Cultural Books

It's a rare book that has the academic rigor to explore our electronic culture and the ways in which it rewires our own brains and perceptions. It's an even rarer one that is free of jargon and cant, with gripping prose that makes you turn the pages as if you were under a beach umbrella. This is that book.

Computers, today, play a central role in all the facets of our existence. In work, in play, in our communications with others, and in our connection to the world of information we meet and rely on computers. Ted Friedman, a Professor at Georgia State University, has written a first rate analysis of the cultural and scientific forces that led to current status of computers in our lives. Friedman, in Electric Dreams - Computers In American Culture, discusses the social and political forces which led to the development of the personal computer and its uses. Friedman argues that technological invention does not inevitably determine how that technology will be used in the future. Rather, the evolving culture and
the political, scientific and business decisions it spawns can lead to very different applications of technology than what might have been predicted from the perspective of technological determinism at the stage of each new development. The cyberculture we live in can become a "cybertopia" resulting in "...a more just, egalitarian, democratic, creative society if we are willing to "...fight for it. The future is up to us." Electric Dreams is exciting and provocative and well worth the read for anyone who cares about the future uses of technology and the world it can bring.

Electric Dreams bridges the too-often-wide gap between the academy and the community with a readable and informative style that presents ideas and arguments in a refeshingly clear and concise manner. Computers have impacted U.S culture as profoundly as any technology in our history and, equally important, as Friedman suggests, we cannot separate computers from visions of our future -- utopian or not. This reader offers only one recommendation: Updated versions of the book might include a glossary and chronology to further enhance accessiblity for non-experts.

This is the first book I have read that "demystifies and recuperates" my own personal relationship with the computer, and my very visible and corporate relationship with it. Electric Dreams is designed in a way that communicates what needs to be known about the computer, particularly its ancestral descent. The many levels of historical context Friedman provides help to track the evolution of the computer by identifying its various transformations within the repetition of cultural conflicts that arose (and continue to surface) as a result of the its introduction and proliferation.
Friedman also suggests thoughtful ways to assess this knowledge by using a cultural studies approach that overlaps into historiography, cinema studies, literary studies, and postmodernism. Equally important to my understanding is Friedman's focus on the representation process that is linked to four other processes that make up the "Circuit of Culture" loop- production, consumption, regulation, and identity. The focus on representation pushes me to think semiotically about the mimetic (or not) qualities of analog loads and digital loads and how these two very different ways of representing information are susceptible to lesser or greater possibilities for alternate representations.
For example, the analog-based device seems to share a closer relationship to the thing it represents (sound to vinyl recording), whereas digital representation transforms the object into a collection of digits that is "other" than the thing represented. If the digital format, in this era's computer culture provides greater opportunities for consumers and producers to transform or reproduce the object that was digitized, what do we gain from such creative agency? And what kind of dystopia are we setting ourselves up for when the digitized re-arrangement of the referent can be executed so easily in the privacy (we think) of our own homes?
Electric Dreams carves out a place where we can explore some of the questions we have about this computer culture we inhabit, and the contradictory processes we have identified during our hands-on relationships with the computer products that emerged (and continue to emerge) from this technology. Thanks to this book I feel better equipped to examine the cultural space that exists both inside and outside the capitalist processes of commodification and more capable of distinguishing between a computer culture that is good for us and one that is evil.

Electric Dreams by Ted Friedman succeeds in illuminating what computers could have been and what they are in our lives. Friedman manages to inspire us to think about a better world --- more creative, more just, more fun --- aided by computers. It's a fun book to read and inspires the mind to wonder about what might have been and still could be. It should be read by any one who communicates by e-mail, buys stuff on line, searches the web; uses computers on the job. In fact, anyone curious about how this all happened and where it will lead.

The turnaround of the St. Louis Rams was remarkable--from doormat of the NFL to World Champions in a single season. And they managed to accomplish this after losing their starting quarterback, Trent Green, and having to settle on a little-known back-up quarterback that had been previously cut by the Packers, spent time playing in NFL Europe and in the Arena Football League when he wasn't stocking shelves in an Iowa grocery store on the nightshift.

