Circumcision Books

272Pgs - This is my personal view of this book.

It did not grab my attention at all. At the fourth chapter, I was looking for my receipt. More Women are becoming Soul Searchers today and if you are a Title Seeker like myself meaning (a title of a book can prompt you to purchase) this book will definitely be a lesson well deserved.

This is book could be named, "When A Man Loves a Woman." Bishop really loved Abeni and she loved him back just as hard.

This book is awesome! It will make you laugh and it will make you cry. The characters really come to life in this book--you feel what they feel as you read this wonderful book!

It's been awhile since I've ordered a few books and rather than bore you with the same old rave reviews, I just have a few things to state. The book kept me up until my eyes could not take it anymore; The character Bishop in the book was fascinating. I won't go into details but the fact that it deals with FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) which is going on in certain tribes in Africa paints a picture for me to better understand the culture. Althought I don't agree with it. Pick the book up and you will not be dissappointed.

I just finished reading this book, it was very good. All the characters were great.I liked what it was about, the story really touched my heart and it made me cry. Get this book, you will not be disappointed.

I applaud this book for bringing attention to this topic. The American way is to create problems, then sell you something to solve your problems. Like routine circumcisions, then later in life taking Viagra and other various sexual enhancers. Kudos to Ronald Goldman. It's good to see him pick up the pieces after his daughter's murder.

A very erudite and compassionate work. Having grown up in Europe as a non-Jew, I was stunned to discover the extent of routine circumcision among non-Jews in North America, especially the USA.

The classic movie Europa Europa exemplifies the degree to which European attitudes differ from those in the US. In EE, a young Jewish guy inadvertently ends up in a WWII Hitler Youth group and therefore has to hide the fact of his circumcision to the nth degree - simply because in Europe (even now) only Jewish boys are routinely circumcized.

The main modern argument in favour of circumcision is that there is a lesser chance of one's female partner developing cervical cancer etc. if the foreskin has been removed. Yet, as a man who has been married for more than 20 years, it is quite clear to me that provided proper cleanliness is maintained, the woman is at no more risk than she would be from having intercourse with a circumcized male.

This book is absolutely essential reading. The bottom line, is that unless there are deeply felt religious considerations in your family, FORGET IT! You only need to surf the Men's Movenment groups to see how outraged thousands of men feel about their unthinking abuse at the hands of their unthinking parents and a soulless system that just runs on automatic.

Quite brilliant.

"Just as expected, seventy-two percent of the male students are circumcised. At Clem's party I had been reminded of the promiscuous way in which American doctors circumcise males in childhood, a practice I highly disapprove of...it constitutes, in [an] advertiser's phrase, 'a rape of the penis'. Until the forties, only the upper or educated classes were circumcised in America. The REAL people were spared this humiliation. But during the affluent postwar years the operation became standard procedure, making money for doctors as well as allowing the American mother to mutilate her son in order that he might never forget her early power over him..."

Gore Vidal
MYRA BRECKINRIDGE

If there was ever an issue that metaphorically encapsulates the Achilles heel of Western society, it turns out that this may be it, above all others. The title of this incredible, clearly thought out, brilliantly edited and masterfully written book may lead you to believe that it is all about a seemingly benign issue. Make no mistake: what this book is actually about are

1) the actual definition of the surgical practice and

2) the social, economic, sociological, psychological and anthropological forces that go into us seeing it as other than what it is.

Dr. Goldman effectively teaches in this book, from the anthropological perspectives of such luminaries as Ashley Montagu and Margaret Mead, that circumcision is a practice that is older than all recorded history and religions. (The practice was actually regimented and ritualized by the Egyptian priests and pharohs, millenia before the advent of Judaism.) Yet the practice, in and out of a religious context, continues. Dr. Goldman shows us from the purely medical/health/surgical perspective (with an avalanche of evidence and corroborative opinions in the medical profession) that circumcision is a practice that has little to no medical health value, and was once actually called a cure for masturbation and cancer by last century's medical community. Yet the implausible and unscientific theories justifying its existence keep coming up, and the practice continues. Dr. Goldman shows us, amazingly, from an internationally sociological and cultural perspective, that the United States is the only industrialized nation in the modern world that has the overwhelming majority of its infant boys be subjected to the practice. Yet the practice continues. Dr. Goldman shows us, from an ethics in medicine perspective, that circumcision is a practice that, by virtue of the harm done to infant children physically and psychologically--with little to no up side beyond the money going to obstetricians and pediatricians for the procedure--completely rips to shreds any conception of the Hippocratic oath and turns the entire life of any doctor who performs them routinely into a profoundly dangerous lie.

Yet, the practice continues.

