1 comments about Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work.

1. This is the book that opened Montessori's theories and achievements to me in a way her own writing never managed to. The Standings are not unbiased, having worked with Dr. Montessori --- but they do an excellent job of weaving Montessori's life story with her teaching discoveries and methods. If someone is interested in learning about the Montessori method, and can only read one book, this is the one. There is another biography by Rita Kramer that looks good, but I haven't gotten to it yet. Good luck!

5 comments about War in Val D'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943-1944.

1. This is an exceptional book which bears precious witness to the way WWII brought out both the good and bad--but mostly good--in people living or passing through a region of Tuscany. The author's factual, restrained account of the extraordinary events of the time and her part in them is beautiful and effective. Highly recommended. Here is an excerpt to whet your appetite:
   
   "The rounding-up of the Jews appears now to be completed--though no doubt many unfortunate women and children are still hidden. The Archbishop of Florence, Cardinal della Costa, has taken a courageous stand. When some of his nuns were arrested in consequence of having given shelter to some Jewish women in their convent, the Cardinal, putting on his full panoply, went straight to the German Command. 'I have come to you,' he said, 'because I believe you, as soldiers, to be people who recognize authority and hierarchy--and who do not make subordinates responsible for merely carrying out orders. The order to give shelter to those unfortunate Jewish women was given by me: therefore I request you to free the nuns, who have merely carried out orders, and to arrest me in their stead.'
   
   The German immediately gave orders for the nuns to be freed, but permitted himself to state his surprise that a man like the Cardinal should take under his protection such people as the Jews, the scum of Europe, responsible for all the evils of the present day. The Cardinal did not enter upon the controversy. 'I look upon them,' he said, 'merely as persecuted human beings; as such it is my Christian duty to help and defend them. One day,' he gave himself the pleasure of adding, 'perhaps not far off, *you* will be persecuted: and then I shall defend you!'"



2. This amazing book reveals the feelings of real people who did so much to help others in need, during a ruthless, senseless war. It is a story you will remember forever.



3. "War in Val D'Orcia" is a rather terse diary of events throughout Italy in 1943-1944 written by the English-born wife of a wealthy landowner in Tuscany. As an account of life under Nazi rule it's not nearly as profound or fascinating as Victor Klemperer's "I Will Bear Witness" but after the first 100 pages (or so) which are somewhat strangely detached and impersonal ("In Rome to have the baby"), and mostly an account of Italian national politics at that time, I literally couldn't put it down.
   
   Until I read this book I had often wondered why there are so many abandoned farm buildings in Tuscany: I now understand that until relatively recently there was a feudal system in place, where farmers did not actually own their land but instead worked it for the landowner in exchange for half of their production. "War in Val D'Orcia" exposed me to aspects of Italian culture that I had never even really thought about before. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history and culture of Italy and Tuscany in particular.
   
   This is the first book by or about Iris Origo that I have read but it won't be the last.



4. "Greater than the sum of its parts" accurately describes this remarkable diary set in Southern Tuscany during World War II.
   
   Written as a daily record during the tumult of war,Origo does not dwell on emotional reactions to the horror around them. What comes through is the generosity, compassion, and nobility of Spirit that we all are capable of during wretched times.

   This diary has had a greater impact on me since after reading it.A book which had lingered with me and one in which I may never forget,I haved been moved to visit La Foce and the region in which this book takes place this Fall.
   Highly Recommended.




5. The enthralling story of life on the Origo's estate "La Foce" (just South of Montepulciano in South Tuscany and on the main route of the advancing Allied 8th Army) during the years 1943 and 1944. The contadini farmers and workers on the estate, living in conditions closer to the Middle Ages than the mid Twentieth Century, had no interest in or involvement with the forces of war but equally had no option but to suffer its consequences. They, led by Iris Origo and her Marchese husband, juggled simultaneously playing host to refugee Italian children, escaping British airmen and prisoners of war, partisan fighters, and a German officers' mess, not to mention day to day dealings with facist officialdom. All this in the knowledge that the penalty for a "mistake" was summary execution. An easily readable "must read" not just for those who love Italy and a good story, but for anyone who would like to reaffirm their faith in humanity in the context of a greater understanding of the reality of occupation and war.

5 comments about Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia.

