Amazon.com
In Dinner With a Perfect Stranger, David Gregory relates the story of two men sharing a meal. The point of interest is knowing that one man believes he is Jesus. What will the other man think by the time the evening is through? The conversation begins, as one could imagine, scratching the dry hard surface of skepticism and doubt, but gently and persistently goes deeper and deeper, spiraling in from that starting point until they are eventually talking about the true stuff of life; the career drifting off-track, the marriage experiencing its own kind of strain, the life being lived where the philosophical questions of youth have given way to simply coping with modern day-to-day living.
Gregory's book is a refreshing reminder of what evangelical Christianity is at its very best -- a faith enlivened by the personal relationship between the Creator and the created. In the end, evangelical Christians are focused on who Jesus Christ is, and more specifically, who He is to them. Doctrinal stances, theological conundrums, questions about literal or non-literal Biblical interpretation, these are all beside the point for the certain type of Christian whose central focus is the life and person of Jesus.
In the Narnia series, C.S. Lewis touched on some of the core questions of religion, from the Christian viewpoint (is there a hell? What is heaven like, really? How can other religions be wrong, and just one be right?) Taking his cue from Lewis, Gregory does the same, realizing that questions like these come alive when they're in the context of a story, and we can be the third party, watching with interest while they are put on the table and considered. In the end, Gregory's book succeeds because of his willingness to approach interesting, hard questions like these. He is always, undoubtedly, aiming for the heart, but he realizes that to win the heart one must never forget that the mind has to come along for the ride. --Ed Dobeas
Book Description
You are Invited to a Dinner with Jesus of Nazareth
The mysterious envelope arrives on Nick Cominsky’s desk amid a stack of credit card applications and business-related junk mail. Although his seventy-hour workweek has already eaten into his limited family time, Nick can’t pass up the opportunity to see what kind of plot his colleagues have hatched.
The normally confident, cynical Nick soon finds himself thrown off-balance, drawn into an intriguing conversation with a baffling man who appears to be more than comfortable discussing everything from world religions to the existence of heaven and hell. And this man who calls himself Jesus also seems to know a disturbing amount about Nick’s personal life.
…………..
"You’re bored, Nick. You were made for more than this. You’re worried about God stealing your fun, but you’ve got it backwards.… There’s no adventure like being joined to the Creator of the universe." He leaned back off the table. "And your first mission would be to let him guide you out of the mess you’re in at work."
………….
As the evening progresses, their conversation touches on life, God, meaning, pain, faith, and doubt–and it seems that having Dinner with a Perfect Stranger may change Nick’s life forever.
Customer Reviews:
Dinner with a Perfect Stranger.......2007-10-12
A beautifully written narrative that has solid apologetics yet captures the imagination and the heart.
A Perfect Book.......2007-09-17
I received this book as a gift and enjoyed it so much that I bought it to give to my daughter-in-law. What would it be like to have dinner with Jesus? This book answers that question in a way that includes humor and an inside look at witnessing as Jesus might do it if he invited an unbeliever struggling with life's problems to dinner. A thought-provoking book beautifully written.
A wonderful book.........2007-09-07
An excellent book. Perfect for the whole family to listen to. It is funny at times and then brings the right amount of drama at the right time. It makes you think things through and to a higher level.
kateinkalifornia.......2007-08-29
A quick read, I actually read it twice. I will keep it and lend it out, but I want it back. It's one for my permanent collection.
Reads like a religious brochure.......2007-08-24
My mom gave me this book to read as, one would guess, a last minute ditch effort to get me back into religion. Flipping through the book and seeing that it was only around 100 pages, and was printed in nice big "kid's book" letters, I figured, hey, what's a couple hours? I'm certainly willing to hear other viewpoints, and weigh them accordingly.
My first complaint is that if this is how religious people think that non-religious people think, feel, and act, then they are sorely mistaken. It's as if everyone that isn't Christian is empty, sad, and just sort of generally depressed. I guess using logic and consistency in your life makes you depressed? I guess not accepting whim-based rules about how to live life because "this book said so" and instead working rigorously to come up with a consistent set of morals and values makes you feel empty?
Anyways, the author attempts to make logical proofs, and in doing so, shows that he has no clue what a logical proof is. His undeniable, irrefutable proof that god exists is that an earlier part of the bible predicts a later part of the bible. Seriously. Nevermind that the later part of the bible was written a couple centuries after the fact, and by monks who were fully aware of the prophecies in Daniel, etc.
He also makes the claim that either Buddhism, or Hinduism, (i forget which, and i don't have the book in front of me) can't be true because it says that the universe is eternal. "How does that stack up against what your scientists have recently discovered?" alluding to the idea that we now *think* that the universe had a starting point. Regardless of the fact that we don't KNOW that it had a starting point, using science to dethrone one religion after another but not applying it to your own is a methodology only useful to those completely wrapped up in their own beliefs. One wishes the guy having dinner with Jesus would have responded with "well... that's funny... what does our science say about the idea of consciousness without matter? Or simultaneously being all-knowing and all-powerful? Or energy without any means to measure it? I guess that means your dad doesn't exist... which in turn means you don't exist, because you're one with your dad or whatever... so I guess I'm talking to myself... which would explain why the waiter has been looking at me strangely all night."
