Wisconsin Books

September 1955. Six-year-old Mark O'Brien moved his arms and legs for the last time. He came out of a thirty-day coma to find himself enclosed from the neck down in an iron lung, the machine in which he would live for much of the rest of his life.

How I Became a Human Being is Mark O'Brien's account of his struggles to lead an independent life despite a lifelong disability. In 1955, he contracted polio and became permanently paralyzed from the neck down. O'Brien describes growing up without the use of his limbs, his adolescence struggling with physical rehabilitation and suffering the bureaucracy of hospitals and institutions, and his adult life as an independent student and writer. Despite his weak physical state, O'Brien attended graduate school, explored his sexuality, fell in love, published poetry, and worked as a journalist. A determined writer, O'Brien used a mouthstick to type each word.

O'Brien's story does not beg for sympathy. It is rather a day-to-day account of his reality?the life he crafted and maintained with a good mind, hired attendants, decent legislation for disabled people in California, and support from the University of California at Berkeley. He describes the ways in which a paralyzed person takes care of the body, mind, and heart. What mattered most was his writing, the people he loved, his belief in God, and his belief in himself.

Mark O'Brien was the subject of the 1997 Academy Award?winning documentary Breathing Lessons. He was a published poet and cofounder of the Lemonade Factory, a California press that published poetry by people with disabilities. O'Brien died in 1999 at the age of forty-nine after completing a draft of How I Became a Human Being . Gillian Kendall is a writer. She has contributed to both Outright Radio and Sun magazine; one of her short stories appeared in The Student Body, also published by the University of Wisconsin Press.

"How I became a human being" is a great read. It is one of those books that I had trouble putting down, once I had begun reading it. Mark O'Brien is a truely inspirational person, who proves that if you set your mind to something, you can achieve whatever you want to in life despite, in his case, extraordinary obstacles. I simply can't imagine being paralysed from the neck down. What amazed me while reading the book, was that at times, I forgot that Mark had such a profound disabilty, with his humour, personality and love coming through in his writing.
My only criticism of this book is that there was no mention at any point of Mark's realization that he would never walk again, that he would forever be reliant on others and indeed be reliant on an iron lung. When was he first told he would never walk again? How did he and his parents react to this news? Did he live in hope that by some miracle, he would walk again or did he accept that this was the way he was going to be for the rest of his life? After finishing the book, I felt that these questions were left largely unanswered.
Also, as Mark O'Brien died in 1999, I felt that it would have been good for the co-writer to have written an epilogue regarding the circumstances of his death. Throughout the book Mark comes close to death on several occasions and he talks about death in quite some detail, but the reader is left with no details of the actual circumstances in which he died.
Despite these criticisms, I recommend this book highly. It is an amazingly inspirational read.

HI. I thought this book was a very imformative anthology of Latino heritage and culture. It showed how 30 hispanic writers could form a book that told how Latinos live their everyday lives. I especially like the poem about him and his four children, when they asked why they were named what they were named. I really like the personality of his second son, Sergio. Overall it was a very good book.

I thought this was a very good book of peotry. It really showed how the latino culture can be so important and diverse. I really liked the peom about Oscer Mirels and his 4 children. I especially like the personality of is son, Sergio. Overall it was a very good book.

This is such a wonderful book, full of life, emotion, and intelligence. Feraca infuses every experience, ordinary and extraordinary, with so much perception, compassion, and generosity that it's a total joy to read.

Feraca writes the way Vermeer paints. Even the shadows in this memoir are luminous. Her stories are filled with a love that is not just emotional. The characters we meet (mother, father, aunt, brother, husband) are like something from Dostoyevsky, filled with passion, hilarity, trouble, and love. Feraca is a great storyteller, and a poet. She leads me to momentarily dwell with her characters' hearts and behind their eyes. When I finished reading I had a much greater appreciation for the quirky folks in my own life. Read this book!

