5 comments about Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau.

1. Martha Ward deserves great kudos for this incredible work of love and devotion, Finally bringing the enigma of "Marie Laveau", BOTH of the Marie Laveau's to us in this day and age where she is so very much needed again to Bless her 21st Century Children now as a bona fide "Lwa"! Excellent!!! May the Good Mother Bless Martha Ward, And ALL of Us! So Be It!



2. Many people have fallen in love with the women who is known as Marie Laveau. Not much is truely known about her, but Martha Ward does an excellent job in giving it's readers an inside look at the "Spirited Life of Marie Laveau". This book is a must for anyone interested in the subject of New Orleans folklore.



3. Great book , loved it, thought it was wonderful



4. Another reviewer here has stated that the author should perhaps have written a historical fiction influenced by Leveau, like what Atwood did with Grace Marks in "Alias Grace".
   
   To be honset, I wouldn't have read the book then either. That's because I can't read this book without feeling... well... search inside and read a brief excerpt. The writing reads like a freshman comp paper. I can't take it seriously because the author's put so much fluff into it.
   
   Check it out for yourself, but read the excert before you go out and actually blow some scratch on this book. Who exactly is she qouting in that first chapter?
   
   Bah... if you're interested in Marie Leveau, a topic worthy of interest; then I recomend Long's investigation into the who Marie Leveau was. It too, has it's short-comings, but I assure you that it is more worth your time than this.



5. This book is was not written in an enjoyable format. Martha Ward jumped from person to person and date to date and back and forth and all around. She also injected her views on people and places without presenting proof of validity. They were simply her views, but the way she wrote them in, they could appear to be factual.

5 comments about Nancy Cunard: Heiress, Muse, Political Idealist.

1. Regrettably, this biography is seriously flawed, frankly a disgrace, in respect of Henry Crowder and throughout. There is hardly a page in the book without demonstrable error of fact, misrepresentation, unfounded speculation or garbled citation. Columbia University Press were twice alerted that there were problems when an advance proof fell into the present writer's hands two or three months before publication. The Press did not respond. Caroline Weber's New York Times review is foolish in the extreme. Anne Chisholm's 1979 biography remains indispensable. While Gordon has uncovered new material (not about Henry Crowder in which she is particularly deficient) she has not been able to make sense of it. The true story of Crowder is told in the book+CD Listening for Henry Crowder scheduled fall 2007.
   
   Although readers must judge for themselves, it is incumbent upon someone or other who has studied some of the particulars to point out the book's shortcomings, which are drastic. The book's flamboyant style may appear to be "a good read". All the more reason to alert the general reader. That Cunard's life was replete with extraordinary events and relationships does not confer upon the biographer the right to play fast and loose. Such treatment may befit an exploitative Hollywood movie but not a literary documentation with academic credentials. It may be that few care. Neverthless . . . In respect of, for example, Crowder, by Cunard's admission the single most important man in her life, a good deal of the information the author needed had been available to her for some years in an exploratory article in a journal, which was also posted online. Either she chose to ignore it or she did not find it, though it was easy to find. Unfortunately, she does not even get the facts right from the sources she does use and her misdemeanors extend far beyond that particular subject. (Crowder does not even figure in a list of Cunard's friends in an interview with the author on the publisher's website, while another, with whom she had no relationship whatsoever, is proposed as a lover.)
   
   In response to a comment on my original brief posting: I have mentioned my forthcoming book on Crowder's life (which will not receive wide distribution or review) and Anne Chisholm's earlier, easily available, elegant, sober, generous, decent biography of Cunard, which is grudgingly noted and casually mistreated by Gordon, in order to give general readers the opportunity to find other takes on Cunard, which they might otherwise miss, and so allow them to judge from a well-informed position.



2. I just finished Lois Gordon's deeply moving tale of an unbelievably heroic, remarkable woman about whom I knew very little. I now feel I know the soul of Nancy Cunard, thanks to the author's wonderfully engaging, well-documented presentation. The book's fluent style and breadth of information are impressive. I agree with the majority here who have praised this fascinating biography. Buy this book, settle into your favorite chair, and prepare to meet the caring, complex, flawed, passionate woman that was Nancy Cunard.



