Subjects:  1. Anecdotes    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Blackistone, Mick    4. Chesapeake Bay (Md. and Va.)    5. Fisheries    6. Fisheries & Aquaculture    7. Fishers    8. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Technology   

Reviews (11)

A Nice Easy Read
The first 20 pages dragged and sounded a bit snooty...but I really wanted to like this book and said I'd wait to page 50 to decide. As I read on I ended up getting drawn in and curious. At the end I was disapointed on the quick and simple ending. I would have liked more details about what happened to the home and the author. All in all it was a charming book on country life that most of us would love to live!

A Celebration of Appalachia
In this book Cathleen Miller celebrates her new life in Appalachia, bringing a sense of wonder to the landscape, seasons and citizens of Central Pennsylvania.She is a skilled writer and one is soon lulled into the warm cocoon of this couple's world by Miller's engaging voice-alternately hilarious, poignant, inquisitive, and revealing. Self-centered drivel
As a native of Centre County I looked forward to hearing someones view of an area of the country that I have left and returned to for its quirky charm and customs.But instead what I found was a smug, self-indulgent story that rambles on never to make a profound or astute observation.The author portrays herself and her husband as superiors to their earnest, hardworking neighbors --she laughs at, not with them. She mocks their holiday customs, their offers of help, and assistance, their entertainment,their towns, every element of their lives.If I could give this book negative stars, I would, but the form wont let me. I can't believe any publisher thought this book she be printed. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Country life    4. Essays    5. Miller, Cathleen    6. Nature    7. Nature/Ecology    8. Pennsylvania    9. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    10. Zion Region    11. Zion Region (Pa.)    12. Literary Collections / General   

Reviews (4)

Little-known women celebrated
A wonderful, easy to read yet informative introduction to some women I knew little about.Thoroughly enjoyable!

Women Who Break the Rules Unite!
It is refreshing to see this book, with its women of various backgrounds and cultures showing the determination to live their lives by the rules they choose, instead of what their individual societies forced upon them at differing times in our history.From the earliest record in what was New Amsterdam, to more recent times, I enjoyed at times a thrilling view of some women of New York I had not heard of but whose nerve and determination helped put women in the position we now enjoy in America, and New York in particular. Women who, in the face of rejection of their communties or downright danger still said "My way or the highway!" This book takes them from their obscurity and shows them as the courageous beings they were.Very inspirational!

Herstory,History and some great New Yorkers
Finally a well written, easy to readyet scholarly work about some fascinating New Yorkers, who just happen to be women.Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. History    4. History: American    5. New York (State)    6. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    7. United States - State & Local - General    8. Women    9. Women's Studies - History    10. Travel / United States / Northeast / Middle Atlantic (NJ, NY, PA)   

Editorial Review

Fred Thompson (1873-1919) was a pioneering entrepreneur who encouraged Americans, especially American men, to have fun and stop feeling guilty about it. He designed and built Luna Park, which in 1903 transformed Coney Island from an area so tawdry it was known as "Sodom by the Sea" into a respectable venue for middle-class recreation. He created the Hippodrome, the world's largest theater when it opened in 1905, and filled it with lavish spectacles at affordable ticket prices. He moved on to become "the boy-wonder of Broadway producers," responsible for such popular hits as Read more

Reviews (3)

Fred Thompson habitue of Coney Island Restaurants
As a lifelong resident of Coney Island,and the author of a recently published memoir entitled Remembrance of a Restaurant,or a Decameron of Dining,I share the deserved enthusiasm of all reviews for this life of remarkable showman,Fred Thompson. Unlike other reviews, mine is more intimate. Fred Thompson was an habitue of the finest restaurants of the period like Ravenhall's,Villepique's,Beau Rivage,and my parents notable landmark restaurant called Villa Joe's.A Little Bit of Naples in Coney Island.It was razed by urban renewal(1915-1975)As a boy, I recall his frequent patronage ,especially when he gave me season passes to Luna Park ,and a pat on the head.He was as modest as his imagination was flamboyant. He often haddinner talking to my father about my father's Boston Terrier championsI remember him as being always abstracted,away in thought. Mr. Register has reminded us in this biography of the great originals of that period of singular will and imagination. If I still had the restaurant I would invite Mr. Register to a drink on the house to celebrate this triumphant book suitable for a great showman.