Of course, that back-up quarterback was Kurt Warner. Coupled with Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce, Tory Holt, Ricky Proehl and a tough, dominating defense, Warner blended the team into a force to be reckoned with. The offense became the Greatest Show on Turf and was unstoppable. The defense continually handled every other offense in the NFL and rose to the occasion when needed. This team was a team that was just that--a TEAM. Everyone on this team contributed to the team chemistry and several heroes were made weekly.

This Rams team was exciting and fun to watch as it was almost impossible to ignore the feeling there was greatness and a destiny for them. This book is the story of this Rams team and contains great photographs, inspirational insight into the team and its players and coaches, and recounts the entire season through stopping the Tennesee Titans at the 1-yard line to in the final seconds of the Super Bowl. In short, this book is a great read with great photos. Enjoy!

A great book about a magic season (comparable to the 85 Bears).That season made me a rams fan and with that book i can re-live the moments any time i want. it helped me over the last few dull seasons where the defense guys woke up for telling the boring saga of defense wins championships.
This book reminds me of all the blow-outs, the 300 yard games of Warner, the catches of Bruce and Holt, the thrill of the Super Bowl and so on.
Great pictures, good stats section of every game. a complete book, actually i wish it was twice as big. i was reading it in ONE day.
a must for all rams fans, new rams fans, Martz fans and Offense-fans.

This is great book that will allow you to re-live the Rams amazing turn around. Go ahead and get the hard back, you'll want to keep this book for years to come.

This book is everything it's cracked up to be. Forget that Sports Illustrated book, the subscription will cost you $80 and for what? Baseball yak-yak-yak for the next 6 months till The Man and his Warner Bros. return to action on Monday Night Football! This book will help you relive every moment from the sick feeling that you felt upon hearing that Green went down, all the way to the exhiliration of hearing that Super Bowl ref say "The game is over." Great gift, great book, great team! RAMS!

could a supermarket stockboy with almost no previous NFL experience who had been cut go from back-up to league, Super Bowl, and Pro Bowl MVP - and become only the second player to throw for over 40 TDs in a season.

Only in America could a team that was 4-12 one year make one trade - for Marshall Faulk - and go from mid-level to the Greatest Show on Turf

Relive it. It will make you pull for the Rams. Kurt Warner is an inspiration to every kid who ever had a dream.

Easy reading, good personal story of Operation Babylift. I had previously read "War Cradle", a very wordy, messy retelling of the story. This one is much more elementary and not as detailed, but follows one boy through his life. Fascinating.

I also could not put this book down and had to read it straight through. Andrea Warren does a compelling and balanced job in telling Long's story. Not only do we gain real insight into how the war affected families and children in Vietnam, but we also learn the thoughts and hopes of children living in orphanages. As an adoptive mom, I found this to be a valuable book on many levels.

I read this straight through on an airplane and had to turn away from my seatmates so they wouldn't see me cry. As usual, Warren has written a compelling, evocative story about one child's experience, and in it has distilled an era and a place. The main character, Long, suffers through poverty and loss, then winds up in an orphanage where he vaccilates between grief over the loss of his own family and hope for a new mother. I got tears in my eyes as he said good-bye to his grandmother, who was his last surviving family member, and then again when he learned he had a new home in America. As a reader I felt his excitement and anxiety as the day approached when he would see his new family, and then his fear as the war moved from the countryside to the streets of his city. The drive to the bombed airport and the flight on the transport plane were terrifying, followed immediately by the joy as Long ran into the arms of his new mother. This story will stick with readers, both adults and children, leaving a personalized image of an otherwise hard-to-comprehend world event.

Once you start reading, you probably won't be able to put it down. This is an amazing story, with wonderful photographs. I cried twice and made my husband read it. He loved it too!
Teachers will find this useful in the classroom, for teaching about the war in Vietnam, and Long/Matt is a role model we'd be delighted to see any kid follow.

If you've loved Warren's earlier books about children surviving in difficult new circumstances (the two Orphan trains books, Surviving Hitler, and the one about the girl growing up on the prairie) you'll love this one, too. In this one, Long, the young hero, is half Vietnamese, half American. His survival depends on a pivotal airlift of Vietnamese orphans "tainted by the blood of the enemy" as the North Vietnamese are about to take over Saigon. But even before that the reader is caught up in the story of Long's mother and grandmother struggling to survive in a wartorn country.

