Woody Allen Books

A wonderful book for quilters and lovers of history. Written in the first person, you are drawn into the simple lives of these women. A quick and rewarding read.

Reading about the lives of these women makes you appreciate the ease of modern life but the simjplicity of their days is enviable. Wonderful quilts too.

This book is facinating with it's history of American pioneer women. It contains real quotes from real people about the lives that they lived. If you have seen or been in the play you will be delighted to see that some of the show's monologues are word-for-word from this book! I't's a moving book and a moving play.

This book is a wonderful tribute to women...quilters or not. The book is filled with interviews, pictures, and descriptions that bring the joy and sorrow of daily living to life. If the simple things in life are indeed the sweetest.... then these women and their quilts tell the sweetest story ever...they tell our story... they are our history.

I have read many books about pioneering women who set up homes from scratch and quilted for practical and soul-fulfilling reasons. Usually though, those women are long gone and we are left with rather dry details of their lives. The joy of this book is that the women whose words are recorded in it are living, breathing members of that pioneer group, and, even though their experiences were in the 20th rather than the 19th century,the issues and incidents are the same and they tell a vibrant story.
The book records conversations amongst Texas quilting groups, to which the authors were invited and the ladies seem eager to tell stories of their early days in dug outs and cabins, their families scaping a life from the soil and their role in that. None of them ever sound hard done by or as if they wish their lives had been different. And they are all keen to express the creative and fulfilling role that quilting has had in their lives.
If you are not a quilter, you will still enjoy the strength, friendship and nobility that run through these conversations - they are a link with a passed era, which I felt honoured to share as I read.

As made clear by the subtitle, this is the story of the César Rincón, arguably the best Colombian torero in history, one of the best ever to emerge from the Americas, one of the best -- without respect to origins -- performing anywhere in the second half of the twentieth century.

This is the story of César Rincón the torero (not a biography; we learn little here about César Rincón the man -- quite possibly the only aspect of the book that leaves the reader wishing for more, though we learn plenty about César's view of toreo, his personal take on its hows and whys, the nature and price of the vocation and its demands) who, in 1991, burst onto the taurine scene from nowhere (or, seemingly so -- he was so little known on the day of his first triumph in Madrid that the program listed him as Venezuelan), managing performances that saw him carried out through the Puerta Grande in Las Ventas on four consecutive appearances, a feat unequaled by anyone, before or since.

Just how good was César Rincón? The inescapable impression given by this book is that he was a taurine epiphany:

Josephs is without doubt a full-blooded Rincóncista, but Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida is no tendentiously edited hagiography. The judgments it contains are not just his -- they're from the pens of some of the most important taurine critics of Rincón's day (Andrés de Miguel, Vicente Zabala, Norberto Carrasco, Joaquín Vidal, Michael Wigram and José Carlos Arévalo), writing with Rincon's performances still vivid from the previous days' events. Josephs gives us his eye-witness accounts whenever possible, but generously supplements them with the opinions of other commentators.

This is a stunningly successful book, unlike any taurine work published in English in decades. Without question, Josephs has given us a work that will, for years, sit comfortably alongside the best of Hemingway, the best of Conrad, the best of Fulton and Tynan -- destined to be one of the more re-read works in any taurine bibliophile's library.

Rincón was essentially unknown to Josephs in 1991, and the germ of this book took root slowly as Rincón began to stun the Spanish afición (and Josephs) with his performances during that year's Iberian temporada. The idea for the book chrystalized in the spring of 1992, in Plaza Santa Ana -- a Madrid neighborhood dripping with taurine history and activity -- during a chat with Michael Wigram. Josephs set out to follow Rincón, documenting his career trajectory, from Spain back to the Americas, back to Spain, to the Americas, over and over until the end of the 1995 season when Rincón, suffering from a resurgence of hepatitis "C," announced his retirement, intending to swap the role of torero for that of ganadero.

Written with the aid of unusual access to a torero's inner circle, this is not simply an insider's view of the taurine circuit (as might be, for example, a detailed diary kept by a torero). Josephs didn't travel as part of Rincon's entourage. But it is likely as intimate a view as anyone will soon provide. Josephs shadowed Ricón, his manager and cuadrilla for four years -- benefitting greatly from their assistance, attending every corrida he could manage, describing in great detail what he saw (how the public reacted, and how the authority and critics judged). He had access that only a personal relationship with a torero can provide -- to hotel suites before and after successful and disastrous corridas, to sorteos, to the callejon, to tientas, to family gatherings on ganaderias and in Rincon's home, to hospital/infirmary rooms, to post-corrida de-briefings with critics and ganaderos, and more.

Faenas are described in near photographic detail, both the good, the bad, and the all-too-commonly mundane. Although the degree of taurine detail may prove more-than-a-little daunting for anyone outside or new to the mundo taurino, Josephs has seized on a clever way of avoiding bad translation of taurine terms while simultaneously keeping the narrative clear of repeated explanatory asides. All terms that would not be done justice by clumsy translation into English are left in their Spanish forms, accompanied by explanatory asides only the first time they appear in the text. Supsequent appearances remain in Spanish and an index of defined appearances is provided for readers who didn't absorb the meaning of a term the first time around.

