5 comments about Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana.

1. 
   Ay, caramba!
   
   AROUND THE BLOC is more than a coming of age story, dear Readers.
   
   The following is a laundry list of what you're genuinely missing when you ascribe such facile titles to this amazing little read:
   
   1) The wonderful (and many) impactful lines of prose that emanate from the pen of someone so young, yet with so much on the ball (at the time of writing, that is -- the "young" part, not the "on the ball" part). Griest is possessed of an awareness that few individuals of mixed ethnicity and/or race choose to properly acknowledge. Inside the pages of this book, Elizondo Griest attacks this concept with a doggedness and reckless deliberation that's so downright inspirational! I would like to travel in her wake.
   
   2) There were several passages which I came across where I just had to place the book down beside me to take a deep "resetting" breath. How author managed to touch so many sensitive chords within me, I'm positive the effect was similar on the others. Ms. Elizondo Griest doesn't hold punches. When she refers to things like love, lust, heartbreak, depression, devastation, and sex, she does **precisely** that. When Griest refers to how pained she was when the man who meant everything in her life dropped her for the second time (in as many chances), you hurt right along there with her. If you don't, you don't have much of a emotional bone within your body. Someone so outspoken and delightful doesn't deserve to get hurt like that. At least this was my initial reaction.
   
   3) This is a young woman who has criss-crossed the world and back again, all in an attempt to seek the answers for the most essential life-donning questions which those of us who take such things for granted are never inclined to ask. Essential burning questions of indentity. Of the need and desire to understand who she really is at her core--not as a by-product of some consumerist collective--or where she really came from. By dipping into the collective unconsciousness of several nations of which she herself wasn't a descendant (Russia, China)...then beginning to relate these lessons to the things she knew and loved about herself (which came about more in Havana). Just gorgeous. In several spots the narrative, the author delivered up this story with a dramatist's expert flourish.
   
   ~~~~
   
   The pages just turned. I never **once** felt a need to stop reading (the only time I had was because I'd been interupted by something other than the read).
   
   Intentionally, I believe, Griest constructs the narrative with a rising crescendo. The story commences in Moscow, Russia and moves through Beijing, China. As the journey concludes in Havana, Cuba, in a country closest to her US home, Stephanie comes face to face with a daemon which has been dogging her for most of her early adult life.
   
   When she least expects to find the answer which has been plaguing her mercilessly, as she describes it, it confronts her hard. It hammers her when she finds herself doing an activity which one might consider enough to pull her thoughts away from such critical existential questions. Dancing the rhumba, or talking with a couple of Cuban college students on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean.
   
   Rather than writing AROUND THE BLOC and ending things with a question mark, Elizondo Griest is even more convinced by the book's end about the righteousness of her choice of having travelled around the entire world, steadfast in her desire to want to know more about her essential self.
   
   Like a highly sympathetic character in a novel or a film, you really want this person to succeed--dareisay win (?)--because the righteousness of her mission is just so important. It becomes as important to you as it initially is to Stephanie.
   
   Haven't we all had such dilemmas in our life?
   
   In this age of mixed identities, to be able to claim a purity of a connection to one's ancient or not-so-ancient culture is indeed a complicated decision, rife with paradoxes.
   
   Even those who are "so-and-so"--how much of that "so-and-so" can they really be in the face of an environment which pulls them into defining themselves as something much more general than merely the binding specificity of one particular race or (former?) nation-state?
   
   There are so many things which lay claim to our selves, at our cores. Griest cannot be blamed for having been sucked into this simplifying evening-out vortex, too. So deep has she been submerged into the commonality of the "Western experience," that it has become a compelling struggle to pull herself out. Like it is for others in her situation, who have written about things similarly.
   
   It has been an honour and a privilege to follow her along her path. I can't thank her enough for having made me a part.
   
   It's been to a gift to witness the changes, as she wrote about them, and as the book appears to be the culmination of many months and years of introspection and sometimes piercing self-doubt.