The story works on one level for children and on another for adults -conveying how America's withdrawal from Vietnam affects the family of a boy whose young life is shaped by war. It has all the virtues of nonfiction wrapped up in a charming, moving, and compelling story. Adults and children may want to read this one together. It's a tribute to parenting, in whatever form it comes, and to the resilience of children.

To read this book reveals not only plenty of interesting and quite often surprising information on fashions past and current but its text and pictures are highly complementary. In addition a lot of the provided information gives insight into social structures of the centuries referred to - and once more it is proven that fashion is one of the quickest instruments to testify social and historical changes to the world.

Harold Koda's Extreme Beauty surveys concepts of fashion and beauty. Koda considers the evolving, changing strategies of beauty around the world, focussing on different body parts and how they are accented and displayed through varying uses of clothing and cultural perception. Black and white and color photos of unusual fashion choices and styles make for some eye-opening insights.

This is a beautiful book illustrating the different ways cultures reform the body and for what reasons. It is just like actually visiting an exhibit at a major museum. But this you get to take home and enjoy over and over. The photos are plentiful, full color, large and professional. The text is not overly scholarly, but informative and intelligent. It does leave me wanting to delve deeper into the subject intellectually.

Sentient humans with brains as well as bodies have always been fascinated by the way we adorn ourselves and why. Once we can get past the cultural anthropology of fashion, and the fads that make it a billion-dollar world industry, we can dig down to discover the roots of historical and current adorned beauty, and EXTREME BEAUTY does this . . . beautifully.
It is pleasing--in an era in which physical beauty and adornment typified by fashion have been roundly rejected by most of the jeans-wearing public--to find a book that lets beauty out and helps us exercise our sense of mystery and wonder, based in no small part on human sexuality and attraction. Harold Koda (curator of the Costume Institute at New York's Met) has mounted a show and created a book with marvelous insights and passion, and the illustrations are wondrous--consider, as a case in point, Thiery Mugler's 'Chimere,' with its savage eroticism.
One could quibble with Koda's arbitrary division of the body into 'neck and shoulders,' 'chest,' 'waist,' 'hips' and 'feet,'
and his exclusion of the fascinating face/head/hair perplex, and the hands, with their magical touch and allure. But this book and its illustrations will become a benchmark by which human adornment is judged, and is a keeper of power and importance.

Extreme Beauty is a wonderful book that celebrates the Metropolitan's equally brilliant exhibit about fashion and it's different preoccupations with the body. The exhibit was magnificent, and the book truly honors the tone and feeling of it, while being extremely informative in it's own right. The book is divided into different chapters such as neck and shoulders, waist, chest, etc. Each chapter features photos of the garments displayed in the original exhibit, as well as additional historical drawings and photographs of the various fashions and cultural trends that have celebrated the parts of the body. And, as promised in the title, the book explores the cultural foundations of bodily transformation and mutilation(?) through everything from extreme corsetry, [..] footwear and peircing to the tribal women who use metal rings to actually elongate their vertebrae. Harold Koda's insightful and meticulously researched commentary is just the icing on the cake. This is a must for any fashion library, but also of great interest to non-fashionistas.

Dr. Bertman's "Facing Death"  has helped me and my clients.  A new favorite, I refer to it often. As a therapist, I find it to be the most valuable relevent addition to my library.   Loaded with tools and comforting observations made by children and  adults of many walks of life, we're shown the relevance of the grieving process to us all regardless of our ethnic background, sosioeconomic status, or age.  I share these quotations and observations with my clients.

As an individual,  trying to make sence of my own grieving process, I find  the book to be a refreshing  sorce of  emotional comfort. It's full of theraputic gifts.  Were I currently teaching I would insist my students read this book.

Bertman has done an excellant job of jam packing a book full of paintings, sculpture, line art, cartoons and diagrams on the subject of death. Thoough her focus is mostly on dying the images are relevant, as well, in exploring mortality in general. Bertman has not made the mistake of making her work too theoretical or logocentric. She offers advice for creating art related to dying as well as advice on interpreting such art.
This book serves well in a death education course,or for the art therapist working in a hospice or similar setting as well as individuals who wish to explore ideas on death that are manifested in art.

I thought the book gave an excelent view of living with death. I got the book to help me with my studdies and I found it very usefull.

