5 comments about The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism.

1. 
   It's sad to envision the everyday unfairness faced by these three enterprising women. Megan Marshall describes how Elizabeth assesses if it is appropriate for a woman to establish a bookstore, how Sophia accepts that she will never see Italy because she is not married and how Mary quietly waits, waits and waits... in disguised desperation for the man she loves. Elizabeth suffers whispering campaigns, digs on her appearance and from loneliness as her sisters find true love with the men for whom she provides the entre.
   
   The Peabody women not only contend with a social structure which accepts unfairness to women, these family breadwinners face the downward mobility of their time. They compete with male teachers and artists who have an education from which females are excluded. The sisters' access to the synergy of a network is compromised by the mores of the time which destroys reputations for the least sign of familiarity with men who comprise the network. The progressive men in Elizabeth's circle may give her support, but it is always qualified. While she could not succeed without these men, Bronson Alcott being the most egregious example, each takes more than he gives.
   
   The 3 Peabody brothers are not just lackluster but also irresponsible towards the family. The one who survives to middle age might just be the "Joe Six Pack" of his day. An appraisal of family dynamics considering communication patterns, paternal (lack of) nurturing and birth order would be interesting.
   
   Elizabeth is clearly the star of the show. She is the one to whom the modern world can more closely relate. She dominates the biography as she probably dominated the lives of her siblings, a dominance both used and resented by her sisters. She is remarkably alone.
   
   The ideas that Elizabeth and her transcendentalist friends proposed are now mainstream. Like all who are ahead of their time, they were met with both skepticism and outright hostility. I was struck by how the break from Calvinist self abnegation was the opening for what we call today, self-esteem. While I often wonder how Washington, Adams and Jefferson could relate to today's world, Elizabeth as presented by Marshall, would be even more at home now than then.
   
   For reseach and documentation, this is a 5 star book. I give it 4 because there are times when the documentation gets in the way of the prose making it too academic for the general reader. Also, the book abruptly ends. In a short chapter called "Epilogue May 1, 1843" the sisters' next 40+ years are summed up. I hope there is a volume 2. I'd like to know more of the sisters as the Civil War develops and unfolds.
   
   Interesting that this was a runner up for the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. Prize winners in 2008 and 2007 are Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father and The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher respectively. Is it that this period of history has captured the reading and reviewing audience or has it captured the best writers of our times?



2. The author attempts to run the three biographies in parallel but what really happens is that she jumps from one place to the other, so none of the biographies unfold properly. I found it utterly unreadable. On top of it to add to my frustration, there are generalities, like Elizabeth fought with her mother "like all adolescent girls do" or romantic creations "like on this day if you didn't watch out a dog might have showered you with water". I wanted to read a proper biography and not a society novel. I had read "Eden's Outcasts" by John Matteson before and came away with a more lively picture of Elizabeth Peabody and her involvment in the Temple School then from this book. If you are interested in the transcendentalist movement, the time, or women I highly recommend "Eden's Outcasts: The story of Louisa May Alcott and her father".



3. The Peabody Sisters is a wonderful book. It was so interesting and fast-paced, it reads like a novel. The women of the Transcendentalist Movement have been so poorly remembered it is possible to learn something new on every page. Megan Marshall's writing style is relaxed and conversational, a good balance to the 19th century melodrama, angst, sentimentality, and lofty philosophies of the sisters and their circle. Although Marshall quotes letters, sermons, poetry, reviews, journals, reports, and literature from many sources, it is done sparingly and logically integrated.
   
   The Peabody sisters were extraordinary women living in extraordinary times. A case can be made that Elizabeth Peabody, the oldest sister, is one of the most important figures in Transcendentalism. Barred from college and commerce by poverty and sex, she still managed to be more educated than many of the men she befriended and promoted. Many of the relationships we take for granted in Boston and Concord of the era can be directly linked to Elizabeth Peabody's tireless efforts to intellectually support interesting, creative individuals, make introductions, even find people jobs and students, housing, mentors - all while she is shut out and struggling to support her parents and five younger siblings while teaching herself Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish. Also: teaching children and adults, writing articles, editing and publishing, and keeping up a lively correspondence with teachers, philosophers, artists, poets of the era. Her sisters Sophia and Mary are hardly less accomplished.
   
   And yet Megan Marshall always keeps things grounded. The sisters are always real people who display very normal sibling rivalries manifested in jealousy, competition, ambition, despair, frustration and anger. There was also commitment, love, affection, support, delight and generosity.
   
   What is most amazing is the strength of the women in this group. They are creative, adaptable, intelligent, extraordinary in many ways. They are continually held back by the convention of the time that women were somehow frail and that ambition and accomplishment were unseemly in the "fairer sex." Considering what hothouse flowers many of the men in this group proved to be, it's all the more unreasonable that the inequality of the sexes persisted.
   
