Writing Circles Books

Travelling with Michael is to say the least exhilarating, fun, adventurous and a journey of discovery. While many can only dream of actually making the trip, Michael Palins' books are the next best thing. It's not just where he goes, but how he does it and perhaps most importantly: seeing it through his mind's eye, which needless to say can make humor out of nothingness. All you need is to relax and have the urge to increase your imagination. A wild but educative ride!

Michael Palin does it again with Full Circle. Starting in Alaska Michael travels anti-clockwise around the rim of the Pacific Ocean visiting countries as diverse as Russia, Korea, Viet Nam, New Zealand, Colombia and the west coast of North American. He tells of his adventures getting to and exploring some fantastic natural wonders, visiting a Russian gulag with a former inmate, the relief of Japan, the Vietnamese reactions to a westerner, the biggness of Australia and the hardworking people of South America. The section on the United States is short and not always sweet. Palin is taken aback by the physical bigness of Americans, and rush, and loudness. By the time he reaches Canada and attends a "lumberjack" fair (no singing Mounties included!) he really "wants to go home". We also learn a bit about how the series and book were produced, his wife Helen and their children, and that being on a job for the BBC doesn't always mean smooth sailing! Michael's friend Basil Pao took the photographs - he also joined Michael on "Around the World in Eighty Days". I can highly recommend this book and not only to fans of Monty Python - it doesn't end how you might expect!

As always Palin has produced a great travel book and series... this I found better than his "80 Days". The other thing people might find interesting about this travel book is that it takes us to some places which are hard to reach even in this day and age, so this is the only way we can know them.

Also suggested- "Hemingway Adventure"

Full Circle is just as good, if not better then his othertravel/comedy books. It is simply magnificent.

I've seen the 10-part Full Circle tv series, and I had a serious addiction from the start. When it ended, I went through a withdrawl period. I silently rocked myself in a chair in my room repeating "I must get the book,... must find book...must read book." I've got it now and I'm back on a Full Circle high. The book goes into details that they never had time for on the series. It tells you everything that you would have noticed had you been in Japan or Australia or Chile.

Ahh... I can imagine myself right now on the streets of China getting a massage from a blind man.

I had a hard time getting by the very artistic book cover to discover all the jewels that lay inside. The color and artwork were a perfect compliment for a book titled "Undies".
This anthology was written by an obviously talented group of women. I look forward to their next publication.

The poems by the Women's Writing Circle are powerful and elicit a vast array of emotions. These women are so open and speak with an honestly that is shocking at times and touching all the time. They are guaranteed to make you think.

This isn't a book you will read and put down, it's a book you'll pick up to reread often.

Diane Truswell's "Origami" speaks of a life that every woman deserves. It speaks of a metamorphosis that brings beauty, excitment, and joy back to life.

UNDIES burns with sensuality, passions revealed, minute insights into what is under, between, and mixed with the layers of women. Each section (Sex-tion): Foundations, Transparent Slips, Briefs, Core-sets, Strapless, and Unmentionables delivers amazing poetry, poetry that singes itself into the memory.

There's telling humor when Sandra Margulius wonders if anyone can "Superman-see" what is going on under her Victoria Secret Bra; in "jockstrapped" Mary Croy's dis-satisfied Athletic Support Staff has canceled its season package; and JI Saenz treats the reader to a great surprise ending in, "I jerk off."

There's the beautiful pain of loss in Karen Howland's brave poem, "Blood Lullabys"; Marisa Rivera unwraps her past in "The Secret."
"Edges," by Thea Kovac, goes where artists go - to places the reader might not know to travel; and in "Los Miercoles Nieva" (It Snows on Wednesdays), bi-lingual poet Janessa Maria-Diego describes seconds of intimacy, "..I feel his skin crying" with the grace of Pablo Neruda. "Underpants (a historical perspective)," is a touching song of generations crooning, "I will keep you safe. I will hold you close."

There are moments of hilarity when Faye Quam relays her sexual frustration dreams, and Diane Truswell struggles with "Penis Panic" in the men's room.

UNDIES is clearly the result of talented, hard-writing poets who, as Karen Howland writes, know "the music of the universe, unfolded words, and undies."

