California Books

The Tall Boy is a must read for gay and straight audiences alike. Jess Gregg is a gifted writer who tells a story as well as any of the great masters. This book will have you laughing out loud and quietly crying. Do yourself a favor and buy this book today!

Jess Gregg's THE TALL BOY is a beautifully written self portrait, filled with real people,touching moments, and honest introspection. Gregg looks at his life simply and writes about it with intense clarity. It was a joy to read.

If you're looking for a poignant, brilliant, funny, and deeply moving memoir, the Tall Boy is must-read material. Jess Gregg's language is polished to high finish, each story is a jewel! Jess Gregg knew so many fascinating people, and as he reveals the famous and the infamous, he also reveals himself.

Jess Gregg has written a brilliant, haunting memoir of gay life in the 20th century. Each chapter is a stand-alone gem and taken together they moved me more than any book I've read in a very long time.

Jess Gregg is a masterful storyteller. Drawing upon a lifetime filled with abundant memories, he not only recalls events but can recount even the tiniest details to draw you into his world ever so smoothly. This is his story, colored with the charm of a grown man who has lived a full life but with the poignancy and sadness of a little boy who never could resolve what he thought life should be like. I don't know what was more striking, being privy to Gregg's reactions to what actually occurred or understanding what he feared would occur if he were to just be himself.

The Tall Boy is an amalgam of vignettes that gives the reader an understanding of how sexual preference shapes a person's way of being and thinking, many times with fear becoming a driving force in decision making about where to live, how to socialize, and in whom you can put your trust. The humor throughout is astounding, the way a phrase is so delicately turned leaving the reader either laughing through tears or crying through laughter. This is even more surprising given the sometime cruel nature of some of Gregg's experiences. And what autobiography would be complete without poking around in the old family attic, and once again Jess mixes tears with laughter. The family stories, themselves, are woven together so well that we get glimpses of family members and their behaviors written so skillfully as to connect them viscerally to the reader's life, even though the stories sometimes challenged your own biases and stretched your comfort zone.

The Tall Boy is a book I could not put down and when it was finished I was left wanting more. Each vignette is just a mere brush stroke of larger equally compelling story that I hope someday will be painted. The Tall Boy is a sweet, wonderfully rich gift that Jess Gregg has given us from his heart.

My sister has been wanting this after many visits at Tassajara....She finally got it for her birthday

I'm surprised that there aren't more reviews for this wonderful book. I am a new vegetarian and my husband and I have been less than impressed with a lot of the veg cookbooks we've tried so far. This one really does deliver great flavor and wide variety without getting too wrapped up in exotic or hard to find ingredients. My picky hubby gets *filled up* on these meals and even gobbles up the leftovers! The other thing I like is that the recipes are well-explained with simple down-to-earth instructions and there's a nice smattering of Mr. Brown's sense of humor and Zen observations throughout. Even if you never try a single recipe, it's a pleasant read.

So why 4 stars instead of 5? I have two minor complaints about the book.

Firstly, it's apparent that many recipes are conversions from much larger portions. After all, the original recipes were meant to feed a whole retreat's worth of folks. Sometimes the amounts in the ingredients lists are a bit off - nothing that destroys the recipe, but they do take a bit of tweaking to make right. Not all the recipes have this problem. On the upside, most of the recipes are very flexible so you can change the ingredients quite a bit to suit your taste or whatever veggies you have on hand. (He gives many suggestions of substitutions if you're not feeling daring enough to try your own.)

Secondly, he must really like "sour" as a flavor. There is a lot of vinegar usage in this book, many vinaigrettes, and several recipes that can best be described as pungent. If that's your thing, you will be very happy with this book! If not, don't automatically dismiss it. For one, there are other recipes here that are more than worth the cost of the book and secondly, you might just surprise yourself! We tried both the "Cumin Cheese and Onion Tart" and "Mustard Butter Pasta with Broccoli" and went into both meals with a LOT of skepticism - but they're awesome! They're both now regular favorites.

