Wisconsin Books

This is one very gifted writer. His economic prose are perfect. Skin River is a masterful page-turning thriller. Bravo, Mr. Sidor!

Never a dull moment with this thriller. An entertaining, page turner, that never lets you down. I'm looking forward to his other books.

I enjoyed Steven Sidor's first novel, Skin River. He sets a tale of a very damaged man who takes out his revenge on the world by murdering and dismembering young women.

Our hero has a checkered, organized-Chicago-crime past, and he's trying to exorcise his ghosts by making an honest living in the small town Midwest and letting time heal his psychological wounds.

He grudgingly must take up arms again as his past confronts him in his hometown, and he manages to find out who's behind the killings in his small town. Sidor does not overwrite, and his brevity makes reading his novel a pleasure. His style is thoughtful and somber, without being too heavy or taking itself too seriously. Mr. Sidor is a welcome new edition to the genre, and I look forward to his next work.

Interesting hero, over the top serial killer, good basis for future tales. We really don't need monsters to make this work. The author has enough with average Elmore-Leonard-like gangsters to carry the day.

Maybe I've just hit my limit of the anti-hero, and I freely state that I need to feel an affinity to the characters to really like a book. I know others have really liked this book, but I found myself reading to get to the end, particularly as you know, fairly early on, who is the killer. In fact, I felt more emphasis was spent building his characters than the protagonist. On the plus, it is well written and suspenseful, but I'm going back to books where there are protagonists I like and maybe even have qualities I can admire.

What a visual treat this book was. For anyone that has seen a painting of Carl Larsson's home and fallen in love with the clean lines and colors of Scandinavian interiors, this book carries that love to the next level. Wisconsin native Loran Nordgren created a home using the traditional elements like built-in beds, carving, colors, but added some contemporary conveniences. The books chronicles the planning and construction of the house, but the wealth of photos and design ideas have wide appeal.

As a lover of the traditional Scandinavian home style, and the owner of four such homes, I found this book truly helpful in decorating all of them. The authors, including Ms. Sears have such an passionate eye for this unique and gorgeous style.

I give Mr. Nordgren the owner high credit for the obvious mega $$$ he spent to have his Carl Larsson dream home come to life. However I concur with a prior reviewer that the interior decorating is sub-par with oversized furniture & decorator pieces that evoke a Non-Scandinavian feel that appears to conflict with its authetic Scandinavian backdrop of the houses interior details. If it was my money $$$ I would have sought out correct period Scandinavian antiques or had authentic pieces recreated from scratch with a 100% effort to create the Nordic "look". Would recommend the book as a strong buy with great design ideas throughout.

As a folk artist, I am interested in European interior design. My interest in Swedish design lies in the magnificient use of color. This book provided what I needed.

This is an excellent pictoral review of a lovely home recently built in the Wisconsin countryside. The book is full of great ideas for both interior and especially exterior architectural details. As an interior and architectural designer, I have stolen ideas extensively for a Scandinavian style home I am working on which is currently under construction. The house featured in the book is beautifully done, but not for those seeking a subtle take on the Swedish/Scandinavian home. Disneyesque could aptly describe the overall look and feel of the home. This is not to say it does not have a great charm, but it slams its design concepts home with no punches pulled. It is an American interpretation and distillation of Scandinavia.
There are a lot of great ideas for color and design for the built interiors, but I found the interior furnishings and accessories to be ameteurish and do not live up to the professional standard of the architecture that contains it. The furnishings are rather middle of the road contemporary country style and do not suit the carefully orchestrated design concepts of the architectural designer. For instance the sofas are large and clunky, and are upholstered in a bland fabric - none of which would ever been found in a house of this type of traditional Swedish home.
With that caveat I highly recommend the book to those who admire the Scandinavian style and especially to anyone planning to design and build a home in this style.

Unforgettable, obsessive, poignant. McCartney explores his topic with a jeweler's eye, cutting for us new facets into the Tao of the world.
An extraordinary book by a writer who plays for real.