1. As the author Carmen relates, life in Saudi Arabia is not good. In fact, it is almost as if the men marry the women and then have them as pets for the rest of their life. A man can divorce a woman very easily. A man can marry other women if he pleases. In this male dominated society, women turn to religion for their salvation. If they don't, they face a difficult life living among their peers. Carmen Bin Laden relates the story of her nine year marriage to one of Osmana's brothers. Her husband was more liberal in his thinking than other Saudi males. However, as he gets older, he reverts to his old beliefs and there is a split in her family. Bin Laden eventually frees herself of him and raises her three daughters in Switzerland.
   
   There are several great books about the life of Arab women in Saudi Arabia and other countries. Bin Laden's is of interest because this is the richest family in Saudi Arabia with many males raised and educated in the West. Even with that, this family still treats its women with low regard. An interesting tale.



2. I read this with interest and, while not exactly perfectly written, it wasn't real bad, and I hold that to the professional editors anyway, especially when written by a foreigner, even one partially educated in the US. Some may argue that it was a ploy to earn money, again: so what? Her husband totally deserted his children and she was left with three to raise on her own. The thing I take most from this sad story is her concern more for the welfare of her children and with what poor future was in store for them if she remained in a hostile environment. I still wonder if her being so outspoken about Saudi Arabia is that great for her and her children's welfare. The only thing I can say concerning how bad the countries in general are, especially against the western world, is that extremist/ elitists are no better just because they have a different name, be it Christian or any other organized man-made religion. With the history of the United States concerning what they did to the Natives that lived here, slavery, televangilism, and a few other things we politely don't think or talk about, it makes me shudder every time I hear someone speak about how this "nation" was founded on Christian principles. Brother, if that is Christianity, I do not care to have anything to do with that!



3. Incredible! A women's first hand account of the life in the Saudi Kingdom. Sometimes here in the West we just seem so far removed from these issues portrayed in this book and need to realize our culture could change just as rapidly. [9/11 our example]
   
   My personal stance has always been as a Christian believer, LORD never send me to Saudi Arabia. I still hold firm to this and also have a heart for the women of Saudi Arabia, that have not experienced 'Freedom' as we know it today in the West.
   
   Thank you Carmen for taking us on a journey to the uttermost parts of the earth and giving us a birds eye view of this ancient, closed, religious culture. Your bravery in writing your memoirs are exceptional.



4. I was drawn to Carmen Bin Laden's memoir, Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia when I was doing research about the country of Saudi Arabia. I was pleased to find a fascinating story of a woman trying to protect her children from the fall-out after the tragic events of September 11, 2001 and raise them to be educated free-thinkers instead of grooming them to become chattel in a severe culture.
   
   Young and deeply in love, this half-Swiss and half-Persian girl married into the vast Bin Laden family. With her European upbringing, she was not prepared for her several years of married life in the male-dominated Muslim world, where "women are no more than house pets." The harsh treatment of Saudi women seems almost criminal, and Carmen doesn't hide the fact that money, status, and location all play an important role in determining how a woman is treated treated. In Saudi Arabia, sequestered Muslim wives are oppressed and treated like second class citizens. It's not only the men who expect women to stay "under wraps," uneducated, and out of the public eye; the older Saudi women often force young women to adopt codes of behavior that turn them into pieces of property. Money, on the other hand, can buy a woman a temporary reprieve, a trip to Europe and America, where an almost unfettered life can be led, but when she returns behind the veil, life becomes frightening.
   
   Not wanting her three young children to be subjected to this upbringing, Carmen fights her way out of a painful marriage and makes a life for her family in Europe and America. Just when things seem to be leveling out, the horror of 9/11 occurs and Carmen has to fight the stigma attached to her married name of Bin Laden.
   
   This painful memoir will be quick to read and difficult to put down, but you may find yourself returning to read again about life Inside the Kingdom.
   
   by Rhonda Esakov
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



5. In this book, Osama Bin Laden's sister-in-law Carmen Bin Laden gets a final word in edgewise, and it is quite a word indeed. It exposes what she describes as the crude opulence, emotionally shallow, debauched, harsh and often ignorance, overly rich Saudi royal family. According to her description, the desert kingdom drips in waste, gaudiness, opaqueness, mean-spiritedness, internecine snipping and betrayal, and is grounded in utter and base religious hypocrisy. In short, Saudi Arabia, like the Taliban, is a cult-like religiously based state -- only richer.
   
   The book is about the author's plight to save her three daughters from a life of a slow "death by religious constriction." She succeeds in painting a graphic picture of a society that values appearances over its own pious beliefs, one still rooted in the nomadic desert tribal mentalities and still driven by primordial desert tribal fears.
   