Even if you aren't a vegetarian, I highly recommend this book. It will add great flavor and variety to your cooking repertoire. :-)

The Tassajara Recipe Book is a great cookbook for families moving to a vegetarian diet(like mine). The recipes are delicious, simple to follow and use common ingredients available at the grocery store.

Edward Espe Brown's commentaries, descriptions and poems are thoughtful and full of humor.

Every single recipe in this book is amazing-- they are all wonderfully balanced and do not call for hard-to-find ingredients.

The collection features a good blend of exotic, gourmet, health, and American-traditional dishes (with a touch of flair, of course!) Check the index under sample pages for listings.

Instructions are straight-forward and easy to follow, however there are no pictures or diagrams to help (but for most people, the written instructions will be sufficient.) The book helps you develop a sense of intuition with cooking, sometimes the techniques are open-ended.

This is among the best and unique recipe books I have.

We are enjoying the recipes, and love the philosophy re using natural products, wasting as little as posible. Learned more about varioius grains, greens.

Since my family moved to the San Joaquin valley in 1972, I have seen many changes on Highway 99. This book not only brought back memories, it also piqued the curiousity I have always had in travelling old highway routes. I have now covered all of old Highway 99 between Sacramento and Fresno. Someday I plan to make it to Calexico. Even if youdon't plan to make the journey, this book is a must read for anyone who has travelled or lived near Highway 99 and is interested in it's history. The photos are wonderful and informative, as is the text. Especially the appendix (Following The 99 Trail). FIVE STARS PLUS!

A truly remarkable book showing the history of hard work and visionary planning of tax paid highway workers. Their hard work allowed the families of America to make use of their automobile to provide unforgettable visual memories, wrapped in a ribbon of asphalt, for the children on the move and remembered as a vacation. This book allows us to revisit those vacations in the comfort of our home.

Both ribbon of highway books totally transported me back to the family 1950 chevy sedan rear seat with my younger sister, as the roadside scenes rolled past our windows. Traveling is, and was as a child, always a very enjoyable experience for me, and these highway 99 books let me travel the roadway while relaxing at home! The flowing discriptions and priceless photos kept me glued to my imaginary windshield for hours without asking, are we there yet. Also hidden within the books are great tips like how to eat an orange in the back car seat without making a mess. I recommend these highway reading treasures to anyone who loves past as well as today's road adventures.

That Ribbon Of Highway II: Highway 99 From The State Capital To The Mexican Border takes the reader from Sacramento to Calexico in a history that is enhanced with more than one hundred historic and contemporary photographs, an Accurate Road Log, and twenty detailed maps. Together, these two volumes present the armchair traveler with a splendid and informative entertainment, and serve the on-site traveler with a marvelous reference for a truly engaging road trip. Also highly recommended is the companion title, That Ribbon Of Highway I: Highway 99 From The Oregon Border To The State Capital.

"Society for Commercial Archeology Journal," Spring, 2000 For those of you unfamiliar with the West Coast, Highway 99 is the principal historic highway that knitted together the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Portions of it were known early on as the Pacific Highway or the Valley Route or the Golden State Highway. However, in 1928 these various bits were sewn together and given federal designation as US 99. Despite de-designation as a US highway in 1964, Highway 99 continued to play a prominent role in western transportation. Jill Livingston and Kathryn Maloof have compiled a two-volume guide to the history and sights of Highway 99 in California. Each book, half-sheet size and paperbound, provides a general summary of the road's history and a detailed description of features along the existing road organized geographically from north to south. Both offer an extensive photographic tour of the respective route sections, as well as sections devoted to detailed maps that outline the route and provide directions on how to access often-bypassed elements or road alignments. There are generous graphics and photos throughout. I may be a biased reviewer of this topic. I grew up on Highway 99 just south of Sacramento and enjoy mostly fond and entirely vivid memories of this road. I have muddled memories of passing objects from car to car while careening down the Grapevine toward Metler, CA to rescue a friends' stranded vehicle. I also remember with fresh horror as I watched my record collection of 250 albums melt in 100+ degree heat while broken down on that same wretched hill in 1983. Livingston and Maloof have brought it all back for me. I pine for chicken dinner at Pollardville and an orange freeze at the Mammoth Orange. I mourn the passing of the Blueberry Hill Café in Chowchilla, and am startled to see a picture of the theater where I saw my first genuine rock concert in 1975. The authors have peppered their text with sidebars of interest to one and all. The evolution of the Ridge Route and disappearing/reappearing highway under Shasta Reservoir are two of my favorites. The organization of the books is clear and easy to follow; the photos are beautiful and plenty. The text is well written and enjoyable, not bogging down in non-essential detail or excess verbiage. These books are just the ticket for roadside exploration off the beaten track in the Golden State.

