Book Description
"The Sparkling-Eyed Boy is so full of color and light and life." -- Brad Land, author of Goat The theme of summer love, in Amy Benson's hands, grows up: The Sparkling-Eyed Boy searches out the fault lines of adult nostalgia and desire. The achingly intense adolescent summer days that Amy Benson and the sparkling-eyed boy spend together on the remote shores of the St. Mary's River of Michigan's Upper Peninsula are at the complex emotional center of The Sparkling-Eyed Boy. For her, summers meant returning from her home in Detroit to a three-month idyll on much-loved family land, owned for generations, and to a heady culture of teasing, testing local boys. For him, this land is the place he was born, where he'll later find work, marry, and stay: and she was the one he had loved. "Can you pinpoint that moment? When you made a choice before you even knew that choosing was possible, or the terrifying nature of choices?" The Sparkling-Eyed Boy, with its heart-stoppingly erotic -- and yet wholly imagined -- scenes of illicit love, its searching riffs on love as possession, love as pain, reads like a friend's deepest secrets, shared. "The Sparkling-Eyed Boy is so full of color and light and life. This is truth of the most profound sort; truth revealed in the artful and lyrical sensibility of Benson's words and memory. She is dancing with us: not leading, but simply asking us to watch her move and take what we will. Benson shows us here what the memoir can and should do destroy and resurrect itself over and over. Benson is doing exactly that." Brad Land, author of Goat "The great pleasure and triumph of this memoir is Amy Benson's ability to make the familiar new again as she explores the country of first love. Over and over I found myself surprised by the unexpected twists and turns, peaks and abysses, of her journey. And also by her lovely, fiercely intelligent prose." Margot Livesey, author of Criminals
Customer Reviews:
My "best of all".......2007-10-12
Someone recently asked me my favorite book of all time, and i said this one!! I know, that may sound "shallow," as in why didnt i choose some classic, something much longer, or a much 'harder read.' This book just moved me, stayed with me, and has the largest amount of wonderful quotes that i refer back to time and time again. I guess i'm a romantic, but i love the style of writing, and i also had a summer home 'at the shore,' and can SO relate. I keep this book to re-read, and have given copies to friends. I think every woman who has loved a man, needs to read it. Treat yourself!!
There are good things here for you.......2004-09-13
It is maybe surprising, considering the comparatively few people that live above the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan, that there have been a bunch of books by younger writers in the last few years about and from Michigan's Upper Peninsula (mostly poetry--see Catie Rosemurgy, Cynie Cory, Jonathan Johnson, and Beth Roberts, for starters). This is--as far as I know--the only recent memoir about the place, and it's more a sort of extended meditation than a memoir proper. Still, it is lovely and engrossing. She's conscious of herself as a tourist (both of the place and of the boy, and of her own memories, even), and this is a tour I think you'll want to take with her. Be aware that it does take some liberties with the form (it's absolutely lyrical and likely nearly poetry at times, as the reviews above allude to--and it's not exactly a memoir of things that happened), but this book is rich and good and well worth your time.
amazing book.......2004-06-28
"The Sparkling-eyed Boy" inhabits the same reserved space in my
personal text-map as Billy Collins' poetry. Or imagine David Eggars
in his more lyrical moments. Benson manages to take plain language
and do wonderfully beautiful things with it. This is from the end,
describing life/personhood/existence:
"That is my problem: I have been looking shard by shard, but stand
back and I will have the whole, fluid mosaic. But I'm afraid there
is no perspective from which we can view every angle of a moment, a
year, a life, or the life of another. And there is no answer if I
have to answer the question myself."
Yikes! This hits exactly right! When I am at a loss for words, the
best I can do is quote from people much more skilled with language.
Benson has given me a lot to say. :-)
This is a 'small' but big book, read it carefully. This is not to
say that it's difficult to read, more that the prose has subtle
but significant power. Maybe my sense of this comes with particular
resonances with my own life -- I also recall midwestern lake summers --
but Benson makes these personal memories relevant in a way that should
intersect with anyone reading her book. It's most worthy of the
Katharine Nason Prize. I'm really looking forward to reading
Benson's future work.