It is an old anthropologist's dictum that the most important thing to know about a culture is what it takes for granted. Dr. Ronald Goldman, with CIRCUMCISION, THE HIDDEN TRAUMA gives us not only the hidden, true anatomy of the surgical process, along with the actual complete and (heretofore to my knowledge in everyday America) unknown anatomy of the human male, but also the secret architecture of the social forces and weaknesses that make up the ritualised American denial of the inherently violent nature of its existence. Dr. Goldman shows in this both innovatively and exhaustively researched book that the entire surgical procedure of circumcision depends on the total invalidation of the soul of the infant male child and their personhood for its existence in medicine. Only paleolithic theories of the child feeling no pain and suffering no lasting or remembered traumatic side effects from the procedure--WHICH ROUTINELY INVOLVES THE USE OF NO ANESTHESIA--justify its medical practice; and fly in the face of all kinds of logic while doing so.

I along with most of the country have never seen actual pictures of or witnessed a circumcision; part of the reason I saw no problem with it when I picked this book up. The *pictures* in this book alone of children in the process of being circumcised, however, will change your way of looking at the practice forever--as it has changed me and mine forever. Picture an adult male going through the process of circumcision, complete with his hands, arms and legs forceably bound in industrial strength velcro to keep him from being able to interrupt a surgical process performed on his perfectly healthy sex organ against his will--again, *without anesthesia*--and the first thought that will probably come to your mind is one of two things: the electric chair, or Nazi Germany.

Which by definition takes away the mystery of how BOTH in the 20th century could have come into existence.

I discovered Dr. Goldman's work in the bibliography of one of the seminal books by the psychologist champion of the human child Alice Miller (author of, among other classics in the field, FOR YOUR OWN GOOD, BANISHED KNOWLEDGE and PRISONERS OF CHILDHOOD--THE DRAMA OF THE GIFTED CHILD). Between this, Alice Miller's work, and William Dufty's SUGAR BLUES, I feel as if I have the answer to why our culture can move so far forward and fall so far backward on the evolutionary ladder at the same time. The door separating Western culture from the embrace of higher consciousness, as told to us by poets, mystics,yogis, leaders of ancient religions, transpersonal psychologists and theoretical physicist/philosophers, is our view of the spiritual and physical completeness of the human child--and the actions we take upholding that view.

That door is locked with a dead bolt called CIRCUMCISION. And even unlocking the door, as Europe has already shown us, does not by definition mean opening it. But without unlocking it opening it isn't posible.

Read this if you have to in small doses, but read it; it will change the way you view our world.

Because this unique book exposes significant issues about male circumcision that medical professionals and religious practitioners have long tried to ignore, I cannot recommend it highly enough, not only for the victims of this questionable medical procedure and religious rite, but also for the perpetrators and potential perpetrators of a primitive cultural tradition that causes great harm in our society. As a victim of neonatal genital mutilation myself, I have spent much of my life trying to come to terms with both the physical and psychological trauma involved, in part, by surveying the relevant literature on the topic. However, while I have found many books and articles that deal unapologetically with the physical trauma involved in both male and female genital cutting, as well as the psychological trauma that accompanies female circumcision, this book is, to my knowledge, the first and only published resource that delves into the psychological trauma to which males are subjected through this bizarre procedure. In his well-written study and analysis of the psychological aspects of male circumcision, Dr. Goldman, who is himself Jewish, indeed uncovers the hidden trauma that medical professionals and religious practitioners have so long denied, and he gives voice to those many victims of male circumcision whose post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms have been dismissed by those same professionals and practitioners for whom questioning the wisdom and safety of an age-old ritual would be self-indicting. In this country, the practice of female circumcision has been outlawed because, as a tradition foreign to our Judeo-Christian heritage, its harmful results are deemed self-evident. Unfortunately, many more psychological studies and academic publications confirming Dr. Goldman's findings will probably be necessary before the harmful results of male circumcision are finally accepted similarly as self-evident, and American males are given the same legal rights to genital integrity now granted to females through the U.S. legal system. Nonetheless, Dr. Goldman's book is a significant first step in providing a clear rationale for granting men equal protection under the law.

I just want to read a book that is fair about circumcision. Unfortunately, they don't exist. All books are either extremely for or against. This one is no different.

More than anything else, this book makes a great conversation starter to bring up the often-taboo subject of infant circumcision, more aptly called Male Genital Mutilation. It's a colorful and lighthearted look at one man's very real desire to have his normal, healthy, and functional prepuce back where it belongs--on his body.

This is a great book. Everyone should read it. The barbaric crime that is circumcision must end. Carl does a great job of expressing his feelings in a non-threatening way that may get the message across.

Three cheers for a great book!

How many times have you read the words "delightfully funny" and it actually be true? This is it. "I Want My Foreskin for Giftmas" light-heartedly critizes forced circumcision. It's an issue felt by many men but who have said nothing about it.

On a warm May morning in 1948 an unknown doctor assaulted my infant body and mutilated my penis. I have been angry about it every day since! Thanks to Carl Schutt my anger has found its voice. In "I Want My Foreskin For Giftmas," Schutt tackles a very adult topic from the perspective of a little boy who has been robbed of his birthright. That little boy was Schutt, but he also was me and millions of others like us. We were defenseless against doctors too eager to perform unnecessary surgery and parents too ignorant to stop them! This book is creative, funny, and irreverent. It is a great read for everyone and a primer for all parents thinking of taking from their sons what no boy should be forced to give away. Bravos for Schutt!

