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I found the format extremely useful. The fact that I had "homework" kept me focused on the spiritual and psychological growth that I was experiencing and greatly enhanced the counseling sessions.
This book is a wonderful addition to one on one counseling and it gives the client and the therapist faster access to blocked and problem areas.
I highly recommend its use.
I wonder how many such circles I shall make before the binding wears out.
Two friends who recently saw the book on my coffee table pounced upon it and immediately resolved to purchase a copy themselves.
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There is some great (and at times surprising) fiction inside, which includes: an excerpt from Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man, Kafka's "In the Penal Colony," Sylvia Plath's story "The Fifteen Dollar Eagle," and Flannery O'Connor's "Parker's Back." O'Connor is always a joy to read, and this story is an especially good one. There's even a piece from Herman Melville (selected from Typee). Steve Vender has a most interesting piece on meeting one of the gang members he is to defend--this is a fascinating piece. And there are also vignettes scattered throughout where people discuss their tattoos, as well as other pieces of fiction.
And there's poetry by Thom Gunn, Kim Addonizio, Bob Hicok, Mark Doty, Cheryl Dumesnil, J.D. McClatchy, Tony Hoagland, Brenda Hillman, Laura A. Goldstein, Garnett Kilberg Cohen, Michael Waters, Joseph Millar, Katharine Whitcomb, Eliot Wilson, Bruce Bond, Virginia Chase Sutton, Lissette Mendez, Dzvinia Orlowsky, and Denise Duhamel.
Not only does it look impressive, it reads very, very well. I'm not surprised that Addonizio put together such a strong selection of work. I can't think of any other person who would have been more suited to this type of anthology. It's a great collection, one I'm sure everyone would enjoy reading.
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Dorothy's experiences illicit a wisdom which is timeless and universal. While an inquiring mind can discern many lessons from her writing, one of the most interesting to me was the notion of community-building. Toward the middle of the book we realize that Dorothy has successfully laid the foundation for her marriage and is preparing to lay the foundation for her young child. Through her activities, which she shares in her journal, we see how she is also building a strong foundation for the community of neighbors. Her attitude and activities in building relationships are as important and relevant today as they were in the remote wilderness in the 1930s. She lives and describes a universal truth about successful living. She writes, "We must live with the spirit of neighborliness uppermost...And it all begins at home."
Dorothy's words caused me to think and to reflect and to examine my own life. A good read, indeed.
Second, it is a great read because of the author's delightful writing style. Did ordinary people really used to write that well?!
Finally, Dorothy's Stormy Lake is a great read because of Dorothy's unwaveringly positive outlook. What a joy it is to read an author who loves life so completely. Despite having started out in a life of privilege and refinement, Dorothy embraces the hardships of her new life with enthusiasm and a sense of both wonder and adventure. This book is a great reminder of the wisdom of the old saying "life is what you make of it." Most of us would be well served by following Dorothy's example of paying attention to life's small pleasures and looking for (and finding) the best in everyone and everything.
On the book jacket it states that Dorothy wrote in her journal for many more years and that Joan Wooliver will be publishing those papers at a later date. I certainly hope that she is busy with that project because I can't wait to rejoin Dorothy in her life on her stormy lake.
A great read!
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Mason purchases Victoria's ranch from her brother, while in England. However, the ranch was not for her brother to sell, as it was left in a last minute will to Victoria. Nevertheless, Mason shows up with the right paperwork, and deed of sale - and the will Victoria has that her father made out before he died, hasn't been recorded until she brings it in to her lawyer's office. The will was witnessed by an employee at the ranch, and although it appears to be valid as well... Victoria and Mason must wait out the lawyer's research to find out who actually has the right to the property. Only both Victoria and Mason understand that possession is nine-tenths of the law, so Mason refuses to stay anywhere but the ranch until things are settled.
In the meantime, Mason brings his two sisters and three brothers to the ranch... which further upsets Victoria, watching her home be taken over by this big family. The family, determined to be together, and Victoria determined to be alone... all have some sacrifices to make.
It's a fun story to read, with these strangers being forced on each other... all trying to claim their legal property, but finding much more than a new home. That's not all to the story, like classic Garlock quality, the story is full of gunshot wounds, villians and outlaws, and danger lurking from all corners.
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Jane reminds of Jane Eyre. The trod upon Jane who falls for the powerful Mr. Rochester. Except hes now Mr. American Kilkenny.
Hes got Irish and Indian blood in him. Hes running the town.
And he finds her intriguing.
She has a painful secret. She doesn't want to share with anyone and this keeps her and Kilkenny apart for most of the story. Theres also the typical Garlock character of the woman beaten who has left her bad man and the obsessed maniacal person out to kill our heroine.
But---what I want to say is that its just good. It keeps you going and its a sweet romance. Its built up enough to make it believable and sentimental throughout the story.
