Away

not great bukowski but ok
not the one to read for his most potent impact--better to read this one after you're really into him and can tolerate the stuff that [stinks]

This is actually a collection originally published in 1969. Bukowski is a great writer simply because he can relate the humorous and the tragic with the same skill. sometimes in the same poem. sit around on a warm afternoon and read these out loud with your friends. you won't feel lame for laughing.

I agree with the other reviewer. Contains some of Bukowski's best. Worth buying and keeping for additional readings.

It is truly horrifying how white females have been able to pathologize men and masculinity while glibly dismissing the criminal aggression and sociopathy of women over the past generation. No other group in our society is as privileged and as insulated as white females - and no other group is as pernicious in their fanciful redrawing of the relationship between gender and violence. For all of the victims - especially the male victims - of these creatures, may you find peace at last and may those who have tried to cover up or deny your tragic loss be held accountable by a higher court.

I have learned a great deal after reading WHEN SHE WAS BAD... Ms. Pearson writes eruditely and directly, with an appropriate sense of humour given the grave subject matter. Each section explores an aspect of violent and lethal behaviour of women, primarily white, middle-class, women of Canada, the author's home, the USA, and Britain. In these chapters, Ms Pearson presents a compelling volume of statistical information, complete with an analyisis of the methods of data gathering where such procedures may influence the results. Beyond these dry statitistics, a human face is given as a specific case study is interwined with the discussion of the general issues which the case exemplifies. Some readers with a penchant for violence may find these cases titilating -- an unfortunate by-product of the subject matter.
Ms Pearson presents many tertiary themes beyond the overriding theses of examining the nature of female agression and exposing a gender-bias in the criminal justice system. These include a palpable frustration with the media for its short-attention span and oversimplification. Also, Ms Pearson calls upon feminist scholarship to reexamine "standpoint epistemology" (p55), its blind acceptance of a "battered wife syndrome" (119), and its pre-disposition against "battered husband syndrome". Her statistics indicate that violence and aggressive behaviour are practised with remarkable equality irregardless of gender. (This should suprise no one who has spent enough time with people; but alas, if that were the case, Ms Pearson's book would not need to have been written). The story of this book, according to Ms Pearson, is "the story of consequence and accountablitiy" (p248). Ms Pearson concludes by presenting the "consequense of our refusal to concede female contributions to violence" that she believes are "manifold" (243). To summarize succinctly: (1) undermine autonomous and responsible behaviour; (2) amputate human emotion and experience from literature; (3) demeans the value of the victims; (4) inhibits recognition and development of new dimensions of power outside the existing structures; and (5) undemines attempts to understand violence, to trace its causes and to quell them. I highly recommend Ms Pearson's WHEN SHE WAS BAD... to anyone interested in social issues or criminology.
My particular interest is in spiritual matters. Ms Pearson's social examination has at its core an examination of the nature of evil and attempts to formulate an appropriate response. Consideration of the victims' experiences presents an opportunity for me to evaluate the place of the LORD, my GOD, in whose presence I am. The road to agnosticism is littered with images of god that accomodate no reality of evil. If my spiritual relationship is to be meaningful in my life, I must accept the disappointment of evil and work through that crisis. I have found that truth can withstand, and that false conceptions crumble. I have often had to rise above what Ms Pearson identifies as an "excuse of motive", feelings of victimization and instead, to faith on a spiritual connection. Reading this book has inspired me to renew my spiritual commitment. I greatly appreciate the hard work and discipline Ms Pearson has applied to this difficult and important topic.
I return to complete my comments. It has taken many months to organize my thoughts on this painful topic. I often hear people say that they cannot believe in a good god when evil people such as those in this book get away with murder. I cannot explain adequately why the victims, some of them mere children, and their families had to endure the horror and pain caused by these psychopathic individuals. At the same time, reading this book has helped me to realize the importantance of fighting evil on an personal level. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that the pain inflicted by our enemies is forgotten long before the disappointment experienced when our friends turn away. Reading Ms Pearson's book has inspired me to ask questions of myself. What am I doing to diminish pain in my life? How do I prevent my own agenda from harming others? I have become more sensitive to my acts of indirect aggression. If I am to be accountable as a human being, I must accept my contribution to evil. Ms Pearson insists that, "it is increasingly urgent that our culture acknowledge violence as a human, rather than gendered, phenomenom." For me, it is a faith in the LORD, my GOD, in whose presence I am, that provides the strength to face this unattractive side of my humanity. Admittedly, not everyone will read WHEN SHE WAS BAD for its spiritual implications. Nonetheless, Ms Pearson has written a thought provoking book that explores the nature of violent aggression as it effects all humans.

