Amazon.com
Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them--despite their overwhelming self-absorption--resonates from cover to cover. --Brangien Davis
Book Description
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.
Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.
What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.
For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor.
TO INQUIRE ABOUT SCHEDULING JEANNETTE WALLS FOR SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS PLEASE CONTACT:
Keppler Speakers
Dustin L. Jones
Associate, College & University Division
703.516.4000 (P)
703.516.4819 (F)
Customer Reviews:
The Glass Castle.......2007-10-18
This is an amazing book. The life experiences of the author and her siblings really makes you wonder how they turned out as well as they did. It also raises the question of whether the parents suffered from mental illness, were criminally neglectful of their chilren or just truly outside of the box thinkers.
Courageous But Sad.......2007-10-18
Wow...this book is just amazing, i cant believe all the stuff this woman had to go threw as a child...and I'm glad i do not have Rex & Rosemary as my parents....Truly great book and made me cry half of the time.
If I hadn't read this book I would not have thought of what its like to those who hardly eat and are with no money.
This story is amazing and took an impact on me...and I will always remember this amazingly courageous sad story...
Glass Castle.......2007-10-17
Wow... haven't we all held out for the moment we commence to build our Glass Castle? "Just as soon as".... we get the perfect plans, enough time, money, etc. FABULOUS book that was written (just like I'd like to write one!) to give us glimses into our own grandiosity, missed opportunities, fixed beliefs, and rationalizations. I saw EVERYONE in my family in this book; maybe the whole human race makes an appearance, but it definitely will come alive for anyone raised by alcoholics. Couldn't stop reading it and now can't stop talking about it.
Writing on eggshells.......2007-10-17
I read all memoirs with a grain of salt mainly because I have a terrible memory and I don't understand how people can remember things they said when they were 3 yrs old (before the digital photography age of course). As far as memoirs go, this one is very interesting and does move fast. It also poses very interesting questions about parenting because the kids turn out okay despite growing up poorer than "po," in environments I shudder to think about, and with completely self-obsessed neglectful parents. It also put a new interesting face on homelessness.
However, the author is horrible about maintaining a believable/easy to follow timeline in the first half of the book. It seems she was 3-5 yrs old for much of that time. How reliable is a 3-5 yr old's memory? There were also several places where the writing lacked transition. That just annoyed the schoolmarm in me.
My main complaint is that the author seemed to be trying not hurt anyone's feelings as she wrote. Maybe she's a better person than me, but I don't understand how she could be so free of resentment despite the upbringing she described. She tried to show every family member in a positive light up until the end. I can understand forgiving her parents for neglecting, starving, and generally abusing her and her siblings, but I'm not sure she told the whole truth about her feelings. Then again, maybe half truths are par for the course when it comes to memoir.
Overall, I did like this and would recommend it.
The Glass Castle.......2007-10-16
One of the best books I have ever read. I just could not put it down. One life event while growing up just tops another.To rise above her circumstances and make a postive life for herself is just a tribute to the strength she has within her spirit. It was so inspiring to see them make the best of themselves even thou the example they had was so poor. My hat is off to Jeanette Walls and her siblings.
Average customer rating:
- Must read for anyone who considers themselves a writer
- A Classic...
- VERY INSPIRING!
- An adventurous life
- MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME
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West with the Night
Beryl Markham
Manufacturer: North Point Press
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ASIN: 0865471185 |
Amazon.com
One of the most beautifully crafted books I have ever read, with some of the most poetic prose passages I could imagine, such as the following, resonating with a stately and timeless quality so absent in our modern life:
There are all kinds of silences and each of them means a different thing. There is the silence that comes with morning in a forest, and this is different from the silence of a sleeping city. There is silence after a rainstorm, and before a rainstorm, and these are not the same. There is the silence of emptiness, the silence of fear, the silence of doubt. There is a certain silence that can emanate from a lifeless object as from a chair lately used, or from a piano with old dust upon its keys, or from anything that has answered to the need of a man, for pleasure or for work. This kind of silence can speak. Its voice may be melancholy, but it is not always so; for the chair may have been left by a laughing child or the last notes of the piano may have been raucous and gay. Whatever the mood or the circumstance, the essence of its quality may linger in the silence that follows. It is a soundless echo.
Born in England in 1902, Markham was taken by her father to East Africa in 1906. She spent her childhood playing with native Maruni children and apprenticing with her father as a trainer and breeder of racehorses. In the 1930s, she became an African bush pilot, and in September 1936, became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west.
Book Description
West with the Night is the story of Beryl Markham--aviator, racehorse trainer, beauty--and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and '30s.
