Memorials Books

As a writer who also suffers with temporal lobe epilepsy this book is especially close to my heart! Written by a neurologist at Massachusetts General it is written in easy to understand laymen's terms and encourages, as well as empowers, those of us who write, suffer with writer's block (which I do, often...:(), helps us understand our own "creative brains" (as well as helping our loved ones understand us).
Perhaps some of you out there are epileptics and don't even know it! Epilepsy is an extremely "varied" disorder and the common kinds of seizures that everyone knows about are not the only ones that people suffer.
A superb book!! Read it...AND WRITE!!!

This is a very unusual and fascinating book. More than just a book about disordered writing, Dr. Flaherty describes the fragile neurochemical interior of human species in the 21st century. Man in a balance act around his existential need for meaning.

Alice W. Flaherty, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and teacher at Harvard Medical School, describes her career's arrival thru the looking glass of applied medicine.

Brain and mind meld as medical knowledge conjoins humanism. She first recognized her ship-comes-in as a disease and sought relief within mainstream medicine. She writes of her life in struggle for a cure from 'hypergraphia', congruent with her human struggle for self.

Aha! I recognize similar life experiences yield similar glint of opportunity!

Her chapter on metaphor, inner voice and the Muse is inspiriational. I switched on to catch her opinions about her writer's muses from her human viewpoint, and all of her writing is refreshingly honest and kind.

I add a note of caution to writer wannabes from my optimistic point of view - I find her analyzing and describing writer's block from her many sources to be a bit underwhelming. I felt better by skipping over entire shovelfulls of that 'can't do' information.

I am greatly encouraged to read of an educated MD/neurologist and a respected member of society who wrote of her career arrival with all its attending babywash in true splender of first love.

This is neither a self-help book nor a neurological treatise; it's a rich and wonderfully stimulating memoir-cum-analysis of a cluster of issues to do with brain and mind and creativity. If you like Kay Redfield Jameson or Oliver Sacks, this is the book for you.

From the title and subtitle of this book I was hoping for something utilitarian and informative. I was disappointed.

Although the author certainly raises the title's topics, she spirals off onto other, tangential subjects that fall into her actual area of expertise (neurology). The urge to write immediately turns into the (well-documented) urge to speak, described in great physiological detail. Writer's block rapidly morphs into brain damage and tumors, again at great length, and with no direct connection to the original topic. The reason for these diversions quickly becomes apparent: there is at present no reliable information on the neurological basis for writer's block or the creative impulse.

The author fills space using "forensic neurology" to speculate (with few available facts) on the origins of famous, long-dead writers' impulses. The living writers mentioned in the book she apparently never interviewed...she uses quotes from their books on writing. The original research on-topic primarily consists of the author's anecdotal personal experience with compulsive writing (hypergraphia). All the author really has to say is that SSRI's and behavior modification might help in creativity and writer's block. She says that several times. According to the back cover copy, the author has received a prestigious fellowship to study the biology of creativity. Maybe she should have waited until her studies were completed before writing a book on the subject?

Notwithstanding the glowing praise of the cover copy and most of the other amateur reviewers, in my opinion this book was a boring, rambling, $13 rip-off - the natural domain of self (not mainstream) publishing.

After reading Yellow: Stories, Lee is on the top of my list as a great fiction writer. Although I have a BA in Engl. Lit, there are few modern writers who have exhibited a capacity for moving me and engaging me as some of the greats of old. Lee, however, is one such writer. As he continues to master his craft, I look forward to filling my shelves with his works.

This is really just a comment, but after reading the story "Yellow" a few years ago I had to wonder how autobiographical it was, the reason being that the main character, Danny, has experiences that mirror things that happened in my own life. Don Lee so perfectly describes the experience of boxing, the "lucid" feeling you get after a good workout (great word for it), that he HAS to have fought himself, right? Not only that, Danny's life experience seems to match my own in so many other ways (not that they really reflect well on me). I'm actually half Japanese, not Korean, and I'm going thru college now rather than in the 70s, but it really feels like someone took my life and made a book out of it. So anyways, whether it is a self potrait or not, Lee has excellent perception.

Normally I like to read novels. The reason why I read this book is because I like the second book from the same author (The country of origin). I am not an experienced reviewer. I can't tell whether it is pedestrian or literally meaningful. However, I like it very much. It is so enthralling in spite of the subtle writing style that I could barely put the book down. Once I have started one story, I had to continue reading till I had read the whole story.
My favorite stories are "Casual Water", about two young boys struggling to make a living after abandoned by their parents; and "Yellow", about a successful Korean consultant's internal struggle with his indentity and the cultural differences. For me, they are very moving and insightful.

I don't think I've ever encountered a collection of stories where every single story fulfilled me so thoroughly. There are eight gems in Yellow, seven decent-sized stories and one long one, the titular tale that may be the most accomplished of the lot. That story chronicles the life of Danny Kim, who is doing exactly what FDR told everyone not to: fearing fear itself. The fear in Danny's life is racism, and he's never actually hurt by it in any grand fashion, probably because he heads it off (or at least thinks he heads it off). His character is fascinating and yet very believable: he's the kind of guy who, at the prospect of getting knifed by an assailant, might take out his own knife and slice himself before any damage could be incurred by the other party. "Yellow" is the longest story in the book and the most satisfying.

