Social Studies Books

I teach 4-K and used this book as part of a take home bag on being Thankful. So far all the responses from the families have been great!

Great book. Most of Hallinan's books are. How Do I Love You is his best.

This book is good. More for 5 year olds and up, I would think. I do have to explain a lot to my 4 and 2 1/2 year old what the words mean. But still, this is a nice book. Loving and fun! Pictures are bright and cheery!

This book is wonderful. My daughter and I read it every night at bedtime, and I never get tired of it. Now, I am on a mission to collect ALL of PK Hallinan's books. I think they all have a great message, they are well written, have beautiful pictures and are just all around the best kids' books I have encountered. Definitely a must have for all toddler moms-- and moms with young kids!

This is one of my favorite books to read to my son (almost 3 yrs. old). I love how the author reminds us to be thankful for the things that are easy to overlook, like the power of the mind or the look of an autumn day. It's helped everyone in our house to stop and be thankful for even the little things in our lives.

The book is call "IN SWEET COMPANY" by Margaret Wolff. She talks to women about Spiritual Life and More. There were two things in this book that really touch me. The first one can be found on page 201 the talk was with Rabbi Laura Geller she said "Though I'm now happily married, I'm divorced from the father of my children. We share joint custody and work very cooperatively as co-parents but the children spend a lot of time with their father in his home, I missed out on the parts of their lives that occurred when they were with him. It's the one aspect of my life I feel sad about." Wow I thought to myself she hit what I feel with my own children. I am a single parent and every time my children go off with their father and his new family I feel that pain she talk about and this has help me to understand even more about myself. The second person who said something that touch me was on page 232-233 by Sri Daya Mata, "Men and women are meant to be helpmates, working together as divine friends, as companions, to help each other become more balanced within themselves. This is part of the divine purpose of marriage, of every relationship between man and women. Neither should try to control or dominate the other." Wow very powerful words. I am sure you will find this book very entertaining and more so do get your copy of "IN SWEET COMPANY" soon and find someones words that will touch you.

In Sweet Company is a thoughtful well-written book which will inspire any reader. It is a collection of interviews with 14 incredible women. My favorite is Sr. Helen Prejean's answer to "Is there a Golden Rule that guides you?" This book makes a wonderful gift to a friend as well as an annual read.

Margaret Wolf's interviews with these accomplished and insightful women about spiritual life demonstrate the many ways women have found both connections and comfort through their spritual journeys. Through mainstream religions, personal issues, cultural traditions and thoughtul meditations, these women share with Margaret their own pathways to spiritual places and to finding greater meaning in their lives. Inspirational, comforting, compelling, interesting, delightful and connecting, this is a book for anyone who is on his or her own journey. Margaret's gentle and respectful tone of writing and interviewing made me feel I was right there, listening to them talk to me. I highly recommend it!

I read In Sweet Company as part of a summer reading group two years ago sponsored by a friend's church. There were usually 10-15 women plus the leader,a young female minister. We met in a coffee shop. As we progressed, reading two chapters a week, I realized that I was reading a life-changing book. The spiritual journeys of each woman were so different and so much the same. Age, religion, and ethnic backgrounds were really not the most important factors in their spiritual experiences.As we discussed the chapters each week we each found something important to use in our lives.In my case, it was the discussion of meditation labyrinths. Not all of the authors were well-known names to me, such as Olympa Dukakis and Sister Helen Prejean; however, each of the women has made a tremendous impact on those around them.I will reread this book at least once a year. The result of our reading group two summers ago was to invite author Margaret Wolff to our city for a women's retreat called "Embrace" that allowed women from all backgrounds,religions and races to learn more about spirituality. The retreat was a great success. We have talked about repeating it.I believe that Margaret has compiled interviews with women whose life experiences strike a chord with other women of all ages. She is an amazing woman herself.

There are many extraordinary aspects to this book. The first is that I felt like I was right in the company of these remarkable women as they talked about their lives. Much more than interviews, they are true conversations, and I felt I had been invited to sit in on them, able to see and hear on many levels the depth of what was being shared. Wolff is a master at what she does! Each one of the fourteen women came alive as she generously shared her spirituality with a groundedness that has no room for pretense. Their stories are not about dogma and doctrine; it is about their innermost lives--real and touching.
I was also captivated by the story behind the story: The author determined to write the book following a serious car accident which left her with profound, permanent brain damage, unable even to construct a sentence. By refusing to accept that fate, and working relentlessly to regain brain function, she ended up not only with an insightful book about others' lives, she recreated her own brain from the rubble, re-grooving and rewiring it to superb capacity.
Incidentally, it was a man who first told me about the book. I knew he did not have time for fluff, so I bought the book, and after reading it, bought four more copies to give to both men and women friends. It is an extraordinary treasure on many levels!
Catherine Light, Encinitas, CA

This is a must have for anyone who owns or is considering getting a Lodge (Tipi). The experienced Lodge owner or the Newbie will find a wealth of information here. It is everything I heard it would be and more.

