5 comments about The Burgermeister's Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth-Century German Town.

1. The Burgermeister's Daughter is a fascinating and highly readable study of a ... scandal that errupted in the German city of Schwabish Hall during the early years of the Reformation. The central figure, Anne Buschler, the daughter of a former Burgermeister and long-time city councilman, was a girl who liked to test the limits and would often have tongues wagging over her--for that day and age, at least--wild behaviour. It came to the point where she was having intimate relations with two guys, Erasmus of Limpurg and Daniel Treutwein. When this was discovered by her father, he disinherited her; but instead of allowing herself to be cast adrift in this manner, she fought back and thus ensued a protracted legal battle against her father, and, after his death, her siblings. In the end, we are presented with an extra-ordinary glimpse into the lives of (upper class) Germans during this era, German culture and society, the status of women, and the intricacies of the German legal system. It's a rare treat to find a book that is so meticulously researched but so readable. Highly recommended.



2. Stephen Ozment is my favorite historian, and this is my favorite of his books (closely followed by Three Behaim Boys). The story of Anna, both the love story and the tragedy of her later life, are fascinating. Ozment has a talent for making history real, present, and accessible, and this book is a shining example of what an in-depth historical study can be. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in 16th century history, women's history, or the history of law.



3. 
   There are few stretches of the imagination by which Anna Büschler can be called typical of her time and place. First, she was a member of the embryonic bürger urban middle class in a society that was overwhelmingly rural and peasant. Secondly, she had the audacity consistently, and vocally, to defy authority. And finally, but most importantly by the standards that early modern historians, there is actually a fairly large record of what she did and what historian Steven Ozment argues was the consuming passion of her life: undoing the wrong done to her by her father disinheriting her in 1527. Through Ozment's interweaving of the social, political, and legal minefield which Anna was forced to navigate in her attempt to redress the wrong done to her by her father--an extremely interesting man in his own write--after he found a cache of love letters she both wrote and received. The reader is also given a bird's eye view into the workings of a fairly typical German town during the renaissance, Swabian Hall, and how its residents felt about the operation of the legal system in her regards. This is micro-history at its best.
   
   Anna Büschler should have been able to enjoy as comfortable a life as a middle class woman was able to have by sixteenth century standards by the time she was thirty years old. Instead, she found herself locked in her father's home, perpetually chained to a table leg. The chain of events that led her to this unhappy situation begins with interpretations of her past behavior. By her father's account, the legendary bürgermeister of Hall who had twenty years before brazenly petitioned the Holy Roman Emperor on behalf of the common people of Hall, the sexual relationships she had with a member of the local nobility and a mercenary were enough for him to label her as poisonous snake--imbued with the moral character of a whore. By her interpretation, she behaved as she did because her father had shirked his paternal duties and had not found a suitable suitor for her. After escaping from his clutches, Anna began a quarter century long fight to be compensated for the wrong he had done to her which would ultimately climax with the large cross section of Hall society which knew her interpreting her actions.
   
   Ozment's brilliance lies in how he explains Anna's behaviors in the light of sixteenth century moral and legal norms. While Anna was cavorting with her lovers, she was also playing with fire hot enough to consume her completely, and thoroughly burn her father's reputation. By modern standards, and the standards of several centuries preceding the sixteenth, the punishments for premarital sex were draconian in their treatment of the people who engaged in it. Furthermore, the reputations, and often livelihoods, of parents who were exposed as having promiscuous children could be completely destroyed by their behavior. These facts go a long way in describing the extremity of Hermann Büschler's initial banishment of his daughter from his home and then a bold, brazen, and extralegal kidnapping of her after she began legal proceedings against her father. What it does not explain is why a man with such large reputation takes such an action when he certainly had a political future to think about. Ozment thankfully does not dwell on the possibility of incestuous behavior between the two of them because he can not marshal the evidence for any such argument, but it is a question that he nonetheless raises.
   
