Editorial Review

After 20 years of living in the "Great American Outback," as Read more

Reviews (42)

must read for all dakotans and transplants to the midwest
Norris offers an insight-full monastically minded view into Dakota life, not just North and South Dakota, but the fascinating cultural differences between east and west of the Missouri river that divides So. Dakota.In what I consider a very telling paragraph (p129) she begins a dialogue on sacred space saying that those who ask what is sacred really are asking "What place is mine."Dakota seems to emanate from Norris' own coming to grips with place and aims to help others do the same.That love-hate relationship that many feel toward home is evident within.For those who know rural life in the midwest "Dakota" is penetrating and beautiful on one hand and so frustrating it made me want to move on the other.At times she portays a rural ghetto of resisting outside influence (p.62), exclusionary unity (p, 59) lower professional standards which she also claims to be part of the small town charm (p.55).It is both bitter and sweet but not from judgment, rather from her claiming this land as her own...this is where she belongs...this is where she planted and rooted.
To Read and Reread
I loved Dakota. I've read it and reread it. It has so much to enjoy. First, Norris writes like a poet. Her words are beautiful. They pull you along. Second, her description of the Great Plains and the monasteries transports you. I've been wanting to visit Dakota ever since I read the book. Finally, there is the conversion that takes place in Norris herself as she is changed by the place. Dakota is slow reading, but it is not boring. This isn't a Tom Clancy book. However, a book on farmers, monks and poets should be slow. Norris reflects on herself and her environment.If you slow yourself down to keep pace with the book, you will find an appreciation for yourself and your own environment. If you get impatient, go read Clancy or Grisham, but come back to Dakota.

Slow But Steady
I wasn't sure I'd like Dakota because my spirituality leans toward activism rather than asceticism. Kathleen Norris, however, in her elegant, steady way, encourages reflection and thinking, not just about the geography of the land but also about the geography of a spirit-led life. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1947-    2. 20th century    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Civilization    7. Customs & Traditions    8. Great Plains    9. Homes and haunts    10. Literary    11. Norris, Kathleen,    12. North Dakota    13. Regional Subjects - West    14. Religious    15. South Dakota    16. Spirituality - General    17. United States - State & Local - General    18. Biography: general    19. General & Literary Fiction    20. Norris, Kathleen    21. Religion / Inspirational   

Reviews (12)

Couldn't Stop Smiling
I loved this book and I'm sure I smiled all the way through it.Everyone loves nostalgia about the good ole days -- meaning, we ALL have our own good old days.But the times he writes about are especially delightful and innocent.The music was great and something everyone and anyone could sing along with.The movies were dreamy. The radio was great and innovative.And best of all were Mom's final words to the young on summer days: Be home before dark!Yes, we used to go out and play.We didn't have play dates; we just played with whoever was there on that day.Sometimes we played kick the can, or tag, or jump rope, or went on long bike rides, or went to town to the small store to look at magazines and comic books and drool over the candy in the glass counters.We may even have had a nickle in our pockets to buy something.
It Made Me Smile
I envy Charles Osgood.He saw and experienced a Baltimore I never did.The stork didn't drop me off in B'more until 1955.I had such a good time in seeing things I remembered from a different perspective.If it's possible, I loved my city just a bit more after reading this.Thanks for the memories and insights.

Nostalgic, YetMean-Spirited
I was drawn to pick up this book when I saw the cover--the picture of the author as a young boy is irresistible.Although the content was interesting, I found myself quickly becoming annoyed by the author's numerous slurs towards our younger generation.I found his words to be increasingly mean-spirited and I finally put the book down for good when he made light of both children and their parents who are faced with the struggle of bipolar disorder.The author reminds me of many older Americans who can't see that the world has changed greatly since the 1940's and that our younger generation has many redeeming characteristics. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. American Journalism    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Childhood Memoir    6. Editors, Journalists, Publishers    7. Historical - General    8. Military    9. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    10. U.S. History - World War II (Domestic Aspects)    11. Biography & Autobiography / Military   

Reviews (37)

Not A Stand Up Guy
The book is wriiten in a matter that Red is bragging about anything.You can tell he was not so close to Whitey if you read all the Southie Books that are out there.All he was to Whitey was a cocaine dealer who paid 'tribute' to him.Nothing more and nothing less.He also seemed to forget people such as Freddy Weichel and Tommy Dixon in his book.I believe he changed those names knowing that there are still people around that are loyal to them that can take care of him.Someone also already stated here that he didn't rat because he was never asked to.The book still had its moments like when he discussed his trips to FLorida and the time that he spent in prison.He lies when he claims he was Whitey's Protege.Whitey only had one Protege and that was Kevin Weeks. I have read Street Soldier, Brutal, Black Mass, The Brother's Bulger, All Souls, and A Criminal and An Irishman.This one ranks last on the list of Southie Books.

