Bean Books

I purchased this book shortly after switching to a vegetarian diet. What a life saver, especially to the novice vegetarian!

Most vegetarian cookbooks I had found relied upon excess cheese for protien. Or worse yet, many books that claim to be vegetarian use such things as chicken broth, fish, shellfish, and other products which contain animal products (which in my book is NOT vegetarian).

This book is different from the others. It shows many ways to use soy products; not relying just upon tofu, but introducing tempeh, soy milk, and soy cheese. Yes! There is more to a vegetarian diet that just tofu (which is quite good when prepared correctly). And the variety of recipes are quite nice. The recipes cover salads, main dishes, and even some desserts. You can prepare an entire meal just from this book.

The instructions are easy to follow and the resulting food is quite tasty!

I bought this cookbook a few years ago when I had just decided to eliminate eating meat/fish etc from my diet. At the time I wasn't "ready" for all the tofu etc but I gradually grew to love it and I'm so glad I keptthis cookbook around. It has so many tasty recipes - there are nice bean salads, hearty stews, a paella, desserts etc. Each recipe has nutritional contents too. One thing that turns some people off is that many of the recipes that are take-offs on previously meat-laden recipes are called by their meat names (e.g. Soy Sausage Potato Chowder or the Soy Meat Loaf). It doesn't phase me though and sometimes helps me to get my husband to try it. Lots of interesting recipes for tempeh. Some recipes (like the curried eggplant) use soy yogurt too. Its a fun cookbook and so far so good in terms of being tasty. Definitely recommend this one!

Far too many of the tofu recipes in this book consist of taking a block of tofu, slicing it, frying the slices and then covering them with sauce. (Tofu with Mole Sauce, I'm looking at you!)

Other recipes fail because they simply try to replace meat with tofu or tempeh, rather than trying to be completely new recipes in which the soy product can shine on its own, rather than as a substitute.

So far, there are only 2 recipes that I would recommend - the Spinach Burgers and the Brown Rice Pilaf. The rest? Meh. I'm still looking for a really good tofu cookbook.

This book makes some pretty false assumptions based on hyped, unscientific claims. Go to the reviews for "The Whole Soy Story," by Kaayla T. Daniel, and you will get previews of a book that alarmingly shows soy products to be a danger to health. Evidence is mounting that soy is an anti-nutrient, that in fact it is an extremely unhealthy substance. The way soy is manufactured, processed, and chemically altered, it has no remaining "food" value to speak of.

What a pleasure! -- a creative, easy-to-follow, healthy cookbook with recipes that TASTE GREAT! Greenberg leaves no soy question unanswered, from Soy Split Pea Soup to Tofu Tiramisu. The recipes are clear and very innovative, covering ethnic foods from all over the world, like Pumpkin Tofu Cheesecake and Soy Potstickers. Every recipe also provides nutrition information on calories, carbs, cholesterol, fiber, sodium, etc. As a food historian, I appreciate the intelligence and attention to detail in this book and what must have been years coming up with and testing all these creative recipes. An appendix on where to get soy products and information is also very helpful, as are the comparisons between soy products and dairy, other beans, etc. It's a great book for when you want to eat healthy but don't want to compromise on flavor. Mangia!

This is a fun book for beginning chapter readers. It is the first in the series.

I really like these books for young readers (6 - 8ish). My daughter really loves the characters and I think the adventures are interesting. We search for these in the stores, and it's a shame there aren't more. They are hard to find when you need them so personally, I'll probably buy them all on Amazon so that she has them to read.

My five year old loves to listen to a few chapters of this book before bed. It is great easy reading about two neighbors who think that they are completely different but end up becoming great friends.
No need to read too much into the plot, just enjoy and have fun!

We also enjoy Jack & Annie books and the American Girls series.

