V Books

As others have said, one ought not read Wendell Berry's Port William novels expecting fast paced action. They are ploddingly beautiful books about community and ordinary life, and the graces you find therein. Berry's writing is always a treat to read, graceful and filled with life, and Hannah Coulter is no exception. I have only read novels he has written from a male's perspective and I was literally awed by how well he wrote this female protagonist. I can't give it any higher praise than to say that I wept when I finished, for Hannah and for myself, because it was over.

My favorite quote (very representative):
"I took her into bed with me and propped myself up with pillows against the headboard to let her nurse. As she nursed and the milk came, she began a little low contented sort of singing. I would feel milk and love flowing from me to her as once it had flowed to me. It emptied me. As the baby fed, I seemed slowly to grow empty of myself, as if in the presence of that long flow of love even grief could not stand."

Of the eleven novels by Wendell Berry in the Port William saga, Hannah Coulter is probably the best. It is a complete life told with great sensitivity of a poor girl and an outsider to the families written about in the other novels of the saga. Hannah has great determination and ability to overcome her limitations with the help of her grandmother and the Feltner, Coulter and Catlett families. The story covers the period from 1922 until the turn of the century. It is an epic tale.

This is one of the best books I have read - a wonderful book of community and belonging

In his Port William novels, Wendell Berry has built a community of nostalgia and gentleness that provides an opportunity to redirect our attention, for at least a time, from the day's most discouraging headlines. Enough of modern society trickles into the edges of Hannah Coulter's story, however, that we are reminded she may very well be our own contemporary.

This is the story of a woman widowed twice, who has never had extreme wealth but who seems to have learned contentedness in most situations and to be quietly resigned to the rest. Is she an idealized and not fully real character? Probably, but that could also be said of some of the many angst-drenched lead characters in other contemporary fiction, and I admit I find someone like this far more interesting.

The difference in her world from that of so many of the rest of us is summed up by another Port William resident's summary of what has happened to her children who have moved on to Ohio, California, and beyond.

"Andy said, 'You're worried because they've left the membership,' and he smiled...They've gone over from the world of membership to the world of organization. Nathan would say the world of employment.'...One of the attractions of moving away into the world of employment, i think, is being disconnected and free, unbothered by membership.It is a life of beginnings without memories, but it is a life too that ends without being remembered. The life of membership with all its cumbers is traded away for the life of employment that makes itself free by forgetting you clean as a whistle when you are not of any more use. When they get to retirement age, [my children] will be cast out of place and out of mind like worn-out replaceable parts, to be alone at the last maybe and soon forgotten.

"'But the membership,' Andy said, 'keeps the memories even of horses and mules and milk cows and dogs.'"

And that is the magic of Berry's writing; his telling of stories of those who are still *members* of a community helps keep their memories alive and reminds us of our own need to find our own community within our own spaces.

ok.. I read this a year ago and loved it! It is elegantly written and soulful and kind. BUT after reading Wallace Stegner's 'Crossing to Safety'..and re-reading a chapter of 'Hannah Coulter', I'm afraid this book falls downward into a whole other category of writing. In my mind, 'Hannah Coulter' lacks humor..detail.. and the complexities of marriage. While Berry doesn't sugarcoat or gloss over his characters, he doesn't go into as much depth as I'd like, leaving me wondering and frustrated as to what's really going on inside Hannah, Nathan, and all the other folks of Port William. There just must be a whole lot more than 'everything's fine' in bucolic Port William..

The beauty of Stegner's book is that he manages to write 300 some odd pages on 'very quiet lives' and I truly hated for the book to end. With 'Hannah', I was left wanting more, not at just the end, but throughout the entire read.

This is a wonderful book for any woman pregnant for the first time - with firsthand experiences I can relate to, and scientific data that I might not otherwise seek out. I'm really enjoying reading about each month as I approach it.

Sandra Steingraber is a scientist and writer whose early cancer has led her to explore the possible environmental causes of cancer and teratogens in our chemically laced environment. In this book, she talks about her own pregnancy and what happens to the developing life within in a very thorough, and beautiful, way.

This book starts out as very scientific and a bit dull, but picks up and keeps you reading. I admire the author for doing so much detailed research and yet being very happy and optimistic towards her own childbearing. An inspirational and eye-opening book that I would recommend to all my friends, especially young women.

This book is FASCINATING. If you pick it up you won't put it down. Everyone should read this book, but especially those considering having children. (I do not recommend this book to pregnant women, it could be very upsetting)

The book is beautifully written, personal, scientific, and life changing. I particularly appreciate the author's perspective that the onis to protect children from toxic chemicals that cause birth defects should be societal, not personal. It is insane that we have accepted that due to mercury pollution as a result of coal burning women and children should have to stop eating nutritious fish.

I loved this story, both as a scientific narrative and a touching personal story. I'm thinking about pregnancy, and this book awakened me to many of the dangers of toxins in the environment I hadn't even contemplated before. I'm so glad that Steingraber told the full story of fish in the diets of pregnant women, for example: that a food with such healthy fats and potential for fetal brain development has instead been rendered toxic by not just mercury pollution, but POPs like DDT as well. And anyone who wants to breastfeed should be aware of how toxins are magnified not just over the course of fetal development, but within the content of mother's milk as well. Steingraber seeks to educate us not to make us take action indiviually, but collectively: healthy food and a healthy environment should be the right of every pregnant woman, mother, father and child. It should be ours for the taking, because we adults deserve the right to have children, and those children deserve the healthiest world possible, starting in the microcosm of the womb. As an adopted child, a pregnant woman, a nursing mother and a biologist, Steingraber tells every woman's story of conception and birth to inspire all humans with a vision of taking action to create a healthier world. It's a lovely telling that everyone - not just mothers-to-be - should read.