Althouh this is Rincón's saga, Josephs' eyes aren't focused on Rincón alone. Had they been, no proper assessment of Rincón would have been possible. Though bullfighting isn't a contest between matador and bull, one can't really judge a matador's mettle without seeing him alongside his peers, each trying to tease the best out of the unpredictable complexity of the animals drawn each afternoon. Fortunately, Josephs doesn't slight Rincón's rivals (most noteworthy among them, Enrique Ponce and Joselito), giving everyone their due. We're provided a very balanced view of years of performances, the good and the bad, solidly retained in the natural context. To back every judgment we're given dates and locations (no need to take Josephs' word alone for the quality of performances observered; we're everywhere pointed to sources that can confirm the observations made) and detail that could only be noticed by one steeped -- as Josephs is -- in Spanish history and geography, taurine lore and fact.

All this is done without any of the dry, ponderous, academic heaviness that made Josephs' last major work (White Wall of Spain (c) 1983) so nearly impenetrable. Here the writing often seems to dance along with the improvisational pas de deux between Rincón and his partners of the afternoon.

I can't recommend this book too highly.

There are many ways to explore and come to begin to understand the fascination that many find in the corrida. It absorbs those that have come to know the bravery exhibited through ritual that lies at the heart of the corrida. The best way to reach some understanding is the way found by Alan Josephs. Josephs tightly focuses on the life of an individual, great torero. Josephs provides an intimate and satisfying examination of Rincón. Along the way, he brings all into the spirit and essence of the corrida.

Ritual & Sacrifice in the Corrida
For many Americans bull fighting is the one of the most misunderstood phenomena. The title of this fine book by Allen Josephs best explains bullfighting to the uninitiated Bull fighting, or toreo as Josephs correctly prefers to call it, is a ceremony of ritual and sacrifice.

The relation between man and the bull is lost deep in the fog of prehistory. Some say it was the bull not agriculture that domesticated man. The corrida is one aspect of that relationship, a sign of respect and honor to a noble enemy and friend.

The book is much more than a story of bullfighting. It is a classic saga of courage and perseverance as Cesar Rincon, a Colombian, against all odds succeeds in a foreign sometimes hostile land. From the plains of southern France, across the mountains of central Spain to the difficult rings of Andalusia, Allen takes us on a whirlwind adventure that criss-cross the breath and depth of Spain as he follows Rincon in his quest for the perfect corrida.

Josephs writes in a lyrical style more in the mode of Garcia Lorca than Hemingway.

Josephs, author of the White Wall of Spain, has an innate understanding of Spain and the Spanish which he imparts to the reader.

Read Hemingway, yes, but Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida is a must read for anyone even vaguely interested in that most Spanish of Spanish phenomena.

As made clear by the subtitle, this is the story of the César Rincón, arguably the best Colombian torero in history, one of the best ever to emerge from the Americas, one of the best -- without respect to origins -- performing anywhere in the second half of the twentieth century.

This is the story of César Rincón the torero (not a biography; we learn little here about César Rincón the man -- quite possibly the only aspect of the book that leaves the reader wishing for more, though we learn plenty about César's view of toreo, his personal take on its hows and whys, the nature and price of the vocation and its demands) who, in 1991, burst onto the taurine scene from nowhere (or, seemingly so -- he was so little known on the day of his first triumph in Madrid that the program listed him as Venezuelan), managing performances that saw him carried out through the Puerta Grande in Las Ventas on four consecutive appearances, a feat unequaled by anyone, before or since.

Just how good was César Rincón? The inescapable impression given by this book is that he was a taurine epiphany:

Josephs is without doubt a full-blooded Rincóncista, but Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida is no tendentiously edited hagiography. The judgments it contains are not just his -- they're from the pens of some of the most important taurine critics of Rincón's day (Andrés de Miguel, Vicente Zabala, Norberto Carrasco, Joaquín Vidal, Michael Wigram and José Carlos Arévalo), writing with Rincon's performances still vivid from the previous days' events. Josephs gives us his eye-witness accounts whenever possible, but generously supplements them with the opinions of other commentators.

This is a stunningly successful book, unlike any taurine work published in English in decades. Without question, Josephs has given us a work that will, for years, sit comfortably alongside the best of Hemingway, the best of Conrad, the best of Fulton and Tynan -- destined to be one of the more re-read works in any taurine bibliophile's library.

Rincón was essentially unknown to Josephs in 1991, and the germ of this book took root slowly as Rincón began to stun the Spanish afición (and Josephs) with his performances during that year's Iberian temporada. The idea for the book chrystalized in the spring of 1992, in Plaza Santa Ana -- a Madrid neighborhood dripping with taurine history and activity -- during a chat with Michael Wigram. Josephs set out to follow Rincón, documenting his career trajectory, from Spain back to the Americas, back to Spain, to the Americas, over and over until the end of the 1995 season when Rincón, suffering from a resurgence of hepatitis "C," announced his retirement, intending to swap the role of torero for that of ganadero.

