Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (South End Press Classics, V. 5)
by Bell Hooks
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Paperback (01 May, 2000)
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Reviews (12)

Feminist Theory Review
I think it's high time the classics were brought back. Too often these feminists classics have gone out of print, and not available to younger generations. It's as viable today as it was in 1984.

wow!
A fantastic, indispensable book that should be read by everyone who has eyes and half a cerebellum. A great starting point for people who, like me, were interested in feminism but always felt the whole Betty Friedan liberate-the-homemaker aspect they taught us in highschool was a bit shallow, moot, and furthermore nonapplicable to males. Hooks' voice is distinctively wise, startling, discerning, and pragmatic; conceptually, it really makes you view the way society works with new eyes, even if none of the indictments really come as a surprise. Although many readers not predisposed to radical politics may have trouble swallowing all of her ideas in this era of ultra-conservatism, this book really does have something for everybody. It's obvious the reader below calling this book baseless propaganda didn't really understand it, for harmful power hegemonies are still as central to American social and political conduct as when it was first published twenty years ago.

Important reading for anyone who loves women
More men should read feminist texts.The world would be a much better place....hopefully.I'm a man, and I love books by Bell Hooks, Adrienne Rich and Alice Walker. ... Read more

Isbn: 0896086135
Sales Rank: 98983
Subjects:  1. African American women    2. Attitudes    3. Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General    4. Evaluation    5. Feminism    6. Feminism & Feminist Theory    7. Marginality, Social    8. Social Science    9. Sociology    10. United States    11. Women's Studies - General   

But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies
by Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, Barbara Smith
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Paperback (01 February, 1982)
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Reviews (1)

Altering the Racist and Sexist Paradigm in Academia
This compliation of essays lays down the curricular and research agenda for the establishment of a Black Women's Studies program in the academy.It weaves personal narrative, literary criticism, and empirical analysis which cogently argues that Black Studies and Women's Studies in academia do not adequately address the multiple consciousness of Black women through discourses on racism, sexism, classism, and sexuality.The authors of the various articles articulate the need to look at Black women's lives as multi-faceted and complex, neither wholly positive or negative.I am not sure if the authors decided to change the name of the book to make it more marketable but the original title is "All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men,But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies."I tend to prefer the original title because it brilliantly captures the dilemmas that Black women face in higher education and the wider - negation of their experiences as Black people and as women. The book delivers an historical examination of the Black Women's Studies movement that began in the early 1970's with the formation of the Combahee River Collective, a black feminist organization and the National Black Feminist Organization.It also pushes for the development of a Black Women's Studies program that reaches out beyond the halls of academe and situates its curricular and research agenda in political and economic organizing on behalf of Black women of all educational and economic classes. ... Read more

Isbn: 0912670959
Sales Rank: 471475
Subjects:  1. African American women    2. Bibliography    3. Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - Histor    4. Feminism    5. Race relations    6. Sociology    7. United States    8. Women's Studies - General   

Women, Race, & Class
by ANGELA Y. DAVIS
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Paperback (12 February, 1983)
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Editorial Review

Longtime activist, author and political figure Angela Davis brings us this expose of the women's movement in the context of the fight for civil rights and working class issues. She uncovers a side of the fight for suffrage many of us have not heard: the intimate tie between the anti-slavery campaign and the struggle for women's suffrage.She shows how the racist and classist bias of some in the women's movement have divided its own membership. Davis' message is clear: If we ever want equality, we're gonna have to fight for it together. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

I love this book about how US feminist movement
is tainted by racism and classism as well as their alliance with the white elite in oppressing many different peoples at different time periods up to today.I recommended the book to those who want to know about the racist/classist origins of the feminist movement.

Don't get me wrong, I'm just as concerned about the plight of women as the next person, but the truth needs to get out.

A fascinating look at the women's movement
This book, or at least excerpts from it, should be a must read for everyone.Davis presents a side of the suffragette movement, the first wave of feminism, that many people will never be aware of--the conflict between women's rights and African American rights, and the underlying racism of the movement spearheaded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.Davis then effectively juxtaposes the first wave of feminism with the second wave of feminism in the 1960-70's to show the correlation between the two movements.

In both cases, the fight for African American rights took prescedence over the rights of women.While during the first wave of feminism, black women were ignored by the suffragettes, during the second wave of feminism, black women were faced with the choice of going forward in a women's movement that, once again, didn't really include them, or supporting the rights of African Americans as a race.A difficult choice.Davis clearly elucidates the failings of the both waves of feminism to include ALL women and shows how necessary it is for women, regardless of race, to work together.