A lyrical and dazzling book.......2004-06-20
This is truly a wonderful book. Each of its sections is a lyrical essay on place, time, the burden of choice and the elusive nature of personal identity. Not a page goes by without a line or two of startling beauty and truth. Also, for someone who has experienced the part of America where lakes are seas and forests stretch north to the Artic Circle, reading "The Sparkling-eyed Boy" was a bittersweet reminder of that dazzling land.
smart, sad, strange.......2004-06-08
This is a beautiful book. It's much different from Ted Conover's books (he selected it for a prize), which are terrific but more journalistic. SEB is a very personal story, told through a series of chapters or essays (and occasional fantasies) that don't necessarily follow one to the other. While I wouldn't necessarily say that this is an "experimental" book, it's definitely playing with the "normal" way of writing a memoir. After awhile you understand that a larger story is unfolding, but that it's about much more than just Benson's first love. It's about a place and time that has become mythical for her as she's grown up and away from the people and places that formed her. It makes me think of my own brief summers at the Jersey Shore, a place I haven't been back to in years but that I still remember in a strangely sad, hazy way as having been important. It seems like a particularly American story to me, where class and mobility and property and wealth and education are all tangled up and it's difficult to know where you fit in or where you'll end up or why. A complex, lovely book.
Amazon.com
Scotland had long been a de facto colony of England by the time the Act of Union between the two countries was signed in 1707. Even so, writes historian T.M. Devine, it was a colony that proudly refused to consider itself anything other than a separate nation, one that bound itself to historical fact and invented traditions alike in an effort to retain national identity. Scotland, Devine writes, fell to England for many reasons, not least of them its small and scattered population. Keenly aware of its status as a subject nation, Scotland still contributed greatly, and disproportionately, to the development of the British Empire--not only by sending its Highland regiments off to battle in distant lands and its people to colonize large parts of the world, but also by committing itself to industrial and technological development, a contribution that created great commercial fortunes in Edinburgh and London alike.
Devine charts the uneasy relationship between Scotland and England, focusing closely on the growth of Scottish ideas of independence and self-rule through the last three centuries. Those ideas, he notes with satisfaction, led in July 1999 to the meeting of the first Scottish parliament since 1707. His epic, forward-looking historical study is without peer, and students of Scotland's past and present will find much of value in its pages. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
"A tremendous study of transformation . . . Devine's strength is his huge learning in the field of social history, especially the story of the rural communities of Scotland." (Neal Ascherson, Los Angeles Times)
"Splendid . . . will remain the standard one in its field for a long time." (The Times Literary Supplement)
T. M. Devine uses extensive original research to examine Scotland's urban vigor as well as describing the traditional aspects of Scottish history, covering key topics such as the Union, the Enlightenment, Industrialization, the Clearances, Religion, and the Road to Devolution. He also explores the global Diaspora of the Scots, the impact of migrants, and the effect of the World Wars. Throughout, Scotland's story is set against the background of British, European, and world history.
Customer Reviews:
mmmm...........2003-11-18
Well, this review might be crap compared to the others, but I do have a few useful things to say about this book.
I picked it up knowing next to nothing about Scottish history during the years of topic. If you said Jacobite I might have known what you were talking about, but I certainly couldn't have explained the risings of the eighteenth century to you.
Now, I can.
I found this book not only easy to read, but comprehensive, and best of all.....INTERESTING. That's quite a big compliment considering that the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are not desirable at all to me, even as a student of history.
Yes, very easy to read, but not simplistic. And best of all, it is free of the sarcasm and haughtiness I've found in works like the Penguin classics book on Scottish history, and in essays by well known and respectable historians!!
The road to home rule.......2003-10-07
This is an excellent account of the long and troubled road for Scotland under the rule of Great Britain. Beginning with the Union of 1707, which Scotland pretty much got railroaded into, Devine charts the meandering path toward Home Rule in 1999. Along the way he touches on the cornerstone events which shaped modern day Scotland such as the Crofters' War, the Highland Clearances, the Scottish Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. It is amazing to read just how vital the Scots were in the expansion of the British empire, yet Scotland remained subordinate to England throughout this period.
