5 comments about Really Bad Girls of the Bible: More Lessons from Less-Than-Perfect Women.

1. Our church has a Women's First Friday Bible Book Discussion Group and we've just finished "Bad Girls of the Bible" . Now we're beginning "Really Bad Girls of the Bible" and boy are we ready. Liz writes in truly personal way, with intense, genuine passion. Her discussion questions make fabulous jumping off points for our women's group. Fantastic author, FABULOUS book!



2. I have to say Liz Curtis Higgs sheds new light, at least for me, on a lot of those women in the Bible. You know, I've read about all these women in Ms. Curtis's book before, but somehow when I read my bible I missed a whole heck of a lot. I don't know how, because when I read this book I wanted to slap myself upside the head plenty of times. Duh, I'd mudder, how come I didn't see that? How come I didn't get it? Well I'm getting a lot of it now. As a Bible teacher, Ms. Curtis really excells and she makes it oh so interesting. I highly recommend this book.



3. Our church's women's ministry used this book for our Bible study and enjoyed it tremendously. I could relate to so many of the characters and was so horrified by some of the others! I enjoyed reading about the many relatively obscure Biblical women. We had several elderly ladies in our group who were surprised to read stories they'd never remembered reading before. I liked that Higgs focuses on Biblical women who were strong leaders, even if they were bad for a season.
   
   We laughed, blushed, cried, and enjoyed every minute of discussing this book and how it related to our lives. Her message of grace for bad girls is one we all need to hear. I look forward to reading and sharing more of Higgs' books.



4. I had reservations about it when my small group decided to give this book a whirl, and although I was game and tried to like it, I just couldn't.
   
   Liz's overfamiliar style, her judgemental tone, and pandering to churchy already-good-girls reads like a book that reinforces smugness among the churched.
   
   I especially did not like the way she glossed over the difference in 21st Century standards for women, and instead just judged them against today's free-er women's options and opportunities.
   
   I will say that we had many good conversations because we read the book, but in the end, we were all severely disappointed in the book itself.
   
   Examples of what I mean: some of the "bad girl" scenarios seemed like she was stretching to fill pages, "bad for a good reason" - what?, or nattering on and on about David's sin with Bathsheba - wait, he's not a girl!



5. Finally all the 25 books arrived. They came from many different vendors. They will be much appreciated by our church woman's group.

5 comments about Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

1. Compelled by Showtime's ad campaign for their new series "Secret Diary of a Call Girl," I picked up the book (which is based on a real call girl's award-winning blog). While the book was interesting for its (somewhat) candid view of upper-class prostitution, it also kind of fell flat.
   
   The book works in many ways. Each chapter opens with the "ABCs" of a London call girl. These definitions, such as "Z is for Zippers," are quite funny and interesting. The anonymous author also has a knack for finding great humor in her work and interaction with clients.
   
   On the downside, many chapters sound like they belong in a thirteen-year-old's diary. There is way too much time devoted to memories of ex-boyfriends and secret crushes. I wouldn't mind having this information if it were written about with the same attention to detail that the sexual encounters receive. It would also be bearable if the other characters were fleshed out more. Instead, we get letters for names (A1, A2, A3, A4, and N) and virtually nothing else. Why should we care about the author's relationships if she can't describe then in any real way?
   
   If the book were written as a more focused tell-all or if the supporting characters were more fleshed out, it would be highly recommended. It has some funny moments and interesting stories about call girls, but the meaningless babble about wooden characters makes it tedious and less interesting. A good book to skim and read at random.



2. This was the second memoir of prostitution that I have read (the first being The Scorpion's Sweet Venom), and so far, here is what I've learned:
   
   - The sex scenes will as a rule be explicitly detailed and told with implausible detachment.
   
   - Prostitution will be conveyed as a chic and not an altogether unpleasant profession.
   
   - Flashbacks will abound in pitiful attempts at characterization and a more literary angle.
   
   Belle de Jour was no exception to these rules, but it was a fun if not compelling read. I really enjoyed the author's witty style, even if reading about her friends was utterly boring. By the end of the book, every man in the author's life seemed to merge into one tall-ridiculously-attractive fellow with a proclivity for rough sex and moping over ex-girlfriends.
   
   All in all, I would like to see the genre of prostitution memoirs take a more realistic/gritty turn. But then I have to really ask myself, do I really want to read the tell-all memoir of an Atlanta crack whore? Perhaps publishers choose these high-end prostitute tell-alls for a reason...



3. I really wanted to like this book, but I just didn't. Like a reviewer befor me said, some areas just lacked the details needed to make them interesting. I found myself wanting to skip over entries because I was becoming bored with the same basic descriptions of her past boyfriends and such. Overall i'm sure the book could have been worse but it still wasnt as good as I had hoped.