In The End of the World Book, author Alistair McCartney pulls off a really neat trick--by way of some writerly sleight of hand, he manages to leaven his ruminations upon the gaping maw of the ever-present abyss, historical atrocities and apocalyptic inevitabilities with absurdity and humor, suffusing the entire work with a buoyant, even cheerful, sense of melancholy. This is not gallows humor, but an enervated despair that embraces life in all its sublime wonder as wholeheartedly as it seeks detachment and disconnection. Stepping through the doorway of the first few pages and entering the book is like walking into a splendid curio shop--so many marvelous oddities! such a thrilling array of objects and abject thoughtstuffs!--you don't know what to pick up, or where to go next. So you find your own rhyme and your own reason, and make your way through the book as you please: flipping pages and stopping at the entries that catch your eye and clamor for attention; crisscrossing from reference to reference; reading all of A before moving onto B and then to C in doggedly linear fashion; or scanning the pages in search of the not-infrequent mentions of twins, dreams, cholos, white Jockeys, Franz Kafka, knives and wrists, the never-before-told history of pornographic films, his mother's hot pink dressing gown, boys, or his boyfriend, Tim. The End of the World Book is sly, sexy, playful, blazingly intelligent and delightfully unsettling. If the book is a novel, as the dust jacket proclaims, it is an early entry into a brave new world of novels, the sort of novel that may well toll the end of the world of books as we know them. (Which would explain both the author's melancholy, and the book's buoyant good cheer.)

"The End of the World Book: A Novel" is definitely not a novel in any traditional sense of the word. It is largely an autobiography, mixed with fantastic dreams (in which death is a recurrent theme) and homoerotic allusions, captured in the form of an alphabetical glossary that is reminiscent at times of Ambrose Bierce's "The Devil's Dictionary."
A great benefit of this format is that one can pick up the book, read a fourth of a page, and put the book down again with a whole new train of thought started by one of the entries.

This book contains some marvelous writing, by an author who is imaginative, iconoclastic, erudite, sensitive, and blessed with a keen observation. But despite what it says on the front jacket, the only things that make this a novel are its subversive blending of fact with fiction, and the depth to which it reveals its principal character. There is no plot, and little obvious reason why you should read any one section before another. But you will want to read on, if only for the writing and the chance to immerse yourself in what I can only call the surreal psycho-autobiography of an interesting man.

The book takes the form of an encyclopedia of short alphabetical entries, never more than a page or so, but some as short as a single sentence. The topics for the letter E, for example, are: Eakins, Thomas; Ear; Eastern bloc; Economics; Egypt; Einstein, Albert; E-Mail; Encyclopedia, history of the; Enigmatic; Enlightenment; Erasers; Eternity; Experiments; Exposure; Extinction; and Eyes, bloodshot. In the article on E-Mail, for instance, McCartney imagines how Jane Austen might have used it. The article on the Enigmatic begins "Leonardo da Vinci had it easy," and goes on to imagine how hard it is to represent enigma in today's technological world. The article in between these two, on the Encyclopedia, essentially describes the method of the whole book, and is worth quoting in full:

"The first encyclopedia was created by Aristotle in 322 BC; it was an attempt to bring together all the ideas of the time, but he also made things up. After that, in terms of encyclopedias, there was a long dry spell. In fact, there were none, that is, until the publication of the END OF THE WORLD BOOK in 2008, and the announcement of a policy of continuous and simultaneous revision and destruction: everything in the world is marked fragile; destroy with great care. Here at the END OF THE WORLD BOOK we firmly believe that we must keep categorizing and that this is the only thing keeping the world, and us, from ending. We also believe, firmly, that each category destroys the thing it describes; with each category we move that little bit closer to the end."

The author keeps returning to certain themes, which come to resonate more and more as he approaches them from different angles. One such theme is philosophy, and its losing battle to organize a life that is essentially random and subject to fate. McCartney seems equally fascinated with the artifacts of popular culture, such as old movies, hula hoops, urban graffiti. Central to everything else is his identity as a gay man -- and here I have to say that while I cannot share the talismatic power of his numerous physical references, they work because they take me into his mind, rather than what he does with his body. I said earlier that there seems to be no strong reason to read the book in its alphabetical order, but I need to modify that in the case of two of the most pervasive themes: family and death. As the book progresses, the reader gets a deepening aquaintance with the author's parents, the earlier generations of his family, and his present partner; this balances the otherwise solipsistic quality of the writing by placing it in a wider human context. And while death is clearly the single most important theme in the book, as the title indicates, the author's attitudes to it do seem to undergo a change, from fatalistic at the beginning to almost optimistic at the end. Indeed, despite its apocalyptic premise, THE END OF THE WORLD BOOK is full of life and laughter, and a fascinating glimpse into an unusual mind.

