4 comments about Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs.

1. I've read every book on the Romanov family itself, and I found that this well-written book full of interesting information and anecdotes about the Romanovs and St Petersburg in the late 19th and early 20th century gives a fresh perspective to a family I already had come to know well and to a city in the midst of grandeur and then turmoil. It also gives lots of information on minor Romanovs who are otherwise merely glossed over by other writers. It also gives a fascinating account of how many of the Romanov relatives fled Russia (and escaped certain death) via the Ukraine. I would highly recommend it to ballet enthusiasts, many of who may not know much about Mathilde, one of Russia's last great ballerinas and only one of two prima ballerinas of the Russian Imperial Ballet, to those interested in Imperial Russia, and as an addition to anyone's large Romanov library.



2. I was completely captivated by this account of Matilda, who's so often mentioned in Romanov histories, but seldom profiled in any depth. Coryne Hall's writing style is fluid, making this a highly readable, fascinating portrait of imperial favor, the attention accorded the arts, and the ultimate triumph of a highly ambitious woman. I was even more delighted when I had the chance to pass by Kschessinska's home in St. Petersburg, and wished I'd been able to stop and go in...as if walking in would illuminate the past and bring the book to life.



3. An easy to read chronicle of a woman who lived in "interesting times" and became the most influential person in the pre-revolution Russian Imperial Ballet as well as a hugely successful coutesan to the Romanovs, including Nicholas II before his accession to the throne. Replete with uncorroborated gossip about all sorts of alleged malfeasance and the author's obssessive focus on legitimacy of royal/noble status, it nevertheless provides some insights to the maelstorm of the revolution, from which Kschessinska escaped, incredibly, unscathed, albeit sans her ill gotten vast riches. In fact, the supposed importance of lineage flies in the face of the fact that the Romanov dynasty originated with a family of true Prussian emigres elected to the throne by the boyars without any legitimate claim to royal lineage. The first significant Romanov, Peter the Great, was likely the illegitimate son of the Orthodox Patriarch.



4. Mathilde Kschessinska was one of the great ballerinas of the early twentieth century,yet today she is known, if at all, only as the former mistress of Tsar Nicholas II. This biography illuminates Kschessinska's unjustly neglected professional life as well as her sensational private affairs.
   
   To be fair to the public, Kschessinska was such a flamboyant adventuress that it obscured her obvious gifts as a dancer. From a family of actors and dancers, she quickly became one of the stars of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg. An occupational hazard of that line of work was the tendency to attract the attention of the men of the Romanov Dynasty. Fantastically wealthy and with little or no moral compass, the Grand Dukes were accustomed to seeing ballerinas as little more than a collection of potential mistresses and dalliances. For the ballerinas, attention from a Grand Duke or a Tsarevich was the path to wealth, glamour, and career advancement.
   
   Kschessinska understood this all too well, and she aimed very high indeed, setting out to attract and entrance the Tsarevich Nicholas in the early 1890s. After the Tsarevich became Tsar and married Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, Kschessinka moved on to become the paramour of Grand Dukes Andrei and Serge. She was able to build a magnificent palace in the smartest section of St. Petersburg and gained an impressive collection of jewelry. She also gained a son, Vladimir, who was never sure which Grand Duke was his father. (Mathilde herself either didn't know or chose never to divulge the secret).
   
   The first section of the book tends to drag a bit, as we read of Kschessinska's climb to personal and romantic heights. The book really becomes interesting when it reaches the Revolution and its aftermath. Kschessinska's palace was taken over by the Bolsheviks in March, 1917 and she herself barely escaped with her life. She showed true courage and heroism over the next couple of years as she fled from revolutionaries and endured real hardship for the first time. After escaping to the West, Kschessinska demonstrated keen business abilities, setting up and running a successful ballet school in Paris and managing to live in an approximation of her pre-revolutionary style (with help from admirers) until her death at age 99 in 1971.
   
   This is an interesting and well written work which does a good job depicting the life of a woman who deserves to be better remembered.

3 comments about She Took to the Woods.

