Fault Line

Amazon.com

Seventeen-year-old Becky Martin never thought she'd be one of THOSE girls. After all, she doesn't fit the profile. She has two loving parents, close friends who care about her, even a great gig as an amateur comic in the San Francisco comedy club scene. Becky has always considered herself too smart and too driven to ever become involved in an abusive relationship. But up-and-coming comic Kip Costello is impossible to resist. He's cute, hilarious, and worships stand-up as much as she does. Yet, as Kip begins to demand more and more of her time and attention, Becky is forced to admit to herself that her relationship isn't as perfect as she works so hard to make other people believe. "No matter how much work I did in the relationship, it was never enough. Making him happy was my top priority, but it seemed like the harder I tried, the more I failed." The time for jokes is over as Becky faces some serious and hard truths about Kip, their relationship, and her own hidden insecurities. Janet Tashjian's refreshingly different take on a sobering and pervasive issue for teens rings solidly true. By adding Kip's often agonizing diary entries to Becky's narrative, Tashjian has crafted a novel that promotes both empathy and understanding about adolescent abusive relationships. (Ages 14 to 18) --Jennifer Hubert

Book Description

Seventeen-year-old Becky Martin dreams of being a stand-up comic. She also craves the affection of a boyfriend. When attractive Kip, a rising star in the San Francisco comedy club scene, comes into Beckys life, she thinks shes found her soul mate. But she soon discovers that Kip has a dark side, and control and jealousy appear to be the price she must pay for his love. Will Becky find the strength and courage to get help? In this powerful novel, Janet Tashjian tackles the difficult subject of teen relationship abuse from the viewpoints of both the victim and the perpetrator.

Customer Reviews:

Great.......2007-06-06

I really like this book in different ways from the way I liked Sarah Dessen's Dreamland. I like the detail better in Dreamland but Faultline was still a very good book.

Faultline.......2006-06-07

Becky Martin is a 17-year-old comedienne who believes she has found true love with fellow comedian Kip Costello. As Kip becomes increasingly more possessive and controlling, however, Becky finds herself enmeshed in an abusive relationship she has difficulty giving up. This novel is written with great sensitivity as both sides of the abusive relationship are explored, and all the characters are very believable. Recommended for young men as well as for young women.

How the character changes.......2006-04-09

Book Response:

The book Fault Line by Janet Tashjain deals with a girl named Becky Martin who is struggling in an abusive relationship while at the same time trying to balance her career as a standup comic. It analyzes the steps of how men can take control so easily. Through this process of controlling and abusive behavior, she comes out as a new person who is stronger, wiser, and majestic.
Starting off, Becky is a very self-conscious girl who relies on the opinions of others to form who she is. For example at the start of her career as a standup comic a simple insult of her performance caused a major breakdown. She thought she was a lost cause and could never have been worthy of any real career in this profession. Also as she gets deeper into her relationship with Kip she feels that she isn't worth anything unless she has a boyfriend. Becky stays in the relationship after repeated physical and emotional abuse because of the peer pressure to have a boyfriend, which comes from her friends. Finally, because of the constant insults from Kip she started to become isolated from her family and friends. After this she only plummeted into a world of insanity and suicidal. She even went as far as keeping dead animals in her bedroom. Of course by the end of the book her skin became thicker. When an insult was made about her performance she took it as constructive criticism instead of a remark dealing with the quality of her character. Also Becky discovers that a woman doesn't need a boyfriend to be accepted by her friends. She even starts giving lectures to other women who were previously in abusive relationship just as she was. Finally because Becky starts to come out of her isolated world of insanity she finally starts interacting with her friends and family once again. This leads to a healthier environment in which she takes more risks in her career as a standup comedian.
Becky Martin not only becomes a stronger individual but also uses her new wisdom to impact the lives of others going through these same circumstances. In a lecture given to women in the same position she says that, "A relationship is a lot like a hot bath. The more you get used to it, the more you realize it's not so hot..." She means that in this instance it can be hard to determine how dangerous the situation is because of how manipulative the man can be and how easily he can get away with treating women violently. Also Becky starts to go after her dreams of college and a career as a comedian. She realizes that in order for things to happen she must do it herself by focusing on her grades and working on her act as a comedian. Finally, Becky becomes more confident with herself and creates a clinic for abused women. Through this she obtains the tools necessary to help others in need.
Because Becky becomes wiser and stronger through the hard times of her relationship with Kip she becomes an icon in the world of jokes and laughter as well as an icon to the people she works with at her battered women's shelter. Her transformation of a simple struggling comedian to a majestic and influential individual shows how extreme her character has changed form the beginning. For example in the beginning of the book she had stage fright and constantly feared rejection from the people she was entertaining. By the end her act onstage was solid and took the rejection as a way to figure out how to improve her performance. She even lands a spot on MTV where she is able to perform some of her material live. Also with the women that she helps through her shelter she is able to give them a voice by making this issue more aware to the public through her fame as a comedian. Finally through her struggles she manages to achieve everything she wanted; acceptance to a good college and a career in the comedian business.
Becky Martin never expected to be so violently transformed from the self-conscious teenager to a famous comedian who advocates the abolition of abusive relationships. She not only changes her resume, but changes a person as well. She does this by becoming stronger, wiser, and more majestic as a person who was once weak, ignorant, and still trying to find her spark in life.