   Megan Marshall never harangues - the rant is purely my own. Marshall simply gives us the benefit of her prodigious research in the most straightforward and appealing manner. Don't be scared off by the length of the book: the last 100 pages or so are notes and index. The book itself speeds by and the reader is left at the point when the sisters are taking up their own separate lives.



4. Somehow I overlooked this book when it was released, but thank goodness I discovered it later. The author takes readers back in time to share the amazing lives of these sisters. In the process, acquaintances of the Peabody family, that readers already know as historical figures, are brought to life as real, flawed but remarkable people. Readers will identify with these women as they strive to achieve and practice their own talents in a society that shares possibilities and limitations not so different from our own.



5. I only get to read on the train to and from work. This book makes my daily trip a real treat. I'm only half through, but hooked from page one. Not only does Marshall make a fascinating biographical and historical account of the Peabody sisters, but she provides answers as to why strong, ambitious, smart women have been so frustrated for so long. Society supressed gifted women in the 1800's so much so that women either became outcasts because they had to find expression, which in itself was restricted to motherhood, housewife or teacher, or they retreated into themselves in the form of illness or depression. Indeed, the contributions to romanticism by the Peabody sisters came at a very high cost to them. And now I can read about them and think "How strange that society was so close-minded back then!"

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

1. This book offers great advice to any single girl looking for love. It's got a good breakdown of what to do vs. what not to do. I really enjoyed reading it (it was short and to the point) and will pass it along to friends. I also liked How To Be Wanted: Use the Law of Attraction to Date the Man You Most Desire and Live the Life You Deserve.

5 comments about Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle.

1. I have read every book by Paul Johnson (including the "Art" one) and this continues a long line of quality history and commentary. One rarely notices the research, the behind-the-scenes study and education required for such a work. Unlike most of his other works, however, HEROES reverses the usual order. By that, I mean that he usually presents history augmented by biography and commentary. This time it is biography augmented with history, a slight but important difference.
   
   Most would disagree with his choices but then the idea of hero is quite subjective. Some will (and have) criticized the book for its European viewpoint (quote unquote) but if that is the culture within which one was raised, educated and lived, what can one expect. Johnson continues his love affair with America, the home of six heroes. (Britain has the highest number with 15; The others are scattered.) His selection reminds me of GUNS & GOLD, the great story of the Anglo-American alliance that essentially built the modern liberal world.
   
   I would have never included Wittgenstein, Lady Pamela Berry or Marilyn Monroe in this list but somehow it "works". The author discusses the commmon perception of heroes, the fact that we instantly associate military valor and personnel with the modern version of heroism. Missing were folks like Mother Theresa, politicians (besides those great for what they accomplished. Johnson continues to celebrate the individual, stressing repeatedly that it is not mass movements, academic theories or ideology that drives the world - indeed, they are three of the biggest deterrents to progress - but individuals and what they do with their lives. My Grade: A-



2. Paul Johnson is a gifted writer. He writes with wit, elegance and clarity. He has the ability to portray people and events in such a deft manner that you seem to be viewing them in person. Unfortunately, he is not only incredibly uneven in his output, but, the closer his writing gets to the events of the XXth century, the more his opinions become skewed by his peculiar world view.
   
   Occasional flashes of his old talents shine through in this meretricious little pot-boiler, but it is mainly just an embarrassment. Where his former writings had trenchant observations, now peculiarities abound. e.g.
   
   p.34 "He [Alexander the Great] invented the Blitzkrieg." Liddell-Hart and Guderian would be surprised at that claim.
   
   p.47 "He [Julius Caesar] was stabbed to death in a Mafia-style killing in the Senate" Twenty-three aristocratic Senators each stabbing their leader once is somewhat different from an ice pick in the base of the skull.
   
   p.178 "Lee's success [at Gettysburg] on the first day was overwhelming, but on the second he did not make it clear to General James Longstreet that he wanted Culp's Hill and Cemetery Ridge taken at all costs. Longstreet provided too little artillery support to Pickett's famous charge." How many factual errors of commission and omission can you find in those two short statements?
   
   One could say that these examples are just "nit-picking" unimportant details. Consider:
   
   In the chapter devoted to Alexander's life and career, neither Hephaestion nor his death, is mentioned once - let alone discussed! There is no analogy of another historic pair with a similar symbiosis that I can think of - Sherman and Grant were not so close, Octavian and (M. Vipsanius) Agrippa were not as equal, Bill and Hillary are too trivial for comparison. If you don't know of the importance of Hephaestion and his death to Alexander, you should read up on it.
   
   His choices of the slutty (but clever) Mae West and the slutty (and confused) Marilyn Monroe as heroes is bizarre enough. Crediting the implosion of the long-crumbling Soviet Union to the fearsome trio of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II is just loony right wing fantasy (see Wolkenkuckucksheim).
   
   If you would like to read a great book by Paul Johnson try "The Birth of the Modern". If you would like to read a good book about heroes and their place in history, read Lucy Hughes-Hallett's "Heroes, a History of Hero Worship".



