No comments about First Generation: An Autobiography.

1 comments about Title A True Politician: Rebecca Browning Rankin, Municipal Reference Librarian of the City of New York, 1920-1952.

1. For those who imagine librarians are like what could have happened to the Donna Reed character if _A Wonderful Life_ hadn't, this volume demonstrates the engagement and vitality of library workers. They collect materials and then present them so that the public can make sense of information and knowledgeably take action. Beyond serving as a search engine, librarians find and deliver to their clienteles an array of useful, entertaining, and educational resources. Ours is a complex world, and we can appreciate assistance the library gives in understanding it.
   _A True Politician_ chronicles the life of a librarian who held true to her job as a member of her community. It also offers a hint of romance. I'm glad that I read this inspiring book.

No comments about John Stuart Blackie: Scottish Scholar and Patriot.

No comments about The Life of Bent Gestur Sivertz - A Seaman, a Teacher and a Worker in the Canadian Arctic.

1 comments about Watch Boys: And Other Stories About Americans Abroad and at Home.

1. Here is a highly engaging book that ranks among the best I've read this year. Palmer is a storyteller; sometimes he writes about true incidents, sometimes he writes fiction based on truth. One thing in guaranteed, though -- his tales, true or imagined, teach and entertain in a way that few books are capable of achieving. Palmer, who might be called a more intellectual Hemingway, has traveled the world, smoking hash, taking mistresses, and killing monstruous hippos. He writes about these things with wit, irony, and an eye for the deeper truth of any situation. Politics, language, sex. cocaine -- everything is fair game for Palmer's pen, and they are all treated with equal parts respect and awe. Honestly, his writing is the next best thing to being there. Few writers are able to achieve the near-perfect narrative; Palmer is one of them. His book should be on every must-read list. - (...)

No comments about Henry Louis Gates, Jr (African-American Leaders).

1 comments about The Growth of Islamic Thought in North America: Focus on Ismail Raji Al Faruqi.

1. I was attracted to the title 'The Growth of Islamic Thought in North America', hoping that it would shed some light on the phenomenal growth of Islam in the US. However, the book is less about that than it is abt the thoughts and ideology of Dr. Ismail Raji Al Faruqi, a Professor of Religion at Temple University. It is written by a former student of his, and it is a summary of Dr. Faruqi's analysis on the current malaise in the Muslim world, and his prescription for it. His analysis of the problems of the Muslim Ummah is not very new, but his prescriptions are. Amongst other things, he wants there to be some sort of synthesis or symbiosis between the Western social sciences and the Islamic humanities. He wants Muslim students to be trained and to master both worlds of knowledge, so that they can be in the best position to elucidate and and propagate a new brand of Humanities that encompasses Islamic beliefs and ideals. His prescriptions have a deep emphasis in education, as he blames most of the problems of the Muslim world on their illiteracy and lack of purpose and aim in advancing knowledge. There is an almost revolutionary fervour in his ideology but it is one based on reason and rationality and not dogmatism. He even draws up some plans on the structure of an Islamic state which is sparse in details but is otherwise as close as one can get to modern political systems like democracy and socialism without being such.
   The drawback to this book is its lack of details, but the author assures us that this book is just a summary, an that he is embarking on a deeper study of the works of Dr. Faruqi.

No comments about Chang Chih-tung and Educational Reform in China (East Asian).

No comments about The Education of a 20th Century Political Animal III: Academia and a Rearguard Defense of Humanist Tradition.

1 comments about Between Revolutions: An American Romance With Russia.

1. This memoir is as compelling as a novel. It describes the author's stay in Moscow and St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) as an English teacher in 1982, and in particular her romance with Kolya, a Russian living in St. Petersburg. She describes a return trip the following summer to see if the relationship had a future, and I was completely engrossed by the story. This is a very candid memoir, and Alberts is very honest about her own insecurities. In addition, the memoir is an accurate portrayal of life in the Soviet Union (at least according to my wife, who spent her first forty years there, and who also read the book).