Wisconsin Books

These are great little books (there are several in the series). These are adaptations of the Little House books, formatted as picture books with full color illutrations that are inspired by Garth Williams original Little House artwork. The Deer in the Wood is an abbreviated excerpt from the Ingalls Wilder novel Little House in the Big Wood. The quiet pictures and straitforward text present the incident of Pa Ingalls going on an overnight hunt, only to come back "empty handed" because he could not kill the wondrous and gentle deer that he encountered. The story was great in the original book, and the essential elements are presented here with perfectly matched illustrations. One of those books that you hope your kids will choose for you to read at bedtime.

Each book is not a story so much as a scene from a department store window. The stories have no plot to speak of. The characters have no personality at all. Production values are high, and my daughter was interested in a glimpse of life in another place and time. But these books are so much less than they could have been. Bide your time and get the originals instead.

I've been a fan of Little House books since I was in second grade. With this series made for young readers, I can start reading my favorite books to my niece before she is even in school. This book in particular was a very endearing story about a mama deer and her baby. Madelyn loved it! I thought the illustrations would make Garth Williams proud.

My 3 year old daughter loves her "Laura Books" and can't wait till night so she can hear another. I fell in love with the novels when I was a little girl and am so happy that I can share the stories with my little girl. The stories are easy to read. I have almost every one and plan on getting all of them.

I found the book to have all the depth of a Saturday afternoon coffee and gossip woman's group. While amusing it only attempted to skim the top most layer of it's subject. I would save my money and pass by this and future offerings by this author.

I'm not that familiar with the topic, so this was a wonderful book to get me acquainted. I liked the tone of the book, particularly because it was not preachy in any way, and the author handled the topic with respect. I'm new at New Age, but not old age. The book was easy to get around in, and I thank the author for bringing it into the world for people like me, who want to continuously learn. She puts everything in question and answer format, and that is extremely helpful. I have now purchased 7 copies for my book club and we had a vibrant discussion on the topics covered.

This author has done a very nice job in bringing forth what to most people is unfamiliar territory. I have read numerous articles about the book and heard this author on the radio. She apporaches the subject from a compassionate journalistic point of view, and does not pretend to presnt herself in any other way. A very honest read, and I HIGHLY recommend the book, especailly to those who would like a helpful and comforting overview of the topic from various practitioners of mystical arts. As the author recently said on a radio interview, this book is not meant to be a directory, and those who are not portrayed in the book and who are making rather a fuss about it, need to look at their own basic philoshoy of "things happen for a reason." Thus, if a certain psychic happened to be excluded, well...guess what...there was probably a reason for that. Any way, it was a GREAT read, and I am lookiing forward to her next book, Famous Wisconsin Artists and Architects.

From Jack...
I was intersted in this topic but also a little cautious about it. I found the book to have a lot of insight into the world of psychics, tarot readers, astrologers, healers, numerologists, etc. It is an incredible read and you won't be able to put it down! Very informative and makes me feel more comfortable with the topic in general.

I purchased 11 books on hiking, camping, and touring in Wisc. Of these books that I purchased, this book is the best for hiking (4 of the 11 books were on hiking.)

It is especially good if you:

- don't know Wisc too well (I grew up in Wisc, so am very familiar with Wisc, but I never paid attention to the names of the incredibly wonderful places my folks took us to when I was a kid, which was a big mistake.)

- want to go on the best hikes

This book has the best hikes (when compared to the other hiking books I bought.)

It's a great book for the first-time hiker or for a hiker that doesn't know the hikes in Wisc. I wish I had bought this book ten years ago when I first wanted to hike with friends in Wisc. Ten years ago, I purchased "Guide to Wisconsin Outdoors" and "Wisconsin Handbook", which weren't right for me at the time (even though both are excellent books) because they weren't for hikers, but more for folks that wanted to drive through an area and know what the cities have to offer in way of entertainment and amentities. Those two books, while absolutely perfect for folks who prefer to either drive through, do indoor activitity, and learn about an area's local amenities (which can be important information), they set me back several years on my goal to get up to speed on hiking in Wisc. I needed a hiking book.