3. This is a brilliant, sensitive, thoroughly researched biography which is a model example of how such things should be done. The author writes of the First World War experiences in London as if she had personally lived through them. Her understanding of the complex and bizarre Nancy Cunard, of her weird mother, of her strange friends, of her insane promiscuity, of her serial preying upon the creative elite by means of 'genital consumption', of her impossible psychlogy, of the whole phantasmagoria which Nancy Cunard represented, are really a triumph of empathy and insight, as well as of organisation of material. Lois Gordon's ability to master large volumes of action and hysteria without flinching qualify her for a top military command.



4. A facinating look at a most interesting woman. Well ahead of her time. Also many insights to a span of recent history often neglected.



5. If Lois Gordon was writing about a fictional character she could not have told a story of a more exciting person than Nancy Cunard. However, Nancy Cunard was indeed an individual who lived in the early part of last century whose exploits, altruism, and literary talent were extraordinary by any standards. She was a legendary beauty, with a great mind, who was extremely devoted to the disadvantaged people of the world and their struggles. This is an unusual and remarkable combination of qualities that is brilliantly depicted throughout this wonderful book. Simply, I could not put the book down once I had started reading. I can highly recommend it.

No comments about The Jane Addams Reader.

5 comments about Riding in Cars with Boys: Confessions of a Bad Girl Who Makes Good.

1. This was probably one of the best stories for women, I have ever read. I don't think there is a woman out there who couldn't relate to what this girl/woman went through in her life. The way this woman pursued her dreams no matter what life dished out to her. How she came to realize the things she was doing wrong without someone constantly telling her, even though they did, and how she took credit for the things she did right. Fantastic read!



2. This is a great book! An easy, entertaining read. My mistake was reading in bed at night, ending up staying up way too late!
   
   The author puts her readers in the "cars" with her as she tell about her life.
   
   It is a terrific read!



3. Let me first say that I think the author has a compelling story and potential as a writer, but she does not do her own story justice. Since Ms Donofrio has an MFA in creative writing from a top school, I expected a more polished book, instead I found myself wishing that she had slowed down and written a few more drafts and added a round or two of copyediting before releasing this book.
   
   Aside from the many technical missteps, what bothered me the most was the author's apparent lack of insight about her own actions and motivation, which is an important part of autobiography. She portrays herself as an anti-authoritarian pleasure-seeker with no deep or complex feelings for anyone, including herself. We never get to see her learn from her mistakes or grow emotionally.
   
   Apparently trying to place some blame for her many troubles, the author takes a couple vague and random potshots at her family (especially her brother and father) but is unconvincing because her characterizations of her family are too shallow (father - cop; brother - cop; mother - housewife; sisters - who knows?) Taking some time to show more of the interaction between the family members would have helped to reveal the deep family dynamics and add weight to her story.
   
   I was particularly bothered by her depiction of her relationship with her son, which in the first several years bordered on neglectful, and later seemed overly codependent. She says at one point that this is because she was so young when she gave birth (although 18 is not that young) and that they were "children" together. It doesn't seem as though she had any perspective on her role as a mother.
   
   Instead, what I read was the chaotic story of an angry, rebellious teenager and promiscuous, irresponsible young mother who gets a chance to attend two prestigious universities, but continues to have self-destructive tendencies and no understanding of herself. At the end of this litany of troubles, she congratulates herself on the fact that she obtained two college degrees and managed to get her son off to college. End of story.
   
   At least, that's all her book tells us. Did she ever find peace within herself? Does she understand who she is and why her life turned out the way it did? Does she have hopes and plans for the future? I would like to have known more and I'm sure there IS more to her story. The author was unafraid of revealing her youthful excesses and calamities; but it takes more than raw bravado to tell the more revealing story that unfolds in the heart. Who knows, maybe a few years down the road, Ms Donofrio, having honed her writing skills and learned to understand herself better, will come out with a sequel that will be more developed and insightful, and thus more satisfying to read.



4. Riding in Cars with Boys is a great, easy and fun read. Beverly Donofrio really captures what its like to be in a "bad" situation. Her teen pregnancy, teen marriage, and teen divorce really make you think about your life and how tough it actually could be. What was thought to be her worst mistake (her son), ended up being the best. This book really touches you with humor, sadness, and reality. The ending really gives you hope that you can do whatever you want in life, and there really is nothing that can stop you! This really is a great book!