   Throughout the narrative, Anna rightly comes of as rebellious, strong willed, and nonconformist in her behaviors. But, it is after she escapes from her father's imprisonment that the metal of her character becomes the most visible. She constantly and consistently fought against the marginalization which her disinheritance and her status as a woman imposed upon in every venue that she could gain a hearing in--even initially receiving a 5,000 gulden judgment against the city of Hall for its allowing her to be kept captive in her father's home under extremely suspect circumstances. Though this judgment would be overturned upon appeal and would have to spend the rest of her life fighting in the courts gain any of the money which she felt entitled to--and then only after she had found husbands who were willing to represent her and follow her through the murky recesses of 16th German law. Though only to a limited degree, Anna's story shows that women were not completely at the mercy of men during what is being increasingly regarded as one of the nadirs of women's status in the European history. As the court records which Ozment musters show though, Anna was not the only one, male or female, who questioned this status at least with regard to her.
   
   A retelling of Anna's story to the degree which Ozment was capable would not have been possible were it not for the fact that dozens of her letters between her lovers and herself as well as the depositions from the legal proceedings she used had not survived to the present. In this respect, Ozment has a leg up on other early modern historians because of a relative cornucopia of evidence. Where the extremely good micro-historical biographies written by Natalie Z. Davis and Carlo Ginzburg ultimately have to invoke some very imaginative connections to close their works, Ozment simply does not. For that reason alone he deserves to be read.



4. My son is a history major at college and needed this book for class. The price was affordable and a book he will have for many years to use in his teaching career.



5. This book was as interesting as my professor said. It was hard to put it down at night. Steven Ozment does a phenomenal job of interweaving history, politics, religion, and actual firsthand accounts of life in the sixteenth century.

5 comments about Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado.

1. Medea B Wouldn't know justice if it bit her. She has called cuba a paradise where friends of mine are under house watch or have served severe prison terms just for political organization!



2. This book is beautiful and will inspire you and remind you of what is important in life.



3. I read this book in order to learn something about the people
   of Honduras and how they live. I found it to be a good source
   for learning about the lives of "campasinos"...peasants.. and
   their struggle to live and raise their families in general.
   It was not such a good source for learning about this country's
   small middle class and since the author's struggle is with the rich,
   all references to them were in a negative light... so it was not necessarily an unbiased resource for learning about them.



4. Reading this book, it's important to remember that it wasn't written by someone with a formal, "liberal arts" education. That said, you need to use your own judgement to decide what's perhaps "biased", and what's not. Remember though, that whatever bias exists, exists for a reason, and should be taken in the context of what was going on at the time, as well as within the author's background. This isn't to say she's wrong, but in fact is correct on most issues, you just need to ensure that YOU the reader, are well versed on the subject (or are willing to become so) before reading this book. From my own experiences in the country, Alvarado seems dead on. Remember too, that the author has put herself in real peril to bring you this account, so plan on counting your blessings as you read.



5. It was good and very informative. The only problem is it was out dated.

5 comments about Army Wives: The Unwritten Code of Military Marriage.

1. this was a great book i couldnt put it down. As a Army wife it had me in tears.



2. I was hesitant to read this book, as I was not NUTS about the TV show when it first came out last year. However, it was a gift, and I thought I'd give it a look. I became interested in the characters, and their situations. It DID revolve around the horrible murders that took place there in 2002... That is a rather depressing topic, but it was sort of an explanation, if you will of circumstances and mind sets that MAY have lead to the murders.
   
   I do NOT think the author is Anti- Military AT ALL, contrary to the negative reviews.
   
   I do feel that the book was written more from an Officer's wives' standpoint on certain things, and she seemed to be more empathetic towards/with them. Generally speaking, there is quite a range of social, and economic differences between enlisted families and officer's families. GENRALLY- NOT ALWAYS. She DID seem to highlight these in her own way.
   
   However... I could identify with different characters at different times in the book..
   
   Interesting read because we have been stationed at Ft. Bragg in the late 90's and 2000. I knew all the places she mentioned, and several of the people mentioned in the book.



3. This book is recently published under the name of Army Wives. It is an awesome book. One I couldnt put down til I was finished but to sleep. A great read for the new army wife or for someone seeking to understand.



4. Ok this was a very good book , which i did enjoy very much.. My husband is in the Army, however we are stationed at Fort Eustis Virginia..It was very sad reading about the murders, but it was also interesting to see how other wives live on a different base then myself.
   
   In some reviews ive read they said there was a difference in the books point of view being more toward Officers wives then us "other" wives.. I didn't see that much myself tho..
   