So, I finally found this book. I bought other books on hiking (4 of them), but I liked this the best. Now that I know more about the areas I went to as a kid, I now know that this book lists the best areas for hiking. All of the best hiking areas we went to as kids are in this book (except one, which is a not so well-known area that our family would go to - but none of the other hiking books I bought listed it either.)

I want to mention the cons of the book, so you know what's missing and so you know what you may need to find elsewhere. When you travel to a faraway location, it's a good idea to know the local amenities of the area (restaurants, etc.). This book doesn't have that information. However, I would definitely not buy a book that tries to cover both hiking and amenities in one book because that's what I did ten years ago and that method failed me because I ended up not getting the hiking information I needed (other info got crowded out by the info on amenities) so I ended up not hiking in Wisc for several years as a result because I was stalled on it - I didn't have the info I needed and I didn't know how to get the information from faraway. I was in Washington at the time (majestic views but not as peacefully pastorial as beautiful Wisc), and back then, you couldn't find the books you needed online like you can now.

So, I suggest buying Hiking Wisconsin and finding the hiking locations through it, and then figure out amenities through other sources (the other two books that I mentioned do a good job on amenities, though I wouldn't recommend them for hiking.) Also, triple AAA covers amenities for free (but a bit too briefly when compared to the two books I mentioned.)

If you are an experienced hiker that has already gone on more than 75 different hikes in Wisc, most likely this book will be a repeat for you since it covers the top 100 hikes.

I liked this book because it has the best hikes. It was important to me to find the beautiful locations my parents took us to when we were kids (my Dad knew some really good areas.) Those were great places and created great memories for me. So, I just didn't want to go to any place that simply had a so-so hike - I wanted it to be special and see something that moved me as much as the hikes moved me when I was a kid.

So, if your goal is to find the best areas to hike, I'd buy this book.

This book was originally recommended to me by some hikers at an EMS. I've now been to a couple of places discussed in the book, and I've found that it gives a good sense of what's going on at the places described in the sense of what sorts of terrain, etc that you might encounter.

But it seems to only mention a SMALL subset of the possible hikes in an area. For example at the Kettle Moraine park (Southern Unit) it failed to mention that most of the trails have longer and more difficult variations. And it didn't mention going up to the top of a hill, where you can see the entire park.

Still, this is the best reference on hiking in Wisconsin in this format.

Hiking Wisconsin was my first encounter with the "America's Best Day Hiking" series. After this experience, I hope I have more encounters with this series in the future.

This book possesses all of the attributes of a well-written guide. There are 55 hiking destinations described here, and a couple of trails are described at each destination. The destinations are scattered throughout the state, but there is a noticably higher concentration in the south than in the north. Also, the last 9 hikes are grouped in a category entitled "urban," which for this author means Milwaukee and Green Bay.

Each hike features a map (they appear to be computer-generated), difficulty ratings from 1 boot (easiest) to 4 boots (most difficult), directions to the trailhead, and an excellent, detailed description of the trail. There is also a summary table in the front of the book, so choosing a trail to hike is very easy.

Trail lengths range from 0.7 miles to 14.5 miles with the average at only 2 or 3 miles. This is, in my opinion, the greatest drawback of this book. Too many of the hikes described here are short nature hikes. For experienced hikers (such as myself), 2 miles counts as a warm-up; we expect more out of a hike. I know that longer options are availible at many of these locations. Thus, the author frequently makes the unusual choice of describing two short trails over a longer, meatier, more interesting one. This is the only reason I cannot give the book 5 stars.

The book itself is unusual because it measures 8.5x11 inches, quite large by hiking book standards. To compensate, the publisher has made the pages perforated so you can tear them out as opposed to take the entire book with you on a hike. I don't view this as a good alternative. If your desk looks like mine, the pages are better off in the book so that they don't get lost. This is not a major problem, but the design is unusual, and I thought it should be noted.

In conclusion, despite the drawbacks mentioned above, this is still the best, most complete guide to Wisconsin hiking on the market. As such, I would recommend it for purchase to anyone interested in learning more about Wisconsin hiking.

I am happy to own this guide. I particularly like to be able to review the different places where I can go hiking before I go, so I know I am making a wise choice. It has information for biking, boating, etc. It does not have information for cross-country skiing, however.