Alistair McCartney's first novel, fortuitously titled The End of the World Book is just out and making a big splash on the literary scene. Darkly comic and deeply erotic, I can promise you that once you read it, you'll never look at apocalypse or global warming in quite the same way again.

It's a novel whose main character--who just happens to be named Alistair--recounts both the story of his life and the history of the world, and even more specifically, the world's end. But what's even more striking and exciting about this novel is that it's also an encyclopedia--A to Z--a kinky, irreverent archive of memories, dreams, homoerotic obsessions and philosophical fixations. And this is not your average encyclopedia! McCartney covers everything from Abercrombie and Fitch to Aristotle, Britney Spears to Socrates, Justin Timberlake to Terrorism, not to forget offering stories about growing up in Australia and his life with another character by the name of "Tim Miller." Playful and accessible, gay readers will be particularly intrigued by its twisted, provocative take not only on core aspects of pop culture but also gay culture: AIDS, barebacking, crystal, gay music, gay pornography, just to name a few.

TEOTWB heralds the arrival of a daring new voice in Queer literature, the literary equivalent of Todd Haynes' collaged post modern films, Slava Mogutin's edgy urban photographs, Hernan Bas's paintings of decadent dandies, and the Magnetic Fields' music, merging irony and classic poignant pop.

As the title states, "The Garden Book For Wisconsin " is specifically designed for gardeners in the Badger State and offers 191 plant selections ranging from Annuals and Perennials, to Groundcovers and Ornamental Grasses. Now in a newly expanded and updated second edition, each plant in "The Garden Book For Wisconsin" is showcased with a color photograph enhancing an especially 'user friendly' text which provides a wealth of specific and practical advice on planting, growing, and care. Of special note is the use of quick reference symbols indicating a specific plant's sun requirements and such background information as to additional qualities such as attracting birds or butterflies. Wisconsin gardening expert Melinda Myers draws upon her many years of dedicated experience to include personal recommendations of plants that are especially suited to Wisconsin's climate, and includes useful information on companion planting, along with design tips for maximize the use of texture and color in a Wisconsin garden. Simply stated, "The Garden Book For Wisconsin" should be considered a seminal addition to the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Studies reading lists, community library Wisconsin Gardening & Horticulture collections, and an invaluable, indispensable part of every Wisconsin home gardener's personal reference shelf.

This book met all of my expectations. I recommend it to any Wisconsinite who enjoys backyard gardening.

This is one of the books that I refer to often when deciding what to plant in our yard.

Descriptions of the plant, whether it's a native species, and recommendations for certain varieties to look for, are very useful.

Is it a single resource that answers all of your questions? No. But no one book could be, and that's why you choose a few valuable books to provide a range of information.

If you live in Wisconsin, this book should be in your reference collection.

The book contains 445 pages, about 30 pages are on general gardening and 30 pages are specific to Wisconsin. Specific information includes a full page color USDA Hardiness Map of Wisconsin with detail showing county borders, Wisconsin frost maps, monthly temperature & precipation data for 27 Wisconsin cities, lists of Wisconsin gardens and societies, and more.

The remaining 385 pages are about selected species. And these pages contain some of the best information that I have ever read in a garden book. If you buy it just for these pages, you will have an excellent reference book no matter where you live.

The species info covers 26 annuals, 15 bulbs, 17 ground covers, 10 ornamental grasses, 28 perennials, 6 roses, 25 shrubs, 30 trees, 3 turf grasses, and 9 vines, with 160 small photos. The info is perfectly arranged with two pages of text per each species. Each contain a paragraph on when to plant, where to plant, how to plant, care, additional info, and other varieties. My kind of book - all the info in one place and easy to find.

If you garden in Wisconsin, this is a must have book!

Unlike all my other garden books, I actual know of every species talked about in this book. The book talks about the plants we grow in Wisconsin. And best, Myers tells us about some popular plants that don't do well here (I wish the plant nursery would have told me this before they sold me many wrong varieties). I learned this by trial and error.

My only criticism about the book is that I wish she had written another volume. Great information!

The book contains 445 pages, about 30 pages are on general gardening and 30 pages are specific to Wisconsin. Specific information includes a full page color USDA Hardiness Map of Wisconsin with detail showing county borders, Wisconsin frost maps, monthly temperature & precipation data for 27 Wisconsin cities, lists of Wisconsin gardens and societies, and more.