Feminist Movement
Ifyouareconcernedaboutthedirectionofthefeministmovementinthiscountrythen,byallmeansaddthisbooktoyourcollection.AngelaDavisiswithoutequalsintermsofherwriting. Sheexaminestheexploitationoftheblackwomantracingtheoppressionbacktoslavery.IfyouhaventalreadybecomefamiliarwiththewritingsofAngelaDavis.Sheislastgreaticonoftheblackliberationmovement. ... Read more

Isbn: 0394713516
Subjects:  1. African Americans    2. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    3. Feminism & Feminist Theory    4. History    5. Racism    6. Sexism    7. Sociology    8. United States    9. Women's Studies - General    10. Social Science / Women's Studies   

The Alchemy of Race and Rights
by Patricia J. Williams
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Paperback (01 November, 1991)
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Editorial Review

In a personal and profound examination of the United States legal system and its effect on African Americans, Patricia J. Williams uses the term alchemy--the medieval, mysterious practice of turning base metal into gold--as a haunting metaphor for the nearly mystical process by which United States law emboldens and endangers blacks through arcane interpretation, as well as the heroic will of a people to make those laws manifest. "I'm interested in the way in which the legal language flattens and confines in absolutes the complexity of meaning inherent in any given problem," she writes. "I am trying to challenge the usual limits of commercial discourse by using an intentionally double-voiced and relational, rather than a traditionally legal black letter, vocabulary."

With an authorial voice that draws upon Williams's perspective as teacher, lawyer, black American, and woman, The Alchemy of Race and Rights uses a palette of court cases, educational encounters, and personal experiences--including her discovery of her slave ancestor and her interactions with school deans over how to teach law--to create a literary cubist portrait detailing the rhetoric and reality that color the complexion of American justice. --Eugene Holley Jr. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

A Widely Read Manifesto of Regressive Race Relations
A great deal of discourse has come out of the use of this book in my law class on the interaction of law in society, but I find it's use counter-productive to the forward-thinking goals of most academic institutions. Prof. Williams cannot seem to make up her mind on anything. She attacks Marxist lawyers, while at the same time advocating an affront to the bourgeoise, especially those without black skin (whites, Hispanics and Asians are all vilified to some degree in this book). While masquerading as a socialist activist herself, she then advocates a very right-wing goal of keeping each other in our respective racial boxes to keep order, even refusing to accept that she herself can be at once black, female and educated -- these three identities always appear separately for her. Her book is a regressive look at the future that denies the possibility of progress in race and gender relations. She is sadly unable to employ the power in her rights and instead prefers to wallow in a viscious cycle that refuses to recognize nuance, and prefers rather to assume racial categories, because they are simpler. Very few new ideas are presented in this racist, ethnically intolerant and misandric text and it is hardly worth a read, beyond the fact that it may come up in discussion.

More gibberish from the good professor
What a dreary tome. Ms. Professor Williams has a unique ability to obscure the most obvious and trite revelations in pedantic and turgid prose that she thinks is thrillingly poetic because the words are long-winded and flowery. and that's when she's making sense, which isn't very often. the rest of her writings tend to be either outright calls for more preferences for her preferred friends camouflaged as courageous iconoclasm, or just plain idiocy posing as intellectually daring originality. Sadly enough, if Thomas Kuhn is right, we'll have the likes of Professor Pat around for another couple of decades. (But hey, if you have the money, you can always sign up for the Nation's annual cruise and talk about the revolution with Pat and the gang for a mere 8 grand or so....)

Fabulous Book for the Open-Minded
This is an extraordinary book.Through the use of a wide array of reasoning and writing methods, Williams makes it possible for us to get a glimpse of the dangerous and contradictory legal world that ethnic minorities must negotiate to survive.It may be a bit of a stretch for people unaccustomed to thinking outside the box as well as those unfamilar with literature and literary theory.But the insight Williams offers is well worth the effort.It also provides members of the privileged class with the unusual & valuable experience of not being the central focus of the text.A fabulous experience for readers with an open mind! ... Read more

Isbn: 0674014715
Subjects:  1. African Americans    2. Biography    3. Civil Procedure    4. Civil rights    5. Critical legal studies    6. Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - Lifest    7. Law teachers    8. Race relations    9. Sociology    10. United States    11. Williams, Patricia J.,   

killing rage : Ending Racism
by bell hooks
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (15 October, 1996)
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Editorial Review

Bell Hooks, the influential writer of Ain't I A Woman?, offers a black and feminist perspective on the issue of race in America. Throughout the 23 essays, Hooks seeks a way out of the cycle of racism. A provocative voice seeking wisdom in the din, she boldly asserts "this nation can be transformed... we can resist racism and in the act of resistance recover ourselves and be renewed." ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Facing Racism Head On
Bell Hooks covers all bases with the most pertinent issues that involve racism.KILLING RAGE:ENDING RACISM is an interesting critical assessment that does not only involve African Americans, but all Americans who want to understand why racism still exists.Three major issues in the book remain in my mind and were constantly repeated in most of the chapters: self-determination, White Supremacy, and decolonization.These issues, according to Hooks, are the root and the action for resolve in understanding the racism in the United States.For a long time, the "R" word has been an invisible subject, that never comes to a resolve when it is discussed -- a neverending circle.Hooks suggests that there is a sense of denial or amnesia.