4. After having read Belle de Jour's blog, I was hoping that the book would primarily be new material. Unfortunately, the bulk of it was pulled directly from the blog with only a few new entries interspersed. Yes, the alphabet piece at the beginning of each chapter was new, but I'm not quite sure that it made the purchase worth it.
   
   Now I'm wondering if the second book will be more of the same.



5. This book is soooooo stupid! I don't believe it was even written by a woman. There are phrases and words a woman just wouldn't not use! DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY :(

5 comments about Chanel and Her World.

1. I was disappointed in the text. I guess from the title I should have expected some world history. The story line is somewhat incoherent and doesn't seem to present her life very well. I had to use the index to find a couple lines of reference to her "Boy", a romance started in the story and then dropped, only to be finished much later and with no real detail. Either Chanel was very closed mouth about a lot of her life or the author didn't know her that well. Also, there are a lot of pictures of rather irrelevant items. I wouldn't purchase it again.



2. I was looking for a book showing photos of Chanel's clothing designs and styles. This book focuses more on her life and the celebrities and cultural/social trends of her era (spanning 1910's - 1950's), so if you are looking to see her clothing styles and designs, you will be disappointed as there isn't that much coverage of the actual clothing. However, it is a very absorbing, encyclopedic, pictorial collection of the people of Chanel's time and you can spend many a lazy Sunday afternoon thoroughly exploring les temps perdus. There are many many pictures of Coco Chanel - like Madonna, she looks different every few years, a real chameleon. It retails at $65, so the $37 Amazon price is a good deal. It is a heavy thick book with glossy pages.



3. I paid almost full price for this book and I don't regret it. I found this coffee table book just lovely.
   
   I am not a fashion expert. I'm just a reader interested in interesting people, so I was looking for a book on CHANEL that gave a brief background on her life and photos of Coco and some of her fashions. Well, this book seemed to fit the bill---for me. I was not disappointed.
   
   I have enjoyed this book very much and it sits on my living room table , ----for the book to be browsed by others.



4. Perfectly perfect. Everyone should have this book, and give it as a gift! Wow.



5. I love the book I purchased, but would love another Chanel book covering all of her designs. Would you plese recommend a book that has mostly colored photographs of her design? WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT M Miller

5 comments about One Writer's Beginnings (The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization).

1. I was assigned this book twice in college, when it first came out, and I still don't know why. It's a very nice memoir of growing up in the south, but there's little that has to do with actual writing. The same can be said for a documentary I saw of the same title - Welty is a very intelligent and charming lady, and the book and documentary tell a good deal about her early life, but that's about it.
   
   If you wish to learn how someone actually became a writer, and all the challenges of living such a life, you'd be much more rewarded by Somerset Maugham's "The Summing Up," Louis L'Amour's "Autobiography of a Wandering Man," the letters of Keats, Irving Stone's biography of Jack London, and "Women Writers at Work," in which there's a twenty-two page interview with Welty. (In fact, you can find it in the Interview archives of the Paris Review website.)
   
   So again, nothing against the author or this book as a memoir, and if you love her stories, then definitely go for it, but if you're thinking of assigning it for a writing class, or simply looking to see how someone became a writer, there are better books to learn from.



2. For someone like myself, who is fascinated by the writing process, there is no book I value more than this book by Eudora Welty. The book, beautifully illustrated with family photographs, consists of three lectures delivered by Miss Welty at Harvard University in April 1983. A paragraph written by Miss Welty and inserted at the beginning of the book, in my view, perfectly illustrates the eloquence and subtleties of biography:
   
   "When I was young enough to still spend a long time buttoning my shoes in the morning, I'd listen toward the hall: Daddy upstairs was shaving in the bathroom and Mother downstairs was frying the bacon. They would begin whistling back and forth to each other up and down the stairwell. My father would whistle his phrase, my mother would try to whistle, then hum hers back. It was their duet. I drew my buttonhook in and out and listened to it - I knew it was 'The Merry Widow.' The difference was, their song almost floated with laughter: how different from the record, which growled from the beginning, as if the Victrola were only slowly being wound up. They kept it running between them, up and down the stairs where I was now just about ready to run clattering down and show them my shoes."
   