Customer Reviews:
Must read for anyone who considers themselves a writer.......2007-10-11
This book is a hidden treasure. Markham offers a rich history of her life and the western influence upon east Africa, the land where she grew into a woman. Her writing style takes descriptive to a new level. This is an excellent book for readers of thirteen to ninety years of age. Enjoy!
A Classic..........2007-07-27
Quite simply one of the best books I've ever read. West with the Night transports readers to a real life era of adventure (the 1930's in particular) in an Eastern Africa that scarcely resembles the region today. Markham's beautifully described tales of her adventures as a bush pilot make this one of those books that is hard to put down at the end of the day. As for her writing style, Ernest Hemingway's comment that she "Can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers" sums it up. I highly recommend this novel.
VERY INSPIRING!.......2007-07-05
This is one of the best books I have ever read! The writing is superb and colorful. The author takes you on a journey through Africa. Also, I found this book to be very spiritual. Beryl Markham was an accomplished pilot and very courageous and ahead of her times. I savored every word!
An adventurous life.......2007-07-02
Wonderfully written story of Beryl Markham's life growing up in Kenya East Africa and her career as an aviator. You can almost picture Markham sitting on the veranda at the Muthaiga Country Club telling tales of high adventure. It has been questioned whether she actually wrote the book or whether it was written by her third husband Raoul Schumacher. Either way it is a great story of a fascinating woman. Well worth the read.
MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME.......2007-06-30
AFTER READING THIS BOOK THE FIRST TIME, IT WAS SO GOOD I READ IT AGAIN 5 WEEKS LATER. THIS IS MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME. I READ MORE THAN A BOOK A WEEK PLUS SEVERAL EVERY WEEK ON CD. I HAVE NEVER FOUND ONE TO COMPARE TO THIS.
GREAT
Product Description
Bedtime Erotica is a collection of eight explicit short stories that will leave a lasting impression. It starts off with a bang in Telephone Sex: raw, nasty and in-your-face but quickly shifts to the more subtly erotic Double The Trouble, a story of a woman desired equally by her boyfriend and his identical twin. Lexy constantly turns the heat up and down with each story, leaving the readers passions simmering until they finally get to Oxford Blue, a beautifully written tale of a mature womans seduction by her sons friend that will make you question your morals. The characters are all different: from the young, shy, virginal to the sassy, sexy, downright outrageous, mature, older woman. They each take a pleasure-filled adventure to satisfy a sexual hunger that craves ultimate fulfilment.
Customer Reviews:
Not what I expected.......2007-07-11
I was dissapointed with this. A little less 'in your face" raunch and a bit more erotica, please.
Refreshingly Real Erotica.......2007-06-02
This is great stuff. Hot stories that are just the right length and what makes it so appealing is that they are about different people from different walks of life and that is what makes it so refreshingly real and erotic. It makes for a more enjoyable read almost as if it is a different writer for each story. Lexy really takes us in to her world; it feels as though we are a fly on the wall watching the action, like reality TV in a book. More than just a voyeurs dream, it is an essential education in relationships. Learning about what men and women really want from each other and what they can give each other to emphasise their pleasure and take their love making to new heights of ecstasy is what it is all about.
I do like the love seat idea and it made me smile because in my minds eye I have made a mental love seat of my own, erotic minds must think alike. I must admit I do like the short story format as compared to the erotic novel and I have read a lot just lately, surprisingly this is my first Lexy Harper, but it won't be the last I'm sure.
I would highly recommend Bedtime Erotica. Another book I would recommend that you have a look at is 100 Percent Erotica by Suzie Van Aartman. Very erotic and very explicit, I had to change my underwear after reading it. Check it out. Both these books could well become all time classics in my opinion.
HOT.......2007-06-02
I bought this book and the authors other book, Bedtime Erotica (for freaks like me), at the same time. I read this one first and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a black, british woman ( I would imagine) writing the book so some of the slang and spelling is different but the book is hot none the less. I do like this one over the other a little bit. Just get both though. You won't be disappointed.
F-ing Brilliant!!!.......2007-05-28
I didn't think I could get into books like this. I read it. I love it. I want more of it.
Erotica At It's Best!.......2007-04-15
From the first story "Telephone Sex" to the last story "Oxford Blue" (both my favorites) Lexy Harper exposes the reader to eight erotic stories that are guaranteed to make your toes curl and much much more!
Written with finesse, these sexual adventures are stimulating, sensual, steamy, and sexy.
At the end of each tale Ms Harper gives us a little insight into what prompt her to write each story.
Right before the start of the first story Ms Harper has a one line dedication that hooked me immediately ... because I love a good f*****g
Story!!!
It was nice to finally read great work by an author from my home town of London England. We British gals are BOLD!!
