Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
by Atul Gawande
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Paperback (01 April, 2003)
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Editorial Review

Gently dismantling the myth of medical infallibility, Dr. Atul Gawande's Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science is essential reading for anyone involved in medicine--on either end of the stethoscope. Medical professionals make mistakes, learn on the job, and improvise much of their technique and self-confidence. Gawande's tales are humane and passionate reminders that doctors are people, too. His prose is thoughtful and deeply engaging, shifting from sometimes painful stories of suffering patients (including his own child) to intriguing suggestions for improving medicine with the same care he expresses in the surgical theater. Some of his ideas will make health care providers nervous or even angry, but his disarming style, confessional tone, and thoughtful arguments should win over most readers. Complications is a book with heart and an excellent bedside manner, celebrating rather than berating doctors for being merely human.--Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (81)

Good Medicine
I highly recommend this book for all of us who entrust our lives to our doctors. This book gave me a good view behind the curtain of just how speculative medicine is and how fallible doctors are. It's made up of short pieces, previously published in magazines such as The New Yorker, which detail incidents and thoughts from the life of a resident who skillfully recorded medical cases and his involvement in them over the years. At first, I had a hard time just reading about medical procedures
involving needles piercing heart walls and lungs being collapsed. But after the initial shock, I found the anecdotes and cases to be fascinating and instructive. I came away with a new appreciation of our fallibility and a stronger sense that we, as patients, need to take charge of ourselves and see to it that we get the best care out there from the most experienced hands. Perhaps this was not the author's intention in writing this work, but I thank him for opening my eyes to the need for constant vigilance.
I give this book an A+.

Compli-awesome
Complications by Atul Gawande is a testament to the Harvard M.D.'s excellent literary skills.His approach to this semi-autobiography is to offer a human perspective on the world of general surgery.As a surgical resident, Gawande invites the reader to partake in his stories that divulge information about surgery that the public might not be aware of, or even might not want to know.Gawande breaks his book into three sections: the fallibility of doctors, mysteries and unknowns of medicine, and on uncertainty itself.
Gawande has a general formula for each of his chapters.He begins with an example from his own experiences as a surgical resident and then relates it to a broad topic about medicine that he is discussing.He then periodically returns to his personal story, or of stories of doctors he is familiar with.This style is effective in drawing the reader into his unique world and helping them understand and relate to the moral dilemmas and issues within medicine he experiences.This structure helps Gawande display effective ethos.For example, Gawande discusses a time in his career where he made a mistake with a patient that almost cost the person's life.He then goes on to talk about how doctors hold a Morbidity and Mortality Conference every week to discuss medical mistakes, and what they should do differently in the future.He then goes on to discuss how every doctor has made a terrible mistake in their careers, and talks about recent studies and statistics about this subject.As seen here and in every subject Gawande probes, he turns it inside out with opinions, patient and doctor viewpoints, specific examples, and breathtaking detail.
Gawande does a brilliant job of helping the reader comprehend the extremely complicated and meticulous world of surgery.He explanations of surgical techniques are informative and fascinating, leaving the reader almost enlightened after one is explained.Also, Gawande makes sure to leave his personal bias at a minimum, hoping that the reader can form their own opinions about the fallibility of doctors and uncertainty of medicine.The only time he deviates from this non-bias is his criticism of mal-practice suits.However, it is hard to penalize Gawande for this opinion when he offers so many stories of doctors making incorrect life or death decisions.Overall, Gawande's book sucks the reader into an unseen world of surgery.Some people still prefer to believe surgeons are unflappable gods; however Gawande offers a viewpoint that surgeons are brave, but still very human characters.Gawande also shows compassion towards his patients, as he sees them not as medical rats, but as fascinating, intricate, and easily wounded human beings.

Very Insightful
The author Atul Gawande has become one of the foremost authors in relating the physicians art and the medical fieldto the laymen.The Author still has empathy for the patient.He has not forgotten the questions that patients struggle with. This book presents a series of true medical situations.It is the story of decisions that have to be made by physicians, sometimes fast paced decisions, maybe logical, rational or mundane decisions or forced decisions that have to be made, before all the facts are available."Complications" is really the story of the consequences, the twists and turns of these decisions.This book will make one think about situations that the medical field faces.
The author seems comfortable on either side of the fence, discussing the problems the physicians face and equally the concerns of the patients.The author's discussion on the hospital procedure for corrective action is an eye-opener. It certainly does not appear to be as effective as corrective procedures in critical industries.This book will draw you in, simply stories of medical situations that you'll think about it for a long time afterwards.


... Read more

Isbn: 0312421702
Subjects:  1. Anecdotes    2. Biography    3. Essays    4. Medical    5. Medical / Nursing    6. Surgeons    7. Surgery    8. Surgery - General    9. United States    10. Medical / Surgery / General   

Looking for Alaska
by Peter Jenkins
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 September, 2002)
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Editorial Review

In 1999, Peter Jenkins and his family left their farm in Tennessee to live in Alaska for a few seasons, eventually renting a house in Seward, Alaska (pop. 2,830) on the Kenai Peninsula. The principal aim of the trip was for Jenkins to write a travelogue, but he also saw it as an opportunity to end a period of personal stagnation. It appears to have worked, for Looking for Alaska is filled with a vibrancy that can only come from one with a fully charged battery. Recognizing that "This giant place is filled with people determined to live as free as possible of others' intervention," he employed the same low-key approach to research that made his bestselling book A Walk Across America (1979) so engaging--he made friends wherever he went and allowed people to share their stories in their own way and in their own time. Part of Jenkins's charm is that he never pretends that he's figured the place out; he readily cops to his outsider status and invites readers to experience his sense of awe and surprise with him. During his 18-month stay in the Last Frontier, Jenkins spent time with wildlife rangers, recreation guides, native whalers, fishermen, and dogsled mushers, all of whom showed Jenkins and his family glimpses of their own private Alaska. (They also shared their bear stories; it seems nearly everyone in the state has had at least one run-in with the giant predator). "No one is ever the same after coming back from Alaska," he writes and after reading his book, it's easy to believe him. --Shawn Carkonen ... Read more

Reviews (98)

Alaska shines, the writing doesn't
This is my first submitted Amazon review, and I felt the need to add my voice to those who say that this is not the best book for a real sense of Alaska.While it is obvious that Jenkins enjoyed his time there, his own voice does tend to drown out those of the people he profiles.

I am one chapter shy of finishing the book, and was as jarred as a fellow reviewer when the Hobo Jim chapter suddenly jumped to a visit three years prior.Until that point I didn't think Jenkins had ever set foot in the state until he decided to go up there with his wife and kids.

There were sloppy facts, like when he called the humpback the largest mammal.I think that distinction belongs to the blue whale. In describing a performance by Hobo Jim, he should have just stated they sang along to the chorus of "Ghost Riders in the Sky". He's too lazy to find out the name of the tune, and he misstates the words of the chorus.

There were other examples of what I would term lazy writing and research here, but they don't jump into my mind right now.

I am not finding the book painful to read, but I expected tozip through an engaging tale from the reviews I read. Instead I am slogging through the book.I started this before Michener's Alaska as I thought it would be a quick read, but it didn't grab me nearly as much as I had hoped.

Still, as preparation for a trip to the state, it gave me some good details on places I will soon be visiting.I just wish that Jenkins had allowed the people from Alaska to represent themselves more in their own voices, and not through his interpretations.

two stars for the subject
I don't quite understand why this book has been getting such good reviews...I didn't think it was that good. Jenkins' writing is very simple, quite choppy - jumping from one subject to the next with no apparent connection, and inserting useless information in the middle of a narrative - and filled with cliches. He doesn't seem to have a whole lot of skill with the language, and maybe it's just the English major in me coming out, but I expect better from my authors. Overall, I thought Looking for Alaska read a bit too much like a rough draft.
That said, the subject is amazing (and the reason I bought the book) and so it gets two stars anyway.