Some younger children might have really, really, liked this book. And the question is, why? Really, why is this book so good? If you ask me, it's pretty shallow. Even for a younger children's book. It doesn't build Ivy and Bean's relationship... well, right. It could have been better. The idea was a pretty good one, showing younger children about how people with complete opposite personalities can end up best friends. The book showed Ivy and Bean, the girls with the opposite personalities, slowly bonding. The way they bond is boring and shallow, more boring and shallow than real life. The names of the chapters are "Ivy Hatches a Plan", "Bean Hatches a Plan", "Easy Peasy", etc. They bond by pretending to be witches. Nothing interesting. There is absolutely no action.
After all this complaining, I think you get the idea. This book really isn't so great.

I am seven years old and I love Ivy and Bean! It is funny and easy to read. People say it teaches bad things, but I know better than to do that. It is also like my life because I have older brothers who are eleven and going through a stage. I think you should give Ivy and Bean a try.

The IT Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar, is a inspiring book.

This book is totally amazing! i started to read it one day, and by the next day I finished it. I never get so into reading, EVER! This book made me feel like i was right next to the people in the book. I could relate to just about every problem in it. It is an awesome book for any teenage girl. I would incourage all my friends to read this book many times. It incouraged me to go out and help more than I already do now. I absolutly love this book sooooo much! I will deffanitly read all the books in the series. Over and over again.

I disagree with anyone who does not like the book. It does what a book is supposed to do. It keeps you intrigued. So what if you think it is unrealisitc, so was the notebook and No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark. Books are supposed to stretch the imagination. personally I think all of the It Girl books are great. I just started reading Unforgettable, and I can't wait for Lucky to come out.

Totally unrealistic. The author might know about the lives of the rich and famous, but she clearly knows nothing about attending an actual, realistic boarding school. Jenny Humphrey and her friends would all been have expelled by now.

A boarding school let an expelled girl, especially one who had been caught using drugs, back in? Wow. Ok. Stick to the gossip girl series, please.

I started this book and was amazed at how the author could just put the f word anywhere like it was nothing! It had very strange and akward senerios like a girl making out with a teacher. I didn't finish the book but from what i read it was bad.

I got immediately got addicted to the It Girl series when I was at a book store and randomly decided It Girl looked like a good book to read so I picked that one out and ended up falling in love with the series.
The book Notorious is one of the best books I have ever read, it's such a page turner you never want to stop reading it, I swear it's impossible. The main plot of the book is when a girl Tinsley Carmichael returns to Waverly Academy and elite boarding school after being expelled the semester before. Tinsley just happened to be best friends with her former roommates Brett and Callie. Jenny Humphrey then took Tinsley's spot and Waverly and ended up rooming in Dumbarton 303 with Brett and Callie. All this drama between the four girls and their secrets, lies, and just being teenage girls causes hatred.
I would recommend this book to anyone that loves drama and gossip but doesn't want to get involved in it in reality. When you read this book you can visualize everything and put yourself in their shoes and not worry about your real life. Teenage girls with LOVE this book!

I like and have read many books by Susan Wiggs. Although I do not like novels that include cooking recipes before the chapters, I suffer through these to read her storyline. Unlike the previous books in the Lakeshore Chronicles, this one is action-packed. The story even begins and ends in Europe, with international intrigue. But somehow, this takes away from the atmosphere of the setting of the series--upstate New York. The best parts of this book are the characters, and the realistic challenges that face each one of them. I think they were all wonderful. There is plenty of romance and plenty of action, but the mixing of the settings and the pace of the storyline is not to my liking. Perhaps others will enjoy her injection of international espionage. Not for me. Just stick to Lakeshore and I will be happy.

First, I'd strongly suggest that anyone considering this book should first read the others in the series. Knowing the other characters, and understanding their stories, is very helpful to appreciating this one.
Second, I loved the fantasy of this one, with the wounded woman finding just the right man, however unlikely the match may appear on the surface. Wiggs did an excellent job of making both lead characters three-dimensional [loved Noah's interest in STAR WARS!] and I liked the fact that other characters didn't always behave in ways the reader expects.
Third, the business of the U.N., the court at The Hague and the fictional country were all unnecessary to the plot, except insofar as they provided background on Sophie. Frankly, I skipped those parts and still enjoyed the book.
This is a good read, especially for a winter's day - or to cool off on a hot summer's day.