There was also a fantastic bit at the end about how if Jesus was in this guy's heart, he (Jesus) could love the guy's wife when he (the guy) couldn't anymore. Or something to that effect. I'd talk more about that, but I don't want to misquote it and have someone negate the whole review based on it, so I'll let it go.
I could go on for pages about the rediculous assumptions this book makes about how life should be lived, and the causes of evil in the world, etc. But I won't. Suffice it to say that this book is patently ridiculous, and actually rather offensive to truly free-thinking, open and honest people.
Then again, the author believes in a god that said "Thou Shall Not Kill" and then went on to murder millions and millions of people, as well as an entire planet's worth of animals that are completely amoral. So I guess anything goes, and he's as capable as anyone else to cherry-pick the parts that he does and doesn't support out of the bible.
Average customer rating:
- Fine work from a Nobel laureate
- Sorry Toni...just not a fan...
- Very stupid book
- Hallucinatory
- Morrisons first novel
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Sula (Oprah's Book Club)
Toni Morrison
Manufacturer: Plume
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Binding: Paperback
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Paradise (Oprah's Book Club)
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Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
ASIN: 0452283868 |
Amazon.com
In Sula, Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for literature, tells the story of two women--friends since childhood, separated in young adulthood, and reunited as grown women. Nel Wright grows up to become a wife and mother, happy to remain in her hometown of Medallion, Ohio. Sula Peace leaves Medallion to experience college, men, and life in the big city, an exceptional choice for a black woman to make in the late 1920s.
As girls, Nel and Sula are the best of friends, only children who find in each other a kindred spirit to share in each girl's loneliness and imagination. When they meet again as adults, it's clear that Nel has chosen a life of acceptance and accommodation, while Sula must fight to defend her seemingly unconventional choices and beliefs. But regardless of the physical and emotional distance that threatens this extraordinary friendship, the bond between the women remains unbreakable: "Her old friend had come home.... Sula, whose past she had lived through and with whom the present was a constant sharing of perceptions. Talking to Sula had always been a conversation with herself."
Lyrical and gripping, Sula is an honest look at the power of friendship amid a backdrop of family, love, race, and the human condition. --Gisele Toueg
Book Description
Toni Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970), was acclaimed as the work of an important talent, written--as John Leonard said in The New York Times--in a prose "so precise, so faithful to speech and so charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry."
Her new novel has the same power, the same beauty.
At its center--a friendship between two women, a friendship whose intensity first sustains, then injures. Sula and Nel--both black, both smart, both poor, raised in a small Ohio town--meet when they are twelve, wishbone thin and dreaming of princes.
Through their girlhood years they share everything--perceptions, judgments, yearnings, secrets, even crime--until Sula gets out, out of the Bottom, the hilltop neighborhood where beneath the sporting life of the men hanging around the place in headrags and soft felt hats there hides a fierce resentment at failed crops, lost jobs, thieving insurance men, bug-ridden flour...at the invisible line that cannot be overstepped.
Sula leaps it and roams the cities of America for ten years. Then she returns to the town, to her friend. But Nel is a wife now, settled with her man and her three children. She belongs. She accommodates to the Bottom, where you avoid the hand of God by getting in it, by staying upright, helping out at church suppers, asking after folks--where you deal with evil by surviving it.
Not Sula. As willing to feel pain as to give pain, she can never accommodate. Nel can't understand her any more, and the others never did. Sula scares them. Mention her now, and they recall that she put her grandma in an old folks' home (the old lady who let a train take her leg for the insurance)...that a child drowned in the river years ago...that there was a plague of robins when she first returned...
In clear, dark, resonant language, Toni Morrison brilliantly evokes not only a bond between two lives, but the harsh, loveless, ultimately mad world in which that bond is destroyed, the world of the Bottom and its people, through forty years, up to the time of their bewildered realization that even more than they feared Sula, their pariah, they needed her.
Customer Reviews:
Fine work from a Nobel laureate.......2007-09-02
This novel tells the story of two life-long friends. Sula comes from a line of independent women and grows up to have contempt for the small-town morality of the Bottom, where she grew up, as well as an abiding hostility toward her mother and grandmother. Nell embraces the life of the community and tries to pursue a conventional life as wife and mother. In their future awaits an act of betrayal that will force them to reevaluate each other and their own lives. Toni Morrison's beautiful prose brings to life the community of the Bottom.
Sorry Toni...just not a fan..........2007-07-29
I know it is almost blasphemous to put down Toni Morrison's writing in this day and age. I just did not like this book. I found all the character's despicable and for that reason could never connect with any of them. This is a short book but I had to really push myself to finish the book. This was my first try at Toni Morrison and probably will be my last. I see where her prose is a big hit but if the plot and characters are no good then no amount of prose can save a book.
Sorry, no Toni Morrison fan here.