I Am Still Looking for Alaska
This is the first book review I have written and it is not a favorable one.I noticed with amazement that of the 95 reader reviews posted on this site up to this point, 92 give this book a four or five star rating.The three that didn't, rated it very low; one of those readers didn't finish the book and one seemed to have an environmental issue that seemed to color the review.

I, on the other hand, did finish the book, but only after gritting my teeth and wading through it (I am bound for Alaska in another month and wanted to get as much insight as possible).

My problems with the book are primarily the poor writing and the author's continual insertion of his own value judgments.Rather than simply allow the stories he tells about the places and people he encounters to create the images in the reader's mind, he insists on telling us what we should think and how we should feel about just about everything.An example of this is the chapter when he describes two teachers, Eric and Dean, living in Deering: "Teachers that come to the Alaska bush from hometowns in Florida or Idaho, like Dean and Eric, or other places Outside should have certain personality traits to maximize their experience.They should possess the wayward, flexible spirit of the explorer, the ability to be thrilled by the unknown, and the `I don't care what people think' attitude of the rebel."He then tries to convince the reader that Dean and Eric fit these categories by telling when they were born and some stories from their childhoods.He doesn't provide much in the way of current information about them other than mentioning some superficial, physical attributes such as "Dean was tall, well built, energetic, and handsome." I still have no idea what these two teachers are like as individuals; they may as well be polar bears wandering out on the ice somewhere.

The flow of the book is also very ragged.For example, there is a chapter that starts out about Hobo Jim and how he entertains.After a couple a paragraphs, we are on a bear adventure that happened three years earlier that had very little to do with Hobo Jim other than he was there.In the final chapter, when the family is packing up to go home, there is a passage that describes his daughter's marriage in Alaska that occurred sometime in the previous year and a half.These unrelated ramblings seem to occur for no reason at all and detract from the story.

The best writing in the book, unfortunately, is taken from passages written by Peter's daughter, Rebekah, in her e-mails and journal.Her passages, however, only highlight how poorly written the rest of the book is.

Lastly, how intelligent can an individual be who loses his father-in-law's rifle on a moose hunt (when he is carrying it on his shoulder) and doesn't even realize it?If this is what Peter Jenkins learned while he was in Alaska for a year and a half, I think it was definitely time for him to go home.

The cover of the book quotes a review that states that "On an Alaskan high, he is unmatched by Jack London or Robert W. Service..."I don't think so.
... Read more

Isbn: 0312302894
Subjects:  1. 1951-    2. Alaska    3. Description and travel    4. Indians of North America    5. Jenkins, Peter,    6. Journeys    7. Social life and customs    8. Travel    9. Travel - United States    10. United States - Pacific - Alaska    11. United States - West - Pacific (General)   

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight : An African Childhood
by Alexandra Fuller
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (11 March, 2003)
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Reviews (125)

Not everyone will love this...

I had a mixed reaction to "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight." For the first 100 pages, I was engrossed in the fascinating details of Alexandra Fuller's African girlhood. Fuller is an accomplished writer, and she brings the unusual (to me) world to life with lyrical, evocative prose. Parts of her story had me near tears. But, as the book progressed I found myself increasingly frustrated with her stream-of-consciousness style. She weaves time around much like a person who speaks well but is too easily prone to digression. At times I wished she had adopted a more linear approach. I enjoyed best the vignettes about her family and homelife, but wasbored the further the family went from the homebase. Several characters seem vague and several crucial events do not seem resolved by the book's end. All of this may be fine for some storytelling, but I'm not sure this particular tale ever really feels finished. Much like life, I suppose, it remains open ended. But don't we turn to books because they are slightly tidier and more resolute than life?

I don't regret reading "Don't Let's Go" but I'm not sure it's really all it's cracked up to be.

Excellent read
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is a brutal portrayal of war-time Zimbabwe. It certainly hides a lot about the wonderful side of Africa and gives a false image of what is good about the magnificent continent and its people .The Story of an African Farm , Disciples of Fortune, The usurper and other Stories, triple agent, Double Cross are similarly insteresting stories to read.

One of my new favorite books...
This is a simply beautiful book. I didn't really know what to expect, as I don't know that much about Africa, but the author eases you into her life quite quickly. By the middle of the book, it's as if you're being dragged in, and it becomes impossible to stop reading. She makes Africa a very tangible thing, something you can almost sense. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. ... Read more

Isbn: 0375758992
Sales Rank: 1269
Subjects:  1. 1969-    2. Africa - General    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Childhood Memoir    8. Childhood and youth    9. Fuller, Alexandra,    10. Girls    11. Historical - General    12. Literary    13. Zimbabwe    14. Biography & Autobiography / General    15. Reading Group Guide   

Walk Across America, A
by Peter Jenkins
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (18 September, 2001)
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Reviews (75)

Halfway across America
When I bought this book I hadn't noticed it wasn't the whole trip end to end. As I read, I realized this story was going to spill over into another book. I also realized what a mistake I made not having the second one in hand! "A Walk Across America" is an excellent read! Highly recommended. My only complaint was I couldn't put it down and other things went to the wayside for the afternoon it took me to read it.

Hey teenager: read some beatniks or something.
So, a young, all American boy says: "I want to feel the marrow of this great country" or something equally absurd and decides to walk it's width.I read this when I was 19 and travelling around the US solo, you know, looking for some good travel narrative.Basically, this book confirmed my fears about how boring America really is: you walk around, meet some guys with beards.Oh, what a suprise- America has black people.And then you find Jesus and seduce a nun (well, the seduction wasn't actually stated, but I give it an extra star on the off chance it was implied).Oh yeah, this guy really likes his dog and thinks it has feelings and a soul and what-have-you.I'm sorry, but I simply can not trust a person who thinks so highly of a dog.That is not to say I don't like dogs. That is to say that I don't like this book--it's trite, full of pop psych style inspiration, and double crosses you with a litany of born again Jesus magic.

290 pages of inspiration
Peter Jenkins' "A Walk Across America" at first glance is just another book in the Travel Essay section of a bookstore. The words are plain, the prose at times feels unnatural (like Jenkins opened his high-school creative writing book and added all of the suggestions at once). But for as immemorable as the writing in this book is, the story is unnaturally sincere and humane. Jenkins' story of being disillusioned at twenty, searching for the real world, and deciding to walk across America to find it is at once an instant American classic. The highs, the lows, the incredible amount of passion he puts into the book gives the reader the sense that he is sitting at Jenkins' feet listening to him tell the story. His accounts of the people he meets, the lessons he learns and the hardships he overcomes can be enjoyed by people from all walks of life, young and old. A must-read. ... Read more

Isbn: 006095955X
Sales Rank: 12973
Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Description    3. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Television Personalities    4. History    5. History: American    6. Travelers    7. United States    8. United States - General    9. Walking    10. History / United States / General   

Born Naked : The Early Adventures of the Author of Never Cry Wolf
by Farley Mowat
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (22 March, 1995)
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Reviews (3)

Mowat is a true Canadian gem
I enjoy all of Mowat's books, but this one is particularly good.His style is conversational, his humor is biting. Clearly a man who does not suffer a fool lightly. Farley Mowat is a national gem. Buy the book...

Born Naked is one of the most amazing books around.
Canadian author Farley Mowat's Born Naked is a must-read glimpse into the author's much self-written about life. It's hilarious, it's poignant and amust for any Mowat fan.