Written with the aid of unusual access to a torero's inner circle, this is not simply an insider's view of the taurine circuit (as might be, for example, a detailed diary kept by a torero). Josephs didn't travel as part of Rincon's entourage. But it is likely as intimate a view as anyone will soon provide. Josephs shadowed Ricón, his manager and cuadrilla for four years -- benefitting greatly from their assistance, attending every corrida he could manage, describing in great detail what he saw (how the public reacted, and how the authority and critics judged). He had access that only a personal relationship with a torero can provide -- to hotel suites before and after successful and disastrous corridas, to sorteos, to the callejon, to tientas, to family gatherings on ganaderias and in Rincon's home, to hospital/infirmary rooms, to post-corrida de-briefings with critics and ganaderos, and more.

Faenas are described in near photographic detail, both the good, the bad, and the all-too-commonly mundane. Although the degree of taurine detail may prove more-than-a-little daunting for anyone outside or new to the mundo taurino, Josephs has seized on a clever way of avoiding bad translation of taurine terms while simultaneously keeping the narrative clear of repeated explanatory asides. All terms that would not be done justice by clumsy translation into English are left in their Spanish forms, accompanied by explanatory asides only the first time they appear in the text. Supsequent appearances remain in Spanish and an index of defined appearances is provided for readers who didn't absorb the meaning of a term the first time around.

Althouh this is Rincón's saga, Josephs' eyes aren't focused on Rincón alone. Had they been, no proper assessment of Rincón would have been possible. Though bullfighting isn't a contest between matador and bull, one can't really judge a matador's mettle without seeing him alongside his peers, each trying to tease the best out of the unpredictable complexity of the animals drawn each afternoon. Fortunately, Josephs doesn't slight Rincón's rivals (most noteworthy among them, Enrique Ponce and Joselito), giving everyone their due. We're provided a very balanced view of years of performances, the good and the bad, solidly retained in the natural context. To back every judgment we're given dates and locations (no need to take Josephs' word alone for the quality of performances observered; we're everywhere pointed to sources that can confirm the observations made) and detail that could only be noticed by one steeped -- as Josephs is -- in Spanish history and geography, taurine lore and fact.

All this is done without any of the dry, ponderous, academic heaviness that made Josephs' last major work (White Wall of Spain (c) 1983) so nearly impenetrable. Here the writing often seems to dance along with the improvisational pas de deux between Rincón and his partners of the afternoon.

I can't recommend this book too highly.

I knew the subject matter of Ritual and Sacrifice would hold some general interest, but I had no idea that the book would be so lively, so entertaining, and so damned dramatic, from Rincon's opening of the Madrid gates to the story's heartbreaking "surprise" coda. Josephs makes what was obviously a Herculean literary undertaking seem easy and natural, and the writing's terrific--fluid, confident, passionate. Equally thrilling are the hundreds of superb photos, also by the author. Aside from Hemingway's masterpiece--an inevitable but impossible comparison--this is the best book on toreo I've ever read, as well as being a provocative and engrossing cultural study.

Reading this book is like eavesdropping on a family feud that is too interesting to turn away from, but also a little embarrassing. It would be easy to dismiss Bo Yang as a dyspeptic crank, if it were not for the 9 years he spent in prison for writing what he believed to be true. He was not writing for a Western audience, and he did not claim to present a fair or balanced view of Chinese culture. Let other writers praise the virtues of the culture--he wanted to challenge his countrymen to be better.

I read the Chinese version of this book 'Ugly Chinaman...'. I think and I do agree that certain points that Bo Yang had raised were true; such as talking loud in public, spitting in public, all those obnoxious behaviors, etc.

I once saw a Western guy (quite young, twenty something may be) spit in public in Hong Kong. He probably thought this was a normal thing to do so he was just following the culture here.

It was quite true that we cared about ethics inside the house, but very selfish once stepped out, as well as we're concerned about moral values. Whereas, the Western culture was just the opposite, they cared about people outside the house, but very cold with family members, parents, etc.

However, we are changing; we try to take into consideration of both because with better education from schools and the outside world, we try to be more conscientious about people around us and things all over the world. We want our future generations to take the world as one, no racists, discrimination, and best ever selfless.

Bo Yang did raise the problems we had in the past. But I am sure he also agrees that people in China are changing for the better. I think he, or we, never thought that these days, the top guys in the communist party are willing to open the door for trades and other things; though there are still lots of room for improvement. May be another 50 to 100 years we will be more objective, more open-minded, more advanced, more willing to accept objections, different points of views, etc.

Why do dictators, communists, crazies, psychos like Red commies in North Korea, ex-USSR, North Korea or Cuban dictator for life, Fidel Castro have an obsession with controlling the press or shutting down newspapers.