I found "The Price of Eggs in China" to be the most fun story, full of lovely twists and great detail about the making of furniture. "Casual Water" was the most heartbreaking, a sad story about two boys abandoned by both parents. Really, there isn't a weak story in this entire book. It's unfortunate that Yellow probably won't get past the typical Asian-American reader, because this book is quite universal in many respects, much like Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies.

Oh well. Maybe not every Joe and Jane Doe will read it, but here's one reader who's a much happier person for having read this wonderful collection.

In an interview, Lee mentions Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio and Joyce's Dubliners as literary influences for his seminal work of short stories, Yellow (2001), which focuses on the lives of Asian-Americans living or connected to Rosarita Bay, modeled after Half Moon Bay, California.

Lee's book avoids immigrant narratives focusing instead on the lives of Asian-Americans who experience themselves as "American" without the carrying the complex weight of moving from one country to another. While one may encounter shadows of post-diasporic experience in the stories, "Casual Water" and "Yellow", Lee does not preoccupy readers with plot lines most often associated with the work of more commonly known Asian-American writers.

Instead, he illustrates well the various issues assimilated Asian-Americans face as they live in a country where occasionally, they are reminded of their immigration status, regardless of whether they have been born in the United States. For Lee, race politics includes a Chinese thug who questions his Korean-American attorney about his white girlfriend in "Voir Dire", presuming that a white girlfriend automatically indicates a form of race treachery. Annie Yung, in the delightful, "Lone Night Cantina", assumes a cowgirl identity only to find herself facing the problems with assuming an identity that is not authentic to her person.

Some Asian-American students will react to Yellow by arguing that they do not find Lee's characters "Asian" enough which begs the question: What does it mean to be Asian/Asian-American and what are the risks of narrowly-defining characteristics that ultimately lead to essentialism. Feminists have been right to point out how essentialism damages women and similarly, readers can bring their assumptions to the book so long as they understand that reading Lee's work may cast new light and perhaps, widen the spectrum of race representation. Readers who presume to know what "Asian" is may find themselves struggling with Lee's honest portrayal which avoids reinforcing images of Asian-Americans as perpetually struggling, self-hating, or striking nationalistic attitudes. Marked with a fluidity of language and expression, Lee's affection for his characters allows them genuine epiphanies without sentimentalism.

Dry Wells, Nevada is a withering one horse town where there is little else to do but drink and fight.

But that's about to change.

Mick Callahan was a successful psychiatrist with a promising future in the City of Angels but when the stresses of the limelight finally caught up with him, Mick finds himself unemployed and bordering on the desperate.

Being out of work, Mick jumps at the opportunity to return to Dry Wells to make a quick buck filling in for an old friend and radio personality, Loner McDowell. Back in his hometown, Mick is quick to realize that one can never be completely free from one's past.

Upon his return, a dapperly dressed man is found murdered in an alley, killed mobster style and the coincidence is not lost on the longtime lawman, Sheriff Bass who had many memories of the juvenile Callahan return, suddenly too fresh in his mind.

Before long Mick finds himself at the heart of a web of deception and murder, torn between the prospect of salvaging his career and the moral dilemma of helping root out a ruthless killer or killers before another life is lost...

Even if that life is Mick's own.

Memorial Day is a fantastic mystery colorfully written and fun to read. Harry Shannon creates a perfect environment in Dry Wells as the backdrop for an ever changing murder mystery rounded out nicely with a slew of possibilities as to the identity of the killer(s) for the reader to consider. Every turn the story takes confounds the seemingly straight forward way in which the reader decides who the guilty party is, but does so without disrupting the simplicity of the ultimate outcome.

Harry does a bang up job with Memorial Day and has a true knack for creating characters we can all identify with in one way or another and making subject matter somehow personal. So whether you love a good mystery or thriller, curl up on the couch with Memorial Day and enjoy the fireworks from the comfort of your own living room!

Over the past few years, I've read Harry Shannon's short stories, both in the horror and crime fiction genres, published in various e-zines. For a few venues, we've been table-of-contents mates. Memorial Day, the debut Mick Callahan mystery, then was a genuine treat to read.

For starters, I cite its originality in the narrator/protagonist. Mick is an ex-boozer, ex-TV personality, and head shrink who has a deeper vein of compassion and generosity than he seems ready to admit. But he's not really the reluctant or ambivalent hero. He's smart enough not to take himself, just his investigative work, too seriously.

This yarn is set in the fictitious town of Dry Wells, Nevada (population: 278). As the novel's title implies, it's the Memorial Day weekend. Mick is filling in temporarily on the local radio station, doing his call-in help program. A troubled girl phones in, saying she's in trouble and fears for her life. Dubbing her "Ophelia", Mick can't extract more information from her.

After the radio show on the way back to his motel room, Mick stumbles on a grisly murder in a dark alley. The sheriff is on the scene and makes Mick promise to keep the murder quiet over the weekend -- a most strange request. Thus, the novel's intriguing premise is set up.

Mick's AA sponsor is Hal Solomon, a wealthy, retired businessman who happens to be in London. They communicate via phone and email to discuss the investigation in Dry Wells. Mick's unusual sidekick Hal earns a second mark for originality.

I found much to enjoy in this novel. The prose is energetic and sharp. The desert setting is crisp and vivid. The dialogue between the characters is seamless and natural. Memorial Day has echoes of James Crumley and James Lee Burke, but it remains as an original.