   
   I've cherished each and every one of these pages. Thank you Stephanie.
   
   If there ever were a sixth Amazonian star, it would go to Stephanie Elizondo Griest.
   
   --ADM in Prague



2. I guess when you're 59, like me, you shouldn't be buying books written by people under 25. Around the Bloc is sort of the tale of somebody's junior year abroad. Unfortunately, it takes more than a year to learn anything valid about somebody else's culture. So here's a woman who's reaped the affirmative action benefits of being Mexican in gringo America, and when a Cuban asks her what country she's from, she says "Canada." That's when I tossed the book into the box for the used book store. This woman needs to go live in the third world someplace for 15 years, without the benefit of a paycheck from the US. Then she can write a book.



3. This book energized me. Reading this book was almost as fun as traveling. I can't wait to visit Cuba. But this story is not just about travel. It's also about identity, family, language, and everything else important. Every traveller and every young woman must read this book. Keep your eye on this author! She's going to make it big. She's going to show us the world with fresh eyes.



4. I could not put this book down. Her voice is refreshing and honest. I learned a lot about all of the places she lives in. I found the part about the censorship in China to be especially revealing.



5. My mom and I both recently read this book and our reactions were the same as we discussed our thoughts. When we were finished with the book, there was a sense of something missing. The sub-title of the book - "My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana" - is misleading. It should have been "My Visits to Moscow and Beijing and My Spur-of-the-Moment Holiday in Havana." Ms. Griest didn't really have a life in any of those places. It would be like me writing a book called, "My Life in Thailand, Germany,and Puerto Rico." All places I have spent some time, but my "life" is where I have resided for many years. I agree with the reviewer who said this should have been a MySpace page - which is exactly where I put the (amusing and insightful!) tales of my adventures in foreign countries.
   
   Don't get me wrong, this book is not without some merit and Ms. Griest does relate some interesting experiences. The most interesting part to me was her short trip to Havana. Cuba is a mystery to most of us and I was surprised to hear that the people aren't quite as depressed and miserable as I had imagined. When they can't do anything about it, people tend to make the best of whatever situation they are in. But, all in all, it was just a light-weight travelogue for us.

4 comments about Behind the Veil: An American Woman's Memoir of the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis (International, Political, & Economic History).

1. Written by Debra Johanyak, Behind the Veil: An American Woman's Memoir of the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis is an outstanding personal testimony by a wife and mother with dual Iranian and American citizenship. Married to an Iranian man, she lived in Iran and taught English before and after the 1979 revolution, and watched the events of the American embassy hostage crisis with trepidation. Her husband's family embraced her warmly, yet the building pressure from Islamic fundamentalists placed heavy strain on her daily life and her hopes of staying. She also came to terms to her identity as a Christian in an Islamic country, and had to learn to balance acceptance of traditional customs with her own feminist values. Eventually, despite the support and good character of so many fellow individuals, she had to leave Iran due to threat of violence; Behind the Veil chronicles her physical and spiritual pilgrimage, her memories good and bad of the nation's people, and her insights into cultural and historical gulfs. Highly recommended for up-close and personal insight into Iran's dynamic character, as well as for the fascinating story of the author's search for her own path.



2. I got it very quickly after the order. I am pleased with everything. The book looked good, brand new. I am very pleased.