Very stupid book.......2007-07-07
I do not like this book at all. I had to read it for my college English class. It was a complete waste of my time. I got in arguements with the teacher about whether Sula is a heroine or not. She cheated with her best friend's husband and destroyed their marriage. She watched her mother burning in fire without doing anything to save her life. Her mother died of a severe burn. Sula is a very contemtible character to me. In addition, the language of this novel is very crude and uninnovative. For example, the author used descriptions such as "Christmas came down like a dull axe, too dull to cut through but too shabby to ignore." In the end of the book, Sula died in a hospital, a very pathetic death. No one came to see her except her best friend, whom she had betrayed before. I think books with stories like this should not be celebrated. Sula as the main character lacks moral standards and principles. I just could not believe that it has won the Pulitzer Prize. Please please please do not read it!!!
Hallucinatory.......2007-06-15
There are good storytellers,there are wannabies and there are real artists.Toni Morrison belongs to later category,truly gifted writter whose poetic expressions recalls fairy tale world of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (but just vaguely,she is very much her own woman and has nobody even approaching her league) and who knows how to create atmosphere full of sensuality,fear and hallucinations.Something in Morrison writting directly continues ancient line of folk tales but of course with a twist - she tells her stories from afro-american perspective - also notable is the way she weaves her characters into rich tapestry just to leave some threads in the air.Maybe this is the reason why I rate this otherwise excellent novel four out of five stars,since some unforgettable characters are unexplained,just touched lightly and disposed without a fuss just as we start to like them.Almost like Morrison prefers nature to her characters,the title one being black famme fatale,sort of Shug Avery but ultimately unexplained or beter said,without motives.All of her novels share this tendency and its easier to love Morrison because of her wonderful style than because of the stories themselves,often left maddeningly unexplained.As for the title of this novel,any of the characters here would have been contender to this book title since they all leave strong mark and Sula is just one of the many pictoresque faces,the way I see it,the friendship between two women just a small part of the story but not a main one.And I have to remark on squirmishness of some of reviewers here who find the novel "graphic" - maybe its my european background,but we found nothing unusual about honest writting about sex and death,they are both part of life experience and its testament to Morrison art that it doesnt sound contrived or forced,in fact she does it with such ease that I wasnt even aware about "graphic" parts until I read comments here.Reccomended.
Morrisons first novel.......2007-06-11
Sula is Morrison's classic first novel, and is enchanting. To understand the magic, I think you have to know the language only Morrison can write in. It's slang, and slippery phrases paint her scenes, and is what I truly like about her books, she gets you there in a different way than any other writer. Sula is the story of two friends, and their families, and the Bottoms that they live in. Sula is a pariah, and effects the lives of many. The toneless tragedy Morrison depicts is what can make her writing mysteriously captive, odd, beautiful, and even amazing. Sula is a story that floats along quickly, but the ease in painful natures won't soon slip out of your mind. It's a truly great book.
Book Description
The frontiersmen were a remarkable breed of men. They were often rough and illiterate, sometimes brutal and vicious, often seeking an escape in the wilderness of mid-America from crimes committed back east. In the beautiful but deadly country which would one day come to be known as West Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, more often than not they left their bones to bleach beside forest paths or on the banks of the Ohio River, victims of Indians who claimed the vast virgin territory and strove to turn back the growing tide of whites. These frontiersmen are the subjects of Allan Eckert's dramatic history.
Against the background of such names as George Rogers Clark, Daniel Boone, Arthur St. Clair, Anthony Wayne, Simon Girty and William Henry Harrison, Eckert has recreated the life of one of America's most outstanding heroes, Simon Kenton. Kenton's role in opening the Northwest Territory to settlement more than rivaled that of his friend Daniel Boone. By his eighteenth birthday, Kenton had already won frontier renown as woodsman, fighter and scout. His incredible physical strength and endurance, his great dignity and innate kindness made him the ideal prototype of the frontier hero.
Yet there is another story to The Frontiersmen. It is equally the story of one of history's greatest leaders, whose misfortune was to be born to a doomed cause and a dying race. Tecumseh, the brilliant Shawnee chief, welded together by the sheer force of his intellect and charisma an incredible Indian confederacy that came desperately close to breaking the thrust of the white man's westward expansion. Like Kenton, Tecumseh was the paragon of his people's virtues, and the story of his life, in Allan Eckert's hands, reveals most profoundly the grandeur and the tragedy of the American Indian.
No less importantly, The Frontiersmen is the story of wilderness America itself, its penetration and settlement, and it is Eckert's particular grace to be able to evoke life and meaning from the raw facts of this story. In The Frontiersmen not only do we care about our long-forgotten fathers, we live again with them.
Researched for seven years, The Frontiersmen is the first in Mr. Eckert's "The Winning of America" series.
Customer Reviews:
Writing at its best.......2007-10-08
If you like compelling writing that generates a lightning bolt narrative about manifest destiny and those who were major players in this exciting but heart breaking game, this book is for you. I also recommend another thunder storm of a book: Walking the Trail, One Man's Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears by Cherokee author Jerry Ellis. He was the first person in the modern world to WALK the 900 mile route of the Trail of Tears and the book was nominated for a Pulitzer and National Book Award.