As a medical educator, it can be difficult to find ways of helping students explore their emotional responses to suffering, death, and grief in ways that are safe and accessible, but challenging and useful. Dr. Bertman's book has turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. This collection of visual representations with explanatory text is a great starting place for discussions about the issues of life, death, and illness for learners at any level, from children to patients and families, to health care practitioners.

Facing Death is an extraordinary resource for health care professionals and teachers, religious leaders, and for anyone either contemplating death in the abstract or facing it personally or as a friend or relative of someone with a fatal illness. It is an exquisite and empathic blend of reflect, review, verbal and visual images, and practical suggestions. It contains poignant quotes from poets, novelists, and families; powerful photographs of the interactions of family members with a dying grandparent; drawings by students asked to depict their feelings about death; and photographs of great and powerful works of visual art. The author uses the arts as stimuli to help patients and students acknowledge and explore their own feelings and behaviors. This book is enormously useful to me as a mortal middle-aged human being, as a physician caring for patients, and as a teacher.

A story of love, courage, and survival. Carrie McDonnall was the only survivor of five in March, 2004, in Iraq although shattered with 22 bullet wounds and untold amounts of shrapnel. She tells the story of the love and loss of her husband David. Married less than a year and risking their lives to help the citizens of Iraq in their suffering, Carrie, David and three other American Missionaries were surrounded in a busy city and shop at point blank range. It was a miracle Carrie survived and this is truly an inspiring, exciting and heartwarming story.

An international relief worker and missionary since 1999, Carrie McDonnall fell in love with the Middle East and married a man with the same passion, David, in 2002. On March 15, 2004, the couple, along with three other aid workers, spent the day surveying the needs at a refugee camp in northern Iraq. On their way back into the safe zone in Kurdish-held territory, militants ambushed their truck and Carrie would be the only one to survive.

FACING TERROR, written by Carrie with help from popular author Kristin Billerbeck, recounts the harrowing events of the day that would forever change her life. But far from being a cautionary tale, FACING TERROR is a call to serve Christ wherever one lives and is, at its core, a love story --- a story of love between a man and a woman, and a story of the love those two people shared for the Arab world.

David and Carrie met in Bethlehem on New Year's Day 2000. Despite the location, it was a rather inauspicious start to their romance. Introduced by fellow "journeymen," Carrie spent the time mistakenly calling David "Nathan" and thought little about him when the holiday was over. But when they were re-introduced several months later at a sports camp for local youth, she took more notice. "There was a spark within him that just lit up the dark sky. He was genuinely warm and friendly, he was a wonderful storyteller, and he was funny. I hoped this wasn't the last time we'd met, and although I can't say my romantic pursuits were obvious, I didn't want this man just to walk out of my life," she writes.

During that stage of their ministries, Carrie was living out of a converted shipping container in Israel's West Bank and David was traveling all over Africa and the Middle East. They exchanged emails and the relationship deepened through what would become sometimes-daily missives. At the same time, both had a deepening sense of love for and calling to the Muslim people of the Middle East. "David asked what I would do after I finished my term of service in Israel. I told him that I would return home to attend seminary and then come back to the region to work among Arab-speaking Muslims. He then asked how I came to that decision. I explained that it was nothing I had decided --- the Lord had just put a passion for these people within me and anything different would mean being disobedient to Him."

She continues, "He seemed surprised to find a girl who wanted to live in such a strict culture and shared with me the experiences he had seen the girls on his team go through. David then told me of his love for Sudan and some of his adventures. He said that he too felt called back to this area, but didn't know exactly where --- just that it was with Arab-speaking Muslims."

The couple spent two years getting to know each other, and FACING TERROR follows what each of them were doing in their individual ministries as they grew closer and closer to one another. Of primary concern for both of them was that their desire for each other not usurp the call each of them felt to mission work, so they took their time before making the decision to marry. Once they did, in Texas, the couple put their energies into getting back onto the mission field, and the book provides an engrossing account of the days that lead up to March 15, 2004.

Carrie is inspirational; there's no two ways about it. On top of losing her husband and three dear friends, her own body was gravely injured in the attack and she's had to undergo multiple surgeries to restore all that can be restored. And yet, there is a glow in her face, in her eyes, that reflects a passion for Christ that pain and suffering can't diminish. I saw it when I met her in person last summer, and I can see it in the pages of her book.

