5 comments about When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down.

1. I like this book in that the author, Joan Morgan, does not try to act like her book has all the answers for everything. Instead, she just tries to offer her view and let you take what you can from it.
   
   First she explores how feminism has traditionally been interpreted in Black culture, and how this limiting definition has evolved in the 21st century, especially as it relates to being a part of the hip-hop culture. She also explores how the history has influenced the current relations between black men and women, and their evolution into the strongblackwoman and endangeredblackman stereotypes. Joan also talks about the animosity between "chickenheads" and strongblackwomen, and encourages women to really be themselves.
   
   I especially like how Joan explores the relationship between black women and their fathers. She provides a unique insight and solution for this dilemma.
   
   This book is a timely message for "strong" black women who are looking for a way to absolve thier independence with their innate feminism.



2. I believe this book is recommended reading for anyone who loves Hip Hope and/or anyone who questions and/or struggles with the place of Black women in this mordern Hip Hop age, while staying true to Black Feminist thoughts. I found myself agreeing with Morgan, but mostly enjoying her fun and playful writing.



3. This book effortlessly addresses the many issues that have infiltrated the minds of black women in the hip hop culture...Products of absentee fathers, failed relationships, and questionable loyalty to our black men...Jane Morgan gives it to you straight with no chaser, not afraid to share her own experiences to let her audience know that she is not just an observer of the conflicting issues that leave many successful black women wondering "what the hell is wrong with me", but allows her experience to serve as a reference to the countless women like myself who seldom feel alone in their thoughts, their struggles and their quest to balance their independence in the face of sexism that has plagued the hip hop culture. Salut to Joan Morgan!!!!



4. This book is a must for any 'older schooled' hip hop female heads worldwide. Morgan has a wonderful street/hip hop rhetoric that speaks to women who have a love for this thing called hip hop and life. Ladies pay attention to her words! She is rough, rugged raw and honest. Mama's, try this book out on your daughters, you may need to read it with them or break Morgans pearls of wisdom down for them as their heads bob in and out of the book either agreeing, disagreeing or shooting looks of confusion. She hits the chicken head directly on the head, there is a little bit of chicken head in every women, depending on how you define chicken head and your own personal beliefs pertaining to the f word.



5. I recently went to a hip-hop symposium where Joan Morgan and a few other activists were speaking. When I first heard the title, I was a little turned off, but after hearing her speaks about her experiences and how they've shaped her perspective...I decided to purchase it. And I'm so glad I did!!! This book is excellent!! Additionally, she annotates so many other wonderful peices written about hip-hop, gender relations, feminism, misogyny, etc you almost want to buy the book to guide your future reading on the subject.

5 comments about I Dreamed of Africa (tie-in edition).

1. While Kuki Gallman may not be this way in real life, she does come across in her book as a self-indulgent privileged white woman. Although she speaks about her fascination for Africa starting from her childhood, it is never presented to the reader in tangible or inspirational terms. Okay, a few of the hunting scenes and descriptions of the wildlife were vivid, but the land and the people are never really made interesting enough for the reader. The reader should be aware that this book is a very personal account and one made to show the writer in the best light. I think many important things were conveniently glossed over. Such as, how did her and her husband Paolo buy the ranch? Her affair with a married man and the unspoken 'complication' that ended their relationship to name a few.
   
   She has, undoubtedly, suffered many horrible tragedies in her life and I did feel sad reading about them but towards the end it was like, 'enough already'. I felt like she was just running off lists of the latest person to die. The good work she has actually done in the area of conservation almost gets lost amongst all the tales of woe.
   
   The way she talks about Africa and the Kenyans also reminded me of the 19th century 'noble savage' cliche. While her family and friends are portrayed for their inate specialness, we never get to know much about the African people, other than their role as her servants. In fact, it seems that her staff have no other life than the one that revolves around her, her parties, and the tragedies she suffers. The only one she really gives much praise to is the cook and that was only because he was apparently 'clever' enough to learn the European style of cooking that would impress Kuki's VIP guests. Given that this book is set in the 1970's and 1980's these parts just made me cringe.
   
   I wouldn't recommend this book at all, unfortunately.



2. I Dreamed of Africa is a ponderous, meandering book about a woman's experience setting up a ranch/home in Africa. Along the way, she loses both her husband and son to totally avoidable accidents. I have read many, many books about Africa and this one clearly falls under the guise of "European Aristocrat Who Values Nature and Other Aristocrats More Than Africans." There is countless name dropping, frequent references to noble lineages, and absolutely no mention of how this woman can maintain an extravagant lifestyle including multiple servants, a sprawling estate in a region known for sprawling estates owned by White colonialists, an airplane (if they are such a necessity in Africa - why don't all Kenyans own one???), and a graceful home in Nairobi. She and her husband pick up and move to Africa on a whim...nice gig if you have the cash and lack any real commitments. Her life seems to be a neverending circle of cocktail parties, interspersed with tragedies that wear thin - especially when her family members have a reckless streak that begets an early and untimely death. Africans are relegated to the role of anthropological relics, while the author cavorts with the really strange cast of white folks that are long-term Kenyan residents (such as the Dellameres - one of whom is on trial in 2005-2006 for murdering a Kenyan game warden and facing the death penalty). Much time is dedicated to expounding upon the wonders of her son (a genius, psychic, great with the ladies, budding scientist, etc - you get the idea) - who she lets raise poisonous snakes that eventually (SURPRISE!) kill him. If one did not know any better and judged all Whites in Africa by this book, they would erroneously think Robert Mugabe took just action confiscating White-owned farms in Zimbabwe, after reading this book. Spare yourself the trouble and stay clear of this book.