1. For those who have come late to be adicted to Louise Rich's writings, this is a capstone book to be read last. It fills in the unspoken spaces in the writings of one of Maine's best writers. Alren has let Louise tell her own story and has stayed out of the way of this telling while being supportive at the same time.



2. "We Took to the Woods," first published in 1942, remains a classic piece of wilderness writing. But Louise Dickinson and Ralph Rich lived together in a remote region of Maine for only ten years. What else did Louise do? This book tells us: she wrote. Through personal interviews with her children and close friends, the details of Louise Dickinson's life are presented. Included are the original texts of letters, journal notes, and diary entries, even though the latter make for somewhat tedious and clipped reading. The second half of the book rewards us with further selected writings from Louise. She lived in a variety of places in both Massachusetts and Maine, and she had a wide circle of friends. Her experiences turned her into a quintessential describer of New England life, whether she was writing for adults or, later on, for children. This is the story of a writer who put in her time and eventually gained fame but not fortune. Of interest to naturalists as well as struggling authors.



3. I was rather disappointed with this bio on one of my favorite authors. It seemed the source of much of the info was from the author's own books so I was already familiar with it and it held little behind the scenes info. For instance much of the first chapter about her childhood is taken directly from Innocence Under the Elms so almost no new info is given. The diary entries are interesting but very terse, the letters and interviews were limited but do give one a better sense of the author but overall I felt left with more questions than answers.

2 comments about Mary, Queen of Scots: Pride, Passion and a Kingdom Lost.

1. This, at last, is a book that focuses on what MQS actually DID as a queen, and what she didn't do. It measures her against the same stick used to measure other rulers of the same age instead of the usual sturm un drang offered up. She was no marytred saint, yet she was no she demon in velvet skirts. She was charming and lovely, however she was also inadequate. Kind of Queen-Lite, if you will.
   
   I found it very interesting that her much toted tolerance concerning religion is revealed to be otherwise. She demands the right to practice her own religion, but denies that same right to other Catholics. It is hard to hold up the banner of Catholic martyr when she did nothing good for that cause in Scotland, empowering the Protestant at the expense of the Catholic.
   
   And yes, I'm glad that Wormald came down on the side of Mary being involved in the plot against Darnley. Leave MQS some shreds of intelligence. If she didn't know, that makes her and Darnley the only ones in Scotland and Europe who were unaware of the plot. Her actions definitely speak loudly when she lured Darnely out of his family stronghold and brought him back to Edinburgh and death. It was politically astute and necessary. Only her blunders afterward destroyed her reputation. Handled differently, she could very likely have weathered it.
   
   Good read, well written and neither rabid nor fawning.



2. This is a valuable book that focuses on Mary Stuart as a ruler rather than Mary Stuart as a heroine in a historical romance. It is not a mystery about who killed Lord Darnley. It is a critical analysis of what occurred when someone who was historically ordained to rule, but who possessed none of the qualities to make that rule successful in the dynamic of the sixteenth century, attempted to lead Scotland through the religious and political minefiled of its pre-modern politics. Some writers tend to think that Wormald is too tough on the historical Mary Queen of Scots, but there is good basis for her analysis. The essential question about the Scots Queen in not really whether or not she wrote all or some of the Casket Letters, and whether or not she was a player in the murder of her husband Lord Darnley, but whether she faired any better than most of the other Stuart kings who followed her in dealing with the great issues of her day. She clearly did not. While my own review of the letters insofar as they presently exist, the evidence from a variety of sources, and my own experience as a successful prosecutor leads me to believe that I probably could convict her of conspiracy to commit murder , but not as an aider and abettor of murder itself, if she had been less a French queen and more a Scot, had she seen her role more as an obligation to her own historical niche and less a license to behave as if she were answerable to no mortal, her monarchy might have ended quite differently. No one would have cared about Darnley. Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, and even Thomas More did not put an end to Henry VIII, Essex did not end Elizabeth I, and the disposal of an unpopular sometimes Papist consort, would not have ended Mary's rule. Her prolonged absence from Scotland during her childhood, her identity with powers that were not in step with the religious and political changes in Scotland, her reliance upon her half-brother and other men to lead her country and usurp her power to make decisions are among teh flaws that are exposed and highlighted in this short but important book.