Hooks makes a good point when she discusses the issue of race as it pertains whether or not black and white women can be friends.She concludes:"If white and black women were collectively working to change society so that we could know one another better and be able to offer acknowledgment and respect, then we would be playing a major role in ending racism.As long as white and black women are content with living separately in a state of psychic social apartheid, racism will not change"(224).She goes on about patriarchy and sexism, which tend to be the where incohesiveness exists.However, white and black women relations have more in common in ending the gap by building a bridge toward activism.

For the most part, when it all comes down to it, everything that Hooks discusses leads to "let's face" the problem of racism.She states that it is possible, and it all depends on the individual, and building a community that educates and talks about learning about racism and how to deter it.KILLING RAGE is one of many books that critically analyzes racism, and Hooks' criticism was extremely understandable and directly to the point.

However, the book may have been more effective if she provided the voices, such as oral testimonies, of the people that have helped to deter the problem.The majority of the sources she used were predominantly secondary sources from previous scholarship.She makes assumptions, which contribute to a little gray areas in the book, such as when she briefly refers to non-blacks and how they may fit into the equation -- Native Americans and Asians.But overall, this is an important subject that needs attention as long as the problem exists.

Profound Denouncement of White Supremacy and Patriarchy
Have you ever had the experience of feeling something deep down inside, passionate policy positions (about racism, sexism, classism, etc.), fervently knowing all the time that you are not only right but also profoundly aware, and yet, because your positions are unpopular and/or because you cannot cite authority for your position, you cannot fully express your thoughts, and hence, when called upon to proffer and defend your position, you can rely only upon your passions -- never enough for the logician engaging you in discussion and debate?

Well, I have.I live in this constant state when I challenge racism and sexism (most especially sexism).But I just finished the most empowering book I have read in a long time -- Killing Rage by bell hooks -- which coalesces my thoughts on both racism and sexism, passionately denouncing one while not betraying the denouncement of the other.All that I've been saying for so long, all that I've felt, I knew I was right.But it's often lonely thinking outside the box, and I could never quite reconcile my thoughts with my daily training in white supremacist patriarchy.Now, I don't have to, and it's a wonderful feeling.I strongly recommend this book to any woman who disavows both racism and sexism, and yet who often searches for the words to condemn both simultaneously.

A must read for the vigilant soul.Sure, few white people can accept such a politically incorrect denouncement of racism.Few men can accept such truth that dethrones them from their perceived superiority over women.

This is not Kumbaya-Let's-all-hold-hands-and-forget-racism.This is not Be-Submissive-to-your-man-and-sexism-goes-away.This is not typical, conventional, or superficial... only the deep mind can handle this work.

Not a killing rage, but certainly a blind one
Ms. Hooks begins with a true-life account of what sounds like an elementary problem in moral reasoning.Two people, A and B, lay claim to an airplane seat.Neither, to the best of our knowledge, is being deceitful.Only B, however, can produce evidence of having paid for the seat.Whom do you, as the flight attendant, permit to sit there?Person B ought to be the obvious answer, but not to Hooks, who insists on dragging race and gender into an issue where these factors are wholly irrelevant.Unsubtle and frankly distasteful are her attempts to draw a parallel between adjudication of a simple booking error and back-of-the-bus discrimination in pre-Rosa-Parks America.

One reviewer claims that Hooks's "arguements [sic] and perspectives are a reality" that evidently deserves consideration.He's right, in a way._Mein_Kampf_ was a perspective on reality.A sicker, more twisted and malevolent perspective it's harder to imagine, but it was one that needed to be taken seriously for what it augured for Europe and the world.Hooks surely is not planning genocide but her paranoid and inflammatory "perspective" on race matters is being taught as gospel truth to thousands of high-school and college students.If you want to understand why it has become so difficult to have an honest, civilized discussion about race in this country, Hooks and her fellow-travelers are a good place to begin your inquiry.

On any measure one wishes to use, life for modern American blacks is demonstrably better than it was a century ago.Do challenges still exist?Is there still room for progress?God yes, of course.But for Hooks to claim that racism is just as insidious a problem today as it ever was is simply wrong and a distortion of the modern state of affairs.

There's plenty that I dislike about capitalism, but here too I think Bell Hooks is woefully misguided.Any economic solution to the plight of poverty is going to have to work within the capitalist structure, not in opposition to it.I suspect that Hooks, who draws her salary from a state-supported university, has forgotten how exactly the wealth was generated that created her job. ... Read more

Isbn: 0805050272
Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. People of Color    3. Sociology    4. Women's Studies - General    5. Social Science / Women's Studies   

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Crossing Press Feminist Series)
by Audre Lorde
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 April, 1984)
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Reviews (6)

The Late Audre Lorde Really Got
this book down pat!Her worldview regarding racialized sexism and sexualized racism was well-written as well as the solutions to that problem and the problem of coalitions.

Audre Lorde deserves to be read by every woman in the world!