This guide makes it so much easier, because in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, I would need numerous individual maps, instead of this single book.

If you live in the L.A. area or spend significant amounts of time here, you need this book. Sure, you can get free maps from yahoo, mapquest or google, but when you're heading through El Monte and the 10 is blocked up, no website is going to help you find an alternate route.

It's also handy for locating a nearby post office, or most significant landmarks (the major stores at malls are identified by code, even, which helped my wife find a nearby Sears when she needed to make an exchange).

My only complaint is that the included CD-ROM version of the maps is Windows-only. They're considering a Mac version, but it'll likely be a year or two before we see it.

Since I started driving many years ago, I have always had a Thomas Guide. Even with the advent of GPS technology (a bit too expensive for me now), the Thomas Guide is invaluable. The latest version of the LA-OC guide has all the latest updates, which is very important with all the new construction in the OC. My 2001 guide was getting outdated, so I bought a new one.

One of the greatest features of the current guide is the CD included in the back. I installed it on my laptop, and it saves me time as I travel. When I need to go from one location to another and I don't have Internet access, I simply use the Thomas Guide CD.

I just spent two weeks in L.A looking for places to live. This street finder quickly found all the addresses I was looking for. And I could easily navigate from one place to another, even when crossing several cities.

I bought this product 99% for the guide as I've used previous versions in the past and have liked very much. As I've just moved to Orange county and found that the area I live in doesn't exist in prior guides (1999) I needed an upgrade. 2005 seems to have it all.

Only problem, I tried installing the software from the CD on 2 of my computers running WinXP and it was a no-go. Ended up installing all these funky .dll's and then the program wouldn't even boot when executed. Bummer as I was excited to have the guide available on my computer.

This was a great easy, quick read. if you follow this guide, you should be able to maximize you visit in San Diego. i liked it so much, that I bought everyone on our trip one.

Again, I bought this for a friend that is moving to that area and she was so ecxited to get something she could use for a place she knows nothing about.

I love DK books and this one is no exeption! It was everything I expected from DK and more. I bought this book for a trip to San Diego that my husband and I recently took. This book was a lifesaver! The maps in the book were clear and easy to follow, the information on different sites was great; we carried this book with us in the camera bag and refered to it often. The maps were clear enough that we used them to successfully navigate through the city (I also had seperately purchased a very expensive laminated map of the city which proved to be useless and a waste of money). If you want the basics (top 10 everything) and a really good set of maps, this is definately the book for you! The book refers to the sunsets at Point Loma - don't miss this! They were absolutely breathtaking! By talking to the locals, we found several great restaurants that were not "touristy" and therefore not listed in the book. We were pleased with all recommendations, but Fish Tacos at South Beach Bar in Ocean Beach is a must! Inexpensive ($3 & $4), fresh and delicious!

DK Eyewittness always produce great travel guides especially there 10 ten sites. Its easy to read, small enough to carry around and has little gems of advice in there.

Top 10 San Diego is a small little travel resource that fits nicely in a pocket, purse, or backpack. There are plenty of maps included in this book. All are full color and fold out large enough so that the lost tourist can actually figure out where they are going. I can't stress this point enough. I've been stuck too many times on public transit or while negotiating a busy street while flipping through some oversized travel guide to find that one black and white map that I need a magnifying glass to read.

