Amazon.com
Thomas Wolfe's trusted axiom about not being able to go home again gets a compelling spin through the African veldt in Alexandra Fuller's Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier. Fuller (Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight : An African Childhood) journeys through modern Zambia, to battlefields in Zimbabwe and Mozambique with the scarred veteran of the Rhodesian Wars she identifies only as "K." Intrigued by the mysterious neighbor of her parent's Zambian fish farm and further enticed by her father's warning that "curiosity scribbled the cat" ("scribbling" is Afrikaans slang for "killing"), Fuller embarks on a journey that covers as much cratered psychic landscape as it does African bush country. Though she and "K" are both African by family roots rather than blood, she quickly discovers that 30 years of civil war have scarred them--and the indigenous peoples they encounter--in markedly different ways. "K" is a figure of monumental tragedy, a decent man torn by war-fueled rage, a failed marriage, and painful memories of an only son lost to tropical disease. His adopted Christianity offers him only partial absolution, and Fuller details his gut-wrenching confessions of quarter-century old atrocities with compassion and rare insight. Her prose liberally salted with a rich, melange of Afrikaans and local Shona slang, Fuller nonetheless struggles with a narrative whose turns are often unexpected, yet driven by humanity. There's a clear sense that the author's fitful journey into the past with "K" has opened as many wounds as it has healed, and spawned more questions than it has answered. It's that discomfort and frustration that often reinforces the honesty of her prose--and reinforces Thomas Wolfe's adage yet again. --Jerry McCulley
Book Description
Best-selling memoirist Alexandra Fuller travels with a strangely charismatic Rhodesian war veteran into a modern-day heart of darkness.
When Alexandra ("Bo") Fuller was home in Zambia a few years ago, visiting her parents for Christmas, she asked her father about a nearby banana farmer who was known for being a "tough bugger." Her father's response was a warning to steer clear of him; he told Bo: "Curiosity scribbled the cat." Nonetheless, Fuller began her strange friendship with the man she calls K, a white African and veteran of the Rhodesian war. With the same fiercely beautiful prose that won her acclaim for Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Fuller here recounts her friendship with K.
K is, seemingly, a man of contradictions: tattooed, battle scarred, and weathered by farm work, he is a lion of a man, feral and bulletproof. Yet he is also a born-again Christian, given to weeping when he recollects his failed romantic life, and more than anything else welling up inside with memories of battle. For his war, like all wars, was a brutal one, marked by racial strife, jungle battles, unimaginable tortures, and the murdering of innocent civilians-and K, like all the veterans of the war, has blood on his hands.
Driven by K's memories, Fuller and K decide to enter the heart of darkness in the most literal way-by traveling from Zambia through Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) and Mozambique to visit the scenes of the war and to meet other veterans. It is a strange journey into the past, one marked at once by somber reflections and odd humor and featuring characters such as Mapenga, a fellow veteran who lives with his pet lion on a little island in the middle of a lake and is known to cope with his personal demons by refusing to speak for days on end. What results from Fuller's journey is a remarkably unbiased and unsentimental glimpse of men who have killed, mutilated, tortured, and scrambled to survive during wartime and who now must attempt to live with their past and live past their sins. In these men, too, we get a glimpse of life in Africa, a land that besets its creatures with pests, plagues, and natural disasters, making the people there at once more hardened and more vulnerable than elsewhere.
Scribbling the Cat is an engrossing and haunting look at war, Africa, and the lines of sanity.
Customer Reviews:
A Twist on the Truth.......2007-10-02
A well written and fairly well researched book... and an immense disappointment. A married woman, happily undertaking an "adventure" in landmine-ridden Mozambique with a man who is clearly in love with her. Sadly this, together with the fact that yet another unmarried man also falls for her charms, completely detracts from the story. Furthermore, I am a displaced Zimbabwea, and my father and husband both fought on the wrong side of that war. Their memories of that time are somewhat different to Ms Fuller's, and it's very doubtful that a man as tragic and scarred by his internal demons as K would open his heart to this relatively unknown woman. Having read Peter Godwin's excellent "Mukiwa" and "When the Crocodile Eats the Sun" I can honestly say this book falls a distant way behind those two.
Lets Not Go to the Dogs Tonight.......2006-12-28
This is one of the must amuzing and informative books I have read about Africa and being African. I started to read it one night for an hour before sleep and didn't put it down untill well after dawn. Fuller brings to life a vibrant late twentieth centure Africa. Lets Not Go to the Dogs Tonight blossoms in both style and content. It is brilliant.
Disingeneous writing.......2006-12-11
"Scribbling the Cat" feels like an excuse that a bored married woman gave her husband to go have an adventure. Never before have I been so acutely aware of (or speculated on) a writer's ulterior motives in the telling of her story.