Couldn't Put It Down.......2007-08-27
This was a great read. Once I started I couldn't put it down. I plan on reading the other 5 books by Allan Eckert. It takes you back to pure human nature and puts you in touch with yourself. You have to ask how you would respond to the situations encountered by these brave frontiersmen. I'm telling most of my friends about this book.
The Frontiersmen.......2007-08-15
A very powerful and informative historical narrative of some of the personalities that shaped the settlement of this country ;from the perspective of Simon Kenton. A "must read" !
What a book!.......2007-07-28
I can't decide which I like better, this book or Eckert's 'Dark and Bloody River', but they are both MUST READ's for any history fan. For even a casual reader this book will hold your attention, and provide you with a facinating insight into our nation's history.
My All Time Favorite Historical Narrative !!!!.......2007-06-05
This is a fantastic book if you love Early American Historical Narratives which I love. I first read this book about twenty years ago, and recently read it again. The author's foot notes and reference material allow you to really dive into the time period of the book!
Book Description
Anatomy & Physiology Revealed is the ultimate interactive cadaver dissection experience. This state-of-the-art tutorial uses cadaver photos combined with a layering technique that allows the student to peel away layers of the human body to reveal structures beneath the surface. Anatomy & Physiology Revealed offers animations, radiologic imaging, audio pronunciations, and a comprehensive quizzing tool. This tutorial can be used as part of any one or two semester undergraduate Anatomy & Physiology course; it is available as a stand-alone or can be combined with any of McGraw-Hill's Anatomy & Physiology textbooks.
Customer Reviews:
Review of Human Physiology CD.......2007-09-30
This product is very good for the learning of the anatomy of a human. There are excellent quizzes to test your knowledge. The cadavers which are used are prepared excellently for viewing. The one issue with this product is that it took a long period of time to load when ever you wanted to change the view.
Excellent study tool.......2007-08-26
This product has it all! Access to Cadaver dissection and all relevant information about all anatomical structures, as well as self tests, histology, and radiography. A must for all medical students!
helpful review.......2007-08-09
we took this as a crash course, it was very helpful as we did not have cadavers. It is great to help you place where things are, especially in putting into context depth as it allows you to see layer by layer on yhe body and gives some great practice test.
excellant study source.......2007-05-14
I found this very useful during my human anatomy classes. The pictures and dissection tools are very clear.
Great Anatomy Resource!.......2007-03-14
A great tool to have if you are studying anatomy, especially if your access to the lab is limited. Well worth it for the benefit. Great visuals! Great self-testing tools. Very satisfied.
Average customer rating:
- Fascinating book!
- Review of Sula by Toni Morrison
- Review of Sula
- Sula was a disappointment.
- Difficult yet rewarding
|
Sula
Toni Morrison
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| African American
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Morrison, Toni
| African American
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Morrison, Toni
| ( M )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Paperback
| Morrison, Toni
| ( M )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Friendship
| Women's Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
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Song of Solomon
ASIN: 1400033438
Release Date: 2004-06-08 |
Book Description
Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. In this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison tells the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio. Their devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end? Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic,
Sula is a work that overflows with life.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating book!.......2007-04-11
I loved this book. It was quite a page-turner. I'm a big fan of Toni Morrison and this book did not disappoint. I highly recommend it.
Review of Sula by Toni Morrison.......2007-04-02
I was assigned "Sula" by Toni Morrison as part of the requirements for my Literature by Women class. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. Morrison is quite descriptive of her characters that are so colorful that is very easy to imagine them in your mind; almost as vivid as watching the scenes live.
The book is about several different people and it was quite a change from others styles of writing, how Morrison transitioned over time from one character to the next. The two main characters are two black females, Nel and Sula. The book travels through their lives from before they were born to after one of their deaths. Along the path we meet many different characters, family and friends, who live in their community of the Bottoms located near Medallion, Ohio.
The book begins in the late 1800's and continues until the 1960's. It begins just as slavery ends and ends in the midst of the civil rights movement. However the book does not go into detail about these topics it centers more on the daily lives of the people in this community and their relationships, whether it is friendships, courtships or family relationships.
We also learn just how different two young black women can be and still become the best of friends and even through adversity come back to each other and take care of one another when no one else will. We also learn that there is very little that the mothers in this book would not do for their children, up to including homicide to protect them, sometimes even from themselves.
I definitely recommend this book to any adult reader (It is not suitable for the young as it does include violence and sexual content). This definitely will encourage me to read other Toni Morrison topics.
Review of Sula.......2007-03-31
**contains some spoilers**
I wrote this literary for an English paper, which is why it's so long:
Literary Critique of "Sula"
Toni Morrison's "Sula" takes the reader on a turbulent ride of vague themes and inconsequential plot lines. But while there is much to be admonished in "Sula", there are a number of redeeming aspects; unfortunately the sum of these aspects do not come close to bringing salvation. Changing character focus and molding of a main character without the courtesy of proper exposition leave the reader of "Sula" feeling confused and cheated. By analyzing Toni Morrison's failings in the areas of character utilization, appealing plot, and general readability a greater appreciation for better written works can be had.