Does it have something to do with with Telling the Truth?

Bo Yang himself spent years in prison for criticizing the incompetent-idiot chiang kai-shek.

Why does China have the most elaborate Internet firewall in the world.

Does it have to do with fear of the Truth?

Bo Yang risk his own life and limb to write this book.

"The Ugly Chinaman" along with "The Private Life of Chairman Mao" is two of the most important books of the 20th. century. Both are censored in China. Why do they have censorship. Because they are afraid of the people knowing the Truth.

Do a search on Amazon. There is a book called the "Ugly American" and "Ugly Japanese" and now the "Ugly Chinaman".
All this is about telling the Truth.

True, there "some" who are Ugly American, Ugly Japanese and some Ugly Chinaman. Not everyone can be an Angel.

The many facets of Ugly Chinese culture are simply True. Spitting, talking loud in public, bragging are all cultural traits from the feudal distant past.

The Worst feudal-primative cultural trait is "dishonesty". The inability to be honeset and tell the Truth. This is a good book for Westerners and Chinese alike to read as China becomes an economic power.

As anyone who has done business with the Chinese. You just cannot "Trust" anything they say. Hence, without Trust, Honesty, Truth, it is impossible to do business in the long-term.

For any nation to be modern, advanced civilized, it must be open to understand what is: right-wrong, good-bad, feudal-modern, truth-lies, real-fraud.

"The Ugly Chianman" is a great book and must-read. It will be a classic for now and the future. These books are good for bull-sessions.

It is not a Physics books about physical laws for all times and all places. Cultures evolve over times. Virtually all cultures can be looked at with the half-half prism. Half-good, half-bad. Just as there are many aspects of Western society that are bad, there are many that are bad or evil.

It the difference between adults and little children. The ability to tell the difference between right-wrong, true-false, good-bad, good-ugly, truth-lies, truth-fraud.

That's what this book is all about. It's a starting poing for China and the Chinese to discuss what is good-bad, good-ugly, true-false, right-wrong about this culture or any culture.

It has been a classic, past and future. This is must-read and must-buy of a major commentary about the Truth and nothing but the Truth.

First of all let me gravely announce the obituary of the author Bo Yang:

Bo Yang died in hospital on 29th April 2008 of pneumonia complications at the ripe age of 88, at 1:10AM Taiwan local time (GMT+9) in Sindien City, Taiwan. He will be sadly missed.

I rate and recommend Bo Yang's "The Ugly Chinaman" highly, indeed second only to the Bible alone.

Each and every individual Chinese and all others who have any exposure or connection to the Chinese culture should read it at least THRICE. Have some background knowledge on Chinese history, open up your mind with a rational thinking . . . and you will actually WANT to read it over and over again. You will then wonder why Confucius has been regarded for millennia as the greatest Chinese philosopher ever. Now we have one greater than Confucius by leaps and bounds - Bo Yang.

Bo Yang was stating the grim fact that (at least part of) the Chinese culture has long rotten. So rotten that generations after generations of Chinese people under it are so much influenced that they have lost their own identities, lost their individual ways of thinking, lost their abilities to judge, lost the power to unite, and ultimately, lost their very own dignities.

He further points out the saddest and most appalling thing under this rotten culture: that any individual who dares to show his individual way of thinking or his ability to judge would be treated as an outcast, a "cultural traitor", a pariah of society, which, in ancient China, could be punishable by imprisonment of arbitrary periods. Or even death.

The author was NOT attacking the Chinese people in general. He pointed out that if the Chinese were to unite, the nation could well emerge to be the world's strongest and most sophisticated - but, alas, the Chinese could never unite! He was attacking those who oppress or otherwise take advantage of other fellow Chinese people under the guise of "Chinese culture" - in other words, those who use the (rotten) Chinese culture for their own interests but at the expense of others'.

The hypocrisy, the vanity, the slavish, servile characters, the noisiness, the greed for power (especially political power), the cruelty unleashed in order to achieve and maintain such power . . . ugh, all the vile scums, the dark qualities and the sinister aspects of the Chinese culture unveiled at Bo Yang's most eloquent flick of a pen. What a delight, and what a revelation on reading and repeatedly reading it!

All because the author was challenging us - the ethnic Chinese - to jump out of the rotten culture and improve on ourselves as a people, as a race, as a nation.

I read the chinese version and being a "chinese" who lived in a non-chinese country for 13 years, I was not awared of all the "bad habits" of the chinese until I read this book. This reflects exactly the point of the book, that chinese, being "soaked" in the pool of bad habits, do not critically evaluate them and think they are perfectly normal.

As well as spitting and shouting loudly in the public, most (but not all) chinese confuse the difference between patriotism and nationalism - most chinese (especially chinese parents) dislike chinese to speak anything bad about the chinese, yet most of the time, the fundamental reason is that they believe "chinese should not criticise chinese". In that respect, I believe the author has taken a very important step to start disentangling the often self-contradictory and convoluted aspects of chinese culture.

