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This sensitive, restrained memoir searches for answers to the most painful of questions: Why would a bright, athletic, seemingly well-adjusted boy like Kathleen Finneran's 15-year-old brother want to take his own life? Sean Finneran's 1971 suicide is the pivotal crisis in The Tender Land, but not the only one. References to a family strain of depressive mental illness sound a warning note; Finneran's maternal grandfather probably killed himself, and her mother is subject to severe bouts of depression that may also have afflicted Sean, whose suicide note reveals a self-hatred that the love of his parents and siblings could not assuage. The author frankly relates her own problems with weight, an inexplicable but irresistible urge to shoplift, and uncertain sexual orientation. But Finneran's precise prose, rich in evocative physical details, convincingly limns an ordinary, generally happy Midwestern family: five children spread over 16 years; a devout, nature- and animal-loving mother; a father who communicated best without words, rooted in "his faith in materials men make of the earth." There are no villains and no answers in this heartbreaking book, which respects the essential mystery of a shattering tragedy and closes with an affirmative message to Sean: "I want to call out your name and tell you, across the tender land, that we have gone on living." --Wendy Smith
Book Description
"The Tender Land" is a love story unlike any other. In her remarkable debut, Kathleen Finneran renders powerfully the emotional, spiritual, and physical terrain of family relationships--their closeness and disconnection, their intimacy and estrangement, and their ultimate resilience. The Finnerans--parents and five children--are a seemingly ordinary family until their lives are forever altered by the death of the author's younger brother. His suicide at fifteen serves as a focal point for Finneran's spare and elegant portrait of her family, its sorrows and its joys. "With subtlety and grace and a heartbraking compassion for the truth" (Book), Finneran pays tribute to the enduring love between parents and children, brothers and sisters.
Customer Reviews:
It will move you........2005-08-18
This book reveals the emotional upheaval that only a suicide survivor can put into words. Ms. Finnerman's story of the suicide death of her brother was unfortunalty a subject I can relate to. It is a well told and sensitive book which shines a light on the topic of losing a sibling in such a tragic manner.
Extremely Moving.......2005-05-18
I recently read The Tender Land and loved it. I admit that I was somewhat hesitant to read it because of the suicide subject matter. But it turns out to be more of a book of how a family copes with sudden death and the grief that follows. I think anyone could relate to this story. Ms. Finneran is a descriptive author that brings the reader into the story to experience it yourself. I will be looking for more of this author's work.
Truly unforgettable.......2003-11-16
This memoir is one that I will never forget - it affected me in the way that The Lovely Bones did - it's left me with a profound feeling of heartbreak and poignancy.
Kathleen Finneran is probably one of the bravest of authors as she lays bare many personal feelings and experiences of her own, along with the family tragedy that the Finnerans lived through when they lost 15-year-old Sean to suicide.
She portrays her family, separately and wholly, as tight-knit, strong, extremely loving, but tragically touched by depression and suicide.
I highly recommend this beautifully written, heartrending, precious memoir. It is one-of-a-kind.
Lovingly Revealing.......2003-11-12
Kathleen Finneran's debut novel, "The Tender Land" is unforgettable in its restraint and quiet beauty. Finneran's words lovingly reveal her family's tragic history and her own painful coming of age. She deals with her 15-year-old brother Sean's suicide by sharing this memoir with others as a love letter to him.
"I realized I needed to write about my brother's death in a way that was more intentional than tangential. I started out in the form I was comfortable with, writing an autographical essay that was submerged in more objective prose, in this case an essay that explored my mother's real belief that my brother was an angel by comparing his qualities to those angels that exist in literature - Thomas Aquinas on angels, Dante Milton," explained Finneran. "The end result was something that seemed very artificial, and I felt my brother deserved better from me. So I just started writing what I wanted to remember about him, free from any form or genre constraints; in doing that, in taking the simplest and mot direct approach, I learned to write about his death, I had to write about his life, and to write about his life, I had to write about my whole family."
Finneran was born in 1957 into an Irish Catholic family. She and her four siblings, an older brother and sister, Michael and Mary, and a younger brother and sister, Sean and Kelly, had a comfortable life in suburban St. Louis. Depression and suicide ran in the family. Kathleen suffered from depression and her sister, Kelly, tried to overdose at age 28.
Finneran's first sexual experience coincided with the night Sean died, making sex and death forever inextricable for her. She slept with a man. "How could I tell Mary what that weekend was for me, making love to a woman the next."