Well, I enjoyed the book. It is VERY light reading. You know what is going to happen from the very beginning of the book but you would be disappointed if the book did not have a happy, planned ending. Not as enjoyable as the first boook in this series. I think it is time to leave AVALON.

An easy enough read, but I didn't really care about Sophie or Noah. Worth reading just to catch up on the lives of the other people in this series.

Fans of the popular Lakeshore Chronicles by Susan Wiggs will be delighted with this addition to the series - especially pleased when it is read by the always splendid Joyce Bean.

A high powered international lawyer, Sophie Bellamy, would seem to have it all. She's seen her share of misery as much of her career has been assisting those in countries ravaged by war. Thus, it comes has no surprise that when she's visiting one of these areas she finds herself in the middle of a terrorist attack. This experience affects her in a number of ways - causing her to reassess her life, her values, and goals.

Suddenly Sophie not only feels compelled but wants to return to Avalon, a small town in the Catskills. She wants to be reunited with her family, her two children, Max and Daisy, and hopefully make up for lost years, time not spent with them.

As a divorced recently career obsessed woman she doesn't seem to be a very good candidate for romance, but this is a Susan Wiggs story! Upon arriving in snowy Avalon she finds not only a heavy blizzard but a skid that takes her into a ditch. As luck and the author would have it Sophie is rescued by Noah, the handsome local veterinarian. Despite freezing temperatures sparks immediately fly and she falls in love.

But wait, there's more to come. As she often does this author tosses in a few surprises leaving listeners to wonder for a while whether or not love can really conquer all.

- Gail Cooke

I found this book enchanting and fascinating, although the author stereotypes the Montalcinesi and the Italians throughout the book.

I read this book since I'm going to Montalcino in May.
This book is full of interesting stories about Montalcino and its people. Much better than most guide books. If someone is going to visit Montalcino or any other hilltop towns of Tuscany, this is a must read.

Hating for this one to end, I bought Bel Vino also. If you enjoyed Vanilla Beans & Brodo, you will love Bel Vino!!! Both are so "tastefully" done!!!

My husband is Italian. I purchased this while actually traveling thru Tuscany and staying in Montalcino. I'm looking forward to reading her newest novel. While I agree with another reviewer that her style of writing is a bit of a slow read, it was so helpful and informative in understanding the Italian culture and way of life. I loved the little "snapshot" picture stories of their hill top way of life,the tradition involved around the actual preparation of the food, and the human interaction involved in the sharing of a meal. We as Americans are so "fast food" get it done oriented that we forget how enjoyable it is to actually spend time and enjoy each others company over a meal. I felt I really knew each character as she portrayed their story and I was very moved by the history of this city as portrayed by Ms. Dusi.

I've read at least 30 books on Italy and many on life in Tuscany, and this one was CLEARLY the worst!! The writer takes forever to tell a story, and goes into so much detail I'm asleep before she ever gets to the point. I've been to Montalcino, and I still found myself laboring to get through this book. There are MANY better books to read: "Too Much Tuscan Sun", "The Reluctant Tuscan", "A Thousand Days in Tuscany", "A Day in Tuscany", "I, Mona Lisa", "Extra Virgin", "Italian Neighbors"....

If you love all things Italian, you'll enjoy reading Isabella Dusi's
"Vanilla Beans & Brodo". You will feel what it's like to live in a hill town in Tuscany. Isabella intersperses her everyday life in Motalcino with a little history of the area. It made me to want to visit the town again and to personally address all of the people in her book that she encounters in her everyday life. The book is a little slow going at first, but does get better as you get into the book.

Robert Heinlein in the classic Citizen of the Galaxy wrote describing a bad play:
"The first Krausa had been a saint with a heart of steel. Disgusted with the evil ways of fraki, he had built SIsu (single-handed, staffed it with his wife... and their remarkable children. As the play ends they jump off into space, to spread culture and wealth through the Galaxy."