It felt as if she was censoring her writing. Was this to protect husband/children? Was this because she was being dishonest with herself? Whatever the reason, I felt as though she was being dishonest with me, the reader.
The story of 'K' is laid bare across the pages of her book in, at times, painful reading. Fuller claims that she undertook this journey with 'K' to confront her own Rhodesian past and tell 'K's story. Yet, at the end, I know as little about Fuller as I did in the beginning. She reveals nothing of herself -- other than the occasional "thin" explanation that to me felt more like rationalization than anything else.
I find the work fundamentally disingenuous, although Fuller is undoubtedly a skillful word smith and creates a compelling narrative.
Not my thing.......2006-11-29
There is a certain subgenre of literature about the Third World that insists on reminding the reader of the heat, bugs, filth, poverty, and misery on every page, turning the problems of the developing world into a sort of fetish. Scribbling the Cat epitomizes the style. In this book full of vivid images, very little actually happens; the protagonist, "K", is a crazed, violent pseudomystical freak on page ten and a crazed, violent pseudomystical freak on page 250. Two stars not one due to Fuller's strong, vivid prose.
Brilliant, who cares if the details are not 100% accurate.......2005-10-29
The way Alexandra Fuller describes the people, the attitudes and the land is brilliant. Anyone really involved in the South African conflicts would recognise parts of themselves, or their friends in the different characters that are described in the book. This book is an accurate description of Southern Africa and its people who have been affected by 40 years of tribal conflict and faithfully portrays the complicated relationship between black and white.
Product Description
Best-selling author Alexandra Fullers memoir, Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight was the BookSense Best Nonfiction Book of the Year and a New York Times Notable Book. Scribbling the Cat chronicles Fullers journey through Africas war-torn history with a battle-scarred veteran of the Rhodesian war. What emerges is a gripping portrait of men who struggle every day with the sins they cannot forget.
Average customer rating:
- Rather boring!
- how the Green Berets got to Vietnam
|
Green Berets in the Vanguard: Inside Special Forces, 1953-1963
Chalmers Archer
Manufacturer: US Naval Institute Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 African-American & Black
| Ethnic & National
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Naval
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Weapons & Warfare
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
| Biological & Chemical
| Control
| Conventional
| Nuclear
General
| Ships
| Transportation
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Military Science
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Vietnam
| Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
African-American Studies
| Special Groups
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1557500231 |
Book Description
The author of an award-winning memoir about growing up black in Mississippi, Chalmers Archer turns his attention in this book to his experiences as one of the first members of the U.S. Army's Special Forces. His perspective is unique, not only as one of the first to wear the Green Beret but as a black man in the early days of armed forces integration. Archer participated in some of the earliest forays into Laos, long before Southeast Asia was in American headlines, and he was a member of the first U.S. unit to go into Vietnam. He trained the first Special Forces teams of the South Vietnamese army and participated in some of their earliest operations, many of them unknown until now because of their highly classified nature. He saved the lives of the first American and Vietnamese soldiers injured in war and also witnessed the first American combat death in Vietnam, holding the man in his arms as he died. His unit operated alongside the Central Intelligence Agency and helped influence American foreign policy. A self-described soldier-teacher, he developed and spread the early gospel of special warfare while serving in the Philippines, Hawaii, Korea, Taiwan, and Panama, as well as in Southeast Asia. All of these activities are fully chronicled in this book, but Archer's perspective as an African American in an elite unit of the U.S. armed forces in the 1950s gives his memoir additional depth and insight. It is an uplifting-though sometimes harrowing--story of struggle in unfamiliar environments and an eye-opening account of events little known today.
Customer Reviews:
Rather boring!.......2006-06-05
I found a used copy of the book in a bookstore and I am happy that I didn't pay the full price for it. From reading the title I expected something more exciting.
The book starts interestingly but becomes boring after the first half due to constant repetition of details and self-glorification by the author. He also put a lot of advertising for his first work into the book's contents.
It might be interesting for other readers but for me it was rather disappointing.
how the Green Berets got to Vietnam.......2001-05-09
Chalmers Archer must have been a remarkable soldier, for he was a black Green Beret at a time when the U.S. Army Special Forces was almost entirely a lily-white outfit. His book belongs on the shelf of every student of the Green Berets.
It's not a knock-you-dead combat yarn like Jim Morris's "War Story"--Archer didn't really serve what you could call a combat tour in Vietnam. He was there much earlier, knocking about Southeast Asia in the years before there was a Vietnam War (or American War, as the Vietnamese prefer to call it). He was in Laos, Thailand, the Philippines, and of course Vietnam when the Green Berets were first staking out their claim to fame, and when men like Archer created the jungle-training practices that would make Special Forces the most effective American combat arm in South Vietnam.