If Only My Childhood Was Like His....
I've been a big fan of Farley Mowat's literary style since I first read Never Cry Wolf back in junior high school. Even as a 9th grade Earth Science teacher, I show the silver screen adaptation of this great novel. Born Naked, however, is of different 'stuff' than Never Cry Wolf. Here is a book written in a light, easy-to-read fashion that highlights his early years in this great world. We, the readers, are along for the ride when he travels to the Arctic on a research mission with his uncle, or when he makes his daily rounds to inspect the nests of local birds in Saskatchewan. This book is written in a truly entrancing style. I had a very difficult time putting it down. There are some questionable portions in it dealing with his discovery of his own sexuality, but they are far outweighed by the sense of awe and discovery he felt as a youngster. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone that enjoyed Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, or anyone that wants to experience the childhood they only dreamed about ... Read more

Isbn: 0395735289
Sales Rank: 173256
Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Authors, Canadian    3. Biography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Childhood and youth    7. Essays    8. General    9. Mowat, Farley    10. Rhetoric    11. Biography & Autobiography / General   

Black Like Me : 35th Anniversary Edition
by RobertBonazzi, John HowardGriffin
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 November, 1996)
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Reviews (124)

How can anyone not give this 5 stars?
Yeah this book blew me away from walking down New Orleans streets to riding in the back of the Greyhounds with blacks as he was temporarily black.This book had me feeling like it was me going through these acts of racism.I was not thought of during the time he pulled this off so when he was telling the story from a mans point of view who had not been through this before he was telling it through me as well.I was reading the story thinking dang, why are these people treating me this way?This is some B.S., but anyhow this very true book is sad that thats how it was (even worse years before that, however) and an interesting concept and good story.

true meaning of racism
Black Like Me
By John Howard Griffin

Black Like me is a great book to show the true meaning of racism. In this book, the main character, John Howard Griffin, undergoes a temporary medical treatment that turns his skin dark. When he does not take the medication, he turns light again. While he is black, John Howard Griffin finds the experience to be much worse than he expected. Though fellow black people treat him with warmth, white people treat him with hostility and contempt. He never expected the comments on every street corner and the constant dirty looks. When he was white again, he found that white people then treated him with respect and were courteous. On the other hand blacks gave him weary looks filled with fear. John Griffin was soon discouraged within a few weeks and could see the exhaustion on his face just as well as the next black person. In the end, this experience brought him to the conclusion that racism was simply a huge misunderstanding between the different races.
I really like how this book shows not only more than one point of view, but from one person and one mind set. So he has taken his same views, and applied them to both worlds. It is interesting how John Howard Griffin goes takes the initiative to actually try and understand the other side of racism. He goes all the way through with his deal to write an article and finds how hard it really is to be black because of the reality of it all. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. The story is a true reality check for the main character, and, though it seems slow at first, it is a really eye-opening book for someone to read.
Shannon

This book is AMAZING
To really, honestly, see the world through another person's eyes is something that's incredibely rare and is difficult to do. Griffin darkened his skin and changed his life to be able to see what it was really like being a black man in the segregated South. The things he heard, felt, and saw are things that will forever be impressed upon my mind as a reader. The way he told his story was very simple and straightforward, which almost seems to bring the messages home even harder. You can easily see him struggling with concepts that were everyday for the people he encountered: segregated restrooms, segregated water fountains, sneering, baiting, hatred, and disdain. If this book doesn't make you want to cry, then you don't have a pulse. ... Read more

Isbn: 0451192036
Sales Rank: 7162
Subjects:  1. 1920-    2. African Americans    3. Anthropology - Cultural    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General    6. Griffin, John Howard,    7. Race relations    8. Sociology    9. Southern States    10. Biography & Autobiography / General    11. Griffin, John Howard   

The Martian Child : A Novel About A Single Father Adopting A Son
by David Gerrold
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 June, 2002)
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Reviews (20)

weak
Very readable but ultimately unsatisfying. Based on a true adoption but fictionalized poorly. It doesn't have a dramatic storyline and climax as you would expect a real novel to have. What is presented as a climax is just a statement near the end of the book of "Of course he isn't really a Martian." Thud. So why in the world was this written as fiction, building up the child's extraterrestrial abilities, which are completely unbelievable as real autobiography? This novel is also marred by the very self-congratulatory voice of the author. The "I am so great" attitude becomes tiresome quickly.

Awesome Book
This book was based on true events but had enough magic in it to really make you think about things.An excellent, engrossing read and thoroughly enjoyable look at adoption and single parenthood...the highs and the lows.

Perhaps I am a Martian, too
This book was so good I am thinking about re-reading it--and I just read it this month! It's about a gay man who has "father hunger" and decides to adopt a child. As it turns out, he has to get a special-needs kid (perhaps better classified as SUPER special-needs), an 8-year-old boy who truly thinks he's from Mars.

Does that mean you need to be a sci-fi fan to read this book? I don't think so at all. Sci-fi fans will like it, I think, but parents will especially love it. However, anyone who has ever fallen in love will find it resonates with them too--even if they don't have children in their lives.

"The Martian Child" is chock full of surprises. I can easily predict a storyline (since I'm a writer) but this one constantly took me in all different directions. I expected the boy, once he got home, to tear the house apart and create a living hell. Instead, he created a living heaven. But it doesn't stop there--most twists and turns happen, and even the fact that the kid thinks he's a Martian, and the result, turns out to be a refreshing, intelligent surprise.

Apparently this is based on the author's own true story. It's a gripping book I certainly recommend. ... Read more

Isbn: 0765303116
Sales Rank: 295458
Subjects:  1. Abused children    2. Adopted children    3. Fathers and sons    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - General    6. General    7. Literary    8. Single fathers    9. Fiction / General   

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
by Barbara Ehrenreich
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 May, 2002)
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Editorial Review

Essayist and cultural critic Barbara Ehrenreich has always specialized in turning received wisdom on its head with intelligence, clarity, and verve. With some 12 million women being pushed into the labor market by welfare reform, she decided to do some good old-fashioned journalism and find out just how they were going to survive on the wages of the unskilled--at $6 to $7 an hour, only half of what is considered a living wage. So she did what millions of Americans do, she looked for a job and a place to live, worked that job, and tried to make ends meet.

As a waitress in Florida, where her name is suddenly transposed to "girl," trailer trash becomes a demographic category to aspire to with rent at $675 per month. In Maine, where she ends up working as both a cleaning woman and a nursing home assistant, she must first fill out endless pre-employment tests with trick questions such as "Some people work better when they're a little bit high." In Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart under the repressive surveillance of men and women whose job it is to monitor her behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. She even gets to experience the humiliation of the urine test.

So, do the poor have survival strategies unknown to the middle class? And did Ehrenreich feel the "bracing psychological effects of getting out of the house, as promised by the wonks who brought us welfare reform?" Nah. Even in her best-case scenario, with all the advantages of education, health, a car, and money for first month's rent, she has to work two jobs, seven days a week, and still almost winds up in a shelter. As Ehrenreich points out with her potent combination of humor and outrage, the laws of supply and demand have been reversed. Rental prices skyrocket, but wages never rise. Rather, jobs are so cheap as measured by the pay that workers are encouraged to take as many as they can. Behind those trademark Wal-Mart vests, it turns out, are the borderline homeless. With her characteristic wry wit and her unabashedly liberal bent, Ehrenreich brings the invisible poor out of hiding and, in the process, the world they inhabit--where civil liberties are often ignored and hard work fails to live up to its reputation as the ticket out of poverty. --Lesley Reed ... Read more

Reviews (798)

Now you know. (more)
Finally someone speaks up as to the disgusting conditions the lower class have to put up with in the work place, and the inadequate sums they are paid.
It's like this in EVERY job hovering around the minimum wage mark.
The treatment by superiors is maddening and humiliating.
It is exhausting to go through this existance.I'm glad for the author that she had a way out after her research was all finished up.
Most of us don't.
There's something wrong in this country.We have the largest income gap of any industrialized nation in the world.The only thing that keeps the poor from revolting is that, like the author alludes to, most believe in the "promise" of a better future.They've been fed the line that "if you just work hard everything will turn out all right"....I don't think a better line of propaganda exists in this life.(Which is probably so effective because it wasn't originally intended as such.At one time it was actually true, or so I'm told)It keeps the have-not's docile.For a few more generations at least.
Read the book and maybe you'll understand why your waitresses eye twitches when you throw a hissy over an overcooked steak.Or why you just don't always get "service with a smile":The employee helping you hates his job and subsequently; you.(Logical or not.It's an anger induced by a hopeless situation, and your presence and expectations only exacerbate the issue.)So next time you think about complaining to management because the guy in the polo shirt "didn't act very friendly", just remember:Paroxysms of rage aren't restricted only to Postal workers.

