Framing a Life: A Family Memoir

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When the mother of former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro was in the hospital with emphysema, she was asked for her educational history. She replied that she'd graduated from elementary school, "Big deal, huh?" she shrugged, embarrassed. Realizing her hardworking immigrant mother's feelings of shame, Ferraro determined to write a tribute to her life, "to correct," she tells readers, "my mother's impression of herself as no big deal, and also to correct the nation's dismissal of the contribution of immigrant women."

Ferraro's obvious admiration for her mother, the daughter of Italian immigrants to New York, marks every chapter of this paean to maternal fortitude and sacrifice. Ferraro describes the close bond between the two women, her mother's determination to ensure the prosperous future of her children, and the daughter's sometimes amusingly protective attitudes toward her aging mother. Nevertheless, the anecdotes in this book hang not on the frame of her mother's life, but on the author's own. The details of Ferraro's schooling, her family life as mother and wife, and her rise to political prominence as Walter Mondale's running mate in the 1984 presidential elections offer proof that the elder Ferraro's sacrifice was, in fact, worth quite a lot. --Maria Dolan

Book Description

Framing a Life is Geraldine Ferraro's touching memoir of her Italian American family. Like the frame on which her mother once crocheted beads to make a living, Framing a Life draws together a tapestry of immigrant family stories both past and present. Beginning with the arrival of her grandmother Maria Giuseppa Caputo on these shores in 1890, the author takes us on a grand journey that includes her own vice presidential nomination in 1984 and brings us to the present day, spanning a total of five generations.

In the immigrant ghettoes of New York's Lower East Side and Italian Harlem, Maria Giuseppa raised ten children, one of whom was Gerry's mother, Antonetta Corierri. The young Antonetta was forced to leave school after the eighth grade to work as a crochet beader in a garment factory, but she had aspirations to lead a better life. She fulfilled this goal when she married Dominick Ferraro, an up-and-coming Italian immigrant, and they opened a restaurant and store in Newburgh, New York. But her fortunes took a tragic turn when Dominick died suddenly of a heart attack. Determined not to let her dreams of a better life for her son and daughter die with her husband, Antonetta moved to the Bronx and returned to crochet beading to put Carl and Gerry through school. Once, observing Gerry's poor crocheting skills, Antonetta warned her, "Get an education or you'll starve to death!" Gerry took heed, becoming a teacher before she turned her attention to the law and to politics.

Antonetta Ferraro's single-mindedness paid off in the ultimate immigrant success story. Geraldine Ferraro, whose grandmother could not read or write and whose mother left school at age fourteen, rose to become a symbol of the American dream -- for all immigrants and for all women.

Throughout Gerry's runs for office, including her vice presidential campaign with Walter Mondale in 1984, Antonetta was a constant presence by her daughter's side. She lived to see one of Gerry's daughters receive an MBA from Harvard but passed away before the other daughter became a doctor.

In Framing a Life Geraldine Ferraro leads us along her family tree, from her Italian roots to the branches that stretch into the future. Throughout, she draws parallels between her own and other immigrant families and the basic values, including religion and the importance of education, that unite them. She notes that contemporary immigrants from Asia and Latin America are no different from our country's European forebears in their circumstances and their dreams of a better life. No matter where one's family originated, Ferraro's story has resonance for us all.

Customer Reviews:

One of my favorite books this year.......2001-01-11

Framing a Life: A Family Memoir

I read this book because I was interested in learning more about Geraldine Ferraro. Ms. Ferraro remains a hero to many women with a personal understanding of the magnitude of her accomplishment as the first female U.S. Vice Presidential candidate. The book was superbly written and is equally interesting whether it focuses on Ms. Ferraro, her mother or her grandmother. It gave me an increased understanding of the reasons for my own search for my grandmother's and great-grandmother's history. The book provides a wonderfully humanizing portrayal of the evolution of a politician. The book should be included on high school and college reading lists. Young women need successful role models willing to share their personal experiences in balancing career building, raising families, and developing an adult female identity. Ms. Ferraro is an extraordinary example for young women learning to make thoughtful decisions about their lives and her story is an 'excellent read'.

Book Description

In the course of his flamboyant career as an all-purpose activist, Saul Alinsky went from organizing working-class ethnics in one of Chicago's most blighted neighborhoods to mapping out strategies for the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s. He enlisted allies-from Catholic clergymen to labor unionists and black activists-in battles waged against opponents from slumlords to the Eastman Kodak corporation. The range of Alinsky's activities, the intensity of his beliefs, and his exhilarating mixture of crudeness and calculation almost vibrate off the pages of this passionate and inspiring biography.