The remaining 385 pages are about selected species. And these pages contain some of the best information that I have ever read in a garden book. If you buy it just for these pages, you will have an excellent reference book no matter where you live.

The species info covers 26 annuals, 15 bulbs, 17 ground covers, 10 ornamental grasses, 28 perennials, 6 roses, 25 shrubs, 30 trees, 3 turf grasses, and 9 vines, with 160 small photos. The info is perfectly arranged with two pages of text per each species. Each contain a paragraph on when to plant, where to plant, how to plant, care, additional info, and other varieties. My kind of book - all the info in one place and easy to find.

If you garden in Wisconsin, this is a must have book!

Unlike all my other garden books, I actual know of every species talked about in this book. The book talks about the plants we grow in Wisconsin. And best, Myers tells us about some popular plants that don't do well here (I wish the plant nursery would have told me this before they sold me many wrong varieties). I learned this by trial and error.

My only criticism about the book is that I wish she had written another volume. Great information!

I really enjoyed this book, particularly since I have a good friend who raises angora goats and I am also a native of Wisconsin. The book made me homesick for Wisconsin and it was also a wonderful story of the range of emotions generated by raising animals.

I am/was interested in raising angora goats. This book provided valuable and informative information on that topic in a wonderful, well written story. I haven't decided if it talked me out of the dream or further embedded the dream but the story was great.

A poetic narrative, this book reflects life on a large scale as it tells Susan's story of raising angora goats on a small Lake Michigan island. I was touched by the depth of feeling Susan expressed in vividly describing everything from learning to know and care for the goats to living in an isolated community which generously offered friendship and support to a new resident and her risky venture.

This is a marvelous first time out for an author who took to heart the adage "Write about what you know." Yet what Susan Basquin came to know was something few women learn. Late in her 40s, after several years as a writer for a weekly newspaper in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she accepted an invitation from her brother to start a goat farm on an island in Lake michigan, off the tip of a peninsula in northeastern Wisconsin. She wanted to do something different--and different this book is.

It is full of life and death and the natural order of things--which, of course, is life and death. Knowing nothing about goats or farming or island life, or anything else that she had chosen, Basquin just did it. Starting with 21 angora goats, whose wool someday was supposed to bring a profit, she set about keeping them alive and growing the flock, which ultimately numbered 100. The emphasis soon centered on keeping them alive.

Disease, accident and injury were her companions, and she learned how to cope with each of them. With the help of the tight-knit island community, she became a farmer equal to anyone. But isolation--and sometimes loneliness--also became familiar to her. For six years she ran the farm. But then her brother decided to shut it down.

Basquin returned to Santa Fe, and now has written this memoir. it sings with a commitment to life, and the new life she found for herself, surrounded by goats on an island. This is not a life that most women, or men, would choose. But for anyone with an imagination, it is a compelling read. It will make you wish you had been there--and glad you were not. It will expand your concept of the possible. What is still waiting for us all?

When Susan Basquin's brother suggested they join forces and develop an Angora goat farm on Lake Michigan's remote Washington Island, she jumped at the offer. The isolation and rural environment would offer her free time for writing and contemplation -- or so she thought. What Susan found out first hand is the sheer physical and mental effort that goes into raising a herd of temperamental goats. For the next six years she struggled, growing founder of her animals, and discovering unknown reserves of strength and energy within herself. Goat Song: My Island Angora Goat Farm is the riveting memoir of Susan's life on Washington Island, a fascinating chronicle of her affection for her animals, her determination to overcome feelings of insecurity, and her reflections on island life. Goat Song is ardently recommended reading for anyone who has ever felt the urge to get away from it all and take the rural life in some isolated Eden.

This is an enjoyable and highly educational contribution to the field of urban history. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, "the Cream City" (the name is derived from the cream color of the bricks used in many of its early buildings -- clay from local quarries was yellow rather than orange or red) tends to be belittled or overlooked with Chicago to its South and Minneapolis and St. Paul to its Northwest.

That's a shame because Milwaukee has a unique and colorful history of its own apart from its more prominent regional neighbors. To the extent that Milwaukee's history has been obscured or neglected, John Gurda's book redresses that oversight.