3. This is a definitely the book to read for a new look at Iran and the Irani people. The author is telling her story - she goes to Iran in the late 1970s as a young wife of an Iranian man she met and married at college in the US. This isn't the story of forced conversion or one that makes life in Iran look terrible. Rather the author finds she loves Iran for its people and culture, but she has problems adjusting. Her new family is very accepting of her - a foreign, non-Muslim bride and her husband never seems to fall into the Muslim sterotype of repressing women. Actually he pays so little attention to that and to politics, that is hard for her to get his take on anything and thus certain issues she might have avoided come to pass. She starts teaching English part-time and is at home with her two sons, part time. On their first stay, it is the medical situation that sends her running back to the US. In her first stay in Iran, she feels no pressure to take the veil, cover her head, etc. For her, it is an emergency surgery that freaks her out. Her husband eventually comes back to the States as well, and they manage to work out their differences and they go back to Iran about a year later. By this time, Iran has a new government - the Ayatollah has returned. At first, this seems to be much the same Iran, and she goes back to teaching and starts working on a graduate degree. But mounting tensions with the US, mounting religious preseuctions and then the hostage situation continues to make life difficult for her. She really fights the idea of the veil even though for her it would mean protection. Her husband's family is extremely supportive through all of this, although they must have found her resistance to the veil extremely strange. The veil had not been mandatory until the return of the Ayatollah and the issue was that the author could pass for Iranian and so her American identity was not always clear - making her look like she was flaunting the government, rather than simply following her own cultural norms. It is eventually the tensions and hostile attitudes that make her use the veil in public as protection that makes her finally insist on leaving Iran with her kids. Her husband does join her in the States, but they can't manage to make it work and they end up divorced this time. She hasn't been back to Iran since.
   
   This really is an important book to read because it gives a human perspective to the Irani people. Her in-laws and the people she associates with are all people she finds connections with and enjoys. She always feels accepted by her husband's family for who she is and not expected to change. Yet the changing government of Iran and their anti-American attitudes made it hard on her. Her opinions had to be shielded for fear of retribution and even her graduate papers got her into trouble.



4. Debra was a great writer, but not so much a great speaker. I was sad to find out that she was not Iranian by blood but by marriage. This took a huge bite out of the crisis, the autobiography and my experience reading the book. When I went to hear this author speak However, her speech drug on. I found both the book and her speech more of a story about her life than about the crisis or about Iran and its history. I was required me to read this book in college, and of course, because my college published the book I had to buy the specific ISBN from them. I am glad to have read the book, but not to own it. I did not find any great intelligence or purpose in owning this book. If you are iranian or maybe interested in hostages, as I am not, then this book is for you.

No comments about Sanity and Grace.

5 comments about Gal: A True Life.

1. I read this book a couple of years ago. I cried and laughed a little. I can't believe she went through all that heart ache and pain. I was really disappointed when her aunts(who she was raised with as sisters) didn't give her at least a third of her grandfathers ( who she called papa) insurance policy. She was the one who was there for him when he was sick. HE DIDN'T EVEN PUT HER NAME IN HIS WILL!!! I was sooo happy when she found happiness. This is a must read.



2. Gal, was a tear droper, for a grandfather to beat his children and granddaughter like that its a hurting thing.But then to beat his wife to death " WHERE IS THE LOVE? I can believe how a father and grandfather can do these kids like this. Goodreading



3. This true life story was sooo hard to read!!! But so well written. She takes you along side her in the journey. It hurt me to know a little girl or any child was sooo abused. However, there is a God, and he made this horrific story into a best selling novel. Yeah, I hope for real-time revenge for the heroine...but we know our God never slumbers nor sleeps.



4. I so enjoyed this book and was rooting all the way through for Ruthie aka Gal. Many things about her reminded me of myself (I AM A SURVIVOR of sexual abuse) and, like Gal, I persevered. However, it was only by my Savior's grace that I was able to do so. It was interesting to read Gal's story in her own dialect (like "The Color Purple"). I could "feel" the beatings. I could "see" the house and garden after her return and renovations. I could "smell" the marijuana she smoked as her way of coping with her circumstances as well as the liquor on Daddy's breath. I couldn't put this book down and read it within a few days. I highly recommend it. A++



5. another book that i read a few months ago. some parts were a little too graphic for me, but i got through it. the strength of gal was unbelievable. i enjoyed this book.

5 comments about Autobiography (Penguin Classics).