The author Patricia Pearson is an independent minded-feminist who critiques foibles in the philosophy of her other sisters; namely, that women are morally superior to men and don't do as much violence against others. Or if they do, they only do it because they are oppressed by the patriarchy. They are victims.

Pearson wants women to be treated like adults, not children, being held to full account for their wrong doings in the justice system. She believes that women are equal or capable of being equal to men in all spheres, including combat. (This argument about equality in combat I think is erroneous.) If the sexes are equal, she implies, then they should have equal punishment for their crimes. People and women should stop making excuses for women's crimes such as pleading temporary insanity, being a battered wife, being abused,or having PMS. Chivalry in the justice system should not mete out lighter sentences for women who commit similar crimes that their male counterparts do.

Pearson mixes her work with juicy stories about womens' crimes for the delight of your tabloid mind along with a scholarly analysis of what it all means. She talks about the nature of female aggression can also include things overlooked by society such as vicious slander against enemies, and "...an acid bath of words, the children used as pawns, the destruction of property, (and) enlistment of community as a means of control..."

She speculates that children dying of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome may have been purposely neglected by their mothers who were having crazy thoughts about wanting their children dead. She thinks that women are not as naturally nurturant in motherhood as society says they are. Society has a hard time seeing the true nature of the female and therefore has problems dealing with women gone bad.

Pearson even hints around that child are citizens with a right to life, not possessions of their mothers, and that women should be responsible for their birth control--these statements have controversial implications for abortion and parents' rights issues.

She states that women are just as abusive and violent as men are in their relationships and there is such as thing as a battered husband. However, society refuses to help battered husbands because they don't think women are that violent. She deplores the power imbalance in the marital relationship in which women can falsely accuse a man of abuse and send him to prison with one phone call to the police.

Pearson's most fascinating topic is female serial killers or "nurturant monsters" as she calls them. She describes one who drugs her victims to death, but before she does, she has the facade of grandmotherly warmth that deceives people into thinking that she is harmless. She describes women in history who have killed as many as 600 victims, but people tend to forget women killers and focus in on male killers who lurk in the shadows and are more directly violent.

Because people see violent women as victims of abuse, they often glamourize or approve of their violence, such as in case of Lorena Bobbit emasculating her husband or the murdering wife who was replaced by a younger model.

To sum up, Pearson says, "...to separate one sex from the other as virtuous or blameworthy is to follow a false trail in understanding the causes of violence."

the book was easy reading with some interesting facts.
But...the recipes were not very palatable. I gave the muffins I baked to the birds because they tasted like bird food and the rest of the dishes I tried to feed to the dog.
I do not recommend this book.There are more out there with more information about diabetes and better recipes.

Eat Away Diabetes is extremely well researched and superbly written! Taking complex subject matter, the author uses practical explanations and analogies, thereby making diabetes much easier to understand. The information is current and extremely useful for people with Type 2 diabetes and those working to prevent this potentially devastating (but preventable) disease. Numerous charts and sidebars are used throughout which serve as excellent references in my practice as a registered dietitian. The author emphasizes the importance of exercise at length and explains the roles of fiber, fat, carbohydrates, protein, vitamin/mineral supplementation, and herbs. Ms. Napier also provides 28 days of menus and their accompanying recipes (which are healthy, creative, and tasty). This book will remain a useful resource in my professional practice and daily life! Thank you, Kristine Napier!

Type 2 diabetes is a national epidemic. Lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise, are necessary to prevent complications (heart disease, stroke, vascular disease, blindness) in those with Type 2 diabetes and prevent the disease from occurring in those at high risk. Medical advice regarding diet often leaves patients confused and therefore unable to follow their advice. Kristine Napier defines Type II diabetes and the steps needed to control this disease in a way that is easy to understand. She provides advice and examples to help the reader incorporate her guidelines into their everyday life. Her 28 day guide of menus will help those get started and as always, Kris's recipes are easy to follow and delicious. Last, but not least of importance, is that all of Kris's advice is based on scientific evidence and conforms to national guidelines.