I've read this book about three times and each time enjoy it as much as I did the time before. I picked it up at a used book store for a dime and it's the best money I ever spent. It's stories are moving and funny and full of wonderful insight. My many respects to the Rory family.....Bless you all....

I am 14 and loved reading about the life of Rory C Foster D.V.M. It was very interesting and educational! I have read this book almost 4 times now and I am just as interested in it as i was the first time I read it. I enjoyed reading of all his animal resques and his life in general! I am definitely going to read Dr. Rory C Foster's other book, Dr. Wild Life!!!

~Mandi

IF YOUR FROM MILWAUKEE, THIS IS A MUST BOOK. PICTURES ARE GREAT. A WONDERFUL GIFT .

The collaborative effort of John Gurda (Seven-time winner of the Wisconsin Historical Society's "Award of Merit") and Christel T. Maass (Academic Librarian, Special Collections Department, Golda Meir Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Illuminating The Particular is an impressive compilation of the photography of Roman B. J. Kwasniewski in a documentary celebration of the Polish American immigrant experience in Milwaukee, Wisconsin prior to the years of World War II. These were the critical pre-war years (1913 to 1947) were when the children and grandchildren of the Polish immigrant community in Milwaukee were transitioning and evolving into full fledged American citizens. A strongly recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library Wisconsin History collections, Illuminating The Particular provides a superb visual showcasing of Milwaukee's second largest ethnic group and their distinctive community which developed and distinctively hallmarked Milwaukee's South Side.

I don't know why you'd read this unless you're a McCullers fanatic or you need a reference for a paper, but either way, you are going to be pleasantly surprised. This book takes you behind the scenes of McCullers' life, her thought processes, and her life. And in case you don't know already, she's a very interesting subject. Bisexual and mysterious, she not only experienced pleasure and pain-love and hurt-but also got into a love triangle with her husband. They both loved the same man and wanted him to themselves! You get to read letters that had previously been secret and private and get to hear her motivation and conception of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter from McCullers' own mouth. It's entertaining and informative and when you finish this book you'll have a sense of understanding and intrigue-like you've uncovered a mysterious secret.

The first part of this book is McCullers' "unfinished" autobiography. For me, reading this was like having a one-on-one conversation with a writer that I have read and admired since high school. The second part, wartime correspondence between McCullers and her then ex-husband Reeves, provided a great deal of insight into the personalities of both. I found these letters to be very moving. Also included in the book are previously published notes on THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER along with a detailed chronology of McCullers' life and works. ILLUMINATION AND NIGHT GLARE is a treasure for literary enthusiasts--especially fans of McCullers.

I've just had a lovely visit with the flora, fauna and soul of the Northwoods of Wisconsin. I did not have to travel from my Pennsylvania home to do so. I only had to open this little jewel of a book and spend time with the very real and yet magical photos taken by the author, Trish Kirk, and read the inspirational quotes she chose to accompany them. This book is a perfect gift for those of us who respect "all God's creatures, great and small" and enjoy the beauty of nature in general. If I ever get to Wisconsin, this book will be how I share the experience with others.

Feeling stressed? Pick up this wonderful book and enjoy a superb photographic trip through nature's paradise with thoughtful, inspiring quotations to keep you company. Trish Kirk's love of nature's gifts shines through this gem.

Paul Lay's informative text is a perfect accompaniment to Richard Turpin's stunning, lovely, full color, tour-de-force photographic excursion through the appealing beauty of Ireland's landscape, cities, architecture, and people. Enchanted Ireland is an outstanding compilation of Irish images and a pure celebration of the natural wonder and folk charm of a vibrant people in a land bustling with vigor and cultural legacy. Highly recommended!