One Bad Decision has Several Bad Outcomes.......2005-12-09

Abuse. You've heard about it a lot, it happens everyday; it may even happen in your own lives. Whether you're the victim or the perpetrator, whether you're a young teen, whose relationship just began, or an older lady who's been in the relationship for years, it happens all the time.

Becky and her family are working on Becky's career in comedy. While performing Becky and Abby, Becky's best friend, meet a new guy who they think is real cool, sweet, and the best comedian ever. Becky and Kip begin a relationship that doesn't go as they dream. Becky finds herself trying to be the perfect girlfriend, trying to do what she thinks is best, but Becky's relationship, may not go like the fairytale she's always dreamed of.

It's all through all the tragic events that Becky figures the dating life out. She realizes that she doesn't have to have a boy to make her comedy career, really something.

Sometimes the most important lessons are learned through a tragedy. Its also been said, that everything happens for a reason. Janet Tashjian gives us a realistic view of relationships; she lets us know that a relationship doesn't always stay the same. The harsh realities of our decisions don't only affect one person, but everyone involved in our lives.

This is a great book. A lot of people will enjoy this reading material. I would recommend this to any teen, but I'd recommend it more to teen girls or even grown women. This book lets us know some of the dangers of abuse and how it can worsen, but it also lets you know that you can get out of the relationship. This is a really great book and anyone could read it and enjoy it.

Both sides.......2005-08-09

I read this book straight-through in just a few hours. The main character (Becky) is well written and I like that the premise is set around Becky seeking a career as a stand-up comic. This is the first YA fiction book I have read where the main female character does not run track, and Becky's mother actually pays attention to her and is supportive.

This book explores the issue of abuse. I have to admit that once Becky 'fell in love' I felt angry and disgusted. At first Becky is certain she is 'in love'. It is the typical, consuming, elating, blissful, 'I have-found-my-soulmate' obsessive love that people so often mistake for the real thing.

Later on Becky devotes all of her mental time to thinking of how best to approach her boyfriend, being sure to tread lightly. It baffles me that people will turn their whole existence upside down just to spend every conscious moment thinking about or being with that special someone. As Becky soon finds out, relationships of this nature are never healthy.

What I liked about this particular book is that the author explores the issues of abuse from the side of both the perpetrator and victim. Of course physical violence and verbal abuse are horrible and harmful. In this story the abuser realizes that he has an issue that cannot be fixed quickly.

I applaud the author for making it a point to say that change takes time. Too often people want a quick-fix. The fact is some things can't be patched up, wiped clean, and disposed of in a few days or weeks.

I still find the issues of abusive relationships confusing and often unthinkable. I do think it is important to look at the dynamics though, rather than chalk problems up to a black and white good guy bad guy explanation. If it were that simple I imagine less people would find themselves caught up.

I especially recommend this book to teens.

Living on the Fault Line, Revised Edition: Managing for Shareholder Value in Any Economy

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Same message with new insights
Accessible business strategy primer for the 21st century

Living on the Fault Line, Revised Edition: Managing for Shareholder Value in Any Economy
Geoffrey A. Moore
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0060086769

Book Description

The fault line -- that dangerous, unstable seam in the economy where powerful innovations and savage competition meet and create market-shattering tremors. Every company lives on it; no manager can control it.

In the original edition of Living on the Fault Line, Geoffrey Moore presented a compelling argument for using shareholder value (or share price) as the key driver in management decisions. Moore now revisits his argument in the post-Internet bubble world, proving that the methods he espouses are more germane than ever and showing companies how to use them to survive and thrive in today's demanding economy.

Extending the themes of Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado, his first two books on the dynamics of the high-tech markets, Moore shows why sensitivity to stock price is the single most important lever for managing in the future, both as a leading indicator of shifts in competitive advantage and as an employee motivator for making necessary changes in organizations heretofore impervious to change.

This revised and updated edition includes:

A deeper emphasis on core versus context, which has emerged as the key distinction in allocating resources to improve shareholder value
A new Competitive Advantage Grid that will aid managers in achieving and sustaining competitive advantage, the most important component in managing for shareholder value
An expanded Value Discipline Model as it relates to the Competitive Advantage Grid
Analysis of the powerful new trend toward core/context analysis and outsourcing production duties
Updated models of organizational change for each stage of market development

As disruptive forces continue to buffet the marketplace and rattle the staid practices of the past, Moore offers a brilliant set of navigational tools to help meet today's most compelling management challenges.