The Rise of the New Leisure Class
Fred Thompson was the "kid" (he was in his early twenties when he built Luna Park in Coney Island) who first recognized that the American middle class in the early 20th century was ripe for amusement and fun, ready to embrace consumption, fun and leisure as a moral system. Here he is given his due as a great innovator (inventor of the theme park), and a great showman (Broadway producer of mega-extravaganzas). Woody Register's highly readable and extremely insightful book is not just about Fred Thompson (of which there is very little historical information other than press releases, scattered interviews and new stories about Thompson's endeavors and stunts), but is all about the break between the early industrial age (all about saving and putting aside wages for a rainy day, Victorian respectability, the patriarchal society and responsibility) and the dawning of the modern age of consumption (spending for the fun of it, disrepectable activities, the newly feminized office-based white collar man and irresponsiblity). Thompson was the first entreprenuer to sell the idea of childhood as a lifelong event sustained through the agency of the carnival, the theme park, the toy. His genius lay in combining the new conception of childhood as a time of "innocent joy" with the new era of comsumption for consumption's sake. A wild spender, he died penniless, still enthusiastic, still working on his next big project, a perfect exemplar of the new boy/man Peter Pan personality he was instrumental in creating. According to Mr. Register's Introduction, this work took him much longer to write than he expected it would. We are the beneficiaries of his extended and meticulous labors -- this book is sure to beome a classic cultural studies text.

From Side Show to Broadway
The mysterious Fredrick Thompson left little biographical information in his wake, but Woody Register has taken the scant evidence and woven it into a revealing narritive of the man who made Coney Island famous. This book cchronicles an even more important story as well, the concepts of leisure and amusements in the 20th century. The theme park, theatrical spectacular, Vegas showroom and Broadway all own a debt to Fred Thompson's inner child. This book is a must for anyone serious about the business of fun. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1873-1919    2. Amusement park owners    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    8. General    9. New York    10. New York (State)    11. Popular Culture - General    12. Recreational Areas    13. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    14. Thompson, Fred,    15. United States - 20th Century    16. Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts    17. Biography: general    18. Entrepreneurship    19. History, American | Late 19th Century    20. USA   

Reviews (1)

Diamonds in the Coalfields
"Diamonds in the Coalfields" is a documentary of life in the 1920's, 30's, and 40's.William Kashatus has done an excellent job of organizing the history of the mining communities, from a perspective of how baseball affected everyone's lives in those happy, glorious years. You can get an estimate of his effort by looking at his detailed reference notes and bibliography at the back of the book.He has devoted a huge amount of time in research and interviews in the writing of this book.Read more

Subjects:  1. Baseball    2. Baseball - General    3. Baseball - History    4. Baseball players    5. Biography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. History    8. Pennsylvania    9. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    10. Sports    11. Sports & Recreation    12. Sports - Baseball   

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    5. Biography: general   

Reviews (7)

Tea That Refreshes
Tea That Burns was an unexpected pleasure to read.Not only is the writing fresh and engrossing, but the overall account of his family history back several generations is fascinating and rings of authencity.I have read numerous interesting Chinese-American memoirs, and what makes this one especially unique, is the ability of the author to connect the events occurring in U. S. History with concurrent events in China's history. This interweaving informs the reader in ways that are absent when the China context is not provided. Tea That Burns
Yes, it is a great book! I finish in one afternoon. I couldn't down the book once I started reading.... Mr. Hall provides a very rich history of the Chinatown in New York City during the mid-1800s period. He is succeeded to "enable the reader to smell history." In the book, Mr. Hall describes his father "denied" his identity of Chinese which shows the typical dilemma of the new generation of Chinese immigrants in the United States. However, I was "confused" by the subtitle, "a family memoir of chinatwon". I expect that the book mainly describes the author's family history, rather than concerns on the hisotry of Chinatown history.

Tea That Burns
Yes, it is a great book! I finish in one afternoon. I couldn't down the book once I started reading.... Mr. Hall provides a very rich history of the Chinatown in New York City during the mid-1800s period. He is succeeded to "enable the reader to smell history." In the book, Mr. Hall describes his father "denied" his identity of Chinese which shows the typical dilemma of the new generation of Chinese immigrants in the United States. However, I was "confused" by the subtitle, "a family memoir of chinatwon". I expect that the book mainly describes the author's family history, rather than concerns on the hisotry of Chinatown history. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Ethnic Cultures - General    5. Personal Memoirs    6. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic   

Editorial Review

It's always a pleasure to read a memoir about the 1960s that doesn't rationalize or recriminate but instead concentrates on conveying the texture of those wild times. Micah Perks's matter-of-fact re-creation of her counterculture childhood makes it clear that living without rules had severe consequences, but she also captures the anarchic pleasures of that life. Perks was 6 weeks old in 1963 when her parents borrowed $20,000 to buy 550 acres of land in the Adirondacks and establish the Valley Commune School. They took in troubled teens referred by the courts and children disabled by mental illness, aiming to help them grow up "free from the suffocating values of mainstream society." "We're changing the established order," her charismatic, feckless father asserted, handing out guns to juvenile delinquents and organizing a "war" between Romans and Celts in which the retreating Romans set fire to a pagan shrine. Micah's best friend, she learned 20 years later, was sexually abused by an older boy and his girlfriend; her father slept with students and virtually any other woman he ran across; in retaliation her mother began an affair with the man who would eventually become her lifelong partner. Readers may well be horrified by the grownups' abdication of responsibility, but Perks herself is unfazed by the vagaries of human nature and seems to bear no grudge, though her adult attitude toward her parents is wary. "That was the best part of my life," she concludes, adding in a properly parenthetical aside: "(best is not quite accurate, but I don't know what other word to use)." Judging by her scrupulous, evenhanded narrative, we can guess that for all the terror and uncertainty she endured, she values her childhood for the intensity and honesty she experienced watching a bunch of principled misfits live their convictions. Read more

Reviews (4)

Dangerous and Free
Reading this made me both envious of the author's childhood and grateful that I hadn't been in her place.Many of the things to which she was exposed were genuinely dangerous--she's lucky to have come through in one piece.Her father was an irresponsible, lying daredevil with a sentimental streak and more than a bit of a child himself.Her long-suffering mother was the glue that held things together at the communal school and home in which they all lived.
Lovely
I came across this book by accident when I happened to walk into a bookstore just as Micah was doing a reading and booksigning. I was immediately taken by the stories of her unusual childhood and ended up buying the book and reading it several times. It's filled with love, tragedy, and a lot of wild characters. Perfect for anyone who's familiar with alternative lifestyles, or just interested.

fine memoir style and subject matter: hippie communes
Micah Perks' strategy is to write a present tense memory narrative of her youth in Vermont where she witnesses the folly of hippy commune living and her father's tyrannical moral relativism, which he uses to justify a rather Billy Goat existence, at the expense of his wife. Perks never preaches, analyzes, or tells us much. Instead, she narrates strings and strings of memories. The only problem with this approach is that there is not much dramatic tension, no roller coaster ride, but a sort of flat line throughout the 160-page book. However, her style and language are sharp and immaculate. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Adirondack Mountains Region    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Childhood Memoir    8. Childhood and youth    9. Communal living    10. Family    11. Historical - General    12. Literary    13. New York (State)    14. Novelists, American    15. Perks, Micah    16. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    17. Biography: general    18. USA    19. c 1960 to c 1970    20. Essays    21. Memoir   

Reviews (3)

It is always crazy in New York.
Mr. Peacock brings us into a midtown temple of despair. It is for the most part a sad place with the workers being the well-adjusted individuals in the neighborhood. "Harlots, Starlets, Thieves and Sleaze"~Fantastic Book!
When this book caught my attention I decided to order it and see how interesting it was. Never did I think that it would keep me at the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next at the Helmsley Palace. Mr. Peacock's writing, honesty, humor and wit made for a fantastic book. I highly recommend this book to all that want to know what goes on behind closed doors of these very famous hotels. I will also look for more work by Mr. Peacock and can not wait for his next book!! A+++++

Harlots, Starlets, Thieves and Sleaze INDEED!
Mr. Peacock's anecdotal memoir takes readers inside the Helmsley Palace, a world of contradictions where the wealthiest and poorest exist symbiotically ... most of the time. The author, rather than writing a self-serving vehicle, has instead showed with intelligence and humor the perversions of many who checked in and the desperation of those undesirables who were kicked out. He marries these amusing tidbits with somber vignettes to create an enjoyable, good read. I would absolutely recommend it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. General    5. Personal Memoirs    6. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    7. Biography: general   