There is no honor in this line of work
I gave this book a 5 star because it is a very compellingbook to read. A book that you cnanot put down. But the book's flaw, which the author believes is his strong point is the author's self description of honor used over and over in the book.
Tough growing up Southie
If you read the numerous books about Southie some of the stories change with each author. Knowing Red from home I tend to believe his accounts. Good job Red ! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Boston    6. Criminals & Outlaws    7. Gangsters    8. Irish Americans    9. Massachusetts    10. Organized Crime    11. Regional Subjects - New England    12. Social conditions    13. Biography & Autobiography / Criminals & Outlaws    14. Biography: general    15. True crime   

Reviews (10)

Stories You Never Heard--But Should
I'm writing this on 9/11 . . . we all know what happen this day.This book is the story of what happened next. The aftermath.The recovery.There are heroes in this world that we would never meet if someone didn't tell their story . . . the people that didn't have television specials made about them. The people that used shovels and hardwork to do their part. William Keegan is not only a worthy teller of their story, he's one of the heroes too.CLOSURE is filled with amazing anecdotes, insights, images, and inspirations.I can't reccomend this book enough. I'm telling everyone I know about it . . . and after you read it, you will too. The daunting and massive recovery effort described in this book serves as a beautiful metaphor to what all of America has had to go through, layer by layer, to recover from the devasting impact 9/11 had on our souls. CLOSURE proves that human spirit can endure anything and come out stronger for it. Great book.

The Father of Ground Zero
Lt. William Keegan never expected the horrific job he was about to be put in charge of, "Rescue and Recovery" of Ground Zero. Let me first commend your wife Karen and your three daughters Kristine, Tara, and Rory for the support and love they gave you every day.Without this it would have been an impossible task for you to handle Ground Zero. Your book gives me closure in many ways.There is not one person who can say they didn't know someone that was involved or perished on that sorrowful day.It enlightens me to see how the rescue and recovery was handled and shows how the departments of the PAPD, NYPD and FDNY finally realized that everyone was there for the same reason.Hopefully to find people still alive. In my opinion the book is fantastic and everyone should read it.It tells the details of how you looked in every area hoping to find someone to "Rescue or Recover".This book was written for everyone.Bill Keagan never gave up he was always there trying to bring closure for all the families involved.I'm sure the hardest part of 9-11 was when the rescuers would find a friend.But in the end they had "CLOSURE".Great Book.Totally enlighten me as to what the rescue workers went thru and how they survived during that time.

A story everyone needs to hear
"Closure" is an emotional, informative, and ultimately fascinating account of the Ground Zero recovery efforts, led in part by Lt. William Keegan, the PAPD night commander of the recovery crew. Keegan offers an inside look at the countless obstacles and routine horror the crew encountered at the site on a daily basis, as well as the tolls such unwavering dedication and efforts would take on his family life. Keegan also discusses the NYC politics that came into play during these many months of recovery, which sometimes presented even more obstacles for Keegan and his guys.
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Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Disaster Relief & Rescue Operations    5. Disaster Relief Services    6. New York    7. New York (State)    8. Personal Memoirs    9. Police Division    10. Political Terrorism    11. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.    12. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    13. Rescue work    14. September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001    15. United States - 21st Century    16. United States - State & Local - General    17. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs   

Reviews (18)