We came into this series from the back end. Then purchase preceding works to catch up on the story line as the characters were compelling enough to warrant further reading. Deborah Crombie's Inspector's Kincard and James is such a pair. Their personal lives intermingle with their cases. As readers, we root for each installment. Her stories are keepers as we weed our shelves to make room for new favorites.
With "In a Dark House," Ms. Crombie apply demonstrates her ability to rank with Martha Grimes in creating the stark and brutal side of human relations. Knowing how the personal issues evolve, we concentrated on the deftly plotted case and the steps taken to reconstruct the crime from almost non-existent clues in this great police procedural.
Nash Black, author of "Qualifying Laps" and "Sins of the Fathers."

Deborah Crombie continues to deliver a series worth reading and rereading...this entry is no exception. Balancing jurisdictional disputes, personal life distractions, and a strong sense of historical detail, In a Dark House is another superb example of Crombie's sensitive portrayal of character, place and pitch-perfect plot. If you haven't read her work yet, get them all and be prepared to enter a world you won't want to leave.

I thought that the two books previous to this in the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series were slight disappointments. Kincaid seemed relegated to a side character with Gemma taking the lead. IN A DARK HOUSE is an excellent mystery that brings the two back to equal ground and re-establishes them as one of the best partnerships in mystery fiction.

'In a Dark House' is my first foray into the world of Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James and, mostly likely, it will be my last ... which is strange because the book has all the hallmarks of a good detective/mystery series. The author has obviously done her research on the story's setting (Southwark section of London) and criminal investigation procedures. And the story, an interwoven affair involving arson and murder, has surprising yet plausible plot twists. But why is "In a Dark House" so forgettable?

Well it strikes me that the characterizations, especially of our investigative duo of Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, are just a bit too manufactured. It felt something out of EastEnders (a UK soap opera) rather than anything realistic. I also felt the author, who is obviously a talented writer, played too safe in her narrative. I wanted high drama, conflict, and the tangible feeling of suspense ... and I didn't find any of it.


Bottom line: a competent mystery perfect for the beach but certainly the sort of book you won't want to keep on your bookshelf afterwards.

Deborah Crombie's James & Kincaid series just gets better and better. Here the setting is Southwark, not a usual venue for London-loving writers. As always, Crombie provides a physical map with her text, although her descriptions of place are so excellent that it's ironically unnecessary. The aged warehouses oozing toward oblivion in the Thames, the aggressive marks of gentrification (for an even better take on this hot topic, see _Kissed a Sad Goodbye_) mingle with the tang of traditional cheeses from the open market by the cathedral and the wacky/wonky lives of the fringe business people who flourish in spaces between the run-down and the rave restaurant review.

Crombie's characters are equally vivid, not only the series stars, but also the agoraphobic in her doll's house and the oddly honest self-made politician. The characters are given dead-on details that call them to mind for the reader, even after an absence of many chapters. Yet Crombie never falls into the grey-page plague of prose. She uses her omniscient narrator's voice and swaths of unforced dialogue to convey both news and nuance. Her skill at plotting really shines here, as she moves among three sets of self-absorbed characters and the police, never once making the reader feel that "now for something completely different" sense of dislocation.

This is a mystery worthy of a re-read - first class!

I love this book. It truly is geared toward all levels of fitness. I especially like that there is not a lot of expensive equipment to by. And, who can say they don't have time to exercise when it's only 12 miniutes a day for the strength training and 20 minutes 2-3 times a week with cardio.

I just received this yesterday and have read it pretty much from cover to cover. This is a wonderful tool for people who are committed to their workouts and really want to see results. The photos, explanations, etc. are excellent. It is laid out in a very systematic and organized way. I love how she includes both easier and harder options for each exercise and stretch and how she integrates stretching throughout the workout rather than just at the end. I've been teaching fitness classes for years and thought I would breeze through the workout I did this morning, but I found it challenging. I'm looking forward to seeing changes in my body. I like having a guide to go by in choosing what exercises and stretches to do each time. This book is a great find!

I was looking for a book that would help me strengthen and tone my muscles. Help me get a routine going that I can stick with. As I've gotten older I have lost a lot of muscle mass and I feel it's important to gain most of that back. Now that I'm alone I need to be able to take care of myself and do for myself. I believe this book will do the trick. It has helped Montel Williams out as this woman is his personal trainer.

This book is easy to understand with quick simple workouts that really get your body working out. I never thought I could get my heart rate up with such simple work outs but I really did on this one! I often worry that I'll hurt myself doing exercises the wrong way but she's good at pointing out what to watch for to make sure you're doing it right. The exercises are short and easy to do before work or while dinner's in the oven. And I can adjust the number of reps I do to make sure I have that sore great work out feeling the next morning! Hope you all enjoy it!