Customer Reviews:

The Best of the Bunch.......2003-11-30

Saul David Alinsky, the subject of this biography, is oft written about but rarely presented without the bias of the writer leaking through. Alinsky's life was, by design, controversial. He maddened, inspired, angered and incited. Who can blame his critics from all sides of the political spectrum from having a last go at it now that he's gone.
That being said, Horwitt's biography presents Alinsky in the clearest and fullest light of any who have undertaken this difficult chronicling. He does not get in the way of the wonderful stories and experiences that made up Alinsky's life. He brings alive Alinsky and the world he helped shape.

Be thou a man.......2000-04-30

Saul Alinsky was a complex and colorful man of great integrity and a civic activist with world-wide influence. Dedicated to empowering the politically weak and unorganized, Alinsky is rightly credited as the founder of community self-help. In this highly readable account, we come to appreciate Alinsky's empathic genius and his flair for showmanship. He had an uncanny personal gift for discerning which acts of protest would get attention and results, as well as an ability to teach others some of the tricks of the trade. Of all the anecdotes in the book, perhaps the most memorable concerns the time that young Alinsky was hauled before his rabbi for socking a kid who had beat up his own best friend. Alinsky excuses his behavior as "eye for an eye", and part of the "American way". His rabbi's answer is memorable. "You think you're a man because you do what everyone else does. Now I want to tell you something the great Rabbi Hillel said: 'Where there are no men, be thou a man.' I want you to remember that." And Alinsky did.

"Be Thou a Man".......2000-03-30

Saul Alinsky, a complex and colorful man of great integrity and a civic activist with world-wide influence, deserves more than one biography. More than any other person, Alinsky was dedicated to empowering others and is rightly credited as the founding father of community self-help. In this highly readable account, we come to appreciate Alinsky's empathic genius and his flair for showmanship. He had an uncanny personal gift for discerning which acts of protest would get attention and results, as well as an ability to teach others some of the tricks of the trade. Of all the anecdotes in the book, perhaps the most memorable concerns the time that young Alinsky was hauled before his rabbi for socking a kid who had beat up his own best friend. Alinsky excuses his behavior as "eye for an eye" and part of the "American way." His rabbi's response is memorable. "You think you're a man because you do what everybody does. Now I want to tell you something the great Rabbi Hillel said: 'Where there are no men, be thou a man.' I want you to remember that.'" And Alinsky did.

Margaret Sanger: Rebel For Women's Rights (Women in Medicine)

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Margaret Sanger: Rebel For Women's Rights (Women in Medicine)
Vicki Cox
Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0791080307

Activists, Rebels and Reformers Edition 1.

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Activists, Rebels and Reformers Edition 1.
Phillis Engelbert , and Diane M. Sawinski
Manufacturer: U·X·L
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Board book

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ASIN: 0787648477

Book Description

Jane Addams fought for peace and the rights of women and poor immigrant workers in Chicago at the turn of the twentieth century. Ella Baker was a behind-the-scenes organizer, considered by many to be the "godmother" of the civil rights movement. Mohandas Gandhi united the citizens of India to peacefully overthrow British rule in the 1940s. Emiliano Zapata trained a guerrilla army and led a revolution in Mexico in the early 1900s. These individuals, all of whom shaped the course of history, present a sampling of the biographical entries included in this exciting U·X·L® title.

Activists, Rebels and Reformers examines the lives of prominent movers and shakers, as well as lesser-known agitators, from all times and places, and offers profiles on several significant groups of activists. Presented in an objective manner, this 3-vol. set allows students to reach their own conclusions about the merit of these individuals' causes. Comprehensive and thought provoking, this biographical reference includes profiles on 75 people and ten groups including:

Saul Alinsky
Amnesty International
The Black Panther Party
Cesar Chavez
Dorothy Day
Earth First!
Frederick Douglass
Paulo Friere
Emma Goldman
Sarah and Angela Grimke
Che Guevara
Abbie Hoffman
Alice Paul
Aung San Suu Kyi
Haile Selassie
Ingrid Washinawatok

Book Description

Carol Grever and her husband, Jim, were high school sweethearts who married in their early twenties. Thirty years and two children later, Jim announced to his wife that he was homosexual. A fundamentalist Christian, he had been leading a double life for years. In an effort to process her pain and confusion, Carol Grever sought out other heterosexual women, of all ages, ethnicities, and educational backgrounds, who were married to gay men. The stories she uncovered examine these women's coping strategies and form the basis of this manual for healing.

Customer Reviews:

I couldn't even finish it!.......2007-07-03

This book is very repetitive. It presents interesting cases that become boring when explored over and over again. If your spouse turns out to be homosexual, a support group would be much more helpful than this book.

Good Book.......2007-06-15

This book was helpful, but the Author is 'teaching' junk science, so I am only giving it two stars.