Some dreamers of the golden dream
"A good deal about California does not, on its own preferred terms, add up."This sentence, which opens Didion's third chapter in Where I Was From, is characteristic of the sort of pummeling understatement and reserve that characterizes all of Didion's work - humble, free of ostentation, profound in implication.No, the California Didion presents does not add up - a place defined by a jettisoning pioneer spirit "destroyed" by its own sense of development, a place defined equally by class as it is by people who say sentences like "we don't discuss class here," a place , Didion's Sacramento specifically, both defined by and existing in spite of its geography.Her contradictions of place and identity take Didion from one heavily scrutinized example to another - the Spur Posse, Boeing, Douglas, pioneers on the Sierra Nevadas, prisons, insane asylums - and if Didion's argument of conflicted identity doesn't always connect in thinking later about her specifics, the reading is as fluid, as full-bodied in argument and fact, as merciless an investigation as anything she's ever written.Didion has long been defined by her identity to California, something that comes up in all of her writings, whether in New York or El Salvador, so to see her tackle it so specifically - at one point even deconstructing (with fascinating effect) her own first novel, Run River - is a thrill.What will be of most fascination, undoubtedly, will be the 4th section of the book, the short, devastating section detailing the death of Didion's mother, yet what makes this piece so compelling is the grand scale of Didion's research and work - her California becomes a grand exercise in characterization.Her description in this section is some of the most agonizingly evoked, rich, and understated work of her career, and if the sections preceding it - highly descriptive, full of research often much fuller and drier than expected - can seem aimless when thinking about them, the finest compliment I can give Where I Was From is that, in the effortless and moving reading of the book, it evokes exactly what Didion wants of California, of her, and of her mother, and no more.

Great-Great-Great-Great-Great
This book of essays by Joan Didion, entitled "Where I Was From," gained my attention from the start, and later also gained my respect. Loved all the detail, the overlapping, the apparent extensive amount of research--the compulsive force of it all. Much like one of her ancester, the one who stitched (and over-stitched) the quilt amidst all the turmoil while crossing the Sierra Nevada. Didion writes with an intensity of meaning, her prose also seems to have arhythmbehind all the words. In my opinion, she truly is a masterful writer, who seems to allude towards a type of idealism; a discourse on the way California could or should be but is not. Then there is the deadpan prose, the insight with an edge, which adds to the overall context of her subject. Her perception in this book is exceptional; this women truly is an artist. (And as an artist, she is not a historian, nor an anthropologist or scientist).
Enjoyed the book....but one passage bugged me about Yosemite Indians.
I always enjoy reading Joan Didion, but this observation about Thomas Kinkade kinda bugged me:
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Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. History - U.S.    4. Literary    5. Regional Subjects - West    6. United States - 20th Century    7. United States - State & Local - West    8. Biography & Autobiography / Literary   

Reviews (2)

I Feel Them, Too
It's a treat to snuggle up for 300-plus pages with Amy Wilentz's voice: reportorial and confiding, contentious and confessional, a hint of Didion and a pinch of Ephron, simultaneously neurotic and level-headed, paranoid and wise.What a balancing act - and the writing gains in richness, momentum and authority in chapter after chapter. After I'd finished, I recalled that when my wife and I moved to Los Angeles in '85 (Manhattan refugees like Wilentz), we coined an acronym for anything grotesque, ostentatious or just plain silly that had a distinctly SoCal vibe: "OILA".Which stood for Only In Los Angeles.Nearly every day, we'd turn to each other and say it.Several years ago we realized that, somewhere along the line, we'd stopped saying it.Because we'd stopped noticing; we were natives now. Well, afterreading IFEMOTTH, I feel re-sensitized.Reborn, almost.Okay, not reborn - but amused, enlightened, informed ... and terrified to realize the extent to which we East-to-West Coast transplants have become what we beheld.Thank you Ms. Wilentz for that insight, and so many more.

A smart, funny, and astute look at L.A. today
Amy Wilentz is a Jersey girl who moved from Manhattan to LA after 9-11 -- and discovered, not a sunny laid-back paradise, but a whole new set of apocalyptic Mike Davis-like threats: forest fires, floods and landslides, and of course the earthquakes of the title.The seismic shifts include the rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger, which she covers brilliantly.The Governator, she observes, is never worried or troubled or embarrassed.That makes him the opposite of our author, who was praised by John Leonard in Harper's for her "luminous anxieties."My favorite part of the book is the prologue, which ends with the author in a tiny desert town that has a scale model of the Twin Towers, five feet tall. "At this size," she writes, "we could have cupped our hands and broken their fall." ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. California    4. California - State Government    5. Description And Travel    6. Governors    7. Personal Memoirs    8. Popular Culture - General    9. Regional Subjects - West    10. Travel    11. United States - West - Pacific (General)    12. Wilentz, Amy    13. Women    14. Social Science / Popular Culture   