I purchased this book for the purpose of getting back into shape after having baby #2. I was very active during both my pregnancies, so just needed something to 'tweak' myself back into pre-pregnancy form. This book absolutely served that purpose. For someone with limited time and resources (I don't have time to go to the gym, but have a few essential items at home), it's perfect. After a consistent training with this book, coupled with cardio, I lost my last 5 pounds in just a few short weeks. And my muscle definition is back! However, if you're looking for something more 'challenging' or if you have significant weight to lose, I suggest you hire a trainer.

I was surprised by the contents of this book. What I expected was a heartfelt biography...which it was. But it was much more. Ms. Maddy created a well-researched history of Africa and in particular Liberia. Ms. Maddy is not afraid to name the problems, issues and Names [capital "N] of Africa. This book has added to my patchy socio-historical understanding of Africa and at the same time created great respect for Africa. It has also - sadly - made me ashamed of how the USA participated in the racism, destruction and violence of a proud continent.

This is a fantastic book, though it's more of a global history lesson than a lesson in entrepreneurship. Monique Maddy covers the history of Liberia in depth and in less depth the history of several other African countries. She talks about economic development and the failures of the UN, IFC and World Bank. She is clearly an advocate for economic development via private investment. Her perspective is shaped by growing up in an exemplary company town. It was part of a mining project in Liberia sponsored by a joint venture named LAMCO. The project had a social development component that both supported the mining company by developing employees, and supported the citizens by developing them. The book is significantly a biography of Maddy herself and how she came to start her venture. That core of the book is surrounded by chapters that describe her efforts to start a pan-African telecommunications company- Adesemi - and its ultimate demise.

Maddy writes a warm, but penitrating review of the life of her family, as well as the nation of Liberia.

She gives great insight into the exploitation of Africa by the west. She makes recommendations that companies and individuals should heed as they work in this great continent.

Her writing style is easy to read, and very to the point.

REVIEW BY IAN MOUNT
www.ghanaweb.com: Business News of Monday, 1 October 2001

The Last Place to Start a Company
Monique Maddy tried and failed to launch a telephone service in Africa. She's moving on. Africa isn't.

Three short years ago, Monique Maddy was boasting that her company was going to "change people's lives" and "revolutionize things." Adesemi, the wireless pay-phone company she founded in 1993, had raised $37 million dollars, built a network in Tanzania, and moved into Ghana, and was planning to expand its service to the Ivory Coast. Maddy was the new face of African business. A Wall Street Journal article in September 1998 even proclaimed, "If the disenfranchised of Africa ever join the global economy, it won't be diplomats, politicians, or church people leading the way. It will be entrepreneurs like Monique Maddy."

It hasn't turned out that way. Maddy walked away from her company in disgust in the fall of '99. Her story is a familiar one, full of the government corruption that has become an African clichi, but the 39-year-old Maddy doesn't blame her company's demise on the bribery requests or Kafkaesque red tape. For the Liberian native, who's writing a book about third-world entrepreneurship to be published by HarperCollins next year, the real reason for Adesemi's failure and Africa's continental mire can be traced to the international development agencies that are designed to help the region. "Africa is worse off today -- in many countries -- than it was at independence, even though billions and billions have been spent," says Maddy, who herself served for five years as a United Nations Development Program officer. "As long as you have these kinds of institutions, you won't have any change."

Take Maddy's experience getting a pay-phone license. In mid-1995, a year after the Tanzanian national phone company granted Adesemi the license (and Adesemi had spent $1.5 million on its network), the phone company president said that it was no good because Adesemi's pay phones were wireless. Only after an acquaintance at the Harvard Business School, her alma mater, put her in touch with World Bank president James Wolfensohn did the matter get settled. The World Bank pushed the government just so far, however. The phone company insisted on charging Adesemi inflated rates to use its infrastructure. "When we asked the World Bank to do something about the rates, they said they couldn't tell the government what to do -- but they could lend them millions of dollars," says Maddy, referring to a $75 million interest-free loan the World Bank made to the national phone company. "They had a conflict of interest," she says.

Still, Adesemi kept at it, eventually building its network up to 600 pay phones and a pager service with 5,000 customers. The sell was easy, Maddy says, because Adesemi's phones actually functioned (the street nickname for the system was "the phones that work," she says).

When an Adesemi backer, CDC Capital Partners, refused to invest more money for the company's expansion into what Maddy argued were more profitable markets -- it wanted to see profitability in Tanzania first, despite the stacked odds -- she finally gave up. Maddy, who now lives in Boston, hasn't been to Tanzania since; her investors are selling off the network.

Not surprisingly, Maddy says her book will call for a radical departure from a system based on an international aid bureaucracy. "You basically have bureaucrats trying to develop countries," she says. "How many bureaucrats started Microsoft?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Ian Mount

As someone who grew up overseas much like Monique, i deeply admire how she chose to use her acquired skills and network to give back to a continent in dire need of what rare individuals like her have to offer.

The book is enjoyable to read and deeply inspiring to anyone interested in contributing to third world development.

The recipes are honest and simple enough for every level of BBQ er's. Have used a few recipes so far. My husband, with his new super grill, and I are both extremely happy with this item.
We are going to purchase additional copies for family and friends. Experts or not.

I can't speak highly enough about the book content & the writing. Robb did a great job of allowing the culture of Texas barbecue to come through. And, for anyone passionate about learning new techniques & recipes for brisket, ribs or any barbecue, buy this book!

