Customer Reviews:
great book.......2007-03-24
This is a great book . I have all the Benoit books and dvds. I think this is the best of the Benoit books. There is so much info in these books it's not right out front , it's between the lines but be assured its there. Tracking is regional but the Whitetail info is not. I have learned more about mature Whitetails from the Benoit books and dvds than any other source. Larry's the man no doubt but Lanny Benoit may be the best pure deer hunter alive. Theres a little horn tooting in the book but as someone once said " If you can do it it ain't braggin ". I have Hal Bloods book too it is also very very good. If you buy just one book on tracking buy this one or Hals.
Average Book........2004-11-02
The book does a good job outlining the tracking methods that the Benoits use to consistently harvest large bucks. There are also several interesting stories of deer hunting adventures within the book.
These tracking methods are regional in nature and not very useful in the midwest where I primarily hunt. For anyone who hunts from a stand, this book will be a dissapointment.
I read the book from my local library rather than purchasing it and I am glad that I did.
Overall, it is a good read but not worth the money unless you hunt in the northeast like the Benoits.
If you are stump sitter, this book is not for you.......2003-02-04
If you track or stalk deer then you can learn a lot from this book. The Benoit's are quite remarkable with their year over year successes. However, if you are a stand hunter or hunt in private land areas that don't allow tresspassers then this book is basically worthless other than the nice pictures in it.
Tracking Big Bucks on Snowy Days.......2003-01-28
This is one of the best and most unique whitetail hunting books I've read. The classic and now out-of-print "How to Bag the Biggest Buck of Your Life," did a great job of describing the Benoit tracking method. This newest book is even better.
"Big Bucks the Benoit Way" is an excellent presentation of how the Benoits hunt. The Benoits are almost exclusively trackers, and they base their techniques on what their vast experience has proven to work best: not on the theories of others. This independent thinking makes this a very refreshing book, and their dozens of 200-pound plus bucks prove that they know what they are doing.
This book is loaded with great photos of big bucks and the Benoits in their trademark green and black wool jackets. There's plenty of shots of sagging meat poles, the deep woods on snowy days, and the tracks and rubs of big bucks.
Most valuable though, is the great information on how the Benoits find, identify, and then follow the track of a heavy buck until they successfully bag him. While few of us will ever be so spectacularly successful using these methods, all of us can learn from this book. I've successfully used these same Benoit methods to track down and bag trophy bucks from Montana to Wisconsin.
Hunters who enjoy this book share a kinship in understanding the magic of the deep woods and a fresh tracking snow and the smoking hot track of a big buck. If you are that type of hunter, you will like this book.
Bruce L. Nelson, author of "Hunting Big Whitetails."
benoits big bucks.......2002-03-16
i have read big bucks the benoit way at least a dozen times.the best deer hunting book i have ever read.i live and hunt in north dakota no matter where you live and hunt you can learn from this book.as far as i am concerned larry and his family are the best deer hunters in the country they hunt in the toughest whitetail country there is out there tracking no matter what the weather is doing. HUNTING HARD EVERY DAY .taking home the biggest 200+ bucks they can find. bryce towsly and the benoits done a great job putting this book together. im hoping there will be more from the first family of deerhunting thankyou and keep bringing home those big bucks.
Book Description
Packed with more than 300 photographs from archives and private collections -- many published here for the first time -- entertaining anecdotes, political analysis, the dynamics of family relationships, and behind-the-scenes gossip, America's First Families offers the first up-close look at the families -- from John and Abigail Adams in 1800 to Bill and Hillary Clinton -- who have intrigued and entranced the American public for two centuries.
Carl Sferrazza Anthony opens the door to the world's most famous residence to reveal life as it was actually lived there. He takes readers into the heart of loyalties and estrangements, and the emotional pressures that politics brings to bear upon the forty White House families, from their arrivals to their "notices to vacate." Readers will enjoy an unprecedented tour of the previously unseen private rooms as used and decorated by each family. Revealed too are the personal proclivities of the presidents and how their families both sustained them through public crises and were used for political advantage. They'll get a firsthand look at the preparations for White House weddings and other occasions; meet the parents and children of the presidents -- as well as eccentric relatives; and discover the patterns of working, resting, and relaxing that shaped the nuts and bolts of family life.
A magnificent combination of visual delights and insider information, America's First Families is an irresistible invitation to spend some time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Customer Reviews:
America's First Families.......2007-01-19
This is a fascinating book. It is a wonderful compendium of trivia, probably not available in any other volume. It contains a wonderful assortment of pictures of First Families, some of which have never before been published. The book is well organized into chapters detailing various aspects of the Presidential families' lives and activities. for me, one of its prime attractions is that it does not include the politics or issues of the President's era.
At times, it is a little confusing, because the author skips from one family to another rather abruptly, so it requires a little getting used to in order to follow the narrative.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the social and "human" aspects of the White House families.
Enjoyable light historical reading.......2001-04-10
This book gives an insight into the private lives of the first families. We learn about their extended families, hobbies, illnesses, preparations for leaving the White House when their terms are completed, etc. The pictures are what really makes this book great. We see Lyndon Johnson in bed with his wife watching tv and we see the older George Bush in bed too (can you imagine Nixon or Clinton letting down his guard like this?). We see Gerald Ford in his bathrobe. If you always wanted to see such a sight, there is a photo of Eleanor Roosevelt in a bathing suit and a rare photo of Franklin in shorts with his polio ravaged legs exposed to the camera. We see painful personal moments such as the famous photo of Nixon hugging his daughter Julie when he made the decision to resign. In short this is, at times, a very rare personal and intimate glimpse into the lives of the first families. I enjoyed it and recommend it highly.
Oh, What a Lovely Piece of Work This Is!.......2001-01-12
I have been fortunate enough to read Mr. Anthony's brilliant "First Ladies" mini-opuses, and highly looked forward to this epic on the lives of our First Families. I sat for three hours stright with an almost constant smile on my face as I ran through the pages. What an amazing acheivement Mr. Anthony has pulled together! I can only imagine the painstaking research needed to find out the tidbits sprinkled throughout. There is so much information in this novel that it almost boggles the mind at times and is a bit overwhelming. I wondered if everything was sinking in, when I saw Mr. Anthony speak at the Richard Nixon library on CSPAN one night recounting the tales found here. Every story he told was instantly recalled and sentences finished before explaining. The sheer knowledge that one can gain from reading this novel is tremendous. (Where else can you find a list of President's favorite movies? By Reagan selecting Rambo, it does nothing but prove what a complete and utter moron we had occupying the White House under his reign).....Point proven further....When listing President's favorite reading options, Mr Anthony lays out beautiful examples of this. President Clinton enjoys biographies of his predecessors, Eisenhower military biographies and TR, anything he could get his hands on. Reagan? Newspaper comics.....I shall leave my review at that.
Entertaining look at White House hsitory.......2000-11-13
I purchased this book yesterday and I can't put it down. It is filled with great pictures and stories of the forty-one famlies who lived in the White House. This is a great source of presidential trivia and provides a human element to the most famous family in America. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in American history and the lives of the presidents.
Book Description
A subject of endless public attention and fascination, the Kennedy family remains the most blessed-and perhaps the most cursed-of any American family. Edward Klein, already renowned for his eye-opening and revelatory Kennedy por-traits All Too Human and Just Jackie, now delves deep into the misfortunes of the Kennedys, developing the premise that a curse has plagued them for centuries. Starting with Patrick in Ireland in 1834, Klein traces the family's mis-fortunes to the modern era, discussing both little-known and notorious subjects such as: -Joseph Kennedy's political and social machinations -John Jr.'s relationship with his fragile, troubled wife Carolyn Bessette -Jackie's anxieties about her children's problems and her almost pathological fear for their safety -The most recent theories in genetic analysis, and how the 'thrill-seeking' gene may afflict the family. In a penetrating, compulsively readable way, Klein once again offers up a fascinating analysis of this American dynasty.
Customer Reviews:
Very Compeling.......2006-07-30
This story is very interesting. It details the lives of some of the famous Kennedys/Fitzgeralds and tells how "the Kennedy Curse" affected them in their life. The author even has a timeline of major things that have happened to the extended familie for 150 years.
The first to be aflicted with the Kennedy Curse was Patrick Kennedy in the 1850's. He was an Irishman who immigrated to the United States, married and had children, but 9 years after arriving died leaving a widow with an infant son.
The next to be cronicaled is Rose Kennedy's father John "HoneyFitz" Fitzgerald. He was a polition in Boston and Massachutes before being forced to give it up when the competion found out about an affair he had with a woman the same age as his daughter.
The next person cronicaled is Joe Kennedy himself. He wanted to be President of the United States of America and shortly after leaving his post as Ambassador to the Court of Saint James during World War Two he gave an interview that ended his career and his dreams.
The next two people cronicaled are Joe Kennedy's children Kathleen and John. Kathleen fell in love with two Protestants during her life. The first she married but he died during the war. The second was married, but wanted a divorce. They were on there way to meet Joe in Paris when the plain that they were on crashed killing all on board. John of course was President of the United States and partily due to his lacks rules about his safty he was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
The next people are JFK Jr who like his father was taken too soon and William Kennedy Smith who was on trial for rape.
Because Klein misses alcoholism as the root of the "curse", the diagnosis is flawed.......2006-06-23
Edward Klein covered John F. Kennedy's 1960 Presidential campaign and later served as foreign editor of Newsweek and editor-in-chief of The New York Times Magazine. He has authored countless articles and several books, including two others on Kennedy family members. He's a good writer and meticulous researcher. However, despite his resume and, sadly, in concert with virtually every other biographer and historian, he reverses cause and effect.
As discussed in by books, "How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics: Using Behavioral Clues to Identify Addiction in its Early Stages," and "Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society's Most Destructive Disease," alcoholism mimics virtually all the Personality Disorders, particularly Narcissism. A diagnosis of this Disorder requires any five attributes out of a menu of nine, including "a grandiose sense of self-importance," "a belief he is `special,'" "a sense of entitlement" and an "arrogant and haughty attitude." These, as well as the other five attributes, are all classic symptoms of alcoholism or severe codependency, especially in children of alcoholics.
According to studies cited in my first book, "Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse," 70-80% of recovering addicts with two or three months of sobriety who were diagnosed with a Personality Disorder when drinking are found to have been misdiagnosed. While most Disorders clear up or become far less of a concern after two to three years of sobriety, experience shows that what most consider normal behaviors usually don't return for five to ten years.
Klein includes vignettes on a potpourri of Kennedy clan members, some alcoholics and several children of alcoholics. The manifestation of narcissism in apparent non-alcoholic members of the family, including Joe Kennedy's favorite daughter Kathleen, suggests the power of familial alcoholism. Extraordinary tolerance to alcohol makes the disease all but invisible in many, including Joseph P. Kennedy, even while numerous behavioral indications of the disease are evident (I counted two dozen such clues in the 45-page chapter on Joe, from attempts at blackmail to hyperbole and a public display in which he flouted long tradition). The fact that narcissism can be so obvious in non-alcoholics, as well as in those who defy the diagnosis, may account for the fact that alcoholism is overlooked as the most common root of the Disorder. However, the likely underlying cause becomes more apparent when we realize that a confluence of narcissists is found in families in which alcoholism is epidemic.
The Kennedy Curse is billed as a "detective story". Unfortunately, Edward Klein helps to perpetuate the myth that most character flaws are inherent, when they are instead usually rooted in alcoholism. While including some interesting and telling depictions in the lives of alcoholics and their codependents in what may be America's most famous family, Klein's book fails in its most fundamental goal.