This offbeat book bursts with color, imagination, raw emotion, wit, and an idealism that challenges the reader to pause and ask, "What if we've been doing it wrong all along?"

The artist and author, Carl Schutt, combines art, craft, and folk art to create a book full of humor and social commentary about why we (Americans) insist on a surgical procedure that most pediatricians agree is painful and wholly unnecessary, i.e. circumcision.

The author creates a tone that is at one moment analytically irreverent about the outmoded Judeo-Christian holdover and in the next moment cloaks himself by assuming the voice of a forlorn, foreskinless child who wonders what it would be like to be whole again. The book's searching and fearless inspection brings into the fray parents, God, and yes...even Santa! No stone is unturned.

The author/artist is an iconoclast who finds a way to smartly broach a subject that could stand to be reexamined even though it remains, for the most part, unchallenged. Who can think of a topic so taboo that its first mention at a party full of urban hipsters would result in a choking halt in conversation?

Implicitly under attack is that uptight male machismo that says, "I'm cut and there's nothing wrong with me!" Well, what if instead of there being "nothing wrong" we could all strive for an ideal and, well, be intact and unmodified? Carl Schutt exclaims that circumcision is the male body image crisis equivalent to that of a middle-aged Orange County woman retooled by countless touches of the plastic surgeon's knife; and yet it's a body image crisis that our culture artificially creates, propagates, and hoists upon boys who are only days old. What if this should be changed? What if this could be changed? It's this sort of idealism and visionary spirit that makes this creation refreshing.

Visually the book appears to have been constructed from a million shavings of felt, paper, cardboard, and other banal materials; these common media are brought together by a hand fraught with an almost maniacal need for precision, energy, and speed.

"Foreskin for Giftmas" is the ultimate gift for enlightened parents-to-be, for people who are initiates in the "zine" culture, or anyone who appreciates a clever creation like this that pushes the edge of human understanding.

I highly recommend this book! I can't wait for the author to write another one! I connected with the characters and I was so sad when I was done reading it because I wanted there to be more!

I too was given this book to read by a friend. The topic of female circumcision scared me and so I wasn't anxious to start reading, thinking the book would be filled with hate and negativity. BUT, from the moment I began to read, I was lost in another world. The characters are engaging, the plot moves well, and the discovery of mysteries of another culture captivated me. The author will evoke your compassion and concern with her story. This is well written and I highly recommend the book.

I read this book because my girlfriend praised it and wanted to discuss it. (I thought "Oh boy, feminist literature !!!".(I'm a Fitzgerald/Salinger/Hemingway enthusiast)
I was happily surprised and relieved to find it a novel in the style of the classics.
The story moves well, and the characters are compelling.
This novel is a must read for academics in the fields of Sociology, Political Science, Religious Study, Anthropology, etc... It is a surprising expose' on Muslim traditions in many 3rd and even 2nd world regions !!!
Quite timely and eye opening, with a triumphant resolution.
I rated it a 5.

This touching and compelling book is so much more than I expected. Reading the back cover, I would never have guessed at how sensitively and successfully the heroine's story would be told. You will be captivated by her dilema. This well researched subject makes Amina's dilema understandable to our western minds because it is put in the context of a girl indoctrinated in a culture that teaches her that she is "property," in a relationship, not a partner. Thus, her ability to develop independent thought and to weigh the consequences of liberated thought and action, make her plight all the more dramatic. Needless to say, I recommend this book!

A fascinating tale that rings of authenticity, relevance, and urgency. This is fiction based on real life cruelty, ignorance,
and tradition. I was hooked from the first sentence even though I am a male septuagenarian.

If this book has a fault, it is its sustained, even tone. Glick answers the Orthodox with rabbinical wisdom and the Reform with humane logic, chides feminists for failing to address the rampant sexism of cutting only male babies and answers medical arguments with epidemiological statistics. Like everyone else (myself included), he tiptoes around the extraordinary practice of metzitzah (sucking the blood from the baby's wounded penis) that would be called by a grosser name if anyone else did it.

He makes no pretense of being even-handed, as so many committee-generated policy statements and encyclopaedia entries do - which merely serves to conceal their bias - and his openness strengthens his case, because in fact he is more balanced than many. As a medically-trained Jewish anthropologist who has performed circumcision, Glick is excellently placed to condemn the practice, and he does so with a moderation that is more effective than any intemperate attack would be.

His analysis of the extraordinary change in Jewish and medical attitudes towards circumcision in the US in the late 19th century, when Jews medicalised the ritual, and doctors, to prevent the supposed medical consequences of masturbation, adopted and promoted the most extreme Jewish form (but without metzitzah), by the mid-20th century doing it without asking, is excellent, and his treatment of Jewish doctors' role in the medicalisation is sensitive. Glick is no conspiracy theorist, nor "self-hating".