5 comments about Through The Flower: My Struggle as A Woman Artist.

1. This book was like a loyal companion as I experienced my own struggles as a woman artist. I commend Judy Chicago for sharing her experiences, personal decisions, and insights. Reading this particular book helped me to finish my most recent exhibition of work. Thank you, Judy!



2. This is a terrific book that demonstrates that women are able to persevere with their art even though males are trying to stop us. It seems that the white male patriarchal art world will continue to try to silence us, BUT WE WILL BE HEARD! I salute all my sisters in their struggle to produce art that, while disturbing white males, will prove that it is women who are making the most significant art in the world today. Judy Chicago has won again!



3. What a wonderful book this is; so inspired, so inspiring. Judy Chicago is simply brilliant. She has challenged patriarchal tyranny so courageously and insightfully that you can read this book again and again with acute pleasure.



4. Judy Chicago is such an intimate person, very emotional in her work, and through this book, you will grow to understand why and how she produced work in her very own style of emotion. She is truely a Goddess of Art, and a very strong women of which I could only strive to be! This book is so empowering, read it if you have any doubts about your place as a women dealing with being an artist. BRAVO!!



5. "By excluding the work of women artists from history, men not only maintain control of women, but also of the world." Judy Chicago, original V-Warrior and PoMo high priestress, turned that tide. Dogmatic, didactic, hyperliteral and hypercritical, her influence (even before The Dinner Party) cannot be underestimated. This is 'back in the day' when art had a 'message,' but, all that, Chicago nevertheless ushered in today's chaos, and yesterday's identity politics, with her clever use of 'fem' (low) art elements and stubborn insistence on remembering all founding sisters. Duchamp met his match - and, bringing high icongraphy to 'women's lib,' the 1980s were born.

1 comments about Concertina: An Erotic Memoir of Extravagant Tastes and Extreme Desires.

1. Susan Winemaker describes herself as a "nice Jewish girl from Toronto". She majored in philosophy and the culinary arts, and presumably because the former would not pay, went to study the latter in London. But as everyone knows, learning to be a chef and being a chef-for-hire is not as lucrative as being a dominatrix, and this is where she turned her talents. In _Concertina: The Life and Loves of a Dominatrix_ (St. Martin's Press), Winemaker gives an account of her work in a trade of administering discipline and pain to men who think it worth, say, 150 pounds an hour to be treated in such a way. It's an odd career, although it is one long associated with sexuality, especially in England. It has plenty of peculiar moments and fun which Winemaker enjoys and writes about with amusement; the first sentence of the book is, "It's 11:25 a.m. and I'm sitting on and suffocating Bernie". The work is delivering a service for a fee, and is full of day-to-day, practical tasks just to get the job done, as in "At 2:13 I was on my hands and knees, wiping semen off the dungeon floor. At 2:17 I was eating a hummus sandwich in the garden, and answering the telephone to a man who was interested in catheters and other medical procedures. At 2:30 I answered the door to a stranger named Robert ..." She was good at her trade, and had plenty of repeat clients handled with just the right degree of pain and remove. When she "blurred the boundaries" between mistress and client and took one on as a lover, the results are more disturbing than anything that happened in her dungeon.
   
   There is plenty of food in the book, and many comparisons made between serving up a meal and serving up domination. Serving up something delicious for the client is part of both of her trades, and she writes that "pain, violence, discipline and a good grasp of the trade's tools could produce something succulent and beautiful". She does like the game she plays as Mistress Anna and she likes the men. She had a session with "Enema Larry" who liked her to be in rubber nurse uniform, and afterwards he went to kiss her goodbye on the cheek. "I backed away just in time," she writes. "'I don't want you to catch my cold, Larry.'" The response: "'Oh, but, Anna, I _want_ your cold,' he instantly volleyed. It was the kindest thing anyone had said to me in the cottage. A beautiful thing to say. I loved my job for moments like that, for unexpected intimacies born of strange circumstances." It is illuminating that when she was preparing for her career, she not only read fetish magazines and rope-tying manuals, but also Stanislavski's _Building a Character_ and _An Actor Prepares_. She writes of the accord between her and clients, "There will be no 'sex' as it's understood. It will be my job to administer pain erotically and expertly... a symphony in the background, a range of sensations assailing me, the brief connection, the spice of anonymous intimacy, the distilled concentrated moment. I respond to detail and subtlety, rules, roles, and melody. This is theater, finitude, and utterly otherly experience."
   
