5 comments about From Rage To Reason: My Life in Two Americas: My Life in Two Americas.

1. This book is so mistitled on two accounts. First, I would agree with the reviewer below; "From Rage to Reason" was for me, too, "From Rage to Disgust." How can anyone who is writing their OWN story come off so nauseatingly unlikeable? The more you read, the more arrogant, self-centered, and disengenuous Janet Langhart Cohen becomes. Maybe it should be "From Rage to Sickenly Manipulative." Second, this is clearly not a book about "My Life in Two Americas." Her story is simply not about the experience of being black in America. Forget that she's white skinned with caucasain features, she is astonishingly and uniquely beautiful. Perhaps, in her case, the two Americas could more adequately be described as the "few privileged with astounding beauty and the rest of us ordinary-looking people." Now, I have a great admiration for beauty and nothing against a woman using it to her best advantage; we should all put our assets to their best use. But this woman has done nothing to help the plight, the image, the future hopes and dreams of anyone but herself. As the old saying goes, for some women beauty is the biggest disadvantage because they have no need or motivation to develope any skills beyond dressing well and flirting when necessary. Janet Cohen has not proved that race has been a disadvantage for her, only that beauty paired with selfish ambition can produce a hollow, grating, selfish personality. Her "blackness" is used as a convenient excuse when she doesn't get her way or people don't like. People don't like her, obviously, because she is unlikeable. This woman is a horrible role model for any young woman, black, white, or whatever.



2. Janet's book is very excellent, she deserves a standing ovation for a book well written. This book is so interesting and captivating. This is the first time, i have seen someone so clear-cut honest. Janet Cohen is a beautiful woman who deserved all the good things in life. She has broken down racial barriers like Oprah to become of the greatest African-Americans of this era. I strongly recommend this book to people who haven't read it.



3. This is an autobiography so you'd expect Janet Cohen to present herself in a good light. She doesn't. Instead Cohen comes off as a very bitter, self absorbed woman who doesn't seem to have learned anything over the years.



4. for having the courage to tell your story about your rise from the projects of Indianapolis to being a member of a power elite. Yours is a story of struggle, guts and determination to make a name for yourself. Your interracial marriages did create a lot of controversy in the elite, for they don't accept the idea of black/biracial black women marrying elite, upper class nonblack men such as your husband.
   
   You made a name for yourself in modeling early on. I have to give it to you for having kept your face and figure, but that's not all. You have a mind of your own that sometimes conflict with the prevailing views of the establishment, which isn't too accepting of smart, assertive women like you. But then again times has changed.
   
   All I have say is that you rose above it all.



5. I recieved the book very fast and it was in excellent condition.

2 comments about With a Daughter's Eye: Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, A.

1. I enjoyed the careful description of two legendary lives observed by the author as a daughter and an anthropologist. As a piece of anthropological writing, a certain distance is maintained when the author tells of her memories of growing up with her parents and the relationship between them. Yet, I can still detect her sadness and love in the seemingly unemotional and impersonal writing style. Often, significant feelings are embedded in the scientific explaination of her parents' theories and ideas. I not only gained a better understanding of the field of anthropology, but also find the "differences" (such as different kinds of families, marriages, choices, ideas, personalities) that we encounter in life as descriped by the author enriching.



2. Margaret Mead was one of my heroines when I was growing up. How fascinating to read this biography which is a blend of intellectual and up close and personal history of her. To have her husband, Gregory Bateson included is icing on the cake. Mary Catherine has done an extremely creditble job. For example, she writes, "Margaret always emphasized the importance of recording first impressions . . . for . . . the informed eye has its own blindness as it begins to take for granted things that were initially bizarre." As I read of Margaret's reaction to Mary Catherine's wedding -- that it must be a format that reflected Margaret and Gregory's place in the world, rather than just the personal joy and celebration of a daughter, I had to wonder if Mary Catherine ever connected the above passage to her own children. This daughter writes with a fairly clear eye about her parents. They are neither great untouchable icons, nor are they flawed little humans. I suspect she did a great deal of balancing in her own emotions to come up with the portraits she painted because, in truth, we have three portraits here, all interconnected and somehow, ongoing. Not a superficial book.

