the United States but whose parents were born in Cuba, identity has never been black and white for me--although it has always been blue, red, and white. This book crystallized so many emotions that I had felt my entire life but had never really examined. If you are 22 and have never been to Cuba, but still call yourself Cuban or if you are 60 and think if your childhood on that island paradise everyday--this book will make you laugh, it might make you cry, and it will certainly make you think. For over forty years now Cubans have been hoping for that "next year" to come to fruition, but we are still waiting. This book will make you long for "next year" like never before. Read it--you will never forget you did.



5. Gustavo Perez-Firmat's memoir is a heartfelt read.
   For anyone who has straddled the hyphenated word Cuban-American and thought themselves as a CBA (Cuban-born Americans) or ABC(American-bred Cubans), this book is a secret treaure.
   Perez-Firmat takes the reader on a cultural literary journey as he tries to come to terms with exactly what and where home is. Is it the place you were born (Cuba), the place you were exiled to, (Miami) or the city that you find yourself most at peace with (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) Perez-Firmat offers a tender philosophical introspective read on all the above.
   The book took me to the corner merchants and restaurants of la saguesera to the academia of Chapel Hill, where Perez-Firmat later settled in as he pursued a master's in literature. Or as he puts it, "Living with an American spouse, dealing with American stepchildren, and speaking English at home, I am much more aware of my nationality that I ever was before." (p.171)
   His memories of his family dynamics (two grandmothers sharing a two-bedroom with him, his brother and their parents) will be relatable to anyone with a large Hispanic family or to fans of PBS 70s show "Que Pasa USA?"
   But his take on his "romance with teaching" really resonated with me.
   I enjoyed reading the often humorous tales of this professor in the classrom as he teaches college students about Spanish literature. In one scene, Perez-Firmat goes on to describe his philosophy for teaching, which can serve as a lesson to many aspiring teachers.
   "I'm a successful teacher to the extent that I can get my students to fall for me...In a deep sense, I am the material...Like other love affairs, teaching has its own pace and moods, its good and bad days, its coded language, its rewarding or bitter conclusion. Sometimes you walk into a class and it's love at first sight."

No comments about A Misfit's Manifesto: The Sociological Memoir of a Rock & Roll Heart.

1 comments about Baudrillard Live: Selected Interviews.

1. This book consists of Baudrillardfs interviews about various topics such as cinema, power, politics, and his books and articles. Time when he was interviewed varies but his insistence is consistent. Probably, this is because Baudrillardfs attitude toward his works is consistent and very prudent. The constitution of his interviews has no problem. He always answers questions clearly. Above all, I am impressed by his answer about his sociological or philosophical position. He considers himself neither a sociologist nor a philosopher: gTheorist? I agree. Metaphysician? Perhaps. Moralist? I donft know. My work has never been academic, nor is it getting more literary.h He is very free to talk about his works, which makes this book interesting. Therefore, this book is very helpful to understand Baudrillardfs thoughts and how he uses words such as gpowerh, gimageh, and gsimulationh. Moreover, this book contains index of key words, which is also helpful.

1 comments about Beyond Loyalty: The Story of a Kibei.

1. This book is how to remain a Knight & Gentleman and to pursue your Life Mission against all the odds of life.

   Dr. Kiyota had a dream since boyhood to educate college students about the Western and Asian cultures & philosophies. He successfully achieved his mission by having been teaching for over 30 years as a professor and as a sensei. I am taking his class, "Kendo: Integration of Martial and Liberal Arts" and I am happy to have finally found my Sensei. There is a lot to learn from him as an open-mind and objective individual!!!

   The book is full of documented facts, critical thoughts, and beautiful language. I have invested about 15 hours of concentrated reading with only 3 breaks: to sleep and to eat. In overall, Dr. Kiyota is the person one should meet in life and to shake his hand!!!

No comments about One Barber's Story: From Sicily to America.