Years ago I visited Texas and learned learned how delicious BBQ is.

Unfortunately there are no BBQ restaurants in Germany, so I have to cook the food for myself. With this book its no problem to cook authentic BBQ, the book tells you everything you have to know...

I'm a Texan living in CA and it made me homesick. Beautifully designed and well written. Many BBQ books are full of impossible recipes but this book seems mangeable. I love the history he explains, which I didn't know, and I'm a BBQ nut! Thoroughly recommended.

I expected a lot from this book, but it fell well short of my expectations.

The author does a fairly decent job covering BBQ from a historical standpoint, and he gives a decent overview of the main regional styles (other than just Texas), and it's liberally seasoned with nostalgic historical photos ... but nostalgia alone doesn't fill one's belly. I was expecting considerably more practical information on things like nitty gritty how-to details on meat butchery and working with the sort of smoking rigs available to most home cooks - things like bullet-shaped water smokers (ex: weber smokey mountain), drum-shaped offset dry-smokers, electric smokers, hardcore information in the type of cuts and the cooking times for each of the various types of rigs, etc.

Swing and a miss.

In any case, I give it 3 stars because the book contains some historical information I didn't already know, and it succeeded in convincing me that the author truly enjoys the subject matter - and it made me hungry too. A book on food that makes you hungry is doing something right. Props to the author for that.

_Lost in the City_ (1992) - a collection of short stories - is Edward P. Jones' first book, followed by the Pulitzer Price winning novel The Known World (2003), and All Aunt Hagar's Children (2006), a second collection of short stories. Both Lost and Aunt Hagar are about blacks in Washington, DC where Jones grew up in the neighborhoods he writes about. His stories are like mini novels with lush detail, multiple fully evolved characters and densely colloquial prose.

The stories have a common theme surrounding an old colloquial saying "Don't get lost in the city". The word "lost" means having no direction, aimless, with no intention, and the stories are about people in that sort of state of mind, simply doing time with no direction home. It also means alienation, being lost is the opposite of family and compassion, the stories involve broken and dysfunctional families, coldness. Charles Dickens wrote about London and the poor of the 19th century, but his stories were the opposite of Jones. Instead of that "coming home to family" Christmas time spirit of Dickens, Jones invokes coldness, alienation, purposelessness. I hesitate to call Jones "anthropological" because it is also very aesthetically pleasing, but like Balzac did for Paris in the early 19th century and Dickens for London, Jones invokes the spirit of a time and place that, while not full of good feelings and happy endings, does speak truthfully. The last story of the book, "Marie", ends with an old woman listening to an audio oral-history and I think Jones is telling the reader how he sees his own work, a history of a people and place.

My favorite story is in the middle of the book, "The Store", it is the most uplifting and optimistic surrounded by stories of tragedy and sadness. It is about a poor boy done good by hard work and honesty. Other stories I thought were excellent include "The Sunday Following Mother's Day" about a husband who kills his wife for no reason, and the resulting years of failed relationships with his son and daughter. It's epic scope crosses generations of multiple people, but it is also grassroots, concerning people who are invisible to society. "His Mother's House" is about a street drug dealer and his relations with his family, it helped me better understand how families (mothers, fathers, sons) and the drug culture can intermingle ."A New Man" is a heartbreaking story of a 15 year-old girl who runs away from home and is never heard from again. Overall I think the stories in _Aunt Hagar_ are better - more fully realized, longer - however these are still excellent, Jones is one of my favorite authors.

Truman Capote in his masterpiece In Cold Blood (1960) has the following quote (an actual quote from a sister to her brother who is in jail) which I think sums up Jones' stories:

"Your confinement is nothing to be proud of.. You are a human being with a free will. Which puts you above the animal level. But if you live your life without feeling and compassion for your fellowman - you are as an animal - "an eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth" & happiness & peace of mind is not attained by living thus."

Synchronicity is, more or less, a random event that seems to have more than a random meaning. Such it was when I read Edward P. Jones' short story collection Lost In The City directly after having read Sherman Alexie's Ten Little Indians. The reason was that Alexie's book showed off everything that's wrong with PC Elitist art and literature, coming from a person in an ethnic minority, while Jones' book- a 1992 National Book Award finalist, reprinted after the great success of his 2003 NBA and Pulitzer prize winning novel The Known World- showed off almost everything that minority writers can do to `fight the stereotype', as Alexie preaches, but does not practice. Both men's books deal with specific peoples in specific locals- Alexie's with Spokane Indians in Washington state, while Jones' with blacks in Washington, D.C. Jones, unlike Alexie, has quality writing in all fourteen of his stories, because his characters are fully realized, and nor caricatures nor stereotypes, and the situations that they have to deal with flow naturally out of predicaments of their proscribed lives. Are there some stereotypically `black' characters? A few, but they are minor characters, and in the background of the tales, as are most walking stereotypes you or I know. And there are seeming stereotypes- such as young hoodlums and drug dealers, that are revealed to have nuances and depths. Alexie does not undermine and nuance his characters in any way in his worst stories, while his best tale- one on the life cycle of a marriage between Indians, is his best tale precisely for the fact that its focus is on the marriage, not that it is an `Indian marriage'. Race and bigotry and pain are the reason for many Alexie tales, and they quickly devolve into screeds. Jones is a much more mature writer, and his worst tales, which are merely solid stories, are so not because of predictability, screeding, nor stereotyping, but simply because they go on too long, or the conversations do not serve the tale well. Those are minor ills, though, as this is a book that well should be praised. In comparison, especially, to the pap that's published nowadays, it's a great book....Why is it so difficult to find great writers and stories? Why does not the publishing industry find and promote more Edward P. Joneses? Well, first off, there are not that many, but, these stories may not be `moneymakers' because they do not offer pat solutions, nor are the characters caricatures, and they do not skim along the mere surfaces of things. It also takes an effort for readers to fully appreciate the multi-hued, and deeply textured tales and portraits Jones relates, and most people suffer from video game or MTV languor. Yet, is there, or has there ever been, a better virtual reality machine than a great piece of writing? A great poem puts you in a moment, and a great story can arc you through events that you can feel, almost as if experiencing them for yourself.