Memory Lane
I personally know how accurate Mrs./Ms. Ehrenreich is! I was homeless after losing an average paying job in New England and eventually had to settle at a major retailer NOT Walmart!

More affluent people might be inclined to blame me 100% for my experiences,butI tried everything, including proposals for free work in exchange for skills upgrades and positive references and there were no takers. I went to college for 20 years to get a degree.

I have found in my work experience that there is a grand illusion of an abundance of good jobs when in fact good,decent jobs are very scarce and most of us have to settle for jobs essentially run by some benevolent but most NOT,dictatorships operating as corporations. For me, America has not been ripe with opportunity,rather 1-step from being homeless nearly my whole working life.After 20 years of working several simultaneous jobs,sometimes up to 4(2 FT/2 PT)to pay for school and "get ahead", the end result is a retail job working for a company that blasts the airways with wholesome,friendly,warm imagery and happy,healthy employees who look taken care of. The reality is I have not had health insurance for a decade, have little or no ability to increase income through such vehicles as overtime and find an abundance of employers who don't know me but judge me and will not offer me an opportunity to help them and myself. Where were all the opportunities and jobs when i needed it? Would any of the personnel managers who dutifully sent me a rejection letter feel bad if they knew i became homeless when all I asked for was a job with a liveable wage?

A Broader Horizon
Nickel and Dimed is the insightful product of Barbara Ehrenreich's experiment in journalism.She took it upon herself to set out and try to live on minimum wage (just slightly more than), in order to gain first hand knowledge about plight of the poor. For a year, Ehrenreich gave up her comfortable, established, upper-crust life, and ventured into three different regions of the country to try her hand as an unskilled laborer. Cushioned only by her car, laptop, and $1000 start-up allowance per move, she headed for Key West, Portland, Maine, and Minneapolis. On her journey, three guidelines Ehrenreich set for herself were that she not rely on her higher education, never become homeless, and always take the highest-paying job available. She ended up working various stints from waitressing to housekeeping to retail at Wal-Mart.

Through her own experiences, Ehrenreich attempts to paint an honest picture of the lives of the working poor. Although it's a great challenge to be able to do this in a relatively short time (and with "emergency funds" to fall back on), she does get her message across. She concludes that it's next to impossible to survive on minimum wage. At times having to take on two jobs at once, imagine having to provide for a family in addition to taking care yourself. A serious impediment too is that these workers often can't afford medical coverage.

As Ehrenreich experienced first hand, living a day-to-day existence puts incredible strain on both the mind and body (not to mention spirit), which is thoroughly exhausting, even if you're "lucky" enough to have a "sit-down" job. This and other points in the book help dispel misconceptions that the poor are lazy and that they can always find a better job. However, as Ehrenreich discovered, even "unskilled" work, requires some set of skills, and not everyone has them.

I think this is a book that everyone will benefit from. It's a quick and easy read. Ehrenreich's humor always comes through (I love the parrot), keeping this serious subject from becoming too weighty. It definitely sheds light on a realm that largely goes unnoticed and unappreciated, in the shadows of society. We could all use a healthy dose of humble-medicine.

... Read more

Isbn: 0805063897
Subjects:  1. Government - U.S. Government    2. Labor    3. Labor & Industrial Relations - General    4. Minimum wage    5. Politics - Current Events    6. Poverty    7. Social Science    8. Sociology    9. Sociology - Social Theory    10. United States    11. Unskilled labor   

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
by Mary Roach
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 April, 2003)
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Reviews (183)

Absolutly Fantastic!
I loved this book! Personally, I am not one that deals well with death-but this book has opened my eyes and changed my point of view! It is amazing what we are able to do after we die-The possibilities for us are endless! I have and would recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

"I Always Knew You Were A Weird Kid"
Is what my mother said when I tried to extol the virtues of STIFF: THE CURIOUS LIVES OF HUMAN CADAVERS. Ms. Roach paints a cheeky and humorous, but never disrespectful, portrait of what happens to cadavers that are donated for scientific research. She describes how cadavers are dissected, used for plastic surgery practice, decayed, crashed, embalmed, crucified, etc. with enough detail to explain the processes, without being morbid or gross. This is a fascinating subject that is simply not talked about in our society, with most people using polite euphemisms for death or dead bodies. Impossible to put down.

Engrossing To The End
Mary Roach has taken it upon herself to research the history of cadaver research, which can't have been a barrel of laughs. Nevertheless, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers is a concise, intensely readable, frequently hilarious survey of the strange uses to which human bodies are put.

"A Head is a Terrible Thing to Waste" follows the author as she observes a group of surgeons giving face-lifts to decapitated heads. Sounds like a frivolous use for a body donated "to science," but plastic surgeons need to practice somewhere, and a corpse can't sue over a botched nose job. Roach points out that "heads aren't cut off out of ghoulishness. They are cut off so that someone else can make use of the other pieces: arms, legs, organs." And indeed, the unembalmed heads are treated respectfully, covered with cloths before and after the seminar; nobody's making impromptu hand puppets or throwing eyeballs around. They're here to learn, and the heads, though discomfiting, are an invaluable aid.

"Crimes of Anatomy" explores the history of body-snatching. Historically, the religious believed that the physical body was necessary for resurrection, so people weren't too eager to hand over their ticket to heaven; for this reason, dissection was sometimes tacked on to a death sentence for particularly heinous crimes. Enterprising anatomists worked around the lack of donors by nabbing corpses out of graves, or hiring someone (who couldn't possibly have been paid enough) to do it for them. French anatomists had it easier, as the unclaimed bodies of those who died in city hospitals were up for grabs. Now that human anatomy is understood and exhaustively documented, whole-body dissection is being phased out; some schools are switching over to computer simulations. Still, this doesn't mean that the need for donated bodies has been eliminated.

"Life After Death," one of my favorite chapters, explores the University of Tennessee Medical Center's body farm, where cadavers are dumped in a variety of positions and settings and carefully monitored. The objective is to learn more about the process of human decay and various factors affecting it; ultimately, this information can be used, among other things, to assist in solving crimes. There's a whirlwind tour of the decaying process, followed by an equally graphic description of modern-day embalming.

Other chapters explore the use of human crash test dummies to develop safer automobiles; forensic analysis of human remains to help determine how accidents happened (as with TWA Flight 800); and the military applications of human remains for bullet and bomb testing. More colorful and gruesome are the stories on so-called "scientists" who used cadavers to prove the Shroud of Turin's authenticity; experiments on consciousness after decapitation and whole-head grafts; and the history of medicinal cannibalism. For fellow pragmatists, there are new options for corpse disposal; a pioneering Swede is working on human composting, and then there's "tissue digestion," which handily reduces your body to a small amount of sterile, flushable liquid.