   As for me I LOVE the Lifetime Show Armywives EVEN THO it is so FAKE and nothing like real Army life... I do not know about anyone else but myself, for me personally i dont know of any Code or how an Army Wife should or should not be.. So im sure im breaking a millions rules, but as much as i love the book and the show .. I hate being an Army Wife and I ate the Army... I was hoping this book would be more of a REAL viewpoint on Army life... Like the pay sucks , your husband is always gone, he will be injured and the army wont fix it, housing is worse then section 8 and oh by the way you will have a ton of jerk off sgts who will butt in on your person life....



5. i did not get all the way through this book but the reason is because the show is absoultely great and the book (audio book) is a bit groosom. but i would still recoment this serries on tv

5 comments about How to Be Lovely: The Audrey Hepburn Way of Life.

1. I gave this book to my mom for Mother's Day and haven't stopped hearing how much she likes it. I highly recommend it as the perfect stocking stuffer, especially for the price on Amazon. Just ordered two more for my sisters.



2. A lot of people misuse the term "hero." Lots of people think it's an athlete, an actor, or a singer. I regard Audrey Hepburn as my hero and a great role model. She was a rare and unusually timeless beauty with her gamine looks and a gorgeous accent, often mistaken as British, that also belied part of her time in Nazi occupied Holland. With the grace of a dancer and a princess to add to her intoxicating manner of speech, she had consistently excellent taste in clothes, impeccable hairstyles, and an approach to living that more people in this world would do well to adhere to.
   
   Hepburn isn't a hero because of her time on screen; that's just an admirable sort of glamorous display. She fought the resistance as a brave young girl with her mother during WWII, helping the allies escape to freedom. Later in her life, when her career as an actress had more or less played itself out, she took her fame and used it to help give aid to children of third world countries who were starving as she and her fellow Dutchmen had all those years earlier. She was generous, humble, uncomplicated, and beautiful beyond the physical sense. Sure, she chain smoked and was insecure, she had that one crooked tooth and insisted she had a square face, but her physical beauty came from the simple brightness inside of her that was often illuminated by those large, exotic brown eyes. Je ne sais quoi, indeed! Audrey was a woman who knew how to be the consummate woman by keeping her approach to life simple and uncomplicated, yet managing to make people place her on a pedestal of goddess-like status. That is a gift few people possess, but she was able to utilize it with seemingly little work. Melissa Hellstern's book takes several quotes by Hepburn and friends, lots of great b&w photos, and turns them into something of a positive handbook to help women, regardless of any age, learn to possess simple, optimistic, life-affirming class.



3. If pop star Pink sings "Where oh where have all the smart people gone, where oh where could they be?"... then this book cries "Where oh where have all the LADIES gone? Where oh where could they be?" If ever there is a role model for a renaissance in being a lady (not to be confused with a bombshell)... it is Audrey. Her grace, aristocratic sophistication, refinement, depth, humanitarian spirit, and genuine posh-like glamour was real as much as it was regal. In a world of cheap bombshell images the statement: that which is least seen is most beautiful is truer than ever. Audrey was an archetype of an era where being a lady was respected and advocated.



4. This is such a wonderful book and a staple for how to deal with everyday things that life brings on. Audrey Hepburn was not only beautiful...but very wise. There is so many great quotes in this book...definitely a must read!!



5. A lovely little book for anyone who loves Audrey, not just as an actress, but for all the human goodness with which she became synonymous.

5 comments about Just Gus: A Rescued Dog and the Woman He Loved.

1. This was a very sweet, compelling story. But I read the book in a metter of 20 minutes, way too short! My fault for not reviewing the number of pages.



2. I absolutely loved this book. It was a quick read, but very moving. Another perfect example of how therapeutic and healing having an animal in your life can be. Bravo!!



3. This book, although sad, makes you feel so good. The devoted love an an unwanted dog helps a dying woman to get through her last two years of her battle with cancer. Written well and with photographs.



4. This was a nice read but was disappointed it was not more story than pictures. Too high a price for no more story.



5. Just Gus is basically a picture book for adults. A heavy picture book that's short but powerful. You can read it in 15 minutes but it'll stay with you for long after that. It's the story of a rescued stray and the love he brings to a woman in her final days. Read it and pass it on.

5 comments about We're Just Like You, Only Prettier: Confessions of a Tarnished Southern Belle.