3. If you're feeling in need of a hero, Paul Johnson has a few on offer. The 30 mini-portraits presented here cover Western Culture from Ancient Greece to the end of the Cold War. Bookending these are two essays pondering the nature and future of heroism. But be forewarned: in the tradition of his groundbreaking and highly entertaining The Intellectuals, Mr. Johnson has his opinions and isn't in the least afraid to offend the delicate reader.
   
   In fact, I'll wager that Paul Johnson would be sorely disappointed if he learned that scores of people were reading his books and coming away unoffended. Johnson is an intellectual provocateur dedicated to questioning widely-held opinions and the status quo. Like his frequent feuding partner Christopher Hitchens part of the pleasure in reading Paul Johnson is not simply to enjoy his erudition, it's to enjoy the fierce contrariness of his opinions. I don't agree with all their views but I enjoy how they make their cases. Other reviewers here have already noted the vignette about thoughts of Lady Jane Grey helping Nancy Mitford achieve a "satisfactory orgasm" (how on EARTH does that pop up in conversation?) but there are other Johnsonian gems here. John Knox as "the fierce Protestant ayatollah of Edinburgh"? 16th Century Scotland as a "tartan version of Afghanistan"? This is not meant to soothe but incite.
   
   The scope of the portraits is impressive - Jane Austen, Boadicea and Charles de Gaulle in the same book - as is Johnson's take on heroism. His heroes are not paragons of virtue. They tend to be the right person at the right time that does one very necessary thing well, often in the face of significant opposition. A simple, ephemeral definition that encompasses surprisingly few. In the 20th century portraits Johnson occasionally draws on personal experience and it's fascinating to see how he can admire the heroism without particularly liking the person. You won't find complete biographies of any of these people but you will find what is essential to their unique heroism according to Johnson.
   
   This is a perfect book for travel as the mini-portraits can easily be digested on a daily commute or all of them can keep you company on a long flight. If you've read and enjoy Paul Johnson's work before, you'll enjoy this book. If you haven't read Johnson yet but you enjoy lively prose and uncommon opinions this is a good place to start.



4. Paul Johnson remains one of the few serious writers who combines an immensely accessable prose style with an intellect rarely encountered in contemporary non-fiction. In his vivid snapshots he compresses larger-than-live historical figures into human beings while simultaneously making the case as to why they are "heroic". Many of these insights are cleanly fresh and restorative to a reader like myself who has read biographies of them all. Johnson explains his criteria for judging who and why he chose who he did as a hero. And in the process makes a powerful case for each individual, even those who are frankly a little tough to swallow. Among them deGaulle.
   From other works (Malraux's "Felled Oaks" for example) and lengthy biographies, my own assesement of deGaulle never changed. I'd always considered him a mostrously egotistical chauvanist who'se WW2 credentials mainly lay in his lucky proximity to true greats like Churchill, Roosevelt and Eisenhower, who in one way or another tolerated his insufferable ego and pretentions.
   Louis X1V presumably said, "c'estate ce moi" I am the state. In a seventeenth century king it's one kind of conceit, but in a 20th century military and politcal leader of a free democracy, it is a disgrace. Or so was my conclusion. However, Johnson's book brought me a new veiwpoint. I didn't conclude I'd been totally wrong, but Johhnson made me see that had deGaulle not existed, he probably would have had too be invented. And in a way, it wasd probably on balance, more fortunate for France that he was the invention, rather than some of the absurd French leaders who preceeded and
   succeeded him. Johnson made me see that. And in that respect and in all the other sketches, ever new lights went on.
   Paul Johnson is one great writer, historian, thinker. And to me, in this age when so much garbage flows from the media.
   Strongly recommend it and all his other books.



5. This is the first book I read of Paul Johnson and I really enjoyed it. In this book, we are introduced to well-known figures in history who are regarded as heroes. But a hero to one might be a villain to another. Genghis Khan was a hero to many, but a murderer to many others as well. Paul Johnson uses the example of Samson. Samson is a heroic figure in old Judaic scriptures. He was a Nazirite, and God had blessed him with extraordinary strength. However, in order to keep his superhuman strength, he had to make sure he never cut his hair. One day, however, he admits to Delilah that the secret to his strength is his hair. She then lulled him to sleep on her knees and called a barber to shave off his hair. The Philistines then seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. There they bound him with bronze fetters. Eventually his hair grows again, unnoticed by his enemies, and his strength returns. When the Philistines take him to their great feast in the Temple of Dagon to taunt him, he gets a little boy to guide him to the central pillars. Calling on God to give him the power, he pushes aside the pillars from their bases and brings the entire temple down, killing all the people who were in it. According to the author, this ruthlessness in heroism makes Samson the first suicide-martyr-mass killer, adumbrating the suicide bombers of today's Middle East. Samson's act was a brutal unconcern for human life, whether guilty or innocent. Samson kills all the Philistines, including the innocent child who had befriended him and many of those in the crowd who had nothing to do with his capture or blinding. Nonetheless, Samson was honored, and became a hero in the teeming biblical pantheon. The Jews loved Samson, and still do. (p. 18-20). The author says, "Anyone is a hero who has been widely, persistently over long periods, and enthusiastically regarded as heroic by a reasonable person, or even an unreasonable one."
   