I find all this stuff fascinating, and Roach takes pains to keep it entertaining; she's aware of the absurdity and downright grossness of her topic, and presents the humor in all its reeking, rotting glory. Which is not to say that she makes jokes at the cadavers' expense; on the contrary, the author clearly has great respect for those who selflessly donate their bodies for medical advancement, and, without exception, so do the professionals of various fields with whom she meets. At UCSF, medical students hold a memorial service for their cadavers (they're assigned one each, and keep it all year long), just like a real one; floral arrangements are brought in, and students give speeches commemorating their cadavers, which are often named ("Not like `Beef Jerky.' Real names," explains one student). If nothing else, Stiff is a lively, informative account of cadaver research; but if it convinces people to donate their bodies to science, it will have served an even better purpose. Either way, you need to read this book before you die. Pick up a copy! Along with this book, another entertaining Amazon quick-pick I highly recommend is THE LOSERS CLUB: Complete Restored Edition by Richard Perez. ... Read more

Isbn: 0393050939
Sales Rank: 29054
Subjects:  1. Dead    2. Forensic Medicine    3. History    4. Human anatomy    5. Human dissection    6. Human experimentation in medic    7. Human experimentation in medicine    8. Life Sciences - Biology - General    9. Medical Research    10. Medicine (Specific Aspects)    11. Science    12. Science/Mathematics   

Autobiography of a Face
by Lucy Grealy
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (18 March, 2003)
list price: $12.95 -- our price: $10.36
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Editorial Review

At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a potentially terminalcancer.When she returned to school with a third of her jaw removed, shefaced the cruel taunts of classmates.In this strikingly candid memoir, Grealy tells her story of great suffering and remarkable strength without sentimentality and with considerable wit.Vividly portraying the pain of peer rejection and the guilty pleasure of wanting to be special, Grealycaptures with unique insight what it is like as a child and young adult to be torn between two warring impulses: to feel that more than anything else we want to be loved for who we are, while wishing desperately and secretly tobe perfect ... Read more

Reviews (56)

Point of View From a Distance
I read this book in 1995 and still regard it as the best autobiography I've ever read. Other reviews point out that Ms. Grealy leaves a lot of salient information out, but I believe it's due to her poetic training. Poets are supposed to paint a picture with few words, and she most certainly succeeds. In this age of tell everything, trite/neat endings, her story ends rather sadly in the book and very badly in life. But this is the way life is for many people. For me, the truth is refreshing and beautiful, even if devastating.

Lucy Grealy, Behind a Veil
I expected this book to be much grittier and "confessional" in tone, so I was not prepared for the ease and grace of Lucy Grealy's writing. Grealy's recounting of her childhood battle with a serious form of cancer and the years of reconstructive surgery that follows is at once introspective and detached.

I agree with some of the other reviewers who said they felt Grealy was revealing only what she wanted the reader to know -- that there's more to this story than what she included here. While I found this intriguing and slightly frustrating, I did not feel cheated. Had Grealy lived, there might have been other books that focused on other aspects of her illness and surgeries -- how it affected her family's daily life, her relationships with her siblings (especially her twin sister), and so on. Issues that were only touched upon in this book, but which could have formed the thematic basis for several subsequent memoirs.

Though I was a little disappointed not to have been given more information about those things in this book, I realize that the title of the book is "Autobiography of a Face," and the focus of the book is exactly that -- this the story of Lucy Grealy's face, and "how it got that way." While her careful honing and focusing of the book's contents did leave me slightly dissatisfied because of all the other things I wanted to know, I can't deny what looks like a marvelous job of Grealy remaining true to her intended subject.

I must confess, I'm looking forward to reading Ann Patchett's "Truth and Beauty," which allegedly offers a look at Lucy Grealy that differs from what Grealy allows us in her own book.

Pretty depressing but kept me glued to it nonetheless.
the writing...well i definitely don't feel competent enough to do justice to it's merits. all i can say is it seems literary but it is so readable. about what it's used to express i found infinitely depressing though. as i read about this woman's childhood ordeal and how it shaped her, i wasn't really thinking it was remarkable. i imagine that when you are in terrible circumstances you would think in similar terms as the author did though probably not in such a well-realized, eloquent way.

i always had this feeling that people who are disfigured, people who have experienced incredible hardship do indeed have a more cosmic perspective of life and therefore are more removed from their more animal inclinations. what this book proves to me is that no matter how self-aware a person is, no matter how smart and knowing a person's perspective, a person can still not accept himself and succumb.

i also had this feeling that the author was not really particularly sympathetic toward ugly people herself. she seems to have been obsessed with attractiveness in general. she describes her romantic partners just as attractive to her and little else about them.

well i don't know. i just finished the book and thought am i supposed to find this book inspiring? i certainly didn't. it left me uncomfortable and depressed. ... Read more

Isbn: 0060569662
Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Cancer (Psychosocial Aspects)    6. Diseases - Cancer    7. Disfigured persons    8. Ewing's sarcoma    9. Medical - General    10. Patients    11. Personal Memoirs    12. Specific Groups - General    13. United States    14. Women    15. Biography & Autobiography / General    16. Reading Group Guide   

The Cloister Walk
by Kathleen Norris
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 April, 1997)
list price: $14.00 -- our price: $11.20
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Editorial Review

In the tradition of Thomas Merton, Kathleen Norris gives us an intimate look at how religious life fills a gap in the soul. Her poetic sensibilities internalize the monastery as a symbol of spirituality, with its sanctity and humor, questioning and uncertainty, rhythm and vigor. Beyond moral precepts and Bible stories, Cloister Walk is a very personal account of religion lived fully. It depicts a depth and beauty of spirituality in monastic life that has survived the vicissitudes of Roman Catholic politics and pomp. ... Read more

Reviews (50)

The Author'sSpiritual Journey Defined By Creative Thought
This book received excellent reviews; I had to satisfy my curiosity and read it. I slowly read, hoping to discover some great truths I may have missed these past 6 decades.The book is unique in that the author explains how monks and nuns live, work, and worship together in communities and also how she had the freedom to come and go as she pleased, worshipping in her protestant church as well.

This is a nice book for tolerant people of any faith. Everyone can benefit from quiet reflection, from reading scripture, from singing hymns, and from praying.We all have the freedom to worship God in different ways. Kathleen Norris was curious about the catholic faith, although she remains a protestant. Her experience within the monastery is beneficial to her soul and she describes how, as a poet and writer, the rituals, liturgy, and hospitality within the monastic setting further her own understanding of spirituality.

Disappointing
I was expecting this to be a book about the monastic experience, but instead, it is a book mostly about Kathleen Norris, her life, and her social theories. There are a few nuggets of wisdom sprinkled here and there, but not enough to justify reading all the surrounding dross. Worse, there is no humility in the book at all.

Instead of being a seeker of wisdom who went into religion and then wrote about her experience, Norris seems to be merely a writer with a gimmick of hanging out with monks and nuns to get a good book idea. If you like that sort of thing, you may like this book, but you should know what you're getting before you buy it.

There is a hard edge to Norris's writing, an underlying anger and vulgarity. For example: "[N]ow we sigh, discouraged, hearing only the seeds of our well-worn, ludicrous sexual double standard which dictates that women must be either virgins or whores, either blessed or cursed, while men are simply sexual athletes." And: "That we all begin inside a woman and must emerge from her body is something that the male theologians of the world's religions have yet to forgive us for."

She uses the f-word, apparently just to shock readers and listeners, as when she notes with self-congratulatory satisfaction that after one such use her driver appeared startled because "[S]he apparently had heard that I was a religious writer." Well, regrettably, I had heard that, too.