This book is awesome, one of my favorites. I have read it more than once it is so good. What makes it so great is it tells the story of the latin baseball player that happens so often these days. From step to step, the book shows the reader how Miguel Tejada got from the barrios to America, to MLB star. What makes this bok so special is what a great story Miguel Tejada is. In his town, he was not regarded as a great player. But as soon as he was in a league there, he was great and never stopped. Now he has an MVP. A great job by Marcos Breton for the book and Jose Luis Villegas for the great pictures.

I was a fan of shortstop Miguel Tejada before I read this book and was overjoyed when he won the AL MVP honors this past year. The book opened my eyes to the incredible struggle and long odds that Dominican players - or any Latin players - face to make it in the major leagues. It makes Tejada's accomplishment seem that much more amazing and important to me. His story is interwoven with a lot of baseball history that I would not have otherwise known, and it is one that kids my age and up (8th grade) would enjoy because it makes you think.

THIS BOOK IS A REAL "SLEEPER". BRETON TAKES THE EVENTFUL LIFE OF ONE LATIN BALLPLAYER AND INTERTWINES THIS WITH THE HISTORY OF THE STRUGGLE OF ALL LATIN BALLPLAYERS. THE STORY OF SOME OF THE LATIN PIONEERS IS AN UNEXPLORED TERRITORY IN BASEBALL HISTORY. BRETON BRINGS THESE STORIES OF PREJUDICE, TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY TO THE SURFACE. I LEARNED ALOT FROM THIS BOOK, AND WAS WELL ENTERTAINED IN THE PROCESS.

I felt sorry for Jess because her intentions when she kissed Tom were innocent. Well, as innocent as they can be when you are caught kissing your twin sister's boyfriend. I guess that she felt that she had no other way of convincing Tom that Liz still loves him. I cannot believe that Liz has still not seen through Scott's slimey little act and Tom is just blind to Dana's manipulations (after all he is a guy ;-). I especially felt sympathy for Denise, after all, having had personal experience with the whole credit card sham - Denise isn't really to blame. I guess she was under the illusion that she could spend, spend, spend and not have to worry about the repayments and the interest charged on top of it. I do think that she was acting pretty immaturely especially when she went out to dinner with Winston (SVU # 36) and practically ordered everything on the dessert menu. She was acting like she hadn't seen food before! A definite must-read, this whole Liz-Scott-Tom-Dana love quadratic(?) is really coming to a head! Watch out for Goodbye Elizabeth SVU # 38!

You will never know what Elizabeth does, that's what keeps you on the edge of your seat. I feel a little sorry for Tom, he's so sweet and has tried in every way to get Elizabeth. If it wasn't for that Dana Upshaw taking the letter, at least he would have a little hope of them getting back together.

I liked this book very much. It's one of her best books. I found it interesting. I think Scott Sinclaire was a jerk. He was trying to take all the credit, he wanted to take control of Elizabeth. I think it was really sweet of Jessica to throw her that party. I wish Tom and Elizabeth were still together. They make a good couple, so do Nick and Jessica. You HAVE to read this book !!!!!

"Carried Away" is the second book that I have read by Jill Barnett and I really enjoyed it. It was a good read for a rainy day. The only two that I disliked about it was 1.I didn't have time frame for when the book took place ( Maybe I just miss that). 2.I would have liked one of the main female characters have relations that were worry about them. Both girls didn't have anyone and that seem a little unbelievible to me. But overall it was a good book.

I enjoyed this romance tale. It is the tale of two brothers who live on an island off the coast of Maine who have grown a bit eccentric in their ways. One day after having to retrieve his children from a boarding school (as they have misbehaved yet again) Eachann (widowed) decided that he and his brother do need wives and kidnaps 2 women from a "high society" party on the mainland.

Though the story does not tell you what year it is based in it has to be the late 1800's as they are still sailing from Scotland to Bath, ME by sail.

