Away

This book was probably better than I give it credit for, but I've just read too many books lately about good-for-nothing men leaving their wives- wives who are (incredibly) still in love with the scumbags, but who then in the end finally become their own person and realize they are better off without those losers (duh!)-although to give credit where credit is due, this book was written before most of the others. Remember in Open House, where the first guy to show up after the split then turns out to be the next boyfriend? Ditto here. And Daria's sleazy husband Ross is even in the same line of work as Tara Road's Ria's just as sleazy husband Danny: real estate. This story of women's husbands turning out to be jerks and the women they leave reconstructing their lives was just too familiar to be very enjoyable.

I read this book as a selection for the book club I belong to. I found it to be a very accurate story about a divorce where deception is involved. It is also accurate about the wife's difficulty in seeing her husband as he is rather than as she believed him to be. As a divorced woman I could relate to many aspects of the story. So much so that the beginning was very hard to read. Even though the real estate story line seems far fetched, it is entirely believable to me. Truth is stranger than fiction.

I liked many of the characters in the story. I have recently started reading another of Marge Piercy's books. Unfortunately, it is not as readable as this book was.

This is Ms. Piercy's best book--I've read it more than once, and wish she would write a sequel to it. Daria Walker is a character I relate to--a woman who learns to live on her own, and has a better life because of it.

Though the take on the story is original, I wasn't that impressed with it. The plot itself has a nice twist on teh amnesia trick but the twist of timetraveling really didn't live up to its' premise for me. A good, lazy, easy read that shoudl be purchsed used and new.

I happened to pick up this book as the plot sounded interesting. I read it and loved it -- then when I was checking out the forepages to check to see if she'd written others I might want to check out also, I found out that Harper Allen is a pseudonym of Sandra Hill.

Harper Allen's first Intrigue is a real treat, expertly balancing action, mystery, and romance with ease. For several years, Dana Smith has been living trying to live a normal life, even though she has no idea who she is or what happened to her in the past. Then one night, a ripple in time sends her back to the 1930s, and into the arms of Gabriel O'Shaunessy. The private eye recognizes her all right, since he was the one accused of killing her when she mysteriously disappeared. Suddenly returned to her old life--and her own time--Dana has to join forces with Gabe. Because someone did try to kill her, and is picking up where he left off, all because of something Dana knows, but can't remember.

Allen handles Dana and Gabe's love story with a skill that keeps us invested in their story, and the mystery continues nonstop, gaining momentum through a series of revelations, until delivering the trademark Intrigue twist when the killer's identity and motive are revealed. I almost can't believe this is her first novel, like the author's note says; it's so well-written. This is definitely one writer to watch out for. If there was anything I really didn't care for, it was the time-travel element, which seemed kind of pointless (and the epilogue was too cute.) But of course, there isn't a lot of call for mystery-romances set in the 1930s, and Allen handles her setting so well, we should just be glad she was able to deliver this book, no matter what she had to do to make it acceptable for series romance. A definite winner.

First off, I am a huge fan of Mark Eitzel and AMC, so that's not an issue. I was excited to read this book because I was a late convert to the music and was looking forward to catching up on the story I'd missed behind the band I dug. Body's culling together of reviews and interviews is admirable, and the depth of factual research in general is impressive. Die-hard AMC/Eitzel fans aren't going to be able NOT to appreciate the concentration of information here.

My reservations about the book deal with the telling of the story; I really don't think there's much surprising or new in here. Body insists that--and quotes others' insisting that--Eitzel is "one of the greatest living songwriters," but he doesn't really try to test the whys and hows of this claim beyond uttering the normal platitudes about touching deep common emotional chords. But every review of every AMC/Eitzel album has already told us that.

Slightly more off-putting was...how shall I call it?...a disturbing textual relationship between Body's work and some of his source material. I'll cite one example. As Body describes Eitzel's recorded solo show in 1991 (that ended up as "Songs of Love Live"), "People called out for requests contantly, mouthed the words to songs, and generally revelled in what felt like a semi-religious event; part stand-up comedy, part theatre, part concert and part revivalist meeting" (103). Compare Andrew Smith's review of the concert, reprinted in the CD's liner notes: "Tonight, the atmosphere in the Borderline was like a cross between a revivalist gospel service, an intimate jazz club and a pantomime. People called for songs, mouthed the words, even commented on them between numbers..." What's going on here? I understand that re-creating concerts one might not have attended could be a difficult proposition, but a little more gracious disclosure as to the origin of the description might be warranted in this case. I'm almost afraid to look at the other reviews that might have been consulted in the writing of the book.

If you want the history of AMC, you'll get it. The sound bites from Eitzel alone are practically worth the price of the book. I was just a little disappointed, after finishing "Wish the World Away," that a book about an artist so unafraid of picking at his own wounds seemed to pull up short of considering some of the harder questions in a fresh way.

Pros: Great facts and research are here. Vudi's hippie parents living in the hills, Mark's sister listening to him strum from outside his bedroom door, Tom Mallon on the floor, splicing Mark's vocals by hand to get them to match the beat.

Cons: English people seem to miss the point about AMC. On the page, the music sounds merely deep and beautiful. It seems to lack complexity, humor, irony, or edge for the English. Also, I don't need a blow by blow of every concert! Help! Cut them out! Basta! Enough! We also don't get to learn about any of the musicology of what makes Eitzels song's so great.

Best quote: "AMC signed nearly every contract and piece of paper ever put in front of them"...Now THAT'S self distructive! That outdoes Hammer of the Gods or Up and Down with the Rolling Stones for sure...

If only moments: Everclear is not released as AMC's first major label record. That dude produces Mercury and it sounds like the backing track to an NPR story. Help!

Mark Eitzel is an exceptionally talented songwriter and performer, not to mention a complex, intriguing human being who, as this book shows, has occasionally been his own worst enemy. Sean Body's excellent biography of Eitzel and American Music Club gives insight into a wonderful band who were critically lauded and publicly ignored, and a music industry that simply didn't seem to know what to do with them. Despite the absence of a happy ending, this remains a curiously uplifting story, told with grace by an author who clearly understands and respects his subject matter. Highly recommended.

How many times have you considered the VFW a local eatery?
We tried using the book and found it to be a serious let down. A day trip to Sealy? What is the purpose? Hinze's Bar-B-Que is very good but you can find better without leaving Houston.
To be fair, we did not try all the trips, but the ones we did try left a lot to be desired. Not for people interested in getting out of the car.

We are new to Houston, and have lots of company, as well as liking to explore and find new restaurants, shops, activities, beautiful views, etc. for ourselves. We have learned so much about Houston and the surrounding area in a few short weeks thanks to this book. And, every recommendation we have tried has panned out well!!

I purchased this book last year and LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!It covers almost every festival and other happening there is within driving distance of Houston. You will still probably want to call and check to make sure of the date of the festival (or other event) that you are interested in. The book provides the phone numbers to the chambers of commerce, etc. which makes it easier to find out all of that good stuff. So if you like taking short trips, THIS BOOK IS A MUST HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought this book because I was thinking about getting married in Ireland. I found more information on the internet than I found in the book and the internet is free. The book is well written and the information is helpful but trust me you can get the same information and more on the internet at no cost to you. I did.

There are hundreds of books out there about planning weddings, but few offer help for elopements or destination weddings. This is the best I've seen. There are tons of useful tips about everything from obtaining a license, "peak" and "off peak" months for different geographic regions, packing your wedding attire, wording announcements, and especially places to go and who to contact when you get there. I have at least three books on destination weddings and this is Far and Away the BEST!! Denise and Alan also have a fabulous web site!

This book is just what it says it is -- advice for planning your wedding from long-distance. Full of practical tips including questions to ask vendors, strategies if you can only make one visit to the site, etc. Good value!

I've been a fan of Margolies since his first book, and I ordered this with high expectations.

Unfortunately, this book is almost completely advertisements and memorabia. There is very little narrative. Like another reviewer, I was quite disappointed that there was only a sketchy outlining of the various transitions that motels have progressed through over the generations. I got the impression that Mr. Margolies probably had most of these old brochures, cards, maps, etc., and simply assembled these in a chronological format.

On the other hand, if you are a fan of Margolies's photography, his own photographs in the book match his earlier photographic achievements.

This book is probably worth the price of admission, but I'd like to see a more comprehensive history of twentieth-century hospitality industry.

For all of us who stayed at the one and two story roadside motels of the 1960s and 1970s, this book will bring back great travel memories as well as educate us on the precurser to these lodging establishments. Fascinating and fast reading and it made me go out and locate some of the motels near my residence. The only down side is that it could have used a little more history on the early motel chains and the history of their demise. A section on motel bilboards would also have been entertaining. Otherwise, a great historical book.

Anyone who enjoys reading about roadside culture will enjoy this book. It brings back great memories of those family roadtrips and how exciting it was as a kid to stay in a motel. It also entices you to seek out the quirky and fun motels next time you're in need of an overnight stay. John Margolies is an excellent author and photographer. I highly recommend this book!

I liked Mr. Stumpf's sense of humor. His reflections on our current social design standards were amusing as well as depressing. A dry read which moistened towards the end.