This is a book that I believe all chinese should read, chinese who grew up in non-chinese territories should also read it if they are to "understand their roots". If chinese wants others to respect them, then it will take more than just sending a few rockets to the moon.

"DARKLY LUMINOUS....Tushinski's novel evokes one young man's discovery of and longing for the mystic chord into which he would transform his life. Van Allen's Ecstasy risks austerity and an expressive restraint too challenging and complex to be mistaken for plainness."

Reviewed by:
Peter Weltner,
Author of The Risk of His Music and
How the Body Prays

Michael Van Allen is a young man who is awash in successful relatives-his father is a famous composer, his mother a well-known painter, and his siblings Karl and Sara are, respectively, an attorney and columnist. It's not for not trying-Michael has taken several paths in the arts to try for success, and now works as a file clerk.

Michael wakes up in a mental hospital, where he's received treatment supposedly after screaming through one of his father's concerts. But he can't remember anything-nothing about his past, nor why he has a partner, Paul. It's like being in a world of strangers-only they know all about you! This imaginative concept provides a gripping read. It's especially captivating when Michael discovers his old journal and begins reading the entries. Somehow, reading his own words about his past rekindle dark emotions.

This had to be a challenging story to write, and, fortunately for us, was brilliantly done.

"'I remember and remember and remember,' Jim Tushinski writes, 'and the act of remembering becomes a physical sensation, like drinking water to quench a thirst.' In Van Allen's Ecstasy, the act of reading, too, becomes a physical sensation. This is the story of Michael Van Allen, a man unable to create in a family of natural-born creators, a man yearning for the joy of unrestrained creative activity--ecstasy. What Michael doesn't know is that there is a price to pay for ecstasy.

We are lost with Michael in a story in a mist, feeling our way through place, time, and people that ought to be familiar, but isn't. This is a story about how we are who we are, even without all the memories and connections we depend upon every day to help us define ourselves. Tushinski has written in a prose that is by turns major-key bold and then minor-key tentative in response to the estranged world that we--the writer, the reader, and Michael Van Allen himself--must make familiar once again."

Brian Bouldrey,
Author of Love, the Magician,
Monster, and The Boom Economy

"A FASCINATING ENTRÉE into the mind of Michael Van Allen, who has undergone a nervous breakdown during a performance by his famous father of Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 5. Tushinski masterfully achieves a rich portrait of Michael's internal struggle for sanity, as well as powerful characterizations of those around him. Tushinski's sensitive and confident command of language immediately engages the reader...IMMENSELY SATISFYING."

Reviewed by:
Jim Van Buskirk,
Program Manager
James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center
San Francisco Public Library

From the first sentence, the reader is plunged into the mind of Michael Van Allen: and the mystery begins. Who is he? Who was he? What happened? As he struggles to regain his memory, we gather the clues with him, and it's difficult to put this book down until we reach the climax. Engagingly written, with a roster of memorable characters; you can almost hear the piano soundtrack in the background as you join Michael's journey.

Hi my name is Skyler Williams and Allen Iverson is my favorite basketball player. I've liked him ever since the first time I saw him play. He plays like he's been playing all of his life every day, but he didn't start until he was ten years old. I like his cross-over alot, but my favorite move is his comercial move, the answer shoe commercial. I am hoping that he does more commercials. I like his cornrows. Someday I hope to meet him. If I ever met him I would probably faint. I think it is awsome how he is so good and yet he started playing at the age of 10. I like the way he is shorter than everybody and he is still better than everybody. I think that he is the next Michael Jordan. Every move he does, I try to do and it takes me an hour to get it good and he is the one that makes them up. That is awsome. And he is good at making poems and rap songs. He might come out with a record. He is also good at football and won the AAA MVP award in high school. I wish I could meet him. I have collected 50 of his basketball cards so far and I am hoping to collect some more. Allen Iverson is the best.

Skyler Williams

WHATZ UP TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, I JUST HAVE A COUPLE OF THINGSTO SAY TO/ABOUT ALLEN IVERSON. I LOVE YOU AND KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

buy this book.It is the best

I thought the book was very entertaining, mainly because of my love for the man the book was based on. I think he is great basketball player and I have never known a point guard to score like him. Although we live two different lifestyles, I admire you because you shine regardless! I love that about you. My personal advice to Allen Iverson is to keep your head up and continue ballin'. The next Director of Public Relations for a team in the league, Miss La'Keisha

I LOVE IVERSON he is an true role model. He went through alot as a child and teen and still going through pure hell as an adult. He shows me that you should never give up and forget where you come from. If you have an goal and dont understand Iverson and you only know him as an ball player and dont know why he has so many fans you should read this book. It made me think and rewind my thoughts on the game of basketball and look at him as a total different person. Hes a true role model and thats why true fans like me dont look at him and just see cornrows and tattoos we see an awesome gift from god and a pro at the game of life as well

My book arrived quickly was as described and I am very pleased. Great book seller. Will use again! Thank you.

