Boy Crazy Books

My father gave me a copy of "Crazy Wisdom" on my twelfth birthday. I am now 20 years old, and I still struggle with the enormity of what this book implies. I have read it several times, left it behind, returned to it with new experiences and gained new insights. Basically, the book contains Tibetan philosophical wisdom, but it is infinitely more. I'd recommend this book to everyone who is interested in philosophy (and in particular Oriental and Tibetan). The book is a powerful and relatively understandable introduction to contemporary Tibetan philsophers, based largely on Buddhism, but the religious aspect of the book is negligible. This is not a cheap "This will change your life" scam, but contains some serious and powerful methods of working with the mind.

Trungpa's Crazy Wisdom is the wisdom of compassion; it is also the best gift a compassionate Buddhist Master bestowed to the Western world. When reading his teaching, I can feel in any moment that the teaching is passed on to me from his heart, his linage and his being. This is the best book I have read by far which could use the most earth English language to hand over the most profound teaching from the Vajrayana tradition.

Although the book's cover gives the impression that BOY CRAZY is a romance novel aimed at the young-adult female audience, this book, like all Ms. Rice's books, can be enjoyed by young readers (male and female) as well as older readers. This is the first book in a two-book series. The second book, equally wonderful, is called SPRING BREAK. (I am sorry that both books are out of print.)

Be sure to read Bebe Faas Rice's other fine novels, which include THE YEAR THE WOLVES CAME, THE LISTENERS, AND MUSIC FROM THE DEAD.

Finally, a well-thought-out and fantastically written book on how to deal with our Boy Crazy daughters. Giannetti and Sagarese, who both have elder daughters, write from experience and the experience of many frustrated parents in this how-to guide on teenage girls. Any parent with a daughter should absolutely purchase this book!

This is one of the most moving books of poetry I have ever read!!! What an amazing writing by Joel into his mind and his journey of depression and abuse and how he overcome it! I would recommend this book to everyone. It is an easy read and very clear to understand. It brought tears to my eyes. Keep on writing, Joel !!!!

I've met Ben and he is exactly how he presents himself in this book -- a witty, charismatic man who has overcome adversity and remembers where he come from. This is a good, inspiring story of recovery.

This book really captured your imaganation. It was funny at the same time as telling as that we can ut up with stuff

I am a real sucker for uniqueness in a book, and this one has it! There are two stories being told in parallel. Every other chapter tells one story, and vice versa. One story is a dark, sad story of a young boy staying with his uncle, an undertaker, as they experience a tremendous problem in their town with racism and violence. The other story is about his aunt who has taken off cross-country with her husband's head in a lettuce keeper and a hat box in order to appear in the Beverly Hillbillies tv show. I laughed until it hurt, and I cried hard. An amazing book with a story to tell of the place of women and blacks in the southern US in the 1960's. Truly one of my all time favorite books.

This audiobook was fun and interesting to listen to, I had to keep driving to keep listening! I am not selling this because I want to share the humorous, sad and shockingly witty story with others!! I wonder if any of this is true, Mark Chilress?? They say "Tell the truth, and no one will believe you!""
I just LOVED it!

This story is so intriguing because of the main two plots being told simulaneously. Peejoe is such a memorable character...reminds me a lot of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. His involvement with the racial issues teach him so much while he's growing up. He's the type of child who doesn't see color. On the other hand, Aunt Lucille is one crazy--but hilarious--broad! Her wild excursions are very entertaining, while shocking at the same time. It's neat how these two characters are going through two completely different things, yet they are both "growing up" and learning pretty much the same lesson about standing up for who you are, not letting anyone put you down, being an individual, etc. Overall, this was a great read...I'd recommend it to anyone.

For once, an author has taken me to places I've never been and has set me up to turn me upside down in the closing pages. There is NOTHING in this story that can be clearly anticipated. Justice does a crazy (and hilarious) turnabout; racism in people in high places is not carefully put away in a neat package to satisfy the transparent do-gooders in our midst. For all his awesome way with humor, Childress takes his reader on a sustained rollercoaster ride into the depths of the integration conundrum which is still very much alive in this country and the heights to which the smallest of us can go.

Part a coming of age story and part awakening--both of a woman who has been kept down by her husband and of the African American community of 1960s Alabama, Crazy in Alabama is one heck of a read.

The story's main characters are Peejoe (Peter Joseph), a 12 year old orphan who was living with his beloved grandmother (Meemaw) until his crazy aunt cut off her husband's head and deserted her children. The aunt, Lucille, is the other main character. At 33, she has six children, a dead husband and a burning desire to make it in Hollywood, which is where she heads after she has committed the grisly murder.