Customer Reviews:

Same message with new insights.......2004-02-25

"Living on the Fault Line" is an extension of Geoffrey Moore's previous books, "Crossing the Chasm" and "Inside the Tornado". It examines the various stages of a business, presents methods for managing shareholder value and creating sustainable competitive advantage, and begins to examine how cultural diversity can be used as a competitive strength. Although Moore does introduce business culture and the importance of culture management, his approach to competitive advantage continues to rely on stock price and information technology, distinguishing core and contextual processes, and understanding the impact of technology in causing market shifts. The book is well written and includes many useful diagrams and charts.

With change increasing exponentially, we are living in an environment where understanding and dealing with change is increasingly difficult. While Moore's approach towards competition is traditional, he does provide tools for understanding the apparent chaos in today's environment.

Accessible business strategy primer for the 21st century.......2002-11-10

I bought Moore's previous incarnation of this book (... in the age of the Internet) in April 02 and read the first chapter with incredulity. It was all about how the dot-coms were blowing away traditional businesses with their "market-share at any price" growth strategies. Then the book started getting interesting.

This revised version has the expected mea culpa in the Preface, deletes and replaces chapter 1 of the previous addition, and focuses on what is really valuable in Moore's work. The new chapter 1 highlights Moore's GAP-CAP distinction. GAP (Competitive-Advantage Gap) is what shows up in the numbers, differential success in the here-and-now marketplace. CAP (Competitive-Advantage Period) is a more subtle concept, referring to the ability of a company to sustain its advantages against competitors over time. It underpins future competitive advantage. The combination of a company's GAP and CAP is the real driver of its share price (discounted future earnings), and therefore of shareholder value. Moore write persuasively and in some detail about how this all works.

Chapter 2 explores the second important idea, the CORE-CONTEXT distinction. Here Core is defined as those activities which are central to the company's marketplace differentiation: effective action here directly impacts the share price. Context activities are those which need to be done, and done well, but which the market gives you little credit for. Administrative HR, for example, in companies which are not HR specialists. Moore argues that these are candidates for outsourcing to companies for whom they ARE core competencies. Again Moore elaborates on these basic distinctions.

Subsequent chapters explain the "Competitive Advantage Grid", which is new in this version. Here, the standard analysis of competitive advantage (product leadership vs. customer-focus vs. price/operational excellence - with a new category for disruptive innovation) is cross-referenced to strategies for marketplace differentiation to create a 4 x 4 matrix on which your company can be placed.

The remaining part of the book returns to Moore's familiar themes of the evolution-model of technology-based markets: early-market, chasm, bowling-alley, tornado, main-street. Moore is looking to integrate some of his ideas from the early part of the book into this framework, with a fair degree of success. He closes by discussing business cultures and "culture management", but here the theoretical framework is noticeably weaker. William Bridge's recently re-issued "The Character of Organizations" is a useful complement to what Moore has to say, here.

Overall, I think this book has its greatest value as a conceptual framework for strategic marketing and corporate strategy in hi-tech. I have personally found its ideas extraordinarily useful in telecoms. Reviewers of Moore's earlier books have indicated that some non-trivial work has to be done to apply these ideas to concrete cases. Clearly, some of Moore's rather black and white recommendations have to be nuanced in practice, but as an accessible business strategy primer for the 21st century, I would say this book is essential.

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Moral incoherence at core of Afghanistan
Heroes of the Age: Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Frontier (Comparative Studies on Muslim Societies ; 21)
David B. Edwards
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Before Taliban: Genealogies of the Afghan Jihad

Revolution Unending: Afghanistan, 1979 to the Present (The CERI Series in Comparative Politics and International Studies)

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Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia

ASIN: 0520200640

Book Description

Much of the political turmoil that has occurred in Afghanistan since the Marxist revolution of 1978 has been attributed to the dispute between Soviet-aligned Marxists and the religious extremists inspired by Egyptian and Pakistani brands of "fundamentalist" Islam. In a significant departure from this view, David B. Edwards contends that--though Marxism and radical Islam have undoubtedly played a significant role in the conflict--Afghanistan's troubles derive less from foreign forces and the ideological divisions between groups than they do from the moral incoherence of Afghanistan itself. Seeking the historical and cultural roots of the conflict, Edwards examines the lives of three significant figures of the late nineteenth century--a tribal khan, a Muslim saint, and a prince who became king of the newly created state. He explores the ambiguities and contradictions of these lives and the stories that surround them, arguing that conflicting values within an artificially-created state are at the root of Afghanistan's current instability.
Building on this foundation, Edwards examines conflicting narratives of a tribal uprising against the British Raj that broke out in the summer of 1897. Through an analysis of both colonial and native accounts, Edwards investigates the saint's role in this conflict, his relationship to the Afghan state and the tribal groups that followed him, and the larger issue of how Islam traditionally functions as an encompassing framework of political association in frontier society.