I have read the Laubin book a number of times and have decided to get into tipi building as a result. The stories and history that the Laubins present in this unique and very personal book are moving and very revealing of a couple who shared a rather loving adventure through life with their constant life deep in the history and life of native Americans and their culture. Well worth reading. Recommend this title and "Make your own tipi" by James E. Jones if you can get a copy of that rare title.

Some of the best information available on tipi living. When they were still living, we used to visit the Laubins at their cabin home beneath the Grand Tetons. A day spent in their company was worth a book in itself. A walk through the pages of western Native American history.

Abit outdated, but provides insight into some pioneers of the 1950's. Definately worth the read if you are into the subject of Plains Indian lifestyle.

Enough said, you want to know anything about Tipis, how to build one, etc, this is THE book.

It wasn't until after I majored in sociology that I actually got around to reading the works of Perter L. Berger, although I had studied many works citing his, and Thomas Luckmann. This book is in my opinion the very best introduction to sociology I have read. Berger has a unique ability to articulate the fundamentals of sociology, the "sociological perspective" that has often been misunderstood and underappreciated in the world of the social sciences. This book is important to read by anyone in the social science fields, either sociology, psychology etc. Even if you have studied sociology extensively already, this book is still worth reading. Berger's dialectic theory of social reality construction is explicated, and also he discusses implications like existentialism of Sartre and other philosophical issues. A great book overall!! I also suggest his other books too, they are all great!

What an awe-inspiring book! Peter Berger presents a detailed description of what it means to study sociology, to be a sociologists, and how sociology can change the world. As an college student majoring in sociology, I found Berger's book to be phenomenal in its analysis of a world requiring sociological thought. After reading the book, I was once again reminded why I chose to study sociology in the first place.
This is a book for anyone who wishes to further understand the facets of the discipline of sociology, or to understand the dedication of a sociologists. Berger seems to present the idea that we all can be dedicated sociologists, in the hopes to understand why things are the way they are.
A facinating book that should be read by all! I was blown away and I will keep An Introduction to Sociology by Peter Berger upon my shelf as one of my greatest reads. A real treasure, one that opened my eyes further to sociology, to an understanding of social structures, and of myself.

Each new sociology student must read this book during his or her first year into the discipline, and each sociologist must read this book (or the notes he made in the past about it) once every couple years. Peter Berger wrote one of the most compelling treatises into a social science, bridging theme with emotion, intellectual associations, nice metaphors and analogies and a wealth of humor.

The first chapter ("Sociology as an individual pastime") stands alone as an excellent introduction to the science of society. Berger invites us here to a party where the sociologist meets with a plethora of intellectuals and finally succeeds to transcend as a different and respectable member of the scientific community. If something, this chapter alone is worth the reading of the book. Shoots at the American academy coherent with Berger's (and ours) admiration for Thosrtein Veblen are combined with an un-dissimulated hate for all complete non-critical systems of belief, including organized religion, 20th Century communism, free-market capitalism and psychoanalysis. The tendencies known in the field at the start of the sixties are only deepened now, and so the critical words Berger throws at statistical reductionism are completely current: "in science as in love a concentration on technique is quite likely to lead to impotence" [p.13]. What there isn't to love in that?

At the same time Berger is preoccupied to maintain values and beliefs far from the scientific logic of a social science. How you can be a humanist if your values must be maintained outside of your field of competence? Well, sociology teaches us about the relativity of institutions. Freedom is considered to be inscrutable to science, but given the sociological perspective, it can be reached. So sociological thought is indispensable for the possibility of a free existence, and so becomes humanist in front of the supposedly unbreakable laws of social reality. Given that this is only a "perspective", this knowledge about society could also be used against or fellow men, and Berger is completely aware of that in an epoch so close to the age of totalitarism.

Before reading this book I was not a sociology student. After this book I realized that we are all students of sociology, some better than others. The better ones live in more freedom, more understanding, seeing through walls of the fortress that our society is. Everything looks so normal, until you start to dissect.