He is especially good at pointing out what supporters of circumcision leave out (such as that "Mohel to the Stars" Fred R. Kogen makes no mention of Abraham's covenant in the instructions for his lavishly catered cutting parties), and at finding the subtext in peripheral material, such as the sustained unease and disquiet surrounding reference to circumcision in TV sitcoms such as "Seinfeld" and "Sex and the City".

The only shortcoming is inevitable: the campaign to circumcise male babies - currently, to protect them against HIV/AIDS decades hence - has moved on apace since "Marked in Your Flesh" was published, and new studies have come out, with new flaws which Glick was not in time to address.

Anyone, Jewish or gentile, who anticipates having children in the US in the foreseeable future (unless they have already decided to leave their sons intact) should read this book.

Leonard Glick is in a unique position to comment on circumcision. A knowledgeable Jew who was both a practicing medical doctor and professor of cultural anthropology, he puts both his MD and PhD to remarkable use in this very scholarly, engaging book. Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America is an historical and social tour-de-force that traces this arcane blood ritual from its origins at the dawn of Judaism to its current position in American medical malpractice. This book is a must read for anyone who thinks circumcision is necessary for Jewish identity; for any medical student or doctor who thinks circumcising infant males is good, ethical medical practice; for any parent contemplating the amputation of his or her baby's natural genital arrangement; or for anyone curious to know how circumcision came to be and why it shouldn't be.

January 12, 1992, I paid a visit to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva, where I met Dr. Leila Mehra. I was then preparing a paper, which I developed in a book in Arabic, French and English on male and female circumcision. I asked her: "Why the WHO is concerned only with female circumcision and doesn't consider male circumcision?" She responded: "Male circumcision is mentioned in the Bible. Do you want to create problems for us with the Jews?" The same day, I met Mrs. Berhane Ras-Work, president of the Inter-African committee in her office in Geneva. Strangely enough, she gave me the same answer, illustrating that the two of them undoubtedly consulted each other before meeting with me.

While I am reading this book, UNICEF Switzerland is waging an intensive and aggressive campaign against female excision. UNICEF, as other international and region organisations, refuses to use the term circumcision, because it may produce confusion with male circumcision. Not one single word is said about male circumcision. UNICEF never produced any document on male circumcision, and always refused to open the debate about this subject. Maybe for the same reasons invoked by Leila Mehra and Berhane Ras-Work: "Male circumcision is mentioned in the Bible. Do you want to create problems for us with the Jews?" It is absolutely sure that if UNICEF begins a campaign against male circumcision similar to its campaign against female circumcision, it will be labelled anti-Semitic and many governments will stop financing it. Because of money and fear, UNICEF is violating its mission to protect the children, all the children, regardless of their religion or gender. The same can be said of the United Nations Organization (UNO), which developed many activities and issued many resolutions against female circumcision but refused to take any position against male circumcision, as it has been requested by activists struggling against this practice. Let us remember here a fact that the great majority of people, even intellectuals, ignore: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the rights of the child and other important international texts don't mention the right to physical integrity, most probably to avoid interpreting it as a condemnation of male circumcision.

Leonard B. Glick's book will not be bought or consulted by UNICEF, WHO or UNO, for two reasons: it does not speak about female circumcision and it is opposed to male circumcision. There are two ways to oppose this practice: pamphlet style or a large documented book covering the subject from different point of view: religion, medicine, sociology, law, art, etc. Such a book may necessitate several hundred pages which people will not read, and which may be consulted by some specialists and sleep on dusty shelves of the libraries. The book of Leonard B. Glick is between the two options. The text itself covers 279 pages, followed with 51 pages of footnotes, 25 pages of bibliography and an index of 10 pages.

The book is very well documented, pleasantly written and the subject is presented logically and coherently. It is certainly the result of a passionate and patient investigation through the amount of the quoted documents. And without passion and a feeling to fulfil a mission, one cannot write such a book. In the preface, the author explains what his relation with male circumcision was and how his position changed from indifference to opposition after having circumcised his three sons, act he regrets: "Had I known at their births what I know now, they would never have been circumcised" (p. VIII). Here is the recommendation of the author to his readers: begin reading about circumcision before doing it. He offers them what he learned through his researches as an anthropologist and physician. The last paragraph of the book reads: "I've tried to summarize in these few pages the wealth of information that convinced me that male infant circumcision is medically unnecessary, harmful to normal sexuality, and ethically unjustifiable. When all is said and done, I believe we face a single inescapable question: Are we now prepared to accept the principle that, from the moment of birth, every child has all the human rights of any other person - including the inviolable right to freedom from nonconsensual, nontherapeutic bodily alternation?"

The prologue of the book offers another personal experience that transformed Marilyn Fayre Milos into a major activist against male circumcision. She also circumcised her three sons, but was shocked by what she saw in the hospital as a nurse. Her opposition to male circumcision was the reason for which the hospital dismissed her for insubordination. Then she founded NOCIRC, an international organisation struggling against male (and female) circumcision worldwide. The book itself is dedicated to her.