1. John Stuart Mill was raised by his father to be his intellectual heir, and a great genius. There is something moving about the care taken by the father to teach his wunderkind son all that he knew. The father was with Jeremy Bentham the guiding spirit of the philosophical movement Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism was a mechanical kind of philosophy which thought it possible to measure the goodness of action by measuring the amount of pleasure against the amount of pain. Mill followed the path his father set out from him, adopted his father's values and social conscience and was already by the tender age of twenty a distinguished intellectual figure. But then he asked himself the question if the realization of all his social schemes and all the grand social ideals would bring him happiness. And he understood that it would not. He understood in other words that all this focus on outward good and action, on mechanical measures for human life was missing some vital component in life and in himself. Mill went into a great depression. What brought him out was the reading of the poetry of Wordsworth and the understanding that there is a dimension of feeling, a dimension of the inner life which is somehow more important than all the social thought. This did not mean that Mill abandoned the path of social reform but rather that he changed its direction. Part of this change had to do with his meeting his relationship with Harriet Taylor, his embracing in a certain sense of liberal ideas on the role of women in society. Mill found himself and continued on his intellectual path, a path which would lead him to produce one of the masterpieces of modern political thought, "On Liberty ".



2. Ever wonder for which bipolar monomaniac the Sorcerer's Apprentice worked? Now you know. Drier than Dryden, boot-licking admirer of the thief of his childhood, humorless bookworm of a dusty aristocrat, protonerd ex machina in extremis. When Continent-lazing navel-gazers concern themselves with improving society, oil your firearms. I'd rather a deep belly laugh than Mill's musings, any day.



3. Mill's remarkable childhood education prepared him to be one of the leading intellectuals of his day (far surpassing his father, James Mill, who was no slouch, but not in his son's league) but while I admire his erudition and achievements, one has to wonder if the deep depression he fell into in his mid-20s had something to do with that.
   
   Mill's contributions are better remembered than many of the other famous British intellectuals of the period--such as Herbert Spencer--whose particularly invidious version of the theory of Social Darwinism is best left languishing in obscurity. Who today remembers the prolific Spencer, whose collected works run to over 20 large volumes?
   
   Mill is frank about his depression and how debilitating it was, and what a struggle it was to pull through it. But with the help of his best friend, he pulled out of it and went on to write many important works in philosophy, logic, political science, and economics.
   
   Mill's I.Q. was certainly very high (estimated by psychologist Katherine Cox using a modified ratio I.Q. method to be at least 200), but very likely his father's misguided efforts to produce a prodigy and homegrown, British Wunderkind (to compete with the legendary "Infant of Lubeck," no doubt :-)) were the cause of his long, serious depression.
   
   Mill's text on econonics, which was called Political Economy back in those days (also the title of his book, if I remember right), was the longest running and most successful college text of all time, being used for the next 50 years until the 1920s when the "New Economics" of the day, championed by the field of microeconomics and the theory of the firm, made a more modern, updated text necessary.
   
   For me the most interesting part of the book was Mill's theory of history, with positive periods of creative cultural development being followed by periods of negation and dissolution. Mill summarizes it as follows (I think I'm remembering the quote more or less accurately): "During the positive periods mankind adopts with conviction some positive creed, claiming jurisdiction for all their actions proceeding from it, and possessing more or less of the truth and adaptation to the needs of humanity; when a period follows of negation and dissolution, during which mankind loses its old beliefs, of a general and authoritative character, except the belief that the old are false." Mills theory has parallels to the earlier Hegel's historical dialectic and later to Oswald Spengler's theory, and to later 20th century historian Arnold Toynbee's idea of "challenge and response."
   
   For another more literary (and probably more interesting) take on depression by another British intellectual, you might try Richard Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (not to be confused with the African explorer by the same name). After all, anyone who says that "Giraffes live for love," not to mention palm trees, can't be all bad. :-)



4. This book is so wonderful on so many different levels that to give it a review at all would be a disservice. My recommendation is not on whether or not to read it but instead on how to read it. I suggest a quiet room, comfortable chair or couch, cup of coffee and a few hours of uninterrupted reading time. After completing the book, rest and repeat as desired.



5. I read this book for a graduate Mill seminar in Philosophy. Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, political science, and history.
   
   John Stuart Mill, 1806-73, worked for the East India Co. helped run Colonial India from England. Minister of Parliament 1865-68 he served one term.
   
   I have to say that I found Mill's Autobiography left me wanting to read a good biography of him in order to learn more about his personal life and interaction with family and friends. He certainly did not reveal himself in the way Jean Jacques Rousseau did in his much-ballyhooed autobiography The Confessions. I do understand that his wife Harriett edited the autobiography to the extent that there is no mention of Mill's mother in it. Other than his education and his reference to taking walks with his father to talk about books he had read, he says little about their relationship. In addition, there is only a passing reference to having to serve as schoolmaster to his siblings while he was an adolescent and he does not mention them again. Mill spent most of his adulthood working for the East India Company; however, he says little about that experience in his autobiography. It seems he had few friends as an adult, if you go by his autobiography. There is a brief reference about his friendship with George Grote, the eminent historian of Greek history. Thus, the impression that I got of Mill the man was one of an emotionally cold person socially except to his wife Harriett, who I believe was the only person in his life he truly loved. Most of his autobiography is dedicated to his education; such as, books he had read or written and philosophers he was influenced by, and this is a part of his life that I found most interesting.
   
   In Mill's autobiography, he tells readers how he benefited and suffered from having one of the most unique educational experiences known to humankind. His father was personally involved in both his education and that of his other siblings He was a brilliant student who read Greek by the age of three and Latin at eight years old. By the time he matured to adulthood, he was extremely well read. Thus, he received an academically rigorous education at home, and I find that his education really defined and shaped his character. Providing and improving education for all humans was a cornerstone of his philosophical belief in Utilitarianism. Education meant that people could develop their higher pleasures; a concept that Mill thought was of paramount importance to increase one's happiness. He invented this concept and differed with Jeremy Bentham, the progenitor of Utilitarianism, on this point. Bentham did not believe there was a qualitative property to happiness--Mill did. Thus, it is no mystery that in adulthood he developed very strong views on the advantages that universal education would have on improving people's characters. Mill believed universal education would lead to fostering social change for the betterment of all mankind. He stayed consistent on this belief throughout his life. He gave what I think was one of the great speeches on education and character formation in 1867 after accepting the position as Rector of the University of St. Andrews. In his Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St. Andrews, one of the points that he made in his speech was the responsibility that universities had in building their students' characters. He also wrote about the importance of character formation had on the ability for people to enjoy freedom in society in his book On Liberty. However, he personally found that his education had come at a great price to his emotional well-being.
   
   During the winter of 1826 and into 1827 while in his early twenties, Mill recognized that he was suffering from a bout with depression. This is the only portion of his autobiography where Mill exposes his inner emotions to his readers. He believed his depression stemmed from an inadequacy in his education. He came to realize that although his father provided him a superior education on many intellectual levels, it was negligent in social contact with children of his own age, and did not prepare him emotionally for interaction with other members of society. His parents and visitors treated him as an adult from early childhood. Mill realized that his upbringing led up to his inability to feel a normal range of human emotions; thus, he felt detached from humanity. Mill found that reading poetry by Wordsworth in 1828 ultimately broke his depression. In poetry, Mill found that he could feel sorrow, and sympathize with others.
   
   I found this part of his autobiography of importance for three reasons. First, it is the only painful human emotional event in his life that he divulges to his readers. Secondly, it is an indication of the importance that the concept of sympathy played in his life and formed his philosophical views as well. Mill understood the need for humans to be sympathetic to one another. Sympathy is required for social interaction and is a useful character trait that we use in order to keep us from harming each other. Thirdly, without his awakening of this emotion in his life, I seriously doubt that he would have found the capacity to love his wife Harriett in the manner that he did. One does get the sense from his description of her that she was his true soul mate and only real long lasting friend in his life.