One thing I really like is that it tells you about different stops along the trails, so you can use this to make sure you have not deviated from the trail.

A fascinating book written by a veteran of the Spanish civil war that strips it of both the idealism of the left and dismissal of the right.

While only roughly half of the book covers the Spanish civil war and the authors participation it is as a previous reviewer points out the "American Orwell" Herrick writes with the bitterness of a man whose ideals had been betrayed and who had seen for himself the betrayal of many of the men who went to fight for what they felt was the freedom of the Spanish people against the tyranny of dictatorship and fascism.

What many of them found was the growing Shadow of the 'dictatorship of the left' in the form of Stalin-ism ever encroaching upon them. Already men had began to be silenced by the Russian backed leaders of the Brigade and every day republican controlled land began to resemble tyrannical Stalinist Russia as its lackeys in Spain seemed to be far keener on dispatching left wing opponents in Spain than fighting fascists (It is well documented the destruction of the CNT and POUM by the Communist party)

Herrick also details the rise of military leaders placed in positions of power for little more than cosmetic reasons, to create an image to the world. One a University professor the other an African American. Concerning the second man it is particularly moving in that far from as some more cynical historians have painted him he was a simple man who resigned himself to 'follow party orders' while knowing full well his own shortcomings as a less than competent leader (This was later to prove true with a disastrous attack let by him that lead to heavy casualties) It is also interesting how one of Herricks friends another African American attempted to lead a protest against his appointment and how Herrick commentated on that he could as if anyone else did it would be perceived as 'racist'

The arguing, the incompetence and pointless political debates are all examined in full here. A fascinating read, this may be in many ways similar to Orwell's biography but the book "In red and green" is one I would also draw comparisons to. Especially in that book the part where Irish republican troops discuss shooting their commanding officer because he had once served in the Irish republic during the black and tan wars! (This in spite of the fact that he was now a committed anti fascist and ironically Jewish! Well, Ryan did go on to support the Nazis)

A fascinating insight into one mans history on the left during the first half of the last century. After reading the books of Orwell, In Red and Green and Jumping the line you will come to the conclusion that it was no surprise that Franco won, the only surprise in fact being that he took so long to do it.

"Jumping the Line" is a hobo phrase for "riding the rails," or hitching a ride on a freight car. It also brings to mind crossing boundaries, maybe even switching sides. Herrick has done both. Beginning life as a rail-riding hobo, Herrick developed an awareness of the plight of the downtrodden and eventually became not a member but employee of the American Communist Party. Herrick was hard-working element of the Party and an able union organizer and cell initiator. Willing to put his life on the line in backing his beliefs, Herrick traveled to Spain with the Abraham Lincoln brigade to fight the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Comintern, the International Communist Party, hoped this effort would lead to a home for Communism in Spain. While Herrick's soldiering was brief (he quickly took a bulled to the neck, nearly crippling him), the Communist atrocities and double-dealing there made him see the Party in an entirely different light. Returning to the States an anarchist at heart, Herrick had a wife to support and was tied to the Party for a paycheck. His outspokenness about the Stalin-Hitler pact led to his dismissal and his full emergence as an anarcho-social democrat. Appearing in these pages as Herrick formalizes his distrust of all power is such figures as Emma Goldman, Cole Porter and Herrick's former employer Orson Welles. This fascinating work is historically enlightening and a textbook in the formation of practical anarchism from an adventurer-author struck from the same mold as George Orwell.

This book is, very simply, the best memoir ever published by an American volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. It is a relentless autopsy on the murdered idealism of the young Communists who went to fight the fascists in Spain but ended up serving as hard guys for Russian dictator Josef Stalin and his secret police. It also shows clearly that the native supporters of the Spanish left were out for more than just a repudiation of fascist aggression: they were fighting for a social revolution, based on the labor movement, of a kind Stalin hated and feared much more than he did the fascists. This book also stands as a uniquely truthful and beautiful account of the lives of American and international Communist cadres; Bill Herrick speaks for every comrade who risked his or her life fighting for the world revolution in the 1930s, only to be brutally betrayed by Stalinism. It is extremely doubtful that a better book about the appeal of revolutionary Communism or the experience of its youthful militants will ever be written, at least in English.