"I live my life without David, but am grateful for the time I had with him," she writes. "The world is not our place of rest; it is a time to work and follow hard after Jesus. When we get home, we can rest. But for now, God is calling his children to share the gospel of the cross, the power of our Holy Father; it's time we obediently follow Him. May we all live our lives in a manner worthy of the calling we have received in Christ Jesus. May we live lives we will never regret." Amen.

--- Reviewed by Lisa Ann Cockrel

This book gives a very heartwarming and interesting insight to what people that happen to be missionaries have seen and experienced in a world most of us will never have an opportunity to visit. All we hear is the media's version of what is going on in third world countries. This book gives us an everyday feel for what is truly going on and the happiness and goodness that occurs as well. My heart goes out to Carrie and her and David's family and the trauma and tradgedy that she has experienced and will continue to experience for a very long time. Thank you for sharing your world with us and may God continue to bless you!

This moving book allows the reader to experience the lives of devoted missionaries, their lives in the Middle East, and their love of the Arab Muslims that eventually cost Carrie McDonnall her health and the life of her husband and 3 other fellow workers.
It is well written and riveting. I've already given a copy to three people and have to keep replenishing my own copy.
I appreciate Carrie's bold challenge to the church today to share the Gospel message and have bold love for others.
The song the LORD gave her during recovery and the vision of Jesus and His call was especially inspiring and challenging.

As one who has lived many years in seven different Middle Eastern countries (including Jordan and Lebanon) and who is a Christian but not a missionary, I can greatly recommend Carrie's book for more than its wonderful love story between Carrie and David. Her descriptions of life in that area are real. By that I mean she describes wonderfully and accurately experiences many of us have lived. Her descriptions are an excellent way to get a "feel" for that part of the world that one cannot get from the general media and current events. I found myself nodding in recognition continually and wanting to run out for more books to send to friends, saying "This is what I have been trying to tell you for so many years!"
I too have met her briefly and heard her speak. My friends in Jordan knew her and David well. The greater love story to hear is her love for Christ and her willingness to be used for His purposes. I will watch with interest to see what else He has for this remarkable young woman.

This type of book should never be allowed to go out of print. It should be available for all to read and learn from. In it, Helene Tremblay offers a fascinating insight into the ordinary lives of various people from The Americas and The Caribbean by spending a typical day with a typical family. In a beautifully illustrated book, sensitively written, Ms Tremblay gently pushes opens a window into their different worlds, eating, resting and working with the families. There is no feeling of intrusion, just an unspoken respect for their way of life. It is at once humbling, honest, moving and utterly compelling. It is a book I refer to many times and can highly recommend.

This type of book should never be allowed to go out of print! It should be available for all to read and learn from. In it, Helene Tremblay offers a fascinating insight into the ordinary lives of various people from The Americas and Caribbean simply by spending a typical day with a chosen family. In a beautifully illustrated book, sensitively written, Ms Tremblay gently pushes opens a window into their different worlds, eating, resting and working with them. There is no feeling of intrusion, just an unspoken respect for their way of life. It is at once humbling, honest, moving and utterly compelling. It is a book I refer to many times and can highly recommend.

I enjoyed reading this book. I bought it for my husband as a gift, but I read it before he did. The photographs and stories were about at least one family from each North and South American country. Wide range of lifestyles, from tribal Amazonians, peasants in Mexico, poor and rich of Brazil, single mother families in West Indies, farmers in Canada, and urban folks from Chicago. The book covers their diligences and futilities in this world as a family unit.

Greetings to all! I love sociology, world culture, and travel. This book combines the best of these topics and so much more! Helene has displayed tremendous courage in her desire to produce a book about humanity and the one thing that bonds us all together: family. She has traveled to places that many of us would find undesirable and have brought forth families that we would have never known if it were not for her beautiful book! From the poorest of the poor to the elite, she has been the welcome guest of families picked randomly who best represent each country. She surprised these families by just showing up on their doorstep and then, as an unbiased observer, gives honest details of the lifestyle of the family. This is truly one of the most interesting books I've ever read and it now looks like a well-worn Bible, as I have read it time and time again. Through the eyes of Helene, we learn about families as far north as Canada and the USA, as well, as the Caribbean and South America and Mexico. I was so impressed by Helene's report on a family in the Honduras that we decided to sponsor a family from there! Truly, there is no other book like it and it is a great sadness to me that it is no longer in print. Anyone who can purchase this book will be adding a book of noble worth to their library! I can't say enough about this book! It is a tremendous way for children to learn about other families and places around the world! Helene, if you ever read this, know that you are always welcome at my home! ;-) In Friendship, Mrs. Marsha Swaggerty & Family