Not much new except for rumors, gossip and innuendo..........2006-03-25
In Edward Klein's The Kennedy Curse: Why America's First Family Has Been Haunted by Tragedy for 150 Years, there isn't much new here except for pure gossip, rumor and innuendo.
Klein starts off to make this a pseudo-scientific study of facts contributing to the Kennedy curse including lots of psycho-babble, genetic factors, etc. He claims his book is a detective story. He tries to show how "the Irish immigrant experience of poverty and humiliation developed into an obsessive lust for power and dominance over others at the expense of all ethical behavior." Throw in domineering fathers, cold mothers, alcohol, drugs, sex, thrill-seeking behavior, ADHD, restlessness, boredom and impatience, and you get a prescription for tragedy. Many people believe a black cloud has followed the Kennedy family for many generations. It actually appears that the Kennedy's followed the black cloud on their own.
In trying to prove his curse theory, Klein spotlights seven family members including immigrant Patrick Kennedy, Joe Kennedy, Sr., Kathleen (Kick) Kennedy, JFK, William Kennedy Smith, JFK, Jr., and JFK's maternal grandfather, John Honey Fitz Fitzgerald. He barely mentions other Kennedy's that have suffered tragedies including Bobby Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, and Joe Kennedy, Jr. It was interesting to read about the immigrant experience of the Irish, as well as some of the lesser known family members including Kathleen Kennedy and Honey Fitz. But overall, there isn't much new here, and what is new seems mostly rumor and innuendo. For instance, Klein accuses JFK of having "chronic venereal disease" and claims it is possible that this caused the death of his pre-mature son, Patrick. This is a pretty serious allegation to make without proof. He also tells how Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's friends destroyed her drug stash after that fateful plane crash. I don't believe the Kennedy's are saints and I know they've done some atrocious things, but give us hard facts.
Overall, my recommendation is to skip The Kennedy Curse. If you want to read more about this fated family, there are much better and more comprehensive books to be had. It is hard to believe this book was written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
Captivating............2006-03-22
This book is not boring... easy to read...good insight to the Kennedys... would recommend for anyone who likes real life..
2.5 stars; buyer beware.......2005-12-30
While there is some merit to Edward Klein's books, they read like tabloid journalism. More importantly, there are passages which raise eyebrows, such as his alleged interview with Dave Powers. Read with a skeptical eye.
Vince Palamara-JFK/ Secret Service expert (History Channel, author of two books, in over 30 other author's books, etc.)
Pittsburgh, PA
BEST JFK ASSASSINATION BOOK: ULTIMATE SACRIFICE
BEST JFK SECRET SERVICE BOOK: SURVIVOR'S GUILT BY YOURS TRULY :)
Average customer rating:
- My Comments on "Standing at the Scratch Line"
- When are you writing another book?
- This one goes on the "Keeper" shelf
- Where is my King?
- Excellent-A Must Read
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Standing at the Scratch Line: A Novel
Guy Johnson
Manufacturer: Random House
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ASIN: 0375501584
Release Date: 1998-12-01 |
Amazon.com
King Tremain, the badass central character of Guy Johnson's Standing at the Scratch Line, was born LeRoi and grew up in the swampy Louisiana bayou during the first part of the 20th century. It is only when he serves overseas during World War I, however, that LeRoi comes to appreciate the majesty of his name. As he should: fighting in the front lines with the "colored" 369th, LeRoi earns the title King. King takes his soldier's stance home with him and throughout his life kills whoever gets in his way, be they Italian mobsters or policemen. Not one for morals or rational contemplation, he lives by the code he relays to his army buddies during the war: "I just got two rules: be courageous and don't take no shit!"
In the course of tracking King's life, Standing at the Scratch Line crosses cities and decades--from New York to New Orleans to Oakland, from the teens to the '40s. King becomes a wealthy man, largely thanks to the opportunities presented by Prohibition. Handsome and strapping, he easily wins the heart of a Louisiana farm girl, Serena, who becomes his wife. Unfortunately, their love doesn't last long--even though the marriage does--because of tragedies involving their sons, for which he blames his wife. In King, Guy Johnson offers a character who responds aggressively to his time and place in history. He is a man of menacing proportions, with a justice system all his own. --Katherine Alberg
Book Description
"The thick, low-lying fog covered the contours and waterways of the swamp. Only mature trees and shrubs were visible above the milky gray mist. Darkness was beginning to fade in the early-morning light, creating the surreal landscape of a nightmare."
So begins
Standing at the Scratch Line, a breathtaking journey through thirty years of the African-American experience in America in a brilliant debut novel by Guy Johnson.
The story opens in 1916 in the steamy bayous of Louisiana. Young LeRoi "King" Tremain and his uncle Jake attempt a raid on a rival family's compound. In doing so, Jake dies, but not before LeRoi kills two corrupt white deputies. Forced by his family to leave everything he knows until the heat dies down, LeRoi embarks on a vivid adventure that first takes him to France during World War I, where he finds it is just as easy to kill vicious, bigoted U.S. soldiers as it is to kill Germans. Dubbed "le Roi du Mort"-the king of death-by the French because of his coldhearted, machinistic killing on the battlefield, King returns to America an ambitious man. Driven to create a family dynasty much like the one he was forced to leave, he battles the Mob in Jazz Age Harlem, fights the Ku Klux Klan in Louisiana, and outwits crooked politicians trying to control a black township in Oklahoma. Those who cross him are left bloodied, bruised, or dead.
Along the way, he marries Serena Baddeaux, a woman strong enough to stand by King's side, and who matches his determination, courage, and grit. Though more concerned with skin color and social standing than with the truth, she nonetheless knows no boundaries when it comes to protecting her family.
Standing at the Scratch Line is a sweeping novel that heralds the arrival of Guy Johnson, a bold new voice in fiction. In King Tremain, Johnson has created one of the most stalwart characters to walk the pages of fiction, as well as a brutally honest depiction of the African-American experience during the first half of this century.