Toni Morrison's "Sula" is the story of a small close knit African American community set in Ohio in the early to mid 1900's. The hill top community known as the "Bottom" is the exhibit of many compelling characters and subject of trials and omens. The reader is introduced to the bottom at the end of it's existence and is then lead through time, on a journey to discover the late heart and soul of this community. The people in Sula include the crazy, the dying, the surviving, and the stones. The main characters, Sula Peace and Nel Wright, are the eventual focus of the story, but several supporting characters pervade throughout the novel.
"Sula" begins with an apt introduction of character and setting. Shadrack, Helene Wright, Eva and Hanna Peace, all key supporting characters, are all given a grand entrance into the story. The stories of Shadrack, Helene Wright, Eva and Hanna Peace are one of the redeeming qualities of "Sula". These characters serve as clues to the personalities and sentiments of the town and main characters, Nel and Sula. You learn about these characters; their struggles, their triumphs, and their growth. But, after spending nearly one third of the novel identifying with these supporting characters, you are taken to the relatively unspectacular world of two pubescent girls. This abrupt transition of character focus resulted in a dramatic loss of depth which the novel had enveloped you in. Dominant characters are downsized to the role of lack luster exposition for Sula and Nel. And a loss is had for the readers interest in the supporting characters who, for the most part, have told their story in it's entirety.
In the story of Eva Peace we learn of her struggle to keep her family alive and fed; a story which relates more to Hanna Peace than it does to Sula Peace or Nel Wright, and only vaguely to the development of Sula's personality by showing the type of people Sula was raised by. And when set into focus a second time, Eva's only contribution to the tale of Sula's main characters is granting the reader knowledge of Sula's emotional detachment. While this information is important to convey to the reader it is done via a very obtrusive and elaborate method in which, foreshadowed by a series of omens and dreams, Hanna Peace, Sula's mother, died. Such disjointed attempts at story progression and ultimately inconsequential plot lines plague "Sula".
In the story of Helene Wright, Morrison describes an incident on a train in which Helene is chastised and affected so deeply she resolves never to be made to feel a certain way again,
It was on that train , shuffling toward Cincinnati, that she resolved to be on guard--always. She wanted to make certain that no man ever looked at her that way. That no midnight eyes or marbled flesh would ever accost her and turn her to jelly. (Sula 22)
This rousing resolution begged for a revisiting by either Helene or her daughter Nel, but none ever came, again leaving the reader with no reason to maintain an interest.
By altering the story to rely more and more on the stories of Sula and Nel Morrison puts great pressure on the ability of these two girls to carry the strength of the story to it's conclusion, a pressure that buckled the initially strong stirrups of this story after some poor character development was relied on.
Sula takes the essence of her mother's neglect and promiscuity, her own emotional detachment, and he grand mother's willingness to go to extremes to get what she needs and returns to the Bottom as a person containing all those elements. Morrison provides no description of how this character was molded into the woman she returned as, she only provided the ingredients for the mold. This left the entirety of Sula's progression to adulthood as an unknown; something open to the imagination of the reader which was a critical flaw because it gave the impression that this progression was not important enough to describe. This combined with aforementioned disharmonies of the story made reading "Sula" a hurdling exercise in that the reader was made to fill in the gaps.
The final hurdle one must over come when reading "Sula" is deciphering the some of various meanings and symbolisms used throughout Sula which are made more apparent by the final words of the narrator.
In the end Toni Morrison's "Sula" fails to deliver on a complete and fulfilling novel. The combination of unharmonious story telling, ultimately irrelevant exposition, and uninspired use of otherwise fantastic characters served to squelch any remnants of affection left for this novel from its initial success.
Sula was a disappointment........2006-08-02
You know, I read daily, and I adore a wide variety of genres and styles. I began this book with an optimistic interest. Unfortunately, in the end, I found this book to be a bitter disappointment.
The book started very promisingly, with Ms. Morrison breathing a vivid life into her characters and her town. I was immediately invested in these characters; identifying with their emotions and their lives. However, I did find the writing to be extremely disjointed in some areas, which left me with a vague sense of dissatisfaction. As the book progressed, this disjointed style grew, as did my sense of dissatisfaction.
At some point, my initial interest and joy, turned into a sense of obligation. I never start a book without finishing it. Unfortunately, finishing this book became a chore. I grew more and more annoyed with Ms. Morrison's odd style of writing -- and the near-cliche oddities of the citizens who populated Ms. Morrison's town. (Apparently, the more oddities one can ascribe to one's characters, the better.) Overkill would be an understatement.
In the end, the novel that began so promisingly, left me feeling annoyed and bitterly disappointed. The last half of this novel felt rushed, and underdeveloped. Not because Ms. Morrison lacks talent, but because she apparently lacks follow-through.
Perhaps I wouldn't have been so disappointed with the development of this novel if I had not learned to care for these characters. It is not the fate of the characters which I find disappointing, it is the hurried and nonsensical style with which that fate was related. These characters deserved better.