Customer Reviews:

Moral incoherence at core of Afghanistan.......2001-10-11

This beautifully written book covers three heroes from the period before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The author uses these heroes to explore the cultural roots of the violence and turbulence in Afghanistan today.

Book Description

Years of caring for her needy family have left Merritt Fowler exhausted and confused, uncertain of who she is or what she wants. When a family argument sends her lovely, fragile daughter, Glynn, running from her Atlanta home to her Aunt Laura in Hollywood, Merritt is compelled to follow.

On impulse, the trio takes off in Laura's red Mustang convertible, barreling up the coast to the lush wilderness outside San Francisco -- earthquake country. There, amid the beauty and protection of the mountains, mother, daughter, and sister will struggle to see if the widening fissures between them can be healed, as they search for the bedrock of strength and courage that can save them and their family.

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Customer Reviews:

ANOTHER GEM.......2007-08-05

You've read the basic story line of this book so I won't waste your time writing it again. I will simply say that Rivers is an author that writes for women. Men could never understand the emotion she put into her stories that ring so true to women. She will make us laugh and make us
cry, make us cheer and make us groan..... and in the end we crave more.

For me, her stories are never long enough and she can't write fast enough to rid me of this craving for her wonderful, heartwarming stories. Take a chance. Buy the book and get ready for a good old fashioned, well written story that will take you away from your world and float you off into the one she so generously created for you.

My Fault for reading it.......2005-09-12

This was by far the most ridiculous book I've ever read. "Neatly alternating earthquake lore with steamy sex scenes" ?? As a native Californian, I've never heard of earthquake lore! And the steamy sex scenes? Oh come on-- a married woman in her "mom jeans" and a circus freak is hardly steamy- it's kind of gross.

I can just see the pitch to the publisher: So it's about this enabling, spineless Southern do-gooder and her Pompous doctor husband (who wants to save the world) with a mentally sick mother and mentally sick daughter under their roof but are too self-abosrbed to notice, because Enabler is busy swimming with rats. Next, cut to cliched "run-away anorexic teen hiding out with understanding, hip/cool aunt" and add the middle-aged mom shedding her polyester pantsuit before sleeping with some circus freak (and his rat) in the hills, because anorexic teen is lands screen test with fictional Hollywood mega-producer? Meanwhile, beautiful/lost/angelic sister is .... I forget. Boffing director, and ending up on the cutting room floor? How fragile! How lost! Such beauty!
I still can't get over the married southern belle doing the circus freak/dwarf or whatever the heck he was. But of course, she "found herself" or some such nonsense when she had the guts to run away so that senile, fire-starting Mommee would be put into a nursing home.
This book was just stupid. Earthquake lore!!! LOL Steamy sex!! LOL
Also, how can they be sitting next to a roaring fire in Palm Springs, and then the next day say Los Angeles was all about sweltering, sweaty, heat? Palm Springs is generally 30-40 degrees HOTTER than Los Angeles.
Skip it!

Total Disappointment..........2004-10-12

It started out as a typical ARS plot--aging southern married
woman contemplates family life and ends up growing and learning.

But the overly sentimental characters were sickening after
awhile, and the plot became less believable as it progressed.

Tedious storyline--main character rhapsodizes about meeting
her wonderful husband, but typically falls for an ugly or
deformed man who's somehow beautiful inside, as the plot
progresses.

Why should we care about a hairy woodsman with a pet rat who
has a deathwish concerning California earthquakes? Like we
couldn't see his death coming. And could the main character
gush anymore about her love for her perfect beautiful daughter?
A potential Hollywood movie star at 14? Come on.

Cliches, cliches--the sweet gay man dying of AIDS, the self-
involved physician husband, the beloved, long-lost sister,
the sleazy Hollywood producers...can't Siddens do any better
than this?

I don't think I'll read her anymore, and its too bad...I loved
Downtown and Nora, Nora.

A promising premise but doesn't really satisfy.......2003-03-04

This book has a lot of promising character work in it, but is undone by its own lack of subtlety. I was drawn in to the characters' lives during the first half of the book, and found myself caring about what happened with the mother-sister-daughter trio. My involvement remained, even though I was put off by the author's tendency to beat the reader over the head with points she felt were important. I could have gleaned much about the main character through her actions; instead, I was told, over and over, what kind of person she was. I kept wanting to edit those passages down -- "I get it already!"

Still, I was happily reading along. Unfortunately, a little more than midway through the book, the story grew more and more melodramatic. A relationship was developed -- a pivotal point for the main character -- but it pulled her out of the family context and into an overblown, false-feeling love story. Again, it's the author beating the reader over the head with what could have had more power through subtlety.

The book kept me reading, but I couldn't help but wish that these interesting characters were given a more thoughtful and restrained treatment.