3. It was a heart warming story and its one of the things where the book is better than the movie. And it is so sad that it makes it good. I love it and going to get the movie when it comes out and also I'm going to save the book for a long time.



4. I Dreamed of Africa is a fascinating, compelling story of an indominatable, larger than life individual, Kuki Gallman, and her life's journey from aristocratic beginnings in Italy to settling in the Great Rift Valley area of Kenya, Africa, with her adventuring, glamorous second husband, Paolo and her son Emanuele. The book is a personal and touching story of discovery, transformation, overcoming major tragedy, and the land, dreams and hopes of Kuki's Africa.



5. I did volunteer work at Kuki's Ol Ari Nyrio in 11/07 and it was the most amazing experience of my life. I also had dinner with Kuki and she is an artist- attentive, creative, intelligent, and misses nothing. Africa is a place like no other-you cannot expect the norm - truth is always more interesting & stranger than fiction, remember. Kuki is an amazing person and the work she has done for the people & animals in the area, without spoiling the natural habitat or trying to change the people's ways, is well told. The death of her son and husband, so tragic, has led her to different levels in life, where so much work has been done for the good of generations to come. Read her books-they are wonderful!

5 comments about A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (The Western Frontier Library, 14).

1. Did you ever read any of the BEANY MALONE novels by Lenora Mattingly Weber? In them I first read about Isabella Bird and her remarkable life in the American West. Beany's older brother, Johnny Malone, is a teenager when the series begins, a young Denver boy with a remarkable passion for unearthing the memoirs and daguerrotypes of Colorado pioneers and taking notes on the old-timers who settled the state. Their colorful lives make his ordinary life seem rather pastel, so he often sinks into a nostalgia of the past, while his family members tease him about the dreamy look in his eyes. He helps a veteran journalist, Emerson Worth, complete his magnum opus, OUR CITY HAS DEEP ROOTS. And among the pioneers Johnny obsessed about was none other than Isabella Bird, so when I found this book on a recent trip to Boulder, I added it to my rucksack.
   
   If you are reading on horseback, as Isabella Bird did, this is perhaps the ideal book to carry with you. She was a woman used to the English-style horse with its Ascot breeding and high carriage. What she found in Colorado were, naturally, the horses of the West, more perfectly adapted to the mile-high atmospheres, but slung somewhat lower than anything she's been used to and slightly swaybacked. Bird adapted quickly, and the fun of her autobiography is to see her taking in her stride a series of calamities and hardships that would have Job complaining bitterly! No matter if it's an insect infestation or tumbling right through a sheet of ice into zero degree river chills, for Isabella Bird it's all part of a day's fun. Travel writing in the 19th century was, of course, the leading genre of prose. From no other source were English-speaking readers able to find out more about other people's lives, and the curiosity was immense.
   
   You'll like Isabella, and her crazy love affair with Colorado. She remains very much a lady, but will challenge your preconceived notions of what a lady is and isn't. Most of all you will thrill to follow the course of her journeys up and down the mountains through which, now, there are some better trails but still the same amazing sunrises which she describes with the thrill of one for whom every day's an adventure.



2. For many years I saw this book in National Park bookstores and passed it by thinking it would be an example of the overwritten, rather tedious journals of other Victorian travelers. When I finally found it at a used bookstore and rather reluctantly bought it, I was surprised to find out how exciting and relevant her story was.
   
   Because I live in Colorado, I recoginize and travel through many of the places she describes. Just this weekend as we traveled along Highway 67, my husband and I remarked on the likelihood, that this was the same route she'd taken out of Colorado Springs.
   
   Her accounts lend life to the grey, weatherbeaten cabins, abandoned roads and rusting rails that we see. Even though many parts of Europe and the US were relatively modern at the time of her adventures, it is surprising to read just how primitive and precarious was the life of many Colorado settlers.
   
   Even if you aren't from Colorado, read this book to become aquainted with a Victorian woman who found a way to live life fully. Read it to learn about life in the west. Read it just because it's a good read.



3. I bought this book while visiting Estes Park, CO...hungry for books about life in the West that may not be so readily available here in NJ. I found it to be one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read! Isabella's descriptions of the Rocky Mountains and the climate through which she travelled are vivid and gripping. But more than that, she gives a detailed and honest account of what life was like for settlers on the frontier. How she managed to ride thru the mountains where the only "trails" were tracks of wagons or animals, when often those were covered with the seemingly constant snow, boggles the mind. Her love for Colorado sings out in every word she writes. I too was deeply touched by its beauty, and hope to return again, this time with an enriched appreciation due to this wonderful recounting of Isabella Bird's journey.



4. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the descriptive way the author wrote. I have been through Colorado and have seen the beauty she described. Also enjoyed the story because there wasn't a lot of violence and if there was any sex, it was only in our imagination which is the greatest kind. I was amazed at how the lady rode for miles in rugged wilderness without seeming to get lost. The fact that she could subsist on meager food was also interesting.



5. This book arrived in top condition and in time. In a college book store this book cost a lot more, so I am very pleased to be able to buy it from this seller.

5 comments about Love, Loss, and What I Wore.