Difficult yet rewarding.......2005-12-22
This is Toni Morrison's second novel, and she really hits her stride here. Like all her works, the writing is brilliant. The novel takes place in an all-black, small Ohio hill neighborhood called (ironically) Bottom from around 1917 to 1965. It's mainly about the blacks' relations with each other rather than with the whites, although racial discrimination is the all-pervasive larger context. The main theme is the friendship between two very different women, Sula and Nell. Sula's family (grandmother Eva, mother Hannah, and brothers deweys) also figures prominently. The novel has several episodes of seemingly senseless violence, including self-mutilation, and violence between parents and children. The main protagonist Sula is like no other character in world literature. Like a romantic heroine, she rebels against all social customs, revealing them in the process as simply conventions, not natural. She commits adultery, murder, and betrays her closest friends and family. When she dies, no one mourns. But while she deconstructs conventional morality, she does not completely discredit it, since the result of breaking taboos is not liberation, but destruction. There are no easy morals here. A difficult, even maddening and scandalous novel, it is deeply rewarding for readers who are willing to have all their preconceptions challenged.
Book Description
A #1 New York Times bestseller--and an American classic--now in trade paperback...
A groundbreaking bestseller with two and a half million copies in print, "...And Ladies of the Club" centers on the members of a book club and their struggles to understand themselves, each other, and the tumultuous world they live in. A true classic, it is sure to enchant, enthrall, and intrigue readers for years to come.
"A great novel that is American to its core...so gently memorable, so bursting with life, that those who abandon themselves to its pages will find it claiming a permanent place close to their hearts." --New York Daily News
"A warm, evocative, often hilarious picture of society, culture, politics and family life." --Atlanta Constitution
"A warmly human story...never flags from first page to last." --Publishers Weekly
"It is hard to think of a better place to spend the summer than in [Helen Hooven Santmyer's] world." --Cosmopolitan
"Should not be missed by anyone who has enjoyed the works of Sinclair Lewis, Thornton Wilder or even Laura Ingalls Wilder."--UPI
Customer Reviews:
The Mother of Modern Historical Fiction.......2007-09-06
I first read "And Ladies of the Club" during that short time when it was the book to read, in the summer of 1986. I remember going to Shopko and the store aisles stacked with copies of it in blue, green, yellow, and pink. It was over 1,400 pages and I had to have it. It was the first time I had read a historical novel that was not full of sensationalism surrounding major American events, but rather told the everyday story of everyday people. It captured the time period of my grandparents and great-grandparents and gave me insight into my own family history, even though I grew up in Marquette, Michigan, a small town, not too unlike Xenia, Ohio, or the Waynesboro of the novel.
When I started writing my own historical novels, this book was always in the back of my mind. In fact, the idea to name each chapter in my novels for a year I got from Helen Hooven Santmyer. When I wrote my third book, Superior Heritage, I paid tribute to the incredible influence Santmyer had on me by depicting the scene where a character purchases and reads a copy of "And Ladies of the Club" and the front quote to "Superior Heritage" was also based on Santmyer.
This book made me read all of Santmyer's other novels, which I have also enjoyed, but this novel is the one where twenty years after I read it, I can still remember the characters and scenes in the novel vividly as if I had read them, and after living with them for so long since the book is so long, it was almost as if they were my family and I lived in that golden yesterday Santmyer has preserved for us, perhaps better than any other writer of her generation.
READ THIS BOOK!
- Tyler R. Tichelaar, author of The Marquette Trilogy: Iron Pioneers, The Queen City, Superior Heritage, all available on Amazon
The Mother of Modern Historical Fiction.......2007-08-31
I first read "And Ladies of the Club" during that short time when it was the book to read, in the summer of 1986. I remember going to Shopko and the store aisles stacked with copies of it in blue, green, yellow, and pink. It was over 1,400 pages and I had to have it. It was the first time I had read a historical novel that was not full of sensationalism surrounding major American events, but rather told the everyday story of everyday people. It captured the time period of my grandparents and great-grandparents and gave me insight into my own family history, even though I grew up in Marquette, Michigan, a small town, not too unlike Xenia, Ohio, or the Waynesboro of the novel.
When I started writing my own historical novels, this book was always in the back of my mind. In fact, the idea to name each chapter in my novels for a year I got from Helen Hooven Santmyer. When I wrote my third book, Superior Heritage, I paid tribute to the incredible influence Santmyer had on me by depicting the scene where a character purchases and reads a copy of "And Ladies of the Club" and the front quote to "Superior Heritage" was also based on Santmyer.
This book made me read all of Santmyer's other novels, which I have also enjoyed, but this novel is the one where twenty years after I read it, I can still remember the characters and scenes in the novel vividly as if I had read them, and after living with them for so long since the book is so long, it was almost as if they were my family and I lived in that golden yesterday Santmyer has preserved for us, perhaps better than any other writer of her generation.
READ THIS BOOK!