The author does a thorough job of charting the city's growth from its first settlement by various Indian tribes (Pottawanomi, Chippewa and Menomee) retreating from the hostile Iroquois, visits by explorers such as Father Marquette and Louis Joliet, and its satellite status as a secondary trading post for fur trappers based in the larger city of Green Bay, Wisconsin employed by their parent company in Montreal, Quebec. Following the War of 1812, in which both the Americans and the British claimed victory, an exclusion act was passed and many French Canadians had to leave the territory or apply for American citizenship. With the fur trade in decline, early inhabitants turned their attention to real estate development and exploiting the excellent harbor that made the Port of Milwaukee a major destination for ships on the Great Lakes.

Large scale emigration from Europe coincided with the admission of Wisconsin to the union as a state. Germans fleeing from the Revolution of 1848 made Milwaukee their adopted home and made an indelible impression upon the city. Gurda also relates how the loss of the steamship, "The Lady Elgin," which sank after a collision with a lumber boat near Winnetka, Illinois, devastated Milwaukee's Irish community. Many prominent Irish civic leaders were aboard the ill fated excursion ship.

The railroad and real estate speculators, the industrialists, the brewers and the socialists are all included in the story as well as Milwaukee's working relationship and economic and social rivalry with Chicago. As a flatlander with numerous relatives in the Badger State and in the Beer City, I know some of the details by heart and have the bruises to prove it, but John Gurda taught me some new angles. Profiles of important local nineteenth century leaders such as Juneau, Kilbourn, Mitchell and others are included.

The book is lavishly illustrated with drawings, photographs and detailed maps. Milwaukee's geography played a large role in the city's development and the sectional politics that divided various ethnic groups to the present day.

For anyone who has lived in Milwaukee or has ancestors who have lived there, this book is definitely a "must read". What makes it so interesting and informative, apart from the author's lucid and refreshing style, is the liberal use of photographs of persons, places, things and events representing the era being described, as well as, numerous maps and charts clarifying the subject matter. We found it helpful to have a street map of Milwaukee, which we frequently referred to. By the effective use of illustrations on almost every page to illuminate the text material, author Gurda has succeeded in producing as close to a "living history" as a book can become.

Beginning with the area's first native inhabitants encountered by French fur traders Jacques Vieau and Solomon Juneau near the confluence of the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers where they empty into Lake Michigan, the author fashions a detailed and colorful mosaic of Milwaukee's history down to the close of the twentieth century. In the second half of the nineteenth century the population of the city grew rapidly as immigrants from Europe sought escape from political persecution and successive crop failures. Most of the new arrivals were from Germany and they were very successful in transferring their customs and culture to their adopted city. Milwaukee reigned as the nation's "Deutsch Athen" until the beginning of World War I. "Gemutlichkeit", a cozy atmosphere for making one's self at home, became Milwaukee's trademark. The city's Teutonic influence was apparent in its beer gardens, choral and gymnastic societies, stage productions and German language newspapers, as well as in the thrift and industry characteristic of its workers.

Political and social scientists are sure to delight in author Gurda's account of Milwaukee's Socialist government and the manner in which successive municipal governments dealt with the social problems of an era. With but few interruptions, Milwaukee's Socialist Mayors ruled from 1910 to 1940. The first was Emil Seidel whose private secretary was Carl Sandburg who went on to win Pulitzer prizes in poetry and history, but the most noteworthy of them was Daniel Hoan who ruled Milwaukee for 19 years. A former city attorney who had parlayed his role as protector of the public weal against The Milwaukee Electric Power Company, he brought honesty and efficiency to the city's government. Time magazine, in its cover article of 1936, wrote: "Daniel Webster Hoan remains one of the nation's ablest public servants, and under him Milwaukee has become perhaps the best governed city in the U.S." It must be noted, however, that Milwaukee's Socialists were pragmatic rather than extremist in practice. Without abandoning their principles, they were able to accomplish many significant things by compromise and example despite the fact that they most often lacked a majority on the city council. The book clearly points out that Milwaukee bcame famous for many things other than beer and Harley Davidson motorcycles. To name but a few: its world famous system of neighborhood parks, its zoo, harbor and dock facilities for ocean going vessels, heavy industries, tanneries, foundries and machine tool manufacturing. It also became famous for the pride with which homeowners maintained their property. The extensive eight page bibliography provides a valuable resource to the reader wishing to further explore a particular historical point, and the twelve page index proved to be an easy route to the book's subject matter.