This book is for any designer who believes our craft is about more than making a better product...but also a better way of life. How do we improve the level of spiritual experiences that connect between a companys products or architecture and the human beings who use them. One example that Stumpf brings up is the experiences we have on airplanes. Plane travel is usually a very tiring experience for most travellers. But why does it have to be that way? A plane brings us so much closer to the sky that it might be enjoyable if telescopes were hooked up so that people can do some star gazing etc. My first reaction was "Yeah Right" to many of the examples that Stumpf illustrated. But on second thought I began to realize that Stumpfs thinking is exactly what we need in todays commercial industry. Products and services these days are created only for profit but advertised as if they will improve our quality of life. And maybe they do. But Stumpf is talking about a more spiritual "Quality of Life." The kind that gives a person memories. The kind that makes a person connect as a human being with all the creations we impose upon society. What I admire most about the book is that it dares to be optimistic. I can't say that all of the ideas mentioned in here are practical...but so what? The idea, I believe, is to get designers and architects to put more heart into their creations. To consider the spiritual functions of what we do...and not just the marketing functions. This book, I say, is a good read. Take your time reading it. Read it during a quiet rainy day while drinking some coffee. Enjoy the experience (hint. hint)

Very inspiring, full of perspective on the world of 'things' that surround us. A quick read that takes us through very profoud territory. A must for any one that is interested in understanding the way we receive products and social standards into our lives. It fully lives up to its sub title.

I bought this book, imagining it was filled with fans doting on about my favourite movie series. But in fact, it was filled with that awful self-important ranting that so many annoying critics favour. Some of the chapters were ammusing trips down memory lane, a trip I can certainly share. But most were simply attacks on the Star Wars saga (a more and more common stance these days, since George has now decided that Greedo fired first, and since he introduced us to Jar Jar Binks, it has become cool to rag on the series). I began skipping chapter after chapter, constantly muttering under my breath, "Why did I waste my money on this opinionated gobbledygook!?"
Save your time and your money. Unless of course you enjoy listening to critics whine about how stupid things are.

Don't listen to disgruntled Star Wars fans on this book. There are only a few out and out negative pieces here (one, "Jedi Uber Alles" by Tom Carson, is actually pretty good); most are fond, respectful, but above all they're *interesting.* No, this isn't a licensed love fest. Nor does it claim to be. It's about how the movies have affected our culture and our minds, and it's done so in good and bad ways. Star Wars, as this book's editor Glenn Kenny points out, did not at all kill movies. But it seems pretty inarguable that it made them louder and dumber, which (again as Kenny points out) is weird because George Lucas is the world's biggest independent filmmaker who controls with an auteur's pickiness his own product. But anyway: The really good essays here are Jonathan Lethem's (about seeing Star Wars 21 times in one summer), Tom Bissell's (about Boba Fett), Todd Hanson's (about The Phantom Menance), Lydia Millet's (about Darth Vader), Elvis Mitchell's (about Lando), and the above-mentioned Carson essay which I hate as a fan but admit makes some good points. There are also some really quite dreadful essays (say nothing but good of the dead) which I won't stoop to name. All Star Wars fans should get this book; it's important, and it's funny, and it has smart, tough things to say.

A GALAXY NOT SO FAR AWAY is a collection of essays that attempt to illustrate just how far reaching STAR WARS has impacted and influenced our society and culture. Most of the essays are positive, many are humorous, and several are nostaligiac in their reflections. Some, however are negative and a few are quite thought provoking. I especially enjoyed reading Kevin Smith's "Married to the Force" and Todd Hansen's "A Big Dumb Movie About Space Wizards". The two essays that paint the STAR WARS phenomenon in the most negative light "Jedi Uber Alles" and "Anakin, Get Your Gun" are also the two essays that made me pause and think the most. I also enjoyed the essay that illustrated just how STAR WARS has influenced hip-hop music, suggesting that hip-hop wouldn't exist (at least not in it's current form) without STAR WARS.

This book is not a collection of essays about "What STAR WARS means to me" (though there are a few of those in here). Instead, it is a book illustrating just how huge and powerful the little space opera that could has influenced our society. This is a great book for most STAR WAR fans or for anyone interested in popular culture.