I've already given a review for the first book which is on this page for some reason... so I wholeheartedly agree that the book on Asia and the Pacific is just as spectacular as the book on the Americas... It was out of print and I was amazed when Amazon.Com came through with a used copy that was in beautiful condition! I was very pleased and impressed and am delighted to have this book in my collection... I was very intrigued by the families in Asia and the exotic Pacific! Very much worth the wait!

With a prodigious breadth and fearless depth, she takes the segue to a high art. Anything can be the occasion for connection. Any sentence can break your mind or heart wide open. Her most personal, and my personal favorite. Reading this book makes me feel alive.

Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide To Getting Lost discusses experience and getting lost in the everyday, examining how people move from cities to wilderness, how they search for sense of self in an uncertain life, and how her own explorations in the world have changed her life. At once an autobiography and introspective examination, A Field Guide To Getting Lost surveys connections, ancestry, history, and modern culture in a personal odyssey of exploration.

Solnit's book is as the title suggests--a discursive reflectoin on the many nuances of the idea of 'getting lost.' You find out that 'lost' is from the Norse meaning 'the dispersal of armies,' and that early Renaissance painters use blue to designate distance, that children are better (i.e., less likely to die) at getting lost because they don't rationalize the way adults do--all in just a few pages where the insight garnered is both spun out by the author, but left to the reader to stop and pursue in his/her own reflections. Of the twenty or so books of all genres which I've read in the last few weeks--and of those I will read in the next several I suspect--this book incarnates why I read: erudite, entertaining, entrancing. Solnit's book reaches out toward Wordsworth, Dillard, Thoreau--and the Clash, Plato, Robert Hass. The voice and perspective, though, are her own. The essays here can not be read in great, long gulps; switching metaphors, there is hearty sustenance here--you take in only so much, and you are sated with good things which you must digest before moving on. Side note: whoever edited the book did a disservice--occasional glaring errors, such as 'form' being spelled out 'from' and 'good' repeated a second time in a context where the repetition makes no sense (and when you know the author would have easily used another expression to capture the nuance intended over against using something as clunky as redundancy of such a limited word).

The first question is, what is a field guide to getting lost? Field guides help us with finding, not losing or getting lost. We use them to classify the unfamiliar and figure out what surrounds us. They reassure us that the bewildering array of natural phenomena has an underlying order. Solnit's title suggests we might also want our schemas to break down. Can we catalogue the various ways of getting lost as we might catalogue songbirds? The paradox feels whimsical, mocking, alluring. Like the title, the tone of the book will hover between the urge to know and the urge not to know, between rationality and mystery.

In the middle of the first chapter, Solnit gives us a manifesto: "Never to get lost is not to live, not to know how to get lost brings you to destruction." "Lost," for her, means we lack a narrative for what we are experiencing. Getting lost is a kind of Zen rebirth because "to be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty." Getting lost also has connotations of spiritual longing. Solnit titles every other chapter "The Blue of Distance." Blue "represents the spirit, the sky, and water, the immaterial and the remote, so that however tactile ansd close-up it is, it is always about distance and disembodiment." Voila the tone of the book--grand, abstract, sensual, yearning and inexorably aloof.

With a topic like the beauty of longing and loss, it is surprising how rarely Solnit lapses into cliché. Her prose is as smooth and bare as polished stone. It creates the feeling of waking from a dream and encountering the world, dazed and receptive. If Thoreau is the most cerebral of the philosopher-poets and Whitman the most sensual, Rebecca Solnit belongs at the midpoint. She does not allow herself academic verbal tics, or excess verbiage, but neither does she shy away from the syntactical complexity of acadmic writing. She integrates lyric sensuality and philosophizing as if these modes belong together, as if western civilization had never tried to separate mind and body. I admire her poise and authority a little as I admire Susan Sontag's. Solnit's is a supremely self-possessed voice, which may be the same thing as a voice that has abandoned the antic whining of the self. She draws deeply on experience, yet she resists the confessional mode.