Memorial Day is an excellent mystery. Mick Callahan is a wonderfully flawed hero but he isn't so flawed that we have to spend pages upon pages wallowing in his angst. This is a tight book without any chaff. The bad guys were very well done; I detested every one of them.

If you like Harry Bosch and Dave Robicheaux then you will like Mick Callahan.

This book is perfect for anyone who enjoys mysteries. Its main character, Mick Callahan, is the best of Clint Eastwood and Dr. Phil rolled into one. You don't know if he's gonna shrink the people he meets or just haul off and beat 'em up. Great fun! I liked it enough to buy Eye of the Burning Man too.

I heard about this book while reading the reviews of another book and thought I'd give it a try. I was not dissappointed. The book started out a little slow for me, but quickly picked up speed. In fact, it was almost impossible for me to put the book down while reading the last 100 pages. The story itself was interesting and somewhat unnerving. Mick Callahan is a great character. Extremely flawed but very likable. Hopefully, we will find out more about him in future books.

I, too, would like to add my voice to the chorus, despite what the most recent reviewer said. As my title indicates, I certainly could say 5.
The book is so well thought out, so well nuanced. I have not read it now in easily close to 30 years, but I must have read it at least 5 times prior to that.
Over the years I've often thought I should read it again; I also owned the rather dilapidated paperback copy, and would rather not disturb it's well deserved rest.
I once emailed the author we briefly interchanged over the importance and relevance of the novel (this had to have been 6-ish years ago), and even now... it seems more cautionary than ever...

It is a stunning, breathless work and I now must find a new, hardbound copy and read again.
-best, Alan

Rather disappointing dragging out of the affair, after a promising start. In amidst warring planets, a woman is attempting some diplomacy. As such, she gets dragged into an alien culture, its social mores, problems, treatment of the genders and all those other issues.

The main character, Paula, has to be strong to survive.

I first read this book as a young woman and the images of a spanish-surnamed powerful female was an inspiration to me in the development of my own personality. I have read this book so many times over the years that I've lost count. .

Paula is small, smart and fearless and she needs all her wits to survive in the hyper macho Styth society. The book reflects the sentiments of the women's movement of the 70s, when women in male dominated western societies were encouraged to extend thier intellectual powers outside the home while continuing to raise children, as Paula does.

Cecelia Holland became one of the youngest people ever to write a best-selling novel in 1966 with the publication of her first novel, The Firedrake, about the Norman Conquest. She was, if I remember correctly, just 18. Her career, interrupted for a time by life in a Northern California commune, has been one fantastically well crafted historical novel after another.

With one exception. In the mid-1970s, she wrote one of the most under-appreciated science fiction novels ever written. Floating Worlds is an epic yet it is as personal as the seraglio. It covers the sociology and politics, both governmental and romantic, of a complex society based in the asteroid belt, and in the moons of Jupiter.

I am doing this from memory, since the last time I re-read Floating Worlds was maybe ten years ago, and the book is currently in storage, awaiting its reception by the Heinlein Papers Collection at UC Santa Cruz (when I die, of course).

Holland ranks for me as one of the most important historical novelists of the 20th century, along with the late and very much lamented Dame Dorothy Dunnett.

If you haven't read Floating Worlds you have missed something very important.

If you read other than sf, read the rest of Holland's opus.

Walt Boyes
The Bananaslug. at Baen's Bar
and member of the Editorial Committee of Baen's Universe magazine

After reading Floating Worlds, I had a hard time believing that I had never heard of the book before. It is an intelligent and complex novel of the future which combines elements of technology, politics, and space to create a compelling story. It should rightly have a place next to the more famous works from the period, and I am pleased to see that it has been reprinted.

Paula Mendoza is a slightly-more-than-typical inhabitant of the anarchist planet Earth. She becomes even more distinctive when she becomes Earth's representative to the Styths and along the way bears a son to the Styth Prima. She becomes the pin that links the two cultures together as much as two such separate cultures can be linked.

Holland's writing is vividly detailed, and the world that she creates for the future is so well imagined that it is disappointing when the book ends. I found the plotting a little but weak in places, but any deficiencies are made up for by the strong characters. I particularly liked the realistic way that she sets up the variations on human stock represented by the Styth.

Definitely worth reading.

Somewhat disappointed with the overabundance of examples that overpowered balance with recommended points covering how to write an eulogy. Some of the points could be extracted from the extensive examples. At the time of mourning and of preparations for ceremonies and interment, one needs less counseling, fewer examples, and more facts on how to do. This book seems to be sort of an autobiography of the ministerial work of the author.

I felt this was a very interesting book, gave lots of different examples and possible choices for solving issues.

This is really a 10 star book. There's nothing like it.

After my Mom died, in an attempt to make sense of her death and move on with my own life, I read many books on mothers and daughters, grieving, and death. This is the best one I found.

I think Sarah York's Remembering Well will help you if you are struggling to cope with the loss of someone you've loved deeply.
It won't take away your pain, but will help you feel your loss, celebrate your loved one, grieve, mourn, and cope all at the same time. I didn't really think a book could provide such comfort. Buy it. It's a wonderful book!

Sarah does an amazing job of giving guidelines and suggestions for creating truely meaningful memorials and funerals.

The fact that she is a Unitarian Universalist minister makes the materials in this book appropriate for use by a wide range of religions.

The book is especially helpful to those of us who have no formal clergy training but need to create funerals / memorials.