1. If I could, I would give this book more than 5 stars. What a clever idea to recall onel's life by remembering the outfits worn. Loved the delightful illustrations. Beckerman is a unqiue and talented writer/illustrator. Thanks for the memories!



2. I, like most of my women friends I've talked to, including my mother and my sisters, shape memories and moments based on the clothes we were wearing at the time.
   
   I bought this book in 1995 when it was first published and have referred to it several times over the years for inspiration and support. I found it in the "Self-Help" section of the bookstore.
   
   This little book does as good a job as anything I've read, at getting in a woman's head. Clothes are how we remember. Wearing our favorite clothes or shoes or carrying our favorite handbag gives us confidence and helps us cope.
   
   For a while, I kept a diary of drawings of outfits whenever I'd want to remember an important event. Ask me what I was wearing when I held my niece for the first time (navy blue A-line Liz Claiborne dress) or when I went to my first job interview out of college (a polka-dot suit I called The Stewardess) or the night I was first kissed by a jerk who would break my heart(a shirt that said "Keep On Truckin" in glitter... heh).
   
   A good friend's mother passed away a few months ago, and I bought a copy for her, since Ms. Beckerman mentions the death of her own mother. She also mentions marriages, divorces, babies, and career successes, and most importantly, what she wore.
   
   It makes a great gift for any woman. Or for yourself.



3. I had picked this book up and put it back down several times when I saw it at the book store. I am glad I finally bought it! It is an interesting idea, and one that I am sure many of us can identify with: a memoir built on memories of certain beloved items of clothing. Ilene Beckerman had an interesting childhood and has had a varied life as an adult. Obviously, her talents lie more in writing than in drawing--the sketches of the clothing are rather simple,but she does manage to convey what she felt like wearing each outfit. It doesn't take very long to read, and if read in one sitting you get quite a sense of her life. Sometimes funny, sometimes quite bittersweet, but always entertaining.



4. Delightfully wacky little book deliciously decorated. Even though I'm a male I loved the book and its many drawing/paintings of clothing and other things. It is interesting to know how the book came about and how its author was writing about her life for her children and using her creative ability to show them how her life was growing up.
   
   I learned of the book when reading Jane Smiley's book: "13 Ways of Looking at the Novel" and thought her comments interesting enough to buy the book and read it. And I enjoyed it very much. I recommend "Love, Loss and what I Wore" to everyone regardless of gender.



5. This book is a little gem. It is one of a kind. There is no other book like this on the market, not that I know of, anyway. Although the author is a bit older than I am and some of the clothes are outdated, I could still relate to her. She related her life experiences by detailing what she wore during those experiences. We all can recall at least one event by remembering what we were wearing!! At times, she appears kind of catty, which just gives quite a human element to the book. I myself have so many clothes I cannot get rid of due to sentimental reasons. However, after reading this book, I may do the same thing she did and draw them or take a picture of them and then give them away. This is a GREAT book!!

5 comments about The River Queen: A Memoir.

1. I never meant to purchase this book. I was browsing at a local bookstore, knew the author's work from "Nothing to Declare," and sat down with it in a big stuffed chair on a cloudy Saturday afternoon. I did not get up for another two hours! There are several themes running through this book. One is that of life's options narrowing, given that the author's own perch is that of, shall we say, post-middle age. Another theme is of life's opportunities having been fully seized on, even if not all of the efforts described by Morris actually panned out. A third theme is an empathetic one, as Morris contextualizes her own personal ups and downs within the tragically human setting of post-Hurriane Katrina. For me, it is the fourth theme that made this book such a fun and compelling read: parts of it are an absolute riot. Morris is superb at using dry humor and tongue-in-cheek narrative to tell her own stroy through the lens of her reactions to others. I have given the book as a summer reading gift to at least five friends. I highly recommend it.



2. Although I had heard of Mary Morris, I had never read any of her books. The River Queen is excellent, and her other books are now on my "to read" list.
   
   The author decides to travel down part of the Mississippi on a houseboat, and she takes us on the ride with her. It is interesting (and humourous) to learn about the Mississippi river, and all the small towns and characters she meets along the way. The book is also about her father, who passed away at the age of 102.
   
   Ms. Morris manages to intertwine, very successfully, the story of the river and of her father.
   
   The personality of the two men (and a dog) that she hires to take her down the river really adds to the appeal of the book. I wish there would have been photographs!



3. I loved the River Queen and am sharing it with the group that I am escorting on a Mississippi River cruise on the American Queen next July. Mary Morris gave wonderful discriptions of the Mississippi as she learned to love the river. I can just picture the "River Queen" as she called the house boat she was on with Tom and Jerry, 2 great river boat captains. She also understood her father much better after her trip. When we cruise in the luxury of the American Queen we will remember Mary's cramped quarters in the cabin, the shower that didn't work, the locks and dams she went through, the heat, the bugs and enjoy our turn even more! I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about the Mississippi.



