Used price: $18.95
Buy one from zShops for: $19.46
Welcome to American politics. Harry Lonsdale is a well known figure from Oregon's recent political past--a three time candidate for U.S. Senator. This book describes the process of running for high office, and losing, from the mellowed perspective of seven to twelve years' time.
The book is a must-read for anyone running, or helping someone run, for high political office, especially in Oregon. And it will give the much wider audience of the tens of thousands of people who receive fundraising calls from candidates some sense of the anguish on the other end of the line. It gives a detailed view of the process of running: his motivation to run, the setting up a campaign staff, speechmaking, handshaking, meeting-going, and especially of the numbing process of dialing for dollars from individual contributors. It was most detailed in its view of the 1990 election between Mark Hatfield and Harry Lonsdale, Hatfield's only close brush with electoral defeat.
The book isn't a tell-all. No great secrets are finally told. And it isn't particularly a book of score-settling. A number of people disappointed Harry over the years (particularly senior Democrats who thought they would 'back a winner' and supported Hatfield) but Harry is quite kind to those people. The news media angered Harry, but the anger has mellowed into disappointment and resignation that the news media are simply businesses, in it for the money, not the opportunity to create a better democracy. Mssrs. Goldschmidt, AuCoin, Hatfield, and Packwood are all described negatively, as is most of the news media, but the comments aren't meanspirited, and are positively fairminded when compared to the 30-second attack ads that marked the campaign wars.
Harry describes the power of money in politics, from the unique vantage point of someone who had some (which allowed him to be the candidate to take on Hatfield in 1990) and of someone who didn't have enough (when he lost to the even richer Tom Bruggere in 1996).
Harry learned at first hand the close relation between money and political power and he suggests some solutions: campaign finance reform, greater access by candidates to the public airways. This book confirms that Harry is still an idealist, still a liberal, still an environmentalist, and still an outsider trying to change the system.
List price: $14.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $1.45
Buy one from zShops for: $9.48
Not only can one find detailed sexual histories from a veritable plethora of demographic groups, you can find in the discussion between the interviewer and interviewee, the human side of sexual desire and the decisions of sexual practices.
The amount of biographical detail and candid anecdotes alone make this an enjoyable read, but the aformentioned insight and the comfort derived from knowing that someone else's view of sex could be as convulted as your own make it a book that can be enjoyed for a lifetime.
Used price: $14.65
Collectible price: $25.00
Used price: $16.94
Buy one from zShops for: $12.98
All in all, armed with both this book and "Passport to Worldband Radio", anyone should be able to enjoy shortwave listening.
List price: $21.95 (that's 20% off!)
Used price: $8.49
Buy one from zShops for: $9.00
Used price: $4.50
If you don't read the whole book, at least read the interviews with John Ameroso (the International Voluntary Services agricultural advisor) and Alan Carter (the U.S. Information Service officer in the embassy). Ameroso's story is inspiring in terms of how much grass roots good could be done with a practical approach to aid. Carter's story is maddening in terms of how bad things were in the embassy.
I notice that another reviewer of this book takes the author to task for including an interview by a reported fraud. If that's true, the author deserves strong criticism. If you're only compiling interviews to construct a book, you owe it to the readers to at least do a little checking up on those you include. Still, there is enough excellent material in this book for me to give it highest marks.
Used price: $17.00
In this collection, the reader is presented with the classic Strindberg themes-- the emancipated woman, rebellion, religious symbolism, and always in every way the search for meaning.
_The Father_ pits a man and woman against each other in a destructive effort to control their daughter's destiny.
_Miss Julie_ depicts the seduction and discard of a silly young girl who is harshly confronted with the basic coldness of life.
_Dance of Death_ is a grim look at a marriage based on hatred, as an ex-actress and an army captain are stuck together on an isolated island.
In _A Dream Play_ Indra's daughter is sent to earth to live as best as she can among mortals.
_The Ghost Sonata_ explores dream logic in three movements. A meditation on the difference between just and proper.
A decent translation, at least I didn't trip over it as awkward. A sad and dislocating book to read, and rare in that it's worth reading as literature without needing to consider its staging to see its value.
Used price: $2.20
Collectible price: $7.01
Buy one from zShops for: $17.38
Petrakis, whether writing fiction or essays, or whether delivering a public address, is one of my favorite storytellers. Tales of the Heart provides an inspiring look into the heart of a superb writer, the likes of which may never pass this way again.
List price: $21.99 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $6.99
Buy one from zShops for: $15.23
The language is old fashioned -- the family speaks in the old Friends way of using "thee" when addressing family members. Hannah gets into numerous mishaps, and after every one, her parents gently explain to her why she need not have frills to be valuable.
Hannah's mother says,"'Thee must wait till thee has learned that the color of the dress doesn't matter, and that pantalettes and sashes do not matter. Thee must learn what thy bonnet stands for. Thee must learn Quaker ways.' Mother patted Hannah's shoulder and told her to sit and think about it.
"Hannah thought and thought, but she couldn't quite understand what it all meant. 'Why can't Sally and I wear things the big girls wear? And what does my plain, ugly bonnet stand for?' she wondered. But she was unhappy to have made Mother sad, and when she went downstairs, she hoped she could remember to do everything just as Father wished."
But of course, there is still another temptation or two to surrender to, and the consequences to deal with. Hannah doesn't really understand until the very end of the book, when she is called upon by a runaway slave, whose little boy is sick, to get help. Hannah does this, and much later the woman explains to her how she knew Hannah could be trusted (having to do with the wearing of a plain bonnet.)
The story, written in the 1940's, is based on stories the young Marguerite de Angeli (b. 1889, d. 1987) heard from an 80-year-old Friend of hers, Hannah Severn. Illustrations are quaint, as is the dialogue. A very nice book for Quaker adults or children (kids who today may have some similar contemporary questions about clothing, computers, and other longed for things.) I'm not sure we have as good an answer for simplicity as Hannah found.
Collectible price: $12.99