   
   Mill's friendship with Harriett while she was married to another man, caused them both to endure scandalous gossip, even though they both denied there relationship had any sexual component to it. When they eventually married each other about two years after she became a widow, Mill stayed true to his life long conviction in believing in equal rights for women. During Mill's time, married women's property automatically devolved to their husband and he correctly saw this as one more inequity against women placed on them by society. Therefore, on the day when he married Harriett Taylor in 1851, a financially secure widow, he wrote a formal renunciation to all of her property in protest against the current law. He was a life long feminist who wrote in his essay The Subjection of Women, about the scathing inequalities that women endured since the history of mankind had been chronicled. I have no doubt that his essay paved the way in changing marriage and divorce laws and fostered the improvement of relations between the sexes. He was also the first Member of Parliament to introduce a bill in the Commons to enfranchise women. He worked tirelessly at the end of his life, supporting women's rights with his pen and his purse. His stepdaughter Helen carried on his feminist work by becoming a leader in the suffragist movement in her own right.
   
   In total, I would say that although the Autobiography provides scant information into Mill's daily life, when he does reveal himself, it appears he consistently lived up to his philosophical teachings and beliefs.

5 comments about The Year of Yes.

1. I had different expectations from that book. It is enjoyable, but also a depressing book. There are pieces missing, she should have written more about her emotions or funny incidents. The combination did not work out so well.



2. This book is hysterical and inspiring. It's about a real woman with very believable dating neuroses. I felt connected to her dating experiences, although I've never dated a homeless man who thought he was Jimi Hendrix but my ex was pretty close. I would read anything she writes in the future.



3. This was a real fun read--very lighthearted and laugh-out-loud funny but very real at the same time. A really fun book for anyone who has ever been fed up with dating.



4. The Year of Yes is true to life because it captures all of the craziness of dating without getting bogged down by it. I reccomend this book to anyone who's done insane things in the quest for love. It's wildly funny, (I laughed so hard that I called a friend to read parts of it to her, and she thought I was crying!) and the character descriptions are fabulous! (Ira the Daschund for example.) And it has a happy ending without being corny.



5. One of the most dangerous traits of someone with a way with words is the ability they have of facile persuasion. The reader (or listener) becomes entranced from the way the message is told, without listening to what message is actually being said.
   
   There is no question whatsoever that the author, a playwright, has a gift with words. She writes extremely well.
   
   But the story told is, when reduced to its essences, the story of a woman who finds fault with suitor after suitor, only to find her future spouse -- a man who she knew prior to the "Year of Yes" -- faultless upon their encounter. Perhaps it's too much to ask from a woman priding herself on her New York toughness, but throughout the book, the "freakish" qualities of each dalliance are brought to the forefront, with little thought to uniqueness or the actual personhood of each of those men beneath the caricature she draws for us. Remember, a caricature is a quick sketch in which the most prominent attributes of someone are highlighted and exaggerated even beyond their reality for the sake of humor. This is, spot on, precisely the definition of what the author paints for her readers of each of these men and women from her "Year of Yes."
   
   When she meets her future husband -- again, I reemphasize, a man who she knew prior to the Year of Yes, strongly suggesting to this reader that none of her suitors were ever in the running for anything more than a coolly-made valuation for what visceral experience they could lend to her life -- she sees no flaws in him. Were he to have ended up not being her husband but merely one of the other myriad of men she marched through her life, we no doubt would have instead seen such qualities as his crying and the (technical) infidelity, or some other attribute that wives and husbands easily overlook in the course of their love. (Or were the Actor to have ended up being her husband, the version of their romance we were told would have been far more idyllic.)
   
   Do I sound angry? It is, perhaps, because the quality of compassion means a great deal to me.
   
   Throughout the book, as she is a good author, I had been empathizing with her struggles throughout her Year of Yes. Once I began to conclude the book's final chapter, however, it was a bit of a shock for me to realize at the end that the tales of the heart which we had been told were, in fact, spoken from someone who, throughout the book, had in fact been quite heartless until her long-desired love finally came to her.