No comments about Never Too Late: A Memoir.

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.

2 comments about Bonelight: Ruin And Grace In The New Southwest (Environmental Arts and Humanities).

1. This is a collection of fifty-one personal essays about living (and dying) in the southwest that will leave you angry, sad, happy, disillusioned, and hopeful. But beware: if you are looking for a touchy-feely, I'm OK-Your OK collection, this is not for you. These essays are opinionated, sometimes in-your-face, always passionate critical critiques of living in the contemporary southwest that are a sheer delight to read. In pieces ranging from aging, gambling, land development and nature to the demise of local businesses and the joy of shopping in downtown Flagstaff, AZ., the reader is treated to one woman's opinions in a thoughtful, clear, and highly readable manner. Sojourner is destined to be a major player in the environmental, activists' genre. Highly recommended.



2. Mary Sojourner has the unique talent for taking us, with just a few strokes of the pen, into the stark, cold underbelly of human greed and arrogance, then flinging us into the heartbreaking beauty of the natural world. As a lone warrior and guardian of that natural world, she stops at nothing to protect it, facing arrest and the lawyers of multi-million dollar corporations with the same unyielding stance. Her essays are a testament to the best--and the worst--of the human spirit and this world we live in.

3 comments about LISTEN TO ME GOOD: THE STORY OF AN ALABAMA MIDWIFE (WOMEN & HEALTH C&S PERSPECTIVE).

1. I loved the raw honesty of Margaret Charles Smith's story. She tells about catching babies in a time when birth was not considered a medical crisis. As one of the last granny midwives, Margaret has much to tell us about how African-American midwifery was stamped out in particular, and how hospital birth gradually became the norm in this country. I devoured this book in a matter of hours, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of birth in the United States.



2. Once I started reading this book, I could hardly put it down. I was impressed by Margaret Charles Smith's honest way of telling her extremely interesting story. She is a courageous person and devoted her life to helping mothers; most of them so poor, that they couldn't have afforded to give birth in a hospital. But given the choice, surely they would've chosen her,anyway, as she cared so lovingly for the mothers and their babies, in a way hardly possible in a hospital. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about midwives and births. There is also a lot that can be learned from it about the history of midwivery in the U.S.



3. The only thing I dislike about this book is that I did not write it myself. I grew up in South Alabama during the depression years, the daughter of a country doctor. I have been with my father to deliver babies in little houses that had no floors, no electricity, no plumbing. Often when he could not be two places at once, my father sent one of the midwives to do deliveries, and he had total faith in them. I can vouch for the authenticity of every word of this wonderful book, and the heroism and skill of these wonderful women.

1 comments about Born of Fire: The Life and Pottery of Margaret Tafoya.

1. After reading the book cover-to-cover, my mother, Toni Roller and I are proud to recommend this book to anyone who enjoys and collects the works of the descendants of Sarafina Tafoya and her daughter, Margaret Tafoya. There were a few minor errors (names in the geneology) but as a whole, this is a view of a wonderful collection of Margaret's finest works and the retelling of great stories regarding pottery design and the passing on of one family matriarch's legacy. Charles King wisely interviewed many of Margaret's children and grandchildren and includes family stories that are a joy to see in print. This is a wonderful biography we intend to hand down to upcoming generations. Thank you, Charles for a faithful rendering of the stories!
   I believe the release of the book will be followed up sometime in September 2008 with an exhibition of the photographed pieces at Carnegie Hall/Museum. Thank you, John & Carol Krena for allowing us to see the collection! -- Susan Roller Whittington

1 comments about Pholomolo: No Man No Woman.

