Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith

Amazon.com

Through Anne Lamott's many books (including six novels, her bestselling parenting memoir, Operating Instructions, and her popular guide to writing, Bird by Bird) the subject she keeps returning to is her faith, her deeply personal--"erratic," she says--journey in Christianity. Her latest book, Grace (Eventually), is her third collection of her "thoughts on faith," and she took the time to answer a few of our questions.

Questions for Anne Lamott

Amazon.com: This is your third book on faith. How has your perspective changed since you wrote your first one?

Lamott: I wrote my first book on faith when Bill Clinton was president, and I was in a much better mood. I wrote Plan B during the run-up to war in Iraq, and the ensuing catastrophe, so I was very angry, but trying to reconcile that pain and hostility to Jesus's insistence that we are made of love, to love, and be loved, to forgive and be forgiven. Some days went better than others. Also, my son Sam was in his early teens, and that was a LOT easier than when he turned 16 and 17, his ages when I was writing the pieces in Grace (Eventually).

In general, I think Grace (Eventually) is a less angry book. I like how I'm aging, except that my back hurts more often, my knees crack like twigs when I squat, and my memory fails more frequently, in more public and therefore humiliating ways. But I think I complain less. As my best friend said when she was dying, and I was obsessing about my butt, "You just don't have that kind of time."

Amazon.com: What does grace mean for you? How can we better communicate it to each other?

Lamott: Grace is that extra bit of help when you think you are really doomed; also, not coincidentally, when you have finally run out of good ideas on how to proceed, and on how better to control the people or circumstances that are frustrating or defeating you. I experience Grace as a cool ribbon of fresh air when I feel spiritually claustrophobic. Sometimes I experience it as water-wings, something holding me up when I am afraid that I'm going down, or the tide is carrying me away. I know that Grace meets us whereever we are, but does not leave us where it found us. Sometimes it is so small--a couple of seconds relief here, several extra inches there. I wish it were big and obvious, like sky-writing. Oh, well. Grace is not something I DO, or can chase down; but it is something I can receive, when I stop trying to be in charge.

We communicate grace to one another by holding space for people when they are hurt or terrified, instead of trying to fix them, or manage their emotions for them. We offer ourselves as silent companionship, or gentle listening when someone feels very alone. We get people glasses of water when they are thirsty.

Amazon.com: Many of the essays in Grace (Eventually) first appeared in Salon, the online magazine, and that's the way that many readers first found you. How do you see the Internet changing the way people read and write?

Lamott: The Internet makes everything so immediate and spontaneous, which I totally love--UNLESS it has to do with the immediacy of people's negative response to me. Several of the Salon pieces in Grace--for instance, the story about the horrible fight with my son, and the piece about turning the other cheek while being ripped off by The Carpet Guy--generated a couple hundred letters, many of them extremely hostile. Perhaps "spewy" would be a better description. I also sometimes get knee-jerk responses to my mentions of Jesus in my Salon pieces that seem to lump me in the same tradition as Jerry Falwell. But for the most part, I love the populism and egalitarian nature of the Internet: everyone counts the same.

Amazon.com: What stories do people tell you, when they've read your books or know you are a writer?

Lamott: People tell me how relieved they are that I try to tell the truth about how hard it can be to be a mother, or a daughter, or an American in these times. They tell me stories about how awful their own teenagers can be, or how awful they themselves behaved towards their kids or parents; how hard it was to finally be able to adore their mothers, or to forgive their fathers. They tell me their sobriety dates. They whisper to me that they are Christians, too.

Also, they ask if I am able to read their manuscripts, and the name of my agent, and my e-mail address. They ask if we are going to survive the current political difficulties--and I promise them we are. They ask how old my son is now--17 and a half--and how he is doing, which is fantastically, after some of the hard months I wrote about in Grace.

Amazon.com:What lessons do you think you can pass on to others: to your readers, to your son? What lessons does it seem like people have to learn for themselves?

Lamott: All I have to offer is my own truth, my own experience, strength and hope. I can pass on the tool of a God Box, and how for 20 years I have been putting tiny notes in mine and promising God I will keep my sticky fingers off the controls until I hear God's wisdom: sometimes I get an answer because the phone rings, or the mail comes, but at any rate, during every single terrible problem and tragedy, I have been given enough guidance and stamina and even humor to bear up, and be transformed, for the good. I always tell Sam that if you want to make God laugh, tell Her your plans. I tell Sam that if he listens to his best thinking, he will suffer: and to listen to his heart instead, to listen in the silence, and to seek wise counsel.

Amazon.com: You've written nearly a dozen books (including an incredibly popular guide to writing): does writing get any easier? Does it get harder?

Lamott: In a very important way, writing gets easier, because I've been doing it full time now for thirty-plus years, and just as you would get better and better if you practiced your scales on a piano, I've gotten better, and can try harder and harder pieces. But writing is always hard. It does not come naturally to me at all. I sit down at the same time every day, which lets my subconscious realize it's time to get to work. I give myself very short assignments, and let myself write really terrible first drafts. But I grapple with the exact same problems every writer does, which is having equal proportions of self-loathing and grandiosity. I sort of live by the Nike ads: Just Do It. So I sit down. I show up. I do it by pre-arrangement with myself, because I know I'll feel sad and terrible if I shirk on that days writing. I do it as a debt of honor, to myself, and to whatever it is that has given me this gift of being able to tell stories, and to make people laugh. Laughter is carbonated holiness. Other people's good writing is medicine for me, and I hope mine is too, for my readers.

Book Description

The sharp, funny, and heartfelt follow-up to her bestselling Plan B, Anne Lamott's newest collection is a personal exploration of the faith and grace all around us.

In Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith, Lamott examines the ways we're caught in life's most daunting predicaments: love, mothering, work, politics, and maybe toughest of all, evolving from who we are to who we were meant to be. This is a complicated process for most of us, and Lamott turns her wit and honesty inward to describe her own intimate, bumpy, and unconventional road to grace and faith.

"I wish grace and healing were more abracadabra kinds of things," she writes in one of her essays, "that delicate silver bells would ring to announce grace's arrival. But no, it's clog and slog and scootch, on the floor, in silence, in the dark."

Whether she's writing about her unsuccessful efforts to get her money back from an obstinate carpet salesman, grappling with the tectonic shifts in her relationship with her son as he matures, trying to maintain her faith and humor during politically challenging times, or helping a close friend die with dignity, Lamott seeks out both the divinity and the humanity in herself and everything around her. Throughout these essays, she writes of her struggle to find the essence of her faith, which she uncovers in the unlikeliest places. By turns insightful and hilarious, pointed and poignant, Grace (Eventually) is Anne Lamott at her perceptive and irreverent best.

Customer Reviews:

Funny and profound.......2007-08-12

Anne Lamott is honest and engaging. This book is a beautiful testament to a real life lived in faith and hope in the midst of inevitable disappointments and hardships.

Grace (Eventually) thoughts on Faith.......2007-08-08

I bought this book thinking I would get an inspiritial read. Instead I found that the title totally misrepresented the book. This is nothing but a self-centered, self-indulgent, whiny bunch of writings from a drug user/alcoholic, over age hippy, feeling (what?). Certainaly not faith!
Title should read "Poor Me, I can't Think Straight"

Not her best, but still brilliant.......2007-08-01

One of the most popular voices in contemporary spirituality, Anne Lamott has a remarkable gift at handling serious and unfunny topics - religion, motherhood, eating disorders, death - in a witty and disarming way.