5. I agree with a previous reviewer. This book -- like many books these days -- could have used a few more drafts. I expected more from Beverly D'Onofrio ... and I really wanted to like this book. I grew up near D'Onofrio around the same time. So, I enjoyed reading about that time and place. But Ms. D'Onofrio could have gone deeper. She wrote about all her wildness, drinking, drug abuse. But what got her out of all that? Just going to college? Just growing up? I wanted more. Plus, I didn't think the writing was very good.
   
   I think part of the problem with a lot of books these days is that publishing houses don't have the staff they used to. So, writers really do not get edited like they used to. Books are being released when really they could use two or three (or more) drafts.

5 comments about Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon.

1. It's no small task to create an enchanting picture of an adored figure in children's literature. Unfortunately, Leonard Marcus was not up to the challenge. The biography is too linear, too literal, and written too much like a graduate school study. Still, the segment about her studies at Bank Street College of Education (I'm a grad) was interesting, as was the description of her evolving sense of child development as it affected her story crafting.



2. The bizarre bohemian-preppy life of Margaret Wise Brown captured by Leonard Marcus in "Awakened by the Moon" is an excellent enjoyable read comparable to Andrew Wilson's "Beautiful Shadow" biography of Patricia Highsmith. The only flaw is Marcus did not interview Albert Clark, the chief beneficiary of Brown's will and the inheritor of the royalties of "Goodnight Moon."
   
   This is a highly detailed book, and so it is more "by a writer, for writers" than a general or curious audience.



3. This is one of my favorite books in the genre of literary biography. I found the details to be fascinating and Wise's life to be quite bohemian and a fascinating study. For me, it WAS a page turner and worthy of anyone's time. In fact, I chose to use it as the basis for an hour long presentation for various book clubs. Everyone was familiar with GoodNight Moon and enjoyed hearing about Wise's life. I heartily recommend this book. It's just that good.



4. I used this book for my report on Margaret Brown. It was helpful, but theres a lot to read.



5. This is a wonderful book. Everyone knows The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon, but who knew about the amazing woman who wrote them? A must for every adult with kids!

5 comments about Uppity Women of the Renaissance.

1. Uppity Women of the Renaissance by Vicki Leon is a pleasure to read and it's a book you'll keep going back to. Leon knows how to make history fun and she has a knack for finding the most interesting characters from the past, and then bringing them back to life.
   If you've never read one of Vicki Leon's books, you're in for a real treat. Give one as a present to a reluctant reader, give one to yourself!
   Ms Leon is not just an excellent writer, but is also a fine historian. She has made it her mission to discover long lost women with spunk and brains, and to bring them to the public's eye. I'm a big fan of her's and have every book she's written. I especially like to give them as gifts since they are that rare combination of spirit, fun, frolic, sassiness, seriousness, and real history. Uppity Women of the Renaissance is one of Ms. Leon's very best. Highly recommended.



2. Another entertaining collection of mini biographies of women from the well-known to the obscure. one or two of the stories slightly puzled me. For instance, there is an interesting story about a doctor trying to concot a remedy for the plague out of badgers, but his wife's role seems to consisted of dying of the plague, not a particularly uppity thing to do, couldn't quite see what she was doing there. Also Vicki leon, rather oddly ,seems to have swallowed all that nonsense about the Renaissance being a time when individuality was born etc, it's as if she hasn't read her earlier book 'Uppity Women of Medieval Times' which is full of individuals. @Renaiisance' was a term invented in the 19th century to describe something that never actually happened, individuality, art.learning etc flourished throughout the Middle Ages, there was no 'Renaissance'. Also she is still going on about witchhunts being a 'holocaust'(insulting to vicitms of the real holocaust. The number of people executed as witches wasfar fewer than she claims, they were not all women, and the imputus for witchhunts came from commoners, not from the church or the state. But anyway, these stories of interesting women are fun to read, and I always find lots of women I'd never heard of before. Another fun read.