This was two books -- one good and one bad.......2001-08-25

I've enjoyed other books by this author but I thought much of Fault Lines was a waste of time. It was as though she had ideas for two books and thought she could get away with combining them. The story line about her mother-in-law, daughter, husband and sister was warm, funny and moving (book one). But she interrupted the story with (book two) a melodramatic, romance-novel, Bridges-of-Madison-County interlude that inspired me to roll my eyes and flip pages until I could find a plot again. The only reason I bothered to finish the story was because I cared about the original characters. If you like romance novels, you'll love this book. Otherwise, don't invest the time in it (or just skip the pages with the romance in it -- you won't miss much.)

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warning
Fantastic Mystery Solved by a Forensic Geologist
THe kind of book that makes you want to read the sequel
One Olympic disaster that didn't...
Did You Feel It???

Fault Line (An Em Hansen Mystery)
Sarah Andrews
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Women Sleuths | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0312253508

Book Description

In Fault Line, Sarah Andrews' seventh absorbing mystery, forensic geologist Emily Hansen finds herself in a heavenly situation-for a geologist, anyway.Here, Salt Lake City, on the verge of hosting the Olympics, is hit with a major earthquake, Em's first; she's delighted to see her science at work live and in color instead of in a lab like usual.Not that it's all fun and games-the quake is minor in terms of damage, but the specter of the possibility of a much larger disaster looms. And the geological event brings her a job.For the past few months while trying to move forward in her relationship with her boyfriend, Ray, a cop in Salt Lake, Em has been consulting for and training with the FBI as an unofficial investigator; when a state-employed geologist is murdered hours after the quake, the Feds ask Em to put her special brand of detection skills to work on the case.The disaster already has the local government types edgy, and a murder at the height of the emergency gets even the governor's attention.Em must use all the investigatory tools in her arsenal to uncover what in the dead geologist's life-earthquake related or not, professional or personal-could have made her the target of a killer. Action-packed and tensely written, Fault Line is as much about the very real effects of an earthquake on our modern lives as it is about the science of finding a killer. AUTHORBIO: Sarah Andrews, a professional geologist and licensed pilot, lives with her husband and son in Northern California. Awarded the prestigious American Association of Petroleum Geologists' Journalists Award in 1998 for her mystery writing, she also teaches geology at Sonoma State University.

Customer Reviews:

warning.......2005-08-01

Sarah Andrews continues to bring together what I love - geology, and mysteries from a woman's view. I was hooked all the way till the end, but as a warning to others who like to solve mysteries, or who are enjoying the whole series, don't skip the 2 books before this one!

I was lost on Em's perspective and thoughts on certain key issues, which supposedly are explained in such full detail in the 2 previous books that she barely mentions them here. Sure, it's an interesting read (I'd say more about that, but wouldn't want to give anything away), but I would've gotten a whole lot more out of this mystery if I'd had a little bit more background. It probably wouldn't have left a sour taste in my mouth either.

Fantastic Mystery Solved by a Forensic Geologist.......2004-03-19

This is the first Sarah Andrews mystery I've read, starring main character Em Hansen, Forensic Geologist. I loved it so much that I'm planning to go out and buy every book of Sarah Andrew's that I can get my hands on !

The book takes place in heavily faulted Salt Lake City. Geologist (and informal investigator-in-training) 35-year-old Em Hansen is shaken awake about 4 AM by an approximate 5.3-level earthquake. She gets caught up in the two murder investigations of a geologist and a reporter who are out to expose earthquake damage in public structures, but which developers want covered up. Furthermore, we are drawn far into the Mormon world, and society, of Salt Lake City. Along the way, we also learn a lot of interesting science and geology. If you enjoy science at all, you will LOVE this whole mystery series.

I absolutely loved the main character. She has a lot of interesting friends, and an interesting, but very realistic life. In addition to this mystery, this author has a lot to say about life (through what her characters are experiencing) and gives her readers a lot to chew on.

THe kind of book that makes you want to read the sequel.......2004-01-05

I'm going to have to buy the next book in the series because I'm dying to find out what happens next to detective geologist Em Hansen, particularly her love life, and I'm not normally a fan of romances. But detective Em is very likeable and the reader cares about her, and there are a couple of very interesting men in her life as the book ends.

In this mystery, Em's relationship with her boyfriend, Mormon policeman Ray, is in difficulty from the get-go. Em is not Mormon and his family is not so happy about their relationship. Then there's Emma's career -- another problem area, since she isn't actually employed (she does some temping to supplement her dwindling savings). She moved to Salt Lake City to be near her boyfriend, but has been unable to find a job.

To top it off, there's this earthquake (in the first chapter), and Em begins to suspect that some of the buildings in Salt Lake City are going to collapse if a really big earthquake hits. How is it that the authorities allowed them to be built?

Then there's the murder of a state geologist -- is it related to the earthquake or politics or both? Em gets involved in trying to discover who killed her, even as she tries to sort out her troubled relationship with her boyfriend and his family.

If I have any criticisms of the book, it is that you might end up knowing more about earthquakes and fault lines than you want to -- but you will learn quite a bit on the subject, and quite a bit about Salt Lake City and Mormons.