This reference jumped into my mind in reading this book. I had to see what the conclusion of the series was, but was sadly disappointed. All the good guys, and their remarkable wives, are saints. In five years the world progresses from post-roman empire technology to American civil war/ WWI. Link, the evil machine, seems to have had its programing stop with Douglas Haig.

Based on the first couple of books, they could have done better. Can't help but think the book was the product of opinion polls and focus groups of ten year olds.

I have read all the books in this series, and this one is as good if not better than the rest. It finally ties up all the loose ends. If you enjoy military (science) fiction, than this is a good series for you.

This book does not disappoint. It brings to conclusion the entire series and makes me want to see a sequel as the earth develops along the new lines created by Justinian and Theodora.

I was a little angry it took so long for the last book in the series to come out. But closure was worth something.

Eric Flint and David Drake's DANCE OF TIME tells of an epic battle fought in the sixth century where evil has been put down - but is still ruled by a monster from the future which is part computer, part demon. New attacks are planned - and it's up to general Belisarius to fight an impossible battle against it.

This well-written, mesmerizing book recounts a true, deeply intense story of a daughter's 21st Century quest to uncover the details of her father's apparently clandestine military mission during World War II. It reveals, in riveting style, the impediments to the author's quest presented by her father's obvious sworn secrecy, his advancing dementia and, ultimately, his death. It places the quest in the context of the emotions that crowd the life of a "baby boomer" as she also raises her own children. Somewhat surprisingly, I found this book to be a real "page-turner."

At first I did not like Ms Franks or her book. I was not sure why she was writing if she disliked her father so much. But as I read on you could see she was trying, not very well at first, to understand her father and what made him tick. It took a lot and several times I wanted to slap her for some of the things she said but in the end she found the father she had wanted all along and really had right there with her but she had to get tear down the wall he had built so he could servive with what he had seen during the war and her mother after the war.

This book was absolutely amazing. I was drawn to it especially because my father, and the father written about in the book, were both at the Ordruf Concentration camp and liberated it at the same time.
I loved how the author wrote so sensitively about her father's health and the issues that certainly changed him after his time in the war.
Eileen Hale

While many readers have criticized the author for pursuing her inquiry to the point that, as they see it, it inflicted on her father unnecessary pain, I see two positive outcomes. One is that she unveils for us all one of the most unusual military careers of all times and prepares for the father the recognition and the dignified military farewell accorded to him at the end of his life. The other is that by relentless personal and professional persistence she proves to him that she is not only his worthy offspring but also that she is maturing by leaving behing her youthful ideological adventures and moving closer to him by appreciating his outstanding skills and sacrifices for the country. They both get rewarded by her actions.
As to the psychological and clinical interpretations of the story, I believe that talking of posttraumatic stress is an unproductive if fashionable analysis, that trivializes the uniqueness of this case. Instead, the man's withdrawal seems to be a case of disruption of the relationships the hero had formed with his larger than life assignments, the exceptional feats of skill and daring, the national and world significance of his services. Importantly, these successes had been part of his personal growth away from the stifling family environment and had helped him conquer the limitations of his introverted disposition. When he returned to the unpleasantness of his job and the confines of a home and a distasteful marriage, he simply withdrew. Where he could keep his accomplishments reasonably alive, i.e., in the company of Pat Rosenfield, he opened up, talked rather freely about them and found just about all the joy of which he was capable. Likewise, the alienation from the author/daughter during her youth paralleled her acting the role of a "commy," i.e. a proxy for the things he had fought against. Fortunately it resolved when she slowly grasped and accepted his "secret war."
Better than with the current PTSD theories, we could perhaps understand Tom Franks' story in the light psychoanalytic concepts of "adaptation" to certain object relationships that anchor our adjustment and self image and whose withdrawal engenders conflict and neurosis.
The only exception would be the episode of the concentration camp, a trauma unredeemed by the excitement of a task accomplished and by the satisfaction of a duty absolved. In fact, when the memory of it was stirred in the restaurant encounter, he reacted violently, more in keeping with the majority of the PTSD cases and clearly out of character with regards to his typical aloofness. This could be the exception that confirms the rule.