Reviews (2)

A Good Imagination Can Go A Long Way
Jerome Charyn's "Dark Lady From Belorusse" is an entertaining little book, however it is practically impossible to believe that even a quarter of the events depicted in this "memoir" are true. Charyn would have us believe that he grasped situations at the age of five that wouldn't be well handled by a 50-year-old. I took the stories he tells about his mother, her interaction with local Bronx gangsters, and his dysfunctional family with a grain of salt. While some of these events may have taken place, there is no way they occurred as the author remembers them in this book. The author's fanciful embellishments can be a little annoying - what exactly does he take his readers for? - especially since he is attempting to pass the book off as a work of nonfiction. Charyn does better by his readers in his sequel to the "Dark Lady" entitled "The Black Swan," where he admits in an endnote that many of the events and characters depicted are fictional. Bronx memories
I loved this little book. I'm now reading the sequal, The Black Swan. Ipicked them up because they take place in the Bronx, where I grew up,andCharyn is close to my age. I frequented some of the places he did, but wehad wildly different experiences. He is obsessed with his beautiful motheras were so many men she knew. He was extraordinary too. Reads a little likeDoctorow only this is a memoir not a fantasy--or is it?Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Charyn, Jerome - Prose & Criticism    6. Family relationships    7. Historical - U.S.    8. Jewish families    9. Jews, Belarusian    10. Literary    11. New York    12. New York (State)    13. Novelists, American    14. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    15. Charyn, Jerome    16. Childhood and youth    17. Family    18. Homes and haunts    19. New York (N.Y.)   

Reviews (5)

Memoir Written with Warmth and Humor
This charming memoir is more than a story about a particular place and time--it's a story about growing up, about living in a city, about American middle class life.Now, with Stuyvesant Town a hot item in the news, Demas's smart and accurate book has particular value to anyone interested in New York City's future. This is an important look at what's at stake now in urban politics, but at the same time it's a great pleasure to read--filled with wonderful details and written with humor and warmth.

Good Book
This book is wonderfully written. It tells a great story in amusing and moving detail of normal family life- the family life most of us had. The description of Stuyvesant Town is mostly accurate. I grew up there in the '70s and '80s and my family and many friends are still there. There are some details that are just wrong (or at least are wrong about the Stuyvesant Town of the '70s and '80s)and keep me from rating this a 5--the author's one sentence slam against Republicans notwithstanding. The residents of Stuyvesant Town mostly were Catholic , not Jewish as claimed by the author. ... I knew none who did. Overall, a good book about the relationship among a child and her parents. Stuyvesant Town residents, past and present, will appreciate discussions such as the longing for a dog in a place where cats weren't even allowed in apartments. Males who grew up in Stuyvesant Town will certainly wish they could read about Little League and playing sports in playgrounds 9 and 11, which is not discussed in this book. A good book.

Another Stuyvesant Kid
I was excited to read this as I too grew up in Stuyvesant Town.It was disappointing.The author presented her experiences as indicative of all, and actually made some factual errors.For example she stated "the majority of residents were Jewish".It not only is untrue, but on the face of it would seem highly unlikely.Why would this development be so out of kilter with the population at large?She also indicated that most of the residents had cleaning women.Not to my knowledge, though I bet my mother and the mothers of my friends (and those of my 6 siblings) wished that were true.I may be nit-picking, but since I found the writing less than engrossing, I found the inaccuracies hard to excuse.It may have taken me back, but I kept wanting to ask the author what in heavens name she was talking about.It was unfortunate that the author didn't present this as her reminiscences rather than "the" story of growing up in Stuvesant Town.I suppose any of the many Stuy Town kids (or former residents) would enjoy a quick read of this, but it probably wouldn't be of much interest to anyone else. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Childhood Memoir    4. Childhood and youth    5. Demas, Corinne    6. Family & Relationships    7. Family/Marriage    8. Interpersonal Relations    9. Literary    10. New York    11. New York (State)    12. New York - Local History    13. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    14. Social History    15. Stuyvesant Town (New York, N.Y    16. Stuyvesant Town (New York, N.Y.)    17. Women    18. American studies    19. Biography: general    20. c 1945 to c 1960    21. c 1960 to c 1970    22. Memoir    23. New York Studies   

Editorial Review

In Read more

Reviews (6)

Doesn't live up to the hype
A Walker in the City seems like a book that I should like.Critically acclaimed and lauded, i expected it would be wonderful.Granted, Kazin has a way with words and description unlike most, however, "A Walker" simply bored me.Reading it in comparison to McCourts Angela's Ashes for a college course, I can't help but wish Kazin had resisted the temptation to describe everything in detail and tell us more about the people.He ends the book talking about a romantic relationship, yet tells nothing of the girl, simply the reservoir and park in which they walked.I can't help but almost be angry that he seems to have no value for human relationships, he rather bury his nose in a book or stare at a brick wall on the street.I see this book as missing the mark, having potential and good qualities but overall being an overdramatic, over-emotional boring description of his emotions and surroundings."give me a break"

Overrated
I first read A WALKER IN THE CITY as an adolescent, and the book impressed me, in that mysterious way that things that we know "should" impress us can do.
Remarkable imagination, remarkable writer
Alfred Kazin's eminently readable memoir of his childhood and adolescent life growing up in a Jewish enclave in New York City during the early decades of the twentieth century, offer certain insight into the realities of the cityscape but most enjoyably his personality.The first lines - 'Every time I go back to Brownsville it is as if I had never been away' - are not mere platitudes, but rather establish the style of the book and the indelible connection between the author and the city.Kazin at times meanders with his storytelling and rememberances of the textures of the city, of Brownsville and it's inhabitants, but like any good writer who has developed a truly authentic voice, he redraws the reader into the narrative, into himself.And for Kazin - and vicariously for the reader - the city, his experiences of Brownsville, and the inhabitants are bound into a seamless whole.Kazin seems at his best when he parrots the coyly yearning adolescent male.I couldn't help but smile at one particular scene in which he described an older, married, and forlorn woman, who's mysticism piqued his youthful interest. 'How did you address your shameful secret love when she walked into a kitchen, and sat down with you, and smiled, smiled nervously, never fitting herself to the great design?' the sly youth pondered, for in his imagination, which Leo Tolstoy too inhabited, she was his Anna.This scene was one of several anecdotes that I found myself smiling at as I read, enjoying the author's wit, prose, and storytelling ability.
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Subjects:  1. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    2. Sale Adult - Biography / Autobiography    3. Self-Help    4. Modern fiction    5. Sale Books   

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Childhood Memoir    6. Childhood and youth    7. General    8. History    9. Inwood (New York County, N.Y.)    10. Inwood (New York, N.Y.)    11. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    12. Roberts, Richard E    13. Roberts, Richard E.    14. Social life and customs    15. USA   

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic   

Reviews (27)

A Brilliant Memoir
A friend of mine from the Bronx told me about this book, and I'm glad she did.This if a beautifully written story that gets at the truth of both the time and the heart.The Bronx is a place that seems mythic and all too real to me and this writer keeps both of those images alive.

We are all dreamers
I loved this book.It gave a shape to Pearson's life and let me understand that there is a shape to all of our lives. It's just up to us to find the meaning that is there for us notice.

A Memoir that Reads like a Novel
For me Dreaming of Columbus read more like a novel than a memoir. I mean that as a compliment to the writer. The story had the feel of fiction to it, as if you could see inside the characters lives and enter the story for a while. I loved it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1949-    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Bronx (New York, N.Y.)    7. Childhood Memoir    8. Childhood and youth    9. Elements In The U.S. Population    10. Historical - General    11. Irish Americans    12. Literary    13. New York    14. New York (State)    15. New York - Local History    16. Pearson, Michael,    17. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    18. Social life and customs    19. United States - State & Local - General    20. Biography: general    21. Local history    22. Pearson, Michael    23. Social history   

Reviews (5)

A Learning Experience
I have known farmer and ms meadows sense i was 9 years old. I am now 18, and reading this book has given me a look into their lives that was a real learing experience. It gives a glimpse and gives me a appreciation for them and the lives they have lived. It is an awsome account of their lives, and I highly reccomend it to anyone who not only know farmer and betty, but anyone who likes a romance story. I can honestly say i truly appreciate them in a new way now after reading Nearly Perfect

A must read!
Wonderful, inspiring, challenging!The writer captured my interest and I felt like for a short period I became a part of the Meadows Family. The love between the Farmer and Betty captured my heart. I was impressed with their wisdom as young married people in how they conducted business and treated one another with such sensitivity. I appreciated the thoughtfulness of the Meadows insofar as their employees were concerned.Truly, God has blessed their lives.