To me, the most interesting anecdote is the account of the American training mission that was attacked by the Viet Cong as it graduated its first class of Vietnamese Special Forces. Officially, Captain Harry Cramer died of an accidental explosion, and he wasn't even listed on The Wall (the Vietnam war memorial in Washington, D.C.) until 1983. In fact, as Archer recalls, Crame died in a mortar attack, and he was the first American to be killed in that long war--21 October 1957.
This is a slight book--just 138 pages. How it can be priced at more than forty bucks is beyond me, so I'm glad to see that there are cut-rate copies available from the vendors of new-used books on this site.
Book Description
Allows social scientists who are not specialists in quantitative techniques to arrive at clear verbal explanations of their numerical results. Provides a lucid discussion of more specialized subjects: analysis of residuals, interaction effects, specification error, multicollinearity, standardized coefficients, and dummy variables.
Customer Reviews:
A true introduction.......2000-01-18
So many statistics books that claim to be introductions are not. This one really is. It is clear, with just the right amount of detail. Read this book first before reading other books on multiple regression.
Average customer rating:
|
Introduction to Linear Models
George H. (Henry) Dunteman
Manufacturer: Sage Publications, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Research
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Statistics
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Probability & Statistics
| Applied
| Mathematics
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Mathematics
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
| Applied
| Chaos & Systems
| Geometry & Topology
| Mathematical Analysis
| Mathematical Physics
| Number Systems
| Pure Mathematics
| Transformations
| Trigonometry
ASIN: 0803921756 |
Book Description
Dr Dunteman's clear, 'de-mystifying' presentation will be welcomed by advanced undergraduates and graduate students in behavioural and social sciences, as well as by researchers and research administrators in university, government, and applied research settings. Examples and problems throughout the text stress the behavioural and social scientific framework as they link introductory statistics with a more advanced study of linear statistical models. A companion volume,
Introduction to Multivariate Analysis, picks up the theme by extending the models of this book to the case of multiple dependent variables.
Book Description
A comprehensive and thoroughly up-to-date look at regression analysis-still the most widely used technique in statistics today
As basic to statistics as the Pythagorean theorem is to geometry, regression analysis is a statistical technique for investigating and modeling the relationship between variables. With far-reaching applications in almost every field, regression analysis is used in engineering, the physical and chemical sciences, economics, management, life and biological sciences, and the social sciences.
Clearly balancing theory with applications, Introduction to Linear Regression Analysis describes conventional uses of the technique, as well as less common ones, placing linear regression in the practical context of today's mathematical and scientific research. Beginning with a general introduction to regression modeling, including typical applications, the book then outlines a host of technical tools that form the linear regression analytical arsenal, including: basic inference procedures and introductory aspects of model adequacy checking; how transformations and weighted least squares can be used to resolve problems of model inadequacy; how to deal with influential observations; and polynomial regression models and their variations. Succeeding chapters include detailed coverage of:
* Indicator variables, making the connection between regression and analysis-of-variance modelss
* Variable selection and model-building techniques
* The multicollinearity problem, including its sources, harmful effects, diagnostics, and remedial measures
* Robust regression techniques, including M-estimators, Least Median of Squares, and S-estimation
* Generalized linear models
The book also includes material on regression models with autocorrelated errors, bootstrapping regression estimates, classification and regression trees, and regression model validation. Topics not usually found in a linear regression textbook, such as nonlinear regression and generalized linear models, yet critical to engineering students and professionals, have also been included. The new critical role of the computer in regression analysis is reflected in the book's expanded discussion of regression diagnostics, where major analytical procedures now available in contemporary software packages, such as SAS, Minitab, and S-Plus, are detailed. The Appendix now includes ample background material on the theory of linear models underlying regression analysis. Data sets from the book, extensive problem solutions, and software hints are available on the ftp site. For other Wiley books by Doug Montgomery, visit our website at www.wiley.com/college/montgomery.
Customer Reviews:
A good book with industrial applications.......2007-01-09
very useful for industrial applications. There are quite a few printing mistakes and that would be a problem for those reader they are not very strong in statistics.
Frustrated.......2005-01-14
Firstly, I am not stats guru, a mere mortal trying to get through a top-10 MBA program. I picked this book (and the companion text) to extend my knowledge, and it is helping. Tough for the gifted amateur, but interesting and the depth of the analysis truly helps.
Major negative comment : The manual often provides one sentence answers to mathematical questions. For example : "....slight improvement in the model." But this is not helpful. It lacks truly worked answers to the questions; which is essential to help those who are struggling to get to the right level.
This is not a limited observation, it is the trend and considerably more work could be done to explain how answers were derived, as it also helps find out why an answer might not be correct.
As for the up side. All chapter questions are answered and the FTP site provides raw data files. This is greatly appreciated. In balance, the weaknesses are significant.