   Though she is objective in describing her work, the most open and candid part of Concertina is the troubling account of her relationship with a client with whom she fell in love. In many ways, her job was no different from any other; it was demanding work with a good paycheck, but she realized that she was lonely: "I'm giving and I'm going home to no one." But Adam was gorgeous and responsive, liking especially the genital application of two score clothespins. Outside the dungeon, they developed an intense, sadomasochistic give and take. There is even (gasp) romantic and passionate _normal_ sex. They aren't able to abandon domination / submission, however, and the convolutions mount. "The thought of ordering my lover to pleasure me was vulgar. I want him to pleasure me because he wants to, not because he has to, and not because it's the role he's playing." The last straw is that Adam, who says he loves her cooking, admits he accidentally ate a raw chicken cutlet and didn't notice. Winemaker eventually sees the humor in such a denouement, but the resolution of their relationship is sad and cruel. Never mind; she wants to start up a luxury porridge bar in London, and that is not a euphemism for anything erotic but rather a culinary niche that she thinks is unexplored. It would be a simpler life, and I would trust her to write about it colorfully, recipes included, but I suspect it would not result in a memoir as strange or funny as this one.

5 comments about Secrets of a Hollywood Super Madam.

1. The book contains plenty of juicy bits on the sexual habits of those famous Hollywood celebrities but it is poorly written, with plenty of grammatical and spelling errors. I was surprised that the author did not proof read or asked someone to edit the book for her first before publishing it. I just don't seem to understand why the author needed to add in the part on her love for the animals, especially in chapters which have no complete link to her love for her pets. Out of the blue, a short paragraph on her love for her animals just popped out of nowhere... and it can be quite "painful" (or rather irritating) to read at times.
   
   But I do marvel the courage of the author in writing this book. Salute!



2. really enjoyed reading about the life of a madame. told in detail what these men requested for their dates(and believe me... they were upfront with that!) the names of people involved were interesting also...yes names you will recognize. hope she writes super madame II. one of those guilty entertaining reads. couldnt put it down until i was finished.



3. I thought the book was very good. I have to say I'm appalled (though not shocked) at the names that floated across the pages. Why is it just the women are punished when it comes to prositution? If it's true Bruce Willis was a customer, why didn't Willis get jail time for paying for an illegal service? All the men should be held equally accountable by law. In Saudia Arabia if a woman is raped, she is held responsible and the men are set free. Or if a woman has sex out of marriage (actually; even if she's alone with man who is not who husband will suffice), she is the one who is accountable, not the man. The truth is, our legal system isn't a whole lot better then countries that penalize the woman for preceived sexual offenses and crimes. Prositution could not exist if men were not buying sexual favors. If you want to be fair in punishing individuals for participating in prositution, then the men need to be held accountable for their contribution. Every famous celebrity (and non-celebrity) should have faced the same jail time as the author. Only when all parties are made equally quilty will the rich, famous and over sexed stop purchasing sex for entertainment purposes.



4. A very interesting read about the paid sex life of the stars in Hollywood.
   It is written with a light humor that is enjoyable.
   I enjoyed it.



5. I wish I could get my money (and the time I managed to dedicate to reading, before I couldn't take it anymore) back for this book... At the very beginning of the acknowledgments, the author brags that she wrote the book by herself, with "no co-writer or ghost writer". I only had to read a few sentences further to realize that this would have become very clear without her having mentioned it. It was rare to read any sentence that wasn't a run-on, or in some other way grammatically incorrect... It was so distracting, I found myself wondering right away if I'd be able to get into the story, despite the bad writing skills. Unfortunately, I didn't even make it all the way the first chapter before I came across an embarrassing attempt at erotica (apparently the first of many, from what I read in another review), with the author's story of her first sexual experience. Already, the straw had fallen which would break the camel's back. So take this review with a grain of salt if you must, seeing as how I wasn't able to read much of the book before I had to stop the madness. I couldn't bring myself to waste any more time on something that seemed like it could just as easily have been written by a teenage boy in the throes of puberty. Sorry to be harsh; I'm just tellin' it like it is!