Incredible essays
No poems this time around, folks: prose that gets under your skin and into your head.The late, great Audre Lorde, known primarily for her poetry over the years, wrote what is one of the most compelling books on sociology, sexuality, racism and the nature of human character and existence in the last 20 years.Her charges are damning, but dashed with more than a spoonful of hope when appropriate, and it is impossible to walk away from this book unchanged.

No New Age-isms, no agendas...just common-sense reactions to everyday experiences told in a way that not only everyone can understand, but in a way everyone SHOULD understand.

One of the most important books I have ever read...
This book is a compilation of material Lorde wrote in the 70s 80s. Lorde is one of the foremost writers on the subjects of patriarchy, sexism, homphobia and race relations that the West has ever seen.She talks about how to make change and helps the reader truly understand the situation of people who are underprivileged and discriminated against in our society. Of all the books I read in my Women's Studies classes, this is the one that stayed with me. It is at once intellectually challenging and accessible. I particularly enjoyed her "Notes from a Trip to Russia" and "An Open Letter to Mary Daly." The piece that has had the most impact on my life, however, is "The Masters Tools," which is a blueprint for change. She is giving us the keys we need to not only improve our own lives, but the world as a whole. Lorde's words ring as true today as they did when the book was first published. A must read!!! ... Read more

Isbn: 0895941414
Sales Rank: 39205
Subjects:  1. African American women    2. Black women    3. Essays    4. Feminism    5. Feminism & Feminist Theory    6. Lesbian Studies    7. Lesbianism    8. Nonfiction - General    9. Poetry    10. Social Science    11. Sociology   

Gyn/Ecology : The Metaethics of Radical Feminism
by Mary Daly
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (12 November, 1990)
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Reviews (18)

A feminist classic
Dr. Mary Daly is one of the most influential writers inmy life. Gyn/Ecology is my alltime favorite of her books. She is not about manhating. She is about loving her fellow women and combatting anything which hurts them. She exposes the evils of female genital mutilation, footbinding and widow burning. She was far ahead of her time when she wrote against patriarchal medicines abuse of women. Her gynocentric vision of a future for our planet is really the only thing that will save our mother earth from patriarchal destruction.

Spellbinding
I took this book to work, and every one of my coworkers read chapters 4, 5, and 6 without being able to put the book down.In fact, my original copy vanished, so I have to buy a new copy.In fact, I might buy two or three copies for the Christmas book drive.

Caveat Emptor: A darkened mind without love or grace
For decades feminist authors such as Miss Daly have used their dubious credentials in academia to promulgate the fantasy of a golden age before the onset of "patriarchy," It's the same 60s nonsense-strip away the fancy prose and you're left with the following executive summary: Women once ruled the earth with flowy robes and Gaia conjuring magic wands, and all the world worshipped the Goddess. Any woman who has the courage to study the historical,archeological and paleological evidence by academics with ACTUAL ACCREDITED Ph.D.s will soon understand that this gynocentric vision is a myth.
The effect of this genre of novel is not to increase grace, love and mercy, but to further splinter humanity into yet more little tribes, all petulantly vying for victim-status and privilege.
When we sublimate and externalize our spiritual pain and longing for God to a hatred of other groups (in this case, men) how can we find peace, happiness andlove in our journey through life?

Read books that open your heart. The best antidote to Miss Daly's agenda-of-rage is Cynthia Eller's"The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory : Why An Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future." Cynthia Eller easily exposes the Gaia/Sophia/Lilith movement as a scam, and helps the reader differentiate between the two major concepts of Truth: an external, objective and verifiable reality, vs. subjective concept groupings used to stabilize a fragmented secular consciousness.
Another valuable read is "Interior Castle" or "The Way of Perfection" by St. Teresa of Avila. I challenge any woman to read those 2 books and conclude that the author was "marginalized" and repressed by the "patriarchy." More likely, they would understand that a loving apprehension of woman's beauty, power and regnancy existed centuries before the word "feminism" was ever breathed on a western campus. The great irony is that this vision of women, infinitely larger, more beautiful and complex than anything modern feminism has ever proposed, is the very reality which Miss Daly desperately wishes to extinguish in her disciples.
In 50 years, the present farrago of theoreticians- Andrea Dworkin, Germaine Greer, Naomi Wolf, Susan Faludi ad infinitum will all be dead and forgotten, their books mouldering in bargain bins and used book stores. Don't follow their fate, sisters... only love is stronger than death, and you will find love in the men and women of the past centuries who knew God intimately. ... Read more

Isbn: 0807014133
Sales Rank: 208322
Subjects:  1. Feminism    2. Feminism & Feminist Theory    3. Feminist Philosophy    4. General    5. Moral and ethical aspects    6. Poetry    7. Social ethics    8. Sociology    9. Religion / General   

Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 December, 1998)
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Editorial Review

At the height of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston was the preeminent black woman writer in the United States. She was a sometime-collaborator with Langston Hughes and a fierce rival of Richard Wright. Her stories appeared in major magazines, she consulted on Hollywood screenplays, and she penned four novels, an autobiography, countless essays, and two books on black mythology. Yet by the late 1950s, Hurston was living in obscurity, working as a maid in a Florida hotel. She died in 1960 in a Welfare home, was buried in an unmarked grave, and quickly faded from literary consciousness until 1975 when Alice Walker almost single-handedly revived interest in her work.