Download Description
This much-praised debut novel by the son of Maya Angelou features a larger-than-life antihero, King Tremain, who does whatever it takes to protect his family and build a dynasty.
Customer Reviews:
My Comments on "Standing at the Scratch Line".......2007-01-04
I found the book a little difficult to get into at first and considered it more of a "MAN'S" book. The subjects of war,warfare,skirmishes, battles etc.ect. just is not my cup of tea. I found myself putting the book down several times. However something told me to hang in there.
Also, the portion of the book about King's battle with the mob was a little violent for me. However from the moment King set foot in New Orleans I was hooked. Especially from the time he met Serena.
The book is very well written. The imagery is excellent. The character descriptions and development of characters are right on target. The plot
is very involved but not hard to follow. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I am currently reading the sequel and also finding it a little hard to
follow because of the numerous characters and the jumping back and forth
from the present to the past. But I am sure it's a good read also. I read this book for my book club and can't wait to discuss it.
When are you writing another book?.......2006-05-29
This was one of the best books I've ever read. The sequel was just as good if not better. Please write more!
This one goes on the "Keeper" shelf.......2006-05-29
Guy Johnson, son of Dr. Maya Angelou, is an incredible storyteller. He weaves a tale of the beginnings of King Tremain, an African-American man who came from violent beginnings to forge an empire built on respect, loyalty, and the way of the gun. All he wants is respect, and to someday be the patriarch of a strong, loving family. His path leads him to an army with no love for the black soldier, on to Mob-ruled Harlem, back to his New Orleans roots, fighting the Klan and ignorance in Oklahoma, and finally to San Francisco. It is a journey that, as a reader, I will not soon forget.
This is an exceptional novel, one that builds the blocks of history for the next book, Echoes of a Distant Summer. I'm glad I read Scratch Line first, because it showed another side of King Tremain, tracing the roads he travelled that show how he became the man he is in Distant Summer.
I highly recommend both of these novels.
Where is my King?.......2006-03-24
I had already read this novel before I purchased my very own copy to have in my collection. The storyline is one that will have you not wanting to put the book down. All I kept asking myself was "where is my King"? Guy Johnson keeps you turning the pages from the suspense of finding out what's going to happen next. A very good read.
Excellent-A Must Read.......2006-02-21
Guy Johnson shows that "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree". Being Maya Angelou's son has to be a burden, but Mr. Johnson shows in both of his King Tremain books that he has made a name for himself. A must read for anyone who values excellent reading material.
Book Description
On November 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court granted equal marriage benefits to same-sex couples. The decision provoked a searing public debate over the meaning of marriage and family, civil rights, and the role of religion in law and society. But the experiment went forward nontheless: thousands of Massachusetts gays and lesbians marries and, remarkably, the sky did not fall. Through engaging storytelling and powerful photographs, Courting Equality takes readers through the volatile public debate following the decision and introduces some of the many lesbian and gay families who have taken advantage of equal marriage laws. In Massachusetts, equal marriage has not destroyed the family but rather has reinforced the importance of love, commitment, fairness, and equality to the functioning of healthy democratic communities.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book about GLBT rights in MA!.......2007-07-23
This book chronicles the struggle for marriage equality brilliantly! The authors tell the back story of how activists built on other court cases branching back to the seventies to make it possible for marriage equality to happen in Massachusetts. It is filled with touching stories of real families and their reactions to the news that their rights would finally be protected! They put a human face to this issue and prove without a doubt that all families should have the same legal protections. This book is a must-read for GLBT right supporters and historians alike.
"Going to the Chapel".......2007-06-19
Gozemba, Patricia A. and Karen Kahn. "Courting Equality: A Documentary History of America's First Legal Same-Sex Marriages", Beacon Press, 2007.
"Going to the Chapel"
Amos Lassen and Literary Pride
May 17, 2004 is an important date for us. On that day at midnight close to 10.000 people came together in Cambridge, Massachusetts on the lawn of the City Hall. They were waiting for history to be made. When the building opened, the first legal same-sex marriage licenses in the United States were issued and Susan Shepherd and Marcia Hams, who had been together for 27 years, were not officially granted the right to marry. From that day forward, thousands of gay and lesbian couples from across the state followed the lead. Meanwhile, other couples in other places are fighting for the same right.
"Courting Equality" follows the experience with wonderful text by Patricia A. Gozemba and Karen Kahn and extraordinary photographs (more than 100 in all). We are given a front row center seat to see the battle for same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. There entire story is here--the early efforts of activists and the celebrations that followed the decision and the protests following the decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Court in the case of "Goodridge vs. The Department of Public Health. What a joyous book this is.
The photographs illustrate the text beautifully and further demonstrate the dignity of the issue. The faces in the photographs are elated and proud and exemplify the importance of everything that went on in front of and behind the scenes. Some of the photographs are so touching that it is difficult to look at then with dry eyes. Others make you smile and grin with pride. They represent what the struggle for equality is all about and what it looks like. The text writers have documented an important part of American history and show the efforts to end discrimination and we read and see how our own legislators and fellow citizens got to know us and our families and helped us gain the justice we so deserve.
Here is testimony to the power of commitment. The stories of the people involved are beautifully related and we see humanity at its finest hour. What makes this book important is that it is not only a chronicle the events that led up to Massachusetts allowing same-sex marriage but it shows how political support grew as we witnessed the reality of the demolition of prejudices against us. Most of all, I feel, it reinforces our worth and that we do, indeed, gain equal treatment under the laws of our country. The look at the way social change occurs is beautifully expressed in this beautiful coffee-table sized book. It is an album of our lives and a picture of freedom.