The popularity of JUST A SISTER AWAY, like many books published during the past ten years, is not necessarily a reliable indicator of insightful images of African American women, or valid evidence of reflective and exploratory interpretations of the Bible. Where is the global currency within these portraits of women in the Bible via African America? How can we sit along other sisters of the global community who may view us through these interpretations of Weems, that may not necessarily reflect the intentions or evidence of interventions of God? Through her own imagination and experiences, as she admits, her book consists of "creative reconstructions of the possible emotions and issues that motivated biblical women in their relations with each other". She continues by admitting her conjectures are based upon her own assumptions and perhaps from personal experiences. The difficulty I have in accepting this book as anymore than another tool of "edutainment" and "quick -fixed theraupy" is based upon the conditions we are currently facing in African America due to our avoidance of acknowledging and addressing these areas ignored within her assumption. Time, culture, lifestyles, and attitudes have tremendous impact upon how we interpret women of any era, particularly in the Bible, and how we find relevance within their stories for our generation and those yet to come. Weems, however, reduces the attention on God in her book and raises the issues facing a particular segment of oppressed women. There simply is no easy way to project their conditions upon ours. And why should we? We have enough difficulty in trying to relate to those within our own time period and hemisphere. Why impose upon a segment of antiquity, especially without addressing the class differences among the women in the Bible? Throughout my observations of and participation with modern African women, I have found that there is very little difficulty in their speaking for themselves, through a variety of communication modes (not always speech or writing). This stereotype of African women as victims of male dominance is true for some. But there are those who come from matriarchal societies where women remain powerful and independent, and they need not shout nor whine about it. This is also a part of the African American woman's experience, as well. If our female ancestors in America had spent time publicly complaining and justifying their shortcomings as reflected in some current literature, we would not have many of the institutions or benefits we enjoy, today. As written by Tatangi Mani, a Native American Chief, "Civilized people depend too much on man-made printed pages". Let us, like Mani, turn to the Great Spirit's book which is the whole of creation". Let us not forget the many ways God is revealed.There are African American women who speak from their experiences with God, and not necessarily as reactions to societal abuse, only. I am not minimizing the devastation and violence of humans towards one another, whether men or women. What I am emphasizing is that a higher view of Jesus' righteousness that is interpreted in how we live will reconstruct as Weems desires, much faster than participating in "artistic license". Art requires that we portray God to His people via life and methods of overcoming sin. Art, whether literary or some other,will be held accountable for its use as a vehicle of both human and divine expression. Currently, the image of African American women is under siege globally and such portrayals as those interpreted by Dr. Weems, whether justified or not, have grave consequences. This is not an issue of censorship, which is upheld by civil and constitutional law. This is an issue of communal consequences and long-range vision. This is also an issue of priorities. Where are the women who are addressing the problem of males and females who are incarcerated at the peak of their chronological years of productivity? Where are the artists who are addressing the problem of idle minds (theirs and their loved ones) that continue to resist being completely non-productive by participating in death-focused behavior? Where is the scholarship by women on issues that reflect the uniqueness-not weakness- of God through mere presence and productivity of women? Perhaps, we have had to come through a time in the history of America, when authors like Weems, and others, answered an immediate need during a pivotal era in African America and the lives of the women. Granted, we have benefitted from their candor and their insight. But now, let us move on and "get over" it. Forgetting and forgiving those things in the past, let us move on towards our higher calling and seize the opportunity for a corrected position and interpretation of African women of antiquity and modernity on the Continent and throughout the Diaspora.

This book was assigned as a text for a narrative theology course at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. I started it with great misgivings expecting a highly biased interpretation. Instead I found a well balanced retelling of Biblical stories about the relationships between women. Weems wears her scholarship lightly, writting a highly readable book. Her interpretation not only makes you reconsider relationships that she discovers but also gently encourages one to explore other aspects of the relationships.

An excellent approach and personalization of women we have read about in the Holy Scriptures--but may have dared not think about beyond the verbatim of the written word. Yet, why not ? This is truly a work that must have warmed the very heart of God !

I wasn't expecting a comprehensive volume...it does say "booklet", but if you don't count the bibliography (the same list of books I found by searching Amazon), the table of contents, the order form for Ms. Bouton's other books, etc....you're left with exactly 15 pages--each with about 2 narrow paragraphs of obvious and boring suggestions. There's less content here than you would find on a website or perhaps in a pamphlet being handed out at a class or conference....not worth paying for, though.

Eldonna Bouton has packed a punch with this booklet on how to write and keep a journal! In the booklet's 32 pages, she has included 20 different journaling methods; prompts to get you started; and the "rules" of journaling (of which there are none!) If you have always wanted to keep a journal but didn't know where to start, Bouton's "Write Away" is the perfect beginning for you! Enjoy!

Simple, motivating and friendly. With so many books with overwelming content, Write Away cuts to the chase in its accessible approach to writing. The author provides warm support with her simple style and encouragement. I have been journaling for years and this excellent manual surprised me with all of its little nuggets of inspiration. Well done Eldonna Bouten!