   One Writer's Beginnings is divided into three sections, representing the three individual lectures: Listening, Learning to See, and Finding a Voice. As I read "Listening," I felt another good title for it would be "Observing." Miss Welty knows her two parents as, I believe, few children know their parents. Her acute powers of observation--the differences and similarities between these two important people in her life, their separate tastes and talents, the daily habits of their household--are insightful and fascinating to read. This section makes clear how reading and being read to were as regular a ritual in her life as eating three meals a day. I love her observation that "It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming up of themselves like grass." The author's observations about her life and the people around her are both sensitive and incisive. I quickly realized her reason for calling this chapter "Listening." She does not merely take in the literal content of words. Since childhood, apparently, she heard the cadences of words and the less obvious message of their inner meanings. This has been a particularly helpful revelation for me. With my strict German background, I tend to respond literally to what I hear and see, to what I read and write. Even journalism today does not limit itself to mere reporting, and I gained enormously from reading Miss Welty describe this aspect of her writing. What she does so well is to convey her own feelings inherent in words rather than merely their factual content. In short, she trusts what she hears, she trusts her inner voice that listens... and this is the source of all her writing.
   
   Thus, it is not surprising to learn that Miss Welty was unable to feel comfortable with organized religion, that her reverence for the holiness and mystery of life was found in the great churches she visited and her contemplation of the King James Version of the Bible with its beginning offering: "In the beginning was the Word."
   
   In the section "Learning to See," Miss Welty describes her love of traveling--road trips in the car for shopping sprees, to visit grandparents. She writes of how Ohio (where her father grew up) had her father "around the heart" as her mother adored West Virginia from whence she came...before her parents settled in Jackson, Mississippi, where Miss Welty lived her entire life. She observes and gives examples illustrating that her father, the optimist, was the one prepared for the worst, and her mother, the pessimist, was the daredevil. How many children see their parents that clearly? In this chapter, we learn a bit about the personalities of Miss Welty's grandparents. Her observations are replete with her love of them...not merely factual recountings of their backgrounds.
   
   Perhaps it is here that another of Miss Welty's distinctions lies--her love of the people about whom she writes. Her love and respect for them is as plain between the lines as it is in the words she uses to define herself and her family in this revealing biography. My heart opens as I read her memories on the page, so filled with love are they.
   
   It is clear I love every page of this small book, but I confess that my favorite chapter is the last one--"Finding a Voice." I love it best perhaps because it tells of one particular rail trip Miss Welty took with her father and reveals how the support for her becoming a writer came from her mother. She shares her feelings about her college experience, her discovery of poetry, and a host of helpful comments to do with her writing. I love that she writes: "I was always my own teacher." She shares her belief that a writer should remain "invisble," not "effaced" but invisible. A good example of this is her description of a soldier who had unexpectedly stepped off a halted train and was walking across a field into the distance. Rather than describe what she felt in watching him disappear, Miss Welty writes from the soldier's point of view: "...I felt us going out of sight for him, diminishing and soon to be forgotten." Another helpful reminder for me was her discovery that "...all begins with the particular, never the general."
   
   There is too much of value in this book for any review to convey it adequately. However, I cannot end before quoting her last brief paragraph: "...I am a writer who came of a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within."
   
   There could be no better ending to this treasure of a book.
   
   by Duffie Bart
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



3. "Listening," "Learning to See" and "Finding a Voice," Eudora Welty entitled the three chapters of her autobiography "One Writer's Beginnings." And while these may be steps that most writers will undergo at some point, Welty's compact memoir is notable both because it allows a rare glimpse into the celebrated writer's otherwise fiercely protected private life and it illustrates the roots from which sprang such extraordinary protagonists as "The Ponder Heart"'s Edna Earle and Daniel Ponder, Miss Eckhart and the Morgana families in "The Golden Apples" and, of course, the anti-heroes of her Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Optimist's Daughter," Judge McKelva, his second wife Fay and (most importantly) his daughter Laurel.
   
   A native and -- with minimal exceptions -- lifelong resident of Jackson, Mississippi, Welty received her first introduction to storytelling as a listener; and early on, learned to sharpen her ears not only to a story's contents but also to its narrator and its protagonists' individual nature: "[T]here [never was] a line read that I didn't hear," and "any room ... at any time of day, was there to read in, or to be read to," she notes in "One Writer's Beginnings," adding that the discovery that all those stories had been written by someone, not come into existence of their own, not only surprised but also severely disappointed her. Equally importantly, family visits to relatives brought out the born observer in her; each trip providing its own lessons and revelations, each a story onto itself -- the seed from which later grew her manifold unforgettable literary creations. At the same time, her father's interest in technology introduced her to photography as a means of capturing visual impressions, one moment at a time; and when traveling around Mississippi as an agent for a state agency (her first job) she learned to use that camera as "a hand-held auxiliary of wanting-to-know" and discovered that "to be able to capture transience, by being ready to click the shutter at the crucial moment, was [then] the greatest need I had." Not surprisingly, her photography was published in several collections which have found much acclaim in their own right.
   