As a dog lover I enjoyed every page. Everything was as advertised.

This book was so good to read. I laughed and cried as I read each of the stories. I am now passing it around my job so others can enjoy it too. Anyone who loves dogs, lost a dog will love to read this book. This is a must buy and read book.

This is the first book in the series I have read, I also purchased the angel cats book but havent read it yet. The stories in the Angel Dogs book are very nice and I found them so comforting at this very difficult time of grieving the loss of a very dear dog. This book gives me hope that there will be good times again and that our dear friend is still very much with us and I pray he will choose to come spend more lifetimes with us. The book also helps confirm some beliefs or thoughts that I have had already and now I have the confirmation that I was indeed visited by previous beloved pets in my dreams as well as during wakefulness. The book helps give the strength to go on and offers so many stories I laughed and cried plenty through reading the book.

Recently we lost our Chocolate Lab "Moose" who was 13yrs old and reading this comforted me!

Usually, I'm not a non-fiction reader, but the story of Sarah and Ginger's enduring friendship kept me glued to the book. I'd suggest this to anyone who has a friend of any length of time. Loved it!

Do you need to know how people cope with immigration, or do you want to understand the strength and power of woman? Do you need inspiration to realize your dreams or do you want to see the wonder of the animal instinct humans have in friendship?
Do you know anybody that immigrated? Then if you value that friendship, read this book now. It does not matter how wonderful the country is to which one immigrates, your longing for your original home, family and friends can never be alleviated. It becomes part of who you are. One does not need to be depressed or wingy about the matter, but it is always there. Pulling at the very strings of your heart. And one try to justify it on a daily basis.
Ginger and Sara lives this globalization. Sara's office is the world. While she has a family at home. Her friend and support system is at least 3 long haul flights away. Ditto with her in laws.
Ginger lives the dream, finds the love of her life at a price. Though her office is confined to one country, she is vulnerable to the excruciating elements of this desert.
My admiration of these two woman knows no bounds, and on top of all of that, they can write!
Best gift ever for your best friend.

How refreshing to read about two loving, smart, independent women and how they realize the need for loving interdependence between friends! The idea of writing a book together over time and many miles is a perfect illustration of their connection. Their stories of being there for each other -- in spirit and when possible in person -- through the best and worst of times are inspiring. They remind us that the realities of adult life are best viewed through loving eyes -- our own and those of our friends and families. I have read it and shared it with friends with joy and confidence that they will enjoy it as well. Definitely add it to your summer must read list.

I read this book because these authors went to school with my daughters. As I read, my interest went far beyond my connection. The candid sharing of both triumphs and let-downs of each woman was unique and interesting.
The lessons learned, the sacrifices and wisdom gained from following their dreams was fascinating. I highly recommend this book and hope they will continue writing.

It's a great read - the intertwining lives of two childhood friends and how they have cleaved together over the decades. What's rare about this book is that each woman has her say and tells her own story - yet the sum is much more powerful than the two parts. Wonderful to see how these two young girls evolve into women as they nurture each other along the way. I loved it.

Joan and Marc wrote on an interesting subject in a different sort of style -- stories mixed with poetry. I'm married and I enjoyed reading this book! I shook my head at stories that could have been my own, as well as remember the joy of realizing love.

Inspirational, guiding and at times comforting. A bedside companion...a new found friend...a cat without the fur.

Among the plethora of self-help books on fixing a broken romance, Celebrating Single stands out as a relevant, brilliant, humorous, down-to-earth approach to improving one's self-esteem by finding the right mate, rather than settling for a dysfunctional relationship to avoid loneliness. It is a definite must-read for any adult. And it is highly readable. Joan and Marc's friendly, conversational styles--interspersed with testimonies from "real people" and poignant poetry--make this book an entertaining and riveting read. I look forward to seeing Celebrating Single on Oprah's Booklist some day.

I read the book celebrating single and getting love right in one day. I was rivited to it. The writing style was easy to follow and made it difficult to put down. The writers really came across truthful, and it is apparent that they really researched their topic well. I look forward to reading the next book written by Ms allen, and Dr kusinitz. This is a must have item. It is really helpful for the singles who keep making the same mistakes over and over in relationships, and are not happy with themselves. If you find that life is not going the way you would like for yourself, then Celebrating Single is the answer. I am giving this book as a gift for some of my friends.Oprah needs to add this one to her book list.

Wow! What a great book! I read it in a flash. It flows beautifully and the stories and poems are interesting and helpful. It even had some good suggestions for an old guy like me. I liked the conversational style with just the right amount of humor and kidding back and forth between the two authors. Their unusual writeing style was very effective and added to the enjoyment of the book. After reading the book Joan & Marc seem like my close friends.