Devine focuses primarily on the social and economic history of Scotland, noting how the failure of the Scots to construct a link between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean at the isthmus of Darien led to a financial crisis which England was able to exploit, thereby forcing Scotland to submit to its will in 1707. However, England still had a difficult time suppressing the Jacobeans in Scotland, which continued to mount resistance movements throughout the 18th century.
Probably the most notorious period was in the 19th century, when English landowners with the help of Scottish landowners forced the Highlanders off their grazing lands and made them to settle along the coastline. What began as a method of suppressing the remaining Gaelic culture, became a major relocation project that destroyed what remained of clanship in Scotland. It lived on in name only.
Devine notes how Queen Victoria, a Jacobean at heart, revived Highland pride during her reign by establishing an estate at Balmoral. This along with the historical novels by Sir Walter Scott helped rekindle an interest in ancient Scotland and led to a cultural renaissance.
With the industrial revolution, Glasgow usurped Edinburgh as the leading city in Scotland, irrovocably altering the way of life for most Scots. Devine charts the rise of the political movements in Scotland, which began to push for greater home rule, feeling that Scotland was still be overlooking by the Parliament. The rise of the Labour Party was instrumental in the drive for Home Rule. Devine also notes the troubled relationship between Scots and Irishmen, particularly in Northern Ireland. A once similar culture now found itself at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Devine takes in a big sweep of Scottish history, referencing early aspects of history, but focuses on the 300 years of Union with Great Britain. It is rich in reference notes, pointing the way to further reading on the subject. This is the culmination of his work on Scottish history, which he began with his book, Clanship to the Crofters War.
Re-emergence.......2003-07-13
In 1999, Scotland experienced a momentous event, when after several centuries, a Scottish Parliament was convened in Edinburgh. Scotland is thus in a unique position at the beginning of the twenty-first century to enter a new era of self-determination and national pride such as has not been seen since 1707 (the year of the last Scottish Parliament) or since the times of the Stuart reign.
T.M. Devine, professor of Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen, has put together the first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Scottish nation during this 'non-parliamentary' (and, thus perhaps one might consider, non-sovereign) period in a generation. Scotland, as Devine explains in 'The Scottish Nation: A History 1700-2000', has almost always been misunderstood by the outside world. Thought of Scotland today (by those outside) conjure up visions of green sweeping Highland views, quaint tartan-patterned objects, kilts, bagpipes, Scotch whisky, and a wild rusticity that is quite at odds with the modern, urbanised character that is more typical of Scottish life today. As any good Scotsman will tell you, Scotland had seven universities when England had only two; even in the nineteenth century as London reigned supreme on the world stage politically and, in many ways, economically, Scotland was an industrial pioneer, providing much of the backbone for British success.
'For historians of Scotland the last three decades have been an exciting time. Research has boomed, established views are vigourously challenged and entirely new fields of investigation opened up which were uncharted in the older historiography.'
Devine commends the modern trend toward further investigation and research in Scottish and other non-England nations of the British Isles, but worries that most of this research is being shared and read only with professional peers rather than the general public. His book, The Scottish Nation is intended to be (and, in my opinion, succeeds at being) an accessible resource for the casual reader while being authoritative and thorough enough for the scholar to find it valuable.
Devine breaks the history of Scotland into four broad ranges: 1700-1760; 1760-1830; 1830-1939; 1939-2000. These periods roughly correspond to the eras of consolidation of political domination by England, the growing urbanisation of Scotland and attendant decline of Clanship, the period of immigration and Highland clearances , and finally the resurgence of Scottish nationalism in the wake of Irish independence and the aftermath of the second world war.