This seems to be a book with the best of intentions.
I liked Thomas Franks, and clearly Lucinda Franks is an accomplished journalist.
But the story itself is all over the place. Too many quick episodes and incidents about too many irrelevant characters. All I really wanted to know was what happened to the author's father during the war.
I didn't appreciate Lucinda Franks's decision to take us on her arduous journey of finding the truth about her father, either. "Did you do this, Dad?" "Did you do that?" "Were you serving here, Dad?" "Were you serving there?" All answered with a "Well, perhaps," or "Let's not talk about that now." A sentence or two along the lines of, "It took me years to get the most basic information out of my father, but finally I did: here is his story," would have made for much more compelling reading.

The book opens with a view of the downtrodden Bean family as seen through the young eyes of Earlene. Living next door, she's fascinated by the unruly children, squalor, drinking and other behavior of the Bean family. Her father warns her against having anything to do with the disreputable clan.
The book grabs you with its descriptions of the horrifying family situation, the poverty, the inbreeding, the fatherless children, and the stories of their escapades. The reader wants to draw back in horror at such lives, but the book is absorbing and at times humorous.

We'll all live just like the Beans, someday real soon I suspect. As soon as the big corporations get through pickin the skeleton clean. Pickin the last meat off the bones. After the corpse that was America,has had it's blood sucked dry. They'll be just two kinds of people, the very poor and the very,very rich. The very poor, you and me and the Beans. How well would you fair under such a hard scrabble existence? How are you going to fair, when it all falls apart, this shaky house of cards?
It's a great book. Probably one of my all time favorites. It's one of those special books that plays like a movie in your mind as you read it. It does that because of the sheer skill of the author. I'm very sad. I'm sorry the story had to end. Maybe it's not going to end. Perhaps we've seen a vision of our future. This may be how all of us,(the used to be working class) will be living. Just surviving.

I can't believe this thing was a bestseller. I read this because it was featured in the book "How To Write A Breakout Novel" and sounded interesting. I was wrong. I am finishing it only because I hate to leave a book half-read, and it's not the most *boring* book I've ever read (a record still held by Anna Karenina since college, lo these many years ago). It's not until over halfway through the book before anything even remotely interesting happens (an attack on a law enforcement authority). The writing definitely has its moments but the characters largely do a lot of vaguely strange things for no apparent reason that I can see, and damned if I can find any real conflict or 'villain' in this (what, poverty? Poverty is tragic, but it's mindless and therefore non-villainous). Mostly it's just these really pathetic people going about their lives with no real plotline. Isn't that why many would-be novels get rejected by agents and publishers, because of a lack of a plotline? If I'd been Ms. Chute's agent I would have sent it back to her with a few plot suggestions & asked her to submit again. Oh well, Anne Rice gets away with that too.

This thing has the feel of 'not ready for prime time', but still with lots of promise. I'm giving this two stars because some semblance of conflict *does* show up albeit awfully late to the party, and because Ms. Chute's ability to convey a hillbilly point of view with such lyrical prose is to be commended. If you read this book for any reason, the prose is definitely it. If you're looking for plotline, look elsewhere.

Carolyn Chute is my shooting star, really. Earlene Bean is the best American fiction character to walk onto the novel in this past century.

We like to pretend the world of these characters does not exist and even if we may admit it does most of us don't want the details. It opened a window to a new reality for me. I appreciated the author's notes at the end; I did not assume incest between Lee and Earlene though she states that many did. I found myself profoundly grateful for my education and resources which have spared me this type of existence. I found Earlene to be a likeable character and the lack of fairy tale solutions gave credence to the sad realities of poverty.