   Thus, from early childhood on, Eudora Welty not only had a keen sense of the world around her but also, of words as such: of their existence as much as the interrelation between their sound, physical appearance and the things they stand for. Encouraged by her mother, a teacher, and over her father's worries (he considered fiction writing an occupation of dubitable financial promise and, worse, inferior to fact because it was "not true"), Welty embarked on a writer's path which would lead her to award-winning heights and to a reputation as one of the South's finest writers, with as abounding as obvious comparisons to fellow Mississippian William Faulkner in particular; a literary debt she acknowledged when she wrote that "his work, though it can't increase in itself, increases us" and "[w]hat is written in the South from now on is going to be taken into account by Faulkner's work" ("Must the Novelist Crusade?", 1965).
   
   An approach that Welty herself developed early on was to consider the publication of her short stories in periodicals merely a step towards each story's final shape, and she generally revised her stories before including them in their various collections. -- Not only a keen observer, she was also a writer endowed with a sharp sense of humor and satire, and with the gift to brilliantly use location, localisms, accents, patterns of speech and customs to make a point.
   
   Yet, "[t]here is no explanation outside fiction for what its writer is learning to do," Eudora Welty maintained in "Writing and Analyzing a Story;" explaining that each story references only the writer's vision at the moment of the creation of that very story, and the creative process itself: nothing that can be "mapped and plotted" but a product taking shape within the process of its creation as such, thus giving each story a unique identity of its own. And considering her reluctance to comment on, or to explain her own fiction writing, the insights into that creative process's origins she allowed her readers in "One Writer's Beginnings" are all the more to be treasured.
   
   Also recommended:
   Eudora Welty : Stories, Essays & Memoir (Library of America, 102)
   Eudora Welty : Complete Novels: The Robber Bridegroom, Delta Wedding, The Ponder Heart, Losing Battles, The Optimist's Daughter (Library of America)
   Flannery O'Connor : Collected Works : Wise Blood / A Good Man Is Hard to Find / The Violent Bear It Away / Everything that Rises Must Converge / Essays & Letters (Library of America)
   The Heart is a Lonely Hunter/Reflections in a Golden Eye/The Ballad of the Sad Cafe/The Member of the Wedding/The Clock Without Hands (Library of America)
   To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
   To Kill a Mockingbird (Universal Legacy Series)



4. I spent my vacation absorbing this book. I had heard of Eudora Welty, but this was my first opportunity to read her writing. I sat in Kentucky, listened to the cicadas singing, and read the words of Miss. Welty. Glorious!



5. I just recently read this again--each time it grows on me even more. It's a deceptively simple memoir that grows more complex in its structure and style with each re-reading. It's subjective memory at its best, and W's style is just a joy. I'm just back from Jackson, the best place to go after reading the book.

5 comments about Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table.

1. Although Ruth has encounted her share of life's obstacles and heartache, she continues to embrace life with a sense of humor and an open heart, which I think is the key to her success. Pork Chops and Applesauce: A Collection of Recipes and Reflections



2. Ruth Reichl currently serves as editor of "Gourmet" magazine, an exalted position for any foodie. She also was once the restaurant critic for the "New York Times," but her journey as critic emerged from a much bumpier, more interesting path at a commune in Berkeley, California. "Comfort Me with Apples" follows on from Reichl's first book, her childhood exposure to the wonderful world of food, "Tender at the Bone." That book was so outstanding, I had a hard time imagining how Reichl's sequel could be as good, but it is.
   
   In "Comfort Me with Apples," Reichl's tales of fine dining, celebrity chefs, and the pursuit of a great meal are colored with stories of her own love life, marriage and divorce, travel, friendships, and her desire for motherhood. Her pursuit of adopting a child is perhaps the most life-changing and heart-breaking story of all. And all along the way, we are lured by the amazing, accompanying meals. This memoir will make your mouth water and your heart ache.
   
   Don't feel that you need to read "Tender at the Bone" first. This book stands up on its own, but all of Reichl's writing is so engaging, why would you miss any of it?



3. Ruth Reichl has done it again -- completely mesmerized me with a book I found hard to put down.
   
   The current editor of Gourmet magazine goes from food critic a New West Magazine to the LA Times in this, the sequel to her first memoir, Tender at the Bone. How she reinvents herself from a hippie living in a commune in Berkeley cooking for her housemates to being one of the most respected food critics in the country is told with her usual candor, intelligence, humor, and poignancy. Her essay toward the end about her struggle with infertility left me weeping. An unbearable heartbreak for Ruth and Michael had me so emotional I had to put the book down at one point. But then an act of extraordinary kindness on the part of some of her dear friends several pages later made me sigh.
   
   Thank goodness I had already read her bio and knew that in the end things turn out well for her, but I was struck by how hard it must have been for her to write about some of these episodes and she addresses this in her acknowledgements at the end of the book.
   