It is not hyperbole to say that author John Gurda's book seems destined to become one of the most fascinating and easily read accounts of American municipal history ever written. Genealogists, in particular, will appreciate the following wise observation found in the author's Forward: "I am firmly convinced that, as the velocity of change increases, it is increasingly important to rebuild our connections with the past, whether the past involves our families, our home communities, or our entire society. We do so not for comfort but for context, not to feed a misplaced sense of nostalgia but to broaden our understanding of the world around us. History, at its root, is why things are the way they are."

I picked up this book on a whim at a local bookstore, and found it to be a wonderful read. I've always been curious about the history of the area I grew up in, and this book gives a solid introduction to the area. I cannot speak for history buffs of the region, who might quibble with a fact or two, but I'm glad to find such an engaging book on the subject.

Hard to understand the first reviewers remarks.if you buy a book called the making of milwaukee then it better have tedious detail on the subject. this book delivers. the whys and wherefores of milwaukee icons unfold for the reader and visits back to milwaukee become all the more memorable when you know the true history. this is an excellent read not only about milwaukee but about the history of the european melting pot as it grew in the midwest.this book reads like the 'forest gump' narrative of milwaukee...all of the icons come alive in a quick and thorough way.

Milwaukee, how I love thee. Let me count the ways. Those of you who have never been to Milwaukee, or -God forbid- only know what makes the news (kids beating a man to death on a porch, how much the Brewers suck, or Jeffrey Dahmer) ought to invest some time in this midwestern jewel. This is a nice book that helps explain the vibrant background of this metro area of 1.7 million. Famous folks weave through the narrative and we learn about the making of such places as the world famous Milwaukee County Zoo, Milwaukee Art Museum, Miller Brewing, the world reknowned Milwaukee County Museum of Natural History, the Schlitz Audubon Center, and the Mitchell Park Horticultural Domes. John Gurda, resident historian, provides an in-depth view of these places and many other items that have shaped Milwaukee; the settling of the area, bridge wars, the growth of the city and suburbs, annexation battles, public services, neighborhood developent and decline, civil rights, urban blight, changes in industry and service trades, freeway construction etc. etc. The book is also peppered throughout with wonderful archival photographs. A must for any student of urban studies or public administration.

Recommended.

This book is wonderful, I can pick plants for my garden in northern Minnesota with ease. It tells me when to plant, where to plant, it has wonderful pictures, easy to read, I would recommend it to any gardener, but really good for the beginner. I bought one for my friend.

This is a good guide to perennials to grow in Minnesota. My only issue is that it is too predictable. There are many more perennials that are native to the Minnesota/Wisconsin area and are not as well known. A little more research on the part of the authors would have been appreciated. There are many beautiful plants that need to be discovered. I suggest visiting a couple of web site that sell native plants. (My own favorite is Prairie Moon Nursery.)

I got into flower gardening three years ago and got this book. I barely knew the difference between a perennial and an annual at the time. It has been invaluable in helping me choose perennials for certain sites in my yard, as well as suggesting particular cultivars based on color, growth habit, etc. I also appreciate the extra information on continuing to care for the plants I choose, particularly about pruning, dead heading, and dividing.

I liked this book more than several others I have because there are no illustrations--only beautiful, full-color photos. I don't think an illustration is very helpful when trying to picture a new plant in my yard.

One criticism I have is that there are very few pictures that show the entire plant. Usually there is a close up of the leaves or blooms. I would appreciate being able to see what the plant would look like from farther away. I have the same complaint about perennial catalogs and websites, though, too.

My yard looks beautiful and I have gained a lot of confidence as a new flower gardener thanks in large part to this book. I would purchase an updated version should the author write one in the future.

Not as good as Melinda Meyers book, but a good resource for backyard gardeners nonetheless.

This book is very user-friendly and full of helpful information for the amateur gardener, which I am. It is laid out in a very helpful manner and gives much information about each plant discussed, including personal experiences of the author with various perennials. It is filled with lovely color photographs of all the plants, as well as text about each one in alphabetical order. I would recommend it for anyone interested in learning about perennials that work in the climates of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

I read this book, here in Brazil, about 20 years ago.This book was writen by an argetinian and jew, about thirty years ago.This book is against Argetina's government, in late 1970 decade.This book isn't a communist's book, but a book against torture and other bad things.The main problem of this book is that we aren't in 1970 decade.Argentina's processo is over since 1983 and we must remember that in Argentina, there was less than 0.05% of murders that were did in "socialists paradises" such as China or former USSR.