This is a short book, PACKED with information. Berger's English is superb. It flows naturally with creative sentence formations and use of vocabulary.

If you find yourself discouraged, you may skip the first chapter. I found it least interesting of them all. Chapters following are great and will keep you glued to your reading chair.

Even with bright students (I am assuming some I have had are among the bright) there are problems with this book. It was a required text for my Sociology course in my student days and I have a fondness for what it did to me in leading me on to PB's "The Social Construction of Reality". SCR is clearly too difficult for most students and Invitation is much more accessible. Still, I have found students to be aghast at some of the expressions that clearly place it as a book of the sixties. On the other hand, I have not found a more accessible book that describes the postmodern point of view -- the view of sociology -- in as successful a way as this one. I therefore present it along with an explanation. It would be great if Peter Berger readdresses this invitation to new students with an update that incorporates politically correct language. The change in perspective is a tough experience. It would help if the language used were not an additional barrier.

I am still looking for a new book that will do the same thing to new students that this book did to me.

I must say that I was initially put off by the title of this book. I assumed from the title that this must be another one of "those" Christian arguments for vegetarianism--you know, the ones that use out of context prooftexts to argue that Jesus really was a vegetarian. However, one of my colleagues did his Ph.D. work with Richard Alan Young, and he told me that Young was not only an excellent scholar, but a person who lived his convictions. So I decided to give the book a try, in spite of the title.

I am so glad I did. Young deals with the major issues and texts which arise when the question of vegetarianism is posed. Each chapter heading is a question which leads the author into a discussion of the relevant texts and historical background. He addresses questions like "Was Jesus a Vegetarian?" "Didn't God Permit Us to Eat Meat?" and "Didn't Paul Condemn Vegetarianism as Heresy?" with honesty and theological integrity. He does not try to force intepretations out of the texts, but lets them speak for themselves, offering a balanced and evenhanded treatment.

Most importantly, Young offers one of the best arguments for Christian vegetarianism I've read to date. He does not resort to prooftexting or spurious arguments based on scant biblical evidence. Instead he builds the case for vegetarianism upon a much broader biblical perspective--the peaceable kingdom. In sum, Genesis 1 and 2 offer the ideal view of human existence: humans and animals are vegetarians, humans are the caregivers of God's creation, the world and all creation are at peace. Unfortunately, all that is shattered in Genesis 3. However, the biblical material looks forward to a reinstatement of that original harmony. Examining the prophets vision of the peaceable kingdom, Young concludes that the role of Christians is to do God's will on earth as it is in heaven. In other words, Jesus' vision of the kingdom of heaven is a here and now concept, not a concept that will occur only in heaven. "The peaceable kingdom encompasses the full range of human moral aspirations, depicts peaceful coexistence between humans and nonhumans, and represents the goal toward which God is guiding history" (150).

Our job as Christians is to envision the peaceable kingdom and work to bring it about. Christ's act on the cross was an act of restoration, not just between humans and God, but between humans and other humans, and humans and all creation. Thus, Christians are to be actively involved in that restorative vision. If the peaceable kingdom is to be established, one fundamental step toward that outcome is refraining from eating meat. There can be no peace between animals and humans if we continue consuming animals.

Additional touches set this book apart as well: each chapter concludes with a wholesome vegetarian recipe; the last chapter offers a basic discussion of how to "go vegetarian;" and Young provides a bibliography for further reading.

Don't be put off by the title of the book--I found out that the publisher insisted upon it to make the book more "provocative." This book is a must read for any Christian who desires to investigate Christianity's relationship to animal rights and vegetarianism. It is well written, thoroughly researched, and easily accessible to anyone interested in the subject.

A very thoughtful friend (who is a vegetarian) recommended this book to me. Though a meat-eater for nearly 30 years, I decided to give this book a try. I was pleasantly surprised.

First, Young writes in a cool, level-headed fashion that doesn't come across as angry or accusatory. Unlike other books on the subject, this feels more scholarly and balanced.

Second, Young takes you through the Bible with remarkable insight. It is a deeply Christian work throughout. His arguments mainly depend on understanding the whole story, and what he calls "directional markers." This is a very powerful idea that I think really illuminates many modern ethical issues. To his credit, he does not try to argue that Jesus and the apostles were vegetarians, and that this message was somehow corrupted later on. He brilliantly argues that the situations of modern slaughterhouses did not exist in biblical times, and that the fundamental values of Christianity are in opposition to them. He does point out that human history in the bible is bracketed by vegetarian behavior (cf Genesis 1-2 and the Isaiah description of the "peaceable kingdom"). Why then should we not move toward this goal?