Devine examines the breakdown of traditional Scottish government in the aftermath of the ouster of a hereditary Stuart king in favour of William and Mary; Devine examines both English efforts to consolidate political and economic hegemony over Scotland (which included a movement in 1705 to declare all Scots aliens, thus subject to import duties and taxes that would be ruinous to the Scottish economy) as well as the Scottish problems of maintaining their own institutions in the face of English power. This is a different perspective than most will be used to, as history (traditionally written by the victors) has usually been stated 'authoritatively' from Oxford or Cambridge, not from Aberdeen or Edinburgh.
Following issues that are economic, military, social and political, Devine traces the various strands of Scottish history through to the present Parliament, detailing the London Parliament's intriguing struggle to deal with the issue of devolution and maintenance of the union through the post-war period. Devine devotes attention to aspects of family life, the role of women at various points in Scottish history, the development of educational systems, church/state relationships, and the status of the royals in Scotland -- again, any good Scotsman will tell you, it is inappropriate to say the present reigning monarch is Elizabeth II in Scotland, because Elizabeth I was never queen there.
This is a rather hefty book for light reading, but is quite enlightening for those of us with Scottish background (my family background includes many strands).
gets to the point.......2002-10-23
although i have to admit that i'm a bit biased towards any book that paints scotland in a flattering light, this is a great read. i found it especially helpful when i was writing a thesis about the ebbs and flows of scottish power within the united kingdom. since this book covers everything from the act of union to the recent establishment of the scottish parliament, it was extremely helpful. it's one of the few books of its kind. if you are curious to know how exactly the UK works (ie how can england, wales, northern ireland, and scotland be seperate countries and the same country) this is a good place to start, and it's a compelling read!
A fairly solid review of recent Scottish history........2002-10-21
T.M. Devine's account of Scotland from 1700-2000 is the most up-to-date review of Scottish history over the past three centuries. Mr. Devine covers every aspect of the development of Scotland and Scottish life over that time period. On many topics such as religion, immigration/emigration, government, cultural traditions, economics, and much more, Mr. Devine presents a thorough analysis. I was hoping for more details on Adam Smith, David Hume and other figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, but Mr. Devine chooses to stick with the story of Scotland as a whole for this work. This is a slow read at times, but for those genuinely interested in knowing more about the modern history of Scotland, this book has to be as good as one will find.
Amazon.com
"Technological wariness is an enduring disturbance, with roots in religion," writes popular-science interpreter Rhodes in his introduction to this welcome anthology of 20th-century scientific invention. "Prometheus stealing fire from the gods and giving it to humans carries the sense of it; so does the serpent persuading Eve to taste the knowledgeable apple, and the Jewish myth of the Golem, a Frankenstein's monster animated by incorporations of holy words." Gods and monsters abound in these pages, made up of excerpts from essays, reports, articles, and speeches by both inventors and their critics. Rhodes includes, for instance, a worried editorial from 1931 by the journalist Floyd Allport, who presciently noted the community-destroying effects of technological advances such as the private car and the telephone; he also reproduces any number of warnings from the likes of Aldous Huxley, Vannevar Bush, and Edward Abbey that humankind's scientific imagination far outstrips our moral capacity. Joining these jeremiads in Rhodes's pages are more optimistic assessments, including Intel Corporation founder Gordon Moore's famous formulation, from 1965, that "the complexity of integrated circuits has approximately doubled every year since their introduction," whereas "cost per function has decreased several thousand-fold"--which explains why personal computers, among other items, have become increasingly more powerful and yet less expensive. Anyone interested in the development of 20th-century science, applied or theoretical, will delight in Rhodes's collection. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
Technology was the blessing and the bane of the twentieth century. Human life span nearly doubled in the West, but in no century were more human beings killed by new technologies of war. Improvements in agriculture now feed increasing billions, but pesticides and chemicals threaten to poison the earth. Does technology improve us or diminish us? Enslave us or make us free? With this first-ever collection of the essential twentieth-century writings on technology, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Richard Rhodes explores the optimism, ambivalence, and wrongheaded judgments with which Americans have faced an ever-shifting world.