   As one would expect, there is very little here about Osama that we did not already know: For instance, that he is a very tall, not particularly intelligent, but very pious, a very wealthy religious warrior and the "nth" son of one of the richest and most powerful construction company magnates in Saudi Arabia. During the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, the U.S supported him and his cause, and a large majority of Saudis still support his extremist views. Even in the post-911 world, he remains an iconic, a very much revered and protected religious hero in a nation where being a successful religious warrior amounts to a lot.
   
   The book shows that Osama Bin Laden and those like him do not spring, fully formed, from the desert sand. But that they are carefully nurtured by the workings of an opaque and intolerant medieval society, that, until this day remains very much closed to the outside world.
   
   In its essential outline it is not unlike Harsi Ali's "The Caged Virgin," for it too is as much an exposé on how religion becomes a self-enforcing form of mental enslavement on women, even as it is used as the foundation for a decadent, oppressive and a rigidly inhuman social order. Saudi women never become legal adults in Saudi society. They have few meaningful legal rights. The Bin Laden women were kept shut in their homes like pets kept by their husbands. The certainty of their inferiority and subservient status is bred into their bones as it is done to blacks in America.
   
   The intelligence and energy of women in Saudi Arabia can only be expressed through religion. They live only through, and for, their faith, which as it turns out is also the primary instrument of their oppression. Yet, most lack the courage or the will to resist the oppressive social order religion imposes upon them. The result is that their personalities are completely annihilated. They become dependent for their survival on their ability to manipulate their husbands. A disobedient woman dishonors her family and can be killed legally. Yet, because Islam is their way of life, these women do not chafe at the restrictions they live under: They embrace them. It is a willing form of self-enslavement. While there is little new here, it does come with a personal touch and much passion. Four stars
   
   Four Stars

5 comments about Switching Time: A Doctor's Harrowing Story of Treating a Woman with 17 Personalities.

1. I'm both a survivor of long-term childhood abuse healed from most of the devastation caused by what is now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). And I am a psychotherapist trained to work with trauma survivors to include DID. Although any survivor with DID will tell you it is not a disorder but a blessing. No child could survive remembering such abuse. Survivors with DID are typically victims of early childhood incest.
   
   As cited at the website for The National Center for Victims of Crime, father-daughter and stepfather-daughter incest is most commonly reported, with most of the remaining reports consisting of mother/stepmother-daughter/son incest. Prevalence of parental child sexual abuse is difficult to assess due to secrecy and privacy; some estimates show 20 million Americans have been victimized by parent incest as children. (Jeffrey Turner, 1996).
   
   Let's just look at that figure of 20 million. The underestimated statistic typically used for DID is 1 in 100. Let's just say half of those with known incestuous families were under age six when abuse began. That leaves 1 in 100 out of 10 million people. That's 100,000 who likely have dissociated memories for childhood abuse, which usually do not surface until later in adulthood.
   
   Numbers of alters has no relevance. The fact that the subject of the book had 17 personalities is not extraordinary or sensational. In fact he has done a great disservice to those who are psychotherapists working with those embarking on the grueling healing journey for DID. I became a psychotherapist at the end of my healing journey to guide others through that traumatic maze. It has never been "harrowing" for me to help another as a therapist. It should not have been "harrowing" for this author had he been correctly trained. It would have been harrowing, however, for his client.
   
   There are ample resources for therapists working with dissociation including the ISSTD which can be found online. The ISSTD website includes a directory of members who at, the very least, are interested in learning how to treat DID.
   
   I didn't read this book because I was offended by the title description. For a better read, Stranger in the Mirror is an excellent explanation of dissociation and DID. Although more therapeutic boundaries now exist for treating survivors with DID, the book Sybil remains an excellent account of healing.