Editorial Review

Deep in the granite hills of eastern Arizona in 1880, H.C. Day founded the Lazy B ranch, where U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and her brother Alan spent their youth, a time they recall in this affectionate joint memoir.Read more

Reviews (30)

A Very Impressive Lady!
"Lazy B," like the title implies, is the story of Sandra Day O'Connor and her younger brother growing up on a ranch in south-eastern Arizona.They grew up in an isolated environment that mandated self-reliance and initiative.Sandra received much of her formal education through riding the train to El Paso to stay with her maternal grandparents while attending a local girls' school.Her father had wanted to attend Stanford but the responsibilities of taking over the family ranch prevented that.Sandra O'Connor was able to achieve that for him, where she excelled academically, was then inspired by one of her instructors to study law (also at Stanford), met her husband (and also dated classmate William Rehnquist), and then struggled to begin a law career at a time that women had almost no such opportunity.(Despite Sandra graduating from Stanford Law #2 in her class, her early job searches were at best met with "Can you type?")
An image of the old Southwest
This book meant a lot to me on many levels, a special tale for this transplanted Southwesterner. I was attracted first because of the co-author, who is one of Our Country's great ladies. She and her brother have put together an inside look at life in the Southwest, the cattle ranch family life, that is no more. A whole chapter on rain and what it means in an arid land. Their loving but reserved father and how he made a living off the land. It reminded me of my own stern but loving father - when dads were supposed to be that way. The ranch life, the family and characters that inhabited it are fascinating. Wonderful story of a different place and time.

O'Connor reminisces about her childhood
This book is a colorful portrait of the world O'Connor grew up in. It is simple and lovely - very little mention of her later life in the law. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1930-    2. Arizona    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Judges    8. Lawyers & Judges    9. O'Connor, Sandra Day,    10. Ranch life    11. Regional Subjects - West    12. United States    13. Women    14. Biography & Autobiography / Women   

Reviews (179)

Boring...
A great portion of the book is very boring. I really felt like rushing through the book. I don't recommend this book to others

If you love baseball...
and even if you know nothing about baseball like me, Kearns Goodwin has hit a home run with "Wait till Next Year."You will learn all about the rivalry between the Mets and the Yankees and the history of Goodwin's beloved Brooklyn Dodgers. She tells all about her heroes Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges and Roy Campanella. All of these great baseball nuggets are woven into her story of growing up in Brooklyn in the '50s, and is so evocative of a time and place that was quintessentially American. This book will make you long for a town like Rockville Centre, sometime between 1949 and 1957.

Sweet Nostalgia
I, too, grew up on Long Island in the 50s and early 60s (two years in Queens and ten years out on "duh oyland".)I'm a few years younger; the Dodgers were already in Hollywood and I rooted for the hated Jankees.But the images of this beautiful memoir were so resonant with my childhood, from soothing sound of Red Barber's voice coming from the tinny transistor radio to the edicts from the diocese of Rockville Centre, read periodically in lieu of a Sunday sermon, mostly asking for more money.
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Subjects:  1. American historians    2. Baseball fans    3. Biography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Historians    7. Historical - U.S.    8. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    9. United States    10. Biography & Autobiography / General    11. Biography: general   

Reviews (103)

Courageously Honest Memoir
I place Colored People alongside Angela's Ashes as one of the best works of memoir in recent years. He doesn't moralize; he just tells the honest story. This is a story that, to my knowledge, has not been told elsewhere. It is a story about the freedom and comfort and the pain of a segregated commuinty, and the heartbreak that came with leaving some of that world behind. Most things are deeper and more complex than we like to think they are. Colored People brings that concept forward in a way that no other book has. The people whose expressed frustration with not being able to keep the characters straight are missing the point - this isn't a murder mystery and it doesn't make any difference. Buy it. Read it. Share it. I only wish I'd done so when it first came out.