   I enjoyed the stories she shares of how difficult it is for one to open a new restaurant and was particularly interested in the story of Wolfgang Puck's wife Barbara (who we met briefly at her now-defunct Seattle restaurant several years ago).
   
   Another excellent read from Ruth Reichl. Her third book, Garlic and Sapphires is next. I can hardly wait!



4. A wonderful second course to her first book, Tender At the Bone. Just like you anticpate great meals through aromas wafting through the house, each page wafts anticipation of her growing career in the world of gourmet dining. And as happens on occasion, the meals that don't turn out just right, despite following every iota of the recipe, so too her marriage fails to sustains and nourish. A great read for the foodie who loves to read or the reader who loves good food! Bon Appetit!



5. The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know EverythingAs a positive psychologist who focuses on women and girls in my own books, my latest being The Truth, the diary of a 10-11 year old girl who is struggling to grow-up and yet stay true to herself, I have to say I love Ruth Reichl's books. I am not here to pick them apart. Rather I eat them up, from first course to last, as the most wonderfully delicious meals of a woman's life experiences, combined with the intimate reflections of her inner life. And Comfort Me with Apples is no exception. I enjoyed every page and wanted to know even more about her than she shared. For me, maybe the combination of being taken to places I have never been, both in terms of travel, and relationships, and also delighting in descriptions of cooking and eating foods, just is a perfect combination for me and I suspect many women. I wouldn't dare, even if these things happened to me, to put them into writing. I am glad that there are people like Ruth Reichl who are willing and daring enough to share of themselves with readers when they themselves are still in their prime and not just reflecting (although there is nothing wrong with that) about a life well lived toward the end of one's days. Carry on Ruth! May everyday for you be a treat. And don't forget to share some of it with me!

5 comments about America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines (P.S.).

1. Ms. Collins takes you on a journey through 400 years of U.S. history as seen and experienced by women. It is a great review of our history as well as a perspective many neglect to include. This book is easily recommended to not only students of U.S. history, but to anyone who could use a refresher on some of the intricacies of our past. It was both captivating and intriguing.



2. The audio book was supposed to be unabridged, however there are several sections missing. Including the entire section on the Salem Witch trials.



3. This is an easy to read book with a wealth of information.



4. Gail Collins' America's Women, 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines was gifted to me by a friend. She rightly concluded that my four decades working as a flight attendant, studying history, tending house, authoring works, serving as a union officer and currently organizing retirees has included these roles. Along with many American women I have been a doll, drudge, helpmate, heroine--all within a short span of time.
   The inclusion of "women's' work" in this comprehensive four century history of America's woman is in nearly every chapter. Combining pregnancies and nursing children the early colonial American women took on the heavy duties of planting gardens, cooking and spinning. In the southern colonies the women often helped in the fields and ground corn which was an onerous task.
   Collins creates a tempo that takes America's women working during the Revolutionary War where cash crops enabled families to buy fabrics which lifted the tyranny of the spinning wheel. Collins' research takes us through the post revolutionary period through the 1860s that focuses on slow but steady progress from many women keeping house, child caring and producing dairy goods and dry goods for marketing.
   The stories and narratives from sources that the women often wrote themselves is worthwhile. The women who went westward were mainly from pioneering farm families. Pushing wagons, driving teams of oxen, pitching tents and handling guns was viewed as a temporary emergency and the idea of women providing nurturing care for a family in the "home" remained a prevalent attitude.
   Women were often working to be able to work and that is illustrated by such accounts as women in the American West. One woman mentioned, although there must have been many, created work with her cast iron skillet making biscuits and flapjacks for miners in the gold country. One woman posed as a man and drove a stage coach; one woman continued her husband's dentistry practice after he died.
   Organizing with other women for a union first appears in the early 1900s when Jewish women successfully organized garment workers. Readers might conclude--its about time after reading about the treatment of women working on farms, as domestic workers, early factory assemblers, and department store clerks. Switchboard operators, clerk typists and library work came to women quite by default. One account described male switchboard operators as talking back to customers.
   The author takes us through the Gilded Age at the end of the 1800s, the attempts at reform to enfranchise women in the early 20th century, dealing with the depressions of the 1930s, and World War II. America's women who worked hard to keep the economy afloat seem to regress back into the 19th century following World War II. It was a time when women were often dropping out of college, marrying early, and reading women's magazines that urged them to be dumb and helpless to hold their husband's love and devotion.
   Gail Collins work reminds us of the old cliche that "woman's work is never done" and her work is never done as she leaves Volume I of America's Women with the 1960s where the pendulum was swinging back with a vengeance. Gail Collins plans to release Volume II of America's Women in 2008 and I look forward to the continuation of her important work on women's work.
   Georgia Panter Nielsen, Doll, Drudge, Helpmate and Heroine



5. I wish this book had more complete footnotes. It's informative and so well written -- so wry and funny -- but at times, when I check the chapter notes to see where the author is getting her information, the citation is not there. I found at least one error -- she says that, when a married Puritan woman stepped out on her husband, it was adultery, but when a husband stepped out, it was merely fornication. That is not true -- and my source is a statement by some seventeenth-century Cambridge ministers, as quoted in Morgan's Puritan Family. It makes me wonder: what else in this book is incorrectly stated?