She later found comfort with a woman lover, Ellis, who was her best friend, despite her mother's cautious warning about being "different." "'There's something about Ellis,' Sean had said once. 'When you are with her, you always feel safe.' And it was true. She lived simply, straightforwardly, as if life required nothing more than mastering a series of survival skills. And she had mastered them. I marveled at the shallowness of her breath as she slept, her blond hair falling across her face, her body's no bigger than Sean's. Her arms were stretched out above me as if she were trying to shield me from something, as if I were a child whose body was precious and small and in need of her protection."
Throughout "The Tender Land," I wondered why Sean had committed suicide. Finneran eventually divulged the reason.
"...On the day he died, Florrisant Junior High was winning by a large margin. With little time left on the clock, the coach felt it safe to send in the second string. In those final few minutes, Sean made his first shot of the season..."
"That night at home he didn't mention it. At dinner, he never said a word about the game. After he finished doing the dishes, he went upstairs, made a timid attempt at slitting his wrists, then opted to swallow a fistful of the pills that keep my father's heart beating at a regular rhythm. 'I hate basketball and am no good at it,' he wrote in a letter he left. In the few minutes that he had been sent into play, he had taken the ball down the court the wrong way. The shot he made was to the other team's basket."
I understood Sean's frustration. I was in my freshman year as Sean, and the gymnasium was filled with people yelling, "Shoot it!" I made a basket for the other team. I broke out laughing. My team won the game.
"They (Finneran's parents) don't understand why I would want the world to know some of the things I've written about myself (in "The Tender Land). Well, it's not that I want the world to know things about me that most people would consider private. It's not that at all. In many ways, I would have preferred not to have revealed myself to the extent I felt necessary. But the book revolves around my bother Sean's suicide, and however many reasons or causes can be attributed to someone's suicide, I think, in the end, people kill themselves because they despise themselves deeply, even if for only a moment. They can't continue on in the world being who they are; they can't fathom ever being different from how they are in that moment, and they can't conceive of there being anyone else in the world who is like them," said Finneran.
I sympathized with Finneran throughout the book because my cousin, who is a year older than I, committed suicide two months before I moved to Seattle. I understood how Finneran felt; however, it wasn't my kid brother, who is alive and well and living in Indiana.
Finneran's "The Tender Land" has been written, as a personal essay extended at length yet has remained a quality piece of work.
Tribute to Finneran.......2002-08-16
This is the most gorgeous book I've read in a decade, seriously. I am a writer and I have taught college-level creative writing and literature for the past thirteen years. While researching a reading list for my class in reading and writing the memoir, it was my good fortune, and that of my students, to happen upon Finneran's book. I used the book that semester, and am using it again this fall for the same class. Aside from being a literary gem, the book provides rich opportunities to teach about writing well. It's lovely, poetic, searingly candid, exquisitely scenic. Every single character is painted in full detail, adding up to the portrait of a family who has lost something big.
I highly recommend this book. If this world had half a brain, it would be on the bestseller list.
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Britain's Maritime Memorials & Mementos
David Saunders
Manufacturer: Haynes Pubns
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ASIN: 1852604662 |
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The School That Fell From The Sky
Fred Hargesheimer
Manufacturer: Bookstand Publishing
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Sister Water
ASIN: 1589091167 |
Book Description
This is the story of a Photo Reconnaissance pilot in WWII shot out of the sky over the rain forest of the island of New Britain in the South Pacific. After 30 days alone he was found by friendly natives. Hidden from the nearby Japanese soldiers and later taken to the camp of a team of Australian Commandos who arranged his rescue in a USA submarine. He returned to New Britain in 1963 with his son, Dick, to build a school for the natives who saved his life. Today, over 400 children attend the Airmen's Memorial School.
Book Description
There are few moments in history when the division between the sexes seems as "natural" as during wartime: men go off to the "war front," while women stay behind on the "home front." But the very notion of the home front was an invention of the First World War, when, for the first time, "home" and "domestic" became adjectives that modified the military term "front." Such an innovation acknowledged the significant and presumably new contributions of civilians, especially women, to the war effort.
Yet, as Susan Grayzel argues, throughout the war, traditional notions of masculinity and femininity survived, primarily through the maintenance of—and indeed reemphasis on—soldiering and mothering as the core of gender and national identities. Drawing on sources that range from popular fiction and war memorials to newspapers and legislative debates, Grayzel analyzes the effects of World War I on ideas about civic participation, national service, morality, sexuality, and identity in wartime Britain and France. Despite the appearance of enormous challenges to gender roles due to the upheavals of war, the forces of stability prevailed, she says, demonstrating the Western European gender system's remarkable resilience.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding.......2001-08-01
Never before has such a scholarly yet accessible treatment of this complicated and gripping topic been written. Dr. Grayzel shows a mastery of the subject and attention to detail that draws the reader in from the first page. An academic achievement of the highest order.
Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1849 edition by Richard Bentley, London.
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Memorials of the Civil War: Comprising the Correspondence of the Fairfax Family with the Most Distinguished Personages Engaged in That Memorable Contest. Volume 2
Robert Bell
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
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ASIN: 1421220970
Release Date: 2003-06-03 |
Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1849 edition by Richard Bentley, London. Continuation of
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The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
Richard Winslade
Manufacturer: Sutton Publishing
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0750931515 |
Book Description
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is one of the most important collections of air-worthy historic aircraft in existence. The Flight showcases classic, well-loved aircraft of the Second World War, including an Avro Lancaster, seven Supermarine Spitfires, two Hawker Hurricanes, a Douglas Dakota and two de Havilland Chipmunks. A stunning collection of air-to-air action photographs supplies the most spectacular images in the book, but the author also explores restoration processes and the constant engineering work necessary to keep these aircraft in operational condition.
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Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
Martin Bowman
Manufacturer: Crowood/Airlife Publishing Ltd
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ASIN: 1840372001 |
Book Description
This flying tribute to the memory of those who served and died with the RAF in WWII captures the true spirit of The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and takes you aboard its famous Avro Lancaster so that you can see what it is like to gaze through the bombsight or out along the wing to see Spitfires at your wingtip. Bowman has captured the adventure of wartime flying in some of the most spectacular air-to-air color photography ever published.
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BATTLE OF BRITAIN MEMORIAL FLIGHT: 50 Years of Flying
Jarrod Cotter
Manufacturer: Pen and Sword Books
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ASIN: 1844155668 |
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The history of the Flight began with the formation of the Historic Aircraft Flight in July 1957, it was later to become known as The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. Countless displays and fly-pasts have enthralled audiences and enthusiasts all over Britain and in many parts of Europe, when the traditional Avro Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane can be seen in their wartime colors and the growl of all six Merlin engines stirs many nostalgic memories. This book is written with the wholehearted support of the Flight's Commanding Officer and the author has access to archive material. The book includes a Foreword from the OC BBMF, a complete history of the unit, chapters on each of the types operated, including the DC-3 Dakota and de Havilland Chipmunk and present-day operations. Photos include superb images from the BBMF archives, the author's collection that includes historic black and white shots from the early days, air-to-air color, personalities and behind-the-scenes images. This is the ultimate souvenir of the celebration of the BBMF's 50th Anniversary.
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A CENTURY OF REMEMBRANCE: One Hundred Outstanding British War Memorials
Derek Boorman
Manufacturer: Pen and Sword
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1844153169 |
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A Century of Remembrance is a study of one hundred outstanding United Kingdom war memorials which commemorate 20th century conflicts from the Boer War to the Falklands and Gulf wars. The first described is a Boer War memorial unveiled on 5 November 1904, and the last is the Animals in War memorial unveiled in London on 24 November 2004.
The memorials chosen are listed as near as possible in chronological order and represent different wars, different artists, different areas of the country, and a variety of types of memorial. In category they range from individual to national memorials and include memorials in schools, churches and places of work, and examples representing communities and the armed services. In form they are from statues and stained glass windows to arches, obelisks and cenotaphs, and from cloisters and chapels to art galleries and gardens and even a carillon.
Book Description
After the 1993 Oslo Accords people across the world anticipated the onset of peace and an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For Israelis, the Accords generated massive economic growth and a sense of security. For Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, they led to a dramatic rise in poverty and unemployment due to a complex array of closures, militarized checkpoints, and bypass roads, and a vast expansion of the settlement project that fractured Palestinian territories and communities. In 2000 popular Palestinian rage with the new shape of the Israeli occupation erupted in a second uprising or intifada.
In this volume, prominent scholars and journalists examine the dramatic political changes in Palestine and Israel from the Oslo Accords through the second intifada and the death of Yasser Arafat. Their essays address the political economy of the Oslo process, social and political changes in Palestine and Israel, United States foreign policy, social movements and political activism, and the interplay between cultural and political-economic processes. The volume also includes documents, maps, poetry, and graphic art.