All in all, an entertaining, amusing, engaging, "can't put down" book. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

One Olympic disaster that didn't..........2002-02-25

The timing of this latest Em Hansen mystery makes the novel already dated but no less enjoyable for that. When a moderate 5.2 earthquake hits Salt Lake City weeks before this year's Winter Olympic Games, the local geologists, including Hansen, get excited. But when the Utah State geologist is murdered, the FBI recruits Hansen to look into the geological state of things. Coping with chronic underemployment and a rocky romance with her Mormon cop boyfriend, Hansen jumps at the chance.

Reviewing maps and tramping the terrain, Hansen discovers that her newly adopted city is riddled with faults, which the city fathers have virtually ignored. Between complacency and corruption, numerous public venues - from housing developments and malls to the spanking new stadium where the Olympics' opening ceremonies are scheduled - sit precariously on fault lines.

The murder investigation parallels Andrews' dire exploration of earthquake inevitability and its devastating effects on an unprepared populace. Greed, politics and religion wrestle with science in a story as much exposé as mystery. An engaging and forthright protagonist, Hansen's narration is interspersed with other viewpoints - a corporate villain, his trained construction geologist and an ambitious newspaper reporter among others - which heightens the suspense and the novel's scope.

Did You Feel It???.......2001-12-27

What's more exciting than an earthquake that shakes you out of bed first thing in the morning? Sarah Andrews' newest Em Hanson mystery - Fault Line - which kept me up until 2am this morning! Fault Line finds Em Hanson, out-of-work petroleum geologist and fledgling forensic geologist, living in Salt Lake City, sorting out her life. A 5.2 M earthquake on a branch of the Wasatch Fault wakes everybody up and the death of the head of the Utah Geological Survey really gets things rolling. Earthquakes aren't Em's specialty, so we join her as she learns more about the fault lines that run under Salt Lake City and through relationships and families. Cracks appear in the brand new stadium that is to be featured in the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics and in Em's relationship with her boyfriend Ray, Salt Lake City cop and devout Mormon. Shaky ground is found at the site of a brand new shopping mall and in the relationship of Faye, Em's best friend, and Tom Latimer, Zen FBI agent and Em's mentor in detecting. As always, Em the geologist teases out the big picture from a mess of details. Be prepared to learn a lot about seismology and engineering geology. Trips to the ski slopes in Alta, the [Flying] Pie Pizzeria, and the [beautiful] retrofitted City and County Building fill out the local color. In my opinion, this is the best Em Hanson mystery yet. On the Modified Mercalli Scale of Earthquake Intensity, XII means total destruction. On the open-ended [Gutenberg]-Richter Scale of Earthquake Magnitude, a 9.5 is the largest earthquake ever recorded. I can only give Fault Line by Sarah Andrews 5 stars, but if I could give it more, I would!

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Fault Lines: Stories of Divorce
Various , and Caitlin Shetterly
Manufacturer: Berkley Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Anthologies | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0425181618
Release Date: 2001-09-04

Book Description

These stories-from such masters of short fiction as Ann Beattie, Andre Dubus, Jhumpa Lahiri and John Updike-represent a journey through the rocky emotional terrain of separation and divorce, from the viewpoints of spouses, children, and significant others who are all deeply affected by the dissolution of marriage, whether that dissolution is slow and sad or sudden and shocking.

Stories by:
John Cheever * Ann Beattie * Jhumpa Lahiri * John Updike * Alice Munro * Andre Dubus * Lee K. Abbott * Randall Kenan * Wendi Kaufman * Michael Chabon * Russell Banks * Sherman Alexie * Edmund White * Alice Elliott Dark * Peter Ho Davies * Raymond Carver * Grace Paley * Richard Ford * Molly Giles * Anthony Walton * Lucia Nevai * Lorrie Moore

Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California

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almost faultless

Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California
Tomás Almaguer
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520089472

Book Description

This book unravels the ethnic history of California since the late nineteenth-century Anglo-American conquest and institutionalization of "white supremacy" in the state. Almaguer comparatively assesses the struggles for control of resources, status, and political legitimacy between the European American and the Native American, Mexican, African-American, Chinese, and Japanese populations. Drawing from an array of primary and secondary sources, he weaves a detailed, disturbing portrait of ethnic, racial, and class relationships during this tumultuous time.
The U.S. annexation of California in 1848 and the simultaneous discovery of gold sparked rapid and diverse waves of immigration westward, displacing the already established pastoral Mexican society. Almaguer shows how the confrontation between white immigrants and the Mexican ranchero and working class populations was also a contestation over racial status in which racialization influenced and was in turn influenced by class position in the changing economic order. Partly because of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which granted U.S. citizenship and other rights, parts of the Mexican population were integrated into the emerging Anglo society more easily than other racialized groups. A case study of Ventura County highlights declining political and economic fortunes of the Mexican elite while showing how Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, and Indian populations were permanently relegated to the bottom of the class structure as unskilled manual workers.
The fate of the Native American population provides perhaps the most extreme example of white supremacy during the period. Popular conceptions of Native Americans as "uncivilized and "heathen," justified the killing of more than 8,000 men, women, and children between 1848 and 1870. Many survivors were incorporated at the periphery of Anglo society, often as indentured laborers and virtual slaves.
Underpinning the institutional structuring of white supremacy were notions such as "manifest destiny," the inherent good of the capitalist wage-system, and the superiority of Christianity and Euro-American culture, all of which helped to marginalize non white groups in California and justify Anglo-American class dominance. As other racialized groups assumed new roles, Almaguer assesses the complex interplay between economic forces and racial attitudes that simultaneously structured and allocated "group position" in the new social hierarchy.
California remains a contested racial frontier, as political struggles over the rights and opportunities of different groups continue to reverberate along racial lines. Racial Fault Lines is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of ethnicity and class in America, and the social construction of "race" in the Far West.