These two personal experiences lead the author to investigate the religious reasons behind male circumcision in the Jewish community. He presents in the first chapter the basic texts of the Jewish faith relating to this practice (Old Testament, Mishnah, Talmud, Midrash, etc.). Then in chapter 2 he explains what was the position of Jesus' apostles who were circumcised but had the mission to evangelise pagans (Gentiles) opposed to this practice. Pagans did not appreciate circumcision but tolerated it as long as it was practiced by Jews on themselves. They did nothing to eradicate it. The main opposition to male circumcision came from inside the Jewish people, through Apostle Paul, a highly educated Jew. From persecutor of the new faith, he became its major propagator, offering the religious arguments against male circumcision, which were used by the Fathers of the Church and major Christian theologians. Chapter 4 shows how Jewish intellectuals and physicians, mainly in German-speaking countries, but also in Italy and France, began opposing circumcision in the nineteenth century, despite the fierce opposition of the rabbis and conservative Jews. Chapters 5 to 7 explain how suddenly the Christian Western physicians rehabilitated circumcision for medical reasons, giving new arguments to Jewish physicians who helped in spreading this practice, mainly in the Anglo-Saxon countries. Nevertheless, male circumcision continues to question the Jewish community, as indicated in chapters 8 and 9.

These are some of the elements developed in this book. One thing more is to be mentioned. The author of this book is a Jewish scholar. To tackle male circumcision among Jews, only Jews have the full capacity to do it. A non-Jewish author will not be taken seriously by Jews if he opposes male circumcision, and may be labelled anti-Semitic. Despite the small number of the Jews and the fact that they represent the minority among circumcised people (compared to one billion Muslims and the large percentage of Americans who are circumcised), male circumcision cannot be abolished among Muslims and Christians if it is not first abolished among Jews. Both Christians and Muslims rely on Jewish religious arguments, and as long as Jews consider male circumcision as part of their religion, it would be difficult to oppose it, either on the international or on the national level. Non-Jewish activists opposed to circumcision in the USA agree that they should avoid criticizing the Jewish circumcision, leaving it to Jewish scholars. The same with Muslim male circumcision which should be left to Muslim scholars. This is not the case with female circumcision, mainly African custom. Western intellectuals, activists and politicians do not hesitate to attack the Africans without any restraint or respect for their feelings, probably to show their "moral" superiority. Instead of attacking female circumcision, they should first clean their own house by abolishing male circumcision. They forget one important principle: without abolishing male circumcision, it is impossible to abolish female circumcision. This book is a step in this direction and, for this reason, the author should be congratulated for his courage in writing on this highly sensitive subject.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to
Sami Aldeeb
[...]

This is excelent book which offers a current scholarly review of the history of circumcision thru the ages. Any parent considering an elective surgery for newborn just hours to days after birth must first read this.

Finally a concise history of a procedure that should have died out in the bronze age.. revealing it to be a procedure surrounded by superstition, illogic, and twisted menatl gynastics.

The author has handled the subject in an even-handed fashion and still shown the absurdity of this procedure and the excuses, both religious and medical still being used to try to justify that which is not justifiable,

The horrors of female circumcision - something long since banned in the Western world, it is still practiced in many African Countries. "Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival" is author and feminist Fadumo Korn's story of nearly dying to the barbaric practice and her rise to becoming a spokesman against the practice. A harsh and much needed criticism against the atrocity of female genital mutilation, "Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival" has the highest recommendation to community library women's studies collections as a bastion against this cruelty that far too many young girls in the world have been exposed to.

The first portion of this book follows the young nomad Fadumo as she travels and wanders with her family in Somalia. The descriptive writing of Somalia and the scenes laid before the reader are simply breathtaking.
Then we follow the young girl as she undergoes FGM (female genital mutilation), becomes ill and travels to Germany for medical treatment. Eventually she marries and becomes a fighter against FGM.
A must-read for those wanting to see a woman's life in Africa and how FGM affects the young woman's life.
It is also an interesting read about the choices she takes in her life and the other women in her family who remain subservient and stuck.
Although how much of this is determined by her father who let her live with one uncle who was very giving and caring ---while her sister Khadija ended up with another uncle who was abusive and cruel.
In closing, this book is a quick read and you won't be disappointed.

This book is very well written. It makes the reader aware of female circumcision and the problems associated with it.

Excellent - very enlightening to a women's crisis and so well written.

Can you imagine being born into a Somalian nomad family, and then, because of illness and the luck
of the tribe, being transported first, to a life of relative luxury, in the capitol city and ultimately to
Germany? The transition from one distinct culture to another in Europe reminds all of us of the need
to respect those aspects of traditions which bind people together and try to alter, as humanely as possible,
those traditional practices that do injury, particularly to women. This is a wonderful, courageous story.

All the books in Betty Webb's Desert series featuring PI Lena Jones have been very good. They are tied together by the mystery of Jones' background and her developing personal relationships, while each has an individual theme in the mystery Jones is focused on solving.

This one has a theme that is not for the squeamish. That does not make it less important as a social issue.