2. I find the premise of this book to be both appalling and offensive! Multiple Personality Disorder, known for the past ten years as Disassotiative Identity Disorder, is neither UNCOMMON or is it a DISEASE. Children, innately equipped with a beautiful and highly developed ability to disassociate from traumatic events are able to "create" a "personality" or "alter" to experience and remember the trauma so that the child can survive the overwhelming sensations and impulses connected to the trauma. This coping mechanism is essential since the child has not yet developed an ability to understand or to, in a meaningful, retrievable manner store in the memory the details of trauma. Scientifically, the experience of the event(s) are compartmentalized into a group of synaptic connections in the brain that hold the data in a form that can be later retrieved when the individual is more able and is in a safer environment to process the data. These synaptic connections are usually separated from the numerous, interconnected synapses of the brain that allow the individual to function, grow, develop, and ultimately, to survive the trauma in a manner that protects the individual from being overcome by the overwhelming experience(s). Much more can be said in explanation of this wonderful ability, but that is the basic function of "personalities" or "compartmentalized synaptic connections" in the brain holding specific data related to a traumatic event. Disassociation only becomes a disorder when no longer needed to survive trauma, yet continues to be an individual's pervasive coping mechanism of life's challenges, by default. All people disassociate on one level or other on the vast continuum of disassociative behaviors, and even "disruptive" use of this ability as a coping mechanism to continue to protect an individual from the overwhelming trauma experienced in life is, in no way, "uncommon". Since the data contained within these compartmentalized synaptic connections is frequently stored as a "repressed memory", many people "function" in daily life without presuming to acknowledge or pursue a greater personal understanding of common daily experiences resulting from repressed memories of this type. Most people have become indoctrinated into the belief that one would rather live a pseudo-life with pain one can comprehend, than truly engage in real-life pain that is immensely difficult if not impossible to understand, and certainly not able to be controlled or managed in a manner that allows the individual to continue functioning as a "contributing member of society". Most people have bought the convenient yet deadly belief that, while secretly and frequently forcefully, yet subconsciously, withholding from oneself any content of the internal pain of life's many-layered abuses and traumatic events, bearing the daily burden of engaging with, welcoming, and processing internal turmoil and tremendous pain is only for the "less-fortunate, very rare" people of society who have a "harrowing life-story of abuse and trauma", and subsequently "suffer from a disease" that not even psychotherapists can fathom, let alone are trained to supportively assist in any hope of "recovery" of any ability to return to the factory of life and produce the way every other member of society is unspokenly expected to do in order to earn the label of a "productive" and thus "valuable", "acceptable", "problem-free" member of society. Most people, under such a spell, submit to a pseudo-life that allows the individual to produce all that is demanded by today's society by abandoning the internal, only to live within the confines and to portray a false external that convinces those surrounding the individual, if not the individual himself/herself, of such a pseudo-reality of "all is well". THIS condition meets the criteria of a "disease". A society that continues to sensationalize pain and horror, marketing it and selling it as a "rare" phenomena that results in a "life-consuming-disease" few, if any, "specialists" are able to comprehend or are able from which to "rescue" the person, in an effort to sacrificially and nobly return them to the doorsteps of such a society, is a society suffering from the greatest disease of all--the acceptance of the tyrannical propaganda defining "life" as "obtaining", or rather convincing oneself and those surrounding oneself that one has obtained, or is "adequately" enslaving oneself to the unending process of attempting to obtain, an "acceptable level" of "external success" as determined by the demands of a self-serving system devoid of any true, authentic understanding of, or legitimate commitment to unadulterated, honest, pain-embracing, LIFE for the sake of learning to KNOW oneself and one another, TO BE KNOWN by oneself and one another, and to TRUTHFULLY LOVE and BE LOVED.



3. Amazing read. Really enjoyed the book. The look into the interworkings of the psyche was facinating. The way the brain can change its chemistry to a adapt to God aweful situations is prevelant in this book. The writing is not too clinical but it doesn't dumb down anything either. Highly recommended.



4. This is an amazing story of a woman overcoming terrible events in her childhood. It is terribly sad and difficult to believe, but it's out there. Bad stuff doesn't just happen on tv and the movies. This is real life about an amazing woman. Read more about this amazing woman and this incredible book at http://switchingtime.wordpress.com/.



5. I borrowed this book from the library. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. It was the saddest story I've ever read. Karen's parents were crazy and ignorant. They choose her for abuse because of her childhood deformity and bad health. I think this proves that anyone can have children it takes special people to raise them in a health environment so that they will be healthy. I was so glad when her father died. I was happy for all the deaths of the crazy people in her life. I was fascinated by the descriptions of the intergrations. I could picture them as I read them. A very good read. It will be added to my personal collection. I'm pleased to see that the paperback copy has been published. Either edition of this book should be read and studied by every one who takes care of children. All teachers, coaches, and day care workers should be required to read this book so they know what to look for in the extreme abuse cases. It also helps to reenforce that not all child in a family will be abused. It's usually the weakest child who will be destined for abuse.

5 comments about The Pope's Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere.

1. 
   This is the second book I've read by this author. I hope Caroline Murphy keeps researching Renaissance women and writing books.
   