NOTE:
This book is hot! For those who can't stand the heat...caution!!
Locksie
ARC Book Club Inc.
Star Rating*****5.0
Book Description
EveryoneÂ's favorite sleuth heads to the Rocky Mountains in the twelfth installment of Nancy AthertonÂ's cozy mystery series
Lori Sheppard barely survived her last adventure in Scotland before sheÂ's off on her next. This time in the mountain town of Bluebird, Colorado. No sooner than sheÂ's arrived do things start to go amiss. Someone has mysteriously disappeared, a charming and charismatic man seems to know more than heÂ's letting on, and the whole town is hiding a dark secret. With Aunt DimityÂ's help, Lori sets out to solve a hundred-year-old mystery and discovers in the process that sometimes the strangest places can seem the most like home.
Nancy AthertonÂ's Aunt Dimity series has charmed its way into the hearts of mystery fans through eleven installments. In Aunt Dimity Goes West, AthertonÂ's vivid storytelling and knack for bringing a setting to life will have fans lassoed to their chairs and guessing to the very end.
Customer Reviews:
Great Cozy Mystery.......2007-05-14
This is a perfect addition to the Aunt Dimity series. Like always the reader is left with a great feeling
another winner !.......2007-05-07
Atherton's series about Lorri & Aunt Dimity are always fun, intertwined with mystery and an almost believable story. Here she & the twins & their nanny head for Colorado to aid in Lori's medical & psychological recovery (from the last book). Almost immediately she discovers a mystery and curse involving the 'cabin' where they are staying. How can one woman always find herself in these situations?!?! But you know it will be a happy ending! Enjoy a fast, fun read!
Lori Shepherd in the West.......2007-04-15
This book is interesting because it has mystery, humor, history, interwoven. Lori goes for healing of fears and finds herself in town who fears a home which has a ghost. The caretaker has disappeared. Is he part of a sinister plot or a victim? Within the mystery is the humor that many people are much like the people of Lori's hometown. Do small towns have similar types of people? There is a great deal of histroy of the old mining town with its struggles and hardships. There is compassion. Aunt Dimity remains level headed, but there is an interesting and unexpected new twist in this story. This is an enjoyable book to read.
A fun read.......2007-04-01
As always the Aunt Dimity series is fun, light reading. Always entertaining
Aunt Dimity Goes West.......2007-03-30
These books are always a light and fast read, but I always find them rather charming, if you can accept the concept. This takes the heroine out of the U.K. into the western US but, as always, she runs into the usual bad guys and paranormal persons. When I read these books I always know what I am getting and enjoy them for what they are.
Book Description
Bedtime Erotica for Freaks (like me) is written in the same distinctive style that has won Lexy many loyal fans but these stories are for sexual connoisseurs. Don’t let the word â€~Freaks’ put you off – it is simply a description of people who find eroticism in the 'unusual' like Lexy herself. This book starts off with a bang in Vanessa, a woman who lives out all her sexual fantasies and the no-holds-barred action continues until the very last page! Amanda, enslaves the man of her dreams while in disguise. Geraldine, a prostitute, has seen and done it all, she is going through the motions until Tiffany brings the joy back into her jaded existence. Indra ignores the basic rule of her job as a chatline operator and ventures into forbidden territory with a client. Nectar is too much woman for one man, so she has two. Antonia has a voracious sexual appetite that must be fed constantly and Samantha uses her sexual expertise to wreck as many homes as she can. These stories of women who follow their sexual destinies and damn everyone else will entice and titillate.
Customer Reviews:
Bedtime Erotica for Freaks (Like me).......2007-10-13
This book will give you evey angle from sexual enjoyment. If you like sex stories, this book is there for you!!!!!
Waste of money!.......2007-08-14
This book was the most poorly written, poorly edited book I have read in a long time - maybe forever! This author should read a few REAL erotica authors, like Emma Holly and Lora Leigh.
This book was such a disappointment and such a WASTE OF MONEY!. I love erotica. However, this was just trash. I could only read about 1/2 of the book. Then I threw it away! I would never give this book to someone. I would be insulting their intelligence. For those who thought this book was good - do yourself a favor and read some Emma Holly or Lora Leigh and find out what erotic fantasies are really about!
Not thrilled.......2007-07-31
This just isn't a book I could get into. The prose is littered with italics for emphasis and I found that very annoying. Also Harper's personal commentary at the ends of the stories was annoying, too.
This IS erotica, but there's MUCH better stuff out there. I recommend any of the "Best Women's Erotica" books or anything by Pretty Things Press over this drivel.