Piedmont childhood
Gates fears that Piedmont, West Virginia will cease to exist.His father felt and instructed him that people of the same race should not cling to each other through habit or fear.The author rebels at the notion that he can't be part of other groups, too. Piedmont is in Mineral county.Piedmont as a whole seems to be graying.The town's identity was bound up by the existence of the Westvaco paper mill.Almost all the colored people in Piedmont worked at the paper mill.Until the 1970's the houses were rented from white landowners.
Excellent memoir - a necessary read!
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is an extraordinary scholar, particularly on African-American issues.He was born and raised in Piedmont, West Virginia during the time of early racial desegregation and, as a black man, was directly influenced by this dramatically historical period.Gates graduated summa cum laude from Yale University with a degree in history, then received a Ph.D. in English from Cambridge.
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Subjects:  1. African American scholars    2. African Americans    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Critics    8. Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - Histor    9. People of Color    10. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    11. Social life and customs    12. United States    13. West Virginia    14. Biography: general    15. Social Science / African-American Studies   

Editorial Review

Growing up in rural Wyoming, Mark Spragg learned early to read the stars. At 11 he was instructed to quit dreaming, and he went to work for his father on the land. "I was paid thirty dollars a month, had my own bed in the bunkhouse, and three large, plain meals each day." The ranch is a sprawling place where winter brings months of solitude and summer brings tourists from the real world--city types who want a taste of the outdoors and stare at the author and his family as if they were members of some exotic tribe: "Our guests were New Jersey gas station owners, New York congressmen, Iowa farmers, judges, actors, plumbers, Europeans who had read of Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull and came to experience the American West, the retired, the just beginning." By the age of 14, he and his younger brother are leading them on camping trips into deep woods. "No one ever asked why we had no televisions, no daily paper. They came for what my brother and I took for granted. They came to live the anachronism that we considered our normal lives."Read more

Reviews (35)

The first eleven chapters were superb.......
One of the most interesting and captivating non-fiction books I've ever read.Being an Easterner this book made me just fall in love with the mountains of Wyoming and feel as though I've actually been there.In fact felt as though I had actually walked amongst the people who live there.So for the most part loved the book.
A trip "home"
I loved this book. It was like a trip home for me...I grew up in the same locale and a very similar time period as the author - I found myself happily recalling people and places named in the book. Journeys back to our childhood - our formative years - are always frought with pitfalls. Were the places ever that wonderful? Were the people ever that horrible? But Spragg avoided those pitfalls well in his written recollections and painted very strong and beautiful pictures of life up Northfork - the good, the bad, the harsh, the beautiful. I have never been as homesick as I was when I finished this book.I can't wait to read his other books!

Written From The Heart
One reviewer said of this book. "Mark Spragg's memoir makes you feel you've been somewhere, you've been out in the depths, and you've come back changed". This sums it up beautifully. There is not a page within these stories which will not grab your attention, hold you still while you absorb the soul of what Spragg has to tell you. It's a story of boyhood, of manhood, of the vast and unpredictable lands of Wyoming, where fences are strangers. There are stories in here which make the heart soar, and there are stories which make the heart break. As a reader, you're never quite sure where Spragg will take you next, you'll laugh with him, you'll tighten your throat at some of his words, and when you're done with this journey, you'll think the world around you has changed, but it hasn't, Spragg has just given you the magic to see it differently. Spragg lives his entire boyhood on the edge of manhood, unfolding himself into the landscapes and animals, both wild and domestic, which create his world. Of horses, he will tell you; "I believed that to have a horse between my legs, to extend my pulse and blood and energy to theirs, enhanced my vision. Made of me a seer. I believed them to be the dappled, sorrel, roan, bay, black pupils in the eyes of God". Of the dude ranch, where he learned about men and and animals, forests and water, of wind, he'll say; ".. but I did not know that I lived on the largest block of unfenced wilderness in the lower forty eight states. That is what I know as a man. As a boy, I knew only that I was free on the land". This memoir is beautifully written, from the first to the last page, Spragg's pen sometimes wounds the paper, sometimes heals it, and the reader is left feeling the scratching of a pen across the heart. This, for me, is one of the books that will sit always within easy reach on my bookshelves, there are times I'll seek Spragg's magic and bring it back into my world. This is a collection with something for everyone, because it touches the core of being human in a world where humanness is often the stranger. Do read, it's worth every moment of your time.
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Subjects:  1. 1952-    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Childhood Memoir    7. Childhood and youth    8. Farmers & Ranchers    9. Park County    10. Park County (Wyo.)    11. Ranch life    12. Regional Subjects - West    13. Religious    14. Spragg, Mark,    15. Wyoming    16. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs    17. Spragg, Mark   

Reviews (172)

Living The Truth
Louis Rodriquez writes the truth! I know I lived in the Lomas during the time Louis writes about being in Garvey school and at Mark Keppel. I lived in Lomas from 1959 to 1972. Fortunately, I survived the madness in Lomas. This was our life as we knew it, the gangs, drugs, girls and of course the parties. It brings back memories of our life in the barrio L's...