5 comments about Seducing the Boys Club: Uncensored Tactics from a Woman at the Top.

1. This book does a great job explaining the male culture to women. This culture permeates locker room jokes, jockeying for position, the constant need for hierarchy. This book is one woman's view from the inside and it is great.



2. Nina makes a lot of good points, and in a very easy to read format! She uses her experiences aka learning lessons to explain her theories and I enjoyed her witty humor.



3. Having grown up with three brothers, recollections of living with them came back to me as I read Nina DiSesa's book, Seducing the Boys Club: Uncensored Tactics from a Woman at the Top. At the beginning, I thought I was reading humor as she relates her childhood "...my long road to uncertainty started when I was twelve years old and lasted until the end of my thirtieth year, when I metamorphosed almost overnight from a shy and insecure loser to a first-rate conceited jerk." But once I realized that this humor helped her work effectively with the men in her organization, I began to pay closer attention.
   
   Another source of my confusion with DiSesa's premise came from her assertion that breaking the plexiglas ceiling involves women becoming more seductive and manipulative. To me, that sounded unfair. But having proven herself after progressing from writing resort ads for the Catskills to becoming chairman of McCann Erickson New York, DiSesa makes her points with these sometimes humorous, sometimes insane, but effective strategies for working with men. Using many examples, she shows how she spent her creative energies figuring out the men in her office. She writes, "It's like solving a murder mystery. Collect the clues, lay them all out, and you will solve the puzzle."
   
   Throughout the book, DiSesa shows how she struggled to be taken seriously by twenty and thirty-year-old employees. Once she used a high-powered water rifle to quell their inappropriate behavior. She reminded me of the time when my own children were teenagers and my daughter, annoyed by her brother's antics, asked whether sisters could divorce their brothers. But along with the humor, uncensored commentary, and good advice, DiSesa shows how her lessons helped change the climate of her highly-competitive workplace by identifying her masculine side in order to accomplish creative tasks, meet impossible deadlines, and gain the trust of her co-workers. And in the process, she helped her co-workers find their feminine side making the workplace more pleasant for everyone.
   
   Usually, DiSesa relates solving a particular situation, showing what she did and summarizing the lesson learned, but she is so eager to get to the next topic that occasionally she fails to tie up the threads of the narrative. But this is a minor flaw and may have been intended to keep the reader engaged. This book can help women who study DiSesa's techniques overcome the roadblocks to success by providing a proven path to follow.
   
   by Susan M. Andrus
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



4. I know a lot of people love the title. To be honest, I was a little turned off by it - sounded manipulative. But I couldn't help falling in love with the book.
   
   Nina shares a brazen, honest, politically incorrect look at what it was like for her moving up the ranks in the "boys club." I love that this is NOT about male bashing. There's really only one man in the whole book who she couldn't find a way to work with.
   
   The stories are priceless, and the lessons should be mandatory for every woman in the workplace. I so wish I had read this book 15 years ago! (speaking of priceless - it was great fun to hear the origins of that famous ad campaign.)
   
   The parts about where and when to use emotion are worth the price of the book.
   
   I know Nina is in advertising, which isn't as stuffy as some other corporations, but I wish more women at the top shared such honest feedback about their rise to the top.



5. Like a man who likes to go on and on with "fascinating" stories about himself, the author goes on and on with "fascinating" stories about herself that are of interest to no one but someone also in her own profession.

5 comments about How to Snag a Guy and Keep Him Hooked: 99 Ways to Make Him Ache for You.

1. Hey, what you said in your book sounds like you're a fly on the wall when my boyfriend and I had a discussion about our relationship the other night we don't even kiss anymore, he's distant and it's just like you talked about- I really feel like he's cheating because of the reasons you talked about but I know I love him. I'm great at communicating and he's not but I know what I've got do about my situation now after reading what you said about a man's mind and how to talk to him.



2. Before I came across 'how to snag a guy and keep him hooked' I'd had some pretty poor success with men. I have a little bit of weight and I used to use that as my excuse for why men always dated me then dumped me. I was actually quite skeptical when I came across this book, but I read it and found the advice to be something that I could really relate to and that's when I started to make some changes to my attitude and the way I live my life.
   