3. Prior to reading "Uppity Women of the Renaissance", I'd only ever heard of Vicki Leon's "Uppity Women" series, but hadn't read any of them. I found the title to be both intriguing and amusing. Having finished "Renaissance", I'm not really sure whether I want to read the other books in the series or not. In only 300 pages, Leon covers the lives of 100 of the Renaissance's most uppity women. As you can imagine, 100 women crammed into 300 pages doesn't leave much room for a lot of detail. Many of the women discussed seemed to have been mentioned briefly in old records and not much is actually known about them, other than the fact that they may have, for example, owned a successful business.
   
   Leon attempts to weave modern jokes and cynicisms into the stories, as in "Busier than a two-career car-pooler with three kids, La Grosse Margot was one of many women who...". Sometimes I found these dashes of humor to be laugh-out-loud funny; other times, they were annoying.
   
   It was really nice to read about so many interesting women. I'd never read or heard anything about most of them before. I just wish there had more detail...a lot more detail. Much of the time, the brief stories seem like sketches or outlines for a wonderful full-length book. Won't some kind-hearted author out there please write a nice full-length book on one of these women? The life of Christian Davies would be a good one to start with!



4. This book is more like bathroom reading than anything else. Each Uppity Woman is given one or two pages of text. The text is full of not-funny puns and not-very-clever comments. At times it felt disrespectful of the women who, in some cases, were dealing with incredible hardships. The good thing about the book is that it covers a lot of women, so at least it gives you a starting point to further your reading.



5. The idea for this book is wonderful and the research exhausting. However, Ms. Leon tries so intensly to be clever that it is terribly annoying. Examples: "The case spread faster than Lyme disease at a tick convention." Or "Mother Eulaia might have been called on to apply a little spiritual soft soap of her own-some extra innings at the cathedral, praying to her namesake." Or "Born into a Jewish family so tight with Catholic bigwigs." Every page has to have one or more of her display of forced cotemporary pseudo wit that shocks the reader out of his/her Renaissance mood. It is a shame.

5 comments about Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran (Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks).

1. Jasmine and Stars is a compelling novel, warmly presented through the very personal narrative of Fatemeh Keshavarz, who explores the different voices of Iran, including two modern Iranian women writers and people of many statures. It does so in response to novels whose narratives present a paradigm of the world by which the existence of such people is improbable.
   
   "What does the elephant look like?" poses Keshavarz. Jasmine and Stars begins by recounting the ancient Persian fable about villagers encountering an elephant for the first time and in the dark. One feels its trunk, the other its legs, and the other its ears. Later, when asked what the elephant looked like, one says the elephant is like a thin pole. The other says, "No, it is thick like a tree." The third says that the elephant is neither - instead the elephant is flat and round like a fan. Unable to see the whole picture, no one had truly learned what the elephant was. If only the villagers had a single candle, notes Keshavarz, they could have begun to learn its true nature. And so her book begins, in sincere search for a candle to help enlighten for us America's own elephant - Iran and the broader Middle East.
   
   What is it about Iran that seems to elude our grasp? Why are we having so much trouble understanding the elephant? In fact, to many it would seem that there is nothing to understand beyond that which we already know. The media is filled with stories covering Iran, its president, the nuclear standoff, and - most significantly - the possibility of war. The internet is even more densely packed with stories and opinions. So, what is the problem?
   
   The problem is that while there is a lot of monologue from twenty-four hour news feeds of sound bites and talking heads, there is almost no dialogue. The voices of Iranians themselves have been shut out. This essential humanizing factor of one culture speaking for itself to the other is strangely absent. How do they live? What do they value? And what is the interplay of their culture upon their lives? Iran is always spoken for instead of listened to. The product of this is a very distorted and narrow perception of what the elephant is. Even worse, it creates the grounds for the dehumanization of a nation, facilitating the path to conflict.
   
   These missing voices, the cause of their absence, and the anecdote for their return are the subjects of Jasmine and Stars: Reading more than Lolita in Tehran.
   
   The author, Fatemeh Keshavarz, is an accomplished professor of Persian and comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis, currently serving as the chair of the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. An Iranian American, she was born in the city of Shiraz, Iran, and has lived and worked in the United States for nearly three decades, visiting Iran every year. Keshavarz describes herself as "a Muslim, a feminist, a literary scholar, and a poet, though not always in that order."
   