   In both this book and Murder of a Medici Princess the author assembles a lot of information and presents it in a way the lay reader can really enjoy. Chapters in both books are chronological which helps the lay reader understand the complexity of the historical setting. Some chapters describe the episodes of the subjects' lives, in others there are lifestyle descriptions. The famous persons of the time are covered as they relate to the principle, and not used as a crutch to fill in a story.
   
   While the books are chronological, my reading of them wasn't. Felice della Rovere is the grandmother to the spouse of Isabella de Medici, the subject of the newer book.
   
   Both books appear to be the only full length biographies that exist for these women, which, beyond rescuing these women from obscurity, makes this an achievement for the author. Both of Murphy's subjects were important women of their times. While they led lives that transcended contemporary gender roles, their stories, as presented by Murphy, help the modern reader to better understand the social structure of Renaissance Italy.
   
   If you, like me, know little about this period, the Murphy biographies give you the context to understand the times through the people. Being the only full bios on these women, there is also plenty for those who are more knowledgeable about this period.



2. An interesting book,detailing events in Rome c.1500. Easy to read and well told,I would recommend it if you like history.Is cheap for such a scolarly work. Not prejudiced and fairly told.No complaints except I got confused sometimes by "who"the person that was mentioned. That's my fault,maybe,but a caracter guide would have been welcome.I would like to read more of this type of history book,the period is so interesting. Padraic O Cinneide. Kildare,Ireland



3. Tightly written with loads of details that goes a long way in explaining how she developed and became successful. I now have a better understanding of the 'Medevial Rome" area that I visited.



4. For the reader familiar with early sixteenth-century Rome, Caroline Murphy's book is a carefully compiled compendium of images and priceless facts, albeit some treading on familiar ground, for example the horrific Sack of Rome or the sexual anarchy in the Vatican during the reign of the infamous Borgia pope. Yet, there is so much new material on a fascinating woman, that even general readers interested in history should be mesmerized by it. The lives of numerous old baronial families form a foundation for the story of the Della Rovere and Orsini clans, of the militant Pope Julius, Felice's father, and the lords of Bracciano, the stronghold of the Orsini's. Minute details of everyday life in Rome enclose the broader picture of a papal daughter who governed her family with a suprisingly strong hand, long after her papal father died. Images of lavish feasts, rebuilding of St. Peter's, and perpetual enminity between the ruling clans are just minute details of an elaborate and very enjoyable reading. Although a page-turner, be prepared to move slowly, because the thousands of facts will demand time to savor them! Definitely not a quick read for most. Highly recommended.



5. Caroline Murphy has sketched an extraordinary life. Felice della Rovere's worlds -- personal and political -- were complicated ones, and she seems to have been amazing in how she negotiated them. I say "seems" because it's very often difficult to tell whether the author is basing a statement on solid evidence or whether she is taking a leap -- about an action, about a motivation, about an emotion -- a sort of best guess based on the evidence. That's often frustrating and often downright irritating, but all in all it's worth it to see the shape, if not the real substance, of the life.

5 comments about The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less.

1. This book is a real-life account of growing up in a large family with limited financial means and often rocky family dynamics. The matriarch of this clan is the prizewinner of the title. While raising 10 kids and keeping the wolf from the door, she hits upon a way to generate income by entering any/every contest that comes along. She frequently does win, of course, very often in the nick of time. The book was written by a daughter, who ably recounts the challenges and rewards of growing up in a family that lives so close to the edge. Her mother is a gritty, funny, honest-to-god domestic goddess. She is a prize-winner in so many ways--it makes this book uplifting without being sappy--good read.



2. I saw the movie based on the book first. Once I found out it was a book, I had to read it. I couldn't put it down.



3. I thought this was a wonderful book that came to my attention only after the author had died. The story revolves around a family of 10 kids, an alcoholic father and how the mother (sporadically) supports them by winning contests and jingles she (Evelyn) has written.
   
   While the story wouldn't hold up in this century - I thought it was a great slice of life of the 50's. Evelyn's journals and contest entrys are well preserved and entertaining to read. She must have kept everything!
   
   Underneath all the entrys and journals is a smart woman. She knows the power of the written word and also hooks up with a group a ladies that also enter such contests. These women are smart as whips - yet somewhat stymied by their roles in life - housewives. Contesting offers them a way to challenge their wits and writing.
   
   The father is a somewhat disappointing character - but somehow he even redeems himself, but you have to read the book to find out how!



4. I first heard of this book on the Today Show. Then I happened to run across the movie on HBO. It is a good quick read.