1. This is the best, most enjoyable memoir I've read. Well over most I've encountered about the subject of transsexualism. Veronique is a superb story teller, very humorous at times, as well as painfully serious. Her honesty and directness is refreshing. She holds nothing back. She also has a commanding use of language, even though English isn't her mother tongue. If you are looking for a concise introduction into the world of authentic humanity I urge you to read this book. It isn't just about being born with a "birth defect" as the author artfully refers to it, it is about recognizing ones blessed uniqueness and how that uniqueness constuctively informs all of us. I hated finishing it. I sincerely hope this author will publish more. She has something we all can benefit from. Thanks Venonique (Pantau) for being bold enough to share your soul.

5 comments about Note Found in a Bottle (Wsp Readers Club).

1. The autobiographical drinking story has been done many times before, so the subject matter here is nothing new.

   What's so striking different about this book is that there is almost no self-reflection. It's just a compilation of what Susan Cheever drank, the places Susan Cheever drank, the men Susan Cheeer screwed while she was drunk. We'd get much the same result of Susan had gone to Kitty Kelley and asked "Will you write a shallow, vapid account of my life?"

   Note Found In a Bottle is self-absored and boringly so. I imagine what keeps Susan awake at night is that most people have found this account of her drinking years Not Very Interesting. She earnestly wants the reader to believe her life was glamourous, but in fact it's just an average drunk story.

   I guess there are worse ways to spend (money) than to throw it away on this book....but not many.




2. In reviewing a book, one must have a basis from which to start. In considering Cheever's book, I cannot fathom where to start a conclusive review because the entire title of the novel is completely misleading. My intent in reading this autobiography was to learn more about an alcoholic firsthand, in her own words. Unfortunately, there was very little substantial material written about alcoholism, its effects, repercussions, etc. In fact, had that title been different I would have probably enjoyed this bland book about a woman's life tinged with alcohol, among many other things which were given just as much attention in the book. Therefor I find it useless to judge this book because it is based on so many vacant concepts.



3. Though "Note" is neither deep or introspective, it was easy to read with occasional excellent lines. My favorite (which made the whole book worth it for me) was "It's not that I had a miserable childhood -- I didn't -- it's that I was a miserable child."

   The memoir is interesting in its very ordinariness: except for her father's fame which gave her access to more wealthy and famous people, her life, her affairs, her alcoholism and her recovery were unremarkable.

   Though I enjoyed this book, it was more like an after-school special on the dangers of alcohol (you will forget things, have big fights, and sleep with many men) than an illustration of alcoholism or even the life of Susan Cheever. She admits some things, such as God, and apparently her feelings about her father, are "too private" to explain. Perhaps so, but then why write a memoir?




4. You know when you're in AA meetings and there's that person who just blah-blah-blahs aimlessly about herself and everyone else is bored? That's fine for an AA meeting--it's important for us to process out loud in that forum--but it's not fine for a memoir. It's not that there is no value in this book, in the way that hearing other alcoholics' stories has value...but where is the craft? What is Cheever saying that someone else hasn't said better? This writer would never have been a writer if not for her famous name. Or, maybe if she hadn't had the famous name to fall back on, she might have actually developed her craft. As memoirs of drinking lives go, skip this one and try Augsten Burroughs' DRY or Caroline Knapp's wonderful DRINKING: A LOVE STORY.



5. "Even in my family, where God knows we have experienced enough alcoholism to have drawn a few conclusions and recognize a few signs, alcoholism is still invisible".
   
   This memoir is an excellent example of alcoholism in women which is different than alcoholism in men.
   
   Women are more vulnerable to alcohol and develop alcoholism drinking much smaller quantities than men. The line of alcoholism is invisible. So, when Susan Cheever drank in pace with her father and then with her husband, she was already an alcoholic.
   
   She describes how alcohol is woven into the fabric of her life from the beginning. "My grandmother Cheever taught me how to embroider, how to say the Lord's Prayer, and how to make a perfect dry martini."
   