   I've not only used the advice to meet and attract the love of my life, I've gained confidence in myself that I never had before. I'm no longer as shy around men as I used to be and I really feel valuable as a person. My new man treats me like none have ever before. And he loves spending time with me, which is great! I'm certain we wouldn't be together right now if it wasn't for what I learnt from this book and I owe the author my heartfelt thanks!



3. I had struggled through the dating scene, going to clubs and bars most weekends and always ended up going home alone. I always had fun, as I was with my friends, but I was always aware that I had trouble meeting men. I mean, I wanted to meet men, but it was hard approaching them, and I didn't get approached by men much.
   
   My sisters and friends all had boyfriends and long-term partners except for me. Then I stumbled across this book and read it. It really forced me to change the way I looked at things, especially my self confidence. It took me about a month of gradually getting the confidence to change things before men started to notice me.
   
   Now when I walk into a bar, men notice me and I have a great time! I find it easier to approach men and talk to them. It's really not as hard as I thought it might be. I feel so great, and it's all thanks to this book! Another book that I recommend is Women Men Love, Women Men Leave: What Makes Men Want to Commit?



4. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I only ended up pushing him farther away. After reading your book I now understand why. He's coming back around now and I am following your advice. It seems to be working!"



5. This book surprised me. I was expecting some lame information but you went right into the heart of the why and how and what to do. Very good work.

5 comments about Brother, I'm Dying (Vintage Contemporaries).

1. This narrative has all the ingredient necessary to produce a ...say...corny story. However, thanks to Danticat's honesty and brilliance, it turned out been a great book, a painful narrative.
   
   The worst thing on it? It's that it's all true, no fiction at all, unfortunately.



2. Edwidge Danticat is a talented writer. In Brother, I'm Dying, she weaves a family story in with the history of Haiti with wonderful results. The book is touching on both counts; with Danticat dealing with the illness of her father and with the turbulence in Haiti where several members of her family still live. Heartbreaking and powerful. Highly recommended.



3. Edwidge Danticat is possibly the best American fiction writer of the younger generation. Her novels and story collections have cut a broad swath through the history of 20th century Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Their virtues include lyric and narrative pleasures, a plainspoken and elegant voice, intelligence and intelligibility, and the bridging of two cultures separated by language and mutual misunderstanding.
   
   With Brother, I'm Dying, Danticat expands upon the gift for nonfiction she first demonstrated in her book about carnival in Jacmel. This time, she tackles memoir by way of family history, a private story that stands in for hundreds of thousands of other private stories and has deep public policy implications. Through the Dantica and Danticat families, we get an up-close-and-personal look at the terrors of Haitian history from Papa Doc to the present, alongside the beauties of place and people too often underexplored in newspaper accounts of Haiti.
   
   The book's velocity increases toward the end, when Danticat's uncle is run out of Port-au-Prince by street gangs, only to encounter the surprisingly deadlier American immigration system. This part of the story is the most deeply felt section of a deeply felt book, and the reader wants to scream with outrage and the indignities Danticat's uncle suffers, and especially at the unwillingness of the immigration authorities to respond humanely to his illness, his difficulties in communicating, or his family's quite reasonable requests that he receive proper medical and legal attention.
   
   I find myself grieving now, after finishing this book, and I want to know what I can do to make my country more compassionate. Certainly, Haitians receive shabbier treatment than almost any other ethnicity in our immigration and legal system, and, like Danticat, I find myself wondering why, and suspecting that it might be a manifestation of the worst prejudices we have not yet laid to rest.
   
   It is true that books can be about virtuous things without being very good, but the urgency the reader feels about the book's subject owes much to the extraordinary power of the writing. If Danticat were a writer who chose subject matter of a lesser intensity, I believe that more critics would write about the sentences, the structural choices, the wise management of information in her books. That they do not is a testament to the power of the stories she chooses to tell, and her ability to get out of the way and give character and story center stage rather than the pyrotechnics of language which she is certainly capable of exhibiting.



4. This is a heart wrenching true tale of a Haitian family whose members experience of various ups and downs come together to make a dreadfully sad yet inspiring story. This family goes through so many dire situations, in which their lives seem so close to being over numerous times throughout the story, that you begin to have more belief in them surviving . The author, Edwidge Danticat, who is telling the story of her family, is a truly wonderful writer. Instead of showing too many of her emotions, she lets the reader learn about her family and create their own emotions regarding the story. This memoir is an unforgettable tale of a loving family who support each other in every way possible, but still seems to always be going through tragic times.
   
