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Book reviews for "Karrer,_Paul" sorted by average review score:

Writer on the Rocks: Moving the Impossible
Published in Paperback by About Time Press (1999)
Authors: Linda Tatelbaum, Bonnie Farmer, and Paul Caponigro
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So much heart!
This is a writer with so much heart! I wouldn't live off the land if you held a gun to my head, yet I was deeply inspired by this woman's life and work. Tatelbaum presents her unusual lifestyle--she's a longtime homesteader--as a metaphor for creativity: both its curses and its pleasures. A wonderful book, especially if you're a writer or painter or musician--someone who knows how hard it is to keep going in the face of rejection.

inspiring piece of writing
Linda Tatelbaum has a real gift with language- of taking the most mundane tasks of ordinary country life and transforming them into something that provides tremendous meaning and inspiration. The format of the book- much like a college curricula- is both stimulating and progressively enriching. One does not need to be a "homesteader" or "back to the lander" to appreciate the true meaning of "moving rocks"


Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, Updated Edition With a New Preface
Published in Hardcover by University of California Press (13 July, 1999)
Author: Paul Farmer
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Complex causality: why people are really at risk for disease
Finally Dr. Farmer couples his lucid historical, political and economic analyses of the conditions that put the poor at risk for bad health outcomes, with a plainly indignant calling out of healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations to make honest efforts to understand and remedy conditions which would never be tolerated among the well off in Western nations. In his goundbreaking, earlier books, "AIDS and Accusations," and "The Uses of Haiti," Dr. Farmer matter of factly discusses the global and local structural conditions and misrepresentations which led to the spread of disease and persistent, dismal health conditions in Haiti. In "Infections and Inequality," Dr. Farmer adds moral overtones to incisive, sociopolitical analysis and his characteristic accounts of individuals suffering from disease. The book consequently provides a powerful reflection from a man who has worked in some of the world's poorest regions on what the benefits of medical technology mean for people who have not traditionally had access to them. A powerful, informative read that clearly reflects the years of experience of a physician who has wrestled with the global responsibility of caring for the those who are worst off. An obligatory read for anyone even thinking of working for the impoverished of the world.


Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor
Published in Hardcover by University of California Press (2003)
Author: Paul Farmer
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important topic with a unique approach
Farmer is both an MD and anthropologist, and his writings of disease and the poor (topics unfortunately remote to most westerners) are very personal and interesting. He is a hands-on care giver in Haiti and also a powerful influence in the world politics of third world medical care. Please read this book.


Powerline: The First Battle of America's Energy War
Published in Paperback by Univ of Minnesota Pr (Txt) (2003)
Authors: Paul Wellstone, Barry M. Casper, and Senator Tom Harkin
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powerline
This book was published approx. 30 yrs. ago. Most of the factual information is current in todays energy enviroment.Property issues vs.energy/economics is somewhat the "David & Golieth"of twenty first century.


Sigmar Polke: Photoworks: When Pictures Vanish
Published in Hardcover by Distributed Art Publishers (1996)
Authors: Sigmar Polke, Maria Morris Hambourg, Russell Ferguson, Paul Schimmel, John Alan Farmer, Sue Henger, Calif.) Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Site Santa Fe (Gallery), and Corcoran Gallery of Art
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Sigmar Polke : Photoworks : When Pictures Vanish
This book shows his master of the darkroom, making all his works unique to themselves. If you are into black & white photography and printing this book is a revelation of what is possible.


Inside the Pike Place Market: Exploring America's Favorite Farmers' Market
Published in Paperback by Sasquatch Books (2003)
Authors: Braiden Rex-Johnson and Paul Souders
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Smooth history and lush photos of Seattle's best loved place
Inside the Pike Place Market lives up to its title. It delivers a "day in the life" of the Market village, plus color pushed photos from angles never before seen. And, 20 recipes as a bonus. I collect Market books, photos, and printed ephemera but nothing since Victor Steinbruecks Market Sketch Book brings the reader so close to the people and activity of the Market as Rex-Johnson's Inside.....