Jane grows close to several other women in the story as well as Kilkennys people. They name them the family which is pretty cool.
Oh yeah and Colin Tallman shows up from "Larkspur" and falls in love.
Sorry this isn't the best review. I keep staying up late reading Ms. Garlock! This is one of the good ones! Also try "Larkspur" and "House on a Hill."
Jane Love is just one of many women that are trying to start a new life in Wyoming Territory, where T.C. Kilkenny is working to bring the old town to life again. Jane, as many of the other women, are almost running from their past lives, but each will learn you can't run and instead must face them head-on. This story is full of interesting characters... from the sweet and scared Polly that is pregnant from a recent rape... Sunday, the strong and beautiful woman with a mouth like a man, and is just as strong as one too... and Jane Love, who is carrying the burden of a terrible secret, that she is sure will shame her if discovered. From the very beginning, Jane begins receiving threatening notes... "I know who yu are."... which make her desperate to leave the town of Timbertown, Wyoming. However, T.C. is determined to keep her in the town, until he's ready for her to leave for his homestead ranch.
Also making their presence in this wonderful story is Colin Tallman - the son of Addie and John Tallman from "Yesteryear."
Readers will also learn the fates of Amy and Rain Tallman from "Dream River" - the grandparents of Colin Tallman. If you recognize the name Kilkenny, it is from "Midnight Blue." Moose Kilkenny was the bare-knuckle fighter that lost his title to Pack Gallagher... Moose is T.C.'s uncle. Milo Callahan returns to Garlock's stories from a villain in "Sins of Summer" to a villain in this story. Also mentioned in this book is Gerrick and Katy Rowe from "Nightrose."
Now for those of you that haven't read all these other books by Dorothy Garlock, you are in luck. You don't have to read any of them to follow along and understand everything that is happening. Those mentioned simply make it much more enjoyable for those of us that have read them all.
Next, I'm off to read Dorothy Garlock's "Sweetwater."
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What surprised me was this is the story that people refer to as their favorite, when they speak of Dorothy Garlock books to me - and for the life of me, I can't understand why. Though this review sounds quite negative, don't let it influence your decision too much... as it is a very, very good book... just not Ms. Garlock's best, in my opinion. So, read it... and then tell me what you think of it!
This is definitly heavier material than in most Garlock books but well worth it.
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Dinnerstein subverts the nuclear family like Daly subverts Christianity: Both writers expose the ugly misogyny at the core of old, venerable institutions. Dinnerstein was right to say the nuclear family of the mid-century was patriarchal and sexist. She is even right about the explanation for this, namely, that men are so humiliatingly indebted to women (who as mothers are their "first love, first witness, and first boss") that they grow up and say in effect "OK, now it's women's turn to feel inferior."
This is Dinnerstein's blazing truth: Women need to share their god-like maternal power, their be-all and end-all status in the eyes of helpless infants, toddlers, and children, if they are to escape the mutinous resentment this creates, resentment which later leads to adult male sexism.
But here is her glaring error: She assumes that as parents men and women play identical roles, that they raise children in a similar rather than complementary way. I think her ideas are like communism: good on paper but virtually unworkable in real life. Yes, many men since Dinnerstein wrote "The Mermaid and the Minotaur" in 1975 have taken a greater role in child-rearing (feeding, diapering, and singing lullabies) but usually they become their wives' junior partner rather than a coequal. This is because women for aeons have been slow-cooking the patience, compassion, and multi-tasking that parenting the very young requires. Men cannot just decide they're as skilled with babies and children as women are overnight, as a current film like Eddie Murphy's "Daddy Day Care" (2003) makes explicitly and hilariously plain.
I suspect that men have a different role in raising the young, one which ascends in importance as the mother's wanes. Masculinity, which has also been slow-cooking for aeons, is better suited than "sit still" femininity to an antsy, exploratory, risk-taking, lustful, transgressive lifestage called adolescence. It is here where men can make the best contribution to "child"-rearing, such as the mentoring of teen boys, which the Men's Movement has plaintively called for in the last 20 years.
Dinnerstein was right about one thing: Men and women deserve equal weight in the lives of the young. But since men and women are very different, even the opposite in some ways, we can expect their roles to be very different, even the opposite in some ways. Some of the best "fathers" I know exist outside of nuclear families, which tend anyway to turn adult males into bullies or eunuchs (or some strange combination of the two). These men are teachers, counselors, or simply "friends to the young." Their unfettered masculinity is a source of pride to themselves and excitement to their "sons" and "daughters."
If I don't agree with the conclusions of "The Mermaid and the Minotaur," why the solid 4-star review? Because this book is fiercely intelligent. Because it does the surprising, fusing Freud with feminism. Because of its unique organization: central text plus sidebars which develop certain thoughts further. Because it's a learned scientific text which is unafraid to call on the power of poetry. Because, except for her misplaced faith in a mass and permanent conversion to androgyny, Dinnerstein had it right: We need fathers.