"Jumping The Line" is a brutally honest and frank account of William Herrick's life on the American Left - as a young Communist who quickly became disillusioned with the excesses of Stalinism and of Soviet Anti-Semitism. An early volunteer in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion fighting Fascism in Spain, Herrick was badly wounded in the first major battle fought by the Lincolns at Jarama. Transferred to a hospital, Herrick witnessed firsthand the betrayals and backstabbing policies of the Soviet Secret Police and their minions. In one horrific episode, Herrick recounts how, as an "unreliable" he was forced to be involved in an GPU\International Brigade execution of accused "Trotskyist" civilians, an event that has haunted him to this day.

Returning home, Herrick then suffered the emotional wound of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, and being Jewish, promptly broke with the Party - courageously demonstrating as "a veteran of the Spanish Civil War - victim of the Hitler-Stalin Pact. He went on to adventures serving as a majordomo of sorts for Orson Welles - and some of the tales told here about "Citizen Kane" are quite hilarious. Herrick once told Life Magazine that his reasons for going to fight Hitlerism in Spain were that "As A Jew I know what Hitler is doing to my people".While he later admitted that it was the Party who instructed this to say the aforementioned remark, his pride and emotional attachment to his people clearly stands out in "Jumping The Line" as well as his "no prisoners taken" attitude towards both Fascism and Communism. This is indeed a memoir that Jews and all interested in the Spanish Civil War worldwide should read and while Herrick is a man who will admit his faults with candor, he is nonetheless a brave man and excellent writer - "Hermanos" is also strongly recommended by this reviewer.

What a great book! The author has researched and researched some more, until many of Milwaukee's street name puzzles that we may have wondered about but had no thought of how to find the answers ourselves have been found out. Almost as rewarding as being able to say "So THAT'S where that comes from!" is reading the book's Introduction - simply having all the answers means little without being able to share how the many discoveries came to light.
Additional pluses include finding out how the Upper Peninsula came to be the domain of the state of Michigan - through the disclosure of the source of a Milwaukee street name - and learning the general modes employed all over the world for naming streets.
A fine read for area denizens interested in the various "whys" and "hows" of Milwaukee history.

Anyone who knows Milwaukee and has a curious mind needs this book. I grew up in Milwaukee but have lived all over the U.S. I noticed that Milwaukee has some of the most unusual street names of most cities. It was fun reading this book to learn how they got their names. Love Milwaukee? You'll love this book.

I absolutley love this book. Having lived in Milwaukee for most of my life, I always wondered as a child, why certain streets were named as they were. Then, a few years back, my mom picked this book up for me as a Christmas present. It has totally satisfied my curiosity about the stories surrounding the plotting of this fair city. Baehr does a wonderful job of telling full and detailed stories, including in-depth historical accounts of Milwaukee's early history, (at times going all the way back to pre-statehood). This book is wonderful for anyone who holds a special place for the Cream City in their hearts.

For anyone who has ever wondered how it could ever have been named Fairy Chasm Road, or who Plankinton was, this is the book for you. Lots and lots of local history tidbits. And unlike some books of this type, it isn't afraid to say, "Gee, we just don't know why its named that. But here are a few theories." Definitely a must own for the Milwaukee history buff.

Fellows, Will. "A Passion to Preserve: Gay Men as Keepers of Culture", University of Wisconsin Press, 2004.



Preserving the Past



Amos Lassen and Literary Pride



If you love the past, you will love Will Fellows's book "A Passion to Preserve". He has written about a topic that is not only worthy of attention but that is long overdue. Fellows began early on caring about the past. As a youth he was attracted to antiques and the past became a passion of his. Today's world seems to care more for the present as we all settle down to a way of life that is so different to what once was. Knowing that there were other men like him, Fellows undertook a project of exploring the relationship between gay men and preservation. We see that this becomes quite complex as he goes back in history to look at preservationists all over the United States. He then documents their contributions to the larger American cultural scene.

It appears that throughout history gay men have had a talent to collect, organize, renovate and restore. This seems obvious to many people but the motivation for this has not been examined before.