I loathe the cheapening of thought and conversation and striving for insight. That is why I love this book, and the relative handful of other works like it that are out there. Instead of the shot at a quick, cheap, moneymaker, publishers should seek quality, and promote it, to develop careers, rather than get one hit wonders, whose one hit was dependent upon things other than the writing quality- which is usually sorely lacking. Accept lesser profits in the short term, but greater in the long run, while also contributing to literature. It then forces an upward spiral of writing, where people can look to an Edward Jones, or William Kennedy, or Charles Johnson, and say, `I want to write like them, because they're good, and I want to contribute to my culture,', rather than this several decades long downward spiral where bad writers see a Mary Gaitskill or Yann Martell or Stephen Elliott or (fill in the Oprah-type writer) being published, and say, `I want to write like them, because it's easy, and I can write better than that crap, and I want to be famous.'

It is not enough to merely say why a writer is good, but show it, praise it, and honor it as among the best an individual can do, and the highest that human beings can achieve. On that note I will close with the terrific end of The Night Rhonda Ferguson Was Killed:

She made a pallet for her daughter beside the bed and turned out the light when she left the room. Occasionally, Cassandra would drift into what Anita thought was sleep. All the while Cassandra gritted her teeth. Sometime, way late in the night, Cassandra spoke out, and at first Anita thought she was talking in her sleep: She asked Anita to sing that song she sung in the car on the way home. Anita sang; long after her parents had gone to bed, long after she stopped wondering if Cassandra was listening, Anita sang. She sang on into the night for herself alone, her voice pushing back everything she did not yet understand.
Understand yet?

An artist whose prose and narrative arcs generate irresistible pull and evoke in readers a genuine sense of entire worlds, Edward P. Jones has written two books. The first, Lost in the City, garnered the PEN/Hemingway award. The second, The Known World, won the Pulitzer Prize. African American, a luminary of American letters, Jones affirms that which is humble and human, and does so with startling power. In the words of MLK he has a "heart full of grace, a soul generated by love."

This collection, first published in 1992, was considered Jones's first literary effort. I find this idea of firsts interesting and would like to look at it briefly before I move on to a few of the craft elements in his stories that I would most like to steal.

This collection of short stories was published a decade before Jones won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for his novel "The Known World." Some of the stories in the collection were first published in the 1980s in literary magazines like Ploughshares and Callaloo. One of the stories "Marie" also appeared in the Paris Review in 1992. The thing that I find interesting is that these publications do not seem to register with the general public or even reviewers. Instead, his books are presented as sudden, award winning events. Instead of a writing career spanning 25 years of craft and respectable publications, we are presented with the image of a of sudden event, a spectacular storm, a writer whose first novel won the Pulitzer Prize.

In any event, the first thing I did when I opened "Lost in the City" was to read the opening lines of each story. I wanted to see how and where he began his stories. I was thinking of an essay by Debra Spark called "Getting In and Getting Out." The essay appears in "Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life." There is an anecdote in the essay about a friend the author who is screening stories for the Iowa Short Fiction Prize. She says, "If I have to read another story that begins `The alarm clock rang,' I'll shoot myself."

Although I have never started a story with this particular phrase, I do tend to begin a story at the beginning. So as I read through the Jones collection I paid particular attention to the places he began his stories.

In "The Girl Who Raised Pigeons," Jones begins the narrative at some undefined future moment when the crisis of the story has already forced the characters' world to change. "Her father would say years later that she had dreamed that part of it, that she had never gone through the kitchen window...." The story never travels completely forward into the world from which these first lines are described. However, the story does end with a certain inevitability--a sort of narrative arc that points forward so that we understand how the characters arrive to the point we find them in the opening of the story.

"The Girl Who Raised Pigeons" covers a lot of ground in twenty-five pages. It outlines the decay of a Black, D.C. neighborhood and shows us how that decay affects the community. On one level it is a story about a father's coming to fatherhood as well as his young daughter's coming of age. It is about the place and the power of the natural world even in the urban environment. It is about an urban Black community on the edge of change.

The narrative is carried along by the story of the young girl and her pigeons. The story is usually told through a close third person narrator; however, the point of view does shift at times from the young girl, Betsy Ann Morgan, to other characters. These shifts offer insight into the community in which Betsy and her father live. But these shifts seldom last for more than a line or two and then quickly move back to Betsy.

I paid close attention to these shifts in point of view. But before I discuss them I would like to think a bit more about where these stories begin.