I used this book in my introduction to Latin America course as a supplementary text. The writing is moving and heartfelt while being historically and politically relevant. Most students read this book in one sitting finding it impossible to put down.

One of the most harrowing books I've ever read. An amazing entreaty against violence of both the left and the right, and a heartbreaking analysis of contemporary anti-Semitism. Comparable at some points perhaps to Koestler's Darkness at Noon, except that it deals with torture in a more direct (and horrifying, since it's nonfiction) way. I wish this were requiring reading in schools.

I won't give a synopsis of the book b/c everyone else has already done that for you. What I can say about this book is that it is an impetus. After you read it, you'll most likely be hungry for more information about this brutal time in a seemingly well-developed country. Questions to consider: Why the silence of the press, with the exception of Timerman's newspaper 'La Opinion' and the 'B.A. Herald?' How could someone treated so horribly come out of it okay? Why did this happen after Pinochet's regime and the Nazi regime? This is post WWII, so why? Where was the rest of the world? The book is splendid, the first chapter gut-wrenching and beautiful. You will love it as much as Elie Wiesel's 'Night.'

Este libro es un resumen de un pais de tristeza. Anarchia, luchas, gobiernos coruptos, y la militaria- es lo mismo ahora en este pais bella y riqueza. Los maleducados hay un nivel de estupidez - ellos solo quieren el pavo, el dinero - la renta sin pensar de la gente.

Tienes que leer este libro!

All i can say, it is a great book that everyone should read.thanks, chris.

Signorile, Michelangelo, "Queer in America: Sex, the Media and the Closets of Power", University of Wisconsin Press, 1993.

A Very Important Book

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

When Michelangelo Signorile's "Queer in America" was first published in 1993, it sent clear shock waves through society, both gay and straight. Now the University of Wisconsin Press has issued an updated the classic study that exposed the hypocrisy and prejudices that has become a way of life in America and that is so pervasive in American institutions. This new edition has a new preface and an added chapter that looks at the way American looks at us as well as how we look at ourselves.
Written 17 years ago, it seems like only yesterday when I read it and was shocked to see the state of queer America of the late 1980's and the early 1990's. A lot of change has happened since then but t is still fascinating to read about the effect that the closets of power affected us--especially those closets in Hollywood and Washington, D.C. The closet was what molded our thoughts and brought about behavior that was completely destructive to our community. Signorile, a journalist was once known for outing closeted men and women and in this book he explains why that is justifiable as well as the history of outing. Whether or not we agree with him, he is convincing in his arguments and approach.
"Queer in America" gives you an understanding of how the media and the power structures of America work and Signorile gives this to you in an in your face approach. He has gone to those people--among them directors, writers, actors, politicians and others--who sit silent as we as a GLBT community take the abuse heaped upon us by the larger society. He holds nothing back and in unapologetic confrontation rubs our faces in facts that astound. He writes logically and with reason that it causes even those opposed to the way he does things to rethink their positions. Even though his arguments are convincing they are not always comfortable.
This is a book that should be read my every member of our community and by everyone else in society at large. Straight people may come to better understand why there is such a thing as the closet, how it works and how it destroys creativity and humanity. He gives us a "gay manifesto" by which he challenges all of us to work together to tear down the closet. Reading it today, it seems to be quite dated--so much has happened since 1993 but it is important to know that there was a time when we hid completely.
Signorile argues that no one has the right to be a closet and that it is the media that is guilty for causing people to pretend to be what they are not, Signorile who is best known as the pioneer of outing really gives nothing new but he writes down things we already knew. This in itself is important because once something is written it becomes available to be read. As Signorile matured from a repressed youth to a provocateur, he began to direct his anger against American power structures who, he claims are responsible for our "marginalization". He blames the religious right, the media, the establishment machine in Washington and the movie industry. He claims that the power base in the nation's capital is filled with "queers" using sex to gain power and that this power base has been gradually shifting to Silicon Valley where many gays have found refuge in technology. This is the new place where war between gays and straights will be waged and he issues "a call to arms" which only brings about new issues.
This book is both detailed and powerful and the conclusion drawn is that gay people, if hey want to live moral lives must leave the closet behind them. In this work, Signorile has by himself changed the political landscape of America.