Lamott's new book, "Grace Eventually: Further Thoughts On Faith," is a collection of essays, many of which Lamott wrote as a columnist for Salon.com. If you haven't read anything by Lamott before, the best places to start would be "Traveling Mercies" (her bestselling memoir), and "Bird by Bird," (one of the best guide to writing anywhere, another bestseller). But the two things you should know before reading Anne Lamott is that 1) she is an incredible prose artist, quirky and profound, with a style that seems all her own. And 2) she is almost completely neurotic.

"Grace Eventually," is a special book in that Lamott's description of ordinary events make them feel sacred. She is a writer with an ability to make the reader pay attention, feel present, and tune in to the story taking place around them. Although she refers to Jesus consistently, there is little that seems orthodox about Lamott's spiritual journey, and perhaps that is one of the reasons she has such a wide readership.

You'd have to be made out of granite not to find something that moves you in this unique collection of essays. You would also need to adhere to Lamott's precise and strident political positions not to find at least one portion of this book infuriating. Either way, "Grace Eventually" is a provocative and unique read, and any avid reader owes it to themselves to become familiar with one of the country's top writers.

No thank you, no good........2007-07-25

I read another one of Anne's books. The first one I did not like much, and really did not want to read this one, but when you already own it, you feel you must with 16 dollars into the book. It was some repeating of stories I really did not like in the first place, there were a few highlights or good moments, but not enough. I still feel bad for her, but most times I was like "get over it." Now I loved Donald Miller's book, which was along the same mindset, but he seemed deep or maybe just a man. Sorry Anne, you are twice if not more the writer that I am, but I was just not into the book.

She's the Best.......2007-07-25

Her words are equivalent to the phrase "A sight for sore eyes." My copy now has so many underlines and dog ears that I just don't know where to start with quotable quotes--

"IT FEELS AS IF SOMEONE FINALLY CRACKED OPEN A WINDOW THAT HAD BEEN JAMMED."
"...taught me a willingness to help clean up the mess we've made is a crucial part of adult living; that our scary, selfish, damging behavior litters the planet."
"...we get mad at each other, over and over, then we apologize, become friends again: I see how each time this is redemption. How amazing it is to share that."
"Joy is the best makeup."
"Prayer is not asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine."

I use this like a Bible when I need to be called to a higher place. It soothes me, calms me down, and calls me to a (much) higher place. Buy this, Bird By Bird, and the other two from this series. They are GIFTS.

The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers

Average customer rating:

A captivating story of a harsh life
Poignant and profound
Excellent book
A read to get you thinking
Vivid Memoir

The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers
Harry Bernstein
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Jewish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0345495802
Release Date: 2007-03-20

Book Description

“There are places that I have never forgotten. A little cobbled street in a smoky mill town in the North of England has haunted me for the greater part of my life. It was inevitable that I should write about it and the people who lived on both sides of its ‘Invisible Wall.’ ”

The narrow street where Harry Bernstein grew up, in a small English mill town, was seemingly unremarkable. It was identical to countless other streets in countless other working-class neighborhoods of the early 1900s, except for the “invisible wall” that ran down its center, dividing Jewish families on one side from Christian families on the other. Only a few feet of cobblestones separated Jews from Gentiles, but socially, it they were miles apart.

On the eve of World War I, Harry’s family struggles to make ends meet. His father earns little money at the Jewish tailoring shop and brings home even less, preferring to spend his wages drinking and gambling. Harry’s mother, devoted to her children and fiercely resilient, survives on her dreams: new shoes that might secure Harry’s admission to a fancy school; that her daughter might marry the local rabbi; that the entire family might one day be whisked off to the paradise of America.

Then Harry’s older sister, Lily, does the unthinkable: She falls in love with Arthur, a Christian boy from across the street.

When Harry unwittingly discovers their secret affair, he must choose between the morals he’s been taught all his life, his loyalty to his selfless mother, and what he knows to be true in his own heart.

A wonderfully charming memoir written when the author was ninety-three, The Invisible Wall vibrantly brings to life an all-but-forgotten time and place. It is a moving tale of working-class life, and of the boundaries that can be overcome by love.

Customer Reviews:

A captivating story of a harsh life.......2007-09-03

This book is full of the details of a life that many of us will never experience. The authors story of extreme poverty living in a large family with a hardworking but struggling mother and a distant and often abusive father is both horrifying and captivating.

While it sounds like this should be a depressing book, the details of the moments of hope and happiness lifts it out of the dark side of life in Lancashire and made me wonder about the future for the various key characters. The book is set before and after the great War, but it could be timeless. The central location is a street of two rows of houses facing each other with the 'jews' on one side and the 'christians' on the other. For most of the book there is almost no mingling between the two sides. But at times when their lives are most difficult, they do get together to support one another.

I don't want to give away the story line too much. Some of the difficult scenes are extremely hard to endure, but the details really light up this book even things are hardest.

I would not recommend for anyone younger than about 13, there are too many difficult details here. But for the rest of us, there's LOTS to learn about the silly things that divide us and the fact that despite religious difficulties our lives are more similar than we'd like to believe.

Poignant and profound.......2007-06-26

An absolutely wonderful book written by a 93 year old author who captures the very essence of anti-semitism in pre-World War I England through his own childhood experiences. The last chapter is so descriptive and poignant...really tugs at the heartstrings. I hope Mr. Bernstein continues to share his gift of the written word.

Excellent book.......2007-05-28

Wonderfully written. This book surprised me because of its unpredictability. I couldn't put it down. Mr. Bernstein's story is beautiful, it's a wonder why he waited so long to share it.

A read to get you thinking.......2007-05-25

My six member book club read this last month, and all of us, including our most critical member, found this book very enjoyable and enlightening. The inclusion of dialog easily puts the reader in the time period. The tone and style of the author encourage empathy and understanding of both populations on either side of the invisible wall. The author conveys his and his sibling's emotions in the gentlest of ways while the reader easily grasps that at the time they were much more. While not quite a page turner, my attention never lagged and I would have willingly read more. I would have appreciated more wisdom on the overall subject such as was found in Arthur's letter to Lily.

Vivid Memoir.......2007-05-25

Harry Bernstein writes in a descriptive manner that makes all the characters seem to be living right in front of the reader's eyes. The story is so interesting that I could not put the book down until I finished. It was hard to believe that a man at ninety years of age could remember so much detail and emotion back to his early childhood. The book was well worth reading. I look forward to Mr. Bernstein's next book.

Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil

Average customer rating:

A spoonful of sugar to help the bad stories go down
Very good book!
BIG HEART
Has Life for Afghani Women Improved Because of Rodriguez?
Eye Opening But Sad

Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil
Deborah Rodriguez , and Kristin Ohlson
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Beauty & Fashion | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Islamic | World | History | Subjects | Books

Women in Islam | Islam | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1400065593
Release Date: 2007-04-10

Book Description

Soon after the fall of the Taliban, in 2001, Deborah Rodriguez went to Afghanistan as part of a group offering humanitarian aid to this war-torn nation. Surrounded by men and women whose skills–as doctors, nurses, and therapists–seemed eminently more practical than her own, Rodriguez, a hairdresser and mother of two from Michigan, despaired of being of any real use. Yet she soon found she had a gift for befriending Afghans, and once her profession became known she was eagerly sought out by Westerners desperate for a good haircut and by Afghan women, who have a long and proud tradition of running their own beauty salons. Thus an idea was born.

With the help of corporate and international sponsors, the Kabul Beauty School welcomed its first class in 2003. Well meaning but sometimes brazen, Rodriguez stumbled through language barriers, overstepped cultural customs, and constantly juggled the challenges of a postwar nation even as she learned how to empower her students to become their families’ breadwinners by learning the fundamentals of coloring techniques, haircutting, and makeup.

Yet within the small haven of the beauty school, the line between teacher and student quickly blurred as these vibrant women shared with Rodriguez their stories and their hearts: the newlywed who faked her virginity on her wedding night, the twelve-year-old bride sold into marriage to pay her family’s debts, the Taliban member’s wife who pursued her training despite her husband’s constant beatings. Through these and other stories, Rodriguez found the strength to leave her own unhealthy marriage and allow herself to love again, Afghan style.

With warmth and humor, Rodriguez details the lushness of a seemingly desolate region and reveals the magnificence behind the burqa. Kabul Beauty School is a remarkable tale of an extraordinary community of women who come together and learn the arts of perms, friendship, and freedom.

Customer Reviews:

A spoonful of sugar to help the bad stories go down.......2007-10-16

The last book I read before this one was A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (see my review) and I absolutely loved it. I was telling a friend of mine in New York about it and she suggested that I read Kabul Beauty School next. She said that it had the same theme, but that this one was written in a more lighthearted tone and read more like a gossip column. I immediately picked up this one and was instantly immersed back into the bleak existence of the women of Afghanistan and the harsh, cruel lives they have to endure. My friend was right on the money...this story is much easier to swallow and keep down since it's told from the perspective of an average American beautician, and not written in a high brow literary style (not that that's necessarily bad, but doesn't make for easy beach reading and sometimes you just want to be entertained without having to grab the dictionary).

Kabul Beauty School is a non-fiction account of hairstylist Debbie Rodriguez's time in Kabul and how she tried desperately to help these women change their lives for the better the only way she knew how. This book makes an excellent companion piece to A Thousand Splendid Suns and actually helps explain some things that I couldn't figure out from the first one such as the differences between the different Afghani tribes (Pashtun, Hazara, Uzbek, etc.). There are also some juicy insights into Afghan culture that Hosseini, being a man, just wouldn't think to include but are very fascinating, like how both brides and grooms have to get ALL their body hair removed the night before their wedding. Ouch!

*Plot spoilers in this paragraph only*
See, Debbie is a hairstylist by trade and while that may be an acceptable and lucrative occupation for women in most parts of the world, the Taliban had all but wiped out beauty salons in Afghanistan during their rule. Debbie originally went to Kabul just after 9/11 as part of a non-profit organization's mission to help people in need but when she arrived, she realized she was the only one there without any practical medical or other essential training. She was embarrassed that all she could do was makeup and hair, but when people heard about what she COULD do, they went nuts! She had no idea how desperately in need the other aid workers, Westerners and even Afghani brides were to get their hair styled by someone that knew what they were doing. Once Debbie found out that now since the Taliban weren't in control anymore, the local women could actually make a living as beauticians and use beauty parlors as a sanctuary where men couldn't come in and bother them and they could socialize without having to be covered in burquas or head scarves, she had a great idea. She decided to use her personal skills and open a beauty school for the locals so they could earn some money for their dreadfully poor families and change all their lives.

There have been some extremely negative reviews of this book saying that Debbie is an opportunist and exploited these women so she could "rake in the bucks" and leave them without a penny of compensation. They've called her horrible names and accused her of horrible things, but I truly believe that she did everything with only the best of intentions. I read the NPR news article about how the women in Kabul said that since she told their stories and published pictures of them without their coverings (which aren't in the copy of the book that I have and that I still have only seen on the NPR site, which is ironic) they are now being persecuted in their community, but really they were previously and always have been! She didn't force anyone to come to her classes or to take the jobs she offered them. She was just trying to help these women in the only way she knew how. I volunteer a LOT of my time with various non-profit organizations, but I don't think I could ever go halfway across the world to such a hostile land with such drastically different views and rules as Afghanistan, I'd be too scared to really help anyone else. Therefore, I hail Debbie as a hero and very much respect what she accomplished, even if her efforts haven't been 100% successful. I don't think anyone in their right mind would expect her to change an entire country's ways by herself, but her attempt to start to change it one woman at a time should certainly be commended.

I found that this story, like A Thousand Splendid Suns, was sad at times, but overall had a light, sometimes even funny tone. Debbie describes all the sad, shocking stories of these Afghani women she grew to be friends with in detail, but it's really a story about hope. Debbie gave these women hope that if they work hard and open their minds, someday they can feel safe in their homes and neighborhoods and not feel like they are being treated worse than animals. She gives me knowledge of these efforts and hope that more people will get involved to help them as well. I thank her for her efforts and her story. And mostly I thank her for making me feel thankful and lucky to be born in a country that gives everyone an equal chance at happiness, no matter what gender, culture or religion we are. Hopefully, one day, everyone on the planet can feel the same way too.

Very good book!.......2007-10-01

I had heard the author on a radio station and bought the book afterwards. I really enjoyed her fresh and candid style of describing her experiences in Afghanistan. Her uncomlicated style of writing made the book a pleasure to read.

BIG HEART.......2007-09-29

I think that Deborah Rodriguez teachs us a beautiful lesson of kindness and love when she decided to leave her own family to go to Afghanistan to help women to build a life for them, and even when people said that she did wrong going there beacuse of the consecuences of this book for the afghan women, i strongly recognize that not all of us have the courage to leave the comfort of our lives here in the U.S to go to third world countries to help people and forget ourselves helping them.

Has Life for Afghani Women Improved Because of Rodriguez?.......2007-09-27

I have mixed feelings about this book. It's easy to read and certainly provides an interesting and informative portrayal of what life is like for the women of Afghanistan. I'm not sorry I read it, but it did seem to drag on in the end and I started counting pages wondering when it would be over. There is one heartbreaking and shocking story after the next, and too many "characters" to wrap one's mind around. This mélange of stories primarily boils down to this: Terrorizing Men and Terrorized Women. I don't believe life for Afghani women has improved because of the Kabul Beauty School, and from what I understand, because of their portrayal in this book, some of the women are in more danger now that the book is out and Rodriguez has fled.