The fact is that there is NO Gay Gene, and Greever has swallowed a lot of politcal disinformation spread by PFLAG and teaching it to women who are buying into misinformation about genetic structures as a way to salve their own conscious or as a way to fend off outsiders who tell them iit is their fault that their husband is 'now' gay.

The fact is that it isn't their fault at all, so why accept 'junk' science as a way of coping. Would they 'modify' their eating behavior and change their diet's if their DNA included predispositions to cancer or diabetes? Of course they would, or most people would try to modify their dietary behavior if they had family who had those medical conditions.

Greever doesn't seem to be able to make the leap that DNA can show predispositions to a disease, and therefore can be modified. Gay is no different from other predispositions to any disease. Why is she even accepting PFLAGs assertion that Gay cannot be modified, when other genes can be modified? She has accepted their politicaal agenda without even looking at the entire science behind DNA.

Frankly, the Gay Gene is a myth, and scientists agree that the DNA structure cannot be 'replicated', ergo there is no gay gene.

Fact: She emphasizes, that gays were _not_ _recruited_, that is also disinformation, based on the fact that in the early 1970's when the DSM struck Homosexuality from their Diagnostic book, they recruited people by telling them that 'everyone' is Gay, everyone has a tendency towards being Gay, and that is a natural thing, clearing the way for homosexuals to recruuit young boys and girls into that lifestyle.

I am not overly religious, but I do know that there isn't a Gay Gene, and if there was, behavior can be modified, just like diets for predispositions to other medical problems, can be modified.

Ohter than that the book is supportive of spouses who are dealing with a marriage that isn't working. I think it would be best to say that, you either accept that your husband or wife is gay and move on or stay.

One of the best on this topic out there.......2005-08-15

While I have yet to find a good comprehensive book on this topic, this is the best I've read yet. Carol Grever treats the subject with compassion, and interweaves many personal stories that the reader can relate to. I also appreciated that, while it may be rare or tough for a mixed orientation marriage to stay together, it's not impossible and the book reflects that message.

Having been the spouse of a gay man for 20 years (and known of his orientation for 10), I know that it is not impossible to make a marriage work, though it takes some incredible strength on the parts of both the straight and gay spouses. My husband and I both appreciated this book's approach.

Compatibility and change.......2005-07-08

It can only be a good thing that this book provides positive support for women who suddenly find themselves in a marriage that is not what they thought. After all, spousal compatability is the most important aspect of a lasting marriage. It does seem remarkable to me, though, that in 30 years of "mostly happy" marriage, the author never realised her husband was gay. Surely the marriage's general long-term happiness should have the author questioning her own status, vis-a-vis the whole gay issue? Different personality types and their relative compatibility are usually issues that are sorted out in the pre-marriage courting stage, or at least in the early stages of marriage. For it to take 30 "mostly happy" years for the author to realise her objections to her husband's gaiety indicates the likelihood that she had actually changed over time. It's natural for some people to become more melancholic and morose as they get older, but it seems a bit unreasonable to be taking it out on your spouse!

This book saved my life.......2005-05-12

nobody ever knows...until it happens. one day you come home and your husband is sitting at the kitchen table with his best cashmere sweater and his workout partner, Javier. next thing you know, he is telling you that his business trip to fire island wasnt for exactly company business. well, what can i say, this book helped me through those times and now i can say i am a proud survivor. my kids and i are adjusting, but it was all due to the book. it is good to know i am not the only one out there.

i definitely recommend this book to anyone with a husband that prefers sausage to taco.

Choices: My Journey After Leaving My Husband for Martina and a Lesbian Life

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neurotica - Texas style!
A MUST READ
Absolutely "Riveting"
What a book!!!

Choices: My Journey After Leaving My Husband for Martina and a Lesbian Life
Judy Hill Nelson
Manufacturer: Carol Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1559723289

Customer Reviews:

neurotica - Texas style!.......2007-07-28

As Dorothy Parker once said in a review, "This book should not be tossed aside lightly, it should be thrown with great force." This is Part Duex of Ms. Nelson's self-aggrandizing, exploitative effort to wring yet another buck or two out of her experiences with her two notable exes - Rita Mae Brown and Martina Navaratilova. Please do not spend the money for this thing - we really don't want to encourage her.

A MUST READ.......1998-08-24

When I finished this book, I had a new respect for Judy Nelson. With everything that has been said and printed about her she still finds it in herself to let us in and get to know her a little better. Since the only things that we really knew before her books, was that she left her husband and kids for another woman, she took alot of heat for that from both sides, gay and straight. She took even more heat when the two women parted company and her first book. It takes real strength and character to come through all of this and still refuse to tear Martina apart like she has done to Judy. I for one really thank Ms. Nelson for her honesty.