Fellows looks at rural and urban America and shows that it is gay men who have the pioneers in preserving American culture. He shows how gays rescue and restore buildings and revitalize neighborhoods that have fallen into disrepair. But the irony here is that after the preservation has been completed, the knowledge of who did the work disappears. Fellows has retraced the history and returned gay men to their proper place with reference to preservation. In Little Rock, Arkansas where I live--in the historic section of downtown--this has been especially true. The old mansions that were built during the period of Little Rock's incorporation have, in fact, almost all have been restored by the gay men of the city.

The book is peppered with testimonies of 29 individuals which are sorted by region of the country and there are shorter pieces by several other preservationists. The book, however, is not just about the preservation of culture but it is also about what it means to be gay. Fellows adroitly examines the gay stereotype and labels it as a "gender-role atypical or nonconformist". He prefers the term "sociotype" which is more realistically based. Gay men flourish in concerns that deal with creating.

Fellows also accurately defines all the key terms. He explains homosexual as referring to sexual orientation which may include behavior, self-identification and fantasy as well as arousal. The word "gay", however, includes all of the aforementioned as well as gender identity. By using there terms, Fellows finds a balance to clarify the identity of gender roles. By going into this theory of homosexuality, Fellows manages to make his book to serve two different audiences, preservationists and gay men. What we have is ma book that concerns itself with the social psychology of gender-role identity and Fellows not only presents but he clarifies it beautifully.

Congratulations to Will Fellows for writing a truly remarkable and highly enjoyable book!

His account of his childhood and his attraction to antiques could have passed for my own. This is a subject that deserves the attention. In an age of assimilation, the author's research illuminates the gay and lesbian past and its contributions to the world at large. As the author explains; the irony is that in the process of preserving the historical architectural record, gay men erased their footprints, and like a detective, this collection of essays uncovers their tracks.

I highly recommend this book.

This is a very important book for anybody to read regardless of their sexual identity as only gays know how to restore houses, furniture, design, etc. There should be a law prohibiting heterosexuals from doing design work, restoration, decoration as we know too well what horrendous jobs straight folks can do with a house! All the cardinal sins; vinyl windows, etc and gays have to come in and clean up the mess afterwards. Most gays can identify with this book. Too bad there are not more gays doing such positive & wonderful things in this culture. It is shocking how I can identify with most of the guys he interviewed! The book could use some pics; you know queens like pretty pictures. Will Fellows should be on HGTV to tell them a thing or two! He has done his homework! He goes to the top of my class!

Will Fellows is himself a sort of preservationist writer. His first book, Farm boys, recovered the childhoods of rural gay men in scholarly-memoir format. This time, he painstakingly identified gay men nationwide who seek to "keep culture" by restoring historically-valuable old buildings. The body of the book consists of the recorded testimonies of 29 individuals (or couples) by region, plus cameos of still others.

But this body is not the book's "soul" perhaps. Which is to help clarify "what it means to be gay." "Even more than culture keeping, that's what this book is about," Fellows confirms. Specifically, he scrutinizes the suspect stereotype of gay men as gender-role atypical or noncomformist, let alone effeminate. He finds it may be an accurate image or a "sociotype" after all. That is, an image based in reality. Florists, hair stylists, interior designers? Yes, but also house restorers and antiquarians. And joining women in "fields that revolve around creating, restoring, and preserving beauty, order, and continuity." Gay men flourish in those concerns, sometimes outnumbering women. The image is true, it seems.

Fellows usefully clarifies key terms. "Homosexual" refers to sexual orientation: behavior, self-identification, fantasy and arousal. (And, I would add, emotional spiritual adhesion...) But then "gay" encompasses not only that but gender identity. Which can include gender-atypicality-being "psychologically and perhaps physically androgynous." And also "effeminacy," although this surpasses "a swishy, limp-wristed prissiness. It encompasses "qualities or characteristics generally possessed by girls and women" and may involve not only speaking gesturing walking, but also interests aptitudes values emotions. Such as the passion to conserve, preserve. As Fellows puts it, "Males have great inclination and capacity for creating and building new, but females and gay males possess the greater inclination to re-create, rebuild, restore, preserve." Due to "a decidedly feminine ethos" that values "continuity of identity, maintaining connections, remembering."