I also like the whole top ten notion. Before reading this guide, I had already done a good deal of research on the places I wanted to go, where I wanted to stay, and what activities San Diego had in store for me. Top 10 San Diego gives me a good reference that I can use to get to these places no matter what area of the city that I happen to be in at the time. Looking through these lists, I was also pleasantly surprised to find a few more little gems that I hadn't previously known. I was particularly impressed with the various sections on restaurants, shopping, performing arts venues, and offbeat activities.

You don't have to be in the wine business to have noticed the rise of Fetzer Vineyards over the last decade or so. As a Californian and a long time devotee of the vintner's art (as well as a consumer!) I can tell you that Fetzer makes six and seven dollar bottles of wine with the best of them, and their more expensive labels are outstanding. And maybe this has always been the case, but before Paul Dolan was picked to head up the company in 1992 most of us didn't know much about Fetzer Vineyards.

In this candid memoir (and frankly, part manifesto) about corporate culture and responsibility, Dolan gives us some insight into how he was able to grow the company by more than fifteen percent a year as he shares with us his ideas about how businesses should be run in a time of dwindling and strained natural resources. Fundamentally he believes that "it's time for business, one of the most powerful forces on Earth, to become a positive force for change. We already know that we can create tremendous wealth and technological progress. The new possibility...is to preserve that progress and wealth for the generations to come." (p. 8) This is the mantra of "sustainability" which rewards employees as well as shareholders, customers as well as executives. For someone involved in viticulture this means sustaining the land as well, and for Dolan this means organic agriculture.

But Dolan also wants to make a difference in a larger sense. He wants to win awards for environmental excellence (and he has) by filtering the winery's wastewater and using renewable energy for the winery. He especially wants to show the world how Fetzer is both an economic success and a leader in environment-friendly practices and community and worker relationships. His "green" credentials might be judged from this statement: "The true cost of a gallon of gas is not the price you pay at the pump. The true cost" includes "what it costs the earth when oil is extracted and the cost when some of its byproducts return to the atmosphere..." (p. 17)

He also recognizes that "Nonrenewable resources are running out," and that "Nothing takes place in isolation." (p. 18) Would that more business leaders recognized these facts and acted appropriately.

This is also a book about how to become an effective manager. Dolan describes how he learned to listen, to his employees, to his son, and how he learned to put aside preconceived ideas and realized that sometimes the problem was himself. He tells a story about an annoying person (to him) named Tracey and the clay model they were trying to make (pp. 81-83) and how his change in attitude (inspired by his competitive nature!) allowed them to be successful in their project, and how that led him to stop regarding his son as "My Son The Jerk" (p. 84). This impressed me because it is not easy being that honest in public and in print. Later he even tells of a boldfaced lie he told and of an environmental mistake he made.

But Dolan can afford to reveal his shortcomings because when you read the chapter devoted to his third principle: "The soul of a business is found in the hearts of its people" it easy to see that he not only respects and appreciates the efforts of others, but that he knows that such respect and appreciation allows them to do their best work. He sees this as part of our "inner psychology engine...that gets us to put our heart and soul into something." (p. 101)

Another part of the book is actually about the wine making business, about how he grew the business by acquisition and branding, and how Fetzer committed, for example, to making a lot of Merlot and why (see especially pages 143-146). And there is an Afterword on how wine is made. The book ends with a Fetzer history time line and Resources for future study including books on sustainability.

This is an inspirational book by a man who is proud of his achievements and wants to share that pride with the world. And it is a story about growth, not just the growth of Fetzer, but the growth of Paul Dolan. I should add that this is a beautifully produced book, clearly written (wine writer Thom Elkjer had something to do with that) and meticulously edited.

True to Our Roots is a combination of one man's evolution as a leader and a case history of how to engage business in serving its stakeholders in more ways. This is one of the rare books I have read where a company has used environmentally friendly policies and practices to enhance its business performance on a sustained basis while influencing its industry to make the same kind of improvements. Any business leader can learn helpful lessons from this book.