There is far too little introspection in this book. Norris too easily criticizes others while failing to look at herself and while rationalizing her own behavior. Perhaps I have been spoiled by reading Henri Nouwen, who seemed to always analyze the nature of his own feelings instead of criticizing someone else who may have brought those feelings about. But then again, Nouwen was a person of admirable humility, a quality Norris needs to work hard to develop.

Norris has plenty of personal issues to deal with, as do we all. This book would have been much better if she had spent more time honestly wrestling with these issues instead of commenting on externals, offering social criticism and justifying her life as "a poet."

An Inside Look
A RING OF TRUTH: Like Kathleen Norris, I am a Protestant who lives in a small town and have been heavily influenced by being a guest in a Benedictine Monastery many times.Like Norris, I have been invited into the cloister.Her account has the ring of authenticity.By the time I finished the book I realized I was reading while listening to the CD of chants prepared at the monastery I most often visit.

WHO WILL LIKE THIS BOOK?Norris is a poet.This book is a collection of sketches from inside the monastery, from monastic history, from her own small town, from her vacations, and from the cities she has lived and worked in.Some chapters are long, while others are short.Her themes bounce from chapter to chapter.If you like poetic imagery written in prose and are interested in this theme, you will like this book.

WHO WILL NOT LIKE THIS BOOK?If you like to read technical manuals and books with finely structured outlines, you will probably not like this book.You may feel that Norris rambles too much and doesn't stay with her main point. ... Read more

Isbn: 1573225843
Subjects:  1. Christianity - Catholicism    2. Christianity - Christian Life - General    3. Inspirational - Catholic    4. Monastic and religious life    5. Monasticism    6. Religion    7. Religion - Roman Catholic    8. Spiritual life    9. Reading Group Guide   

Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America : A Memoir
by Elizabeth Wurtzel, Riverhead Books
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 September, 1997)
list price: $14.00 -- our price: $11.20
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Editorial Review

Elizabeth Wurtzel writes with her finger in the faint pulse of a generation whose ruling icons are Kurt Cobain, Xanax, and piercedtongues.A memoir of her bouts with depression and skirmishes with drugs, Prozac Nation still manages to be a witty and sharp account of the psychopharmacology of an era. ... Read more

Reviews (288)

Prozac Nation
I recently reviewed "Prozac Nation" on Amazon.I gave it two stars the first time and a really harsh review.I winced when I re-read my first review because I realized that I came across as arrogant and I tore up the book needlessly.

The truth is that at points Wurtzel does come across as whiney.But if you read the afterword Wurtzel explains that that was part of her intention.She writes, "I wanted this book to dare to be completely self-indulgent [...]I wanted so very badly to write a book that felt as bad as it feels to feel this bad, to feel depressed". I did find the book repetitive and self-indulgent.More than once I was thinking to myself, "why can't this girl just get it together??? she's smart, why can't she just....".And that's exactly Wurtzel's point: you don't just snap out of depression.Recovering from depression takes time and work and it is damn frustrating.Her book too can be damn frustrating to read at times but that was her goal - she definitely accomplished it.

Writing a memoir about depression is an exceedingly difficult task and I think Wurtzel should be commended for her efforts and her honesty.

Tons of people loved this book and I figure there must be a reason they appreciate it so much.I personally didn't love the book but you might be one of those people who adore it.Give it a try and see for yourself.

What you should know about Depression
I don't know why Prozac Nation hasn't been a more notable book.Could be that this is a topic that so many wish not to hear of yet so many have their uneducated opinions on depression, what it is and how to treat and not treat it.This is Wurtzel's story.This is her story of the paralyzing effects of darkness that is inescapable.Depression creates depression and Wurtzel's world becomes more and more hopeless as she sees nothing she can do with what she is afflicted with."Sometimes I wish I were an alcoholic so I could go to an AA meeting and I could do something about it." says Wurtzel.A desperate story but there is hope.Wurtzel finds that hope and here in this book is her journey from darkness.

Doesn't deserve any stars
Save your time and your money this book is HORRIBLE. I never would have read it if I didn't have to read it for school.I don't think I've ever disliked a person as much as I dislike Elizabeth Wurtzel.She is so self absorbed.Her book was poorly written, the plot was all over the place (if there was a plot at all besides her constant complaining).She must think that dropping names of famous people and "smart" authors and artists as well as using big words makes her sound like a genius or something.It doesnt.It makes her sound like an immature child trying to impress people and show the world how superior she is to everyone.We get it, you're smart Elizabeth, get over yourself.

As for her take on depression I thought she sent a horrible message.I have depression, I know how bad it can be.Elizabeth Wurtzel doesn't even TRY to help herself.She sits and whines and blames everyone but herself and waits for someone to come and magically save her.It's not going to happen.If you want to get through depression- and you can- you have to work really really hard- something Elizabeth apparently refuses to do.If she had stopped yelling at her therapists for not immediately curing her she would have realized that what they were saying could have helped her.

I have all the sympathy in the world for people who suffer from depression, but I have no sympathy for someone as childish, self absorbed, stubborn, and lazy as Elizabeth Wurtzel.She is an insult to people with depression.She is the epitome of the "depression is cool" trend. ... Read more

Isbn: 1573225126
Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Depressed persons    5. Depression    6. Depression (Psychology)    7. Mental health    8. Specific Groups - General    9. United States    10. Women    11. Wurtzel, Elizabeth   

A Walk in the Woods : Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Official Guides to the Appalachian Trail)
by Bill Bryson
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (04 May, 1999)
list price: $14.95 -- our price: $10.47
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Editorial Review

Bill Bryson has made a living out of traveling and then writing about it. In The Lost Continent he re-created the road trips of his childhood; in Neither Here nor There he retraced the route he followed as a young backpacker traversing Europe. When this American transplant to Britain decided to return home, he made a farewell walking tour of the British countryside and produced Notes from a Small Island. Once back on American soil and safely settled in New Hampshire, Bryson once again hears the siren call of the open road--only this time it's a trail. The Appalachian Trail, to be exact. In A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson tackles what is, for him, an entirely new subject: the American wilderness. Accompanied only by his old college buddy Stephen Katz, Bryson starts out one March morning in north Georgia, intending to walk the entire 2,100 miles to trail's end atop Maine's Mount Katahdin.

If nothing else, A Walk in the Woods is proof positive that the journey is the destination. As Bryson and Katz haul their out-of-shape, middle-aged butts over hill and dale, the reader is treated to both a very funny personal memoir and a delightful chronicle of the trail, the people who created it, and the places it passes through. Whether you plan to make a trip like this one yourself one day or only care to read about it, A Walk in the Woods is a great way to spend an afternoon. --Alix Wilber ... Read more

Reviews (809)

Very uneven and sometimes preachy
This not a bad book. Sections of it are quite enjoyable, in fact, but an uneven writing style and lapses into preachiness (even when appropriate) keep it from being a better book. I don't mind some commentary about the absurdity of things, but it comes a bit too often in a book supposedly about walking the Appalachian Trail.

There is some profanity, more annoying due to its sudden use after some time without it than the fact that it's there at all. It's almost like Bryson thought, "Hey, I haven't been crude in a few pages so let me throw in a couple of pertinent words."

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this as a book to purchase - check your local library for a copy.