4. Mary Morris' father lived to the age of 102. He was many things during his long life; dandy, ladies man, business man, developer, husband and father. He also left strong memories in his daughter of his uncontrollable and unreasonable rages that he took out on whatever family member happened to be near. A portion of his life, but by no means all of it, was spent in small towns along the banks of the Mississippi River. Mary hires a houseboat, and sets off on a journey down the river to try and reconcile her grief, ambivalent feelings, and understand her father's roots better. Sounds like a fascinating journey. The trip down the river is an adventure in itself, encountering hurricanes, hazardous currents, and busy shipping channels that make navigating the houseboat a serious undertaking. Ms Morris writes well. The story flows, and the transit between musings on her memories and telling the story of her river journey is smooth and not jarring. It is a well written book. However, the story both of the river trip and her father seemed superficial to me. She tells mostly of everyday occurrences; who cooks dinner, where they eat on the boat, and the never-ending quest for a hot shower. The towns they visit are only given sketchy portrayal. She mostly doesn't care for the people they meet, and gives them a wide, therefore un-insightful berth. Her father's life lives within the same boundaries her memory supplied before the trip. She finds no insight, does not experience either elation, grief, or camaraderie of his memory by being on the river. A good travel book can be engrossing. A good book of exploration of familial ties can be enlightening. I was neither engrossed, nor enlightened, but I was also not bored to the point of giving up. I read the book waiting for the "other shoe to fall", and it never does. Nor will I take any memories from this book as I lead my life. I read it, it's done. Reading this book is like holding a handful of Mississippi river water; it trickles between your fingers, then it's gone.



5. In her memoir, The River Queen, Mary Morris takes her readers on a unique journey down the mighty Mississippi as she makes a private journey of her own--coming to terms with her father's passing. Her naïveté is refreshing, and she admits early in the book, "I don't have the river in my head, yet." Unlike the writer's friend, who never thought about the river despite growing up in St. Louis, I grew up twenty miles southeast of St. Louis, and the river has been a large presence in my life. Like many Midwesterners, I have traveled the river and visited some of the places Morris describes. By the book's end, Morris has changed. She has learned things about her father's life and about herself, contentment evident as she pilots the last leg of her journey with the river firmly fixed in her head. I agree with T.S. Eliot, "The sea is around us, but the river is in us." Reading Morris's memoir will put a little of the river in every reader.

5 comments about Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found.

1. I this book inspired me. If a 11 year old girl can move her own bedroom furniture a crossed town all by herself then I can surely handle things in my life! I fully intend on getting the next book in the series to see how Juniper handles the next years of her life.



2. Jennifer's memories of her childhood contains the detail and emotion that captures readers and draws them into her early life. At a too-young age, she assumes much of the care of her terminally ill mother. You are drawn into the vivid scenes of her mother's illness, the all-too-brief attention from her father and the cruelties of her brother.
   Her life becomes increasingly difficult as first her mother dies, her father remarries and the stepmother resents and mistreats her. After her father's heart attack, Jennifer suffers greatly from neglect and malice from her stepmother and step-siblings.
   You can't stop reading, but at times it is hard to keep going as you relive her life through her words. You fear for the child and hope it doesn't get worse, but it does. If you've read The Glass Castle and Angela's Ashes, then add this book to your reading list. It's a memorable account of a dreadful childhood and the ability to endure and overcome hardship.



3. I kept thinking, "This has to get better, this downward spiral can't continue."
   
   And yet it does. And it does again, and oh Lordy, not again... and yes, there it goes again.
   
   Ms. Lauck's beautiful writing is what carried me through. I tried to read this title once and had to set it down, it was simply too much heartache encapsulated in one read for me. On my second attempt, I devoured it in three days and I am hungry to read the sequel.
   
   Many of the reviewers here have synopsized the story of "Blackbird" - Jennifer Lauck's story opens as she is a little girl, preschool aged child, with a very sick Mommy and simply doing the best she can - idolizing and learning from her Mommy, quoting her Mommy's favorite self-care mantras... and attempting to understand what is happening while following the rules-of-life-according-to-Mama.
   
   Her handsome, hardworking Daddy does what he can, and little Jenny (who he calls Juniper) does her best to keep things afloat even when Mama dies and brother Bryan creates mayhem and insta-wicked-step-Mom sends her to a cult camp... it is one sad (yet life-affirming, somehow) tale after another until at the very end when fate turns... or so we hope.
   
   Fabulous writing from a child's point of view.... and if it is hard for you to get through on your first attempt, try again later. You will be glad that you did.



4. This book was simply amazing... As a person that has had the chance to meet Jennifer and talk to her the book it just makes it that much more amazing. This story is all true and it is amazing that one person can go through so much.



5. I received a copy of this book along with enthusiastic reviews from two of my co-workers. I both expected and wanted to share their enthusiasm, but for me the book lacked credibility. The first section of the book dealing with her mother's progressive illness, her brother's anger, and her father's growing physical and emotional absence resonated with me. However, the later parts of the book concerning her relationship with her stepmother and her abandonment in the commune seem so exaggerated as to be false. (What about her elementary school teachers? Would they be indifferent to her absences, illnesses and obvious neglect?) I doubt very much that the author has verified her account either by interviewing any of the other participants or revisiting any of the places in the story. For me, this tarnishes what should be a powerful story of overcoming loss, anger and estrangement and abuses the term "memoir". I suspect that had this been submitted to her publishers as a work of fiction, Ms. Lauck's editor would have demanded a "truer" story.

5 comments about Playground: A Childhood Lost Inside the Playboy Mansion.

1. This is a very disturbing story. It could have dug in deeper into the story line. But, It did give you a idea of what she was dealing with. It really sad that she got into drugs and having sex at such a young age. It is sad & disturbing that she didn't really have parental support. That she was able to do the things that she did. When I got done, I didn't really learn anything new. Just that this little girl was able to have this terrible life.