UNDIES is an impressive book of brave poetry. The poems are written in a variety of styles by a diverse and talented group of women. The title poem "Undies," written by Karen Howland will give you new insights into the layers beneath. "Ms. Erotic," also by Karen, is filled with beautiful and unusual words. Perhaps some readers will be able to identify with Sandra Margulius in "Wearing my Victoria" or enjoy Mary Croy's slightly different perspective on "victoria's secret." After reading JoAnn Chang's "Underpants (A Historical Perspective)," I won't ever think of undies the same way again. "Origami," a magical poem by Diane Truswell made me smile as I read about someone who 'threw out her cold, white, functional porcelain underwear' for underwear of burgundy and lime green. Diane's thoughtful poem "Forgotten Candy" is one I won't forget. Faye Quam's "Damn the Censors" made me nod in agreement as she wrote about Brad Pitt making his way into her dreams. I loved the peacefulness and beautiful language of the poems "It snows on Wednesdays" by Janessa Maria-Diego and "the violinist" by J.I. Saenz. This book deserves a wide audience.

What an amazing woman! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Jeanne Foster, and it brought back many memories of my early years in the "north country" before I retired and moved to Florida. The authors winter here in Venice, and they have given many interesting talks in the area about Foster and her famous friends, displaying diaries, actual letters to Foster from people like Ford Madox Ford and Ezra Pound, and drawings of her by William Butler Yeats's father. Recommended for lovers of biography and great stories.

This book is a great story of a truly "American" woman who was a friend to the world or at least to the world of artists,writers, and politicians. The biography has everything to keep a reader reading: beauty, poetry, intrigue, sex, passion mysticism, and sweetness. I wish I could have known this person called Jeanne Robert Foster.

Michael Palin (of Monty Python fame) is more than funny: he's a perceptive and compassionate traveller! I loved his first two BBC travel series and their companion books, so when one day in Seattle, I read in the paper that the next evening he would begin a third, I made sure to tune in. I wasn't disappointed; from a remote Alaskan island so close to the International Dateline that Palin writes: "The Russian soldiers staring at me across the water have already had the day I'm having" to "the southernmost place of worship in the world, outside of Antarctica", this one is as good an armchair journey as any the BBC has produced. Something special: the photography is, as usual, superb, and there's an underwater sequence in the Philipines that has to be seen to be believed. So, either take a year off yourself (that's about what it took Palin), pack your own forty-eight (!) suitcases and spend your own mint to do this trip of a lifetime, or just do it with Mike Palin. After all, that's what books are for, isn't it?

Michael Palin's "Full Circle" trip involved traveling all of the way around the Pacific Ocean. He (and his film crew) started at the Bering Strait in Alaska and then traveled down the Asian side of the Pacific, crossed over to Cape Horn, and traveled up through South and North America, returning to Alaska.

The trip covered 50,000 miles through 17 countries in ten months. Specifically, these countries were visited: USA (Alaska), Russia (Siberia), Japan, S. Korea (entry to N. Korea was denied), China, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, USA (California and Washington), Canada (British Columbia) and back to Alaska again.

This trip, like the other ones done by Michael Palin for the BBC, was filmed for viewing as a television mini-series. (This version is available on DVD, at least at Amazon UK.) Afterwards, Michael Palin and Basil Pao (the stills photographer in the filming crew) created this book as an alternative record of the trip.

The book is richly illustrated with Basil Pao's beautiful photographs. Michael Palin's text is wonderful because he has a way of finding interesting places and people and of describing them with warmth and humor.

The diversity of the many countries and places is amazing. Artic wilderness, tropics, deserts, cramped cities, huge rivers, high mountains, etc., etc. There are many high points along the way, the most exciting being when Michael Palin had to lasso a camel while standing in the back of a pickup truck that was going over bumps and around bends at break-neck speed!

At the same time, Michael Palin does not shy back from visiting and describing the thought-provoking places along his journey. The Russian Gulag in Siberia, Hiroshima and the remembrance of the atomic bomb, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and the border between Mexico and the United States are all discussed with unusual insight.

This book easily deserves five stars. Except for the audio version, that is.

The nice thing about the audio version is that Michael Palin reads the book himself, and he does a great job as a reader. But the audio version does not include Basil Pao's beautiful photographs, of course, and worst of all, it's abridged. My dislike of abridged audio books results in me giving the audio book version only three stars.