   A hero is also created by our own perception of him, and might not be at all the way we perceive him to be. The author gives as an example President Ronald Reagan. Reagan gave back to the United States the self-confidence it had lost, and at the same time tested Soviet power to destruction. He is credited with ending the cold war. He cut taxes, freed Americans from unnecessary burdens, and enlarged freedom whenever consistent with safety and justice. He had a great sense of humor, his smiles were genuine, and he was a charismatic leader. He was viewed as a hero by the American people and the rest of the world. However, according to the author, Reagan was superficially, and also profoundly, ignorant. He did not seem to know how bills were put together or passed through Congress, or how the entire budget process took place. He had little education, and no desire to acquire much more in a general sense, at any rate through books. He was intellectually lazy, and he did not read one word of the carefully prepared briefing book on the eve of the world economic summit in 1983. During his presidency he spent more time watching movies than doing anything else. Sometimes he believed in fantasies, such as that the United States really had much larger hidden oil reserves than the whole of the Middle East. At other times he appeared incapable of speaking coherently about the simplest matters without reference to the cue cards in his left pocket. In some ways he was ill-equipped to run anything, let alone the mightiest nation on earth. He was deaf and sometimes could not hear what his staff was telling him, even with the volume of his hearing aid switched right up. He confused names and faces. He thought his own secretary of commerce was a visiting mayor. He believed Denis Healey was the British ambassador. He addressed the Liberian president Samuel K. Doe as "Chairman Moe." (p. 256-258). Yet despite these deficiencies, he is viewed as an American hero.
   
   This is a really fascinating book that will show you a different side to well-known heroes. The author discusses the human flaws of such heroes as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Henry V, Joan of Arc, Thomas Moore, Lady Jane Grey, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, Walter Raleigh, George Washington, The Duke of Wellington, Lord Nelson, Emily Dickinson, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II.
   
   I really liked the chapter on Mae West, and feel encouraged to read more of her books. Mae is really a fascinating character study. I was surprised though that the author included Marilyn Monroe as a hero. I learnt things I never knew about her, like the fact that she suffered from Syphilis and severe depression.
   
   One beautiful quote from this book will be stuck in my head for the rest of my life. Henry Ford once said, "It is a disgrace for anyone to die rich." I truly believe in giving, and being a philanthropist. For this reason, I view Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, among many others, as true heroes. Here's the irony: Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, among just a few, are viewed today as heroes, despite the fact that they killed millions of people. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, among a few, are also viewed as heroes, but for different reasons: they save the lives of millions!
   
   I recommend this book to all readers who are fascinated by the lives of great people (and some not that great but still viewed as heroes).

5 comments about An American Childhood.

1. I'll be honest; I absolutely *hated* this book when I first read it (for a class, the summer after 7th grade). As many of the other reviewers have mentioned, it is indeed a collection of vignettes about the author's childhood that don't flow into one another. However, the descriptions are beautiful, really giving a feel of living in the city (as opposed to the suburbs) of Pittsburgh. I probably would have only dealt this three stars had I not just spent four years of my life at college in Pittsburgh--this book captures the city's character superbly, something most reviewers probably don't relate to, but I can safely say:
   
   Annie Dillard does a fantastic job of sketching the wonder of a precocious child that most of us cannot appreciate until we are well out of our childhood years ourselves. If you don't like this book now, pick it up in ten years, you might have a change of heart.



2. Suddenly this book hit me, what a prize it was, out of the blue. Who was expecting it? Like when you hear a song you will love forever. This is it. She has had many of the same fascinations I had--rock collecting, for example. And her words are just right, how it's like entering a cave, and a new world opens up, that was just invisible before, taken for granted. The whole book is about how she moves thru life that way. She does everything on a far grander scale than I ever did, her reading is omnivorous and extensive. I love the way she writes so economically about her feelings, and yet the way she says it is just right. I don't think I've ever read a book that describes inner thoughts like this before. I just discovered Annie Dillard as a writer.



3. I don't relate at all to this "American Childhood." The author uses vocabulary that shows how many obtuse words she knows. This is not effective communication. I am well educated and would still have to look up many words which interrupts the flow of her story.



4. As a child who grew up in Pittsburgh, Pa during the timeframe of the book. I was expecting something along the lines of "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash". Instead I got a self indulgent muse of a pampered life that did not embrace working class Pittsburgh of the 50's and 60's. A great let down.



5. Never before have I actually woken up the next morning with the book on my face.

5 comments about Confessions of a Carb Queen: A Memoir.