   Alcoholism is a genetic vulnerability. "I grew up with a secret. My family did have a skeleton in the closet. ... But the real family secret was not my father's bisexuality, it was the drinking."
   
   Alcoholism has at it's core a dysfunctional relationship between the drinker and the drink. This dysfunction is invisible to the drinker. "If you told me that the problems in my life came from my breathing, it would have made as much sense to me if you said the problems in m life came from my drinking." "Even when my father took me to AA meetings, I never dreamed that I might be an alcoholic." "I didn't know that I had to stop drinking. I didn't know that I could stop drinking."
   
   Susan Cheever lived the life of alcoholism... superficial, filled with shame, unpredictable. It is a life that looks for solutions outside of oneself ~ money, sex, manipulation. She describes this in her life.
   
   What is missing is an internal life. A woman loses herself in the process. "And somehow, I spent all of those years searching, searching for someplace where I did belong..." When she develops this internal life, she does so the only way it can be done... "I don't understand God; I just believe in God".
   
   In the end she "gets" it... it is the "getting" it that is unique for each individual and too personal to describe. "It seems my belief in God should take up more space in this book, but it is intensely private and truly beyond my ability to describe."
   
   I feel this book is a worthwhile read.
   

5 comments about Barbara Bush: A Memoir.

1. I'll admit up front that I am a fan of both 41 and 43--and have always admired "Bar". That being said, I loved the book. Mrs. Bush has such a gentle, warm way about her and this is certainly reflected in her writing. She is able to weave together the story of her life (including some not-so-wonderful moments) with wit, warmth and clarity--all without ever resorting to name-calling, self-pity or egotism. This book is a refreshing change of pace and should be taken for what it is: a remarkable woman's life story told from her (very sunny) point of view.



2. What a poitive, gritty, yet appreciative woman hlding dear the basic human values of life that hold our country together. Truly, she was one of our greatest first ladies--she put "first things first," meaning her family and husband first. A must read for all American women who think raising a strong family isn't worth it!! What a payoff! When walking through the George Bush Library at Texas A&M, etched on a wall is George Sr.'s comment that his greatest blessing in life is "that his children still want to come home" Now I understand why.



3. While I admire the Bush presidencies, I found this book boring. It is written as a catalog of events. There seemed not to be any central theme or purpose in the writing other than that it happened. That made it about as appealing as if a cook went into the kitchen and put every available ingredient into one pot to make soup.



4. Tugboat Babs has finally written her memoir. She is in the weird situation of having been married to one president and having spawned another. She is most informative on the Bush's early years together -- although she provides very little information on the family's connection with the Medellin cartel. She is also mum on Laura's vehicular homicide conviction.
   
   All in all, it is a tale to rank with that of the Sopranos.



5. Ordinarily, this is not the type of book that I would have chosen to purchase or read, but it was given to me as a gift.
   
   With all of the mass media infatuation with the Kennedy family, it is interesting to note that it is the Bush family that may have quietly assumed the position as the greatest American political dynasty since that of the Adamses: Prescott Bush was a United States Senator from Connecticut; his son, George Herbert Walker Bush, a certifiable war hero, relocated to Texas and served in the Congress before becoming Vice President and President; two of his sons, George W. Bush and his brother, Jeb Bush, have served as the governors of Texas and Florida respectively; George W. Bush is completing his second term as President.
   
   Barbara Bush's memoir is a political love story. It is remarkable to see what a great beauty that Mrs. Bush was at the time of her engagement and marriage. When her husband left the oil business to concentrate on politics, Barbara Bush became a valuable political asset. She possessed a sense of humor and steel backbone that allowed her to be a tower of strength when needed. There are some poignant recollections included in the book also: George W. Bush proved to be a great comfort to his mother following the childhood death of one of his siblings. Clearly, he inherited his mother's sense of determination and tenacity.
   
   It would have been interesting to imagine Barbara Bush as president.