Visions of Technology collects writings on events from the Great Exposition of 1900 and the invention of the telegraph to the advent of genetic counseling and the defeat of Garry Kasparov by IBM's chess-playing computer, Deep Blue. Its gems of opinion and history include Henry Ford on the horseless carriage, Robert Caro on the transformation of New York City, J. Robert Oppenheimer on science and war, Loretta Lynn on the Pill and much more. Together, they chronicle an unprecedented century of change.
Customer Reviews:
Look at where we were and where we might be going.......2003-10-31
This is not a run of the mill anthology of 20th Century scientific thinking and predictions. This a many and varied collection of articles, some so short as to only occupy a few lines, whilst some run to 2 or 3 pages.
Some of them are ironic, such as predictions that never came to pass (eg Spiro Agnew on Supersonic flight), whilst others transpire to be very omniscient in their warnings for the future (concerns about the 'O' rings on the Space Shuttle 6 months before Challenger exploded).
Well worth a read to look back at where we were, consider where we've come to, and where we might be going.
An excellent selection of technology-related articles........2001-03-18
Richard Rhodes presents a chronological collection of technology-related articles, written during the 20th century. Since we are born into an "already-made" technological world, I found it revealing to get the perspective from people who lived at the time these inventions and findings were made. It is surprising to realize that many of the concerns about techology development shown by people at those days are still in the minds of individuals today.
It is not only interesting and instructive to read about how technology has developed during the past century, but it also makes us evaluate how technology affects us and, to some extent, defines the way we think and do things today.
I particularly liked the idea of having several short articles (1 to 4 pages each) written by a large variety of people. This structure lets you read several articles in a row and pick up your reading after several days, without loosing the overall picture.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in knowing a little more on how technology has developed through the eyes of both people who worked on it and people who lived the inmediate consecuences of it. I think it is a excellent source for analysis for people in the area of Philosophy of Science.
Reading the past will help make the future specially in Tech.......1999-08-24
One can look at A. Lincoln's address at Gettysberg makes one think that he had devine assistance unless you read where Lincoln was coming from and see how studied he was thereby allowing him to draw from history. Much of the technology we see now e.g. the hypertext language and other internet interworkings, satellite and missile activity came from "Techies" that studied techniques that came before allowing them to became fast studies. Most of our amazing break throughs came about by building on giants of the past going back to Leonardo, and many many more. Book was a good reminder of the progress of order and a lot of damn hard work.
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New Challenges for Asean: Emerging Policy Issues (Canada and International Relations)
Amitav Acharya
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Environmental Challenges in South-East Asia (Man and Nature)
Victor T. King
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The SFB 564 "Research for Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Mountainous Regions of Southeast Asia" (also known as "The Uplands Program") is a long-term collaborative research program, cooperating with 9 universities and research institutes from Thailand, Vietnam and Germany. The objectives of The Uplands Program are (i) to create the scientific base for developing and testing sustainable production and land use systems with increased productivity in ecologically fragile and economically disadvantaged mountainous regions in Southeast Asia; (ii) to develop concepts for rural institutions that can contribute to a sustainable reduction of rural poverty and food insecurity, and (iii) to advance methods for analyzing complex ecosystems and their interactions with the socio-cultural, economic and institutional environment. The research activities integrate the priorities of stakeholders involved in the management of natural resources and in rural development processes. Participation, sustainability and interdisciplinarity are central components in The Uplands Program.
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Environmental Challenges in South-East Asia. (Book Reviews).(Book Review): An article from: Borneo Research Bulletin
Reed L. Wadley
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This digital document is an article from Borneo Research Bulletin, published by Borneo Research Council, Inc on January 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1741 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Environmental Challenges in South-East Asia. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
Author: Reed L. Wadley
Publication:
Borneo Research Bulletin (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 1999
Publisher: Borneo Research Council, Inc
Page: 168(4)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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This digital document is an article from The Geographical Journal, published by Royal Geographical Society on June 1, 2000. The length of the article is 481 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Environmental Challenges in South-East Asia.(Review)(Brief Article)
Author: Jill Eyre
Publication:
The Geographical Journal (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2000
Publisher: Royal Geographical Society
Volume: 166
Issue: 2
Page: 176
Article Type: Book Review, Brief Article
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