If the series has any drawback, it would lie in the often thinly veiled hostility towards government-employed law enforcement personnel.

I just finished Dessert Cut by Betty Webb it's her fifth Lena Jones Mystery - Lena is a Scottsdale Az. PI who has survived a gunshot to the head when she was a small girl and raised in the "system". This foray involved female genitalia mutilation, which used to be common in the Middle East (which I didn't know), and her fight to solve a little girls murder. If you haven't read her it will be worth your while to do so, she takes on a lot of today's socially conscious issues.

Reviewed by Anita D. McClellan for Reader Views (10/07)

The fifth Lena Jones Mystery finds ex-cop and PI Lena scouting Arizona's Mexican border for Geronimo's 19th-century battle sites with LA-LA-Land film director Warren Quinn, her problematic and erstwhile lover, and leads Lena to discovery of the mutilated corpse of an unidentified girl between ages 5 and 7, nicknamed Precious Doe by the Cochise County medical examiner. Lena, who takes all instances of abused children personally, stumbles right into the local population of H-visa'ed, upper-middle class, foreign-born parents and their US-born and -raised daughters with a foot in two cultures.

A teen runaway's sheltering of a youngster from Old World and New World sect-driven practices helps to drive a deadly social, hierarchal rite deeply underground, pits daughters against parents, descendents of pioneers who fought the Apache Wars against immigrant plant managers, and makes strange bedfellows of an Anglo Christian women's sect and Middle Eastern and African parents determined to manage "their" women and girls as they see fit. The bodies of children pile up in Los Perdidos while Lena becomes obsessed with finding out what is going on in the wilderness desert country in spite of vigilante justice and the local sheriff, who has no clue what he and the community are dealing with but knows all about what makes Lena so determined to learn the truth. The Author's Note and Appendixes of "Desert Cut" make this novel's subject something no reader will forget and on which none can claim ignorance.

As the product of nine abusive foster homes who was found amnesic at age four on a Phoenix street severely disfigured from a shooting, Lena Jones is perennially seeking information about her parents and her abandonment's circumstances. Her Pima Indian, computer-geek partner, Jimmy Sisiwan, also orphaned as a child but adopted and raised by white parents, has his own obsessions and vulnerabilities, which make them ideal business partners and confidantes. Pieces of Lena's past emerge as the series unfolds. In the second book, she learns something about her mother; in the third, she learns about her father; in the fourth, she figures out why she is so drawn to certain kinds of cases.

"Desert Noir" (2001) launched the Lena Jones series, juxtaposing Scottsdale's up-market art scene with barrios, Indian lands and casinos, tourist traps. That heady brew of damaged and courageous PI, the Southwest's multi-tiered cultures, and breath-taking desert backdrop took a seat right away next to Nevada Barr's and Tony Hillerman's series. Ten percent of Webb's debut novel proceeds were donated to Lura Turner Homes, a Phoenix residence for brain-damaged adults and children and teens with Down's Syndrome which signaled exactly what sets Betty Webb's novels apart: crime fiction with a social conscience. Lena Jones Mysteries are based on stories the author covered as a journalist and are set against the backdrop of Arizona's landmark-strewn "Grand Canyon State" and its social underbelly. Today Webb writes the Independent Press book-review column for Mystery Scene, teaches writing at Phoenix College, and lives in Scottsdale, AZ.

"Desert Wives" (2003), exhaustingly researched by the author and vetted for accuracy by now-Governor Janet Napolitano, hones in on modern-day polygamy in the Arizona Strip wilderness bordering Utah and AZ. Reader beware: Nothing to do with the starry-eyed depiction of polygamy in the HBO series "Big Love." Publication of "Desert Wives " coincided with media awareness of polygamist Tom Green's trial during the 2002 Utah Winter Olympics. The novel has since become a course adoption title for Women's Studies classes, played a role in the FBI pursuit of recently convicted polygamist sect leader and Most Wanted Warren Jeffs of St. George, Utah, and helped change Arizona's laws on polygamy. "Desert Shadows" (2004) focuses on foster children, hate groups, the book-publishing industry and Lena's anger management therapy. "Desert Run" (2006), centers on the fictional murder of a real-life escapee survivor of a 1944 German POW camp in Arizona. This book introduces LA filmmaker Warren Quinn as a love interest and the volatile mixture of native and foreign cultures and races alongside a little-known World War II footnote set in Arizona's Superstition Mountains.

The imaginative mixture of history, geography, demographics, topical themes, solid research, Lena's efforts to achieve intimacy, and plot twists make all Lena Jones mysteries memorable in more ways than one.

"I'm not a nice girl," Lena Jones declares on the first page of the first book (Desert Wives) in this outstanding mystery series by Betty Webb, built around controversial darkside themes. By the time Desert Cut, Lena's fifth dilemma comes along, she still isn't. And it's a good thing.