ELEGANT EQUALITY .......2007-05-27
Lavish in prose and photography, COURTING EQUALITY presents the struggle to equal rights in marriage by Massachusetts' gay and lesbian community. Beyond the obvious, and above the gloss of Marilyn Humphries' stunning photo journal, Patricia A. Gozemba and Karen Kahn offer the reader a journey through worldwide discrimination which bends a bit as same sex couples arrive on the page grasping that one little piece of paper that unbars so many doors. These couples are sometimes both in wedding gowns or both in tuxedoes or anything else that expresses the joy of the moment, and Humphries, Gozemba, and Kahn order the rise of this movement in a powerful narrative that's hard to put down. I am happy to see Kahn and Humphries working again together for I so fondly remember their collaborations at Sojourner The Women's Forum during that publication's heyday late last century. I assume Gozemba has rallied this writer and this artist and added her own pizzazz to the endeavor. Huzzah!!! Good reading for anyone.
History and Conscience and Art Go Together.......2007-05-24
I'm a long-time admirer of the photography of Marilyn Humphries, whose political conscience and capacity to connect deeply and unobtrusively with her subjects place her in a very special class of her art. I'm also a heterosexual male who had quietly been part of the majority of Americans who favor, in principle, the right of every adult couple to marry. But this magnificent book has turned me into an activist who will stand up at every proper opportunity and fight for that right alongside the many courageous individuals who have worked for it by themselves until now. The concrete story of that fight (superbly written by Ms. Gozemba and Ms. Kahn) sweeps away a merely abstract understanding of what has been happening. A detailed history of the legal fight in Massachusetts is riveting. But if that isn't enough for some who still question the right of an adult to marry, then they will have to search their feelings as they look at Marilyn Humphries' photographs of the seven couples who won Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, photographs that often include their children, neighbors and pets. I was profoundly moved and inspired by these individuals (whom I will certainly never meet in person). I was reminded that everything we call a "human right" is the result of great struggle, and I was also encouraged that those who persevere do so for all of us. And yes--this book is magnificently produced! It should be owned and circulated by every American who believes our country needs to continue its self-examination and willingness to advance.
A perfect pairing of photos and prose tell the whole story of marriage equality in Massachusetts.......2007-05-23
While reading Courting Equality it became clear to me that the photos and the prose each could stand alone as a book-length work on the struggle for the civil right to same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. Together they present a powerful documentation of the latest civil rights struggle in the commonwealth and a blueprint for civil rights activists engaged in any battle for their rights.
Marilyn Humphries' photos document 25 years of the struggle and represent both the personal and political helping the reader to understand how it touched the lives of individuals and families in Massachusetts. Gozemba and Kahn, clearly inspired by the photos, write the story of the struggle as both personal and political history. As I read about the day the decision was handed down I felt like I was reading over Mary Bonauto's shoulder as she first read the decision on the steps of the court, and I felt like I was with each couple as they heard the news and headed to Boston for the press conference held by GLAD later that day to announce the decision.
The book goes on to document the details of the history of the struggle - the political strategy, legal wrangling, and activism that lead to the decision and to its implementation - with clarity and brilliance that neither minimizes the complexity of the process nor complicates it. Finally the authors document the impact of the decision on the personal lives of some of the first couples married in Massachusetts and their families. Their joy, love, and commitment to each other and to the struggle are apparent in both the photos and in the prose.
This is a page-turner, very hard to put down once you start looking at the photos and reading even a little of the text. It also is beautifully designed and laid out. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the struggle for equality and the workings of democracy.
Amazon.com
Unwise Passions traces the trajectory of aristocrat Nancy Randolph's tempestuous life, beginning with her privileged birth in 1774, continuing through a series of scandals that eventually sent her North, and concluding with her death in 1837. But this engaging, accessible biography also serves as group portrait of the Virginia aristocracy--and of its declining fortunes, as the colonial oligarchy was supplanted by an unrulier democracy. When she was only 18, Nancy was accused of having borne a child to her own sister's husband, Richard Randolph, who then allegedly murdered the newborn. Defended by Revolutionary legend Patrick Henry, Richard and Nancy were acquitted, and she returned to live with him and her sister. But the rumors persisted, and Richard's sudden death in 1796 only made them uglier. Many of the ugliest rumors were voiced by Richard's younger brother, Jack; Nancy's former suitor. Jack improved the debt-riddled family estates while he pursued a political career as a fiery states-rights congressman (a career that gets nearly as much of the author's attention as Nancy's life). Virginia-based journalist Alan Pell Crawford doesn't conclude definitively whether or not Jack actually believed Nancy had murdered his brother and had sexual relations with a slave, but the congressman certainly hated her enough to throw her off the family farm and repeat those stories later to her husband. At age 34, reduced to poverty and living in New York, the long-suffering Nancy married Gouverneur Morris, another wealthy veteran of the Revolutionary generation. Their happy union produced one child and endured until his death. Crawford, also the author of Thunder on the Right, pens a lively narrative that vividly evokes his characters: kindhearted, rather frivolous Nancy; urbane, unshockable Morris; irascible, overwrought Jack; and a host of cousins who are scattered throughout America's inbred, gossipy high society. Good fun and good history, to boot. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
In the spring of 1793, eighteen-year-old Nancy Randolph, the fetching daughter of one of the greatest of the great Virginia tobacco planters, was accused, along with her brother-in-law, of killing her newborn infant. Once one of the loveliest and most sought-after young women in Virginia society, she was immediately denounced as a ruined Jezebel, and the great orator Patrick Henry and future Supreme Court justice John Marshall were retained to defend her in her sensational trial.
In the tradition of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Alan Pell Crawford brings to life this gripping account of murder, infanticide, and prostitution charges, and of unimaginable treachery, moral decline, and great heroism played out in the intimate lives of this nation's Founding Fathers. It is the true story of the privileged and pampered children of the new country's aristocratic families as they struggle to find their place in an increasingly democratic America, where their values and position in society are under siege. Above all, it is the story of the indomitable Nancy Randolph, who is hounded out of Virginia by a scandal that will haunt her and everyone she loves for the rest of their lives.