Another story that begins post-crisis is "The First Day." The story opens with the line: "On an otherwise unremarkable September morning, long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother, she takes my hand and..." This is the story about a child's first day of school. The story is short, only 5 pages, but it has taken a common event, a child's first day of school, and uses it to point out the divisions between social classes in the Black community. One of the interesting things about this story is that it is told in the first person. The protagonist never reaches the crisis described in the first line within the span of the story. The narrator shows nothing but love and admiration for her mother throughout the course of the story. We are lead by that single clause, "long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother," and the trajectory of the story to understand that the protagonists shame is inevitable.

I find it fascinating that he entire story hinges on this single clause. We never see a hint of shame in the narrator aside from her opening line. If that clause were deleted we would not necessarily know that the narrator would ever come to be ashamed of her mother. But knowing this first line and following the trajectory of the story we know that the crisis and the change are inevitable.

Jones also opens his stories from the middle. The narrator then takes the story back to that middle before moving farther forward. He does this in the story "A New Man."

"A New Man" begins with the lines, "One day in late October, Woodrow L. Cunningham came home early with his bad heart and found his daughter with two boys." The narrative eventually makes its way back to explain exactly how Woodrow came to find his daughter with two boys, but it does not stop there. The narrative continues. It carries the story farther. We come to understand exactly what this event means in the life of Woodrow and how it comes to define his essential character.

Now, rather than continue with this idea of how or where Jones begins his stories, I would like to move on to two other divices Jones uses: point of view, and the idea of epiphany and change within a character.

As I mentioned earlier, Jones does not shy away from changing the narrative point of view if it serves the story. But the places where he shifts point of view seem to be dependent on a few things. He only ever shifts in a third person narrative. The point of view never shifts for more than three or four sentences. The point of view only shifts in stories that are 20 pages in length or longer. He always quickly brings the point of view back to its original place.

It is the brevity in the shift that I find most interesting. It is like one of those little flashes of insight that Woolf wrote about--matches struck unexpectedly in the dark--or the mirror in Joyce's "The Dead." The shift lets us see for a moment how the character looks within their world. For example the title story of the collection, "Lost in the City," is told by a close third person narrator. However, there are two moments in the story where the focus shifts from the protagonist, Lydia Walsh, to her taxi driver. The first shift occurs about two thirds through the story: "He thought that maybe she had been born elsewhere, that she did not know Washington, would not know the streets beyond what the white people called the federal enclave." This shift in point of view ends quickly. The narrator brings our focus back to Lydia. "But in fact, the farther north he went, the more she knew about where they were going."

At the end of "Lost in the City," the point of view again shifts for a moment. "The cab driver thought that her crying meant that maybe it had finally hit her that her mother had died and that soon his passenger would be coming to herself."

I suspect that it is the brevity of these shifts that make them work. Another aspect of these shifts is the fact that they are subtly revealing--not deeply or overtly revealing--and they are always revealing something in the protagonist. These shifts in point of view seem to stress the importance of community in these stories. They show, however briefly, that these characters do not live in isolation, that on some level they are always aware of themselves within the context of others--or perhaps it is that we should always be aware of them within the context of a greater community.

The final aspect of this collection of stories that I would like to look at relates to an issue raised in an essay by Jim Shepard titled, "I Know Myself Real Well. That's the Problem." In this essay, Shepard criticizes the tendency for novice fiction to create characters who are "whooshing along the conveyor belts" of narrative toward some kind of epiphany. Given that my stories have this tendency, I am curious how Jones creates a sense of movement and revelation without allowing his characters to fall into that whooshing conveyor belt.

One way that Jones avoids this narrative conveyor belt is by beginning the story someplace other than the beginning and ending the story in a place that points to the inevitability of change or crisis, but he does not necessarily show us that change or crisis. This can also be seen in the story, "The First Day." We do not experience the moment when the narrator becomes ashamed of her mother. We are told in the opening line that the narrator will indeed one day be ashamed of her mother. We are lift at the end of the story with the inevitability that, despite the strength and character of the mother, the child will one day become as ashamed of her as other members of the community.

Often in this collection of stories the narrator is not even aware of his or her change. The reader senses that something is in fact permanently altered, but it is difficult to say exactly what that thing is. At the close of the story "My Mother's House," we do not find the protagonist, a mother whose biological son has just murdered by her godson over a dispute involving drugs and money, in the throws of some sort of epiphany.

Her husband, who is not the father of either child, works as a bodyguard for her biological son. Her husband skulks away from the scene of the crime, leaving her in the street to comfort her dieing godson. She has always known that her husband was a weak man. At the close of this story we find the protagonist drinking a fifth of vodka and walking from room to room in the house her drug-dealing son purchased for her. She unlocks all the doors and windows, "for Santiago (her son) had no key to her house. And outside that house there was a very cruel would and she did not like to think that her child was out there without a place to come to."

The protagonist knows throughout the story that the world is indeed cruel. The cruelty is not a revelation. Nor does she necessarily seem poised to make some sort of change. In fact, she opens her house in a rough neighborhood so that her son, who has just murdered her godson and pointed a gun at her face, may come into the house for comfort.

Perhaps the real change at the end of this story takes place in the reader. After we have experienced this world, we can never view these characters or their world in the same light--we will never be able to read this story in the same way again.