1. I applaud Susan for being so brave to write this book. I have never been over weight, but while shopping at the book store the design and title caught my eye, so I bought it. I have recommended it to all my large and small friends.
   Susan, you are my hero!



2. I really loved this book- Interesting, inspirational- You'll never look at an obese person the same again! Just today I saw an obese man and I made myself look at him in the eye and smile- Just as I would do to anyone. I never noticed how I would avoid eye contact before.
   Loved it.



3. I really liked this book! Ms. Blech has a wonderful flow of writing that made me fly though this book like conversation. I felt at the end like we had journeyed together and I made a new best friend who I was so proud of and inspried by! Thanks Susan! Keep writing!



4. Susan was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo transparent about her binges. I could relate.. Very open about the hardships of finding romance when one is a overweight woman.. The part that I most related with was the relationships she had with her mother and father..I really appreciate that she wrote this book. This will help me to lose the "last 40lbs"...



5. Susan Blech was on a downhill path. In her late 30s, she weighed an amazing 468 pounds. This amazing book is about the path she took to get to that place, what life was like in that place, and about the steps she took to lose over 268 pounds without surgery. I call this book amazing because I probably had my mouth open the entire time I was reading it. You won't believe what this girl used to put in her mouth every day. That someone could eat this much and still be alive is amazing. For all her lack of self control, Susan must be a very strong woman. She was still alive and able to turn her life around. Some people never get that chance.
   
   She used to go up and down both sides of the street picking up gigantic bags of food from every fast food place, eat it all in her car, and then dispose of the bags, convincing herself that it didn't count if she ate the food in her car. Some weeks she would spend $300 to $400 dollars on fast food.
   
   This was especially interesting to me because she lost the majority of her weight at a weight loss center in Durham, NC called the Rice House. That's only about an hour from my house.
   
   Susan talks about her life. She grew up in a house with no mother since hers was in assisted care after a stroke. She ate as a form of self-medication for the pain she felt. She talks about her friendships, boyfriends, and siblings.
   
   Anyway, this is a fascinating read. Susan also includes recipes of low-calorie, low-fat foods. I have been trying some of them, and they are good.

5 comments about Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King.

1. This book was a good factual read on Louis XIV. Anyone with an interest in Louis (or just the era) will enjoy this book. I found no factual errors.



2. Antonia Fraser crafts a masterful biography spanning the life of Louis XIV -- using the relationships with the various women in his life (mother, wife, mistresses, daughter in-law, granddaughter in-law) as the pattern that she weaves her tapestry around.
   
   Detailed but not overwhelming, she paints an enthralling picture of the Sun King and those in the court who orbited him. A great profile regardless of whether you know little about thi time period or you're seeking to enhance the depth of knowledge that you have.



3. I used to be fascinatged by these portraits of historical figures, but this one left me bored and skeptical. I have read a few of Ms Fraser's other books and enjoyed them. Particularly her Marie Antoinette. But this one I found dull by the second chapter and now after chapter 7 have set it aside to move on to something else. I will go back and finish, and if my review changes, I will be back to amend this review, but I just felt there is so much interesting history to touch with Louis XIV and this book ignores a lot of it. In addition, her recreations of events as if she is there left me skeptical of their veracity. Obviously this is well researched, but does she really know that court "rushed" to someones side". I guess I shoudl have deduced form the title that this woudl really focus on Louis love life. I just was hoping for something else. There is enough television and movies telling us about the love lives of famous individuals of the present and past. I was more interested in his intellectual persuits, and his accomplishments in architecture and development of France that earned him the nickname of the Sun King.



4. Excellent thorough book. Easy read full of great
   info on the kings personal life



5. this is a great book. the photos inside are great and its quality is amazing

3 comments about Come, reza, ama / Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.

1. This book is amazing. I bought it cause one person in my family is going through something similar and it has really helped me to give her advice. I haven't finish the book but i can't stop reading it. Definitely something that happens to many women.



2. Este libro es para cualquier mujer, de cualquier edad y condición, porque todas encontrarán en él algo con lo que identificarse.
   Gilbert aborda con cierto humor y con inteligencia temas como el amor y el desamor, la vida, el éxito, el fracaso, la espiritualidad, el auto-conocimiento y mucho más.



3. Con humor y realismo Elizabeth Gilbert explora su esencia espiritual llevando al lector a encontrarse con ella cara a cara en su camino. Cada mujer que lee este libro puede identificarse con muchas de las experiencias de crecimiento personal y espiritual. Esta es una comedia divina que todas vivimos y pocas podemos articular.

5 comments about Mother Teresa: A Complete Authorized Biography.

1. "During her lifetime, Mother Teresa resisted having her biography written in full...in 1991, she gave Kathryn Spink, who had known Mother Teresa and been involved with her mission for thirteen years, to proceed with a full account of her life...It was also understood that the book would be completed only after Mother Teresa's death." This is part of the text from the inside of the front dust jacket of the book.
   