Having just returned from a 2-week visit to Ireland I was eagerto get my hands on anything related to the places I saw. So, I took alook at several photography books on Ireland and was losing hope of finding the "right" one, when I started flipping through "Enchanted Ireland." I was stunned by the wonderful photographs, and the great range of both landscape and city/town pictures. There are also some beautful people pictures, including--to my astonishment--Paddy, an accordion player and resident of Inishmor, whom I saw on my trip to the Aran Islands. If you're looking for a wide range of photographs and a good idea of what parts of Ireland look like (and they're stunningly beautiful) then this is *the* book to have. You'll want to leave for Ireland tomorrow!

I must say I was thrilled to come across this book here. James Patrick Sullivan was my great-great grandfather and I knew little about my ancestors before. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a glimpse of a soldier's recollections of the War Between the States.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable book for me, as I am the great-granddaughter of Mickey Sullivan, or "JP" as we Sullivans call him. I read this book before visiting Gettysburg and so was able to retrace his steps. Gettysburg has an surreal quality about it and still seems alive with the spirits of those who fought there. JP was fortunate to come home from that war. Books such as these that speak with the actual words of the soldiers help you to understand the times and the feelings of those who fought there.

Lance Herdegen brought my great-grandfather to life for me - an opportunity I would never have experienced if this book had not been written. I have also listened to Mr. Herdegen speak, telling stories about the Civil War, about the "Western" soldiers from Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Native Americans, who enlisted as "French-Canadians" since as native americans they were considered at that time to be "foreign" peoples...how incredible that seems to us now.

The Civil War will long hold interest and mystery. I think you will enjoy this book, as well as the others written by Lance Herdegen. He is a great authority on the Civil War

Killer Crónicas asks the following questions, among others:

* What is the nature of the exquisitely ambiguous pleasure we experience in passing as members of the local community?
* What are the costs of being identified as an insider, or outsider, by members of the communities in which we travel?
* How might the experience of being at once inside and outside be specific to pan-Latin and Jewish post-holocaust cultural identity, without regard to location?
* How to develop a language limited enough to connote specific geopolitical contexts, yet broad enough to denote the simultaneity in memory of related circumstances separated by distance and time?

Killer Crónicas draws from multiple genres, such as the literature of travel in Spanish (cartas de exploración, of discovery) and in English (here, the Anglo-American category of life-writing, which includes biography, autobiography, and letters, is helpful.) Particulary original is the sustained and studied attention to the traveler's status as a consumer. Underlying the internationalism and bilingualism of Chávez-Silverman's accomplishment is a creativity comparable to Latino performance artists such as Coco Fusco (author of English is Broken Here) Guillermo Gómez-Peña, or code-switching poets such as Tino Villanueva.

I personally find Gloria Anzaldua's work almost unreadable (there's no rhyme, reason, or inventiveness) while I think that Cherrie Moraga is good for her work's characters and dynamic. In Killer Crónicas what's original is how the writer focuses attention on the relation between what we say and how we say it in one or both languages, showing how the mind moves at the moment of the "switch." This work demonstrates a mode of thought familiar to those of us who work in multiple cultural locations, reproducing the habit of thinking in multiple languages. This challenges the hegemonic attitudes about what constitutes linguistic propriety in either Spanish or English by pointing up the complexities of both languages. Also the mixture of languages legitimates a practice that is very widespread: the INVENTIVE use of multiple languages, registers. Read this very contemporary, brilliant book for the puns, for the writer's inspired, faux, alternative, and refused translations. Killer Crónicas is steeped in multiple literary traditions: Argentine, CalifAtzlan, On the Road-Trippers, but most of that incomparable Spanish-language genre that is so definitive in the New World: the Crónica. Let Susana Chavez-Silverman be your guide and you will travel far, far indeed.

Clever, sassy, intelligent, poetic... continual code-switching is a wonderful vehicle to convey the sensations and experiences of a multi-cultural life. Her poetry invokes the intimacy I often feel when back in a long-lost land. Her quick wit and carefully-chosen details chronical well the feelings of isolation and observer-looking-in that seem to dog me wherever I land.
This is well worth the read.