Eachann takes one woman who is not about to go down without a huge fight and reading her escape attempts are very amusing. The other is an heiress who finds out that her fiancé is not who she thought he was (she thought he loved her and not her money). She takes the kidnapping a bit better and uses the time to make sure that her priorities are in the right place.

Overall I really enjoyed this one.

This is a great book. You have two love stories here, one so sweet you want to get misty over it(Calumn and Amy) and the other is Eachann and Georgianna - theirs is mostly a fight til the death - but outrageously funny, and passionate! The secondary characters add to the fun - Fergus who is blind as a bat and won't wear glasses; and Eachanns two kids, Kirsty (Heathen #1) and Grahm (Heathen #2) - To say there is a discipline problem here is to put it mildly!

The two brothers, Eachann and Calum - let's just say they're a little like the odd couple, Felix and Oscar - only much handsomer! Get the picture? Now get the book and thoroughly enjoy the story!

This book has a very wide scope and attempts to address the many possibilities for how and when a daughter may have lost her father. There is a chapter on incest, one on paternal suicide, one on divorce/abandonment, etc. But the book's focus, is definitely on daughters whose father passed away when she was a child--and it makes sense that this is the focus, because that was the author's (Elyce Wakerman) situation. I, however, was most interested in the stories on divorce/abandonment, but those were few. The chapter on divorce is very good, and the stories included about divorce were helpful because as a child of divorce myself, I was able to resonate with the feelings of other women and to come to grips with the loss that I experienced. But this book was, for me, very unsatisfying. I felt like the times they mentioned the effects of divorce on a daughter were great--but they were few. So if you are a daughter of divorce, I would recommend reading a book devoted entirely to that topic, instead of this one. It is so wide in the range of women it addresses that I would recommend women dealing with father loss to find a book that deals more specifically with their individual situation. That said, this book did provide me with some good insights, and excited the desire to delve more fully into issues of father loss.

Just wanted to add to the comments on this book which incidentally I have been looking for for over 10 years! A friend's mum recommended it to me but only knew the title and as I am in the UK and this is published in the States ... well thank goodness for the internet! Anyway as the daughter of a father I never met - my father died before I was born and even before my mum knew she was expecting me - this book has finally given me some insight into why I act/feel the way I do. And it's great to know I'm not alone! You will be able to identify with many of the different views inside even if they do not strictly apply to your particular situation. Most areas are covered - death/divorce/suicide/separation. It also looks at later scenarios such as step-parents and your own marriage/children. My only criticisms would be that the conclusions drawn can be a bit repetitive. And it would have been good to have some constructive advice about what to do next! Not that of course a book can provide all the answers... The overall approach of the book is very sympathetic and it has a logical flow and is an easily accessible read.
I have a really difficult time in my relationships with men, although I'm still trying! and this book has been invaluable in making me see why I behave the way I do and at least realising that I'm not the only one.
Onwards and upwards eh?

In the 80's this was the first book i had come across that dealt with all aspects of father loss as well as with all different kinds of losses. The subject was dealt with on a personal level (true stories from those who had lost a father) and on an academic level. For the first time in my life, I realized i wasn't nuts. I still deal with my father's suicide but have done much to heal my past, including running a suicide group for the families left behind. Very informational book.

I think this book is a good story about a father who struggles to keep his family togetheer after his wife dies. I't is about family, love, and life. It will make you laugh and cry.

The author speaks candidly about a father's love and determination to keep his family together. Through words that evoke both laughter and sadness, the author is able to transport the reader to a time a place ethched in the minds of many who were born during the forties and fifties. Picking blueberries, strawberries, stringbeans, watermelons and "putting in tobacco" in North Carolina...those were the years and times of youth. With each family character, the author skillfully depicts what family love looks and feels like. This is a "must read" story of a father's enduring will to rear his family - against all odds.

A true depiction of how a fathers love and determination overcame the odds against both he and his family. In today's society, love, family, struggles and just plain hard work seem to be obsolete. We are a throw away society. Isn't it wonderful to see how a "real" family overcame obstacles, loss and managed to keep the love and not become a "throw-away" family. Three cheers for Dr. Alice Garrett and her siblings for continuing the traditions engrained by their father.