In the early 1790s, after Nancy goes to live with her sister Judith and handsome brother-in-law Richard at their remote plantation, called Bizarre, rumors fly throughout Virginia that Nancy has given birth and Richard, knowing the child to be his, has killed it. After an inquest, Nancy is ordered off the plantation by her cousin John Randolph and, reduced to poverty, she must find her way in a new and forbidding world.
Eventually she flees to New York where she forms an unlikely alliance with the immensely rich Gouverneur Morris, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Meanwhile John Randolph, a protégé of Thomas Jefferson who becomes a notorious wit and controversial member of Congress, a duelist and a drug addict, spends most of his life campaigning against her. After Morris's death, Nancy must fight for her honor once again -- Morris's relatives are eager to have a piece of his estate and to see her disinherited.
American history at its richest, with a cast of characters including not only the haughty Randolphs, but Jefferson, Henry, Morris, and Marshall, Unwise Passions is as riveting and revealing as any current scandal -- in or out of Washington.
Customer Reviews:
Pretty good.......2006-08-27
I read a lot of biography and historical fiction and I was intrigued by the reviews of this book so I bought it. The print is large, there are many reproductions of paintings, and it's a rather quick read, but it's "pretty good" as far as historical biography goes. It was interesting to read a thumbnail sketch of the rise and fall of the Virginia tobacco farmers, and it was also a fun task to try and keep track of all of the Randalph's as they inter-married! The main problem that keeps the book from being truly wonderful is that the scandal and the main characters aren't very compelling to begin with and the author doesn't do much to infuse the story with any urgency. There a few points where I found myself wondering what would happen next, but for the most part I was simply mildly entertained and when I was finished I felt I'd read a decent book that further illuminated a period in American history for a me and also educated me about Nancy Randolph and her kinsmen.
Less engaging than a history textbook...from high school........2006-01-15
I enjoy historical fiction and historical fact, but I found this book to be quite dull. The writing was not engaging, as the style seemed antiquated to me. I think I was expecting more of a modern interpretation of the story. Instead, this book reads like a Victorian gossip column. In short, neither the story nor the "scandal" was intriguing to me, not even as simple history. Apparently enjoyable by some, but it just wasn't what I expected.
Great Biography...Not So Much Scandal.......2006-01-02
The title is a little misleading, but this is still a great biography of Anne Cary Morris. The "scandal" is dealt with in several chapters and the remaining story tells of the disfunctional family of which she was a part of. It left me looking for more information about the remaining "cast of characters."
Historical Reality Check of early Americans.......2005-11-16
I got the book at my local library and just completed it. Mr. Crawford is good writer. I like that the chapters are short and the story line keeps moving.
I see that he has a new book coming out on Jefferson's last years. The research from this book probably helped on the new one since the Randolph and Jefferson familes were related (cousins married cousins) and Jefferson's son-in-laws were also politicians. I really appreciated the family tree even though the larger family lines aren't complete.
The main story line was not really resolved for me unless we are to believe Nancy's response to Jack in their later years. Did Nancy deliberately abort with her cousin's "medicine" or did she really miscarry? Was Nancy really pregnant by Theodorick who died before she delivered and not his brother Richard? How could Nancy go about in society as she "increased" without any censorship and why didn't any of her relatives, especially her sister who lived in the same house, know about the pregnancy?
Some characters appear for only a few paragraphs yet interest me to find out more about them in other biographies or histories. I was surprised to see that President Adams was not liked and Jefferson was extremely political. Crawford shows the political parties switched platforms over time so current parties cannot claim ownership of ideas. I will be interested in reading more books about the early founders, politicians and other Americans. This taste of early years in congress was very interesting.
Great book about my ancestors!!.......2005-06-25
This is a totally awesome book. With a twisted tale and a ton of history you can't beat it. Plus reading about Nancy who is a distant cousin of mine, is very exsiting. I think anyone of any age will love this book. If you like colonial history and excitment you will really enjoy this one! :o)
Book Description
From Abigail "Nabby" Adams to Chelsea Clinton, George Washington Adams to John F. Kennedy, Jr., the children of America's presidents have both suffered and triumphed under the watchful eyes of their powerful fathers and the glare of the ever-changing public. Whether they perished under the pressure like Andrew Johnson, upheld controversial views like Amy Carter, or carried their father's torch right back to the White House like George W. Bush, all presidential children grew up having to share their fathers with the whole of their fellow countrymen -- and, in too many instances, spent the rest of their lives in a desperate search for their own identities.
In this illuminating bestseller, Washington insider Doug Wead offers an authoritative analysis of our nation's presidential offspring. Featuring lively anecdotes, photographs, short biographies, and never-before-published personal accounts, All the Presidents' Children is an important socio-cultural work, a groundbreaking study of American family dynamics, and an entertaining foray into the homes, hearts, and history of our forefathers.
Customer Reviews:
All the President's Children.......2007-01-19
This is a book that fills a void in the historical record of Presidential Families. There is piecemeal information in other volumes, but this book brings all the history into one very readable account. Mr. Wead is known to be close to the Bush Family, and thus he appears to have a personal reason to research this aspect of the Presidency.
I teach classes on"First Ladies", and my audience had urged me to tell them more about their children, but I had been largely unsuccessful at finding interesting, reliable information which covered the President's children, their joys, health, and trials and tribulations, including their similarities in how they coped with their celebrity with all its benefits and disadvantages.
This is a book that anyone who is interested in people and history should enjoy and find enlightening. This is facts, not gossip.
Fascinating book for high achieving parents.......2007-01-18
This is a most fascinating book combining history, parenting and child psychology. It is written extrememly well and will engage you from the very first page. Each man who became president was a unique, high achieving, individual. How each president viewed his children, who in many cases, were simply bright, average kids, directly effected their children's future and happiness in life. The stories of some kids will break your heart, others will make you glad for their success. After reading this book, high achieving parents will be much less likely to try to mold little clones of themselves (which as you will read, can meet with distasterous, unhappy results), but encourage their children's interests, perhaps different from your own, and help them along their path in life. I have given and recommended this book to my parents and friends and everybody has said it was one of the best books they have ever read. I also recommend the book Doug Wead wrote about presidential parents.