   This novel mainly focuses on Edwidges' uncle, Joseph, and father, Mira. Both of them suffer severely, but at the same time prove to be very strong willed people who want nothing more then to get better. Edwidges father, Mira, has pulmonary fibrosis which gives him a dreadful cough. This disease also affects the appetite, so he is rarely able to eat. As a result, he becomes extremely skinny. One day while Edwidge, her mother, and father are in their house, Mira requests to have some plain rice and a glass of cold water. This gets both Edwidge and her mother very excited because her father had not been voluntarily eating since the beginning of his illness. When the food was prepared, Edwidge carried it in to her father on a tray. As she was setting the tray down on her fathers lap, she accidentally spilled the cold water all over him, triggering a fit of loud moaning because of the very cold water on his thin body. After that, he was in too much pain to eat. Edwidge felt terrible about putting him through so much pain and making him upset but when she apologized he said "It is not as much that I wanted it that I wanted to want it." That statement shows a lot about her father's strength and will to survive.
   
   Danticat also touches upon issues with immigration services in America. The uncle who has lived in Haiti his whole life decides to leave once gang and war issues become apparent near his house. Unfortunately, after traveling to America, he is not allowed into the country even though he has a Visa and has previously visited America numerous times. He is held at Krome, a prison for immigrants to stay at until getting deported. There, Immigrant Services are harsh to him and do not allow him to take his medication. They don't understand his medical needs and think that he is taking a voodoo potion. This leads him to a dire situation. This book sheds light on problems that immigrants face in America.
   
   This book has the power to make you rejoice or cry. It has good insight into immigrants problems in America and is written in amazing detail. The authors story is overflowing with her love and affection for her family. It is a wonderful book that I would recommend to anybody.



5. Edwidge Danticat has made a name for herself chronicling the lives of Haitian immigrants in the States as well as in the home country. In this autobiographical book, she writes eloquently of her own life. In 2004, she finds out she is pregnant while at the same time she gets the news that her father Andre is dying of cancer. Danticat's parents emigrated to the US on their own initially, leaving Edwidge and her younger brother in the care of Andre's brother Joseph and his wife. Danticat thus has deep and enduring ties to two sets of parents. During the duration of her pregnancy, her uncle is fighting his own battles in Haiti, targeted by the regime for his outspokenness as a pastor.
   
   On hearing of his brother's illness, Joseph Dantica travels to United States, only to be held at the point of entry in the States when he innocently and honestly lets the immigration officials know that he requests political asylum. In post 9/11 America, anyone and everyone with a less than stellar past is fair game, and Joseph becomes a victim of the heightened security situation in the States.
   
   The author weaves her life story beautifully with those of her father and uncle - one in which birth and death, loss and gain, the personal and the political intertwine. If immigration is one of the compelling narratives of the 20th century, this book shows us the human costs of that narrative.

5 comments about Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depressive Illness.

1. I just finished this book, and I thought it was very readable and an excellent memoir describing issues related to bipolar. The honesty with which the book is written is commendable. I highly recommend it for anyone wishing to learn more about this disorder and how helpful appropriate treatment can be.



2. If you want to know some of the unbelieveable, unbearable pain and suffering of an un-treated manic-depressive, read this book. How Patty Duke lived to tell her story is a miracle. Thank God she finally found her way out of her madness She gives hope to her fellow sufferers. From the perspective of gut-wrenching pain just reading her account, the book works wonderfully. But as a narrative, I found it hard to follow. I felt jerked around from eposide to eposide. There didn't seem to be a timeline I could follow to know what happened, when. Also, it was very distracting to have to plow through the pages of medical, technical information that were dispersed throughout the book. Overall, it's a fine description of the illness, but frustrating to read.



3. Celebrities who come out about a physical or mental illness help us get past shame, but Patty Duke does a lot more in this autobiography where she alternates her memories with professionally written chapters about bipolar illness. As a mental health advocate, I recommend this book especially to give to people with the illness who aren't ready for technical or self-help books.



4. Can someone please give this book to Britney Spears? I'm not joking. I first read this book about 9 years ago when I was studying psychology in college and it was always one of my very favorite books on this subject. Because Ms. Duke is able to speak to the reader in such simple (yet interesting) words. Except for the old-fashioned term "manic depressive illness" (according to the APA, the correct term is bipolar, which sounds way more PC) this book is totally on the money. Another great book I recommend is Undercurrents: A Life Beneath the Surface. In 2008 it seems rather common for celebrities to discuss their dementia, and anything else that the public wants to know. So it may seem hard to fathom that less than thirty years ago none of this was discussed publicly because it was considered "career suicide." But Patty Duke was the very first star who candidly discussed her own mental illness in her autobiography . In my eyes, she is a true shero.



5. Anna ( Patty Duke), is a great lady! This book, An excellent and sad look at what a bipolar person goes through with and without help, I*m so happy that there is a name and treatment for this very sad illness. Anna tells it like it is and does it with class! May God Bless Anna Duke!