I enjoyed reading this book. it provided a good bit of a slice of middle east history with which I am not familiar. The detail on the period and the crumbling Ottomans is very elucidating. I recommend this book with some caveats. (1) while I understand and see the scholarship involved, I still do not (personally) date the Arab-Israeli conflict to 1913. (2) The book has a very carefully structured anti-Zionist (I hesitate to say anti-Israeli) undertone/bias. Finally. the most damning bit of carefully constructed bias is the end - page 294. Ms. Marcus notes the British 1937 proposal to subdivide the land. She posits one of her lead characters seeing the loss (i.e., not having all the land) "... what we would like but of what we can have." She indicates the words are as haunting now as then. What she does NOT say is that the Jews accepted the British (then the UN compromise [partition]). The Arabs rejected it. The arab view of "what we can have" was very simple... "all of it" and destroy Israel. (Note: the five arab armies failed.) Ignoring this bit of brutal history does the book and her readers a very sad and major disservice.

So many histories of the Arab-Israeli Conflict open with a whirlwind look at post World War 2 Jewish migration to the land called "Palestine", hit the reader with the Partition of 1948, and then come the seemingly endless series of wars that have followed. It is refreshing to find an account that looks back to an earlier time, and discovers that the roots of the conflict run far deeper.

In a nutshell, the thesis of Jerusalem 1913 is that the first rumbles of discontent that would ultimately become the conflict that has dominated the past 60+ years of Middle Eastern history, can be found in 1913, when the Ottoman Empire began to crumble.

Prior to the Empire's collapse, the Palestinian peoples - Jewish and Arab alike - had lived together for five centuries with no history of systemic conflict. After all, both were subjects to the same master so there was nothing really to fight over. Then, in 1913, came the coup of the "Young Turks". The Sultan was overthrown, and the whole future governance of the empire was called into question. Modern ideals collided with traditional values; concepts of centralized authority were diluted with experiments in local control; and suddenly, the issue of who would rule in the land that is today called "Israel" became a matter of contention.

Simultaneous to this, the Zionist movement, which had begun in earnest in 1882, was starting to bring significant numbers of European Jewish settlers into the territory, to the consternation of both the Arab and Jewish Palestinians - the former because the settlers were building their colonies out in the countryside where Arabs were the majority, but rarely employing local Arab laborers and artisans and so seemed like an alien presence; and the latter because the unconcealed desire of these new immigrants to establish a Jewish homeland was at odds with the reality of Ottoman rule to which the Jewish majority population of the city of Jerusalem had become accustomed.

So, Amy Dockser Marcus concludes, it was the opening of the power vacuum that the slow death of the Ottoman Empire created that brought this situation into being long before there was a Balfour Declaration, a Holocaust, or a UN Resolution to create two states - one Arab, and one Jewish.

World War 1, of course, delivered the coup de grace to the Ottomans, and during the decades of British rule that followed relations between Jewish and Arab Palestinians worsened.

One would like to think that if things had just started out a bit better, that all the bloodletting could have been averted. Sometimes, in Jerusalem 1913, it seems as though Amy Dockser Marcus believes that such an outcome might have once been possible. But at others it is almost as if she is narrating a Greek tragedy, where the impending cataclysm is apparent to everyone except for the unfortunate participants in the drama.

Ultimately, Jerusalem 1913 is more of a personal reflection than a detailed history, and one which attaches more importance to the travails of individuals with names like Albert Antebi and Ruhi Khalidi - who exemplified the old order and in their own ways sought to protect Jerusalem and the land around it from the conflict they each sensed was coming - than it does to social movements and political events. This leaves it a bit incomplete as a history, but still it is an insightful book and should be on the reading list of anyone who wants to understand the roots of the conflict that today seems poised to consume the better part of our civilization.

A fascinating look at a neglected period in the history of Zionism and the pre-history of Israel. Marcus draws human portraits for us of largely forgotten but highly influential figures: on the Arab and Ottoman side the Khalidis, Khalil Sakakini, Ali Ekrem; on the Jewish side, especially Albert Antebi and Arthur Ruppin. She succeeds incontrovertibly in her aim of showing that the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict go back well before 1920 and the British Mandate, in fact to the end of the 19th century; and how the Zionists, with European chutzpah, turned a blind eye to the danger. She gives us too an idea of what the crumbling Ottoman Empire was like in its twilight years. It was not yet to be written off. Despite the Empire's shortcomings and the intrusions of foreign powers, there were native Jews like Albert Antebi who felt a loyalty to it.