You might say that Solnit offers an optimistic way to confront the globalized, alienated world of the twenty-first century, a sort of "If God gives you lemons, make lemonade," or "If God gets you lost, revel in it." You could argue that she offers a sophisticated alternative to the self-help genre, though I imagine Solnit would look down on self-help. She likes slipperiness and paradox too much. Still, she is interested in finding a way forward for the soul, and I, for one, am glad because my little soul is often bewildered.

I think Solnit dances between lostness and foundness. She notes that "nomads have fixed circuits and stable relationships to places," and her own wandering through the west is ritualized, repetitive. She doesn't need to go to Antarctica; she gets lost in America. Her home territory is simply vast and ambitious, her spirals broad. Still, in order to lose herself time after time, she has to find herself in between.

A mesmerizing book that is three separate tales told at the same time. At times humorous and sometimes it made me want to cry, this story was hard to put down. I would highly recommend it.

I also found the book enjoyable and rewarding. For those expecting a traditional history or biography, the style is a little jarring at first. It is the first time I've seen a dual narrative applied to a biography, but the reasons behind it justify it and make it more natural than it at first appears.

It reminds me of one of my other favorites "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Persig, which is the autobiography of a madman, switching with a critique of western philosophy. The dual narratives enrich each other like a good marriage, making a whole, which is better than the sum of its parts. Because this book isn't just about Biddy Mason, and was never intended to be. Its about the author and Biddy Mason, a person pursuing and dealing with centuries old ghosts, and the emotions they still have the power to evoke. It is the sausage factory of how histories are actually written.

I think in many ways the heart of the book, is less about Biddy Mason, than in the brief confrontation between Demaratus and the staid archivist she meets while searching for some files. He is writing a military history, and brushes her off when she says she is writing a social history. She understands something that he does not, which is that history is the most personal, romantic, and human of all the sciences. Human events cannot be understood clearly apart from the human beings involved with them and why they decided to do one thing rather than another, whether it is Robert E. Lee inexplicably sending Pickett's brigade across a mile of open ground into the withering fire of the Union army at Gettysburg, or Truman's lonely decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima, or Neanderthals burying their dead with flowers. Human history is not events. Human history is the human heart and events.

Having said that, it would have been interesting at the end to know if the author had resolved her issues with black folks, or merely found more mysteries.

Chris Garcia

DeEtta Demaratus has taken the lives of five people--Biddy, Hannah, Robert, Rebecca and Benjamin--interwoven by circumstances and events during a time far removed from that of people today and has given life to each in a most refreshing manner. You are presented with not only a historical masterpiece, but a moving narrative of events that changed each life forever.

I was immediately captivated by the authors ability to fairly treat each of the characters; especially since the issues involved were given to volatile possibilities in interpretation. Apparently, she chose to be impartial yet totally candid in her treatment of each. In order to have a well rounded narrative of "the search for a lost story of slavery and freedom", each life involved was given its place in this cause and effect chronicle. It was obviously vital for the characters involved to take his place and be counted and held accountable for his part in this gripping narrative.

Ms. Demaratus deserves accolades for her beautiful portrayal of justice triumphing even in the most unlikely of circumstances!!
Kudos for a job well done!!

This is a very thought provoking book for anyone interested in southern history and especially for us with a genealogical interest of our "Deep Southern Roots". Since my husband descends from Robert Mays Smith, the book is a necessity in my "Genealogy Library"!