Death is one of the most traumatic experience in our lives. Even the deaths of strangers affects us in unusual, sometimes unpredictable ways. The death of those close to us, family and friends, can leave us with questions, emotions and emptiness hard to comprehend. Yet, there are ways to deal with these; religion has rituals, families have traditions, cultures have cycles, allowances and expectations, yet we still need more.

This book by Sarah York puts an order to the chaos. Written primarily for those in caring professions (pastors and priests, health-care workers, etc.) or even for those who have expectation for the approaching death of friends or family members, the book can be rewarding to any reader, as death is one of the facts of life we will all face in a myriad of ways.

York infuses her discussions with her personal experiences as well as professional experiences. She talks about the various ways in which religion looks to care for the departed as well as those left behind, in terms of memorials, committals, and other services. She also looks at the emotional and relationship aspects, both when family and friends are close-knit as well as when there are distances and estrangements.

Through stories of people, York teaches and guides by example. She shows the specifics of how to help in the case of a suidice, the death of an infant, a death due to illness, and more. She helps to show how to carve out a space for the family and friends, the wider community, and for the presence of God in the midst of sometimes bewilderingly tragic situations.

The final chapter looks at the 'seasons of grief' -- some religions, such as Judaism, have prescribed patterns or rituals to follow for up to a year after the death; in fact, the death of a person stays with us for the rest of our lives, and the more significant the relationship, the more significant that season can be, and more long-lasting in daily life and functioning. While the specific rituals of Judaism cannot appropriately be used out of context of the community and hold the same meaning, the pattern of activity and the pastoral/psychological way in which they function can be easily adapted.

York offers three sections of resources, which make this book practical and useful. Prayers, readings, blessings, service forms, even the idea for a 'no-memorial wanted' practice serves to stimulate ideas for the creative and meaningful way in which observe and remember.

York's final story in the epilogue is very touching, an almost concrete way of showing how we carry forward those who have passed away in our own lives.

This is a stunning book, thoughtful and sensitive, useful and prayerful. My life has been enriched simply through the reading of this text; it will be even more enriched when the times come that they guide my practices and my experiences.

Carol Tavris, Ph.D., is a social psychologist who lectures and writes on many aspects of psychology. Her brilliant book, Anger: the Misunderstood Emotion, is a classic, and this book promises to become one, too.

In Mismeasure of Woman, Dr. Tavris carefully exposes the origins and structure of the prevailing habit of virtually all societies, even our so-called "enlightened" one, of describing men--particularly socially powerful men--as the "norm" and derogatorily measuring women in comparison to them. Dr. Tavris's direct, concise, highly readable prose is filled with documented examples showing that the differences between men and women are not primarily biological. Instead, they are created by socially mandated discrepancies in power, resource allocation and life experience.

Though many feminists have written about the relegating of women to penis-envying, second-class men, I consider Dr. Tavris one of the most clear and persuasive of those speaking out against this "mismeasure of woman." In this book, I believe she does a better job of describing the extent of the problem, and is very inspiring in brainstorming possible solutions.

This book really lifted my spirits in its even-handed treatment of the 'language' of the genders. It explored the cultural expectations---and decpetions----about the genders, and gave each credit and offered an uplifting, intelligent, hopeful conclusion. I especially liked the fact that she gave men their due for their often-misunderstood gestures of affection and care----the clumsy and non glamorous gifts that form the backbone for so many sitcom jokes. Tavris is a sympathetic and vivid writer with wonderful logical and analytical abilities.

... is the double-entendre premise of this book and it is very well articulated. Ms. Tavris points out a tendancy to see men as the norm and women as the deviant and therefore something to be corrected and studied. She demonstrates as much with, for example, the following-



- Studies conducted indicate hormonal fluctuations in both men and women, and certain studies show that fluctuating testosterone in men decreases sense of humor and interferes with hand control ... yet men aren't faced with umpteen pieces - seemingly in competition with each other - trying to explain exactly what ways they are rendered irrational/unstable/incapacitated by those menacing hormones (or numerous "syndroms" ... one wonders if there is any time of the year where women are healthy!), not to mention the "common wisdom" of attributing their anger and hurt feelings to said hormones, and all because they aren't like women.

- The "equal as same" fallacy, where it is believed that a woman working in the same environment as a man should then conform to his, ie. the "normal", standard if she wants "equality" thereby missing the point that it is outcome and opportunity that matters for instance in the way a parent would treat two different children with different needs depending on them but still be sure they get it. Or, conversely, the belief that if two things aren't the same then one must be inferior.

- Things, such as crimes, looked at from the male experience. For example how it is often in our culture questionable when a woman doesn't fight back during a sexual assault, completely overlooking the fact that - as a woman - she risks even more physical threat from the heavier, stronger male than a man would. Further the tendancy of jurys to still scrutinize an alleged rape victim based on her demeanor, dress, and sexual prowess (because, of course, from a male point of view she is "looking for him" or "asking for it").

- She also addresses another pitfall, that women are somehow "superior" to men because they *aren't* like them.

To not give too much away I will stop, but this is certainly one of the best books I have ever read and hope that there will be an updated soon.

This is my passion. I read everything I can possibly get my hands on with this kind of stuff. Tavris's writing style is brilliant. The way she gets her point accross with sarcasim, statistics, and personal examples makes this book reach out to so many different groups of people. I love her non-male-bashing ways, her demonstrations of bias and scandles in both the medical industry and with scientist and biologist. Even if you don't agree with all her points, which not even I do, she makes a point in her book saying that these are her thoughts even though they might not be right or agreed upon by others, either.