Marcus is to be thanked for recounting Noah Sokolovsky's 1913 film "The Life of the Jews in Palestine" and for introducing us to the treasure chest of the Khalidi Library, which, as she says, is "off the beaten track for most visitors" to Jerusalem. She obtained access to several important unpublished sources like Ruhi Khalidi's "Zionism and the Zionist Question" and the letters that are in the possession of Albert Antebbi's granddaughter Elizabeth, and she did so by personal interviews with family members. (There is a good section on her sources.) In short, though she was hampered by not knowing Arabic, her research was fresh, assiduous, and more serious than the popularising impression that the book might give readers at first.

I make that last remark because, as a historian, I find Marcus's style too personal and intrusive for my taste. The book begins, "In September 1991, I flew to Tel Aviv...," and the concluding Acknowledgements end with "a mother's love and gratitude." But that's her character and I got used to it.

There are one or two minor inaccuracies. Notably, the date of publication of Hertzl's "The Jewish State", both in the original German and in the English translation by Sylvia D'Avigdor (who is not credited), was 1896 and not 1897 (p. 22).

The book could do with more and better-reproduced photographs, including pictures of the protagonists. The only clear photograph is on the dust jacket. There is a revealing map of the Old City of Jerusalem, but a map of Palestine as it was then would be useful. There is a good index.

Marcus asks a very pertinent question when she states where the breaking point in Jewish Arab relations was. She turns back to the last years of the Ottoman rule where Jews were still a minority in Palestine. Jews were buying land and settling it. The Arabs were coming into contact with these Jewish settlers and having some conflicts. However, there was discussions between the groups, and negotiations were available. As the years went by after 1913, the conflict became much more inflamed and not negotiable. Marcus states that 1913 was the year when people could have settled this conflict peacefully.

This book gives an interesting perspective. The Middle East has always been in conflict and the main conflict is Israeli-Arab. Marcus points to the time when the conflict was just emerging and could have been solved.

This book is unfortunately told from the author's personal point of view of events, without benefit of historical knowledge, and apparently without benefit of major historical sources. Thus for example, she concludes somewhat arbitrarily, and without explanation, that "things started going wrong" in November 1995, when Yithak Rabin was assassinated.

Only this, Dockser Marcus erroneously concludes, drove the era of suicide bombing into full force. The bombing she remembers "most vividly took place on Friday March 21, 1997," during the Jewish Purim festival, commemorating the biblical era defeat of Haman, the Persian royal adviser who plotted to assassinate the entire Jewish people in that land. The bomber killed three women at the Tel Aviv cafe where he detonated himself, and injured 48 others, including a 6 month old infant. The image of the injured Shani Winter, only one month older than the author's own daughter, especially haunted her.

Alas, suicide bombing certainly did not result from the Rabin assassination. It began earlier than that, and as a result of a long history of strife, long predating the earliest incidents mentioned in this book.

The earliest time that Dockser Marcus discusses is the 1880s, when "the first Jewish settlers arrived in Palestine," where the Ottomans had ruled for more than 400 years.

But the author is blissfully ignorant, and the risk is that she leaves readers blissfully ignorant, too. In reality, the conflict dates back much longer than that, to the Muslim conquest of ancient Israel that began in 634, with the sack of Gaza, north through Cesarea, during which 4,000 Jewish, Christian, and Samaritan peasants were slaughtered, according to Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem at the time. Negev villages were also pillaged, while the towns of Jerusalem, Gaza, Jaffa, Cesarea, Nablus, and Beth Shean were isolated and laid waste in the wanton destruction, famine and plagues that ensued.

And it was during that period that the Khalidi family actually arrived in Palestine, not as indigenous people, but as conquerors attached to the forces of Mohammed's heirs. Indeed, they continued to remain in the ranks of the oppressive classes (as opposed to the oppressed) throughout the Ottoman era. Readers will learn none of this from Dockser Marcus' book.