No comments about Sex Variant Woman: The Life of Jeanette Howard Foster.

5 comments about Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan: The Martyr Who Founded RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

1. In response o a review critizing the simplistic and "saccrinine" account of a martyer's life. ... Gandhi or Lincoln or ML King all had less than perfect lives, all the more human. But to stand UP, and be one to bear the hopes of, and the brunt of punishment of, an entire class of oppressed , demands that accounts be written to inspire, rather than demean. And further oppression those who do not have a voice ( as do professional reviewers ) is all the less to be tolerated.
   because of these accounts.

   Just an opinion




2. An incredible story about an incredible woman who has led many woman since in a quest for equality, justice and human rights in a country that has been war torn for 30+ years. Please read this book and follow the story of a true angel. One that worked to promote justice, fairness and liberty for her people in Afghanistan. The book is excellent, a quick and easy read. Feminists will not be disappointed. Every woman (and her daughter) should read this to be inspiried that the world belongs to them and they should not be dismayed by the circumstances they see and experience around them.



3. I don't think I have ever read a book as moving as the story of Meena and her life and formation of the feminist group RAWA, (Revolutionary Association for the women of Afghanistan.
   
   This very young woman did so much, risking her life daily to change the face of war torn Afghanistan. Even after her young unexpected death, her mission of hope for a better future in Afghanistan lives on today. Her dream was that one day her beloved country would be in peace and that men and women could live equally. To this day, even after the destruction of the Taliban, Afghanistan and it's people suffer. When you read this book you will be amazed at how much this young woman accomplished in her life. It is unbelievable.
   
   Many of us think of Afghanistan and muslims and we see the face of the enemy, Osama Bin Laden and the horrible Fundementalists that tore up their country. I think it should be required reading in the American schools and when we think of Afghanistan we should see the beautiful face of Meena, who believes in freedom, democracy and that everyone should be given a chance. I will never forget being touched by the life of Meena.



4. I was interested in this story, and hopeful of learning about the struggle of women in Afghanistan........certainly the story is a remarkable one, but the writing is so stilted, awkward, often repetitive, and overly simplistic that it was a chore to slog through the book. Each paragraph tends to be a little vignette, which never leads smoothly into the next paragraph, so that one feels like one is jolting over a bumpy road, rather than reading a narrative story. I was particularly disappointed, given that Alice Walker wrote the forward, and based on this, I was expecting a more pleasurable read. I would have thought that the editors might have helped improve the readability.
   
   So, while I would consider this an important story for both men and women to read, I think that this writer has not done Meena justice with this work. I wonder if another writer may at least be spurred to draft a more elegant biography, particularly given that Meena was a poet, she deserves a tribute with more poetic language.



5. The Story of Meena is a remarkable one of love and dedication to the women of Afhanistan. Meena gave her all for them by creating a human rights movement that continues to this day. They are the USA's best defense against terrorism, teaching democracy and human rights to the many orphans of Afghanistan. Her life is one to be remembered and honored, and this book will give you insight into the difficulities the Afghani people have gone through, and the strength of women we don't hear about on the news. A must read indeed.
   
   I also feel it was beautifully written and it is a book you won't want to put down.
   
   All the profits go to the many orphanages they have established to teach love compassion and democracy to the future people, the children.

5 comments about Forgotten Voices of the Great War: A History of World War I in the Words of the Men and Women Who Were There.

1. Max Arthur's book covering the Great War is quite unique in that its content is nearly all first-hand accounts from people who experienced the horror of the Great War. The author has utilized a number of tape recorded interviews conducted by the Imperial War Museum in 1972. Many of the tapes from the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive had been forgotten and left unheard for years.
   
   Now Max Arthur has put together many of these unheard voices from the Great War to produce this spellbinding and captivating book. I must admit that I was reluctant to buy this book as I was worried that a book full of short accounts would be too disjointed and really not detailed enough to satisfy my interest. I can honestly say that I truly enjoyed reading this book.
   