It isn't necessary to agree with everything in this witty book to realize that its subject - male bias - is crucial to our understanding of ourselves as humans. It is such an obvious, if overlooked, fact that using the male as the standard of normalcy for humans is illogical.

Tavris exposes the confusion between gender equality and gender sameness. Women and men do differ because of differences in reproduction and these lead to differences in health issues, life experiences, access to resources etc etc.

When Tavris shows the results of using the female as the norm then female bias becomes obvious. Men become selfish with inflated self-esteem, narcissistic, inflexible etc etc and possibly many should be diagnosed with Delusional Dominating Personality Disorder.

Not being able to see the male bias in so much of the debate about equality is surely a major block to its achievement. Imposing a male standard on both sexes does not lead to equal consequences for the sexes. As parents recognize the differences between their children, treating them equally does not mean treating them uniformly as if they are the same.

This recognition of male bias and the difference between equality and sameness is essential. It is something so obvious that it is hard to believe we have been so blind to it for so long - a case of not being able to see the wood for the trees.

Of course dominant groups are always in a position to impose their own perspective, experience and values as the norm and subordinate groups can be caught in the trap of either trying to prove they are the same or accept their difference and their consequent poor treatment. Some might attempt to assert their difference as superior, too, as some women do (and perhaps many more do in private).

Tavris warns against all these outcomes of inequality and leads us to the acknowledgement of difference and a change of focus from equal/same treatment to equality of outcome.

Indira Ghandi was the prime minister of India from the 1960s and 1980s. She is the daughter of India's first PM, Nehru, and was raised in part by Mahatma Gandhi. Confusingly, however, she married a completely unrelated Feroze Gandhi who granted her that famous last name. This is a monster of a book at over 500 pages, copiously annotated and extremely detailed.

The most striking thing I found reading the book was how weak and non-existent Indira seems in her youth and early adulthood. She is unendingly ill with pulmonary diseases, painfully thin, does poorly at school, and floats around Europe and India with her family (she attended the world's first international school, l'Ecole Internationale, in Switzerland for League of Nations brats). She has no normal childhood or youth as the whole Nehru family is deeply involved in the Indian independence movement. They all periodically have to face jail time (a veritable rite-of-passage) for their activities, which the British government calls seditious.

She marries an ambitious, hot-headed and energetic Feroze Gandhi in 1942 despite the misgivings of her father Nehru. Though they were sincerely in love and they produced two sons, the marriage proved a miserable one. Indira was more committed to her father's political work (who becomes PM of independent India) than her husband (who quickly begins having a number of a more-or-less open affairs). I was struck by how Indira lives for others, she has no independent personality, not until in 1959, at age *fourty-two*, she deems that she has repaid her debt to her family and must live her own life. Tragically good timing, because both her husband Feroze and her father Nehru would die within the next few years.

Then Indira comes into her own, she drifts into the prime ministership in 1966 as the previous once dies. She quickly personalises politics massively: she avoids the party organization her father had created and appeals directly to the people with populist programs such as bank nationalizations and removal of aristocratic privileges. She is massively re-elected in 1967 despite a vast coalition against her running on the motto "Remove Indira". She skillfully responded with the motto "Remove Poverty". As the situation in Bangladesh (then a part of Pakistan, though 1,200 km away) degenerated into genocide as the the West Pakistani military elite reasserted its rule in the country in 1971, Indira acted decisively to attract international attention. She eventually fought a brief 2 week war, short and successful, to liberate the country. She became massively popular earning the title "Empress of India".

Though she governed over other successes, the investments of the "Green Revolution" to make India's food supply self-sufficient were finally paying off and India exploded its first atom bomb ("Smiling Buddha"), she did not fulfill her promises on poverty. By the mid-70s inflation was rising, strikes were paralyzing the economy and an anti-Indira coalition was making strong headway calling for her extra-constitutional overthrow. Indira had already eroded much of India's democracy, weakening the constitution, politicizing the judiciary and bureaucracy, and circumventing political parties. In response she declared "the Emergency", effectively making herself dictator, censuring the press, imprisoning thousands of opponents and postponing elections... but trains ran on time and inflation fell. Indira grew increasingly isolated, relying on her corrupt and ambitious son Sanjay whose political influence grew. She eventually relented, holding elections in 1977 and losing badly.

Indira, her son Sanjay and their cronies then had to face 3 years of vengeful and badly organized trials on their misdeeds during the Emergency. They emerged basically unscathed, the very unpopular Sanjay died in 1980 just before the elections in an airplane crash which, though it devastated Indira, placed her in a perfect position to win those elections (the sympathy vote counts). Indira seems pretty aimless during her final term, unable to handle the communal violence affecting Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Harijans (also called Dalits or Untouchables, the lowest of Hindu castes), especially in Kashmir and the Sikh-populated Punjab.

In 1984 as a Sikh terrorist group had been rampaging across Punjab from their base in the Golden Temple (the holiest of Sikh holy places), she launched a military operation to retake the temple and kill the terrorists. She succeeded, with massive civilian casualties and the temple heavily desecrated. Sikhs around the country were enraged and, a month later, two of her own Sikh bodyguards shot some 30 bullets into her body at point blank range. Her other son, Ranjiv, became the new prime minister. Over the 3 days after Indira's death, some 3,000 Sikhs were killed, tens of thousands more expelled from their neighborhoods, in anti-Sikh pogroms throughout India.