In the end, reading Kabul Beauty School did not elicit the feelings I thought it might, which was to have met an extraordinary, selfless woman who achieved a major accomplishment. Throughout the reading, I didn't understand or appreciate the author's motivation. It's excellent memoir or journal material, but that's where the excellence ends. Does it entertain? Absolutely not. Unfortunately, there's a certain lack of credibility from the merely average writing skills of the author. (Perhaps hairdressers should stick to creating hairstyles rather than trying to create prose.) Deborah Rodriguez often comes across as victim of circumstance. She makes a series of foolish choices particularly when it comes to marriage, acts rashly, and often irreverently, probably drinks too much and smokes. (This may be harsh, but these traits, to me, have nothing to do with "beauty.") For example, it doesn't make her the least bit likeable when we learn she verbally assaults a man at an outdoor market when he follows her around and grabs her backside. Embarrassing and endangering her closest friend (and translator) in the process, the friend tells her outright that she will "never go to the market with her again." Rodriguez brings her strong, independent and liberated American woman traits with her, wears them on her sleeve, and it does not earn her respect from the people around her, or from this reader. It makes her nickname "Crazy Debbie" perfectly understandable. Also, she lets her friends arrange a marriage for her, (and granted the presence of an Afghani husband, "Sam," does help her cause in one dangerous and surprising circumstance after another), but this man already has a wife, and we soon learn, a baby on the way. It's all very bizarre.

It feels as though Rodriguez returned to Afghanistan (after her first genuine venture there to provide aid after the ousting of the Taliban) in search of an extraordinary life rather than because she wanted to be the savior of Afghani women. I'm not saying this is true (I don't know this woman), but if the purpose of this book was to tell the world who she is and why she went to Afghanistan at great personal expense to become the director of a beauty school with the hope of making life better for the women there, she has been successful. The book, published by a major house, and the movie deal also deem her "successful." As for the school and the cause? A failure. She is not, like the book jacket indicates, living in Afghanistan and still running the school. According to an article on NPR, "the subjects of her book say Rodriguez and her newfound fame have put their lives in danger. They say they've seen none of the money or help to get them out of Afghanistan that Rodriguez promised them in exchange for having their stories appear in the book." Rodriguez counters by saying the women misunderstood what she promised them.

In spite of this rather negative review, I do think Kabul Beauty School is an excellent choice for book clubs as it will no doubt, provoke a very interesting and thoughtful discussion about the lives of women living in Afghanistan, and whether or not the outside world should or shouldn't have something to say or do about this culture and the emancipation of women there.

From the author of "A Line Between Friends," McKenna Publishing Group.

Eye Opening But Sad.......2007-09-26

Clearly a memoir instead of a polished expose, this book showed both the best parts of the human spirit and the downfalls of being human and learning as we go.

The author's energy, enthusiasm and heart for her students clearly shows in her writing. Her honest good will and perseverence are a tribute to the best of human nature.

Unfortunately, like the rest of us, she learns through her mistakes. Some she recognizes, others she breezes over and leaves us to wonder at. For example, being married to a man who already has a wife. Though acceptable in that culture, it seems to go against all her other intentions to improve the lives of women in her new home.

I recommend this book if only for the insight the author's experiences have made available into the lives of Afghani women. The things they live and perservere through will make you daily grateful for the life we lead here in America and give a little more clarity and heart to the battle our brave men are fighting over there.

Average customer rating:

The Seventeen Traditions
Nader's World
Ralph Nader's Bridge To A Past Not Dominated By Commerical Entertainment
try not to finish it in one day
Better days, renewed possibilities

The Seventeen Traditions
Ralph Nader
Manufacturer: Harper
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Motivational | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Consumer Law | Business | Law | Subjects | Books

General | Law | Subjects | Books

Non-US Legal Systems | Perspectives on Law | Law | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0061238279
Release Date: 2007-01-30

Book Description

Ralph Nader is known for his lifetime of progressive activism and fearless critique of corruption in American politics and society. Yet in this fresh and inspiring new book, Nader takes a look backward–at a serene and enriching childhood spent in bucolic Winsted, Connecticut, and at the traditions he absorbed within his family. From listening to learning, from patriotism to argument, from work to simple enjoyment, Nader revisits seventeen traditions he learned from his parents, his siblings, and the people in his community, and draws from them inspiring lessons for today's society. Blending memoir and thoughtful inspiration, Nader offers readers a chance to look back on a time in American history when the family and the natural world were central in a child's understanding of how to be a conscientious adult.

Among the seventeen traditions he celebrates:

•The Tradition of Listening

•The Tradition of Charity

•The Tradition of Civics

•The Tradition of Work

•The Tradition of Patriotism

•The Tradition of Simple Enjoyment

In his warmest and most personal writing to date, Nader fondly describes his father's restaurant business and how it taught him about work, community and how to share in the spirits of others; the value of his mother's ethnic cooking and how it defined his relationship with his heritage, and the hours he spent as a child wondering through the undeveloped forests of Connecticut where he learned the value of solitude. In doing so, he reawakens our own memories of the blessings of a simpler time–and of the enduring values of family, community, and love that gave him the courage to lead a meaningful life.

Customer Reviews:

The Seventeen Traditions.......2007-10-13

The Seventeen Traditions by Ralph Nader is an excellent book.
I have one and would like to order more as gift for my friends.

Nader's World.......2007-09-04

Before fast food, fast commuting, IM-ing and countless other electronic distractions, there was Nader's World. He grew up in a little town in northwest Connecticut, where traditions were passed down, people listened to each other, families not only ate dinner together but enjoyed one another's company afterward, the sidewalks were in greater use, hitchhiking was safe, and public service was honorable. This reflection by Ralph Nader explains the roots of his passions: independent thinking, involvement in civic affairs, and insistence on fairness and social justice. He was raised in a loving, nurturing family, where his parents taught by example and used proverbs and Socratic questioning to stimulate the intellectual curiosity of Nader and his siblings.

In contrast to his more cerebral writing, this book is quite readable. I read the whole thing in a couple of hours this Labor Day. Its format is inspirational - albeit with some Tuesday's-with-Morrie-like schmaltz along with Emersonian wisdom - touching emotional chords and revealing a side of Ralph Nader that political pundits often miss.

Ralph Nader's Bridge To A Past Not Dominated By Commerical Entertainment.......2007-08-24

The author of this book succeeds here on several levels. First, Ralph Nader explains himself well: who he is, and how he got to become who he is.

Second, the author explains how growing up in a low-media, high intensity household gave him lifelong advantages, insights, and commitments--things he might not have had he been enmeshed in movies, television shows, video games, rap music, etc.

Third, the author details the family traditions from Lebanese parents that were especially useful to him during his 45 years or so of national leadership of various causes.

Fourth, the author provides a warm evocation of a Christian Arabic family that can aid in improving understanding of Arab speaking people in and outside the United States.

The seventeen traditions that the author discovers in mining his family history are the traditions of listening, the family table, health, history, scarcity, sibling equality, education and argument, discipline, simple enjoyments, reciprocity, independent thinking, charity, work, business, patriotism, solitude and civics. These are traditions, he demonstrates, that his family lived, not just ideals that they mouthed.

Had this book been published the year before the 1992 Presidential election, when the author was toying with seeking the Democratic Presidential nomination, he could well have been a serious candidate for that nomination and changed both his political future and the direction of our country. Without pretentiousness, it shows him to be a man of depth, understanding and roots in small-town America.

The author sketches memorable portraits of his restaurant-owner and politically outspoken father; his wise, loving, and community active mother; his older brother, an attorney and community college founder; his sisters, Ph.Ds with enviable records of scholarship and academic leadership; his nephew, who has a doctorate and ecology, and two nieces, a lawyer and a Ph.D. in infectious diseases. The author certainly has a family committed to education and the welfare of us all.

Elements of the author's crusading zeal are submerged but very much present here. He refers to "these times of widespread conformity and self-censorship." Speaking of his hometwon of Winsted, Connecticut, he notes that "The air and the water became clearer after the factories closed, but the toxic soils and hollowed-out remained, economic tripwires to any new development in the area."

"Today," the author notes, "children everywhere are deprived of expsoure to nature in the same way (as only big city children used to be); they grow up with their eyes, ears, tastes and other senses trained on a corporate world of sensual visual reality--removed, as no generation in human history, from the daily flow and rhythm of history."

The book jacket notes that author was recently named by the Atlantic magazine as one of the 100 most influential figures in American history. This customer reviewer does not dispute that rating and hopes that the author will continue finding ways to speak out and positively influence the American social and political debate.

try not to finish it in one day.......2007-08-10

it is a brilliant book... book that "teaches you to think not to believe" Mr. Nader's life is full of wisdom so are his parents'. I usually don't write reviews but for this one, I could afford not to. you can't read this book and not relate it to something in your life... sometimes you feel that he is talking about you, your life and your family... it is great read...

Better days, renewed possibilities.......2007-07-21

Family and civic culture that is refreshing, basic, simple, important -- and largely disappeared. Family, community, and teaching by example and participation before greedy 'me' generation individualism when pleasure was being part of community and world beyond just yourself. It seems all too distant and foreign but should not be. This is a book to restore values, inspire young families, and shame an older generation that has lost its principles. You will get a chuckle or two such as the description of the author's mother and her confrontation with GW's grandfather. Get it, share it, circulate it widely. (It took ne less than a day to read.)

Average customer rating:

Akiane confirms that my deepest intuitions are true
Akiane..her life, her art, her poetry
Truly, an inspirational book with amazing artwork
Very Interesting Book - Beautiful Art
Akaine: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry

Akiane: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry
Akiane Kramarik
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Drawing | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Artists, Architects & Photographers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0849900441

Book Description

Ten-year-old prodigy Akiane Kramarik shares her artwork, poetry, and the fascinating story surrounding her talent.
Growing up in a home with an atheistic mother and a non-participating Catholic father did not stop four-year-old Akiane Kramarik from finding God. This girl's dreams began a conversation in the home that has eventually brought them all to Christianity and the world's attention. Akiane: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry is a collection of the best of Akiane's full-color paintings and poetry created from ages 4 to 10, along with details of her family and the amazing stories that surround each unique artwork. Already a media professional, Akiane has been interviewed on programs such as Oprah, World News Tonight, Lou Dobbs Tonight on CNN, and Schuller's Hour of Power. Akiane will be one of twenty visual artists participating in the October "Listen" event raising money for the world's needy children. Today Akiane's art is available online at www.artakiane.com.

Customer Reviews:

Akiane confirms that my deepest intuitions are true.......2007-10-12

An ocean of truth in these precious pages.
All my deepest intuitions I now know, are true.
God needs our love and attention. I was paralyzed
with pure awe in what I read from her birth mother
telling Akianes history. Her early pencil sketches,
I can't take my eyes off of them, they are so alive.
Thank you Father, for this gift.

Akiane..her life, her art, her poetry.......2007-10-09

Akiane is an inspired, miraculous and talented young lady who brings belief in the miraculous to the reader.
Her art can only be viewed as sent from above & is really lovely.
Her writings are often, for me, hard to relate to as I think many inspired writings are so very personal.
All in all, you wil be missing a fantastic reading experience if you don't get her book.

Truly, an inspirational book with amazing artwork.......2007-10-06

I purchased this book to see the artwork of this young 12 year old artist, but what moved me is the story she writes about who her inspiration was, and continues to be for her work, God. Once you start reading her story, you won't put the book down until you are finished. The reader will be fascinated by the exquisite pictures this young lady has painted, some as early as age 4. Beautiful artwork, inspirational...two great reasons to get a copy of this book.

Very Interesting Book - Beautiful Art.......2007-09-13

Amazing to see such a young artist with great talent. Very inspiring. Would love to see more of her work...

Akaine: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry.......2007-08-01

I love this book. I have recently purchased 5 so I can give them away to my family and friends

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations...One School at a Time

Average customer rating:

Admire the Commitment and Accomplishments, but...
A book every American should read
Timely
Seeking to understand other cultures and creating peace
I couldn't put it down!!!

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations...One School at a Time
Greg Mortenson , and David Oliver Relin
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Educators | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Afghanistan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Pakistan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Philanthropy & Charity | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Education | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0670034827

Book Description

The inspiring account of one manÂ's campaign to build schools in the most dangerous, remote, and anti- American reaches of Asia

In 1993 Greg Mortenson was the exhausted survivor of a failed attempt to ascend K2, an American climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through PakistanÂ's Karakoram Himalaya. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of an impoverished Pakistani village, Mortenson promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our timeÂ—Greg MortensonÂ's one-man mission to counteract extremism by building schools, especially for girls, throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban.

Award-winning journalist David Oliver Relin has collaborated on this spellbinding account of MortensonÂ's incredible accomplishments in a region where Americans are often feared and hated. In pursuit of his goal, Mortenson has survived kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. But his success speaks for itself. At last count, his Central Asia Institute had built fifty-five schools. Three Cups of Tea is at once an unforgettable adventure and the inspiring true story of how one man really is changing the worldÂ—one school at a time.

Customer Reviews:

Admire the Commitment and Accomplishments, but..........2007-10-15

What Mortensen accomplished with commitment and perseverance is undoubtly a great humanitarin effort. However, the book is irritating to read. Mortensen's name is used so many times over and over it is distracting. "Mortensen this" and "Mortensen that"! It reads like Mortiensen is a demi-god and it really presents like this when you realize he is a coauthor. Why not write this inspiring story in "first person"?

The humanitarian effort is inspiring if you can get through the book!

A book every American should read.......2007-10-15

An excellent story and very well written. It is particularly timely today given what is going on in that part of the world. It certainly gives much to think about. I would recommend this to everyone I know.

Timely.......2007-10-14

This story provides much needed insight to the central Asian world. Greg Mortenson is a true hero for all humankind.

Seeking to understand other cultures and creating peace.......2007-10-14

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Three Cups of Tea, and have recommended it to many. I found it hard to stop reading it, finished it in only a few days, and was sorry there wasn't more to read. The story itself was exciting, and had many cliff-hangers, but at the end, the messages of peace, charity, and understanding other cultures were the feelings that endured.

I couldn't put it down!!!.......2007-10-12

I started to read this book because of an assignment, and ended up not being able to put it down until I was finished reading it cover to cover. If you have limited time like me, make it worth your while and read this book.

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

Average customer rating:

Brilliant!
Prepare for the unexpected.
Interesting motive, fails to deliver
Interesting Perspective Rarely Seen
who's talking now

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
Maxine Hong Kingston
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Chinese | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0679721886
Release Date: 1989-04-23

Amazon.com

The Woman Warrior is a pungent, bitter, but beautifully written memoir of growing up Chinese American in Stockton, California. Maxine Hong Kingston (China Men) distills the dire lessons of her mother's mesmerizing "talk-story" tales of a China where girls are worthless, tradition is exalted and only a strong, wily woman can scratch her way upward. The author's America is a landscape of confounding white "ghosts"--the policeman ghost, the social worker ghost--with equally rigid, but very different rules. Like the woman warrior of the title, Kingston carries the crimes against her family carved into her back by her parents in testimony to and defiance of the pain.

Book Description

A Chinese American woman tells of the Chinese myths, family stories and events of her California childhood that have shaped her identity.

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant!.......2007-08-25

An excellent book, funny, insightful, poignant. Ms. Kingston brilliantly conveys how cultures can clash within the minds of those who straddle them. After reading this book I bought half a dozen copies to give to close friends.

Prepare for the unexpected........2007-03-22

This is a tremendous novel. The author threads the stories her mother told her when she was a child, through the retelling of her own life, using them to draw you into her own imagination. As she grows up, living half immersed in traditional myth and half in gritty reality, where mothers and daughters are only human, the reader grows up with her. The first person telling of her childhhood stories puts the reader directly in the shoes of a child/young adult working through the stories she has been told, using them to form her hopes and dreams and her understanding of the world.

(N.B. You may not think that your childhood stories influenced the way you live, but if you think for a minute, I am certain some will come back to you and you'll realize that just the other day you did something based on or combatting that belief. Maybe you even still wish on stars?)

Interesting motive, fails to deliver.......2007-01-12

While the perspective and ideas of this novel are ones rarely seen in modern day literature, Maxine Hong Kingston fails to captivate a reader in a way that one would expect from a novel dealing with the difficulties of not only being a minority in the U.S., but for simply being female.

The story starts off with the tale of Kingston's deceased aunt, who brought shame to the family and was unmentionable due to the fact that she bore an illegitimate child. As she gets into the tale and finds a parallel between herself and her aunt, both not wanting to conform to societal expectations, the story quickly changes to a story of a legendary girl trained by two old people to battle evil. The narration is filled with melodramatic elements and disorganized and often random occurences that make no sense at all, thereby losing the reader's interest early on in the book. The story then changes a few more times to different events in her family occuring in different eras, making it hard to grasp the relationship between themand her purpose for doing so. As you can see, the organization in this novel seems to be its biggest flaw. Instead of focusing on one tale and going in depth about it, the fact that Kingston changes stories so frequently and often before they are fully developed is annoying and seems to be pointless. While the stories she includes share a common theme of decpicting independent and strong women, her melodramatic and ineffective ways of narrating not only loses the reader's interest but in the process, I think even Kingston got confused about what she was trying to say!

Interesting Perspective Rarely Seen.......2007-01-12

Kingston combines the use of allegory, fantasy, and real life elements of her childhood to explore the social status of Chinese American women from the 1940s to the present in The Woman Warrior. While at first all of her stories may seem random, they all connect to Kingston's point of view as to how not just being a minority but also being a female made life difficult for her in both cultures. Her interwoven stories were so fascinating, as she brilliantly compares what she truly wants and what society is willing to allow her to do. It is crucial that the reader pay close attention to when her stories shift. My one problem with her plot organization is that she focuses on one story, and then suddenly shifts to another story. I couldn't understand until I was at the middle of the plot to comprehend each story's purpose in the bigger picture. But once the reader succeeds in getting over that one flaw, the rest is amazing. Kingston develops a unique style all on her own as she somehow connects the fantastical parts of her dreams to what she is forced to experience in everyday reality. In the backdrop of her personal experience, Kingston describes America's problems with racism and sexism different women in her lives are hurt by this. Kingston needed to maintain her flow; but the intriguing connections involving fantasy and reality work effectively to enhance her purpose.

who's talking now.......2007-01-11

This book tries to do too much! and doesn't succeed.

Even though this book had a good story over all, the confusing narration completely distracts from the intended message.

The entire story is in first person, no matter who is talking. This gets very confusing when the story suddenly shifts to another woman's story and you still think you are reading about the previous person. Suddenly you are reading and you think that the same character has somehow appeared on the other side of the world having no idea how she got there.

You will end up spending the whole book just trying to figure out who is speaking that you will miss most of what the book tries to say.

This is supposed to show the reality of what it is like to be a chinese woman but this is too hard to see when everything else is in the way.

This book does do some things well like its clever incorporation of irony in the narrator's retelling of a story that she has been forbidden to tell. It also incorporates superstitious elements such as her mother's battle with ghosts while at college and the enticing tale of the woman warrior. There is more irony seen here when most women in the story are seen as being weak, yet the woman warrior is strong and represents all the women with its title.

Average customer rating:

good book
Billy the Kid
A Commendable Biography Based on Limited Information
A very well researched work
The Life as Well as the Legend

Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride
Michael Wallis
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Criminals | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0393060683

Book Description

From the best-selling author of Route 66 comes this long-awaited biography of one of America's most legendary folk heroes.

Award-winning historian Michael Wallis has spent several years re-creating the rich, anecdotal saga of Billy the Kid (1859-1881), a deeply mythologized young man who became a legend in his own time and yet remains an enigma to this day. With the Gilded Age in full swing and the Industrial Revolution reshaping the American landscape, "the Kid," who was gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett in the New Mexico Territory at the age of twenty-one, became a new breed of celebrity outlaw. He arose amid the mystery and myth of the swiftly vanishing frontier and, sensationalized beyond recognition by the tabloids and dime-store romances of the day, emerged as one of the most enduring icons of the American West—not to mention one of Hollywood's most misrepresented characters. This new biography, filled with dozens of rare images and period photographs, separates myth from reality and presents an unforgettable portrait of this brief and violent life. 60 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

good book.......2007-10-16

A great story with not a lot of facts to bore it down. A easy read.

Billy the Kid.......2007-10-11

This book was a well written examination of Billy the Kid. It clarified much of the myth that still surrounds the man. I appreciated the author addressing some areas of the Kid's life where there is just not enough information to come to a definite conclusion about.

A Commendable Biography Based on Limited Information.......2007-10-01

Several efforts have been made in an attempt to untangle the short and controversial life of Billy the Kid. I would suggest that this book by Michael Wallis is probably the best since he acknowledges when little is known about his subject, and speculates about what may have happened when information is lacking. That may not satisfy some people, but that is the best he can do. Billy the Kid actually did not pick up his charismatic title until the last year of his life. He initially went by the unlikely name of Henry McCarty, then changed it to Henry Antrim when his mother remarried, William H. Bonney, and finally Billy the Kid. Where he pulled out the name of Bonney is unknown. He was a very literate person, enjoyed music, and considered Turkey in the Straw and Silver Threads Among the Gold as his favorite songs. His tuburcular mother moved the family from the eastern part of the country (New York City)? to Indiana, Wichita, Kansas, and then to the southwest into New Mexico territory in hopes of improving her health. Following her death Billy was left to shift for himself. Kid was a common nickname for juveniles at that time, and wirey would probably be the best term to describe his short and slight frame. When the book got around to describing the Lincoln County war between competing factions involving horse thiefs I had difficulty keeping track of all the individuals involved. The Kid sided with an Englishman named John Tunstall who ended up getting murdered. Billy became somewhat of an anti-hero with his dramatic escape from jail in which he killed two guards after being sentenced to death. Kit Carson comes off as a villain with he and his men laying waste to Navajo Indians, their homes, food, horses, and other animals. The remaining Navajos began a 450 mile journey to join the Apaches. This became known as the Long Walk. This brought up reminders of the Cherokee Indians in 1839 under the regime of Andrew Jackson. I believe you will find the book to be enjoyable. The author has done a commendable job based on the information available on his subject.

A very well researched work.......2007-09-01

Michael Wallis has studied his subject well. Unlike many other authors he provides quite an insight not to just Billy the Kid, but many of the other players in his short life. This then gives a complete picture of the corrupt times in which he lived. This book is a must have for Billy the Kid students.

The Life as Well as the Legend.......2007-08-05

"This is the west, sir," the newspaperman tells Jimmy Stewart in _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance_. "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." And for over a hundred years, that is just what has happened to Billy the Kid, starting in countless dime novels and then historical reviews, a ballet by Aaron Copland, and scores of movies. Obviously the legend has a life of its own. The attraction of _Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride_ (Norton) by Michael Wallis is that the legend is fully appreciated. Wallis mentions but does not detail the many media representations the legend has presented after the Kid's death, but does show much of what the papers had to say about him during his life, and also what people who knew him said years after his death, and how unreliable it all is. There are certainly enough facts within the biography, but it is also a realistic look at the Kid's status as a legend in his own time. There were not only many false reports and representations of the Kid, but there are also voids of his life that no one can do anything but guess at. Wallis presents an enjoyable summary of what we can know as accurate and what is pure myth.

The Kid grew up in a changing masculine culture often known as "The Code of the West", which was a new way of dealing with threats. The tradition from British common law was that a man under threat was obligated to retreat until his back was against the wall and there was no alternative but to use deadly force against his opponent. The Code of the West, often celebrated as part of frontier self-reliance and integrity, merely signified that no such restraint under threat had to be shown; the courts even found that a "true man" did not have to back away from a fight, and it was a given that a man could pursue an adversary even once the threat had been lifted. The Kid was certainly one to stand his ground, and probably was on the offensive more than most, but his homicidal actions have been exaggerated. He has four confirmed killings to his name, some completely in self defense, but even before the end of his short life, the tally was being exaggerated. His enemies had good reason to do so. The Kid was caught up in what is called the Lincoln County War, a complex conflict that Wallis says "had been spawned long before in Ireland and England, in boardrooms and court chambers, in saloons and places of worship." It featured private armies of hired killers attempting to settle the conflict of two competing commercial property interests, with governmental corruption and ethnic clashes thrown in. Neither side represented "The Good Guys", and the Kid as a hired shootist was as culpable as any of the other members of the "banditti", but his opposition used him as a targeted bad boy. His own side didn't lack for corruption or malevolence, but the other side could mask its own corruption and malevolence by deliberately playing up the Kid's outlaw role and making him (despite a limited number of crimes) the most wanted man in the Southwest.

So it was that after an astonishing escape from the jail in Lincoln, the Kid was pursued by a posse including Pat Garrett. None of the legends about the Kid and Garrett being companions, pals, or fellow-outlaws are true. Garrett gunned him down in 1881, and his death was world news. A New York paper didn't start the exaggerations, but merely continued them, when it wrote that the Kid "had built up a criminal organization worthy of the underworld in any of the European capitals." The distortions were present during the Kid's lifetime, and have continued; he is a psychopathic serial killer, or a loner out for justice against the system, or a benefactor of the downtrodden, depending on which version of the legend is favored by times or tellers. Wallis's is a winning account of a small life which popular fascination has insisted on writing large.

Average customer rating:

I love (LOVE) Annie but...
Anne is back
Could not get past the venom
Anne Lamott is tops!
Like it was written in my soul...

Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith
Anne Lamott
Manufacturer: Riverhead Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Religious | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1594481571

Amazon.com

Few people can write about faith, parenting, and relationships as can the talented, irreverent Anne Lamott. With characteristic black humor, ("Everyone has been having a hard time with life this year; not with all of it, just the waking hours") she updates us on the ongoing mayhem of her life since Traveling Mercies, and continues to unfold her spiritual journey.

Plan B finds Lamott wrestling with mid-life hormones and weight gain while parenting Sam, now a teenager with his own set of raging hormones. Her observations cover everything from starting a Sunday school to grief over the death of her beloved dog, Sadie; lamenting the war to bitterness over her relationship with her now-departed mother.

As she tugs and pokes out the knots in a slender gold chain necklace, it becomes a metaphor for letting go and learning to forgive. "…any willingness to let go inevitably comes from pain; and the desire to change changes you, and jiggles the spirit, gets to it somehow, to the deepest, hardest, most ruined parts." It's her willingness to show us the knotted-up, "ruined parts" of her life that make this collection of sometimes uneven essays so compelling.

"Everything feels crazy," writes Lamott, adding, "But on small patches of earth all over, I can see just as much messy mercy and grace as ever…." Lamott's essays will serve as reminders to readers of the patches of messy mercy and grace in a chaotic world.--Cindy Crosby

Book Description

With Anne Lamott's trademark wisdom, humor and honesty, Plan B is a spiritual antidote to anxiety and despair in our increasingly fraught times. This New York Times bestseller picks up where Traveling Mercies left off.

Download Description

With the trademark wisdom, humor, and honesty that made Anne Lamott's book on faith, Traveling Mercies, a runaway bestseller, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith is a spiritual antidote to anxiety and despair in increasingly fraught times. The world is a more dangerous place than it was when Lamott's Traveling Mercies was published five years ago. Terrorism and war have become the new normal; environmental devastation looms even closer. And there are personal demands on Lamott's faith as well: turning fifty; her mother's Alzheimer's; her son's adolescence; and the passing of friends and time. Fortunately for those of us who are anxious and scared about the state of the world, whose parents are also aging and dying, whose children are growing harder to recognize as they become teenagers, Plan B offers hope in the midst of despair. It shares with us Lamott's ability to comfort, and to make us laugh despite the grim realities. Anne Lamott is one of our most beloved writers, and Plan B is a book more necessary now than ever. It will prove to be further evidence that, as The Christian Science Monitor has written, ""Everybody loves Anne Lamott.""

Customer Reviews:

I love (LOVE) Annie but..........2007-10-10

I adore this woman for her faith, her wit and her unbelievable ability to keep on "keepin on" but the politics in this book just about drove me over the edge. I know, I know... to love Annie is to expect her political rantings. I kept reading and I did gleam little nuggets here or there of the Annie I know & love. It was worth the read, if only I could fast forward some of the politic heavy chapters.

Anne is back.......2007-09-15

Anne Lamott is back in all of her glorious humor, angst, and wisdom. If you haven't discovered Anne yet, she is shock therapy for those of us who learned how to be religious before we learned how to be human.