1. When I bought this book, I was looking for quality anecdotes with humor sprinkled throughout. However, while some content was mildly amusing, it all seemed a little forced. She is trying too hard to be funny and it does not come off as genuine. It is not what I had hoped for.



2. Classic Celia Rivenbark! She is intelligent, irreverent, and very funny - the kind of writer who makes you thankful you know how to read! As for this book, if you don't see somebody you know in these pages, you're not from the South.



3. Hands down this book is the funniest book I've ever read in my 68 years. You might need to be from the south to understand the humor, but it is priceless. I have sent six books to friends, and they love it as well. I truly laughed out loud.



4. Rarely have I enjoyed a contemporary novel as much as I enjoyed this one. I lived briefly in the South, and can totally relate to everything.
   Fun read! Made me forget about my flight being delayed.



5. You will NOT stop laughing.
   Celia Rivenbark has her finger on the pulse of life in the South!
   Do yourself a favor, and READ THIS BOOK!!!!

2 comments about Mother on Fire: A True Motherf%#$@ Story About Parenting!.

1. I read all the "motherhood" books, and they're usually so serious and dry. This one is hilarious! It's like the books my mom used to read about the subject - really funny, and (I know this sounds kind of sappy) uplifting. I'm going to suggest it at my next book group meeting - we need a laugh!



2. Once again, Sandra Tsing Loh has massaged her very specific life into themes that touch the heart, providing plenty of laughs but also a lot to think about. With witty side trips, the author takes us on an invigorating journey from the sweet exhaustion of keeping up with small children through the frantic exhaustion of trying to find a decent school, and ends up with a new sense of purpose and community. Buy it; read it aloud if you can stop laughing; buy more for your friends!
   
   Favorite theme: "It seems there's no rite of female passage that can't be marked, in some vague way, by a little hay-strewn basket of bath items. As if to say 'Happy Graduation! Have a bath.' 'So you're thirty-seven! Have a bath.' 'Wishing you a fabulous divorce, and menopause! Rock on, sister, and ... try a bath.'" Watch how deftly this becomes a manifesto against Women as Mere Consumers.

5 comments about Made From Scratch: A Memoir.

1. Sandra has a very good TV show, but the story of her life is even better. If you want the back story to fill out what you already think you know about Sandra Lee, buy this book.



2. I read the book first in our home, I wanted to tell my wife about it and each chapter. My wife put her hands over her ears, so she could not here me. She read the book.We enjoyed every aspects of each chapter.We would recommend this book to every one.Once you start reading this book you can't put it down until it is finished



3. At our local library you can request new books online. As the library has funds, books are ordered. I waited in anticipation for several months; the reviews were wonderful. I will write a check to our library for the price of the book $24.95 ,what a waste to have such a book in our public library.
   
   From her pathetic reverence to Danielle Steele & St. Tropez to her reaction to Princess Diana's death this poor woman is a star obsessed name dropper. "Sensing my discomfort Charlie Sheen walked up to where I was standing, put his arm around me, and told the drunken guy I was his girlfriend"
   
   
   The book is rampant with grammatical errors, ie; a photo caption "Me and Richie shooting the close of ..." There are many pictures, of Sandra with "famous" people, it's like a "worship me, look at me" book. Counseling will be worth it Sandra, get some help.
   
   As for the quotes throughout the book, I don't believe she would understand or know how to use any one of these. Perhaps the ghostwriter looked these up on the net and inserted them where plausible?
   
   Here are a few quotes for poor Sandra: "You Might Move Out, but You Can't Move On" and "You can take the trash out of the trailer but you can't take the trailer out of the trash".
   
   To be fair, I quit reading halfway through as I could not stomach any more, she is too into herself. I wish there was an option for a ZERO star rating.



4. This book was great! I read it ONE day and I'm not a fast reader, but I just couldn't put it down! Gratned, it's not the most well-written or gramatically correct piece of writing I've seen in a while, but who cares! The story is real and honest and so is the woman behind it! The way she tells her real-life story is engaging and inpsirational! k! While I agree that her tablescapes are not always "easy" or "inexpensive," and her food is often chemically ladden with all of the "starters," and artificial crap in it, it IS easy! I think Ms. Lee is a very savy, smart and intelligent business woman, who yes, happened to know the right people and be in the right places at the right times, but hey, she worked her butt off, literally, for years and years and obviously, still does! I can't help but admire a hard worker! I think Ms. Lee's heart is/was always in the right place and her charitable work is admirable! I also liked the fact that she so honest at the end with how this book came to be! She states she's not a writer and also shares some of the pain in re-visisiting these memories and writing this story. I also liked that she acknowledged her divorce and how painful that is, many people glide over that facet of their life, I appreicated her honesty! All and all, I have a WHOLE NEW RESPECT and admiration for Ms. Lee after having read this book; if you want a quick, fast, easy and highly inspirational, encouraging read, you've found it!