   I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand Iran and the Middle East.



2. I just finished "Jasmine and Stars". I have recommended it to many of my friends and relatives. Keshavarz weaves anecdotes from her own life with excerpts and summaries from Persian literature. It is simply a fascinating and humanizing text especially if you are not familiar with Persian literature. It is a great introduction. After finishing it, I went back and wrote down the names of the text and authors Keshavarz cites. I am excited about reading these works in the future thanks to this text.



3. I absolutely would recommend this book to anyone who is from Iran, thinks they understand Iran, or wants to understand that complex nation.
   
   This book is by far the most balanced, honest, and unvarnished assessment of the complexities that escape so many analysts and authors who attempt to write about that country.
   
   It also disassembles the perturbing pattern of modern day 'neo-orientalism' that is exemplified by Azar Nafisi's unfortunately best-selling "Reading Lolita in Tehran".
   
   I HIGHLY recommend this book.



4. This book is a combination of two things. One is a polemic against Azar Nafisi's flawed masterpiece Reading Lolita in Tehran (RLT). This polemic is deeply dishonest, with quotations lifted from RLT in clear violation of their meaning.
   On the other hand, the author's memoirs of her highly educated family is charming and she has profound insights into Persian mysticism and its literature.
   The problem is that the author walks on eggshells to portray her country in the best possible light. Even the brutal Islamic Republic gets the kid-glove treatment. A little intellectual honesty would have been appreciated by this reader.
   For a more detailed review, please visit my blog article on it and leave a comment. http://iranwrites.blogspot.com/2007/12/jasmine-and-stars-reading-more-than.html



5. After finishing this book I felt that I had had an education and brief introduction into modern Persian literature which is actually quite vast; which is something the "new orientalists" who write books like "Reading Lolita in Tehran" are happy to deny the existence of in order to pander to the self serving preconceptions held by the West about the paucity of great writing and novels in an Islamic country.
   
   I was so intrigued by learning from Fatemeh Keshavarz's book about contemporary authors like Moniru Ravanipur, Shahryar Mandanipur, Simin Daneshvar and Shahnush Parsipour that I started to research modern Persian authors and at last count I have found over 46 considered great by their countrymen and many internationally.
   
   I have come to the conclusion that the only thing missing from contemporary Iranian literature is enough translations into English and other European languages to educate the Western world that Iran is in a literary renaissance rather than a Dark Age. Yes many Iranian writers have served time in jail under the Qajars, under the Pahlavis and under the IRI for writing things critical of the regimes but nothing can stop the writers and the film makers who like water encountering an obstruction flow under it, around it, over it, through it or when split up into a thousand rivulets regroup where ever they find the deepest hole.
   
   As we concluded in my interview with film maker, Parvin Ansary a few years ago, great literary and artistic periods of creativity do not come from times of prosperity and comfort but rather fluorish in times of chaos and suffering like Italian cinema after World War II when Italy was broken before it became too affluent to be driven to creativity, like the earlier Italian Renaissance which people from today's perspective forget was a time of struggle, intrigue, internecine wars and chaos...it is from a struggle for identity, a unique identity both on an individual basis and as a society and nation that great works of art are born...it is not from micmicry of the West.
   
   Iran has made contributions to world literature from the second millenium BC, all the way to the present day and continues to do so. We have Ferdowsi,Al Ghazali, Nizami, Attar, Rumi, Khayyam and many others from the past but we also have Forough Farrokhzad,Akhavan Sales,
   M.A. Jamalzadeh, Sadeg Hedayat, Bozorg Alavi, Beh' Azin, Sadeg Chubak, Ebrahim Golestan, Iradj Pezeshkhzad, Jalal Mir-Sadegi, Gholan Horayu Nazari, Esma'il Fasih, Gholam Hosayn Sa'edi, Nader Ebrahimi, Bahram Sadegi, Hushang Golshiri, Fereydun Tonokaboni, Goli Taruggi, Mahsid Amir-Shahi, Mahmud Dowlatabadi, Nasim Khaksar, Amin Faqiri, Hushang Ashurzadeh, Farahnaz Abassi,Taghi Modarresi, Ali-Mohammad Afghani, Abbas Marufi, Hormoz Shahdadi, Reza Baraheni,Ghazaleh Alizadeh,Fereshteh Saari,Farideh Farjam...the list goes on and on and contemporary Persian literature is huge and still growing right now as we speak... to see photos of these writers, whom I emphasize are both genders, go to:
   
   [...]
   