   Few authors received this imprimatur of Mother Teresa. If for no other reason, this reason calls the inquirer of Mother Teresa's "life and views and of the work" (front jacket) to consider the book seriously.
   
   It may amaze some Catholics to know that an authorized biographer of Mother Teresa is not a Catholic. Kathryn Spink is a Christian of sorts but not a Catholic. However, she loves the words and work of Mother Teresa and quotes Mother Teresa's opinion of the Missionaries of Charity as the, "most disorganized organization in the world" (Preface, vi). In that quote, it could be said, Mother Teresa was giving, indirectly, an answer to Christopher Hitchens caustic critique of her. It is hard for unbelievers to understand how disorder in the Church is evidence of the order of God--and yet it is, because God can write with broken pens.
   
   There are no footnotes, no notes at all. However, there are many quotes that are gems in the thought and work of Mother Teresa including her Nobel Peace Prize Lecture (Appendix B). Some quotes are what Christian readers expect, "I said that even if they helped one person, that was all right. Jesus would have died for one person, for one sinner" (p. 87). Others quotes only non-Christians will appreciate, "You call him Ishwar some call him Allah, some simply God, but we all have to acknowledge that it is he who made us for greater things: to love and to be loved" (pp. 155-56). There is a short but adequate Index.
   
   The style is intimate, enjoyable, and flowing from an obvious depth of knowledge of the subject addressed. There are a number of pictures in the center of the book that historically progress through her life as if taken from the family album.
   
   There are a couple of criticisms about the book that need to be addressed. First, it does not confront Mother Teresa's adversaries. There is only an illusion to Mr. Hitchens and not by name (p. 275). Second, there is a lack of comments, interviews, and commentary from colleagues and associates. Third, there is plenty of data about her life but the depth of how each subject is handled sometimes seems a little thin.
   
   In response to the second and third criticisms, authors are painfully aware of this formula, pages plus cost equal higher price plus less audience. Most people do not want to pay a fortune for a book and the numbers of books sold declines as the page number increases. In this instantaneous age, few have the attention span for longer books.
   
   Those interested in Mother Teresa's thought should inquirer into Kathryn Spink's book, The Miracle of Love. It is a shorter work but a fruitful read.



2. Spink has created a serious biography of Mother Teresa, which covers her life fairly comprehensively from birth to death. Mother Teresa's creation of the Missionaries of Charity, and her tireless efforts on behalf of the sick, and the poorest of the poor are well illumined by the book. Refraining from much criticism or praise, Spink also illustrates Mother Teresa's uncompromising stand against abortion, divorce and birth control. The style is a bit wandering and digressing (and as always I wish there were footnotes!), but nonetheless relays essential facts of Mother Teresa's life. The book is accessible, and recommended to anyone seriously trying to appreciate her life, in or outside an undergraduate context.



3. This is one of my favorite books about the Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. It is very descriptive and detailed. The book also includes many old photographs of Mother Teresa, as well. This is a beautiful book about a beautiful person.



4. What a great biography about this great Albanian nun.
   In her own words "I am Albanian by birth. Now I am citizen of India. I am also a Catholic nun. In my work, I belong to the whole world. But in my heart, I belong to Christ".



5. A life such as Mother Teresa's is deserving of an insightful vibrant and skillfully told biography. I found Kathryn Spink's "Mother Teresa: A Complete Authorized Biography" left wanting. It did not live up to the magnitude of Mother Teresa's life of service and giving throughout the world but especially in India's Calcutta in the formation and running of the Sisters of Charity.

   Spink's "Mother Teresa," reads, at times, like a laundry list of events with no coherent effort made to illuminate the person behind the events. The best biographies I have found don't rely so much on the cold hard history to build a story around, but rather insight as to who the person is and how they interacted with the world. I think of skillfully told biographies in which I walked away from the reading of them with insight, motivation, and the feeling that I knew the subject and was engaged in their life. Benson's "John Steinbeck: Writer," and Morris "Theodore Rex," come to mind as examples. Spink's "Mother Teresa," does not do the same.

   I credit the writer for tackling some tough issues in the last two chapters. She addresses criticisms of Mother Teresa and the Sister's of Charity co-workers and does so without sidestepping difficult points of contention. Some social work critics fault the work of Mother Teresa for not wielding her influence to address the root causes of poverty and only tackling the end-product of suffering in a simplistic manner. In addition, Mother Teresa was loyal to the Catholic Church and stood staunch in support of difficult traditional stances espoused by that organization to include pro-life in all cases. Spink's does a good job of pitting Mother Teresa's perspective of service and belief to explain why she did what she did and why she believed as she did. However, this isn't until the last two chapters of the book and this illuminating approach could have been begun on page 1.

   All in all, I would only recommend this book if you are attempting to delve deeply into the life and times of Mother Teresa and have read other books on that subject. If you want a good read and are just scratching the surface finding out what Mother Teresa's life was all about, look elsewhere dear reader.
   --MMW

5 comments about If I Am Missing or Dead: A Sister's Story of Love, Murder, and Liberation.