Growing up in Lima, Ohio during the Depression Era was a time of great adventures for Duke Murray! In these affectionate memoirs, Duke (aka. Dr. Emmett Murray, a retired family physician), tells 35 favorite stories from his boyhood years in the Midwest.
After some early mishaps, Duke's entry into grade school opens new worlds of enjoyment. Horace Mann Grade School and its vast playgrounds get long and affectionate descriptions. Adventures on his own find Duke up at dawn to watch the Big Top circuses set up, hauling huge ice blocks while working at Lima Ice and Coal, training the family beagle to hunt and to win show prizes, and taking X-rays of steel castings at a tank plant. Duke helps an eccentric neighbor go after night crawlers, and he faces death and family alcoholism in a school friend's life.
The book conveys the atmosphere of daily life in the 1930s, and Murray's contemporaries will find many a brand name and Age of Radio show to identify with. But Duke Murray goes beyond these to describe also the sounds, the tastes and the smells of the time. "Saturday Night in Lima, 1930s Style" is a golden example of his talent for evoking atmosphere.
Murray communicates a special fascination with life on the farm and the industry and humor of farming people. He describes the big meals, the homemade ice cream and grapes from the arbor. But his fondest memories are of making hay, raising chickens, cattle and hogs, and watching his aunts put up canned food stores for company in the days before modern refrigeration.
The book goes on to describe the dawning realization by America of the inevitability of World War II, and the rather frightening experiences of enlistment and service by all the three Murray sons in the U.S. Army. The book's chronology ends with Duke Murray in medical school, entertaining himself by winning a tall tale radio contest in Columbus, and singing barbershop quartets with his dissecting partners over their cadaver.
These tales will be especially enjoyed by fans of Lima and Allen County, who will respond with glee to references such as the Lima Rescue Mission and the Kewpie Hamburger Restaurant. However, the stories are more than local memoirs in that they evoke the 1930s overall, and depict the universal struggles of a young person learning to fill his shoes in America.
The book includes a map of Duke's old neighborhood, his immediate family tree, an appreciation of his storytelling history, and contact information. Come Reminisce with Me sounds a note of optimism with its attitude that life presents experiences from which lessons may often be derived. Dr. Murray shows that happiness and laughter can happen anywhere, and that life may not be perfect, but that it still offers a lot to enjoy, appreciate and be grateful for at every turn.
Reviewed by Robb Murray, July 1, 2003

Dr. Murray sews together his stories seamlessly. The stories are both quaint and hysterical. His eye for detail gets down to the last inch of the scene. He has a way of drawing you into the story so that you won't want to miss a beat. This book is great for the summer beach bag.

This is a book of many Special Stories. So well written you feel you were there. It is one of those books you cannot stop reading till you finish that last Story.

This book transforms you back to a simpler time in life and one where neighbors really cared about each other.Life at the time might not have seemed so easy but loyalty, manners, patriotic spirit and faith were essential ingredients to a wonderful childhood in the Midwest. You can almost picture yourself in the middle of the neighborhood the author describes and can visualize the characters he describes. It is so pleasant to read.

I must confess that my initial interest in "Come Reminisce with Me" was one of local history. But what I discovered was something deeper than descriptions of Lima, Ohio in the 1930s. Murray's simple style and delicious imagery of youthful experiences took me back to a time in my own life when each day was a new adventure. These memories are intricately woven with humor and humility, joy and compassion, leading the reader through youthful rites of passage on the road to evolving maturity.

Share this book with your friends, kids and grandkids and watch what happens. It's sure to spark dialogue about some of life's most endearing and enduring experiences and values.

Patricia Smith
Allen County Museum

The Demise of Luleta Jones by Mark Allen Boone is an excellent literary novel.

The first chapter immediately tells of the suicide of Luleta Jones--an eccentric 39-years-old African American, public school teacher. Clayton Hemphill, a 75-year-old retiree and unwavering fan of Luleta, finds her body hanging from a rafter on the second floor of his 2-flat apartment building. Theophilous `Theo' Pugh, who tells the story through interviews, is an unrelenting reporter for the Chicago Weekly Word.

Theo comes to Lincoln Manor on the West Side of Chicago to profile the community and stumbles upon the story of Jones's suicide that had happened two years prior. He slowly uncovers how she died, power grabs by African American bourgeoisies, backstabbing, and family infighting. What becomes apparent is that Luleta was a person capable of seeing good in all people, a woman who believed that all human beings had worth. This cause love and hate relationships for the talented, self-confident, beautiful, independent woman. Theo's life is touched in startling ways. In his decision to put her life on paper, and in interviewing various members of the community, Theo falls in love with the deceased woman and is obsessed with her story. Could his obsession with Luleta cause Theophilous Pugh to lose his grip on reality?

Mark Allen Boone's methodical descent to the end is emotional, heartwarming and much unexpected. He is an excellent writer; his characters are so close to reality that you find yourself lost in each of their lives--so very true with the life of Luleta Jones. The Demise of Luleta Jones is indeed an excellent, fresh read. I hope to see more of his work in the near future.

Why do people get sidetracked with nonsense, things that don't feed the soul but rather things that fuel the ego and causes anger, jealousy, hatred and disruption? Some are able to nip nonsense in the bud before it consumes them - for reasons that we may never know some actually choose to be consumed as shown in the story - The Demise of Luleta Jones.