So this thrust usefully helps balance clarify this contested issue of gender-role-identity. Stereotypes, Political Correctness, social consructivism, essentialism. Now we can point to this culture-keeping quality of gay males as due to more than-more disposable income plus oppression!

So the book serves at least two audiences. Specifically, preservationists and their camp followers. Generally, those interested in gay male identity, gender-role-identity.

I could quibble only with the statistics? Does a "sampling error" raise its head here? Gay men into preservation, the sample, does not examine all gay males. So it might be insufficient, unrepresentative for the generalization about gay men? But it does echo prior research finding that childhood gender-atypicality and homosexuality are correlated. And indeed we recall those "special" farm boys, mavericks or outliers before puberty, amateur family genealogists, raisers of fancy poultry, and the rest...

I could also wish for more meat with the potatoes? I could wish the interviews had been less storytelling and more conceptual. In Telling Our Stories concretely, we sometimes miss the interesting conceptualities behind it all. I felt yoked to the plowing team (so to speak) of autobiography on the lower field. I wished to ascend to the hilly heights of ideas about preservation, keystone issues in it. Perhaps a separate essay to learn about problems, pitfalls, potentialities, levels of competence, etc.

But the reviewer shouldn't condemn a book for not doing what the reviewer personally preferred. All told, Fellows' contribution to the social psychology of sexual-role identity is really valuable. In the glut of print today, what justifies "yet another book"? Well, something truly new on an important issue, or at least not just repeating the known but advancing and clarifying it. As I found here.

This book is not your typical one, as the subject matter, (the September 30th Movement), does not lend itself to a proper narrative. The whole event is surrounded in mystery, with many holes in the story yet to be filled, so the book is rather open ended and tries to interperate numerous accounts. If you are interested in the subject matter, it is the best source available. If you just have a mild interest in Indonesian history, it will probably be too dry a read. I'd give it 5 stars for being the best source of information on this topic, but can only give it 4 stars for reading enjoyability.

Between 1965 and 1967 more than 1 million mostly Chinese Indonesians were murdered under the pretext that they were COmmunists. THe real reason for their killing was that they were a minority, they were Chinese and they were not Muslim, which made them a target of the Indonesian nationalist Muslim government under Suharto.

This book however ignores the murders, the genocide, the pogroms, and instead focuses on the plot that was the pretext or excuse for unleashing the genocide. This is tantamount to writing an entire book on the Holocaust and examining only the killing of Reinhard Heydrich instead of examining the subsequent mass murder.

This book is mostly one long anti-American bashing polemic that blames the United States for all the murder and terror inflicted by the Indonesian government on the Chinese minority. The book insinuates that John Foster Dulles and Eisenhower were 'waiting' for the attempted Communist coup and used the killing of a few military officers to unleash the coup and the mass murder. But the U.S had no role in the mass murder that followed. The U.S was fed a lie by Suharto, namely that the Communists were trying to sieze power, and thus Suharto was able to carry out his ethnic-cleansing.

Seth J. Frantzman

Mr. Roosa has written a very good account of The September 30th Movement and Suharto's Coup d'Etat in Indonesia bringing new information to light. These events are central to modern Indonesian history and to an understanding of US policy in Southeast Asia in the past and present. Roosa does a superb job of synthesizing much of the speculation surrounding these events. I remember walking in the kraton in Yogakarta and talking to an elderly docent who was giving me a tour of the sultan's palace. He whispered to me, "Soeharto is one of the great mass murderers of all time." Indeed.

"Pretext for Mass Murder" is an impressive overview of the complicated events behind the 1965-1966 coup in which pro-U.S. General Suharto seized power and began a three decade reign of terror. Roosa worked with a group of Indonesian scholars on interviews and other historical research which produced core material for this book. Though in the end Roosa concludes that a few members of the Indonesian communist party (PKI), by launching an ill-conceived anti-military action, did provide the provocation which rightist military forces and the U.S. had been waiting for in 1965, the foolhardy actions of those individual PKI members do not in any way absolve Suharto and his western backers for what consequently happened (an epic campaign of bloodletting which eviscerated the PKI and killed up to a million Indonesians).