?.......2007-06-02
The author is definately black and is from the UK. I wasn't quite expecting that, but the book was HOT none the less. Just some of the slang and spelling was different. Bedtime Erotica, also by the same author was a tad bit better, if I had to choose one, I'd pick Bedtime Erotica over this, or just get both like I did. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
review.......2007-06-01
The book was okay, not as good as a Zane novel but okay none the less.
Average customer rating:
- Kincaid's Mad as Hell, and She's Not Going to Take it Anymore
- The lovely tourists
- A Small Mind Writes A Small Place
- An island paradise
- It is a Small place
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A Small Place
Jamaica Kincaid
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Kincaid, Jamaica
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At the Bottom of the River
ASIN: 0374527075 |
Book Description
A brilliant look at colonialism and its effects in Antigua--by the author of Annie John
"If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will see. If you come by aeroplane, you will land at the V. C. Bird International Airport. Vere Cornwall (V. C.) Bird is the Prime Minister of Antigua. You may be the sort of tourist who would wonder why a Prime Minister would want an airport named after him--why not a school, why not a hospital, why not some great public monument. You are a tourist and you have not yet seen . . ."
So begins Jamaica Kincaid's expansive essay, which shows us what we have not yet seen of the ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up.
Lyrical, sardonic, and forthright by turns, in a Swiftian mode, A Small Place cannot help but amplify our vision of one small place and all that it signifies.
Customer Reviews:
Kincaid's Mad as Hell, and She's Not Going to Take it Anymore.......2007-01-11
Published in 1988 Kincaid's "A Small Place" is an unflinchingly angry portrayal of post-colonial, post-slavery life on the island of Antigua. To put it simply: Kincaid is as mad as hell, and she's not going to take it anymore. If you're white and can shelve your defensiveness for a moment this book is actually really enjoyable, it's written in first person and directed at "you," the British colonizer and/or the fat white tourist. Kincaid's sense of humor is wonderfully dark, and there are a lot of moments of humor if you keep an open mind. Still, at the heart of the matter is the story of Antigua's decay, left to rot by the British colonizers, with a population that doesn't vote openly corrupt officials out of office. She openly points out the irony of the celebration of emancipation alongside the valorization of the Hotel Training School, which teaches the residents of the island to be servants. In the end Kincaid concludes that no one is to blame, that after slavery the masters are no longer evil and the slaves are no longer "noble," but that everyone is merely human. She problematizes the matter, but offers no solutions, which might irritate those concrete sequentials among us. Also, she refers to Columbus, and the explorers in general, so adored in American culture, as "human rubbish" on multiple occasions. You might not agree with Kincaid, but this is one topic someone should be angry about, and her unapologetic narrative is about as honest as you can get.
The lovely tourists.......2006-05-01
I had to read this book for a Multicultural Literature class at my Uni, and, far from being informative, all it did was fill with me a contempt of my own. I am not a racist by any means, but when confronted with such a bitter, snide voice as the one Kincaid displays, I find myself unconsciously getting defensive. When she says, "you are a tourist; you are ugly," I find myself saying, "Fine, I'll keep my money and let you trade with seashells and beads." Kincaid is a master of the self-fulfilling prophecy: she says Antiguans are so oppressed and so downtrodden and so angry, and rather than doing anything to help it, she's exacerbating it by using such a bitter, over-the-top voice.
Other reviewers have stated that the vision of Antigua portrayed is a warped and extremely limited one, biased by Kincaid's apparent small mindedness, and I must confess that I'm glad to hear that. To think that the entire island is solely occupied by bitter people who imagine themselves to be ex-slaves would make me steer clear of the area any time I go on vacation.
Because, yes, I am a tourist. And no, being a tourist does not automatically make anyone ugly, despite what Kincaid's bitter rant might say.
A Small Mind Writes A Small Place.......2006-03-04
A major failing of this essay, which claims to be non-fiction, is Kincaid's sole reliance on her own memories of Antigua. As an eye-witness, Kincaid has the chance to provide a unique perspective on the issues of slavery, corruption, tourism, colonialism, and SIDS (small island developing states). Yet, she ruins this chance, in my opinion, with her complete disregard of any perspective other than her own.
A Small Place presents a biased and incomplete account of many of the issues facing Antigua and other islands in the Caribbean. Some of Kincaid's criticisms are certainly valid; however, others have been blown completely out of proportion. If one really wishes to know the history of Antigua and to understand the lingering consequences of colonialism, I suggest looking elsewhere.
What this book lacks in factual information, it does not make up for with a strong emotional appeal. Kincaid's story line is incomplete and unengaging. She repeatedly wanders from topic to topic and back again, giving no sense of what is most important or relevant. Additionally, whatever sympathy she may gain from the Western reader is repeatedly lost with her hateful generalizations.
I am sorry that I have to write such a negative review of this book. I believe that it is important for people in the West to understand the plight of developing countries, especially SIDS. However, I do not believe that A Small Place is at all helpful in promoting this dialogue.
It is important to understand the past. And I can sympathize with Kincaid's intense hatred of those who have and continue to oppress "her people". However, I think this text is short-sighted in its desire for change. After repeatedly criticizing tourists for their greed and laziness, does she really expect them to want to understand Antiguan society? I see the hatred and dualism expressed in A Small Place as a major obstacle in achieving a better tomorrow.
An island paradise.......2005-02-05
Antigua, an awe-inspiring vacation spot for Europeans and North Americans, takes on a different aura when discussed by native Jamaica Kincaid. Ms. Kincaid describes how the Antiguans feel about the tourists who visit: ugly people. Ugly because they invaded, then brought slaves to work for them so they could become rich while ignoring the needs of those who made them wealthy. Ugly because of what they've done to the island and the people who live there. Jamaica talks about the corrupt government and the hand that North Americans, British, Syrians and Lebanese play in that corruption. She describes how England paved the roads the Queen of England would travel when she visited, but left everything else in poor condition. Ms. Kincaid also mentions the drug dealers that the government ignores and those who build ugly condos for the wealthy and rent business space to the government who should be building their own space.
In a very few pages, Jamaica Kincaid says what a lot of former slaves would like to say but are perhaps too politically correct to utter. She does the job for us. Ms. Kincaid does not mince her words when it comes to what the British Empire did to the people of Antigua and the world for that matter. Frequently, I found myself wanting to stand up and cheer as I read her words of disgust and anger. While Ms. Kincaid is specifically speaking of Antigua, her words describe the slave trade and the destruction and poverty left in the wake of it no matter what country. It is well worth reading - more than once.
Reviewed by alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
It is a Small place .......2004-09-21
In "A Small Place", Kincaid leads the western reader through Antigua, while invoking feelings of guilt. Kincaid draws the reader in by narrating through the reader's perspective. She does this to engulf the reader into the setting and workings of Antigua and its government, including it's abused cultural history. This is the style of narration that Kincaid uses in the first thirty-seven pages of the book, and is very effective in captivating the reader. I felt guilt and ignorance while reading through Kincaid's description of Antigua and the abuse it is subject to by a regressive white moderate. She passionately unveils the crimes and injustices that her people have suffered from. The read is passionate and truthful while forcefully shedding the ignorant presumptions of the reader about what a western reader would consider a "resort area." She skillfully illustrates how foreign landowners rob the economy and further suppress the Antiguan population. She combines the individual reader into a collaboration of his/her personal/cultural histories to make that individual feel responsible for his/her cultures actions. So not only do you read the book as yourself, but you read the essay as western cultures history. She doesn't stop there, but uncovers the evils committed by her own western placed government and calls into question the morality that the whole island revolves on. This is the reason the book has been banned in Antigua. Not only would the book have inflicted damage on commerce and tourism, but also it would have uncovered the committed evils of the persons in power there.
I thought the book was far from enjoyable, but an essential read that helped erase certain ignorance held by the western population. I would suggest the book to scholars and activists or anyone interested in the repercussions of cultural memory. All in all I enjoyed the read but wished that Kincaid had followed through with the "reader narrator" format, which she uses to pull the reader in but abandons after the thirty-seventh page.
Book Description
In a culture that idealizes youthful looks and encourages elaborate makeovers or even surgery to achieve them, the idea of natural beauty is often all but ignored.
But true beauty is within reach for women of any age, without submitting to needles or knives. The secret is nurturing beauty from the inside as well as on the surface, caring for both body and soul in a way that will naturally result in the smooth skin and radiant glow of good health whether one is eighteen or eighty.
A-list celebrities, professional makeup artists, and Hollywood stylists have long embraced Dr. Hauschka’s botanical products, attracted by their extraordinary results and the company’s thirty-five-year commitment to purity, therapy, and luxury. Now the same extraordinary results are available to the rest of us through a rejuvenating prescription for healing. In Awakening Beauty the Dr. Hauschka Way, Susan West Kurz, president of Dr. Hauschka, Inc., and a longtime devotee of the company’s products, offers readers a transformative program grounded in Dr. Hauschka’s key principles of natural ingredients and working with the body’s rhythms. Her suggestions, when followed, naturally restore healthy, radiant skin and a sense of peace and well-being, and can even result in weight loss.