No comments about Cassandra.

3 comments about Snapshots of Bloomsbury: The Private Lives of Virginia Woolf And Vanessa Bell.

1. Nutty yet poignant
   
   Have we found the smoking gun here? I doubt it
   
   Bloomsbury has a posse!



2. I really enjoyed this book. I could pore over the fashions, the interior decoration - it satisfied my desire to see all the details! At the same time, I got a sense of the passage of time in Virginia and Vanessa's lives. Read as a companion to any of Woolf's novels, I think the book would also convey a sense of the writing process.
   
   It evokes the time and place beautifully, and the text is not intrusive: the images are allowed to take centre stage as works of art in their own right.
   
   Fine choice, Sweetpea!



3. If you are looking for a round up of the extensive group of people that contributed to what became known as Bloomsbury, you will be disappointed. There are some players that are generously represented and others, such as Sidney Saxon-Turner, Dora Carrington and Ralph Partridge, barely or not at all. As significant a drawback is the size of many reproductions. Whole album pages have been reproduced, which in and of itself is interesting, but is reduces the size of the photos such that frequently the people are so small as to be recognizable. Many of these photos have been reproduced in larger and more satisfactory formats in other biographies and memoirs. Also strange, even within the context, the quantity of photos of nude children reproduced here. Having just reread Quentin Bell's bio of his aunt Virginia I bought hoping to fill out the visual record. No such luck.

5 comments about Skinny Women Are Evil: Notes of a Big Girl in a Small-Minded World.

1. I think it only fair to start this review by admitting that I am 5'8' and 125 lbs. This being considered, it is only natural that I would take offense at the already blatantly hypocritical title of this book. My first honest thought at seeing the title was 'Spoken like a true Goodyear blimp'. This, perhaps, may only illustrate her point. Unfortunately, Mo'Nique paints a very unfair and judgmental picture of thin women, perhaps moreso than thin women do of overweight women. The droves of harsh and, I say again, hypocritical, generalizations she makes about thin women even in the first few pages, smack of bitterness and ridicule unbecoming to one who not only must employ the use of profanity to illustrate her point, but who is trying to write a defensive piece to urge the other half to walk a mile in her shoes. I was neither moved to pity overweight people nor to see Mo'Nique as a strong, attractive role model for overweight people. It is only fitting that I found this title in the Humor section, because it is indeed laughable.



2. This book was Wonderful!! At times it will make you angry & sad, but mostly it will make you LAUGH LAUGH & LAUGH some more! A look into the life of this Beautiful woman & her struggles in life. She lets you know that it is OK to be heavier than 110 lbs, that you can be Beautiful at whatever size you are.
   Revealing & Assuring!
   Thank you Mo' !



3. In response to a previous reviewer...
   
   You have to understand Mo'Nique's brand of humor to really appreciate this book. I don't think she's perpetuating a stereotype, per se, but instead taking the cruel things that are said about fat women ALL THE TIME and turning them into something to laugh about.
   
   She's not saying that Fat is the only way to be...she's saying that being fussy over not being a perfect size four is stupid and, in her own unique way, helping women who usually feel like crap about themselves learn that they are actually beautiful...whether the magazines say so or not.
   
   I recommend seeing her movie "Phat Girlz" if you liked this book...and like what was addressed in the movie...most overweight women KNOW that they will never be a single-digit dress size. That's just the reality of things...no matter how many lean cuisines eaten or hours spent in the gym. Not everyone will be thin. And with so much literature in the world telling people that they've got to look like Kate Moss...I actually find it refreshing to have someone like Mo'Nique out there making light of things and helping women to feel good about themselves...THE WAY THEY ARE...instead of making them change into a cookie-cutter version of what everyone wants and then calling themselves beautiful.