David Malouf's prize winning novel, 'Fly Away Peter' is a beautifully written story that both beautifies and simplifies the life of humans and animals. Malouf has to be considered as one of Australia's leading writers and poets. This novel is not a story to be read if one is after light entertainment. It is truly the work of a poet, a fine piece of literature. His descriptive text beckons the reader to find a deeper meaning. The simple messages of love, friendship and the beauty of life are both refreshing and moving. Do not attempt to read it if you are after cheap thrills. This book needs to be savoured. It follows the lives of three main characters, Ashley, Jim and Imogen. Together they appreciate the joyous beauty of nature by studying and photographing a sanctuary owned by Ashley. However the terror of war rips the paradise apart and leaves the three friends seperated and questioning the meaning of life. Through different experiences, each character comes to a similar conclusion, that life is simple, beautiful and a gift to be enjoyed. It will go on over any hurdles. There are always survivors. An interesting read if you are having difficulties facing each day.

I have read most of Mr. Malouf's novels and he is an Author of remarkable talent and consistency. It has generally not been whether a given work is good, just how very good it is. He almost competes with himself alone when he pens another work. This work, "Fly Away Peter", is closer to a novella in length, but felt a bit crowded when read. It would seem examining an issue in depth, or a general theme in breadth can be accomplished without a regard for length, rather just skill. This time out I felt there was room for two or three times the length of the actual work.

This book promises to deal with the issue of men from different classes of life, how they place the strata of society aside and become partners. And then to narrate how the First World War draws the two different men into its maw. These men are not the only characters, and it is not just their histories the Author must communicate. When all of these aspects are brought together in barely 134 pages, it became incomplete for me, almost claustrophobic. Mr. Malouf is a remarkable writer and poet. To read any of his work is to read great literature from this admired Australian Author.

The four stars may seem to contradict what I have said, however I cannot go back and change all of the previous books of his I have commented upon. This is excellent reading when placed next to much of what is available; it only comes up short when compared to the balance of his work. It certainly is worth the time to read and enjoy, it should probably be placed at the beginning of reading his body of work, rather than near its end.

Malouf deals with big themes here: the continuities of nature; the horror of human conflict; our desire to hold onto the past, and the necessity of relinquishing it. But he handles them in such a personal, beautiful and profoundly moving way that he manages to say it all in under 150 pages. Some readers might prefer more languorous pacing, but Malouf has no reason to stall. Unlike many writers, he knows precisely what he's doing. His precision is utterly astounding. He can say more, move you more, in a dozen pages than lesser writers seem to manage in whole careers. Chapter 14, scarcely more than 2000 words, is the most powerful account of the Great War - what it meant, what it can be made to mean - that I have ever read.

This book is probably O'Connor's finest work of fiction. The story itself is much stronger than the more highly acclaimed Wise Blood, as are its characters. I find it interesting that one reviewer referred to disliking the grotesque characters, while admiring O'Connor's use of symbolism and metaphor. One who has read O'Connor knows that there are few characters in the author's opus that could not be classified as grotesque. As far as her use of symbolism, one must certainly recognize that O'Connor's characters were the most obvious manifestations of her symbolism and metaphor. As she herself said, when drawing for a child, one makes the figure overly-clear. Also, while this book, might seem to tread between rational humanism and religion, the end finds O'Connor squarely on the side of the seemingly tyrannical, certainly unbalanced uncle. The story is funny, full of observation and commentary, and endowed with the wisdom of one who has seen the world and is on their way out, as O'Connor was by the time the Violent Bear it Away was written. In short, no library is complete without this work-the paramount achievement of one of the century's greatest authors.

O'Connor defended the grotesque element in her fiction this way:

"The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience. . . . you have to make your vision apparent by shock-to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures."

O'Connor is certainly a "novelist with Christian concerns." Some of her early reviewers misread her as satirizing her protagonists, in the manner of Erskine Caldwell's THE JOURNEYMAN. Nothing could be further from her intention. In THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY (VBIA), for example, she says that she if 100% on Mason Tarwater's side; that is, on the side of a violent old man, a self-styled backwoods prophet, who had been locked up four years in a mental institution.