Rennie Petersen

Breaking the Circle of One expands the traditional meaning of mentorship in education. From its beginning as a writing circle of graduate students and professors emerged a group that was redefined by the mentoring and support the members provided to one another. This book is a rich and diverse compilation of experiences that evolved as a continuing strand of mentorship by those students who participated the Circle. The stories in this book illustrate that mentoring can truly be established as a way of life, especially for those of us who are in the education profession.

The first time I read this book, I got goosebumps. First, the illustrations are breathtaking. The colors are so vibrant and the artist's style is utterly charming.

But the text is equally beautiful. Elizabeth Anne Hill carries the message over from her book Twin Souls: A Message of Hope for the New Millennium--that life and death are a continuing circle and that death is no reason to mourn loss, but to instead celebrate a transition--in a way that will be very easy for children to understand.

I will definitely be buying copies of this book for all the children in my life.

This is a beautiful coffee table style book full of fantastic photographs taken by Basil Pao. These pictures were taken at locations all around the Pacific Rim during the Michael Palin trip known as "Full Circle".

This book should not be confused with Michael Palin's book about that trip, which is simply called "Full Circle". That book also contains a lot of Basil Pao's pictures, but they are secondary to the text written by Michael Palin.

"Full Circle: The Photographs" is exclusively Basil Pao's book, except for a brief 2-page introduction written by Michael Palin.

In my opinion this book is the best of the four books of photographs that Basil Pao has produced to celebrate the various trips that he shared with Michael Palin. (The other three are "Pole to Pole: The Photographs", "Inside Sahara" and "Inside Himalaya".)

One thing that is special about this book is that the pictures are not shown in chronological or geographic order. The pictures are shown by category, with pictures that supplement or contrast with each other shown side by side, and one of the pictures may be from Siberia and the other from Peru.

I can imagine Basil Pao having lots of fun deciding which pictures to include and which pictures to show together.

Some of the best pictures are shown as magnificent two-page spreads. Every picture has a small caption telling where it was taken.

As usual with Basil Pao, most of the pictures (approx. 75%) include people in one way or another. There are some stunning landscapes too, but the pictures of people are the most fascinating. Some of the babies and children are especially cute.

The only thing I'm slightly disappointed about is the dearth of pictures from the USA and Canada. I'm guessing this is due to the film team traveling fairly quickly through this last leg of the journey (Michael Palin admitted that he was homesick), the fact that for us Westerners the people of the USA and Canada are not so exotic, and possibly concerns about model release forms and legal problems.

Very highly recommended. It's not easy to find this book new so you'll have to search for a used copy, and you'll be glad you did.

Rennie Petersen

PS. For those who might be interested, I've written an Amazon "So You'd Like To" guide about Basil Pao and his participation in the Michael Palin trips and the books that have been produced by Basil Pao and Michael Palin. You can find it by clicking on my name and then finding the link to my "So You'd Like To" guides a little ways down on the left of my profile page.

While not a new book, this one is worthy of the readers time. Hasselstrom is a poet, an essayist and a working ranch woman, dividing her time between her ranch in South Dakota and a residence in Wyoming. This book is part poetry and part essay. It is all exceptional. If you want to read of death, life, love, the land and being a woman by one of the best writers in the business, this is the book for you. She has written a number of fine poetry books but I recommend this collection as a start. From here I suspect the reader will go on to her other works. She's that good.

this book is just wonderful. It captures the essence of the dirt under our feet. A perfect spring time read, just as earth begins its awakinin'

To all those who seek the Light:

We of the Inner Circle feel it indispensable for you to know that all that is written within these pages are not put forth with the thought that they should be taken as indisputable facts or ultimate truths but merely as aspects of truth as seen from our particular point of observation. All of us subscribe to the doctrine of variability, and if we so confess our beliefs we must adhere to them, at least until such time as we may find something that will seem closer to the truth.

In repesct to all such writings as these, we think it understandable that much must be expressed in allegory. The phenomenon of life does not at any time lend itself to unchangeable conditions. We think it takes no great amount of intelligence to see that if the law of change governs a segment of the universe it must be the governing factor of the universe as a whole. As we abhor dogma in others, let us pray that we ourselves do not fall into its binding meshes.- The Inner Circle Kethra E' Da
--- from book's Preface