Excellent introduction to linear regression.......2005-01-12
If you have a desire or need to develop regression models, whether for prediction or classification, this is a great place to start climbing the learning curve. The book covers all the essentials, such as how to fit a model to a set of data, how to evaluate the quality of the fit, and how to detect influential data points. It also does a good job with some of the issues involved in fitting a regression (most notably colinearity, overfitting, outliers, and deviations from normality) and discusses ridge regression, principal components regression, and other so-called "robust" methods for dealing with such issues. Even if you plan to use nonlinear modelling techniques like polynomial regression or feed-forward neural networks, this book is worth reading: many of the same issues that are involved when developing linear regression models arise in the context of nonlinear models. I use multivariate polynomial regression models for pricing options, and cite this book in my own recent work on that subject--"Advanced Option Pricing Models" (McGraw Hill, Feb 2005).
Jeffrey Owen Katz, Ph.D.
Author (with Donna L. McCormick) of "The Encyclopedia of Trading Strategies" (McGraw Hill, 2000).
Book Description
Looking for an easy-to-understand text to guide you through the tough topic of regression modeling? INTRODUCTION TO REGRESSION MODELING (WITH CD-ROM) offers a blend of theory and regression applications and will give you the practice you need to tackle this subject through exercises, case studies. and projects that have you identify a problem of interest and collect data relevant to the problem's solution. The book goes beyond linear regression by covering nonlinear models, regression models with time series errors, and logistic and Poisson regression models.
Book Description
This handbook provides a detailed, down-to-earth introduction to regression diagnostic analysis, a technique of growing importance for work in applied statistics. Heavily illustrated, with numerous examples to illuminate the discussion, this timely volume outlines methods for regression
models, stressing detection of outliers and inadequate models; describes the transformation of variables in an equation, particularly the response; and considers such advanced topics as generalized linear models. A useful guide that combines lucid explanations with up-to-date research
findings.
Average customer rating:
|
Raptor Biomedicine
Patrick T. Redig , and
John E. Cooper
Manufacturer: University of Minnesota Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Biology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Medical
| Reference
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Reference
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Veterinary Medicine
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
Small Animal Medicine
| Veterinary Medicine
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
Conservation
| Environment
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Hunting & Fishing
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
| Fishing
| General & Anthologies
| Hunting
| Shooting
General
| Conservation
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Birdwatching
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Reference
| Medicine
| Medical
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Veterinary Medicine
| Medical
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0816622191 |
Customer Reviews:
Raptors & Medicine.......2000-05-01
The most complete handbook for rehabilitators of diurnal and nocturnal birds of prey. Very good information on all possible aspects of determining and healing all kinds of problems which could occur in this field. Good tables and figures complete this significant work and is a must have for laboratories and rehabilitation centers working with raptors and owls. Also falconers will gain a good impression on the possible diseases and illnesses of their most beloved birds. The only minus could be its presentation being ringbanded and if written by a typewriter but this should be forgotten as the information included is yet the best in its field in addition with previous work of these authors.
Average customer rating:
|
Raptor biomedicine III: Including Bibliography of birds of prey
J.T. Lumeig
Manufacturer: Zoological Education Network
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
General
| Veterinary Medicine
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
Hunting & Fishing
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
| Fishing
| General & Anthologies
| Hunting
| Shooting
ASIN: 096369961X |
Average customer rating:
|
Raptor Biomedicine
Manufacturer: Univ of Minnesota Pr (Txt)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0816622205 |
Books:
- Secrets Of A Gay Marine Porn Star
- Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare
- Son Of The Rough South: An Uncivil Memoir
- Soul on Ice
- Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited
- STOLEN LIVES: MY FAMILY'S TWENTY-YEAR STRUGGLE IN A DESERT JAIL (Oprah's Book Club)
- Sugar in the Raw: Voices of Young Black Girls in America
- Surviving Deployment: A Guide for Military Families
- Tempered Steel: The Three Wars of Triple Air Force Cross Winner Jim Kasler
- Ten Minutes from Normal
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Mariel Hemingway's Healthy Living from the Inside Out: Every Woman's Guide to Real Beauty, Renewed E
- History: Fiction or Science
- Contemporary Visual Merchandising and Environmental Design, Third Edition
- Double Tap
- History: Fiction or Science
- Fishes of the World
- Hitler: 1936-1945: Nemesis
- Venice: A City, A Republic, An Empire
- Here is the Coral Reef
- Spotter's Guide to Trees of North America
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa
Casting with a Fragile Thread: A Story of Sisters and Africa
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa
The Zanzibar Chest: A Story of Life, Love, and Death in Foreign Lands
![Scribbling the Cat, Travels with an African Soldier [UNABRIDGED CD] (Audiobook)](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/11%2B6QqgPWcL.jpg)