My one cavil with the book is that it is not written for the evangelical Christian (which I am). His view of Scripture would certainly make many evangelicals uncomfortable (for example his understanding of several authors writing the Pentateuch, his sometimes fuzzy statements on the nature of Jesus ministry, etc.). Occassionally I thought he cited verses out of context such that their true meaning was obscured by his intentions. Despite these flaws, I think overall his biblical exegesis is sound (Professor Young is a professor of New Testament, so this is no surprise).

I do appreciate his numerous statements along the lines of "I'm not saying everyone must stopping eating all meat in all circumstances." Instead, he thoughtfully and gently tries to challenge the reader to reconsider their own practices. I know that my own meat consumption has gone way down and am contemplating becoming a vegetarian. He encourages the reader to make slow changes, such as finding one meatless main dish per week to add into your diet. Who cannot do that? I also think much more deeply about the conditions that animals are kept in today and how they should live. Would you eat that piece of chicken or beef if you could see the animal's death? What is gluttony if not eating on more than you need? These and more questions are powerful thoughts that will challenge you throughout the book.

Young's purpose in "Is God a Vegetarian?" is simple: to explore the biblical foundations for Christian vegetarianism. Young chooses to listen to "the entire story" of Scripture to make a case for Christian vegetarianism rather than relying on certain "proof-texts".

The core of Young's argument is that the story of Scripture reveals that God is moving humans and animals towards a "peaceable kingdom" where they live together in harmony. Considering this, Christians should structure their lives and daily practices (including their diet) in such a way that it reflects this ultimate destiny.

As a Christian who is exploring the theological and ethical issues of vegetarianism, I found this book to be extremely helpful and informative. Young manages to be balanced, and not biased; simple, and yet not simplistic.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is searching for more information on the biblical basis for Christian vegetarianism.

The title of this book scared me. I thought it would be one of those fanatic books about how Jesus could possibly be a vegetarian, etc. However once I started reading this book I found myself laughing at the chapter titles: "Was God the First Tanner", "will there be slaughterhouses in heaven."

Young thoroughly answers questions that vegetarians and nonvegetarians alike grapple with in using the Bible as guide for life. While at times I felt he took passages out of context, the overall meaning behind his words seemed to speak the biblical truth. Young concludes that vegetarianism cannot be a universal moral truth, yet it is closer to God's vision. I highly reccomend this book for those questioning how Christians are to respond to todays treatment of animals.

I agree with the author's overarching view of biblical hermeneutics -- searching for "directional markers" that build an internally consistent perspective, rather than (non-contextual) "proof texting," a generally paroxysmal and frivolous approach to scriptural study and application. But it seems unfortunate that, given this broadly impacting issue of meat production and consumption, Young has 'hung his hat' so specifically on the concept of 'cruelty' against animals, and of their 'rights', as these issues are, at best, an aside to the far larger moral/ethical, logical, economic, ecological, health related, theological, and human stewardship considerations attached to flesh-foundering. The real ethical questions cannot be reduced sloppily to 'was Jesus a vegetarian?' or 'did Noah eat meat?' (Young sees this much). The deeper ethical issues of today relate to the 21st century world we live in, and should not be reduced to 'muskrat love', they are larger than that, and ask to be considered with 'the wisdom of serpents' (Matt 10:16).

Many in wealthy western culture, uneducated in the science and ethics of meat, think most easily of vegetarians as being equally soft hearted and soft headed; that vegetarians are teary-eyed cow huggers. But the 'animal rights' approach to the meat market culture is the least relevant and persuasive tack toward dealing with the truer, larger picture. In terms of Christian ethics urging the world toward a proactive "peaceable kingdom" (I have no argument against this), the 'animal rights' focus is rather like 'the tail wagging the dog.' More significant moral/ethical issues, relative to vegetarianism, are:

1.) Environmental degradation concomitant to the modern animal-based diet may be the most significant (and popularly overlooked) global assault on nature; an assault featuring deforestation for the production of commercial livestock, loss of biodiversity (plant and animal, terrestrial and aquatic), unnecessary burning of fossil fuels, air and water pollution, loss of topsoil and arable land, desertification, the list goes on. A single east coast factory hog farm constantly produces more raw sewage than the city of Los Angeles, sewage containing harmful bacteria and disease that is simply introduced to ground water (the related ecological and public health problems were briefly presented on the television news magazine 60 Minutes). Neither laws demanding nicer treatment of little piggies nor regulations on the treatment of pig pee are going to alleviate the problem. The only solution is for Americans to rethink their diet of bacon double cheeseburgers and pork sausage. The ecological issues of modern meat are far too large to discuss adequately here, they stretch from the factory farm to the open ocean to the upper atmosphere.