In Roosa's words: "In the months before October, the United States and the army wanted an incident like the movement to occur[...] Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers - Allen at the head of the CIA and John Foster at the head of the State Department - viewed all nationalist Third World leaders who wished to remain neutral in the cold war as Communist stooges. In full confidence of their right to handpick the leaders of foreign countries, Eisenhower and the Dulleses repeatedly used CIA covert operations to overthrow such leaders: Mossadegh in Iran in 1953, Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, and Souvanna Phouma in Laos in 1960. The Dulles brothers viewed Sukarno as yet another irritating character who needed to be removed from the world stage."

The book effectively synthesizes a wealth of information and is extremely well written, and thankfully devoid of the clunky jargon which sinks so many otherwise useful academic volumes.

While reading poetry is not one of my favorite activities, I was drawn to this volume because of my continuing interest in Edvard Munch's paintings and the mind behind them. Therefore the material in the book that interested me most were the insights into the artist's character and his personal reports of some of his own life experiences. It's always useful to have the originator of a piece of art spell out exactly what was going through his mind at the moment he was in the act of creation. Although discussing his tendency to talk the ears off some of his intimates, he was at the same time often silent and preferred working alone. He complained of constantly having beautiful women distract him in his studio by arriving and then standing between him and what he was trying to paint while disrobing in order to steal his valuable work time merely to satisfy their own selfish lust. Most of us would not consider this a problem but more of a gift from heaven, but then we aren't Edvard Munch.
There are various types of prose and poetry included in this 200-page translation of selected sections from Munch's fifty years of journal keeping. Some of the material flows as easily as water running down a mountainside and navigating some of it is more like shooting the rapids in pitch darkness. Munch took his personal note keeping very seriously as the title of his journal indicates. "We Are Flames Which Pour Out Of The Earth" is not a title for something the author considered light reading. One-segment details witnessing a butcher slaughter an ox. That's not the kind of bedtime reading most people treasure.
In another segment Munch meets Ibsen at one of his exhibitions and explains what he was attempting with some of the paintings about which Ibsen is curious. This happened to be several paintings from his life frieze. Later, he notes that Ibsen uses the meeting and fictionalizes what was discussed in his "When We Dead Awaken."
There is something for everyone in this translation. Some of it seems almost as obscure and disturbing as the artist's paintings, but that's okay. The reader will finish the book with some new insights into the artist and his work. Fifteen of Munch's lesser known visual works are also pictured in the book including one of my favorite woodcuts with gouging, "Man's Head beneath Woman's Breast." Another of my personal favorites, "The Brooch, Eva Mudocci" is also reproduced. This is a must-read for anyone who is truly interested in the man who was Edvard Munch, but be prepared to work a little. This doesn't read as easily as Tolstoy, Margaret Mitchell or Stephen King.

Munch Journal talks about his tormented relationship with Frou L and his unique view of the world through the eyes of a painter and a poet. It's not exactly very autobiographical.

The Private Journals Of Edvard Munch: We Are Flames Which Pour Out Of The Earth is an anthology of writings by Scandinavia's most famous painter, Edvard Munch (1863-1944), perhaps best known for his classic capture of raw human terror in "The Scream". Excerpts taken from his diaries from the 1880s to the 1930s offer poetry that is bursting with the raw pathos of the human condition. Expertly translated by J. Gill Holland, these powerful verses are illustrated with Munch's original black-and-white sketches. Highly recommended for library collections, and an absolute must-read for anyone fascinated by Edvard Munch's life and brilliant work.

As the subtitle which is lines from one of Munch's poems indicates, the Norwegian painter could write poetry that was as vividly intense as many of his paintings, notably his signature painting "The Scream." "The sky was like/blood--sliced with strips of fire..." are lines from another poem of his. The format of all of the sections from Munch's journals edited by the poet and literary critic Holland are broken into lines as if the content was entirely poems. But it is not. Munch's varied entries are perceptive on local events and persons of the day, his relationships with others, self-examination and self-discovery, and psychological insights. "The nervous talk a lot. Craziness often expresses itself in incessant talking. Talking has become...a sort of defense against other people...When I am talking I tax anyone I am with, as if I've taken him prisoner," he writes in the entry titled "On Talking." A friend of the famous writers Ibsen and Knut Hamsen, Munch appreciated the power of words and the skill of writers. He obviously took care to write as precisely and truly as he could, even for his "private journals"; here published more extensively than ever with a faithful, empathetic translation and concise introduction. With these journals, one sees behind the revolutionary paintings to the mind of the extraordinary painter who could make them.