   The amazing thing to me is that a person like the author of Reading Lolita In Tehran, could be satisfied ignoring her own country's stellar literary inundation of talent taking advantage of the relative ignorance of the West about Persian writing, to suggest that the novel doesn't exit in the IRI, what Keshavarz refers to as a continuation of the Bakhtinian perception that the written form of a novel is of Western origin, to focus on a few Western authors like Fitzgerald, James, Austen and Nabakov,not even contemporary anymore
   , and by inference and omission, present her own countrymen as if they are void of writers on issues of birth, death, puberty, virginity, adolescence, women's rights, marriage, divorce, love, crime, rape,anger, sorrow, jealousy,guilt, ambition, greed, spirituality and the whole array of human experience and emotion...but rather would have us believing they only write religious doctrines...and argue over how many angels can sit on the head of a pin...or whether men can have sex with chickens as long as they don't eat them for a week after...at one of her lectures which I attended she suggested that trying to reason with the IRI was like playing chess with a monkey who at a certain point grabs your queen and swallows it. How very convenient to over simplify, dehumanize and demonize an entire nation of 70 million people 70 % of whom are under age 30. You have to question the motives of any of these "new orientalist" writers who pick the worst moment in time or a particular slice of society and freeze the shot for eternity to represent that people. Any people can be skewed in this manner. If we froze the "Reign of Terror" after the French Revolution and presented it as the epitome of France...what would people think of France? If we dwell on the prison population per capita and crime rates and statistics in the USA, we would come to the conclusion that there is no freedom, that there is anarchy and people live in constant fear of being victims of random crime. This is propaganda not literature.
   
   I am forever grateful to Fatemeh Keshavarz for lifting a veil from my eyes with her book. I am now on a rampage to read every modern Persian writer I can find in translation especially the ones still living.
   
   Brian H. Appleton
   aka
   Rasool Aryadust
   www.zirzameen.com

5 comments about Letters from the Dust Bowl.

1. Alvin Turner likes to quip that "Letters from the Dustbowl" is the "best written book" that the University of Oklahoma Press will publish this year. Indeed, Caroline Henderson, the author of the columns and letters it contains, may be the most quoted authority on the social aspects of the dustbowl. Her views on Oklahoma farm life were disseminated across the country both in her columns for "Ladies' World," and her "Letters from the Dustbowl," were published in "Atlantic Monthly." In selecting material for this book, Turner told me that he had twice as many columns and letters than would fit. Alvin Turner is the Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma.

   Caroline Henderson moved to a farm near Eva, Oklahoma, in 1907. During the next six decades, she and her husband, Will, endured the hardship of depressions and the dustbowl on their farm, with really only one bumper crop to show for their labors. Turner's overall introduction, as well as his introduction to each section, does well to place Henderson's life in context. She had great dreams for her life, both as a literate woman and as a farmer but by the end of her life, she is disillusioned and considers herself a failure.

   Most of Henderson's farming experience demonstrates that dreams can save a person from an otherwise mean life. In 1917 she wrote, "The fact that we cannot see the end does not relieve us of our obligation to push forward, to gain every inch we can in humanity's forward march." As a young farm wife, she met challenges with inventiveness, and hardship with strong will. Even as crops withered and neighbors moved away, she finds beauty in flowers and friendship in animals. However, too many failed crops and dried-up dreams took their toll on Henderson's optimism. In 1952, she wrote in a letter to her daughter, "Every day seems to bring some new sorrow in these last years of fruitless effort and disappointment." With dreams dashed, Henderson loses all sense of proportion and she reads each setback as catastrophe.

   "Letters from the Dust Bowl" is as heartbreaking as it is inspirational. Al Turner is right; it's a very well written book.