2. While this was one of the most poorly written books I have read in a while (typos, spelling errors, grammatical issues, diction choices that made my jaw drop, they were so wrong!), I enjoyed this glimpse into a world I know little about. The story's setting promises interesting and frequent glimpses into a world filled with sex, fashion, and drugs -- and it definitely delivers! If you are looking for a light read that is sinfully pleasurable but nothing to write home about, enjoy.
   
   Finally, you can tell that while Saginor is not an excellent writer (and her editor -- was there even an editor?!? -- was not an excellent one) this book must have been extremely cathartic for her. Kudos to her for being able to put to paper the stories of a childhood that obviously had (and seem to still have) such a harsh effect on her. I do hope that writing this memoir served as an emotional release for her.



3. Interesting premise, but this book is written so poorly. Repetitious events, streams of unimportant characters, unlikable and underdeveloped characterizations. Who cares what song was playing at any given moment? Bits like that remind me of what would be written in a junior high schoolers private diary.
   
   I think Jennifer wants you to feel sorry for her, but as she spends thousands of daddy's dollars on clothes, steals boatloads of drugs from him & crashes her car while drunk, I can hardly feel anything but contempt for her. The book is fairly predictable. On one page she is spewing "Ew" about Hugh Hefner's bi-sexual girlfriend and then next she is aching to be with her because she is one of the few people that pays any attention to her.
   
   As her father continues to mentally deteriorate from drug addiction, the quality of writing slightly improves but the book soon comes to an end. I grew tired of Jennifer's ceaseless name-dropping and couldn't wait for this book to end. Two stars awarded for effort only.



4. Hmm.. .For a book whose title speaks of the Playboy mansion, you'd think it'd play a bigger role but it really doesn't.. Its mostly about her choosing her dad's carefree and drug induced lifestyle rather than having to abide by her mothers rules.. I think this book could have easily been written in 3 or 4 chapters.. In every chapter theres endless counts of what music was playing and what it changed to and what designer every piece of her wardrobe was made by and all her friends.. It was pretty irritating though i'm into that stuff myself.. Its a book not a fashion magazine.. So it was pretty poorly written and is basically about her making a million bad decisions but never making right with anything, just grinning and baring it so she can keep her little Mercedes and black card and not have to go to mom's "poverty stricken" lifestyle of still few boundaries...



5. I feel sorry for this poor girl having to grow up in that environment. I can really tell that it has had a very big impact on her outlook she has on relationships in her life. I was lucky to have the chance to go to playboy mansion back in July, 1983 and went into the grotto and there were a couple of people in the grotto with us and after reading this book and now know that her father was one of the people in attendance that Friday evening. My experience at the mansion was one that I will never forget.

5 comments about Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis.

1. Ever since "Tinkering with Eden," I have been eagerly awaiting Kim Todd's next book, and, with "Chrysalis," she does not disappoint. Anyone who enjoys a good biography should read this book - and for that reason, it's a great book to give as a gift. The topic sounds obscure, but Todd's vivid prose brings her remarkable subject to life. Highly recommended!



2. Today Maria Merian is mostly known for her lovely butterfly prints, but back in 1699 she sailed from Amsterdam to South America on an expedition to study metamorphosis - a rare journey for any naturalist of the times, much less a woman over fifty - and spent two years in the tropical jungle seeking out caterpillars and studying butterflies. Her accomplishments were largely dismissed and forgotten but come to life here in a gorgeous biography surveying her life and achievements.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



3. You may have seen the artwork of Maria Sibylla Merian, as it is a staple for pretty but accurate pictures of butterflies, caterpillars, moths, and flowers, and can be found on china or stationery. She was more than a painter or engraver, though. Her life was unique. She had artistic talent, but she was also a keen scientific observer, who advanced the study of insects immeasurably. She was a teenaged bride who left her husband who divorced her, and she had to care for their two children. She was so enthralled with the study of moths and butterflies that at age 52 she traveled to a mysterious and largely unknown land to see more of them, and to bring back pictures and scientific descriptions of their behavior. And she did this more than three centuries ago. _Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis_ (Harcourt) by Kim Todd is a thoughtful examination of what we can know about Merian's life from the few personal documents that remain about her, and a proper reevaluation of her place in the world's scientific effort. It also is a fine resource about the biological controversies that were brewing in the seventeenth century, controversies that had to be settled in order for a basic understanding of insect life to take hold.
   
   Merian was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1647. She could not have a formal apprenticeship like a male artist in training, and she could not even paint in oils, because the rules of the guild forbade women from doing so. She was, however, able to use watercolors and engraving with beauty and utility to bring her objects of study almost to life upon the page. When Merian studied or painted insects, she included what foods they ate, and how they proceeded from egg to larva to pupa and to the adult, and it was all part of her contribution to science and to the branch that later was to be known as ecology. In doing so, she was working against scientific currents of the time, since it was held that insects could spontaneously generate from rotting meat, dew, or wool. She also was taking a risk in showing interest in possibly satanic insects, especially since she kept them alive, fed them, and kept their cocoons in her kitchen. Women were accused of witchcraft for less. Dutch curiosity cabinets did contain spectacular specimens from the colony of Surinam, but Merian wanted to see the insects as they lived, and used the money she made from her books and her paintings to finance her two-year trip there. She relied on the natives to tell her about the plants and their uses, and she got the first rudimentary understandings of the rainforest as a complex ecosystem; she observed, for instance, that butterflies at the tops of the trees were different from the ones nearer the ground.
   