2.) The moral/ethical problems of meat eating are not only environmental, they are economic. Pandering to the palette of the wealthy beefeater demands [anti-human] misdirection of economic assets. Generally speaking, it takes 16 pounds of vegetable protein to produce 1 pound of animal protein. With that comes much more than 16 times the water and fuel! At the height of the 1984-85 Ethiopian famine, while more than a million people were dying of hunger, European meat producers were buying feed grains from -- Ethiopia! Will humanity's natural, agricultural, and economic assets serve humanity, or will they serve the gluttony of the wealthy? Along these same lines, the respected Christian author Richard J Foster touched very briefly on important aspects of the meat focused diet in his book Freedom of Simplicity (1981): "A million hogs in Indiana have superior housing to a billion humans on this planet." And those "million hogs" are degrading ground water, proliferating disease and ultimately creating cancers and premature human deaths (see below). Lest you think there'd be a net deficit of jobs if we eliminated meat packers and cowboys' livelihoods in favor of a plant based diet, assuredly that is not the case. No industry provides fewer jobs per unit of land used than does cattle ranching; a nation with a vegetable based diet would have the potential to create more net jobs while actually reducing costs for the consumer. That may sound contradictory, but federal meat industry subsidies prop up this meat-mad system. Here's one maddening example of these subsidies: If I go for a hike in nearby Cleveland National Forest, I won't see any of the once native pronghorn antelope, instead I'll probably see cows, ranching long ago extirpated the antelope. And guess who pays for these cattle grazing on public lands. As an American taxpayer, I do! The US government builds access roads, digs wells, pipes water, and provides other products and services for the cattle industry that uses public lands. Ranchers theoretically "lease" these land accesses, but the "leases" are laughable, do not cover the public expenditure that underwrites them, and amount to government giveaways. I may not eat beef, but as a US taxpayer, I pay for wealthy beefeaters to eat beef!

3.) The animal based diet is finally a disease and death centered diet. Billions of Chinese have a long tradition of a vegetable based diet, and they have virtually no incidence of obesity, heart disease, GI tract cancers, osteoporosis, or scores of other meat-related maladies -- UNLESS they move to the west and take up the animal based diet. Several excellent medical studies make the point clearly, meat kills (not just cute little lambs, meat kills people!). The health-related issues of the animal based diet are obviously bound to the economic issues as well (for example, health care asset allocation). Will we feed starving people or spend our economic assets first supplementing, and then trying to wrestle with, the self-inflicted meat-based sicknesses of the blissfully foolish? The human health issue looms as large as the ecological and economic issues, and is too great to be treated adequately here. These are all highly moral and ethical Christian stewardship questions. How can Christians turn a blind eye?

There are still other ethical issues tied to the animal based diet, and "animal rights" MAY be one of them. But this is not so clear. Is it rational or meaningful to suggest that because animals sense pain that they have any sense of "cruelty"? That they have any sense of their "rights" being violated or of some "injustice" being imposed on them? These are surly sentient concepts well beyond the ken of the animal mind, whatever it may be. The "animal rights" approach to the question of meat appeals to 'warm fuzzy' ideas but what is needed is a serious, hardheaded treatment (by the way, if we begin to do the right things, for the right reasons, the "animal rights" question will begin to go away!). Most Christians--there are and have been exceptions--have been sadly silent on the matter of meat-mongering (some have even embarrassed themselves with goofy "proof texting" attempts to define vegetarianism as a biblical heresy!).

Young's thesis aspires to a robust view of biblical hermeneutics, which is a good thing. It aspires to treat an important topic. But the "animal rights" focus is misplaced. An outstanding book on the moral/ethical and health issues surrounding the animal based diet is Howard F. Lyman's 'Mad Cowboy'. Christians should have been publishing books like Lyman's decades ago; being shining beacons of conscience in the material darkness, not hiding in that darkness in blissful ignorance and self-indulgence. It's not too late to start doing the right thing.

Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat

Forty years of heterosexual living did not prepare me for the dilemma of discerning IS IT A DATE OR JUST COFFEE when I started dating women. Well, perhaps dating was too strong a word since it always seems to turn out to be coffee. When straight gals meet straight guys, they know what to expect. With gay-gal dating, they seem to be showering together before reaching a consensus as to whether or not they are friends or something more. Fortunately, Mo Brownsey takes some of the confusion out gay-gal dating with her wonderful book.

From being single, relationships, breakups and mourning, Brownsey covers it all. Need help identifying the dreaded lesbian bed death? Not sure if it's lust or love? Considering multiple partner relationships? Mo supplies the answers along with tongue-in-cheek comedy that will keep you howling with laughter no matter where you are concerning gay-gal relationships. I admit to suffering from STD myself (Sexually Transmitted Denial). For gals like me who find themselves in the midst of redefining their sexuality, and refuse to take the whole dating thing too seriously, Mo Brownsey's book is the definitive answer for the basics of gay-gal dating. Her comedic approach to relationships, breakups, recovery and sex is an indispensable guide for those new to this lifestyle as well as gay-gals who've always know that they weren't straight but love a good laugh. Indeed, straight or lesbian, all women will find themselves in this remarkably astute book. IS IT A DATE OR JUST COFFEE earns the WordWeaving Award for Excellence.

First of all, I would just like to say that the REAL cover of this book is much more appealing. Softer colors and an oh-so-hot photo of the author sipping coffee while gently tensing her gym biceps. That image alone should make you want to buy this book. However, there is much much more to be gleaned from actually reading it. Ms. Brownsey's advice is sage, her tone witty and her anecdotes are like a page from all our lives. A great X-mas gift for your single lesbian friends.

Mo has struck a chord with me in this deliriously funny take on lesbian dating, sex and romance! If you've gotten too serious about it all, be sure to buy this book and read it. Especially recommended for the newly single!

Barb Elgin, MSW, LCSW-C
http://www.coachsappho.com

Valley Gay Press Book Reviewer: Liz Bradbury
A step by step guide to "gay girls" dating, sex and romance. Just broke up or got dumped? You need this book, because good advice is better served with a side dish of laughs.

Mo Brownsey, long time comedian and lesbian studies college professor writes a humor filled book, packed with information lesbian and bisexual women really need. Speaking from vast experience, she starts right out with sage `after-breakup' advice: Take her number off the speed dial! Then deftly covers: baby dykes (yes, they're too young for you), on-line dating (why it frequently doesn't work), the L-word (love), polyamory (not for Mo) and a host of other topics.

Brownsey is the kind of friend who'd not only grab you by the lapels and exclaim, "Snap out of it!" But she'd explain how over pizza until you felt better. If don't have a friend like that, get this book.

"Is It A Date Or Just Coffee" was a hilarious trip through the confusing and sometimes neurotic gay girl dating scene. Mo uses her singular gift of humor to make the lesbian dating game less awkward and daunting. With chapters like "Blind Date: Think Hunters and Ducks" you know your in for a comic treat! I laughed and cried with Mo over the dating disasters and triumphs. An absoulte must for the newly "out" - it will help calm your nerves.

Deeply insightful and elegantly written, Donald Richie's books deserve a place on the shelf of everyone interested discovering a Japan seen through the eyes of a brilliant and sympathetic observer immersed in the culture.

What a life lived. For almost sixty years, Richie, born and raised in Ohio, watched one of the most fascinating countries in the world, Japan, change from a defeated enemy to a global powerhouse. As a writer, he had the wisdom in his youth to begin keeping detailed journals of his thoughts and adventures in Tokyo and beyond. Unlike many of my journal entries, Richie's are beautifully written and thoughtful, and the people he met and the insights he provides on Japan make for good reading. Although some of the journal entries are truly gems, others can be dull, if not too personal. It was in search for Richie's telling observations regarding Japan and its people that compelled me to continue reading. I would recommend this book for those who are knowledgeable of Japan, its people, language and history. Without such background, the book would not be as interesting. Overall, though, this is a good book by a man who lived life the way he wanted to and lived to write about it.

I usually start reading diaries with a sense of excitement, an eagerness for revelation, life revealed in the small changes and observations over time. But I am often disappointed. Not with Richie. Detailed, poetic, observant and honest--he makes me laugh and cry. Here is the shape of life--youth, sex, love, change, aging, death--as it is too rarely depicted--full of magic and awe even in the banal. Even if you have no interest in Japan, or in film, you will like this book because of what it shows us about life.