Awakening Beauty the Dr. Hauschka Way outlines a series of achievable lifestyle changes that can dramatically improve appearance in a single month. First and foremost, Kurz describes how using organically grown and mindfully harvested products can have a positive impact on the body and skin. While simple dietary changes begin to repair and renew the body, the complementary use of meditation, massage, and exercise enhances good health inside and out. Kurz’s holistic approach is founded on an understanding of the body’s own natural rhythms, using them to direct the way each of us receives and responds to subtle cravings for nutrition and care. By recognizing exactly how skin behaves and how it responds to other parts of the body, we can use specific practices to improve the way we care for our skin and improve our overall health. Awakening Beauty the Dr. Hauschka Way includes detailed advice on the most effective ways to wash, tone, and moisturize skin using homemade products, as well as tips on how to critically assess skin care claims and break unhealthy habits. Meal plans, meditation techniques, advice on addressing specific skin conditions and an extensive collection of recipes complete this remarkable story. In just thirty days you can transform your skin and bring forth a natural, glowing beauty that is truly your own.
Nothing reveals your physical beauty more than your skin.
You may pride yourself on the shine of your hair or the color of your eyes, but no other feature gives you a greater experience of your beauty. . . .
The skin performs a multitude of tasks, most of which go unnoticed and unappreciated. It protects us from disease and the daily onslaught of particles large and small. It cools us when we are hot and warms us when we are cold. It heals wounds afflicted on it, often without any assistance from us. It absorbs sunlight to produce vitamin D, essential to the health of our bones and teeth, keeps itself moist, slows its own aging, and, every day, attempts to renew and restore its beauty.
While skin accomplishes all of this on its own, it still needs help. With every blemish, rash, and wrinkle, the skin is asking us to understand its nature and to support its efforts at self-renewal. Unfortunately, many of us respond to changes in our skin with practices that, in fact, assault and injure it further, consequently accelerating the aging process. On the other hand, many of us do nothing at all for our skin—but nonetheless expect it to remain clear, beautiful, and young.
In order to create the most effective program for our skin, we must begin by understanding what it does each day, and how best to support its work.
—From Awakening Beauty the Dr. Hauschka Way
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful Book!.......2006-08-18
Wonderful book for those who want suggestions and guidance to living a more natural life. I am an owner of a natural lifestyle website Life-Thyme - and this book fits right along with with so much of what makes life beautiful!
Informative and Uplifting.......2006-05-12
This is a beautiful book with a balanced approach to aging, beauty, and health. (I've happily used Dr. Hauschka products for almost 20 years, so I'll admit to being biased.) Highly recommended to those who use the products as well as to those who would like to learn more about a holistic lifestyle.
Excellent!
Book Description
Maneuvers takes readers on a global tour of the sprawling process called "militarization." With her incisive verve and moxie, eminent feminist Cynthia Enloe shows that the people who become militarized are not just the obvious ones--executives and factory floor workers who make fighter planes, land mines, and intercontinental missiles. They are also the employees of food companies, toy companies, clothing companies, film studios, stock brokerages, and advertising agencies. Militarization is never gender-neutral, Enloe claims: It is a personal and political transformation that relies on ideas about femininity and masculinity. Films that equate action with war, condoms that are designed with a camouflage pattern, fashions that celebrate brass buttons and epaulettes, tomato soup that contains pasta shaped like Star Wars weapons--all of these contribute to militaristic values that mold our culture in both war and peace.
Presenting new and groundbreaking material that builds on Enloe's acclaimed work in Does Khaki Become You? and Bananas, Beaches, and Bases, Maneuvers takes an international look at the politics of masculinity, nationalism, and globalization. Enloe ranges widely from Japan to Korea, Serbia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Britain, Israel, the United States, and many points in between. She covers a broad variety of subjects: gays in the military, the history of "camp followers," the politics of women who have sexually serviced male soldiers, married life in the military, military nurses, and the recruitment of women into the military. One chapter titled "When Soldiers Rape" explores the many facets of the issue in countries such as Chile, the Philippines, Okinawa, Rwanda, and the United States.
Enloe outlines the dilemmas feminists around the globe face in trying to craft theories and strategies that support militarized women, locally and internationally, without unwittingly being militarized themselves. She explores the complicated militarized experiences of women as prostitutes, as rape victims, as mothers, as wives, as nurses, and as feminist activists, and she uncovers the "maneuvers" that military officials and their civilian supporters have made in order to ensure that each of these groups of women feel special and separate.