   Each chapter of the book was a year of the Great War and was commenced by an introduction by the author offering a brief run down on the major events of that year. Then we heard from the men and women who participated in these events, from both sides of no-man's land. The author has concentrated mainly on the Western Front and Gallipoli and has tried to run the oral segments in chronological order.
   
   I was really taken by these segments and I found it hard to stop reading. The accounts from these soldiers and civilians alike were at times humorous, strikingly direct, horrifying and on many occasions quite sad. I was really taken in by these accounts and I don't think that any World War One library would be complete without this title sitting on the shelf. I can honestly say that I learnt quite a few things from this book and I would place it along side such works offered by Lyn MacDonald. Well done to the author and the Imperial War Museum for allowing these veterans, many now long dead, the last word on their experiences in the Great War. This is a great book, you won't be disappointed.



2. I thought the book was out standing of being told from the prospective of the common soldier and the ironies of war. this was an important work as to the feelings of the soldiers and not nesserly of the high command. very enlightning Norm Miller



3. Detailed descriptions of great battles and campaigns and after battle reports are good and certainly worthwhile, but this work is just as important, if not more important in some ways, than the first mentioned. This is a collection, taken primarily from original tapes, of the recollections of those who were actually there. As one reviewer has already pointed out, most of these observations were made by those actually in the trenches, actually working on the home front, and not just the recollections of Generals,leaders and journalists. This is quite refreshing and informative. The author has, as much as possible, kept the recollections in chronological order and has given us a brief history before each segment. Some of the recollections are quite mundane, but in being so, make them that much more special. The many black and white photos added much. The only problem I had with the book was that each nationality represented here have used their own colloquialisms, many of which I had never encountered before. But...this actually, in the end, was an advantage for me personally, as it forced me, due to pure curiosity, to do further research and find out just what they were referring to. I learned much this way! Most, if not all, of this generation is gone now and we are quite fortunate to have records such as this. I hope there are more to come. Overall I highly recommend. I collect books from and about this era and recommend you add this on to your collection.



4. A fantastic read. This is not a story book this is real thoughts from real people in a very real war.
   This book really takes you into the minds and souls of those very very brave men & Women.
   Excellent. The only reason I did not give this 5 stars is that the book could have been longer. My only grievence. Thanks to the brave who lost their lives. Long may their memory live.



5. This is mostly from interviews from British and Australian troops who lived through the war. It is amazing to hear what they went through, in wars since the warriors were almost spoiled in comparison. I have read everything on Vietnam and world war 2, here they lost more men in one day of one attack then in the whole 15 years of Vietnam. That they could continually follow the orders that were nothing less than suicidal are beyond me.
   
   I recommend for anyone interested in first person stories of this or any other war to educate yourself on what it was like with this book.

5 comments about Anne Mccaffrey: A Life With Dragons.

1. I regret to say I wish I hadn't bought this book. It is badly written, repetitive, many minor errors of fact and self-contradictory. Don't bother with it, but stay with Todd McCaffrey's "Dragonholder", which is much better.



2. It's a biography. Anne McCaffrey = Enthralling story telling
   Biography = Boring
   Would not have purchased if I had known.



3. An interesting tale of the life of Anne McCaffrey and how she struggled to become a writer of SI_FI fantasy, her emigration to Ireland and struggles to adapt, her family, &
   her love of horses, esp. Ed.



4. I don't understand how such an excellent author as Anne McCaffrey could have allowed such a terrible writer to publish a biography of her (Anne)! Whoever edited the book also did a terrible job - example - referring to Anne and her brothers as "the siblings" multiple times in the photo captions. I am very disappointed.



5. It is not easy to write a readable and entertaining biography while at the same time keeping the scientific value and the historical level high. Well, Robin Roberts is a master at it and this product the best she has written until now. This biography is a must for every Anne McCaffrey fan. And my warmest compliments to the dragonlady herself for opening up personally and file-wise and thus accomodating a cracking good book on her life and accomplishments. And if you start talking about this science fiction author's accomplishments you need every page you get!