Of Hurston's fiction, Their Eyes Were Watching God is arguably the best-known and perhaps the most controversial. The novel follows the fortunes of Janie Crawford, a woman living in the black town of Eaton, Florida. Hurston sets up her characters and her locale in the first chapter, which, along with the last, acts as a framing device for the story of Janie's life. Unlike Wright and Ralph Ellison, Hurston does not write explicitly about black people in the context of a white world--a fact that earned her scathing criticism from the social realists--but she doesn't ignore the impact of black-white relations either:

It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.

One person the citizens of Eaton are inclined to judge is Janie Crawford, who has married three men and been tried for the murder of one of them. Janie feels no compulsion to justify herself to the town, but she does explain herself to her friend, Phoeby, with the implicit understanding that Phoeby can "tell 'em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat's just de same as me 'cause mah tongue is in mah friend's mouf."

Hurston's use of dialect enraged other African American writers such as Wright, who accused her of pandering to white readers by giving them the black stereotypes they expected. Decades later, however, outrage has been replaced by admiration for her depictions of black life, and especially the lives of black women. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston breathes humanity into both her men and women, and allows them to speak in their own voices. --Alix Wilber ... Read more

Reviews (343)

An outstanding story
Their Eyes Were Watching God was one of the best books that I've ever read. The book answered a lot of questions about life. We are faced with several conflicts in humanity with choices having to be made between Love, Good, Evil, Hope or reality, and Truth. It is a story about Janie, a young black woman, who tries to find herself through her grandmother's footsteps and eventually confronts herself to become the person she knows is of her own good. Taken along the memory lane in a small southern black town, "Their Eyes were Watching God" is a beautiful portrayal of the conflicts confronting Janie, not only about herself but also about how her society perceives her. Through an amazing creativity in characters, plot development, excellent narrative, lessons and dialogues and an easy ride through time, Zora successful made the reader to understand and appreciate black culture. It reminded me of DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, THE GREAT GATSBY, UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.This absolutely credible story is a highly recommended book to anyone with a taste for classic stories.

transcends time and race.........
Zora Neale Hurston weaves a magical spell as she transports readers into the world of Janie Crawford.Through the use of provincial dialogue, the reader is coaxed into leaving behind the current time and gently submersing themselves into an earlier era.
Janie is a young, thought filled, intelligentwoman who freely observes and ponders life as she experiences it.She weighs and appraises unfolding events and makes deliberate and difficult choices in order to live a life defined by the depth and passion she determines, with no holds barred.
While this novel has been defined as one of the finest Black novels of all time, I feel that it is more than that...it is one of the finest novels about a person throwing off the expectations and pressures of others and pursuing their own truths. This is a story that transcends time and delivers it's timeless message of living life on one's own terms and living it fully.

Splendid
Their Eyes Were Watching God was one of those books that took my breathe and most of my sleeping hours away. Hurston uses a great technique of slang speech and standard English to add more pizzaz to the story. As Janie travels from man to man, she experiences life-long lessons that help her to find out who she really is. Indirectly each man and critical comment that Janie took in, created the woman she turned out to be. I found that this book was a delight to read and I would definitely recommend young women of today's century to read it. ... Read more

Isbn: 0060931418
Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Fiction    3. Literary    4. Literature - Classics / Criticism    5. Reading Group Guide   

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose
by Alice Walker
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (19 October, 1984)
list price: $15.00
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Reviews (9)

Touching Essays by a brilliant writer.
When I finished this book I knew I was going to miss the things it said to me.Alice Walker wrote brilliantly about her own struggles, her passion for other people to discover Zora Neale Hurston, the civil rights movement, and her work as a black feminist.So many subjects are touched in this book that jumps back and forth through 20+ years.Walker is inspritational to all woman.As a writer she shows one the strength to succeed not in business but loving yourself as well as working to achieve equal rights for everyone no matter the sex or the color.Her essays are moving written like a painting.Her words are beautiful and inspire.The few poems that she used in this collection are the best i have ever seen.She is honest about her experiences in hopes that we all might learn from her and take to a cause.We are the makers of our future.I would read this book again and it establishes to me that Alice Walker is a gifted writer who has become one of my favorites.

Alice is very moorish
First I read The Colour Purple and thought that Alice
was an older woman. Then I read The Temple of My Familiar and began to wonder. In Search of Our Mother's Gardens illuminates the writer. I have gone in search of many of the books to which she refers in her essays.