Lena is a been-there woman. She needs all the experience she has as an ex-cop and now Scottsdale PI. One perfect morning she and her colleague/companion Warren Quinn are enjoying a pleasant ride across the Arizona desert when they make a stunning and horrifying discovery--the body of a girl-child. Is she the victim of an illegal border crossing gone wrong, or more, or worse?

Once again former investigative reporter Betty Webb shows her skills in spinning a fascinating story around a tough topic.

Webb is a fine place-writer. Her descriptions of the desert landscape and the people shaped by it alone recommend the book. But the culture is changing. There are more than the relationships between the Native American, the Anglos and the Hispanics. There is yet another wave of newcomers as burgeoning job opportunities attract workers from halfway around the world.

Herein lays the conflict. For the lovely child, the dead girl, was not abandoned after an accidental death, but is the victim of a brutal and unspeakable crime. So unspeakable that local sheriff refuses to give Lena the cause of death--for a time. Lena is persistent not only in gaining that knowledge but in pursuing the truth until all is understood. In the process, Lena learns more about herself and discovers more about her own tangled background.

The book is not all heavy going. There are flashes of the glitzy world of Beverly Hills when Lena flies over to her consulting job on a television Western, and as we learn of Warren's day job as an Oscar-winning Hollywood director. Plenty of humor sparks out as well.

Still, Webb reveals, as is sometimes best done in fiction, some eye-opening facts about this nameless crime. And she names it--female genital mutilation or amputation. Terrifying yes, but something every person needs to know of and understand in our changing culture.

Webb ends the book with two appendices (one with explicit language) and a bibliography on the subject. She's serious about this.

I recommend this book, both for the quality of the story and for the essential and painful information, but the reader should not pick it up unaware.

by Patricia Nordyke Pando
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Scottsdale PI Lena Jones, in four previous appearances, has tackled some different and interesting and controversial topics, ranging from polygamy, the homeless and a former WWII German POW camp. In this latest novel, she uncovers horrific subject one knows about in Africa and the Middle East, but hardly comes to mind in the United States.

While horseback riding with her boyfriend scouting a film location in the Arizona desert, Lena finds the body of a seven-year-old girl. It turns out there are other young girls either missing or dead from a nearby town. Many of the inhabitants work for a chemical factory there, and are African or Middle Eastern immigrants. Lena can't get the thought of the little girl she found in a shallow grave from her mind, and starts her own investigation. Eventually, she ties together a common thread for all the dead and missing young girls, and a horrific one it is.

As in the previous books in the series, the plot is meticulously researched, with an outstanding bibliography, carefully written and documented, and the writing and story substantial. While constructed as a mystery, the novel is truly more important than the genre.


Highly recommended.

This is a wonderful book by a courageous woman about a terrible sex crime committed against her when she was a child, and against many millions of others. She has come through the shock of the discovery of this sex crime with greater understanding and compassion for all of us, for we live in a country - the only one in the whole world - where the medical profession still today mutilates the healthy sex organs of the majority of male babies. Many ignorant people in this clueless, brainwashed, genitally mutilating culture believe that female genital mutilation - what "they" do over there - is an horrific sex crime, but that male genital mutilation - what "we" do here - is the best thing since sliced sex organs. Ms. Robinette suffers from no such delusional sexist hypocrisy. She knows that what sex the child happens to have been born is 100% irrelevant. What counts is whether the adults caring for the child know enough to respect the child's healthy sex organs and keep them fully intact. Sometimes this feat requires a fight, but as this book makes abundantly clear, it's a fight worth winning. Congratulations and thanks to Ms. Robinette. Her capacity to deal truthfully, compassionately, and productively with the permanently mutilative sex crime committed against her and millions of others is an inspiration.

This important, well written book reads like a crime novel. It is highly entertaining and gets scary, especially where Ms. Robinett describes the crime scene- I skipped that part first time through. Shocking that FGM was taking place so recently in the civilized" world, even more shocking that Male Genital Mutilation continues today. I recommend this book, it is an eye-opener.

Patricia tells her story honestly and truthfully, and having read it, I feel like I know her.
Patricia, you should be commended for the work you have done to end MGM and FGM. I hope that your book brings us a step closer to accomplishing this goal.

The Rape of Innocence is a very personal and moving true story. Patricia shares her deepest feelings with the reader. In addition to personal experience there is a wealth of insights and information. For example, one US insurance company was paying for removal of clitorises until 1977.

Such an honest look at the almost taboo topic of circumcision is recommended for anyone who has experienced it or who knows anyone who has and doubly so for prospective parents.

Here in America, for the past 100 years, there's been an on-going mutalation practice which was not talked about and was accepted without question. At last author Patricia Robinett has exposed this cruel and barbaric practice.

Herself, a victum, she has researched circumcision relentlessly in an effort better understand her own feelings and condition.

Robinett asks, "Why do men want women who don't want them? Why do men not want women who do want them? Why do men like women who ignore them, who treat them badly? Why do they resent the ones they have, who treat them well? And further she wonders, "Why do many men seem to be uncomfortable with affection unless it involves sex? Why are they reluctant to be friends with women unless there's the promise of sex?