Mr. Dolan came to Fetzer as a winemaker and helped the company make great strides in that role. One day he had an epiphany. Tasting grapes to see if they were ready for harvest, he noted that the flavors were much richer in one section than in the next. They were the same type of grapes, grown in the same microclimate. What could be the difference? Then, he remembered that the better tasting grapes had been tended with organic farming practices while the less good tasting grapes at received conventional chemical fertilizers and pesticides. His conclusion: His customers deserved the better tasting grapes. From that epiphany, he began a life journey that has led him to becoming a new type of leader and one who hopes to influence everyone in the world.

As a young man, Mr. Dolan was like many young people -- anxious to prove his worth. Working like a maniac, he wanted everyone to cater to his decisions and purpose. That kept people from becoming close to him, and led to the break-up of his first marriage. He later remarried one of the Fetzer daughters, and tried to cure his over-controlling nature. Eventually, he learned that he should listen to, encourage, and inspire other people to do what they thought was right . . . rather than expect blind compliance to his ideas. That shift made all the difference in his personal life, and to the business.

One of the surprising things about this story is that Mr. Dolan made most of these changes after Fetzer had been acquired by Brown-Forman, the alcoholic beverages giant. It's even rarer to find such industry leadership innovations coming from the heart in a small division of a large public company. But Brown-Forman has encouraged the changes. No doubt the support was enhanced by the Fetzer company's extraordinary success . . . growing earnings by 15 percent a year -- a remarkable feat in the wine business.

One of the interesting lessons of the change to environmentally friendly practices (called "sustainability" in the book) is that it drew on the preferences of employees to do the right thing, and provide higher quality.

Most of the book is devoted to explaining the six principles of the company's management style (with one chapter for each).

Your Business Is Part of a Much Larger System -- The focus here is to see the linkages between what you do and the effects on your stakeholders and those who are connected to them. For more on this kind of systems thinking, see The Fifth Discipline.

Your Company's Culture Is Determined by the Context You Create for It -- By setting appropriate goals that inspire people, you establish a way of thinking to creates the changes that you seek to make. For more on this thought, see Peter Drucker's The Effective Executive.

The Soul of Your Business Is Found in the Hearts of Its People -- Letting people know that more than profits count leads to innovation by everyone in taking responsibility for the rest of the company's relationships. For more examples, see any of Millard Fuller's books about Habitat for Humanity International.

True Power Is Living What You Know -- Living with integrity creates great personal and organizational power and effectiveness. See Tony Robbins for more examples of personal and organizational power.

You Can't Predict the Future, but You Can Create It -- Your vision of what's missing to create a better future liberates the process of making the changes that are needed. The example of establishing leadership in the Merlot category is a very good one here.

There Is a Way to Make an Idea's Time Come -- Set a good example to ease the process of change makes good ideas become real.

The book has many good qualities, but I have to note what seems like a potential deficiency in the case history. While all of us like to think that alcohol is harmless, it actually destroys many lives and harms the families and friends of those whose lives it destroys. Alcoholics drink fine table wine just as much as they drink anything else. Although there is one brief mention of standing for wine consumption in moderation, the Fetzer story doesn't include any ideas for making itself more sustainable by dealing with alcoholism. It's a startling omission. I also wondered how much of the company's efforts to be "green" and respectful to stakeholders and stakeholders' stakeholders are related to residual guilt over the harm created by alcoholic beverages. For example, if you grow consumption of wine in the United States by increasing overall alcohol consumption, have you just created more alcoholics? Is that sustainable progress?

I graded the book down one star for failing to adequately address this issue.

Be sustainable in every way you can!

What could be more fitting than a recommendation for Paul Dolan's book, "True to Our Roots: Fermenting a Business Revolution"? Through this book, I became aware of Fetzer's attempt to reengineer the entire American wine industry along sustainable principles.

A few quotes:

"Fetzer Vineyards increased earnings an average of 15 percent a year through the 1990s, while keeping its environmental and social responsibilities as top priorities. Our experience proves that operating on a more sustainable basis is not an economic liability. If anything, we see sustainability as an economic asset and a competitive advantage."