4. If someone wrote a book called "FAT Women are Evil" it would be all over TV, and people would be protesting! Mo'nique obviously has low self-esteem. The reason why I say that, is because she has to put "skinny women" down to make herself feel better. She is a skinny phobe. Its great to be confident and feel great, no matter how big you are. With that said, people who are overweight/obese have a higher risk of developing diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. You only have 1 body, take care of it. But people are so selfish and lazy, they dont want to do anything about it!



5. I am a plus size female who is very confident, fashionable and poised. I purchased this book because I wanted to see Monique's attemp to uplift the Big Girls. I was very disappointed and would not reccommend this book to anyone. This book does nothing but perpetuate sterotypes and encourage Big Girls to eat until they can't walk. This was an autobiography of sorts and pretty much talks about her experience. I couldn't relate to most the themes expressed in this book, as my day does not revolve around food. If you let her tell it, Big Girls eat all day every day and when we are at the mall we stop two or times to eat. It was just rediculous. In addition, the depiction of slim girls was just wrong. This was a waste of money. I'm glad I only ordered a used version for a couple of bucks. Hopefully, someone will write a real book that speaks about self-acceptance, finding your way and being your own fabulous self.

4 comments about My Body Politic: A Memoir.

1. I innocently picked up this book from the table at a relative's house, read the first page and could not put it down. The story of Simi Linton's internal and external struggles and revelations in a new world are presented in an effective understated tone that treats the reader as a partner in the adventure. Along the way we get to examine our own attitudes about disability. The book is so well written and real that I feel that I have been taken for that 'ride' the little girl asked about (you have to read the book).



2. This is a beautiful book that I couldn't put down once I started reading. Linton's account of her entry into the world of the disabled and her gradual movement toward activism answers questions I've always been afraid to ask. Besides being funny, angry, compassionate, frank, and always interesting--she's a wonderful storyteller. The book reads like a great novel. It's as powerful as James McBride's memoir, The Color of Water, and should become a classic. Read it and you'll see why.



3. I am happy to recommend this book to anyone who wishes to gain insight into the daily, lifelong challenges faced by individuals with physical disabilities. It is a book which educates without slapping those of us without obvious disabilities in the face using the "you can't possibly understand how it is for me" method of "enlightenment." Instead it allows the reader to peer through a window into Ms. Linton's life, to develop an understanding of the many barriers and related challenges she and others with similar disabilities face related to what most people take for granted: traveling freely throughout one's environment, gaining an education, dancing, making love, making a life. The book educates by engaging the reader in the journey Ms. Linton has taken from her early days as an activist for peace to her later days as an advocate for equality.



4. I would advise the person and the family of the person with a spinal cord injury (SCI) to learn. When you become able to read, that is. I found that I could not read anything at first. Partly because of denial and partly because I was suddenly pluncked down in an alien world, much like the world I had always lived in, just considerably taller. The simplest things I had done before my SCI became incredibly difficult, if they were possible at all. My mind, body and emotions were in such shock that I could not read anything. The information which was given to me became impossible to understand. I didn't ever think that I would just get up and walk, although my dreams were (and still are) full of running, climbing and even flying. I was dealing with pain that cannot be discribed and I got remarkably little help with it. Until my constant pain was somewhat under control, I didn't plan, for the future or even for the next moment.
   
   The idea of having some kind of normal life was not even a consideration for me. Just breathing and existing; in an odd sort of way a kind of Zen "being in the moment," was all I could achieve. And it was NOT a form of enlightenment; on the contrary, it was an "indarkenment."
   
   So I might not recommend this book for the newly injured. It is possible that it would not make sense, even if the newly injured person were able to read. For someone who is past that first shock and confusion, though, this could be very helpful. It is clear in pointing out that there are as many different people with a SCI as there are people without one. Very clear and helpful in pointing out the main directions which are still available for people with a SCI. Get this book for someone you love, but don't push it. Just make sure it is available and, when the person is really ready, it will be there for them.