Before I read this book, I was vehemently opposed to the policy of "outing". Signorile wrote both so logically and so well that I was forced to think about this issue in some depth. Moreover, I came to be convinced by his arguments. I'm still not comfortable with this, but I think he's right. The closet destroys far too many people.

This book was written a decade ago, and a final updated chapter was added last year. It is a fascinating look at the state of Queer America in the late 80's and early 1990's. More important, it is a powerful exploration of the devestating effects of the "closet" in the centers of power, especially Washington and Hollywood.

A compelling study of the effect of the closet on people in power and how they are twisted by the closet into actions that are devestating to their own lives and destructive to the GLBT community (can anyone say New Jersey?)

Signorile was instrumental in early Queer journalism, and was, once upon a time, excoriated for "outing" public figures. He explains the history and justification for this approach, and his arguments are more than convincing.

Highly recommended, required reading.

Never before did I have such a strong understanding of how the media and America's major power structures work until I read this book. In his unapoletic confrontational (and even gutsy) style, Signorile has stared down the actors, directors, politicians, writers, etc who'd prefer to sit silent as queers are beaten, taunted,denied housing,equal protection; as queers are denied their right exist. One of the most fascinating sections is the one on the New York power structure (I especially like the chapter explaining how ACT UP was created, from the grassroots up). If theres anything I disliked about this book, it's that too often Signorile contradicts his own beleifs: there are way too many times when instead of exposing gay public figures as gay, he allows them to remain anonymous.

Having once been an Alaskan traveler myself, I found myself slightly skeptical before plucking this tattered book off the shelf. Everything I'd read of modern Alaska seemed wrong, off-key, and too liberal or too commercialized. But after skimming through a few pages, I was hooked. Never before have I found such wonderful, accurate descriptions of the land, its people, and the emotional tracks it leaves on a person. Somehow, I assumed I was alone in my journeys and my memoirs of Alaska, and unable to share them with people. Here is a man who has weaved together a beautiful adventure, honest and simple. I felt as though I was reading a diary of my own excursions in the North. Reading the River is definitely one of the best books I have ever read. I recommend it to anyone who has ever wondered what draws people away from the city, for those living in the city who craves the wild, and to every dreamer, explorer, and 'old-timer'.

I loved this book and enjoyed every page. I've been reading a lot of Alaskan/Northern frontier books and this is definitely one to put at the top of the list. The different people John met on his trip were fascinating. It's told in such a flowing and easy style, that you don't want to put it down. By the end, I envied not being able to take a trip like this myself.

One of the better books I have read over the summer.

A complete surprise. Much more than a travelogue or river guide. Excellent prose from a gifted writer. One of the best books I've read in years.

This book is the story of a motorized canoe trip down most of the Yukon River in the late 1980's. The author had spent some years in Alaska years before and built a cabin in the bush with his then wife. 10 years later, he returned to the North, recently divorced and went from Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory Canada, west across Alaska to the mouth of the Yukon River in the Bering Sea.

This book is not a mile-by-mile description of landscape and campsites. Rather it mostly concerns the current inhabitants of the area and the history of the area. It is well-written and does not contain any "world's greatest" claims. (You know, the claims in many travel books that a certain place is the prettiest, biggest, greenest, or ugliest place in the world.) Such honesty is refreshing.

Having spent one summer on the upper Yukon in Canada and parts of other years, I can tell you this book catches the ambience of the area perfectly - from the Indians (now called "first nations" in Canada in PC talk) to the miners to the malcontents trying to get away from it all. I found it wonderfully evocative and representative of the people who live up there. If you've ever read Robert Service's "Spell of the Yukon" you will understand when I say this work is a book-length treatment of the same subject - the strange lure of the North.

I'll close with a couple of excerpts from Service that will give you a sense of the place and the book.

"No, There's the land, Have you seen it?
It's the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when he made it -
Some say it's a fine land to shun.
Maybe, but there's some as would trade it
For no land on earth, and I'm one.
It grips you like some kinds of sinning,
It twists you from foe to a friend,
It seems it's been since the beginning,
It seems it will be to the end.

There's a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where.
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair.
There are hardships that nobody reckons,
There are valleys unpeopled and still.
There's a land, oh it beckons and beckons.
And I want to go back and I will"

Read this if you've ever felt the urge to go North and you'll get a feel for it.