Overall Indira comes across as a fairly unimpressive leader. She seems to have been very lucky to have been Nehru's daughter, not had terribly coherent ideas politically and been very dangerous to India's democratic politics. However, she had the ability to really connect with the common Indian and like de Gaulle, another leader with extra-constitutional and authoritarian tendencies, ultimately favored a return to democracy and could not govern without the approval of "the nation".

In the book, Indira and her family appear very flawed but touchingly human, especially as a youth: they have petty disputes and feuds, she reads voraciously, complains of at the size of her nose and the darkness of her skin, she has few friends and her life is distinctly unordered. One word of warning she spoke to a son I thought particularly poignant: "There are millions of people in the world but most of them just drift along, afraid of death, and even more afraid of life."

It may very well be that Sonia cared for Maneka's child during the day, and Indira slept with him by night, but before painting this uncaring picture of Maneka, did Katherine attempt to get the other side of the story?

Even if she had been refused an interview, perhaps she should have attempted to give her readers a third-party (her own?) view of what was probably transpiring in the Nehru-Gandhi household (as she does in numerous other places), rather than passing along what is probably Sonia Gandhi's view of the situation.

Or perhaps Katherine didn't really care whether she maligned Maneka, the not-so-powerful politician?

This is a very good account of Indira Gandhi's life. I felt very sad after reading it. I knew already about her life and politics as being an Indian. But this book gave me a very comprehensive account of her life, except her last couple of years, which I think were
hurried. I think that spicy tidbits of alleged affairs about her, Nehru and her husband should have been avoided as they distract from the larger point and have given her worshippers an excuse to discount the book. Description of India's early life before she became the Prime Minister is very engaging. You can see how the seeds of her later-day paranoia and siege mentality were sown during her unhappy childhood and her estrangement with her husband. You feel sad that in the end that privileged upbringing, lots of potential, education at the best schools and colleges and tutoring by her father in democratic traditions did not amount to much. She achieved little and destroyed much.

It is amazing that in a vibrant democracy, she was able to undermine every political institution, which is essential for a democracy. How she instigated conflicts in Assam, Kashmir and Punjab. How she shamelessly went around dismissing democratically elected state govts and playing one group against another. How she let loose her son, Sanjay as an extra-constitutional authority to subvert judiciary and beaurocracy. She surrounded herself with sycophants and boot-lickers. In her own words, she herself admits, "men who may not be very bright but on whom I can rely"? Only bright spot in her career was the liberation Bangladesh. She used every weapon available to stay in the power. In the end, the forces she helped unleashed consumed her. Even her son Rajiv who became Prime Minister after her violent death was killed Srilankan Tamil Tigers whom she nourished. It might seem like a poetic justice in the end but India was/is the big loser having lost so much and still fighting those forces.

History will not be kind to her and I hope that Indian people would not let another Indira immerge on the political scene.

Result of an obviously (too) meticulous study, the book reveals a very objective account of one of the leading female figures of the world... The emphasis is not limited to her political life and therefore you understand almost all underlying motives in her most absurd decisions. Throughout the book, you both love and hate Indira Nehru Gandhi but most of the time, you pity her for the life she, afterall, did not really wanted to have but couldn't refuse either... There is struggle, war, peace, politics, Byzantine games, democracy, dictatorship but happiness in this life....

This is one of the best biographies on Indira Gandhi. Most of the other books on indira authored by Indian journalists tend to focus primarily on her political activities with a brief summary of her childhood and adult years. This is by far the most comprehensive attempt at combining the various threads and presenting the story of a normal human being. Katherine's description of Indira's years at Anand Bhawan, Europe, marriage to Feroze read like a best seller fiction. Meticulous research, analysis and an objective attempt to understand the influences in Indira's life prior to her prime ministership is the hallmark.

Missing is the analysis in understanding why a shy, reserved person longing for anonymity suddenly craves for power, and seeks power with scant regard for the institutions set-up by her father, leaders she grew up with. Going by Indira's example,I am disappointed that despite having the best role models (Gandhi, Nehru), best education ( shantiniketan, finishing schools, oxford), global exposure, immense wealth, Indira in her latter years behaved very much like an average middle class Mother, the book unfortunately fails to provide a rationale for this abnormal behavior.

Still a great attempt from a non-indian to understand and piece together the life of the most charismatic and powerful Indian leader in the last 30 years.

In this documentary novel, Defoe sketches poignantly the irrational behaviour of man under extreme circumstances, when death threatens behind every corner of the street.
People turned to fortune-tellers, astrologers or conjurers who deluded them. They became the victims of `doctors' selling `infallible preventive pills'. They `swarmed to a wicked generation of pretenders to magic and black art'.
People were terrified by the force of their imagination and saw representations and appearances in clouds. Their impudence increased by using devilish blasphemous language.
Others risked their lives by stealing and plundering without any regard to the danger of infection.
Man behaved as a mad dog.