1. As others have pointed out, this isn't about Amy, the murdered sister; this is about Janine, though that doesn't make it a bad story. Her writing is interesting, but as the story wore on, I felt like she had no insight into the role she may have played in her screwed up life. I'm not saying it's ever ok to hit a woman (I am a woman) - that's not the point. It's just that everything is always somebody else's fault - her father, her boyfriend, her husband. I probably don't understand the psychology of a battered woman, but some of this book is also about her whining and her weight, not the abuse, and that's the part that got old. Amy seemed like a much more interesting person, the little we see of her. However, I'm glad Janine is in a better place now. If you can get through the 20,000th time her husband makes her wear a revealing bathing suit and the 150th time she tells us what a bastard he is, it's a quick and interesting read.



2. Janice shows great strength and self control in how to deal with the obsticals in life. Yes maybe the title was a little misleading to some, but not to me. Janice spoke of her life as it was happening while the rest of the world was living also. Amy had her own life and me being a victim of abuse I know the lies you tell or the truth that you dont. Therefore there was lots I am sure that Janice didnt even know was going on with her baby sister. Janice went on to write a great and inspiring book for other women to read and hopefully learn from and gain strength from also. She has put together an amazing piece of work and even after talking with her personaly I know that she is out here doing what she feels is right and that is teaching others how to grow a backbone and stay strong. Her willingness to take all the verbal abuse just to keep a family together and looking great from the outside, is such strength alone. I love the book and hope many others give it a glance and love it as well and use it for a resource. Thanks Janice!



3. "Today Ron and I are romantically involved, but I fear I have placed myself at risk in a variety of ways. Based on his criminal past, writing this out just seems like the smart thing to do. If I am missing or dead this obviously has not protected me. However, hopefully it will give you enough to go on to at least question Ron and make sure, if he is behind it, that he won't get away with it."
   
   These were the last words 37-year old Amy Latus would ever write in a letter penned on April 29, 2002 to the Knox County Sheriff, a letter which she placed in her desk drawer at Kimberly-Clark Corporation to be discovered by her co-workers after her sudden and inexplicable disappearance on July 5th. Her battered and partially decomposed body would not be found until July 22nd at a construction site wrapped in painter's tarp, her boyfriend and killer Ron Ball's tools of the trade. It was as if Amy knew with all certainty of her savage fate.
   
   "If I Am Missing Or Dead", a memoir that made the New York Times Bestseller List, isn't so much about Amy as it is about her older sister and author Janine Latus and her angst-ridden childhood and adolescence, as well as the dysfunctional and abusive relationships throughout the better part of her life, particularly her marriage to now ex-husband Kurt. There are few words to describe what one will feel when reading the painful retelling of Janine's subjection to physical and verbal abuse as well as Amy's violent and untimely death at the hands of a man from whom she only wanted love. Expect anger, frustration, sadness and the inability to put the book down until you have reached the very end in an attempt to once and for all read of the resolve and peace that Janine finally acquired, Amy's death in 2002 serving as the catalyst for her emotional release. Part biography and part autobiography, the book is written in an accessible and easy style and at just a little over 300 pages, is a quick read. It is short, but most definitely NOT sweet and emotionally gut wrenching to the last.
   
   Both Janine's and Amy's story are clear examples of psychologically abused women following a cyclical pattern of behavior in which they subconsciously seek out potential abusers because they know nothing of normalcy and/or healthy relationships with men. Janine admits to this herself when she says that Amy "never had a good relationship with a man, nor a relationship with a good man". This stems back to their childhood and their strained relationship with their father, a man who drank copiously, largely disregarded their mother's feelings and made inappropriate, unpleasant and derogatory sexual overtures to Janine, her sisters and their female friends. He is inarguably a sexist pig and indifferent towards the girls' discomfort; after Janine is ruthlessly groped by the father of neighborhood kids she is babysitting, her father apathetically responds with, "If you tell anyone what happened, you'll be known as a slut."
   
   Their upbringing steeped in the guilt mongering and misogyny of the Catholic Church did not help matters.
   
   "In church I learned: Girls are seductresses, starting with Eve, who got us all kicked out of the Garden of Eden by being weak, by taking a bite from the tree of knowledge, and - most important - by enticing poor, innocent Adam to do the same. Everything bad can be traced back to women, and the only way to make up for the lustiness of my gender is by acknowledging my guilt, carrying it, wearing it like a badge." (pg. 29)
   
   It is from both the apathy of the church and of her father that Janine and Amy are destined to suffer in every romantic relationship. Janine says about her losing her virginity to a boy named Kenny that "he actually does love me, with the puppyish devotion of an 18-year old. He says it's because I am incredible, amazing, but I think it's because I give him sex. I will think that and think that and think that. With man after man. I will think that each wants me only for sex, that sex is what I have to offer." (pg. 34) This is only the start of her many afflicted romances. First there is Michael, who takes Janine to an eye-opening Thanksgiving dinner at his parents' house where his father hurls the turkey against the wall in a rage when his mother forgets the yams in their lovely and extensive spread. When Michael flies into his own rage on a skiing trip and severely beats Janine, she runs into the arms of her future husband, a doctor named Kurt who is married with a child on the way.
   