"A successful sustainable business... reaches out beyond the next four quarters, beyond the next five years, to consider what's ahead for the next generation. I is prosperous without being wasteful. It grows without mortgaging its future. It shares its discoveries without giving up its leadership. A successful business lives by its principles, and each new challenge is an opportunity to express those principles more fully, not abandon them conveniently."

Taking a stand is different from taking a position. Gandhi did not take a position that the British salt laws were bad, or unfair, or illegal. They may have been all that, but he was not interested in taking a position about them. He wanted to end them. So he took a stand. There is a huge difference."

(I wish I had space to reprint Dolan's vision of a sustainable society based on sustainable business. If you get the book, it's on pages 150-151.)

Paul shows how a big business can have a much bigger and healthier effect on society not just the company's bottom line. The integrity of Paul Dolan and Fetzer vineyards in their goal to be sustainable should inspire everyone.

Paul Dolan's book is different from many of the other leadership books on the market in that he develops the "context" for leadership. His description of his own experiences allowed me to understand more about how great leadership is developed individually. This is not a recipe or formulaic book, but a well written, heart-felt attempt to appeal to our humanity while those of us charged with leadership lead.

Captures very well a particular time and place. The central character, Twylla, has an appealing sweetness, an innocence, just right for the time. She is all the more compelling when corruption and violence erupt around her. Twylla is a fast, fun read.

I cried for this young girl. I thought she showed a lot of courage to finally face the ghosts of her past. Although the story centers around a mystery, with a fair amount of violence, the book is really about people and making the good choices in life. I recommend Twylla to anyone who wants an unforgettable journey in to the real world of both joy and pain.

As well-conceived mystery thrillers go, this one has terrific character mosaics and a bittersweet if not surreal romance going for it. I see this gal as your typical high school sweetheart trying to run from her past only to get swarmed by really evil people trying to do her in. She brings out the hero in all us home-boys.

I cried for this young girl. I think she showed a lot of courage to finally face the ghosts of her past. And I loved the ending. Although the story centers around a mystery, with a fair amount of violence, the book is really about people and making the good choices in life. I recommend Twylla to anyone who wants an unforgettable trip in to the real world of both joy and pain.

As well-conceived mystery thrillers go, this one has terrific character mosaics and a bittersweet if not surreal romance going for it. I see this girl as your typical high school sweetheart trying to run from her past only to get swarmed by really evil people trying to do her in. She brings out the hero in all us home-boys.

This book was really good, I liked the humor that was in the book

Tervalon grew up in South Central LA and taught high school in Watts, so it should come as no surprise that his 1994 debut novel set in the same milieu is a gripping polyphonic work that rings with authenticity. Eight different narrators alternate over fifteen chapters to bring to life the problems of growing up in the 'hood in story bookended by shootings. The book starts with teenage football player Francois tossing a football in the street with his old friend turned dealer Doug, who is promptly gunned down by his girlfriend Rika. The first three chapters follow Francois and his tough-as-nails, straight-talking girlfriend Margot, as he struggles to deal with the murder and avoid Doug's brother Ollie, who's intent on revenge.

Chapter four shifts to Francois and Margot's English teacher Michaels, a figure who appears to be modeled on Tervalon and provides the first adult view on these struggling kids. Next chapter is Ollie, whose efforts to step into his big brother's shoes as player/dealer are quickly squashed. Francois's mother Ann steps in to provide the perspective of a long-despairing mother trying to keep her kids on the right path, but without a too much conviction. Crackhead Rika appears next, and is shown to have quickly shed her privileged background to become be a hardened femme fatale figure. Unfortunately, her backstory feels rather incomplete, and as she's a pivotal figure in the narrative, it's a pity Tervalon didn't devote a little more time to her story.

The story then shifts back to Francois and Margot, whose stormy relationship appears to be destined to wreck upon the imminent shores of Margot's departure for college at UC-Santa Cruz. She details a one-week orientation trip up there that might as well be to a foreign country for its strangeness. Meanwhile, Francois dabbles in the drug trade up in Santa Barbara with his shady friend Tommy, who narrates the next chapter. Tommy isn't a particularly distinctive figure, and his voice feels somewhat similar to the braggadocio of Ollie. Francois returns to Los Angeles, where Ann picks up the story again, having decided to move to Atlanta. She struggles with Francois' inexplicable (to her) depression and refusal to go to school and graduate.