2. Deftly edited for contemporary readers by Alvin O. Turner, Letters From The Dust Bowl is a collection of letters and published materials written by Caroline Henderson (1877-1965), a woman who lived through the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Her articles on the Dust Bowl first began appearing in "Atlantic Monthly" in 1931, drawing the woes of American farmers into the public eye. Her correspondence and articles, which date from 1908 to 1966, offers insight into the daily struggle to put food on the table, and her descriptions of the dust storms that covered the Plains are unforgettable. Enhanced with a biographical essay and precise annotations supplementing this extraordinary compilation, Letters From The Dust Bowl is highly recommended for students of 20th Century American History.



3. Caroline Henderson's letters are historic and illustrative and heart-wrenching. You get to know this truly remarkable person and how life was in this era through her writings and see the progress from youth and hope and optimism to age and despair. Losing her at the end of the book was like losing a dear grandmother. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in studying The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl. I read it as a companion to "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan.



4. This is trying. The personal letters presented in the book convey a manner with which Caroline uses to overcome life stresses that come with homesteading a difficult land in a fickle environment. The Hendersons live quite alone in No Mans Land. The welfare of the Henderson family depends strictly on their ability to manifest a steady resource of food substances for nutrition and for trade. The letters from Caroline Henderson are written in a very flowery style that worked well in the early half of the 20th century. Digesting the text isn't easy if you've become adapted to the pace of life today.
   
   However, the reader is treated to an infinite barrel of wisdom. Certainly, Caroline had to deal with much more in her life than overcoming writing styles, so it helps knowing this just to get through the book. It is easy to miss what is really going on here. Homesteading requires a harvest of food for nutrition and another harvest of food for the soul. The book talks very little about dust storms. More is spoken of the planted gladiolas, the harvest, the songs of birds, and of Christmas. Letters are torn up in frustration, and rewritten to be positive. Each response to a letter opens with words of thanks for encouragement offered.
   
   This little book is terrific - the kind of book that changes lives. If you enjoyed Victor E. Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" you might also love this. Though not analytical and direct as Frankl, it quietly relates shared personal values. In contrast to Frankl, Henderson lives very much in freedom, but within the shackles of her environoment.



5. This book is best read quickly, if not at a sitting, then over a weekend. In that way Henderson's prose gets its power, and it will take you from youthful optimism to euphoria, then to despair, and then to a sort of middle ground in which she makes peace with herself and the land. She's at her best when she describes her mental and verbal battles with intolerant churchmen: she just couldn't buy into the vengeful God of the itinerant evangelists of the time, and she was not shy about expressing her opinions. This book will make the Great Plains and Dust Bowl come alive, not as a scholarly, "objective" tome, but as a woman's journey of the heart. A very nice read.

2 comments about A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (Dover Value Editions).

1. In 1873 a middle-aged Lady Bird, acklaimed horsewoman, spent the fall through winter travelling in the Rocky Mountains. As a 10 year resident of Colorado Springs and growing up riding, I was intrigued by her travels. What most people find amazing about this book are her very detailed and beautiful descriptions of what she saw. I have to agree, I did find myself wallowing within what she saw. Especially, since I have seen many of the places (in modern day) that she went. What I, myself, found truly interesting was how she describes in her rather off-hand, like it's mundane, way about the daily hardships she and the settlers had to endure. This isn't the old Grandpa had to walk 10 miles, up hill, in 10 feet of snow, in 60 below weather, both ways to school. It's a true representation of what "Grandpa" had to endure. It breeds a new-[t][/t]found respect for our ancestors and makes one wonder, "Could I endure it?".



2. This is one of the best known and most highly respected travel accounts of a foreigner to the western region of the United States during the 19th century. Isabella Bird, a spinster world traveler, upon returning to her native England from an excursion to Hawaii, decided to stop in America and make a three-month tour of the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado. In a series of letters written to her sister in England, Ms. Bird told in fascinating detail her experiences during this "tour."
   