I have only known Donal Richie as a film scholar having admired his commentaries on Bresson and Ozu DVDs. Naturally, I bacame interested in the man himself who continues to live in Japan. In this journal, he meets such notables as Kawabata, Kurosawa, Takemitsu, but what is more interesting is his interaction and friendship with regular people. Mr. Richie goes to a park in Tokyo (his usual hang out) and talks to a homeless, gives him his hamburger. He also befriends local prostitutes while he is also a guest of honor at emperors's palace. What is unique about this journal is that he tells as it is. Unlike some autobiography, Mr. Richie does not try to convince readers, does not explain, does not try to defend his actions, or does not offer advice. He simply dscribes his observation both his own personal life and what he sees and happens to him living in Japan as it moves from war destruction to economic bubble, and to decay.

Writer Donald Ritchie, an expert on Japanese film and a keen observer of that interesting country, has distilled nearly sixty years of life as an expatriate into these fascinating journals. Ritchie emerges as a deep thinker and lover of high culture who derives equal satisfaction from indulging his "taste for the mud" (it sounds much more poetic in French), which takes him to sex clubs, prostitutes, and other similarly disreputable places for which he holds a healthy admiration. His endless curiosity about matters and people both high and low is a strong point of this book, providing a well-rounded portrait of both a society and a man's life.

I enjoyed seeing Japan through Ritchie's eyes from his first days in the country during the American occupation up through the years of reconstruction, the boom years of the 80s, and the bursting of the bubble. He notes the many changes in the people and is quite honest about his own feelings concerning his privileged position as a foreigner, never fully accepted but also not subject to the same severe social strictures to which Japanese hold each other. Among the many highlights of this fine book are the long train trip across the country that Ritchie takes during the days of the occupation, his friendship with Yukio Mishima as well as many other distinguished people, and his closely observed opinions on the evolution of Japan's stance toward the foreigner. A fine read, particularly recommended to those with an interest in Japan.

I loved this book. The women of my church used this book for a 12 week bible study following each chapter and our hearts and minds were transformed. Every woman should read this book. This book is better than any twelve step program out there and it speaks directly to the mind and soul of a woman, there is no way you can read it and still think the same way about the Samaritan woman or any woman for that matter. Give it a shot, you won't regret it!!

This is a must read for every woman. Bishop McKenzie takes you on a strategic journey that brings you to a place of awareness of all that God has deposited in you. She weaves the Biblical story into our lives and brings clarity of God's divine work in us. An excellent tool for a small group study!

Bishop McKenzie writes in the most wonderful conversational style. Reading her book made me feel as though she and I were conversing. The book evoked deep emotion and introspection in my spiritual life. Highly recommended.

This book was a christmas gift from my sister. Journey to the well helped me travel down a well worn road. You have already thought about the things that she has written about your spiritual journey, but with how much perspective. Vashti's book helped me to reflect on my image in the well. Looking at myself objectively in the well, I can change things I dont want to see.

I have been enriched by reading this book by Bishop McKenzie. It came to my attention as a recommended reading posted at my school, Trinity College of D.C. Not aware of Bishop McKenzie, I was intrigued by the summary of this book and decided to read it. What a tremendous blessing. As I read it, I realized that so many women travel often to the well in our daily lives. Just trying our best, no matter how painful, to do what we can until things get better. Like the Samarian woman at the well, we yearned for something different in our lives that would free us from many of the cultural, societal, and spiritual bonds that bind us. Dr. Mckenzie reminds us systematically through the additional Biblical references, exercises, and journal assignments that support this blessed encounter that we are waiting for our opportunity to meet Jesus at the well. Pausing to answer this blessed stranger's questions and boldly asking questions of Him healed her. Reading this book, we are also healed. I encourage women from all walks of life, age or religion to read this book. Like the Samarian woman who met Jesus at the well, you, too will find your voice. through His grace be healed to go forth and tell everyone of the man you just met who knew everything about you and loves you dearly. Peace

This book arrived in top condition and in time. In a college book store this book cost a lot more, so I am very pleased to be able to buy it from this seller.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the descriptive way the author wrote. I have been through Colorado and have seen the beauty she described. Also enjoyed the story because there wasn't a lot of violence and if there was any sex, it was only in our imagination which is the greatest kind. I was amazed at how the lady rode for miles in rugged wilderness without seeming to get lost. The fact that she could subsist on meager food was also interesting.

For many years I saw this book in National Park bookstores and passed it by thinking it would be an example of the overwritten, rather tedious journals of other Victorian travelers. When I finally found it at a used bookstore and rather reluctantly bought it, I was surprised to find out how exciting and relevant her story was.

