Wisconsin Books

In this collection, Susanna Childress reveals so much. I can not get over it. It's evocative and raw, but also down-to-earth, relatable, and inspiring. These passionate pages teem with poems talking about sex, God, love, and the various insecurities that come with being both human and female. As a man, this book has not only opened me up to the female mind, but I think it's helped me understand some things more. It's obvious that, whether or not she is using a narrator, she writes from the heart, and sometimes the heart isn't the healthiest. This is poetry that compels and challenges and makes me, as an aspiring writer, wish I could write like this. If you're a fan of poetry, of wordplay, or of the expression of the human condition, pick this up. You won't regret it.

Also, if you have the chance to here her read, do it. I was lucky enough to, and it was a blessing. She has an innocent charm and hopeful air about her. Take that as you will.

Jessie's Wedding is a suspencful romance that keeps the reader guessing, and wishing until the end. Jessie O'Brien had known Jarrett Collins since they were cildren at her aunt's wedding. They dated throughtout their adolescence and early twenties, until Jarrett left her.

Now Jessie, older and wiser, has overcome the pain of Jarrett leaving and gotten her life on track and in the right direction. Until one day, Jarrett shows up as the new doctor at the hospital she works at. Now seeing him again, Jessie remembers her past and how their life together was. Although she knows better than to let herself fall for Jarrett and open up to him, she soon finds herself doing so. The fear of being hurt once again by him worries her along with the mysteries of his life while he was away from Wisconsin. Jessie lets herself fall in his trap of secret, but can she overcome their past as well as his past and let them start their life togteher again, or will these secrets and memories ruin their chances of being together once more?

Kathryn quick writes a truely touching romance. The romance between Jessie and Jarrett brings hope to any relationship and allows the reader to feel the emotions in Jessie's heart as she lets Jarrett back into her life. I recomend this novel to any romance lover looking from an enjoyable page-turner. The story held you until the very end and kept you wanting more. An excellent novel!

The Jewish Women Of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp by Rochelle G. Saidel (Founder and Director of the Remember the Women Institute in New York and Senior Scientific Research at the Center for the Study of Women and Gender, University of Sao Paulo) is an impressive and seminal contribution to the growing library of Holocaust Studies with its focus upon the fate of Jewish women imprisoned in the infamous Nazi concentration camp of Ravensbruck which was located about 50 miles north of Berlin. Originally designed for 5,000 women, it held six times this number and was the site for the Nazi's methodical program of extermination through slave labor, torture, starvation, shooting, lethal injection, medical experimentation, and gassing. Between 1939 and 1945, some 132, 000 women from twenty- three countries were imprisoned and in addition to the Jews, also included political prisoners, Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, prostitute, lesbians, criminals, and prisoners of war. Only 15,000 women survived by the end of the war (3,000 of them in the camp itself when it was overrun by the Soviet Army on April 30, 1945 -- the rest had been taken to Sweden by the Red Cross, while the remaining women survived a last ditch "death march" by the Nazi's fleeing the advancing Russian troops). Drawing upon interviews and unpublished testimonies from more than sixty survivors in the United States, Israel, Europe, Brazil, and Canada -- as well as documents, oral histories, and historic photography, The Jewish Women Of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp is a memorable and informative compilation of collective and individual portraits of these women and the suffering they endured. Very Highly Recommended.

A documented, detailed history of the slaughter that the First and Second crusades rained upon innocent Jews that had the misfortune to live in their paths.

Collaboratively written by Kevin Bourassa and Joe Varnell, Just Married: Gay Marriage And The Expansion Of Human Rights is an informed and informative analysis of a ground breaking event in culture and society -- the expansion of the concept of matrimony to include same sex couples. When the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto issued marriage licenses to and married two same-sex couples in January of 2001, it offered a revolutionary precedent in human rights and the power of the state to dictate who may and may not marry. Challenges to the same-sex marriage are expected to proceed to the Supreme Court of Canada, and the result could well change human history. An amazing study of political struggles, featuring an inset section of color photographs and a witty eye for detail, Just Married is a solid and eminently readable addition to Gay and Lesbian Studies supplemental reading lists and reference collections.

Although now nearly three decades old, Professor Constance Head's book still strikes an important note. Head professionally lays out an argument seeking the truth behind Justinian II's cruel reputation. I highly recommend her book to anybody who has ever read Turteltaub's (Turtledove's) "Justinian."

Head gives an excellent description of the problem with the primary sources modern historians have on Justinian II's lifetime. Her book goes a long way toward showing Justinian II's constructive side, whereas most other recent authors have concentrated exclusively on branding the emperor as a bloodthirsty pyschopath. Although she tries to portray Justinian more constructively, Head is clear that she is not exonerating Justinian of his mistakes. She simply seeks to point out the historical Justinian II and to explain his life.

This book is a great book if you are a person that really want to no about the Kingdom of Kongo and the civil war this is the book for you to read it is a really good book indeed.

Written by expert limnologist and former director of the Center for Great Lakes Studies Clifford Mortimer, Lake Michigan In Motion: Responses Of An Inland Sea To Weather, Earth-Spin, And Human Activities is a detailed, scholarly, and scientific examination of Lake Michigan. Black-and-white photographs, charts, and diagrams illustrate chapters covering the history of scientific inquiry into Lake Michigan's physicality, water levels and flows, seasonal cycles of heating/cooling and layering/mixing, lake currents, categories and models of waves, models in action, and much more. A background in basic calculus and environmental physics is presumed in this scrutiny of how multiple factors fro glaciers, wind, and weather to human public policy and polition have and continue to influence Lake Michigan. A superb resource for college libraries and Great Lakes Region environmental studies shelves.

This is a key document of early Illinois and Wisconsin history written with flair by an observant and lively woman. The Univesity of Illinois Press edition, 1992, with Nina Baym's introduction. Unabridged trade paperback, 266 pp, reprinting the Derbey Publishing edition of 1856.

Kinzie, married to the only US government Indian Agent in the area, was an erudite easterner who found herself living at Lake Winnebago in what now is Wisconsin. A frequent traveller between Wisconsin and Chicago, she describes the pleasures and hardships of frontier life, the days of Chicago when the civilian population numbered less than 50, relations between Indians and white men, the Sauk War of 1832, the world of fur trading, the slow growth of Chicago towards metropolis, and incorporates several Indian folktales into her narrative.

"An eastern woman, Kinzie was imbured with the comanticism of the frontier, but also had a sharp eye for detail and a fine sense of humor."

Pure poetry and not a word of rhyme. There are sentences in this collection of brief essays that will stop you in your tracks with their beauty and profundity. Mel's writing style is as natural as the natural world of which he writes so fondly. This book is divided into 12 chapters, each one titled for a month of the year. Travel with this great and wise man as he journeys from recollection to remembrance, often personal, always insightful. This is a treasure of a book, and, like love, meant to be shared. Treat yourself, then share with a friend. You all will be glad you did.