Customer Reviews:
The true "feminist agenda".......2001-01-01
Cynthia Enloe is the author most quoted by opponants of women in the armed forces, because she presents the real Feminist viewpoint, which is staunchly anti-war and ambivelant toward the military. Enloe's arguments, supported by N.O.W., are coopted by "anti-feminist" foes of servicewomen as proof of their own contention that women have no place in the military. Paradoxically, after quoting Enloe, those same crusaders then lambast a so-called "feminist lobby" for promoting gender integration in combat operations. No doubt they confuse Feminism with some "politically-correct" positions of Congressional military panels, which are, ironically, often ignored or opposed by N.O.W. But Enloe's books go much further than simply stating Feminism's pacifist ideals. In "Maneuvers", she accuses the military of deliberate victimization of women worldwide. She makes a number of good points concerning the cruelties of war toward civilian women, but her antimilitary bias shows and is sometimes rather venomous. She gives no thought whatsoever to the conditions which make warfare an unpleasant reality and the armed forces a necessity. Nor has she any real concern for American military women or their reasons for wanting to serve. By relating selected incidents of harassment or violence against servicewomen, she presents a negative and mostly false impression of the American military's widespread and willful victimization of its female members. Read "Maneuvers" for the Feminist counter of Brian Mitchell's "Flirting With Disaster", but don't expect balance in the views of either author.
Important feminist study on militarisation.......2000-10-14
Cynthia Enloe adds to her series of writings looking at the effects of militarisation on women's lives - from the laundresses, camp followers, comfort women and sex workers to feminist military personnel and those who fight the home front.
Like Jan Jindy Pettman's "Worlding Women - a feminist international politics", Enloe's latest book seeks to look at international relations from a gendered perspective - and succeeds admirably.
The author relies a lot on secondary sources (citing a lot of newspaper stories), but weaves together the strands of militarisation on women's lives in a compelling and readable style. The book is full of fascinating anecdotes that illustrate the broader themes of the multifacted impact of contemporary militarisation (I particularly enjoyed the discussion on why British military officers from all services and US Air Force and Navy officers are allowed to carry umbrellas, but they are fobidden as too girlie for the US Marines and US Army! )
Download Description
"
In her colorful first novel,
Crazy Ladies,
Michael Lee West brought to life three generations of unforgettable G.R.I.T.S. (Girls Raised In The South), creating a world the
Washington Post Book World called ""sharp, wry, and utterly convincing."" In
Mad Girls in Love she's brought some of the Ladies back and also added a whole new wacky and lovable cast. You'll want to join them for a glass of sweet tea or punch spiked with pure grain alcohol and get the real gossip.
At the center of the group is Bitsy, who, when the novel opens in 1972, is a self-proclaimed girlie-girl who ""couldn't name the presidents in order, but ... knew the name and manufacturer of every lipstick and eye shadow in Rexall Drugs.""
Mad Girls in Love follows Bitsy from our first glimpse of her as an eighteen-year-old wife and mother on the lam with her baby daughter through two decades as she develops into a worldly blond beauty. Every milestone in Bitsy's life seems to be marked with something shattering: Starting with her teenaged husband's nose, the damage includes Fostoria goblets, a baby blue Mustang, a crystal cocktail pitcher, a champagne bottle, fingernails, perfume flasks, Spode teacups, and, of course, hearts.
Bad luck with men is a birthright -- maybe it's because eccentricity runs in her family. Bitsy's mother, Dorothy, spent years in the local mental hospital and still writes to First -- and occasionally Second -- Ladies. Her aunt Clancy Jane was, for a long time, the town's only hippie and eventually became the local Crazy Cat Lady.
Michael Lee West writes about these women of Crystal Falls, Tennessee, and their men with the expertise of a down-home cook who knows just how much hot sauce to add so the cornbread isn't too sweet. Reading
Mad Girls in Love is like settling into a chair on a porch or at the Utopian Beauty Salon -- only much better.
"
Customer Reviews:
Mad Girls In Love.......2007-06-14
I travel for work sometimes and I often will purchase audio books to kill the time in the car. I found this and decided it was perfect for the time I had to travel. I absolutely loved this book, and finished it off while running errands. Sometimes I would sit in the parking lot at the store until the next part, just because I couldn't get out of my car without hearing what happened next. I read and listen to books often, and this is one that I will always recommend. I plan on purchasing the first one, Crazy Ladies, just because this one was so good.
Love this series!!!.......2007-05-12
Upon reading her first novel, crazy ladies I was hooked. It is a good sign when you are sad to see a series end.
Not as good as Crazy Ladies.......2007-01-05
"Mad Girls in Love" is not as good as "Crazy Ladies". It was mostly about Bitsy and her life. I didn't like how the chapters about the other characters weren't written in first person like in "Crazy Ladies". Only Bitsy got the first person treatment.
I was rushing near the end of this book just to get finished.