The Government encouraged devotion, public prayers, fasting and humiliation to implore the mercy of God to avert the dreadful judgment. `Many a penitent confession was made of crimes long concealed.'
Innumerable religious sects and divisions fought for the souls of the condemned. It was `altar against altar'. The discourses of the religious ministers were full of terror, prophesying evil tidings.
Unfortunately, religion was not the solution: `the best physic against the plague was to run away from it.' People who believed in predestination (`tis the hand of God, there is no withstanding it') and stayed home, were infected too and died by thousands.
For Swift `there was no apparent extraordinary occasion for supernatural operation, it was really propagated by natural means.'

The near view of death reconciled men of good principles one to another.
But as the terror of infection abated, things all returned again to the course they were in before.
More, after the plague, `people, hardened by the danger they had been in, were more wicked and more stupid, more bold and hardened, in their vices and immoralities.'

In this impressive panorama, worth a Breughel or a Hieronymus Bosch, the only weakness is the lack of some kind of plot.

Not to be missed.

This is quite an interesting book. Looks pretty much like journalism in a time the concept was not yet developed. It is very realistic and it looks like the author was actually present went the story happened, when in fact he wrote the whole thing many years after. Another interesting aspect regarding this book is that it "constructed" in a sense, our imaginary regarding middle ages epidemics. The descriptions are so vivid that they were used many, many times in the movies, paintings and other fictional pieces to characterise this kind of situations. Just for the sake of curiosity, one can read Noah Gordon's "The Physiscian" or watch the movie "Interview with the Vampire" (pay attention to the episode of the epidemics in New Orleans), to see that Defoe's influence came a long way through. Good read!

This story of the the effects of the Plague in London in 1665 should be required reading for all people of all civilized countries. Although it is fiction, he relied so heavily on documented history that his story stands up very well against modern day documentaries. It is also a gripping and easy to read book. How the Plague started, how its spread was covered up initially and why, how the government was forced to respond, what happened to the economy and the outlying regions - these things could happen any day in any year in any country.

SARS broke out just after I finished the book and I was hooked watching it spread. Everything he said started happening from the house quarantines to its effect on the Chinese economy. Having DeFoe's book on my mind when all this was happening - and while we still didn't know what was causing SARS - had me glued to the CDC web site (it had come through the US and hit Canada and I live near a big international airport). This is a very real warning and will not lose its timeliness as long as people build cities and economies. He is not just describing what happened but giving us warning and ideas for how it can be handled better.

This fictionalised journal (written decades after the event when Defoe was only 5 years old) argues its case better by a bald statement of facts, than by any elaborate literary devices. This reads like it is meant to be, a journal, bringing home the horrors of that awful time in a way that a second-hand description could never do.
Having said that, this account IS second-hand; it is only Defoe's journalistic expertise, boyhood memories and down-to-earth style that make it so believable.

BUT - anyone who reads this should not expect another Gulliver's Travels - it IS heavy going; it's not a book that one can curl up with & relax, you have to work for your entertainment.

The main point that comes across is the constant religious undercurrent, which was, I guess, typical of the time (if not of Defoe) and the willingness to attach blame for anything unusual to outsiders, or God's will, rather than examine their own circumstances (so what's changed in 339 years!?). As one of the few records of that terrible year, this deserves a place on any amateur historian's bookshelf.

Defoe, Daniel, A Journal of the Plague Year. 1722. Penguin Books, 1966.
Now that we're all reading up on bird flu, the flu pandemic of 1918, and even the Black Plague, it seems appropriate to revisit Daniel Defoe's account of the London outbreak of 1665. The author cleverly spins a fictional world based on the real one which struck England when he was only five. Using real statistics and first or second hand accounts, he brings the reader full into that world with its constant terror, its bell-ringing nightly dead carts, the screams of the dying and their families, all of which teaches us something about the fragility of society as we know it. During the pestilence and for months afterward all foreign trade was stopped between Britain and other countries; shops were shut, factories closed, and the wretchedness of the poor, which was only partially relieved by charity--primarily private--increased immeasurably. Aside from total isolation, which was virtually impossible in a mercantile economy, there were only a few ways to avoid the sickness. One mentioned by Defoe was by a woman who doused herself from head to toe with vinegar. I used this method myself in Acapulco in 1951, to avoid being bitten by sand fleas, and it works.

Defoe's narrator says that he fell ill for a few days before the pestilence reached its peak, but quickly recovered. He obviously gained immunity through this mild exposure. Samuel Pepys kept a diary during the 1660s, and casually mentions in one passage that he poured gin into his bathwater for its cooling effect. The gin, of course, killed any fleas that might have been around and Pepys survived unharmed and unaware of what had saved him from death.

Vinegar and gin will not save us from the flu pandemic that is threatened. Face masks and strictly enforced quarantine (disapproved of by Defoe) seem to be the answer, as inoculation will not likely be timely or sufficiently available. Defoe's tale shakes the reader's confidence in government's ability to help its people in a crisis; if it cannot figure out what to do in a hurricane, what will happen when disaster strikes the entire country?

Five stars.

I was very disappointed with this book. I found the writing style dry and the photographs/layout just not up to par. It almost seemed like somebody's thesis with som photos thrown in. Somebody needs to do a large format picture book on this subject with more about Jackie!

The writing is dry. The pictures are not the best and it fails to show whnat the White House looked like before the restoration. Everyone says that it looked horrible so why not give the reader a taste of what was so wrong with it? If you can find the White House guidebook that was produced to pay for the restoration read that instead. It has much betters photos.