Because I live in Colorado, I recoginize and travel through many of the places she describes. Just this weekend as we traveled along Highway 67, my husband and I remarked on the likelihood, that this was the same route she'd taken out of Colorado Springs.

Her accounts lend life to the grey, weatherbeaten cabins, abandoned roads and rusting rails that we see. Even though many parts of Europe and the US were relatively modern at the time of her adventures, it is surprising to read just how primitive and precarious was the life of many Colorado settlers.

Even if you aren't from Colorado, read this book to become aquainted with a Victorian woman who found a way to live life fully. Read it to learn about life in the west. Read it just because it's a good read.

Did you ever read any of the BEANY MALONE novels by Lenora Mattingly Weber? In them I first read about Isabella Bird and her remarkable life in the American West. Beany's older brother, Johnny Malone, is a teenager when the series begins, a young Denver boy with a remarkable passion for unearthing the memoirs and daguerrotypes of Colorado pioneers and taking notes on the old-timers who settled the state. Their colorful lives make his ordinary life seem rather pastel, so he often sinks into a nostalgia of the past, while his family members tease him about the dreamy look in his eyes. He helps a veteran journalist, Emerson Worth, complete his magnum opus, OUR CITY HAS DEEP ROOTS. And among the pioneers Johnny obsessed about was none other than Isabella Bird, so when I found this book on a recent trip to Boulder, I added it to my rucksack.

If you are reading on horseback, as Isabella Bird did, this is perhaps the ideal book to carry with you. She was a woman used to the English-style horse with its Ascot breeding and high carriage. What she found in Colorado were, naturally, the horses of the West, more perfectly adapted to the mile-high atmospheres, but slung somewhat lower than anything she's been used to and slightly swaybacked. Bird adapted quickly, and the fun of her autobiography is to see her taking in her stride a series of calamities and hardships that would have Job complaining bitterly! No matter if it's an insect infestation or tumbling right through a sheet of ice into zero degree river chills, for Isabella Bird it's all part of a day's fun. Travel writing in the 19th century was, of course, the leading genre of prose. From no other source were English-speaking readers able to find out more about other people's lives, and the curiosity was immense.

You'll like Isabella, and her crazy love affair with Colorado. She remains very much a lady, but will challenge your preconceived notions of what a lady is and isn't. Most of all you will thrill to follow the course of her journeys up and down the mountains through which, now, there are some better trails but still the same amazing sunrises which she describes with the thrill of one for whom every day's an adventure.

I bought this book while visiting Estes Park, CO...hungry for books about life in the West that may not be so readily available here in NJ. I found it to be one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read! Isabella's descriptions of the Rocky Mountains and the climate through which she travelled are vivid and gripping. But more than that, she gives a detailed and honest account of what life was like for settlers on the frontier. How she managed to ride thru the mountains where the only "trails" were tracks of wagons or animals, when often those were covered with the seemingly constant snow, boggles the mind. Her love for Colorado sings out in every word she writes. I too was deeply touched by its beauty, and hope to return again, this time with an enriched appreciation due to this wonderful recounting of Isabella Bird's journey.

Mackeys Book "Lebanon A House Divided" gives an excellent easy
over view of the problems that have recked the Country for so
many years. A great read, May the Country of Lebanon find PEACE inside
its own borders.

This is the third book i read from Sandra Mackey (the Saudis and The Iranians are the other two).And this is another fantastic work for her.I love the clarity and well explained manner in which she explore the nation that is Lebanon and this is not an easy task.When you finish reading this book you have a very good understanding of the situation in Lebanon.As usual she describes every major political party and organization involved as well as the mindset of the people of Lebanon.Also she gives a great explanation as to the ramifications and involvement of other countries as the war rages in Lebanon.Just an excellent work!

Sandra writes a great book about the complex and interesting vectors that have to be understand and known to even start to comprehend the many factors that together make LEBANON.
I use this book as a constant reference for the Lectures on Middle East that I give to universities.

A book that constitutes an essential reading for someone who ignores but really wants or needs to know the complexity of the Lebanese society.

This book does a great job completely describing Lebanon before the civil war and everything leading up the war. I didn't know very much at all about the folks living there but Sandra does a great job describing the background of the people (The Muslim and Christian factions). I also had no idea about the involvment of Israel and Palestine.

I won't lie though, parts of the book are dry and probably go into too much detail. While I did enjoy reading the majority of the book, I actually did fall asleep while reading it once. Still, I would recommend this book