John Muir was a genius of natural understanding, and this book doesn't really explain why. His life is beyond explanation. But he sure can tell a tale! It's a fascinating look at new immigrants to the U.S. in the 1800's. John Muir is such a man apart that every page is mindblowing. He has thoughts and experiences that will appeal to nearly every reader. His schooling was remarkable, his work ethic unrelenting, his desire to learn insatiable, his boldness irrefutable. He relates his thought processes in a way that opens the window to his soul, and you learn to know a man who you really want to know. His instincts, thoughts, motives, and wonderings guide the reader's mind to productive and beneficial thoughts.
I loved this book!

I wouldn't recommend this as a first book for those who are interested or curious about Muir (try _My First Summer in the Sierra_ or _1000 Mile Walk_), but it gives a lot of insight, for me at least, on why Muir turned out the way he did. He had a cruel, strict father and had to endure a lot of pain and hardship, which made his latter wilderness travels so much easier and free in comparison.

John Muir, one of the great leaders of the ecological movement in America, tells of growing up on a farm in Wisconsin. He gives detailed information about the wildlife he sees growing up, which is interesting but does get a bit tedious. It was interesting to learn how Muir became interested in being an inventor; before reading this book I hadn't known of his inventions. It gives some insights into how he came to love and appreciate nature, and hints at his later desire to protect all things wild. Near the end of the book he writes, "I wandered away on a glorious botanical and geological excursion, which has lasted nearly fifty years and is not yet completed, always happy and free, poor and rich, without thought of a diploma or of making a name, urged on and on through endless, inspiring, Godful beauty." Certainly Muir's writing recalls Thoreau, and his spirit has lived on through the writings of such diverse people as Rachel Carson, Jack Kerouac, and Adolph Murie. This book is not one of his classics, but if you're interested in Muir or life on the plains before they became completely tamed, it's worth reading.

The central symbol of Muir's abusive father is the father's decision to become a lay preacher, and thus his determination to study the Bible all day, while dumping all the farm chores on young John. This puts John at the bottom of a new well, hacking through the rocky ground in search of water. While the holy father urges him on between inspirational readings. One wonders if the father was reading of Jesus's encounter with the woman at the well, offering himself as the living water.

John concluded it's time to get the heck out of Wisconsin and away from his dad, to roam around the mountains and forests of the great unexplored Western U.S., appreciating the water where God placed it in plain view.

Muir's experience of being forced to work like a Calvinist, while his dad sat around like a pietist, presents a juxtaposition which can be applied to other relationships we all come across in our lives. That, and the lesson that you need not be a perpetual victim of a rotten childhood. Muir certainly overcame it.

This book is well-written and covers a lot of ground; it was just too impersonal for my tastes. The book starts out with the air of a traditional memoir, but towards the latter half it changes tone and becomes more of an historical account. It's an excellent history of the gay/lesbian rights movement as seen through Berzon's eyes; unfortunately, if you're not familiar with the players in that movement then it's easy to lose your bearings. Berzon's rise from the depths is inspiring, however, no matter what your background. It just got lost for me in all the names and dates towards the end of the book.

A very compelling story of a top Psychotherapist who was also a deeply closted lesbian for the 1st half of her life and a gay activist in the 2nd half. Ms. Berzon opens her heart to the reader as she shares her joys and her sufferings. She is also an excellent writer and for readers who would like to become writers, she offers some valuable insight.

Difficult to imagine that this revered guru of same-sex relationships was for many years the victim of her own internalized homophobia. The highs and lows of Berzon's life are vividly recounted, punctuated with names of friends like Anais Nin, Evelyn Hooker, Paul Monette, and Michael Murphy. It's no spoiler to say that she ultimately found happiness in a long-term relationship, making her tale that much more inspiring. Highly recommended.

An unbelievable journey that shows courage, an innate ability to survive, and a strength of character we all wish we could emulate. I know Surviving Madness was written with tears, because I shed them in so many parts of her story.

Once I started reading the book I didn't stop till I had finished. What greater review can you give....