this is a great book about great people
i have read this book two times, it has its funny times and it has its emotional times you smile and cry at the same time. this book has alot of good life lessions, such as patience,investments,and living life to its fullest. not only is it a good book, but farmer and betty are all around good people. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Business/Economics    4. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic   

Editorial Review

This charming memoir mixes zesty details particular to the author's roots in the close-knit Jewish community of the Bronx (after-school snacks of rye bread piled high with sauerkraut, confusion when an older person didn't speak English with an accent) and those familiar to any American who was a kid during the depression and World War II (weekly trips to the movies, lunches at the Horn & Hardart Automat, polio scares, defense bonds as gifts, fathers who smoked unfiltered cigarettes, mothers who "never sat down except to eat or sew"). Childhood's universal joys and sorrows, from pen pals to summer camp, are also recalled with affectionate warmth in many of the book's 207 numbered paragraphs. The unusual structure captures the nonchronological, in-and-out nature of memory, and Rosenkrantz's distinctive, funny, and sassy voice gives it narrative continuity. Lively visuals include numerous family photos (the author bravely lets us see her in the silly outfits once deemed suitable for formal portraits of little girls) and evocative period documents like a 1939 World's Fair souvenir ("taken by the Photomatic"). It's all great fun, and a welcome change from the diaries of dysfunction that have recently dominated this genre. Read more

Reviews (3)

charming
This is a clever idea for a charming little book. Linda Rosenkrantz gives us a memoir in the form of a list. It goes from birth until puberty. Of course, it's a glossy memoir with no unhappiness allowed to intrude but so what? This is fun.

I loved the style and content of the book.
Even though my upbringing was different from the author's, Linda Rosenkrantz's My Life as a List had deep resonance for me. The surface textures and emotional truths brought back and awakened, so many memoriesof early childhood. The idea of doing the book in list form is liberatingand truly original, and as Joe Torre says on the back cover - It's reallyfunny as well.

A lively, endearing,and rejuvenating biography .
Linda Finch has written a lively, endearing, and rejuvenating biography that will take you back to your own roots, Bronxite or not. Her non-chronological life list is both warm and peppery. Vibrant little memoryflashes weave an indelible sense of her World War 11 childhood in the Bronxand resonate with our own. My Life As A List is wonderfully laid out withan amazing number of family photographs which somehow, inexplicably,reflect the wry poignancy that pervades this fascinating and unique littlebook. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Childhood and youth    6. General    7. Historical - U.S.    8. Jews    9. New York    10. New York (N.Y.)    11. New York (State)    12. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    13. Rosenkrantz, Linda    14. Women    15. Biography & Autobiography / Women    16. Biography: general    17. Modern fiction   

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. History: American    4. Houston family    5. Philadelphia (Pa.)    6. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    7. Social life and customs    8. Woodward family   

Reviews (7)

A warm, enlightening, uplifting story of rebuilding
Laying Foundations: A Memoir by Lucy Wilson Sherman is the autobiographical story of an enterprising, diversely matched couple who spend a fulfilling year of restoring and bringing life back to an abandoned farmhouse. Without electricity or running water (and just as winter struck) Lucy and her husband Henderson worked together on this seemingly insurmountable project through trial and daily struggle. A warm, enlightening, uplifting story of rebuilding, Laying Foundations is very highly recommended as a true and rewarding account of personal growth and unconditional love.

warning: This Is An Exception
Sherman's memoir is love-story, spiritual odyssey, character study and a how-to manual. That's a lot and it reads like a mystery. She is a wonderful word crafter. Many times her turn of phrase engaged me so thoroughly that I had to stop and savor her arrangement. authentic and deeply moving.
authentic and deeply moving. the house as a symbol of growth, solidity and Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Family/Interpersonal Memoir    5. Personal Memoirs    6. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    7. Women    8. Women's studies   

Reviews (1)

A Most Read
A true tale about growing up in the District of Columbia. The fun,the betrayal and the understanding once you reach the age of maturity. A most read from real people who grew up in the streets of DC ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. History    3. History: American    4. Personal Memoirs    5. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    6. United States - Revolutionary War    7. American history    8. American history: c 1500 to c 1800    9. USA