Inside the Pike Place Market
Braiden Rex-Johnson has written a foodies delight. Sumptuously decorated with the photographs of Paul Soders, Rex-Johnson's exploration of Pike Place Market is candy for all the senses. This is NOT a cookbook. There are just 20 recipes (all very good). Rather, this is a delightful narrative of the history of the market, the people and products that inhabit it, and the terrific food that emerges from it. Braiden-Rex is deeply in love with her market, and it shows in her wonderful book. When you finish the book, you'll be hungry, but very, very satisfied.

Inside the Pike Place Market
I rarely read a food-related book, skimming instead for any nuggets of wisdom, or a select recipe or two. But few such books are as well-written as Braiden Rex-Johnson's "Inside the Pike Place Market." I opened to the first paragraph and just couldn't put it down. Part history, part travelogue, part cookbook, and lavishly illustrated with Paul Souders' photographs, this is indeed a book to savor from beginning to end.


The Land Remembers: The Story of a Farm and Its People
Published in Paperback by NorthWord Press (1999)
Authors: Ben Logan and Paul Zimmer
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A time capsule of growing up on a farm.
One room school house, the changing of the seasons and the farm chores for each one...a memior of one man's boyhood experiences. I liked this book and my husband liked it even more than I did. He was born and raised in rural WI, picking rocks, milking, and going sledding with his brothers. This book is well written and reads like a time capsule...the people & chores on a family farm. I would have given it a perfect 5 stars, but there is too much about bees. Less bee watching and the author would have a classic here. Great that his story goes full circle. We learn what happens to the people we've read and cared about...which is always gratifying to us readers.

One of my all time favorites
This is one of those books I will always remember. My children were young when I read it and I felt that it contained many lessons on how to be a good parent. And all in the context of very enjoyable reading. The story about learning to use the horse drawn cultivator shows how a parents help their child develop self-confidence, which is something I see so many people lacking. I can't say enough good things about this gem of a book.

One of my favorites!
This book is full of humor and spends wonderful time on how a farm is run, explaining the land, the chores, the wonder of living on a farm. Ben's antics with his brothers are delightful, and his account of his evenings with his family are memorable. I read this anytime I need a lift, and share its richness with anyone who will listen.


AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame (Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care, No 33)
Published in Hardcover by University of California Press (1992)
Author: Paul Farmer
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One of the 4-Hs shouldn't be.
This book dispels the common myths of Haitians and AIDS. It also shows very clearly the heavy involvement of the United States in creating the poverty Haiti has faced. This book makes use of statistics well, but unfortunately, at this point those stats are many years old. When Farmer wrote this book, only three people in the village of Do Kay had died of AIDS. Now, with huge percentages of Haitians exposed to HIV, the picture must certainly look different. This book is a geat candidate for a revised edition some time in the future.

Reading this book will change your life
Farmer's excellent historical ethnography of Haitian illness (as seen through the contemporary context of the world AIDS epidemic), proves the necessity of developing anthropological approaches to understanding health systems and implementing medical care. The diagnosis and analysis of sickness, disease, illness, and treatment should go hand-in-hand with the cultural understanding of local systems of blame, accusation, causation, and cure. Where most approaches to medicine are based on the "Westernized" first-world nations' understanding of the causes of illness (tainted as well, as Farmer shows, by systematic "blame the victim" and shame techniques), the adoption of these approaches in treating the illnesses of other peoples can be catastrophic. Three ethnographies make up the structure of a detailed historical inquiry )

The longstanding tradition of conceiving of illness through the lens of powerlessness shapes the contemporary lives of the people in Haiti with whom Farmer worked. Although they could see the effects of the illness, people in this region were obsessed with the cause of the illness, and felt the need to understand AIDS through a constructed narrative of blame. A deep belief in their religion led villagers to look for the source of witchcraft that could possibly be harming them, and elaborate stories about neighbors, jealousies, and rivalries flourished as a result. Any improvement in the standing of one member of the society (through wealth, status, relationships, acquisition of property or food, or political power through employment or marriage) adds to the structure of distrust and blame.