- Tyler R. Tichelaar, author of The Marquette Trilogy: Iron Pioneers, The Queen City, Superior Heritage
Hard to find item.......2007-01-15
This book is one my sister read over 20 years ago and wanted to re-read. Amazon was the only place I could find it. Thank you, Amazon!
Honest to Life.......2006-07-09
I will agree with the reviewers who claim that 'not much happens' because its true that this book lacks a traditional "introduction, climax, conclusion" plot. But Helen Hooven Santmyer is incredible in the way she captures life, plain, simple, life. At age 20, I've read the book twice now and find myself deeply interested in each character, sympathetic or otherwise, by the second chapter. The insights into politics and medicine are fascinating to students of history, and the philosophical remarks upon deaths and births and new generations of children are honest and bittersweet. Do not be put off by its size. The book is easy reading and worth a time investment. I cannot recommend this novel strongly enough.
More than a big ol' doorstop. Much more........2006-02-13
...AND LADIES OF THE CLUB is a sturdy chunk of a book that is both solid novel and solid history.
The story tracks the lives of several generations of families in a small Ohio town from the late 1860's to the 1930's. The heart of the book is a circle of acquaintances who are members of a women's literary society. The characters are a diverse lot with engaging stories that run the full gamut from the comic to the tragic.
The novel is also a magnificent social history. The progress of, well, Progress through the decades is one of the fascinating themes of the book. Santmyer writes with an eye that carefully sees and records the technological advances of the period. Changes in housekeeping, education, medicine, business, and transportation are woven into the fabric of the characters' lives, and a read-through of this book is a good and rather painless way of absorbing a large piece of American history. For my taste, a few chapters are a bit too freighted with the minutia of Presidential politics in the Gilded Age (my only complaint about the book), but those political chapters can be quickly skimmed without harming the substance of the narrative.
...AND LADIES OF THE CLUB is perfect for times when you can lose yourself in a great book. I can think of no better choice for cold winter nights or lazy summer afternoons. It's a book that I've returned to a number of times in all seasons, and I've never been disappointed.
Average customer rating:
- Natural History Writing at Its Best
- Antidote for institutionalized scizophrenia
- Kline's book became a companion
- Enchanting look at nature on a most personal level.
- Thoreau has a modern counterpart.
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Scratching the Woodchuck: Nature on an Amish Farm
David Kline
Manufacturer: University of Georgia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
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Great Possessions : An Amish Farmer's Journal
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Plain Reader
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You Can Go Home Again
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A Plain Life
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A Very Small Farm
ASIN: 0820319384 |
Customer Reviews:
Natural History Writing at Its Best.......2001-12-15
Scratching the Woodchuck is quite simply the best piece of natural history writing I have read in decades. David Kline is a keen observer, a competent naturalist, and an eloquent writer. We need more books like this in our all too technology-based, human-centered society.
This book takes the reader back to humanity's roots, and to our essential relationships with other species that inhabit this planet with us. Something beautiful and important is found here that has been lost to many of us for a long, long time.
Antidote for institutionalized scizophrenia.......2000-07-19
Scratching the Woodchuck, Nature on an Amish Farm by David Kline sits on my credenza at work. I reach for it when I need an antidote for institutionalized schizophrenia.
Scratching the Woodchuck is a collection of about 60 short essays. They are organized into four catagories: The Farmstead, The Fields, The Woods, Creeks and Sky and The Community. The essays are rich in adjectives and read at a slow and leisurely pace.
For example:
"I was startled the other day to see a meadow vole (one of those fat little short-tailed mice that abound in meadows and fields) come charging out of the grass-covered ditch and dash across the road as fast as its stumpy legs could carry it. Before the sprinting vole had reached the safety of the opposite ditch, it was followed by two more of its kin. These, however, instead of racing across the road, made large half-circles and then ran back into the same ditch twenty feet down the road.
I stopped and watched the spot where the meadow voles had emerged. Soon a small pointed nose poked through the grasses and two obsidian eyes glared at me--a weasel. No wonder the voles were scared silly. Of all their enemies, nothing alarms the mouse family as much as the weasel, because there is no place to hide from the long, slender killer." Page 42.
Plusses:
*The essays are short. You can pick up the book and regain sanity in about 2.76 minutes.
*The essays are consistently high quality writing. There is none of the unevenness that results when a book is banged out in a hurry.
Minuses:
*The book does not come back quickly when loaned out. "Oh, I was going to bring it back today but my wife started reading it." kind of thing.
*Ultimately, you finish the book and you want more.
Scratching the Woodchuck is a good book to pick up if you feel like the pea-in-a-whistle. Mr. Kline's prose will slow your heart rate and reduce your blood pressure. Mr. Kline assures us that life only appears to be fragmented. The patient observer can find the connections.
Scratching the Woodchuck is probably *not* a good choice if your preference for escapism-liturature tends toward verb-packed, staccato writing (like Tom Clancy). You will find Scratching the Woodchuck maddeningly slow and boring.