   Merian left Surinam after only two years because of illness, probably malaria. After she returned to the Netherlands, she published _Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium_ in 1705, full of pictures and descriptions of the colorful insects she had seen on her travel. The beauty of the pictures was praised, but only succeeding generations could appreciate the ecological innovations of her insect portraits. Her reputation suffered after her death; if she were discussed at all, it was to ridicule her picture of a spider capturing a hummingbird. After all, she had no formal education, she accepted the reports of natives who lived among the insects she depicted, and she was a woman. It was only in the twentieth century that her reputation was restored, not just as an artist but as a scientist who insisted on direct observation of the insects she described, and who realized how their cycles linked within a larger natural system. Todd's book has to have a great deal of speculation in it; she includes many sentences beginning with "perhaps" or "probably". This is because the sources are scant. There are Merian's books and paintings, of course, but beyond that are a couple of her legal documents and less than twenty letters she wrote. Nonetheless, Merian's contributions to biology were considerable, and Todd's well-illustrated and thoughtful book helps in the restoration of her reputation.



4. [...]
   
   Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, a nonfiction book by Missoula writer Kim Todd, sounds like a Victorian adventure novel: a fifty-two-year-old woman abandons her husband and European continent to study the metamorphosis of caterpillars in Surinam. But this was before the Victorians. In 1699, more than a century before Darwin, sixty-five years after Galileo's prosecution, and a time when witch hunts were part of the recent past, Maria Sibylla Merian embarked on a journey of scientific discovery in the dangerous New World with only her daughter for company. While the male colonists grew sugar cane on their plantations, Merian's slaves and servants helped her locate insects, reptiles, and plants for her to study and depict in her captivating watercolors. She trusted the natives' knowledge to assist her research, something that would be used against her reputation in the decades after her death.
   
   By the time Merian stepped on that boat to Surinam, she was a mother of two, had published two books about the metamorphosis of caterpillars in her native Germany, and spent five years living with a Pietist religious sect in a castle in Amsterdam, where she argued successfully for a separation from her husband using the sect's beliefs. At the time, a woman's husband was her legal representative and the court ordered numerous women to return to their abusive husbands. But after Merian's successful separation, she lived in Amsterdam and financially supported herself and her youngest daughter. Watercolors were her tool because "guild rules banned women from painting with oils." To get on that boat and to fund her scientific and artistic expedition, Merian sold her paintings and any unnecessary belongings.
   
   Kim Todd who received the PEN/Jerard Fund Award and the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing for her previous book, Tinkering with Eden, vividly describes the cultural, religious, and political time Merian lived in, as well as her artwork and scientific contributions, without overwhelming the reader. Todd also introduces other fascinating, accomplished women of the seventeenth century, and the new, exciting time of natural philosophers (the term scientist hadn't been created yet, neither had biology, ecology, or any of the other -ologies). Spontaneous generation, the idea that creatures could be born from non-living sources, was a common belief during Merian's time. Todd includes some of the recipes. My favorite is:
   
   To get a bee -
   Find a sunny space roofed with tile
   Beat a three year old bull to death
   Put poplar and willow branches under the body
   Cover it with thyme and serpellium
   The bees will emerge
   
   In language as colorful as Merian's paintings, Todd also describes the intricacies of metamorphosis and some of the insects that befuddled Merian and other natural philosophers. Through Todd's gripping prose, I became excited about the tricky metamorphosis of the large blue butterfly (Maculinea arion). Trust me, that's an accomplishment. If you don't believe insects and metamorphosis are interesting, you will feel differently after this book. To experience Merian's life and what happened to her work and reputation after her death, you will need, and want, to read Chrysalis. One hint: Peter the Great is involved.



5. What possesses a European woman to pack up her life and move across the ocean to study the natural world? Did I mention that it was 1699?
   
   Chrysalis tells the story of Maria Sibylla Merian, a woman living in the late 1600s and early 1700s, who is fascinated by the process in which a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. She cultivates them as one might cultivate roses. More, she studies them in their own habitat. But how did she do it in a time when women were subject to their men, when witch trials were the norm, and dabbling in insect life was more than suspect?
   
   But Chrysalis is more than a biography. It is a study in entomology. What is the process from caterpillar to butterfly? And why do the chrysalises sometimes produce flies rather than butterflies? Remember this is the time of "spontaneous generation" when scientists thought frogs came from rain and meat produced flies.
   
   Chrysalis is more than entomology. It is religious history. What made the Pietist sects split off from the Lutheran church? What was the call of the Labidists for Merian? And how did she slide by the rules of stripping off worldly trappings in order to continue to paint and study?
   
   And still that is not all. There is her study across the ocean in Surinam. Her return. Her art. The study of microbiology with the invention of the microscope. This book is a comprehensive study of much that was going on in the world. It is fascinating and the art is beautiful. If I have any complaint, it is that the author references pieces that aren't pictured in the book and when the pieces are pictured, there is nothing to note that. I spent a lot of time flipping to the grouped photos in an often fruitless search.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: This is an overall fascinating book that could be improved by better referencing and picturing of the art.

5 comments about Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe.

1. Although I have read less than 100 pages of this book, and initially was quite pleased with the subject matter covered, some inaccurate details have lead me to agree with the more critical reviews.
   