I read it, re-lived it and loved it!
Well written book by one of my favorite Authors.Louis is an awesome person who is committed to his work and community.Book can be used for anyone looking for a real life reference to the history of Chicano/a Gangs in Southern California.I read it, re-lived it and loved it!

Always Challanging
Many young people face the same perils Luis Rodriguez shares in this auto biographical coming-of-age story; some overcome these challanges, while others succumb. But, how many rise as far above them as Rodriguez has?
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Subjects:  1. 1954-    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. California    7. Criminology    8. Gangs    9. General    10. Historical - U.S.    11. Literary    12. Los Angeles    13. Mexican American youth    14. Regional Subjects - West    15. Rodriguez, Luis J.,    16. Biography & Autobiography / General    17. Modern fiction    18. Rodriguez, Luis J   

Reviews (28)

I think this one is telling the truth.
With so many memoir writers being exposed as fiction writers these days, Flynn is writing the truth. There is a lack of narrative flow in this book--it's told in fits and starts, and no one is especially prettied or uglied up for the story's sake. Also, his self-awareness and self-assessment are brutally honest. He's as clear about what he doesn't feel as what he does. He stands back and marvels at his own ability to let his father keep falling, and that's the most realistic part of all. I didn't like the Santa part, but most of the stylistically risky writing worked for me. The humor is deadpan, the characters real, in that they don't seem to be trotted out as stock characters. This is a good one, folks.

Coming of age as a fatherless child in the Boston area
The title of Flynn's memoir is certainly eye-catching.One might assume, before picking up the book, that Nick is a resident of Suck City.The reader soon learns that this is a book about Nick's homeless, alcoholic Dad Jon Flynn, who is perpetually stuck in Suck City.Nick toys with an aimless and depressed life, but eventually finds his own way.
Not as Great as I had hoped!
This book started off with intrigue, but left me feeling as though I had missed something in the end.Being on a bit of a Non-fiction kick, I chose this book after Amazon said I would enjoy it!It was too far out there and jumped around way too much.I kept waiting for something to happen, and was left with nothing but a dysfunctional relationship in the end! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography And Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Literary    6. Personal Memoirs    7. Regional Subjects - New England    8. Biography & Autobiography / General    9. Biography: general    10. English    11. Poetry & poets: from c 1900 -    12. USA   

Reviews (35)

A Southern Woman's recount
This was a definite surprise me novel.I picked it up for no other reason thanthe shocking title.This has become one of my favorite books, and she, a favored writer.I love how she brings the people from her childhood to life in the reader's mind, the language, the sayings, a delightful Southern Yiddish flavor.This book has been passed among friends and allowed us to have an interesting discussion with 3 generations of Southern women.

Like it was for non-Jews, too!
The authenticity of detail hit me over and again, describing not only how it felt to be Jewish in white anglo-saxon Prodestant Tennessee, but the way everyone was: open armed but not altogether open minded, graciously phrasing back-talk, helpful when you least expected it, back-stabbing the same way, and sugar-coating every topic but money.When it came to money, you didn't pay protection after the fact, like industrial cities; you first worked for permission.Fabulously The Jew Store tells this tale!True to my own memory is the white woman whose lemon merangue pie was acclaimed, only it was her cook's.The cook, called that but doing cleaning, gardening, child rearing, and everyting else.Learning to listen backwards if you wanted to know what someone was actually saying, as in "we're so glad you came over and didn't even call!"The sugar-coated talk from mean, angry men.The social standing that harked to who-knew-where... This was the small mill town I grew up in in NC, too.It produced the fragile sounding Southern-belle diction that was good for date bait 'up north,' as her daughter found out; but that belied the resolve of strong, smart women with wonderful senses of humor, as shown in her characters.Anyone who grew up in a small mill town in the South prior to -- say 1970 --- met plenty of folks just like these.How glorious to have this touching volume of remembrances.