Easy Reading for English Class
I am a junior in AP English, and for class we had to choose a non-fiction or auto/biographical book from a list our teacher had supplied. I chose this book because of an essay we had read by Ms. Walker in class. I loved it! It was very witty, yet I learned about the black culture and black artists. I actually enjoyed reading a book for class, and recommend this book for anyone who is interested in reading and learning! ... Read more

Isbn: 0156445441
Sales Rank: 520141
Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. African American women    3. Authors, American    4. Biography    5. Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General    6. Feminism    7. Feminism & Feminist Theory    8. Literature: Classics    9. Sociology    10. Social Science / Feminism & Feminist Theory   

Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law
by Catharine A. MacKinnon
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 April, 1988)
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Reviews (4)

A Rosetta of Social Constructivist Radical Feminism
This eloquent book is a collection of insightful orations given by Ms. MacKinnon during the eighties with in their aggregation is a powerful text on social constructivist Radical Feminism and class analysis. Ms. MacKinnon's approaches provide needed shifts in paradigms away from patriarchy. Gender is understood in terms of the the only meaning it can have in this society: Dominance of one class over another. She provide incredible distinctions and indepth discussions on issues such as Full and Formal Equity, definitions and meaning of rape and pornography.

She has a requisite versing in philosophy as she appeals to provides epistemological shifts needed to question the meaning of difficult constructs such as gender. Being a lawyer, she is facile in illuminating basic assumptive inequities in Juris Prudence. I was most appreciative at her analysis of rape and shifting the definition of rape from penetration to violence and where rape is not an erotic act but one of dominance. She continues further and looks at how members of gendered class male define the sexuality of members of gendered class woman until we do not know what our sexuality really is.

She provides a variety of diverse topics but ties them together by pinpointing their interrelatedness in patriarchy. She skillfully examines issues of the first amendment vs pornography and aptly illustrates how the Bill of Rights is becoming a legal repository for male priviledge.

Ms. MacKinnon's messages are presented in multiple levels and at varying depths and accessibilities, one thing to know is that there is always another level of understanding to be attained from this book. The reader is assured that there is much here if she avails herself to it. Please do not short change yourself by a cursory reading. Ms. MacKinnon departs from Radical Feminist stereotypes in that she develops an experienced level of vulnerability in her speeches and the reader can actually feel the extent that she cares about women.

How fortunate that the paperback is hardy, because it travels with me often.

Thought provoking
How much you appreciate this book depends on what you want to get out of it. It is accessible to anon-academic reader, and although I disagree with her thesis, the speeches are well-argued. She basically thinks thatgender *is* domination, and attempts to show that the meaning of woman-nessis in subjection. Ithink that if you care about feminism, you must atleast understand this radical claim. She has definately made me rethinksome of my kneejerk assumptions, which after all is the whole point.

Hateful Polemics
One of my law professors was a disciple of McKinnon's and recommended this book to me.After reading it I can only conclude that the author seems to be suffering from some serious unresolved conflicts.

McKinnon representsa radical, and in my opinion, unacceptable view of feminism.There arebetter authors in this field such as Steinem, who presents a more balancedand substantially less radical viewpoint.McKinnon is to feminism as LouisFarrakhan is to Afro culture. ... Read more

Isbn: 0674298748
Sales Rank: 36911
Subjects:  1. Feminism    2. Feminism & Feminist Theory    3. Gender & the Law    4. General    5. Law and legislation    6. Legal status, laws, etc    7. Legal status, laws, etc.    8. Sociology    9. United States    10. Women   

The Salt Eaters (Vintage Contemporaries)
by TONI CADE BAMBARA
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (30 June, 1992)
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Reviews (5)

Salt Eaters Requires Much, Rewards Much
This book is best read straight through in one or two sittings.The main action of the story, Velma Henry's healing, takes place in a matter of minutes but requires the entire book to extend through the minds past, present, and future of multiple characters--onlookers and passersby.Each scene requires subsequent scenes to unpack, unfold, and explain it.Toni Cade Bambara has ensured that the attentive reader will be richly rewarded for waiting and wondering.Even the smallest details--a baby bird fallen from its nest--are presented so luminously that when they are revisited pages later they are instantly recognizable. These continual moments of recognition knit together a novel that otherwise might stretch to bursting the limits of time, place, character, and spirit.

This wise novel cares deeply about healing on political, environmental, and personal levels.Salt, the title image, serves as an antidote to poison but embitters a body; it runs through the neck of an hourglass as a moment in time becomes crucial.

In this moment in time, to drumbeats and the strains of popular music, we meet a group of healers, a spirit guide, a bus driver, the doctors at a free clinic, a paperboy, winos, sisters, lovers, all kinds of mothers, tourists, thugs, transvestites, elders, animals--all of them teach us something about the soul of one strong woman broken under the weight of her passion for justice.

Are there weapons stockpiled at the Academy?Is the nuclear power plant slowly killing its employees?What will happen tonight at the carnival?These questions pale beside the central question: Will yesterday's struggle yield fruit tomorrow?Is there hope?