Customer Reviews:

almost faultless.......2001-01-31

Almaguer has given us a useful history of racial attitudes and white supremacy in nineteenth century Cali. Avoiding a "binary"-- or black/white-- understanding of racial relations, Racial Fault Lines traces the unique racial sagas of Mexicans, Chinese, and Indian peoples in their encounters with "white" Californians. Almaguer could do more to investigate interactions among such groups ACROSS the categories of "racial otherness": Mexican, Chinese, and Indian. SOme readers will also question his chronology and wonder to what extent the 'origins of white supremacy' in California might have begun much earlier than the mid-nineteenth century, where his book focuses.

Fault Lines: Journeys into the New South Africa (Updated with a New Afterword)

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Views from both sides
Well-written, but not exactly as advertised
An excellent introduction to present-day South Africa
Expands on what I saw in South Africa, October, 1998

Fault Lines: Journeys into the New South Africa (Updated with a New Afterword)
David Goodman
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520232038

Amazon.com

In April 1994, South Africa held its first ever democratic elections, ushering Nelson Mandela into office as the nation's first black president. What has followed that election, as the country attempts to reinvent a society founded on racism and the indignities of apartheid, is the subject of Fault Lines. "How does a nation deal with the memory of its brutal past?" is perhaps the question that most guides David Goodman, a journalist and longtime observer of South African life. Like the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, the political instrument of South Africa's struggle to come to terms with apartheid-era crimes, the strength of Fault Lines rests on an unflinching yet compassionate quest for truth. Goodman brings all his investigative skills to the task of getting an answer from all sides. He juxtaposes profiles of a victim of police brutality and the former security officer who helped torture him, or a well-off Afrikaner farmer and his neighbor, a black South African forcibly removed from his land. While formal apartheid has ended, Goodman finds "an unfinished revolution," with many citizens still mired in terrible economic and social injustice. Fault Lines is fascinating, if disturbing, reading for anyone interested in understanding the history and present of what the author calls "the most exciting country in the world." --Maria Dolan

Book Description

South Africa has experienced one of the world's most dramatic political transformations. David Goodman, a journalist and activist who has witnessed South Africa's struggles since the darkest days of apartheid, chronicles the historic transition from apartheid to democracy. This compelling story is told through the lives of four pairs of South Africans who have experienced apartheid from opposite sides of the racial and political divide. Taken together, these profiles provide the first in-depth look at the social dynamics of post-apartheid South Africa.
Part social history and part personal drama, Fault Lines is an account of what happens to real people when their country is reinvented around them. The struggle to reconcile past evils is captured in the stories of a former police assassin and his intended victim. The rise and fall of South African racism is portrayed through the lives of the late Prime Minister H.F. Verwoerd--the notorious "architect of apartheid"--and his grandson, now a member of the ruling African National Congress. The battle to break out of poverty is detailed in the story of two black women: one an impoverished domestic worker and new city councilor, the other a Mercedes-driving member of South Africa's new black elite. The struggle for the land is told through the eyes of two neighbors: a black farmer who was evicted from his lands in the 1980s and has returned to start over, and a conservative white farmer who participated in the eviction and now does business with the man whose life he nearly destroyed. These powerful stories are accompanied by the photography of award-winning South African documentary photographer Paul Weinberg.

Customer Reviews:

Views from both sides.......2004-01-22

Goodman has compiled a great book here with views on important events in South African history. These events are examined with narratives from both sides, white and black. The aftermath of each event is traced as well.

Well-written, but not exactly as advertised.......2002-12-14

I originally bought this book because it was published about five years after Apartheid's official demise and promised to be about "the New South Africa." There aren't many stories that come out of that country these days and it is difficult finding real information about the transition to full democracy. Regretfully, this book adds little to the quest for answers about South Africa's future.

The author does a good job of interviewing various segments of South African society, but nearly 75% of the book focuses on Apartheid, which has been effectively dead since 1990. This book has the same feel as the many dozens of others that were written prior to Mandela's election. Technically the author is conducting the interviews post-Apartheid, but the reliance is on the old ghosts of the past to excuse tacit failure.