Absolutely "Riveting".......1998-06-29

This book was magnificent. If you have ever been in love and lost that love, this is the book you need to read. I have read her first book"Love Match" and it was wonderful, but this book is "double" wonderful. She seems at peace finally and once again happy with her life. And if anyone deserves it, it is Ms. Nelson. She helped me in my time of crisis. I lost someone very special to me, and I read her book. The courage she exemplifies, made me feel like I had a friend to talk to. She is a wonderful person, makes you feel like she is your best friend. I truly hope she writes another wonderful book.

What a book!!!.......1998-02-21

This book, is a definate for anyone who needs the courage to make difficult choices in their lives. Judy Nelson has become a heroine of mine just for her convictions and her honesty. I really related to her. I read Love Match but found her changed and "still" in this one. I wish she would write more!!!

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So this is love....
Nod your head
Great Read on Butch-Femme Life
Flows like honey down your throat
A Love Story

My Lesbian Husband
Barrie Jean Borich
Manufacturer: Graywolf Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1555973108

Amazon.com

Barrie Jean Borich's memoir of her 14-year marriage is a subtle exploration of gender and the intricacies of butch-femme desire. In dense, lyrical paragraphs, My Lesbian Husband describes Borich's first attraction to her partner, Linnea, and the slow building of their life together in a decaying neighborhood in Minneapolis. Borich traces both the pleasures and the wrenching difficulties of trying to construct a long-term union in the absence not only of legal and social support but of everything that our aunts and uncles and parents take for granted: "names for their union in every language, the weddings of a square-chested prince and a big-busted, cinch-waisted princess at the end of every Disney movie, every Shakespeare comedy, not to mention Mary and Joseph, Hera and Zeus, and those little bride and groom figurines they have saved from their wedding cakes." This is as sharply observed and well-written a memoir as Jan Clausen's Apples and Oranges, but a valentine rather than a valediction. --Regina Marler

Book Description

Winner of the American Library Association GLBT Book Award

Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award

Customer Reviews:

So this is love...........2003-09-23

As a straight woman, this book gives me wonderful insight into the love life of a lesbian couple. And to all those people out there who argue against gay relationships, this book clearly shows that "love is love." Worries, tender moments, everyday things like walking the dog and feeding the cats, are things we all go through in our relationships. So I hope this book does not get just a gay audience. The only bone I have to pick is that I thought the writing and editing could have been tighter. Some of the chapters seem as if they were written to stand on their own. For example, we're introduced several times to "Paulie, my brother," when she could have just introduced him that way once and subsequently referred to him just as Paulie. Same thing with her descriptions of her Chicago neighborhood and her Slavic background. But still, I really flew through this book.

Nod your head.......2002-06-28

This is an extremely powerful book. The story of the author's long-term relationship with her partner is both fascinating and extremely romantic. Knowing that she is deeply in love with her partner, the author ponders questions about marriage and titles: When is a lesbian couple married since it is not yet legal to marry? Would gays want the straight convention of marriage anyway? What should a "married" lesbian couple call each other (wife and wife?--this does not seem to fit for their relationship, hence the title "My Lesbian Husband")? Borich illustrates the irony that a love that is so right in every way and has proven through time and hardship to work, has no clear, comfortable labels or rights in society. This is a love story for both straight and gay readers. Not only an excellent memoir (Borich's second), but also an important book in terms of gay rights. It is a testament of true love--I have never read a book that describes lesbian love so poetically and truthfully. It makes you nod your head knowingly and think, "Yeah, this is what it's like." After reading this book one will be left wondering why two women so in love and so dedicated to each other cannot marry and have legal rights.

Great Read on Butch-Femme Life.......2001-10-31

this is a great book if you're in a butch-femme relationship, or identify as either butch or femme. it's even a good book if you're not! wonderfully written, interesting, funny, maddening. ups and downs of lesbian life - a must read. are we married? if you have to question, you're probably not...

Flows like honey down your throat.......2001-10-30

I can't say enough how wonderful this book is. It goes best with deleriously hot summer days and cool drinks with condensation on the outside of the glass. The prose is wonderful and sweeping, it pulls you through each and every memory that fills the book with a sense of delight, wonder and devotion. It made me think about my own position as a Lesbian in the 21st Century.

A must for any Lesbian in a long term relationship, or any woman that has the teeniest romantic soul.

A Love Story.......2001-07-17

This is a marvalous love story. Ms. Borich's prose is very lyrical as she describes the relationship between herself and her lover and best friend. The first half is totally captivating, weakens a bit in the second half, but wraps it up with a very strong last chapter. This is not just a story of the life of a lesbian, but a story of the love that two people have for each other. Read it. You will not be disappointed.

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My Lesbian Husband -
Barrie Jean Borich -
Manufacturer: Graywolf Press -
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000R9K7FC

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