   Going by train from San Francisco to Cheyenne (except for a brief hiatus near Truckee Pass, which she traversed by horseback), she was in Fort Collins, Colorado, by September 10, 1873. Her travels took her to Denver, Colorado Springs, South Park, Boulder, and Estes Park, where she climbed Longs Peak. Her observations, whether about the people she encounters or the natural wonders all about her, are acute, objective, and highly personal. She will complain about the annoying insects in one letter and then calmly relate taking a tumble off her horse when surprised by a bear in another. She is astounded by the natural beauty of the region and never seems to get enough of it; she also believes, as the saying then went, that "there is no God west of the Missouri," and that the "almighty dollar is the true divinity" (these observations made while in Denver). She recognizes the (especially) English prejudice against all things American, and refuses to go along with it. What makes Ms. Bird's book so enduring is the direct though lighthearted tone she maintains: she is an astute observer but never gives the impression she's "studying" the people or places she sees. The book can be read often and will remain entertaining each time. It's a classic - in a good sense of that word. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Joan of Arc: Her Story.

1. This historical research about one of the most incredible events in human history, establishes its analysis on many authentic documents. We go step by step, accompanied by the relevant papers and letters, through the short tragic history of Jeanne D'arc. This method gives this book a tremendous reliability; the reader feels almost at hand with Jeanne, and as he proceeds reading, he enters deeper and deeper into her soul. By the end, you feel that you have lost a friend, a true person of high spirit and blazing convictions.



2. Regine Pernoud was a rare type of author: equally respected among scholars and laymen. As conservator of the Archives of France she brought a great deal of documentary information within reach of the general public, enhanced by her own impeccable research and insightful analysis. She is remarkably fair to divergent historical theories, yet not shy about calling some ideas patent nonsense and then demonstrating in plain language why they fail to stand up to analysis. Her prose style is witty and sharp, well preserved in this translation, and you may laugh out loud as she deflates a few fringe theories.
   
   I confess a preference for "Joan of Arc by Herself and Her Witnesses" as my favorite Pernoud book. Joan of Arc: Her Story is among Pernoud's final works and the narrative portion is slender. The exceptionally rich indexes are the real treasure. If you've ever looked at Joan of Arc's name and wondered, "Where the heck was Arc?" you'll be surprised and engrossed by the discussion of her name. If you're familiar with the outline of her life and wondered what became of all those other people she encountered, you'll find biographical essays on every significant figure.



3. I got this book for two reasons: 1) none other than Winston Churchill said that to try to understand the meaning of sainthood one had to read Joan of Arc's trials, and 2) I have become an ardent fan of Regine Pernoud's work. This book disappoints on both fronts: 1) References and quotations from both of Joan's trials are scant, which is truly inexcusable given the wealth of information available, and 2) Mme. Pernoud's incomparably lucid descriptions and illuminating analyses of the Middle Ages are sorely lacking in this book.
   
   The proceedings from both of Joan of Arc's trials have survived almost intact. As a result, there is no other saint (and almost no other historical figure for that matter) of whose life we have such meticulous firsthand documentation. This book gives such shorthrift to coverage of the trials, that one will need to seek elsewhere for a glimpse of Joan's brilliance.
   
   I'd venture to speculate that since this book was published close to Mme. Pernoud's death, she did not have much of a hand in its' writing, but her co-author did. Pernoud's name was left on the cover to capitalize on her prestige, which is why I'm calling this book a ripoff.
   
   If you know absolutely nothing about Joan of Arc you might get something out of this book, but I advise potential readers that a better bet may be Pernoud's other book on Joan of Arc which has no co-authors.



4. This biography is a great choice for both new students of Saint Joan of Arc as well those already familiar with her story. Régine Pernoud was considered to be one of the great authorities on medieval history and Joan of Arc. She spent her life researching Joan of Arc and being French she was able to utilize all of the original source materials that still exist. Her writing style is straightforward and honest and, most importantly, made heavy use of historical documentation.
   
   The one problem I have with this biography is that it is a little tough to read in places. I think the problem comes from it being a translation. The old phrase "loses something in translation" comes to mind. That said if you can get though the dry parts you will have a great understanding of Saint Joan's life as well as some idea about the people in which she interacted during her life. If you read this book and Pernoud's other great biography, Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses, you should come away knowing most of the known history of Saint Joan of Arc.



5. This book gives a good overall view of Joan of Arc. It is a easy read and informative.