Childress takes on big issues (race relations, oppression of women, the media, mental illness) and displays them unflinchingly. He also shows how there are some folks--leaders (Lucille also becomes some sort of de facto leader of women's issues)--who take advantage of serious situations for their own political gain.

Childress proves himself great in this book. He writes with such deft assuredness that he makes it look easy, but it's not. Clearly a student of popular culture, he weaves details (songs, movies, television) into a fine cloth and makes us feel as though we are right there with him.

Part Southern Gothic, part Hollywood exposé, part political treatise, this book will endure. But above and beyond all that, it's a great read.

This is definitely my favorite Stacey book.In this book Stacey and Mary-Anne travel as mothers-helpers to Sea City with the Pikes during summer vacation, but, instead of watching the Pike kids, she leaves all the work to Mary-Anne and hangs out with hunky 18 year old lifeguard Scott.Luckily, later on she falls in love with a really cute boy named Toby who is her age. It is a really great book. And Stacey isn't as bad as I made her sound. She is just in love. Read the book if you want totall details. If you are a Stacey fan like me you will love it.

This is my favorite BSC book of all time!!!!!!!!!Stacey and Mary Anne go babysitting with the Pikes at the Jersey shore. Stacey falls in love with a lifeguard that is WAY too old for her.She thinks he likes her and Stacey buys him candy in a box shaped like a heart.But then...Read the book and find out.Also if youu want to know what happened next summer at the Jersey shore read Mary Anne and too many boys.Also I did think Stacey was sort of a brat in this book.Stacey was allways my least favorite babysitter.She's allways bragging about how sophisticated she is and how she comes from New York and all that.But if you're like me and don't like Stacey you'll still live this book.I HIGHLY recommend it!

This isn't one of the best BSCs in my opinion but it's still cool as they all are.Stacey and Mary Anne are having a great beach vacation as Mothers Helpers for the peculiar Pike Family.I really love the Pikes.Who wouldn't be in that family!!?
Stacey is flirting with an older guy,or 2.

When I reached that age (eleven or so) when suddenly boys were on my mind (and how!), this had to be my FAVORITE book! I loved how the girls got to go on a trip to an awesome little boardwalk town, and also that they had such a cool family to baby-sit for, but above all else, Stacey and Mary Anne were (like me) intrigued by cute boys they had just met!
The perfect book for girls just discovering the exciting world of liking boys....My mom even used to call me "boy-crazy Stacey" as a nickname after I read this book! :)

-Scott! Mary Anne and Stacey spends 2 full weeks in New Jersey's shore. Because they will help Mrs. Pike take care of the young siblings. But lately, Stacey has not been taking care of them because she fell in love with Scott, the lifeguard. It seems like Mary anne is the only one taking care of the siblings!

This is an awesome book. I laughed a lot and also shed a lot of tears as Kevin's journey and mine are so similar. Both preacher's sons and teachers. It has been a long up-hill battle but the end result is worth every bit of blood, sweat and tears.

I strongly urge everyone to read this book. Hey! You are not alone, there are others out there who have gone through or are going through what you are right now.

I have to admit that I didn't know who Kevin Jennings was before I read this book. I was drawn to the very human side of the story--the idea of growing up poor and gay in the religious south. In the end, I think that was the most enjoyable part of the story for me and I wish there had been a little more. Of course I recognize the importance of the later material on Kevin's contributions to gay rights, especially in the schools, but I didn't find these parts as touching as his reflections on childhood and his family. I had a sense reading this book that writing it was another "coming out" experience for Kevin, this time talking honestly and openly about what it was like to grow up very poor. In some ways, I wonder which is more difficult in today's world: to come out as gay or poor.

As a gay preacher's kid (fundamentalist) from the same geography (rural N.C.), I have to say I found Jenning's story to be irritatingly self-indulgent. I know many gay people who suffered a great deal more than he with the lack of acceptance and prejudice in the rural South. Yet they managed to achieve sucess and come out earlier in life and in far less accepting times and places than New England in the 80's. But, unlike Jennings, they do not seem to consider every personal experience they had on the way to self-fulfillment to be worthy of a book. I couldn't wait to put this one down.

I had never heard of Kevin Jennings before reading *Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son*. I got this book as a gift for my partner as he is from North Carolina. Read this after my partner read it. My partner loved it as he said he could relate to Kevin.