   Specifically, the geographical errors are blatant. The most obvious one is on page 83 where Ascalon is described as being "about 30 miles east of Jerusalem", when on the map (which is very handily placed on the facing page) Ascalon is not east but west of of Jerusalem!!! Two others that I found referred to Flanders being on the western coast of France (page 60), when it is most definitely to the north and east of France, and less incorrect, but still not quite accurate enough for me was Britanny being referred to as being "immediately south of Normandy" (page42). Yes, it is south, but it is much more to the WEST of Normandy as well as south . . . Not good for less than 100 pages into a non-fiction historical work.
   
   Is this a case of nit-picking? Well, all I know is this: if these basic facts are not correct, then there may be more that I would not know about and so I am less likely to accept other interpretations/conclusions the author presents this book. When something as basic, and simple to verify as a city's geographic location is not correct, I wonder about the research done in the first place, and the veracity of sources, or just simple double checking of facts.
   
   Other reviews that are so glowing are worrisome as well. It really does seem that the general public knows very little about geography!
   
   Enjoyable to read, yes to a point. It is like the 1940's movie version of Pride and Prejudice that was entertaining, but not true to the original book. I'm not sure I'll finish the book, but then again maybe I will.



2. The beginning of this book is engagingly written, but, as it goes on, it becomes a grind to read. By the middle of the book, the engaging, personal style is left behind; it's replaced by a dull recitation of events with scattered speculation thrown in. Yawn.
   
   Others have commented on the factual errors in the book, so I'll just mention that the author's comments on her research methodology explain how she made such errors. She says, for example, that she relies on Giovanni Villani's chronicle--despite its late date--because Dante had used it and "what was good enough for Dante was good enough for me." Oh, okay. Apparently, Ms. Goldstone doesn't understand the nature of Dante's work. I also found myself wondering what in the world were her sources for events in Germany because she didn't seem to have any grasp at all on medieval German culture. She doesn't mention what her sources for Germany were.
   
   Generally, popular history is fun to read. Not this one. It's dull, inaccurate, and written like a book report. That's too bad, because the subjects are fascinating.



3. Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe is about the 4 daughters of the Count and Countess of Provence who all became Queens. They are Marguerite (married to Louis, King of France), Eleanor (married to Henry, King of England, Sanchia (married to Richard of Cornwell, later King of Germany) and Beatrice (married to King Louis' brother Charles of Anjou, later King of Sicily).
   
   I was worried that since this was non-fiction it would be dry and boring - a hard read, but I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed the writing and layout of the book (the chapters alternate between the sisters) and the sisters gave the author plenty to write about. What wonderfully strong, intelligent women! The drama within the family is more than adequate for a good read, but through in some wars and crusades and it becomes very interesting! Sibling rivalry at its best!
   
   I highly recommend Four Queens and look forward to learning more about these historical sisters!



4. Reader friendly nonfiction historical. All interesting information about Louis the Ninth, Henry the Third, and others; most interesting to me were the four sisters, but of course the book doesn't concentrate on them as much as the crusades, and the men. I would love a novelist to tackle this story. Loads and loads of info on that time period in France, England, Italy. Not enough on the four sisters.



5. My love of medieval history and soft-spot for popular history made this book a natural for me. The story of four daughters of the Count of Provence who became "queens" is set in an era I've study quite a bit yet (back in college!) I know relatively little about Marguerite, Eleanor, Sanchia and Beatrice.
   
   Any biography of a major figure from the 13 century has hurdles: few contemporaneous first-hand accounts, few to none documents written by the figures themselves, etc. These problems are compounded exponentially when the figure in question is female. All too often, women just didn't rate making it into the chronicles. So Goldstone has her work cut out for her. She makes a valiant effort to piece together the careers and characters of these women drawing conclusions from the smattering of available facts. The reader can take issues with these conclusions but that, to me, is one of the rewards of reading about this era.
   
   All that said, this book was a disappointment. Other reviewers have noted the multitude of factual errors in this book and I have to add my voice to the chorus. Silly, stupid mistakes are present in every single chapter. Were all the fact checkers on vacation when this book was being edited? Did Goldstone get her index cards mixed up? Popular history often needs to tread lightly on the details but never on the facts.
   
   The narrative starts well but writing starts to become heavy going before youngest sister Beatrice hits the stage. Goldstone starts overwhelming the reader with "events" that aren't particularly telling about the four sisters or illuminating of their times. She also over does the adjectives; Sanchia is too frequently "gentle Sanchia", for example. The last quarter of the book was a real trial for me to finish.
   
   I've given this book three stars, the writing and the factual errors would make this book a two but the decent start and the relative obscurity of the topic earn it an extra star from me. If you want an intro to the period this is not the best place to start. If you are immersed in this period, you may find the errors too annoying to bear. If you are interested in learning about these four under-known sisters and their times and are comfortable skipping judiciously, this book may be for you.
   
   Kindle note: photos are included.

3 comments about Eudora Welty : Stories, Essays & Memoir (Library of America, 102).

1. At the time of her death, Eudora Welty was widely regarded as America's single greatest living author. Although she produced several critically acclaimed novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER, Welty achieved her greatest fame through mastery of that most difficult of all literary forms, the short story.

   Welty's skill with short stories is amazing, for she possessed a talent that combined a remarkable ear for the spoken word, meticulous observation of physical world, and the truly mysterious ability to slip almost effortlessly into the very marrow of the characters she depicts. Her comic stories are perhaps best known to the public in general, but she is equally at home with provocative and unsettling material, and although her tales are most often firmly rooted in America's deep south they have a sense of humanity that transcends the limitations of purely regional literature.