-K. Beachy

Not for the faint at heart...
"The Salt Eaters" by Toni Cade Bambara is definitely not a book for those who are faint at heart.This book is filled with unexpected twists and seemingly extraneous information, and may seem quite confusing at times.There were times when I contemplated not finishing the book, thinking that I was too lost in the thick of the plot to truely garner any meaning.I later realized that the beauty of this classic comes at the end, upon the realization that you were never lost - it was the characters who were lost, they were just bringing you along for the ride.It is much like an excursion through a dense jungle, filled with possible pitfalls and dangerous twists and turns that leads one to emerge upon a beautiful beach, just in time for the sunset.

The possible confusion that one might encounter on a first read through this book is due in part to the fact that it is largely written in the style of an epic poem, rather than in the "traditional" form of a novel.Many of the books subtleties and gems can be discovered upon subsequent readings of the book.As this is my first book by Bambara, I am somewhat unfamiliar with Bambara's usual style - if it can be said that she has one at all -but my experiences with "The Salt Eaters"draws me to dig deeper into her repertoire and learn to appreciate her mastery for her craft.

For people that love reading
You need to be aquipped to enter the world of Toni Cade Bambara. I discovered Bambara because her name was often associated with that of Toni Morrison.Bambara is a strong writer, with strong convinctions, and with amilitant kind of writing. What she teaches us in this novel is thateverything is organized in a network, that everything goes together. Moreimportantly perhaps, she teaches us that freedom is a matter of choice andthat it always carries reponsibilities: do you want to be free and what doyou want to do with your freedom? This is the question that the novelunderscores, the question to which the characters need to find an answer.You come out of "The salt Eaters" full with questions about yourplace in the universe and what you want in your life. Bambara does notmerely depicts a world of victims, of brutalization, alienation anddehumanization. At the center of the novel is the message that you can dosomething to better the world you live in if only you choose to be well andtake responsibility for what it entails. Bambara also makes clear thatthough everything's in a network, the individual still has the power totake action that may change not only himself and his community but theworld at large. For sure, we may question this somewhat idealistic andutopian vision, but is literature anything else but a big utopia?

Somereaders may be beffudled at Bambara syntax and vocabulary (and yes this ishard to decode), but once you get beyond that you're just disappointed thatBambara did not write many novels: you're in the presence of a greatartist, that is someone that has a style, a vision, and a message. ... Read more

Isbn: 0679740767
Sales Rank: 134764
Subjects:  1. African American women    2. Bambara, Toni Cade - Prose & Criticism    3. Domestic fiction    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - General    6. General    7. Georgia    8. Fiction / General   

Sacred Ground
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (24 October, 1995)
list price: $16.98 -- our price: $16.98
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Reviews (6)

Great Pick
This is really the best. Great sound and beat.Excelent recording sound and meaningful music.

Voices of real angels!
I got hooked on "Sweet Honey..." several years ago when I an interview on NPR. This CD really shows off their voices. It also shows how 'into' this genre they are! Highly recommend this CD. Heck, I highly recommend all their CDs!

An Amazing Work
I cannot express how grateful I am for this CD.It while I was listening to the amazing voices of these women that God helped me find my way out of a depression (I know it sounds corny, but it's true).While nothing compares to seeing this group perform live, all of their albums are incredible and a must to own.This one has a very spiritual focus, while others sometimes focus more on secular problems. No matter which album you choose, if you like music that is beautiful in every sense of the word, Sweet Honey in the Rock will not dissapoint you. ... Read more

Asin: B000002M7R
Sales Rank: 11893
Subjects:  1. Acappella    2. Folk & Traditional    3. Pop   

The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English
by Susan Gubar, Sandra M. Gilbert
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 March, 1996)
list price: $73.15 -- our price: $73.15
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Reviews (4)

Review
This anthology is an invaluable resource.It certainly must omit some works that "should" be in it.There is only so much space and future editions will surely correct the omissions.I would like to point out, however, that Buck is not the only woman to win both Nobel and Pulitzer.Toni Morrison has also won both awards for her literature.

At Last!
The female literary tradition, long neglected, emerges as one that has not only developed concurrently with, but has also influenced male literati. In this large and fascinating volume we meet the minds that analyzed and chronicled the lives these women lived and observed.

One might argue about the selections included and excluded here. Pearl Buck, the only woman to win both a Nobel Prize (1938) and a Pulitzer (1932) is excluded.

The book is divided into 6 eras, each with a lengthy "period introduction" giving historical and thematic backgrounds for the works included in that section.

From the five earliest women writers (dating from 700 to 1600), women began to shape and define their literary voices. England's first professional woman writer, Aphra Behn, whose literary career began in 1670, is the writer who women must honor above all others. According to Virginia Woolf, "it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds."

Here the reader will find rare works such as Jane Austen's "Love and Friendship" and George Eliot's "The Lifted Veil." Three notable novels are included in their entirety: JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte, THE AWAKENING by Kate Chopin, and THE BLUEST EYE by Toni Morrison.