Thought Provoking, Inspirational.......2007-01-11
Doug is not only a great author, but and excellent speaker. So fortunate to have met him.
Insightful look at the lives of Presidental Children.......2007-01-11
This book is chock full of history. It tells the stories of the lives of the Presidents children.
The book tells about such things as:
The life of George Washington's step-son John Park "Jacky" Custis who embarrassed the first President
Abigail Adams-the daughter of John who wanted to please her father
Letitia "Letty" Tyler Semple: the daughter of John Tyler who did not like her step-mother and did battle with her over the affections of her father.
Quentin Roosevelt: the son of Teddy who was shot down during World War One.
James "Jimmy" Roosevelt- son of FDR who used his connections with the White House to help his business
Martha "Patsy" Washington Jefferson Randolph: one of the only surviving children of Thomas and Martha Jefferson who helped her father entertain after the death of her mother.
Robert Todd Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln's son who was with three presidents when they died
Caroline Kennedy Scholssberg-daughter of John and Jackie Kennedy a writer and mother of three.
Maureen Reagan: daughter of Ronald Reagan and his first wife Jane Wyman who grew up to be an actress and was also in politics. She died of cancer shortly before her father past away.
Michael Reagan-adopted son of Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman a radio host
Patricia Ann "Patti Davis" Reagan-daughter of Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis a writer who uses her mothers maiden name to write.
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush-son of George H.W. Bush and Governor of Florida
George W. Bush-son of George H.W. Bush and "President" of the U.S.
And many more interesting stories that will keep you fascinated for hours.
Interesting details.......2006-03-06
Interesting details for purposes of camparison for those who have done other reading about the presidents and their families and a sort of quick informational format for those who have not. There is not a whole lot of deep-thinking required, and the book does provide entertainment and information.
Book Description
In a disturbing behind-the-scenes history of the early achievements of Margaret Sanger's American birth control movement, Carole R. McCann scrutinizes the movement's compromises as well as its successes.
Book Description
America Throne is living the good life in L.A. Her career is sprouting, and she is in love -- with Jasper Husch, a sexy-sultry artist from San Fran. But just as soon as they've realized domestic bliss, Jasper has a change of heart, and America falters on the slippery slope of hope: hoping that he will come back, hoping that new sex will erase all evidence of him, and hoping that in nurturing a truce with her dead father she will make peace with all men.
America's trip from self-destruction to wholeness is a romp on the wilder shores of the West Coast. From a dodgy therapist to a silent retreat, America Throne's "aha" moment culminates with, "While we are all busy swimming upstream, the universe is conspiring to take us to something better."
In America the Beautiful, Moon Zappa has taken the broken-heart story and given it a twist all her own through the emotional honesty and edginess of America Throne. Hailed as "brilliant" (Sunday Telegraph Magazine), America the Beautiful is the debut of an unforgettable and unfaltering new voice.
Download Description
From an author who has been famous since birth comes an affecting and funny novel about love, heartbreak, and the complexities of growing up as hippie royalty.
Customer Reviews:
Yes, She wrote a novel.......2007-01-20
I thought "What the heck" when purchasing this book. Honestly, it's entertaining and funny. Any woman in her 20s to 30s can relate to the stuff American Thorne is living through: not enough $ to pay the rent, selfish boyfriends, bad sex, good sex, break-ups, etc.
The book is peppered with pop culture and terrific song lyrics and seasoned with a sense of sarcastic humor - just the way I like.
This is not deep, methodical reading, but a good summer read, even a good girlfriends' book club book.
Enjoy the laughs. I sure did.
America the Beautiful is magnificent.......2004-07-18
From the minute I picked up this unique book I could not stop reading it. I began reading it online through Amazon and was almost to the second chapter when the "look inside this book" option was done. I rushed to the store and bought the book to continue reading that evening. I finished this short book in about a week, only stopping to do various important tasks. It was simply delightful and a great tool of validation for the silly things people do when they've been broken up with. For a relatively light hearted read I suggest picking this one up.
Truly honest.......2004-01-09
Moon's ability as an author is displayed in this humorous, honest and raw story of a woman so real you can picture a little bit of her in every one of your female friends. It isn't a classic but it isn't a trashy novel either. It is real enough to have flaws but perfect enough to be real.
I found myself shaking my head at some of the actions of America but had a smile on my face the whole time. I whipped through this book and regretted it once I was finished because I loved the characters and the dialogue.
I long for another novel by Moon.
Moon Unit Zappa: She shoulda been in middle management.......2002-08-12
Because Moon Unit Zappa is the daughter of a famous creative individual, she seems to feel she's entitled to live the life of a creative person as well. Too bad she's not really good at anything. Her music "career" began and ended with one novelty hit 20 years ago, her acting "career" basically amounted to a one-episode stint on "Party of Five," and now we have this, an obviously highly autobiographical novel with "America Throne" playing the part of Moon Unit herself. On the back cover, Alanis Morissette has contributed a quote praising the "egolessness" of this book. I guess what she means is that, through America, Moon Unit allows us access to all her most mundane or downright stupid thoughts and deeds, no matter how humiliating they may be. But in fact, Moon Unit's believing that the general public would actually be INTERESTED in her most mundane and stupid thoughts and deeds is really the height of egotism (or as Alanis would probably put it, "egofulness"). In the book, Moon Unit also complains quite a bit about how having a famous father ruined her life. Yet she seems perfectly happy to use his fame when it suits her--after all, this book probably wouldn't have gotten read or even published if the author's last name weren't "Zappa." It's unfortunate that this book, with its patriotic-sounding title, was published in September 2001, when most of us began to renew our own patriotism. It's too meaningful a title for such a shallow, shallow book. Moon Unit, let me assure you, it's not too late to go back to school and become an accountant or something. ... .