   In addition to stories previously collected under the titles A CURTAIN OF GREEN, THE WIDE NET, THE GOLDEN APPLES, and THE BRIDE OF THE INNISFALLEN, this Library of America publication also includes the independently published stories "Where Is the Voice Coming From?" and "The Demonstrators," nine selected essays, and Welty's memoir ONE WRITER'S BEGINNINGS. A chronology of Welty's life up to 1996, textual notes, and general notes (including Katherine Anne Porter's introduction for A CURTAIN OF GREEN) are also included. This book (and its Library of America) companion, EUDORA WELTY: COMPLETE NOVELS) are essentials for any one who admires Welty's work and wishes to possess it in handy, collected form; those who have had limited exposure to Welty's work, however, might be better served by smaller collections.




2. "Listening," "Learning to See" and "Finding a Voice," Eudora Welty entitled the three chapters of her autobiography "One Writer's Beginnings," the concluding entry in this collection, one of the two Library of America compilations dedicated to her work. And while these may be steps that most writers will undergo at some point, Welty's compact autobiography 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 the literary creations collected in this compilation and its companion volume. 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" ("One Writer's Beginnings:" Not surprisingly, her photography was published in several collections which have found much acclaim of their own.)

   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). The Library of America dedicated two volumes to her work; one containing her novels, the other - this one - her short stories, essays (some, like her autobiography, based on a series of lectures) and her autobiography.

   An approach that Welty developed early on was to consider the publication of her stories in periodicals merely a step towards each story's final shape, and she generally revised her stories before including them in collections. This compilation brings together all her short stories in the versions intended to be final by Welty herself: the 1941 edition of "A Curtain of Green and Other Stories" (her first short story collection), the 1943 edition of "The Wide Net and Other Stories" and the 1949 edition of "The Golden Apples" - each collection suffered substantial editorial revisions in subsequent publications. Included are also two stand-alone short stories ("Where is This Voice Coming From?" and "The Demonstrators"), the first one inspired by the 1963 murder of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers and revised by Welty over the telephone after having been accepted by "The New Yorker," to avoid a potentially prejudicial effect of its original ending on the then-impending trial.

   A keen observer, Welty 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. Not a single word is wasted: "Marrying must have been some of his showing off - like man never married at all till *he* flung in," we're told about King MacLain in the opening story of "The Golden Apples," "Shower of Gold." And you don't have to learn anything more about the man, do you? Equally as instructive on Welty's writing are the eight essays included in this collection, all taken from the 1978 compilation "The Eye of the Story" and dealing with particular aspects of her own fiction as much as, more generally, with "Place in Fiction" (1954) and the fiction writer's role ("Writing and Analyzing a Story," originally published in 1955 under the title "How I Write" and substantially revised for its inclusion in "The Eye of the Story" and "Must the Novelist Crusade?").

   "There 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 story, and the creative process itself: nothing that can be "mapped and plotted" but a product taking shape in the process of creation itself, giving each story a unique identity of its own. And while her fiction, alas, can no longer grow any more than Faulkner's, she has left us enough of those unique creations to cherish for a long time to come.




3. Each new volume from The Library of America, the non-profit publisher that has become the de facto literary hall of fame, is a cause for celebration. Its goal of preserving in an enduring format the best fiction and non-fiction is a significant bulwark against the encroaching tides of cultural relativism that attempts to render any value judgments meaningless, as well as a consumer society that insists that if it ain't new, it ain't good.
   
   In the case of Eudora Welty, we're given two volumes: a collection of five novels ("The Robber Bridegroom," "Delta Wedding," "The Ponder Heart," "Losing Battles" and the Pulitzer-winning "The Optimist's Daughter"), and another of her essays, her memoir "One Writer's Beginnings" and her short stories. From her first published short stories, "Lily Daw and the Three Ladies" in 1937, to her last novel in 1972, Welty captures with her highly readable style and sharp eye and ear the varieties and eccentricities of Southern life.
   
   But while the South claims Welty as one of its own, she may not necessarily return the favor. Teh cause is both geographic and a matter of choice. Although she was born in Jackson, Miss., in 1909 and lived there all her life, her father was from Ohio and her mother from West Virginia, a state created by the Civil War that went for the Union. This isn't Margaret Mitchell we're talking about here.
   
   Then, in her essay "Place in Fiction," she stresses that while it is important for a writer to capture the feeling of an area, it is not the paramount goal in fiction:
   
   "It is through place that we put out roots ... but where those roots reach toward ... is the deep and running vein, eternal and consistent and everywhere purely itself, that feeds and is fed by the human understanding."
   
   But what pedigree does not provide, her environment probably did, for her work contains those elements poularly associated with Southern fiction. "Delta Wedding" celebrates the Southern family through the sprawling Fairchild clan and its passel of sons, daughters, cousins, aunts, great-aunts, nieces and nephews, all involved in each others' lives to a degree rarely seen today.
   
   Many of her stories revolve around characters marginalized by society, struggling to exist and reach out to others: the simple Lily Daw who tries to evade the determination of the town's ladies to either marry her off or send her to the asylum; the generous, slightly retarded Daniel Ponder who would give away everything he has at the drop of a hat; the demented Clytie in "A Curtain of Green," who rushes about looking in people's faces until, seeing her reflection in a barrel of rainwater, dives in and drowns.
   
   Eudora Welty was a sharp, perceptive writer, and her enshrinement by the Library of America is most welcome.