Ann calls in Michaels, who half-heartedly tries to convince Francois to finish school up in the subsequent chapter. in the latter part of this, Michales meets up with Margot and shares an awkward dinner with her. He has a weird, uneasy attraction to Margot the whole book which is never fully articulated and feels kind of forced. Francois returns to explain his new setup as the manager of a check-cashing store for another dealer and his final date with Margot, escorting her to Michaels' wedding. Things take a turn for the melodramatic when Ollie's sister Sally appears to reveal the discovery of Rika as a pregnant homeless woman. Sally is a fierce Christian who doesn't take any backtalk from Ollie and comes across as a younger, firmer version of Ann. She and Ann attempt to help Rika out, until a final climactic shooting. The coda is provided six months later by Michaels, who has left to go to law school, but returns to meet up with Margot after her first semester of college.

Overall this is a very impressive debut, although it might have been strengthened by sticking with fewer narrators. Michaels could have been fleshed out a bit more too--as the former insider, now an outside observer, he could have offered a more interesting perspective. Still, for the most part, the dialogue sparkles with reality as we see these kids struggling to operate within their highly constrained environment. A strong start for Tervalon, who has since moved into period fiction about New Orleans and is now embroiled in legal problems with his publisher.

This novel does what the writer Tom Wolfe says a novel should do: it goes deeply into a world that most of us don't know and brings back a lively and intelligent report that is well rendered and ultimately unforgettable. The story is tragic and hopeful and insightful and sad all at once. Good book.

Tervalon can write. There's not a sentence that doesn't fit. Every word is in exactly the right place and contributes to the whole, and yet the writing is so restrained and understated that you have no sense of the author's presence, but only of his many, extraordinarily vivid characters. The plot is the least interesting part of the book, but still it hooks you. The book, like life, has its melodramatic moments, but also moments of humor and lots of sympathetic insight into a host of interesting people trying, with varying degrees of success, to make the best of their lives. The abiding feeling left by the book is not the cliched angst of urban hopelessless, etc. etc., but something far more positive and difficult to describe, because the world of this book is far too complex and finely-drawn to be summarized in any string of adjectives. A terrific book.

UNDERSTAND THIS is a classic book for the 90's, a thoroughly modern re-telling of ROMEO AND JULIET. But this time, instead of the Montagues and the Capulets, we've got rival gangs in south central, unwed moms, and some damn good dialogue. Tervalon has a strong voice and his characters shine with the kind of authentic alive-ness that many writers strive for, but few realize. UNDERSTAND THIS sets a tone for inner-city romance. It's not enough to chronicle, one must create art. Tervalon does this, and does it well. We don't feel sorry for anyone in this novel, we don't patronize, and we don't pity. What we do by the end of the novel,as we turn the last page, is what Tervalon hoped, and he succeeds brilliantly. We understand - this. Just a little bit better.

A good history of Guatemala's civil war that is not boring to read. While the viewpoint seems to be that the communist rebels had a just cause, they are given as much blame for the violence that ensued.

Victor Perera is a native guatemalan who took the better part of 6 years to write this book. This book is chock full of great information gathered from hundreds of interviews. Perera doesn't waste time trying to interpret the events he writes about, instead he let's the participants and witnesses speak for themselves. He interviews everybody for this book from wealthy landowners, government officials, military personel, catholic and evangelical clergy and mostly the mayan people who have suffered from 30 years of civil war. He then fills in the cracks with historical background. His writing is very precise and specific, his descriptions paint a very vivid picture of the oppression and genocide that continues to take place.

The book begins with his visits to the garbage dump slums of guatemala city and proceeds to other hot spots of violence. The core of the book is those chapters about the ixil triangle area where as many as one third of the local mayan population was killed, disappeared or forced to flee the country.