She has found the answers and thoroughly discusses her findings in this very revealing text. At last the truth behind both male and female crcumcision is brought out in the open. This is a book that every parent should and must read.

As the mother of an intact 3-year old, I am shocked and saddened that so far all his playmates were circed. When I dare to ask their moms why, they say things like, "So he'll look like his father. Because its hygenic. It looks better. So he won't have to go through it later."

These women clearly were not given the facts by their doctors. If only they had read this book. I don't see how anyone could allow their child to be circed after reading this comprehensive, referenced, and easy-to-read book.

If you are pregnant, you need to read this book. If you know someone who is pregnant, you need to give them a copy. If you are a medical professional, you need to read this yourself and recommend it to your pregnant patients. If you are an OB, you need to put copies of this book in your waiting room. If you are Oprah, you need to invite Dr. Fleiss on your show and possibly, in one hour, change the fate of millions of unborn baby boys.

Dr. Fleiss has done an incredible service in writing and publishing this book. We Americans need to stop circing our boys, and this book can help accelerate the turning of the tide.

This book provides solid data with plenty of sources about the dangers and misunderstanding surrounding circumcision. The author writes in a way that is poignant, yet easy to understand, and addresses common questions such as "Is there any good reason to circumcise?" "Does circumcision prevent AIDS?" and "Isn't circumcising healthier?"

I have probably read every book on the subject of male infant circumcision. So, in Fleiss' and Hodges' book I was expecting a repeat of the usual information. I am delighted to say I was wrong; and, I learned a lot, too.

This book presents the truth about non-therapeutic circumcision in a straight forward and easy to read fashion. Whether you are a parent questioning circumcision, a survivor wanting to know more about your body, or a human rights activist needing a solid background of information, I highly recommend this book. It has become the first book I suggest people read on the subject. Dan Bollinger, Executive Director, International Coalition for Genital Integrity www.icgi.org

All children -- boys and girls alike -- deserve to keep their genitalia the way nature intended. I have the utmost respect and praise for Dr. Fleiss and this book. He clearly outlines the history and hysteria behind this unnecessary, painful surgery, and details the numerous reasons to leave your sons whole, intact, and uncircumcised. We've all heard the "myths" of why circumcision should be performed; now it is time to hear the truth of why it shouldn't. If you only read one book while pregnant, this should be it.

This book is the most comprehensive and up-to-date source for information on the facts surrounding male infant circumcision. It explains in clear language the harm done to the circumcised individual and dispels the myths still surrounding this outdated ritual. Written by a Jewish doctor and a medical historian, it even serves to dispel the myth that circumcision is a covenant with God for the Jewish people. This book is a major step in the eventual outlawing of this barbaric torture performed in the USA on over a million of our newborns each year. This book should be required reading for every expectant parent, doctor, medical school student and health care professional.

I have read this book to my almost 3 year old daughter about 3 times now. Although it is a little bit 'old' for her (really only a little) it DOES open a lot of questions and dialogue about the soon to be arrival of her new baby brother and his Brit. Its nice because it lets her know how important she is and that she too had a party (a simchat Bat) when she was born. It is a little bit 'Jewish' with some typical stereotypes but overall is a great find.
Im a psychologist and definately recommend this book to help your little girl get prepared.

Outstanding children's book from which even an older brother (of the author) could learn. Was hoping for a pop-up book. Would highly recommend for readers of all ages. Best book all year. Waiting for sequel.

P.S. Mom didn't make me say this.

Baby's Bris is original in it's choice of topic, yet universal in it's appeal. People of all faiths can relate to the themes of faith, family and heritage portrayed so warmly in this book. Baby's Bris makes a great baby gift!

Susan Wilkowski in Baby's Bris has written a warm story withsensitivity, intelligence and humor. Her characters are so real theyare palpable. She has a wonderful ear for dialogue and has captured the authentic tone of a Jewish family so well that I hear their voices in my head. She has an ambitious goal; to portray the Jewish family at the time of a Bris and its special joy and the cultural tradition that Jews all over the world observe and the continuity of their people and their faith. There are no other books to my knowledge, on the market today that handle this issue and I urge all to run to their computer and order one immediately. The artwork also embraces the delicacy and joy of this sensitive subject. I also write and teach writing and when one writer praises another writer, it is indeed great praise. Muriel H. W. from Long Island.

Mrs. Wilkowski wrote a sensitive picture book for children relating a baby's bris. She does it brilliantly through the eyes of a young girl who is unaware of the significance of the event to come, and wondering what all the fuss is about. The story begins on the birth of "Baby"--not yet named--and goes on to reveal the happenings in big sister Sophie's household on the eight days that follow. While Nana, Grandpa and Auntie Luba get busy with the preparations for the big family gathering, Sophie comes to know the meaning of the Jewish ceremony and feels closer than ever to her loved ones.

This book is an excellent tool for all parents to help youngsters understand an important Jewish ritual in the context of a warm and delightful story. I highly recommend it!

A writing teacher from New York