This is a book that combines crystalline prose and incisive rational argument with passion and emotion. She argues for nothing less than a radical restructuring of the human family, and of the social/economic relationships that undergird family life. The kernel of her argument is that so long as we all are raised (exclusively or predominantly) by our mothers or by female caregivers, children will grow up with a deep-seated resentment of the feminine (since no parent can perfectly anticipate a child's needs, and all children, in growing up, will be conditioned by our infantile rage at our parent's imperfections).
There's much more to it than this. I've read dozens of self-help and pop psychology books (think of Deborah Tannen and John Gray) which try to explain why males and females are the way they are; I've never read an analysis which goes as deeply as this one into a powerful and persuasive explanation of the role of sexuality in the formation of human character. If you read this book and pay attention, you will experience multiple shocks of recognition; you will suddenly understand your self and your relationships with the opposite sex in a new light; and you may even be persuaded to change the way you live your life and raise your children.
At the age of twenty, I was persuaded by Dinnerstein to be (when I did have kids) an active and equal participant in the raising of my children, from changing diapers to feeding and everything else. I was so convinced of the importance of her analysis, and of its potential to change lives, that I have, in the past few decades, bought and given away as gifts eighty-eight copies to male and female friends. (I figured that if I just told people what a great book it was, few would follow up, but that if I actually bought it and thrust it into their hands, they might be moved to actually read it.) I'm not sure how many of these were actually read by the recipients. But I can report that out of 88 copies given away, eight people came to me afterward and said something to the effect of, "This book changed my life." I think that's not a bad rate of return, especially when you consider that many people probably never got around to looking at it, or never had the patience to follow the argument through to the end.
One bit of advice: Dinnerstein frequently interrupts herself to continue lines of thought in footnotes, endnotes, and boxes which focus on various controversies, reviews of other authors, and parenthetical developments of the whole structure of her argument. It is worth your while to read this book through, if not on the first go-round, then at least once, in exactly the sequence she sets forth: that is, when you see a footnote, or a note saying "See Box F for further development of this point," stop the linear reading and follow her through all the eddies in the current of thought.
The book is a masterpiece of social criticism; a classic of feminist analysis; an important addition to the literature of psychoanalysis which rescues Freud for feminism; and a book that can change forever the way you view yourself, your relations with your partner, and your children.
I'm older and wiser now, and it remains to be seen how my children will benefit from growing up with a dad who changed their diapers, cooked for them, and took too long getting up in the middle of the night to attend to their needs. But I am convinced that this book is one of a handful which, if read and assimilated by everyone, would make the world a better place.
I did not find her hard reading at all and I delighted in her sardonic humor, but another book that talks about similar issues, and in really nice prose, is Lillian B. Rubin's "Intimate Strangers: Men and Women Together." In a footnote of that, I discovered Dinnerstein. Anyway, I've never met anyone else who's read Dinnerstein--though I've pestered others to read it--so I'd be very glad to get email: snowden666@yahoo.com (for a character in Catch-22, but a lot of other people had the same idea).
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The guide is organized into eight regions in Scotland and every site within each region is rated with 0-3 stars. The focus of the guide is historical places 5000 BC to 1700 AD, so Culloden Moor, for example, is not included in the 'Index of Sites'. Included selections are organized along a time line in an appendix so that if, for example, you only wanted to visit only Medieval places you could do so. Appreciative of the popularity of "Braveheart" the Ruzickis include a good deal of information about Stirling and Bannockburn and other locations associated with William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. Apparently, Stirling has much to recommend it beyond the 'Braveheart' connections, not the least of which is an easy drive from Glasgow or Perth.
What may be of great interest to the traveler with an "antiquarian" bent and plenty of time to drive to more remote areas, are ancient sites such as the 'Standing Stones of Callanish' (Calanais) that rival Stonehenge; 'Dun Trodden' and 'Dun Telve' in the Northwest Highlands; and 'Mousa Broch' that can only be reached by ferry across a temperamental sea. Later period sites closer to the central cities such as Jedburgh Abbey founded in 1138 by David I; Traquair built in 1107 AD and continuously inhabited since; or the ruins of Castle Tioram where Robert the Bruce once lived are also identified.
There are many interesting and useful books on Scotland, but if you're brave enough to travel independently and hankering to find ancient sites not always included in mainstream publications, check out this book. In addition to the "where to go" and "what to see", the Ruzicki's include much practical information about traveling independently, including a chapter on driving in Scotland.
In this book, the author points out the positive ways of dealing with change and how to plan and approach this new period in the lifecycle. Anyone approaching mid-life can certainly benefit from this book; it is never to soon to plan for the future. If you are already into your retirement years, this book may be just the inspiration you need if the years are not as challenging and fulfilling as you anticipated. The author has a lot to say on the subject and it is a great book based on sound advice.