It's an interesting take of the early 20th century, apparently based on personal journals at the like. But Dockser Marcus has no background whatever on repeated historical conquests of Palestine by Islamic forces, first by Abu Bakr and then Umar, and later by Umayyads, Abbasids, Mamluks, Mongols, Ottomans and so on.

By all means read this book. But understand it more as the author's personal interpretation and pie in the sky than history.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

I loved everything about this book. The episodic plot. The population of characters. The brilliant writing. I agree with another reviewer that it has something in common with the Grapes of Wrath.

I did find it amusing reading the critique, here, from one of Chute's friends. I truly don't believe Chute would categorize her book that way at all. I see it as an extremely well written portrait of a class of society; written without one iota of prejudice pro or con; written without any moralizing or any higher purpose than story itself. It succeeds because of those things.

I think it would of been better served published as non-fiction. If Carolyn Chute had taking the subject to the next level. It's too real for fiction. And that cover is deceptive as all get out!

Don't be deceived by the cover. This is a story about abusive, ignorant-beyond-belief, incestuous white trash. It's gross. It's sad. It's embarrassing. I didn't find it funny or see any dignity, truth, honor, respect, love or honesty as others did. Not in the characters in the book anyway. Carolyn Chute for writing about them, yes. You want to cry for the children and slap some sense into the women. The human animal at it's cruelest.

I knew a Mexican woman, heroin addict/dealer. She lived in a filthy dive motel with her 2 year old son and white husband. I remember seeing her 8 months pregnant, big as a barn, slamming heroin in the kitchen with her 2 y/o hanging off her leg watching, complaining about how when she gave birth the hospital would keep the baby in order to detox it. She didn't like that. The nerve of anyone messing with HER baby. I almost threw up watching all this. It still and always will make me sick inside. The next morning I went to the Methadone clinic and never looked back. This book brought all that back.

Personally I think men and women like that, some how some way, should be surgical sterilized.

I wonder if I should be even thinking of reviewing this book, given that I have had the very good fortune of being friends with the author for over 20 years now -- we met before "Beans" was published.

However, I also feel that somebody out there should understand that this is a wonderful, honest, painful, loving, remarkable book. Carolyn writes about things she knows, and then gets very up close and personal about it.

This book is an attempt to show those who have never known [or even seen] the lives of people some would term "unfortunate" and others simply disdain, and to show that THESE PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE. Being poor does not mean that one cannot live with dignity, or honesty, or humor. Being poor does mean that these people are often forced to live in a society that demeans them, insults them, and often forces them into places where they are regarded as nothing but yesterday's garbage.

Let there be no mistake; The Beans are with us, and are not about to go away anytime soon, nor should they. If we have eyes to read and lips to read aloud the story of The Beans, we just might realize that they have much to teach us about truth, honor, respect, and love.

I understand that many people will not understand how on earth I can make this statement because I understand that many people prefer to look for the tawdry and speciousness in environments that they find uncomfortable or even unbelievable.

But this is above all a book of hope. It shows us that everyone lives a life of worth and influence, even if at times some of these "everyones" live lives that are in large part cruel and uncaring. And in that is the challenge of this book; to look below the surface and to see that all of us are part of the Bean family, and that we should value that relationship.

This book is an amazing literary achievement, and this is a statement that I never make lightly -- even if the author happens to be a friend. So read it and try to let its power and honesty confer those qualities in abundance in your lives. You may not find them in your first reading of the book, but trust me -- they're there.

I first read this book years ago on recommendation of a friend. This is a powerful story about "white trash" America, with characters that jump off the page and come to life. To this day I still recommend Chute's book to friends who love to read. Every last one of them has come back and told me how much they enjoyed it. Beans of Egypt Maine is gritty, it's uncomfortable, it's amusing, and it's realistic. This is a damn fine novel.

Carolyn Chute has fictionalized a small Maine town to produce a tale of heartbreak, rage, and even humor. The book is not a series of short stories, but a novel about the rural poor, people who have been forgotten by mainstream America. The prose is simple but definitely not naive. People who believe in a mythical rural heartland, where the barns are painted red and people enjoy the "simple life," will be shocked by this book.