5. Reading about Sandra Lee's upbringing was very emotional and heartwrenching. Made From Scratch is a very apt title. Did not have any idea what a hardscrabble childhood she had. I was interested in learning that she lived in Sumner, just a town away from me. She worked so hard and kept a good head on her shoulders through horrors hopefully none of us have experienced. She truly deserves all the success she has enjoyed. I hope she continues to flourish. I did not know about her former Beverly Hills/jet-setting lifestyle either so it was interesting to get a peek inside that world. I recommend this book--you will have a better understanding of Sandra Lee and her semi-homemade empire.

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 Insomniac.

1. Finally, research that supports the "truths" about insomnia. I am a lifetime sufferer and I took copious notes. Other reviewers have nicely summarized the author's helpful hints, her empowering research, the validation readers will get from reading this book and the interesting and easy read the author has accomplished. I want to add two things. First, I finally have a VOCABULARY and a language to use when discussing my affliction. For example: broken sleep-switch, a defect in the sleep system, need for a paradigm shift, cumulative effects of disturbed sleep, ratcheting up. Second, the reality that other people have insomnia as seriously or even more seriously than I do amazed me. I have achieved a better level of acceptance just knowing this. What a gift this science and this validation have been to me. I wish this book had been available years ago when I first starting trying to "find the cure."



2. What did I like best about this book? It did not blame me for my insomnia. It did not patronize me for one minute. It did not tell me that I had obviously not tried to solve my sleep problems, or not tried hard enough. This is a book that works for people having their first insomnia problems and for those of us who have struggled for years. Gayle Green has undertaken a very thorough study of the science and business of sleep as they stand today, given a review of the history of insomnia, and presented many avenues for future research and experimentation. I now have more hope than I have had in years that I might improve my sleep. Heck, just knowing that there are other people out there going through the same experience I am gives a great deal of comfort. This book confirms the logical conclusion that insomnia is a complex, multi-faceted problem that needs a great deal more attention than it now receives. I can only thank her for having written it. Anyone who has trouble sleeping-- or knows someone who does-- should read this book.



3. This book made important points in clear, enjoyable, passionate prose. Greene discusses possible physical causes of insomnia, the financial disincentives for scientists and pharmaceutical companies to develop new remedies, and the need for insomniacs to organize into a patients' interest group. Likewise, her personal stories and discussions with other insomniacs underscore how often insomniacs are blamed rather than helped by health care professionals.
   
   Nevertheless, the book goes on at such length about these points that it develops an overwrought tone. Moreover, because it focuses so much on Greene's problem, sleep maintenance rather than sleep onset, this other form of insomnia gets little discussion or consideration.
   
   As a fellow sufferer, though, the best thing this book has done for me is
   lead me to accept my condition. In fact, after reading this book, I think I don't suffer nearly as much from my sleepless nights as others do, so henceforth I will look at my tossing and turning time as a gift, and slink out of bed and into an armchair with more books!



4. I am so glad I found this book. This book is practical, informative, and gives a voice to insomniacs. The research in this book is very thorough, and the personal perspective balances out scientific information with human experience. I have been disappointed and frustrated with the medical community's treatment of insomnia, and it was such a relief to read that I am not the only one. In fact, we learn from this book how this a fundamental barrier to effectively researching and treating insomnia.
   
   As an insomniac, this book has helped me tremendously. I recommend it for anyone suffering from insomnia, as well as anyone who knows someone with insomnia, or anyone interested in the fascinating subject of sleep.



5. On every page, I kept saying, this is my life. Her information on the whole problem of insomnia and the sleep medicine industry was eye opening and right on target. so much useful information. And it reads like a novel! Fantastic book that should be read by all MDs in the field, as well as all people who have sleep problems. and all politicians as well.