Why did it have to end?.......2006-09-11
This book ended way too soon for me! I didn't want it to end. The characters were brilliant and I couldn't help but love every single one of them!
It has been a few days since I finished it so I apologize, but this author has gotten my attention. Where they really crazy or was it the circumstances?
Read this book, then pick up all the others. I also didn't read the first one, but will get it now. Can't wait for more by this great author!
Great Read!.......2006-06-04
I loved this one as much as Crazy Ladies. It picked up right where the last book left off. The characters are well developed and very amusing.....you often find yourself comparing them to memebers in your own family. I can't wait to read more!
Book Description
Tailored after the actual "Crow Killer" John Johnson, Sam Minard is a mountain man who seeks the freedom that the Rocky Mountains offers trappers. After his beloved Indian wife is murdered, Sam Minard becomes obsessed with vengeance, and his fortunes become intertwined with those of Kate Bowden, a widow who faces madness. This remarkable frontier fiction captures that brief season when the romantic myth of the far West became a fact.
Customer Reviews:
An all time favorite.......2007-03-27
I didn't read this book until after I had seen 'Jeremiah Johnson', and was pleased that the movie and book were so different. I enjoyed the movie very much, but with Fisher's story I felt as though I had put on my huntin' clothes, laced up my boots, grabbed my Hawken Rifle, and joined in on the adventure. Coming from a family of outdoorsmen, some of us certainly fantasized about leaving it all behind from time to time, and making our way in the remote wilderness. In fact my two brothers moved to the Pacific Northwest after college and still spend much of their free time wandering the Cascades. Anyone who loves the wild west will find this one to be a real gem, and simply by reading it, will be richly rewarded. It is a diamond in the rough, but not one to be missed, and has inspired much of my own writing. This one comes highly recommended.
James Hart Isley
Author of The Bear Hunter
A RENAISSANCE MAN IN THE AMERICAN WEST.......2004-02-14
MOUNTAIN MAN continues to be a classic in American Western literature. The major foundation for the movie, Jeremiah Johnson, MOUNTAIN MAN tells the story of Samuel John Minard, a mountain man known for his physical prowess and for his quick and educated intellect. A renaissance man who has chosen the life of the great American West.
In his adventures Sam meets up with Indians of various tribes, other mountain men and a crazy pilgrim woman. HIs marriage to an Indian maiden leads him into a one-man war with sweeping consequences for himself and for his enemies.
MOUNTAIN MAN, as is the case with most books upon which movies are based, considerably outshines JEREMIAH JOHNSON in its story and characterizations. But, hey, I love the movie as well. I guess that says a lot about what I think of the book.
THE HORSEMAN
THE ONE THAT STARTED IT ALL.......2003-08-25
Mountain Man
Interestingly Larry McMurtry has written three books of late that invite the reader back to the time of the Mountain Men. I've read all of them and while I love McMurtry's writing and the stories presented in Boone's Lick and in volumes 1 and 2 of the new Berry bender series, there is nothing like going back to the source for the real experience.
I first read Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher as a teenager. I read it in conjunction with the release of Jeremiah Johnson upon which the book is loosely based. At that time I was captured by this genre and have made a regular reading of Mountain Man a part of my program.
While I can enthusiastically recommend the newer editions to the Mountain Man genre, I would encourage interested parties in taking a look at Mountain Man first. While you're at it, rent or buy Jeremiah Johnson starring Robert Redford. The experience will be one that you don't regret.
interesting but has flaws.......2003-06-22
Quite interesting book, whose literary value I won't judge, but it has every rumor about Indians and every lie about Supermountainmen incorporated into it. I read it because of the movie, and the movie was better. If you ask me, Thorp's "Crow Killer" is more concise and more realistic. But if you are a West fan, guess you will want to read Fischer too.
Poetry and Beauty.......2003-05-22
This was the first book I had read by Vardis Fisher. He is a very colorful writer. His descriptions of every thing he sees and everything he thinks is wonderful. His knowledge of classical music is warming. I personally love classical music. Even though I enjoyed the book very much I did not like the continual repeat of his describing the scenry over and over.
Books:
- The Historian's Lincoln: Pseudohistory, Psychohistory, and History
- The Imus Ranch: Cooking for Kids and Cowboys
- The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
- The Mayan Prophecies: Unlocking the Secrets of a Lost Civilization
- The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. 1: c. 500-c. 700
- The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace
- The Rockabilly Legends: They Called It Rockabilly Long Before It Was Called Rock 'n' Roll (Book & DVD)
- The Templar Pirates: The Secret Alliance to Build the New Jerusalem
- The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
- The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Books Index
Books Home
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![Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics [Updated Edition]](http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0520229126.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg)