   Kurt seems to be the man of her dreams but once she accidentally wrecks his new Mazda shortly before their wedding, all bets are off. Initially genteel and loving, he graduates quickly to physical and verbal abuse, hurling one unfounded accusation of infidelity after another derived from his fears of rejection and self-induced paranoia. He also belittles her, spitting at her more than once about her feminist views and using passive-aggressive statements to pick fights and incite guilt trips ("If you don't want to have sex, just say so", "You want to f*ck him/he just wants to f*ck you", "every time I try to do something nice for you, you ruin it!"). He is imperious and anal to the nth degree, from his insistence on the alphabetized pantry to the skimpy, revealing clothes he pushes Janine to wear despite her self-consciousness and physical discomfort. This rages on until she finally leaves him about a year after they adopt a baby girl named Sarah. Knowing it is no longer just her that is affected by the darkness and animosity of her marriage, it propels her to ultimately put a stop to it once and for all.
   
   Meanwhile, Amy deals with the rages of her alcoholic husband Jim and once she finally works up the courage to leave him, she soars to greater heights and acquires her job at Kimberly-Clark as a pricing analyst. A few months after graduate school and gaining her first-ever mortgage in her own name, Amy has her fateful run-in with Ron, an unemployed house painter from whom she consistently craved physical affection and received nothing but grief. Amongst all the insincere love notes and whispers of sweet nothings that Amy so believed were genuine are pleas for financial help. After bailing Ron out of jail after his third DUI and paying his exorbitant legal fees, she also purchased a $30,000 truck for him and supplies for the start of his own house painting business. All told, Amy loaned him over $50,000 before he ruthlessly murdered her and lied about it. It's hard to understand why she put so much faith in Ron, a man so unreliable and untrustworthy that most women would never have taken a chance on him, continuing to support him when her gut instinct told her to stop. Ron even refused to consummate their so-called relationship because "he respected her too much to have sex with her", making it perfectly clear that his loyalty lay with her bank account.
   
   The memoir ends with the finalizing of Janine's divorce, the ceremonious spreading of Amy's ashes and Ron's murder conviction two years after Amy's death.
   
   Bottom line: A ruthless and eye-opening dissection of abusive relationships, I (and Janine, most definitely) can only hope that those currently in an abusive situation who read this memoir will find the strength within its pages to stop the vicious cycle once and for all.



4. Janine Latus does a fabulous job of describing the slippery slope of abuse. This book is written beautifully and captures 2 stories of abuse that many can relate to.



5. I just finished reading this Janine Latus book and I was very surprised that this book had little to do with the murder of her sister Amy at the hand of her boyfriend. Rather the book drones on about Janines relationships and her boring marraige.
   
   She mentions Amy a few times and doesn't get to her murder until like page 200..
   
   PASS!!!

5 comments about The Florist's Daughter.

1. I found this memoir to be extremely boring. My book club members agreed and we even live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area where the book takes place. The author is obviously a poet and used a lot of words I had never heard of. The story was not compelling enough for me to even bother looking up the unfamiliar words in my dictionary. Although the cover is beautiful, do not waste your time or money. There are plenty of other good books to be read.



2. If you are as enamored of Patricia Hampl's writing as I am, this book is one not to miss--up there with _Virgin Time_, an earlier memoir. Elegant prose, filled with insight. Even events and people about which Hampl is ambivalent are clearly limned.



3. With great reviews and glowing praise from a piece on MPR our bookclub thought this would be an excellent read. I didn't love it. OK, not one of us even liked it. I felt that overall the book could not capture my attention. We have enjoyed everything from Don't Let's Eat With The Dogs Tonight, to The Life of PI, to The Wind Up Bird Chronicles. Everyone felt that while The Florist's Daughter was well written, it was a snooze. I am glad I did not buy it here, I am glad I checked it out from the library. If you have a connection to St. Paul you would probably get a kick out of the history. Otherwise, skip it. If you want to read a great memoir, read The Glass Castle!



4. Gosh, I absolutely loved this memoir--the writing is superb and the life of St. Paul, Minnesota from the 1930s and beyond is so vivid, but with lean language--just perfect. The provincialism of the Minnesota Irish Catholics contrasted with the Minnesota Czechs/Bohemians--and each of their neighborhoods in the pecking order, is so well drawn. The contrast too between parents, one who sees life's beauty and one who sees life with suspicion. I am giving copies of this as gifts to three writers I know.



5. Moving,exquisitely written with compelling imagery although at times seemed forced( the imagery ).Richly detailed memoir.