5. I typically enjoy fiction, but the title of this book caught my attention. And soon after starting the book, Evelyn Ryan became one of my heroes! I won't offer any spoilers, but the book generated within me, and many others who have read it, genuine feelings for Evelyn, including respect, compassion, sympathy, and encouragement. If the measure of a good story is the ability to arouse that many emotions, then this is a really good story!

5 comments about The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman.

1. Fascinating!!
   
   I only wish more photos, diagrams and website links and/or information (on those specific archeological discoveries and digs) would have been provided, so that we could have researched it a bit more, and tracked any furhter progress.
   
   The listings of the incredible array of artifacts found in these archeoligical digs would have also benefited by some drawings and photos.
   
   That being said, this is a wonderful book that brings the action to life -- I can almost see the ship rise and fall with the waves. The natives (skraalings) and the landscape of the new world is rendered in vivid word pictures. The descriptions of the Viking farms in Greenland and the hazardous trips sometimes needed to be made to reach those farms, gives me a sense of the tremendous resiliency and resourcefulness of those heroic people way back then.
   
   Exceptional -- but would definitely benefit from photos, diagrams, links, -- even a rendering of what Gudrid may have looked like.



2. This is an extraordinary acheivement. The author follows the character of Gudrid throughout her journeys through in Viking world of the late 900s and early 1000s and, along the way, paints a vivid picture of life at that time. The writing is engaging and apparently effortless, but the research that supports it is massive, as described in 35 pages of footnotes and references at the end of the book. The author's passion is clear throughout, and further evidenced by her having worked as a volunteer archaeologist one summer in Iceland to excavate Gudrid's home. This is essential reading for anyone interested in the Vikings.



3. This book enlightens a period of history not well known to date. It is very interesting reading, especially for anyone with Scandinavian roots. The research the lies behing this work is remarkable. I highly recommend this book.



4. Brown gives us a lot of interesting information about Gudrun's life and times in "The Far Traveller." But what is even more interesting is her description of being on archaeological digs in Iceland, describing what archaeologists have to do to torture more information out of the physical remains of the past. Brown's focus on what archaeology has contributed to our knowledge of the Vikings, as well as archaeology's limitations, make this a more fascinating read than the account of what we think we know about Gudrun could have done.



5. I am just a general reader who happens to enjoy well-written history. I've never read much at all about the Vikings but the NY Times review of THE FAR TRAVELER was enticing and I was not let down by its promise. Nancy Marie Brown has reached back to a place and people obscured by time, doing a decent job of erasing some of the fog and cold desolation that obscure the Dark Ages and Medieval Epoch in Iceland and Greenland. She also succeeds in revealing a lot about contemporary archaeological practice and thought.
   
   Brown turns first to the Sagas, the 10th and 11th century tales of Vikings, for inspiration. Though embroidered, the Sagas, written down some generations later, are regarded as holding historical memories. Brown focuses on one woman who appears in both the Eirik the Red and Greenland Sagas as her guide, Gudrid, who traveled from Iceland to Greenland to Vinland, back to Iceland and remarkably, in later age, on a pilgrimage to Rome. Her son Snorri was very likely the first European child born on North American soil, circa 1005. Her personal story reveals much about religion, economics, gender relations, values, world view and other aspects of her culture. Born late in the 10th century AD, she witnessed the spread of Christianity and the fading of the violent marauding male economy as the domestic textile industry spun by women on the farm began to reposition Iceland in the world trade scene. Brown travels to all of the places Gudrid did, reads scholarship on her topic and participates in archaeological digs and recreation of weaving studios.
   
   The digs at L'Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland, have been reported on before, but Brown brings a fresh fascination to them in the context of Gudrid's life. She provides strong descriptive passages of the places she visits and there is one map in the front of the book. It would have been nice, however, to have had some illustrations. I would also like to have known a little more about Brown's own context and interest in this subject.

5 comments about Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us.