Kline's book became a companion.......1998-10-29
This story was a wonderful, lighthearted portrayal of nature on Kline's farm. The stories were short and a quick read. I found myself reading one story, every night before bed. I was not looking forward to the end of what became a daily companion. Kline is able to paint with words. He excels at describing life's simple, natural pleasures. This book could be compared to a more recent Sand County Almanac, but I didn't find that book as interesting. A good read!
Enchanting look at nature on a most personal level........1998-09-14
Reading Kline's book makes one want to immediately ditch city life. This talented writer takes a look at nature in simple, basic terms, bringing it close to everyone who has ever watched a spider in a web, or looked at tracks in fresh snow. His unpretentious approach is precisely the way that nature should be viewed. . . with knowledge, joy and kinship with the out of doors. (Review by Judy Wade, author of Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year; Southern California and Baja, published by Fulcrum and also available through Amazon.)
Thoreau has a modern counterpart........1998-03-17
Any one who has a personal copy of Walden with heavy underlining and pages falling away from the binding will read the words of David Kline with respect. This is a man so completely at one with his physical world, so at peace with his chosen lifestyle, and so appreciative of his environment that he makes Thoreau seem under-developed. While Kline, an Amish farmer who lives an economic life far out-of-step with his contemporary American culture, writes little about his religious philosophy, he is man at peace with himself and his God and he is able to convey that without talking directly about his theology. He expresses appreciation for his heritage of the family farm which has become his, and for his early teacher who taught him to see the wonders of the natural life which was found on that farm and in that area of Ohio. The life of a farmer is one of seasonal cycles which dictates the work, and the habits of the creatures of the wild. The book is roughly cyclical in scope, but has no straightforward time line. Kline writes as though engaging in easy conversation, reminiscing about berry-picking and manure-spreading, bird-watching and gardening. His life is an out-of-doors life, but he does not complain about the weather! Bad weather seems to be a time to read, and he cites authors from Kathleen Norris to A. Leopold, evidence that he is as much at home with the written word as with the topography of his farm Kline's little book makes me want to know more about him, to know how he relates to the strange and stressed humans with whom he shares this land. The book is as much spirtitual as scientific in content, bringing a sense of peace in a too-busy world. One waits for another from this delightful author.
Average customer rating:
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Deaf Maggie Lee Sayre: Photographs of a River Life
Maggie Lee Sayre , and
Tom Rankin
Manufacturer: University Press of Mississippi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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| Adams, Ansel
| Avedon, Richard
| Bourke-White, Margaret
| Brady, Mathew
| Bubley, Esther
| Callahan, Harry
| Capa, Robert
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| Carroll, Lewis
| Cartier-Bresson, Henri
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ASIN: 0878057994 |
Book Description
A Junior League of Columbus Cookbook. Offering full menus,tea menus and special occasion dinners. This book features beautiful glimpses of notable Columbus landmarks. Add Ohio's capital city cookbook to your collection and support the projects and programs of the Junior League of Columbus. A must have for fans of Junior League's cookbooks! The Junior League of Columbus is a nonprofit organization supporting women and children.
Customer Reviews:
A superb compendium of "bountiful harvest" recipes.......2004-07-16
With menus provided in each section comprising this culinary sequel to the Junior League of Columbus' America Discovers Columbus cookbook, America Celebrates Columbus is a superb compendium of "bountiful harvest" recipes that are as easy-to-prepare and kitchen friendly as they are nutritious and delicious. Of special note is that portion of this outstanding cookbook dedicated to teatime at the Kelton House. From Miniature Lavender Cheesecakes; Black-Eyed Pea Salsa; Green Salad with Jiacama and Orange Poppy Seed Dressing; and Kelton House Chicken Divan; to Salmon Tetrazzini; Barbecued Green Beans; Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Pancakes; Chili Pecan Biscuits; and Red Velvet Cake with Mock Whipped Frosting, American Celebrates Columbus will prove a seminal favorite for any family or community library cookbook collection.
america celebrates columbus.......2001-02-17
In the new Columbus Junior League cookbook I found easy to follow recipes, ingredients for the most part you will have in your frig or pantry,beautiful artwork from Columbus landmarks and menus for dinners or teas already put together for you ( not literally but put together as a complete menu shall we say) Great going girls- I would suggest cookbook collectors and cooks who like easy menus with great results buy this book.
A new and Improved Junior League of Columbus Cookbook!!.......2001-02-12
Just as my original Junior League of Columbus (Ohio) cookbook had started to fall apart, a new and improved version appears!! The new version is sturdy, atractive, and very professional. As with all Junior League cookbooks, the recipes are great tasting and easy to prepare. I have already shipped copies to my family around the country and am hearing rave reviews!! Thanks Junior League-you did it again!!
Books:
- Dragonwell Dead: A Tea Shop Mystery
- Dragonwings: Golden Mountain Chronicles: 1903 (Golden Mountain Chronicles)
- Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
- Dry: A Memoir
- East of Eden
- Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
- Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #3: Valdez is Coming & Hombre
- Ethnicity and Family Therapy, Third Edition
- German Home Towns: Community, State, and General Estate 1648-1871
- Gift of Power: The Life and Teachings of a Lakota Medicine Man
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Heaven