Perhaps most frustrating are the slight clues dropped along the way that hint at corruption and crime, two areas most indicative of national direction (especially in Africa), although the author never indulges us with detail. This is unfortunate because a lot of effort was spent to put together a book that gives precious little insight into whether South Africa will wind up as another Zimbabwe, or if the continent's last great hope will manage to retain its economy and pull up its neighbors as many of us were so hopeful of in 1990.

An excellent introduction to present-day South Africa.......1999-05-23

I first heard about this book on a radio talk show and immediately ordered it through Amazon.com. Listening to the author talk about his views on South Africa was quite interesting because he loves the country and its people and is cautiously enthusiastic about its future, but reading his book reveals that the vast problems South Africa faces are incredibly complex and that it may well take several generations to create an egalitarian society. One really wonders if South Africa will stand the test of time and not become another Rwanda or Yugoslavia.

The author intelligently divided the book into four parts: an introduction in which he talks about his early trips in South Africa under apartheid and the current social situation of the country, four portrait sections in which he includes a pair of interviews with people on opposite sides of the current post-apartheid experience, and a sensible personal conclusion. The reader should expect moving as well as harrowing personal accounts of apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. Many things throughout the book will bring hope to the reader; however, that hope will be checked by Goodman's well-informed statistics on criminality and unemployment in present-day South Africa. The book definitively deserves a wide readership.

Expands on what I saw in South Africa, October, 1998.......1999-04-10

Having visited South Africa in October, 1998, and seen the extensive squatters areas described by the author, I do not believe that readers of his book can adequately understand the extreme poverty he describes. It has to be seen and experienced to be appreciated. Mr. Goodman's portraits of the eight people in his book gives flesh and humanity to the otherwise dehumanizing nature of apartheid. I think his work is best appreciated if you have seen South Africa for yourself. For your readers who have not been to South Africa, they owe it to themselves to see it. I believe you can not remain unmoved by what you see and one must come away from that experience a better person.

Couples on the Fault Line: New Directions for Therapists

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Couples on the Fault Line: New Directions for Therapists

Manufacturer: The Guilford Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1572307056

Book Description

Couple therapy is no longer simply a matter of helping couples adjust to the different stages of the life cycle: the life cycle itself has changed. Advances in reproductive technology, the rise of electronic communication, increasing time pressures of daily life, the continuing transformation of gender roles, and the loosening of constraints on same-sex and cross-cultural partnerships are just some of the developments reshaping relationships today. This cutting-edge book brings together prominent marital and family therapists to explore the new challenges--and opportunities--facing couples and the clinicians who work with them. Illustrated with vivid case material, the volume presents a range of approaches to helping couples reconsider and reorder their life priorities around such central issues as love, marriage, parenting, commitment, intimacy, and aging.

Fault Lines ('Nama Beach High 3) (Invert)

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getting rid of hate, one person at a time...

Fault Lines ('Nama Beach High 3) (Invert)
Nancy Rue
Manufacturer: Zondervan/Youth Specialties
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0310251826

Book Description

A series of books for mid-teens, dealing with the challenges, problems, and excitement of becoming young women of faith.

Customer Reviews:

getting rid of hate, one person at a time..........2005-04-27

"Fault Lines" book three in Nancy Rue's `Nama Beach High Series, starts up a month after the incident that left Laura with her broken jaw (book 2, False Friends and True Strangers). Laura is doing better now, but her jaw is still wired shut, and she can't sing. In fact, everything is going good at `Nama High, until K.J.'s parents announce their plans to divorce and a new group of students come to school. The new students are Jews, only everyone thinks their Middle Eastern terrorists. And it doesn't help when everyone soon finds out that they're Jews, because the students of `Nama High have no idea what to do about a group of Jews who are unfriendly and sit together in a quiet group, not talking to anyone and even telling Laura and her posse that they want nothing to do with them. When a group of Rednecks starts to pick on the Jewish students, Laura is the first person to stand up-but realizes that she's standing up for the wrong reasons. At this point Ponytail Boy intervenes yet again, informing her that she needs to get rid of the hate in herself before she can help others get rid of their hate. So Laura comes up with an idea to bridge the gap between the Jewish students and the Christians on campus, all the while trying to get rid of her own hate, and later the hate among her friends. Laura finally does befriend the Jewish students on campus-but the event causes the unthinkable to happen. It is only then that Laura learns how much she has let God change her, especially after the unthinkable happens to her and she meets up with Richard, her ex from the first book in the series. This book continues to draw upon being an example to non-Christian friends, while also bringing to light the passages in the Bible regarding hate (although indirectly), solving your own problems before going after someone elses, and, lastly, Rue talks about the common links in Judaism and Christianity, and points out how modern day Christians themselves can be unreasonably nasty and hateful to Jews. A must read in the `Nama Beach High series.

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