Francis Tarwater's urban uncle Rayber sometimes experiences an "unhealthy" surge of absolute love, and with it, "a rush of longing to have to have the old man's [Mason's] eyes-insane, fish-colored, violent with their impossible vision of a world transfigured-turned on him once again." O' Connor sees Mason as a true prophet, in the line the equally mad OT prophets-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Hosea, etc. And she shares his insane vision of "a world transfigured"; ie, the Kingdom of God. Jesus himself may not have been a comfortable person to be around.

An interesting aspect of O'Connor's fiction is that she was a devout Catholic, yet Catholicism and Catholics play only a very small part in her fiction-and none at all in VBIA. She wrote about what she knew about, which was Southern evangelism. Indeed, in VBIA, no church is featured, and only once do we see Tarwater happening into a store-front church. Other than this, there is no churchgoing. The Christianity of her characters is a difficult, lonely one.

The psychological structure and center of VBIA, like that of WISE BLOOD and many of the stories, is the protagonist's resistance to vocation. Perhaps O'Connor would agree with Heraclitus that "character is fate," that is, that our true vocation is programmed deep within us. Tarwater expressed this in the trope "seeds dropped in the blood." The mark of one's true vocation seems to be the calling we fight hardest against. Rayber wages a successful fight against his vocation; Tarwater, an unsuccessful one.

The thematic center of the novel, as I see it, is the passage dealing with Rayber and divine love:

"For the most part Rayber lived with him [his retarded son Bishop] without being painfully aware of his presence but the moments would still come when, rushing from some inexplicable part of himself, he would experience a love for the child so outrageous that he would be left shocked and depressed for days, and trembling for his sanity. It was only a touch of the curse that lay in his blood.

"His normal way of looking at Bishop was as an X signifying the general hideousness of fate. He did not believe that he himself was formed in the image and likeness of God, but that Bishop was he had no doubt. The little boy was part of an equation that required no further solution--except at the moments when with little or no warning he would feel himself overwhelmed by the horrifying love. . . .

"He was not afraid of love in general. He knew the value of it and how it could be used. He had seen it transform in cases where nothing else had worked, such as with his poor sister. None of this had the least bearing on his situation. The love that would overcome him was of a different order entirely. It was not the kind that could be used for the child's improvement or his own. It was love without reason, love for something futureless, love that appeared to exist only to be itself, imperious and all-demanding, the kind that would cause him to make a fool of himself in an instant. . . ."

For O'Connor, God's love is "imperious and all-demanding," and "exists only to be itself."

Grim determinism pervades the lives of an emotionally troubled family in the American South in this gripping novel by Flannery O'Connor. Female characters are curiously absent, unable to survive the withering glare of white-hot emotions that drive the old uncle, his schoolteacher nephew, and his nephew and son. All of these men have been damaged - perhaps beyond repair - by the intensely unforgiving monomania with which the old man pursues his Christian mission as a 'prophet'. O'Connor explores how such deeply ingrained childhood experiences can compromise a boy's world view, and leave him a helpless outsider for the rest of his life. The old man fritters away his days railing against a world that sees him as insane. The schoolteacher, for all that he feels he has freed himself from the old man's obsession, not only finds himself fighting perverse impulses, but allows himself to fall into the opposite trap, putting too much faith in science and intellect and failing to recognize the importance of the unseen, the unheard, and the unmeasurable. The schoolteacher's nephew Francis Tarwater, the protagonist in the story, bitterly refutes both of these legacies, determined to live his own life and follow his own personal, hard-won brand of individualism. The progress he makes toward his ultimate fate is at once terrifying, inevitable, and unforgettable.

Despite its religious tropes, this book is not so much a critique of Christianity as it is about a certain kind of mental illness - an obsessive/compulsive disorder that creates an intellectual tunnel vision. The failed relationships this engenders only exacerbate the situation, and leave the sufferer feeling ostracized and angry, encouraging further antisocial acts. O'Connor is more interested in showing how the cycle of violent, antisocial behavior works than in offering advice, so the net result is more depressing than uplifting, but one can hope that modern psychiatric medicine might have found a way to help these people. This is not an entertaining book, but it is brief and throat-grabbingly powerful. Its unrelenting intensity is not for everyone, but it definitely rates as a classic example of Southern Gothic literature.