1. You know this is not a subject that I know a whole lot about...though I do profess some interest and curiosity about the reasons why people choose gender reassignment surgery. Mostly I was interested in exploring the why's and if's about gender and the myriad of choices and ways of being that people encounter and deal with or embrace in their lives. I wasn't sure what to expect...and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this book, but I've finished reading it and it's time to write down my thoughts about it. First and foremost, this is a book that doesn't just rehash the same debates one sees nearly everywhere these days about how little Tommy can play with dolls and Sally can play with cars or how Molly can be a doctor and Biff can be a nurse...this goes beyond what's considered politically correct or "allowable" excursions outside the comfort zone of the tribe. In Gender Outlaw Borenstein really tries to examine why we need gender at all and how gender is really determined in today's societies, she looks both backward and forward with regards to this issue in a way that is both informative and entertaining. Gender Outlaw is a strange blend of biography and gender theory written with a theatrical flair. The author is really not looking to redefine gender so much as she is looking to toss it out altogether, in favor of a gender model that is more dynamic and fluid. Now for what I didn't like about the book...well, I do understand that the author is an artist and performer at heart, but I read because I LIKE to read and while I like most of what I read to be entertaining and informative, I DON'T like to have to struggle to read it because the author thought it would be interesting and creative to create columns and make the reader have to read from side to side skipping about on the page. There is a serious lack of continuity in the format of the text that makes it a bear to read. Everything does not have to be performance; everything does not have to be art. Sometimes a book should just be a book. Outside of that, I enjoyed reading Gender Outlaw, I think the author wanted to reach the mainstream and this book is certainly readable and accessible to the general public...now if we could just get them to read it and open their minds to the ideas presented. Borenstein certainly got there with me, as I had no quarrel with the gender I've been assigned, but it certainly gave me lots of food for thought and I'll probably never think of gender the same way again. I give it a 4 stars (3.5 really, but since Amazon doesn't allow ½ stars, I'll settle for 4, round up instead of down).



2. I so wish I had read this book at 30 years of age. I so wish everyone would read this book.
   Kate Bornstein is right. There simply is no gender. Anima, animus.
   Sometimes we do need to have our ideas challenged. I am happy to have had my old ideas changed by this book. It seems to have given me answers for so many vague questions I had in my mind.
   Valuable book for heterosexual ppl and homosexual ppl. Valuable book for ppl.



3. Gender Outlaw is considered a classic and a step forward. And it is, annoyingly.
   
   A lot of her fearless theory, proto-GenderQueer, I believe is totally right on - and certainly harmonizes with my ideal of Permanent Transition. Yet Bornstein, with her conventional SRS, might not the most compelling proponent of smashing the binary chains. Like Trotsky, Bornstein has a populist (often gimmicky) style in which to place her epistemology and, like Trotsky, Bornstein is a tireless self-publicist: Just how many times does the reader need to know she appeared on the Geraldo Show?
   
   Kinda the right book, by the wrong author.



4. This is an amazing, amazing book. It's easy to read, engaging, and the tone is casual but the content is rich and nuanced - both accesible and intelligent. If you only read three books in your life, this should be one of them. I'm not exaggerating.



5. The format of this book makes it real hard to read and detracts greatly from the content. Your eyes have to dart from one side of a page to the other and back again then to the middle. The content is important but on the edge of the spectrum which makes it even more difficult to read at times with the far fetched concepts. I'm not a big fan of this one.

5 comments about When I Was Puerto Rican.

1. An excellent read. Well written and touching. A must read for all Nuyoricans, both women and men.



2. Oh man. I enjoyed the story of this author, who tried to find a balance between her native home of Puerto Rican and cold, hard NYC. I always find it amazing that this author was able to craft something so beautifully and clearly in another language. That is a challenge I tell you! Her story came across as if her native language was English, she painted lots of pictures with her words! Beautiful. Other than the work of professional editors, her story really shines in this debut. Excellent.



3. I had to read this book for a class in college back when it was still fairly "new". I say "new" because it is the same tired formula of most contemporary Latin American authors.
   I currently, previously and, as far as I can tell, will continue to BE Puerto Rican and the "charms" of this story fail to grab me.
   Reading some of the glowing reviews for this book, I suspect I was never meant to be it's target audience.



4. When I first saw the title I was a little anxious to see why she wasn't Peurto Rican anymore. I really enjoyed this book from start to finish. It was hard for me to put it down and I usually don't say that about many books I have read. Esmeralda Santiago is a brilliant writer and has beat the odds after all she's been through. I mean I'm not going to lie about anything in this review. The book did have it's boring moments, but the action pick back up again after you thought everything was back to normal. I truly enjoyed this book.



5. i had to read this for a college class (urban development). this book really gives you the opportunity to reflect on how hard it is to get by in other cultures. the author of this book overcomes a lot of hardship and eventually obtains her phd in the u.s. it is powerful. i wouldnt have read it unless it was for class though. thats minus 1 star

5 comments about Fifty Acres and a Poodle: A Story of Love, Livestock, and Finding Myself on a Farm.