Funny and enlightening
My Dad handed me this little book, grinned and said, "Read this." The grin told me that there was no way to refuse his order. I'm an outdoors guy all the way but I've seen a fair share of passing winters and have collected a bunch of pounds that I would love to "walk off along the trail" like Mr. Katz. I also know that it isn't as easy as it sounds. I laughed to the point of tears when Katz explained that nearly the entire contents of his backback had been "flung" during the first day of strenuous hiking. Endeavors that may have once been a light hearted flight of fancy can be pretty rough after 20 or so years of TV and microwave popcorn. I suppose that's when I saw the wonderful introspection of Bryson's writing start to creep in. He doesn't just start pounding you in the head with sweeping pronouncements about what is wrong with things. No, this brilliant fellow makes you laugh your head off at personal ego and withering human fraility and THEN he starts making you think about the bigger picture. By the time these guys were slogging through the Hundred Mile Wilderness in Maine, I wanted to leap off the couch with mosquito netting and huge cans of OFF! to help them. I loved the humor Bryson puffed out of this book and I also got caught up in the future and the bizzare bureacratic politics of maintaining the AT for those who wish to experience it. I hope it manages to survive intact until I can drag my grinning father out to witness at least a portion of it for a little "Walk in the Woods". Thanks Dad, this book meant a lot to me.

Intelligent & Funny
I love Bryson's wry self-depricating humor, his perspecacious wit, and amazing ability to bring me into his experience. This is a great summer read. ... Read more

Isbn: 0767902521
Subjects:  1. Appalachian Trail    2. Description and travel    3. Essays & Travelogues    4. Natural history    5. Travel    6. Travel - United States    7. United States - General    8. United States - Northeast - General    9. United States - South - East South Central (General)    10. Travel / United States / General   

The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant : An Adoption Story
by Dan Savage
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (05 June, 2000)
list price: $14.00 -- our price: $11.20
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Editorial Review

Best known for his syndicated sexual advice column, "Savage Love," Dan Savage shares his own story in The Kid, a hilarious account of his efforts--along with his partner--to adopt a child. (Whoops, make that his boyfriend; Savage can't stand the "genderless" P-word: "Straight people and press organs that want to acknowledge gay relationships while at the same time pushing the two-penises stuff as far out of their minds as possible love 'partner.' I hated it.") Savage doesn't give an inch on the sexuality issue; it's hard to imagine that a homophobic reader would even pick up The Kid, but if it happened, Savage's unapologetic presentation of his life would quickly scare that reader off. Which isn't to say that he paints a rosy picture of homosexual cohabitation: the very first scene finds Dan's boyfriend, Terry, locking himself in the bathroom after a fight over the music on the car stereo. The misadventures continue through each step of the open-adoption process, in which Dan and Terry get to know their baby's birth mother, and the first few weeks of parenthood. The Kid is a wonderful, charming account of real "family values" that proves love knows no limits. ... Read more

Reviews (118)

So sweet
This is such a wonderful book. Dan Savage is such a gifted writer-he makes you feel as though you are a close friend.

Deeply personal account of the adoption process
Dan Savage and his partner decide to make the step to adopt a child together, and this book tracks the entire process in minute detail, and the feelings and ethical dilemmas that present themselves at each and every turn. (Should I tell my mother even though it's not certain yet? What should we name the child? How much contact should we allow the birth father? etc -- there are dozens explored in the book) At the same time, Savage doesn't lose his sense of humor, a rather sarcastic one at that (something that unfortunately a few readers/reviewers here missed).

Yes, he does step up onto the soapbox a few times, but his preaching is always relevant to the stage of the process he's in. He usually explains how the entire process of adopting a child is quite a bit different for gay parents, in many ways that are not immediately obvious. And there are some social/legal inequities that are only fair to point out.

In the end, though, it was a satisfying, honest account of this life-changing event in their lives. It was a quick, enjoyable read.

It's true that an editor could have corrected some of the misspellings, and cleaned up the text from repititions, though. It doesn't really take away from the story, though.

Honesty Is The Best Policy For This Book
The entire premise behind open adoption is that honesty is the best policy.Proponents of the practice maintain that being truthful with the child about their adoption, as well as maintaining contact with the birth parents, reduces the emotional difficulties that all parties face in this situation.Given the importance that complete honesty is to open adoption, any good book on the subject should be permeated with that quality.I was very pleased to see Dan Savage meet that threshold with this book.

Savage so completely embraces open adoption's honesty ethos that the reader is spared no emotional detail.He clearly depicts the adoption process' fears, sorrows, anticipations, and joys.Upon completing this book, the reader will have a clear understanding of the emotions that one goes through while proceeding through an open adoption.However, while I cautiously anticipated that the book would be honest, I didn't expect it to be as funny as it is.The passage that had me laughing the most was the fake "letter" he drafted to the birth parents.This missive is every homophobe's worst nightmare.Yet, after playing the stereotypes to the hilt, Savage pulls back and shows the actual letter he drafted to the birth parents.By moving seamlessly from broad satire to poignant introspection, Savage emphasizes adoption's bittersweet nature.

As has been noted, Savage's penchant for honesty also extends to graphically disclosing the lifestyle that he and his boyfriend live.Portions of the book, such as the criteria Savage used to decide if his son should be circumcised, will undoubtedly shock some readers (who will likely quickly become ex-readers).While some might see this disclosure as self-indulgent, it is entirely appropriate when considered within the spirit of open adoption. Still, I don't see The Kid being distributed as a required reading text at open adoption seminars due to these passages.However, it is a book worth seeking because the emotions and experiences that are depicted will resonate both with people considering open adoption and a broader audience as well. ... Read more

Isbn: 0452281768
Subjects:  1. Adoption    2. Alternative Family    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Literary    7. Parenting - General    8. Specific Groups - Male Gay Studies   

Through the Narrow Gate : A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery
by Karen Armstrong
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (15 November, 1994)
list price: $13.95
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Reviews (24)

Honestly searching for the unknowable
I resonate deeply with Karen Armstrong's spiritual journey as outlined in this, her autobiographical sketch of her seven years in a convent. While I was never in such a highly concentrated and ostracized community as her convent, my own spiritual journey was marked by eighteen years of a stridently sectarian and legalistic environment that masked any ability on my part to know God. Within this book one can see Karen's desire to know God - which originally motivated her to dedicate her life to Him by service in the convent - but also her struggles with the life of faith and the distance of God. She and I share a profound desire to know God, but an equally profound consternation and lack of understanding of what those people who talk of their close relationship with God mean. Her search for God has led her to a view of God that is one I can deeply appreciate, although am not educated enough to be able to critically evaluate in full.

Couldn't Put Down
Karen Armstrong's Through A Narrow Gate takes you on a journey through her 7 years in a very strict order. It details her struggles and desires to "die before you live". You get to learn all about what nuns in her order actually did and the experiences they would have. A very good book.

Hooked by A Nun Who Writes mit glorious adverbs!
I admit that I was really hooked when I got to Chap 3, page 62, when each of her fellow postulants began telling how they felt about their motives for being there. Best Example: "Marie, What brings you here?" (as though we'd met accidentally at a street corner.) Marie's answer, "It's such a beautiful life." Her black eyes which usually glinted in her face like shiny currants, misted over dreamily!" On the same page comes, "I smiled vaguely ... I nodded at her sympathetically...I told myself urgently!" On one page as in other places, Sister Karen uses 10 adverbs!

Again in Chap 6, "A Nun Takes the Veil..." Karen had the joyous task of ringing the Convent Bell... When she tries to get Mother Albert to hear her problem, as Mother is rushing down the hall "impatiently, shaking her heard "crossly and says, "I can't stop now, Sister," She said firmly. "I'm terribly busy!" When Sister Karen gets the words out, "I've broken the bell." Mother Albert was laughing helplessly, "You would, wouldn't you?"

Sister Karen not only lightened up in these early chapters but she gave far more seriously disappointing times that same touch of humor...even tho she was upbraided and reprimanded by Mother Albert. In her quandaries she comes forth with adverbs like "rebelliously." At her sewing machine with no neddle, "She knelt before the Mother and said, huskily." Next her feet treadled "busily" As she repeated, "mechanically, I cannot possibly spend my time more fruitfully!" Enough to show that it all seemed to become delightfully humorous, even tho she was surely thwarted and starved intellectually and many other ways!