Lighthearted and fun.......2002-06-21
This book was recommended to me as something that would be fun to read but not very deep - take it for what is worth, just that. While the plot revolves around America Throne, professional dilettante daughter of world famous painter Boris Throne, it is not too difficult for the reader to make the leap that this is a thinly veiled "auto-biography" of sorts as Moon Unit's father is the famous/infamous musician and personality Frank Zappa.
Beyond the obvious, America The Beautiful is fun - she could be one of your girlfriends trying to get over being unceremoniously dumped. While the reader alternately laughs and feels sorry for America as she goes back and forth between calling her neer-do-well ex Jasper and begging him to come back to her and telling him off. She reads self-help books and tries to move on.
America's family, her half-there mother and brother Spoonie, is just as entertaining as she is. The reader watches as America learns to move on and meet other men and who knows, maybe the man she is meant to be with after all.
With tons of fun pop-culture references, musical lyrics and witty commentary, America The Beautiful is a good, fun, quick read that would be perfect for a vacation.
Book Description
Susan K. Besse broadens our understanding of the political by establishing the relevance of gender for the construction of state hegemony in Brazil after World War I. Restructuring Patriarchy demonstrates that the consolidation and legitimization of power by President Getœlio Vargas's Estado Novo depended to a large extent on the reorganization of social relations in the private sphere.
New expectations and patterns of behavior for women emerged in postwar Brazil from heated debates between men and women, housewives and career women, feminists and antifeminists, reformist professionals and conservative clerics, and industrialists and bureaucrats. But as urban middle- and upper-class women challenged patriarchal authority at home and assumed new roles in public, prominent intellectuals, professionals, and politicians defined and imposed new 'hygienic,' rational, and scientific gender norms. Thus, modernization of the gender system within Brazil's rising urban-industrial society accommodated new necessities and opportunities for women without fundamentally changing the gender inequality that underlay the larger structure of social inequality in Brazil.
Customer Reviews:
Marriage in Brazil 1914-1940.......2000-05-04
In this review I would like to concentrate in the Besse's contribution to the study of marriage patrons in Brazil between post World War I period and 1940s offered by Susan Besse in her book Restructuring Patriarchy: The Modernization of Gender Inequality in Brazil, 1914-1940. Susan Besse shows how changing economic necessities and social norms brought new opportunities for urban middle and upper class women for higher education and paid employment in Brazil's post World War I era. This process was seen by the conservative elites as a menace to the "traditional Brazilian family", generating a public concern and a state ideology of wifehood and motherhood that succeeded in incorporating these changes to the maintenance of patriarchal dominance. Based on an ideological and discursive analysis that underlay the consolidation of the new authoritarian bourgeois order of the late 1930s, part of Besse's study is dedicated to the institution of marriage which seems to be in a "crisis" after the World War I period even when the rate of marriage was more widespread than before. This "crisis" is confronted by the elite in a discursive effort to solve "the low rate of nuptiality among the poor and the instability of poor families" (Besse, 39), through a national discussion about the topic in the media, scientific circles, the law, and government policies. The effort to promote different values among the lower classes is part of national concern to "civilize" the country and the creation of a national identity based on the ideal of racial and class democracy. Although marriage in Brazil was always a middle and upper class institution, the dysfunctionality of the free unions in buttressing order and stability in Brazil's new urban-industrial society (Besse, 39) made this behavior a social problem that "had" to be confronted by the state for the social wealth. Public debates about new responsibilities for wives and husbands, the abandonment of the custom of arranged marriages and overall preoccupation of the state to "civilize" the lower classes through the promotion of the institution of marriage are generated by the upper class anxiety for the challenge that the new social spaces that women had acquired represents for the society. The eruption of the middle and upper class women in white collar jobs, their access to higher levels of education, the new social spaces of department stores and cafes did not necessarily imply a rejection of the marriage and motherhood as the most "natural" role for them, even when Besse highlights some dissident life experiences. Other alternatives were neither attractive nor viable since for many "respectable" women concubinage and free love were regarded to be little different from prostitution (Besse, 48). Even if they achieved a professional career that allowed them economic independence, social pressure is done upon them in the form of constant surveillance, judgments on their personal lives or portraying them under the deprecatory name of "spinsters". On the other hand, for most of these women marriage secured them greater independence from their parents, adult statues and economic support" (Besse, 49). One important change that has to be taken into account in attention to the marriage performance is the relative few number of arranged marriages and a discourse that allowed the bride more freedom in the partner election. New spaces of interaction and courtship -as the Sociedade Harmonia- different from the old elite experience were created to secure advantageous marriages for both, daughters and sons -most of them young professionals- of the urban elites, and most important of all to preserve themselves from the arrival of nouveaux riches (Besse, 51). In that sense, these new spaces for personal choice of the marriage partner and new opportunities for courtship represent a perfect example of how new forms of relationship allow the continuity of the patriarchal rule. A rare case of arranged marriages but it does not necessarily mean complete freedom at the moment of choice. Their parents exercised their "right or duty" to guide the actions and decisions of their daughters through the subtle advice of frequent society to the more radical actions through coerced marriages. Probably one of the few criticisms that could be doing to this challenging study would be the inclusion of race as a tool of analysis of the genderization of the national discourse about national identity. Susan Besee base her analysis on the fair assumption that race boundaries was not violated for social mobility in this period among upper and middle class. Nonetheless, problematize race would give us not different conclusions but a deep insight about the expectations and possibilities of social mobility of women and men and also in the criticism that Besee does about the lack of compromise of the elite's women rights movement with other class women. In the specific case of her analysis of the marriage costumes, more attention to race could give us an interest inside about social mobility expectations and opportunities among upper classes. This analysis could be a complementary perspective to the importance of fashion, good manners and appropriate access to socialization places in the effort to gain social mobility through an appropriate marriage.
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