..............socks

The terrible situation that happened to this Central America nation is very well documented in this book.The author, Mr Perera, writes with a lot of insight and first hand knowledge since he lived in Guatemala for several years.The book is full with interviews the author did with local people such as soldiers,politicians,ladinos,mayas and just the average person in the street.The author is not afraid to let the reader see what is the real situation in Guatemala and is not afraid to point fingers to the real culprits.This book is a very good work that identifies the problems of not only the mayans as a people but also the problems and corruption that politicians have brought on its own people.Great work!

AND I BELIEVE That everything that this "people" have done to the poor of the world, is going to come back at them to bite them right in their behind!.

"THIRD WORLD COUNTRY" STANDS FOR MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT.

This wide-ranging book, written beautifully and knowledgeably, is a pleasure to read and a must for anyone interested in Guatemalan (or Central American) history and/or Mayan culture. Mr. Perera does not take particular pains to hide his sympathies (clearly pro-environmental protection, pro-indigenous people's rights) but the intelligence of his writing and the mastery and breadth of the subject matter make this the most articulate, beautiful, informative statement of those views I've read. What a disappointment to learn that this powerful voice was silenced not long after this book by a stroke and his subsequent death. Read this book!

Needed book for a class. I received it early and fast. I would buy from this seller again.

An incredibly thorough examination, making hundreds of original interpretations of the individual works of Duchamp as well as his body of work as a whole. Throughout I was charmed by Judovitz'sense of humor and punnery which reflects that of Duchamp. A real treat for readers, writers and artists like myself.

Dalia Judovitz has written a challenging, stimulating and exhaustively researched book on Duchamp. Her take on many aspects of Duchamp's career is fresh and imaginative, as for example in her close reading of his word play and ready-mades. After the comprehensive studies of Duchamp's ready-mades by Antin, Bauer, Caws, Compton, de Duve, James et al this is very impressive.

A key chapter on Art and Economics, cultural and economic value, as one Duchamp scholar observes, "opens up a whole new area of investigation. Her discussion of the Monte-Carlo Bond and the less well known Drain Stopper which she cleverly compares to Renaissance Art Medals will intrigue all those who are seriously interested in Duchamp.

This is a book to be read and re-read.

Unpacking Duchamp is a highly innovative and breakthrough investigation into Duchamp's transformations of the conditions and status of twentieth-century art, art making, and art viewing. Judovitz approaches Duchamp's "oeuvre" from many interrelated angles, offering detailed and illuminating analyses of individual works, all the while contextualizing her discussions through considerable research and erudition. Her mode of inquiry is at once historical and philosophical -- perfect for the study of Duchamp. Intellectually refined, the book is clear, well-written, with many dashes of humor.

Unpacking Duchamp will appeal to culture critics, historians, and theoreticians, as well as to artists and writers. It is a must read for anyone interested in the contemporary conditions of art.

With so much of the literature available on Marcel Duchamp offering accounts that neither seem to fully resonate with the evidence of the work or with the spirit of the artist himself, I find Unpacking Duchamp to be a refreshing exception. Not only does this book live up to its title's promise of showing us how to "unpack" the master's enigmatic thinking, it does so with such wit and grace that I suspect even he would tip his hat to its author. Taking a body of his work that often appears overly difficult and elusive to enter into, Ms. Judovitz does the nearly impossible, gently prying it open in ways that are beautifully lucid, accessible, and free of jargon, yet, entirely up to the challenge of her ever-moving subject. She constructs readings of the work that go beyond analysis and interpretation to become aesthetic acts in their own right --- reciprocating one that generously enable her readers to enter into and perform their own Duchampian thinking, in ways that genuinely illuminate and bring it to life. This is potentially Duchamp's most important legacy to us but an aspect of his work that often seems poorly understood by many specialists.

In short, I'm extremely glad to finally have a book like this, and I look forward to rereading it in the future. If you are considering it, I would say that it's a challenging read, but one I would strongly recommend if you are at all interested in Duchamp or just interested in exploring an extraordinary mode of thought and creativity. While I do have some knowledge of twentieth-century art, this was not really essential to my appreciation of the book. Its interest and appeal should be broad-based and not limited to either an art audience or one of largely academic interests.