Hooray for such a wonderful set-up to become an internationally famous OT Professor and an awesomely ingenius writer!
Retired Chap Fred W Hood ... Read more

Isbn: 0312119038
Sales Rank: 139518
Subjects:  1. 1944-    2. Armstrong, Karen,    3. Biography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Ex-nuns    6. Religion    7. Religious    8. Women    9. Armstrong, Karen    10. Biography & Autobiography / Religious   

Wasted : A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
by Marya Hornbacher
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (15 January, 1999)
list price: $13.00 -- our price: $10.40
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Editorial Review

"I fell for the great American dream, female version, hook, line, and sinker," Marya Hornbacher writes. "I, as many young women do, honest-to-God believed that once I Just Lost a Few Pounds, suddenly I would be a New You, I would have Ken-doll men chasing my thin legs down with bouquets of flowers on the street, I would become rich and famous and glamorous and lose my freckles and become blond and five foot ten." Hornbacher describes in shocking detail her lifelong quest to starve herself to death, to force her short, athletic body to fade away. She remembers telling a friend, at age 4, that she was on a diet. Her bizarre tale includes not only the usual puking andstarving, but also being confined to mental hospitals and growing fur (a phenomenon called lanugo, which nature imposes to keep a body from freezing to death during periods of famine). ... Read more

Reviews (335)

Shocking Reality
For ages 16 and up, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, is a book of a girl with a sad story to tell. Marya, is not any old teenage girl that becomes bulimic and anorexic (from time to time) from the usual teenage pressures of looking good because of other girls or what teenage girls see in the latest issue of Glamour magazine. She begins this journey by age nine, causing reactions of heart break and nauseating thoughts to the mind. Something she had done out of curiosity, started a nearly 15 year period of suffering. She begins to believe that the only thing she can control is her eating disorder. To her it was her safeguard, always there for her when she needed it the most. Her parents pushed her into hospitals, but it seems that it is pushing Marya farther away from them emotionally. But this isnot just a girl who has this problem and of course hates her parents, that could not possibly be the only problem, which seems to be peoples assumptions. Her eating disorders came as a package with more problems to deal with, and she did not budge to fight it. Marya becomes involved in addiction to drugs and sex, and addiction to laxatives that she keeps stashed away just so she knows they are there for her to fall back on. This story is a dark side of reality, an unintentional plan that brings disbelief to a persons mind, that someone would ask themselves how does something like that end.

Depressing and Strange
Personally, I thinkg Mayra is one of the most messed up people I've ever read about.This book, if anything, confuses people about anorexia.It goes against so much of the knowledge we have learned about anorexia and bulimia.I know that's what she was trying to get through to us, that anorexia isn't just about control and feeling fat all the time, but I personally thought it was just depressing.Also, the reason--or part of--she's bulimic is so obvious that I was surprised that I was told to believe this girl was intelligent.Her parents were completely nutso when it came to food, she came from an out-of-control childhood, moved into a teenage life full of sex and drugs, and then moved into a bording school where half the girls there were suffering from eating disorders!Hello?No wonder this girl has problems.This was a sorely depressing and sorely disappointing book all in one.Don't read it, and especially, don't buy it.Check it out at the library if you really are that desperate.

Do yourself a loving favor: do not read this book
If you suffer from anorexia or bulimia (or are looking for inspiration to develop an eating disorder), do NOT read this book!

It's depressing and pessimistic. By the end of the story, Marya seems to think she has "recovered." But, yet she is far from that point! She has merely achieved a new kind of relationship with her EDs. When you recover, you learn to feel good about yourself and your place in the world. Your focus will be on the adventure of life and the opportunities you have before you . . . not merely your body.

Trust me, I recovered from 14 years of severe bulimia.

I found this book very uncomfortable and pitiful, quite honestly. I'm more inspired to run screaming away from her tiny, self-obsessed, self-destructive world toward health and happiness and love. You need hope, inspiration, and encouragement to conquer this war!

Please, instead, try "The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom" by Don Miguel Ruiz. ... Read more

Isbn: 0060930934
Subjects:  1. Anorexia nervosa    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Bulimia    7. Eating Disorders - General    8. Patients    9. Psychopathology - Eating Disorders    10. Specific Groups - Special Needs    11. United States    12. Women    13. Biography & Autobiography / Medical   

The Genesee Diary
by HENRI NOUWEN
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (20 February, 1981)
list price: $12.95 -- our price: $10.36
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Editorial Review

The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery is Henri Nouwen's journal of his seven-month stay in the Abbey of the Genesee in upstate New York. His reflections on daily life with the Trappists are funny, wise, and often profound--resembling Kathleen Norris's The Cloister Walk, but a bit less thematically structured and more down to earth. Nouwen's goal is simply to record what it's like to pass the time in a cloistered community. He spends part of his stay there reading Robert Pirsig'sZen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which helps awaken a hunger for a richer experience of life that he subsequently satisfies by learning to slow down. In his first week at the monastery, Nouwen writes, "I have so many ideas I want to write about, so many books I want to read, so many skills I want to learn--motorcycle maintenance is now one of them--and so many things I want to say to others now or later, that I do not SEE that God is all around me and that I am always trying to see what is ahead, overlooking him who is so close." Then, looking forward to being planted in one place among the Trappists, he writes, "Maybe I need to get stuck," to learn to see God. He does, and he does.--Michael Joseph Gross ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Spirtual Guide that Made an Impression
Have you ever wondered how a monk deals with everday life? This book is written in diary format and is very easy to read. Henri speaks honestly from his heart of the joys and tribulations of monastic life. I found that I'm not alone with alot of the thoughts I have...Henri has had them too.
Once I started reading this diary I couldn't hardly put it down!
Definately one of the better books I have read in a long time.
Also very profound remarks in this book. I'm sure I'll be reading it again.

Fascinating Look Inside a Monastery
Henri Nouwen's diary recounts his 7-month stay at the Abbey of Genesee in New York.His diary is a personal account of his search for peace and total committment to God.It accurately depicts the regimen of life in the monastery - a life of work, prayer, and liturgy - and describes how he became a member of the monastic community.

Through his time there, Nouwen discovers that the monastery is not built to solve problems, but to praise God in the midst of them.

Nouwen at his best...
The Late Henri Nouwen ,of blessed memory, was a Dutch Catholic priest who was able to put his spiritual longings[and lackings] into print and a level that I do not think has been matched in the past century.Certainly, Thomas Merton was a better writer and more influential, though Nouwen gave us his doubt at an unprecendented depth. In this duiary, first published in the mid-70's , he went to Piffard , NY to live with the Trappists of the Genesse for 8 months[he later went back, and produced another book of meditations]It was fortuitous that he met the abbot, Fr John Eudes Bamberger, and found a man to whom he could pour himself out. The abbot [he is still abbot,by the way,and has his own website}is an MD, psychaitrist and a man of deep prayer. Much of the book is the the conferences of Nouwen and the Abbot, though a greter portion is Nouwens musings on life, his frustrations, his enthusiamims[wich were many and childlike in thier intensity] and his prayer.His descriptions of back breaking manuel labor,of sorting raisins{the monks produce a regionally famous bread, called,of course, monks bread]and of normal, everyday fears and phobias are wonderful, insightful and inspiring. The Late Fr. Nouwen wrote scores of books, though thisis in my estimation his finest. ... Read more

Isbn: 0385174462
Subjects:  1. Catholic Church    2. Christianity - Discipleship    3. Christianity - Theology - Catholic    4. Inspirational    5. Inspirational - General    6. Nouwen, Henri J. M    7. Religion    8. Spiritual life    9. Religion / Spirituality