You don't have to be Jewish to love this book!
The Jew Store is a wonderful, absorbing memoir, rich with detail about a Jewish family's experiences in a tiny, "dot on the map" southern town.Stella Suberman's vivid descriptions of her Russian immigrant parents' adjustment to this life include unflinching examinations of the prejudices and imperfections of the community they join as well as those the couple bring with them.So much happens to the family in the course of this memoir that the narrative is as compelling as a good novel.The dilemmas the family faces are so convincingly rendered--Where will Joey get the training necessary for his bar mitzvah?Will Miriam marry a gentile?--that I was occasionally moved to tears.By the time you reach the end of the book, you will miss some of these people, as if they have become part of your own story. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Ethnic Cultures - General    5. Historical - General    6. Historical - U.S.    7. Regional Subjects - South    8. Religious   

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Florida    4. General    5. Governors    6. Historical - General    7. Historical - U.S.    8. History    9. History: American    10. Regional Subjects - South    11. United States - State & Local - General    12. United States - State & Local - South    13. American history: postwar, from c 1945 -    14. Biography: historical   

Reviews (50)

Great Read
eloquent...evocative writing.With the mid-20th century as the setting Blunt brings her land, her emotions, her experiences alive with an honesty that is at once brutal and tender.This is an all absorbing story of self awareness and liberation; I read the book through twice without stopping.

What a great read.
WOW. What a woman. I was especially curious to read this book since Jeff and his family are from Montana, and lived in Missoula for quite some time. It is too bad life still isn't like that in a sense. Seems more things have gotten in the way and it is falling apart. Kids don't know the meaning of "going to play".
Like listening to Tschaikovsky
On the front cover of my paperback copy of this book, the Chicago Tribune is quoted: "Breathtaking ... Blunt's writing is visceral, yet never without humor and a raw, fierce honesty." I could not have said it better.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Blunt, Judy    6. Farmers & Ranchers    7. Montana    8. Ranch life    9. Regional Subjects - West    10. U.S. Local History - Western United States    11. Women    12. Women In The U.S.    13. Women ranchers    14. Biography & Autobiography / General   

Reviews (7)

A worthy successor to Thomas Hardy and Aldo Leopold
William Kittredge is a worthy successor to Thomas Hardy and Aldo Leopold."Hole in the Sky" is both a personal memoir and a portrait of a vanished way of life in the remote Warner Valley in eastern Oregon.The author witnessed the end of farming with horse teams when diesel tractors came to the valley after WW II and changed the rural economy forever.Thomas Hardy's novels ("Far from the Madding Crowd" and others) tell a comparable story of the English countryside in the 19th Century, when the agrarian society that had existed for 400 years was disappearing.Mr. Kittredge also tells how the tractors meant the end of wild birds and mammals that had been part of his life in Warner Valley.He writes with an ecologist's eye for the land, reminiscent of Aldo Leopold in his "Sand County Almanac," a book that introduced so many of us to ecology and the concept of saving wild places.
Lost on the range
Kittredge's excellent, thoughtful, and well-written book is a memoir of growing up on a ranch in southeastern Oregon. This is arid country where spring runoff from the mountains gathers in lakes and swamps used for millennia as a stopover by migrating waterbirds. Enter the enterprising Kittredge family, and during the 20th century thousands of acres here were transformed into a vast irrigated ranch, its chief output evolving from cattle to grain to hay to feed milling and feedlots. More to the point, they built an agricultural empire and became wealthy. The frontier we all can imagine
William Kittridge's autobiography, A HOLE IN THE SKY begins in the wilderness around the foothills of southeastern Oregon and retells, in lucid detail, the events of his childhood leading up to his time in the Air Force, to his many marriages, to his emergence as a writer who writes in a prophetic voice with a great sense of prose.Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Authors, American    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Farmers & Ranchers    8. Homes and haunts    9. Kittredge, William    10. Literary    11. Montana    12. Regional Subjects - West    13. Biography & Autobiography / General   

Reviews (6)

A great historical review of the "other" civil rights movement
The authors did a great job of detailing the early childhood that shaped the future leader of the farm workers movement. They also do a great job of highlighting the trails, ups and downs of Cesar Chavez and the farm workers movement. One g