Wisconsin Books

Body Blows: Six Performances by seasoned performer Tim Miller is an impressive selection of dynamic, vivid, performance plays drawing heavily upon the author's life as a homosexual man in a society that at best distrusts, at worst condemns gay and lesbian relationships. The personal, solo performances contain explicit and engaging language about human sexuality, ethics, and the specter of death in this vividly compelling series of singularly powerful monologues. Body Blows is a welcome and highly recommended addition to professional and academic theatrical reference collections.

Thomas, Alfred. "The Bohemian Body: Gender and Sexuality in Modern Czech Culture", University of Wisconsin Press, 2007.

Czech Literature and Film

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

If you have followed my reviews you know that I usually dabble in lighter literature but every once in a while a scholarly book comes along that I feel deserves to be mentioned. Such is the case with Alfred Thomas's "The Bohemian Body". The Czech Republic has always been a land of intrigue as well as a place that we do not know much about. Alfred Thomas changes that. He looks at the gamut of the nation and writes about it with beauty. The Czech Republic is a small country that more than once has been on the verge of disappearing altogether culturally while still holding on to cosmopolitanism. Thomas looks at the culture of the country in ways that will undoubtedly bring about discussion.
Looking at modern Czech literature and film through a variety of lenses can only bring about greater understanding. Looking at the texts ad films from the point of view of gender analysis reveals a relationship between the personal and the political and also joins local and European identities. Thomas looks at the forces of modernism that helped to shape Czech nationalism and the interaction between the arts and between ethnic and social groups. He examines the contributions of all--gays and straights, men and women and Czechs and Germans.
Taking the period form the National Revival and going to the Velvet Revolution. We notice an attempt to be more personal and to separate from the political. Here is where the true culture of the country lies. The modern Czech identity has been brought about by those delving in the arts and culture and identity are very closely related and intertwined. Czech culture is filled with nuance and paradox and up until quite recently has been overlooked by the rest of the world. With this book, we get a clear look at the culture and the people.

If you're looking for good ghost stories, with the ring of authenticity and the flavor of Wisconsin, this is a great book. The stories work well out loud. They're good ghost stories, not violent or bloody, but suspenseful and mysterious. There's also a good section at the end on telling stories, as well as notes on where the stories come from.

A work of imagination, originality, and superb storytelling appropriate for readers from 8 to 80, Books In A Box: Lutie Stearns And The Traveling Libraries Of Wisconsin is the "biography" of a passionate pioneer librarian, who brought books to hundreds of communities in Wisconsin from 1895 to 1914. She traveled alone, defying winter weather and wilderness hazards to bring her libraries to loggers, students, farmers, and families. Her belief in the power of books to change the world was nothing less than inspirational, and she continued to work with the American Library association and write articles advocating social change and education long after retiring as a traveler bringing books. Her life, legacy, and personal triumphs make for a singularly uplifting read. A superbly written novel, Books In A Box: Lutie Stearns And The Traveling Libraries Of Wisconsin is a unique and very highly recommended read, as well as a "must" addition all Wisconsin community library collections!

In this thrilling, well researched history, Jacalyn Eddy offers a fresh perspective on the intersection of six pivotal players in the book world of 1919 and how they came to shape the phenomenon known as children's publishing. Masterfully organized, this accessible volume presents both close-up views and nuanced backdrops of women's work and sensibilities that is part biography, part cultural criticism, and part intellectual history. Eddy's finely crafted language and patient roll-out of the narrative invite historians, feminists and lay readers alike to grapple with the complexities of empire-building, the history of the professions, and women's work in early 20th century America. Compelling and scholarly, adventurous and illuminating. Highly recommended for women's history, history of the book, print culture, and social history classes; graduate students in literacy, education, and reading studies.

Of course, I loved the book. It's well paced, entertaining, and insightful to a moment in russian history. Pushkin's charm as an dramatist is as well done as shakespeare. There aren't as many quotable lines, but that only makes it more fluent to read. The poetry is also nothing shy of great and the characters are well written, notably boris and the impostor. It's always tough to find russian literiture that doesn't bore a person, but pushkin's drama has enough romance (i.e. Romantic era), action, jokes, and touching speeches to move the reader to bite their nails, laugh out loud, and cry.

Cathy Colman's work escorts the reader into the many worlds of nothingness, where image and voice surrender to each other, with coincident pleasure. She revels in absence, erasure, slumber and the subconscious, while the poems leap off the page with wit and style. She invites the reader into a world that most have no idea how to plumb, a world where Colman is deeply, luxuriously comfortable -- and discomfitted. This book's thorough exploration of the unknowable makes us forget the attendant futility of the quest.

Excellent, quick delivery, and a great product. I did have manually to import the data when I imported to iTunes, which so often happens, but that can be a blessing when the data are wrong or full of typos! An invaluable addendum to the two books.

This is a wonderful book that is very useful. It is not directed towards elementary students however. There are one or two activities that seem adaptable to elementary students. However, the most of the activities are really more for middle school and upper elem. students. Well worth the money. It provides a cheap easy to way to demonstrate many of the science lessons you need to teach. There are sections on soil, worms, composting, and more.

Enjoy.

Bountiful Wisconsin 110 Favorite Recipes Terese Allen TrailsBooks ISBN -0-915024-78-0

Bountiful Wisconsin consists of prize-winning recipes from Wisconsin cooks featured in the author's column "Wisconsin Cuisine" or "Dining Out." Drawn from winning entrants in '97 and later contests of Wisconsin Trails, the recipes feature Wisconsin foods and agricultural heritage. Here are over 100 featured recipes, prizewinners and favorites of Wisconsin homespun hospitality, tested and edited for the lucky reader. Categories include appetizers and soups, salads and side dishes, main dishes, baked goods and breakfast/brunch items. Trying out different recipes is too tempting to resist. I first made Dried Cranberry Couscous Salad with Garbanzo Beans and Almonds - a delicious complete side dish or entree salad, very practical and portable as well as delicious. Apple Spiced Beef Roast presents an unusual use of pumpkin pie spice. Peanut Butter Noodles is a picnic classic. Some other intriguing scripts include Caramel Cranberry Oat Buns, Cherry Polenta Pie, North Woods Maple Apple Tart, Sagebrush Strata (with black beans, corn, salsa, cheddar cheese, eggs and flour tortillas) and many others. Bountiful Wisconsin 110 Favorite Recipes presents old favorites in new ways, and is a treasure to the hospitable Wisconsin cook and a lovely gift for visitors to the state.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer