Customer Reviews:
A Must for Working Women.......2006-12-03
This book is great. It focuses on what women do in the workplace that underminds thier career. It also talks about how you should act. It's a great book for women working in a corperate jungle. It's a little hard to read at times, and she focuses on her life experiences in the magazine industry. Therefore, some of the things she talks about don't relate well to my field. I'm sure reading this book will help me in my career.
Highly valuable book, even if you're not a self-help type.......2006-10-05
I was just out of college when my friend's mother gave me this book. My friend and I rolled our eyes - we were *definitely* not self-help-book readers. I still am not. But many times over the past ten years I have referenced this book in conversations with friends. I have found myself applying many of the tips that Ms. White provides. You don't have to be a hyper-ambitious, ladder-climbing corporate professional to get something out of this book. Among the tenets that have stood out to me over the years are:
-Don't always need to be liked
-Don't smile too easily
-Don't apologize too quickly
-Don't clean up after other colleagues (especially men)
-Don't be a perfectionist at the expense of innovative thinking or getting things done
Simply the notion that men and women (in broad strokes, at least) behave differently and are treated differently in the workplace was a novel idea to me, coming out of a liberal arts college during the mid-1990s. Reading this book gave me an awareness that everyone needs. Obviously, no one book will apply perfectly to each of us, so you can't go looking for that. But do look to this book for many useful ways of seeing the professional world and your own role in it.
Enjoyed, learned but read it all with a grain of salt!.......2006-06-10
I have never believed, or wanted to believe, in the feminist views of the world. I like to believe that if we focus on results, deliverables, and excellent performance and good merit, we will indeed get ahead - man or woman - in corporate america. Reading this book however did have certain advice in handling some situations that only arise for women in the workplace. Not every bit of advice or circumstance applies to all of us, but overall, this was a very good read, I took bits and pieces of advice from Kate and really did enjoy her stories and her candid sharing of the experience she had been through. I really do recommend it to everyone - not just women. It's good to be aware of our ingrained beliefs and learn to let go of them and face life with a much more open mind.
People Pleasing is not the way to go.......2006-06-01
This is the golden advice: people pleasing is distinct from delivering credible results. In the world of world it is being respected that wins the day. Being liked is a matter of fickleness and not based on results. Results that are measured are all that matters.
Not for "Every Working Woman".......2006-05-24
This book applies to women who are in leadership positions, which I am not, so I despise the title "Nine Secrets Every Working Woman Must Know". It's misleading. I'm currently reading this book and have only found a small paragraph that applies to "every working woman." Given the title, I thought the book would give helpful tips on getting ahead for the average working woman, but it doesn't. Needless to say, it didn't do me much good for where I am currently in my career.
Customer Reviews:
Funny, but it's no Kiss my Tiara.......2007-08-28
Humorous account of her memoirs, I always enjoy a mouthful of saucy sarcasm. However, I remain loyal to her first book of ironic, irreverant commentary on strange female behaviors. Rent Hypocrite from the library, but buy this one.Kiss My Tiara: How to Rule the World as a SmartMouth Goddess
A personality book.......2007-08-13
This book was a really great read if you end up liking the woman who wrote it. She lays bare all her naiveties and embarrassing moments in writing that skips along quickly, gracefully and wittily.
Unlike some reviewers who found her knowledge gaps disingenuous, I found that I believed her more, and it suggested to me that she has written a lot of it from diary entries which adds to it enormously.
Pee-your-pants funny.......2007-08-08
I loved this book! It was given to me by a friend as comic relief because I was reading too many serious books (I never read memoirs). I laughed so hard and so much that my cheeks hurt. I put it up there with David Sedaris in terms of wittiness and turning the mundane quirks of life into slapstick. Susan is brutally honest, bright, and the wastes no time laughing at herself. I can respect that.
Very well-written. A must read. If you don't think this book is funny, you must be dead inside. :)
Namaste
Never stop smiling........2007-07-15
Although I am not finished with this book, I have to say its the funniest thing I've read in awhile. I find myself laughing uncontrollably while reading this book. After starting this book I realized that my childhood/teenage years were not that weird and it had me identify with the author. I'm having a great time reading it and look forward to finishing the book.
Laugh out loud inappropriately sort of book.......2007-02-07
Susie Gilman shows an incredible feel for comedy and self in this novel. I was reading this on the train and actually burst out into laughter, with many riders thinking that I was a little nuts. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for some all around, good fun.
Book Description
Sabine Kuegler's childhood was far from typical. The child of German linguists and missionaries, she spent her youth living among the Fayu tribe in the most remote jungles of West Papua, Indonesia. There, as her family struggled for acceptance among the tightly knit and fiercely loyal community, Sabine spent her time swimming with crocodiles, shooting poisonous spiders with arrows, and chewing on pieces of bat-wing in place of gum. And she was happy. It wasn't until the age of 17 when her world was upended that Sabine experienced true fear for the first time. She was sent off to a boarding school in Switzerland and forced to confront the culture clash of modern Western society--giving her plenty of reason to be afraid. This is her remarkable true story.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful book! .......2007-09-08
This book builds a bridge between two worlds and two cultures that are so far apart. Sabine Kuegler and her family went into the world of the Fayu, a tribal people who still lived in the stone age. These people lived by the law of brutal vengence and killing. They lived in daily fear as war and death were everpresent realities for them. The Kuegler family lived among them, learned from them, and taught them by example. Over the years they had a powerful and lasting impact on the Fayu.
Sabine Kuegler has successfully opened a window for us, allowing us a glimpse into the lives of the Fayu men, women, and children who have the same needs, fears, hopes, and dreams as we all have. She writes with great respect, love, and affection about a people who came to accept and love her family as their own. Over the years through the faith, work and life of the Kueglers the Fayu found that peace and forgiveness were possible and that such a life led to great improvements in their lives.
This book also challenges us to look at our western culture. We strive for progress and consider ourselves an advanced society with humane solutions to our dilemas. We treasure our physical comforts and possessions, but the emotional health of men, women, and children are a much greater challenge in our civilization than among the Fayu, whose lives are physically very hard but emotionally more whole.
AWESOME BOOK!.......2007-08-04
My parents are friends of Sabine's, and I grew up hearing tales of the Fayu people. I awaited this book with great anticipation. It did not let me down-- it was WELL worth the read! You will love this book!!
Better than interesting.......2007-07-10
When not fun, then fascinating; when not fascinating then interesting - and always well written.
I first read the start and the end of the book, about the meeting with the European world. Then I read the rest; and I took the hole book almost in one go in one evening.
Longing for Paradise Lost.......2007-05-01
G.K. Chesterton said, "the things common to all men are more important than the things peculiar to any men." Keugler writes of peculiar circumstances, but the deep, underlying story is one common to all: a deep, unfulfilled (yet) longing for Home. And because she clearly does not (yet) know where to turn to fulfill those longings, the book ends sadly with Sabine still lost: she does not belong in Germany, or among the Fayu, or anywhere. Yet.
But Kuegler's circumstances are familiar to some. I married a `child of the jungle'--same island, same jungle, different tribe. We know some of her places, and the book is especially interesting to us because we (both missionary kids) share some of her memories: jungles, multilingualism, cannibals, crocodiles, insects, intimate friendships with `natives,' helicopters, wars, boarding schools, and a traumatic transition to being westerners lost in the West--a poignant combination of comedy and tragedy.
Kuegler's childhood, like that of many `third culture kids,' was lived in snippets--little chunks of interrupted time (like her 2-4 page chapters): a few weeks or months in the village, then a trip `out' to Jayapura, then back to the village, then a semester at boarding school, then back to the village for Christmas vacation. Her book of short chapters is a skillfully interwoven (not disconnected), almost impressionistic, collection of topics and incidents.
The second half of Kuegler's book is pierced by a wistful, powerful `Sehnsucht' (a German word she does not use)--a deep longing for something she has difficulty describing, or even identifying. As she writes of death, of separation from family and Fayu friends, of feeling misfit among her `own kind,' readers can sense her longing to belong. She mourns paradise lost and fears there is none to be regained. In "Surprised by Joy," C. S. Lewis' life is also pervaded by this Sehnsucht, and then by the joy of its fulfillment. Kuegler, hopefully, will (like Lewis and Chesterton) look again to the `good Spirit' she briefly mentions in chapters 3, 30, and 45. This longing is His gift to prod us into finding our Home (Heb. 11:13-16). I hope then to read a more joyful sequel to Kuegler's delightful first book.
Primitive voice makes tale unsatisfying to modern reader.......2007-04-26
Sabine Kuegler is in an earnest struggle to find a home in the modern world - a place made incomprehensible by her Tarzan upbringing. Dependent on her missionary parents to explain the world, she is a young woman who accepts without question the value of her family's controversial work with a Stone Age tribe. The melancholy she exhibits belies the wisdom of such an unorthodox childhood.
Now a mother in Munich, she lies awake at night pondering the psychological stresses of current life and yearns to be back in the jungle although she knows she does not belong there. Her transition to life in the twenty-first century is incomplete -- the gap too far to bridge. Modern readers will find it hard to relate to "Mama and Papa" language reminiscent of wholesome Little House pioneer Laura Ingalls Wilder, while Kuegler's wide-eyed value judgments weigh down views of both the contemporary world and the Lost Valley of Irian Jaya.
Book Description
New York Newsday called this memoir of a warhood childhood in Japan "one of the saddest and yet most uplifting books about childhood you will ever encounter."
Separated from her family in the confusion and horror of World War II, seven-year-old Tomiko Higa struggles to survive on the battlefield of Okinawa, Japan. There, as some of the fiercest fighting of the war rages around her, she must live alone, with nothing to fall back on but her own wits and
daring. Fleeing from encroaching enemy forces, searching desperately for her lost sisters, taking scraps of food from the knapsacks of dead soldiers, risking death at every turn, Tomiko somehow finds the strength and courage to survive.
Many years later she decided to tell this story. Originally intended for juvenile readers, it is sure to move adults as well, because it is such a vivid portrait of the unintended civilian casualties of any war.
Customer Reviews:
Not Great.......2007-06-12
I thought this book was okay. You would like it if you liked learning about Japan during WWII, but I found it badly written. The end is unsatisfactory and the way it was written, even though it was non-fiction was boring to me.
Hope and Miracles.......2007-06-06
This book with its unadorned account of survival through the terrible battle of Okinawa is an important reminder of just how cruel war is, especially to those caught in the middle. Little Tomiko struggles against all odds and lives to tell this amazing story of desperation and courage. Not for sensitive kids; I would recommend this to middle schoolers and older - this is the real thing, not just a video game. Heartbreaking and horrifying, but with beautiful moments and miracles.
traumatized me in 4th grade.......2007-02-01
I just googled this book to show to my friend becasue its recommended as a childrens book and when i read it in 4th grade (im 24 now) this book scared the poop out of me. I dont think its a ppropriate for young children. I still cringe thinking about some of the chapters where she is forced to squezze puss from her amputated friends limbs. Ewwww! Amazing story but i think you should be a bit older before you absorb the ferocious atrtocities of war.
Great for all.......2007-01-15
Title: The Girl with the White Flag: An Inspiring Story of Love and Courage in War Time
Author: Tomiko Higa
Genre: Memoir
Synopsis: Tomiko Hiko was seven years old on the island of Okinawa when Allied forces land. Decades later, she discovers a picture of herself as a child, carrying a white flag and surrendering to enemy forces, with a line of Japanese soldiers behind her. Finding the picture triggered repressed memories, which were compiled in this short memoir of the war years, particularly the invasion. Separated from her family, she faced the enemy alone.
Quote: "Remembering Father's words to die with a brave smile, the author waves at the camera."
Grade: B+
Review: I first read this book in high school, and it is one of the few I picked up at that time that I remember vividly. I have to come back to it every few years to see if it is as moving as I remember it. OF course, it always is. It's a great book the other side of Okinawa, family, love, war.
A great book.......2006-12-27
I fell in love with this book. I'm currently stationed on Okinawa and I can't imagine how a girl so young could wander around the island and survive for so long.
This book is translated so some of the English is broken. However if you're interested in a different perspective of WWII in the Pacific, it's a nice read. It gives you a better understanding of how the Okinawans got thrown into a war they never wanted to fight in.
I love this book, even mailed a copy to my sister.
Product Description
This 30-day course teaches you the easiest ways to meet ANY girl, ANYWHERE, ANY TIME. Includes diagrams, flash cards, and self-tests. The biggest problem most men have in getting dates is knowing how to approach attractive girls they see every day of the week (at the office, gas station, standing in line anywhere). Too many men rely on nightclubs, bars, and personal ads to get dates, ignoring the women they see e-v-e-r-y d-a-y. This book takes all of the guesswork out of meeting women, no matter where they are. From the moment you see her and the first few words you say to get her attention through getting her phone number (and actually looking forward to having you call her), this book teaches you how to do it in an easy to follow, step-by-step fashion. Read this book and change your life. Then read it again until you master every technique in this book. You will find yourself surrounded by beautiful girls all-the-time. The biggest problem most men have in getting dates is knowing how to approach attractive girls they see every day of the week (at the office, gas station, standing in line anywhere). Too many men rely on nightclubs, bars, and person ads to get dates, ignoring the women they see e-v-e-r-y d-a-y. This book takes all of the guesswork out of meeting women, no matter where they are. From the moment you see her and the first few words you say to get her attention through getting her phone number (and actually looking forward to having you call her), this book teaches you how to do it in an easy to follow, step-by-step fashion. Read this book and change your life. Then read it again until you master every technique in this book. You will find yourself surrounded by beautiful girls all-the-time.
Customer Reviews:
Decent, but information overload dude!.......2007-04-10
Okay, so I liked the book - but if it were about 50 pages shorter I might have liked it a lot better. This guy starts off with how to pick up chicks wherever you see them every day, and he goes too much into why this approach works, and how this other approach is weak or strong (he sounds like my old professors), and then he has this cool section on how to read their palms (I have seen guys do this stuff - that and that trick where they tell your future by your handwriting). Anyway, that was all okay, and of course he has to spend a hundred pages telling you how to put all of this together; what to do if she says this, what to do if her boyfriend shows up, how to get out of a conversation with a psycho chick (I say just leave - don't even say goodbye), and then he has some tests, and experiences from people I really don't care about. No offense but I just ant to know how I can get laid, you know?
This book has a TON of information but I felt like I was back in school. I did try what he said over the past week and a half and it seems to be working, I got a few chick's phone numbers, but I think he could have saved me a lot of time reading by just telling me straight out how to approach hotties at the store, gas station (and so on), get the number and leave it at that. Once I have a girl's number in my pocket I think I know what to do. I don't know. Does it work? Sure. And it is funny at times. But it is pretty heavy stuff. look, if you are looking for something really quick, check out Seduce Me. The Mystery Method is also killer, but it takes a while to build up your game using his techniques. Mystery is out to turn guys into PUAs. A book like this or Seduce me is just about having some fun meeting hicks and getting dates when you want one.
A refreshing change from the standard.......2007-04-09
My son plopped down this book in front of me and said "Does this stuff really work?" This is not the type of book I would normally curl up with on a Sunday evening after stoking the fire in the hearth to a comfortable level. But as I do love my 20 year old son (almost as much as I love to read), I figured that it was worth investigating.
The text is set in a conversational tone that is almost chummy at times. The author it seems seeks to teach without the pretense of authority and command. It is a fun read, and it is indeed instructional, but I came away with a feeling of "advice from a friend." Please keep in mind that I am a happily married man of 24 years, and I have no intention of "scamming on hotties" but I suppose that if I was twentysomething and raging with hormones I would seek anything that would help me gain release - get a lot of dates. All in all I found this a fun little book with plenty of instructions and illustrations. There were even a few quizzes in the back, and a complete set of printable (you get to do that part) flashcards in the back of the book.
I suppose I could go on about the state of our society that we need instruction manuals on how to speak to each other, but the bottom line is that yes, these techniques do work (I have used several of these - and many others not mentioned in this book - in the past). The premise of the book is pretty straightforward. Approach women casually and with confidence (the author covers how to do this in sufficient detail, but you will have to obviously practice this on your own), and shows ways to get a girl interested in what YOU have to say.
Then he illustrates how to read a girl's palm and get her fascinated with you. I liked that part. That was unique. It is a strange fact that women love mysticism (palm reading, astrology, esp) far more than men ever will. I can see this working as even my wife goes to get her palm read once every few months. I told her once I could save her (me really) the fifty bucks and do it myself. That didn't work so well. She didn't talk to me for a week.
Look, I have seen over the years books that show you how to get dates with women using handwriting analysis, hypnosis, "being a jerk" (love caveman style - when will men ever learn?), insulting women, astrology, card magic, pretending that you are a psychic, something called neurolinguistic brainwashing or something like that, and numerous other tricks and gadgets. Who knows what works? You walk up and say hello. Say something interesting. I think that is what I liked best about this book. It gives you a solid starting point, and makes you laugh along the way. The author structured the whole thing in a 30 day course format. Personally I read the book and enjoyed it - for what it was - and didn't bother practicing what I learned the first time reading through (my wife would kill me!)
So is it worth the twenty bucks? Well, I guess if you are young and single, and want a date (or "a lot of dates" as the author promises), then yes, but my advice is read this, and read everything you can. Try out all kinds of different techniques on different women. After all, if you want "a lot of dates," then you should keep practicing your skills. As for me I had fun, told my son to follow the instructions and report back to me how well they worked (not too much detail please), and I am going to read the latest Stephen King novel.
An excellent guide for the average man.......2007-03-17
This book is hilarious - and it works. It is a step-by-step guide to meeting girls on the street (coffeehouses, laundromats, grocery stores, gas stations... you get the idea). We didn't really see much on funerals: the author did mention picking up girls at funerals, so we were hoping for a bit more detail on that. But what you will learn here is how to approach ANY girl casually, no matter where you are, and with no stress on you: no matter "how hot you think she is." Then you will learn how to transition from "hello" into getting the girl interested enough in you to give you a few minutes of her time to work your magic, and then get her number. Not to worry, the author even has a few tricks to show you how to do that as well. This book is a MUST HAVE, but it is far from the only book you should read.
This book will not make you a superstar PUA, but if you have any game at all, what you will learn here will definitely improve your performance just about anywhere. You will even learn how to pick up girls in front of your girlfriend, and how to pick up 2-3 girls at once (in front of each other). We tried some of these techniques and they were as easy as the author claims. Of course we have had some practice over the years, but even so, this is stuff any guy can - and should - master.
The price was reasonable enough - about 1/2 the cost of a cheap first date, and the laughs were pretty good as well. If you do get a copy of this book, **be sure to read the entire thing**. It is a 30 day home study course on picking up girls you see everywhere, but it is also a course on becoming more popular in general. It won't teach you game, but it will teach you how to use what you've got - even if you only have a little.
ITS ALL GOOD.......2007-03-15
Good always wanted to learn about seduction and palmstry, something different most men are not think about learning this to seduct women, they rather trick out the pocket lolllll I going to safe my money smile.
I wish I knew this stuff when I was twenty.......2007-01-07
It's a good book! What I liked about it was that it took all of the guesswork out. This should be taught in school. It's really not that difficult when you think about it. I wish math were this easy. If you ask me, try the book and if you don't like it send it back.
Book Description
Fifteen years ago, in 1975, Genna Hewett-Meade's college roommate died a mysterious, violent, terrible death. Minette Swift had been a fiercely individualistic scholarship student, an assertive—even prickly—personality, and one of the few black girls at an exclusive women's liberal arts college near Philadelphia. By contrast, Genna was a quiet, self-effacing teenager from a privileged upper-class home, self-consciously struggling to make amends for her own elite upbringing. When, partway through their freshman year, Minette suddenly fell victim to an increasing torrent of racist harassment and vicious slurs—from within the apparent safety of their tolerant, "enlightened" campus—Genna felt it her duty to protect her roommate at all costs.
Now, as Genna reconstructs the months, weeks, and hours leading up to Minette's tragic death, she is also forced to confront her own identity within the social framework of that time. Her father was a prominent civil defense lawyer whose radical politics—including defending anti-war terrorists wanted by the FBI—would deeply affect his daughter's outlook on life, and later challenge her deepest beliefs about social obligation in a morally gray world.
Black Girl / White Girl is a searing double portrait of "black" and "white," of race and civil rights in post-Vietnam America, captured by one of the most important literary voices of our time.
Customer Reviews:
Water / Oil.......2007-09-01
Black Girl / White Girl is the story of two 1974 Schuyler College freshmen roommates who could not have possibly been more wrong for each other. Gemma Meade, on the one hand, is a descendant of the college founder and has been raised by ultra-liberal parents to feel somewhat guilty about the privileged circumstances of the Meade family. She feels compelled to prove that she does not consider herself to be better than her black roommate. Minette Swift, on the other hand, is a black teenager who has been raised by her ultra-conservative preacher father to be suspicious of the motives and objectives of whites who go out of their way to befriend her. She sees Gemma's offer of friendship as more condescending than genuine.
Both girls arrive at Schuyler College somewhat flawed by the families in which they were raised. Gemma's father, an attorney who not only defended Civil Rights activists and terrorists of the day but hid them when they were on the run and helped to fund their illegal activities, was away from home as much as he was there. Her mother, an alcoholic ex-hippie herself, was more a burden to Gemma than she was a parent. Minette's father, a "prominent" Washington D.C. preacher, raised her to disdain those who did not share her strong Christian beliefs and to find racist tendencies in others where they did not always exist. He was a proud and articulate man who spoke his mind at all times, quick to see "racism" in the words of others.
Reading Black Girl / White Girl is a bit like simultaneously watching two train wrecks. Predictably, Minette Swift becomes the victim of racist taunts despite the fact that she is not the only minority student living in her dormitory. She is so unlikable, in fact, that another black student is suspected of being involved in the incidents that occur. Gemma's efforts to shield Minette from the taunting ultimately backfire and cause as much harm as good for both girls. At the same time, Gemma's father is being pursued by the FBI who suspect him of being more than a defense attorney and who suspect that Gemma knows the details.
Joyce Carol Oates has created two memorable characters, unlikable as they may be, who reflect the times in which they lived. The 1970s were filled with guilt ridden whites who were very likely seen by blacks as naive and condescending when it came to the racial issues of the day. The two groups were a product of the '60s era that produced both peace loving, doper hippies and militant blacks and they found themselves working together in the '70s, not always comfortably, in the still relatively young Civil Rights movement. In the world of Joyce Carol Oates, good intentions and innocence can be a dangerous combination and Black Girl / White Girl is no exception to her rule.
NOT JCO AT HER BEST -- FOR ME, ANYWAY!.......2007-08-25
BLACK GIRL/WHITE GIRL
I feel somewhat like a traitor giving a book by JCO only one star. After all, she is one of my favorite authors of all time and a true genius! However, for me, this book fell flat.
Meet Genna, white girl, and Minette, black girl. They are roomies in college. Their fellow students do not like Minette, Genna tries to become her friend, she keeps getting rebuffed. Minette gets harassed and tragedy follows. The end.
That is what I got out of this book. Way too much of this book centered on Genna's old, political, hippie, parents. I did not care for Genna's parents, I did not care for all the past political history of her parents.
I truly tried to enjoy and like this book. I wish the book would have gone in the direction of Genna and Minette. However, much to my dismay, the two girls and their lives were barely touched upon.
I know every book I pick up will not be a winner. That is the beauty of reading and life in general -- everyone has a different opinion of a book and while some people loved this book, for me, it was hard to enjoy. However, Ms. Oates is one of the best and I will gladly, happily, and definitely look forward to reading all of her books. She has quite a list of accomplishments and I cannot wait to venture into the next one.
Thank you!
Pam
What a disappointment!!.......2007-08-16
First and foremost, was anyone else irritated by Minette Swift's omnipresent 'SCUSEME????'. Does she not know any other words?
Moving on...
What drew me to this book was the riveting synopsis on the book jacket. I expected a discussion (exploration?) of race relations between two young women of drastically different backgrounds in 1970's collegiate America and their collective movement toward understanding and friendship (before Minette's untimely death, of course). The descriptive scales are way out of balance in this book; the surface of Minette's life and that of her family are barely scratched, while Genna's is picked through with a fine-toothed comb. The book focuses heavily on white girl Genna's dysfunctional family, constantly hammering into the reader's head her father Max's valiant legal crusading on behalf of anti-war activists and people of color and his all-too-frequent absences. That's all well and good, but how about paying a little more attention to Minette? After all, isn't she supposed to figure prominently in this text? Was she experiencing depression before she came to college, or did her troubles begin at Schuyler? And if they did begin at college, what was the impetus? How about elaborating on what put this obviously intelligent and pious young woman on the path to depression? I wish Ms. Oates had expanded upon this segment of the plot and delved a little deeper into this character.
What a disappointment. I'm about to start on "The Gravedigger's Daughter"...here's hoping for a more riveting read!
A Tale of Two Girls.......2007-03-23
Truth/lies, past/present, friend/enemy-- Joyce Carol Oates revels in these and other opposites in her novel Black Girl White Girl. Set in the year 1990, but told as a flashback to the year 1974, main character Genna Meade, recounts the tragic events that lead to the untimely death of her roommate, Minette Swift. Genna, offspring of a radical, political father and a wounded, drug-crazed mother, pieces together the events of her father's background mingled with the disastrous racial attacks against Minette that ultimately contribute to her death.
In 1974, Genna and Minette enter as freshmen to an elite liberal arts school, Schuyler College, near Philadelphia. The bespectacled Minette, hardly acknowledges her roommate, Genna. Constantly muttering "'Scuse me," she reacts to Genna only if necessary. Genna, so desperately wishing to befriend Minette, continually indulges her in kindnesses. As Minette physically and emotionally spirals downward, the protections that Genna volunteers to her end in tragedy.
The other characters in Black Girl White Girl contribute to the themes in the text. Genna's parents, Maximilian Elliot Mead (Mad Max) and Veronica Hewett-Meade, drift in and out of Genna's life as they always had as she grew-up in their rambling yet shameful home in Chadds Ford. Max's political antics and beliefs, even though a civil defense lawyer, provide an extreme, unconventional childhood for Genna. Veronica suffers the trauma of a life of drug abuse and spousal separateness. Because of this, she acts abrupt, child-like and needy. Genna plays more of a "parent role" in this book than her parents. Just who are we responsible for in our life?
The only parental relations Minette seems to have with her mother involve frequent, lengthy phone calls to the campus. Her father, Reverend Virgil Swift, is preacher for the World Tabernacle of Jesus Christ. Ironically, Minette, needing her father's spiritual guidance desperately, only has a poster proclaiming "I AM THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE" and a white leather-bound Bible for guidance. This is the central misfortune in the story; these characters all cry out to each other but they never ease their wants and needs.
Post Vietnam America racial tensions and civil rights flow throughout this work. The great grandparents of Genna Meade and founders of Schuyler College were sympathetic to the "people of color," yet Haven House, the residence hall to Minette and Genna, offers no solace to either girl. Minette experiences racial harassment and Genna also suffers from her past history, not racially, but emotionally, because of her parents. Oates clearly defines the separateness of Minette and Genna due to racial/social backgrounds, but both are girls. Is she suggesting that they really are very much alike in their desires, wants, and needs? What really are the truths for each girl within the narrative? What lies are part of these truths?
Carol Joyce Oates creates a story in Black Girl White Girl worth reading because stylistically it interests; the use of language is succinct, the characters are both outrageous yet believable, and it is of interest in a historical context. It is a tragic story because Genna, after the death of Minette realizes that she, between choosing happiness and duty, must choose duty.
Ho Hum!!.......2007-03-17
I wnated to like this book because Ms. Oates is a wonderful writer and the book jacket seemed compelling, but the more I read the less I liked the characters and questioned the believibilty of the "victim", who is pegged as an intelligent black Merit scholar but comes off no more than a satisfactory, snooty student who is slowly losing her mind. I have doubts about her abuse and believe she is suffering from Munchausens Syndrome but towards the end of the book it didn't even matter. Gemma, the white roommate is so kind and long-suffering, desperate and lonely, partly due to this roommate and partly due to her insane upbring, but I tired of her as well. Read it if you must, but don't expect too much.
Book Description
Summer 1967. The turmoil of the Maoist revolution is spilling over into Hong Kong and causing unrest as war rages in neighboring Vietnam. White Ghost Girls is the story of Frankie and Kate, two American sisters living in a foreign land in a chaotic time. With their war-photographer father off in Vietnam, Marianne, their beautiful but remote mother, keeps the family close by. Although bound by a closeness of living overseas, the sisters could not be more different — Frankie pulses with curiosity and risk, while Kate is all eyes and ears. Marianne spends her days painting watercolors of the lush surroundings, leaving the girls largely unsupervised, while their Chinese nanny, Ah Bing, does her best to look after them. One day in a village market, they decide to explore — with tragic results. In Alice Greenway’s exquisite gem of a novel, two girls tumble into their teenage years against an extraordinary backdrop both sensuous and dangerous. This astonishing literary debut is a tale of sacrifice and solidarity that gleams with the kind of intense, complicated love that only exists between sisters.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting, but I just didn't care about the characters.......2007-10-13
This book has some beautiful passages, but it never grabs you with a good story or with characters that you want to learn more about. We read it for book club, and about 30% of the group loved it for its lyricism...but the rest of us, while respecting the skill with which it was crafted, were apathetic to the story. And it's the story that brings me to a book and keeps it on my mind. If it weren't for book club, I would not have finished it, honestly.
Haunting and different.......2007-09-08
I picked this book for our book club (end of last year) and had searched and searched for the 'perfect' book. What drew me to the book were the vivid descriptions the book was supposed to have. I agree - that part was true, but the only reason I gave it a 3 was that it just didn't go over big at all with my club. Our of 8 members, only one really liked it. No one else really 'got' the story, though it is hauntingly and beautifully written. I felt bad because I so wanted to pick a book everyone would just swoon over and they just gave me weird looks.
A chick book and so much more.......2007-05-20
Two American sisters Frankie 14 and Kate 13 live with their distant self-absorbed mother in Hong Kong in 1967. Their father is a photographer away covering the war in Vietnam. The girls are often left in the care of their Cantonese amah who is ill-equipped to deal with them. They get into all kinds of mischief. As Frankie becomes wilder and wilder Kate becomes the grown up sensible one who tries to save her older sister from her self-destructive behavior. This novel delicately deals with tragedy, sibling rivalry, first love, and some competition between the girls and their mother for their absentee father's affection. Woven into the background of the novel is the Cultural Revolution that manages to spill over from across the border. Interstingly, there were people in Hong Kong enjoying freedom and a high standard of living who also supported Mao's policies. It's short and easy to read but, beautifully written.
Thoughtful character descriptions.......2006-12-22
What I liked best about this book is the way the author could describe how someone is feeling in the most understandable terms. What I didn't like about this book is sometimes I wanted more information. The author would write about an island or a beach or some location. But I am not familiar with Hong Kong or Vietnam so I didn't know where it was or if it was 10 minutes away or 6 hours. Also sometimes she would write of items that I didn't know about -- for example lychee fruit -- what does it look like? what does it taste like? do you peel it? etc. Sometimes I couldn't visualize the details in my imagination. But I did love the variety of characters and the rich descriptions of their feelings. It was a nice short book.
Very engrossing story.......2006-08-24
This is a short book that can be read in a day or two. It is very well written with an interesting setting and plot line. You can see, hear and smell the authors description of Hong Kong, and the references to Viet Nam during the war are very haunting. This book would make a good gift.
Book Description
In this examination of white and Mexican-American girls coming of age in California's Central Valley, Julie Bettie turns class theory on its head and offers new tools for understanding the ways in which class identity is constructed and, at times, fails to be constructed in relationship to color, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Documenting the categories of subculture and style that high school students use to explain class and racial/ethnic differences among themselves, Bettie depicts the complex identity performances of contemporary girls. The title, Women Without Class, refers at once to young working-class women who have little cultural capital to enable class mobility, to the fact that class analysis and social theory has remained insufficiently transformed by feminist and ethnic studies, and to the fact that some feminist analysis has itself been complicit in the failure to theorize women as class subjects. Bettie's research and analysis make a case for analytical and political attention to class, but not at the expense of attention to other axes of identity and social formations.
Customer Reviews:
Good Point, Painful Read.......2005-03-03
What really endangered the success of Bettie's message was not humanly bias, but her writing style. Bettie tries so hard to convince the reader that her study is important that she becomes verbose; she spends so much time telling us everyone else has it wrong (except for her) that her tone goes from conviction and pleasantly tenacious to grating. The complexity of the issue need not result in literary inaccessibility. Bettie's sentences stretch into several lines and her chapters become bloated when they could easily be summed up by what most people already know: we're missing the rest of the picture if we just focus on gender--it's a more complex issue...otherwise known as: you can't see the forest for the trees.
best book I've read all year.......2003-07-10
"Women without Class" is a tour de force of exceptional scholarly research and keen social observation. Bettie does a tremendous job exploring how class operates in many powerful, yet subtle ways in the lives of young women in one California high school. She highlights the role of economics, but also addresses issues of race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Through sustained, in-depth ethnographic research, Bettie illuminates the complex social dynamics of a community and brings the personalities, experiences and worries of these young women to life. The book is honest and sharp, reading almost like a novel. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in sociology, education, youth, race/ethnic relations, or gender.
Great Read for those working with Teens.......2003-07-03
As a person who works daily with young people both in and out of academic settings, I found this book gave a fresh perspective on how we view teenagers (both men and women) and the influence we have on their lives; especially those influences that are unconcious on our part. It changed the way I perceive my students and gave me new tools for communication. I also thought it was a terrific read; often dramatic and moving. I highly reccomend this book to anyone whose work or lives are connected with young people in America.
Average customer rating:
- Always surprising, always interesting - worth the read
- The White Tyger
- Burning bright
- excellent Roumania fantasy
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The White Tyger
Paul Park
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Park, Paul
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Alternate History
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Fantasy
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Similar Items:
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The Tourmaline
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A Princess of Roumania
-
Brasyl
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Un Lun Dun
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Endless Things: A part of Aegypt
ASIN: 0765315297
Release Date: 2007-01-23 |
Book Description
Miranda Popescu is at the fulcrum of a deadly political and diplomatic battle between conjurers in a fantasy world where Roumania, now occupied by the German army, is still a leading European power. Her enemies are the mad Baroness Ceausescu, serving as a figurehead-of-state, and the ghost of the sinister Elector of Ratisbon. A Princess of Roumania brought the teen-aged Miranda and her two best friends into the conflict, from a place of safety in our world. The Tourmaline told how Miranda began to grow into her new sense of self, as she traveled in secret through Roumania, defeated the elector in the spirit world, and lit a fire of resistance against the German occupation and the baronesss corrupt regime. Now reunited with her friends in The White Tyger, she suffers a reversal and is captured by the baroness, along with her true mother, who was held prisoner in Germany since Mirandas birth. Both in the spirit world and in Roumania, the story in The White Tyger moves toward a series of startling climaxes.
Customer Reviews:
Always surprising, always interesting - worth the read.......2007-04-28
I'm aware of the extreme praise this series of books has gotten. I was disappointed with the first book, A Princess of Roumania. In the second book, The Tourmaline, I started to see the light a little bit. But it wasn't until this third book that I finally found what the critics apparently knew all along. This is an extremely imaginative, rich fantasy that is a delightful mirror to our own world, an "alternate history" presented in a way that I've never seen before.
So, the world itself is interesting...my gripe is with the characters. Besides one very important exception, I feel no connection with the characters in this book. If, at any moment, any of the main characters (except one!) were to be killed, my only reaction would be an interested "huh".
There's 4 main characters who form the bulk of the reader's viewpoint. Of the 4, Miranda - the main character - is, unfortunately, the most boring. It's interesting to see how a "typical teenager" from the USA deals with this incredible world and the responsibilities it entails for her, but her extreme "RUN AWAY" attitude irritates me. This is the attitude she has regarding everything from the people's beliefs in the White Tyger (a political position) to her own birth mother. Just...run away.
Her two "best friends" are slightly more interesting. Both are actually, as we discovered in The Tourmaline, legendary soldiers who once served her father. They were sent to the made-up USA (OUR world) as Miranda's high school friends, to fulfill the oaths they made to protect her, and there they lost all memory of who they truly were, and came to believe they really were the high school students Peter Gross and Andromeda. It wasn't until they left that imaginary world that their true personalities awoke.
It's semi-interesting to see the duality between the gruff warrior Pieter de Graz and the poetry-spewing Peter Gross, and we're supposed to be sad because Peter Gross is the high school student we knew from the series' beginning, and Pieter de Graz is a stranger to us. But I can't manage anything other than a 'huh'. It is obviously an interesting idea, though.
Andromeda is more interesting, although I still don't really understand what's going on here. Andromeda the high school student was a female, but Sasha the soldier (her true identity) is a male. And, just for kicks, when s/he first came back to the world, s/he was a dog. So this one character has 3 different identities swarming around inside, although in this book it's Sasha the entire time.
Finally, the last character, and the most interesting by far - the Baroness. I won't go into detail here. The jacket of the book calls her a character of Shakespearean complexity and depth, and I won't argue that. Sometimes it seemed like she was the only reason I kept reading these books. She is the one character who'se death would actually affect me...I can't imagine reading this series without her. Not only because of the strength of her character, but because, without this central "villain", the books seem like they would dissolve into some political struggles between faceless government officials and countries. Here's hoping she hasn't had her Final Act just yet.
So, overall - I definitely recommend this book if you're read the first two. It develops the characters and opens up the world even more. If you haven't read the first two yet, I suggest you make your way through A Princess of Roumania, because this is a series that is certainly worth the read.
The White Tyger.......2007-04-20
In these virtuoso Princess of Roumania novels Paul Park successfully undoes the tropes and themes of the fantasy genre at the very moment that he is making use of them, leaving them to unravel behind us as we move through the narrative. A classic equivalent is Rousseau's brilliant, defiant Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, after the publication of which no one could ever tell another "State of Nature" story again in the same way, if at all. For this reason alone, these are books to be taken seriously.
What I liked best about the third volume, The White Tyger, is the relationship between Sasha Prochenko and the Baroness. It is, to my mind, the psychological center of gravity of the story thus far. It's compelling, shot through with sexual and dramatic tension as it is, and it's also interesting. Amidst the many different characters in this story, and their many different mirrored and fragmented selves, the pairing of these two is essential. At a minimum, Prochenko is the Baroness' only perceived equal. He is her twin, her undamaged alter-ego - and it is in virtue of the ways in which they are the same that he holds the kind of power over her that she holds over others.
The book is great. Buy it.
Burning bright.......2007-03-31
The White Tyger is just as wonderful as the previous two novels in Paul Park's Roumania sreies. The novels are profoundly character driven in a way that few genre novels are; they deliberately and specifically refuse to conform to a conventional quest narrative. No-one knows exactly what they're supposed to do; they're making it up as they go along. All of the main protagonists (and some of the minor ones) are in some sense or another doubled; their selves are split in two so that they have difficulty in explaining their motivations to themselves. The book is less a conventional fantasy story in which the story is external to the characters, determining who they are and what they do, than a working through of the ways that individuals make up their own fantasies, spinning out ex post narratives to explain their actions to themselves and others. The main protagonists don't know themselves.
This is most obvious in the character of Baroness Ceaucescu, who sees herself as the heroine of an opera, smoothing away the grubby and selfish motivations for her actions and reconfiguring them as the essential elements of a grand and inexorable tragedy, where she has no personal responsibility for what she does. She steals every scene that she's in. The three novels are vertiginous, and a little jarring. They don't have the feeling of safeness and stability that most fantasy novels do. All that is solid melts into air. Yet nor are they self-consciously or coyly reflexive (their contingency doesn't seem playful to me; rather it appears like a very serious attempt to talk about how the world is). I don't want to say more about The White Tyger for fear of ruining surprises; I do want to recommend it (and I can't wait to see what the fourth and final novel does).
excellent Roumania fantasy .......2007-01-28
Massachusetts resident fifteen years old Miranda Popescu continues to be yanked in two directions since she was drawn into the German occupied Roumania, a world where she is a princess instead of a mall teen and alchemy is a working science. In Roumania, two factions skirmish over controlling the American as her Aunt Aegypta Schenck tries to keep her safe while the power hungry Baroness Ceaucescu and her ally evil alchemist Elector of Ratisbon.
Accompanying her from her old Berkshires world are Peter Gross known in Roumania as Chevalier de Graz and the shape-shifter Lieutenant Prochenko formerly a female named Andromeda. Meanwhile Miranda just wants to return to being a normal New England teen even though she begins to understand the mage like powers she possesses like when she studies the souls of animals (Penguin Island aside). However, normalcy can never return for someone battling the likes of the wickedly astute Baroness Ceausescu, as Miranda soon learns when Miranda meets her biological mother as both are captives of their adversaries.
The third Roumania fantasy (see THE TOURMALINE and A PRINCESS OF ROUMANIA) is a fabulous entry in one of the better genre series. Miranda, her fellow "displaced" pals, her enemies; and her relatives make the worlds of the Berkshires and that of alternate Europe seem real as each key player feels genuine. The action never lets up as Miranda, Peter and Andromeda learn more about just who they are even while trying to survive a devious brilliant opponent.
Harriet Klausner
Book Description
Beautiful, vivacious, and fearless, Agnes Leclerc was twenty-one years old when she met Prince Felix Salm, a Prussian officer in the Union Army at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War. Their marriage took Agnes from smalltown America to battlegrounds around the world and finally to the royal palaces of Europe. The Prince and the Yankee is a Cinderella story that goes beyond happily ever after to show how strong Cinderella actually became.
Customer Reviews:
A larger than life tale from the young American Republic.......2004-06-29
This gem of a book deserves to be read by more people. Ostensibly this book is the story of a woman born in New England who goes on to become a princess in Germany and along the way play an important role in both the US Civil War and Mexican Civil War.
But this book is more than just a simple biography of a remarkable woman. It gives the reader a very good sense of the US as a young Republic and the type of society it was then.
It is interesting to read, for example, that on the eve of Civil War, the US, a Republic which was suspicious of a large standing army, had an army of only 50,000 men and had to depend partly on imported professional soldiers from Europe to sustain its war effort.
Or that The White House was not an imperial place in those days and had open house parties for its citizens, some of whom were in the habit of snipping off bits of curtains as souvenirs.
Robert White has done his research well, telling the story of a girl who from humble beginnings makes it to the top by sheer force of personality and a bit of luck, and doing it all in a racy, page turning, style. The story is well anchored in the social and political currents of the times, which were very much in turmoil.
The book describes in detail a cast of colorful characters ranging from a pretender to the throne of Mexico to an assortment noble and evil people from the military and the aristocracy of both Europe and the US.
The author, who hails from New England himself and who has travelled to the far corners of the world, writes with a keen eye for details of the locations and characters. One can discern in the book a sense of regret at the passing of an age, which for whatever its faults, was a more gracious era than the one we live and where people took their duties and responsibilities seriously, instead looking for reasons to evade them.
The maxim for a good story teller has always been that he should "show and not tell". This book, by weaving the story of a real woman, educates us in conditions of nineteenth century Europe, America, and Mexico more than any history book that I have read.
Readers who are interested in the formative years of the American republic, as well as those who are looking for a good story are well advised to go out and buy this book.
N. Balakrishan - Hong Kong.
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