In Traveling Mercies, Anne shared her crooked journey through alcoholism, bulimia, and broken relationships to a connection with St. Andrews Presbyterian Church and Jesus. Now, in Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, Anne shares the new challenges to her faith: The Bush Administration, her aging mother, menopause, the losing friends to illness, teaching Sunday School, and raising her teen-aged son, Sam. While many of her crises in Plan B are stock milestones of middle age they are no less poignant when rendered by Anne's pen.

Anne's power comes from her unflinching authenticity, a scarce quality in the self-serving industry of memoir writing. Anne describes her life has it happens, without bothering to airbrush away her neurotic impulses and imperfections. Her self-depreciating humor and honesty creates a picture of spirituality reminiscent of Dostoevsky; we are all simultaneously noble and depraved. As I read Plan B, I laughed with Anne at her foibles and became more honest about my own.

Anne Lamott, along with Fredrick Buechner, might be the best living Christian Author that you can't find at a Christian book store. Anne elevates cursing to a literary art form. More significantly, Anne is openly pro-choice and pro-gay rights. She addresses God as a feminine being. Some readers might balk at her left-wing politics. However, I'd challenge any reader to see Anne as more than the sum of her politics and ideas. Reading anything by Anne Lamott creates the opportunity to remember that God wills and works through your bad attitudes, flawed character, and humanity. Wading through Anne's positions is worth any personal risk you might feel. Encountering her writing style is a joyous experience and you'll bump into God's grace as often as you will step in piles of human frailty.

Anne is back and triumphant.

Could not get past the venom.......2007-08-10

Traveling Mercies ranks as one of my favorites. Though my political viewpoint is quite different from the authors, her insights that illustrate how you could work around your own bias and experience the holy in your own human failings was totally up my alley.

I was sorely disappointed by the venom that whacks you upside the head shortly after opening the book. I guess loving your neighbor as yourself only applies to those folks whose politics are not too far off from your own.

I had to get it returned before it tainted my love of her other books. If it were not for those other writings I would have rated this book NO stars! I pray that her next offering will be more about faith than hate.

Anne Lamott is tops!.......2007-08-03

Refreshing, honest, and a lyric writer, Anne Lamott is a wonderful discovery. These three books, "Traveling Mercies," "Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith", and "Grace (Eventually) Thoughts On Faith" are the best books I've read all year! I don't think it matters if you are Christian or not, because her books are about her journey from alcoholism and drug addiction, to a discovery of a God of unconditional Love that speaks to everyone.

Wonderful, exhilarating stories and writing!

Like it was written in my soul..........2007-07-19

Lamott does it again!

Deeply spiritual, deeply honest, and incredibly funny, Anne Lamott once again presents a collection of 'thoughts on faith' that is so much more. What Lamott calls thoughts are really heart-deep reflections and ponderings from everything from the mundane to the most sacred, from the stuff of parenting and pet-rearing and travel, to the realms of politics, church life, spiritual disciplines, and the ongoing journey into maturity. Whether she's learning to love her mother, her president, or her own thighs, Lamott never takes herself too seriously, and never lets her audience escape from the honesty of her lens. Whether this book challenges you or resonates in your spirit, it is not one that can be easily dismissed.

Average customer rating:

Sowell fan
A way with words!
A treasure from a treasure
A delight to read.
A wonderful companion to Sowell's "A Personal Odyssey"

A Man of Letters
Thomas Sowell
Manufacturer: Encounter Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1594031967

Book Description

A Man of Letters traces the life, career, and commentaries on controversial issues of Thomas Sowell over a period of more than four decades through his letters to and from family, friends, and public figures ranging from Milton Friedman to Clarence Thomas, David Riesman, Arthur Ashe, William Proxmire, Vernon Jordan, Charles Murray, Shelby Steele, and Condoleezza Rice. These letters begin with Sowell as a graduate student at the University of Chicago in 1960 and conclude with a reflective letter to his fellow economist and longtime friend Walter Williams in 2005.

Customer Reviews:

Sowell fan.......2007-07-18

I am a long time T Sowell fan. My rating would no doubt be prejudiced. This book shows him to be a regular guy. His letters are straight forward. No big words, everything easy to grasp

A way with words!.......2007-07-05

Thomas Sowell is a really great writer. This "auto-biography" told by his correspondence over the years was most enjoyable.

A treasure from a treasure.......2007-07-03

Dr. Sowell continues his personal revelations through a series of letters sent and received. Because of Dr. Sowell's clear thinking and uncompromising honesty plus his sense of the ridiculous, these letters are a joy to read. However, they also offer a view of the evolvement of parts of society (i.e. the academic life) seldom examined so closely. Read this book! It will lead you to his other works which you will want to read. My favorites are "Conflict of Visions" and "Black Rednecks and White Liberals". I encourage everyone to read this book. It will awaken young people to new views and reassure the over 50 crowd that what they suspected was true.

A delight to read........2007-05-27

His letters of the past 40 years gives us a glimpse to one of the greatest modern thinker's life. I have read Mr. Sowell's editorials many times and always find his commonsense to be refreshing. This book takes us through history as he recounts the current events of the time, from his unique perspective, with colleagues, students and policy-makers.

A wonderful companion to Sowell's "A Personal Odyssey".......2007-05-24

I have admired Thomas Sowell since I first read his writings more that twenty years ago. When clerks at the local Ann Arbor Borders (in the original store on State St.) chided me for buying a book of his I asked them why they disliked him. They (and there was more than one) said that he had benefited from Affirmative Action and now wanted to keep anyone else from doing so. Knowing how wrong this idea was, I pointed out to them that he was born in 1930 and that his achievements were made long before anyone had dreamt up those crippling policies. For this they had no reply.

If you haven't read Thomas Sowell's memoir "A Personal Odyssey" (ISBN 0684864657), I encourage you to get a copy and read about his extraordinary life. It will certainly surprise you. His background was not only unlikely for someone who became a highly regarded economist and commentator; it was unlikely that he would even go to college. He certainly had no straight path to success, either. What he had was an intense focus on where he wanted to go (even though that changed in unexpected ways over the years), a core understanding of who he was, and a commitment to reason and truth. Still, he did not have an easy personal or professional life. You will learn more about that interesting and inspiring life by reading the memoir and this wonderful book.

This book is a collection of letters he wrote and received throughout his life. They are so valuable because they are contemporary to the man Sowell was at the time. As we look back on our lives it is quite easy to fall into the trap of making the path of our life too straight a path to where we are today. When Sowell first got to college he was a Marxist, if you can believe it. It is quite fascinating to watch his grappling with ideas that lead him to the University of Chicago, George Stigler, Milton Friedman, and the other greats in the freshwater school.

He provides us with some background for the letters and in a few places refers the reader to more extended commentary in the memoir (another reason I recommend it to you). Sowell is also a writer of wit. I laughed out loud several times. He is also writes concisely. No rambling or side journeys for him. The letters get to the point and say what they meant to say quite directly and clearly. He covers the issues of the relevant decades, what was happening in his life, and even provides us with a few of his favorite articles and columns when that became a bigger part of his life.

His work in late talking children that grew out of his own son's development is also quite inspiring and shows the background of what became a much bigger movement than he ever expected or desired.

This book is inspiring, informative, and I believe it is quite valuable. Get it, read it, learn from it, and enjoy it (along with the memoir).

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books