In the end, there are still many more aspects of this collection that will occupy me throughout the coming months. I have marked my copy of the book with many notes. I find myself referring back to them often.

Edward P. Jones's stories about Washington D.C. are unconventional in that some don't have endings. Often they just come to a stop. You are forced to reflect back on what you just read.

Some are better than others. "The First Day" is about an illiterate mother taking her daughter to register for kindergarten. She has to pay another woman to fill out the registration papers for her. If that one doesn't get to you, you don't have a heart.


Many of the other stories are quite long, some as many as thirty pages. My favorite was "The Store," about a boy who takes a "make work" job at a neighborhood grocery and ends up managing the place. The store becomes more important than his personal life and he loses a woman he loved because of it. "Young Lions" is about a violent young man who doesn't hesitate to shoot a clerk during a hold-up. In the end, his violent lifestyle impinges on his personal life, and he starts slapping around the woman he really loves.

Washington D.C. is definitely a character in the stories. The streets are Alphabetical and the Avenues are named after states, but this the Washington of the sixties and deterioration is only just beginning to envelope the black section of town. There are stories about how involvement in drugs debases the characters and their family members. There are stories about characters who emigrated from the South. I can't think of one that didn't touch me in some way, and that doesn't usually happen in a collection of short stories.

Edward P. Jones should be a better known author than he is.

ANOTHER BOOK W/ RAVE REVIEWS THAT I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND. THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE GREAT, THE STORY A CLEAVER IDEA, BUT OVERALL IT'S JUST SO-SO. NOT A BOOK TO RE-READ. INSTEAD, TRY TAXI DOG & HARRY THE DIRTY DOG.

This book is wonderful! I am a substitute teacher and I carry this book with me just in case. My classes, 1st - 5th, love to listen to this story. It lifts their spirits and gets them giggling. It has saved me many times!

I love this book for a few reasons. One, it is whimsical and very tongue-in-cheek. The dog's 'life' is a great example of personification and a great lead-in for explaining 'voice' to my students when teaching them the process of writing. It helps them 'see' (due to the unigue style of font use) and 'hear' the dog and its feelings in a very clever way. This book has opened many avenues of creativity for my students and really helps them be better creative writers. I read some of the previous reviews and was a bit surprised at the negative comments. As a teacher, I feel kids should be encouraged to read and read often. The language is not immature and actually introduces some good vocabulary, which gets students looking to find out what they mean and how to use them. I think this book is a must for all elementary school classrooms. I have one in mine and highly recommend it. All my students have loved it and I do, too.

The catchy cover and title of this book attracted me to it. I read the rave reviews and decided I had to buy it. I'm disappointed but I'm not sure why. I'm sure my kids will like it which of course is the point, however, if your child is a pre-reader, you may groan at having to read this book too often. It's not that it's technically that bad, has a bad moral or anything like that....it's just so, so. The illustrations are nice enough but the story is lacking something, but I'm not sure what...it's just not that interesting..... The text is not written in a standard font, but is interspersed with graphics reminiscent of rebus style puzzles (they are not exactly rebuses but I can't think of the correct word!). At first I thought "that's cute but by the end of the quite long text it had started to become a bit irritating. This is a book that you'd be happy enough to borrow from the library, read and return but I really wish I'd spent my money on another title from my wish list.

When a boy discovers his canine returning home one early morning, "stepping out of a limousine and wearing a tuxedo", he is determined to discover what is going on. For the dog in question, life is anything but predictable. Late that night, after his pet retires to his dog house in the back yard, the boy quietly follows, hoping for a clue about his pet's late-night activities. The first thing he notices is that this is no ordinary dog house. Unchanged from the outside, inside there is an elegant living room, a well-appointed bathroom, even a closet filled with fancy clothes. As the boy watches, the dog in question dresses up in his finery, is picked up by a limo and arrives at a secluded club called "The Doghouse". The boy peddles furiously on his bicycle to keep up with the progress of the limo.

The boy is shocked when he discovers his pet's after-hours occupation: the dog runs a club where other dogs come to be entertained, relax and talk about their problems, before returning to the daily tedium of guarding the family home, patrolling the yard, chasing cats and sleeping in the shade. The boy is treated to a tour of the club and even receives a picture with his pet in a luxurious booth. What an eye opening experience! Stunned by all he has learned about the secret life of his dog, the boy peddles home with new appreciation of his best friend's entrepreneurial spirit. This delightful combination of graphic text and energetic illustrations create a lively adventure, as a young boy's world opens up with a sly sense of humor and imagination. The canines are charming, from the handsome star of the story to the slinky poodle and the camera-toting afghan in her hot pink evening gown. After the sun goes down, it's a dog's life. Luan Gaines/2005.

Not only is the content amazing for personal growth... it has a nice read-it-with-your-partner tone. A good way to foster honest and productive communication. A great gift for weddings!!

Okay, since I got this book in December... I've now read it cover-to-cover 6 times.

This book shoots straight, and doesn't "beat around the bush". Nina doesn't talk down to you... like you should know all this already. She talks to you, and on a level that's easy to follow along with, and to understand.

Now, I'm not saying I agree 100% with what she has to say... and I'd be lying if I said I did. But, Nina definitely opened my eyes, and helped me to look at my partner in a whole new light.

Not just sexually... but sensually as well.

Thank you Nina, for being so open... and teaching this "old dog" some new tricks.