Luleta Jones, a free-spirit, caring, regal, phenomenal creature was not afraid to go against the status-quo. By simply being herself, uproar was created in a local African American community that eventually led to Luleta's downfall. The Demise of Luleta Jones shows what happens when ill-will feelings are invoked and allowed to control your very existence. Luleta - you either hated her or you loved her. What an intricate WEB we weave when we chose to hate. Without a doubt I loved Luleta - her character reminded me of a treasure - a treasure that was full of life and vitality with an aura that demanded respect.

And then there's Theo, the moralistic, happy go lucky, compassionate journalist that brings Luleta back to life; Theo is someone that I certainly hope to see again. Mark Boone created a captivating novel; he managed to eloquently intertwine so many facets of life into this story; human behavior, murder, drugs, greed, mystery and most of all love - it's a book that I highly recommend.

Sharon - Sisters Sippiin' Tea Literary Group - Tulsa Chapter

I found The Demise of Luleta Jones to be a well-paced, well-conceived novel that leaves me looking forward to Mr. Boone's next work of fiction. I enjoyed meeting each character and how he/she intersected with Luleta Jones. While I would not classify the book as a 'thriller' it certainly did hold my attention. I was readily able to visualize the characters and settings which lent to my enjoyment of the book.

Mark Allen Boone captured my attention (and bemusement) in the opening chapter - an evicted woman on the street with her grand piano and a passerby with a sudden urge to rescue the woman and the piano. No motivation, no long description of how the impulse was nutured, just one of those random things life throws at one; and, therefore, quite believable. He had me until chapter nine - Mrs. McBride, the wealthy snob whose sole purpose in life seems to be putting others down (she'd say, of course, that she's merely putting them in their (rightful) place.

Roughly, the structure of the book is that each chapter provides another character's perspective on the late (possibly lamented) Luleta Jones. As I continued with the book, I understood that Boone was deliberate in his use of characters to represent a social group's perspective - not to the extent of loosing individuality - to make the story a social commentary about human nature. As the plot and structure unfolded, I saw why he presented Mrs. McBride as he did.

What I appreciated most about the novel, however, is a very minor point - Boone has the perfect touch in finding an uncommon, perfectly-fitting aphorism. You have to find them for yourself - I'm not giving away the best part of the book :-)

I can't say that the book held my attention as well as some mysteries - until two-thirds of the way through, I could put the book down; I was never tempted to quit. While a mystery is an appropriate genre for this work, its focus is much more philosophical - what makes a person an example of life lived to the full, and why do others hate such a person? Boone's analysis is precisely on target - that makes the book well worth reading.

In 1996 Theophilous (Theo) Pugh, a writer for the "Chicago Weekly Word," composed an article about Lincoln Manor, a Chicago neighborhood that had undergone both racial change and gentrification to become "the West Side's crown jewel." He becomes fascinated, however, with the mysterious death of Luleta Jones a thirty-nine-year-old African American music teacher. The police made little of her death, ruling it as a suicide; but many people who knew her, including Clayton Hemphill, who keeps her memory alive with a museum in her honor, believe that she was murdered. Theo sets out on a dangerous journey in Mark Allen Boone's beautifully written novel to find out the truth about this elusive woman.

The novel opens with a unforgettable image of a woman (we soon learn it is Luleta) standing in the pouring rain with all of her possessions, including a grand piano that she has covered with plastic to protect it. Both Hemphill, the man who sees her, and the reader are both mesmerized by this character. A jeweler by trade, he compares Luleta to a diamond with many facets. Everyone sees her from a different angle and has his or her own opinion about her. I would love to know if she is based on a real person. I certainly would have liked to have known her.

Mr. Boone deftly brings serious topics into this mystery without being didactic: insurance redlining, white flight, racism and finally the plight of teachers and others who challenge the status quo by bringing fresh new ideas both into and outside the classroom. They listen to their own drummer but at their peril. (Luleta believed, for instance, that her responsibility as a music teacher was "to facilitate, to enable, to fling open the doors and throw up the windows so the music can get out to do what it was meant to do." Tell that to a high school principal who probably is sitting on two degrees in physical education.)

Mr. Boone's language is smooth as silk and highly descriptive. One character's skin is "eggplant-smooth," and another's is "raisin brown." He gets his Southern colloquialisms right too, ("you're not from around here, are you?") and reminded me that you make a military bed so tight that you can bounce a quarter off it. My favorite line, however, belongs to the character Mozelle when she speaks of her honesty: "As the old folks say, 'If I tell you a rooster dips snuff, you can look underneath his wing and find the tin.'"

This really good mystery that should appeal to all thoughtful readers does not turn out the way I had hoped it would, but then life doesn't either. Perhaps Boone will write more novels with Theo as the central character who will solve other cases while subtly teaching moral lessons much as the way Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins does. We certainly hope so.