James Abbot and Elaine Rice are right on the money! This book entails the Kennedy restoration of the White House during 1961 - 1963. Much research has gone in to producing an excellent history that otherwise would be lost. Great photographs of the Kennedy White House as well. I can say this book is a treasure for both Kennedy and White House enthusiasts alike. I have had this book for several years and still find myself picking it up.

A superb survey of the White House decor of President & Mrs. Kennedy. The book documents the ideas, process, decisions and choices behind the stunning interiors of the Kennedy White House-both the public and private rooms. What comes through the text is Mrs. Kennedy's leadership and vision - combining taste, history, beauty and great cunning - just to create and then manage this melange of egos, talent and intelligence was an accomplishment, and the results live on today (albeit not as beautifully or artistically). We all gained a greater knowledge and appreciation of our nation's historic and artistic past because of Mrs. Kennedy's work.

I've corresponded with Mr. Abbott and he's been most kind and interesting. He assisted in the current show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years," and there's a number of items on display relating to the White House decorations.

Read the book, catch the exhibit (it moves to the JFK Library in Boston in the fall).

James Abbott and Elaine Rice have documented the blueprinting and designing of much more than rooms in the White House. The title says it all. Camelot was about all things Kennedy Administration. Navy suits and Limousines were younger and more progressive. Presentations on the lawn for visiting heads of states by far surpassed the ho-hum receptions at the train station. No detail of Camelot, the White House public rooms and the family quarters escaped scrutiny of Jackie, Sister Parrish and Boudin. Jackie even designed the ash stands with Boudin's help.

I don't understand the criticism of this book as dry or wordy. It's a book. It's a narrative, not a coffee table book. Tomes have been printed and documented of the restored rooms, before and after. The photos are what they were. In this world of colorized movies, Photoshopped magazine covers and remastered music, Abbott and Rice have given us the plain unvarnished way it was, warts and all. I found the background very interesting. It was a collaborative effort between the committee, Jackie, Sister Parrish and Boudin, with a giant does of Henry duPont thrown in. Any one person could have completely changed the way the great house looked, but Jackie rescued the building from it's Gimbell's basement look. It remains generally true to her vision, even though eight First Ladies have imprinted on it. This country would not exist if not for the help of France during the Revolution. It influenced this country greatly and I see nothing wrong with the influence. No one criticized Mamie Eisenhower for the his and hers tvs in the wall or the Mamie Pink.

I enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to anyone.

This is a classic, though untrue tale. Kids, adults of all ages, all cultures, absolutely love it. "Let justice be done" to the arrogant, uncaring, unlistening people in power is after all a universal theme, though often they never seem to brought to task in real life...maybe that is why this is an untrue tale? But let's not get all serious here...the book and illustrations are delightful. It has a good rhyming and repetitive pattern that is quickly and easily remembered and encourages kids to join right in and become a part of the story. I had done this as a play with a number of students years ago, but then lost the book, so I was thrilled to find it again. I highly recommend this book to kids, parents, teachers, anyone...

As an elementary school librarian for many years, this was one of my favorite books to read aloud. Later, when some of the students were in high school, they would ask me to read it aloud to them again.

My two daughters, son, six nieces, and five nephews loved to have me read and re-read this book to them.
(All but my son are grown.)

Of the young adults, all but one has told me that one of their fondest childhood memories is of me reading this story to them as they acted it out. (The one dissenter has said that she wasn't frightened, she just 'isn't interested in other people's memories'~a direct quote.)

As recently as last fall, four of them were together when they burst out with, "Its eyes were scary, its tail was hairy..."

After all, a JUDGE should know.
Who are these dimwits to tell him so:
That "a HORRIBLE THING is coming this way,
Creeping closer day by day."

They're liars, scoundrels, nincompoops.
Never a JUDGE would ever stoop
To act upon such brainless chatter,
But thoroughly dismiss the matter.

But, as the judge prepares to leave
His body shakes from sleeve to sleeve;
For that Horrible Thing is at the door
To gobble HIM up...and look for more.

(This is not the story, which is a story, of course. In fact, it's a lie. But it's fun to believe.)

[The book does not seem to end properly, so my students concluded the book when storyreading to primary students with the last stanza above.]

A Non-Workbook, Non-Textbook Approach to Teaching Language Arts: Grades 4 Through 8 and Up

After reading a lot of children's books, a person comes to feel they've seen everything there is to see. That nothing can surprise them anymore. And especially, a person may feel that picture books older than thirty years of age are hardly worth crowing about. Then you read a story like, "The Judge".

In this erudite little piece of work, a judge presiding over what looks to be a nineteenth century town locks up his fellow citizenry one by one. As each citizen warns the judge that something terrible is coming, the judge pooh-poohs their cries of alarm and throws them swiftly in jail. With each panicked person, the description of the horrible creature becomes longer and longer:

Its eyes are scary
Its tail is hairy
Its paws have claws
It snaps its jaws
It growls, it groans
It chews up stones
It spreads its wings
And does bad things

If this story were written today the thing would turn out to be something harmless and the judge would let all the people out of the jail because, technically, they were right. HOWEVER... this story was not written today. It was written in 1969. And the ending of this picture book is such a shocking Maurice Sendak-ish piece of work that I don't think anyone could truly appreciate it without seeing it. As the book's blurb says so clearly, "justice is done..." Without a doubt, there will be parents who object to this book's finish as surely as the sun does shine. But there are also going to be parents with a sense of humor who love this book. May I suggest you align yourself with the latter category. It is a very interesting story.