Kevin cracked me up with his memoirs on religion, family, school, sexuality and perspectives. Some of the things he said had me going 'my thoughts exactly'.

Kevin grew up Southern Baptist with his father as a preacher. However, his father had a hard time hanging on to a congregation. So, like a military brat, he moved around constantly until his father suddenly passed away. Uneducated, his mother set out to get a job. She landed a job with McDonald's and became their best employee. With a job in hand, Kevin's mother was able to provide stability in his life. However, regardless of the stability, Kevin was facing taunts from school, calling him degratory names. For those of us who grew up gay or struggled with our sexuality, we all know what that felt like.

After high school, he went on to Harvard. From there, Kevin took off like a rocket, especially after Harvard where he founded the Gay-Straight Alliance and other similar organizations.

It was such a lovely book that I enjoyed and couldn't put down. I wasn't expecting to be crying at the end where his mother was dying. It was somewhat similar to my mother's death. In fact, they almost thought alike...especially about the flowers. From that point on, I was crying like a baby. But it was a good cry.

Overall, wonderful memoir filled with humor, inspiration and perspectives.

Kevin Jennings grew up as a preacher's son (the son of a Southern Baptist Minister) and a mama's boy (more interested in intellectual pursuits than athletics). This memoir is not merely the story of a homosexual boy in the Deep South living below the poverty line. Jennings's personal struggles with family and community acceptance are neither extreme nor representative of the majority. The strength of Jennings's life story lies in the experiences and incidents which led to his career as an activist. The author is able to portray the gradual development of his adult activist spirit, so far removed from the boy who lived in fear of school and his classmates.

As a reader, I especially enjoyed the story of young Kevin's black sister-in-law. His decade-older brother came back from military service with (gasp!) a black wife. They were exiled from the family and community and moved to the Northeast. Kevin had been raised to believe that the KKK, while not a part of his immediate family, did good for the whites in the South. He was ingrained with beliefs about scourge of the blacks in the South. He had extreme anxiety about visiting his brother and sister-in-law, but when he arrived at their house, he learned first-hand what a lovely woman Claudette was, and they quickly became friends and confidantes. Kevin's earliest moment of activism was introducing Claudette to all the family members at a funeral, and ensuring that they all shook her hand and talked politely with her, despite her outsider status.

Kevin Jennings was the first member of his family to go to college, but the family was disappointed that he chose a profession as un-important and un-manly a teaching. If there is one lesson from the story of Kevin Jennings, it is this: a teacher learns as much from his students as they do from him. A teacher who goes into the classroom ready to learn from his or her students has boundless capacity for growth. Jennings worked at a number of private institutions in his early career, learning from his students what level of "outness" they could accept (a lot, it turns out). He spoke up against administration policies which did not prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. He formed early Gay-Straight Alliances, describing the impetus that came directly from both gay and straight students who placed importance on such partnerships.

I highly recommend this book as high school classroom reading. Kevin Jennings has a life story with elements of poverty (classism), sexism, racism, and discrimination based on sexual orientation. These are universal issues, and his personal experiences provide a starting point for dialog about acceptance and the destruction of stereotypes.

This was an enjoyable and informative book to read. The author's approach of telling the story thru Crazy Horse's own perception truly makes the reader feel that s/he gets to know Crazy Horse from the inside-out. The reader gets to feel all the emotions of a boy going through the rites of growing up as well as learning about the Lakota traditions and beliefs. The sensation of "being there" and experiencing first hand the joys and pains of Crazy Horse's early years is clearly experienced by the reader. I could practically see Crazy Horse sitting by the typewriter whispering in Mr. Heisel's ear as he wrote!

I had owned this book for years, without reading it. I have a large Native American book collection. "Crazy Horse, The Boy" is special because of the first person account from his birth to Warrior status among his people. The bond between father and wife, son and mother, son and father,and son and siblings is strongly expressed. The love, respect, and learnings of life are well represented. No one can read this book without immediately thinking of their parents and upbringing. The book makes one assess the process of growing up, learning, sexuality, and the attainment of one's life purpose. The feeling from the story as told by a famous Lakota boy, makes one long for the thrill of visions, facial paint, battles won and lost, love and the responsibility that comes with these acts. The book states that a follow-up account of "Crazy Horse, The Man" was due to be published. I am unable to find it on the web and very dissapointed not to be able to continue the journey that Edward Heisel promised. The book was read at my home in Antwerpen, Belgium, far away from Paha Sapa, but close in Spirit.