1. This was an extraordinary book. Not only was it beautifully written, but the story it told was both magical and humble, entertaining and realistic. It is the story of a pair of city-dwellers moving onto a farm in rural Pennsylvania, where they are forced to deal with strange neighbors; sexism so ingrained in the social interaction that it begins to affect their educated, enlightened, liberated selves; the realization that their beautiful foliated land is in fact overrun with the strongest weed since El Seed, the mad dandelion king on The Tick (I made a Tick reference! Spooooon!); the tragedy of cancer; and the wonder of a happy marriage, complete with a fairy tale wedding that features the gift of a flower-strewn horse-and-mule team in lavender halters.
   
   But it begins as books about real people should: with doubt. Jeanne Marie Laskas is a columnist and freelance writer who lived in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Pittsburgh; she has what sounds like a beautiful home and wonderful neighbors, a carefully-tended garden and two wonderful pets, a beautiful big-eyed dog named Betty and a tall, orange, prodigiously-tailed cat, named Bob, who has been her constant companion for ten years -- she says they are a unit, she and Bob. She is self-sufficient, capable and satisfied with things the way they are: she is in a happy long-term relationship with a psychologist named Alex (Who owns the poodle mentioned in the title -- a standard poodle, not one of those yappy things.), she has a close group of friends with whom she can chat and have dinner and go to see movies, and she knows her neighbors and her neighborhood. In other words, she is home.
   
   But somehow, it is not enough. Laskas manages to capture the feeling of wanderlust without actually coming out and saying it or saying exactly why she has it or what she is looking for -- which is how it should be described, since wanderlust is never that specific or that easily diagnosed -- but it is enough to know that she isn't happy, not completely. She has a farm dream, as she puts it. There is a part of her that wants to get away from the annoyances of city life, that wants the wide open expanses she remembers from her childhood, that wants the solitude, and the ability to thrive in isolation, that she has read about in Thoreau. So she and Alex occasionally drive out to the countryside and look at farms that are for sale -- never, she says, with the intention of buying. Just to look. But then the inevitable happens: they find the perfect farm, fifty acres on rolling green hills, in true farm country yet only an hour away from Pittsburgh and their offices. So they buy it. Despite doubts, despite misgivings, despite not being totally sure why they are buying it when Laskas loves her home and her life in Pittsburgh; it is their dream, and they do it.
   
   And things work out, over the course of the book. They work out because their neighbors are helpful and friendly -- though not universally so; they find what could only be called a truce with their sheep-farming neighbor who has been known to shoot dogs that get after his flock -- and because the author and her sweetie truly love each other. That has to be the final message of this book: that dreams are difficult, and frightening, and can come on you without warning and without ever being fully realized and analyzed in your head beforehand, but they can be achieved. Despite a never-ending stream of obstacles such as hunters on your property (and you an animal-lover!) and a spring that never seems to come, leaving your beautiful green hills reduced to mere mud-brown, your dreams can be achieved with the help of those who love you, and those who may not know you, but are still willing to lend a hand. It's a fabulous and inspiring story, and I'm very glad I read it.
   
   I still don't want a poodle. But I do want a mule. And my dreams to come true.



2. Hi. I liked this story. The writer did a great job of telling it. One problem. The main character repeatedly uses the word "Jeezus" as a cuss word. Like if it's spelled diffently God won't know. It ruined the whole book for me.



3. I heard about this book some time ago and finally ordered it. Once I began reading it, I just couldn't put it down. It was laugh-out-loud funny. I so enjoyed acoompanying the author as she lived her fantasy life on a farm. Don't we all wish we could run way to another life? Her description of her experiences were hilarious. I have recommended this book to many of my friends and intend to give copies of it as gifts. I especially loved her reference to the poodle as a "standard dog, not one of those little yappy things." Very funny!



4. I love this book and this author, I bought her second book and enjoyed it as well.



5. Fifty Acres & A Poodle is about the author Jeanne Marie Laskas' dreams of farm living. She wants to get away from the urban way of life and move to a place with beauty and fresh air. She feels there is something missing from her life. She takes a drive one day and spots her dream place. She goes through doubts and fears but finally decides to go for her dream.
   
   She and her boyfriend Alex move into the farmhouse, fix it up, get engaged and later married. They end up with a horse and a mule too! Not to mention they end up with some great friends.
   
   More than the basic story, I found this about the author's search for God, her true self and a live filled with love. She wanted to love and be loved. Those were the very things she felt were missing in her life and she found them at her farm. I found myself identifing with Ms. Laskas through much of the book.
   
   If you like memoir-type stories that are comical, honest, soul searching and about animals this book will not disappoint you. Invest in the hardcover as it's one book you probably will not want to part with after reading it.