As both a professional librarian and practicing historian and biographer, I understand the sentiments of reviewers expecting one sort of book but unexpectedly finding another. Personally I am delighted that an author finally has the gumption to meaningfully address their role and biases toward their subject. There is no sanctimonius false objectivity here. The author is subjective and tells you so, yet it is one of the fairest books I have read. While readers who expect fact will find it in Demaratus's book, this more accurately described as a biography of emotions. It is a book about every character confronting themselves over an intensely emotional subject. Compare, for instance, the stories she includes of her experiences with Brenda and the man she calls Sam C. Ultimately, that theme binds together what otherwise could be an important but intensely impersonal narrative. Demaratus suceeds, in my opinion, in treating life--with its chance, missed opportunities, short-sightedness, and subjectivity--historically. This is tough. Slaves typically left little documentary material of their own and the case of Biddy Mason is no exception, so like Ladurie's "Montaillou" the author approaches her subject from a tangential documentary angle; in this case based upon material specifically for and about Biddy's owner, Robert Smith. I found one of the book's greatest strengths to be the author's acknowledgement of how this habeus corpus case affected not merely the plaintiff and defendant, but also the judge and herself. This book not only lays out but also wrestles with the first-hand issue of slavery: what was it like to be owned, and how did ownership affect people on both sides? I was not bothered by the "what ifs" because she stated them clearly and hung to the facts and sources well (and yes, I did check notes). The result is a book that is interesting without sacrificing academic integrity, emotional without being maudlin, and anything but stuffy. I highly recommend it.

As a resident of Los Angeles, I purchased THE FORCE OF A FEATHER anticipating a biography of Biddy Mason, one of this city's early important religious/cultural figures. Before finishing the introduction, entitled "Coming to the Wall," I sensed that this book would be something else, itself quite apart from a standard biography.

A meticulously researched work (along with vibrant illustrations), author Demaratus has managed to unearth the stories of some little known (and a few famous) Americans -- including Biddy Mason -- whose lives, by the mere forces of chance and fate, were to intersect during one of the most dramatic and fascinating periods of U.S. history (the years of Westward expansion leading up to the Civil War). Lives of free people and slaves, white and black, all of whom stood on the threshold of a defining historical moment, confronting hardship, brutality, adventure, loss and the fierce inevitability of change.

Biddy Mason was an astonishing woman by any measurement and the force of her life would resonate farther than she could have ever imagined. And this is exactly where this unique book makes a precarious, yet carefully and perfectly pitched, departure. For it is the author's own story -- her own inspiration to write and her arduous process to complete this work -- that is woven into the narrative, breathing both immediacy and an extraordinary sense of intimacy into "a search for a lost story of slavery and freedom." It's a daring literary choice, and one that I found to be both moving and gratifying.

It occurred to me more than once, while reading this book, that the progressive, embracing, non-judgmental style of the author might be a source of complaint for some. But Demaratus seems too respectful of her subjects to draw conclusions without fact, and is content on occasion -- and asks the reader as well -- to ponder what "might have been." As for the risks she took to tell this story, as well as her willingness to question her own conflicted personal beliefs, it only deepened my impression of this book as well as my sense for the author's integrity.

As for the other posted review, I can only surmise that the critic wanted Demaratus to write a different book that she did. But I don't think it is the critic's job to tell the artist what to create - only to assess and analyze what has been created. If the reviewer simply wants a biography of Mason, then I suggest the critic turn writer and get busy constructing it.

I am an immigrant from El Salvador and this book made me cry because reading it was like reading about my own life. The writer spent a lot of time knowing the people because she tells the story of thousands of people like me and those in her study. If you want to know what life has been like for Salvadorans, read this book.

This is a great book. It has a lot of information about Salvadorans. Obviously, the author is an expert. But you know what makes this book unusual? It's because it was written by a Salvadoran scholar (very few around here...) about Salvadorans. So just for the information alone, it's worth it. That's why I said that this is an unusual book.

This book debunks many assumptions we have about help among poor people. It presents vividly what happens when there are very few resources and people must make heartwrenching decisions whether to help their mom with a small loan of money or their children with school supplies. The poor often don't have enough resources to help everyone and end up in difficult situations that sometimes lead to tension. This book is an eye opener! Anyone working with poor and disadvantaged populations should read it!

This book is a truly exceptional. It provides a sophisticated analysis of the complexities and intricacies of family relations. It is a must for those interested in immigration, but also for anyone else who would like to know how social networks and families operate under situations of extreme poverty. The stories are riveting (often heartbreaking) and the style simple yet elegant. Although it is an academic book it sometimes reads like a novel. A GREAT read!

This is simply outstanding. It is very complex, very rich, but incredibly human. The people laugh, cry, mistrust, love, etc. In sum, they have feelings--good and bad--just like you and me. I highly recommend it to anyone--it'll make you think twice before helping (or not helping) a relative or a friend!!!!