Nina Hartley's book is the best book I have read about sex hands down. The book combines her years of experience in the adult industry and instruction into one fantastic guide. Nina Hartley gives not only how to tips but also gives advice on how to communicate with your partner and create intimacy. Ninas writing is candid ,easy to follow and intelligent. Anyone, whether just starting out or experienced will come away after reading this book learning something new and having fun with the new knowledge!
Who hasn't wanted to pick the brain of an adult star who does sex instruction also?

This book is definately not for just people who are beginners, it's for the pros too! Lots of very useful information on all sorts of adult topics. The writing is interesting while at the same time very informative. Since Nina is a nurse, she follows hygiene and safety very thoroughly. Not offensive, gawdy or overdone. It's definately not boring! Very to the point with LOTS of handy hints and helpful info. Covers every topic you want to know about but don't usually ask. Would totally recommend this to any adult looking to become more sexually aware. Very good!!! Worth your money and the time it takes to read...great for couples!

I first became a fan of Nina Hartley as a horny teen-ager coming of age in the 1980's and now, at age 39, I love her more than ever. This is because Nina is not just your typical porn actress but a sex positive feminist, swinger and educator committed to bringing to the public her message of sexual liberation, anti-censorship and personal freedom.

This book is divided into 18 chapters, each focusing on a different aspect of sexual expression - cunnilingus, fellatio, toys, swinging, erotic bondage and many others. Each section is well written and with very detailed suggestions on how to improve your sexual technique, I actually felt like I should being taking notes at certain points. Most importantly, my wife and I have noticed that our sex life has gotten even better since reading it.

This book goes beyond just your typical sex guide because of Nina's expertise on human anatomy and sensual touch as well as her obvious intelligence and committment to the free exploration of human sexuality as part of the quest for a more happy and fulfilling way of life. Thanks Nina!

From John Howard Prin, author of Secret Keeping: Overcoming Hidden Habits and Addictions

For many people, living an authentic life is hardly more than a dream. This book shows how such dreams can come true.

The author has lived what she teaches. In clear, lucid prose, Ms. Fortgang walks the reader through the maze of fears and challenges of making vital changes in one's life to the rewards and benefits that make it all worthwhile. With dashes of humor and sound encouragement, her advice confronts the internal limits we often impose on ourselves and helps the reader define a purpose that's organic and true to each individual. Her wide array of examples illustrates unique ways her clients are living out their various Life Blueprints according to her 90-day process.

As a counselor who guides numerous people to make life-changing decisions to overcome their addictions and discover the blessings of sobriety, I will not hesitate to recommend this user-friendly handbook to every sincere seeker. Well done on every level!

This book is definitely one of the best in this subject category - self-help to get your life and career in focus. I've read many books similar to this; books that try to help you define your interests and career path, but none have been as well written and easy to understand as Now What? The book is geared towards those of us who might struggle with finding "IT" - that career or life direction that we want to take. Through a series of helpful exercises, Fortgang helps you get to the heart of your desires and uncover some of your interests. I was really surprised by what I discovered about myself through this book and would definitely encourage others who are "lost" to read it. The exercises are particularly useful, and the book was very readable and encouraging. Did I find "IT" through the reading of this book? Well, no. But, I did help gain clarity about separating interests and hobbies and that, for me, was a big issue. The only thing that seems unreasonable is the 90 day period of time; you'll want to read the book much faster and will likely find yourself finished long before 90 days has passed. That was the only problem with the book, placing a time frame on it. Otherwise, it was really helpful.

I am a professional life coach and my primary focus is on life purpose and career. "Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction" is one the best tools out there for those seeking to find heart and meaning in their lives and work. I have been so impressed with the book that I have recommended it to clients ever since it first came out in hardback. This new paperback edition has even more valuable additions and I continue to recommend it highly.

I have been so impressed with the body of the author's work that I underwent specialized training with her to become an authorized Life Blueprint® Facilitator, coaching individuals and groups through the step-by-step NOW WHAT?(tm) program of intuitively guided questioning, exploration, and action designed to create the foundation for a more fulfilling life.

With or without a coach, this book will help guide you to finding your own "Life Blueprint" and a life of greater meaning, purpose and joy. This is a tremendous gift not only to you, but to the world!

Many of the examples the author used were of people who already had more than most people do (money, education, connections, high paying salaries that they are just tired of).

Check out Claire on page 11. She lives in London, wants a second home, is planning a weekend trip to the South of France, has a great job and benefits. Has a nice husband and home. What is her problem? Maybe she needs a shrink to figure out what her unhappiness really stems from but that's another book.

The author should have used cases concerning more ordinary folk. She seemed to be appealing to upper class, globe trotting, burnt out executives who are whining because they feel they are missing out on something. Maybe that cute little pony they didn't get as a child.

Claire...try yoga, buy a pony....get a grip.

Laura Berman Fortgang really gets it...and knows how to give it back. Having read all of her books, I love that Now What? guides us through the process of discovering how our own truths yield meaningful, productive results -- for ourselves and our clients. She reminds us, "It's not what you do, but who you are when you are doing it." To learn from Laura's years of experience as a Master Coach, industry pioneer, author, and mentor is the best gift I have ever given myself. Everyone will discover something valuable for themselves at the end of their 90 days. Thanks, Laura.