Contributors:
Ammiel Alcalay, Lori A. Allen, Marwan Barghouti, Joel Beinin, Robert Blecher, Elliott Colla, Catherine Cook, Jonathan Cook, Richard Falk, Khaled Furani, Rita Giacaman, Lisa Hajjar, Jeff Halper, Rema Hammami, Sari Hanafi, Adam Hanieh, Islah Jad, Penny Johnson, Rela Mazali, Emma C. Murphy, Issam Nassar, Ilan Pappé, Yoav Peled, Mouin Rabbani, Shira Robinson, Sara Roy, Rosemary Sayigh, Charmaine Seitz, Adam Shatz, Rebecca L. Stein, Gary Sussman, Salim Tamari, David Tartakover, Graham Usher, Sharif Waked, and Oren Yiftachel
Customer Reviews:
Very dishonest book.......2007-04-07
Very dishonest book
This book full of bigotry & lies. Even hard to read it to the end...
Even-handed.......2006-07-10
Reveals without passion how the "no-matter-what" variety of support for Israel causes immense human suffering.
This book should be required reading for anyone who equates disagreement with the genocidal policies of Israel with anti-Semitism.
A good multilayered discussion of the current situation.......2006-05-16
This book is a collection of assays about the current situation in Israel/ Palestine - after the rise of the right wing in both elections, the disengagement and The Wall. I found many of the assays extremely useful: assays dealing with women in Palestine, with the economic meanings of shifting occupation methods, the Matrix of control and ethnic separation in the west bank, citizenship and national minority rights within the state of Israel... As an Israeli activist teaching about the Israeli Palestinian Conflict, I found this book highly useful in my work.
Extreme Fascist Propaganda .......2006-03-04
I had to keep reminding myself that this book is a recent work. And that it was not written in, say, Berlin in 1942. The book is indeed propaganda against human rights. Nowhere in this volume did I see any suggestion that there ought to be a place in the world for human rights for mere Jews. I wonder if the authors would permit human rights for, say, Pagans?
Israel is awfully land-poor. But the Jews decided to settle for the UN partition, which gave them rather little land, preferring that to nothing. Beinin and Stein challenge this, noting that while Jews (who had been to a great extent prevented from moving to the Levant) were only about one-third of the population of the Mandate in 1947, they were granted 55% of the land. And that's why the Arabs rejected the UN proposal! Get real. Would the Arabs have accepted the proposal had they obtained the Negev rather than the Jews? Of course not.
The authors do not like the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. They can't stand it when Jews defend themselves against Arab aggression, implying that self-defence is merely a sly Jewish trick. Golly, one has to wonder what these writers will be saying if the Arabs ever make the mistake of fighting folks other than Jews.
There's also plenty of love for thugs such as Arafat, and for those who took over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. As well as for the thugs of Jenin. Listen to this:
"The events in Jenin refugee camp in April 2002 are another striking example of the international community's readiness to turn a blind eye to Israel's brutal excesses."
It would be hard to write a more dishonest sentence than the one I just quoted. Israel was almost superhuman in its willingness to lose soldiers in order to avoid unnecessary Arab civilian casualties. And it was blamed for such casualties anyway, as the media greatly exaggerated the number of deaths there.
There are boasts that the International Criminal Court does not like the Israeli separation barrier. Well, what is next? Boasts about Germany's anti-Jewish laws of the 1930s? A prayer that international law will give the Ku Klux Klan the right to murder Blacks? And there are comments about the idea that there ought to be a "binational state" in the Levant (presumably one that will get rid of human rights for Jews there). That sounds somewhat reactionary to me. Again, I have to wonder what is next, perhaps a call to reinstitute slavery for Blacks?
This book was written by fellow humans, that's true, and it makes me ashamed to be a human being.
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Birds of Sydney
Ern Hoskin , and
E. S. Hoskin
Manufacturer: Hyperion Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 094932440X |
Product Description
THE BAD GUYS WEAR BLACK GOGGLES ... but they can still sneer down their super caliber gun barrels well enough to make the skies smoke for the clean-cut, courageous loayl good guys in their silvery ships of battle...in these six swooping shorties from the fictional air wars of the thirties. All are flanking forays off the main attack of the fearsom Fire-Eyes whose fierce battles with Dusty Ayers are chronicled in other books of this series. Here, Dusty's buddies take to the air for more bout of breath-takingly campy combat.
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Light Bird's Song
Sydney, Tooman Betts
Manufacturer: AuthorHouse
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1434338037 |
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Well-loved and secure, Light Bird gave little thought to danger; she was the lone daughter in a family of courageous men. She spent her days in pleasant company with her mother and grandmother, aunts and cousins, and her evenings listening to the elders read God's Word. Only one small thing dimmed her happiness: a tall and handsome warrior determined he would have her. Summer after summer he visited their village, and year after year her father turned him away; but in the spring of 1839, he brought her a new threat altogether. Enraged by the murders of his wife and son, a fierce leader of the Raven-Enemy trailed prints carelessly left by their attacker-and followed it straight to Light Bird.
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GRIEF