Poems, stories, memoirs, essays, plays, letters, novels -- all literary works originally composed in English -- over 150 authors decrying, exalting, agonizing over, and celebrating the things we all have in common: Life...love...and death.

This is a fascinating collection and one that will stand reading and re-reading over a long period of time.

Plethora of Wonderful Works of Women
I first opened this book because of a Women's Lit class I took last year. Sure, I was excited, but I really did not expect to find it interesting. After all, the public school system only allows a few women writers to be taught: Mary Shelly, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Kate Chopin, and Emily Dickerson. But what about the many wonderful women writes who have not been taught at length? Anne Sexton, Toni Morrison, Elizabeth Bareet Browning, Christina Rosettie, Maya Angelou, Sylvia Plath, Anne Finch...the list is endless, literally. Every woman should own a copy of this book, regardless of whether you need it or not. It is time to spread the enormous talent of the world's best poets and authors. Many could not publish their works or gain the respect of their equally talented male writers, now it is time to give the Ladies all the credit they deserve. ... Read more

Isbn: 0393968251
Sales Rank: 69406
Subjects:  1. American literature    2. English literature    3. Literary collections    4. Literature - Classics / Criticism    5. Literature: Classics    6. Short Stories (Anthologies)    7. Women    8. Women In Literature    9. Women authors    10. Collections & anthologies of various literary forms    11. English    12. Women's studies   

The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (Includes Audio CD)
by Henry Louis Gates, Nellie Y. McKay
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 February, 1997)
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Editorial Review

A whopping 2,665 pages, The Norton Anthology of African American Literature was 10 years in the making, and it proves to have been well worth the wait. Beginning with vernacular forms such as the spirituals and the blues, it encompasses the whole history of black writing from the poems of Phillis Wheatley to the work of contemporary writers such as Terri McMillan, Toni Morrison, and Charles Johnson. Each section includes an introductory essay, and there is a brief biographical essay for each writer.The anthology includes an audio CD containing recorded examples of many of the songs and speeches. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Response to A Reader
The thin paper and large number of pages are a trademark of the Norton Anthologies.It does not by any stretch of the imagination make them unreadable.I am working my way through the Norton Anthology of British Literature Volume I and it has about 2600 pages on this "thin" paper.I am finding the reading enjoyable.If you want to critize do on the basis of content of the book, not what it is made of.

An epic panorama of African American literature
Taking upon yourself the task of creating an anthology that represents an entire literary and cultural tradition strikes me as a daunting task. The editors who helm such a project are almost playing god by deciding which authors and which works get into the "canon." Fortunately, the editors of "The Norton Anthology of African American Literature" have approached their duties with an expansive vision and an evident seriousness of purpose. The result is a collection which, although not without flaws, is a comprehensive and powerful sampling of a great tradition.

The editors have chosen a rich selection of works from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. A good balance of male and female authors is struck. I was particularly impressed by the great range of genres. Poetry, essays, autobiography, short fiction, drama, sermons, song lyrics, and even a few complete short novels are included. Science fiction writers (Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany), writers also included in the canon of lesbian and gay literature (Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Essex Hemphill) and writers whose works have an experimental edge (Adrienne Kennedy, etc.) are included.

The extensive author biographies include fascinating information about each writer's life and body of work. Bibliographies and a chronology at the end of the collection are also useful.

Of course, no anthology this ambitious is going to please everybody. As much as I liked the book, I still missed the presence of certain favorite authors (Pat Parker, SDiane Bogus, and others). And of the authors represented, there were those for whom I might have chosen some different or additional selections (Audre Lorde's essay "Man Child" would have made an excellent complement to the work already represented). And what about Afro-Latino/a writers like Jesus Colon? With the exception of Puerto Rican-born Arthur Schomburg, they appear to be almost entirely absent.

I am sure that others with a love for and expertise in African American literature will cite other authors whom they would have liked to have seen included. And perhaps others will find the collection as it is simply too big (more than 2600 pages!) and overwhelming. But all things considered, this anthology is a truly impressive achievement. It is an outstanding resource for teachers, students, and general readers.

A bit long yes, but great
True, the book is LONG, and printed on THIN pages.True, it includes just about everyone and everything rather than a selection of a few of the so-called "greatest" African-American writers.That is thebeauty of it though, it is precisely what it claims to be:an anthology.

You won't be able to read it in a day or two.But it is a referencetool for your family.Read it slowly and carefully, and decide foryourself who is "worth including" and who isn't.

I think thisbook is great, but if the number of pages scares you, maybe it isn't thebook for you. ... Read more

Isbn: 0393959082
Subjects:  1. African American Literature    2. Afro-American authors    3. Afro-Americans    4. American - General    5. American literature    6. General    7. Literary Criticism    8. Literary collections    9. Reference    10. Africa    11. American English    12. Collections & anthologies of various literary forms    13. Ethnic studies    14. USA