Farmer's book shows how disturbingly complex and deep the layers of mistrust, misinformation, and the effects of racism, are. Among the medical hypotheses for the probable exposure is the theory of Haitian sex-workers' contacts through gay tourists to the early strains of HIV. Farmer outlines the long history of Haiti as a gay tourist attraction, and Duvalier's encouragement of tourism as a boost to the domestic economy. Although the possible cause of the gay sex trade for HIV exposure has not been confirmed, medical establishments in the U.S. based their theories of causation on other factors, such as Haitian religious practices. These theories were, in truth, reinforcing longstanding ignorance and racist misunderstandings about Haitian vodou. Stereotypes and racial profiling of Haitian citizenship as a "risk factor" (one of the "Four H's" along with hemophiliac, homosexual, and heroin user), contributed to public policies against Haitian immigrants. Haitians' belief that they are being attacked by some evil sorcery in the guise of a fatal illness called sida falls into place amidst the context of extreme antagonism and injustice.

While reading this book, I was compelled to ask myself if there isn't some truth in Haitians' understanding of AIDS as the result of malicious sorcery. Haiti was the only American society to successfully result from the direct action of a revolution against slavery and colonialism. As such, the small nation governed by creoles and black ex-slaves presented a threat to North and South American colonial societies, which were firmly entrenched in slave labor economic systems. Historically, the threat of a repeat of the Haitian revolution must have terrified white European landowners. This terror of African power and strength has been passed on in a racist legacy, adapted to political policies and nationalist agendas, and still exists in ignorant beliefs about AIDS and its causes. Haitians believe that they are victims of a longstanding racist agenda, and they may in fact be right. Farmer's book begins to illuminate some of the complicated historical and ethnographic realities of the overlapping connections between illness and racism, and between causes and effects.

Informative and thought provoking
I read this book for a medical anthropology class and found it incredibly interesting in its discussion of the politics and racism involved in the US treatment of AIDS in Haiti. It delves into how the American presence and influences lead to and exasperated the widespread AIDS and poverty problems in Haiti.


The Uses of Haiti
Published in Paperback by Common Courage Press (1999)
Authors: Paul Farmer and Jonathan Kozol
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A Jaded Humanitarian
The work Paul Farmer has done in Haiti is admirable, though his relationship with the Aristide's is not. It is hardly fair for this book to marketed as a doctor's perspective on the many problems in Haiti when Farmer openly talks of his close association with the Presidency to Congress and others. He receives money directly from Aristide for his work and has become a veritable spokesman for the Palace on issues not soley pertaining to health. The reader should know this before diving into Farmer's slam on US policy towards Haiti. In deed, he is so in bed with Aristide he's been blinded by his own manipulation.

The truth about U.S. Haitian foreign policy
I read Dr. Farmer's first book "Aids and Accusation" after it was given to me by his sister Jennifer. The book really opened my eyes to the modern Haitian condition and how the origin of AIDS has been "pinned" on this tiny nation. "The Uses of Haiti" tells the truth about the U.S. policy towards Haiti, its upperhanded subversion of democracy for a people it considers less-than-human; a policy that, unfortunately, is not restricted to just Haiti. I only wish that Dr. Farmer's work could be exposed to a larger audience.

The best book yet written on Haiti
Farmer writes with passion and precision of the deleterious effects of American policy on the lives of ordinary Haitians. A truly exceptional book.


Five-Minute Art Ideas: Print Scissors Glue Paint
Published in Hardcover by Smithmark Publishing (1997)
Authors: Paul Harrison, Nicola Wright, Helen Bunford, Clare Beaton, Lynn Farmer, Chris Dymond, and Helen Burnford
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Quick/Easy/Fun art ideas for parents or teachers
The ideas for art projects here really do take about five minutes to prepare, which is a blessing if you've ever spent more time setting up an art project than a child actually spent doing it! Many of the projects are original, some are fresh variations of more familiar techniques. This is a good reference for teachers, parents, and anyone who works with children, especially at this price. Another good point about the ideas is that they are easily adaptable for a wide variety of ages, from preschool to elementary age children. Good for rainy days activities, birthday parties or presents, and any day you need a quick, easy, and fun art project that turns out well.

Nice Art Book
I bought this book to use with my School Age Child Care Program. The children have loved doing the projects. Don't let the title fool you, the art ideas take longer than five minutes to complete. As one reviewer already stated, these projects only take five minutes to set up. The book is divided into four sections: print, glue, scissors, paint. I am really happy with this purchase!


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